Spittin Chiclets - Spittin' Chiclets Episode 406: Featuring Bernie Nicholls

Episode Date: September 13, 2022

On Episode 406 of Spittin’ Chiclets, the guys are joined by Bernie Nicholls. The NHL legend joined (18:07) to discuss playing with Wayne Gretzky and being his right hand man, getting traded for Mark Messier, and some crazy prank stories. The guys also discuss The House of Dragons, New York Fashion Week, the NFL and more.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 406 of Spittin' Chicklets, presented by Pink Whitney. From our friends at New Amsterdam Vodka here in the Barstool Sports Podcast family, what's going on everybody? We are one show away from getting the band all back together next week, but we got one more interview only show, but a little chatter as well. Let's check in with the boys today. Producer Mikey Grinelli. What's shaking my man.

Gentlemen. How are we? Self-care September. Still going strong. I opted not to go to Miami this past weekend. As we talked about last show, I decided to go get a facial in New York city for the first time ever. Never got a facial before. Skin is just glowing right now.

I do feel like I got a little robbed. I feel like I paid some lady 500 bucks to just pop my pimples for two hours. To give her a facial? Oh, I'm sorry. We said facial. I got confused. I was thinking Bizway.

But my skin feels great right now. Other than that, easy time to not drink in New York City. It's fashion week. So there are so many wannabe influencers everywhere you look. I would say that Fashion Week is NYC Super Bowl week. Just celebrities everywhere you look. City is buzzing, but not in a buzzing good way. I prefer Rangers and Eastern Conference Finals type buzzing,

not celebrities everywhere because it's fashion week. So long story short, I'm doing fantastic boys. Self-care September still going strong. Wow. The cigarettes and cocaine will be flying up the shelves down there for fashion week this week in Manhattan. Next up a boy from across the pond in Sweden, Matt Murley. What's going on Merle's my man.

Same thing. Self-care September. I'm on 16 days dry. Yeah, crazy. I was starting to get the itch. And NFL Sunday, I always like to pop a few cold ones, watch the games, make some wings. But then the assault me and Grinnell took from the Pink Whitney social media

account. So bad. She gives me the bottle. I was the same height as I was with. And I said, oh, God, I'm off the sauce. I'm off the desserts. I'm going to try to drop 10 pounds before Pittsburgh. And, you know, maybe I can move up to the biz size bottle

or the width size bottle. Well, Merle's the worst part about that was, is everyone I'd show it to, they'd be like, oh, is that wrench size? Are you guys talking wrench size? And I'm like, fuck. I didn't even think about that was is everyone I'd show it to, they'd be like, Oh, is that wrench size? Are you guys talking wrench size? And I'm like, I didn't even think about that. If you look at every comment, it was about it. They were all commenting wrench size, wrench size, wrench size. And I'm like, Jesus, like, I thought it was just like height. You know what I mean? Or, you know,

importance of when people talk on the show, but then I get all the wrench comments and I'm like, Jesus, this is just not a good look for me. Seward completely Seward. So I should feel pretty good then. I didn't even think that bad, but a good weekend played with the kid on the playground. I watched so much football. I watched first. I watched the champions hockey league all day.

And then the college football Saturday, the NFL all day Sunday. What a weekend doesn't get any better than that. Merle's no good. Awesome stuff. We'll get to the gambling all day Sunday. What a weekend. Doesn't get any better than that, Merles. No, good, awesome stuff. We'll get to the gambling in a sec. We're talking about the Pink Whitney with the little social media. We also have to remind you that the summer's over, man. Summer's over, unfortunately, but that doesn't mean you can't have to stop enjoying the Pink Whitney.

The birdie juice is still flowing. It means you just have to enjoy some football to go along with your Pink Whitney now. Hockey's a little around the block, So football, whether it's college pro, grab a chilled shot, mix a club soda, however you like your pink Whitney, get at it, hit your local bar, grab some, go to your local liquor store, grab some, just get that smooth, refreshing pink Whitney. Morels do how much you have at your house over in Sweden.

Do you get a chipped over that? Can you get it over there? Usually on each one of our nice chiclets trip, I usually sneak a bottle back into the suitcase. When I'm traveling with the family, I think I've talked about before. each one of our nice chicklets trip i usually sneak a bottle back into the suitcase uh when i'm traveling with the family i think i've talked about before i'm low man on the totem pole the kids toys and clothes go first then the wife's clothes and then you know you gotta have 50 pounds in each bag and you know there's only a few pounds left so i get a couple shirts or something like this nice chicklet shirt made it this trip you're definitely bringing the nips and they're definitely all gone by the time you get off the airplane because those

are the airplane size you're bringing those right on the plane and i know with a little kid you're pounding those things on the plane no that's i'm telling you a rookie move would be drinking on the plane with the kid because it's a coin toss if she's gonna sleep or not and if she's not sleeping you you do not want to be hung over when you land in the morning it is it's a coin toss if she's going to sleep or not. And if she's not sleeping, you do not want to be hung over when you land in the morning. It is, it's a nightmare already. Yeah, Merle, there was, I don't know if it was a viral tweet or whatever, but somebody was flying and they tweeted,

somebody had their bulldog on their plane, you know, pretending that they need their animal to fly or whatever. The dog shit itself, had the diarrhea. It had shit all over the plane. And then the dog like went missing. So imagine being on a fucking capsule of an airplane a tin capsule in the air and this dog fucking sprays ass everywhere it's all over the place and then it disappears and people are puking and getting sick i saw that all right he was covered in shit too the dog was covered in shit running up and down the aisles you know and i know this comes up all the time gear grind and

all that stuff it's not about me getting my gears grounded it's about we're fucking people we're not animals for you like we're above them we we could fly with them on our own fucking planes with it but you don't bring animals on a spot like that where this happens man again i always go to the allergy thing people are allergic to dogs maybe they're afraid of them or maybe they were bitten by one and you just accommodate this one fucking person. And you're fucking everybody else up. 40 people. I don't understand how that helps society at all. I get it.

I know some people have. And I'm not talking about, again, ADA dogs or therapy dogs. That's not what I'm talking about. I'm just talking about people who don't want to put their dog underneath. And I get that. But when this shit happens, literally, figuratively, it's a joke, man. It's like, we're people. We're not animals, man.

We kind of run the show. Stop fucking letting animals dictate our flights. It's fucking's all right you asking for your money back if that happened to you the dog running up and down the aisles with shit i'd have my own fucking pj i'll park in front of my house if i got shit on by a dog on an airplane yeah sure good luck showing there but yeah it's flying actually i just i just flew back from charleston south carolina i was down there i mentioned it last week i can't talk too much about, about the movie, but it's a hockey related movie. I went down Charleston last Sunday. I filmed scenes all day long days on set. It was at a rink down there,

by the way, Charleston ice palace, phenomenal facility. Obviously not a ton of rinks down in South Carolina, the Carolina area. They got two awesome rinks and there's a Merle's a bar, a legit bar restaurant inside the place. So if your kids skate in a practice or a beer league, whatever, like there's a legit whole bar in this place. Those were always the best, huh? Like I always think of my dad, like when we'd play on the road and there was a bar in the rink,

you'd ever see your dad on the glass giving you the skate faster sign. You don't see your dad, your, your buddy's dad. Who's usually yelling at the ref. They're all the bar they're getting hammered those are the best rinks out there that that the work i the rink i worked at in rochester when i first started with you guys rochester ice center had a bar right in the middle of them and every monday night i had a i had a coach's meeting up there uh i had skills work seven to nine with the guys the wife then i tell the wife uh it's coach's meeting nine to eleven and it was great sit up there uh i had skills work seven to nine with the guys the wife then i tell the wife uh it's coaches meeting nine to eleven and it was great sit up there have some beers watch another

practice watch a men's league if you don't have a bar in the rink you're doing it wrong all right how is south carolina though like can you tell us any of the big names that were in the video i mean in the film like tell us about it no i mean i was asked to share too, too much other than to say it's a hockey adjacent movie. It's not going to be out this this year, probably sometime after they've done film and post-production sometime next year. It'll be released. But yeah, it was fun, man. It was a lot of improv. Like, you know, I originally was supposed to play. Well, they wanted me to play a referee and I told them I'll kill any credibility the movie's trying to have. If you have me a referee because I can't skate for shit like it would just kill credibility so like all right

you could be the zamboni draft so i think i sent a picture of the group me sitting on the zamboni i got a zamboni lesson like i didn't put a whole thing down but like i was wheeling around to ripping donuts on the zamboni in the middle of the rink and shit so it was fun like we're filming the scenes and i'd get cute like that you know i'd have to come on and drive the same bone you can yell at people and shit so uh i had a ton of fun man i was on the set like three days in a row 12 days like 12 hours a day you know it was fun to get that experience you know i mean not that i'm a set bed or anything but just to be able to collaborate and work with other people and you know it was i basically was getting paid to like roast guys at the end of the day i don't want to say too much more but so yeah i don't want to keep

i don't want to keep grilling you with questions but are you once again playing yourself no are you a character now no i'm i'm not playing ra are we because there was a point when someone else was filming like you know what do i call you i'm like i'm not i'm like this isn't shawzy where i'm playing you know whatever heightened version of myself or a steroid version of myself this is me i was just the grumpy zamboni driver so so when you're on set you were asking the guys to call you the name of your character no man i'm not like fucking i'm not like now what are you gonna val kilmer method actor over here no i mean people call me ira anyways but no i was but the role i was playing was the zamboni driver uh he didn't

actually have a name in the script he was just zamboni driver and he was pissed off you know basically he just wanted to get get home and finish the night that's that's about the most i could say but it was awesome but the thing was i was monday tuesday wednesday i was there for three four days i i hadn't seen the ocean yet i hadn't seen a restaurant yet because the set days were long i'm not complaining that's what i was there for so my pal robbie can cannon who's the president of the south carolina stingrays uh boston legend uh, went on 89th state title, Don Bosco, just a well-known legendary guy from Dorchester. He's been down there for 25 years.

He played for the Stingrays, worked his way up to president, and he said, you know, R.A., I'll extend your room for a couple days. We'd love to have you at our Fan Fest Saturday. I says, no brainer. Absolutely, Robby. I want to hang out and see the place and see you. So I got to catch up with him. We went to a couple of restaurants downtown.

How's the fan base already? Like, do they get a bunch of people at this fan fest? Yeah, they had a real good turnout at the fan fest. But I'll tell you, even when we were filming the scenes during the week, there was a lot of fathers taking their kids to practice. Like, you know, kids who are probably little, probably shouldn't be listening to Spitting Chicklets that young. Huge fucking dad, fucking dad fans.

All kinds of like the dads would come up saying hello. A shitload of the parents were big fans. Because like I said, the kids were probably too young to probably listen to it. So yeah, finally, Thursday, Friday, I went down 167 Raw. I ate half the ocean, Homer Simpson style, all kinds of seafood. Then I went to Lewis Barbecue. I mean, if I lived down there, I would have to limit myself to how much barbecue I would eat because it's so

goddamn good down there. So yeah, Thursday, Friday, I got to see a whole bunch of the area, the beach, go down to the battery, see the civil war cannons, all these old beautiful houses. And I'll tell you, man, Charleston, awesome town. Everybody I would say I talked to that was from somewhere else. People are like resettle there. They go there to visit. They fall in love with the place. I mean, David Crecci got a place there. You know, other players have houses down there.

And I could see why, man. It's like it's a beautiful spot. It's not too expensive yet. It's the weather's great. And it's just the restaurants, the scenery. Phenomenal town, man. Charleston, I salute. I take my hat off and my headphones will come off.

I salute Charleston and everything at Austin. I got to ask, you guys have both been all around, you know, the United States. Where would you guys say has the best barbecue? Because I'm a huge barbecue guy as well. I'll save my answer for last. My favorite spot is the Dinosaur. It's probably the first place I ever had.

It started in Syracuse and Rochester. And, you know, I know it's not Kansas City or like these other ones you hear about, but they took one, they brought one to Troy, New York, I know it's not the Kansas City or like these other ones you hear about, but they took one. They brought one to Troy, New York, my hometown. And I got to give Dinosaur the shout out here. Yeah. You know, your bread's buttered. I I like St. Louis.

When I was in St. Louis, I got some St. Louis barbecue. I never really had mine to R.A. That's mine, too. And but I will say the Carolina stuff was awesome. I never had collard greens before. Shocker. Irish guy in Boston. I've had collard greens before, but I had Irish guy in Boston never had collard greens before. But I had a couple times under there.

Phenomenal, man. I don't know if you ever had them. Super good. But, yeah, I would say a tie between St. Louis and Carolina. I never really had Texas barbecue, so don't yell at me, Texas. I've had Texas barbecue as well when I went down for the Super Bowl a couple years ago. I went to Houston, and it was incredible. But, R.A., I knew what I was just thinking about.

It's funny. Remember when we went to Nashville in 2017 and we went and did some food reviews at a couple of barbecue places around the city where I filmed it on my GoPro. I love to find that and see if we can still post it or something. Well, that was, yeah, that was a, well, not a soul venture. Me and G said, fuck it. We asked if they'd send us. They said, Nope. We said, all right, well, who are we going anyways? We got hooked up with game with the game, uh uh unnamed person got us into both games for nothing so that was an all-time classic uh chicklet strip g one of the ones all the time uh a couple more

notes here before we get to our guest and we got a great guest today bernie nichols uh averaged more than a point per game in the 80s 90s played with kretzky in la played with tons of guys all over the place uh superstar from that era and a great guy, too. I think you're going to enjoy that interview. Let's see what else we got going on. The Pittsburgh show. Shout out Pittsburgh. You sold us out in about five minutes.

I'm not surprised at all. We love you guys. Gee, what's the latest on the Pittsburgh show? The latest on the Pittsburgh show is it's sold out. I've been hearing some rumors that some more tickets could go on sale. I won't give out any more info than that. All I'll say is follow along the Chicklet social channels, and I'm sure there'll be an announcement soon about some more tickets.

But eight minutes. I mean, how insane is that? 800 tickets in eight minutes. Our fans are the most loyal, best fans in the entire world. I cannot wait to get to Pittsburgh. I can't wait to try Permanente Brothers. I'm very excited. Yeah, I'm fired up too, man.

My first time there in 14 years. Definitely looking forward to it. Merles, we mentioned the NFL earlier. How'd you do on the week? Did you get a little comeback? I know we were texting late last night, early this morning. I took some horrible beats yesterday. These coaches, I don't know how they get into this job,

and they don't know how to deal with the clock. Brutal. It was unbelievable. It was at the Pittsburgh game. I had a live money line when they were down, so it was like plus 260. Cincinnati was going to punt the ball away and all they had to do was just run the,

there were 16 seconds left on the play clock. If you just run it down and then you just punt it anyway, you give them like 10 seconds to come back. Nope. He punts it right away anyway. And they end up coming down. And that's like, that's after the guy missed too easy, an extra point and a chip shot field goal.

So that was brutal. But I had a good weekend. My buddy Migs, you guys know from Vegas, he came to me late saturday night with kentucky money line it was plus 185 or something and and that uh that settled me up for the weekend yeah i was not having the best weekend but i had mike evans i gave it out on twitter over 65 and a half yards he got it on that second to last catch got 66 and then i had him first touchdown plus 750 i had a whole dude you crushed the player props already in the NFL. You kill the player props.

Well, like I always say, I never text you when they lose. I don't text you. Very true. I only text you the winners, but yeah, I had a,

I had a month, a month, the night on basically on Mike Evans. That was my biggest bet. I had tamper as well. So I don't know. Hopefully we can keep it rolling heading into Monday night. And also Merle's the Swedish box of picking up too.

You're going to have some winners for us. So what? Yeah. All the European leagues getting going this this week all the domestic leagues i took some heat on twitter because of how i ranked some of them last week like spur the moment and i oh i forgot the czech league oh god i forgot the czechs the the fabulous league it is yeah the czech league would rank you know above the german league all right i'll give you guys that but you're still below the swedes finnish league is starting tuesday and a great prop on the barstool sportsbook this guy oja maki to lead the league in goals plus 650 he was the guy that was in the khl last year he scored 40 goals he'll score 40 goals probably in this league um swiss and czech. Swiss Wednesday, Czech Thursday, German Thursday.

And the best league of all, the Swedish league, will start Saturday. My team, Timra, is in action. It's an away game, so I won't be boots on the ground. But I have a huge play on that game. Timra, Forlunda, over 5.5, minus 120. Get it now. Timra's got some studs they brought in dahlene back from san jose yeah they just added someone right yeah dahlene that was on the first unit power play in

san jose last year they got two other guys that were in the khl that came home uh anton lander who played for edmonton oilers he's back home so we got a squad. We got some scores. So over five and a half Saturday afternoon, it'll be nine 30 your time. Gee. Love it. I love it. All right, boys.

Any final notes before we send it over to Bernie Nichols or what? We're good. All right. Well, big thanks to Bernie Nichols for sitting down with us a little while ago to chat. Like I said, it's a great interview.

Hopefully you guys enjoy it. I want to let you know that his interview is brought to you by Sling TV. Sling TV has something for everyone. All your favorite shows on your favorite channels all right at your fingertips. What you watch is up to you. It really just depends on what kind of a mood you're in. So if you're looking for sports, Sling's got you covered with pro and college football and basketball, baseball, hockey, soccer, golf, racing, and so much more.

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Sling, the live TV you love for a price you'll love. And now, enjoy Bernie Nichols. It's a pleasure to bring on today's guest. This center was taken by LA in the fourth round of the 1980 draft, and he played 18 NHL seasons for six teams. He averaged over a point per game in the regular season, and in 1,245 regular season and playoff games he put up 1323 points he's one of just eight players to score 70 goals in a season and one of just five guys to put up 150 points in a season thanks so much for joining us on the spitting chicklets podcast bernie nichols how's it going bernie all right it's going good guys how are you guys doing

doing good doing good what are you up to these days? Well, I'm actually taking Marty McSorley fishing tonight. Oh, boy. Yeah. Oh, yeah. Marty's up here. I'm back home in Canada, and Marty's up for a week or so, so he wanted me to take him fishing. So we're heading out there today.

Is that a regular thing for you? Are you a big fisherman? Well, I love hunting better, but I do love to fish, too. Yeah. Is it true that Marty was a little bit more famous than Wayne when he was in L.A.? He was more the town mayor and really knew all the bars and places to hit up? Oh, he did. Marty, and you know Marty, Marty's amazing no matter where you go.

And I said this the other day to somebody that if you're playing an event, any kind of charity event, and you got your choice to play with Marty or Gretz, you take Marty all the time because the stories Marty tells, the fun he has. Marty, he could be Marin L.A. before long. Where he's going fishing exactly? Like a small lake, a big one? No, it's a pretty good-sized lake. It's called Havelock Lake.

It's great for lake trout. His boy has never caught a fish before, or at least a decent one. So there's a great chance. If you want to catch a fish, we take you up there, and we'll probably catch eight or ten tonight, no problem. Well, you're from Halliburton, Ontario, correct? Was that where you learned to hunt? What is it so much about hunting that you enjoy?

You know what? I was brought up with it ever since I was a kid. And for people who haven't hunted, I think they don't understand what we go through. It's time spent in the bush. I would always go, when I came home here, every time I went moose hunting, I'd take my dad or my brothers. And it's just time spent uh with with family and uh most people think about hunting they think it's just killing right they don't understand it I eat everything I I shoot uh but I've been to Alaska to the Yukon

Quebec and you know it's just you get away and it's quiet. And then obviously trying to track a moose or a deer, just what it takes the patience and stuff to get one. It's pretty cool. I play with Damon Linkow, and he ended up going on some crazy trip to New Zealand. So are you going to plan on any other crazy trips around the world or maybe some places that you haven't been yet that you want to go? As far as that, I would never shoot.

I would never go to Africa. I'd like to go to Africa just to see them, but I would never shoot a lion or an elephant or something like that. I'm more into just what I would eat, you know? So elk around here or out, white-tailed moose. Moose is my favorite. Yeah, what's moose steak taste like? What is that like? Yeah, moose. Moose is my favorite. Yeah, what's moose taste like? What is that like?

Yeah, moose is good. Like, wild meat isn't as gamey now as it used to be. And what's really, what a lot of people, bear. Bear is a sweet taste in meat. Oh, shit. Yeah, and if I was telling someone we're having bear tonight, they're going, no, I don't think so, right? But if you don't tell them what it is and they eat it, because if you think about a bear, right,

if you open up a bear, you get berries and choke cherries and grass. Like there's nothing bad in there, right? So they're as good a taste of wild meat as any of them. Wow, and are you mostly rifle or are you with the bow and arrow as well? I'm strictly bow now. I used to as a kid, that's how I grew up. But then I went to a bow and I'll never handle a gun again as far as that goes. If I'm hunting, it's strictly bow.

Obviously, you've got to get it in a lot closer, but that's the fun of it too, right? So bow to me. For anybody who's hunted actually with a gun, I always tell them, just go shoot a bow. I mean, for anybody who's hunted actually with a gun, I always tell them, just go shoot a bow. And then, especially for an athlete, right, the patience you need to play and stuff. The hand-eye. Strategy goes into it. The hand-eye.

When you shoot a bow, you would never go back to a gun. So the only reason I ask, sorry, one thing is when you mentioned moose, I didn't even know, can you kill a moose with a bow? Absolutely. Wow, you got to have a good shot, though. Those things are beasts. Yeah, I got a couple on the wall right here that I shot with my bow. First one ever shot. And the thing is, the best time to hunt them is when they're in the rut.

You know, they're a little crazy. They'd sooner fight than fight. But you get them coming in. I had one coming in to me, and i got him at eight yards like coming in he was going to he was looking for the ball to fight uh but he ran into an arrow instead and that didn't do him very well yeah with my accuracy this guy had 70 goals busy be hitting the tree no i'm using a grenade blow yourself up. Was that the closest call you had?

We say, you know, you got to get closer to bow and arrow. You must have some close calls with other animals, huh? Yeah, I've had a moose in five yards one time. Wow. But he was right in front of me, so I couldn't shoot. Because when you shoot them, they run straight wherever they're facing. And I had to wait till he turned, but yeah, deer, you get in 15, 20 yards. Moose, I've had 10, 8,

15 yards coming in and it's, it's pretty cool when you get them in that cause they're coming in and they try to put on display for the female, you know, thinking there's a female there, they're tear up trees and just make a – they go pretty crazy at times. So you get pretty excited when you've got one coming. Would you say beer is the most underrated cut of meat out there? I would, absolutely. Yeah, for anybody who has ever tried – and it's got to be done right too, right?

Like sometimes – you can never eat a meat the same time you shoot it you gotta you know go hang for a little bit and age and and then it's done upright so yeah if it's done right it's it's pretty good elk elk tenderloin's not bad but moose and deer they're all the same they're really good but i just think bear would be a little underrated we'll talk about a business venture after the podcast. Maybe a moose meat, moose knuckle jerky or something? Oh, I make jerky all the time out of it. Absolutely. We make sausages.

Yeah, you'd like it, bud. Well, this has been a good tee-up, but obviously the reason we got you on, incredible career. I mean, over 1,200 points. We mentioned that you grew up in Halliburton. When did you fall in love with the game? Who introduced it to you? And how did this amazing career begin? Well, my dad did. But I think for any Canadian kid, you know, hockey's all we ever did, right?

Ever since, I think I skated when I was three, played my first game when I was five. And, you know, from five years on on all you're thinking is you're going to play in the NHL someday right that's all we know so uh but my dad my dad was a great player himself uh but yeah we just we had a we had a well up here we're fortunate because we could skate on the lakes all the time we had an arena right or well it was an outdoor ice to where we skate right at our community center where we're at so uh that's all i did as a kid that's all i i dreamt about doing is playing and playing the hl you met you mentioned your brothers were they older or younger so i'm guessing there's just a

bunch of nickels boys beating the shit out of each other playing playing all winter good well i have two but they're both younger okay uh my one played, I actually got him to come to an L.A. Kings camp one time, but he had more determination than skill, so it didn't work out. My younger brother, and I didn't get really to see him play because I was gone, but he had more skill than any of us, he said. But he had the skill, not the determination. When he went and played junior, he was offered a scholarship anywhere he wanted to go.

And he said, no, I'm going home to go hunting and fishing. Wow. And I tried to tell him, I said, bud, you know, the NHL life's not that bad, right? We can always come back and go hunting later. But he opted for that. Well, good thing you got a mix of both yeah that's right that's right bernie i know you get drafted after your first year in juniors now i read an old quote

you didn't even know la had a team at the time is that true well you know what's funny is where i grew up my hometown's 75 people and we had two two channels growing up and we could obviously get trauma police uh hockey night in can, Saturday night, sometime Montreal, but it was always Toronto. And I didn't really know. Same today. Like anybody in the East Coast, they don't watch a West Coast game or anything. Right. So when I, when I get drafted, I didn't really know they had a team. That's right.

Yeah. I want to jump back to your show HL days for the Kingston Frontnecks. What was it, the Canadians? Now they're the Frontnecks, but you held all the records to recently. Oh, yeah. And I know Shane Wright broke all those records, but I have another story that you still hold a record for the way you used to show up to their games or your games, actually. In a fur coat?

Yeah, part of it. Back then? Yeah, like a sports car fur coat, almost like Billy Madison showing up back to high school. Oh, my goodness. So where I lived, my billets had a fur store and a drive-in movie theater. my billets had a first door and a drive, a drive-in movie theater. So I would work at the first door and he gave me a full length wolf coat. So I would, I'd make the odd appearance at the games with that thing on.

Did you have to take it off when you were in LA though? Cause Wayne was the guy wearing the fur, wasn't he? Well, you know what? When I, When I went and turned pro, I actually bought an otter, a full-length otter coat, and it made a couple road trips to Winnipeg and stuff, but then I had to retire that thing. We're going to get to your

rookie year, man, 81-82. You started off in New Haven. I'm talking about a hell of a commute New Haven to L.A. What was it like when you first get there? I mean, you said you're small town, you're palm trees, you're on the beach. It must have been a huge culture shock, but in a good way, I'm supposing. Absolutely. I never forget

flying in. I used to fly right in over the Forum then and Hollywood Park racetrack, which I spent some time there too. But yeah, you're going in, it's palm trees. Like I said, I grew up with 75 people here in my hometown.

We had one store, one restaurant, and that was it. So going into there, it was actually pretty cool, right? Being a small town boy, like just to go there and to see California, it was pretty neat. Warm weather. What was the fan base like then? Because it's before the true explosion and obviously the success the Kings have gone on to have. But were the fans, were they rabid? Were they at a lot of games?

What do you remember about the beginning of that? You know what? We had, and obviously before Greg's game, we probably had nine or 10,000 season seat holders. When Oilers come in or maybe the Islanders at the time would come in, we would sell out. But I remember we had a playoff game. This is in early 80s. And I went and ate at a little restaurant before for pregame. And I'm asking people, I said, you know if there's anything going on here tonight

that I can go watch or anything? And not a chance in hell the people around that area knew there was a hockey game going on and played a game. Yeah. Yeah. You talked about the Gretzky effect. From my understanding, did you guys really not get along when you guys played against each other and you guys would josh actually quite a bit uh when you

guys were playing no uh we got along great the problem is our first year right uh we we meet them in the playoffs and they're so good obviously right uh and and the kings that's the year we um miracle in manchester we're down five nothing with with like 12 minutes to go in the third period and gary younger took a high stick and piling we actually come back and beat him overtime and the the funny thing was um after game four our our owner we didn't even have a plane because we weren't even supposed to be there to go back to Edmonton for game five. And so we chartered a plane with Edmonton. They were in the back of the plane.

We were in the front of the plane. No way. Oh, yeah. But it was the first two games up there. So first game in Edmonton, we beat them 10-8. Second game, we lose 3-2 in overtime. Gretzky scores the overtime goal, right? So I'm sitting in my stall with one of the players.

The press is just in there. And I gave it the old fucking threats he scores you know like that like to one of my guys didn't mean like the way it came out just your pants right i was devastated because i would never say that to grats right like obviously i didn't know him that was my first year but grats is grats Gretz regardless, right? So I was devastated. And obviously he wasn't very happy either. But after the – when we ended up beating them in the line, I talked to him and I just said, Gretz, look, I didn't say that. Like that's not – you know, I was just pissed.

I just said what I said. But he was good with it. Obviously having the opportunity to play with him, it was just the best ever, right? Brent, looking at that box draw from that game, you had 21 penalty minutes that game, huh? The Miracle of Manchester game? The Miracle of Manchester game, yeah.

I'm in the penalty box for when we scored the overtime goal. I was just dumb. Dave Lumley was just being an idiot with me, and I was just dumb. Dave Lumley was just being an idiot with me. And I was, I was biting, I was fighting back, like why I would ever be, you know, hooked up with Dave Lumley, fourth line player doing his job, trying to get me off the ice. Well, he did. Yeah. I didn't, uh, I did a lot of watching that night. Now did Dr. Jerry Buss, did he own the team at the, at the time when you, when you said the owner?

Jerry owned the team. And the great thing was, because you never played in uniform, right? No, no, no. I'm not that old, buddy. Yeah, I know. Yeah. But so back then used to have, our bench was here, and there was like a little box with like, it was the owner's box.

There was like eight seats or something and then the the other team right and uh so we come out for the third period and jerry's gone he's out and uh so we come back and win and i don't know where he is but uh that was that was funny at the time just because he uh he bailed on us he on us. He left with his harem. Yeah, that's right. Yeah, well, that's what, you know, before Biz became best friends with 99, I know you guys were best friends, and you both would go to lunch together every day to a very interesting spot.

Can you tell us about that? Yeah. And Marty, we talked about that the other night at dinner at Marty's like, and I think still to this day, he loves McDonald's right. And every day Culver city, our practice, right.

200 yards up, up the roads, McDonald's. And after practice gets his burn, let's go to lunch. And just like this, if that says, let's go to lunch. And just like Gretz says, let's go to dinner. Absolutely. You say yes every time.

I've never said no to him one time. Before he gets it out of his mouth, yep, let's go. And it's McDonald's. Every day, McDonald's. And Gretz loved McDonald's. And I don't think I've had McDonald's since, to be honest with you. But you're going to go, right? What was he getting?

The Filet-O-Fish? Getting the Happy Meal? Oh, no. He's getting the Big Mac. He's getting the fries. He's getting the Coke, Diet Coke. Oh, yeah. You guys did it hard.

I'm going to go back to the summer of 88. Now, you guys find out this Gretzky trade's happening. That come out of nowhere. It was like an atomic bomb. What was the locker room like? What was the reaction for the team, man? It must have been insane. Yeah.

I found out. And I called Bruce McNaught right away. Because I'm not thinking, like, I heard we got Gretzky. And I'm at an event in that celebrity golf event up in Tahoe. And someone told me that. And I, bullshit, right? Like, no chance. And I was good friends with Bruce Mignol,

so I called Bruce right away, and he says, yeah, we just got grats. Oh, my God. And I went, are you fucking kidding me? Like, no way, right? So that was awesome. And I've said this different times. Like, I got to play with that guy for just a year and a half,

and I couldn't imagine what it would be like to play with him for five, ten years. And what I tell people, too, and I've asked a couple of guys from Edmonton, I don't know what it was, but I was Gretz's guy. I hung with Gretz every day. Every road trip, it was him and I went out. Nobody else, him and I. And itretz every day. Every road trip, it was him and I went out. Nobody else, him and I. And it was awesome, obviously. You know?

So I could not imagine what it would be like to play with that guy for five, ten years. And that season, like R.A. mentioned, I mean, you had 70 goals, one of eight players, 150 points, one of only five guys to ever do it. And were you not even on his line with 5-on-5? You just played power play with him, right? And we killed penalties. I had eight shorthanded goals that year because I killed penalties together. But what I loved about Gretz, right, and I've never heard this before,

as you probably wouldn't either, but so Gretz is a centerman, I'm a centerman, but whenever Gretz is up, I got first guy. So left winger comes off right winger, Gretz is centerman i'm a centerman but whenever gretz is up i got first guy so left winner comes off right when gretz is on right so uh i always love playing ahead of gretz because i knew dave taylor would change first and luke and i'd be there so gretz would be out and we'd play kind of a whole shift with him too why would? Hey, would he extend his shifts? No, he was extending his. Oh, you were? Okay. Yeah, we can hang in there.

So you're getting a little lazy on the back check the first 30, 45 seconds of it, just making sure you're peeking over to the bench, looking for your opportunities. Just wait for Dave. Dave, you're not tired, bud? You got to get off. Gretz is waiting. That's awesome.

Another guy that we don't really get to hear a lot about is Marcel Dion. And if you could do a lot for our younger fan base in describing what made him so special as a player, maybe how he was off the ice in the locker room, because he's a little bit older than you, and I'm assuming a little bit more old school, given how the game was played even before you got there. Yeah, big time old school. And I love Mars. game was played even before you got there yeah big time old school and uh and i love marks and when i went there when i get drafted i think you know when you get drafted to a team kids nowadays

first thing you do is you look at you know what do they got in their position right you never want to go to a standing cup champion team because obviously yeah they're they're full of talented players so as far as i'm concerned, all they had was Marcel there. So when I get drafted there, I was happy because there was no one other than him that I couldn't do better than. But you get there, and like you said, Mars was about, I don't know if he was 5'7". He was that small?

Oh, big time. Wow. And he was a little heavier set. Like right now, you've seen mars back then you go no bullshit you don't you're not a hockey player you're not right but he could skate and he could stay count like i don't think you ever see him slap shot the pot just skating wrist shot but it was when you talk old school if we were doing some skating at the end of practice or laps,

Marsh would be tight against the wall just doing a little twirl there. There was not much speed in his. There wasn't a lot of work ethic going on there. So he wasn't probably the best person for me growing up that I wanted to follow in his footsteps as far as working out and getting prepared for a game. Post-practice pops yeah yeah he could score goals and uh you know he he was good and when you came into the league it's so different now where rookies are kind of given such a big time role on many teams and and they're not treated in a bad way by any veterans it's just changed but were there guys that were real hard

on you that maybe didn't talk to you like you must have you must have had to go through the ringer 80 1981 in terms of like keep your mouth shut right yeah like it's so much different now i think back then like i said there was three guys or maybe even four other than mars knew that i'm coming to take your job. Yeah. And they knew that. And, and I say this to this day, it's so important for, for older people or older players to take care of the kids coming up. Like I know you guys know when, when Sid went to Pittsburgh,

he lived with Mario, you know, you need that. Those people like Mike Murphy was great for me. Charlie murphy was great for me charlie simmer was great for me they kind of took me under their wing right uh because a lot of times the other guys that you're in the same position they want no part of you and and that part's tough especially for a young kid right because you know coming from a small town you're leaving home and then you got some guys that really aren't treating you kind of the way you're hoping you would be treated uh what was a rookie party like back then you know ours there wasn't much not like now you know every day was your rookie party in la

yeah yeah like um you know when when i was i was with the Kings in 12 and they won the Cup, and every night, you know, someone put money up for goals and stuff, and they would have thousands of dollars for their year-end party and stuff, right? Like, it was huge. They didn't really, you know, we had guys all over the place, older guys. There wasn't a lot going on like that. And there was no rookie dinners back then they shaved you and and they'd hit which is the most bizarre thing ever well who came up with

the fact that they were going to shave guys bushes at a certain point for initiation it's like the weirdest thing yeah like that's all you want to see is uh i'd love the help with the maintenance a guy on the table and you're holding him and you're shaving him who the hell wants to shave a guy you know yeah who got stuck with that duty yeah yeah I don't know who came up with that I know

I get shaved twice once in New Haven and once in LA and I get cut both times with scissors just up in here and i find out later because rick chartreuse if you remember rick used to play in for the canadian he was down there and then he was up when i was up there so i kind of figured out who it was but marcel dion took a torch to uh danny bonner, just shaped like his leg. Like, just dumb stuff that they would do back then.

You could never even think about doing some of the stuff now that happened back then. And I'm sure you guys were having your fun before Wayne got there. And you might have already touched on it a little bit. But how much of a shock was it to all of a sudden you're his right-hand man and you're probably getting to experience all these lifestyle changes and things that you would have never in a million years seen if he wouldn't have gotten there and especially being from a small town like near you know near halliburton and just it's just like a world of difference like what type of things were you doing with him where your jaw was dropped and i mean playboy mansion maybe this maybe that

yeah you know what the great thing when gretz, we may have had one or two reporters at our games at night, right? Now we're the show in town. We got all the celebrities coming. It's just the place to be. Our place went from 10,000 people a night to 16,000 sold out every night and then on the road. You know, we go on the road. We used to go on the road and we used to go on the road. We play in front of empty buildings. Now we got, you know, we're the,

we're the show now with Gretz, right. And I'm just his wingman. We just, everywhere we go, it's just, it's just the place to be. And the people that started coming around all the celebs, like I said, and reporters, it's like it used to be now like a playoff game or when you're in Toronto or New York. That's what it was like after a game there. Now it's just a madhouse to me. And like I said, I got to experience that firsthand because I was with the guy that everybody was coming to see all the time. So I just got to watch that, and that was pretty special. Any residuals from, like, brand deals or maybe cameos in a soap opera because of him? Oh, yeah, for sure.

Suits, free food. Big Macs. Now we get all that stuff, you know? So that was cool. We'd go everywhere. Any concerts or anything, we'd just walk in. It was really, yeah, it was great fun. Was there an encounter with a famous person that you can recall

that was pretty awesome, like maybe an actor that you'd watched a ton that you ended up getting to run into at the rink? Well, I get pictures here of Kevin Tosner, Garth, John Candy. John used to come all the time, right? And God bless him. I just love that guy. I played golf with John a few times, traveled with him. There was nothing better than having John around.

Tom Hanks would be there a lot. Like, Bruce Manolo, that's the thing, too, right? With Bruce and Brett, they knew everybody. So, yeah, we had them all all right before we go any further here's a word from our sponsor better help more athletes are speaking out about the importance of mental health but you don't have to be a pro to want to be at the top of your game everyone needs to take care of their mental well-being whether you're an athlete or not and therapy is the best way to stay in peak mental shape. If you're thinking

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That's B-E-T-T-E-R-H-E-L-P dot com slash chicklets. Betterhelp.com slash chicklets Betterhelp.com slash chickens. Yeah, so you were in LA during the Magic Lakers years. Were you checking out those games? Were you going up to the Forum Club with them after? Anything good from there? Well, you know what? The great thing for us is because my first couple years I was single,

so I would go out every Friday night the Lakers played and every Saturday night we played. So I would always go, and I could go anywhere I wanted in the forum. So I'd go down to the dressing room, and then where they walk out and stand, I'd walk out and stand with the usher right by the floor. So I used to watch all their games on Friday, and then we'd play on Saturday. So I got to see the Lakers in the 80s all the 80s were and they were they were good so that was pretty cool yeah one of the best teams ever did you were you there for any of their titles like did you see them win in person at all oh yeah I seen uh I

don't know if it was 85 I was there for a couple of them yeah that was really cool another teammate want to mention Tiger Williams you play with uh most penalty minutes in NHL for a couple of them, yeah. Yeah, that was really cool. Another teammate I want to mention, Tiger Williams, you play with most penalty minutes in NHL history. A couple seasons you played with 320 penalty minutes, 358 minutes. What was it like having a guy like that in the team? You know you had your back for sure. Yeah, and I played with Tiger. He was on my left side.

Tiger speared me the first day in practice, and he said that was for the game game in detroit and i'm thinking you know what would i do to you in detroit right but you know what uh and i was talking about bow hunting and because tagger loves to hunt and um our dressing room in culver city was like it was only like 10 feet wide or like it'd probably be it'd probably be 20 feet wide real narrow and i bring my bow to practice one day and tagger gets my bow and he pulls and i i don't think he's gonna do it we got like this big exhaust thing at the end and this al tour you guys probably heard he's bending over tying his skates and tagger lets his bow go and it honest to god it wouldn't

miss al's head by six inches and plank right through the wall and everybody looks at him going like are you kidding me right now because like everybody's bow you get custom fitted for your bow right so i would shoot a bow to be different new and different tagger and uh he was good but i mean you don't do that but tiger does that right like tiger has no problem doing that uh so one time i left a note right and it was my writing but we always left our tickets after the game uh for the wives or girlfriends or whatever or after morning skate i grabbed taggers uh tickets and i wrote in there thanks for uh last night in the bathroom or something because played by it back and put in there so brenda got it right oh jesus well pat quinn was my coach and i love pat pat loved me

right and every time anything happened uh pat he would come to me because he knew I'd probably be the one who had done it. But he came to me and he says, OK, I don't know what you did this time, but Tiger's going to kill you. So I'm just telling you right now. Right. So, oh, God. But Tiger, we got along great. I love Tiger and he was different. He was tough. He fought everybody, and he was dirty. But he had a place, and people loved him. I feel like the pranks were just a lot more frequent back then. You know, we talk about the few guys that really pull them off a lot now. Marc-Andre Fleury's name comes up quite a bit.

Were you a prankster? And if you weren't, who were the guys on the team that were doing it quite a bit? And what were some of the things that were going on back then? No, I was the one. You know what I used to do is I'd hide in guys' showers after pregame. So, you know, before you take your nap. So, you know, the first place you're going to is the bathroom, right? And I'd come out of that shower.

And I had Marcelion jump one time fall flat in his ass from the toilet and just big guys like jp kelly i don't know if you remember him he was he weighed about 225 he stood sat in the toilet he's just screaming like this you know scotty stevens ran out of the bathroom and he's laying on his bed kicking his feet like a little kid so but i my favorite story is and i thought it was good until you guys interviewed jeremy jr on his oh yeah oh that was where someone should have died i had someone that probably should have died too. We were in training camp, and we always went to Vancouver training camp, or Victoria. So they never, ever had it in L.A.

But one night, it's 1230 in the morning, and I'm rooming. There's two young French kids rooming beside me, right? So I look over, and they're sliding glass doors open so i jump over the balcony and i'm crawling in on my hands and knees and and i'm looking and well there's no one in this first bed and i'm thinking okay well you know they're two young french kids i don't know you know uh so i i crawl right to the foot of their bed and then i stand up and i scream two elderly ladies sit up in the bed and just start screaming oh my god and i go oh my fucking god i went oh god so i run back out

right and all they see is some guy because they wouldn't see me come in but just Oh, God. So I run back out the window, right? And all they see is some guy, because they wouldn't see me come in, but just they don't know if I'm Batman jumping out the window or gone, right? But these two kids got cut that day after practice, and they resold the room out to an elderly lady and her mom. Oh, no. And, like, how they didn't have a heart attack one of them or not i don't know but you know talking to to pat like remember we're talking pat quince my coach right and uh but i'm in my room and all i hear is banging on their door cops are called everything

right so next morning i go to practice and mike murphy was the assistant coach and you know mike was my cat i love mike and i told mike so we're sitting getting ready mike comes over he says look pat found out what you did and he's pissed right and i know you guys remember pat quinn he was a big burly man you know like pat intimidated the hell out of me right but you're reminding him of my dad so we're skating around in practice and and pat won't blow the whistle he's just got a stick turned upside down and every now and then he'll just beat it on the ice right and then all of a sudden he blows the whistle and he's just his nickels come here. So I go, oh, shit.

So I come over and he goes, what did you do? So now I've got to tell Pat the story without laughing because it's tough to do, but he's got me nervous as it is. So I'm starting to explain it to Pat, and finally he broke down laughing because it actually was pretty funny. But he didn't want to be called in like 1.30 in the morning and be called up with the cops and stuff, right? But like I said, I thought that was the best until I heard JR's. But that was pretty cool.

So when you were playing in L.A. towards the end, is it true that you weren't really getting along with the head coach, Tom Webster? Oh, yeah. So you guys really butted heads. Do you think that that was ultimately the demise of your time in L.A.? I don't know if it was. I know they needed – like Greg's never – right? Like he tried with Luke and Davey, and that just didn't work out.

So I got them, which was great. So they definitely needed something. But, you know, Tom came in, and I think he honestly thought, like, he was Scotty Bowman or, like, he was the best ever, right? So we played a game, and after the game, he says, he came in and says, look, I want you guys to ride the bike before you go home, right? So I was one of the stars after the game, he says, he came in and says, look, I want you guys to ride the bike before you go home, right? So I was one of the stars after the game. I was doing interviews and stuff.

And so after I get dressed, I just left. So the next day at practice or whatever, you know, he's going to send me. So he goes, did you ride the bike after? Like you're supposed to? And I said, I hadn't ridden a bike in nine fucking years. Why would I ride one now? Right. And that didn't go over very well.

But that was part of it. But I don't know. We just, for some reason, we just didn't hit it off. And I don't know why. And you had so many points the year you got traded. Like it was one of your best years. Yeah. I think at the end of the day, it came down to that they needed someone for Wayne, right?

And I understood that. Obviously, devastated that it was me. Because I couldn't imagine what it would be like to play with Gretz for another four or five years. But he got, you know, Tony Granato and Thomas Sandstrom, and they played with Gretz for another four or five years. But he got, you know, Tony Granato and Thomas Sandstrom, and they played with Gretz. And obviously it was good for Wayne for sure. And a bit of a kick in the dick considering you just bought a house in L.A. three months prior.

You bought a nice mansion. Oh, like always. I went to Bruce McNo, right? And I just signed a contract with them. And I said, Bruce, you know, I want to stay. What do you think? He said, I'll never trade you, right? And sure shit, three months later, I traded.

But before I signed that contract, right, so after that year, and I was really close with Bruce. Bruce gave me a Jaguar car. He gave me gold. He gave me some shares and some horses. Like, Bruce just loved me, and he was great. And so after I scored my 70 goals, I was up for a contract, right? So Bruce calls me, and he says, you know, what are you looking for?

And so it ended up it was like five years for 750 a year right so he says okay so rogy bashan's a gm he says well you gotta go tell rogy what you want and then he'll come to me and i'll okay it right so rogy calls me and says uh you know because i bruce said fire your agent, we'll just do it. I said, great. Right. Yeah. So, um, and, uh, so Rogie says, what do you want? He said, I said, well, I want like seven 50 a year. I want it for five years. And he goes, Oh God, no, no. Bruce would never go for that. I said, well, Rogie, that's what I want. Well,

I know he won't go for it. He said, uh, but I said, well, Rogie, that's what I want. Well, I know he won't go for it, he said, but I'll go talk to him and then I'll get back to you, right? So, like, a day later or something, Rogie calls me. He goes, okay, I just want you to know I went to battle for you. I worked him and I got the 750 for five years for you. And I said, okay, thanks, Rogie. Yeah, thanks for everything. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Like he was fucking weighing sliding your passes over back door or something for crying out loud he was probably trying to get Bruce to give you a little less too he's like yeah yeah no kid well you brought it up the horse thing you're huge into horses correct yes love

the track you we should hook you up with Portnoy what is it about the track you're just a little bit of a degenerate gambler or what yeah okay like morales is rubbing himself oh yeah he's stroking himself my new favorite player if someone gave me like 10 grand to say okay you can go gamble anywhere you want i'd go the racetrack and because like when when i first went to L.A., Chris McCarron, arguably Boston's top three in the world ever as a jockey. Sandy Hawley from Canada, they were in the penalty box. So I got to know them real well. So I'd go to the racetrack.

And I would even go game days, i may have gotten trouble for uh but i mean i would go there and i'd go right to the the jockey's room and i'd ask them what they liked you know i'd ask chris what do you like that day and i'd check it off uh my program so oh i i loved the horse racing yeah chris mccarran he's uh georges the guy actually went to the same high school as him a few years before me, but I want to go back to the trade. You actually get traded the night before the all-star game. So you were a trader from the West to the East, but you stayed,

you stayed in the West for the all-star game. So you were playing against your teammates, Leachie and Richter, correct? That's right. It was after the skills competition. I'm, I'm just walking out and I run into Mike vernon and mike goes i heard you were traded

and i went fuck you talking about trade that's who told you yeah mike vernon so then i go look for bruce right like no i go bruce what's good yeah yeah we just traded in new york and i want to say but do you not remember the conversation we had about that house I just bought for a million dollars? You know? But I was just devastated. But, yeah, the next day I stayed in the West and played against Richter and Leachie,

two obviously great players. And having to leave Gretzky in L.A. where you obviously loved it, had the great relationship with everyone, at least it was a big-time market with the New York Rangers, right? After the shock of being dealt, you must have been like, all right, well, this is pretty sick. I'm going to Manhattan. That's right.

You know, when players have the have the opportunity to play New York, like I said, to get traded was devastating. But to go play Madison Square Gardens, there's I guess if you had your choice other than somewhere in Canada, I guess. But Madison Square Gardens is pretty cool. That was that was a fun two years in New York. Like like to play MSG. Yeah, it was it was a great place to play.

You had Roger Nielsen for a coach again. Did you get along well with him? He seemed to be a real player's coach back in the day. Yeah, I got along great with Roger. I had him in L.A. for just a little bit. Then I had him in New York. No one worked harder at the game than Roger. I think Rodgers only

downfall would be probably he would never put three good players together and I think that's what happened with with Messier when Mess got there uh he would always put you two skilled players but then you'd have a checker or somebody there instead of having you know three good offensive players together and and power play, he'd cut it in half. He wouldn't want you spending the two minutes like I was used to in L.A. You played the whole thing. So that was the only problem I think Roger had. But, boy, he worked hard at the game.

There'd be times he'd come to the rink and he'd be sleeping on the couch. He was there all night. Yeah, that's kind of what I was going to ask. When when he passed away i heard too many people mention it was almost like the nfl coach mentality where he was the hardest working coach i was gonna ask you kind of what you meant by that but i guess you just answered it in terms of all-nighters and always being at the rink and he was the first one that ever did videos right really yeah that's the first time I've ever seen videos and stuff. And he'd go over games the next day. Roger really worked hard at it, and he was really good at his craft, for sure.

Were the players receptive to him wheeling in the video? What the fuck? What's his VHS? Yeah, what the fuck is this shit? Yeah, going over things. Yeah, I don't think the guys were real thrilled at first with that because most of it was all your mistakes you made, right? There wasn't too many. Hey, that was a great play there, bud.

Good job. No, it was where the hell were you when this guy scored? That was your guy. Yeah. Okay. Yeah. Yeah. There was one thing we kind of glanced over.

So you were born pigeon-toed, and it really affected your skating stride, and you had to obviously work at that through growing up and figuring out how to work through that adversity? Yeah, I used to wear braces to bed with my feet like that. So moving around like that at night with these braces on. Let's just say I'm going to go with that part while I wasn't like the Connor McDavid out there. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

I got there, and once I got there, I could do what I needed to do. It just took me a while to get there sometimes. Yeah, you were like Forrest Gump until junior, and then you just bust out of the shackles and fucking light the whole league up 1,200 points later. That a boy, Forrest. When you were at the Ranges, were you playing on the same line with Mike Gartner? I did. I did play with

Mike and Troy Millett. Oh, wow. No disrespect to Troy Millett. Well, like you were just saying about Roger. You know, and so Mike could score goals and he was fast. Yeah, one of the more, I'm talking about Marcel, another underrated guy.

You know, 700 goals, and you don't hear his name as much as you probably would expect to. And, of course, the other big trade, one game into the 91-92 season, off to Edmonton in the big Messier trade. And you weren't too happy about that one either. I know your wife was pregnant with twins, and she was bedridden. And basically they suspended you and withheld your pay. Do you think that's something, if it happened today,

they would handle it completely different given the way the world's changed since then? Absolutely. And same thing. Neil Smith. So I'm traded there. Wife's having twins. uh, wives have twins.

Uh, and I say to, I say to Neil, look, um, I want to buy a place, right? Like having kids. It's not.

Yes. I'll never trade you. Right. So I got a mortgage in California for 900 or for 9,000, one in, uh, New York for 7,500. Um, and same thing i'm we just play in boston and i get a call seven in the morning from roger and you're half asleep but i'm not expecting what

he's about to tell me either you know i go upstairs and says, yeah, you were traded to Edmonton for Mark Messier. So once again, I would have loved to play with Mark. I tell people this day, by far, Mark Messier would be my fiercest competitor. I had him Edmonton, L.A. playoffs a couple of times. Just to me, there's no one better at that position. Fierce, mean, just than Mark. And I would love to have the opportunity to play with Mark. But now I'm off to Edmonton, you know.

But I always say to people, too, as a Canadian boy, you got to play in Canada somewhere. And my time in Edmonton was was awesome first first team we play that year in the playoffs was LA and we knocked them off with Gretz Curry um half the old oiler teams in in LA and and we knocked them off so that was pretty cool yes I was a young hockey player and and it's not like today where there's twitter or you can actually watch the games on tv so i i had to watch players basically on hockey cards and i always will remember you and your like funky skate combinations microns with blue blades some black on black what was that all about did you think about it or just that's how the skates came okay so here's how i don't know how to put this one but so we're playing the oilers right first first round when i'm i'm in la

well they all they all got the blue tuck blades right so gretz is wearing i gotta wear it so i get my trainers to paint mine gold, right, for the Kings. So I'm skating around with gold. But when I got to Edmonton, I liked the blue-colored ones on there rather than just white. I thought that was a lot neater, I guess, or cooler. So you're tipping the trainers pretty good to keep changing them in and out for you.

That's right. That's right. That's right. Yeah. You must have been getting it from guys on the ice back then about making your tux gold. Yeah. Yeah. I'm not sure what they were thinking. Yeah.

I'm not sure. I know Marsh wasn't real thrilled with it. Marsh was so old school. And some of the stuff I'd wear to games as far as clothes and stuff. He's just, he wanted to find me every day because of what I was wearing. One of your other teammates in Edmonton,

Issa Teek, and I'm going to ask about him, this guy, we haven't had him on the show yet, but just an absolute beauty character, all kinds of words describe this guy. Yeah. I got to play with Tick in edmonton and he was awesome

and my favorite story with tick is when he got traded to new jersey and jock lemare's the coach uh old school ticks in the back of the bus he's yelling where's the beer like he he wants beer on the bus up because you know theers. They had anything they wanted there. But New Jersey was a little different. He's looking for beer in the dressing room. They're on a road trip or something. They got a bus and Nick's looking for beer. So he was different, but he was pretty good.

I enjoyed it. And you end up back in New Jersey in the metropolitan area, right? And that team you had in 93-94, the amazing series and unfortunately it didn't go your guys' way but I always wondered because you hear about the Messier guarantee before

game six. You guys are back home. You can close them out. What did your room say when you saw the front of the New York Post, we will win tonight? You guys all saying fuck him like what was the approach going into this game when all this pressure is now on him and the rangers yeah i don't like i don't think that really bothered us because i think we knew just like what mark was saying uh was saying that more or less for his team that you know we're good enough you know we're going to win this game which every captain should even though uh a lot of them wouldn't but mark would um we we still felt we were going to

win and um to this day i always tell people to me that that was my favorite series i ever played in even though we never won uh playing in new y New Jersey, that rivalry three games went into overtime. First game went into overtime. We won that one game seven, double overtime. We actually in game six, we're up to nothing. And I say this, this day, Billy Garen's he's a rookie, right? And it's late in the second period, and we're making change. Billy's just, you know, lollygagging over the red line. He's going to dump it in.

Everybody's changing. Well, he turns it over, and they go down three on one. Kovalev, Messier, I don't know who the other one is, but Kovalev scores. And I still say to this day, we go into the third period, we're up 2-0 with Marty Brodeur and Stephens, the defense that we could play, it was over. But that goal

just so turned the tide on us. And then Mess had some fun in the last. They scored early in the third and it may have been Marty's worst goal of his career. Like, Mark comes down on his forehand on his off wing, but he just backhanded to the net, and Marty missed it.

It was on the ice, too. I remember that. I remember. It was terrible. I'm sure Billy G will love listening to this podcast when you throw him out of the bus. Yeah. And, well, he ended up getting one or two.

Yeah. Yeah. So if you were to ask Marty, worst goal that was ever scored on you, that would be it. But he – obviously, Marty was amazing, and what a pleasure it was to play with him. Now, Jacques Lemay had taken over as coach at the beginning of the season. Did you have to change your game quite a bit because of the style that Jacques played?

No. Actually, Jacques taught you a lot of defense, which was fine. But Jock had some offense too. And what I loved about Jock, because we were both centermen, is Jock had the centermen facing the puck. No matter where the puck was, he wanted the centermen there to get the puck. He always knew probably the best puck handlers of the team would be your centerman but he would have you mirror the pot everywhere it went always so uh i get along great with jock he he wouldn't uh like they play great defense the defenseman uh would be harder

because he would never let them pinch he would never unless you know one thousand percent if you're not getting the puck you're not going so he he kind of handcuffed the defense a little bit but definitely not uh uh not me now at the end of the season you are i think 33 34 year free agent did you want to stay in new jersey no they were pretty much a contender after all this time what was the circumstances there that led you to chicago sorry yeah looking back i wish i kind of would have stayed there uh chicago chicago offered me a million dollars to go there so i i took it uh you're a landlord now you gotta figure out your shit that's right yeah then end up buying an

apartment in the john hancock building in the 89th floor so of all the places that was still it but probably the best place my favorite place to play was chicago uh with chelios suitor ronick uh joe murphy amani eddie balfour like i always say to people like obviously gretz uh I couldn't imagine what it would be if I could play every with one player my whole career would be Chris Chelios yeah yeah like Chris work ethic like like I said I never worked out ever until I get to Chicago and you know I'm 10 years in the league or, no, I'd be probably, I'd be maybe 13 years in the league. And, you know, we're doing push-ups and sit-ups in the sauna every day.

No one worked harder than Chris. And I wish I had had him when I first started. Yeah, I'm sure that's why you love playing with him because he had you doing push-up pyramids. How many fucking pops were you having after a game? I heard he is one of the biggest machines. We talk about Lyle Oldeline is probably one of the most post-game pops kind of guy, but it must have just been a blast hanging out with Chelly on the town and ripping it up.

It probably brought you back a little bit younger. Well, he had his own bar too, right? So after every game, we'd go to the Chili's Chili Bar. But one great thing about Chris, and this is what I mean by there's no one. I put him against any person in the league as far as working out this and that. And I even had to tell Drew Dowdy this one time. Like, no one went harder than Chris after the game, right? He would never.

He would be the first player on the ice the next day and work the hardest every time if he was out you'd know if chris was out because not that he didn't do it all the time because he he always worked hard in practice but he would be the first player on the ice and no one worked harder ever and i tried to tell drew daddy that one time right because drew would go out and have a drink with you i say okay bud look if you're going to play here and i need you first on the ice and i need you to be the hardest working player you know so uh that was that was chris to a t and for for any kid that like to play and you know go out and have a drink or two you want to hang with what was dowdy's response when you said that to him

well he kind of looked at me but you can i can do that i can do that you know you want to hang with Chris. What was Dowdy's response when you said that to him? Well, he kind of looked at me, but I can do that. I can do that. You know, so Drew was tough. And you were there with Jeremy Roddick when he was like a full-bloom young guy. He must have been out of control back then, huh? I mean, he still kind of is, but way back then. No, he still is. Yeah, I got JR two years in Chicago there,

and he was such a fun guy to play with uh what a great talent he is too um but jr no one could uh chris kind of ran chicago right uh jr he he tried but no one like he'd come in on his motorcycle come into practice on his motorcycle and stuff. No helmet, you know, just freewheeling. That's JR. And then your last pit stop, San Jose, Shaq signed there as a free agent. You got back Darryl Sutter again. You had him a few different times.

What was it like being back in California, but a much different scenario in San Jose instead of LA? Yeah. Like I had Darryl in Chicago, which was great. And then San Jose. I love Northern California. It's really nice up there. But yeah, to get Daryl the second time up there with not quite the same team.

But I always say like anybody knows Daryl Sutter or any of the Sutter as far as that goes. There's no one wound tighter than Daryl Sutter or any of the Sutter as far as that goes there's no one wound tighter than Daryl and I even tell Granado right because Tony and I both had him in San Jose in LA like the amount of thought that goes into like no one works harder no one's more prepared than

Daryl with anything and I told Tony that I said he's on video this and that and he's calling bullshit on me right but as you know when when, you know, when you go into a game, right, there's always a game sheet with, with both teams on it. Right. And it tells you a little bit about every player. Right. So I don't know if I've ever read one. I'm pretty sure you didn't.

I always check the game notes, bud. Yeah. Just check our stats. Okay, good. But we'd be playing a team, right? And Daryl says, hey, this kid that's up, what do you know about him? And there's not a chance in hell anybody would know anything, right? No internet. Daryl would know everything about him. He'd know his mom and dad, where he grew up, where he went to school, what he had for breakfast.

Like, he is so, so prepared for everybody, every team he plays. I saw it with Daryl. You'll never play a team that's more prepared than Daryl's team or works harder either. So I enjoyed it. You're like, Daryl, what the fuck do I need to know about where this guy's from in order to line up and fucking toe-drag him and put one top cheese on his goalie here and give him a dash? Yeah.

You got anything else, Merles? No, that was it. I had a lot on that L.A. I really enjoyed that. And I know you ran the power play and you finally got your Stanley Cup with them. Can you tell us a little about that? Yeah, that was awesome. I was back home and I had called L.A. different times about –

because I watched their team and their power play sucked. And, and I thought they had a good team and I had called, I talked to Dean and then he, he gave me Terry Murray and Terry said, you know, I think, um, I don't know, it should be a full-time thing. I don't know, whatever. Right. So he gets fired. Daryl gets hired at Christmas time. So I called Daryl and I said, Daryl, look, your power play sucks. I just want to come in and help. Right. Like even when I was calling Dean and Terry, I wasn't coming and looking for a job.

Just a former player. You know, you know the guy. I just want to help. Right. So I said to Daryl, look, I'd like to I'd like to help. He said, absolutely. He said, I remember he said, come on in. It was January 3rd. I went in.

They're like a nine game homestand or something. said, come on in. It was January 3rd. I went in. They had like a nine-game homestand or something. So we worked on it. And so that was up. I said, okay, what do you want me to do now? While we're going on the road, never been on the road with the team, I want you to come on the road. We go Calgary, Edmonton, Vancouver. We win.

We win and we tie. So I said, okay, what do you want me to do now he says I want you to stay okay so that was it was fun like um you know just being around that side of it um was fun being and the thing is I hung with the guys more right um than the coaches I never hung with coach I hang with the guys but Daryl knew that right Daryl knew because Daryl could be hard at times, but he knew that when he was done kicking your ass, I'd come by and just pat you and say, bud, you know, it's okay.

We're good here. And Daryl knew that. We worked really well together like that because Daryl can be hard on them, as we all know, but we got along great. It was just such a fun ride, right? How'd you fix the power play? You just told him to shoot?

Give it to Doughty. Well, just some movement, right? Like I'm watching it, and you'd have Kopitar on the side, and Drew would be right here. So I'd say to Drew, bud, look, you've got to find a quiet spot, right? Like you've got to move. And you watch great power plays today that it's puck movement and player movement, right?

It's not like back in the day where Gretz is just camped out on the side there and, you know, picking spots, right? So there's so much more puck movement, player movement, just hitting the quiet areas, right? So it was so much fun. Yeah, we talk about that quite often, especially with Colorado and just how they're able to adapt and constantly change positions on the fly, knowing what the defense is really providing them.

And, yeah, it's exceptional. I mean, you've got to have a sick power play if you want to win a cup. But, boys, this has been awesome. I don't know if you had any more. No, I think that was it. I actually just want to wish you a happy early birthday. I see your birthday is two days out, and I wish you good luck. A couple clicks for the birthday here.

Well, you know what? My fiance got me tickets. We're going to New York. We're leaving tomorrow to go to Yankee. I'm a Yankees fan. So we're heading to New York to a Yankee game. He's going to stay at his old spot. You never got to enjoy it.

And good luck on the track as well. Oh, man. Just want to give Bernie another huge thank you for joining us a few weeks back. Great guy. Great interview. Hopefully you enjoyed it. Also, too, I got to try some beer, man. He was talking about how good beer meat is.

I hadn't eaten it before, so I got to give that a whirl. But I want to let you know that his interview was also brought to you by Sport Clips. How long has it been since you had your last haircut? Well, it might be time to head to sport clips they've just developed a brand new super relaxing signature scent on their perfectly steamed hot towel it's been formulated specifically to bring the relaxation of the mvp haircut experience up to another level it's something that you have to smell to believe make sure when you go in that you ask your stylist for the MVP experience.

Not only will you get to try the new scent, but you'll get the seven-point massaging shampoo as well. Smell like an MVP. Sport Clips, the pros in men's hair. All right, boys, going to wrap it up. Episode 406. We'll be back with the boys next week like we said episode 407 back on the saddle can't wait to get the season started but we're not done with biz does the coast yet cornelli

pot free drop it tomorrow night correct the final episode of biz does the coast drops on wednesday 8 p.m on our youtube channel busy boys return to wheeling what a night it was a lot of stuff happened that night i won't dive too much into it, but it was an unbelievable video. KB, no swag in Nick Tarini from the yak from Barstool sports. They joined us as well. So it was,

it's one of the funniest videos we've ever made. We also have a sandbagger coming next week as well with Matt Molson and Kyle Pozo. So that'll drop on Wednesday as well. And then the boys are back. The boys are back after that. So we are very excited and tons of content on the, on the chicklets YouTube channel.

Like we always say, just subscribe, like comment, the whole nine yards. Absolutely. Merle's between the whistles there. We were just talking about what's the house of the dragon. That's what it's called.

Everyone keeps calling it game of Thrones, but he'd been watching this house of the dragon show yeah it's one good thing about being over here in europe it doesn't come on sunday night so you're not getting pulled by the wife or the girlfriend to watch it during football it doesn't come on till monday here so we have our monday night routine so we just got done watching it that was uh that was an interesting episode to say the least i don't want to say any spoilers or anything but uh we can give spoilers we'll give the warning now we're talking game of thrones here though the spoilers are coming the incest was fucked up it just blows my mind how they always

find a way to weasel that in there with the incest but oh my god what an episode once again that that damon is just uh he's a wild card. You never know what's coming with him. Yeah. Matt Smith. He's got that look too. Like he was, he played, well,

he's in the crown. He played Prince Philip in the crown. And he, that guy was an asshole. Matt Smith plays a perfect asshole. He's just got that look about him where he plays a good like dick. But yeah, the scene when the,

the, the cousin there, I literally was like, I was getting the willies. I went, I grabbed my phone. I went to IMDB to like the cast and I hit that girl's thing and i was like all right good she's 22 years old i was like she's wearing like a fucking little kid in it practically they do make her look like she's fucking 12 or whatever but fortunately she was of age obviously she has to be to film the scene but yeah man i mean i i think that they they base

on a lot of the plot on like how the world used to be, which is pretty fucking sick and twisted during the medieval era or whatever George Martin based his books on. But yeah, there's some definitely some crazy scenes, but I like last night's episode because I think they could overdo it with the action too much. Like you can't have a dragon firefight every week. You can't have a battle every week. You gotta, you gotta move the story along. And last night, you know, some of the quieter moments with it were well acted. I mean,

Patty Constantine, he's a tremendous actor. I thought it was great, man. And I'll tell you what I also like, boys. I know we're so used to binging shows nowadays, you know, one after the other, after the other. I like the week to week stuff to build up the, build up the drama, build up the suspense instead of, you know, and you got to be careful. Like spoiler alert, don't go on fucking Twitter. If you haven't watched your episode yet.

And that's how I learned my lesson game of Thrones and the season one, you know what happens, right? Somebody gets lopped off. I had no idea. I started on Twitter. So I knew what was happening. It kind of huge style.

No one thought he was going to get fucking off for, for a season. That's when I learned my lesson. Don't go on Twitter until you've watched game of Thrones slash house dragon. Cause somebody is going to spoil it right away. Yeah. Especially in like the meme game. This these days,

like at any time it's going to be used i couldn't help but think when uh the guy's laying there hung over when he comes in there i was like that's how i feel after every chiclets trip when i get home to sweden i come curling in there so uh this this is wild i just got a text from ryan whitney not on the group not on the group text either an individual uh text from Ryan Whitney. And I don't know where he is. Oh, it looks like he's someone's house. It's a poster of The Towering Inferno,

one of the classic 70s disaster movies starring Paul Newman and Steve McQueen. Asking me if it's all, is this good, Ari? So I'm going to reply back to him in a minute. It's a 70s movie. It's a 70s disaster movie. Like, probably hasn't aged well, but these things were huge back in the day, man would spend all kinds of big budget like you know special effects at the time that no one ever seen but what's interesting about this movie if you look at the poster i actually wrote a blog about it last year steve mcqueen and paul newman right two of the biggest studs in hollywood

history they were two huge stars with requisite egos well they had a fight an argument about whose name was going to be higher on the billing like Like, you know, when the credits come out, who's going to go first? Who's going to go second? So if you look at the poster, I mean, I could show you here. They compromise it. And they have Steve McQueen on one side lower and they have Newman on the other side up higher. So they had to do it. So, like, neither one of them could complain because they were two of the biggest stars in the world in the same movie.

And they had to have a big fucking pissing match over who was gonna like have their name higher in the credits all probably boring the shit out of people listen to it talking about 70s movies but all right i'll tell you that from what i have no i've heard the name many many times but if you showed me a million pictures of steve mcqueen i would have no fucking clue who that guy is i have no clue what he looks like i don't know any movies he's been in give me a little background on this guy. Who is he? What big movies was he in? Because I have no fucking idea. Steve McQueen's most famous movie is probably probably Bullet. He was I think was a cop or a private eye of San Francisco. It has one of the most iconic movie chases of all time through the hills and streets of San Francisco.

I mean, it's you could probably just YouTube the chase itself. Tremendous stunt work they did. He was in um the great escape uh oh god a few other movies he did i can't think off the top of my head he died in 1980 he had he died of cancer uh but he was a legendary fucking patia coxman horn dog like don't leave your girl in the room with fucking steve mcqueen dude because like he just like he was a man's man, macho, handsome, rugged. And yeah, he had cancer. I can get it. I think lung cancer in the 70s.

He died in 1980. And there's actually there's a stone. This is how big how big of a dog fucking Steve McQueen is. There's a Stones lyric. They use him in the Stones lyric. Stone song called Star Star. It's actually called Star Fucker. It's about stop people who fuck stars, basically.

And there's a lyric. And it's like because he used to be married to Ali Ali McGraw. And it's Ali lyric and it's like, cause he used to be married to Allie, Allie McGraw. And it's Allie McGraw got mad at you for giving head to Steve McQueen. Like that's how, that's how legendary Steve McQueen is that the stones would write his fucking name into this song lyric. So just an OG legend of the game.

So yeah, Steve McQueen also, did you see once upon a time in Hollywood, the Quentin Tarantino one? I have. Yes. Yeah. Well,

what's his face? Oh God, I'm fucking drawing a blank. Damian, Damian Lewis, the guy who was in Homeland in the Band of Brothers who played the head dude. I'm fucking brain dead today. He played Steve McQueen in that in the movie Once Upon a Time in Hollywood. He's had like the wig on and stuff. So, yeah, a Hollywood legend, man. Steve McQueen, I dropped my cap to you. But all right, boys. All right. One more quick thing before we wrap up.

Fire away. Big deal brewing, guys. It's coming. It's coming. It's going to be here before you know it. Go to your liquor stores. Go to your beer store. Go to your liquor store.

Wherever you get your beer, go there. Request big deal brewing. Get it on the shelves because that's how it's going to happen. I can't wait, dude. I can't wait. I i'm gonna have 17 cases of it yeah sorry marilson talking about coming coming soon is uh the nhl season so as we're talking about these movies i like to give a little advice to our younger listeners you guys you've got a girlfriend or a wife start watching your shows this week next week because once hockey season comes you're going to be down in the man cave,

build up those points, build up that credit now. So when this NHL season hits, you can watch the games every night. Yeah. I'll just get another TV too. Nowadays, it's great though, between phones and tablets and laptops, you can bang out six games at a time. But all right, gang. Well, I hope you enjoyed Bernie Nichols and the little chat we had today.

But again, the boys are back in town next week. Can't wait to rock and roll. Get ready to kick the season off. So have a fantastic week, everybody. And we'll see you soon. As always, we like to thank our terrific sponsors here on Spit and Chicklet. So huge thanks to our friends at Pink Whitney and New Amsterdam Vodka.

Big thanks to our friends over at Sling TV. Huge thanks to our friends over at BetterHelp. And a big, giant thank you to our friends over at Sport Clips. Have a fantastic week, everybody.