Spittin Chiclets - Spittin' Chiclets Episode 384: Featuring Jon Hamm

Episode Date: May 3, 2022

On episode 384 of Spittin’ Chiclets, the guys are joined by Jon Hamm. Jon joined (46:00) to talk about the Blues winning the Cup a few years back, the upcoming playoffs NHL playoffs, his new movie and tons more. The guys first open the show with their 6 playoff previews and some recent NHL news. The fellas also recap the first night of playoff games (02:49:21), including the Leafs monster win and the Bruins tough loss.You can find every episode of this show on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or YouTube. Prime Members can listen ad-free on Amazon Music. For more, visit barstool.link/schiclets

Hey, Spittin' Chicklets listeners, you can find every episode on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or YouTube. Prime members can listen ad-free on Amazon Music. Hello everybody, welcome to episode 384 of Spittin' Chicklets, presented by Pink Whitney, from our friends at New Amsterdam Vodka, here in the Barstool Sports Podcast family. What is up, gang? Back in New York City, the playoffs are here, live streams are back, Burles is in town, Biz is here, we got Witt via satellite. Let's say hi to him for us. Mix things up.

What an intro! The Witt dog. What's going on? That is a playoff intro. That is a... The games are more important. The springtime's here. The flowers are blooming.

Hockey's a-buzzin'. And the boys are ready to go. Because this playoffs, I think, is going to make up maybe the most special run of games we've ever seen since this podcast began. There's that much depth in this league and there's that much special action. And if you can't tell, I'm coming off a win down in North Carolina. Come on and raise up. Team Trash, three-time champions in a row.

Team Trinity, absolute pussies, complete clowns. They stink. So we win. We won. We had a blast. I want to shout out actually one guy, Sean Donahue on Trinity. He sets it all up. You always need that guy.

Very valuable. I want to thank him. One round at Southern Pines, recently redone. Two rounds at Mid Pines. Two rounds at Pine Needles that host the U.S. Women's Open in a few weeks. Three-night stay and breakfast and dinner included, $1,400. So you want to talk about the greatest deal in golf right now? Check out Pine Needles, check out Mid Pines, Southern Pines, beautiful golf courses, amazing time, and not too expensive. So we had a blast and we won,

and it's great to see you guys. I wish I was there. I will be there next week with Merle's RA. Biz got to go to Atlanta and work, and I'll be streaming next week. You guys got this week, but I'm ready to go. I'm buzzing, and I'll be streaming next week. You guys got this week. But I'm ready to go. I'm buzzing, and I'm ready to start gambling again, too, because I've been on the sidelines since a really, really, really bad Super Bowl. Here we go. I wish I'd been on the sidelines since the Super Bowl. I'd probably only have a little space by now.

Oh, we could talk about that. Holy shit, R.A. R.A.'s been on a tough run, folks. If anyone's homeless because of R.A., fuck it. Give me a call. I'll show you a loan out. You don't even have to pay me back this guy's crippled everyone you've lost people five thousand

dollars if they're betting a hundred bucks that's how they were able to acquire the score bet app in canada because of ra's fucking regular season picks for penn so hey hey no canadian trip if it's not for ra so way to go buddy hopefully people have been fade me they should own about four houses by now but hey the name of the game, it's not called winning. It's called gambling. So what are you going to do? Say, LaVie, we got to say what's up to Merles. He made a special voyage down from what?

Albany this time, Merles? Albany, yeah. I finished up coaching. I was coaching a men's league tournament all weekend, a charity men's league tournament called the Cap Cup in Albany. We raised $160,000 for six kids and their families. I coached the underman Uncle Sam's team all the way to the finals had the goalie pulled two nothing we make it 2-1 but we couldn't

get it done so much like the chicklets cup I lost in the finals again Scotty Scotty Gomez has debunked one of your stories before about hockey so this is all true you did in fact go to the finals this time yeah yes that's that's where I was yesterday, 2.30. You can go watch it on Live Bar in Clifton Park Arena, if you don't believe me. So, hey, there's one thing for him not to remember. A tournament 25 years ago with Gomez. If he doesn't remember this weekend's event, we got serious issues. Well, if it's like any weekend that he spends with the Chicklets crew,

it might in case be a fact. Fucking hit the men in black. Hey, I'm sober again for another podcast i have my voice that's two in a row yeah and it's both times ryan whitney wasn't here so that's the street figure it out um last time i'm a bad influence on them also i have a voice boys usually you know my trips i never have voices but as you can tell i took care of it i was drinking some chamomile tea to stay tea for this voice to stay fresh. The only city that couldn't scathe you off was Detroit,

where you actually contracted Vegas voice in Detroit. So that's enough of that. Biz, we got to say hi to producer Mikey Grinelli. You had a big game this weekend. There was no NHL. Actually, there's one NHL game. Didn't matter for the playoffs. The toilet bowl.

Yeah. I had it over to the NYPD-FDNY hockey game, and what a show that was. They sold out the entire UBS arena, which was the craziest thing ever. FDNY won in overtime. Me and Sean just jumped right on the ice. We were filming all the action.

So it was a blast. Shout out to the FDNY. We had some pink Whitney with those guys after, but it was a blast. Still an entertaining game. Only won nothing, though? It was 2 blast. Shout out to the FDNY. We had some pink Whitney with those guys after, but it was a blast. Still an entertaining game. Only won nothing, though? It was 2-1. And we had two goals called back.

And let me tell you, these guys motherfucked the refs harder than I've ever seen anyone motherfuck the refs. It was insane. Wait, so the final score was what? 2-1 in overtime. Oh, okay. Shit, I thought I saw online it was one nothing but the overtime goal was a beauty oh barred out uh what's why so much hate you think these guys would

actually get along like there were some pretty nasty hits thrown you know what it is i compare it a lot to the army navy football game where i mean even i don't know much about the army football game so we'll say that but it's like the army navy football game where these guys they said they've played been playing with each other for like 15 years so during the season they're buddies they're playing in chelsea piers playing wherever and they're and they're friends but it's this one game a year where it's it's no fucks given and they hate each other i like it yeah a little friendly rivalry there you'd say between police and fire not just new york anywhere as well all right you come from a firefighter's family though and i will say from just sitting in the crowd the firefighters families oh my god their chirps are it was a lot of suck my dicks fuck yous it was it was like it was awesome oh

the original stuff yeah the real original stuff that's excellent a great great a chirping right there fuck jerry seinfeld in the crowd well i, I just mean, I mean, like, compared to the Cops families, like, I don't know. What could the Cops have been saying? They weren't saying anything because they're families. That's what I'm saying. You have families motherfucking the other families. Take your hands off the hockey stick and put them in the air, you prick. Okay.

Moving along. Gee, awesome job, by the way. The Chicklets Cup is sold out. Terrific job once again. You can't get on the wait list. Good luck with that. But congrats to Gee once again on selling out the Chicklets Cup. Oh, yeah, yeah.

So we might potentially expand the tournament. Like, what an unbelievable response. Within, what, four or five days we were close to it, we're still vetting through the teams to figuring out what division that they're going to end up being in. I get a text from Terry Ryan saying he's getting a text from all these professional ball hockey players that he's played against or with throughout the run of his career in the ball hockey world. And he said that this is going to be like top tier shit. Competition level has raised exponentially.

So I book in four times a week with the trainer now i'm up in my game i'm getting needles stuck in my ass i'm on officially on the russian gas i feel unbelievable no wonder fucking obi's gonna get a thousand goals man this stuff's awesome why are you holding out bro i could have used them before the show a little boost we'll get we'll get you for the streams buddy maybe you saved for after long story short buffalo is going to be a time hopefully your team can still get in. But even if you can't get in the actual tournament itself,

we have a surprise on the Thursday night that's going to be when we do the sign-in. Yeah, big surprise. Huge surprise. Those are going to be for the people. And you could also RSVP if you've got friends and family in the town to get into the Thursday event.

But Friday, what's the venue called? Riverworks. Riverworks. They have this awesome, awesome spot. We're going to have live music. We're going to have a couple bands teed up, one of which we're still trying to work on a big name to come in and move the needle.

So even if you're not involved in the ball hockey, come by on Friday during the day, party in the beer gardens, watch some ball hockey. Who knows? Maybe you'll even see a few fucking fights, given the text I'm getting from Terry Ryan at WhoWantsToBear. Yeah, maybe you'll get to see somebody knock out biz. It'll be awesome.

And if you want to play, submit a team, because every year there's teams that back out leading up to the night before the game. Teams will back out. So we have a wait list. So if you want to play, just submit a team, because you never know what will happen. It's going to be a shit show.

We should get the refugees, the refugees cover bin. That's what, like, where did you get that fucking joke? Just pull that out of my ass. You know me. That was, that was a, that, now that is original, G. That is not firefighter joke. Well, that's a firefighter family man right there. There you go. Hey, boys, a firefighter family man right there. There you go.

Hey, boys, the best playoffs in sports are here. Spring weather is here, and all those fun, warm weather events are here. So you're going to want to make sure you're stocked up right here. The old Pink Whitney, because this is the fun season, and you do not want to be caught empty-handed. If you're a bar person, then pop by your favorite spot. Enjoy it as a chilled shot, or top it off with a little club soda, biz. However you take it, enjoy the five times distilled vodka infused with fresh pink lemonade flavor. Named after that guy on the TV right there.

Pink Whitney. I'm not mixing it like Whit. I'm going straight shot. I'm going to be butt chugging it when the fucking leaves are bending over. I go on the rocks, dude. I go on the rocks. That's what I do. He actually mentioned that last podcast.

Yeah, but he does let the ice melt a little bit to where it waters it down. So technically you're mixing it. But I'm shooting it straight. Every time the Leafs score a goal, I'm going to be shooting this on the stream or the – what are we going to be promoting tonight? Not necessarily streaming. Yeah, we're actually doing a thing too throughout the whole playoffs where if there's a power play goal, we're suggesting you take a shot.

So every time your team scores a power play goal, take a shot with a nice pink Whitney Nip. What are you going to do? Unless you take a shot. So every time your team scores a power play goal, take a shot with a nice point. What do you think we're supposed to do? Unless you root for Colorado and just maybe every other power play goal. Might need an ambulance if that happens. Well, I don't know, man. They got a tough matchup now, and we're going to get to all this. Yeah, we are. A little bit.

A little bit. First, Biz, we do have a guest. We're not bringing him on right now. A little bit later. But we have old friend John Hamm of Mad Men fame of the town. A-lister as well. And he's a St. Louis guy. And that brings up another guy connected to St. Louis, Wayne Gretzky, last week.

Of course, his wife is from there. We just want to thank A. Wayne Gretzky for giving us the time he gave. The interview was awesome. He made it so easy for us. Like he said, my wife says, step on my foot and my mouth opens. He made it so simple for us. And then everybody who thanked us, who listened, who tuned in, who downloaded. We can't thank you enough.

I think it was our biggest download ever, Mikey. Is that correct so far? So far, yes. And many more. I would hope so. I would too. So just a tremendously successful interview. And we just want to thank everybody, including Wayne.

Biz didn't know if you wanted to add anything. No, I'm actually not on the Russian gas. I'm just high off life after re-listening to that. Like you said, you put a quarter in him, dude, and he kept going. I think we asked six questions and he talked for an hour and four minutes. So not only did he make it easy, just, you know, hearing some of that stuff for the first time, or even some of the stuff that you'd already heard about, just a gifted storyteller. And it's, it's, it's incredible that we were able to get an hour of his time. So we're grateful.

Thank you to his kids for hooking that up. And, I mean, congrats to DJ and Paulina. So a huge week in the Gretzky world. I don't know, did we talk about that last episode? I don't think we did, but, yeah, I saw the pictures of that big wedding that went down. And the only people who really probably didn't like the interview are the poor bastards from Detroit.

Their team stinks. And then they come to find out Wayne was going to be a Red Wing if it wasn't for his old man saying to go to California. So I think that the news that he kind of dropped on us that I didn't know, you know, some things about his number and how he picked the Kings. It was exciting. And like I already said, thanks a lot because I got a – I'm sure we all got a bunch of tweets just saying that the interview

was great. And I really don't think we could take that much credit. He kind of just went. And more than anything, I think he enjoyed himself. And that way we can get him next year. This is a once a year thing as long as Biz is working for him. Working with him, excuse me. And we'll continue to kind of badger him until we get him

sitting down next year before playoffs. Absolutely. Hopefully you folks learned a few new things. I know I did. Like I said, the Detroit stuff, him getting booed as a kid, real interesting stuff. I'm sure he's answered everything by now, but after 45 years in mid-divisions, it's nice to hear them again. So moving right along, we do have a few regular season trophy winners we want to give a little shine to before we get to our playoff previews. The Florida Panthers won their first ever President's Trophy. They will have home ice as far as they go in the playoffs. They went on an absolute heater over the last month to catch

Colorado. Colorado looked like a slam dunk for the President's Trophy back in March, but Cats went in a tear. They were the only team to average more than four goals per game. 4.14 goals they averaged. That's 0.35 more than Toronto and Colorado. It's a pretty sizable clip. They also led the NHL with a 4-0-7 winning percentage when trailing after two periods. So that could be relevant later in the playoffs. But we've got to mention this obligatory. Just eight of 35 President's Trophy winners have gone on to win the Cup.

And since 0-1-0-2, only three President's Trophy winners have won the Cup. Detroit twice, Chicago in 13. And Chicago in 13 was the last time a President's Trophy winner was even in the Stanley Cup Finals. So, I don't know. Buzzkill. No, it's not really a sign of that, Florida. Congrats, but you're getting bounced first round against Washington.

But, hey, much like the Norris Trophy, we were probably all ready to hand this over to McCarr, much like Colorado. But you said, what a run towards the end of the season. That comeback number, although very impressive for the regular season, a bit scary going into playoffs because there was a lot of games they found themselves down in big holes early. So we'll see if that trend continues. We will, we will. Connor McDavid won another Art Ross, his fourth before turning 25.

Only one guy's done better than that. The guy we were just talking about, Wayne Gretzky. 44 goals, 79 assists for 123 points in 80 games played. He had 8 more points than the number 2 guys, Gaudreau and Huberdeau. His 1.54 points per game led the league. No surprise here. Buddy Austin

Matthews wins the Rashad Trophy for the second year in a row with 60 goals. He's the first U.S.born player to score 60 goals, as well as the first Toronto Maple Leaf to score 60 goals. Missed eight games, by the way. Also the first since Stephen Stamkos did it 10 years ago. And it's the sixth most ever by a center. Mario and Wayne, the only two who have had more.

And he did it in the second fewest games after Mario. So you guys want to chime in? And also, I don't know if you saw the clip from I was going to bring it up. Kalorn's Doc Talk right when COVID hit back in March or April of 2020. He was bombing around discussing the league and the lightning with his teammates on his sea do. And Stephen Stamkos at that time said the next player to score.

Well, I think he asked him, will anyone ever score 60 again? And Stamkos said, yeah, I think Austin Matthews will. So you could tell leading up. You could tell since he got in the league and had four goals his first game. Biz said it. I hopped down his throat. I was wrong about that one. He's the greatest Leaf of all time.

He's going to really battle Patrick Kane for the greatest American player all time if he can get some cups. I know people don't agree with me on that, that you need cups. I personally think you do. But he's going to be right there in 10 to 15 years. And what we're watching is basically what I would say the second most dominant player in the league. I know Dreitzel has

55 and 55 this year, but Matthews, the way he does it defensively, how fast, how strong he is, it's McDavid and him and everyone else right now. Oh my God. That was beautiful. I brought a tear to my eye. I was going to. Oh, my God. That was beautiful. I brought a tear to my eye. I was going to chime in, but I don't need to.

Carolina Hurricanes, of course, they overhauled their crease in the offseason, and it resulted in a Jennings Trophy for their goalies, Freddie Anderson and Antti Ranta. The Jennings Trophy is presented to goalies who play at least 25 games for the team that allows the fewest goals. Obviously, they ran into a little bad luck with the goaltending situation. We'll get to that a little bit later in our previews. But we did do two divisions, I'm sorry, two series last week. Edmonton, LA, Minnesota, St. Louis.

So we're going to move on to Dallas and Calgary right now. And since the Stars moved to Dallas, these two have only met once in the playoffs. And that was in the bubble two years ago. The Stars won their first round series in six games. The season series, calgary went 2-0 and 1 dallas went 1-2 and 0 as far as the favorite calgary is a minus 320 favorite so you're gonna put up 320 to win 100 on calgary or if you put up 100 you get back 260 on dallas what let's go to you on this one first who you like and what are you thinking what's? Well, the whole way that this all went down. Holy shit.

Are you kidding me, Biz? Are you kidding me? The River, baby. I mean, the Phoenix, the Arizona Coyotes. Sorry, the Arizona State University Coyotes were able to overcome a four goal deficit in the last game of the year to beat Nashville, to force Nashville to end up in the eighth spot. Calgary bumps up to the seventh spot. I'm sorry, Dallas bumps up to the seventh spot and now faces the Flames. Now, ironically, I was pretty pissed off and fuming when I saw this. Now looking at

it, it's like without Soros, I don't know if Nashville is even a threat. I know they're not a threat to beat Colorado. We'll get into that. I don't even think they really would have been a threat to beat Calgary. Now, maybe Dallas with that top line of young guys. And maybe, maybe all of a sudden Jamie, Ben gets going in the playoffs. Sagan Sagan's played much better hockey.

The last 40 games, Radulov can maybe start finding it a little bit. And you don't worry about hints, Pavelski and whoever the third guy is in that line. That's, that's kind of not in my head right now. Robinson. Oh, Jesus. How do I forget that friggin stud? So now I'm almost looking at this like if I have a chance of Calgary getting upset here, I think it is Dallas without Saros.

I'm almost happy how it worked out. So I went from pissed off and furious to almost a little bit excited to see your stupid bald head on national TV. And I am still worried. That top line in Calgary, I think one of the only lines in the last 30, 40 years or maybe league history to all score 40 goals. How often do you see Kachuk, Goudreau and Lindholm burying 40? That is wild stat to see. Luchitz, a playoff player. You've seen him run around. I mean, he has been laying the boots to people. The hit he threw on Matt Duchesne recently, he's kind of found his game.

The defense looks solid. Markstrom and Nett. Calgary's a great team. I have not denied the fact since I made this bet and almost really regretted it from the minute I made it, they're a hell of a team. But Dallas has something there, something where they're the most, I think biz called them the most boring team in the league to watch. Maybe all of a sudden them just boring the game and

slowing the game down could kind of frustrate Calgary could kind of create a, a type of hockey that Calgary doesn't want to play. So my goal in having Calgary lose, I think I'm better off with who they're playing in Dallas. I'm still picking Calgary. I have to, but I don't think it's going to be that easy. I think it's going to be six, maybe seven games. Oh, yeah. Wild how it all happened. So it was the final night at Gila River.

So it was just a send-off, right, because they were moving away from Glendale. Harry Knuckles dropped the puck. Harry Knuckles. He was in the hallway. I ended up seeing him. It was good to say bye to everybody. I was bouncing up and down the arena through the back hallways,

saying bye to all the security guards, ushers. Did they sell it out, Biz? It was pretty close to a sellout. They did a great job, had a great crowd. They were very vocal. But we ended up doing the ceremonial face-off. They brought Sean Burke, Ray Whitney, Tyson Nash was on the ice, Paisley, Roenick was there, of course, donor.

Carly Ocardo, Leighton Ocardo's mother was one of the – her, donor, and Roenick were, like, the three that were dropping the puck. So, you know, it was a great little way to open up the game. Of course, the man Rocket Yossi skates over, fucking gives me the wink. You know, I'm rock hard, obviously. I saw a picture of you kind of staring at his dumper. It was pretty funny. Somebody did zoom in on that and made me look like an idiot.

So after we all gather in the hallway, and then we're going to take the elevator up to a suite because they got a suite for us called the Tower Suite. Well, we get up there. Three minutes, and the game had gone by. We walk out. It's 3-0. We're just like that, a blink of an eye.

So it's like, oh, shit. This is going to be a tough send-off. So then they end up scoring another one in the end of the first period. We ended up getting one back, but we pulled that Van Melka, and they threw this Cetarian net. Well, they ended up getting one back but we pulled that van melka and they threw this uh satarian net well they ended up mounting this awesome comeback and then ended up winning it in the third period with a with a who got the game winner i'm drawing a blank here it was goss despair who had a great year for the yote so incredible sundoff we had a great time on the

broadcast i ended up predicting the comeback and i was being a clown but uh yeah one of the one of the few man once in a while they hit but uh yeah and then all of a sudden you see oh fuck that meant that they're gonna end up having to play Colorado so they pretty much given up a four goal lead to the worst team in the league they've now written their own death sentence for Darryl Sutter already lined them up with the shooting range and put a bullet in their head would not happen if they had no chance with sarah without sarah's going against calgary without sarah's going against colorado this is fucking if they win a game i think you know you should win the fucking bet basically but for for the calgary experience i didn't like the way they

matched up against Nashville at all. Very physical. What does scare me about now that they're going against Dallas is all those things that you mentioned, like, ah, they haven't really gotten that secondary scoring all year. Okay, well, they made the playoffs two years ago, and they were able to carve out this run, so they are able to know how to find that type of mojo.

Plenty of guys who are on that roster were there when they made that run. They got Haskin in back, so they got a solid back end. They've been getting the goaltending. If Calgary can just focus on that secondary scoring and playing a physical, physical game against those top four defensemen who lugged a lot of big minutes for them, I think that there's no way this boring Dallas team, there's not a chicken-dicks chance that they beat the Calgary Flames.

So I don't know if we're predicting the Calgary series first or we're hopping over to the Colorado one. No, we'll give the predictions after the break. So tell us what you want. We'll give them right at the end of the break. I also need to correct myself because I brought up Radulov who's really struggling. It's the other Russians, Guryanov, that'll be playing

with Ben and Sagan. And that guy is one of those players, it's kind of infuriating, I think, for Stars fans and coaches to watch because there's nights he's the best player on the ice and nights when he's kind of invisible. Similar to Radulov in other years, but the first line, if that first line

in Dallas could somehow cancel out the first line in Calgary, which is an enormous, you know, would be an enormous kind of step for them because of how good they've been then all of a sudden the entire series changes I mean I think Heskinen's the best defenseman in the series Ottinger's played real well if Markstrom maybe struggles a little bit I don't think this is as as close shut and closed case as you think meaning I think this I think this could go to six games. I'm hoping it goes to five and Calgary doesn't waste any energy, but they just have this team

that can find ways to win, as we saw as they clawed their way into playoffs and really, in my opinion, had no business being in playoffs. I know Dallas fans are not going to be happy to hear that. I just say that for the simple fact of that you've got a one-line scoring team. You're fucking painful to watch to the point where I can't.

I have to change the games. So I don't want them advancing, and I want my Calgary Flames to beat them in five. It will happen in six. I will give Dallas the respect they deserve, but they do not have enough jam to beat Sutter and the Flames. Biz got Calgary in six. Whit, what are you going with? I'm going and the Flames. Biz got Calgary in six. What are you going with? I'm going to go Calgary in seven.

Calgary in seven. Merle, what's your take on the series and a prediction for them? Yeah, what do you got, Merle? I mean, I think Dallas is brutal too. Anytime I watch them, same thing. They're terrible to watch. I don't have any respect for them at all. I have right now up on – somebody just put a big bet on them

because the Flames are minus 400 right now in just put a big bet on him because it's the flames are minus 400 right now in the barstool sports book for the series that's just ridiculous and i'm taking them in a sweep four game sweep wow calgary when you said yeah there is no respect there none thank you for thank you for overshadowing the hate that i was about to get from dallas fans and now you becoming public enemy number one in the Southern State. Gee, what do you got on this series? Calgary in six. Calgary in six?

Yeah, pretty simple. Yeah, it's the line matchups. I mean, we talk about, you know, Kachuk, Gaudreau, Lindholm. Then you've got to deal with Almanji, Apani, Coleman, and Backlund. That line drives possession as well as the other one. And Dallas is pretty much a one-line team. I mentioned, I think, last week or the week before, that top line has scored over 45% of their goals as a team,

not just for forwards. So I think they're going to have some real matchup problems there. I don't see Dallas winning the series at all. It's nice that they got there. As far as with the goaltender, Markstrom, he's only got 14 games started on his playoff resume. Did pretty well for Vancouver a couple years ago. Ottinger had a couple relief duties,

so there's no advantage there really for Dallas. So I got Calgary in five on this one. You know how I sometimes beat words up or terms? No, never. Shut the fuck up. The common theme for this podcast is going to be the mental hurdle. I think Calgary, they just need to get over this mental hurdle, get a few wins under their belt, and all of a sudden it's smooth sailing.

If they lose game one and their arseholes pucker up as they have in the past if they lose game one my arsehole will be puckered up so it's uh getting over that mental hurdle they also they haven't been out of the first round since 2015 too so that's that's another factor and if we want a battle of alberta man we need that to happen there hasn't been a playoff battle of Alberta since 91. So, Oilers Flames could have an issue. I think that our bet deserves to go head-to-head. I know. I could lose with honor if, you know, if they go head-to-head and let's say Edmonton takes it in seven.

But the fact that the Edmonton Oilers got the fucking easiest layup of a first-round matchup where they're playing a bona fide AHL team. Mind you, going back to the mental hurdle, it's hard. Sometimes when you're Goliath, it's hard playing David, right? And we all know, and we should have another common theme here, the arsehole's puckered up. We know that can happen at Edmonton at the drop of a dime. LA's better than Dallas, you dummy.

All right. Okay, let's pump the brakes. dime. LA's better than Dallas, you dummy. All right. Okay, let's pump the brakes. Exactly. That's what I thought. I was taking a sip of water. They lost their Norris defenseman. No, you got nothing to deal with. I bet you couldn't even name me one fourth liner on the LA Kings.

No, God, no. Playoffs are here, boys. We are going to be having a few cocktails whether you're doing a live stream whether you're going to the games who knows i know one thing biz i don't leave without my dhm detox it is the ultimate vitamin for when you drink it's backed by science is designed to help break down alcohol related toxins and get you feeling fresh the next morning most people don't know that the toxins are 80% of the problem. No more feeling slow, sluggish, and useless

the next day after a couple drinks. Biz, tell them how to do it. You know, I handed these out at a wedding one time. No, no, it's a true story.

And so I get a couple texts the next day from the guys I handed to me. I said, what the hell was that you handed me? I said,

was it... No, the other thing. Oh, shit, yeah. Come to think of it, maybe they were texting me about something else. No, but I handed it to them. Guys, it's a natural. It's the vitamin for people that drink it.

It breaks down the toxins of the alcohol before it gets to your liver. That's just the DHM detox. Jesus Christ, spit it out, biz. There's an umbrella of the no days wasted. They got the vitamins in the morning. They got the hydration replenisher packs. They got different flavors of them now.

So they just got a lot of good wellness stuff and products. Check them out on their website. RA is going to give it to you. We're going to give you a Biz20 promo code. I bring it around when I'm on the road. I usually hand it out like candy, much like I do at the weddings. And people, I get positive, positive feedback from this stuff. So check it out.

It helps you out for the next day, especially if you like to have a few too many pops like our man here, R.A. Yeah, once in a while. My buddy Gary on the golf trip, he brought it. He's a big listener of the pod. He actually is the one who's done the imitation of the intro that R.A. does. He did another one for us that I recorded. It's so fucking funny. But he had DHM Detox down there

and he said it did wonders for him. He said, I didn't know what to think but I brought it down. I've been drinking it before I drank and before I go to bed or having it

and I love it. And he said his hangovers were nothing. So shout out DHM. Oh, Gary, you told me you were combing your hair. DHM Detox.

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That's NoDaysWasted.co for No Days Wasted after drinking with Biz20. Not a big deal. Hey, since we circled back on LA quick there, I mean, Dustin Brown, he kind of gives it the reverse Derek Jeter. Just a quick announcement, he's done. He got the last home game in, got a beautiful send-off, but not taking too much attention away from the team. He wants to focus on this little playoff run here.

So, hey, maybe with that announcement was the extra boost that this team needs to take down Goliath. I think Dustin Brown's career has gone supremely under kind of rated, right? Like the leader he was in the two Stanley Cup runs and being the captain. I mean, you'll ask people in 30 years who was the captain of those two Kings teams. I bet you a lot of people won't really remember how important he was to those teams. I mean, he was a rock to play against. Amazing on the forecheck.

Couldn't move him in front. A classy guy who pretty quiet from the times I played with him, but on the ice just played hard every shift. I think he's one of those players, the coach, and the reason he's captain. The coach never is worrying about the effort he's bringing night in and night out. So what an unbelievable run for an American that I just think hasn't got the credit he's maybe deserved throughout his career. And probably it's because of how quiet of a guy he is. And his retirement is kind of the perfect example of I didn't even he probably didn't want any of the the the big send off and the final games as he's traveled around different arenas.

And I think just to kind of announce a quality like that is, is, is pretty in tune with who he is as a person, but an amazing career. And it's unfortunate. My team's going to have to slap him in the face to end it all. Yeah. He's going to have a great breakdown.

Retire after 18 seasons with the Kings course taken 13th overall in the old 2003 draft. He'll retire at first in games played for the Kings, sixth in goals, eighth in assists, seventh in points, of course, the two Cups, and he won the 2014 Mark Messier Award. So hopefully, I don't know, it still goes a little longer. I got my 85-to-1 ticket on the Kings, so that's why I'm flashing this ad right now. He was a bitch to play against.

Oh, he's a truck. Classy guy, very soft-spoken, but in a sense of playing against him, maybe not so classy. No, not fun. Not fun to go to the corner with. He might give you the extra shot. I remember when they beat us out of the Western Conference Finals. I think he got Redislav Klaza with a knee right before they ended it.

Suck on that, Dustin. From Ithaca, New York, and played for Syracuse Stars. You've never heard of them. We have quite an alumni list now. He's an OHL guy, right? Yeah, he went to the OHL. Did he go to the Pee Wee Minor Hockey Tournament? I don't know if he played for Syracuse at the Pee Wee International Tournament,

but he came from Syracuse. He followed Conley and Schremp and all those guys and him. All three of them went to the OHL instead of going to college. A little tidbit of my old days. A little upstate New York nugget from the moment. I went to college, and look at what happened to me. So I guess I should have done what those three did. I don't know if he won a MEM Cup,

but they did win the OHL championship when he was captain with the Guelph Storm. So he's been a winner at every level. Was he with you on that silver medal winning team? Because that would have been around. I'm going to say yes. The fact I don't know is insane. He was on a world junior team with me.

He had to be on that Olympic team. He had to be. Gee, he's looking it up. We can move on. Somebody look it up. All right. Yeah, my brain is working at about 53% capacity. It's usually like 71%.

Right now, I mean, I'm running on about eight hours of sleep total throughout three nights. So I'm not exactly buzzing at the top end of my performance chart. If Dustin Brown wasn't on that Olympic team, though, I'm going to be shocked. He was. He was. Yeah, I knew that.

All right, gang. Never a doubt. All right, biz. Moving on to the next one. Nashville, Colorado. Big goings on, like we just said, at the Gila River Arena. So the Preds drew the Avalanche. Huge series here.

It's only the second ever series between the two. The Preds beat them back on the first round in 2018. Interestingly, though, season series, which I do say, throw it out the trash because it really don't matter. But the Preds did beat them three out of four times this year, beat the Avs. Colorado, a huge favorite. Minus 650 to make 100 for the series if you throw 100 on the preds you get back 450 of course the big story here roman yosi versus

kale mccarr obviously they're not going to be going head to head but that's the i guess the big story here biz let's go to you first on this one what do you got oh i like that little storyline going in and i actually think that like for for the sake of the league and not having colorado walk over dallas and for i think that the preds could having Colorado walk over Dallas in four, I think that the Preds could pick up a little bit or put up a little bit of a fight. Now, I mentioned it earlier that they did write their death sentence. Will they win this series without Soros? Is that how you say it?

Soros? Soros. Absolutely not. But I could see them winning a couple games here. And we mentioned how much more physical they play than Dallas at least they're going to bang them up a little bit more so moving forward it's just not going to be like Colorado getting over that mental hurdle and then walking through the Western Conference because they're sweeping everybody four straight so a tougher tougher

matchup for Nashville but also a tougher matchup for Colorado, in my opinion, over Dallas. Am I wrong here? I think that they're going to smash them. I think you said it best. If they win one game, if Nashville gets one, it's like winning the series. And if they get two, then the better, the people who bet on Nashville should like get the money that they won because they are so overmatched. I mean, the seasons Forsberg and Duchesne had are incredible. But then you look at the other side. I mean, the depth Colorado has up front, the Taves and McCarr pairing is out of this world.

The goaltending is going to be an enormous issue. Sorrows could have given them a fighting chance, but this is going to be ugly, I think. And maybe they get a game in Nashville because of how amazing that crowd is. But my big question for this series, and I think it's one of the biggest questions on all Avs fans and all NHL fans' minds, is can Kadri control himself? Because they need him to win the Stanley Cup, right?

They have all these guns there, but they need him and the way he plays and how he has to play on the edge. But we've seen him in the past, what, three playoffs? A suspension every single time in the first or second round. So if he can't control himself and all of a sudden you lose one of your most valuable guys, it's going to be hard for them. So that's something I'm really watching. And then Kemper. Kemper had a fantastic year. I mean, they needed to upgrade their goaltending. They went out and did it. They paid a steep price for him.

And now he's going to have to kind of show up. And there's going to be games that they do get outplayed. It's the playoffs. It happens to everyone. Can he steal them a game or two? No matter what team you're looking at, they have to have a goalie play really solid throughout a run to the Stanley Cup. So I don't think the first round will present too much of a problem. But after that, we're looking at a big performance goaltending-wise

for them to actually get to that next level and finally get out of the second round. I think the last four or five years, the last three, four years they've lost in the second round. They have to make that next step. This year's first round will be no problem for them. Yeah, we were talking to the score bet in Canada trying to get a prop on the cadre suspension, yes or no.

It didn't come through. But much like Florida, you're talking about Florida. Colorado did a lot of that this year too, kind of messing around, not coming out ready to play and found themselves behind in the games. And then they had enough firepower to come back on the weaker teams. If they do that against Nashville, it's not going to be so easy to come back. So I would watch out there. I think they can steal a game on him any concerns about gabriel landis god coming off knee surgery hasn't played in a bit i don't know if it was just cleaning something

out or you think he's going to be a little rusty perhaps i just feel they're so loaded all the way down that if if if if he gets no points in the first round and you still and and if you find a way to lose i wouldn't even fucking blame him i just fucking say they're a bunch of bums who couldn't get over a mental hurdle uh as for cyrus yeah he's still uncertain they don't know if they're gonna put in riddick or this kid connor ingram i mean so ingram i think he was he came in for uh the other night yeah he's the recall from ahl milwaukee yeah and so it's between him and riddich right now. So I'm, yeah. That really sucks for Saros. I feel bad. The season he had to not get the chance to try to keep it going,

that's such a kick in the dick for that entire team, and him especially. Can I make kind of like a double prediction? I think if Saros is able to come back at least by game three, I think that Nashville can push this series to six. I think that if there's there's no sight of them i think this is over in five just uh another note if i'm an nhl team i'm not letting my goalies near any of you guys anymore first it was biz at the all-star game with the leafs and then it's ra at the outdoor game meeting sorrows and now he's out. You know, you guys are 0 for 2 on meeting these goalies.

I mean, I'm personally very confident at the fact that Jack Campbell took a step. You guys mushed them both. He took a step back, and he's been on fire towards the end here. I might not have started him 67 out of 82 games, though, if I was running the show. That's a lot of fucking games in his day and age. But they did need to win. Also interesting, if he does get in, his save percentage

versus Colorado this season was 9-1-4, which is pretty respectable for a team that puts that many points up. But that's obviously huge where the series is going to swing. We don't know who is going to be in that, but either way we do need predictions. Whitney, who do you have and in how many? I'm actually going to go Colorado in a sweep. Colorado in four.

Merles? Yeah, I got Colorado in five. Nashville gets one home game. Okay. And if you guys will give me the lean on the Saros implication, I'm going to say— No leans allowed. No leans allowed.

All right, let's go six. I'm going to say six games. I believe Saros is going to come back at some point. He has to. Colorado in six. Grinnelli. I got Colorado in five. All right, I think I already said Nashville.

And again, I made future bets before the season. I get 76-1 on Nashville. It looks like garbage now if Saros doesn't play, but I gotta stick with it. I hope Saros gets in and I'm gonna go off the wall and say Nashville in seven. Is that who you want or is that who you think is gonna win? I want Nashville to win because I got

money on them. Do I think they're gonna? No. Yeah, but you have money on them to win the cup. They're not gonna win the cup. Yeah, probably not, but yeah, I'm gonna i'm gonna say r.a is gonna be on the tarmac before they leave for nashville fucking around with their fucking airplane yeah i'm gonna say national in seven even though i you know probably don't think they're gonna win but i'm just being loyal to my future bet i guess if that makes r.a's back to the cook i should have no loyalty to any of my bets right now i should be be fucking killing him. I raised our omelet guy before game one, stuck into the abs room. He's fucking little...

Doesn't really matter anyways, but we're going to take another quick look at the Minnesota St. Louis series before we send it to St. Louis native John Hamm to get his take on what's going to go on in the playoffs. Just saw it come over the wire. Ville Jusso is definitely in net for St. Louis. No surprise there. Letty is going to be in the lineup defensively.

They want that experience. And Marcus Foligno, man, he took an ugly hit from Curtis McDermott the other night. They thought he might have ripped his knee up. McDermott did end up getting a five-minute major game misconduct, but Foligno said, it's the playoffs. He said he wouldn't be out there if he didn't feel he could play. I feel pretty good. And

Michael Russo also reported that Marc-Andre Fleury was in the status crease, so it looks like Marc-Andre is going to get the status. Whoa. Whoa. Seriously? Yeah. Well, and the good thing is, I mean, the good thing is, is that that's a team that it's –

actually, people would argue maybe it's not a good thing. But when you have the ability, if a goalie struggles to throw another guy in, I just – I think that's so valuable because now you know, like, all right, well, say Fleury does struggle a little bit. Talbot's been lights out since Fleury came over. I was surprised to see this. I thought Talbot would get game one. But both their numbers have been so good since March 21st that it does make sense.

I mean, you go to Fleury, if it doesn't work out, you go to Talbot. I think the Bruins, even if they're winning games, are going to be using both goalies. I think the Oilers, with how old Smith is,, are going to be using both goalies. I think the Oilers, with how old Smith is, I think they'll be using both goalies at some point. So it's just a different NHL now where it's going to be a long run, hopefully for Minnesota. That's what they're thinking. And they have the ability to use both guys.

But I was surprised. I thought Talbot would be game one. I thought it was his net to lose, and he didn't down the stretch. That's why I'm a little bit surprised. From a panic button, maybe a second-guessing standpoint where I picked Minnie to win that series in seven. Am I like, oh, shit, like rumblings early? But I'm going to calm it down here.

I still think Minnie in seven, and you've got to trust the coach's decision. But definitely, definitely surprised to hear that. Yeah, we did picks last week. Murrows, who do you like in this one? I like the Blues a lot. I would take Blues in six as the official prediction, but I just want them to win the series. You're getting plus money.

You're getting the Blues at plus 2,200 to win the Cup, which I think is an incredible value. That's a big-time value bet. And I think I saw something where Talbot had really bad stats against the blues i'm not the stack guy but that could be the reason flurry's in there i love the blues i think they have all the depth they have the experience the leadership the coaching and i i really like this team we'll see tonight though holy shit he like you dissected that series the whole two and a half hour train ride there i mean not to mention that It's my big play for the first round.

Not to mention that they got a cup winning goalie to lean back on, right? So that's another example of like depth at forward and then all of a sudden, all right, well, Huso doesn't have it. We go to Binnington, who really kind of did turn things around the last three weeks of the season. Yeah, he definitely played a lot better. Who did you pick last week out of the two? I took the Blues in seven, I believe. All right, and G, who'd you go with?

I had Minnesota in seven. Billy G invited us over for steaks. What a disgraceful pick by you, Whit. Have some respect for the Colby people. I already said I'm not going to fucking care about his stupid Lego setup and his amazing cooking of asparagus and Wagyu beef for us. I got to be on her. I'm going to be happy for Minnesota Wildcats. His daughter made you a phone

case for crying out loud. I still got mine. Where's yours? Bad karma for me. Oh, there it is. Okay. Boom. Great family. The Garrett family's top notch. I've said this. This is a tough one. I'm very happy for both sides.

I'm like, this is a win-win for me. But I just take the Blues up front. I said that. Kaprizov is the best player in the series. I know we're not jumping over to the East quite yet, but I like the tandem, bringing it all back. You got Huso Bennington. You got Allmark and Swayman.

Mind you, these guys, the little dance they do, the reverse 69 on the ice, are Bees fans not loving that? Love it. Oh, my. I love it. Six to midnight immediately. Oh, my goodness. It's good shit, too,

especially where the guys didn't even know each other last summer, how they've gotten such cohesion. What if they actually hate each other and they're just faking it? Big dog and pony show. First round's like, get out there right now and make everyone think you love each other. Hey, they're whispering. I hate you. They're hugging and doing circles. I hate your

fucking, I'm going to fuck your old lady. I'm going to fucking, I'm going to stab your old man in the neck. If they win their first round series biz, I heard they're going to do a stand-up 69 celebration. Oh, they are? Nice, yeah. Just start plowing each other at center. NHL Network has to black it out. Hey, wasn't that in Borat?

When they were doing the UFC and then all of a sudden they just start making it out in the middle of the ring and they're in some hick town and people were throwing chairs. They went nuts, buddy. They went nuts. So we need, buddy. They went nuts. So we need that out of Swayman and Allmark. Well, the force might be with Minnesota, but the St. Louis Blues have this guy. He's probably more powerful than the force.

John Hamm, star of Mad Men, star of the town. Our guy, he's also going to be in Top Gun Maverick coming out this summer. Heard of it. Heard of it. I certainly have. You'll be seeing it this summer. First, I want to let you know that this interview is brought to you by GameTime, the exclusive ticketing partner of Barstool Sports.

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Terms apply. And now, enjoy Jon Hamm. Well, it's been three long years since we've had our next guest on. And in that time, his team won its first Stanley Cup. And the big movie he was working on has been completed. He was my co-star in the town. And this summer, you can catch him on the big screen in Top Gun Maverick. It's an absolute pleasure to welcome back to the Spittin' Chicklets podcast,

the pride of St. Louis, John Hamm. How the hell you been, my friend? I'm good. Thanks for having me. It's good to be here. Absolutely, man. Our pleasure. It's been, like I said, three years. It feels like 13 and not long after we last chatted, you bluesed. They went out, they got their first Stanley Cup. Oddly enough, the teams are playing tonight. Did you make Game 7? Were you there, John?

No, I was not at Game 7, unfortunately. I was sitting in a soundstage in Vancouver, Canada. And Vancouver, as you may or may not know, shares no, uh, no particular love from Boston Bruins. So I was surrounded by people that were definitely rooting for, for the blues, which was very nice. Uh, but I, yeah, I was, I was, I was shooting a commercial. I was actually shooting a commercial for, uh,

for skip the dishes, which is a Canadian thing up there. Yeah. Ironically, the listeners are probably going to be surprised. You requested to come on because last time you're on the Blues went on a run to win the cup. So we're happy to have you on so that we can maybe make this thing happen again. But how about the season they're having? And basically these last 12, 13 games, you must be tuning in. Like, are you watching every game that you can or what do you how many games are you tuning into? I watch as much as I can. I have all the packages and whatnot. And if I can't watch it, I'll put it on my phone or listen to it at least. It's nice to be able to get the hometown broadcast too.

So that's always fun. And I know Chris Kerber and Joey Vitale are buddies of mine. So I know those guys. And it's nice to hear, you know, hometown voices. And the best is, of course, the local advertisements, which are just so particular to St. Louis. But no, I have been watching, man. I'm not going to name names, but a lot of people didn't have Blues heading into the playoffs either.

So, you know, it's a couple of people on this Zoom. But, you know, we're not here to cast aspersions. But they're a good team and they're a deep team. And like everybody else, they got hit with COVID and people getting sick. And I think the long-term effects of that stuff is still not known. You know, you see guys coming back from that and they come back too early or they, or they, they're just not right for, for a while. They feel better, but they're not, you know, the, the motor's not there,

or the lungs aren't there, you know, it is what it is, but that's, that's what the, that's what the first 82 games are. It's a, it's a marathon and then whatever shape you're in after that, then, then the other marathon starts. Did that cup run force you to maybe pay a little bit more attention and in depth to even like the team drama? Cause as they're sitting, sitting pretty going into playoffs, you know, they did go through that Tara Sanko stuff, you know, Tarasenko stuff. Maybe who's going to be

starting in that. Do you really pay attention to all those storylines throughout the entire season? Yes and no. I'm good enough friends with some of the guys on the team that I can get through the media aspect of it. Obviously, when the media wants to sell papers or they want to get clicks or what have

you, they're going to fire up as much drama as they can. And you, you guys know as well as anybody that everybody in that locker room wants to win and they know they can win and they've wanted every level of day that they've played at. And, uh, and the business of hockey is what it is. That's why we're sad to see 70 go, but you know, it was, it is, it is what it is. They had, they came off the high of that cup run. They were playing great in 2020.

And then COVID happens. I mean, who calls that? Nobody. You know, it's just, it is what it is. And you got to play through it. And then that takes away so much of your momentum and so much of your familiarity and so much of everything. It's just, it's this unknowable thing.

And so the last two seasons were kind of these weird outliers. knowable thing and and so the last two seasons were kind of these weird outliers and uh and i think now it's now it's back to business and and and god armstrong's made some some pretty strong moves in the offseason so uh i'm i'm pretty happy with where we sit you know i think i think obviously florida and tampa are the top of the league in every aspect but we've seen teams like that not advance i mean the blues were that team in 1991, maybe it was. I forget when Hulley and all those, it was putting up goals at a ridiculous clip and they won the President's Trophy

and they got bounced out. It happens, you know, and it's, I'm not going to say it comes down to goaltending all the time, but sometimes it does. And, you know, we've all seen it. You run into a hot goalie or you get, you get hung by a, by a cold one, it's, it's rough, but I'm very happy with how we're playing now, obviously. And I'm, I'm, I can only imagine when you come into playing us,

you, when we start rolling those four lines out and it's every line has, has a legitimate scoring threat. That's, that's no fun. That's no fun. Especially if you're a defenseman. Husso. Okay. Wow. John, really? Wow.

Even as a head coach, if let's say Husso was playing maybe 55%, 60% better than Bennington, and then maybe Bennington on the 40%, you wouldn't go with the guy who's already got you there starting out in playoffs? I think everybody knows what it is. I think, you know, he's played his way into that job. And until he plays his way out of it, that's what you do, I think. I don't know.

I mean, you know, Bitter looked great last game. He looked great. You know, we put up an eight spot on the other team, which is, you know, makes any goalie look great. But he made the big saves when he, when he had to, and he looked like the confident Jordan Bennington of 2019, 2020. And I think that he'll get back there. You know, it's, you guys know,

goalies, they're all head cases. They're, they're lunatics. And, and they go through, they go through ups and downs. And the great thing about having uh an amazing starter an amazing backup 1a 1b whatever you want to call them is is uh that that really helps especially when you when you start talking about the the grind and the schedule in the playoffs when you're when you're just gassed and you're hurt or you're dinged or whatever you have what's your schedule looking like for this playoff run i'm assuming you're looking to catch as many games as you can. Are you going to be busy with acting or what's the deal?

I'm going to be busy with promoting Top Gun, which is finally coming out. And I know we, we had, we finished shooting that thing about two years ago. It was meant to come out in 2020 and here we are 2022 and it's finally coming out. So I'm doing a big world press tour. I'm going to San Diego where we have a premiere and then Mexico city, London, Can, France, New York city and LA. And so it's, I'll be, I'll be tuning in obviously. And I hope once I get a little break, I can,

I can bounce over to St. Louis or, or, you know, if they're playing on the West coast and that will be even more fun, but yeah, I'm going, I'm going to the game on Sunday. That'll be fun. I haven't been to a game in a minute. Last game I think I went to was the Winter Classic, which was phenomenal. It was 10 below and ridiculous, but it was a

good win, and it was a good time. Obviously, John, feeling much better about this team than maybe a month or two ago, one of the hottest teams in the league, but are there any concerns you have with the lineup at all going into the playoffs? I mean, our whole thing has always been we're not playing as strong as we could on the defensive side. You know, I think that that's when we have a team that's so offense-minded

that that gets forgotten. And when you lose guys like Petrangelo, when you lose guys like J-Bo, you know, when you lose these rock-solid defenders that play so many minutes, you know, for whatever reason, then they're hard to replace. You know, they really are. I thought Letty was a great pickup, but we paid a lot for him. You know, I think we needed him. And he's been great for us.

So I think if the boys can lock that down and start really feeling the confidence on the back line that they do on the front, then I feel like we can play with any team in this league, and I think we've proved it. I was going to ask you about a teammate of yours. So you go into these big movies like Top Gun. Had you ever met Tom Cruise? And I'm sure everybody's asked you, like, he's a little bit wired to –

like, he's wound up tight. Like, he's a machine, is he not? Yeah, you know, I mean, he's asked you, like, he's a little bit wired to a high. He's he's wound up tight. Like he's a machine. Is he not? Yeah. You know, I mean, he's 10 years older than me. He looks 10 years younger than me. And he's you know, he's the first guy there on set and he's the last guy to leave. And he's, you know, he's up at five o'clock in the morning, working out and he's got six other projects that he's getting going. You know, he's just, you said it right. He's a machine, but he's a, he's one of the nicest guys you'll ever want to meet.

He's the hardest working guy on set, which when you, when you, when you're looking at movies like that, and the guy has all that on his shoulders, that's who you want. And that job is that guy, the guy who takes the responsibilities, he's put it on my back, let's go. And we're going to make the best move we can. And I've seen top guy. I had, I had met Tom a couple of times before we worked together. But when I first stepped on set in 2018 um he you know big big open arm hug big smile so glad to have you here took stopped everything spent five minutes to talk to me so it's that kind of

stuff that you think man like that's a that a good, he doesn't have to do that. And then there's a lot of people that don't that are in that position. So it's, it's one of those things where you're just like, okay, I appreciate that. And, and the proof's in the pudding. The guy's been a movie star since he was 17 years old. That's, that's, that's some longevity in a, in a career that doesn't necessarily have a lot of examples of that. And he was flying his own jets in the movie.

He wasn't flying the, like he's, he is a professional pilot and he was in the, in the cockpit for a lot of these things. I mean, obviously these are $80 million aircraft that are owned by the taxpayers. So they weren't, it doesn't matter how good you are or whatever. They weren't exactly handing the keys over, but they had this amazing way of shooting it where you see, I mean, you'll see it when you watch the movie. The movie is incredible.

And you'll see how the G forces are pushing these, not only Tom, like a lot of our young stars, Miles Teller and the other guys in the film. They're all in the backseat of those planes and they're all pulling Gs. And it's impressive to watch. Like I was, I got to ride on the aircraft carrier i was like this is much more my speed this is you know 20 knots an hour a nice sunset i'm good you know did you throw up at all did you end up getting in one of the g's or no no i didn't thank god i didn't i didn't have to do it but uh i would have i mean and of course i would have puked or passed out that's that's just how it goes. It's tough.

It's real. I mean, it's real and you see it. That's what's really cool about this, the way they shot this one is that, you know, with the technology now you can stick a camera anywhere. All these HD tiny little cameras and they've got close-ups on these guys when they're coming off the aircraft carrier. You can see behind them the aircraft carrier getting smaller in the distance. It's really neat.

Did any of these guys go up in any of the jets or go through the school like we see Richard Guerin in Officer and a Gentleman? Yeah, they did a lot of that stuff. The kids that played the pilots and Tom of course had to go through all that. It was

rigorous. Those guys and gals were in amazing shape because they had to be. And if you weren't, you would not be able to do what was asked of you. And so they all had to work really hard. And like I said, the proof's in the pudding. And also they had the leader of all leaders in front of them saying, look, if I can do it, you can. You guys are 30 years younger. Or better no you're better so i mean i'm looking i'm looking like there's 50 million views on the trailer 50 000 comments oh yeah have you ever you this has to

be the most uh the biggest thing like that you've ever kind of released the most fired up you've been for something you've worked easily easily and that's that's why i'm you know in any normal time i would clear my decks for uh for the stanley cup playoffs for this for this i've gotta i've gotta like uh show up and and and head around the world and really promote yeah right a tough gig buddy hanging out with leo and bezos on his fucking yacht yeah tough life man give me keys to those. I get to stay in a hotel, but that's about it. What about in Hollywood? Like, you ever work with any other guys, big hockey fans?

You ever met somebody that's kind of as big as you with a certain team? Or are you pretty much individual for that? Jerry Bruckheimer's a big, who produced Top Gun. He's a big hockey guy. He was a Kings guy. Now I think he owns part of the Kraken now. And he's been a big supporter of hockey forever. You know, he,

he has a, I think he built a rink down in Manhattan beach or something. He owns a, he supports a local team. He supports youth hockey. Like he's been a real supporter and he's very knowledgeable and he's a great guy. I know Correll's a big Steve Correll's a big hockey guy. I think he's a Boston guy. I think he's from from Massachusetts somewhere, Connecticut. But, yeah, there's there's a there's a few of us out there. You know, I like to think that I'm one of the one of the bigger ones from St. Louis, but we've we've got a we've got a small yet vocal support staff here john did uh brookheimer ever mention his bad boy tournaments that he would throw in the summertime with all like nhl guys who used to just get completely

pickled in vegas have you ever talked to him i've definitely heard of those i don't think jerry was the one that was uh telling me about them but i've definitely heard of those i mean you know kelly chase is a friend of mine so i've known I've got a lot of intel into those particular hijinks. One year, Chelios, I hope he doesn't get mad that I say this. He might have even told it when he was on. I think they were at a Greek restaurant. I think he's of Greek background, and he was just hum-chickling every single plate in the place off the wall to the point where they were peeling off the waitresses like hundreds being

like we are so sorry for our friend but he's just in a different Greek world right now he's feeling feeling it you know hey that's what you say why not I got one more for you on the acting front so you were in Curb Your Enthusiasm and Larry often makes references that like pertain to his everyday life and he mentioned when he went over to a friend's house in the show like hey do you guys have the nhl network was that what was your experience like on curb and did you get to chat about hockey with him at all or not so much uh you know larry's larry's what you see is what you get with with larry and i love him but it's uh he is very on brand at all times and it's you know, the only thing he wants to do when he's at work is go home. So it's, which, hey, I get it.

I'm the same way quite a lot. You know, it's like, let's get it done and let's go home. And then, you know, we'll do it a couple more days and then I'll go play golf and that'll be it. And so he's a big golfer. I'm not sure how big a hockey fan he is, but I know he likes sports. He's a New York guy. He loves all sports, and he's relatively knowledgeable about them.

I know he's a baseball guy, first and foremost, and a big golfer. John, another guy who worked on the movie, the Top Gun movie, probably one of the most underrated actors in the game, despite the Oscar nominations, Ed Harris. Were you able to share any scenes with him? I don't know. You you know it's funny i wasn't i didn't get a chance to share the edson and a couple amazing scenes in it by the way and i have to say he's he is as i've called him to his face a national treasure um he is uh and the reason i did that was because i actually played in a in a pickup softball game with him here in la once he just sort of showed

up somebody knew him and said hey you want to come out and play? And I was like, is that Ed Harris? Like, okay, here we are. It's a Saturday at Pan Pacific park and we're taking over the field from the T-ball game and Ed Harris is playing with us. All right. And he was decent. But yeah, no, I, I didn't get it. Unfortunately didn't get to share a share of the screen with screen with him, but he's wonderful in the film. He's perfect in the movie. And, you know, he's one of our greats for sure.

I couldn't help but notice his character name, Rare Admiral. R.A. wants a check. R.A. wants a check. I'll mention it to him. Yeah, right. He wants to be in the actors, Joe. Have you heard from Brett Hall at all? What's he been up to? I haven't heard from Holly in a minute. I'll mention it to him. Yeah, right. Any news from Hully lately? Have you heard from Brett Hull at all?

What's he been up to? I haven't heard from Hully in a minute. I'm trying to think of where I might have seen him last. He wasn't in Vegas for the All-Star game. I was there for the All-Star game. That was pretty fun. We got to see Jordan Cairo win the fastest skater. That was really fun. But, yeah, I didn't run into him. I ran into a couple guys that was really fun um but yeah i didn't i didn't run

into him i ran into a couple of a couple guys the older guys but uh holly wasn't there holly you know he keeps to himself until it's until it's time to release the cracket so to speak and then look out uh kairu called the shot we ran into him in the casino the night before and we're like hey you want to grab a drink and he's like no i'm sober tonight i'm gonna win that fastest skater tomorrow and i think they ended up taking home 25 grand he took all his buddies out the next night so i was there he did he did in fact i showed up and uh and we all raised a glass and i bought him a bottle of something i don't know whatever he wanted but uh yeah that was great for him you know he's he had such a hell of a first half and to cap it off with that he's been i think he's been fighting through some stuff too that's you know it's one of those things

that nobody wants to talk about but i think he's been dinged up a little bit it was nice to see him score a couple times uh sunday um and you know and i think like like i was saying earlier like these guys you got to go through it and you got to get you just got to fight through it it's you're everyone's gonna everyone's gonna have something i remember alex steen told me once i think in 2017 he played half the nashville series in the playoffs with busted foot i was like how do you what man tape it up and you know you skate on it that's what it's gonna be good lord man that's you kind of need your feet what do you do in hollywood when like are you have you ever acted when you had like we're sick with the call it's Good Lord, man. You kind of need your feet. What do you do in Hollywood?

Have you ever acted when you were sick with a flu? Call in sick. Just call. Okay. All right. Tom Cruise is on the set. He'll show up. Yeah, that's what I'm saying.

No, I've definitely had my share of showing up, and you just got to gut through it, whether it's back in flu or what have you. Of course, you can't deal with COVID now. In the the old days you probably shouldn't even done it with flu because now you're getting everybody else sick but you sometimes the show must go on and and that's the way it goes but it's nothing like uh what the guys in the in the nhl go through for sure yeah tom cruise would for sure be a tortorella tom Tom, Tom Cruz broke his ankle, you know, on live on camera. You can see it in mission impossible six or whatever. And he came,

he was back like within a week with a busted ankle. I mean, he's the new Chuck Norris. I heard he performed surgery on himself too. He bit a spoon and popped it back into place. John, I want to ask you about like getting prepared for, you know, this was the biggest gig you said you had. And like you've done television and movies, how much different is the preparation? And like, are you nervous leading up to the role?

Like how much time are you spent memorizing the lines? Like how does it all work? Well, it all depends upon the part. So, I mean, certain things demand certain different parts of whatever your skill set happens to be. If you have to get into shape and be able to do stunts and athletic stuff and everything, then, yeah, you're going to hit the gym a couple of extra times and make sure that you're ready to go and you're not going to hurt yourself or hurt anybody else. And there's a lot of training involved. I've done a few movies where I've had to do like pretty elaborate kind of driving things where you've got to put a car into a skid and landed on a mark and hopefully not run over the camera person. And, you know,

all of that is stressful, but you, you, you train for it, you, you practice it and you, and you do it. And then, and if it's not safe and it's not comfortable, then you get another, you know, person to do it or you make it safe and comfortable. So it's all, it's all very different. The, the, you know, the memorizing lines and stuff, that's, that's the, that's the easiest part. That's just, you know person to do it or you make it safe and comfortable so it's all it's all very different the the you know the memorizing lines and stuff that's that's the that's the easiest part that's just you know you probably know songs from 1994 that you don't understand how you know the lyrics to you know rusted root i mean believe it or not i can't memorize lyrics we actually talked about it last podcast i got rocks for brains but i tell you what wit can remember not, I can't memorize lyrics. We actually talked about it last podcast. I got rocks for brains, but I tell you what,

wit can remember them and RA can't. They're the karaoke guys. I was singing some song today on the way back home from the gym today, and something came on. It was a Dire Straits song from 1989. I knew every goddamn word. I'm like, are you kidding me? Where's this stuck?

Where is this stuck in my head? And can I use this part of my brain for something much more useful? But you know, I really like the album Brothers in Arms. Now, John, obviously you made your dramatic bones with Mad Men, and then you did a lot of comedy, Curb, Kimmy Schmidt made an appearance on Barry, which is a great fucking show. Do you prefer a comedy to drama as one hot than the other? What's your take on that? You know what I kind of like is, first of all,

I love being able to do both. Like some people, you know, they don't have credibility or whatever. They don't have the, or the wherewithal or the, or the desire, honestly, but I get to do it both. And I credit that to people earlier in my career, having a faith and belief in me to say like all right let's see what you could do and i did i was able to do 30 rock and snl and a couple things and it was yeah it was way far out of my comfort zone for sure especially given that i you know sort of gotten

famous by doing this very brooding kind of sullen you know int, introspective character. So it was, it was very nervous making, but that's part of it. You know, if you, if you're not if you're not making yourself nervous, then you're not trying, you're not getting better. I mean, that's, that's everything. So I'm very happy doing it. I love the shows like Barry that are really funny, but also really dark. Barry, by the way, coming out on a new season, starting Sunday. I was just texting with bill hater who's a good buddy of mine and saying i can't i can't wait for the new season i just saw

the trailer for that it looks really good but yeah those that's the good the good news where we live now and in streaming and all this stuff is it's not just a half hour sitcom or an hour long drama it's it's kind of there's a lot of there's a lot of things that are a little bit of both um when it comes to like you got a real alpha hair going here oh it looks all right oh hey throwing your salad all right hey i wish hey when it comes to directors and the relationships you have with them could it could it almost be like a player and a coach like have you ever had a director without name and names you really haven't vibed with is it is that a decent analogy with the player coach thing well i will say this and yes it is and i think that also what you don't i think a

lot of players don't realize either is like the coach is not only just coaching the team right he's he's managing he goes he's managing the front office he's managing egos. He's managing the front office. He's managing the press. He's managing his own life, his wife, his kids. There's a lot going in to that job and it's hard. And the director is the same thing you've got. It seems like, Oh, you're just coming in and you're telling people what to do and this, that, and the other, but, but your day starts a lot earlier and ends a lot later. And so I think that's really the best analogy between, between a director and a coach is that they're doing a lot of stuff that you don't see that you're very grateful that they're doing because it makes your

job easier, whether that's communicating with, you know, training staff or, or what have you, or, or just, you know, coming up with game plans, working with the assistant coaches you know, training staff or what have you, or, or just, you know, coming up with game plans, working with the assistant coaches, you know, Steve Ott, who's, who's one of our assistants on, on the blues, you know, he, he was a son of a bitch when he played, you know, Oh, I know. Oh, I know. Hurt me.

Hurt my feelings too, John. But he, he is an amazing assistant coach and he's, he's going to be an amazing assistant coach, and he's going to be an amazing head coach one day because he gets it. He gets his job, how he fits in the chain, and he does his job very well. So we're happy to have Otter on the team for sure.

Since we last had you, you got to work at one of the current greats, Steven Soderbergh on the HBO movie No Sudden Move. What other current directors would you like to work with? Not that you want to suck up now, but... You know, there's a lot. There's a whole generation of I hesitate to say kids because they're probably all in their late

30s, early 40s, but there's this new movie called Everything Everywhere All at Once by these guys called the Daniels and I saw their movie at Sundance in 2014 or 15 and it blew my mind. It was called Swiss Army Man. It was really, really good.

And so they keep doing really interesting things. I think Hiro Murai, who directs a lot of Barry in Atlanta, I'm really excited to see what he does next. But yeah, there's, you know, then there's like the legends, you know, getting to work with Soderbergh was one thing. And it was great. I had known him sort of socially for quite a few years before we got to work together. And it was everything I had hoped it was. But then you got guys like Steven Spielberg. You got guys like Marty Scorsese.

You got this whole other tier of amazing legends that, sure, it would be amazing to get a chance to work with somebody like that. And then there's, like know like i said the new school robert eggers has got a movie called the north man coming out it looks really good did the lighthouse a few years back so there's yeah i mean i'm available so if you know anybody who's done that give me a shout john do you ever find yourself doing old characters when you're just like hanging around the house like going back to those characters shooting pucks uh not really no uh when i'm in my house i'm spending time with my girl my dog and you know making sure it's uh everything's everything's ready to go for uh for the next episode for sure but no i i don't i don't spend a lot of time in the past i try to spend a lot of time in the

present and uh and thinking about the future. Just to go back to the directives, is there one from the past that you weren't able to work with that you would have liked to possibly make the 70s or 80s even before that? Oh, man. Yeah. Well, sure. That list is pretty long. We lost a lot of those guys, but, you know, yeah. God. Of course, now i can't think of any guys i loved robert altman i actually funny story about robert altman was i um i was a waiter out here in la at a birthday party that he was uh he was attending and he was pretty old by then. He was probably, I don't know, 80 years old.

But he was still kind of this cool dude. He had the long gray hair. He was very friendly and very nice. And I think that he's dead now, so it's not going to matter. But he was out in the alley of the restaurant smoking a joint. And I was like, Mr. Altman uh your dinner's getting cold he's like right on then he's kind of took his joint put it out off going in and had his dinner i was like that is an awfully good way to enjoy your dinner sir well done that's awesome now when you were in

town making the town uh did you know it was going to be this like future classic i mean it's really got a lot of legs people love this movie did you did you know when we were making it was going to be this future classic? I mean, it's really got a lot of legs. People love this movie. Did you know when we were making it, it was going to be this sort of classic? When you were making it? Oh, yeah. You know why R.A. brought this question up, right? Because he was in the movie. I want to know. You can admit now to us you don't remember R.A., by the way, John.

Be honest, John. Listen, it was a long time ago. My memory is already fuzzy, so give me a break. I bet you R.A. pigeon-tossed him. He thought he was the star of the show, came in. Did he grab you a slice of pizza, Mr. Hamm? He goes, hey, I think Oatsy was a better passer than Gretzky, by the way. John probably agrees.

The funny thing about that, do you remember Joe Lawler? Yeah, yeah, that's who he introduced. So he worked on – so we shot Fletch, the rebooting Fletch. We shot that in Boston this summer. It takes place in Boston, and Joe worked on so we shot fletch uh the rebooting fletch we shot that in boston this summer it takes place in boston and joe worked on that with us too so and and owen from uh from the town so we had a couple couple guys that uh that popped back up from that movie did i know it was going to be that no but i knew it was going to be good because i knew with ben and jeremy renner and uh you know all the people petethwaite, all the people that we had, especially the people we had behind the camera, Robert Elswit's,

one of the best cinematographers in the world. I just knew it was going to be a good looking, cool movie that kind of feels like that throwback, you know, sensibility to the seventies and eighties that you just don't see much anymore. Um, so yeah, so I, so i i'm very happy with with the with the legs it's gotten every time i go through tsa at the airport every once like down i'm big with tsa for that movie so i'm happy for it i i like i legit hated you in that movie i hated you nobody nobody it's well the boston guys didn't like the law enforcement guys it's very weird a little bit

do people yell close the fucking bridge to you all the time? I get it every now and again. I got one more in terms of the acting, because you mentioned you missed game seven doing a commercial, and you're such a big name now. What does it take for you to get a commercial? Is it just a big payday? Is it just something when you're like,

oh, this could actually end up being easy money? How does it work when you're willing to take something like that now? Well, it's interesting, though. Obviously, there's quite a few decisions that go into it. Is it a company that you want to be associated with? Is it funny? Is it creatively something you want that you think you could do something with? Is it, you know, is it money that's going to move the needle in any way? it you know there's like six or seven decisions how much time is it going to take is it going to take me away from something like game seven of the stanley cup finals um and by the way had i attended that i'm virtually

certainly would have lost so i'm glad i was able to like keep the karma where it needed to be um because everybody was shitting on me when i shaved my beard in game five or whatever because i had to go back and do uh uh reshoots on top gun and i couldn't have a beard and i was and so all the barstool guys got mad at me for that they thought oh let's curse the team i was like listen here we're not done yet um but yeah so it's it's it's all of those things go into it. And for me, the, the most important thing is like, do I like the creative energy that, that they're, they're putting into this commercial?

I did one for Apple that I thought was really funny. Apple TV was like, why am I not on Apple TV? Like all these other people are on Apple TV. It was just really funny. I thought it was really funny. Um, and so if it's something like that and it, and it makes me laugh and I'm kind of like, all right, well, we'll see the worst. What's the worst thing that happened? funny um and so if it's something like that and it and it makes me laugh and i'm kind of like all right well we'll see the worst what's the worst thing gonna happen everyone hates it and then

it's gone in a month all right and you got paid and i got paid oh i like the one where you're ripping on all the stars do you get yeah that's phone calls from them like did you give them the heads up it was coming no but i actually got a lot of nice like response from that like from crazy it was awesome all over the place they were like of nice like response from that like from crazy it was awesome all over the place they were like that was really funny i'm glad you liked it another name i want to bring up from uh the talk of movie val kilma i know he's had some health woes recently but were you able to share any scenes with him or spend some time with him i know he's a he's a different sort of cat he is he is one of the one of our great actors and he's one of the most

original people you'll ever meet and if anybody hasn't seen it yet, there's a, there's a documentary that he made or son, he and his son made together called bow. That's really, really cool to watch. It's very interesting. It's hard to watch because, because yeah, like you said, he, he's gone through some really tragic throat cancer stuff where it's, it's really hard for him to speak, which is a real bummer. But yeah, he's in the film. We didn't get to, we didn't get to share scene,

but he showed up one day and was able to talk to everybody and say hi. And he's still, you know, his, his, his vocal cords and his voice is compromised, but he's still really fun. You could tell it's like his spirit is still there. He's still really funny and he's, he's he's having he's clearly very happy to be back uh as Iceman so it's it's a very very it's cool how they wrote him into the script it's cool the relationship that he has with Maverick I won't spoil it any further than that or else I think someone from Paramount will come and hit me with a baseball bat but uh it's uh I think everybody's going to really, really like how,

how we use Val in the film. It's, it's really, it's really quite beautiful. Hockey wise. I was just thinking because the biggest surprise player in the league for me, I shouldn't say it's a big surprise, but this Robert Thomas is just at another level right now. And I didn't know, have you gotten to know him at all because I haven't heard anything about him as a guy. I've never chatted with him.

Do you know what type of person he is? i've met him on several occasions he's really nice i met his little brother family um he you know he showed flashes of this in 19 i think people don't really remember but he won the face-off that that the puck squirted to Patty Maroon to beat the Stars in double overtime. He was instrumental in that. And he was a kid. I think he was 19 that year. So he's still 22, 23 years old now. And he is, as you said, he's playing on another level.

But he always had that in him. I think our front office guys knew that about him. He needed the seasoning. He needed the confidence. And he needed the guys around him that he has now. I mean, watching the way he dishes the puck now is insane. And the looks that he's given guys. It's why Tarasenko's having a great year.

It's why Barbashev's having a great year. It's why we've got six, seven 20-goal scorers because they're getting this thing on a tee. I mean, with an open look. And it's, you know, behind the back, through the legs, no look this and that. And it's, it makes it look easy. It's really fun to watch. And, and, and you can tell he's, he's feeling good about it too. That's, that's the really nice part.

Is that you can really tell that all of these guys have found something in that locker room. That's really, that's really translating out on the ice. They're having fun, man. Bucinavich. I mean, come on. These guys are all having career years. And that's, that's, it's not because they all went on a, you know, a juice cleanse, you know, it's cause it's cause everybody's playing well with them. And, and when you start, like I said, keep rolling those lines out and mixing and matching and everybody's humming. And it's, it's fun to watch. That's when you start like i said we keep rolling those lines out and mixing and matching and everybody's humming it's it's fun to watch that's when you get eight goals i was just going to ask about uh you're still good at remembering these stories like i know you weren't

there for uh the game seven live were you able to celebrate with the cup at all and like was there one moment or interaction you remember in particular about that entire celebration so as soon as they won i'm sitting in my trailer in vancouver and we're finishing i still had to finish the day the shoot so it was kind of like i was very distracted obviously but uh my phone's blowing up i'm hit up all the guys that i knew on the team steener and and all those guys and i said what's you know congratulation whatever congratulations there was a big thread that was going. And, uh, and, uh, Steiner says, you got to come to the dinner tomorrow,

get on a plane, get back to St. Louis and come to the dinner tomorrow. And I said, I'm there. I mean, I had no clothes. I literally had my backpack and I was like, get me on the next plane from Vancouver to St. Louis. And I did the next day and I got there. I literally went from the airport to the dinner down at the keel center or the enterprise center now but it's gonna have about nine different names since i've been a fan but uh right to the thing the cups there everybody's there every no one's

gone to sleep basically you could tell they're still on adrenaline and bud light and uh it was real really really fun and i was able to see binner and and uh translo and and steiner and everybody everybody it was just a blast and it went it went all night and then the next day we had uh we had the uh parade and i was able to ride with uh chaser and and some of those guys. And it was so fun. You know, it was just, it was just crazy. And it was so fun just to see, as you guys know, when you're in a city that wins and hasn't won or hasn't won for a while,

the way that the town turns out is pretty impressive. And, you know, we had about a half a million people there. And they introduced me. We had a big meet. The parade ended under the arch and the little place we have there. Panger introduces me and they throw me the cup and I put it over my head. And I didn't know this, but behind me is, oh my God, 34 backup goalie. Why am I in space? Jake Allen.

Jake Allen's got his camera and he takes a picture of me from behind with me with the cup over my head sends it to me hey i thought you might want this i was like you're right i do so yeah we had we had quite a time with it it was really it was really fun that's awesome thanks to poster for the wall i want to ask you about this uh the big lie this new scripted podcast series i know you did one back earlier american hostage like yeah yeah yeah it feels like a like a throwback like the old radio serials they used to do is that a good comparison or what that's exactly what it is basically and both of those you know the the american hostage was actually a true story that that takes place in indianapolis in 1975 about a guy who takes a bank manager hostage and holds him hostage with a gun

tied to his neck for wired to his neck shotgun for 65 hours. And it all played out on the radio. And I play the radio news guy that is trying to talk this guy off the ledge, so to speak. And it's very, you know, it's very intense and riveting. And, and it's really an interesting thing to listen to you know it's broken up into about six or seven episodes and you you know i'm a big podcast guy i love it you know obviously you guys do too but uh these these new kind of narrative podcasts are very interesting because they are they're fun stories that you just stick in your ear and you go on a hike or you go down the treadmill or what have you and all of a sudden you look up and you've gone five miles and

your workout's done and you've got a cool story so that one's really cool big lies another one that takes place in kind of um uh not cold war era but like the the red scare kind of era uh about communism and and who's who's on what side of that thing and obviously it's resonant about the politics of today too. And it's really well done. I got to work with these two guys that I used to work with on my very first television show back in 1998, John Mankiewicz and Aaron Lipstadt,

who are really good buddies of mine. And it was really fun to do. So yeah, that one's coming out soon. And the other one is wherever you find your local podcast store. How different is it to do that kind of acting? Because it's not voiceover, but it's not like cartoons or that type of thing. What's it like? Yeah, it's much more grounded and real.

But again, it all comes from the script. It all comes from the source material. And it's really fun. I got to work with really talented people. Ana de la Ruggiera worked with me on Big Lie and Carla Gugino and Dylan Baker. And quite a few guys worked with me on American Hostage. And it's fun. Honestly, it was kind of the perfect COVID job because you just sit in a room.

You can't really infect anybody or get infected. So it's like, all right, I'll do this. And at least it's something to do when you're still telling a story. And the fact that people are listening to it. I mean, American Hostage, I think, was number one in about six different countries on a podcast. So I was like, okay, cool. So what are you enjoying these days, TV or movies? I'm sorry, what TV shows or movies are you enjoying these days?

It's interesting. I was watching – what was I watching recently? I've been watching The Winning Time. I've been looking. I've been enjoying that a lot. It's now getting into the good part of the Lakers-Celtics thing, and I saw that they got picked up for another season so that's you are on the hot seat what doesn't like it i said i hated episode

one and i'm gonna go back in i'm good you gotta go back in i felt the same way i was not oh there you go from the snap i was not on board from the snap but i've now i'm i'm committed and and they're getting now it's episode seven or something. I think there's a couple more left. It's the stories there. And I got to say some of the performances, man, the guy that plays Jack McKinney, Tracy Letts, boy, is he great. And I think John C is awesome.

I think it's just such a cool, weird story that shouldn't make sense. And yet it's so perfectly LA, like it's just so perfect for that. So I'm digging that my, my buddy, Adam Scott shows severances on Apple. I've been dipping my toes into that. It's pretty great. Um, and then I watched, you know, the, the, the Netflix documentary of the month about, you know, vegans or whatever the hell it is. That was, that was fun. That was fun for like two days. And then, you know, I don't know.

It's just too much stuff out there. It's really hard. It's really hard. I want to, I want to get back to the old days where you can go see a movie on the weekend and then you can watch like normal shows, like on the normal days when they come out, I don't need to watch eight in a row. Did you watch tinder swindler no i missed that one that'll be it's probably but it's in the queue come on we're all

gonna watch the same shit at the same time yeah of course any other any other ones you might be embarrassed to admit uh no i mean i we all we're all watching the same shit it all comes up on our screen so it's like that looks good all right go it. I just watched an old Zach Galifianakis thing that I remember getting on Netflix back when Netflix used to send you DVDs. Well, you did Between Two Ferns with him, didn't you? Yeah, yeah, yeah. Oh, my goodness. That must have been a treat. Yeah, good times.

He's an old friend and a good friend. It was really fun. It was really fun to see this thing, which I think you recorded back at early 2000s, maybe even the nineties, live at the purple onion. But yeah, it was, you could tell it was old because it had the old Netflix logo. So that's when, you know, Yeah. It's tough to find adult dramas at the cinema anymore,

but I got one more fight. I know you were, when you were in town filming, were you giving up a proper, uh, Charleston townies hoodie when you were in town or not? No, I didn got one more. I know when you were in town filming, were you given a proper Charles D'Antoni's hoodie when you were in town or not? No, I didn't get one. All right. We'll have to get your address from Grinnelli. We'll have to get you one. Don't give me your address, John. That's what I said to Grinnelli.

What size are you? XL? Give me my business address. Hand deliver it. Oh, my goodness. Well, thank you so much. We appreciate it. And honestly, everyone listening, I can't wait to see Maverick the next top gun and,

and congrats on all the success you continue to have. And I guess go blues if we're living in your world. Thanks fellas. Uh, yeah, we're going to, we puck drop in about three hours. So,

uh, we're going to, uh, finish the season strong and, uh, and then the playoffs are their own thing. So let's, yeah, let's go blues. Our pleasure, John.

Hopefully we can do part three at some point and good luck on the playoffs. Just hopefully you don't face my Bruins again. Thanks fellas. Thanks for having me. A huge thanks to John Hamm, just a superstar and a great guy to come on and talk to us. And I just wanted to remind everyone that his interview was also brought to you by Peter Millar. The Perth pullover by Peter Millar is a classic quarter zip with added performance benefits like four-way stretch, moisture-wicking fabric, and easy care.

This season, Peter Millar has gone the extra mile when it comes to prints. Each print is custom designed in their Raleigh, North Carolina studio. I was just down there. A bunch of us had Peter Millar on. I've told everyone it's all I wear on the golf course. It's the best stuff in the business. And whether you're heading into town or layering up for your next round, do it in style with Peter Millar's Perth Performance Pullover.

Go over to petermillar.com slash chicklets and use the code chicklets to receive complimentary shipping. It's very nice stuff. It's very comfortable, easy to wash, easy to wear, and it looks phenomenal. So please make sure you go to PeterMillard.com slash chicklets and use the code chicklets and get involved with the best golf gear in the business. And Jon Hamm, guys, we interviewed him about two years ago. What an amazing guy.

And I think this interview was even better. He might be opened up a little bit more. We got to chat a lot about some movie making and Hollywood stuff that was definitely interesting to me and I know R.A. and Biz. So we appreciate him coming on and I am fired up for Top Gun Maverick. I think it's going to be sick. Trickles bump R.A.? Yeah.

I'm actually going to go see it. There's actually a little bit of buzz about Tom Cruise, possibly a possible Oscar nomination. It's still very early in the year, but he's getting some good early buzz so far for his performance. When does it come out? It comes out May 27th, which, funny enough, the same day that my

show up in Canada, Shorzy drops on Hulu. So me and Jon Hamm, once again. They're going head-to-head for ratings. Him and Hambone, they go from being co-stars. Top Gun might have to move it back so they don't compete with Shorzy and R.A. No, they already have for a year and a half because of all the COVID shit.

You guys are going to have to move it back, R.A. I mean, I'll defer to John any day. Okay, good. No, it was great to get him on again. He is a good guy. We got a nice comfort level with him. And good luck to your Blues in the playoffs, John. And we'll see you on Top Gun Maverick, right?

Check it out this summer, gang. Also, too, we got another note, too. We forgot to tell you from the hop that we're basically jumping back on, actually,

I'm sorry, I thought you were going to fucking say it from the jump. All right, it's okay. I'll take over for you, buddy. All right, fumble, fuck this words right there.

He's trying to tell you guys this. It's three o'clock on Monday afternoon right now. You guys are listening on Tuesday morning. We're going to do the rest of the Eastern Conference previews, and then we're hopping back on around 10, 15, 10, 30. We're going to be able to dissect game one between Toronto and Tampa

and Boston and Carolina. Also, while we're recording, Minnesota and St. Louis will be in the middle of their game one. And then also, I believe Edmonton will have just started against L.A. So I actually have the Mass 4 ball tomorrow morning, the first round. I don't care. I mean, this is the Oilers, baby. This is what I've lived for all year. So I'm going to be up until hopefully actually I shouldn't say hopefully till real late because I want them to blow them out.

I don't want an overtime winning game one. But will we we will be back. And after these previews, you'll be able to go ahead and listen to our recaps of the early games that happened on Monday evening. So we will be back later on later in this podcast. And a lot of excitement around the fact that we're going back for three weeks to two a week. So we're going to get this full week here. And then starting next week, we're doing two a week, folks. Monday, Thursday.

So you'll be you'll be listening to us Mondays and Thursdays for three straight weeks, starting this upcoming Monday. Six days from when you're listening right now. We're going to be doing Sunday nights and Wednesday nights. And I'm pretty excited about it, like we mentioned last week. There's too much going on in the first two rounds of the playoffs to really go to one a week. So we'll be able to come to you twice. Come with the kick.

Come, baby, baby, baby, baby, come. Doesn't try to be gross. Oh, okay. It's only gross when I say it. No, no, all right. I like to do it again. Sensitive. No, do it again.

I want to hear it again. Come, baby, baby, baby, baby, come. You got to give it something. I'm just going to keep saying come to wet fucking. I'll show it up, make him gag. I tell you what, you got a great voice, all right, but nowhere near Malcolm Subban. How about that show he put on?

That was nuts. You got to have some fucking stones to roll out there, not only kicking in the crease for the team, but going out there and belting out the American national anthem? Unreal stuff. I mean, I love the reaction from the team because it was his current teammates and his former teammates because he last played for Chicago. And you're almost like, you know, people think, oh are disrespectful laughter in the anthem but they were it was so amusing to

them they weren't being disrespectful the end they were so entertained by the story but then you come to find out he never thought not that he was going to be a pro singer he never thought he'd be able to even just like sing in the shower again because years ago when he was playing for providence he took a puck off the throat and it was let me see it's uh one vocal cord was crushed and the other was lacerated and doctors like yeah he probably might not be able to sing normally again so he never even thought it could happen i guess he said it as a joke i'll maybe i'll sing the anthem and it just kind of snowballed he mentioned it to kevin adams and everybody was like hey let's go for it and he went out man and it was like you know not to pick on buffalo but it was one of the better highlights

this is the final straw it's the final straw i am officially on the Buffalo Sabres bandwagon from here on out. Come on. What are you talking about? That's weak. We don't want you on there. All right, fine. That's sad. We've got to stick with happy goaltender stories,

so we've got to bring up the e-bug situation. Tom Hodges, a Dallas-area life insurance salesman who gave up on his dream of playing in the NHL after losing vision in one of his eyes when he was a kid, I believe, lived out his dream Friday night when he was the E-bug for Anaheim-Dallas game. Both John Gibson and Anthony Stolas were injured, so they had to bring the E-bug out. He came out with his number 68, no name on the back, all his Dallas gear on, stopped two of three shots.

He did end up getting a loss, but I know people are like, oh, how does this happen in a major sport? It's like these stories are great man i can do fucking five of these a year well apparently he was dealing with a panic attack too right before he went out yeah he said he was pretty close to having one of the guys really calmed him down he said listen win lose give up 10 give up one just go out and have some fun and said they really really dude you're a life insurance salesman settle down he's like get in there you fucking pussy what the fuck are you waiting for fuck you you fucking panic it's like oh we're expecting you to not be able to escape man relax like there's zero expectations but that is pretty cool that he gets to get in there um and

and now i gotta remind before the greatest thing of all time is the zamboni driver who beat the leafs i mean that's just the most classic story ever where the Leafs get embarrassed yet again. Yeah, like I said, it wasn't a huge game. I mean, it wasn't like if Anaheim needed that. The season's over anyways, but Dallas, if they ever won that game, it could have had an effect on the standings anyways. It was an awesome story. I think they

got to keep doing it now too. Despite how big of a joke it may be and how many people may bitch, for that purpose alone, just keep it running. Yeah, absolutely. Nothing bad has come out of it yet. So, all right, let's get to the East. We haven't done any East previews yet.

And first up, Washington versus Florida. This is the first ever playoff matchup between the Caps and the Cats. The season series, Florida went 2-1, Washington went 1-1-1. But the last game between the two was way back in November. Florida favored in the series, minus 400. So you got to put up 400 to make 100, or you put up 100 to make 300 on Washington. Of course, we talked about Florida already. They set a team record for points and wins. They're bringing in Bobrovsky. He's expected to start game one. Interestingly, his playoff starts 13-23 with a 3-2-4 goals against an 8-9-9 save

percentage in 41 playoff games he's only won one playoff series and then conversely with the capitals we don't know if we're getting vanichek or simsonov don't know who's going to be in that but let's go to you biz once again first on this one what you take um i think that the Florida Panthers are going to win this in six. I think that goaltending has been a question mark all season long for the Washington Capitals. It was not addressed. There's still a question mark as to who's starting even as we're recording this podcast.

I think it's going to be their downfall, and they just do not have the offensive power that they once did uh in order to keep up with this Florida Panthers team I don't even think there's a fucking mental hurdle to get over um I mentioned it probably a month ago I was not impressed with this Washington team uh they were the clear number eight seed in my opinion and uh they're gonna get bounced in the first round I think that expertise will help them carve out one or two wins and make it not a complete shitshow embarrassment, but there's no way that this Florida Panthers team

is being stopped in the first round. And I guess there was one question mark about Ekblad and the cap circumcision in which they seemed to work out, and obviously, miraculouslyulously he's back game one boom that problem's over with and then maybe just maybe goaltending was a question mark but they got the one-two punch like all these other playoff teams that is the new norm they are locked and loaded we are going to see a playoff run for the florida pan. What, Doug? One can only hope we get a rematch of the battle

in Florida that we got to see last year with Tampa and Florida. I know the Florida Panthers are going to be taking care of their end. I think this is a similar mismatch almost possibly worse than Colorado-Nashville. I think this is an absolutely

drumming waiting to happen. Having Ekblad, first of all, I thought they were in trouble when Ekblad went down. I mean, what was their record? It was like 20-3 when he was without him. Now, I'm kind of guessing on the numbers, but they went on a tear, as Ari mentioned, to win the President's Trophy,

all without one of the top defensemen in the league. I mean, this guy was right at a point per game when he got hurt running that first power play which is amazing now he goes back with wieger one of the best pairings in the league and i just think their scoring is so above anyone else that like when jeru came over it almost made a a special force even crazier because now you look at the depth with a with duclair season that he's had and then the third line with marshman and uh this super rookie that nobody talks about lundell um i don't even know is he technically a rookie still but yeah yeah anton yeah so like nobody even mentions this guy in rookie of the year stuff but he carries play he's a big strong defensive player

too where he's not even an he's not even a liability whatsoever on the ice defensively. And then the goaltending, Bobrovsky's been great. You also have Knight if something were to go wrong. I think Washington, it's kind of like you're watching a team that's had this amazing run. And yeah, they only got one cop when it looked like so many years and they won the president's trophy. They were going to get others and kept getting bounced. It couldn't get by Pittsburgh. It seems like it's kind of ending. You know, it seems like so many years. And they won the President's Trophy. They were going to get others and kept getting bounced. They couldn't get by Pittsburgh. It seems like it's kind of ending. It seems like it's kind of coming down to an end.

And they barely snuck in this year. They pretty much gave away the chance of playing the Rangers because they should have been able to overtake Pittsburgh with how poorly they played down the stretch. Yeah, well, Obie had a torn motivator. Missed the last three games. Yeah, Obie got hurt. We don't know his status for game one.

No, he's playing. He had a torn motivator. He's back in. Well, it just seems like they have no chance whatsoever in this series to me. I'm picking Florida in five games. The goaltending is a question mark in Washington as well. It's such a tough team to play against in Florida that they keep coming at you in waves. The one thing Merle's mentioned that's true, all the comebacks,

you can't rely on that in the playoffs. That window, that shuts a little bit once the teams get better and the games get tighter and the games are refereed a little bit closer and maybe there's less power plays. You can't rely on these two, three, four-goal comebacks. You've seen the Panthers have all season, so they're going to have to have better starts, but they are a wagon of a team, and I'm

really looking forward to watching them play in this first round and kind of seeing how special this team looks in trying to make a cup run. President's Trophy is no joke, and they did it in a year where Colorado looked like to have it wrapped up early on. Like I said, it's Florida in five for me

yeah claude drew huge addition eight let's see 73 points in 85 career playoff games uh the caps they were in a heater from basically let's see march 1st till april 23rd 16 5 and 2 they did finish the season with four straight losses but to me ovechkin man if he's dinged up i don't know if they're arresting him but you know for the injury purposes or just try to get him a little blow toward the end but i don't know i don't know if they're arresting him for the injury purposes or just try to get him a little blow toward the end. But I don't know. I don't like this matchup too much for Washington. Although they do have a strong veteran team, a lot of guys who have been there.

Peter Laviolette, great coach. So I'm going to go Florida in six. Biz, what did you have? I had Florida in six. As long as we get Tom Wilson blowing somebody up in the first series, as long as we get that from Washington, I'm happy. I say that was a successful season. Tom

Wilson ended somebody's life with a clean hit and the internet blew up and we get to read it for three days. We get to hear no supplementary discipline and then blow up for another three days is all I want out of the first round for the Washington Capitals. Merle, what do you got for us? I was really intrigued by this Florida team all year.

So, you know, I took the suck and I went down to Florida and watched a game a couple weeks ago to make sure we, you know, I got all the inside info, some boots on the ground. The team is for real. They were dominant. I was sitting 12 rows up. I mean, these guys were so skilled. And one of the things I noticed, I totally forgot they traded

for that Chirac guy from Montreal. I didn't even notice him out there, which is what you want from a D, especially in the playoffs. You don't want to notice a guy. He's just out there shutting everything down. The rink, everyone complains about the rink being far away, but they had a great crowd. The beer lines were super long, so everybody was getting buckled.

So that's going to make for a loud building come playoffs. Oh, wow. Good factors. This is great insight. Oh, yeah. Did you see Kodak Black's cum stain on the concourse? No, I was not looking for that. I was there with my two nephews, so I was trying to keep it a G-rated game.

We actually got him on the Jumbotron. Holy shit. We were on the Jumbotron. 12 rows up. Look at you spending it. Great game. And Nate out there is already all over me. He wants me on the Caps bandwagon.

It's not happening. I've got Florida in five games. And another reason is I really don't like Peter LaViolette. He is the last coach to send me down. Oh. Fuck him, Murr. Yeah, listen to this story. So we were on an exhibition game in Philly.

This was when I was with Carolina. And I scored the only goal. We lost 3-1, one four to one i scored the only goal in the game i think it could be a lie again but i did score check the game and uh on the plane ride home they're like yeah peter wants to talk to you in the back i'm like oh right like i you know i played two games i got two points an apartment this is going great he has the plane ticket with my name already printed on it. So I could have scored eight goals that game, and I was still getting sent down the next day.

So I got sent down, and two weeks later I was in Russia. Too old of a guy to be the first cut. Yeah, and I was the first cut, only guy cut. You know how you go out the night you get sent down in the big city? I was the only one. I had to go out alone. Oh, he didn't even give you a partner? No, nobody.

So I'm not a big fan of his, even though he is a great coach. I am not a big fan of his. I want to change my answer. Florida in four. Okay. Florida in three. No, I'm serious. Change it. Florida in four.

Sweep. Florida in four. That story hit home. I was going to say five, but then you said he made you drink alone. He said fucking Florida and three. Grinnelli, what do you got for us, buddy? I got Florida and seven, and I don't think it's going to be easy for him. This team has no playoff experience.

Washington's got a ton of guys who have been there before. This Florida team kind of reminds me of the Tampa team from a few years ago. Oh, my God. Before they started winning, right? You have to learn how to win. Yeah, they've got to learn how to win in the playoffs. So I like Washington kind of like when columbus beat tampa a few years back in the first round when they swept them i like washington but not enough to beat them so i'm going florida in

seven okay i like that all right i like that okay um but going back to labulette was he not the creator of dry island as well oh yeah i think. Oh, wow. I might change mine to a sweep too now. Walk the plank. Walk the plank. Smell you later. I'm doing a shot of Pink Whitney every Panthers goal this playoffs. Oh, yeah. Good luck, buddy.

We'll get you a liver donor. Are you changing it to a sweep? I'm changing it. Officially change it to a sweep. There it is. I'm on board too. Merles. And I mean, I want to get the, we're going to go to the finals, right?

We need to go to Fort Lauderdale yes I like the way you think you didn't see I've done the chiclets concierge so I know all the spots for us down there

well R.A.'s got a timeshare perfect no that's Daytona Beach up north oh okay we'll make the commute those are a racket those are a racket anyways

alright moving right along the Boston Bruins versus the Carolina Hurricanes former Adams division rivals get ready to face off for the third time in the last four post seasons the Bruins swept them in the 2019 Eastern Conference Finals then beat them four games to one in the first round of 2020 the Canes however dummied the Bruins in the season series this year three not three games to none they beat them outscutscored them 16-1. The last game was back in

February, and like I said before, it's regular season. Doesn't matter too much going into the playoffs. As for the Orange, Caroline is a small favorite in the series, minus 120. Game one is basically a pick-em, and this is where the big news is. The goaltend, Freddie Anderson and Anthony Ronta, I mentioned they won the Jennings Trophy, but unfortunately, Freddie got hurt a couple weeks ago. He's not going to be starting game one. Antti Ranta is going to be. Petor Kochetkov has been called up. He's going to be backing up Ranta.

Then as far as the Bruins goaltender, Linus Omak, he's penciled in for number one over Jeremy Swayman. Again, I don't think it may be interchangeable at this point. This game, I'm sorry, this series feels like a coin flip. I think it's a coin flip. I think the goaltending situation has totally turned it around. I wasn't sure who I was going to pick before, wink, wink. But now that it's either Almark and Swayman versus Antti Ranta,

I like the Bs. I think they got a decided advantage there. Plus, they got a lot more experience. I'm going to go Boston in seven. I'm sorry. Yeah, Boston in seven. You're one of the Boston guys. Grew up there. This is tough. I'm sorry. Yeah, Boston in seven. Wait, you're one of the Boston guys? Grew up there?

This is tough. This is tough. I know I've kind of been on Carolina in terms of not being afraid of them. I more meant that as a Stanley Cup winning team. But I don't know what it is. And maybe it is the 16-1 outscoring of the Bruins in the three matchups they had this season. But I just don't see Carolina losing this series. And I guess I'm a little overconfident because in looking at the gambling odds,

I think it is a 50-50. Is it a 1-10, minus 1-10 each, R.A.? Or even the Bruins a little bit favored somehow. Yeah, well, I wrote these down yesterday. Carolina 1-20 in the series. Game 1 was a pick-em. They may have changed slightly because of the knowing Anderson and in. But you can call it a pick-em, I'd say.

The series right now, Carolina minus 118, Boston minus 105 on the Barstool Sportsbook. Okay, so pretty much kind of a coin flip. Now, Carolina, what they're going to have to deal with is the Bruins are unbelievable at shutting teams down offensively. They keep teams out of the high-scoring areas. They're able to kind of box out well in front. But Carolina's great too, so it's like it's two really good defensive teams

battling each other. You know what it might come down to? I picked Carolina. I picked Carolina in seven. I'm going to stick to that. But it's one of those things where they don't have a Brad Marchand and they don't have a David Pasternak, and they don't have a frigging Patrice Bergeron.

Now, all the Caniac fans will argue about how good Ajo is and how good Shvetsnikov is. Neither one of them are as good as the three players I just mentioned on Boston. And they've spread them out where Pasternak's not playing with Bergeron and Marchand. So they got Pasternak with Hall, a little more depth for the top two lines. If Marchand, a guy like that, Poshinok takes over this series, that's the way Boston will win. But I just think the depth after you look at the top line, the top two lines in the third and fourth line really helps Carolina. I think Carolina's defense is better. I will say McAvoy's had an unreal season, not mentioned nearly enough in terms of the Norris Trophy and one of

the top defensemen in the league. He could really kind of blow up offensively in this playoffs as well. What a great player he is. But from one to six in Carolina, what D'Angelo's done as he came over from New York, the consistent play of Slavin, it seems like these teams are so evenly matched. But for some reason, I just think Carolina has the edge over them. And I don't really know how to explain it besides that this regular season just is in my mind a little bit too much.

So I think it's going to be a great one, and I'm going the Canes in seven. I'm with you, R.A. I got Boston in seven. And this, to me, was just as difficult as doing the mini St. Louis series. Goaltending player. Yeah, similar.

Goaltender playing a huge factor in this and really not knowing how it's going to go the full length of the series. The Bees need to do three things. They've got to get Holla continuing to play the way he has. He has played like Krejci down the stretch here. Last 20 games, 20 points. If he can continue that level of play, especially with the top line who are going to have their hands full.

Because we know that they can produce offensively, but I would say that probably that top line, especially with Bergeron, is most known for, and he's probably in the Selke conversation, might even win the fucking thing again this year, is can he just neutralize their offense? You can continue to get that second line scoring from Holla, in which they do too.

They're a top 10 scoring team in the league. They can fucking snap the puck around, and they drive offense. But then Holla continuing to play like that allows the third line to free up with Coyle, and the physicality was the other one I wanted to mention. They got to get on the Slavin. They got to get on D'Angelo. They got to get on the four check and need to fucking punish these guys

for all their touches. And I'm looking for a guy like Trent Frederick to have a breakout type series. I think he's one guy, one guy that now that you've got those two top lines neutralized for Carolina who we know can fucking snap it around and drive offense.

Man, some nights they're out shooting teams two to one. Like they are going to out shoot you. But if those two top lines can do their job, I'm looking to the Bruins bottom six. I agree with you where I think that they are outmatched a little bit on the back end, but that's where the playoff hockey, the Bruins bad boy hockey is going to come into play and the low scoring games are going to play into their favor.

Merles, what you got, buddy? I got your Bruins in six games. Wow. Yeah, seven games sounds good, but I can't see them going down there and winning a game seven. They'll take care of business at home, game six. And I'm really going to be looking to see if they'll get – is the full schedule out?

Will they get an afternoon game? Yeah, Mother's Day, it's at 1230, and the Bs are good on the afternoon game. They are so good on the afternoon games. And that team is great. A fun little tidbit I saw in your notes about Donny Del Negro is the trainer, longtime trainer for the Boston Bruins. It's his last season.

This guy is known. Win it for Donny. He's known as the best dressed trainer in the nhl and really yeah and here's a little inside scoop you know you know marina and them they're always showing pasta walking in in those nice suits and bergie donnie is the guy that taught them guys how to dress that's he's the guy behind all that's a little that's what my source just told me from the inside so he's their hairy knuckles, like Winifred Harry, Winifred Don. Yeah, so this is it.

He isn't going away after one round. So they're going to win this round, and we're going to get a couple good live streams, hopefully, with the Barstool crew. These tidbits are just like this is inside information at its finest. I mean, this is why Burles is here. I'm not a stat guy, but it's the inside tips is what I'm looking for to try to get us that edge so we can put a beating on the barstool sportsbook tomorrow night in Hoboken.

Any other juicy ones? On the Bruins, that's all I got for now, and I'll have another one in the later series. What do you make of the goalies doing their thing after the game? Oh, I love it. I love it. I've actually been focusing on the Bruins because I knew we were coming down here, and I knew fights was going to be here you're going to be all over me you want to watch the bruins you guys grinnell and ra so i've been watching a lot of them this old mark

has played phenomenal the last few games um lynn home you guys haven't talked about him they added him on d that's a great ad i like this bruins team a lot how can you not and i wouldn't mind going to boston for the finals either. I got Boston in seven. Yep. G, what do you got? I know you got the Bs, I'm assuming. I got Bruins in five. I think Freddie's hurt.

Wow. I said it before the show. I'm not a Ranta guy. The Bs have been playing incredible the second half of the season, arguably better than any team in the NHL. I think not only is this team playing for Donny Del Negro, I think they're playing for Patrice Bergeron. We don't know how many years

this guy has left. Every time it's brought up in a press conference, they all mention they're playing for Patrice Bergeron. Eric Hall is the best second line center in the NHL. You did say it, G. We can't forget that. And we also have these amazing Jake DeBrus Spider-Man shirts. He's been

incredible since the trade deadline. So I'm riding the beast. There's one out front here. Spidey. Oh yeah. All the proceeds are going to go pay for him going to driving school. He's going to learn how to get... He doesn't want R.A. honking at him

while he's driving the streets of Boston because he can't put on his turn signal and can't do the three-way parking. He'd have it coming. Another note on Donnie Del Negro. Congrats to him. Drury High graduate out in North Adams, Mass. Where he went to school.

29 years he was with the Bruins as their trainer. And I don't know if you guys saw the clip. They gave him a pretty sweet golf cart in the garage. He ripped around a few Marshawn Lynch donuts when he gave it a spin for the first time. So congrats, Donnie, on an unreal career. And hopefully it doesn't end for another couple of months and another few series so uh let's see moving right along here we got tampa bay toronto the other wow yeah a lot of big series but this one okay one team is trying to become the first to three peat since the 1980s islanders the other is trying to get out of the first round for the

first time in 18 years the season series tamp, Tampa Bay went 2-1-1. Toronto went 2-2. For the odds, let's see. Toronto is minus 130 to win the series, which is a plus 110 on Tampa. Game one, Toronto is a slight favorite. Of course, the Leafs set franchise records for wins and points. Tampa Bay, I don't know. I think they might have been a little bit of cruise control toward the end.

They seem like they got it back together late in the season, but this is a very intriguing matchup, Biz. You're the Leaf guy. We're going to go to you first for your take. So first of all, the Leafs have to approach this much like the David versus Goliath here. You're going against the defending two-time in a row Stanley Cup champions. Now, I think it's good for the Leafs for another reason. I think that Tampa is completely fucked out. You know when you go all night long and you just fucking boom, boom, boom.

Maybe Witt doesn't. Make another call. Two minutes. To go three in a row in today's NHL with the 82 game schedule, the fact that COVID went down and the fact that they had to backlog all these games, I think they are completely burnt. And the Leafs have, I don't want to say a lot of pressure,

but they have to kind of all of a sudden, boom, turn the lights on. You're playing the fucking defending champs. So I think that they needed a series where they weren't going to end up going against a team like Montreal where they had all the pressure in the world on them because if they didn't get past them, they'd look like morons. I think that this could be a more perfect matchup for the Leafs. One thing that's a little bit concerning is the fact that they don't got Muzzin back. The rumor is that he will not be starting playoffs.

Is that a fact here? Am I getting my information? I was wondering about him and Bunting. I thought Bunting was back on the ice. I thought Muzzin was back on the ice. I haven't heard either way. Can we get a G check-in on that one? Bunting will not be playing game one. And also, another level of concern for that top line who has a lot of pressure on it,

specifically Marner. But overall, I just think this is a way different Leafs team going in. Didn't have as many hiccups through the regular season. The goaltending, that was the question mark. We talked about it earlier, Jack Campbell with the injury, but it was more about the mental break, the mental reset. He's playing for a contract.

Sometimes you have other things on your mind. Rumor has it he's been talking with Cujo. I know that he's had a goalie coach in the before that I mentioned when he worked with the Ontario Reign. And now, apparently, since he hit the reset button, Cujo, a guy who knows what it's like to play in Toronto and have the weight of the world on his shoulders and know what sometimes where the headspace can go,

he's got it back on the rails. So the goaltending question mark I did have is no longer there for the Leafs. The only question mark should be how does the guy at the other end play? Because if Vasilevsky does end up fucking stealing a series like he has done in the past, that's the only way that I think they're hosed.

But I think the Leafs can keep up with these guys offensively. I think they're just as good as a team. It's just, can they beat Vasilevsky? Can they get past the big man? Yeah, there's really two ways to look at this.

In the Leafs, they had the greatest regular season a Leafs team has ever had in the history of the team. You finish, I think, fourth overall in the league at the end of the 82-game regular season. And what do you get in terms of a gift? The two-time defending Stanley Cup champ.

So it's like, holy shit. And even as a guy who's really rooting for the Leafs to lose, that's a tough bounce. That sucks. On the other side, on the flip side of that, if there was ever a reason and ever a way for them to go on a run and maybe win a Stanley Cup, what better way would it be to knock off the Stanley Cup champs in round one? There is so much pressure

on the Maple Leafs, more pressure on the Leafs than any other team in the league to get out of the first round. And they're going to have to go through a legitimate wagon of a team to do it. But if they do, look the fuck out. And now remember, if the Leafs were to win the Stanley Cup,

I have to wear a pink tuxedo every single day for, I think, a year straight. It might have been a half year. I think you said a month. Okay, a month. Thank God. I do look at this like a mental grind. And Biz talked about the mental hurdle.

How can Toronto deal with things going? So how can Toronto deal with things going a little sideways? How could Toronto deal if they lose game one? How can you deal with the pressure that just no matter what, if you're not reading the internet, if you're not reading the paper, you feel it as a leaf. Mitch Marner goes the first game without a point. What the hell are they going to say? They're going to continue to talk about the problem that this guy has in the playoffs in producing points.

Now, the good part of it is he's looked as good as he's ever been. Austin Matthews is at the highest level he's ever been. And they have a team with Giordano coming in. What a great trade that was that really could beat the Lightning. I think they're a favorite in the series, correct, Merles? Can we get the Barstool Sportsbook line for that one? Barstool Sportsbook official lines, Tampa Bay minus 107, Toronto minus 115 as of 10 minutes ago.

So Barstool Sportsbook's looking at it kind of like another 50-50 coin flip. My thing and the reason I'm going with the Lightning, besides my hatred for the Leafs and their fan base, is they have the best player in the Stanley Cup playoffs. They have a goaltender who hasn't lost a back-to-back game in two frigging years. They have a guy who's the most talented, biggest, strongest goalie in the league. And when you're looking at the playoffs and you're looking at picking series winners, you can talk about Jack Campbell and coming back from injury and resetting and talking to Cujo and trying to change his mental game.

He isn't even remotely close to the other end in Andre Vasilevsky. The big cat back there is unbeatable in the playoffs. You have Kucherov and Stamkos. Stamkos had one of the best seasons of his career. You got Point. He's playing, I think, with Colton and Sorelli, right? And then all of a sudden, no, no, Sorelli's playing with Killorn. It's like there's depth there. And I know Toronto has these two players. After that, though, the fourth line's been a mess. You don't know what Nylander's going to show up.

He's been great in the playoffs before, but he could disappear. He could kind of go in and out of games. And I just don't think the Maple Leafs have what it takes to get it done. If they do, they can win the Stanley Cup, no doubt in my mind. But I just going in with the pressure involved, having game one at home, game two at home, they better, they better win one of those because if they don't, then it's completely over. And I almost think it's so important for them to win game one. And you could say, well, they were up 3-1 against Montreal and blew it, so it doesn't really matter what happens the first two. With the pressure that these guys are feeling, I just think it's another level this year.

And what is important for Leafs fans is that you got John Tavares. You saw that horrible accident. They got Corey Perry again for the third year in a row, don't they? How many times have the Leafs played? No, they got Perry for the second year in a row. So't they? How many times have the Leafs played? No, they got Perry for the second year in a row. So you're going to have to deal with that rat, but that was an awful incident that happened, and that's going to have to really be on the forefront of Leafs fans

looking at positively we have Tavares, and if he's able to stay healthy, that's a complete game-changer for us. So I'm on the lightning in seven, but this is the series, along with Minnesota and St. Louis, that I'm by far away most excited to see. What did you make of the fact that Spezza will be a healthy scratch in game one after the playoff he had last year? I didn't realize that. That was a bit of a head-scratcher for me at the fact that he was

probably their second-best playoff performer based on ice time compared to Nylander in last year's playoffs. Now, do you put a lot of stock into what he did last year's playoffs if maybe he hasn't been the best fit towards the end of regular season, Witt? Do you kind of concede to the veteran status there? I don't know. I think they look at Belmar, Perry, and Maroon on the fourth line. That's physical, and I suppose it's plenty big,

but he's not a hugely physical player. And maybe they're just trying to really rough it up and kind of have the Simmons and have the game that can really go back and forth with the way that the fourth line grinds out. And Espez is just a little more skill. I don't know. That's a tough call, though, because I know for a fact in the locker room the guys love him. He's looked at as a leader on the team. And to not have him in the lineup for me was shocking to hear.

of him he's looked at as a leader on the team and to not have him in the lineup for me was shocking to hear um i wonder what there's a prop bet on the fact that uh simmons and maroon going back out of here like i mean could you get a fight prop uh we can talk to them up the score bet in toronto maybe two fights on the entire series i think that's a likelihood i mean i got it right here sheldon keith saying it's going to be a borderline violent series i and this guy knows i played junior against him and he was he was violent and dirty then you think they'll fully drop two times in a playoff series i think after just hearing that quote i think absolutely i think that that and also having that mindset going in is exactly where i want the leafs. I want them thinking. I want blood on the jerseys.

I want them going in. I want scrums after every whistle. I even want Matthews and Marner getting into it. I want it all. And, Whit, I think there was – you chirped me. I think it was about a month ago about not mentioning Mikheyev in the second half of the season he's had, the back half has really really struggled as far as playoff performances uh and if they are going to win this series they need some depth scoring and he's a guy he's kind of my Trent Frederick

pick what do you got there um I was going to ask what your total prediction was because Toronto and I know you picked I got Toronto seven toronto and we we need all systems go and we need muzzin back quick and we need we need some bounces here now here's the thing about muzzin he's had a lot of time off if he's not playing game one it's kind of hard to picture him at all playing right i mean think about how much time he's had do you think in four more days he's good to go that's tough just, yeah. Yeah, you're thinking at any point if he is coming in, he's not 100% now. Whereas in some other cases, if a guy's ready to go game one of playoffs, it was the cap circumcision or whatever else, you know,

maybe just resting him up or torn motivator just like Ovi. You guys know I've been a big Tampa guy the last couple years. I'm a huge Hedman fan. Hedman, he's probably my favorite player. He's one of my most valuable players if I started a team. But this year, I promised Biz that I would join. Oh, man. No.

No. No. Welcome. There we go. No. Leafs bandwagon. I don't know if I got the logo showing. We were just up in Toronto.

We had a great time up in Toronto introducing the score bet. I would love to get back up there. I got a big Harvey's gift card. I was only able to get one poutine in when we were up there, so I want to go back. Let's go, Leafs. Go, Leafs. Go.

Go, Leafs. Go. Go, Leafs. Go. Go, Leafs. Go. I can't wait to play this back with Dumb and Dumber over there. I'll take the Leafs in seven.

You've got to win the game seven at home. Merles, Toronto in seven. Mr. Grinelli, what do you have for us, producer? I got the Lightning in seven. And I was telling Merles this earlier. We had to put our score bet picks in like three or four days ago. After the first day, I originally picked Toronto. I stood on it for about 24 hours.

Michael, our guy at the score, texted us. He's like, you sure this is your picks? I had to change back to Tampa. I can't pick against Tampa. And this Toronto team, they haven't proved shit. So until they prove shit, I'll pick against them. Yeah, Tampa got obviously the experience. I think they have a better D, a better goaltender.

And Toronto's just under so much pressure. The Leafs have played 45 playoff games since they last won a series. They've been knocked out in the first round in five straight seasons. It's going to be six, Tampa in six. Let's go, all right. Mitch Marner, no goals in his last 16 playoff games, I think I read today on the internet, so it had to be true. I am going to take him tonight for first goal score,

plus 1,300 at the Barstool Sportsbook. If we're going to win the series, we need him going, and he needs to get that out of his head right away. You know he's thinking about it. Yeah, we need him shooting lightning bolts out of his ass on the lightning. All right, gang. Halos is frustrating and can be confusing. Trust me, I know.

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Go to GetRoman.com slash chiclets. That's GetRoman.com slash chiclets. Take care of that baldness if you need to. Some of us prefer a bald and beautiful biz. Well, we're just too old and they didn't have this stuff when I was a kid, so don't be ashamed of being bald, though. First of all, beautiful ad read. I forgot to mention, remember when we did that merch contest on black Friday,

uh, the winners finally ended up coming to the game, uh, to the coyotes game in the box and ended up being the last game at Gila river arena. Uh, they sent a really nice email afterward. We had a great time. I went and met him out on the Thursday, grabbed a couple of beers with them. They went on a couple rounds of golf. And then I just wanted to thank Bucky. He works for the Coyotes. They ended up comping the box as well, which was a very nice gesture. Made sure it was lined up with merchandise and some alcohol for the guys when they showed up.

Connor Nealon. Connor Nealon was his name. Yeah, Connor's the one who ended up winning the contest. He brought three of his buddies. And, folks, we want to do more of this stuff so thank you to Pink Whitney for running the contest with us. It was great to see some fans out to a Coyotes game and get to see us. It was great to be able to give

back to fans who are very loyal as far as purchasing merchandise and supporting what we do here at Spit and Chickle. We will look to continue to do way more of these as I want to purchase a box at the ASU hockey stadium for the Coyotes games. 41 home games. We could do plenty of charity work, work with the alumni.

Hopefully, we'll keep you guys up to date on that front. Keep supporting the brand and we want to keep giving back to you amazing, loyal fans. Connor won because he was a loyal buyer. Not just because he bought that one time during that contest. He'd been buying for years and years and years and buying our t-shirts. So it's just like, buy a t-shirt now and it could come back in two years from now. You could be in a box

drinking Pink Whitney with Biz at an Arizona game. Maybe next season we get a little collaboration going with some of the Arizona State Sororities maybe? Oh Jesus, R.A. For the college guys. Keep it in bounds. I'm talking about the students who go to school there, guys.

Come on. I might be the old guy. I'm not a fucking creep in that way. No, but there was talks to give back to students who did great at school, who had good grades. Maybe they did philanthropy. Philanthropy. As they say.

Good job. The Greeks are big on the philanthropy as well. All right, one more series. An old Patrick Division rivalry. Pittsburgh Penguins, New York Rangers. This is just the eighth time ever they've ever faced each other in the playoffs. I thought it would be a lot more than that. First time since 2016.

Chris Kreider was the only Ranger that was on that team in the season series. The Rangers went 3-1. The Pens, of course, scored just four goals. Shesterkin dummied them, I think. Three of those games were a shutout. As for the series, it's pretty much a pick-em, man. You can see what you got there, Merles. I had Rangers 115 in the series, minus 115.

Game one, they were minus 120, which I'm kind of surprised because Pittsburgh's starting goaltender, Tristan Jarry, suspected broken foot. He's going to be out for at least the first two games. The outgoing to Casey DeSmith, who, by the way, he had a kind of a rough season, but he actually finished up real nice. His last five starts at the end of the season, three and two of the two, two, four goals against 940 save percentage. So, you know, if he can come in as this hot, we'll see what happens. But Shesterkin down the other end, most likely the hot trophy winner, a possible this hot, we'll see what happens. But Shesterkin down the other end, most likely the hot trophy winner,

a possible MVP candidate. We'll see what happens there. Let's go to the Whit Dog first as a former Penguin. What do you got, buddy? I'm so confused by this series. When I saw Pittsburgh was the favorite, I was really surprised. I think it's going to be a great series. I'm so confused that Pittsburghittsburgh will be favored based

solely on the goaltending i i know i keep leaning back on this but it's like nothing is as important as goaltending in the stanley cup playoffs and you look at the guy who could be up for the mvp this year versus the penguins backup and and and i i just see it's going to be so hard for pittsburgh to score goals um i think they played four times this season. The Rangers won the last three. Shesterkin was dominant. He did wave goodbye at them. And I think at the time we said,

ah, that's a little bulletin board material. He was waving goodbye to his Russian buddy, Evgeny Malkin. And let's see if that really pisses off Pittsburgh enough. Now, the season Crosby had wasn't talked about enough. He was on a hundred point pace had he played all the games. Malcolm's season's been up and down where some nights he looks phenomenal and Penguins fans, he kind of drives them crazy, I feel like, and then sometimes he disappears. So what Malcolm will you get in the playoffs? But I don't know. I look at the Rangers and the year they've had. I guess the reason being Pittsburgh is favored is because they're five on

five. They're a better hockey team. And five on five success usually kind of fast forwards to having longer playoff success. But as I think it may go seven games, I just think it's so hard to bet against a team with Shusterkin and Nett. And with Adam Fox on D, I think he's the best defense in the series. The big question mark is can Kreider continue to success? Because if they were to play a series and he gets one goal or is held off the score sheet, I mean, then you're looking at probably a Pittsburgh win.

I mean, you can't have a 53-goal guy, whatever, how many have you got this year, and have him go cold in the playoffs. But for some reason, I feel like he could go cold. I don't know, maybe just kind of a hunch, but I'm picking the Rangers in seven. I hate to do it but it's the same thing with toronto and tampa i'm going on i'm going with the goaltending

biz what do you got buddy you know sometimes instead of going with my head i go with this thing in here your leaf jersey my gut no my gut you And in my gut, I think it's going to come back to that wave. They have created a monster that they have no clue what's coming, the New York Rangers. I think Shusterkin's in for a very long series. I think that they're going to put on the fucking thinking caps and they're going to find a way to solve this New York Rangers team that they weren't able to in regular season.

They got strength down the middle. I completely agree. Malkin's season's been up and down like a yo-yo. He needs to get back to his dominant self. But oftentimes people forget the fact that they got a third-line center who's got two cups under his belt with the L.A. Kings as well. So you're getting Crosby, Malkin, and Jeff Carter. And if those guys can continue to control the middle of the ice

just like they did when they went back-to-back cups against San Jose and Nashville, I think that's what you're going to see. I think the only MVP in the series is Sidney Crosby, as you mentioned, on pace for 100 points this year. I don't think Shusterkin deserves it. If anyone else deserves it, it's Austin Matthews. I also mentioned the riverboat gambling style of play sometimes

and how they like to open things up in order to produce that offense five on five. They lean heavily on that style of game and also the power play. I think that there's no way Pittsburgh is going to give them the amount of power plays that they were used to seeing all season long. Does it worry you how poorly Pittsburgh played to finish the year? No, it doesn't. Their overall Team D, which was top of the league, went back to the middle of the pack.

Their penalty kill went back. It's just like it's been a really awkward downward spiral the last month and a half. For me, it's hard to overlook that. I mean, how you play going in usually matters. And who knows? Maybe they were planning on trying to drop out of that seed so they ended up meeting Carolina.

I don't know what their thinking was. I don't know why they were playing so shit. But we're into a different season now, one that these guys are very, very familiar with from a core group standpoint. So, no, I don't put any fucking type of weight on the end of their regular season. Now, I didn't have the chance to go back and look at their stats on how they played leading into the three cups that they've won as that core group together. But I'd imagine it doesn't have any bearing on what ends up happening as soon as the pucks dropped.

Because the last few seasons, I want to say they had strong ends to the season. They ended up getting bounced in the first round by the fucking Islanders. So to go back to my thinking, I think that this is a fired up group. I think they're well aware that this is going to be the end for this core. I don't think that they're going to all be able to stick around. And I just think that New York doesn't have that playoff experience. And I think they're a bunch of fugazis. Merles, what do you got?

I loved your stat here. 16th straight playoff season for the Pens. Just happens that I stopped playing for them 16 years ago. Oh, nice. What a loser. That's a nice tidbit. So I go by, there's a few simple rules of gambling. Number one, if you're going to the game, you always take the home team in the over. Yep. Rule number

two is game seven, you bet the under. Rule three, you never bet against Sidney Crosby. The guy could lead a men's league team to the cup finals. That's his leadership and his skill. But I'm going against the rules. I got the Rangers. I got the Rangers in six games.

Shesterkin's too good. Zabinanjed is too good. Or however you say the name. Another Swede. Zabinanjed. He's got a hamburger place in my hometown up there. Great burgers. I like the Rangers. I like Avery down here.

Me and him will be rooting for them for this whole run. Rangers in six. Grinelli, what do you got? Rangers in seven, and it's just as simple as, like, I don't want to live in New York after having picked against the Rangers. These fans can be kind of ruthless, so I'm going with the Rangers because I'm afraid of their fans. Biz, I was texting G-Sum.

What did you have again? I'm going to go Pittsburgh in six. I didn't say the number of games. I usually like to hear everybody else's first, but I cannot wait to see this Rangers team implode. And this is coming from a guy who had them making playoffs, and I put a Charles Barkley guarantee at the beginning of the year on it. And by the way, for those people wondering,

each of us went 10 for 16 on who was going to make playoffs. 10 for 6. 10 for 6. 10 and 6. Yeah, he was right. 10 and 6. Oh, you were right. You were correct.

Oh, thank you. But so there's no bragging rights on that front. So going into the season, I would say, though, that based on probably the worst pick you should be eliminated from the crew was the Seattle Kraken making the playoffs. You picked Seattle to make the playoffs? No, R.A. did. Yeah, I thought that the vision was trash. Yeah, I mean, at least I didn't bet on it.

I said Nashville was going to be a lottery team. That was a tough look. I think we also all had Philly making it, so I guess we can all fuck off. I had Philly winning the cup. Biz said you are an absolute buffoon if you don't have the Philadelphia Flyers making a run at the cup this year. That was word for word I said?

Okay. Nice. We're all buffoons. Also, too, we will be live streaming game one of the Pittsburgh-New York series from Hoboken tonight. If you're listening Tuesday, it's going to be on the Spittin' Chicklets YouTube channel. Check it out. Check it out.

Tons of guests from Barstool, too. Tons of people from Barstool are going to stop by. And we're going to have plenty of advice, especially on the Merle's front, going into the game on what he's thinking, what we're thinking, what good odds are. So pay attention to all the social channels this afternoon on Tuesday. And it's great having you here because I'm a bit of a rookie when it comes to gambling, so I'm going to lean on you heavy here. Just fade me, Biz.

That's the only thing you need. Oh, yeah, that's right. We've had great luck when we've been down here. We hit the first goal scorer when we watched the Flyers game there. We've had some good hits. We've hit a lot here in the playoffs. Last year, we had Poster start playoffs last year. Yeah, we have good vibes down here

when i mean toronto we went up to toronto together you hit matthews and toronto to win like we have good vibes yeah you do so i've mentioned two wild card names on who i think could possibly have breakout playoffs i said mckeah and i said trent frederick do you guys have any names that you're just you're thinking of of like all of a sudden you're like this guy's going to become a household name where maybe he wouldn't have been before going in eric holla definitely oh my fucking god fucking kid i i don't not off the top of my head i didn't i didn't no i know it wasn't a question that we prepared for i just wanted to throw it at you if there was any you know what i think for the the Rangers to go on a run, which I actually believe the Rangers could make a run at winning the Eastern Conference,

I think Strom would have a monster playoff for that to happen. So not necessarily a breakout guy. Like, you know, people know Strom more than McKay ever Frederick, but he's a guy who would have to be money for the Rangers to have success. Yeah, I got one. Robert Thomas with St. Louis. Not a lot, but he's been on fire down the stretch. We've been hitting some point props with him.

He's got the makings to really make a breakout. I mean, they've got to get by the Wild and then Colorado, and then who knows. But I believe. I believe in the Blues, too. I think the Worms are going to score some goals, man. That fourth line for Tampa, I know Whit mentioned them. They fucking unreal possession drivers.

They were like one of the top ten lines in the league. I can't decipher all those fancy stats, but they were of the top ten lines in the league. They were like the ninth or tenth league. Based on possession and all that. Based on possession and scoring and all that. They did play a shit ton of minutes together all season. I think Perry had 19 goals this year. Yeah, he's on the first power play, too.

Wouldn't surprise me. I can't wait for that game tonight. Me neither. This is the best time of year. It certainly first power play, too. Wouldn't surprise me. I can't wait for that game tonight. Me neither. This is the best time of year. It certainly is. Hey, gang, Ernest offers low-interest loans based on your unique financial profile, including student loan refinancing, private student loans, and personal loans.

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when you visit Earnest.com slash chicklets to refinance your student loan. One more time for the people in the back, visit earnest.com slash chicklets for more details. Not available in all states. Terms and conditions apply. Earnest Student Loan Refinancing made by Earnest Operations, LLC and MLS number 1204917. California Finance and Law License number 6054788. 535 Mission Street, San Francisco, California 94105. Visit earnest.com slash licenses for a full list of licenses. All right, boys, that's it for the series. We got a few other, let's see, league notes to get to. There were a couple of nice videos I included in the outline, boys, that's it for the series. We've got a few other, let's see, league notes to get to.

There were a couple of nice videos I included in the outline, boys. Zidane Ochar and our buddy Keith Yendel. We don't know if they're officially done or if they're going to come back, but they certainly got these, I guess, good farewell from their teammates and opponents in their last game. Pretty sentimental stuff. Did you get a chance to see them? Yeah, I would imagine that both of them are probably done

with the send-offs they got. So all the respect in the world for fucking grinding out that long, especially Z, that's insane. Really thought that that message that Z posted to Instagram was awesome. That was great. I think all of us had the Islanders making a run this year. They were my cup pick.

Yeah. I don't think we saw them miss in playoffs a run this year. They were my cup pick. Yeah. I don't think we saw them miss in playoffs, and they dealt with a shit ton of adversity. And he just talked about the coaching staff and everybody staying together as one and continuing to push despite the luck that they had and the lack of winning games. So great send-off, really kind words.

And if that is for Z, he gave a shit ton to the game. He was always amazing with the fans, so personable, and an incredible example in all the locker rooms he was in for the young guys, just showing up every day and putting in that work and treating the game with true professionalism. And the video of Keith was special because you saw the last guy off the ice besides Keith was hazy. You know, a big hug between those two guys.

We know what Kevin's been through. We know for Keith to break the record this year and get to do that with one of his best friends there was pretty emotional for me. And after he sent our group text of our buddies back home, just a picture of him having a beer in the locker room, said, love you guys. So, yeah, probably is the end for both of those players.

What runs that they both went on, it's just amazing to see. And you could tell from what the other team did for these guys in terms of how much respect they had around the league. So, to do it as long as they did. Chara, what was it? Over 1,600 regular season games, just a record that he'll probably hold forever

for most games played by a defenseman. I think that it's an honor to see these guys who you played against and you respect so much finish out a career in the way they have. So congrats to both of them. Yeah, I know we talk about class and classy. Sometimes they get overplayed in sports and Twitter or whatever, but that statement Z made was incredible.

I mean, thanking the chefs and the game day staff, which is so well-worded. If there's any player who maybe has off-ice personas, the opposite of his on-ice persona, it might be Big Z because he's a monster out there, but he's a pure gentleman off the ice, and it was a very nice statement. So if they are both done. All that guy getting a shout-out in the Insta post by Z.

That's fucking sick. All right. Moving right along here. Winnipeg signed general manager Kevin Shevelday off to a three-year contract extension. He said he's going to stop the search for a new coach and interim coach Dave Lowry. Will be given an interview if he wishes. It sounds like there might be some issues with team culture here, Biz. Mark Scheifele had some very pointed comments in his year in presser alluding to his exit interview and said it was going to be a tough conversation with management

i mean i'm looking at his uh contract he's still got uh three years left i'm sorry two years after this season six and uh 6.125 million left well that's a bargain he could he could fetch a massive massive return um yeah very interesting comments i don't think we're going to roll them that it was it was a long-winded answer but the short of it sounded like he's probably going to try to get out of there and not come back um i i was never the type of player where i was of the stature where i would make comments like that like you know let's see where the team's going like usually it's like can i please have a fucking contract so it's like you know it's so bizarre for me to comment but you know if you're that good and that's what you're bringing and you want to you want to go to a winning team yeah you might not have as many

friends when you leave town but you know they're heading in a different direction you had your head coach quit in the middle of the season who I think that he adored, and you don't see things getting any better. You, in fact, see them getting worse. Yeah, I can't hold anything against them. And I actually want to see the guy play on a cup contending team because I think he's a very talented player. And maybe to his standards an off year this year, but I would say this would say this guy's over a point per game yeah i would say easily i would say easily probably a top 20 player in the league maybe top 30 yeah i

mean i was amazed that statsney had some comments along with somebody else about the culture in terms of a lot of guys in that room caring about themselves and not looking out for the best interests of the team and you could tell some things went sideways there with the Maurice quitting and I actually read today the coaching staff will all be let go nobody will be returning I think Charlie Huddy's an assistant there he's been there quite a while he'll be gone along with Lowry and they'll bring in a new staff so shovel day off getting a three-year deal is I think some Jets fans are probably a little confused, but I think most Jets fans were excited about the season too.

I mean, I picked them as one of the most improved teams in the league. Stay hot with that and the Islanders pick with it. Holy shit. I just am surprised to see some comments about guys maybe only caring about themselves there, and that is just something that will ruin a team. That is something that will take an entire organization down. so if they are going to be trading Shifley which if you read the comments it seems like it's a definite request of a trade coming from him he said it'd be tough to

almost say but it sounds like he he needs to get out and he's in the prime of his career he mentioned and he wants to be on a better team in a different spot so we'll see what happens in Winnipeg but you got a bunch of questions moving forward and in terms of trading him like Biz said you could get a boatload back that could maybe really kind of reinvigorate who's there but they got some defensemen um you know you wonder what what's going on with our boy Schmitty and and where he will be and there's just a million questions that Shevelyov's gonna have to answer over the next few months. Yeah, and this is from The Athletic. It says,

Team culture should be at the heart of Winnipeg's concerns, given that young stars like Nikolai Ilis, Kyle Connor, Pierre-Luc Dubois have all spoken out about the Jets' lack of commitment and failure to play the right way. This might involve restructuring Winnipeg's leadership group. It must involve a thorough search for the Jets' next head coach. So, yeah, I mean, a team a lot of thought we might have been making our playoff run this year the wheels fell off and I know a guy like Paul Maurice leaving that's a huge fact he's such a well well-established coach and him leaving it left a huge void but either way yeah there's some

issues there that they're gonna have to address so if you're saying that those three guys were vocal about that um are they essentially insinuating maybe it was a guy like Shifley who was a little bit more concerned with his personal play? It actually says, Dubois and Mark Shifley have each stated that they need to step back and evaluate Winnipeg's offseason work before committing to the club long term. Well, I mean, they're signed with them, so obviously. Listen, I'm not saying anything that i don't think is that crazy

to throw out there but there's definitely uh a faction in that room where there's some guys who don't necessarily get along some top end guys who don't agree with how other guys play and it's something that they're gonna have to get figured out because you could tell that there's a disconnect between certain top end players on that team i i had no clue any of this was going on before all this was just read. Did you have a shred of this before you heard Shifley speak? I had heard something, but not enough to really go on and say anything. But you can just tell by the comments and the season they had and the skill that they have.

And Hellebuck's another question mark because he deserves to have a better team in front of him. He probably didn't have the best year of his career. And it's just a weird time for a team that i think a lot of people expected a ton from i mean they swept the oilers in the first round last year they looked great and this year was just a complete disaster yep we'll see what happens over the summer and uh hopefully they come back ready a little more ready next year because i don't know that's a team you like to see do good they've been struggling a little bit uh let's see, Detroit. The Red Wings announced that head coach Jeff Blasso will not have his contract renewed next season,

so his tenure will end after seven seasons. He made the playoffs his first year after replacing Mike Babcock, but has not since. He was the second longest-tenured coach after John Cooper before being let go. Assistant Doug Hooter and goalie coach Jeff Salashko also won't be back. I mean, it seemed like maybe four or five months months ago busy might still be there but when they started getting

beat up a couple of those games losing nine to two and ten two and the team was just kind of going through the motions that's when I think the immediate drumbeat really started like I mean this guy can't continue to coach this team and sure as shit he won't be back yeah I mean to his defense he was never really given uh you know any any type of contending teams uh definitely a level for concern because i mean you'll just like easy look at look at buffalo look at the way that they ended their season right there's optimism there there's there's a galvanized group that's ready to come to work and every day and and and try to pull it in the same direction where yeah you kind of didn't really see that. You saw some bright spots as far as certain players.

We also talked about the fact that we could see a wrench being thrown as far as head coach into this team, right? Maybe a candidate that we would have never considered. Gee, you said Larry Onov where I was like, oh, my God, that is such an off-the-board type answer. But, yeah, I guess it just – it was time. You know, he got to spend, you said, 10 seasons in the NHL. It's a good run, and I'm going to imagine he's going to get work somewhere else,

maybe not as a head coach but come back as an assistant. But he was never really given a shit ton to work with. Yeah, he's been rebuilding for the last few years there. So I'm sure he'll end up somewhere else. Whit, did you want to chime in on that? Larry Onoff is out. He just signed in the KHL with Torpedo as the head coach. He's been rebuilding for the last few years there. So I'm sure he'll end up somewhere else. Whit, did you want to chime in on that? Larry Onoff is out. He just signed in the KHL with Torpedo as the head coach.

So you can mark him off the prop board. He wouldn't come over, though? You think if he got a Detroit Red Wings offer? He's got to have an opt-out clause. They don't let you leave those deals. All right. He's got a bark collar on the whole season. You get to the airport, it just shocks you and knocks you out. Congratulations to Montreal Canadiens head equipment manager Pierre Gervais,

retired after 35 years on the job with the Habs. That's an unreal amount of time to do that job. Like I say all the time on this show, that's one of the toughest jobs in the league what these guys do. They keep the grease and the gears of the league. So congrats to Pierre and an unreal runner. He also looked like a fancy golf cart they brought on the ice. I don't know.

It had like four seats on it. I don't know if it was a golf cart or just a retired cart, retirement cart. You know, guys retire them. These retirement communities give them these golf carts. But either way, man, hell of a job. 35 years, a long time. I don't know if it's a golf cart or a retirement cart. You know, you go to these retirement communities and you get a golf cart. Did they give him a double one? I don't know if it's a golf cart or a retirement cart. You know, you go to these retirement communities and you get a golf cart.

Did they give him a double Y? I don't know if he golfs. That's, I guess, is what I'm saying. Did they give him a double Y trailer? No, some of them, it's like, it looks like a golf cart, but it holds like four people very comfortably. So, I don't know. Yeah, that's what everyone drives around Florida. So, maybe that's where he's headed.

Yeah, that's kind of what I was going with. Oh, the ones that have the license plates on them? They're more significant of retiring more than anything else. The NHLPA executive board voted in favor of forming a search committee to replace executive director Don Feer. This was first reported by our buddy Frank Cervalli last month. And after 11 years, it sounds like the union wants new leadership. I know some of the agents and other people associated with the game

tweeted similar thoughts. What do you think? I know you guys aren't in the league, aren't in the union anymore, but Don Feer, he was here for two labor negotiations. Was he worth it or what? I feel like some people think it was great, and some people think he didn't do as much as they maybe hoped or expected. I remember when he came in, I was blown away, impressed by how much this guy knew.

He came from Major League Baseball, and he'd been such a success there that, I mean, I was impressed by him at the beginning. Now, some people look at the growth and what happened. It's just so hard with COVID and the hit it put on the players and the money they owe back to the owners and everything. So you're not going to see that many players thrilled with how things are going right now. The cap isn't going up for a little bit. The escrow is high. So it's one of those things that because of COVID and the situation everyone went through, they don't really have these warm, fuzzy feelings for the current director of the NHLPA and their leadership. So you're going to have to see where they go. The funny thing is that you've never seen an NHLPA head really have a clean, smooth exit where

everyone was happy. It's an enormous league filled with so many players that there's always going to be a faction of guys who are not happy with who's there. So, Merles, I don't know if you've heard anything or remember or biz yourself, but it's never something that ends smoothly when you have this many different opinions on one job. Yeah, I never liked them.

These lockouts we had were always so bad. I mean, I know nothing anymore. I get my measly, tiny little NHLPA pension envelope with my 62 games produced each year. And that's all I ever see. And that and I could probably buy a bottle of Pink Whitney with it. That's about all that's in there. That's all I know about the PA. I don't know if that made any sense.

I would say that the only thing that bugs me about it all is the escrow. And the reason I say that is because these GMs have the control to sign these guys to the big deals that they know five, six years in they might be buying these guys out of. Therefore, it ends up coming to kick the players a little bit in the nuts. So I think that escrow is the only issue. But as far as everything else, man is the only issue but as far as everything else man i had no complaints as far as the negotiations and like you said as far as don fair when he came in it got a lot better for the players that was when the the the pension changed

from you had to play a certain amount of games to get it it did it would accumulate but every year you ended up playing beyond his the first cba that he negotiated, you get $20,000 a year when you hit the age of 62. And it maxed out at $200,000. So if you played 10 years in the NHL during this time, when you retired, when you hit 62 years old, you're going to get $200,000 a year until the day you die just from playing in the National H when you hit 62 years old you're gonna get 200 grand a year till the day you die just from playing in the national hockey league for 10 years i think that is an incredible like just hearing that and that being put in place i was like wow that's like a really nice safety net for guys who had hit you know who had stuck around for 10 years and played that long so all in all yeah no complaints here and much like i said about Shifley complaining at the mic,

I was just happy to be there. If they raised my per diem six bucks, I was like, fucking give Phare 20 million more. Two beers. Two more beers. I would love to see Glenn Healy take over. Maybe Matthew Schneider. Guys that are really respected, that have been a part of the PA for a long time.

But the reason it's hard to describe what Fer's impact was, or not what his impact was, but what people think about him is there's a side that says that his successor has started, that the entire process began this past fall. And then there's another side that says that basically this was all put together because the player said he's not giving us any sort of successor plan and we have no idea what's going on and we're going to force him to kind of figure out who's next and when he's going to be done so you're always going to get different sides to the story when when an nhlpa head decides or is told that his time is

done if you need 200 grand a year after playing 10 years in the NHL, you must have been taking R.A.'s picks the whole time. But it's an egg. You laugh, but it's a safety cushion. That could be your casino and golf money. That would be nice. Isn't it nice? That would be nice. Yeah, that's a good time, man. That's what you're playing for. The draft lottery is going to be held a week from

today, May 10th, and conducted remotely with GMs and executives patched in from their home cities. And the Canadians will have the best odds in the draft lottery after clinching last place 294 days after being in the Stanley Cup final. The Habs have an 18.5% chance of picking first and can fall no further than third in the draft. The draft itself is scheduled for July 7th and 8th in Montreal as well, and Shane Wright is expected to be the top pick so I don't know Montreal could have dummy the

dumbed themselves down into a nice pick there depending on how it plays out I can tell you something I met with a couple scouts when we were in Toronto one was a you know it covers mostly the OHL um I met with another coach in the OHL and I met with an NHL scout up there. And it is not consensus anymore that Shane Wright is going number one. That Logan Cooley, I said it years ago, I mean not years ago, during the World Juniors, that Logan Cooley could take that Shane Wright spot. Yeah, and I just saw they lost in the finals of the U18s recently. I saw he had some goals and stuff. So, yeah, keep an eye on that.

That might have changed. All right, boys, you want to talk about this NHL PA poll that come out? They do this every year. Sometimes there's some fun results. I'm not sure if you had a chance to look at it. You know, on ice stuff, off ice stuff. Have a little fun with that if you want. Let's see.

On ice, players are asked if you need to win one game, which goalie are you picking? I know you guys already saw the results, but who are you picking? Oh, that's an easy answer, Vassie. Yeah, Vassie took 37.4% of the vote, followed by Gary Price, 13.9%, Mark Andre, 6.7%, John Gibson, 3.5%, and then Markstrom, Quick, and Saros all tied with 3.1%. Oshasturkin, shocking.

Yeah, Oshasturkin. Yeah, I think maybe, oh, I don't know when the poll exactly was done, but either way it wasn't. 2010, it says right there. Okay, you need to win one game. Who's as a skater? Which skater are you picking? What? Crosby.

Merles? This is where I'm on Hedman because he's going to play 35 minutes where Crosby's going to play 25 minutes. I'm going to get 10 extra minutes out of my guy. Biz. Biz. That's a great answer. I would probably go back to Vazzy. It all starts in net.

No, it's skater. It's skater. Oh, okay. It specifies. Sorry. Right now, I would actually, if I could start a franchise, I'd pick Kel Makar. Okay.

G, let's go to you for skater and goalie. Sorry, I skipped you the first time, buddy. Bergeron. Okay, Bergeron. Bergeron. Goalie would be Vasilevski. Easy. Okay. G, let's go to you for skater and goalie. Sorry, I skipped you the first time, buddy. Bergeron. Okay, Bergeron, skater. Bergeron, goalie would be Vasilevski, easy. Okay, and let's see. One game for skater was McDavid, 42%. Sid, 17.

Victor Hedman was the only defenseman to appear, a little over 6%. Barkoff, and then Nate McKinnon was fifth. Let's see. Best stick handler. Kaner. I mean, I think everybody's going with Kane here. Then McDavid, Nate Dogg, Barkoff, and then Gaudreau

and Matthews tied for fifth. Best passer. This one always kind of jumped out at me. I was a little surprised. Adam Oates. I mean, duh. No shit. Of course he is. Better than anyone. RPI guy, by the way. Yep, undrafted to a biz. Best passer.

I would probably say, I mean, it's got to be McDavid. Yeah. Okay. Merles? Yeah. I don't know. I like Backstrom. I know he's getting older and it's the end of it, but I like him.

G? I like Backstrom. Patrick Kane? What? I like Backstrom. Patrick Kane? What? I said McDavid. You said McDavid. Leon was number one. Leon Dreisaitl, 17.7 of the vote.

Patrick Kane, 15.6. Backstrom, 15.4. McDavid, 10.6. And then Kucherov, 6.2. Leon's definitely the best backhand passer. Yeah, he's got the big paddle. Yeah, throws sauce across the whole ice backhand. Okay.

Who do you wish you could shoot more like? Oh, Matthews. Fucking curl and drag. I mean, one-timer Ovi, but Matthews, no-brainer. Grinnelli? Matthews. Merles. Yeah, Matthews.

I'm a Leafs guy now. Slurp, slurp. Yeah, I don't have to ask you, Biz. Well, Ovi won. He got over 53% of the vote. Then Matthews. I'm a Leafs guy now. Slurp, slurp. Yeah, I don't have to ask you, Biz. Well, Ovi won. He got over 53% of the vote. Then Matthews, then line A, pasta, and then Stamkos and Kucherov tied for fifth. The most complete player, Biz, who's the most complete player? I got one before I answer this.

You guys got to think about the one guy you'd want as a bar mate. Your right-hand man, if you had one night to go out with him and just, you know, maybe pick up some ladies. Who would be the guy in the NHL? Current player? Yeah, your current player as... I can't pick Bugsy? No, you can't. No, he would automatically get it. Current player,

24-hour wingman, who's your guy? And what was this question? This is the most complete player. Player on ice, not player off the ice like you're referring to. But I'll answer both. Most complete player on ice. Let's just go. Easy answer, Sid. My old road roommate, Sidney Crosby.

I didn't know that. Whit? I'm going Matthews. Gee, I'd say Sid. Okay, most complete player. Sid got 29.5% of the vote, followed by Bakov with 20.5%. Oh, fuck, I forgot about him. Bergeron, 19.5%.

McDavid, 9.2%. And Kopitar, 2.6%. And Biz, as far as your question, a wingman, most complete wingman to go out with. I'm going with Willie. So I'm Wilson, man. I don't know if he's taken for him. I don't know if he's single or whatever, but I want to go with Wilson for my wingman, most complete wingman to go out with? I'm going with Willie Tom Wilson, man. I don't know if he's taken for him. I don't know if he's single or whatever, but I want to go with Wilson for my wingman.

Great personality, handsome as the devil, and seems like a fun time. I want to get wrecked with Dowdy. Wow, that's a great answer. He seems like he'd have a time and a half. Oh, he does. He does, yep. I would like to go with Austin Matthewsthews out in toronto and see see what that looks like you wouldn't get to talk to one girl that i'll be talking to him

i don't want that i'd have to i think i'd have to go with ryan reeves for two reasons one he would vegas guy so he's not letting me buy that 14k and champagne oh jesus number two no one's talking shit to you if you're with Ryan Reeves. So I think it's easy. Ryan Reeves for me. You said you'd want to go get buckled with Dowdy. I'd want to go out with Looch in Calgary.

Oh, that'd be fun. Drink it, yeah. You'd be crippled. He'd have you shotgun and a couple beers and you wouldn't even last the night. Yeah, he's out of my weight class. I couldn't keep up with Looch.

Who am I kidding? I'd be doing fucking light beers. He'd be doing the heavy boys. A couple of quick off-ice ones. These are a little more of the fun ones. Best road city for an off day. Biz? I always loved Nashville.

I always said it was simple. All the guys hung out on the strip, and usually everybody was together, and you got to bond with all of your teammates, even the ones from overseas that you didn't really get to talk to much. And somehow they'd have better English when they had a few cocktails in them. Merles. Yeah, Vegas for me, simple. Witt.

Chicago, always said it. G? Nashville. I love Nashville. Okay, well Chicago surprisingly didn't make it. Vegas got over 30% of the vote. Shocker. Yeah, because lots to do there. New York City, actually where we are right now, 17% of the vote.

You know, great restaurants, great nightlife here. This was a shocker. I didn't vote on this, believe it or not. Fort Lauderdale. Yes. Third place, 10.4%. The Murr. Lickerdale.

L.A., Los Angeles. I'm surprised. I mean, I know they got the beaches and shit, but L.A. was fourth. I mean, L.A. is one of those cities. It's just so big and spread out. I don't know. Well The beaches and shit But LA was fourth I mean LA's one of those cities It's just so big And spread out And I don't know

Well the rink's at LA live too So you're really not That close to the beach So Yeah But it's Best road city for an off day though So you can go wherever

On an off day That's okay yeah Go up by the But here's the thing though Is they tell you Don't get too much sun When you're in these places Because it's gonna fuck you up

Didn't Malkin show up With a full on sunburn To one game one time I don't get too much sun when you're in these places because it's going to fuck you up. Didn't Malkin show up with a full-on sunburn to one game one time? I don't remember that, but I might have. All right. And, yeah, Nashville was the last city pick, 8.7%. Which player would make it in another sport? This was an interesting question. We're going to do these for another three hours, by the way. No, no, just two more.

Yeah, I'm done with this. I'm done. What's the last one? All right. Well, which NHL player would make it in another sport? Come on, wait. Charo, NBA. Wait, you've been saying this for years. I know you know who the number one is here.

Pavelski, PGA? Oh, yeah, Pavelski, nasty golfer. He could never play on the tour, so I guess it's all relative. But I think my guess was Charo in the NBA. You don't want feet tall. That was the third one, Biz. I'm sorry, Big Z tied with Greg McKegg. Hold on.

No, Big Z was for hoops. Greg McKegg was for golf. They got the same percentage of votes. Andrews Lee for football. Biz just mentioned Pavelski for golf. Clayton Keller and Brady Shea for golf. Ryan Reeves for football, his old man played. Nyquist for golf, and then brady shea for golf ryan reeves for football his old man played uh nike was for golf and then sam laffity for golf i got one i got one off the board kevin hayes f1

racing because i heard the i heard he drives like a maniac all right no the last one best salad which this seemed like a joke when you seen who won did you see who won best salad no i haven't oh jesus cody eakin okay all right i like that i like that i would probably say brock bester out west for vancouver would be uh yeah it was cody eakin wild bill colson eric colson john merrill and then brandon tannev actually yeah tannev's got some good salad, too. Zegers, too. Zegers has some great hair. Oh, fuck off with the fucking TikToker. He does. All right. Yeah, well, I guess the last.

Which athlete would you switch places with? Not in hockey. Colin Morikawa. Okay. What? G? In the world? I just want to be on the tour.

Oh, you just want to be nasty on the tour and i love him he's my favorite golfer who'd you switch with g probably tom brady okay soccer player i mean maybe yeah maybe you're looking at a guy on on like liverpool like i yeah or real but i'm thinking golf merles why biz what are you yeah i'd be golf too i love it you're always in good weather you can pop in and out play when you want, play when you don't want. What a dream. Exactly. I mean, it's hard to turn down.

I mean, you've got to put up with the wife. But Patrick Mahomes, because he's got NFL, you barely get hit as a quarterback now. I think he's making $45 million a year. He's making $50. $50 million a year. I think he owns part of the Milwaukee Brewers now. So I would say Patrick Mahomes, by the time he's all said and done his playing career,

he's probably going to have made a billion bucks, and he's still young. Whoever's good at bowling or darts, two fucking easy sports. Don't have to get banged up too much. I mean physically banged up. The other kind of banged up. We'll see what happens. You're picking a fucking bowler? I don't know, man. Have you ever gambled on darts, R.A.?

That's fun. Day's not over yet. What else do we have? Are we done? No, we're done with all the goofy shit. Yeah, we'll be back. I gotta go over to lacrosse practice right now. Scoops lacrosse. So we'll be back post-game to be filling everyone in on what happened in game night one of the NHL.

Yeah, distract yourselves with all these random questions in the meantime. Yeah, we'll be back to check in with the later games. All right, we're back. The first of the few games at Dunzo and a couple more in progress, but the big news thus far, the Leafs absolutely dummied Tampa Bay 5-0. Outshot them 31-23. Beat them at the dot. Just plain dominated them.

There's no doubt about it, Biz. What do you got for us, buddy? How about that adversity they battled through in that first period? Witt, I saw your tweet right away. Dumb hit by Clifford. I cannot defend that. It was vicious. It was hard.

It was from behind. There was no place for it they deserve the five minute they kill it off and then they were off like help them it was like that pretty much that pretty much was the the end of the game for Tampa getting a five minute major seeing the worst power play performance I've ever seen, and I watch the Bruins play regularly. I cannot get over that game. And if I speak for people who are rooting against the Leafs everywhere, be afraid.

I mean, holy shit. The last thing a Leafs hater wanted was to see Marner get one, let alone his two assists. You knew Matthews was going to score. There's more to go. But, yeah go but yeah biz i mean what were your thoughts when that first five minute penalty got killed off they had more scoring chances than the lightning well my when they called it my my arsehole puckered up but then i thought they were rolling footage from leaf's practice of just doing two-on-ones it was fuck there was like four fucking two-on-ones on the lightning power play.

And then that's what got the crowd into it. I've been sometimes critical, you know, the Platinums, you know, at Scotiabank, all the big dogs wheeling. They're too cool to clap or cheer.

I saw some white, terrible towels out there. People were going absolute fucking bonkos. And that momentum just drove them to the wind as soon as muzzin fired that piss missile in there and they had a little bit of cross-body action screening going on and it went past vasilevsky i said oh we got something here we got something here dude i think if you gave john cooper truth serum, he would say that was the worst hockey game Nikita Kucherov has ever played as a professional.

And Victor Hedman. He was brutal, too. And Hedman was horrendous, too. He had the cement boots on. They look like they went out. That's what I said. They're hung. They must have went out last night.

They got a new Toka Madera in the heart of Toronto. And I bet you Matthews probably hooked them up there. And that's probably the only reason for that tequila performance right there. Tequila Tampa Bay Lightning. Wait, I just said to Merle, if there was ever a game to bet Tampa, it would be next game, no? I mean, after that performance tonight? Yeah, but it's like, oh, my God.

It's like every single worry I had in terms of rooting and betting on the Lightning showed through tonight. There was every question you may have. Are they tired? Has Vasilevsky played too much? It was just a complete disaster. It was an utter shit-kicking, one of the biggest shit-kickings I can ever remember seeing.

Somebody tweeted me that Tampa looked that bad in Game 1 against the Islanders last year in the Eastern Conference Final. I don't remember that because the fans, Biz, I got to give you credit on that. That sounded a lot different than a lot of nights where the Maple Leafs play at home. Now, granted, it's the playoffs' first game, but it was rocking. I mean, I've already heard some let's-go Oilers chants.

They're down 1-0 early, of course. But the vibe at the Air Canada Center, whatever it's called now, sounded way different. Kerfoot, honorable mention. He did a lot of heavy lifting on the penalty kill. And this is a big, embarrassing win. Lay in the boot with what I thought was a pretty, like, Nylander was nowhere really to be found.

I didn't really notice him much. Looked like he was falling a lot. Didn't do much. So he had the early breakaway that looked good. I didn't notice him or Tavares much, which is a sign. Which is a great sign, right? Because you're like, well, then you're going to get some heavy lifting from those guys at some point too.

So as long as certain guys are carrying the weight every game, I think this team is unstoppable. And Jack Campbell, I know he wasn't tested as much as you'd think. The best part of Leafs' game was five on five. They did not give up too many scoring chances. No, it was PK, dude. I think it was PK. What's dude. I think it was PK. What's that?

I think it was PK. They were fucking dominant on the penalty kill. That's what I'm saying. You just said it was five on five. No, I said they were dominant five on five in a sense that they didn't give up

many scoring chances five on five tonight. I thought that was a very good positive. I think Tampa Bay is a pretty good team at driving offense not only five on five but also on the power play.

They did a good job of killing off all the penalties. You don't think they did a good job five on five tonight? No, no. I just was kind of busted. You said the best part of their game was five on five. I was saying I thought it was PK. They were great everywhere. They were great.

And Campbell, even though he didn't get tested a bunch, he made an early six save on point off a little one-touch patch. Kucherov gave him on one of the power plays. And that, I mean, I'm sure that settled him down. But, yeah, I got to be nervous right now because if there's ever been a Leafs team to get out of the first round, you got to say it's this one. We weren't sure if Muzzin was playing. We kind of heard he wasn't.

All of a sudden, he's back in. He gets the the first goal that's just an enormous boost for that team you got to think uh i don't think he'll get suspended but clifford's got to be out of the lineup i mean what so i said the opposite and the reason i say the opposite is because later in the game in the third period is when simmons was avoiding maroon and then that whole melee it took two you see that whole thing that ended up going on afterward? So for that reason, I'm like, okay, well, and even Sheldon Keefe said it. He said before the series, what was his quote? I have it right here

and I'll get a little anecdote about him too. Before that, he said it's going to be a borderline violence series. This is a guy I played Tier 2 Junior against. He played for the Caledon Canadians and we're in the semifinals in a seven game series we go. I'm in a fight in game five

with another guy. He comes over and eye gouges me. I end up going to high school. I go to class the next day with the eye patch on for three days. He gets suspended for the last two games of the series. He's their best player. They still beat us in game seven but I could see Keefe.

He's got that look inside. He wanted to jump in in that fun bunch there. You think he's going to be dressing for game two? I think he puts Clifford back in. That's what I'm thinking. Keefe might get in. Yeah, he might put himself in the lineup. He might have said, Cliffy, get ahead of it.

Fucking drill this guy's noggin right into the wall. Yeah, he's got the wires crossing right now. All right. I didn't know he was crazy. I didn't know he was one of those crazy juniors. He's one of the dirtiest junior players of all time, Sheldon Keefe. Wow. Prison rules.

That was the balance they needed. He tried to fight me and then he's suspended. He's in his suit watching the whole game. I'll never forget this for my life at Lysander Arena. I'm walking past the snack bar and he tries to fight me there. I swear to God on my life i swear to god on i swear to god on spitting chiclets it happened we can go to lysand arena scott gomez will not

debunk this story i don't doubt it so he struck the fear in you to the point where that's why you're rooting for the leafs i was not scared of him he's a small little guy i was pretty tough in junior you know yeah okay we were 16 none of us had muscles i was tough yeah all right but he i am leafs but he he's he's he's a little crazy he's fit for a straight jacket yes so you think that he's probably got some like underground fight club going on and uh and he loves that clifford ran that guy from behind he loves it he's putting it in his tortorella he played for this and he played the year before. I think he was on the team before in Quinty. They didn't even have glass. They had green, that fencing.

So you'd get hit into the fence with the square. Jesus Christ. This guy's a loose cannon. He's a loose cannon. That's how he used to win, playing on the edge. So he wants his guys playing on the edge. How about Marner putting Vasilevskiy just in the corner with that head fake? What the hell was that?

I mean, Marner getting a goal, just what a relief for him. Merle's called it, by the way. Because the longer that went on, the more panic it was going to become. Now that the Leafs have – it's almost like the Leafs right now must feel so good about their team effort and how this series looks. One game doesn't mean much. It's a seven game series, but Jesus Christ, I can't get over that start. Well, the early game, the Canes beat up on my Bruins five to one. B's had some early chances, couldn't put any away. Omak, I thought he played a good game. The tip by Yavis was tough. Need to

ride a goal with C&I. The Terravina goal, tough one to stop. But the Trochek one, I think that's going to make Bruce Cassidy think, oh, man, do I give him the next start or not? I mean, he was good early, but it was enough of a bad goal where you've got to consider starting to sway him the next game. But either way, full credit to Anthony Ranta. Got the job done. Carolina, which stood the early barrage by Boston, won the game.

How much of it did you see down there in Carolina? I was really flipping back and forth. Once the Leafs was out of hand, I kind of went to the bees, especially in the first period when it was 2-1. I actually said that goal by Trocek gets Swaim in the game to start. I couldn't agree more with you on that. That's just a horrible look. The game is completely in reach still.

Yeah, you're down two, but I mean, you never know. You get one quick one and all of a sudden you got two, three minutes to tie it up. The Bruins power play is one of the worst power plays right now I've ever seen in my life. Look like me breakdancing out there. It looks, yeah, it looks like me trying to dance too. I'm like Elaine from Seinfeld. I just can't believe it was a disaster when Pasta got injured. Since he's came back, it really hasn't gotten that much better.

They have no movement. Marshawn looked lost tonight. He was apparently pissed off because you heard Ray Ferraro mentioning that he was barking at somebody after one of the late power plays that gave him no chance. I love Matt Grusick's game. I thought it was a weak game for him. He didn't have much there. McAvoy was still solid. It's more about the Bruins being able to get through this Carolina team defense, and it looks like they just have no chance. 21-2 now on the season they've been outscored.

Now, there was an empty netter tonight, but it's just unfortunate to see the Bruins kind of have a chance to get back into that game. And they give up that two on one and Carlo doesn't play it great. An unreal pass by Trocek over to Tara Vine. And that was a sick shot. It was off in office stick as quick as he got the pass. He shelved it up top. And from then on, the game was kind of done. Then you saw the week one by uh by by church that went off the head and i i don't know it's like the bruins have a great team defense carolina's might be even better and it seems just like they're it's like a horrible matchup for

boston if i was a bruins fan i'm like almost thinking i'd rather see the rangers because something about the canes like cornelli said that they just suck against carolina um i thought after a first period they look good you know they weathered that storm of the Because something about the Canes, like Grinelli said, they just suck against Carolina. I thought after a first period they looked good. You know, they weathered that storm. The two power plays that got called against them were absolute rubbish. The Bergeron even worse, right? So then they kill them off,

and I thought they had the best quality of scoring chances. Oh, my goodness. Kings 2-0. Oh, fucking unbelievable. I mean, I'm not going to complain. Unbelievable. R.A.'s fired up. Yeah, yeah.

I know it's only, we usually would have a Sunday night bill. I'm looking at a Monday night bill on the LA Kings tonight. But then all of a sudden, the second period, it just feels like Carolina, just that half a step they have in their game, they just out-skated them. They were way better in rhythm. They took advantage of their opportunities. you mentioned that like russell's got nobody near him behind the net he rims it around the boards to nobody and next thing you know it's in the back of the net i'm sorry biz no no keep going get a fucking hearing

but you know all in all just not a great game for the bees but hey carolina held serve we knew they were a good team ranta ranta early on i thought he looked a little shaky very shaky early on the bees couldn't capitalize and and for you carolina fans pump your brakes before you fucking lose your minds here i just meant in a sense of like there were two shots right from good quality scoring chances where he was looking behind him already as if though is this thing in the net so uh they weathered the storm that first period the next two they took over they looked really good on that second goal which ended up being the game winner uh just a great screen by stall like he's just that big presence in front nita rider ends up pulling that puck around and then just wires it through while like uh stalls he came through the eyesight of the

goaltender like no way to stop it there so overall great game by Carolina I feel like an idiot about my original pick and uh this could get ugly early but uh Bruins outshot him 36 to 25 I mean it got ugly at the end but let's not forget that and also let not forget, Nosek had that grade A scoring chance. 0-0. They score there. In the next minute, I think the Canes score two goals. In the next two minutes, it's a totally different game. Yeah. I couldn't figure out the line this coach told me the one time earlier,

but it's a series isn't over until you lose a home game or something. I think Quick just left his groin. Quick just made the most stupid save on Evander Kane. Jesus Christ. Is Quick back? Quickie. I don't think he ever left. I don't.

He had. I mean, the team wasn't great. It's 86 straight playoffs start. The guy just shows up. What a pass by Moore to Ayafalo on that second goal. But Chris Russell with a horrendous giveaway. I mean, this is a fucking joke just wit pointing the finger just say i'll take it talking nhl hockey i know it sucks being a former player having a call out guys i love matt grizzick i just mentioned i thought he struggled chris russell's solid player he just

made a horrible mistake but i'm not out here to make friends dude i'm fucking describing nhl playoff hockey right now um invisible top line for the bruins were invisible uh agree with you on the marshall look loss i think we can wrap this one on a bow and just say if boston doesn't bring a game too they're gonna be teeing it up pretty soon yeah five to one by carolina the game was a lot closer five nothing-0 Tampa, Toronto. That game was appropriate for the score. So hopefully both guys respond. Both teams respond. We got a little more of a series going here, but that's it for Spitting Checklists this week.

Any final thoughts? Well, St. Louis is up 2-0, and now L.A.'s up 2-0. So what do you got on that, Whit? I saw the first period in Minnesota, St. Louis. I'm going to chuck that on. I got the computer and the TV going. I got a fold laundry. Husband of the fucking decade folding about 16 pounds of laundry.

Just learned how to separate whites and colors he wants. No, I don't do the laundry. I just fold it, all right? And I'll tell you this. The St. Louis Blues are making me very happy with the first period they played on the road because they were dominant. Kaprizov had a great chance early. Huge save by Huso.

And then Perron scored a beauty, kind of like a diving goal. And then O'Reilly gets the next one. And it's kind of that offensive depth. The Blues, Merles, I love that plus 2200 action you have on them because I can't believe the Boston Bruins are plus 1600. And we got the Blues plus 20. The Blues are way better than the Bruins. Now, maybe it's because they have to play Minnesota and then Colorado, right?

But still, I'm pretty excited to watch the end of that game. And if the fucking Oilers don't score the next goal, we're done. And if we lose game one, I got a bad feeling about this series. So I'm kind of panicked right now. Well, I'm feeling pretty good about my 85-to-1 right here. Suck on that, Whit. They're not winning shit already. I'm not the stack guy.

Oh, there we go, boys. Yeah, we're back. Here we go, Connor. Let's go. Let's go, McJesus. McJesus. Can we get on the ferry to New Jersey and live bet this at Marstool Sportsbook? Go.

Please don't. That's what a leader does. That's what the best player in hockey does. When the team needs a goal, as I said we need next goal, McJesus shows up. Whit, you're the stat guy. Let me leave you with one stat here. Oh, girls, great performance. First star of the episode.

And for McJesus. Okay, this Chicklets team has been together sean mike ra biz memes is here even memes is here six of us have been together for two toronto maple leafs games this season do you know the scores of those games and they're both against tampa bay ironically six to two toronto the one was five nothing toronto austin matthews has five Tampa Bay, ironically. 6-2 Toronto. 5-0 Toronto. Austin Matthews has five goals. Suck on that. If I'm the owner of the Toronto Maple Leafs,

I don't know what I'm doing, but I'm keeping us six together somehow for every game they play. You're getting us some free Bieber merch. You'll drink them out of everything they have, too. To all the haters right here. Give them it. Give them it, Merle's. I can't believe that Merle's is a Leafs guy now.

We're like the new NWO. It's like I fucking bring Merle's in, and now he's crushing it on chiclets, and he's shoving a fucking knife right in my throat. Toronto. Played my junior hockey there. I love Ontario. All right, what do you got, buddy?

We need a big response by the Bruins next game. I think Tampa Bay is going to respond to it. They got embarrassed tonight. The Bruins didn't get embarrassed. The score, like I said, wasn't indicative of the game. They squandered early opportunities. But Tampa Bay, man, this season is next game. Pound them.

If you had to pick one team right now who's going to respond and win that game, only one, which one, Tampa or Boston? Tampa. Boston. Shocker. Me and and whit disagree i can't believe well i'll see you monday folks i'm just more i'm just so shocked by that but like i like i don't know if tampa looks that bad and then can rebound and look like good like they like i think they might be like that might have been the end of the Tampa Bay Lightning. They're all fucked out, boys. They're all fucked out. You had the call.

They were blowing dust out there. They were Hugh Hefner in the 80s. Yeah, I got nothing left, man. And not to be negative, Nancy, and this is for the Americans, but the ESPN feeds are a nightmare. The audio is fucked up. The picture is messed. Some of the angles are a nightmare. The audio's fucked up. The picture's messed. Some of the angles are messed up. I don't know if you guys have dealt with that at Barstool headquarters,

but I don't know what is going on. The one thing I noticed is how they were interviewing the coaches between periods. I'm like, oh, geez, like, leave them alone. In between shifts. It was before the power play the one time. Hey, this is the biggest power play of your life. How do you feel, coach?

Dude, they had in the Blues game, they had Dave Jackson, who the ex-referee who they have as their guy to like go over calls. They had him describing the call that forced the shoot, whatever, penalty shot by Barbershop. As he's doing the penalty shot, the ref's talking about what the penalty was. What's that? That's the greatest what the penalty was. What's that? That's the greatest Leaf of all time.

That's 60 for Austin. Are you joining Leafs Nation with us? Listen, I'm not joining Leafs Nation, but I will no longer dispute that Austin is not the greatest Leaf of all time after what he's done. Who is the best Leaf of all time? That sounds like he's coming over. That sounds like he's coming.

Kumbaya. No Leaf is good. 60 goals in the team history. I'm still with you, Wade. I'm still with you, buddy. Listen, you guys know I'm a man of honor and integrity. I'll be the first one to release a video saying how incorrect I was about the Leafs. But they got a long way to go, boys. They got a long way to go.

Long way. They were up 3-1 many times in their lives. Can I say one more thing? I just said Austin. I just want to compliment the eye-gouger, Keith, on the fact that he called that timeout before that 5-on-3 when they ended up scoring

to make it 2-0. That was a genius moment. He said, I'm going to calm things down here. We got a minute on the original power play. We got another one coming. We got a minute and four seconds of five on three hockey, and we're going to execute because of the timeout that I'm calling. And it was a genius

move. Leafs are going all the way. This is one. One of 16, Ryan. Enjoy the ride, buddy. Not the only shirt. We got many more. G, right? In the Barstool store. Check them out. We have Spider-Man from Boston. Who else? We got tons more. We've got many more. G, right? In the Barstool store. Check them out. We have Spider-Man from Boston. Who else? We've got tons more. We just released a shirt basically for every NHL team.

So BarstoolSports.com. This is making me sick. Here we go. You know how this ends, Wade. You know what I want tonight? I want a four overtime loss for the Oilers. Jess, I want them on IVs. I need them depleted after game one. Let's do it, I want them on IVs.

I need them depleted after game one. Let's do it. I'm on the Kings. I'm on Oilers, guys. I'm Oilers. Now we're having our first fight. All right, boys. We're having our first fight, biz.

I'm an Oilers guy. Oh, my God. No, no, no. Oh, Oilers. I bought this hat when EZE came out. That's how old this hat is. Go to sleep. Night, no. Oh, Oilers. I bought this hat when EZE came out. That's how old this hat is. Go to sleep. Night, night.

That's all I got for you, Whit, dog. We'll see you. All right, boys. Have a good one, everybody. We'll check in Monday. Peace. Peace. Peace. Thank you.