Spittin Chiclets - Spittin' Chiclets Episode 399: Featuring Kyle Okposo + Terry Ryan

Episode Date: July 27, 2022

On Episode 399 of Spittin’ Chiclets, the guys are joined by Kyle Okposo and Terry Ryan. TR joined (29:59) to break down the Chiclets Cup, the Big Deal Selects, Shoresy and more. But first, the guys open with a major announcement about our new beer venture with Labatt Blue called Big Deal Brewing. The fellas then break down the Chiclets Cup and all the shenanigans that occurred in Buffalo. Next Kyle Okposo joined the show (01:37:16) live from Buffalo to break down the Sabres, his career, and tell some crazy stories. The guys wrap up talking some NHL news, including the MAJOR Tkachuk/Huberdeau trade.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 399 of Spittin' Chicklets presented by Pink Whitney from our friends at New Amsterdam Vodka here in the Barstool Sports Podcast family. What is going on everybody? We had the third Chicklets Cup in less than a year out in Buffalo. Fantastic time had by all. Tremendous support. Tremendous facility. Everything was great.

Let's say hi to the fellas first, then we'll dive right in. Producer Mikey Grinelli and director, commissioner of the Chicklets Cup. Tremendous job once again, my man. Thank you, boys. What a weekend in Buffalo. Just the perfect host city for a Chicklets Cup. And then Riverworks, the perfect venue for a chicklets cup as well it it couldn't have gone any better i personally couldn't be every any happier and

thanks to everyone who participated worked on the event or even just came by and said hi and then you had the beer announcement on top of that so great weekend in buffalo and the boys are buzzing heading into the summer here no doubt about it no doubt about it such a unique facility too i mean the roller rinks the concert set up right on the river on this island you get the cereal smell heading over every day the cheerios it's good stuff but next up from his hometown of welland ontario canada paul bris nasty bissonette what's up buddy straight from my parents bedroom because that's where the modem's at so someone's getting caught doing something oh fucking yeah i already caught my

sister i don't want to catch my parents um gee you you summarized it perfectly like it's like bittersweet you know it's like you're just looking back on all the amazing memories the amazing people that showed up uh getting to hang out with the big deal selects like my teammates were incredible and i mean we were out till fucking like 3 a.m every morning just getting buckled playing guilty but playing hard and under the heat and so many fans there to watch so all in all man it was it was an incredible experience and gee of course i just want to thank you again buddy because you know this was your idea uh probably going back about 18 months ago to start these things uh we had a very successful launch in Detroit, followed it up in Vegas. This one was just, this one was a different beast.

And I think it had a lot to do with the amazing venue. Like you mentioned RA. And then of course the pour over of fans like fucking Grinnelly was doing Lake local radio TV hits or, or was it a TV hit or a radio hit? TV hit the ABC affiliate, affiliate baby not a big deal grinnelly doing tv hits not bad not bad i haven't really got to thank you guys because for giving me a chance to do this i think is crazy biz i just called you like i said i was super baked one day called you gave you a call and said dude i think we should do roller hockey tournaments and the

fact that it turned into what it did and seeing how it all came out in buffalo is is really just unbelievable it left me speechless to be well as we as we all know right most great ideas do come from cannabis so that's why we do roll the joints up that's why we do smoke them i wouldn't recommend smoking them before you play ball hockey out the heat but nonetheless a lot of good ideas and uh one thing that we uh we didn't touch on was the pink whitney party and mr pink whitney himself i'm sure you had a blast but talk about i want to quickly touch on before i hand it over to wit here the whole barstool team and what they mean to our podcast and what they've meant in the growth of, you know, what we do here at Chicklets, like we're never leaving Barstool. They have supported us through and through, through thick and thin.

And the fact that the entire staff, they grinded out in order to put on that type of event for our fans. It means the world to me. Like I'm not going to get too emotional talking about it, but like I cried with my parents yesterday just about like how grateful that we should be that we've we found ourselves in this in this situation so it's fucking crazy so i want to thank you to all of them like nb your team uh erica all the people they've hired to help out with pink whitney and and i know i was mentioning the concert that they helped through on like you

went to that riverworks venue and like the pink carpet they had laid out for people to take pictures, the backdrop to where Dante and Boston Levi were playing, like everything was so thought out and so detailed. And like, you could just tell by the reaction of everybody who showed up that they were just like, they were overwhelmed and they were overjoyed that we'd brought in something like that to Buffalo and they executed it to a T. So with Mr. Pink Whitney, I'll, I'll,

I'll give it to our rate of toss it over to you, my friend. And of course, last but not least, the wit dog, Ryan Whitney, how'd you enjoy yourself this week? And my friend coaching up a storm.

I noticed. I am so hung over. I maybe one of the worst two day hangovers known to man I had a dog Yoshi and two kids in my face this morning good morning guys I love you

these chiclets cups are killing me softly and I'll say there is no other ball hockey street hockey whatever hockey tournament in the world where people get this buckled. I mean, we show up there at 830 every morning, whatever, 9, 930 by noon. People are buckled having an absolute blast. Music pumping.

That's the only bad thing about the big deal selects in the barstool games. You got to turn off the music around the whole facility because we're filming and we can't, you know, run to the rights need to have better volume for the, for the participants, but the music's bumping. We got the, we got the dunk tank going. We got the simulator. I was in the simulator one day for an hour and a half. I basically got a lesson. I was, I came out of there leaking. Somebody leaking somebody said oh you played in one of the games i said no i just hit three woods for an hour and a half there was little kids waiting to hit i go hold on hold on i gotta work

on this swing but the whole event um now the coolest part of the event for me was the fact that we finally got to release and talk about our big news in terms of our new beer. Big deal brewing. What an absolute pleasure it has been to work with a guy like Biz, who's now dove into a beer and something. You know, we got the Pink Whitney. It's amazing. Can't say thank you enough to everyone who buys sports, drinks it. But it's nice for some people who aren't necessarily hard alcohol drinkers who like a nice lager to now be able to, if they want, give our beer a try and support the pod in a different way.

So Biz has put so much time and effort into doing this and it came out great. We got to thank Labatt. I know we're just chucking around thank yous. But when you're in our situation, like Biz said, you feel truly grateful for everyone. This announcement of this beer was the funniest fucking 10 minutes of my life i felt so bad for you biz at the same time i was ready to sprint and jump into a dumpster we had about 800 it felt like rabid lunatic hockey bros screaming wondering what our surprise would be only to get out there and have biz be practicing and trying to figure out what he was going to say in terms of our big announcement only to have the microphone

not work oh for fuck's sakes it could happen we are getting booed by these things biz goes quiet down everyone like boo shut up fuck you biz look over. I'm on the stage. I said, thank God. Thank God. I'm not the one doing this talking. I would be red faced, even more red faced than I am after a usual wit sunburn.

I look over. I'm thinking, who is going to fix the fucking audio? Is there an audio guy from this place? I see Ashley. She works for Barstool. She's just twisting the wire. She's never even worked with any audio equipment.

I ran off the stage. I said I had enough. Grinnell goes, where are you going? I'm out of here. This is fucking embarrassing. I can't do this. And then I knew right away. I'm like, oh, I can't wait to just give it to me on the podcast come Tuesday.

But it's not even giving it to you. And it's not even giving it to the people who set it up. No, no. Because they tested the mics and it all worked. giving it to the people who set it up. No, no. Because they tested the mics, and it all worked. But then you get all these people in there. And then the funniest part was. It was Chicago all over again. I was having flashbacks to Chicago, dude.

I was having flashbacks. Same feeling. Me too. People are looking at me. I want to throw up. I think in Chicago, I was yelling at you, Grinnelli. But you're like, ah. It was just so typical chicklets to have this awesome moment moment only to not be able to tell anyone about it.

Well, we get to now, but we get to now. And in truly classy fashion, I think. R.A. and myself, we both did it for a little bit, but Biz and Merle's served beers since we weren't able to talk and tell everyone about it. You guys were bartenders for i think close to two and a half three hours you guys must have poured now we'll get into the fact that biz had no clue how to pour a beer out of a draft i'm talking this guy is holding a mug directly beneath no no no no busy when you first you first crack it, it's all foam. So when that started doing – finally when it wasn't kicking like that at the beginning and it started coming out smoother,

I know that you tilt the mug and it goes to the side. Come on. I know how to pour a beer. You probably just caught me off the original couple pours where I had to get rid of all the foam. See, I saw you handing out literally glasses of like duff foam from the symptoms. And then I was like,

what's this guy doing? Does he know you have to angle the mug? Meanwhile, I'm giving all pink Whitney shots. Dude, they, they were Buffalo is the drunkest city in the country. I will argue that with anyone.

Those people are raging alcoholics in a great way. If that could be a positive, it is. But they are drunks. I'll take two weeks in Vegas over four days in Buffalo. That's a fact. That is a fact, R.A. I was pouring.

I had like four plastic cups at a time. Just, you know, let it run just one after the other. And I was pouring until the keg was done. I was like telling the bar back, I'm like, seven's kick, buddy. We need to change it. Like I was working there for fucking six years or something but let's let's dive into it a little bit guys uh about a year ago um you know we got together with labatt and and we kind of agreed that we're gonna you know start this venture together we're gonna create big deal brewing and you know we we were thinking about what we should call it and of course us all the time on the

podcast saying not a big deal not a big deal not a big deal and that banner being behind me it was just the nostalgia and i think that it was jeff who originally was like what about big deal brewing and i said it's right away i was like that's fucking genius and it's something that you don't necessarily even need to listen to the podcast for it to maybe pop off the shelf. And then on top of that, we were fortunate enough and going back to Barstool, they have a graphic design artist who we hammered back and forth. We must've done what four or five different calls, 16 different back and forths on how to establish the logo. That's the first thing you see. We wanted to give it this throwback type of presence where it wasn't this crazy looking can.

It was just boom, big deal brewing, grabbing a couple of BDs with the boys, throwing back the big deals. So we thought it had such a good ring to it. And then on top of that, of course, finding a beer. And we agreed on the original golden ale was the one we decided on. We wanted something that was going to be crushable. When I sit down and I watch a hockey game and, and I know that, that the trends are moving away from beer. I don't give a flying fuck what the trends are saying.

Hockey fans are beer drinkers. They like, that is a, that is a fact. And I wanted something that was crushable. Maybe not. I didn't want a crazy amount of hops. You know,

those are ones that maybe you could drink one or two of because i know that the ipas are very popular right now i wanted something crushable crushable with flavor but it's not like i kind of described it in biz correct me it's like it's it's it's in between a labap blue light or any other light beer you want to mention that's not as good as labap blue light and an ipa that sometimes could scare people off some people love ipa some people don't it's right in between and actually i have said that i think a couple people agreed very similar to a kona big wave that i've always really liked i don't know if you've ever had that is but a very tasteful impressive beer and right in between the kind of extremes of light and really heavy right yeah and

definitely wit and big waves definitely a beer that i respect um i i although it's a lager i really like yingling i didn't want you to drink 12 of them and feel like you have a loaf of bread in your stomach you know it has a a one it's got a great malt taste to it and has a beautiful citrus finish it doesn't linger too long guys i love it and it and has a beautiful citrus finish. It doesn't linger too long. Guys, I love it. And it took us a while to hammer it out with the brewmaster at Labatt, but we finally got to where it needed to be.

And I am so over the moon about this product, and I cannot wait for all of you to try it. It's going to come out in limited states in October, right as the hockey season is launching. It will be available probably in around 25 different states in a ton of different uh distributors like like you know i think walmart's going to carry it in some places so you're going to be able to find it wherever you are in these states and i believe come march it'll be available in about 25 of the the how many states are there 52 states 50 bro jesus christ he's canadian here we go here we go uh well there's 15 provinces right i was gonna say how many

provinces i'm kidding i think there's 10 in two territories i mean i could be wrong about that too though there's one thing people keep asking we call it a beer venture or we're calling it a beer company and and why don't you explain that? We're not stopping at the golden ale. We're going to keep making different beers throughout this whole partnership. Absolutely. And thank you for bringing that up, G. So we obviously wanted to start out with one that was going to be the main theme of one that's going to be around forever.

We're going to do different types of projects like you know we we don't we're not going to tell you what's next we've already started sampling and carving out what is going to be next these might come with limited drops in the summertime they might come with limited drops uh throughout the the holiday season but we just that's why we called it big deal brewing not big deal brew so that's what's so cool about labatt is they were also willing to listen to that and they were very gung-ho about not just stopping at doing one so we have more projects on the go with this um we're very very excited at the way it was received and the positivity online and i really hope that you guys enjoy it when you do get a chance to try it there's a reason i was pouring

beers for two and a half hours people kept coming back um we gave everybody these engraved mugs at the event hopefully to make up for the fact that they couldn't hear what the fuck was even going on and what this thing was to begin with but um gee i uh you know what i could hear though what's that i i i could hear ra's war cry can we go into that, R.A.? Yeah. That might have been you telling me that story in the state you were in was one of the most amazing seven minutes of my life. I'll get to that in one sec.

We got to pay the bills real quick for us. Another Chicklets Cup means another weekend of Pink Whitney celebrations for not only the winners, but for everyone else of age who wanted to get that five times distilled vodka infused with fresh pink lemonade flavor. The stuff was flowing all weekend. It was great to whack back a few with the many fans who came or they played, participated, whatever. Awesome time. So congrats to all the trophy winners this year. We hope you enjoyed the victory and we hope you enjoyed the Pink Whitney as well. Find Pink Whitney at your local bar and ring up some with a shot or some club soda. And to get back to your story with yes uh incredible experience i had uh we just did the bear announcement and per

usual our fantastic listeners you know they they give us the call they hold they hold up a pen or a joint or whatever and went outside with them all and i turn around and you know there's you know seven or eight and nine native fellas and from the mohawk tribe and we just had an all-time smoke session just a complete blowout and a couple of them says all right we need you to we need you to do a chi first i was like what's that and they and they you know it's like you said it's a war cry and i and i saw i gotta see it one more time before i i gotta get this right so they showed me again and i'm not gonna do it here because i don't wouldn't feel right doing it without without the guys their video with us do we know no I don't wouldn't feel right doing it without without the guys. Is there video of this? Do we know? No, there wasn't video. Pasha tried to get me to do a drunk on video in a bar and I just didn't like I think he was trying to make me feel like you had your moment.

Good job, Pasha. Yeah, it was like it didn't feel appropriate to not do it with with the guys who asked me to do it. I know it's a it's a sacred thing and, you know, it just didn't feel like right to not do with them. So they say, all right, we need a chi out of you before you go. And I said, let me see another one. And I i i belted it out and they went nuts man they started to high-five me and it was just this real cool experience and like they're like all right you're gonna get a res card you're not a member of the res and all this stuff yeah yeah it's just where you dances with wolves it was it was funny and that's the thing too we were like we were able to joke around and laugh and all the sort of like third rail humor you don't think you can make we were making those type of jokes and everybody laughed

nobody was offended and you know i came back and it was just sort of a profound experience to kind of do that and and i came in and filled you guys in i know story can i ask you a question please do you think that that was maybe some of the strongest weed you've ever smoked oh i told man that you guys you. Don't fuck around. Oh, you smoked a 2G. Oh, yeah, without a doubt. Without a doubt. And then they gave me a gift bag the next night.

And oh, my God, put me right to sleep. The guy came up to me the next day and he goes, I'm part of the crew that crippled R.A. with that unbelievable weed. I go, man, much love, dude. That's that's respect. I couldn't even sniff smoking that with you. I wouldn't be able to talk to anyone the rest of the week.

It didn't matter how much weed you smoked though. Nobody was more crippled than Terry Ryan senior on that night. He out crippled you. He, he's the type of guy who refuses to eat when he's drinking. So it doesn't ruin his buzz. So, uh, that just explains how, uh, and finally towards the end of the night, he tried to eat a pretzel, but most of it was on his face and in his mouth. So that and keep in mind that we're talking about Thursday here.

We haven't even dropped the ball or puck yet. And even before that, Wednesday, Biz, we shot the lights out the first night. Biz, Pasha and myself at one thirty in the morning Wednesday night are having a cigar in a legitimate lightning storm under a highway bridge I'm like maybe don't go this hard before the tournament even begins very as much fun as we had serious regret on my own terms in terms of not sleeping Wednesday evening and people might be wondering why we're there so early. We actually got there on Tuesday. We were able to check out the venue. And on Wednesday, we had the honor of playing a sandbagger at Brookfield.

Unbelievable course, incredible hospitality. And we played with Opozo and Molson. I learned that Opozo is not pronounced Opozo. The K is silent. Yeah. Okay. So I learned a lot in the four days i was in buffalo and even so much so that he was kind enough to sit down with us while we were

licking our wounds on thursday morning for an interview which we'll be dropping later in this episode so we got so much accomplished in in such a short amount of time that's why it feels like we were in buffalo for a month yeah it was a long few days. Also want to say, shout out to Matthew Bonneby. He showed up at the speakeasy because before we did the big deal brewing drop, they had us. It's a speakeasy. It's supposed to be secretive, but they hosted us in there for a little while to be able to sample our beer.

Matthew Bonneby stopped by. And also then the game start Thursday, man. I mean, just a tremendous Friday. Yeah, Thursday was the meet and greet party that night at the Labatt Brewhouse. Tremendous turnout there. And then everybody kind of just split up and went to their own bars or whatever after. And then Friday, yeah, the games kicked off, had the opening ceremonies. And of course, I was coaching the Barstool team.

Big deal. Selects are going on. All kinds of stuff going on all day. What was the maybe the highlight of the weekend for you, G? g like what was the most impressive thing about the riverworks that you saw putting up four in the final game when you were a traitor and jumped on the other team ra we're we're we have our barstool video and we fire ra before the last game because we're coming off a championship we go oh and two all right he's supposed to do ra jumps to the other team to coach the other team so i put four in his face and then threw my hat at him i escaped by the

bench so you went one and three and ra managed to go oh and four yep yeah yep so i'd say that was the highlight of my my trip yeah well i mean i mean the team i coached the power bottoms was their name they had four guys on the bench you guys had like 17 guys and eight healthy scratches so i was pretty proud of the team i coach coach going into that final game though hearing that they were oh and three we were also oh and three we had that hey boys 50 50 here we're not we're not skating too hard here so it was nice um in terms of the barstool squad uh very happy to catch up with scott darling i hadn't seen him since vegas the last chicklets cup great. We've had him on the show before and he's gotten into the stand-up comedy.

He's doing phenomenal. I was talking to him about it. He's actually going on tour, opening up for a guy. He's making some money doing it. He feels super comfortable. He had his first bomb, he told me, which I think officially means you're a stand-up comic because you have to go through that at least once, if not many times in your career.

But a great, great couple hours I kind of spent talking to him and hearing all about it but i gotta i gotta mention he is the worst roller hockey player i've ever seen in my life the fact he played in the nhl i know he was a goalie holy shit i had to bench him when i helped out coach the first game i I left your team so fast. It was like a sneeze. I saw how bad you were. But the first game, I said, you got to get darling off the ice. He's crushing the Barstool squad.

Great team guy, though. Having him in the locker room. Hey, we also added Merles to the team, which was a huge addition. He was my D partner throughout the tourney. He's making line adjustments on the go, telling guys they're benched. Merles will be on the Barstool team forever. He couldn't hack adjustments on the go telling guys they're benched merles will be on the barstool team forever yeah he couldn't hack it on the hockey squad couldn't play through a broken toe but uh guys like i mean what else is there to say about this i mean and then i guess

the the the final day saturday um nose face he ended up didn't show up he's he's living rent free in my head right now um hard fought game to the finish his wife went into labor two and a half weeks early so we actually missed all the round robin games and it was unsure whether he was going to even come or not so he ends up showing up on the saturday for the semis and the finals leaves his newborn and wife he said that she gave him the green light and that he had to go came and represented the ball hockey community well gets the W

three in a row for him and I guess there's just more work to do on our side for the big deal selects if you have a child and the next day go to the chicklets cup you're the most tapped, fucked up piece of shit of all time. Now, listen, all this guy does is win. He could say to me, Whit, shut the fuck up.

What do you know? I know I got kids. And if I left the next day to go play ball hockey, I'd come home to a locked up house with a new lock and maybe a new last name on my kids. So good for you for being a winner, but you are an absolute lunatic nose face.

I could see you going to the range the day after. I was just thinking that six minutes from my house for 35 minutes, not a seven hour drive to Buffalo followed by an entire day of ball hockey drinking and then missing the kids' first breath. Well, to be fair, we flew him out and then he ended up missing his flight home because he was out celebrating his victory with the Cup. No, he didn't.

He got a ride home with Bobby Hauser who drove him from Boston. I was with him at that, whatever that last bar was. We were all celebrating, drinking. I said, where are you staying? He says, I don't have a room. I said, buddy, buddy i got a couch i'll be more than happy to put you up because we're on the same flight home i says here's my number and i didn't hear from him at all i text him like six in the morning he was supposed to be on our flight with me and what we're on the

same flight didn't see him at the airport then i i talked to hauser on on instagram he's like oh yeah he never showed up for his flight and he he had to drive home, hung over from fucking Buffalo. Seven hours. He actually was shotgun. He didn't have to drive, but hung over seven hours, ride home, all banged up. He probably couldn't even leave the hospital with the new kid until he frigging got there either. Just stuck. Get home to Lemonster, and then I think he had to go

wherever he left his car, probably close to Logan. Then he had to go from Lemonster to Logan to get his car to bring back to Lemonster, which, you know. I would say the most preposterous thing about the whole weekend, and I'll hand it over to you on this, was these three Seekers that were there.

I lost my mind on them. I lost it. There were three Seekers, and just tell them the stuff that they had. Baseballs, dude. They hadn't sent them baseballs. I saw them, and I'm like, all right, Seekers are here. I said, I'm walking up to our locker room.

You know, Barstool and Big Deal Slug said the locker room side by side. So they had one guy had like four or five pictures and a jersey. The other guy had a couple jerseys and numbers, whatever. I said, all right, boys, there you go. You got that. Good for you. I go up to the locker room. I might've been up there three minutes.

I come out. They have 14 pieces each of new like stuff with my name on it. Hockey cards, t-shirt jerseys. I'm like, get away from me. I'm like, no, I already told you, no, get away from me. I saw, I recognized one of the guys is this tall goon. And the other guy was this short fat goon. It was like the perfect combo. I don't even remember the third guy. Cause I'm like, I will never forget your faces. We come back the next day. I'm signing a little kid's Jersey. And all of a sudden I turn these two goons they got six baseballs each in my face

the father of the the father of the little kid said did you play baseball i said i i i said i looked i go get the fuck away from me they're like whoa whoa whoa they just just signed two each shut up seekers are the biggest pieces of shit going i'm telling you i go what are you guys doing with this oh nothing i go why are they baseballs? Oh, you said you played in high school. Shut up! I played for fucking one year in high school. There's no way you knew that. R.A. never said he played baseball. Why do you have 15 baseballs

for him to sign? They made me sign baseballs. But now he can't even call them a baseball. Their hands are shaking like they're hung over. You know how nervous they are? Their hands are shaking when they hand you this shit, too. I'm like, one one more and then it's like four more after that gretsky might have stabbed them gretsky might have stabbed them i think i signed every single thing that they had other than the three cards at the end just for principle and they were still

asking me to sign them they were it was it was preposterous yeah They went up against me. The last day they went up again, I gave it one of these. In the casket. Oh, shit. You mentioned we got Kyle Oposo coming. We also have our buddy Terry Ryan we're going to get to in a second to go over his experience. Yeah, he recaps the team. He recaps a great job doing the big deal selects.

Exactly. We're going to get to that in a second. One other thing I got to do, Biz, not only coach a couple different teams, I got to do color commentary for the final game, the Chicklets Cup. You were pretty buckled and raspy, weren't you? I was raspy. I

wouldn't say necessarily buckled. I was definitely raspy. I don't think he was buckled. He wasn't buckled because he thought we were doing the pod. No, exactly. I definitely conserved myself, but I want to say thanks to Jack Cruz. Tremendous pipes on this kid. They asked me

actually they came in the locker room and the other guy says, have you been drinking already? I was like, I had,

you know, one or two and we would tape in the earlier game for the for the camera. He's like,

well, have a few more before you come on. He was like encouraging me to have a couple, but that was a thrill,

man. It was great to do actual color commentary. We had some instant. All right. That's WNY Athlet for. That's WNY athletics. They were awesome. They came and did it for free.

We just had to make a donation to their organization and they were awesome. Yeah, they were, they were awesome guys. So what do you think, boy? Should we send it over to Terry Ryan? Yeah. I think once we talk to Terry guys, we could kind of put a bow on the third, third chiclets cup and we can get into some, you know, big time hockey news that broke with the with the big trade. So listen to Terry Ryan, please enjoy. I'm sure he's got an ad beforehand, but it's it's been great to get

to know him. So I think this interview is pretty interesting. And after that, no more chicklets cup for a little bit. Oh, one more last final note, but I just want to let you know his interview was brought to you by Shopify, the all in one commerce platform to start, run and grow your business. Shopify gives entrepreneurs the resources once reserved for big business. So upstarts, startups and established businesses alike can sell everywhere, synchronize online and in person sales and effortlessly stay informed. Shopify offers online retail as a suite of services, including payments, marketing, shipping, and customer engagement tools. Connect with your customers, drive sales, manage your day-to-day. Shopify instantly lets you accept all major payment methods. Shopify has thousands of integrations and third-party apps from on-demand

printing to accounting to advanced chatbots and beyond. So go to Shopify.com slash chicklets, all lowercase, for a free 14-day trial and get full access to Shopify's entire suite of features. Grow your business with Shopify today. Go to Shopify.com slash chicklets right now. now enjoy terry ryan all right to help us recap a wild weekend in buffalo is our longtime pal tia uncle t whole bunch of other nicknames we can't say terry ryan how are we doing my friend how was your weekend in buffalo at the chicklets cup and captain of the big deal selects i wasn't sure it was unofficial at first so now you're making me captain.

I appreciate that. And first, the captain has to fall on the sword, though. Well, I mean, I don't mind falling on that sword. That was had it gone the other way. It was it was tough to take in Vegas when you go out there and battle like we did with a bunch of guys. Look, first of all, I want to say thanks to spit and chiclets okay everybody involved and the city of buffalo everybody at riverworks everybody involved it was absolutely to say a success would be the biggest understatement in my ball hockey life

there was boys we're getting better it's getting snappier there's bubble hockey there's more food there's more drinks there's more people i think you guys have got an unreal thing going on and i appreciate being part of it that's the first thing secondly i want to say congrats to the brick squad for coming out playing hard and uh could have gone either way but they got the win didn't they so congrats guys and very good ball hockey players over there great some of the best in the world and some of my really good friends so going back to your question what did i think of the weekend i thought it was a success on every level even though we lost guys we can get into this more if you want but given you know i knew that the guys i was bringing i know that there's some of the best in the world i knew they were awesome awesome guys too and and good for content and everything and you're not always looking for that but it helps that they're really good friends guys and

we're to extend the thank you i already have but listen it means a lot because those are my real good friends you know i didn't just randomly um pick people that i thought were great players i knew they were great i knew they'd be great on camera and they're real we've we've had a journey each and every one of those players it's not the first time i've played with them some of them for more than two decades it's uh and this is one of the best parts of that journey that we've ever experienced so one one of those guys probably the biggest mutant when the night time hits when he's drinking his bishop oh that's the backstory on this guy he's like the gremlin from the lord of the rings when he gets a few pops in him late i appreciate yeah i didn't know how that was gonna go give

amazing i love him a bunch of uh booze and a vip room and spit and chicklets platform i didn't know i i knew he wouldn't embarrass i just figured this is going to be situation overload uh sensory, like it often is for senior when he walks into a room full of people from Hamilton or Minnesota or somewhere that he played. But Bish always, always underrated at everything he does. Now, he really is one of the best ball hockey players ever. I think he will be in the Hall of Fame soon. players ever. I think he will be in the Hall of Fame soon. He was even at ice hockey, right? If you look at his numbers, he played junior A, went to Summerside and like 100 points. Like always, he was smallish in the era. You know, Bish is two years younger than me. So it was still part of that, you know, be big and tough kind of power forward. Trump's the small forward era, although it didn't stop him. I just I't think it people gave him enough of a shot to go on and play university and those things but anyway got into the ball hockey and for years like

i said we've got a national championship together we won a worlds in 2018 in bermuda he was he's always my line mate at these things and uh we've we've shared the ride together bish is a he'll do anything for you the kind of, if I don't know, your car broke down at four in the morning and you're three hours away, you call Bish first because he's going to help you out. And he gets, he's very emotional on and off the floors. So, you know, he wants to win. And he, and he plays hard and he parties hard, man. Like us all, like Bish will drink till five in the morning, but if the game's at nine,

he's going to be there. He's going to be there first. He's going to be getting the boys going he doesn't take a back seat and he uh he approaches it head-on and I really appreciate that about him he's a little much at times guys but he's a great teammate as you notice I think it would be safe to say that Witt's favorite player on the big deal selects who you brought in was Pender oh my god this is a big defenseman who and he played uh in the uh Quebec Junior League with the Moosehead. Because we ended up sending out a post about him. And then, of course, a picture of him going after Noah's face killer in the finals.

What a picture, by the way. What a picture. And this guy, I mean, I said it on the bench when I was helping coach. He's Victor Hedman with a mean mean mean streak I mean I was more impressed with him like con man what a player some of the guys in that other team great but this guy he's got to be one of the best defensemen in ball hockey history because he shoots at 108 miles an hour he hammers guys he blocks every single shot that goes near him and was overall dominant not to mention there's a video of him beating up five people, including two referees.

And I think being banned for life from international competition. Is that not the case? No, that's the case. And guys, the next time I come on, I'll explain that story. But we'll run out of time. But Pender, because of that, that happened in 2013. OK, he's a tough guy. Yes, he is.

But first and foremost, he's just a great yes he is but but first and foremost he's just a great player he's good positionally he's strong that shot same thing like he he would he we had the uh worlds in 2013 like i said here in saint john's earlier in that tournament that he lost his mind we had the uh you know way to skills competition promote the game and and he did he shot it almost 109 like it was crazy so but he's also good like Bobby Hauser would tell you it was another guy on our team like when they came across each other in the worlds when they were hosted here in St. John's and Junior it was 2006-2007 I believe Pender had four they won four three he's always been a great D and in hockey the only knock I

watched him all the way guys I could tell at 16 years old, this guy's going to play in the NHL. But I think Pender lacked a bit of drive early. And, you know, it's not necessarily a knock against the guy. He's a great friend. He'd never do you wrong. But I don't think early on, like, he was as intense, like if he showed that intensity in junior all the time, I think maybe he would have gone further.

Now, here I am talking about a guy who played six years, seven years pro, who had a great career. So, you know, success is in the eyes of the beholder. Not everybody's going to make the NHL. Well, but you could say you could say in the sense that you look back on your career, I think maybe Pender looks and maybe regrets a little bit how much time he devoted to being a real professional. Do you know what I'm saying? Would that be fair? Almost with you? almost with you like fuck if i could do things over i'd probably change a couple things yeah very very fair yeah you booze during your career like we did a trickle's cup all weekend well now we're gonna get into that we can get into that too but you know um as far as pender yeah and you know he's you know ball hockey he really came into his own because he is one of the best in the world and you could make an argument you could make an argument for a large

part of that he's he's now he's in his 30s but for his 20 you could make an argument he's probably the best in the world if you took strength and pure skill and in ball hockey guys when we when i said i've played only a couple tournaments three on three before this we we play five on five when i say we win nationals and provincials and worlds and all this shit that that is five on five and what happens in ball hockey the major difference very very similar is that if you once you gain the blue line you can bring it all the way back to the red line so the offensive zone becomes half the rink now Now, when you're playing in Olympic, when we go overseas, like I'm going to play the Masters in Prague, outside of Prague, Czech Republic in September.

So we're going to go there and it's going to be an Olympic rink. So now if you got Pender back there with that cannon, now I get the blue line and now the whole thing shifts and I get it back to him. It's just getting open for that crazy shot. And me as the guy who plays in front of the net

in those situations whether it was team canada the provincial team newfoundland black horse for all those years you know i was in front kind of see so i have firsthand experience a how hard the shot is but how talented he is and our go-to for all those years with great players you ask newfoundland bish uh zach o'brien america's power connor there's about you know a dozen or more cut from the same cloth you're going to see a very similar player but pender to me stands out as you know and i'm a lot of people would say me but he's arguably the best player from newfoundland you could really say that i think people be pissed if we don't get the story of why he was banned though quickly if you can kind of summarize it in a few minutes first of all we host first of all we hosted the worlds in 2013 okay so we'd won newfoundland

pender was on my team teddy purcell was on my team adam party in 2010 when we won the national championship it was the first time in over 20 years newfoundland had done it so we were riding a high we had six players playing on the on the national team and like i said before newfoundland doesn't have a chance and everything but we have a chance in ball hockey where here we are hosting the rink is packed to start the game and uh it's they started five newfoundlanders the place is cheering they're singing the ode to newfoundland and we're playing the slovaks, right? Not the Czech Republic. It was the Slovaks. So the ball drops to start the game.

Everybody is excited. They don't move. They don't move. I've never seen it. And they just start backing up. Okay. So we tell them, I don't know what's happening. But quickly we realize they're waiting for someone to take a penalty.

So we dump it in, go get it. As soon as there's any friction whatsoever, down. Guy goes down down gets up now the both referees i love the international committee i got people there are my friends but both of them didn't speak english and that was a mistake because i'm assistant captain i go over i'm talking i'm saying come on i can't even speak my my point now they either do you guys yes what's that oh he said neither do you guys. Yeah, sure. And I hear I am speaking new Phineas of all things.

But, you know, I'm slowing it down for this guy. I'm like, you know, I'm really breaking it down. I'm telling him, don't you've got to help us out here anyway. They do it again. It's two to nothing. They relied on their power play. Now we had a better team than they did. I could anybody could say that. But I'm telling you, anybody in the rink would see what was happening. It was so unsportsmanlike. They go up. I score two to one, I believe it is. Now it goes 3-1.

And a guy comes right over, and they're clearly taunting. Some of them know English, right? And they're taunting us. Refs turn their back. They're over talking about something. And a guy, I mean, hawks a loogie right into my face, right into my eyes. What? Right into my eyes right into my eyes get the fuck we go out here no i'm serious i'm on the i'm taking the draw on that on that

video so i go out whatever it was they score we pull the goalie whatever we did and then go on with they score so now it's four to one i believe and i'm looking at the clock and there's only like 13 seconds left so i went over the referee i said don't try and i look at pender going up right wing like i said he's got a long fuse but once you now that was always the case he's got a long even bantam once once you poke the beer it's over i know it i'm saying to the ref don't drop the biscuit don't drop it and he's putting his arm up to give me a 10 now meanwhile i'm going I'm going, you know what? Fuck you then. I'm trying to save the game. I'm trying to save the game. Pender never played right wing in his life. Anyway, the puck dropped, the ball drops. And you can see right before it, I take my stick and I chop like I chop no space.

I chopped the guy that I'm playing against, chop his stick out of the way. Like something's going to happen. I'm kind of saying, you know what? Let's get on board with this. Fuck them. I've got a fuse too, man. I'm pissed. We're hosting. We could have won a world championship at home. It's one thing to lose, but it got stolen in an ignorant and unsportsmanlike way. So he's saying, fuck this. Half the rink is our buddies.

He grabbed the guy, and I could see it. Once he started going, he didn't care anymore. I'm like, if the guy fought back, even that would have been over there. But Pender just had all that. He had half a rink to take out his frustration. I was half scared to go over there. I just watched it happen. I was pissed off.

I'm not saying people are going to give me these fucking messages now. Still not justified. Maybe not. But I'm saying there's a reason. There's a fucking reason. It didn't happen out of nowhere. He apologized for it. He got suspended. He served the time, as they say. a reason there's a fucking reason it didn't happen out of nowhere he apologized for it he got

suspended he served the time as they say but he's still one of the fucking best ball hockey players i've ever seen and tell me that he didn't control that game and you'd be lying i fucking love it i love your passion i love your emotion and we saw a lot of that after the final now you were getting into it with with one guy that he actually played in Vegas, but wasn't playing. Yeah. He's one of my good friends. What's his name? James Chicky Mentis. You could make an argument. He's the best ball hockey player ever from Canada. You could, if you went on first, my, my first tourney was oh three. He was either him or Burroughs was MVP. And the other one was top forward or top defenseman. He played D and like he's got, I don't know,

maybe 10 national titles, like three or four worlds. Chicky meant this. He's everybody who ever heard of the ball hockey world in Canada knows exactly what I'm talking about. He's been my roommate. We've, we've traveled all over the world together. This is what I'm saying. The guys we played against were great players biz. And I want to get, please get please before we go ask me about how you and ollie and fucking jacob did because i'm so proud of that you have no idea you were playing against guys who have played

their whole lives those guys grew up together jordan crocker the second guy that i i slashed that was a little bit much yeah but it's intense game whatever i tried to hit his mitt but it's an intense game i got two they didn't score on the shot that's the penalty but anyway jordan was like i was like mentoring him chickie played with us in newfoundland in uh in uh geez 2015 in ottawa and jordan was my roommate he was a 17 year old kid right bringing him along to play and eventually playing the worlds and he won it this year half their team did. So I was all right. I came back and I thought about it. That's what you want though. No space.

I thought, yeah, I thought no space. First of all, just call them out of nowhere and cut all his buddies. It's not quite the case is, but the, there's another whole side and I'm not sure that he had a team. So, and those guys, I mean, you want it. I don't, we lost, but you know what people saw the best fucking ball hockey three on three tournament in the world we were playing those guys and you know knowing what i know biz and i'll get back there but jesus we put on a clinic um but anyway

i was upset at chicky because he kept he kept riling me up look if i wanted to hurt nose face i would have hurt him it's you know you're not wearing shit. I've done it forever. The first one, you fake a big one, scare the shit out of them. The second one, you chop the flesh on the back of his calf. Third one, you open open, slap his shin. If you chop his shin, he's going to fucking go down with a broken leg. I know that shit. I know how to make it look good. Whatever. It went a little hard, but it's competition.

And to be honest with you, no space. I told everybody, if the ball goes down by your feet and you're not wearing shin pads it's part of the game if i saw you in hockey not wearing gloves i chop your shit i shop chop your fingers it's the playoffs that's the way it goes so anyway wearing no shin pads to me tr kind of was a sense of like if you'd be willing to play a hockey game without your chin, you know, your chin strapped on, or if you were a guy who pulled up the Jersey a ton and showed you all your wrist, you know, it was almost just a little kind of like a little fuck you. A little fuck you. And on the way down there,

I made a video and I was kind of kidding, but I'm, you know, we're going to play intense. Like Pender plays a perfect intense game. It's usually not real rough, but I did. I mean, I kind of threatened him. I said, you know, we're no shimp heads. I'm going to chop you. He was the only one in the game, not wearing them. It's not like it's this optional thing. You go to the world, you have to have them on. He knows that shit. You can't be running around there with no shimp heads on and he's after my taunt. So I did take that a little much. Honestly, if he had won them, I would have given him a little love tap and made it look good. But I was pissed off. And that, you know, I'm not going to apologize for being competitive.

That's what makes me me. That's what makes us us. But for the most part, the boys, we all had beers with them after. Chicky, you know, I think it was he's also real competitive. He's one of the best players ever. I think now he's in his mid to late 50s. So he probably missed. That guy is holy fuck.

He's a fucking handsome guy. He keeps in good shape. He does. Yeah. And he's, you know, usually a great fellow. So I'll give him a mulligan on this one. But because, again, I know. Yeah, the chops were a little hard. If it was too much, I would have got thrown out. Jicky, you had two penalty shots. It wasn't a very great veteran. I banked on most stopping those and it was one to one. It could have been three one. That's the penalty. And I went over later and shook both of their hands. I apologized to everybody and congratulated them, and that's why I was pissed

off. I said, Chicky, what the fuck do you want me to do on top of that? Suck your dick? Like, I'm sorry. You guys won. I'm acknowledging the better team won. Good luck. Here's a beer. Now, what the fuck do you want me to do beyond that? Talk about our goalie, Mosier, quickly. He was awesome. That was the one difference we needed a goaltender and we found one we did and Mo that's great because his competitive edge came back Moj you see is a great goalie I watched him growing up um he was one of those guys at 10 years old you knew he's going to be a great goalie when he had a successful career in the queue he went on to play CIS and then europe but i don't think moj wanted to give

it up so early but he got offered a great job in halifax that that's what happened so and he would come back and he would be playing with us every year at the nats and he hasn't done that in a while because he just can't so when i gave him the call to go guys like he was almost teary-eyed like he i don't mind saying that like he he really, really appreciative and thanked and he went down there. That's what a trickle's couple do to you boys. Well, Hey man, you're bringing guys out of retirement. You're giving them positive apples. What are you going to do? He just loved it. And I knew,

I knew because I knew that about Moj to be honest with you guys, I hadn't seen him play in four years, but I know Moj and I knew he would go down there only bringing his a game. And I knew that he could, he could pull off the only goalie I know that can go so hard and still get up. Cause one thing to play guilty. Okay. Dump it in and change. A goalie's job doesn't change, man. You got to stop that ball coming at you.

I don't like to play baseball hung over and I, you know, cause one little inch and you're, you're off. Well, that's the same with a goalie. And I knew most could play hung over. I'm like, where are we going here? If we were going, you you know if we were going to the actual say world championship with anti-boos or anything maybe it would have been different i don't really know actually i would have taken moj you know i can't say i wouldn't have but but what i'm saying is that he's in a zone and he can drink all night and he can pull the chiclets life and i knew that not only would he i knew he was in shape i said mojo you're still in

shape you're in if you're not said i'm in shape i play hockey all the time i just lack in a game so i knew taking him that he would be the best fit for our particular needs and he played fucking lights out and and remy was the only other guy that that wasn't there from the from from the time before who was also he was he was like a quiet he was a quiet guy quiet guy but the thing is he played with us in newfoundland blackhorse we've picked him up before i know remy i've scouted him i've i've scouted for canada for a while when he's for remy's from winnipeg and uh him and con man together pretty special duo yeah it's a great two i knew that tube is now that you guys see it

see how see when connor and bobby were there they were playing off each other in vegas because they're great players but when you make when you go left shot right shot it totally changes right because it's that it's that tick tack toe and you go tick tick tick tick and then when it comes over toe boom and that's what you're looking for and i knew that remy just played with connor at the worlds i hadn't seen him in two years either three i guess pandemic but i knew remy was a good player and a very humble guy and i thought he would fit in nicely with the egos you know oh fuck he was such a nice guy and it was great to have that wrap-up dinner and and your old man came in and gave us the morale boost he's like his his motor is unlike any persons i've ever seen like how is he still going at that age

the way that he goes dude i i'd love to keep questions, but half of it's in me. So hopefully it carries over. I don't know guys. And the funny thing is we're going on these events. Like I told you years ago, he made a promise to my mom because he was boozing too much. I was seven years old and he said, I'm only drinking on Fridays. So that's really other than I took him on a cruise, like in the late nineties, you know the george street fest might happen and he might have a few but it's usually we pick a night and it's friday and that's the deal and he likes living by that so the last two chiclets cups i mean i'm as surprised as you that he holds a hangover like he does but uh and he loves to talk guys this has been it's always

been a little secret in mount pearl kind of thing. Well, Teddy Purcell told you guys about it, right? Personal. Teddy told you guys, I'm sure that came up because it's almost a rite of passage. If you're an athlete in Mount Pearl slash St. John's, you drop by the Rhines on a Friday night at some point. So he loves the platform. He'll tell the same story a thousand times. He just loves finding out about people.

And he's he's as interested in the people he's talking to. You'd never think it, but if you ever, you know, you go over, hey, so you're, wow, you're selling burgers here. How long have you sold burgers? What kind of chips do you like with your burger? It's amazing. Back in Hamilton, I used to have burgers and chips all the time. What a coincidence.

You're from Chicago. I used to play there. I'm like, dad, relax a little bit. But I'm used to it. It's what makes him tick. And I know part of it is uh part of it's inherited right because i'm the same way i'm i haven't let you guys speak you no no tr we love we love hearing this from you same way with your dad when i got to meet him

in vegas and then just seeing him again in buffalo this weekend it was such a blast and and personally to you i want to say how happy I am for you because um in some discussions we had you know I think you'd ran into a couple tough times Shorzy has taken off you're doing so well with your own podcast and social media Shorzy's going to continue to crush it and you mentioned to me some things you went through that are now finally kind of on the back end and for me getting to know you it's like that's why hockey is so great. I got to tell you, I'm very happy for you. And I know this makes no sense, but I'm like super proud of you.

And it's really cool to see what you've turned the Big Deal Selects and the Chicklets Cup into because not only is it an entertaining and very fun tournament, but content-wise it's electric as well. So I'm really happy for you. And I'm really grateful that we've become friends as RA, I know feels in Grinnelly and biz feel the same way. Well, honestly, that makes me feel great guys. I do feel like we're part of a family and I did,

I listened to this almost from day one and it, it, it, you know, we've, we have a lot in common. And I appreciate the kind words, but I'm proud to be part of this. And we're going to get a win because now the losing makes the win when it happens that much sweeter, correct? Definitely. And I always find, I hate to say this. I was going to say, you know what I mean, because of that game seven loss, buddy. And then, you know, I get it. But, you know, there is something to be said in losing together, though. Right. I mean, no one wants to say it right at the time. Nobody wants to say it.

But there's something to be said. We left that room in Vegas. And again, this time, more of a unit after building more character, we know each other more. We're part of a, an essence of something bigger. That's what I feel. And, uh, to be just honestly included. Cause I do, man, do we, I don't know what happened five years ago. Who knows? I heard of you guys, right? Good people. Um, but right now we see that there's a lot of parallels mentally and physically. And, you know, I think as you get older, those things are more comforting and, you know,

you don't have to seek out friends as you get older. I think this sort of thing happens more and more. And by extension, all the boys from Bobby Hauser to all the Newfoundlanders and Remy that we talked about, the boys love it. And it's a nice match. Is the big deal selects roster set. Are you guys adding anyone before the next one? Are you guys going to run it back with the same crew? Well, see, my thing, if I can, I always like to run it back. To me, there's a level of loyalty to things. And, you know, I know that we're getting away from that in sports.

Call me old school, okay? I'm the kind of guy that would take a little bit less money to sign somewhere, maybe not knocking anybody that didn't. I just, you know, it's in my heart. And I think that's that's a Newfoundlander looks at things a little bit different. Like I said, you go away and there's there's a Newfoundland bar in every province, but there's not necessarily, you know, a bar, a Saskatchewan bar. It's just, you know, we stick together. It's ingrained in us from the beginning. I don't know if that's, you know, living in small towns on the edge of cliffs with, know crazy weather to make a living for most of our

history but uh point being um i want to run it back unless there's a reason that one of those guys can't get there guys we just lost five to four and we nearly i mean the winning goal was my fault so you know if the very guy who you i mean i don't mind saying it i don't mind saying it right it was four to four i off it up down low or whatever it was a two-on-one i could have had him uh but that's it that's sports if we had lost on a bigger level or or even if we'd gone down and it wouldn't have clicked off off the floor but i think you got what you wanted we got what we wanted other than the win and biz let me elaborate on that right before i go here we went down there again the guys i took have all played on the world level

at some point so i knew i'm like i thought legs might be a thing but i knew everybody was in shape because it was a little bit older but i don't really think that got us we were we were tired but i don't think anybody gave up and but biz biz, you're playing out there. So you're three ninths, one third of our team, you, Oli and Jacob. OK, and your task is to go out there and not get slaughtered by a bunch of guys who played together for a long time. They're all in the prime of their careers. They're younger. They a lot of them just won a world championship and all of them in the last few years have won a national championship. And you fucking hung with them. You hung with them. It wasn't like you were minus six and we lost. I was hung. All right.

Well, you were you were hung in many ways. I'm going to have to get wheeled around in a wheelchair for another four days here. My body is just so fucking sore. Ball hockey is one of the hardest sports I've ever played. But it wouldn't have been if you didn't put it all in. If you didn't fucking leave it all out there, it wouldn't have been. You'd be going, well, I'm fairly sore. You're fucking exhausted because we gave everything. And how do you not roll it back?

5-4 in the final, giving everything? We're rolling it back, baby. We're rolling it back. Terry, I gotta ask you, how much has your life changed, if at all, in Newfoundland since you was here? I mean, I'm sure you get recognized more, but the people still treat you the same. They have known you forever. Has it changed fundamentally at all?

Newfoundland is a different bird because people are used to me here. And St. John's isn't tiny. The whole metro metro area is probably 250, 250,000. But. I mean, people are generally happy for me, to be honest, you you know because i'm not it's not just that i'm on this show it's not like i landed the seinfeld two role like i'm playing a newfoundlander i'm speaking for all these people in many ways that's why i'm very but jared and i when he gives me the lines i go back to him and you know a couple times i might say you know early on in the show, Jared says, you know, you wouldn't call him new fees, you know,

if you did not, because some people here take that as a, as a bit of an insult, right. And it try city say, when I first left, it was a term of endearment. People didn't know the difference, but we're getting into that territory now that, Hey, you're dumb new feet. Like that's not good or new fee even. So, and Jared worked with me and he said, hey, you're dumb, Newfie. Like, that's not good. Or Newfie even. And Jarrett worked with me, and he said, okay, maybe I'll put that in. He did right in the show. So we're very careful about how we project Newfoundland in the show because it's all on our shoulders, and most of it's on mine. I'm the guy you see there.

So people are very encouraging, and they feel that they're in on it, you know, like, which is great. When I was there was an alienating feeling when you come back as a first round pick and you're playing on a team that's half the province loves and they and they just want answers. What the fuck, man? What happened? What'd you do? But now as they're looking at this show, go and, you know, my career has come and gone. But now I'm an author and, you know, I'm on this show and hockey's great. I look most people here now go, hey, you know what? He played in the NHL where 20 years ago it was like, what are you doing wrong? And now they can share this experience. So I see someone at the bar now. It's only not so much. Oh, man.

Like what ended up happening in Montreal? It's like, fuck, I love Shorzy Tebow. Keep it up. You know, so that's how it's changed here in Newfoundland. Nice. And I don't know what the future holds and I don't know what's been confirmed, but if there is a season two and if we're both in it together, I certainly hope we can share a scene in the next one.

We weren't able to actually share any scenes in season one. So hopefully Jerry can get us in a scene. Well, that'll be a lot of fun to do that. I'm hearing from a few little birdies that you might get both wishes, but who knows? Cross fingers, cross fingers. But I've heard good things from people that might know wishes but who knows cross fingers cross fingers but i've heard good things from people that might know but who knows i can't wait to get back up there it was it was a treat to

do that so uh any any other questions boys you have before we let them go no i'm good great i just want to say thanks again terry it was a hell of a fucking weekend i'm actually like i was actually a little bit uh depressed that it was over, like just going over all the happy thoughts and, and memories, man. It was, it was a very special time to hang out with you and the noobs. Hopefully you don't get offended by that. And I'm looking forward to the next one. We're still trying to figure out where it's going to be.

We have some ideas, but let's make sure the boys are primed and ready for, for our first ever victory with the big deal selects. Biz, again, everybody there, thanks for putting off a great weekend. Biz, your on-floor effort, I'm serious, was second to none. You've actually become, three of you guys, pretty good ball hockey players in a short time, right? It's trial by error, and you went and did it against some of the best in the world witter thanks for thanks for taking so much time to notice you know and and to give and be there

people say why don't you play i couldn't make the freaking team that's why i don't play well you got a great take on it and i appreciate you even being around and ra and mg it's always a blast man and uh that last night was was one of the best nights i we got back to the hotel man and we were up in the morning three four hours sleep man like if that man so we're on the bus and we all just looked and when we you know we were we we shared a moment man people were like we waited most came down he was late and then we hugged and we're like man we're still riding it we're still riding this journey of hockey it's wild and based you know what i mean oh yeah yeah most were shit based he left his phone i called him he called me today said yeah i tracked down my phone it's at one of the bars we were at i said

oh shit so jerry milby she's sending it to him thank you for the rides for the the pictures she was awesome she's amazing she's was great. Guys, honestly, the guys that I brought are woven into my heart for a long time before Chiclets. We're experiencing this together. It's a symbiotic relationship. Everybody kind of wins in this situation.

It was a weekend of positivity. That's what it's all about, boys. That's what all this is about. Yeah, I love it. All right, pal. Well, Terry, thanks so much. We'll see you with the next one. Unless I don't see you sooner, I'm going to try to get up to Newfoundland for a little visit, but we'll check back on that later.

Thanks again, buddy, and we'll be in touch. Boys, I love you all. Thanks for having me on again. Whatever you need, I'm here. Huge thanks to Terry Ryan for joining us once again. Absolute character. Him and his dad, Senor, as we're now calling him. His interview was also brought to you by our friends at Sling TV. Do you know what week it is?

It's Shock Week. Do you know where the best place to watch Shock Week is? Sling. Shock Week is debatably the best program in the summer has to offer. And Sling is taking care of all you want-to-be marine biologists by giving you access to your favorite ocean dwellers not into shock week we might judge you but sling won't slings got you covered with pro in college football and basketball baseball hockey soccer

golf racing and so much more they also have reality tv so you can keep up with the latest gossip with today's hottest shows on channels like TLC, Bravo, MTV, and more. Feeling adventurous? Explore thousands of movies and shows on demand. So what kind of mood are you in? No matter what your answer is, Sling has what you need. So go to sling.com slash barstool to sign up now and try it for half the price during your first month. Oh, and one more thing.

Happy Shock Week. Got to be careful in the water around Long Island. There's five five-hour shock bites in the last several weeks down at Long Island. No way. Yeah, nothing. What's interesting, none of them were great whites. They only named what type of shock on one of them. And they were kind of like the co-owner of a dog nipping people.

Like nobody lost any limbs or like serious. I mean, I'm sure it sucks for the people getting bit, but usually a shock bite. It's like you lose a limb of a dog nipping people like nobody lost any limbs or like serious i mean i'm sure it sucks for the people getting bit but usually a shock bite it's like you lose a limb or a finger or something but i don't know a lot of shocks out there yeah dude i got 39 stitches i'm in the hospital for two weeks but i didn't lose a limb so yeah good story and i mentioned uh terry's dad senior but we were in the mexican restaurant i just wrote senor just because we're in there he thought it was the funniest goddamn thing in the world for the rest of the night he was spouting off his eighth grade spanish lessons like come as thou stead like over and over again that guy is an absolute piece of work so anyways moving right along we had some huge news drop friday

night which gave us a little something more to talk about this week matthew kachuk he had previously let the calgary flames know that he would not plan on signing there long-term. So Friday night, now huge blockbuster. Calgary actually signed him and then traded him to Florida for forward Jonathan Huberdeau, defenseman Mackenzie Wiega, forward prospect Cole Schwint, and a first-round pick in 2025. That's lottery protected. The Panthers also got a fourth-round pick in 2025.

Kachuk's deal is an eight year, $76 million deal. Comes out to nine and a half million average annual value. And this is the first sign and trade in NHL history biz. Because at first it was listed as a sign by Florida, but we checked it today. And no, it was actually Calgary signed him to get that eighth year and then traded him. And that's probably why they paid such a bounty.

But I first off, Whit, I'll go to you first. Did Florida pay too much for Matthew Kachuk here? I love Matthew Kachuk, and that signing, the number he's making is totally reasonable for how young he is. He is truly a little bit of a – like unicorn might be a little exaggeration. I think that's maybe what Bill – Bill Zito called him a generational talent unicorn in the fact that he's so angry and so mean while also producing at such a crazy high level. So that at 9.5 is an unbelievable deal.

I still am so confused on what was given up. I it's, it's hard to say that too, because of how big of a fan of Kachuk I am. I thought the deal for Huberto made sense, or Huberto on a first-rounder. You throw in Wieger, and you throw in this prospect who, from all accounts I've heard, could be a very good third-line center in the NHL.

And it's like, is Bill Zito smoking the craziest Native American marijuana that Grinnelli and R.A. smoked in Buffalo? This guy's fucking out to lunch, no? Have you seen what this guy's traded away? He traded away. We'll have to get the tweet. Grinnelli, pull it up. I don't get the fact that you have to give up that much. And now, yes, there is a chance.

And they probably decided we don't want to sign Huberto. He's probably going to look to get exactly what Kachuk got. And they're looking at it as, all right, well, we got worked in the second round. We need a guy who's probably a little more playoff type angry. I can't put a sentence together right now a little bit more grit so i understand that well the worst part of florida's teams their defense they just lost their second best defenseman now understandably they probably weren't going to be able to resign wieger but it's like you got swept in the second round. You didn't sniff beating Tampa at all. And your team, in

my mind, is now worse. No? Wait, I got that tweet here. It's from Leafs Need God. There needs to be a documentary on how Bill Zito transformed the Florida Panthers into a contender then blew it in five months. Three first-round picks, Huberto,

Weeger, two prospects, a third-rounder, a fourth-rounder, four, two months of Claude Giroux, two months of Ben Sherratt and Matthew Kachuk. Not to mention, not to mention when they say two prospects, one of them's Owen Tippett, who was a first rounder. So that's four first rounders. I don't I do not understand. I swear to God, poor memes, by by the way we had the party friday night this news broke the whole place is all hockey nuts everyone's like what the fuck you see this trade memes is like oh fuck i gotta get on social man i gotta write some stuff and tweets about this

daily it's daily but it's just like you you bring in such an impactful player and it's a great signing. It's just what you gave up for him is truly confusing to me. And even if Calgary isn't able to resign Huberto or Uyghur, do you know what they're going to get for them at the deadline? Yeah, that's I I I I'll focus on my job. I think tree living, one of the most underrated GMs in the National Hockey League, was put in a very difficult situation when he found out two of his best players

aren't coming back next year. One he lost to free agency, of course, in Johnny Goudreau. And then I don't know if this was brewing up as far as a thought from Kachuk as soon as they lost Goudreau, which amplified his reason. Had to have something to do with it big time. And the fact that like guys i don't if you're an american player and you're playing in canada to come back and play home where i mean you you saw it you saw it from you're hearing dubois now right dubois not only did

he want to go back to canada but he wants to go back to montreal where he's from so it's um it was a miraculous trade i just don't understand where all of a sudden tree living had all this leverage the one extra year that was the crazy thing the one extra the one extra year my fucking family phone's going off can you guys answer the phone please it's a guy named paul calling for my sister mom um but to to to get all that in return without having any leverage where the only explanation i would have for it is maybe st louis or another team was offering quite quite a bit more where zito felt the pressure where he needed to up the ante um you just mentioned it on top of getting huberto and wieger back in at the prices that

you got him for this year on top of getting the first rounder i don't see calgary being that much worse overall now than they were last year which is a huge bonus right because you get johnny goudreau known as one of the best passers in the league, so is Huberto. He's up there, right? As far as defense, you know, when they lost Tanev in playoffs, you saw how much that hurt him. Johnny came in and talked, came on the podcast and talked about it. So now they address by getting another defender who can help out also

offensively, special teams. He's a good PP guy. I want to see it over 40 points last year. So how Tree Living was able to carve this out, and I think that Matthew Kachuk mentioned it, where he was like, you know what? I know that there's going to be people who aren't happy, but at least I was kind enough to kind of give them the heads up

and also provide some type of leverage where they could get something in return. I don't know if that was a shot at Johnny or, or just him speaking his own mind about his situation. But ultimately, if you're a Calgary fan, you have to be happy with what he provided your organization and with what position he gave them in order to get a return to continue this relevancy and a team with what they have could end up making a run and I could see

them go into the conference finals do I see them as a cup contender by losing a guy with so much grit and toughness and we're going back the other way for Florida maybe part of that desperation was is they weren't going to be be able to afford to pay Marshman where up front, they don't really have anybody who has that, that sandpaper finish. They do have goodness on the back end, I believe for one more year who can help out in that regard, but to have a guy like Chuck, obviously Bill Zito saw that as being tremendously valuable and something that they really,

really lacked last year in playoffs and why they weren't able to eat come even where near sniffing what Tampa Bay was throwing at him. So well, Ekblad who prior to his injury was a legitimate Norris trophy candidate and having the best year of his career. Well, he's had a tough, tough time staying healthy, his career. And when he was out, who picked up the entire load was McKenzie Weeger. And it's like, I,

I completely understand wanting to add a guy like a Chuck, every team in the league wants a guy like that, but the Panthers, you cannot tell me they're a better team today. And Huberto and Chuck, ironically, it's the second time in league history, 200 point scores have been traded for one another. The other time was Wayne Gretzky and jimmy carson so it's like that's why this deal was so shocking it really was one of those nba style deals where

you're like what the fuck just happened but i i i guess like you're gonna have to see how the season plays out but if i'm a calgary fan and i look at matthew kachuk and what he gave as a member of the flames and also the video he made to say goodbye and what you got in return I have no ill will towards him that guy played his balls off and was willing to legitimately do anything it took to win constantly and you got an enormous return and he didn't want to be there some people take that personally I don't uh it's just a it's just a crazy trade that to me still makes no sense and if they lose both of them and the flames can't sign huberto or wieger we'll see what they get in return around the deadline but i don't even know if they'll be able to trade them

at the deadline if they have a really good team it's like that's going to be the question for training so you're you're essentially finding yourself in another columbus type situation right where where they're getting a little bit hosed for being a Canadian market team where you got to be very smart about how you lock guys in. Now, I think that you would imagine in Florida, Huberto would have commanded probably the same amount in which they ended up giving Kachuk. There would have been no way with the way they're paying out in salary

and the salary cap that they would have been able to keep weger but nonetheless could have used them at the deadline to acquire more assets in in a different regard so i i'm not gonna rip on zito um yet because i want to see that the way this all you know transpires and the way that it plays out i don't know what other defensemen they have in the pipeline that can step up and maybe fill in that role that is going to be missed by Uyghur. Yeah, maybe we don't know about a young stud. Fair enough. But at this point right now, it just seems like a severe overpayment

in a situation where Calgary really had no leverage. The other thing, too, of Florida, they were probably unlikely to sign both of these guys, so they probably figured, man, if we're not going to have them both, might as well get rid of one of them right now. Do you, R.A. Witt, it just so happens it's the two guys who probably struggled the most mightily, not only in playoffs, but more so in that Tampa series. Like, Wieger made a couple of bonehead plays defensively,

still think he's an incredible player, and Huberto and the power play were absolutely rubbish. He did not look like himself. That's why I even go back to the first round. Like, they didn't have a power play goal until, like, what, game four of the second round? Or maybe a little bit more before that. Do you think that plays as a major factor

of him not thinking that these guys can play playoff hockey? Possibly. I mean, when you look at a team have a season that they did in the regular season, a true legendary regular season where you win the President's Trophy only to be completely dusted in the second round, you look at all aspects, you watch the tape on all four games,

and you see what truly let us down. Maybe they decided it was kind of Uyghur defensively and Huberto offensively. That's hard to say. But just looking at Calgary, once again, they have Huberto and Uyghur this season combined making less money than Matthew Kachuk. Good point.

Also, I mean, Matthew did let them know. I mean, he was up front and honest with Gallagher. Like, look, great time, but look, I'm not going to re-up here. So they took the initiative. And, you know, obviously the Hurricanes and Blues were other teams in the mix. And Matty said, you know, quote, playing at home, I'm sure every hometown kid will say it's special for you, but it's more special for the people that got you here,

which I thought was a pretty interesting quote. Like, you know, similar with Johnny. It's like, you know, what Johnny ended up in Columbus. Like,, but it's more special for the people that got you here, which I thought was a pretty interesting quote. Like, you know, similar with Johnny. It's like, you know, what Johnny ended up in Columbus. Like, yeah, it's great. Everybody wants you at home, but it's the whole, you know, hassle of everybody bugging you every game for tickets and this, that, the other thing. So I thought that was pretty interesting.

And what's his name? The athletic reported that St. Louis had offered, let's see, a proposal included Tarasenko, Scandella, and a high draft pick. The team officially declined comment. Buddy Strick said that Tarasenko was never approached about waving his claws, but of course, you know, you probably talk about this stuff before you actually ask guys to wave.

So either way, a huge blockbuster. Any final thoughts before we move along to some other stories here? No, I'm excited to see this new look at this Calgary team more than anything. I mean, I think we know that... He could be a 90-100 point guy in Florida with Barkov too. It's not like that season to fluke at all which is happening. No, no.

Absolutely not. Another trade too. Columbus traded forward Oliver Bjorkstrand to Seattle for a third and fourth round picks in 2023. Excuse me. He has four more years left at $5.4 million. He had 57 points in 80 games last year.

He was Columbus's third round pick way back in 2013. He'd spent his entire career there. And, of course, they had to move money so they could pay their sniper, which leads to Patrick Laine. Him and the Blue Jackets agreed to a four-year, $34.8 million deal. Comes out to $8.7 million a year. He's got no trade protection for the first year, then a modified no trade clause for the last three.

He had 56 points in 56 games last year. Is 8.7 too high for him, Biz, or about what you expect him to come in? I've always been somewhat critical of his game. It's not very well-rounded. I think he's starting to get there. I think he's started to find comfort in Columbus and really likes it there. I think that now that he's getting that type of dough,

I think he's got to be automatic 40 goals, and that makes him worth what he's getting. And he's going to have he's going to have some players to play with that is just a you look at between what johnny's making what renski's making what line is making that is a very top heavy team financially for a team who we probably know at least for next year is not going to make playoffs they're going to have to start adding some some cheap pieces which they do have in the pipeline mind you so if those guys develop to the place where they believe they can get sure um getting

rid of it's it's bjorkstrand am i saying it correctly bjorkstrand bjorkstrand yep bjorkstrand um i saw his development i played against him in the calder cup when they ended up going on to win it in lake erie uh developed into a very very good player who's got some good years left at a very good term. I think that's going to hurt them drastically. And that's where it's like, OK, well, if you're going to pay line A and you're going to have to get rid of some really good pieces, you better make sure that this guy is going to start turning into the player that we'd all expect him to be. What a fucking move by Seattle to get him over there that is a great piece they're going to have for a good

amount of time I I love his game I think that there were some times when torts was involved in the organization where he was a health bomb and maybe torts didn't like his game but fuck off he's a great two-way player I think that Seattle's's going to love him, and it's just an unreal trade for Ron Francis knowing that that team had to shed salary. And what did they have? They didn't have to give up much to get him. No, just third and fourth round picks in 23. That's a nothing burger.

That's a nothing burger. Contract dump. Not to mention that Bjorkstrom, I think he just bought a house and was on his honeymoon. It's like that's pro sports, man. That's tough. Yeah, 500 grand in Columbus. I mean, fucking make that in three weeks.

Well, also, I just want to say Goudreau is such a special player, and Laine is able to score at will when he's really giving it his all and feels like he's all in on maybe a little effort away from the pocket like his defense could create offense but goudreau was able to play and produce with kachuk and lindholm okay he's either going to have roslovich or boone jenner as his center neither one of those guys are elias lindholm so that's going to be a little bit of a test in terms of who's distributing line A and control the puck. And that's even if they play on the

same line, which I imagine they would. And the guy line A was traded for, Winnipeg's Pierre-Luc Dubois, he accepted his qualifying offer for one year, $6 million. He will be a restricted free agent after that deal expires. He had 60 points in 81 games last year. Now his camp had made it known, his agent, Pat Brisson,

he did want to play for the Habs. He did a press conference the other day on his Zoom call. He sort of downplayed it. He says, you know, yeah, I think everybody focused on that because I was at the draft. And he said, I live 15 minutes away. I'm a hockey fan. I went to the draft.

I wanted to check it out. So, you know, he kind of downplayed that whole, like, I want to play a Montreal thing. Now, Whit, if you were a gm would you consider dealing for a guy who's made it known that he pretty much has his hot set on on another team this is a tough one and i i got a couple thoughts on this first one being he's got to be one of the top players in the league who truly believes in himself because it's getting a little like, all right, you didn't like Columbus. You wanted to be in Winnipeg. You get to Winnipeg. Now granted the coach quits in the middle of the year,

the team's kind of in disarray right now, but you don't want to be there now. The thing is though, he's so confident in his own abilities that I think he doesn't really give a fuck what people think about him or what people say about him in terms of not really being happy wherever he is because he's willing to do this again. And this isn't easy to be a part of in terms of being on a team and making it very open that he didn't want to be there. You heard the comments about torts when he was doing it in Columbus

and how kind of frustrating it was for him as a coach and bringing up the whole aspect of like, we want guys who want to be here. Well, now it's the same case in Winnipeg. And yeah, if other teams do want him, which they do, because listen, this guy, he had 60 points on a team that really struggled. He's an incredible two-way center.

He's an incredible two-way center. Elite second line center in the National Hockey League. He can fight. He's very similar to Kachuk in a sense of like a power forward that can produce points that's a prick when he's out there. But, I mean, what's to say he doesn't get to the next spot? He's like, I don't want to fucking be here either. When this continues to go on, and granted, it's the second time,

it's just kind of like there has to be some apprehension in terms of GMs looking to trade for a guy who might possibly decide when he gets there, I don't want to be here anymore. I don't know if you agree with that, Biz. I think the first one, it really seemed like it was he just didn't really like playing for torts. That might not be what he said publicly. That was just the vibe that I got. that was just the vibe that I got. I think that it worked out that, that he was going to go to a Winnipeg team that looked like they were primed

to make playoffs and, and a good enough top nine where you thought I thought they were, could go on a run, you know? Yeah. Did they lack some guys on the back end, but they had, I'm drawing a blank on the net minor they have there who won the Vesna. Hellebuck. Hellebuck. Hellebuck. Thank you. A little brain fart. So he ends up going to Winnipeg.

I think his father was coaching in the minor league. So I don't think that that was necessarily the most desired landing spot for him, but it was an opportunity for him to get out of Columbus and go to a pretty decent squad. Now with the way that things seem to be unraveling a little bit, you hear about maybe the lack of chemistry in the locker room there. And he's saying, listen, with the cap going up, I'll sign a one-year deal. I'm going to make $6 million.

And at the end of next year, at the end of the year, or even at the deadline, he can get the fuck out of there. I don't think Winnipeg's the most desirable place to go. And it's the type of place to go and if it's the type of it's a type of place where you need players who want to play there and that's hard to find they have to essentially be homegrown do i agree with you in the sense that he's got to have the biggest gonads carrying around a wheelbarrow to have the jam to request a trade at a young age out of one place and then be there for a short period of time and then comments surface that he wants to go play in his hometown yes but at the end of the day this is where the league's headed

you just saw it with Matthew Kachuk not wanting to be there when he's you know restricted with one year left he had to to be in Calgary and now you're seeing it over and over with guys just being like hey I'm gonna be a little bit more vocal that I don't want to be here and it seems like guys are finding themselves out of the situations they don't want to be in. And I'm old school. I was just happy to be there. I also wasn't half the player that this kid is. So if you do have that type of jam and you maybe do see your hometown team and where you want to play on the rise, making good moves and one team going maybe the other way, I really can't blame them in this situation.

And now it's going to be up to Winnipeg to see what they can leverage in order to get a good return, much like Brad Tree Living did. So maybe they can call him and ask what he thinks. Sounds like Vegas and PLD are on a collision course. I don't want to be here. They don't want anybody. That'd be fucking hilarious if they traded for him. But all right, moving right along here. New Jersey defenseman Jonas Siegenthaler signed a five-year, $17 million extension.

Comes out to $3.4 million a year. The 25-year-old Swiss defender has become quite the shutdown D-man. He had 14 points in 70 games last year. But offense, not his game. What do you know about this kid? What can you tell? Absolutely nothing. Heard a lot of people that really like this signing in terms of the

analytical numbers. I don't really watch Jersey that much, and I don't know much about him. I'm going to be dead honest with you guys. Pasha. Pasha should fucking fill everyone in on his game. Very, very, very good shut down defenseman in um a not so much used role i think towards the second half of the season last year he started getting that top four defenseman role so what's really hard to to grade is new jersey had some

of the worst goaltending last year if not I think they ranked like 28th in the league. So if they like what they're seeing, it's just for a guy I've never even heard of and a guy who really hasn't played that much to give that much term. All right, let's see it. But I've also been hearing a lot about this New Jersey team. I think I shit on him last episode about no team making my dick softer than the new jersey devils i'm gonna rescind my comment just a tad and say there has been so much speculation around this team from their own fan base let me see what you got guys i'm gonna give it one more year and i might even say you know

what i'm willing to put them in the playoff picture just to say at the end of the year when they don't make it, stop selling me on this fucking bullshit. Well, speaking of their goaltending, they did come to terms with their new goalie, Vitek Vanacek, signed him to a three-year, $10.2 million deal. Also comes up to $3.4 million a year. He'll be unrestricted after that. Was that maybe what a slightly higher number than you expected for a guy with 79 games played that's the fucking way the league's going now man there's no

sample size just give them fucking contracts and like the 90s listen jack hughes is jack hughes and he's gonna light the league up and you know whatever they paid him fine i'm not gonna bitch about it but at the time in which they signed him to his deal he was nowhere near 100 games played so they've created this um this standard inside that organization to where it's like yo play good for half a season i'm gonna give you the bag you're gonna be fucking you're gonna be shopping at louis for your underwear now right underwear and socks you're not going back to anything haynes you're you're going straight gucci the way the way hughes played this year though

it's like eight million a year might end up being a bargain of a hundred percent but it's just like look at all these deals they're throwing out with how i know and and vanachek he still very young was in washington last year they were having goaltending issues they were trying to get guy a guy at the deadline they try to get flower one of their arch nemesis that's how desperate they were so they end up getting darcy kemper and and and i guess no need for vanachek blah blah blah but let's see what this kid's got. They have a lot of young studs, apparently, in this pipeline of the New Jersey Devils.

They had, as I mentioned, some of the worst goaltending last year. Let's see if this all turns around. Let's see if they get that healthy lineup back. Hamilton's going to be fucking back and primed and ready to go, making nine and a half sheets a year. They've thrown out a lot of dough over the course of the last 13 months i want to see a fucking playoff team and if we don't i don't want to hear one more fucking new jersey fan online harping about oh yeah the future's bright the future's right shut the fuck

up pasha bitch stop hitting me up with your fake bot accounts speaking of of the Capitals quickly, Nicholas Backstrom, I believe. Did you see his wedding? Did you see the clips of his wedding? No. Oh, the boys getting after it in the pool? I think it was his wedding, right, R.A.? Yeah, it was his wedding over in Sweden. Oh my god, that looked like the biggest time

I've ever seen. I think Swedish weddings are banana land. Klingbergs look like a blast on Instagram, too yeah it's pretty wild i think every swedish hockey player got married this offseason seriously yeah exactly uh nino niederreiter signed uh with the preds he signed a two-year eight million dollar deal the 29 year old forward had uh 44 points in 75 games last year this is about where you had him pegged with, $4 million, maybe a two-year deal. At times, he looks great.

Yeah, pretty versatile guy out there. Helps the team out. I think the moves that Poyle, he continues to make the team relevant. Yeah. Right? Like, you're thinking, ah, they got Duchesne and Johansson signing these bad – well, they have bounced back years. They got incredible goaltending now.

They got Roman Yossi. Now they add McDonough. So they got some help on the back end. Now they got a guy who's a great two-way player. Is he the most offensive? No, but he's another good piece. I'm very impressed with what Poyle is able to do year over year and continue to make that Nashville team

relevant so I see them making playoffs again and a great addition and a guy also coming back over from a winning culture where was he he went from Minnesota to Carolina to Carolina now to Nashville correct yeah started with the Islanders I believe Islanders

to Minnesota wow yeah okay I never even knew he was with the Islanders, I believe. Islanders to Minnesota. Oh, wow. Okay, I never even knew he was with the Islanders. Oh, shit. Okay. Another one for you, Biz. Sammy Kapanen re-upped with Pittsburgh. Two-year, $6.4 million deal. Right about where you had a peg, Biz, probably.

This guy needs to take another step. I'm not crazy about his game. He disappears for a handful of games at a time. He's got the group around him to have a good enough support cast to where he doesn't need to drive his own line. He just needs to figure out how to contribute on a game-to-game basis in other areas. And, yeah, I don't know if I would have signed him,

but let's see what he can bring to the table next year. Okay, a couple more notes before we get to Kylo Poso here. Edmonton's Yessi Pugliavi signed a one-year $3 million deal. There's lots of trade speculation with him. So I'll keep you up to date. Step it up. Let's see. Some big news on the coach in front as well.

The San Jose Sharks made David Quinn their next head coach. Of course, he last coached the Rangers back from 2018 to 2021. Former BU player hiring a former bu player and coach uh what you surprised at all at this so you kind of expected given all i love it i love it and you heard david quinn's name involved possibly with the bruins they went with another former college hockey player in jim montgomery i listen i'm biased i'm i'm good friends with mike greer i consider myself good friends with David Quinn. I think he's going to do a phenomenal job.

He took a brunt of, like, hate from these moron Rangers fans. It was like he didn't build the team that was then out-muscled and had to deal with the Tom Wilson Panera thing. It was like he took so much hate for a Rangers team that was kind of overachieving in a sense for how many young guys they had and how many young guys he was forced to play Quinney's been an amazing coach at every single level he's been at and I think he's really you know his work cut out for him in San Jose as careers he does but that's a great guy to have a younger group with some contracts they need to figure out well Brent Burns is gone but some other

ones that are tough to deal with. But that's a great coach that'll be able to at least help that direction get in the right spot. And also there's rumors that another close personal friend, Ryan Wasowski, who won the Calder Cup this year with Chicago, he's interviewing for the possible assistant coach job there. So I'd love to see that. A Massachusetts kid who hopefully gets his chance to be in the nhl and as an assistant coach and that's a team san jose because of those three guys if wasovsky ends up

there i 100 will be rooting for i couldn't agree more with those idiot rangers fans if they don't like them i love them quinny the man rocket i wish them all the success in san jose in fact i bet you that they finish higher than the new york rangers next year those fucking bums yeah uh buddy weeks he with uh with that scoop on ryan wasovsky uh let's see the la kings will retire former captain dustin brown's number 23 on february february 11th of next season the team is also going to unveil a statue of him as well uh shocked not shocked about the jersey retirement the stats the statue it's like dustin brown i think he was an 03 draft Shocked. Not shocked about the jersey retirement. The statue is intense. The statue, it's like, Dustin Brown, I think he was an 0-3 draft pick. And, Biz, correct?

He was your draft, right? 0-3? Yeah. He's an 0-4, but was drafted an 0-3. He's an 84, but he was great. He's an 84. So, what a career he had. And he went there when the Kings were down in the dumps, and he's the captain of two Stanley Cup winning teams.

Jersey retirement, no questions asked. But we've long talked about statues and who gets statues. And for me, if I look at the LA Kings and their two Stanley Cup runs, I go Drew Doughty, Andrzej Kopitar, Jonathan Quick, Dustin Brown. So maybe they have a plan of justin williams even ahead of him yeah game seven maybe they have a plan of kind of those four guys like smaller statue for each guy all together in terms of those four being the true um core of those two standing cup winning teams but i've said before statues are are Lemieux, Gretzky, Jordan.

It's like Brady someday in New England. And I was surprised about the statue. Now I'll have to see the statue. If it's a giant Jordan one, then I'm really kind of blown away. If it's a smaller one that has some other guys that I mentioned involved in it someday, I'd understand a little bit more. Yeah, the mini statue. I like the mini statue.

Nonetheless, what a career. Yeah, no doubt. Like, for instance, like Bergeron, Marchand, who else? Maybe Tim Taunus. Give him a couple mini statues outside of the garden. Yeah, well, I don't know if he could do a mini statue of his Z, but he's another name. Maybe put Marchand on top of Bobby Orr's shoulder on the statue.

No, Marchand's giving him a wet willy hey but hey like you said well deserving the jersey retirement guys he led them to two stanley cups and he was money in playoffs he played that playoff style game um so i mean fuck that's a that's a team that had never won anything and didn't have much tradition other than having gretzky around uh going to the finals the one year against the montreal canadiens so you know when when you've you've done when you've raised the cup a couple times i mean you gotta you gotta pay homage to the captain and the guy who led you there uh also the king said uh hyatt manon rayoma is a hockey operations prospect advisor so congr congrats to the former chick. Let's guess Manon Rayoma.

Big historic figure in women's hockey, no doubt. But boys, I think it's about time we send it over. Kyle Oposo. This is great that we were just in Buffalo. The Buffalo fans, I know we haven't had a ton of interviews for them lately. This is a special interview. This is a special guy, a terrific human being. I know Whit spent a lot of time when I'm out in the golf course.

So we're going to send it over to him. First, we want to let you know that his interview was brought to you by Roman. Testosterone affects a lot of aspects of men's fitness and health, from sex drive to muscle and bone mass. The experts believe testosterone plays a huge role in our body's natural function. But men's testosterone starts to deplete with age, which is why it's important you support it early. Roman tea support is meant to help men maintain their body's natural testosterone production with the proprietary supplement formulated by Roman's in-house doctors. Roman tea support contains a blend of six nutrients,

including ashwagandha to support healthy testosterone levels magnesium to support muscular health vitamin d3 a fat soluble vitamin that plays a role in bone health and supports several cellular processes zinc an important trace mineral in the body that plays a role in muscle development roman tea support is not testosterone replacement therapy and it is not meant to treat people with testosterone deficiency syndrome. So go to GetRoman.com slash chicklets to get $15 off your first order of Roman tea support. That's GetRoman.com slash chicklets. One more time, GetRoman.com slash chicklets and now enjoy Kyle Oposo. Okay, it's time to bring on our guest he was taken seventh overall by the new york islanders at the 2006 draft and spent his first nine nhl seasons

on long island he then signed a free agent deal with the sabers and has been here in buffalo for the last six seasons it's an absolute pleasure to welcome to the spit and chicklets podcast kyle oposo how's it going, Kyle? Really good. Thanks for having me, guys. Thanks for giving me that pronunciation correct. You're too nice of a guy to correct people, huh? Yeah, well, they've been getting it wrong my whole life. And I don't know, I was probably 15 when I stopped telling people that the K was silent because it's just, it would take too long.

All right. No, people are like, we're doing it now because we know what annoys you. I just found out you're allergic to beer. I am allergic to beer. It's basically the only thing that I'm allergic to. I'll have an asthma attack. So red wine and tequila for me. All right.

Well, we just launched our new beer. I was going to hand you one, though, but we don't want to kill you. So I guess I'll just crush yours. That's all right. As long as you guys got a nebulizer, I'll be okay. What have you been doing? For some of you, I know you're a big golf guy. What else have you been up to?

We just spent three weeks down in Florida. We went to Disney World, took the kids there. Or Disneyland. I don't know which one's which. But the one down in Florida. So that was fun. A bit of a gong show with the kids. Did you get the VIP thing?

Yes, we did. Imagine not having that thing. No, absolutely not. Like, this gal took care of us, and, you know, I didn't have any idea. We didn't even have park tickets when we contacted them. We didn't know we had to have park tickets because we just figured you'd walk up and get your tickets. You pay all this for the VIP, and they're like, no, no, no, you're still going to buy the daily park pass. The place is an absolute disgrace.

It's a factory. It's fun for the kids, though. It's a factory down there. Like, they run things like X It's a factory. It's fun for the kids, though. It's a factory down there. They run things like X, Y, Z. It's just on point. But yeah, it was fun for the kids, and then we spent a couple weeks in Naples at my in-laws' place. And yeah, then back here for the summer. Yeah, nice neck of the woods down there. We always start on the show, go back to the early days.

Now, did you play forward from the jump when you started playing hockey? I actually played defense growing up. I started when I was seven, a little bit late. And I played an organization called Highland Central in St. Paul. And the team wasn't great. And it was kind of the only way that I got to touch the puck was to play D. And so and then I started playing in the summers, ended up going to the brick tournament with the Minnesota Blades. And that's kind of how I got hooked up with the Minnesota 88s. We had a couple good guys on that team. Yeah, Eric Johnson, you.

Who else is a part of that group? Peter Mueller. Jamie McBain. Yeah, Mike Carman. We had some really good guys on that team. So Mueller was the fifth pick, your draft? He's the eighth. Oh, eighth.

You went ahead of him. Suck on that one. So yeah, so anyway, so then I played Ford Suck on that one. So, yeah. So, anyway. So, then I played forward in the summer, D in the winter. And then, yeah, the rest is kind of history. What age would you start separating yourself from the pack? Excuse me, Miles. I don't know.

I would say probably around 15. Like, I just worked hard when I was a kid. I wasn't ever more talented than anybody. And my first love wasn't hockey. Like, I loved basketball. I'd be out in the driveway pretending I was a kid. I wasn't ever more talented than anybody. And my first love wasn't hockey. I loved basketball. I'd be out in the driveway pretending I was Michael Jordan for hours playing basketball. Did you play that in the winter as well? Yeah, I actually quit hockey when I was 13.

I didn't play in the winter. I was in eighth grade, switched schools. And the school that I was at wouldn't let me try out for the high school team. They wouldn't let me try out for varsity, so I just said, screw it, I'm playing football and basketball, and so I didn't play hockey that year. Were you far and above better at hockey than the other sports, or were you even better at the other ones? No, so when I was 14, or that summer, I was actually 13, I was all set to go to a local

school in St. Paul, local high school, and football would have been my number one sport. And, like, I was a good football player, and then literally middle of August, I'm sitting there, and J.P. Parisi had seen me play in the summer, and he wanted me to go to Shattuck. And so he was recruiting me down there, and I literally decided in the middle of August, I was like, I kind of want to play hockey, and that's why I decided to go to Shattuck. Yeah, I wanted to ask you about Shattuck. Everybody thinks Crosby put it on the map,

but you had a 176-point season there. No way. What? What was that all about? Who were you playing with? You didn't even play hockey the year before. I did not play hockey the year before that. So that was my Bantam year.

That was my first year there, and Sid was there. And so Sid was 15, I was 14. And so he was playing prep, and I was playing Bantam. And I arranged my classes that year. So the prep team practiced eighth and ninth period. And I arranged my classes so I had eighth period off. So every single day I'd walk to the rink and go watch Sid practice because it was it was unbelievable and like so we were we were friends

and um but I would just watch and practice every day just to like be a sponge and learn from him and one story about Sid I don't know if he remembers this but we had biology together Monday mornings. And one weekend, I think I had 20 points in a weekend. And they went in a different tournament, and he had 16. And he was pissed. Come on. He was mad. Yeah, he was like, how many points did you have? I was like, I had 20 points, whatever.

And so the next weekend, I think he had 25. Just turned it on. He's like, how many points did you have? I don't know, eight, 25. Suck on that. Was it him telling us the story, or was it McKinnon when they were training together? When Sid beat him the first nine sprints, and then Mack got a step ahead of him, and then Sid just grabbed his leg and pulled him down so Sid could finally win the 10th of the 10 that he won.

So he's tapped a little bit different. Yeah, he's just a competitor, and he just loves it, loves the game, loves to compete. I do that Vail camp most years and train with Andy O'Brien. I know you guys know him. He's just wired differently. He's just ultra, ultra competitive. I mean, you guys know he played.

Did his next year he go to Rimouski? Yeah. So that was just the – his next year he go to Rimouski? Yeah. So that was just the, all right. So you just, you saw this one year where he was already like an enormous story in the hockey world. And you just got to witness it. He was a stud. Like, they would play against, we went to France. We went to Paris that year.

And I remember they were playing against a men's team over there. And Sid was 15. And just like dominating. Dominating this men's team in France. And it was so much fun to watch. And yeah, he left that next year, and then Johnny Taves came in the next year, and we played together for a couple years.

Had he already been hooked up with Andy O'Brien at that age? That was when he got hooked up with him. He got hooked up with him, I believe, through this guy named Pat O'Brien, who's a Cairo there, and somehow they got connected when he was at Shattuck and that's when he met Andy and we and we kind of were going into it over dinner last night just how he's able to constantly evolve and I don't know if there was like an agreement that was worked out between Sid and Andy and the fact that like they were going to work

together their entire career and they kind of just he has to focus on Sid a certain amount of his time yeah I don't know what the exact relationship is but yes Sid Sid has has priority there and and as he should and he's got him on speed dial and he's like I'm going to a wedding no you're not we're doing sprints tomorrow Andy they're doing their dynamic warm-up on the dance floor with the bride or groom are doing their song yeah it's awesome. I know Minnesota is obviously a hockey-mad state, but do you guys play 75 games in a high school schedule? Yeah, well, it's different. It's not real high school, so we don't play against the regular.

No, we don't go to the state tournament because we recruit. We played a couple exhibition games against Holy Angels and Benilde St. Margaret's, and one of the years we absolutely waxed them. But the other year it was actually crazy. So everybody in Minnesota, like nobody liked Shattuck, right? Yeah, because it's a public school state where everyone plays for your town. Yeah, everybody's like, fuck these guys. Like I don't want them to do well.

So we played Holy Angels and it was at their home rink. And we ended up winning in overtime. Like, the place is packed, and we won in overtime 4-3, and, like, we were a better team than them, but it meant more to them. And our coach comes in after, and he gave it to us bad. He's just like, you get these games, they mean so much to them, and you guys need to rise to that level. And he basically said, like, we have nothing to gain from playing these games, they mean so much to them, and you guys need to rise to that level. And he basically said, like, we have nothing to gain from playing these games,

but you guys have to learn how to win these games. You've got to learn how to win. And so Tom Moore, he's still there. Yeah, he's awesome. He taught me a lot about how to be a man for sure. And then I noticed that for the most part, you know, usually you stay in school in Minnesota, but you went to the USHL to Des Moines. You told me it was kind of a funny story how you ended up there.

Yeah, they actually, so I went, I told them that I wasn't going to go because I wanted to go to Omaha, and they had the number two pick in the draft. And so I told them before the draft I wasn't coming, and Reg Simon, who was the gm coach there just they took me at at one and so i i was policy moved by yeah i was bummed out about that and then i went for a visit um that summer and i loved it and so ended up ended up going there it was a tough decision to leave shattuck but our team was kind of getting dismantled at that point and i figured it was it was time for the next step before I went to University of Minnesota so because you and

Taves were going to be seniors at Shattuck but he he accelerated yeah Johnny accelerated um is he that smart to be able to do that he's uh he's smart in a lot of different areas um on the ice yeah he's a he's he's probably the best leader that i've ever played with best hockey leader that i've ever played with and one story about that we were in culver and our coach he had we had no nonsense whatever like and nobody's ever worn a letter at chattick it's just not something that they do and wordle came in and we were playing our rivals culvert before the game and he he looked around the room and he goes some of you guys need to start playing like this guy and he pointed at johnny and it was like the ultimate admission that this guy just had

something different like he's just got something different as a leader yeah it was pretty cool did you play on a line with him at all we never played together no we just power play but um yeah that was it he played with uh michael gergen and ryan duncan that first year for sure so and then oh at des moines playoff mvp top rookie won the clock cup so going into the draft what were your expectations going in um i don't i actually thought i was going to i thought either pittsburgh was going to trade down and take me because i had some good conversations with them or i was going to go six to columbus or eight to phoenix um and i wasn't expecting to go to the islanders and they actually did a psych test before um they were the only team to do it so i was working

out at the university of minnesota at the time and like a bunch of us had to do it and apparently i did well on that i don't like a written exam yeah it was like a written do one of the rangers they sent me a packet about this thick and it was all these ridiculous questions no wonder they didn't was that was that was that the like was that what they did or did did they do a live test? No, it was like a written exam. So all of us were in the weight room, like in this back room, taking that written test. Apparently I did well on it, and they liked me.

So, yeah, I went seven to the Islanders. But before, at the draft, and their pick's coming up, did you still at that time think, no way I'm going here, and then all of a sudden your name's called? Or had you heard? Yeah, no way I'm going here, and then all of a sudden your name's called? Or had you heard? Yeah, no, I had no idea. And then it was like from Des Moines to the USHL, and I'm like, wow. It was just a pretty surreal moment.

I wish I had done something a little differently with my hair. Oh, I've got to look up that picture. We did the whole junior hockey thing, right? So it's like dye your hair blonde for playoffs. Everybody kind of does it, And I had a huge fro. And so I had a blonde fro for playoffs in Des Moines. And then instead of chopping it off like I usually do, like it's short, I decided to try and dye it back.

And so it turned out like this orangish fro that I had at the draft. It was bad. It could be a stupid question by me. I just can't think. Is there a higher draft pick from the USHL? Vanek, I believe. He was picked out of the USHL. Oh, my God.

I think so. Picture your hair, dude. It's bad. It matches the orange in the Islanders logo. Oh, that's not too bad. No, it's way better than business. You look like it's Pat. It's Pat.

Did they make any hockey cards from this picture? I don't know they they posted my combine picture and i got a lot of those texted to me like wow tough tough look bud what's your background um like nationality yeah yeah national yeah so my dad grew up in nigeria um and my mom's from small town in minnesota perham and so my dad came to this country when he was 16. And he went to boarding school in Nigeria from when he was 5 to when he was 16. He accelerated and graduated two years early. And then he wanted to get an American education.

He wanted to go to a U.S. college. So my grandfather wanted him to stay in Nigeria. And so he sent him to Duluth, Minnesota in the middle of January. After only being in Nigeria, yeah, my dad never went back. No way. Wow. I mean, he obviously went back to visit, but he stayed in this country. So he's a scientist for a pharmaceutical company now.

Oh, wow. Those are the people who usually can skip grades. Johnny Tave skipping grades for hockey. Well, even when he said Crosby met you at biology or chemistry or something, no way Sid was going to classes. Sid actually accelerated two, I think. Yeah, exactly. So you went to the University of Minnesota.

Was there an issue when Islanders didn't like the coaching staff there and why you had to end up moving or something like that or is that um when i went to the islanders i like yeah when you sign you sign mid-season maybe after 18 games in college yeah and this season was it the coach was it the money was it so the internet said it was the coach the coaching so i'll just i'll just leave it over to you so i wanted to leave leave after my freshman year at the University of Minnesota and had a good year, and I wanted to turn pro. I didn't care if I went to the minors and played. I just wanted to go on to the next step.

And the Islanders did everything by committee at that point. So it was Charles Wong had a vote and Gar Snow and Ted Nolan, and I'm not sure who else, maybe some of the scouts. Ricky DiPietro. He was in the brass meetings. He was the final decision. Crazy story how he became GM, but that's a different one. But so, yeah, so everybody had a vote.

And Ted Nolan at the time was the coach. He wanted me to go to Seattle and play major junior, and I was just like, that's a lateral move. Yeah, that makes no sense. I'm not going to do that, so I went back to school, and then I was playing center at the University of Minnesota. They drafted me as a winger, and they called that Christmas, and I was having a bad year.

I had a bad attitude, and I went back not in a good frame of mind and I had a really tough year a tough start to that season so they called me at Christmas right before I went to World Juniors and they were like we want to sign you we want you to come out of school and I'm like now like I it was it was one of the toughest decisions that I had in my life up to that point for sure um you know I felt bad leaving the team I really did and but the end of the day, I decided that it was the right thing for me to do, and that's how I signed and then played the rest of the season. Did it have to do with the fact that the coach was being stubborn where he wanted you as a centerman, where you were a natural winger?

No. Well, it was kind of. I mean, I was just playing center basically out of necessity. We just didn't have a ton of centers at the University of Minnesota. And I like playing center, too. Like, you get a lot of touches. You just didn't have a ton of centers at the University of Minnesota. I like playing center too. You get a lot of touches. You're around the puck a little bit more.

And I could do it in college. But going to the NHL is obviously a different thing, and they wanted me to kind of play at my natural position. I was looking at highlights. You scored one of those between-the-legs goals like 16 years ago. Had you seen someone do that and then decide to try it? Were you the first guy to do it what's up with that um i don't know when i saw somebody doing that but i actually did that in high school and i think we're beating a team like six to one and this goes back to tom ward as a coach there and i did it and i scored and i got back to the bench and wardo taps me on the back and he

goes hey nice goal bud don't ever fucking do that again yeah yeah and like major league and i was like that's how different it was then though now like you just nobody says a word to you even if you don't score on it back then even if you scored it wasn't even allowed oh yeah don't be scaling it up too much kevin hayes is gonna score some filthy lacrosse goal this year torts gonna bench him yeah no it was so i i don't know where i saw that just something he practiced i guess but yeah i did it in college and yeah i was i don't know i was a little bit cocky at that point i think i said something going by their bench and that was not the right so when you when you ended up coming out of college and you did sign did you go right to the Islanders or did you play in the minors for a little bit?

I played 30 games in the minors. I went right to Bridgeport, and Jack Capuano was my first coach there. Who's awesome. Great guy. He's awesome. Looks like a mobster. He looks like he belongs in the Sopranos. Yeah, he does.

Straight out of the Goodfellas. Yeah, so I went to bridgeport for 30 games and then i played the last nine games of the year so it didn't burn a year um and then uh never went back except after my first year i played two playoff games in bridgeport before i went to world championships because snowy told me i had to do that so i didn't have to go to dev camp the next summer oh that was the rule that was, I'll do anything to get out of that. Yes. So in that NHL games that year, is that when you scored your first goal? Or was it the next season?

No, I scored my first goal my second game. So Pasha, our boy Pasha, was at the game. It was against Brodeur in New Jersey, right? That's right. That's crazy. Yeah, it was Mike Motto gave me a little cross-check in front of the net. We were on the power play. 1-1 game.

It was like five minutes left or something. And Mike Motto gave me a little cross-check, and my helmet popped off. I don't know how my helmet came off. It should not have come off from that cross-check. And I kind of meandered out to the slot, and Richard Park kind of fed it to me in the middle, and I one-timed it home past Marty Brodeur. No helmet on. No Bucky.

I think he's the last guy to ever do it because now you can't do it anymore. Oh, fuck, dude. That rule drives me absolutely nuts. First goal. I had this going. I had just chopped it off for charity. So, Parkey thought that I had scored and ripped my helmet off and, like, sellied like that.

So, he was like, what are you doing kid but yeah pretty cool moment so on that island this team a pair of veterans on that squad uh dougie wait and billy garren you must have just been like what the christ did he first got to the league yeah it was uh there was no shortage of laughter in the room that's for sure i mean these guys were just old school and they i know you guys have interviewed billy and but the way that they go back and forth with each other is unbelievable it's just you just non-stop laughter um and you know it's just funny like i just remember old school lunches like that was kind of my aha moment when i was like oh man this is just different where you know we'd land somewhere and billy'd be like you're to this bar, mandatory one beer, whatever. You can stay for one, you can stay for 20.

I'll be here for 20. Yeah, it was just cool, cool seeing those guys. Another player that you bonded with, John Tavares. You guys played on the line together. You guys are still good friends. It must have been a good time with him. Yeah, it was good. He taught me a lot about what it takes to work.

And there's nobody that's more dialed in than this guy. Yeah, he's a hockey nerd, but not in an insulting way. He's all in. We're going golfing, and he's got prepared food at hole 6, at hole 12, and after the round. He's got the IV on the cart just getting his vitamins booze his is with water no yeah he's he's dialed in and he so when i after my fourth year whatever um i had a tough year to lock out season i scored four goals in 48 games and i was kind of at a crossroad in my career and and like i stayed with him for i think a couple weeks in the summer and i

like saw his diet i saw how he did things and it changed my career because i just said no shit i'm not gonna be average anymore i i hated where i was at and i wanted to just be it be an excellent player and not be average and so that that season where was was the training not where it needs to be was the diet bad was it needs to be was the diet bad was it like little things off the ice that led to the poor play or was it also like a snake bitten type year no it was off the ice like i i wasn't in a good frame of mind mentally and so that was when my body changed too like i gained 10 pounds in a week in like august that year and i didn't do anything differently in my diet. It was just like my body changed, my metabolism changed.

And I was like, oh, man, like, I got to figure this out. But I didn't know what happened. And it wasn't until the next summer that I realized that, like, okay, you got to change the way that you eat. You got to do different things. No shit. So all of a sudden, the metabolism, like, as you get a little older, something happened where you're not killing, you're not losing, like, calories and weight as quickly as you used to. Yep. And then you were heavy all season just sucking four goals.

I had more goals that year, I think. Yeah, it was bad. And then I had a good playoffs. That was the first year we made the playoffs, and we played Pittsburgh in the playoffs and had a good series. And I actually changed agents that year. I hired a skills guy. That's when I started working with Andy too.

So I just kind of made a conscious decision to try and transform myself and and become a become a great player now that it's gone we can talk about the coliseum not not talking about the fans how bad of a building was that to play in i love the collie okay like man it's a great great home run unbelievable terrible away barn like you look down at the rooms, and you guys are walking in, like, those little towels across to the change room. It was so bad. I'll tell you what, though.

The Ice Girls, I don't know if they were there when you first started, but, fuck, they had the best Ice Girls in the league. No, they didn't. They had the twins. It was Dallas, Chicago. We're not going to Long Island for the best Ice Girls. No, no. They had, like, a set of twins there. They best ice girls. No, no, they had like a set of twins there.

They smelled so good. No, they smelled so good. They would go by the bench. Everybody would be looking down at each other. There's an old story at the Coliseum, and I want to say it involved the Pittsburgh goalie where he ended up crushing one in the locker room when he was the backup. Yeah, because they sat down by themselves.

Yes. They sat at the exit of the arena the eggs yes so yes best ice girls in the league and then they took them away because you know i don't know i guess it's offensive to have ice girls they had to start adding the guys you can't tell the story biz yeah i can't confirm that story but um come on get into the ice girl the uh so when we played pitts Pittsburgh in the playoffs in 13 or 12, the lockout year, whatever it was, we were staying at the Marriott across the street. And I woke up at 7 and the parking lot was packed. We had a 12 o'clock game that day.

The parking lot was packed. Like, obviously hadn't been in the playoffs in a while. It was game three. And we had a noon game. So we go to the rink and we get off the ice for warm-ups, and we're sitting there, and the benches were shaking in the locker room. That's like, it's just an old-school barn, and it's still the loudest rink I've ever played in.

That game, game three. And I think that they're not allowing them to do the tailgating at the new arena like they used to do outside the college. Well, there's 14 speakeasies inside. I think they have to do outside the college. Well, there's 14 speakeasies inside. I think they have to do it in there. Well, there's also 14 highways around the new arena at UBS. But, yeah, playing there, it was such a grind going in. And the teams, there were some lean years there.

So it wouldn't even be that packed. But then as the team got better and then these recent runs before they switched arenas, it was like, now you see why in the 80s this place was probably just insane yeah it was rocking like playoffs there were were pretty cool but yeah we had we did have some lean years um i remember there was a big snowstorm one time and we had probably there was probably like 4 000 people in the building maybe frankie barelli and they announced they announced on the loudspeaker the pa PA system, that everybody can move down. You're like, everybody move down to the lower bowl if you want to.

It was crazy. You were there for nine years, then you left to sign the deal here. Was it tough to leave after nine years, or are you welcoming a change at that point? It was hard. We built something that I think was really special. I grew up with a ton of those guys, and we were tight. Like, we were a tight team. We went through the tough years, and we were just getting good.

We had back-to-back 100-point seasons. Like, we were close. And it was myself, Franz Nielsen, and Matt Martin that all left that year, and it changed the framework of the team. And I never got offered a deal. Really? That must have hurt you yeah i was i was i was bombed and i actually gm then snowy i'm sorry i'm still snowy i'm sorry i had eye surgery actually i did detach retina like a year and a half before and i think they were a little concerned about that um which is which is totally valid but but yeah so they didn't offer me a deal. It was hard leaving, but Buffalo is really high on my list, actually.

They had, like, factors here, like O'Reilly and Ikes, where they're one-two centers. And I'm like, man, this team's going places. This team's on the rise. So that was a big reason why I signed. What were some of your most memorable memories from the Islanders? Like any funny stories off the ice that you always like to tell? Well, we had one where we were in a rut.

We weren't playing well, and we had a rookie party, and we were taking a bus to Atlantic City. So we got thumped, I think, like 6-0 the night before. And so snowy the next day. So we had practice at like 11, whatever. We had practice at 11, and then we were going to take the bus to AC. And so we practiced at 11, and then we're sitting there in the locker room, and they're like, you guys got to work out.

We're like, come on. They're just delaying it, right? You can delay the inevitable. We're still going. Yeah. So we have a workout, and they're like, you on. They're just delaying it, right? You can delay the inevitable. We're still going. Yeah. So we have a workout, and they're like, you guys can't leave yet. And we're like, the strength coach says this to us. We're like, what do you mean you can't leave?

And he's like, I don't know. It's coming from up top. So we literally sat. He held us there until 3.30. So we had to sit and rush our traffic to go to AC. That's a fucking asshole move. And so we were. Yeah, I had a tough one that that was a tough uh tough rookie party for me but that'll just create more morale for the guys to get even more

banged up on the bus we got a helicopter yeah that was a good one um i don't know we just we just had such a such a tight-knit group like it was i loved my years there like i i really had a had a blast were you surprised tavara's left or just the love of toronto right like he's almost kind of inevitable a little bit i think that he had such a pull to to being somebody who he like toronto's different right you guys know you guys have been around the game like these fans are they're different it's a different market it's like montreal it's like the same thing hockey's a religion there and when you grow up in that environment when you grow up in that market and you have a chance to go play there and to go be a difference maker into helping

them win a cup after 50 years like i think that pull was just too strong. And Johnny's, he wasn't planning on leaving, but I think that that pull subconsciously was just too strong. Was the dynamic of the ownership and his friendship with DiPietro and all that, would you guys joke around about it in the locker room? Did it create distractions? No, it didn't create anything like ricky's ricky was great like he had his good days and his bad days but i loved ricky he always treated me really well and um i know it was really hard for snowy the whole situation like when ricky got like he was

hurt like he couldn't his body wouldn't allow him to play anymore right but it was a really tough decision for snowy because they were so close like they were best friends and so for him to to do what he did when you have to take the emotion out of it in that job in that sense i thought i think it was really hard for him but no it didn't really affect us in the locker i'm like ricky was just one of the guys what was the story about him becoming the gm you're gonna tell um well i mean you guys know like ricky signed his deal um he signed his 15-year deal and were your guys jaws before when that went down like when you heard that were you guys like what the fuck well long did it like on the golf course or something well neil smith drafted me okay so neil smith was gm to draft me i think he was gm for 45 days something like that yep and so he drafts me and then ricky signs that deal and um neil smith didn't know anything about it

so like charles just goes to him he's like wait you just signed our goalie for 15 years he's like i quit i'm not doing it so then they were like so then obviously ricky and charles were very close and um they're like who are we going to get to be the GM? And Snowy had a year left on his deal. He's a backup goalie, and they were best friends. And Ricky's like, well, Snowy's always doing trades and looking at salaries and stuff in the back of the bus. Maybe we should look at him.

Snowy won our fantasy league last year. I was just going to say, he's fucking doing fantasy on Yahoo Sports. Now next thing you know he's a gm of a national league team that's how that all happened that's what happened and like so that's how he became the gm and you know to his credit snowy did a great job like snowy learned he had to learn on the fly right like nobody told him what to do like think of how much stuff goes into being a gm that you got to learn and but he did a great job he he learned on the on the fly and he ended up being a really good GM oh I mean like you talk about all the little things like

wasn't it Chicago where they forgot to send out offer sheets to guys or not I think Dale talent took the hit for that but I feel like that's probably on somebody else within the hockey office to make sure that was getting the mail but Billy Guerin just came out I saw him doing an interview on NHL Network. He's like, you just have no idea how much goes into this. You're getting pulled in a million different directions. Snowy just comes from playing to all of a sudden doing that. It is pretty impressive to kind of learn on the fly and realize, like,

wow, this isn't just, like, throw an offer in the trade machine online and see if it hits for my fantasy league. So all things considered i guess he did pretty good because he got you guys to where you were and you guys did end up having a bunch of success yeah for sure he he did do a good job and i think one of the things that maybe he struggled with was he just when you go from right being a player like you're still so emotional about the guys in the room right you still have all those ties to guys and it's it's hard to it's hard to cut those things off because in some sense i think when you're a manager obviously i'm not there but you got to be able to separate that

you got to be able to separate emotion from the job so and that same vein i guess there's still a lot of guys that you played with on that team where you kind of i know you're on a different team but sort of pulling for them when they were you know getting the playoffs playoff runs the last couple years not to put you in a weird spot but No, no. I think that, I mean, I know you guys have talked about it, but I think it's pretty natural when you switch teams, you know, you kind of want them to, like, suck a little bit, right? That's a normal human reaction, right? Like, and when I left that team, like, I was devastated and I wanted,

I really did want them to do well. And when they made their run, when they lost to Tampa, won nothing in game seven. I don't know if it was the first year or the second. I think it was the second year. I was going to game one of the finals. You were going? I would have gone, yeah. I already texted their PR guy like I was going.

Because I still have a lot of guys that I care about on that team. And it had almost been, what, four years at that point? Yeah, it had been a while. It's a little bit of like if it happened the next year, that's when you're just like, oh, God. Why do you know? Yeah, I know something about that. So Matty Molson, is he the godparents of your children?

Yes. So he's godfather. Him and Alessia are godfather to Ellie, to our oldest, and we're godfather to their son, George. And that friendship all began with the Islanders. I don't know how it worked out, whether it was you or Maddie, who ended up going over to Buffalo after first. Was that part of why you ended up signing there as well?

Not exactly. But, yeah, they were in Buffalo. So they got traded, I can't't remember i think it was a year after we after we made the playoffs one of the year i can't remember which year it was but um so he got traded i think 10 or 11 games in and he was on a heater like and our team was super tight and he was a glue guy in our room and but they just weren't going to sign him long term so they traded him for vanik, and that was pretty devastating. It was tough.

Until you got to play with Vanek. And hadn't he just had a kid, their son? George was born literally a week before, I think, or two weeks before. You're lighting it up. You're feeling great. Your newborn son, boom, traded. That's the business. Yeah, it's crazy.

And so he goes to Buffalo, and then he went to Mini later that year and then re-signed back in Buffalo. So when I signed in Buffalo, obviously, like, we called them and told them, and it was, I mean, obviously, we were super excited to be playing with them again. Like, that doesn't really happen, right? Like, you go through this business business you go through the game and you have you know one or two people that you truly truly connect with for the rest of your lives and they're them for us like they will be our forever friends like their family yeah so coming to buffalo um obviously got a nice deal

here but did you have other offers on the table that had come down on a handful of teams, or was it like Buffalo right away? I'm going to jump. Well, it was kind of a crazy day. If you guys remember, within 45 minutes, Weber got traded for Subban, and Hall got traded for Larson, and Stammer signed within 45 minutes. I was on a golf trip. I remember all that. I was on the golf course, actually, when that happened.

I was playing at a country club in Minnesota. And it was like my free agent, whatever, the negotiating period. So I was stressed as all get up. And then right when that happened, I had a call with them, I think, with Buffalo, because they were in on Stammer. And once Stammer signed, that's when Buffalo called, and the deal got done pretty quick. So they were kind of waiting for that domino to fall.

Yeah, there was – I figured it might have been with you. I was chatting, like, Stamkos almost did leave Tampa that summer. That was kind of crazy. He was fielding offers for sure, I think. And then, you know, I think they just kind of sold him on the no tax and, you know, building what he started. And, yeah, that was a crazy situation and it was uh you know a significant roster turnover different coaches but you've had

don granato for the last couple years it feels like there's some actual stability but how much be prior to that how much does that much turnover affect the team affect the locker room i think it has a pretty big impact on on how things run like it's you. I think I've had three different GMs here, and it's hard when you have turnover and you have somebody coming in with a new vision and people are running things different ways. It definitely affects the guys. But throughout the whole regime changes,

I think I've tried to do just a good job of just being myself and you know that's kind of where I've gotten to now is I went into last season and there was a lot of things going on and my whole thing was I'm just going to be unapologetically myself and that's how I try and live my life and you know it worked out and I think that you know we're in a really good spot. Kevin Adams mentioned I think that you're one of the best leaders he's ever been around in the game and going through these seasons and and we'll get into kind of your injury and what happened with you there it's probably been pretty tough to to have days when you have to show up and just like be positive even throughout all this kind of disaster throughout some of this run but what cracked me up yesterday was that you told

me when the season turned around last year it's because you guys started playing business quotes in the locker room get the fuck out of here there's a shit talking to me he's playing the videos i said i was gonna take a shit on chip wash street that probably did it i'm worried about getting shanked in this town right now we're sitting in the room and milsy comes in he's like did you hear what business saying i'm like no what's going on and he's just like it's like yeah business has been all over us i'm like why isn't he he's from well and like you're you're buffalo guy basically i was trying to i was trying to get the motivation back i needed to see what you guys were made of and i i think i turned the season around for you guys i should be like an honorary member of the team maybe i can get a 750 contract like every

other fucking guy on your team how many 750k deals were paid out 17 of them yeah no goalie for that last year but but like like last year halfway through the season it did seem like something just clicked and i know that and i don't know how much you want to dive into it the eichel situation and the trade once that was finally done it seems like there was a a big weight lifted off the organization, and you guys really thrived a lot more after that. Well, that situation was very stressful on everybody. Like, I love Jack.

He's a good friend of mine. And, like, obviously I have a job to do, and I'm a Sabres player. And Jack and I have had so many conversations, and we've talked about it so much, and the only person that's ever going to be privy to those is Jack. And he knows exactly how I feel about him. He knows I care about him, and he knows that I'll do anything to help him. And it was just such a difficult situation because for whatever reason,

the CBA was written to where the team had control of the final medical thing and as as a person obviously you're not going to let anybody tell you what to do with your body right so it was it was a rock and a hard place and i think that pat came in pat who's who's my agent he when he came in he did a great job of navigating the whole situation and him and Kevin worked really closely together to get that done in an amicable way and I I'm so happy that that Jack ended up getting the surgery and now he's healthy and um I think for our team and the way that it affected us like Kevin came in and was very very honest about what was going on right off the bat and so in the locker room, it didn't really affect us too much. Like, and Jack wasn't around, which sucked.

And it sucked not having him around. But, like, we just kind of were focused on playing. And that's just what we tried to do. So do you think that if that whole situation didn't go down of them wanting him to get the certain surgery. Do you think that that could have been like an amended relationship? Like do you think he could potentially still be a Buffalo Sabre if that wouldn't have went down? Possibly.

I think the only person that knows the answer to that is Jack. But, you know, it'd be different. You know, if he was able to get the surgery that he that he wanted maybe but um yeah i don't i don't know the answer to that okay sorry to put you in a tough spot there well just grilling them well no but you do talk about injuries and i mentioned quickly man you had a concussion that was really hard for you right i mean it it i think it led to some depression and like you know weight loss and things so how did that happen first off and then how tough was the road back and finally getting healthy again from something like that uh that

one changed my life and ended up changing it for the better but it was pretty scary so i was actually at a rehab skate and i was coming back i think i had broke my ribs and i was skating with will carrier and dennis miller who was our you know rehab coach at the time and we were doing a battle drill and i just got hit and my head hit the boards just like that like it wasn't anything nothing that violent or nothing crazy but my head hit the glass for people that are listening it just it just hit the glass sideways and i remember coming off the ice and i grabbed a shake i grabbed a shake and i hadn't had one of those shakes since college and i don't know why like it's just something happened in my brain where it just completely switched how i was thinking and how i was how i was processing and so i went into this mode of like i need to fix

everything i need to fix buffalo i need to fix the sabers i need to fix every relationship in my life i need to i need to do all these things and i couldn't way i couldn't stop and so i couldn't sleep it was a little manic almost i was i was manic that's what it was and so i didn't sleep for six days. And I essentially lost my mind. And then I could not sleep. I knew I needed to sleep, but I knew something was wrong with my neck. And I needed it fixed.

And I just couldn't shut it off. Must have been scary for your wife. Super scary. It was scary. I ended up in the ambulance. And I ended up calling Mark Lindsay, who's... Oh, the legend. He's a legend. Sean Horkoff told me about him, and people don't know.

What is he? A concussion doctor? He's like an everything doctor, right? He can do it all. He's a magic man. Yeah. He's a magic man. So that's how I got fixed.

So this was... So fast forward six weeks. I was on... So I ended up taking all these different drugs to just calm me down, like antipsychotics, antidepressants. Like I've never had any sort of mental health issues in my life, and that was my first bout of, you know, paranoia, anxiety, whatever you want to call it.

So I do do some things with mental health now after going through that experience like just and realizing what people go through like it's incredible that and then not having the ability to get help as good as you got right exactly exactly so so fast forward six weeks and i'm still on three different drugs i'm still on i don't know what they are antipsychotics antidepressants and i knew that something was still messed up on my neck. Like it never fixed the problem. It just masked it. Right. It's almost just trying to calm you down, but you still have the issue.

So I call Linz and I'm like, Linz, I need you. Like, I need you to fix me. So he's like, all right, we're going to take a chopper to Kingston. So we get in the helicopter and he's doing his thing. He's like, how are you doing? And I'm like, not good. Like, I'm super anxious, whatever. thing he's like how you doing and i'm like not good like i'm super anxious whatever and so we do some imaging of my brain and um get an mri and we look at those results and then he treats me

and like if this guy gets his hands on you you just it's just different like his hands are different and so he goes he goes in my mouth and he gets spot, and my eyes roll back in my head. And when I was in the hospital, I had seizures. And so he goes, that's the spot, buddy. And so he goes, if I take my hand off, you're going to have a seizure again. So he ends up treating me for like an hour and a half. And after he adjusted me, he treats me for an hour and a half, he after he adjusted me he finally he treats me for an hour and a half and then he finally gets the adjustment that he wants and i start balling i

started absolutely balling my eyes out and it was it was like a watershed moment like i went home and i slept on the couch for three hours and then i slept for nine hours at night it was a it was the first time i'd slept more than four hours in eight weeks. That story gives me fucking goosebumps. Holy fuck, dude. This guy's worked with Tiger Woods. I mean, he's like legitimately, I guess you could call him a Cairo, but I know like with Andy O'Brien, there's a connection there, right? He really has like changed people's lives.

Yeah. So how long after that did it take you to come back and start playing again? Did you just need to take some time away and just completely hit the reset button so i was super nervous because i didn't know if i was going to be able to sleep on the road like this is where my head was at like i didn't know if i was going to be able to go on the road and like go to bed because i needed a routine to go to sleep like i and because I was so scared that I was going to go back down this road of like not sleeping. And so that was like the only thing that was on my mind going into training camp was like, am I going to be able to go to sleep on the road? So I, I mean,

I had a tough season that year. It was hard to play for me. Um, but once I, once I figured out that I could, that I could play, then tried to um you know get back into it get back into that training that routine um that I had been in previously um but it took a while it took a while for me to feel comfortable again on the ice and um you know something that's something that I live with now and and um you know now know how to deal with but um yeah it was difficult getting back into it and and that's one of those things people see like some of the years, they don't really understand what people are going through. And now this year, you have just this big year, right? Like it must have felt so good for you to feel healthy again and get some confidence back and be such a leader

on a team where it's like, all right, I can still play at a high level. That must be pretty reassuring to you going into the next season. It cool it was really cool like just having the year that you know we had as a team i think we went into it or i went into it personally and like i try and make sure that everybody's okay like i try and take care of everybody else and but i made sure like you can't do that unless you're okay you can't you can't take care of anybody else it It's like the whole airplane thing. Like, put your mask on before you assist other people, right? And it seems counterintuitive sometimes to me, but I had to make sure that I was okay this year,

and that's all I did. I said, I'm just going to make sure that I take care of myself and make sure that I'm good. And, like, I had a routine that I stuck to. Like, literally every single day, you know exactly where to find me. I'm sitting there doing a crossword in the trainer's room. Fucking crossword, guys. You know you're a vet in the show if you're doing a crossword.

Flexing your brain muscles. Our whole team does them now. It's actually awesome. Even the young guys? They're different groups of guys. Google and the answer's done nowadays. Legs crossed. Legs crossed, coffee.

Just a pompous asshole. Oh, yeah, I did the Sunday in 15 minutes. You couldn't do the New York Times one. 15 days for you, Biz. Oh, yeah, I did the Sunday in 15 minutes. You couldn't do the New York Times one. 15 days for you, Biz. Oh, my God. And I read the article in The Athletic. Tremendous article, by the way, about the injury and what you went through. What was, for lack of a better word, incredible to me is, like, I hit like that.

Sort of, like, triggered these memories. And I know you didn't want to discuss the article of my childhood. It was just so crazy to me the way the brain operates that almost an innocuous hit like that kind of put you into this sort of tailspin all these things just came flooding back that I hadn't thought about in years and years and years and then you know they were so

clear and then all of a sudden they became distorted like you're in that mode for so long you're in that sympathetic you're using your sympathetic nervous system so much like your parasympathetics your rest and recovery and your sympathetics your fight and flight right so like you're in that sympathetic nervous system for so long that those memories become disjointed and then you can't decipher what's reality and what's not

and that's kind of the mode i was in but um yeah crazy crazy experience no those like were these things you were unaware of whether that you they were just buried so deep i was just always curious about like that that type of stuff buried very deep and stuff that for sure like shaped me as as to who the person i am today um but the stuff that you're not conscious of they're just buried so and everybody does it right everybody stuffs and that's it's such a bad thing and it's something that now in the locker room like i know it's super taboo right to talk about mental health and whatever like i don't like fuck that man like we in the room like i'm telling guys like if somebody's having a bad day i'm going over there and i'm asking how they're doing and like sometimes they tell me a lot sometimes they don't tell me that much, which is fine.

That's up to them. You know, I can't force anybody to share. But just as long as you know that you're in a space that you can be able to do that, I think is so important. And, like, that's something that I'm trying to change from the old school ways. Like, that's, I don't know. Do you have, like, exercises that you do in order so it doesn't compile the way that it maybe did at when when you went through your injury and everything really came to light for sure i i talked to different people um i mean number one is is my wife danielle like we've been best friends since we're 15 years old yes met at a movie theater yeah we met she played at saint cloud too i didn't know

that oh really last night she was also telling me about having to cook you every frigging pregame meal. I'm like, make the guy go to Olive Garden or something. She's like, no, no, no, no, no, no. Now I'm talking to you. I understand.

That's part of the process. Oh, geez. The ultimate slump buster, actually. It's the best. Me and Murr had 4,000 breadsticks one season

during the lockout. So she's been your rock. She's been my rock and we, like every night, every night that I'm home we sit there we put the kids to bed and we just talk for two hours and like that's my therapy right like it's you just talk about everything like there's no there's no secrets between her and i it's just

like that's i found that that is something that is super important to me and i i don't know where i'd be without her staying awake for two hours with four kids is impressive on its own jesus but i want i'm a big sabers guy a ton of my friends are alumni the great years conley briere all those guys miller i'm really excited for what you guys got going is there a guy that's off the map maybe you saw him at camp last year he was in roch or you know we got a couple games this year that I can really look forward to this year. I mean, I'd say J.J. Paterka and Jack Quinn. I mean, those are the two, like, can't-miss prospects in Roch. But I think if you're looking for an under-the-radar guy, I'd go with Matias Samuelsson.

Like, this guy's a unit. And he's an old man played in the NHL for 14 years. Big D man. And he just plays hard. And like we have so many young guys and that are, you know, haven't reached their full potential and maybe won't for a little while. And that's OK. They're going to grow at their own pace. But they have an environment to do that now., and they're going to get the opportunity. And, like, you got Casey Middlestead up front. You got Cousy.

Cousins looks sick. He's such a good kid. That Thompson kid is fucking nasty, too. Talk about Tommer. He scored 38 last year, and, like, that's not a fluke. Like, he was dominant. And the best part about it is all these guys are such good kids. They are.

They're really, really good people. And our group, we sit in the locker room after for an hour. It's like college. It's so much fun. And just to watch these kids grow up, it reminds me so much of my time on the island. But go back to your question. You got on the back. I mean, talk about the rest of the back.

And you got Darlene in power. Darlene's 22 years old. That's a guy I wanted to your question. You got on the back. I mean, talk about the rest of the back. And you got Dolling in power. Dolling's 22 years old. That's a guy I wanted to ask about. You're so used to these number one picks and ripping it up right away. And defense is way harder. It's like this guy's still going to have a special career, right? Because you see him with the puck. It's one thing.

So is it more just cleaning up the defense while also remaining so confident with the puck? Yeah. I mean, playing D in the NHL is hard, man. Like, you know. Oh, yeah, I never did it. That's why he never even tried. It was only started in the office of his own face office. I mean, these guys are so fast and so skilled now. You've got to learn how to play D.

You've got to learn how to be efficient at defense, right? And I think that that's something that Dahlien's getting a lot better at, and he's only going to continue to grow in that regard like you know you got guys like macar and heiskanen out there who are just who are absolute studs and they're unicorns and um you know dahlien's gonna grow into his own game like headman didn't pop off till before i remember playing against headman at the first couple years and was like oh that's guys not great and then all of a sudden like you can't even get around him. You can't even think about getting around him.

Like, Dahls is on that trajectory. And he has the drive. He's so driven. Okay. Like, he wants to be the best. He's out there 20 minutes before. He's shooting pucks. Like, he has a drive that's unmatched.

And a lot of our guys have similar drives like that. And Owen is like, he just got his feet wet last year. And he was the number one pick, and he's so heady. Like, he's super cerebral out there. Like, he shouldn't be doing these things at 19 years old, like what he did last year. So, like, we got a lot of guys. And Yokiharu, he's really solid, really under the radar.

Nobody talks about him, but he's also 21 years old. I'm all in on the Sabres next year. Wait, wait. I've heard enough. I'm all in on the Sabres next year. Wait, wait. I've heard enough. I'm getting a tattoo on my ass. Buffalo and Detroit are very – it's like the next three, four years, even sooner is pretty special times for those two teams. I think of them in similar fashions.

I mentioned Don Granato earlier. You said he basically made it fun again. He had a style that was more upbeat and not as rigid as you were playing before. So he just won that team over pretty much right away. He looks like the teacher from South Park a little bit. Doesn't he? Is it the teacher I'm thinking of? Do you guys know the name?

I literally laugh at your face as you ask. Mr. Garrison, doesn't he? He's got tough salad. Tough salad. Donnie's awesome. He's a hockey lifer, right? Like, he comes from a hockey family, and he just loves the game. And he tells us, like, he tells us to play fearless.

And I said this to the – I talked to the prospects last week, and, you know, somebody asked me, how do you earn a coach's trust? And it was an interesting question, but, like, when you first got in the league, you earn a coach's trust and it was an interesting question but like when you first got in the league you couldn't turn the pucks over the blue line like absolutely not not happening and or you're sitting on the bench and donnie's like he talks about psychology a little bit but he talks about playing fearless and like he's like why would you play any other way like that's how you're gonna your best. And if you're on your heels, like, you're going to stink no matter what. And you see it all the time.

Like, guys get tight in tight games or whatever. But that's our whole mentality is to learn how to attack. Just, like, attack, attack, attack, play, make plays, play fearless. Like, when you screw up, obviously get back. Like, you know, but the whole fearless mentality, I think, was really good for our team. That's awesome. Well, I want to put you on the spot i got a really tough question i don't know if you want to answer it mikey can erase it if it gets really bad but buffalo who has the best wings oh no uh-oh wow pardon my takes all over these wing nuts have you ever heard of wing nuts

i have not heard of wingnuts. Yeah, there's a lot of people locally who haven't. It was a place that the PMT podcast discovered. I think they were in their garage. It's just like a Knights of Columbus. They were in their house. Yeah, and then they went to the Knights of Columbus, and Pardon My Take did a big thing.

But I asked another local. He hadn't heard of them. So there's got to be another spot that you know of. I'm probably going to catch some heat from a lot of different places, but Bar Bill is incredible. Yes, that's what I had in my blog for my Buffalo concierge. Bar Bill is incredible. Really?

There's two spots, one in the South Towns, one just opened up by my place in North Towns in Williamsville. It's on Main Street. So that one's solid. And, I mean, Lenovo is always awesome. Lenovo sheet pizza is the best thing in the world some wings I plan on getting some delivered to the chicklets cup it's it's and Merle could move to LA like Lake Como Spain or Buffalo and he's coming here every time

dude you legit live for Buffalo um one thing we haven't talked about is the fact that we did do a sandbagger. We didn't even get to chat much on the course because it was a pretty intense match the entire round. Now let's talk about your love for golf. I think you did your bachelor party at Brandon Dunes. That was Johnny's bachelor party at Brandon Dunes. Oh, really? Yeah.

Oh, he's a golf nut? Yeah, he loves it too. But I love golf. I love golf. I love golf. And I'm actually involved in – I'm involved a little bit in the PGL. Really? Yeah. I don't even know what that is.

So the PGL is another form of like – I shouldn't step on his toes, but basically live golf stolen a lot of ideas from PGL. PGL was early on in terms of getting team golf, getting teams and drafts. Liv Tours basically stole all their ideas. Wow, you perked up there. They stole all your ideas? Guys were willing to work with PGL. Originally, when I had invested in the company, the Saudis were half backers.

They were putting up half the money. We had heard from everybody. Obviously, with everything going on in the world like we didn't want to take their money and so um that ended up we terminated the relationship and then so they took the ideas they took all the paperwork and everything they took people who worked for pgl they took people who worked for for pgl and they they essentially started this new tour. And, like, golf is, I love it, right? Like, you love the majors. I know you love it, too. But I think it's a problem when, like, well, first of all,

if the PGA is a nonprofit, the PGA Tour is a nonprofit, so it's run a little bit differently. It's not run like a business. And you go into the John Deere Classic or the Rocket Mortgage or this weekend's the 3M, like, nobody's the 3M, nobody's watching those tournaments. Nobody's watching those tournaments. There's like three tournaments that matter besides the majors. It's brutal.

That's a problem, and so that's what we wanted to fix. It wasn't about – it's not about the money. This is about golf. I love the game of golf, and I want to see the best players in the world playing against each other all the time. And the way that we formatted it and are trying to still format it, like, that would happen. And so, like, if you ask any sports writer that covers all the sports, like, what's the best event you've been at? The Ryder Cup.

Ryder Cup. I was just, yeah. Ryder Cup. It's unbelievable. But you get been at? The Ryder Cup. Ryder Cup. I was just, yeah. Ryder Cup. It's unbelievable. You get it, what, every two years? You get it every two years, but that's what we want to create. And obviously, it's not going to be to that extent because they're playing for their countries. It's like the Olympics, right?

It's just a little bit different, but you want to create first round of playoffs. First round of playoffs in the NHLl atmosphere it's incredible right like stanley cup final the stanley cup playoffs so this is the best i think it's the best sport obviously whatever but you want to create that in golf so like if you have like legitimate teams like what what live golf is doing they're kind of they're changing team names or whatever changing all this stuff like the fireball this would be something where you'd have team owners you'd have um like an actual brand where people could follow and like that so that's what we were trying to create and you know there's still a lot of things going on behind the scenes there um yeah that's going to be interesting

to to uh stay in touch with or keep up with but we actually uh myself and kyle are going to go play some golf ourselves right now so um My last question was just going to be, I read that you're a big movie buff. Now, I'm surprised R.A. didn't pick that one up. You did, I don't want to say a book, a movie report on the Dark Knight for NHL.com. Wow, that was dug up a while ago. But yeah, the Dark Knight rises, I believe.

I think it was the third one, which I didn't love as much as the Dark Knight. I mean, how do you follow the Dark Knight Rises, I believe. Okay. I think it was the third one, which I didn't love as much as The Dark Knight. I mean, how do you follow The Dark Knight? Yeah, that movie's sick. It's one of the best superhero movies of all time, if not the best. Yeah, probably the best. Yeah. So, yeah, I love movies.

I'm a huge movie buff. I obviously don't get to watch as many because I got four kids now. But I just watched a great show The Terminal List On Amazon My brother just told me about that Chris Pratt I haven't seen it And apparently He doesn't know

If the memories are Like there's a lot of like You're not sure What's true And what's not Watching the show Dream within a dream Within a dream

Yeah like something Basically he Like he's ambushed Like his And then he doesn't know If he was set up And like he has all these Different memories about it But enough where My brother mentioned it Right before I saw you The other day And he's ambushed, and then he doesn't know if he was set up, and he has all these different memories about it.

But enough where my brother mentioned it right before I saw you the other day, and he's like, dude, you've got to watch this show. So that's on my radar now. It's a really good show. So I heard you talking about Man on Fire. You went to it twice in the theaters. Three times in theaters. Three times?

That was my – I put that down as my favorite movie for a long time, and I just changed it, I think, five years ago. My favorite movie now is The Count of Monte Cristoisto a little well-known old school old school ultimate revenge story waiting out revenge you know i just found out man on fire is actually the denzel and that was actually a remake of like a 1980s movie i somehow never knew that yeah r.a was an extra um actually one more movie thing, too. Reading the article about your injury there, you still have, I think it was your first date with your wife, your ticket stub? XXX. No way.

You went to Vin Diesel's XXX? Yeah, we did. That was where we met. And I was going to Shattuck. It was like late August. Did you put a hole in the bottom of the popcorn? It was late August. They were 14, Bruce.

hole in the bottom of the popcorn it was late august they were 14 but and we were yeah there was five of us and we like had strategically positioned ourselves so the girls would have to sit in these these places there's two girls and so they walk in and there's an open spot next to me and she walks in and she asked my buddy to move over so she didn't have to sit next to me so that was uh that was when you know this history you still got the stuff is it framed in the house uh she's got it somewhere but yeah we still get that all of it all of his kids are named after characters in the movie um quick let's go back to the movie thing though like if you had to give like a top five are you are you a movie classic you like to go to throwbacks uh drama for sure like i like i like the story like i like thrillers i like dramas i like thick plots um i love obviously revenge payback like i said um i'm not a huge comedy guy to be honest with you i love

wedding crashers i think that's like awesome comedy old school changes genre and like i love that era of comedy but yeah i love i love dramas do you fall like the oscars and all the gold globes and all that stuff like i don't do that stuff like you play in hockey yeah but it's like there's so many like artsy movies now and i'm just not there with like the more like i think apple tv plus right i think that they kind of do a lot more artsy films and shows and i'm just not as quite into that like i think the morning show is really good, really well shot. Um, I watched that one.

Um, but yeah, not into that stuff as much. Okay. Well, buddy, this has been awesome. Yeah.

We want to thank the Labatt brew brew house for letting us, uh, interview this beauty in, in there. What is this? This is the tap room. Yeah, this is great.

Really cool spot. And we're at the river works all week. So thank you to the Labatt brew house. And thank you to you, Kyle, because that's been, that was awesome for us to hear about your story and and a lot of that's pretty um pretty emotional stuff so we appreciate you coming on yeah fans are gonna love it thank you thanks for having me

guys i'll pleasure a pleasure huge thanks to kyle for joining us man just an awesome guy want to let you know that his interview was also brought to you by our friends at blue nile celebrate all of life's special moments with BlueNile.com. Create the custom engagement ring of her dreams or gift a classic and timeless jewelry piece all at prices you won't find at a traditional jeweler. For a custom engagement ring, Blue Nile has simple online tools

that let you choose the diamond shape, size, and clarity as well as setting style. Or if you're shopping for fine jewelry blue nile has jewelry experts on hand 24 7 available via phone or chat to help you find a memorable gift at every budget i mentioned before i got my wife a beautiful tennis bracelet a nice set of earrings over the years deal with blue nile it's a cinch it's so easy awesome people to deal with they'll take care of you if you're not too keen on the jewelry front. So make your moment sparkle with jewelry from BlueNile.com.

And going on now is the Blue Nile Anniversary Sale. Save up to 40% on classic fine jewelry pieces and 25% on engagement ring settings. Every order is insured, ships free, and arrives in discreet packaging that won't give away what's inside shop stress-free and find your forever peace. Go to blue Nile.com today. All right, boys, Kyla post a man. Let's, let's talk about him for a second. Just a, just a tremendous guy. You could get, you know, what biz we interview these guys. You get a good sense of these guys right away,

what kind of people they are and just right away when you shake his hand, he looks you in the eye and he's just a tremendous fellow what what can you share with us from golf one all day just a really classy guy and i mentioned what kevin adams said about him and you get to know him right away and you can just kind of sense that he is a leader in every sense of the word and and it goes without saying that a guy who's a real high draft pick, you know, he's been in two places that while having a couple of good years, the teams overall have struggled a little bit.

And so to remain positive throughout all that is really difficult. And I think when a guy who's been in the league, as long as he had, he's coming up on a thousand games played can go through losing seasons and still have GMs coaches and teammates talk about how professional he is that is the true like definition of a winner like I know it sounds crazy if he's been on a lot of losing teams but his attitude and the way he approaches the game and practices more importantly show that like when you look back on teams that

have struggled you're never going to look at him being one of the reasons and once we got to go through and hear the story of his injury and and and what he had to go through and the feeling of relief and like true joy when it was fixed is just like emotional i think the whole room kind of you know i don't want to say we gasped but it was just like this is heavy stuff and i really appreciate him coming on i he is a golf nut dude he is like probably a bigger golf nut than me we talked about definitely getting together for a trip at some point uh he's got a lot of great hookups and he loves the game and i think that that i well i know that he's gonna he's gonna have a lot to do

with Buffalo getting better and better these next few years. And probably their next captain and should be their next captain. The one thing that stood out to me, I mean, obviously, aside from everything you just mentioned, like him going through all that adversity with his injury and then having the mind frame coming out of it and just the way that he conducts himself and then uh and then just him talking about how when he puts the kids to bed him and

his wife they've you know they met at the movie theater and they've they've been best friends ever since and they talked for a few hours before bed every night it was just really really really cool to hear how big of a family man he is and and the way that he views life and and the way that he'd approach it so approaches it excuse me so what a guy um that was the first time i've ever actually had a lot of time to spend with him he was kind of nice kind enough after uh we went and golfed and did the sandbagger to invite us out to eat at a local restaurant and we went with him maddie molson and both their wives and uh it was great to just uh chat with them and uh and hear about their lives so

thank you to him maddie molson and crew and uh it kind of just uh you know it was a great way to start off that buffalo trip absolutely and if you have a subscription to the athletic i employ to check out the article about him and and the injury he went through in the aftermath it was really eye open it was just it wasn't a typical concussion thing we got into it in the interview but if you want to read more about it i i suggest you do so so thanks again to kyle awesome interview uh here's another another note uh seattle's yonas donskoi had his number 72 retired at a skate park and if i could read the card here arahi finland after he donated 2600 to keep the indoor park running so pretty cool gesture man it was pretty funny that they they slapped the uh the jersey up in the rafters of this indoor it's a good video yeah it was a good video so so

congrats that to Eunice on getting that done and you know for everybody who gets to enjoy the park little small gestures like this I mean you know when guys make a lot of money it impacts so many people man so we like to highlight I don't think uh I don't know if Ollie and Jacob the on the bench guys who ended up joining me on the on the third line for the the ball hockey team um they met when they were skateboarding that's how they ended up yeah becoming friends and that's when they you know started doing these like little hockey things and then it evolved into them doing it full time now so uh it was kind of funny how it all comes for full circle that that story ends up hitting us well we're out at that mexican restaurant enjoying the big deal select successful weekend from at least a friendship perspective.

They explained to me that that was the case. So I was never a skateboarder. I imagine with your weak ass ankles, you were never a skateboarder. I couldn't even get on one. Like, I think one time I tried getting on one. It's like I went down. I have no ability to push with the one foot, then kind of turn the foot that's on there, place the other foot on it,

and then grind or whatever they fucking call it. Didn't you say Jans was big into skateboarding? Oh, yeah. He wore airwalks and shit, too. At least he did an ollie one time. All right. Do we even need to ask? Were you a skateboarder?

No, I just smoked with him. Yeah, yeah i hung on no i i had skateboards but you know like everything else of an athletic endeavor i tried i wasn't particularly adept at it so um yeah not much not much of a border not really into the border culture i think i owned a pair of airwalks at one point that's probably the extent of it uh you mentioned the restaurant we should give a shout out to casa el azul uh in buffalo tremendous meal we had there Saturday night. I know you guys were down the other end of the table. Didn't get to chit chat too much. It was so fun.

I had that pescado, the cod that was on the menu, the fish. One of the best fish plates I've ever had anywhere. Just tremendous. Well, the reason I picked that place, R.A., is because I know how much you love margaritas. You're the margarita man of the podcast. Yes, I've definitely become the mezcal slash margarita guy of the show so you drink if there's a non-hockey thing that you would have you a number retired for what what would it be like some some random go ahead with i know what

you're gonna say i got a couple i don't know if you want me to say no no don't say it um gonna say no no don't say it um how about selling used clothes oh shut the fuck up what about for what would he what would he have a retire oh i know mine he's paying for all of my friends every single night out from like 2006 to 2012 okay that's it i mean that's a kind gesture um i just got my i got my boys when we were in the going out stage right i had my boys hey absolutely why wouldn't you exactly all right well we got a final few notes here before we get to those we want to let you know that body armor the stuff that kept us hydrated and fueled all weekend is made for today's athlete that deserves more than just a sports drink it's got got potassium-packed electrolytes, antioxidants,

and no artificial sweeteners, flavors, or dyes. Because today's athletes deserve more than just your grandfather's tired, old, salty sports drink, which is full of artificial dyes. Bar-de-yama sport comes in strawberry banana, fruit punch, blue raspberry, watermelon strawberry, and a whole bunch more, plus the new flavor, Mamba Forever, which is strawberry grape flavor. That sounds good. My favorite flavor right now is the fruit punch. I gassed a bunch of those over the weekend,

had to stay hydrated coaching behind the bench for the boys there. Either way, stay hydrated with body armor, the sports drink for today's athletes. All flavors of body armor are available for order on Amazon right now. And you can learn more at drinkbodyarmor.com. Boys, it's been a tough week for actors who played mob characters. And we talked about it before. Well, yet another actor from Goodfellas has passed away.

Paul Sorvino, who famously played Pauly Cicero in Goodfellas, died at 83 years old. He's also in The Gambler, The Firm. He was on Law & Order on TV. This is just crazy, man. They've lost three cast members already in just a couple months. You're obviously familiar with him, with Paulie Cicero. Oh, yeah. Guy was a great actor.

His face just screamed playing a mobster in a movie. And he had that quiet menace. But I think the best clip was when his daughter, Mira, won the Oscar. And she praised his dad he kind of broke down i had an emotional moment i remember that so it was pretty pretty pretty good clip but uh you know obviously sympathies to any friends and family members of paul savino who may be listening uh terrible news to hear um how about this 230 million dollars just doesn't buy it what you used to have boys boys. Kyler Murray, the Arizona Cardinals quarterback,

his contract stipulates that he must do, quote, four hours of independent study, end quote, each game week. He has actually, I guess this guy doesn't like to pick up the books much. He has it in his contract that he has to study four hours each week, and he can't, it says it in the contract, he can't have his TV on or, and he can't be playing video. He's like bananas, $230 million,

five-year deal. And he has to have it put in here. Here we are chirping hockey players for asking out of town to go play in a different city. This guy's making 250 sheets and they have to beg him to fucking read his playbook. It's like, maybe if that's in the contract,

you might not want to be giving out this contract. Not to mention, I think the Cardinals the past two seasons have started off just lights out and completely shit the bed the second half of the season with a quarterback who at times looks like he's running around with no clue what to do. I read that. I was shocked. I didn't even see it until you sent this outline, R.A. I was like, I just don't know how you justify that signing

if you know the guy almost refuses to study game film. It's like the most important thing for quarterbacks, they say. So good luck to the Cardinals, I guess. But if he ends up sucking and ends up not being their starter in a year, two years, three years, it's like you really have no one to blame but yourself because the writing was on the wall in terms of work ethic. Yeah, you can't just wing it as a quarterback, I don't think.

No pun intended. Biz, I mentioned a few minutes ago about the sharks and the shark bites on Long Island. There was a quote from a Nassau County executive, which I thought was kind of a crazy quote to say. He said, don't warn people about shark attacks. Hey, nature's going to do what it's gonna do no he said if you're gonna get go in the ocean it's good to go with a partner oh yeah so you both get eaten no no go with someone slower always go on a protected beach with their lifeguards always stay together and be conscious

of your surroundings if you do those things you be safe. How can you tell people they're going to be safe? It's a fucking shock, man. Give your old lady a scratch and sniff blood-baiting suit. By the way, I've been afraid of sharks. I got you this new two-piece. I have been afraid of sharks since long before they've now been all over Cape Cod and New York and all these areas. So, so I've always, I, I go in, if I go in the ocean, I'm dunking and I'm immediately out,

or I'm like up to my knees playing with the kids to go out in the ocean where you can't touch the bottom. I think that's, that's crazier than nose face, having a kid and coming to fucking chicklets cup. And there's not many things crazier than that. But to be in the ocean right now where there are sharks looming and you are basically in water like eight, nine feet deep, you are an absolute lunatic. That's just my personal opinion. I know millions of people love swimming in the ocean. I'm a dip, get wet, cool off guy, and immediately back to the sand.

And I can't stand the beach to begin with. I'm a pool guy. If I jump into the ocean, if you're like on a boat in the middle, it's like, oh, I panic. I wouldn't sprint back to the boat. As you're stepping up on the ladder, you're like, ah, just not even get sharks. What if what if a whale just comes by and like, oh, what's that?

There's Portuguese man o' war here, too. Now, I don't even know what the fuck that is. It's a big ass jellyfish. They're very poisonous. But you just mentioned whales, Biz. Actually, a few days ago here, just outside of Boston, Plymouth, a bunch of boaters are watching whales breach and a whale come up and he landed on the guy's fucking boat, landed on the front of the boat.

Like they almost got knocked out of it and caused a little bit of damage. But they're trying to warn boaters. I mean, everybody, it's cool to see whales jump out of the water but they've told them like you got to keep your distance because you know you don't know how close they're gonna get i could have easily got killed you're a tic-tac to a whale imagine you jump in and just get gulped up yeah a little pinocchio style but uh let's see all right boys well we have i'm sure we mentioned it before but just a reminder this is our last episode of the 21 22 season and look folks we can't thank you enough for the tremendous

support this season has been awesome an awesome year the uh playoffs are great i think this the sport is getting bigger and better and uh our fandom's getting bigger and better and we just want to thank everybody for all the support we've had all year uh next week we're going to have a best of episode and then after that we're going to have a best of episode. And then after that, we're going to have interview only episodes for several weeks. And we have an unreal roster. We already got a bunch in the bank, a couple of Hall of Famers, Conn Smythe winners, unreal roster of interviews that are coming to you soon.

So we want to thank everybody once again for the season. And we also have a few other thank yous from Hockey Fest that we didn't get to. We don't want to leave anybody out. Thanks to Riverworks and their staff. Just an incredible, unique facility. Sean is the manager. Sean, he runs the show over at Riverworks. He was unbelievable for us.

Anything we needed, anything we wanted, he had for us. Awesome. Yeah, it was just such a unique place, a unique location right on the river. Also, big thanks to our buddy Brad Jones and his team at Hockey Fest. They just do an awesome job, especially Mariah, who helped get everything set up when we got there. Like the referees. It's like there's so much that goes into this, guys.

They have an enormous team. And, I mean, just getting there early to set everything up, running the tournament, running the brackets, sending everything out to everyone, managing the jerseys. They did so much for us. And we couldn't be happier with the partnership we have with the Hockey Fest. And of course, everybody at Barstool, I hope we don't forget anybody here, but especially Taylor and Justin.

Get well soon to live event Lisa. Also, our guys, you know, Sean, Fish, Queda, Posh, of course, UG, huge putting this together. All the local fellows we hired to help out with the audiovisual stuff. Also, Corey, Tara, Nick Devlin, Ashley, Hannah, Connor, of course, MB as well. Let's see. Thanks to the home arcade game. Super checks for the custom bubble hockey tables. I'll tell you, you talk about a proud papa to see the Chicklets logo on the center ice of a bubble hockey table.

Yeah, I know. As soon as soon as I get it. Oh, I don't have enough room with this place. But if I ever have a basement again, I'm going to definitely get one of those for my basement. Boston, Levi and Dante the dawn for the Friday night entertainment. I unfortunately I didn't know we were going to introduce Boston Levi. So I apologize, guys. I didn't I didn't didn't know we were going up. I would have been up there uh and let's see uh also a couple of those shout outs on a personal level uh to the covington street hockey league these guys have been coming since detroit they showed up at the first one with their big trailer well seven of them stayed on island like you know the the place we stand

was sort of like well i kelly's island they call it they drove they had an rv they let them park right there next to riverworks 70s guys slept out on the island for the whole weekend. I'm sure they were up to some shenanigans while they were there. I think that's one of the coolest things we've done here with this Chicklets Cup is everyone keeps coming back. The guys in the Covington, and I think for me, that's one of the

coolest things is at each one of these tournaments, seeing all these guys that keep coming back. Familiar faces. Covington, they obviously have their brand going, but thank you to everyone, too, that keep coming back so Covington they obviously have their brand going but thank you to everyone too that keeps coming back and keeps participating in this thing and and is making guys trips out of it because that's what makes it so fun for us to see the same faces over and over again agreed absolutely uh personally I have a thanks to uh Tyler and Kyle they made a clutch wing run for me Saturday because I hadn't gotten my wings yet. I, you know, we had a busy schedule.

I don't want to gallivant off for an hour trip. So they went over to the Swanee house. It was like a half mile away from Riverworks gave my credit card. They went over, got me a 20 piece of wing. So I can experience some Buffalo wings. So Tyler and Kyle, thanks a lot. That's when you know, you're a big deal. You have people making a wing runs for you. Hey, speaking of the wings, all right, we got to shut out wing nuts,

wing nuts, hooked up the whole barstool crew, a bunch of the big deal slacks. They just were loading us with wings all weekend. Unbelievable story with the whole Wingnuts thing. PMT has broken it down on their show, so check out Wingnuts if you haven't already. Of course, thanks to our buddy Merle's travel

dedication. He had a hell of an adventure getting over to North America. Of course, he got here, partied up all weekend. Great time great time merles and i know we mentioned her twice already but i just want to give an extra special thank you to terry milby uh she's been shooting photography for the cup since detroit she's a great person huge help to many whether it's giving people rides somewhere uh just looking out for people always willing to help help out with whatever whatever we need so we love you terry we'll see you at the next one. And gee, when are we announcing the next one?

We will be announcing it soon. So stay tuned to the Chicklets Cup social media. And we'll be announcing it all soon. And one last thank you is just Labatt, Body Armor, and Pink Whitney. We can't thank you guys enough. None of this happens without them. I got two. I got to thank Eric Kleineck from Bauer, my buddy from my coyotes days.

He helped out with the away locker room, just an unreal guy. He ended up sending me some gloves and, and sticks for the tournament. So I had some new gear to rock. Ricky Hillenbrand too, from Bauer sent you a bunch of stuff as well. Him as well.

And then, and then thank you to Jeff Jacobson, my right-hand man. It was actually his birthday. It was just his birthday. So happy birthday to Jeff.on, my right-hand man. It was actually his birthday. Of course. It was just his birthday. So happy birthday to Jeff. And I guess he does so much for the brand behind this. So much.

Yeah, even G can attest to that. So I know these are a lot of thank yous, guys, but these are people who mean a lot to us. And considering this is going to be the last episode for at least six weeks here when we're all on, we need a little bit of rest. and we got to hit the recharge batteries, and we're going to come back bigger, better, and stronger for you guys. We appreciate your patience and the fact that we are going to dip out for a little bit,

but we just need it. We got to go live our personal lives a little bit. We're very dedicated to our craft, and we got to kind of turn our brain off sometimes in order to kind of hit the recharge and come back better so thank you to everybody who listens we love you guys g thank you ra thank you i'll let you continue but i just had to chime in there with a couple thank yous of my own no we're just about done here pal actually i know you're going to get a little bit of resp is but you know you still have the pink whitney tour to get to up in western canada for the month of august uh starting august 9th in manitoba and wrapping up a week and a half

later in british columbia so you're gonna let a little bit of a break back on the road and then another big break after that so uh just to echo you said uh it's been a hell of a year we love our listeners love our love our fans everybody who tunes in but it's yeah time for a little breather here i'm gonna go up to verm Vermont for a week, hopefully unplug a little bit. And I'm trying to get another vacation or two and just or just while we got the month of August off. So go to Newfoundland. All right. You should go to Newfoundland. I'm 100 percent. I'm already checking out prices.

I'm definitely looking into it. And, you know, maybe we can do maybe a Pink Whitney appearance or something. I'm going to talk to Biz after we hang up. And, yeah, I'm looking forward to trying to get to Newfoundland. But other than that, gang, it's been an it'm looking forward to trying to get to Newfoundland. Other than that, gang, it's been an honor and a privilege to serve you folks. Check out the dates online for that Pink Whitney Western Tour. We're starting off in Brandon,

Manitoba. We're in Winnipeg. We're in Regina, Saskatoon. We're hitting up Red Deer, Edmonton, Calgary. We are in Langley and then Vancouver. We have a lot of stops stops I'll be with Pasha Grinelli will be joining me for a couple of the stops maybe Ricky Carlson maybe memes will be there uh Pasha as talk or Trevor Gretzky might even come on board for a few of them so uh we'll

see you guys there we love you guys and and like I said thank you for your patience and giving us this time off to hit the recharge. Big deal brewing. Coming soon, baby. Coming soon. Big deal brewing, baby. Absolutely. Everybody, enjoy the rest of your summer. We love you.

As always, we'd like to thank our awesome sponsors for a super, super successful season. So huge thanks to our longtime friends over at Pink Whitney and New Amsterdam Vodka. Big thanks to our friends at Shopify. Hope you had a great year with us. Huge thanks to everybody over at Sling TV. Big thanks to our longtime friends at Roman for taking care of us. Great stuff with you guys. Big thanks to everybody over at Blue Nile.

Check them out for all your jewelry needs. And a huge thanks to our friends at Bodyama for keeping us hydrated. We love you and have a great summer. We'll see you later.