Spittin Chiclets - Spittin' Chiclets Episode 419: Featuring Nikita Zadorov

Episode Date: December 13, 2022

On Episode 419 of Spittin’ Chiclets the guys are joined by Nikita Zadorov. The Flames D-man joined (1:24:50) to discuss growing up in Russia, russian youth hockey, and his NHL career. But first, the boys open the show and break down the recent drama at Barstool Sports, along with the Rough.n Rowdy Whit and RA attended over the weekend. The guys give the Leafs the praise, and Biz and Whit argue about Mitch Marner. The boys also touch on Ovechkin, Tage Thompson and ask the question…Is Sidney Crosby a top-5 player of all time?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 419 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 everyone? The boys are back at their home turfs after yet another road trip. The Leafs are on fire, we had an epic brawl at the mullet, we'll get to all that later. Gotta say hi to the boys first, Mr. Grinnelly producer what's going on R.A.'s humming out of the gate humming all right that was as smooth as silk buddy I'm very proud high stepping nice that's how the episode keeps going with a quick start like that thanks boys uh what's up boys a pretty wild day here at Barstool Sports Headquarters, to be honest.

We actually had a conservative prankster and a homeless man storm the office in the name of Tucker Carlson. So that made a very interesting Monday morning for all of us at Barstool HQ. And for those who don't know what I'm talking about, I'll play a quick clip of what happened for reference. Oh, we had someone getting booted. We had a homeless guy and a... Whoa. Homeless guy and a vlogger? Holy fuck.

Yeah! Love it. Get him, Ebony. Ebony. Ebony. Ebony. Get the cameras on it. Ebony. Andony. Ebony.

And Spider. Don't forget my dude Spider. I don't get paid enough to get involved in that. Everyone. Fucking get them. I'll host Pick Central by myself. Do not get paid enough to get myself involved in that. This is Megan Nunes.

We're here. Talk some sports. I believe that guy is a tiktok i've seen him on fucking luna take it looks like quick shout out to spider marty mush ebony and most importantly security guy dan for tossing these clowns straight out of the office and even at the end of the video ebony and tico texas they fucked around and found out that was unbelievable dan's the security guard's name who had to touch the guy

without the clothes on, who had his ass crack hanging out. He should get to have Erica's office from now on and probably get the same pay for one year's salary for having to show up at the door. I also read a comment

that that guy's not homeless. He's a TikTok person who pretends to be homeless. Yeah, it's so weird. He looked homeless as shit. Every viral video you see of, like, a homeless guy, like, causing havoc on the subway in New York City, this guy's featured in it. So I assume what happened was the guy that's the YouTuber that stormed HQ, I'm guessing he just paid this guy to come with him. How did he get in? I don't know. Now I'll say

this. There are rumors. There are rumors going around HQ. I don't believe these rumors, but there are rumors that Ben Mintz, Mintzy might have gave him his card because if you guys don't remember, this is the guy that Dave had beef with

a couple months back only to find out he was like fraternity brothers with Ben Mintz, Mintzy, and Mintzy was calling him on the side here. So two things. There's going to be people being like, oh, we don't care about the Barstool drama. We came for the hockey stuff.

Shut the fuck up. Fucking fast forward it. Fucking beat it. We're part of Barstool and we fucking eat this shit up. Secondly, we got to give part of the backstory as to why this even happened. I wouldn't have known unless I would have called Grinnelli being like, what the fuck is all this nonsense going on? So, uh, I think I should probably hand it over to you to explain and have something to

do with Francis who was originally fired by Barstool. They brought him back. He's a funny fucker. Probably the funniest guy at Barstool, maybe, other than Little Sask right now, comedian-wise. I love Nick Turaney. I think Nick Turaney is hilarious. Yeah, Nick and KB, they're on a different planet. I wasn't even counting those guys.

But what happened? Francis went on Fox News. No, so Francis has been going on Fox News. I wouldn't say quite regularly, but he's been a guest on a few different programs, and I don't know how deep we can go into this, but he was caught

saying some things about Fox News, I think in a negative light. On a hot mic. On a hot mic where people weren't supposed to hear him. Obviously, this brought out all the lunatics that support some of that stuff, and basically on a hot mic on a hot mic where people weren't supposed to hear him um obviously this brought out all the lunatics that support some of that stuff and someone stormed the office essentially in the name of tucker carlson who is the fox news host coming at francis and uh portnoy as well this whole story is so bizarre because Dave at one point was far right.

And then now these far right people hate him. And I'm pretty sure Dave. Whoa, whoa, whoa. Did you say who was you said at one point Dave was? Dave was considered by people to be far right. Oh, yeah. Considered to be. I was like, oh, he's always.

Oh, no, no, no, no, no. He's pretty much in line. Whatever his opinion is on a certain subject, he gives his opinion. I would oh he's always oh no no no no no he's always pretty much in line whatever his opinion is on a certain subject he gives his opinion i would say he's pretty neutral yeah i think when covid came he was like all these people are like oh this is a far right guy and then like it just topic by topic like you said he gives his opinion and then i believe there was like some abortion video made by him so then the far right started hating him for being far left which which in in all honesty i think dave said this when

you're when you're hated by both you're kind of doing the right thing that's like oh i'm crushing this thing exactly they both hate me exactly the guy who came in he's screaming like on the watch the video don't make i I never heard of that guy. He's like, don't make fun of Tucker Carlson. So it's like I think Dave's like friendly with him. So the whole video was nuts. But that mince guy, that fucking mince guy. I've always had.

I've always had my eyes on that mince guy. He can't be that dumb. I think there's some some some sketchy stuff going on in Mincy land. If he maybe plays off being that stupid, because you can't be that stupid. If he gave his card away, is that a fireable offense? A hundred percent. Wow.

You think Dave would can? I'm right on the spot. If he gave his card. I think anyone would. If you give somebody your swiping card, then they come in and they're causing a ruckus with a homeless guy. Now, Mincy hasy denied it to a fake homeless guy, which is even worse. He's the guy collecting change on one sidewalk and then going across the street to jump in his Ferrari.

That's been, you know, double parked by a fire extinguisher. Or what do you call those? What do you call them? Not fire. Fire hydrant. Those are fire hydrants. Dogs pee on them. And for people who are still a little confused, now there's a show, Pick Central, on Barstool every day. I believe it's on YouTube or Barstool Sports. So they go over that night's everyone's favorite pick, NBA, NHL,

doesn't matter. And when this guy stormed in, well, all of a sudden, it was obvious to these people in the room doing the show that there was a legit beef, and that security guy, Dan, was trying to get him out, and Spider's in there. Shout out Spider, though. What a great guy. What a warrior guy he is.

Five foot nothing, 100 and nothing, and he'll throw his balls on the line for anyone. So what happened was Marty Mush and Big Ev and Brandon, all these guys get up. Like, well, they're buddies with Dan. They're going to help him out. They see he's in a physical altercation. Well, this Donkey Mincy, he stands up.

He looks out there, and I believe on camera you could see him saying, oh, that's my friend. Like, he didn't even go out and get in the mix, dude. So it's like now you're wondering, wow, oh, that's my friend. Like, he didn't even go out and get in the mix, dude. So it's like now you're wondering, wow, wow, this guy's been his buddy before. I think he gave him info a few months ago when this whole beef started with Portnoy and this guy. What's his name, Stein? Alex Stein.

And then Mincy sees him and doesn't go. You know what Mincy should have done? If he had half a brain if he had half a brain he should have gone out there and just straight up suckered him then you can tell whose side you're on right yeah mincy's gonna be playing for team bosco pretty soon they're gonna have to form their own alliance they'll be working on an island somewhere fucking selling selling the next bitcoin all right i i can't imagine what your uh your thoughts are on i mean not only fox news but even cnn to a certain degree i mean fox news is the worst of

the bunch of them but i'm gonna roll out the red carpet i i gotta argue i think they're both awful yeah yeah i just think that like you know like one's one's well one's a little bit more aggressive than the other, I would say. And I think Tucker Carlson should be shot into a cannon up into outer space. Let him go live on Mars. Shot from a cannon. Yeah, whatever. As far as Mincy, I highly doubt he would give the pass. But even without a pass, you don't have to be Harry Houdini.

It's all a joke. Mincy didn't actually give him his card. Those are just the rumors around HQ. oh okay boss this balls but you don't exactly have to be harry houdini to get in that building either you know because a lot of people come in and out and as far as right as far as dave i mean dave has said for as long as i've known him i don't know politics i don't do politics like and he doesn't and because he goes on fox or has gone on fox because they invite him on it and he's going to promote the website. People assume that's that he shares their views. And even though Dave never really said he did.

And then the Rover Roe v. Wade stuff come out and Dave supports a woman's right to choose. All these people who thought he was a right wing fucking throw him under the bus because like that's you know, that's not a right wing talking point. So Dave is down the middle. He's he says that I don't know politics. He's not very politically astute as far as all of it. But the news part is yeah man i don't i people don't believe me i don't watch tv news i don't like corporate news it's uh it's all beholden to corporate interest uh but yeah i i think i think one one of them is a little more like i said aggressive and maybe not slanting

the truth as much as uh the the story as much as you like yeah it's bullshit there's a lot of spinning going on and that's all channels but there's spinning with one way and then there's just propaganda and you know propaganda i would say there's a i don't have cable anymore there's a lot of channels on cable now that are straight fucking propaganda not necessarily fox there's a few others where i don't want cable because i don't want to give anybody that money like just even if it's 30 cents a month man it's just it's harmful stuff that some of these stations are putting out there and there's a lot of fucking weak-minded people and i mean we're seeing the effects of it every fucking day in this country. Yeah.

Well, you know what? That's probably enough politics talk. Absolutely. Speaking of speaking of propaganda, we're hockey propaganda. Should we start out with the Leafs? Oh, my God. Hey, or should we start out with. Oh, my God.

Yes, my brother. Yes, my brother. Yes, my brat. What's this, Crank Yankers? Where did you get that? This is what fucking Pasha gave me as a gift after his team went on a roll, and then we finished it off with a win against Chicago. That was, I think, the day after we recorded our last podcast. We went on Tuesday night.

That was the first day of the games we got to watch and that we'll be commenting on first and foremost ra the picture that you sent out of how the new jersey devils dialed this in did not do the buffet justice i think every piece of shrimp had already been eaten and it was just limes in that tray did you did you read the comments underneath that's twitter though i mean they're shaming like i don't remember the last time we were in a fucking box where we had the ocean called stone crab gabagool i mean there was unreal spread and it's just that's just twitter chirping all the fucking letters i came out of the bathroom though and i walked back in and re

it's like two inches from the chicken sliders, like the camera like that. It's like, oh, we're getting hooked up. I was like, oh, my God, he's spitting all over the spit and all over the shrimp. Oh, I had a hell of a hell of a video showing that we got hooked up by the devils. And yes. So after we recorded, well, after we recorded, we beat Grinnelli in trivia. Grinnelli, Merles and Jordan took a whooping at the hands of us, and mainly R.A. and Biz.

I had nothing. I was a mush. I was a dummy. I made no sense. I couldn't even form a sentence. But we beat Merles and G, which was great. And the next night, getting to go to the Devils game, I mean, I got to see this team in person.

I've admitted a while back that I was dead wrong on the Devils. This team can play. They're legit. They're not going anywhere. They have a legit chance at competing for the Stanley Cup this year, and I got to see them in person, which kind of reminded me of that even a little bit more. Granted, they're playing the Blackhawks.

Horrific team. Oh, my God. I could play for the Blackhawks right now. I think you might be able to. R.A. might be able to. And no shot at you, R.A. I still couldn't make the team. But I do have to say, and I told this to a bunch of Devils fans,

a bunch of people, I was very honest with them. You can't have a team this good playing this well and have that few people in the building for a game and that building's beautiful and where we were i think it was american whiskey before unreal bar that one side the one side of the arena is all now bars they've done a great job the last time i was at that rink when i was playing done a great job and making that a cool little spot right before you walk in. There's all these different bars. We were at the best one.

You go into the building. It's great. I mentioned they're very clean with the banners. And what I mean by that is you go in some buildings and you see all these different banners all mixed together. Well, the Devils at one end of the arena, they got their three Stanley Cup champion banners and they got the American and the Canadian flag. at the other end behind the under goalie they got all the retired

players it's ken danico scott stevens scott needemeyer patrick elias and martin brodor it is as clean as a whistle and behind us where we couldn't see was all their other banners of maybe division titles eastern conference titles but the big dogs that you see that it was beautiful and I think the arena could be buzzing in the playoffs and when they're sold out but you go to a Boston Bruins game you missed one of the banners

who most shrimp ever eaten at a Devils game rear Admiral it got raised after the second they were good boy oh you eat that most loogies on a chicken slider while videoing myself most box and and the other one got raised most most limes gone to waste off not putting it on the shrimp before being devoured by rear i remember one time i was i was younger and we ordered calamari to dinner. And I remember my dad was there.

There had to be seven, eight people. And I just took the lemon and doused it all over the calamari. He's like, what the fuck are you doing? It's like, not everyone wants that on the calamari. I agree. And it was such a life lesson. He's like, you get your own. You take the lemon.

You squirt the lemon on your own calamari. Yeah. You can't be dousing it lemon on your own calamari yeah so you can't be you can't be dousing it all over the community calamari no it was basically like if we got sushi and i just decided to top off every piece with a bunch of wasabi and somebody wasn't a wasabi guy but um this arena was probably 70 full maybe, a ton of empty seats. And now the argument from all these Devils fans, it's Tuesday night. They're playing the Blackhawks.

It's raining outside. Guys, you got a top fucking three, top five NHL team. You've been horrible forever. How are you not packing it every night? I came to the defense a little bit with saying that it's a Tuesday night. I don't think many people expected the season to go as such. So maybe season tickets weren't quite where they would have been if people would have known. Like, let's time out, time out. Let's say for next year, I guarantee you they're going to have more season tickets sold based on the anticipation,

knowing that you've finally reached this team that has this type of capability tuesday night against a bottom feeder team like chicago you're going to save your money during a depression to go watch a better game and maybe on a weekend so i thought that 75 percent full given the situation and the raininess and who they're playing. I thought that that was okay. I thought they still brought a lot of energy considering that it was only 75% full. This is a guy who said that they wouldn't get to the conference finals,

fucking let alone make playoffs the next two years. And he's going to have a tattoo on his ass. So I'm the, I'm the last guy to be wanting to defend the New Jersey devils, but I didn't think it was that bad. What do you think guys? Except Jersey Devils, but I didn't think it was that bad. What do you think, guys? Except for wit. Yeah, I didn't think it was that bad.

It wasn't worthy of kicking them when they're down. I mean, this is the first time they've been good years. What do you mean when they're down? It was terrible. It was embarrassing. I don't think it was. I didn't think it was that, like, desolate like Philly the week before, and they are a team still building trust and confidence back with the fandom.

And, yeah, I think the rainy night, shitty team. I mean, you see that in Boston sometimes. No, no, no, no, you don't, R.A. R.A., when was the last time a Bruins game wasn't packed to the gills? Well, they've obviously been good for a decade, but when they were at this, I'm saying at this level that New Jersey's at, a lot of times you can go

and get a ticket right out front, not sold out. Now, obviously the Bruins have been a contender for a decade, but before they got this hot, absolutely, you can go over, walk up, and get a cheap ticket, and the place wasn't sold out. The Devils are getting there, but I mean, you can't expect them to get the crowd of a contender until they're an actual contender, so I didn't think it was bad at all.

I had some Devils fans saying, you know what, Witt, you're right. We're this good. We should be packing it in. We really should be. Go anywhere in Canada. Go to Boston. Go to minnesota go to all these barns they're packed and you're gonna team this good get to the building get over there and support them you can't have this squad dominating games going on winning like this with in front of 75 percent yo they had to fucking raise uh ticket prices to that game 30 just to to feed R.A. all the deli meat that we had in the fucking suite, man.

Can you pump the brakes on this bullshit? Holy fuck. It's a little has a gob of ghoul. Columbus was way more packed, way louder than New Jersey was in Columbus is the last place. Okay, let's let's let's keep it on the positive train for New Jersey shows. The

GM fits. He ended up stopping by we were able to congratulate him on all the awesome moves he's made and of course the the unbelievable start to the season where you were a little bit more familiar with him in your time in pittsburgh correct i want to say no actually not from pittsburgh i i kind of well he's a boston guy so when i was coming up he was near the tail end of his career, if not the end. So I remember I was skating like on a summer league team with him. There was an old league in Bridgewater. I don't think they still have it.

And he was on my team. Our team was a wagon, actually. And I remember one night, you know, this is Tuesday night in Bridgewater. Like we had like the 930 game and there's college and pros out there. And I don't know if we lost or something. He came in the room. He was giving it to us. 930 game and there's college and pros out there and i don't know if we lost or something he came in the room he was giving it to us he's like i drove fucking 90 minutes in traffic i'm not and he's going nuts laying down to block shots dude the guy was a gamer so i've known fitzy a

long time and he was always really nice to me when i was young you know he's an awesome guy great guy and and in in good news i told him congrats on all the success here. This is great. I asked him about a couple of the trades in terms of them getting Siegenthaler from, from Washington, how some different things went down. I won't share, but we did get him to commit. If, and when the devils win around this year, he's coming on the pod. So a long, a long storied career,

a part of the Florida Panthers run to the cup finals in 96 with the rats and all that. He's got stories of playing. He now has stories and building his resume and growing in the game within front office, becoming a GM. So would be an amazing interview. We just got to have the devil's win around to get it done. So he agreed. Absolutely. Big thank you again to the devilils and Tommy Fitz coming by. Say hello. Great guy. Him and my, his dad and my dad were best boys way back in the day. So this is

old man was from Chucktown too, but it was nice that he stopped by. Boys, how about this Canuck Bar in Manhattan when we went back to Manhattan? Unbelievable. Canadian hockey bar in Manhattan. It's like, how was this not here before? Every game on all kinds of memorabilia around the wall. I had never been there before. One of the few bars in New York City right now with Big Deal Brewing as well.

OK, so check it out. The Canuck. And people may think that we have like hookups there. No, no, no, no, no, no, no. We just know a bar that you can now go to at any time and watch any hockey game that's on. It's phenomenal. I've actually always wondered why there aren't more places like this. Now, granted, in Canada there are, but we have a Canadian hockey bar in Manhattan.

And I'll tell all you female listeners out there. You want to get some dick down to the Canuck? This five thousand guys hanging out there. And yeah, if you guys look at it, look at a wheel, some girls, probably not the spot, maybe pregame there. Watch the games, any girls. So we were standing look at a wheel. Some girls, probably not the spot. Maybe pregame there. Watch the games. Any girls. So we were standing outside having a smoke and there was four girls walking by. I go, girls, there's about 150 dudes in here. If you want to check out some.

Yeah, you want to. And we're all set. What do you know? They must have walked 30 yards down. Turn around. We changed our mind. We came in. Yeah, you want to talk to Leon Dreisaitl burger fl burger flipper yeah head in there ladies i was outside get the get the

chris drury 110 flex right in there ladies come on in that wasn't the only thing that went on since the last show rough and rowdy and providence friday me and the wit dog would down my goodness absolutely electric night in providence uh to our listeners not familiar, it's Bastu's amateur boxing outfit. We have little people fighting little people. Girls fighting girls. Dwarfs, you call them. They want to be dwarfs. Okay.

Chicks fighting each other. Heavy dudes fighting each other. It runs the total gamut, and there's no time between fights. One fucking fight's in, and another one's starting. Me and wit were ringside for a while. How about a fucking wild time that was, huh, wit? It is amazing and i've watched if not all of them i'm gonna say 90 because it's a great thing to buy you know it's 20 25 bucks you have some drinks you watch these goons go at it well a couple different things from the night so i can't believe how much better

it is in person because i've enjoyed watching them. But in person, it is an epic scene where everyone's drinking, everyone's having a good time. And the fights are three one minute rounds. And the new fight starts within two minutes of the other fight ending. So it's like it's rapid fire. You see knockouts. You see some fights that aren't great. You see all types of body types like R.A. mentioned. And for us, there was a hockey guy,

Diamond Hands. Dude, this guy, I said leading up with the Barstow offices, and I kind of started looking into him and who he was. He's playing for Danbury right now. I think A.J. Galante's dad was actually at the event.

A.J. was there. A.J. was there too. Okay. It's Daniel Amesbury. Okay. And he's done ice sports. Daniel Diamond diamond hands amesbury you're looking at the future heavyweight champion of rough and rowdy he's a tough ass motherfucker on the ice after the fight the next day he played for danbury and had two fights i think he had an assist too and one of the fights he just dummied the kid so he's a killer so he gets in the ring against one of these able brothers from Pittsburgh.

Great people, these two. Good guys. Honest fighters. They're electric on the mic, too, right? Electric on the mic. Their accent is just amazing to hear. It's like West Virginia, Pittsburgh accent. But I said, I looked into diamond hands.

I looked into Amesbury, I said. And then I saw who he's fighting. I'm like, this kid's going to murder this guy. And looked into Amesbury, I said, and then I saw who he's fighting. I'm like, this kid's going to murder this guy. And everyone's like, oh, no, Abel Brothers never been knocked out. I said, just wait, just wait. And so Dave and Big Cat, they had me on the call. And if you can somehow check out this knockout, I think it's all over the Internet.

Diamond Hands came in like a tornado and ended up just putting this kid down bink bank boom asleep done what's his weight what's his weight i want to say diamond hands has to be at least 215 220 okay another guy had to be 240 he's a truck and he can take a punch and he can throw a punch and i know that bobby lang who's a local Braintree, Massachusetts guy, he's never lost. He beat up Pac-Man Jones again in the title fight, in the number one fight at the end of the night. But show me Bobby Lang versus Diamond Hands. And I think Lang gets his first L.

Wow. Okay. So my buddy had a great line, too, to describe Ruff and Rowdy, Johnny Cronin. He goes, it looks he wasn't there. He was watching. He goes, it looks like it looks like what I always had dreams about when I drank a bunch of NyQuil. You know, like the whole scene. It's like a circus scene with like dwarves and fat people and like music.

It's just a just uh it's just just a carnival cruise just a carnival cruise line also shout out shout out to our co-worker grace o'malley she won her very first fight ever oh she won unanimous decision yeah you sat at ringside with her mother and her cousin awesome time they were thrilled so i'm going way cheaper than ufc and less rigged yeah yeah no nothing rigged about it people thought oh is it i'm like no this isn't wwf this is legit i was more of a shot at ufc well uh speaking of rough and rowdy biz you got called out on tv the other night um i'm gonna whoop him up and down that ring revo said and he didn't look like he was

kidding biz this this might happen after he retires huh um he has surpassed patty maroon as the number one nhl clout chaser uh i don't know how many interviews and or how many national broadcasts he's going to be trying to call me out the stage is set all right buddy when you're done plugging it up on the fourth line being a suitcase we can get this done and maybe maybe the winner of us can go on to take on diamond hands how about that okay if he's still around if he's not uh if he's not uh picking out because of jack 3d overdoses this is hilarious with the pop-out i can't your name uh your name came up about biz possibly fighting in a future ruffer already when i was there backstage i said he's down he's down i said i think revo is pretty down with it too i don't know how many people some people

probably have no idea what's going on because they didn't get it unless they're watching on youtube but i've had this puppet that pasha got me on my hand for about what 15 20 minutes since the start of the show uh ventriloquist i don't know how you do it my arms fell asleep here and uh i'm gonna put this thing down. But, uh, who, uh, what were you saying there with? No, just, I, I, your name would came up. Like you think visit do this. You think he wants to do this?

I said, pay him enough money. He'll do anything. I don't know if you've ever met him. Who would he fight? I said, Ryan Reeves and him at this beef. I think that could end up going down. And all of a sudden everyone's like, they would fight in this thing. So at one point we're going to have an absolute brawl in there with Biz Nasty,

hopefully collecting a nice little payday. I want Revo taking multiple steroid tests. Okay. He's got at least once a month getting piss tests. I mean, you guys have seen his body when he posts all these shirtless pictures online. I'd say he's got as much chances of being clean as Liver King did. So let's just put it that. How about you clip that for Rebo and send the clout chaser my comments back to him?

You like that one, G? You're having a lot of chuckles today on today's pod. You're bringing the heat. You're bringing the heat, Biz. I took my funny pills this morning. All right, we kind of jumped the gun here. We didn't even get to introduce Witt or myself. I didn't really get up to much this weekend.

I was pretty much curled in a ball. That was a tough eight-day roadie, but a great way to cap it off. And I know you've already said it. Thank you to not only New Jersey, but Philadelphia, Columbus, Detroit. You guys treated us incredible. The people of every city who showed up to the bars where we threw the events at uh it was a a great little trek i was sucking my thumb for a few days but it was worth it and uh excited to hit back tnt and then i got a couple coyotes games that's

the one thing about sucked about uh missing the the coyotes games this weekend commodore teddy purcell were in town i had a bunch of other buddies in town, and I missed the game against the Boston Bruins. Did I jump the gun on that too? I mean, we can get to that first if you want. I mean, I would have been wrong. Well, we're on the fighting topic. That was, I'll tell you what,

even Commodore posted it on Instagram. The Mullet Arena is a thing. It is a fucking scene for the short time being in which the team is there. You have to check out a game. Listen to people of Glendale, all the people who worked at the rink. I love my time there, but this was the right move. You want to go into a scene and a tough environment to play in just act, ask the Boston Bruins who probably thought they had a layup.

They might even been out in old town the night before thinking they were going to steal two off the coyotes whammy with 13 seconds left in the game lost and kraus second of the night keep the change got beat on the ice and in the stands not okay with the girl with the gronk jersey getting suckered in the face she is tough as shit though dude she got blasted by a full-blown right hook and hopped up like it was nothing. She, like, spit out her front tooth and was like, okay, I'm good. That was crazy. What was the start of all of it?

Alcohol, I would assume. Yeah, no shit, dude. Some dirtbag from Dorchester running his mouth about the Stanley Cup odds and fucking Coyotes fans said, you know what? All right, we're going to handle our own business here. If I were to lay odds, I'd see a Boston person probably minus 180 to start the fight. But if you didn't see it, they went down one of the corners

and it was probably 15 people going at it. And what's hilarious is the game is going on right beside it at the same time. The cheerleaders are still cheering. You get the one cop. I know people are criticizing him because he stood there, but what's he going to do when there's 12 people fighting he calls a backup you know i don't think he wants to put himself in a bad position but that other copman did the superman dive right into the

fucking pile it was just 19 different things going on our buddy dante he he did an awesome blog about he broke down who did what and yeah lady gronk man she ate that got right back up and apparently somebody lost a fingertip to paul in this whole thing hey imagine like imagine like telling your like mom like yeah i'm going out to scottsdale the bruins have a game you know we're going to the game we're going out we're playing golf it's like how's the trip like it was great besides i got like the tip of my finger bit off in a brawl in the third period but other other than that, like, what is going on with these people? How was the game?

I lost a quarter blood and I'm in the ER. I suck. I suck at a girl, but I didn't know it was a girl. Actually reminded me of a funny story. I would never say the name. But we went up to visit a friend of mine at Bowdoin College in Maine. And I was in school. I was at BU.

We go up there and it was like a it's like an outdoor party like everyone's kind of partying outside and then there was like I don't know if there were dorms or apartments kind of side by side so people would be inside but basically everyone's hanging outside it was raining there was a tent so I ended up trying to get into one of the places I had to piss and the guy's like no or something like that and i ended up getting just buried this guy pushed me down the stairs so i fell down the stairs and immediately there's just a melee and so like punches are being thrown there's fights there's a it looked exactly like this brawl did and um my buddy had a nomar garcia para jersey on and like this is like people everywhere you know and

like all of a sudden this kid in this hood is like standing in the middle of the fight so my body just whoops and like the person in the hood like goes down and gets up and like the hood comes girl dude the whole place is like no more hit a girl no more hit a girl absolutely but it was he didn't know it was a girl like this is just a melee happening which i don't even know if that girl that guy knew gronk at this fight was a girl i would hope not yeah like what why the fuck people act like this though i mean i don't know if there's more fights i know there were some when i was a kid it seems like there's more lately, always in the NFL. But it's like, just fucking grow up, behave, man. You're just like so many assholes out there.

I don't know, man. I know. People get so drunk and they. Yeah, that's obvious. That's the key part of it. When I had season tickets, man, I made sure I had the last row of the balcony like Obi-Wan style. So, you know, you want that height advantage. Not that I got in fights.

Me and my boys got in fights. But God forbid we did. We would have that built in advantage being in the last row. But people grew the fuck up and grow up. That cop, though, that came over the top, definitely overcommitted. He was like a cop and super bad. Just kind of didn't know really what was going on. Probably just crushing a beer up top, just enjoying himself.

Being like, oh, shit, we got a scrap. Just coming down, barreling down, Superman dive over everybody but yeah very entertaining game and then they ended up um beating uh philadelphia clayton keller with the hat trick got the lot of the last one in overtime so uh a great weekend at mulit arena i will say where you know we're probably not going to bring them up again for the rest of the year maybe but but shout out the Coyotes and the effort they've had this year because you look at some teams, and everyone knew the Coyotes weren't going to be competing for a playoff spot,

but no free passes for anyone playing against them. Like you mentioned, the atmosphere is great. They've beaten some pretty good teams, and they have no quit in them. So it's actually a great thing to see a team that was kind of a laughingstock as the year began turn into a team that really people don't want to play against they're not an easy two points at all and and we saw that against the Bruins yeah we're not shooting blanks for Bedard ever since Witt said

that he's not going to report they're like fuck change up the game plan hey game plan. Hey, like I say, man, front office is tank players. Don't. A lot of players showing a lot of heart. You'll love to see it. All right, gang, before we go any further, I want to talk to you about our presenting sponsor, Pink Whitney. Pink Whitney is the five times distilled pink lemonade flavored vodka from our friends at New Amsterdam Vodka. I've been to a bunch of Christmas parties already this year. Everybody has this stuff.

It's terrific. And Grinnelli just came up with a brilliant idea. Yes, that is correct, RA. Every year, and this isn't, I didn't come up with this right now. This is the past few years since we created the nips. The best stocking stuffer in the league. I got three brothers. Every Christmas

drop a few nips in each one of their stockings, and I promise you you won't regret it. Unreal idea. And if stocking stuffing isn't your thing, well, go to your local bar, maybe with a little club soda, maybe a shot. Go to your liquor store. Bottom line is it's holiday season. You're going to be having a few.

Go get some Pink Whitney. Everybody loves it. Your family loves it. Your relatives love it. Enjoy the holidays. Stay safe with Pink Whitney. We have a great interview we're going to bring on a little bit later. I think it's our first Russian player ever, Calgary defenseman Nikita Zdorov.

Absolutely hilarious interview. Coming to you a little bit later, but should we dive into Abiza's second favorite team, the Leafs right about now? Okay, so some people when they hear that, though, they're like, oh, he had plenty of Russians on. So Kasperitis, not a Russian. You said he was born where? Excuse me? He's Lithuanian. Lithuanian. Okay.

I think a lot of people would have been surprised about that. Did you go back and look, Grinelli? Because even after that, I was like, come on. We had to have had one Russian on. Yeah. I was even saying to RA before this, I was like, I'm shocked that we've never had Russians. But then RA starts explaining the USSR to me and all this stuff

and how guys that we think might have lived in Russia were actually living in Lithuania, like you guys just said. But did Kasparidis play for Russia in international play? Yes, because they were still under the USSR, which Lithuania was technically part of Russia back then, but by ethnicity, he's Lithuanian, so he's not actually Russian, even though his country was part of the USSR back in the day. So I did not ask about what it was like behind the Iron Curtain.

Hey, every time, every time the word Russian said on the podcast, I just envision Andre Waugh going. Like, yeah, in the locker room to get that guy laughing and then torts coming in and losing his mind oh so that's a good one for you guys you had a lot of great stuff and it was fun to bounce around from you know when he was back in russia from his childhood he was a great Colorado it was just guys it's an hour it's over the place. And he was very generous with his time. So thank you to Big Z in my books. All right. Please don't puke.

No, not at all. Not at all. Big Z's in the news later in this part. Oh, yeah. That's true. That's true. Well, either way, Mana and the Leafs keep rolling. Mitch Mana continued his point streak Saturday with the overtime game winning goal and an assist and a 5-4 win over Calgary he's now up to 22 straight games with at least a point 30 points over that span

the Leafs have won three straight eight of nine and extended their point streak to 14 games the team record is 16 only New Jersey and Boston have more than the Leafs 42 points Leafs are only a point behind Boston though the Bees have three games in hand how about this the Leafs are only a point behind Boston, though the Bs have three games in hand. How about this? The Leafs are 17-0-1 when Manna, Matthews, and Nylander all score in the same game. They're just humming right now, getting it all done. And, of course, the goaltenders. Dubas rolled the dice a little on the goalies, and they have the fourth-best save percentage in the league right now. So he's looking pretty smart right now.

Witt, this is the year it gets done. I'm telling you, this is so fucking stupid. This is the year. You're so dumb. This is the year it gets done. I'm telling you, this is so fucking stupid. This is the year. You're so dumb. This is the year. Nothing matters. I said it last year. Nothing matters, bro.

You know why you're so poopy pants, folks? It's because he saw... I'm not poopy pants. He saw Mitch Marner's celebration in OT when he dropped to the knee and then he popped up doing his little dance. I bet you were fucking losing your mind in the living room on that OT winner. Did you see Daryl Sutter's face on the bench?

He looked like the meme of that bird lady, you know, the lady just standing. I'm sure you could pop it up, G. I'll tell you what, man. Nylander, one of the best bargains in the league now. I know I was maybe a little skeptical at the time, the whole holdout, but fucking he got it to the exact number that he needed to be. He's shedding a couple million off of each of, oh, geez, now I'm drawing a bank,

Mitch Marner and Matthews deals. But fuck, man, 17 tucks on the year for him. What Marner's doing right now is absolutely insane. I said coming into the year, he's been one of the most consistent consistent best right wingers in the game statistically over the last two years I think if I think if you take all the numbers why did I say statistically statistically wrong I'm not laughing at Marner I think I say I think I say it different different every time but Bill Raruto. What he's doing over the last three years, it's fucking insane. I just have an inkling that this is going to be the year that they've figured it all out.

They're one more year mature. I get that people are saying, oh, they do this every year. They get hot at this time. And then the goaltenders have the issues in the second half, just like Campbell had last year. Fuck off. We got two goalies this year we got two guys in that and we could keep harping on this they've been getting it done with injuries on D I even got a text from Erasmus Sandin or Sandin excuse me the other night when I was curled over in bed and I sent out the tweet

this year feels different and he was like the boys are buzzing they're feeling it inside that fucking locker room they got the water bottle bukkake's ready to go they got four fucking lines humming and the big dog's ready to go what else you got to say wit yeah they they look great they have a great team talk to me in the playoffs i i know it's like oh what a what a what a what a podcast host this guy is. But I truly said last year, the most true statement maybe I've ever made that it really doesn't matter. Now I will say this year, there's a little different feeling because of how good the goaltendings has been and because their top three defensemen are out and they're winning like this. Marner, amazing. I've always said he's an amazing player. I've said he's had a punchable face

that's not dogging him as a player it says he's a punchable face what do you think people say about my face think I care no and let me tell you something R.A. sends out these outlines and they're on like what what are these on like it's like you could click on them and you could it's a google doc okay google doc yeah and so you go to these outlines and you know just kind of what we're gonna maybe talk about you know loosely uh prepared a little bit i guess i'll say it and and i click on one of the links because r is talking about marner and i click on one of the links you can't see these tweets i'm like what the fuck at itch mitchie marnie he blocked me his fucking guy fucking blocked me for making fun of his favorite player that is the most perfect explanation of

like leafs nation right there that i could ever describe like oh my god your player is so good you like him so much that i said he has a punchable face and you blocked me on twitter dude i had people telling me that i was the worst hockey player of all time with terrible ears and an ugly butt chin. I didn't block their ass. So this little bitch is blocking people because his favorite player was made fun of. It's a pathetic franchise and fan base based on the last 50 fucking years. I disagree.

You can talk about everything in the regular season. You can talk about anything you want. You're a joke. You guys are a joke, dude. The Leafs face the most hate no matter what. They're on this win streak, and what they're doing is incredible. All people keep wanting to talk about it. It's like, oh, wait until the first round.

Like, why can't we get to enjoy the moment? Because you've enjoyed the moments in the regular season forever. Mitchie Marner's been one of the best right-wingers in the game the last few years, and you're saying he's got a punchable face. How about you? Yes. What he's doing for the league and the creativity and the offense he's bringing, but you're just going to try to bring them down.

I would have blocked your ass too. Actually, I'm going to fucking block you right now. Good on Twitter. I don't mind if you fucking clown, but the fact is like for the fans of me, I'm going to go as far as they're blocking me. I've said he's a great player. I've said that this guy is a world-class talent. I said he has a punchable face.

Sue me. You have a punchable face too. Your face actually looks like it's been punched, and it's still punchable. So let me tell you something, Biz. This team is awesome. They're an awesome regular season team year in and year out, okay? And I actually really enjoy watching them play because of their superstars

they have up front. And it's a fun organization to root for and against. I'm telling you all of this from the bottom of my heart, but the Toronto Maple Leafs are a joke of a franchise. There's no if, ands or buts about it. And as long as you guys have this success in the regular season and then lose it makes it even funnier and funnier and better and better and at it's

mitchie marner can cry in his bowl of cereal every morning that ryan whitney says his favorite player has a punchable face the guy is unreal at hockey but sometimes it looks like you'd want to punch him in the face am i off here grinnelly i'm gonna go as far to say ra i if i'm if i'm the leafs and as a lease fan i want boston first round right now yeah no you don't first round no you don't give them to me actually i think you want me boston i think you want the lightning first round no because that's like a story of redemption like a rematch of last year and but it's the first round and it's the leaf so as long as you guys continue to talk up your regular seasons i don't

really care we'll talk in april exactly like i said last year with with the way that big z handled himself on the edelman podcast i think that all of canada will be rooting for the leafs against the boston first round i don't know i don't know how it works out because I'm sure that the Leafs are going to be at the top of the rankings, even though they've got half the fucking lineup out because they're such a wagon. But I hope that that happens. All right. I love it, man.

I mean, until they beat them, it's like whatever. Bring them on. I want to go back to one thing you said a week or two ago about Mana's water book hockey celebration. A lot of people thought you might have been over the line. But one of our followers from BrownGuy20, he said, Fun fact, I learned playing Cods Against Humanity with a Japanese coworker. Bukkake comes from the Japanese word Bukakeru, which literally means to dash water.

So Biz describing the Mana Selly that way is the most correct way. So I want to give you full points. Honestly, like you saying his handle was Brown guy and then him starting it off with I was playing cards with a Japanese person makes that sound like the biggest joke, like fucking with you tweet. But I believe you. Yeah, it's up there still. I'm a genius.

That wasn't all that went on in Toronto. That went on in Toronto that night. Daryl Sutter, not a fan of the officiating once again. Insinuating that there might have been a little home cooking going on. Gee, why don't we roll it? Well, that's one thing I learned a long time ago, Eric. When you're in Chicago all those years, when you come into Toronto, you know what goes on.

I won't say nothing more. But this is two games in a row you guys had a lot of passes. So then write about it. Do you think they were all penalties tonight? I don't. Alright, the Flames had two power plays, went one for two while the Leafs had six, went three for six. Of course, one of them

was in overtime. I didn't get to see much of this game. I was at a Christmas party. Did the ref look that slanted or was Darryl just kind of playing head games yeah so from personal experience with like maybe you've dealt with something but there's an insane stat right now the amount of times that the coyotes have gone in there over the last 20 games it might even be a little bit longer you can look up this stat g while we're talking when i played for the coyotes, we didn't lose a game at, at Maple Leaf gardens. And I don't remember them getting more penalties than us at all.

So I never felt that lopsidedness. Maybe it was because we were so dominant during our coyotes era when we were going to the playoffs and going to the conference finals. I actually got a game winner in Toronto when my father was there, what watched my first NHL game, not a big deal. So my experience as the away team in Toronto has my father was there watching my first NHL game not a big deal so my experience as the away team in Toronto has been marvelous

I think maybe Daryl although I am a Flames guy too they're my third team he was just a little poopy pants probably saw a Marner celebration right to the post game presser and then that's what you get Birdman I actually have to get ahead of this because

I brought up to Zdadorov like did you guys get some home cooking it's in the interview coming up and i guess looking into it the leafs in the past few years are like 28th in terms of like getting calls for so the stats the stats go completely against people who believe in the bias but i i do remember being young and being in there in pittsburgh and older guys being like ah every time you're in toronto they get the calls like that was a hundred percent something said in the locker room that was just one of those things you go into to they're going to get a couple calls for now i guess with stats being so easily available now it's been proven that isn't

the case so maybe it's just like a lifelong wives tale around the NHL that in Toronto, the leaf seemed to get all the calls, but I've been proved wrong by, I think Myrtle tweeted out this stat in terms of like, it's actually not true. But I still always did think that, you know,

they were looking to maybe help out the Leafs a little bit, but I have no, I have no way of proving that. And I actually look like a fool for even trying to suggest it. Sometimes you've got to take an L. Not to double-barrel the Leafs too hard here, but as far as guys who get mauled out there on the ice and don't get the calls as often as they should

because they stay on their feet and they power through it and they're just horses, Austin Matthews. He probably gets – he takes more abuse out there probably than carter mcdavid and then doesn't get the calls okay people might think now you're sounding like an idiot no you sound like a fucking idiot but you just told me they were 28 you just told me the stat i know but you're trying to say like mcdavid is known as the guy who like gets completely mauled every single game like that is a fact i feel like he does get the calls though that same list this the same list that you looked at

that the leafs were 28 what are the edmonton oilers i don't know but i actually think that that that that stat is is for all games whereas like i would like to see the stat for the home games. Because that was always the discussion in the room. Like, you're in T.O., they're going to get a couple calls. Not like T.O.'s in town, they're going to get some calls. So, in fairness, I don't know if at home it would be the same.

R.A., do you find as a Bruins fan that at home the Bruins get more of the calls? No. We always said Saturday night in Montreal is pretty much a guarantee the Habs are going to get the first power play. It was almost automatic. I don't know what the stats are on it, but growing up it always seemed like the Habs got the first power

play in Montreal all the time. That's got to be a new prop for you. Yeah. Bet against my team losing and I'll make some dough. I never noticed it at the garden like the bruins getting favorable call favorable calls i think you know the refs do the best job they can i think they can get swayed sometimes in certain buildings or you know maybe uh certain coaches or gm slide things in their brain but you know i think the refs are doing a

pretty damn good job you know they do the best they can i wanted to go back to marner's point streak just just briefly it is amazing and they have have the Ducks, I think, Tuesday night. So you know he's getting appointments done. The Ducks are pathetic. Do you guys know what current player has the longest point streak in the NHL? Currently right now? No. The player is still currently playing that owns the longest point streak.

Yes, Patrick Kane. Patrick Kane, 26 games. Sidney Crosby's next. He had a 25-gamer. And Mitchell Marner's at 22. So the record, do you guys know the record for games? Oh, by a guy who had the most ever? Yeah, you know it's Gretzky.

Do you know how many games in a row he had a point? 58. 51. Fucking hell. 51 fucking games in a row with a point. So what's pretty cool is you can't really count Gretzky and Lemieux in looking. I have the longest point streak record up right now. It goes Gretzky, Lemieux, Gretzky, Gretzky.

After that, it's Sundin's tied with Gretzky at number four with 30. So if Marner could get 30, then you're looking at like all like because you can't really include the gretzky 51 and the lemieux 46 you know what i mean that's like otherworldly in a sense so the fact that he has this thing going it's a great storyline and um yeah as much as i call it the leafs i give them a lot of compliments too people are gonna say like what it's all relative to when they play but i get what you're saying that's in my opinion so right now connor mcdavid is on pace to score i believe 72 or 73 goals if he gets 73 goals in my opinion with the the talent level of the goalies and the structure of how teams play and the talent

pool level that to me is equivalent to to gretzky scoring 92 goals like that extra 20 goal cushion based on how much better everybody is people also argue then the technology and how much easier it is to shoot and and the velocity you can get with the way these sticks work. But do you agree with that comment that that's the equivalent? 73 in today's age is comparable to 92 back when Gretzky did it? Not just to argue with you. I feel like the number would be like 14 to 16 goals opposed to 20. Okay.

And that's just me just trying to like like maybe if you want to say like 14 goals is the difference because as people say well look at the sticks they have well the goalies were had boston globes wrapped around their knees like the goalies now take up the entire net so it's it goes both ways but um yeah so if i would say if mc if McDavid ends up getting 73 this year, I would consider that like 87 goals. I think they do have stats that are adjusted for era. There's like a formula that they use. I don't know.

Maybe I'm just making that up. Adjusted for inflation. 100% made up right there. Before we go any farther, remember, folks, holiday drinking season has officially begun. Christmas parties left, right, and center. No Days Wasted is here to get you through those holidays feeling your best, even after boozing. How does it work?

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Chris Letang was back in the lineup after missing five games, played 22-14 in the Penns' 3-1 win over Buffalo, the Penns' fifth straight win. They're 13- 2 and 2 in their last 17 and 35 year old sydney crosby still producing at an insane level he's got 17 goals 21 assists for 38 points in 28 games he's on pace for 47 goals and 110 points career high is 120 back in 07 he last cracked 100 back in 2019 uh He also has 92 game-winning goals, regular season and playoffs. He's now tied with Yaga for first in franchise history.

Our good friend Chief at Bastu Chicago wrote a blog, and he's saying he now thinks that Sidney Crosby is a top five player of all time. Whit, do you concur with Chief? Now, people will say, like, oh, what do you think Whit's going to say? I'm actually putting my career and life and like money I have aside. And I understand people may not believe me. I don't know how you don't consider him a top five player of all time. Okay. So you go through the list.

You have four Gretzky Lemieux in no particular order. Everyone's top three, right? In everyone's top three at minimum. And then everyone else says gordy how i'm not gonna be the guy that's taking gordy how out i think there was a discussion about this somewhat recently was it us i don't even know we had it at tnt i said that there's no way i'm taking off yes yes and answer car was calling you guys out it's like i'm not yeah it was you i'm not taking gordy how yeah the fourth line i'm sliding right there and part of it is what chief said and i've said it before it's very

true it's like the expectations going in is what makes it so incredible it's like to be told that you're the next one you're the chosen one it's actually very similar to that loser LeCap LeBron James who can't stop lying. It's like he did it after everyone said he was going to do it at 14, 15 years old. Like for Sid, it's the exact same thing. And there's a bunch of people that argue, Ovechkin over Sid.

For me, no way. Similar amount of points in about 180 less games, whatever it is, like no chance. Sid has more cups. Sid makes players around him better. Ovi's one of the best 10 players of all time, maybe the best goal scorer of all time, but give me Crosby every day. And I look around and it's an amazing argument to have because everyone can give all these different names, but Sid living up to the expectations

that were put in front of him, to me, makes him a top five NHL player of all time and the length he's done it and the longevity and battling through seasons in which nobody was sure if he was going to play again he had these injuries he had the neck injury the concussion it's like he just continued to grind and change his game and get better and better and now to produce at this level it's like holy shit when people thought it was kind of the back nine, he's producing maybe his second best season he's ever had. So how is he not an MVP discussion? I have no idea. I guess he is.

I'm just making up that he's not. Because this guy is a world-class talent and one of the greatest to ever do it. So if you were to pick top five and not have a minute right now, R.A., who would be that fifth guy? Would Steve Iserman maybe take that spot? Who's another guy who would be put there? Because that's what... So I would say yes, just for maybe recency biased

and all the things that you said, Witt, along with the way that he carries himself away from the rink and what he's done for the game. So not all even the accolades and things that matter on the ice but it's also how you carry yourself off so he's just top tier in both categories I think that if if he gets another Stanley Cup in the next couple years and continues to perform at the same level it's it's undeniable easily top five right now I probably would put his career neck and neck with Stevie Y I I think that the names all right you go ahead and quickly I apologize I think the names if

you're not going to have Sid and you're going to keep Howe in for that fifth spot I think it goes and this isn't in an order but my four names are Iserman, Sakic, Ovechkin, Yager. Like, those are the four, to me, that kind of just jump off the page as, like, the greatest to ever do it. And that's not including Bork and Lidstrom. They're kind of right there. All right, go ahead. I apologize.

No, a name that comes to me, obviously, I'm the fossil of the crew here, but Guy Lafleur, man. I mean, I think he won five, six, seven, however many Stanley Cups. Granted, he was on a stacked team, but he was such a dynamic player, obviously a Hall of Famer. He's a name that comes immediately to mind for myself. Amazing Darryl Sutter quote. Did you guys see what he said talking about his first game ever?

I think it was at the four playing against the Canadians. He goes, i did a great job shutting down gila flurry only out of hat trick i think they lost 870 said they got their quote machine can i ask a quick question so wait you mentioned sydney crosby's lived up to the expectations wouldn't you think it's fair to say now that he's overachieved on the expectations? Because I actually don't think anyone thought that it would be this good for this long, this many cups, golden goals. Like he's done it all and some. Yes, yes. I think the sigh of relief of overachievement is he'd already had his cup

and then they went bang, bang, back to back. And it's like, hey, he's got that OT winner in the Olympics. Olympic gold. But I wasn't on the ice so if i was on the ice maybe we're talking about a different story folks yeah yeah exactly so yeah that was a fun little sidetrack discussion absolutely but uh and everyone let us know let us know i mean i i you know we got we got we got as that fifth player if you're gonna keep how in there we got we got crosby we got ovi we got yager we got Crosby, we got Ovi, we got Jager, we got Sakic, we got Eisenman, and we got Guy Lafleur.

So give us some other ones. And I mentioned Lindström and Bork, but let us know what you think. Next up, it's a little early for the double-wristers, maybe, Biz, but Tage Thompson, unbelievable. This kid has struck light in the last couple of years. Absolute beast. He had a five-goal, six-point game versus Columbus. First period alone, four goals, one assist on seven shots in five minutes and 14 seconds.

From Mike Kelly on Twitter, he said, Thompson has more goals tonight than 73% of players in the league have goals this season. 41 points in 28 games played. What suddenly clicks for a guy like this? He struggles a little bit. I know he got traded. How does it just all come together? Is it maturity, confidence, situation?

Is it a combination of all that stuff? What? Steroids. He's got to be on the juice. He's just dropping steroid bombs on everyone. But he's a guy who has occasionally bad back knee, so maybe he's the one that's kind of, what do they call that? GA?

I mean, R.A., what do you call it when you're trying to deflecting maybe this is deflecting a little bit with all this steroid talk or tage thompson catching an absolute project no no no no no what am i saying deflecting i don't know and you know what r.a though at a certain point like obviously he had the year he had last year um but getting that confidence from the organization and getting that contract and getting that behind him now he could just worry about playing hockey and i saw a couple tweets too about people saying like oh yeah a bad contract i specifically remember saying g and i don't know

if you can go back and pull it up saying of all the the eight-year deals at the cat pits that guys were getting i said i was the least fearful of that one no that's what i said oh okay well i guess i'll go fuck myself can you go back and look that up g and if this donkey's wrong make sure you chime in in the post i 100 said that and i think you were like yeah wait great point oh okay uh but a lot of people thought he should have been given a chance to maybe tie or break the record for most goals in the game. Joe Malone had seven for the Quebec Bulldogs back in 1920. In the third period, he only played five shifts total in 355.

So should he have gotten a little more ice time, maybe make a bid for this record or why sit him? Why not give him a little more? Well, so if according to their fans, and I'm sure they have bigger aspirations than him breaking the goal record in one game is like, when you have a game that much out of hand, you're trying to protect your assets in order to continue this push to get back towards the playoffs. Like they had that real difficult stretch.

I want to say they lost what seven or eight in a row. And then it looked like the season was going sideways a little bit. So I don't necessarily get too, too weird about that type of shit. You usually see fans like tweeting and barking online. Like, Oh, you're suppressing the game by, you know,

not having them break the record where it's like, bro, like he's got five talks, but pump the brakes here. I'll go against you a little bit and agree with our buddy, Jeff Merrick, who was actually like, I saw he was like rattled about it.

And his point was pretty valid in terms of like, that's a record that's been around for over or right around a hundred years, I think. And to have like somewhat of a chance to even match it is so rare that it's like, wow, would you not just try to get him? Like maybe play him a bunch the first like seven, eight minutes of the third, see if you can get the sixth. And then maybe you need one more.

So it's almost like to go after a record like that for me is almost worth it because of how little and how like not often you're going to see a guy with four goals in the first period. It's so rare that it's like oh my god like we have a chance now the argument of like not playing him too much and it being such a blowout so legit but this kid is so sick to watch you want to talk about best bargains in the league he's i think his cap it's one six this year and then it goes to that that uh 50 million dollar deal where i think it's around like seven two2 or 7-3 like you think this guy's going anywhere now in this league

I actually have a sick thing I want to say that he reminds no I can't say it say it well before before you say it I want I'll go as far as saying this might be a McKinnon contract this might be a McKinnon type deal where it's like oh my god what

he's only making that for that much longer and we got the Board of Governors meetings and hopefully it comes out what the cap will be going up and possibly like $3 million a year for the next three years. And like all of a sudden, this guy's making $7,200 and scoring $40,000 to $50,000 every season. I really want to say that. No, I can't say it.

Okay. I need you to say it. Say it. What do you got, G? I have the audio here of who was the one who said the safest contract. Do you want me to play it? You already have the audio. I'm a fucking wizard, baby.

I'm not going to lie. I'm a little scared now. I want you to play it, and, Whit, I want you to come back to saying what you say you're not going to say. I might. I might not, though, depending on how this goes. Whit, go to you first. Is this a case of a guy sort of arriving at his potential? He's going to be 25, like I mentioned,

or is there some sort of risk in this deal for the Sabres? There's some sort of risk in all these deals. The four we're going to talk about, though, this is, this is the one, maybe the second I feel most confident in. And part of it's the age, like the JT, the other one we'll chat about a little older, this guy, no, granted, it was one year. And I think the main problem,

a lot of – I think we can move on. He said the second. I probably said it was the first. No, no, I said the number one. I said maybe the second, but the number one. And then you go, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. I think we're both right. Yeah, I agree with you.

So technically I said it. Okay. I was going to say – You guys want me to say it? You just got to talk first. I need you to say it now. I'm going to catch some heat for it, but I'm open and willing. I get some scary, crazy, number 66 vibes

from Paige Thompson's carrying the puck up ice, guys. Guys, sometimes this dude's hands in tight being so tall, I'm not comparing him to Mario Le tall. I'm not comparing him to Mario Lemieux. I'm not comparing him to Mario Lemieux. I'm hearing him out. I'm hearing him out. I'm not comparing him to Mario Lemieux. I would never compare anyone to Mario Lemieux.

But there are times and moves that this guy has done that I, like, see Mario Lemieux. Does that make sense? Are you guys knowing that I'm not comparing him, but I'm seeing certain moves. Shades of maybe what? Like you see shades of Mario? Yes, shades, R.A. Shades of Mario Lemieux's reach and ability to like embarrass guys

and do things because of his height and his reach that I haven't maybe seen like done since him there's gonna be a a major major lotion shortage in in the buffalo the whole the whole maybe the whole state of new york after there was a comment recently of he's taking a breakout pass along the wall and we'll get this clip i don't think we can put out clips maybe from chicklets like we can the twitter he throws it like backhand toe drag between his legs as the d's punt pinching down and like it's like and then like you know around the net all the patience and like reaching it out on his backhand tucking it back forehead i

he is unbelievable to be that big and have hands that good it's just not fair and all right you're exactly and already your question about why it's taken long it's almost like he's truly grown into his body and like i i know that that sounds kind of goofy but two years in college i think his freshman year he had 14 goals and they were all power play goals he led the country in goals because his shot he has he shoots at 105 miles an hour he's a tall rangy kid and now at this age he's like he's finally put it all together when he got traded from st louis to buffalo uh i had a friend go see him play in the minors he's like what the fuck is this guy doing in the minors right now like and granted like buffalo you know they're just taking their time they're figuring things out maybe he was

sorry he might have been in the minors of St. Louis. Either way, an amazing player that I love watching him because he's doing stuff. He's not just shooting one-timers. He's carrying it up ice and dangling guys. It's just amazing. Yeah, he's probably doing what all these other kids are doing in the summertime, like with the skills coaches and shit. And on top of that, I don't know.

I'm sure all you Sabres fans know but uh who's the uh sarah sarah civian she does um she does a list of all the best dressed guys and i think he hits it uh every now and then or he might still be in the top 10 for the league he's always rocking the cool cowboy hats coming in with the nice suits on too so this guy just has it all for crying out loud so that's what that's what that's what us losers do who never had a quarter of his ability. We just throw the steroid comments out to downgrade it a little bit. No, I couldn't even, like, dress cool either. Can somebody listening that, like, has a connection to cool clothes

fucking hook me up for Christ's sake? What do you mean? The guy we got coming on for the interview soon has a connection for us. Oh, yeah. No, no, we dog his guy was somebody else hey we should probably bleed leap out name because you know we can't ruin the guys yeah come on he's that's yeah he'll have the mafia coming after us i'm gonna be really in for it thompson's teammate je Skinner, got a three-game suspension for a savage cross-check to Jake Gensel's mug. Was that appropriate for a punishment, Biz, did you think?

He could afford it. Right to the chops. It's not about affording it. Was it the punishment commensurate with the face? It depends. It depends. If the guy said that he's overpaid and he fucking had enough of hearing that on the ice and he decided to give him the business,

then I say that it's about fair. Or if he was told he did steroids, you're just allowed to slash anyone that you first see after hearing that. The good news is the guy can afford it, and he deserves a little time off. He's been playing some good hockey. Yeah, he has. It's 11 years after the Stanley Cup between Boston and Vancouver,

but they're still battling, not just on Twitter. Zidane O'Chara was on Julian Edelman's podcast, Games with Names, and he said that the Canucks did a dry run on a cup, sell you that, never came. Gee, hit the audio. We saw players from Vancouver coming on the ice in the garden, and they were actually practicing how they would be lifting the cup and handing off the cup to each other and we found out about these things and we were like bulletin like we are not

gonna allow this happen you know it just it just fueled us that's like acting out having sex with your wife that's the level of disrespect that is uh needless to say kevin bxl was not too happy about it he texted to jeff merrick that it quote never happened 100 didn't happen and he addressed it uh during hockey night in canada she hit it again for us one of the looking forward to this for a couple days one of the dumbest things we've ever heard clearly and we all work with elliot right so that's saying a lot but i don't think i have to spend a whole lot of time discrediting that this didn't happen because logistically it's impossible. Right.

You think about all the media that's there covering the finals and all the competitiveness of trying to find some story different than the other person. Clearly somebody would have reported about that or had a camera. And even Char walks it back a little bit with his comments from we saw them in the garden to we heard to we believe we heard. Rumors. Yeah. bit of those comments from we saw them in the garden to we heard to we believe we heard rumors yeah so you know originally like upset about it to hear because it's a little bit of an attack on our character as a team and an organization but also our leadership group and you're talking about three first ballot hall of famers in the siddines and the long go you're talking about mahulture and ham use of myself to think that we would allow something like that to happen let alone participate in it is disappointing coming from a guy like char you just you would expect more and maybe a little bit

more of a mutual respect that he wouldn't repeat a story like that that's so insulting to us without fact checking it or seeing it or witnessing it firsthand so i think like the main emotion i have right now is just disappointed in him uh so yeah kind of an interesting story mean, Z, he does say we saw and then we found out, which is sort of contradictory. I think this has a whiff of that fake flag story between the U.S. woman and the Canadian woman where the Canadian woman was told the U.S. woman dissed their flag or stepped on it in the locker room.

Oh, yeah, Wickenheiser lost it. What was that? It's after Canada beat U.S. And I don't know, sometimes, like, whether it's people in the arena, maybe it's an assistant coach or maybe a family member in order to like rile up the team, like going against a rival. A story gets made up and they said that the Americans were stepping

on a Canadian flag in their locker room. But before the game or the day before post game after canada wins wickenheiser in an interview is like they were stepping on our fucking flag before the guy losing her mind and then it ended up being not a real story so hey listen if that's what she was told i it's like ah shit you know it's we're off the rails here folks but as But as far as Z's coming, I mean, you guys got to defend your B's, boy, man. You got a little bit of liabilities going on. Guy's a liabetic. Yeah, it does seem like something that people would have seen.

I mean, have players ever done that before? Like, actually practice passing the cup? It's not rocket science. I don't think our fucking Quebec peewee team would have been practicing, like, lifting a trophy. That is one of the most insane things i've ever heard just to throw an ass men just to hand each other a trophy if i was if i was a head coach going into game seven i'd throw the media the biggest mental torpedo we wouldn't even have a pre-game skate we would just go out there and do a mock cup raising every guy will like maybe like

re-coordinate get somebody out there saying no no no but this guy next yeah yeah it's like oh that guy's a black ace oh sure sure okay back like a cop like get an actual tinfoil cup and like actually pass it around the one that ra's gotten his uh his room over there the one that ra smokes out of i wish fucking non-smoking building but did you see the picture of bxl like he had like a little paper cup at the hockey night in Canterbury. I was holding it up like he was practicing. He's a funny bastard. I think Z might have been given information.

I don't think he made it up out of whole cloth. It sounds like they might have been fed bullshit. But I don't know. The guy's got some pretty good credibility after 20 years. I don't think he was going to work on those things. I know. We're obviously teasing. It was just funny.

I hear you. And we're trying to get him on the podcast was funny back i hear you yeah and we're trying to get him on the podcast here can't wait to ask him about i'm sure he's gonna be dying to do broadcast now he does but it was it was just funny because he told it when he said he originally saw it then he said he heard it and then he said he thinks he heard it or something so there was like a slow digression to just taking a huge dump on the city of vancouver when it wasn't really needed to so public enemy number one the bruins i tell you they just find a way i love that there's a connect twitter account out there and it's it's at

buck faustin like instead of just writing fuck boston they it's buck like he hated these people are so fucking scott man. They still come at us all the time. All you're going to do is get the Chari gift and just fucking, or the pitcher, me holding a cup. That's the ultimate trump card with him. Either way, whatever. We're moving right on. Ovechkin, the cap sniper. Four goals during the week,

giving him 897. He's now 97 back of Gretzky and just four back of Gordie Howe. All four of them were empty netters, which raised an interesting point from our boy Bucci. He said, I have no problem with empty net goals, but Alex Ovechkin's 895th, the Gretzky record-breaking goal cannot be on an empty netter.

Don't even go on the ice in empty net situations once he reaches 894. What do you agree with this assessment? I first read it and thought it was asinine and the more I think about it I would I would almost think Ovi would kind of agree with it not maybe not like don't go on the ice or something but that's going to be one of the greatest moments in the history of hockey and to have it happen against no goalie would kind of not ruin it, but in the end, like take a lot away from it. So my buddy Bucci, I'm a hundred percent on board. I don't know what you do.

Like, yeah, I guess the only play would be to not put them on the ice, but that has to be, I'm not saying it has to be a patented Ovi one-timer from the top of the circle. It could be dirty one that goes in off his shin pad. Nobody cares, but it has to be the goalie. So the first guy I ever heard mention that Ovi would break this record was John Bouchergras.

This was like 10 years ago, maybe. And now he's come up with another very good point that it cannot happen that way. But still, he doesn't have as many empty netters as the great one had. I think he's pretty close to catching them, but I'm with him. The record breaker cannot happen on no goalie. Here's where I disagree. As you know, everybody's going to come on the ice

and there's going to be an insane ceremony. So why not just have it at the end of the game when the game's out of hand and over anyway? So it doesn't disrupt the actual action. It would actually be a perfect storybook ending. In the end, years later, nobody would care. That's valid. I feel like you ending. In the end, years later, nobody would care. That's valid. I feel like you want to disrupt the game, though,

because it's like such a special big moment where it would almost be better if it happened in the dead middle of a game. Okay, so imagine it's in a game right before going into playoffs and they got to get the win. I mean, that changes things. That definitely changes things. You tie to get – or maybe they're up 2-0,

and you score to get a little bit of momentum back, and it's like, oh, now we got to have a fucking 20, 30-minute celebration for this guy on the ice. I don't know, man. Yeah, it's interesting. What is he, 96 away? 97 behind Gretzky right now, four behind Gordie Howe. And back to the empty netters, Gretzky has 56, Ovechkin has 53 right now.

Oh, and by the way, what was Konechny's problem after he got the one-versus-filly? I have no idea. I couldn't figure that out. Probably just that he's on the flyers. Because that was the most normal empty netter, just skate it and slide it in. And he was just, I think he said, what the fuck was that? Ovi's like, what are you talking about?

Like, that's what I, I sensed like, what did he do wrong there? And I, my only thought is I'm on the flyers. Yeah. It's a fucking infinite goal. He's like, get me out of here. Get me out of here. Wait, I know Biz was curious. If you think that's going to be sore,

if the caps window is completely shut, are they still a playoff team? I asked that because we weren't able to get into it last pod whip. You seem very critical. Like, oh, the only focus now moving forward is going to get him his goal record. Like, that's where I almost disagree because, like, they needed to solidify goaltending, or at least, you know, they thought, and that's why they went and got Kemper. So they could, I mean,

they could have went and got another playmaker, I guess, with that money if they really cared that much about the goal situation, where I think that they looked at it. Like we still have a window here to potentially win one. I think everybody thought that a window was over after they won the president's trophy twice. And then they couldn't get out of the second round. I,

and I, I think I've maybe been a little critical of, of Washington over the last year and maybe what they can do. I just can't discount guys who have been there and done it before. You got Kemper who's already won a cup. He's going to be able to battle through. And I don't want to say he's lost the starting job, but the,

the, the, what but the the the what's that a kid's name lynn jolly lindgren lindgren lindgren he's been playing some good hockey so they got two decent goalies they got a solid back end once they get healthy up front i still don't think they're going to get back back from which to me is there that's going to be really difficult that they don't get him back to go the distance. But you, could you see them getting out of the first round in the next couple of years?

Personally? No. And I'm not saying that when I said like, it's going to be all about Ovi's goal record. I didn't mean with like the front office in terms of like, yeah, they signed a goalie. They're trying to like win a Stanley cup still. I just, I just look at their team now i'll say they've won four in a row they're seven two and one in their last ten so they're starting to play some good hockey yeah they are but like you're talking about the playoffs let me pull it up here all right so we got i'll say this people

may disagree the devils the hurricanes the bruins Maple Leafs, and the Lightning are all making the playoffs. Right? Would you guys agree with that? Yeah. Those five teams. Yeah. Okay. So you then have three spots for Pittsburgh, the Islanders, the Rangers,

Washington, Florida, Detroit. So I don't see the Capitals as a team that's like that good where you're like, oh, man, they're going to go on a run. They're going to get one of those three spots. I don't think their team, like they're like two games over 500 now. And yeah, they've battled injuries, but I just, nothing about their team makes me think that, okay, yeah, they could get in the playoffs.

I don't pick them. I don't see them winning a round. Do you remember how bad they looked in the first round last year? What's that different about the team? I thought they were looking okay until they fucked that one up when they went for the empty net. The series, they would have been up 3-1 on Florida. Florida, yeah.

But they went for that empty net, and they ended up tying the game, and then the fucking series turned on a dime. So, I mean, I don't want to say they looked horrible last year they just you know they couldn't close the thing that's why you got to get the red line kids my opinion like that team if they get in i don't think they're gonna do anything yeah and also we we've clipped a couple of them i want to reiterate i'm a darcy kemper guy he's had some great performances this year he's had some mid performances this year. He's had some mid performances this year. He's going to get back to his old ways.

Darcy Kemper fan here. And I think that they could still make a push for playoffs. I think that, Hey, if that's a team who's healthy and they just sneak in, I could, if they end up playing like New Jersey first round, I'd take them with that playoff experience.

He's on, he's on New Jersey again. No, I just got to protect my arsehole. Yeah, Puppet's going to strangle you and you'll fucking sleep. Wilson will help a ton. I just, I don't know. One of our astute listeners at Bomb03F

reminded Whitney that he said he'd buy an Evander Kane jersey if Kane scored 20 goals for the remainder of the season, which he did. Evander Kane saw the tweet. He said, time to get that wallet out and make that purchase to Witt. Witt said, deal, get healthy soon, please. Thanks. Nice little exchange on Twitter.

Evander will do thumbs up. So, Witt, is the shirt on the way? No, I'll order it right now, though. Okay. Where do you order jerseys? That's going to run, guy. NHL.com is probably the best part of it. They just show up randomly at my door, and I still don't know who sends them.

All right, boys, seeing as we're talking about Alberta right now. I just want to say I'm glad that the Oilers guys themselves are, you know, keeping track of their fake fans, their Fugazi fans who don't make due bets. You're the biggest joke of all time when it comes to not living up to bets. You have 15 favorite teams. Nothing you say will rattle me besides what you just said, because I'm really rattled right now. All right, boys.

What do you talk? You got nothing. You don't live up to shit. Actually, I just got a text from G. He said, I wasn't kidding around sending the Leafs jersey. That was actually you who sent it to me, G? Yes, we talked about it on the podcast. I brought it up.

I told you I sent you the Leafs jersey as a joke, and you brought it up the past three pods being like, who sent me this jersey? It was me. I told you. I thought you were joking when you, like, that you sent. I thought you were joking about sending it. Okay, all right.

All right, there we go. We clarified that. Anyways, we're talking Alberta. Let's go to Calgary. Let's talk to Nikita Zdorov right now. Send it to the interview. We'll see you in a minute. This interview is brought to you by GameTime.

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This Calgary defenseman is currently in his 10th NHL season and his second with the Flames. He's also said to be one of the biggest fashion plates in the NHL, and I believe he's the first Russian player we've ever had on Spit and Chicklets. So welcome to the Spit and Chicklets podcast, Nikita Zdorov. How's it going, my friend? All good. Thanks for having me, guys.

Our pleasure. You just said you're in Montreal right now, huh? Yeah, we got a nice day off today from Daryl, so it's kind of a pleasure, too. No, he doesn't give days off, does he? After back-to-back, we had a kind of skied on the schedule, but then he came back to the plane. He said it's optional, so it was nice, yeah. So Daryl's getting soft is what you're saying.

He's softening up a little bit. Put the shirts, jeans. I don't say that. Tag the headline. Don't put it in there right now. Hey, this is a Boston Bruins podcast, and I called you a big Z a couple of times online, like, you know, pumping your tires for hits you're throwing or whatever you're doing.

Oh my God. They just attack me because of Zdeno Char. And I'm like, they could be another big Z for crying out loud. Well, I mean, I kind of agree with them. There's only one big Z, a real one. You can call me Z. Okay. All right. You buried biz. I just call me Z. Okay. All right.

You buried Biz. All right. He just puked in his lap over there. He's a hardcore Bruins jock sniffer. Yeah, well, I mean, I'm probably like, what, like 600 points and two Norrises away from being called Big Z, so. That's true. Yeah.

Well, the way Daryl's been talking about you, he said you're their best defenseman right now. Maybe you'll get there someday. Yeah, hopefully, hopefully. Hopefully. We'll see. Well, coming off a tough night in which you got hosed. Daryl brought it up after.

You got Toronto Maple Leaf land run over by the refs, which is 100% a thing. I think he brought it up. But that was an entertaining game last night. Unfortunately, you guys had about seven calls go against you, huh? Well, that's how it is. guys been there right so it's uh it's just one of those games when i feel like there was saturday night hockey night canada and everything so like definitely i feel like there's some pressure there's some missed calls one way missed calls all the way so i think

i mean it's just it happens once in a while. I feel like this league has been doing a good job for refereeing. In the past, there's been ups and downs, but we don't have a VR in soccer to see every replay and all that stuff.

The people make mistakes as well. The refs as well, too. That's the perfect answer not to get fined. I would imagine the locker room is more like this. Fuck those fucking idiots sandbagging us in Toronto. Now we're not going to get the day off tomorrow because we lost. Daryl's going to be poopy pants, and he's going to be ripping us all on video. Did that sound more about what's happening in the locker room?

Nah, kind of close, close i would say i mean not there all i think he was uh he saw we played a good game yesterday it was just i mean we give up three they go so it was just a tough they have a good power play lots of skill up there so i mean i just uh i mean some someday i just wish to play Toronto Maple Leafs against them in a playoff. Wow. Hey, imagine a Calgary-Toronto final, which is not completely unpopular. They can't get out of the first round, so it'll never happen.

Okay, let's stop talking about the Leafs. Sorry, Z. But on a serious note, though, Marner, Matthews, Nylander, they're humming at a crazy rate right now. What's it like playing night in and night out against some of these new, young wave players that are just fucking buzzing around out there?

I want to say Marner's on a 22, 23-game point streak. Yeah, I mean, I think the first thing brought me yesterday, when we started playing them, the thing they're doing down low, that little place they make in the corner, helping each other all the time, and all this pop plays to the front of the net, it's really hard to defend for the D, especially for our system, because

they want us to go super aggressive at the forwards in the corner, and then kill the play right away, and then they've been, they've been doing, their top two lines doing a good job of that, protecting the puck and making this little play, so I think that was definitely the hardest team we faced this year, who's doing a good job down low over there.

We love going back, especially for somebody like you. Such an interesting story coming up in your youth hockey days. But I more kind of want to stick to right now. And it seems after being on three teams prior, you've really found a home in Calgary. I know last year, as it was mentioned by Biz, the coach was so complimentary. This year, same thing.

So what has happened since you got to Calgary to make you feel so at home? I mean, last year, I'd say, was your best year in the show so far, right? Yeah, I mean, I feel like I just grew up. I kind of, like, you know, it takes time to some people to realize, like, what you got to do with your life, what you got to do with, like, preparation, how you, like, approach yourself before with like preparation how you like approach yourself before the games how you train in the summer so i think it takes time you just like some and defenseman i feel like there's no like specific date or games played how many he needs

to play to become like regular nhl player and be on the consistent level so i think just for me like it took some time and right now I'm kind of like enjoying where I'm at so and definitely like you said I found Calgary is a great place to be you know like we have unbelievable group of guys there you guys probably know a lot of them and I mean playing for Daryl yeah it's hard sometimes but it's actually I mean it's I feel like it's it's my style you know I like it like it keeps It doesn't keep you humble. There's some highs, some lows, but it's always competition every day with him.

You have to pre-warn the new guys who come in and set them down and explain, hey, we know you've heard stories, but this guy's in fact a lunatic, so just be aware here before he gets in for the first meeting. Yeah, I feel like some guys are still getting into it, so it's you know like they definitely knew they came from different organizations different coaches and uh

so it was it was some new experience for them you probably heard some stories and everything like it's not gonna bring it up on the tv don't want to put anybody under the bus so no no everybody's got their different methods. It would be very difficult, though, going from a players coach to going to Daryl for some guys. Now, when you were in Colorado, did you have Bednar? I had Bednar, yeah. But before that, I had Patrick Watt.

Oh, boy. Oh, Jesus. Yeah, Patty was the –dy was – it was – You don't need to say anything else. He was nuts. The most intense coach you ever had, Paddy? Oh, yeah. Yeah, by far.

Like, yeah, I just remember a couple things. Like, for a young guy, it was, like, he called me, like, I got sent down to HL. They told me, like, for 10 games that I ended up playing 50, which is classic. And then he called me up, like, midway through. And then before the game, he called me into his office. And he was like, all right, so here's your chance. If you make a mistake, you're going back down. Oh, my God.

Yeah. So I was like, I mean, I'm pretty confident, guys. So I think that's why he thinks it would work for me. I mean, kind of motivate me more or something. But it was, yeah, like there's some stuff over there like that. I don't think he does it to every guy, but he did it to me. How many pizzas did you throw that game? I don't even remember, honestly to every guy, but he did it to me. How many pizzas did you throw that game? I don't even remember, honestly.

I just remember that moment. I feel like it was in my head the whole game. Absolutely. Just the guy sitting on your shoulder like, oh, here comes a pizza. I actually saw you. I saw you after a full year in Buffalo. You spent most of the year in the minors. That's crazy.

They told you just, hey, quick little stint downint down there 10 games and then it was like four months yeah I mean it was uh it was uh Patty's last year you know like I don't think he wanted to players like have some players on the team who he wanted they left and everything and I got traded for Riley so they kind of gave me a chance right away but I don't, I mean, like I was rented mentally to play. And like Buffalo was just a bad team, you know, so I got lucky to get into it and play right away in the big minutes, like 60 games I played my first year. And then Colorado was a little bit better team.

It was better decor. And then I just couldn't crack it. But then next year, it was just a different story because we started rebuilding when Jared came in. Then you couldn't eat any snacks in the room because the Nate dog would have snapped at you, huh? Well, that started probably when we, after that year when we had like, what, 46 points?

We were out of the playoffs October 15th. Literally. And then that year, it was just the worst hockey team ever played in the National League, I feel like. I don't know, man. I was on some Oilers teams when you were a junior. I don't know. Those would have been the toilet bowl.

Worse than what they had that one year? No, I think our record was the worst and uh yeah like atlanta treasuries yeah oh yeah we had like we had 50 losses so like like 55 losses or something was nuts yeah like you gotta pull it up it was like i think it was 15 16 season yeah so then after that nate kind of changed the culture inside the team and and then we made a playoffs next year game 82 it was actually super cool we play st louis whoever wins that game makes the playoff it was the the biggest uh regular season game in colorado history it was it was one of the craziest game i've ever been part of it was fun oh shit hey if you guys would have made

playoffs that year he would have probably started like a baza, like in Russia, the next year after that. You guys like to bring me in? No, we're not. We love the different types of culture and how they work things. I mean, I don't think I would have liked going to a baza the night before a game. Whit, did you have to do it? No, we didn't have to, actually.

Okay. Yeah, well, they're still doing? No, we didn't have to, actually. Okay. Yeah, well, they're still doing it. There's still lots of teams doing it. Yeah, but you played in Sochi. That's the former team. Come on. I played in the San Diego of Russia, as they call it. Yeah, right.

It was one of the nicest cities in the States. Come on, Sochi. You were actually the one that brought the whole taking the snacks away to light, didn't you? Weren't you the one who brought it to the media? Yeah. Like, I had, like, same podcast with the kind of Russian guy back home. And then they translated as soon as I got traded to Calgary, the Canadian fans are nuts. So they translated my whole podcast.

And then I was telling about Nate over there. And, yeah, I mean, well, you... so they translated my whole podcast and then i i was telling about nate over there and uh um yeah i mean well you you you you had a couple interviews with him you golf with him you see how like competitive he is oh yeah you called me a fucking sandbagger yeah but actually that's the only episode i watch of you guys that was funny i was laughing my ass off but you were sandbagging i never like you have a worst swing i ever seen in my life but you're actually playing good that time oh my goodness so what so you're contradicting yourself you're saying i am a sandbagger hey the front nine on the mckinnon crosby uh sandbagger might have been the best nine i've

ever played in my life wit talk yeah you were money you were money but what he said is true he said you looked horrendous but you were like scoring something yeah it's just like my playing career in the nhl all of it buddy you just got to get the job done and the kitty you just mentioned the trade from colorado to calgary now you had gotten your qualifying off then two days later they trade you were you were you bummed out because the apps had just started turning things around did you have some indication they might be trading you he got dealt no because he upped him on the snack. No, that was actually on me.

I feel like when I got, yeah, the Colorado asked Joe for trade. Because, yeah, like it was at that time I just thought I deserved like a bigger role in the team and everything. And then I went to Chicago. And then that didn't work out well. So, yeah, I mean, sometimes. Oh, yeah?

You want a bigger role? Yeah. Sometimes you make a mistake, right? Yeah. Yeah, you thought that one year was a bad year, didn't you? We're going to send you over to Chicago. Well, it was not bad. We were in playoffs.

Okay, there you go. We beat Detroit eight times. That was, like, first second of the year. And then after we started playing, like, Tampa and Florida and Carolina, we just got run over because we had too many young guys. You still got a lot of pals on the team that you talked to to congratulate after the Cup last year? Yeah, yeah, for sure.

Lots of guys, like, all the core, like, Yeah, for sure. Lots of guys like Alda Corr, like Gabe, EJ, Conf, Nate, Miko, like Nas, all those guys were like we were so tight when I was there. The COVID, the bubble was super fun. I'm probably the only one NHL player who

had a bubble. I don't know. I literally Why do you like it so much i cannot stand that hotel anymore the jw marriott in edmonton i have literally have nightmares when i go back yeah but like i actually enjoy it it's like it's like like you said baza like we used to do in russia we used to go through those uh camps for like three like three four weeks together before the season so like that was kind of insane for me like we're championships so you're always with the boys it was it was pretty fun i feel like little different thread count in the baza compared to the jw though right

yeah baza is like there's no mattress you literally sleep on the concrete and the rocks under your head yeah it's were you involved in any of these chugging contests and like guys getting completely banged up because we hear crazy about how they had it and going on in toronto and everything and no because uh yeah well toronto was nuts like from the stories what i heard i'm not gonna bring them up but I think, I think all the charging contacts were, were in the chop and the different hotel. What's that? The southern place, wherever it's called. Yeah. The one that the AC didn't work and it was 100 degrees. I didn't have air conditioning for like four days. I know.

Oh Jesus. Yeah. One was like love Island. The other one was like survivor. I know. Yeah. I mean, it was, it other one was like Survivor. I know. Yeah. I mean, it was all right. Yeah, like, we were there for a reason. I think our team were focusing on winning everything. You know, we just got unlucky with the injuries. We got, like, 10 guys got injured. Everybody was, like, our third goal they played, like,

against Dallas in Game 7. So it was just tough to win with so many injuries. Nikita, like the wet dog, you played in the Quebec Peewee tournament. Was that the first time you were in North America? No. Quebec, how old are they? They're 12, right? Usually kids playing there.

12 or 13, I think. It's got to be one of the first time. It was nuts. Like, I never see anything we played like I don't know 116 and then against LA Select that was like a really good team in my age

and it was sold out it was 17,000 people and we were 12 year old kids it was the biggest experience I ever had I was before that the whole tournament was crazy because we had a, I'll tell you a story, you guys are going to like it. We had a whole, so a whole team flying.

Usually, in Russia, it's like those small junior teams, they're under the big KHL clubs. So I've been growing up playing for CSK Moscow, which is Red Army team with nose. And so the big khl clubs so i've been growing up playing for csk moscow which is red army team with nose and uh so the the big club pays for everything so they usually ask like three four parents who's flying with the kids to help like the coach and the kids and everything so my dad flew then there's assistant coach and there's a couple one of the players mom and then another dad well so the russian parents the old school so usually you go duty free and then you they buy like a couple bottle of whiskey to go right

and then they open them in the plane but like you cannot do it because they usually lock this bag right so they my dad opened the whiskey they've been drinking whiskey like whole 10-hour flight from like uh wherever london and to montreal and uh apparently our bags didn't get loaded in heatro in london so when we landed there was no bags so they and then soon as we land the police like military canadian people walking in the airplane. We're like, what's going on here? So they're literally putting my dad in the handcuffs.

One of our coaches in the handcuffs and then another mom. So basically the charges were my dad because he was drinking whiskey. He was supposed to drink. The assistant coach, he was harassing wasn't he was supposed to drink the assistant coach he was harassing one of the uh flight attendants for us or something that's what they said and then and

then the mom because the seat was broken when she tried to like like go back you know the seat dropped on the guy right behind him and then he starts screaming or something so like they literally put him in the jail in the airport and then my dad was there for like two days he was there for that long yeah well we drove like to quebec city from montreal so then they let him go put him in like a blacklist and everything it It was like, it was, yeah, like, and then we, the bags didn't come. So it was only like 10 bags come. So first game we played with 10 players. Oh, way.

Yeah. Your dad's like the Russian version of Wolf of Wall Street when he's flying over to Switzerland and wakes up and he's like taped to the seat. On those pills? Yeah, no, no. Dasvidaniya. More whiskey. Oh, shit. more whiskey i'm from moscow so my dad is more like it's different people you know compared to outside of the old russia you know that what's moscow like i people like all the guys who go yeah i heard it's absolutely insane

it's like vegas la new New York City had a baby. Like took a bunch to ecstasy and testosterone or whatever fucking HGH you need to get going. Actually, before you answer, Z, is it not, when you hear people complain about traffic over here, is that not the worst traffic on the planet? Oh, what do you mean? Like, it would take me, I remember my parents,

after practice, it would take me three hours to get back home. It's 15 kilometers. Dude, that's a fact. It took me hours to go, like, a mile sometimes. Like, well, it's the 30 million people living there. And all the roads, it's not like in the U.S., they're building blocks, which is easy to split the traffic everything goes in the middle in moscow it's like stupid literally stupid like it looks cool it looks cool when you're

flying in and then the problem is like every person has two cars so like the the moscow mentality it's like that's why nobody in russia likes people from moscow and in Russia likes people from Moscow. And now nobody likes people from Russia. So it's both. Because people make, let's say, their salary is $60,000 a year. They're going to spend $40,000 on a car. They literally put less money on a car. They're going to rent a part of it, shut apart of it, but they're going to have a sick BMW.

It's like 30 million rappers basically yeah yeah you're an idiot um so like what was your childhood like like what got you into loving hockey well my dad we have uh we have so many holidays around the new year you guys celebrate christmas we celebrate new year night and then we have on our christmas orthodox is january 7th and then we also have like january 13th is like old new year like old calendar calendar like i don't know so like there's just extra days to like drink and water pretty much. I remember all this. And then I guess my dad, he got pretty shit-faced with one of the friends. And then they were hurting in the morning. And they went to the hockey rink because it was just cold in there.

And they put me on the ice. That's how I started playing hockey. Come on, that can't be true. I know some people who stick their face in the freezer when they're hungover. See, his dad's like, let's just take him to the ring room. There's also, like, in my old apartment, I live, like, in a, like, super Soviet apartment. And it's, like, the walk through the two rooms is, like, super tight. So when I was a kid, I was always hitting, like, the heads to the walls.

And then my godfather got me a hockey helmet. So I don't do that. So I was walking with a hockey helmet. Don't call me stupid after that. Come on. That is so funny. You walk out from public skate, your old man and his buddies are heading the snow bank by the Zamboni, just trying to get their hangover cured.

Yeah. That is too good. It was, it was crazy. Like the coach haven't talked to me for like first two months. And my dad was like, so choked. He came to him.

He's like, why are you not talking to my son? You're not teaching him anything. And coach look at him. He's like, well, it looks like he already has a coach. And then after that,

my dad never said anything like to me on the ice or anything. He trusted him. Oh, so he used to be kind of like maybe yelling over the glass and stuff? No, the Russian parents, I saw guys complaining about parents in Toronto. Oh my God, you should see Russian parents. It's nuts.

There's a war, there's fights. People bring guns, they beat the shit out of the referees like it's it's yeah like it's i think we got to do a documentary on this because people talk about the toronto area specifically you mentioned and yeah they're you know we have buddies who do the rink shrink podcast and they always talk about the etiquette that parents should have and how they should treat coaches who are spending all their time in this but you're saying that russia is just on a whole nother level like scraps and the fans non-stop yeah you should yeah like you should ask if you get like panarin some someday or like uh i don't know some guys from like smaller cities

there's probably so many crazy stories over there um are you allowed to talk about some of the craziest things that you saw over there while playing? Well, there's a coach. He was Kucherov's coach. Kucherov, Gusev. Then there's, remember, the guy played in Toronto, defenseman Oji Ganov? Igor? Yeah, defenseman.

So he was, like, a really good coach. He grew with them, like,. So he was like a really good coach. He grew with them. Like since six years old, he was their coach. He was breaking sticks over the kids' heads, literally. Or he would like grab them. Like one guy in my team, like we were seven and we were doing like one-on-one battles in the corner because that's normal

for us. Seven? With a tiger that's fucking bolted down to the corner too. And then he would lost the battle and then he would kind of show him like this, come to the bench. So he grabbed him like in the

cage and then literally pull him over the boards right the cage and then literally pull him over the boards right to him and then put him in the dark dress room beat the shit out of the kid like yeah like it was just so many but like the last thing about seven and like we had a one we have a power play set up when we were 10 11 we had one defenseman like like i was telling like i would get benched if i dumped the puck in until until i was 16 until i came to north america honestly hey that's why malcolm would look at me when i dumped the puck in like what the fuck are you doing yeah yeah like it's just it was just different mentality i feel like the whole like like we we practice every day as the six seven years

old so it's not like here you practice like three times a week and then you play at the end of the week right like and then you play you don't even have a score like running time we have like reference and everything you certainly don't have a power play setup so that's crazy but my question is when i was over there i noticed and it's it's same with like european soccer clubs where they have like you mentioned like red army has a team from like they have juniors they have younger kids so at what age were you picked by like the red army to be on their like seven or eight year old team like when do they bring kids in into their like quote-unquote academy so we started it close there is a school

close to my house it's called white bears yeah and um we started there when i was six so i came in i came in when i was seven and i couldn't skate guys were already skating backwards so i had to catch up so we played like first two years it's pretty much like you're learning how to skate you're learning how to stick handle not to like fight you know like usually like five guys behind the park right like the kids but then uh then when we turn nine we start playing some games and then our coach got invited to the red army team and he brought with him he brought 11 guys so yeah so he had to cut like some guys who were there already and one of them were barbershop that's funny the guys playing nhl now but he didn't he didn't make

our team when we were nine uh but from that team from six years old there's five guys played nhl game it's me uh tolchinsky he was in carolina then zikov the guy who got busted with the some the drugs supplements or something uh then mamen and um um i forgot who was another one oh goldobin the son of the yeah he's in dallas yeah yeah so five guys like who actually played one nhl game we were together from six years old. That's crazy. I had only one minor hockey coach since six years old until 16 for 10 years. How old were you when you sprouted up to whatever current height you are?

One year, yeah, just one summer, I grew like 20 centimeters, literally. When it got on the gas. Were you awful that next season? Were like goofy out there i was fat like i was fat when i came to london when i came to london dale hunter look at me he's like who the fuck is this kid like who did we just drop i had i had a fat fat camp right with him so i didn't go to school because I finished school in Russia. So, you know, the breakfast club, because practice is like one o'clock because guys are going to go to school. So me and Dale would ride the bike every morning at 8 a.m. together

watching NHL highlights and then didn't say a word to each other. Literally, it would be like so awkward. We would be like 30 minutes riding the bike beside each other didn't say a word to me just watching NHL highlights I was just telling Nas he like he loved Nas so much but he was so pissed when he would like young Nas Toronto Maple Leaf he would like toe drag somebody on the blue line turn over goal so I guess who was the... Before Randy, who was the coach in Toronto? Wilson.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. So I guess he didn't like Nas. He would sit him down all the time, and Dale was choked when he'd see that. He would be screaming out the TV, what the fuck is he doing? Did you guys not talk because you were intimidated or was it more of a language barrier thing? Yeah, more like language barrier.

I didn't know a lick of English when I came. I kind of learned in school, but it's hard to then explain yourself. But then I didn't have any Russians in the team, so I had to. And the guys helped me a lot. Max Domi, Horvath, Anderson. We had a great group, Tyranny. They would always bring me out with them and everything. You starterson we had a great group tyranny they would always bring him like out with them and everything you know you start talking get a couple drinks you

start talking more yeah for the most part a lot of guys say it's hard right you were coming over like you said no russian teammates was it a huge adjustment living over there and and and was was english kind of almost taught to you by watching tv i know a lot of guys say by watching TV, they learn a lot. Yeah, no. Most of them just go out. In the room, you're sitting, you're listening. I've been in the room for four or five hours a day.

I had a teacher too. She would come and she would not show me how to write or read or something. She would just talk to me about life. I get used to it. English is easy. You need like 500 words to explain yourself at the start so like that's that's not a problem at all but uh like coming over it was just my dream i feel like like my the year before that i played in junior in russia and i was watching those ohio highlights it was uh yakupov galchino, Koklychev,

like all those, the Russian kids. Like, it was just the dream to come over all the time, and it was, like, easy transition for me, I feel like. Yeah, that was pretty easy. We had the same size vocabulary. What was the biggest culture shock when you got here to North America, living here? Oh, there's some stuff

there's there's definitely some stuff like junior is pretty greasy right everybody knows or it's like it gets greasy in the room like all those like the shower stuff like like i don't know guys slap each other on the ass like like from russia like just just something or like on the ass like like from russia like it's just just something or like like like like all this yeah like somebody can tell the fuck your mom or something you know like the russians like we kill for that really what the fuck did he just say that but another guy's laughing we're like how is that possible like no no fit flops in the shower that's the that's the for sure kind of gross stuff i remember i i remember i didn't have flip-flops in sochi and they were the russians were looking at me like i had two heads they're like the one kid's like bare feet bare feet i was like oh i don't know

like they thought i was the most disgusting human alive biz yeah or you mentioned that or you know what well you know i played with nail yakupov hey listen he's a great guy i don't know what the fuck was dubnik saying there guys but nail is like you you guys should have him on the podcast no he seems like he was very friendly yeah i hung out with him at bios i never had an issue it's the biggest beauty like unbelievable you you you would love it he has so many stories probably about like oilers and everything you would love it so he would he he hated when you know like you take your suit off you put your socks in one shoe and then you put your underwear another shoe right or up top of the shoes yeah that's what, like, you guys do all the time. So he hated it.

He would go and take a picture of this shit, and he would have, like, a full book of pictures of the guys. Because now I know why he's back in Russia. They probably fucking hit up his iCloud, and they're like, ah, this guy's for sure. Imagine what he thought when he saw my skid marks on my undies, biz. He's like, check out these bacon strips. Oh, that is so great.

Going back to that, why is the underwear and socks and the shoes so greasy? Why is that? That's greasy? I don't. I mean, I've been here for 10 years, guys. I've been living in been here for 10 years, guys. Um, yeah, like I've been living in the States for 10 years, you know,

like you're Americanized now, dude. I'm Americanized. I just don't understand like how, like you're, you're also going to put getcha on that was, was washed one time through a cycle with everybody else, sweaty getch that you're throwing back on.

I don't think throwing your clean gitch inside your own shoes is that bad yeah and it's like it's a fresh socks too inside your shoes so like yeah yeah and it's not like you you're flipping your underwear all the way right now like the way you're wearing yeah it's just yeah it's i like it you're on our side with this one yeah i am i'm definitely i. I was fighting with him about that for sure. Let's jump to Buffalo. You made the roster in the 13-14 season, played seven games, then they sent you back to London.

Was it disappointing to go back to the juniors, or did you think it was the right move for your development? Well, GM and the coach got fired the same day. What a gong show it was there. Yeah, well, it was, yeah, like the GM who drafted me, what was his name? Oh. Is it Darcy Regeer?

It could have been Darcy Regeer. He was the assistant in Arizona afterward. And then the coach was Ron Ralston. He just came out of the college. They gave him like 10 games and they fired him. So then Pat LaFontaine came as the president. And then they hired Ted Nolan as the coach. So I guess they just decided to stick with the older guys until the rest of the year.

They sent me, they sent Ristolainen ristaline into hl kind of grigorenko to junior as well to like get more development and then uh my team was hosting memorial couch so like i feel like that was the right move how was your relationship with ted nolan i loved him well he's uh he's we're actually still he's texting me sometimes you know like he he's great. I love him. Like, he's an unbelievable person. One of the nicest person I ever met in my life.

Really good, motivating coach. I think, like, he could be a really good coach if he has strong assistants. We just didn't have strong assistant coaches at that time, so it was kind of tough. But organization, Buffalo Buffalo like like I cannot say a bad word about that it was it was fantastic like the ownership that big will like him um like it was they they treated people unbelievable there they're spending money it was everything a class the staff there is perfect so yeah, yeah, like, hopefully we'll figure out someday.

So, other than just crazy amount of turnover, your experience was pretty positive. Yeah, for sure. Yeah, like, I enjoy Buffalo. Like, everybody's saying it's a shit city, but it's like, you have a day off, you jump in the car, hour and a half, you're in Toronto, you go to a nice restaurant,

shopping there. But Buffalo is actually a nice... Good sell job there, Zeke. Yeah, ring the door. Just go to a different country. It's not there, Zeke. Just go to a different country. You just got to go to a different country. Oh, jeez. We're in one now.

This is great. There's more places than that. That's so funny. Who said Columbus is a top five? That's the guy whose screen's blacked out right now. He's fucking insane. He won't show his face.

He won't show his face. Where is he? Is he getting paid by Columbus Mayor? He is. Basically, yeah. He worked for the tourism department. He broke Congress. Put 15 shots at Pink Whitney, we'll do it.

We'll make any city the best city in the country. Yeah, exactly. Worst tweet of all time elon musk should have fucking suspended you i like that oh he's going all of us right now oh shit i better behave um i was gonna ask so i think that one of the more known things about your game is your your physicality now is that would that always come natural to you is that is that the game you always wanted to play or at a certain point did someone have to say hey listen if you want to be successful and make the nhl you got to be an absolute goon out there no i enjoyed it actually the funny thing is like in north america

i don't think you can hit until what 14 so it's changed now yeah now it's like now it's 20 yeah well when you get to the nhl no ontario The Ontario government, one of Ben's hits from Ochoa. Holy shit, this is driving me crazy. I was about to get on Twitter, too. But in Russia, you can hit from six years old. So I was crushing guys when I was seven, honestly. I enjoyed it so much. I still enjoy it.

Six years old. Out of the womb, they got you a fucking Cooper helmet. Just put the gloves on, kid. You can rent somebody from behind. You just get two minutes penalty. It's fine. Bull in the ring. I even saw a stat.

One game in 2016-17 season, you had 15 hits in one game. Yeah, it was Los Angeles. We lost 7-1. we didn't touch the fucking fucking hit somebody i had my guy you know what's funny i had a full full labor torn shoulder that game too and that season i let the uh ligand hits and i and i played last 30 games with the full tour labor. Dude, that's a tough recovery too when you're in surgery.

And I had that bra, you know, like they put the bra so you cannot raise your arm. So I've been playing with that shit

and then sometimes I'm taken off and my shoulder goes in and out and I'm putting it back in. Oh, holy fuck,

dude. That is crazy. Back to Buffalo for a second. You actually got suspended because you got bumped from a flight coming home from vacation, the all-star game, all-star break, right? You guys doing your homework, eh? Here's the lesson for the kids.

That's where he tore his labrum. Here's the lesson for the kids, he said. Here's the lesson for the kids. That's a fucked up story. I've never been stressed so much in my life. I can imagine. That's a fucked up story. I've never been stressed so much in my life. I can imagine. We went to Dominican Republic, me and my wife,

and we booked a flight the day before we had to show up. The next day we had a practice and we would fly to Calgary. So my flight would land at like 6 p.m. the night before. Getting in the airport from the hotel there's line of 300 people to check in the back we're like what's going on here the benican republic shit show so we walk in it was united it was american i think it was american airlines um we're walking in one of the last and they give me a ticket but there's no seats i'm like where's the seat and they're like oh you're but there's no seats. I'm like, where's the seat? And they're like, oh, you're going to get out the gate. I'm like, okay, that's fine.

So I see like there's like Rangers guys, Ryan McDonough, Delzotto over there. Like they're all in the same plane. So I'm like, I'm fine. All the guys are making it. I'm going to make it. I was stuttering. So like there's probably like 30 minutes left until end of the boarding. And then I'm telling my wife let's go to burger

king i want a burger so we want burger king i got a burger ate it so coming back to the gate it's still like 10 minutes until the gate closed and they're like oh i'm sorry we oversold the tickets there are no more seats in the plane oh my god but we put you on the next flight i'm like no that's fine when's the next flight tomorrow i'm like are you guys fucking nuts like i have to like like i need a report like what do you mean and then it was like no planes it was last plane you know last plane at 3 p.m and no flights anywhere until until next morning and it was like the absolute blackout guy right beside me, he started crying because he's like sitting on the floor in front of the gate. And he's like, I just want to go home.

And he's absolutely like in tears, like shit face. And I'm like, what's going on? So they're like, we give you like a thousand bucks. I'm screaming at them like with my broken English. And then they gave me a new room. So we went to the hotel. I'm like, well, I got to call GM. So I'm calling Tim Murray.

He fucking yelled at me for 20 minutes. You're a fucking idiot. Like, how are you doing that? Like, literally, I'm like, okay, Tim. Like, fuck. Like, I can't. What do you want me to do? So then I called Ted Nolan.

Ted is like, oh, no. See you later. So they left. Next day, I i flew in they left to calgary so as soon as i land i had to take connection to like chicago then to calgary i came to calgary i they suspended for two days they like they scratched me for two games i had to like say sorry to the team and everything but i mean like it's just rookie mistake to like book the flight the day before you gotta always book the one day ahead and then and then probably like three weeks later there's a game against rangers so my alarm goes on at 8 30 there's 9 45 meeting and it's 15 minute right for me well you know when you put the alarm, you're like, yeah, five more minutes.

You turn the alarm off, five more minutes. You don't remember doing it. And I went fucking hour. So I'm waking up 9.37 and then meeting at 45. And I need it. Like, it takes me like 10 minutes. I'm like, I'm fucked. So I literally missed the meeting.

I called the administrator guy. And then coming, running in to make a morning skate. Looking for my gitch. There's no gitch. Like, where the fuck is it? Go in the shower. It's all fucking soaked in the shower. All my shit in the shower is soaked.

So like some other guys pissed. I'm like, oh, no. So so i literally go naked putting all my gear on no no one there were nothing getting stepping on the ice and ted nolan's like skating to me he's like what are you doing i'm like yeah sorry i'm late but i'm ready to practice he's like no take your shit off go in the gym he made me do like 35 airdyne sprints no but i was i was i was like that was the hardest thing ever down my life like what a season i got begged so hard like i couldn't even see and then and then and then the equipment manager went or like the doctor came to me he's like where'd you do that?

You should have just called me. And I would tell him you're sick. Or I would tell him you drove your car into the side of the road or something snowing. Just say something. We would have a life for you. That's how good the staff was there. So they would always send you back. But yeah, that was just unfortunately a couple months for me.

Anyways, how was the Dominican Republic? Oh, and I got fucking food poison there, too. Oh, my God. Just a cherry on top. Holy shit. You were probably at a Sandals resort. Fucking all-inclusive. Burger King at the Air Force.

That was Dallas. It was hard rock. It was hard rock. I was literally running from the shutter to the poker table every 10 minutes. That's so good. Hey, so we haven't even talked about your fashion sense now. Is that something that you've always been on top of? But we definitely have noticed a lot more unique suits that you've been rolling out with.

They do a great job in taking all the photos pregame of you guys walking in. Yeah, no, I'm enjoying that. Like I said, I think it's the face of our game, right? It's always been, like, look good, play good. You know, you look sharp, you have a nice suit, nice tie, and you've got to be tight and everything. And, I mean, the guy who makes me suit, he's doing a good job. The company called Icon Suit, he told me to pump his tires.

No problem. So if you guys need a suit from him, he's based in Denver. He's a great guy, Dmitry. So he's a buddy of mine. Just came into Columbus, got a couple of guys fitted in here on our team. So I'm going to get in his train. Piz, do you remember that guy who used to just be in Montreal that we'd all be buying suits from?

Yeah, yeah. Is he still around? Oh, my God. Okay, so in Colorado, our trainer, he gets free suits if he finds him somebody. So he fucking goes around the room all the time saying, hey, what's his name? Yeah, MC Hammer Pants. It went like this the jacket was like so uneven i'm like how the fuck do you do that do you have you blind yeah like he's brutal i looked like penny hardaway at his draft for my first few seasons in the nhl i was like there was there was like sleeves longer

than the other i'm like what am i wearing I wearing? They were like $1,700. I'm like, what's going on? Yeah, from the bottom of my crotch seam to my balls was about a foot, about 12 inch. I fucking looked like MC Hammer, fucking 10 button suit. What's your guy's name? Show it them out again. Dimitri?

Ready to go. The company called Icon Suit. All right. Check that out. Hey, do any of the old school guys in the locker room give all the young bucks a hard time about all that like do they do they rank your suits when you guys walk in the locker room pre-game uh yeah i mean guys yeah like we have pretty stylish guys even like the luchas are oldest guy right and he likes to dress up he

likes all this cowboy hats he likes this uh turtlenecks look 90 looks dangerous he's turban you know like he's he loves this shit he's he's our mentality russian mentality kind of so uh yeah no uh i feel like uh like it's it's it's it's from team by team you know like colorado we had lots of sharp guys over there you know in chicago they don't really care it was the guys wearing tracksuits because of the team rule like but like there's some teams going nuts like like i'm not gonna say the name but you guys probably see it he wears fucking pajama and the bucket hat to the games like it's not i think that's embarrassing and then and then they compare me to him. Hey, Z, can you do me a favor? On behalf of the Spit and Chicklets podcast,

can we buy a suit for Daryl and you get to pick whatever the material is? So go knock on his office tomorrow and be like, hey, the Chicklets boys want to buy you a suit and then give them the catalog to look through. No, I don't think – I think – I will take a pause. Hey, what do you do in the off seasons? Do you go back home to Moscow or what's your – because your wife's Russian.

I'm looking through your Instagram, right? I'm in South Florida. Oh, sick. Yeah, I'm building the house there. So that's going to be the main location. I remember Malkin. I think he has a place like Miami. A lot of Russians down there, huh?

Well, they're in Fisher Island. That's different. Yeah, that's the $100 million island. Yeah, that's different. You have to be a billionaire to be there. But a lot of Russians down there? Yeah, right now it is. Because, well, especially with the unstable, what's going on in our country.

So, like, some guys didn't go back because they don't want to go to army because some guys for sure don't have, like, the army ticket wherever it is, right? Like, I'm a long way past it, but still, like, there's military. They're bringing people back to military, so some guys were scared to go back, so there was lots of Russians this summer, definitely. Going back to the fashion for a second, is that something you were interested in as a kid

or something that came later in life as you got a little more success with hockey? Yeah, Gucci track suits. Yeah. That's the Russians. You guys talk about fashion, but I'm not that fashionable. I'm not like Matthews who does JQ matthews who does like jq stuff and everything like i just like nice suit that's all it all i care is about make sure you look good

when you walk to the game like outside like i have basic style you know like black white t-shirts like i wear some nike stuff like some lululemon stuff so nothing special i don't sit at the websites and order like new essentials i know all the brands but they can just i feel like for me it's just stupid i have two kids and a wife like come on guys like i'm not gonna fucking spend money on some shit but i'm gonna wear it and then that's my excuse for why i look like shit all the time i got two kids and a wife i got nobody to impress yeah you're American, so it's different. Wow, this guy, man. Man, I got a barrel.

I feel like the hats have been huge lately, all kinds of hats, with the cowboy hats. It seems like the last couple of years they've been extremely popular among the guys. Yeah, I respect that some guy's doing a good job with that. I think PK would be the first guy who brought it, I feel like, a few years ago. Yeah.

We live in Calgary. It's a cowboy town. So sometimes it's nice for Saturday night hockey. It's nice to wear a cowboy hat once a day. You mentioned Looch who's been on our show a bunch of times. I got the chance to skate with him in Boston before. Such a great guy.

Awesome teammate. Have you got the chance to like see him in Boston before. Such a great guy. Awesome teammate. Have you got the chance to, like, see that dude chug a beer yet? And how impressive is that? When he grabs the glass by his teeth? Oh, he does. Yeah, I definitely did see him. I saw him chug a glass of wine, full bottle. We were baiting him.

The full bottle fits in the glass, you know? Yeah, but it's uh yeah no we we have we have fun group you know like definitely like every like a team party we have like halloween party and there's a beer truck contest going on so last last um yeah so there's there's lots of fun going on not Not going to throw any gates under the bus. No, no, no, no. No, no. I mean, you guys, I would say that probably a little bit of a slow start compared to last year.

How do you feel things are progressing this season? Do you think the new guys are starting maybe to adapt more to Sutter and his philosophies? Because it seemed to work so well with the guys that were there last year. And there's still a lot of guys last year, some big new pieces yeah for sure i mean like i feel like it took us a little while you know like i feel like our goal tending was absolutely on fire last year and then this year we kind of they were we were struggling defensively like the goal against and uh we were giving up too many scoring chances at the start so i think

it's just it's definitely there's lots of on defensive shoulders and then like you said there we got a bunch of new guys that they need to adapt to like their assistant it took me last year like pretty much like 40 games to figure out how to play they're all how to play for him mentally physically and everything what he wants me to do so i the thing is, we're getting rolling. You know, like, I feel comfortable with the group we have. They'll play. So hopefully we just can grow every game. You played with Mackenzie Uyger a bit this year. How long did it take for you guys to kind of get on the same page as far as,

you know, being on the edge? Well, it's honestly, it's easy. He's an unbelievable player. Probably, you know, like, maybe the best partner I ever had in my life. Like, yeah, like,

it's just pleasure and it's easy to play when he's beside you because you just, you know what he's doing. You're expecting him to do those things and you can just

read off the place and it creates so many different opportunities on the ice when he's on it. So, I think, yeah,

like, he's a fantastic player. I'm glad we made that trade and we got to sign him. This has been awesome. We appreciate your time too. I know that so currently you're in Montreal and you're going out to dinner with the boys. You did let them know you were coming on,

but I mean, buddy, this is awesome. Is there anything that maybe we haven't asked you that you're expecting us to ask? We love hearing about the funny Russian stories and obviously we don't want to that you're expecting us to ask we we love hearing about the funny russian stories and i don't want to put you in a bad spot i was honestly like like when you texted me i was asking guys about like scoops on you guys okay here we go so like like there's the haney haney knows with and then Marky knows Witt. Marky told me a couple of funny stories about Witt for sure. When he – about your last year in San Antonio, you played with him, right?

Yeah, he's the best. You were going to get dealt to some contender and everything. No, I fucking did not. That is a fucking lie. Let me tell you something. Let the guest speak. Let the guest speak let the guest speak please and then marcus said he got traded through like the seven holes he only played seven holes and you're left on the uh golf course by yourself choke because you didn't get traded anyway yeah

i remember saying to him i just want to maybe get traded because I could get called up to the NHL because I knew I was done in North America. And then we're playing. We played all the time. Mark, he's got a great swing. And then his phone rings and he's like, I just got traded. I'm like, oh, my God. Fuck.

And he left me hanging. You had to play the rest of the round by yourself? Yeah, I was like crying, drinking. And he told me about your Indiana Colts bet. What? Indiana Colts? Yeah. Oh, I've had a lot of losing bets, but I'm imagining.

I don't even remember that one. I probably got killed. That's what you said on the game day. It's the thing. You were super choked choke whole game because indiana was losing oh yeah yeah yeah so we look no so i i had a huge bet i think i had like 7 500 on the colts and it was we had we had a five o'clock game in san antonio whatever the timing was we went out on the ice for the first period and they had like the lead and we came in after the first period

they'd blown the lead and they didn't cover and I was like fuck but we were winning we were up after the first period the rampage or whatever the fuck the name is of that team and everyone's like what's your problem I was like oh I just said the Colts didn't cover made a bad play there and open up the game put us on the wrong foot

during the fucking game you're screaming, you gotta ask him if he remembers when Tom Rowe, this lunatic coach we had, he called me. I got scratched down there and I've told the story on Chicklets, but you gotta bring it up to Marky. So I had to do warm-ups and after

warm-ups, I went in and shaved my face and I get a call like as the first period ends and it's Tom Rowe screaming into the phone, get down here and clean the first period ends and it's Tom Rose screaming into the phone get down here and clean the hair out of the sink after you shaved your face there's still hair in the sink I was like you know you're not in the NHL anymore when I gotta go down and wash the hair out of the sink I will say I'm a hair cleaning guy Yeah, as I said, you guys In the NHL, you just leave your hair in the sink

No, I mean, I think I did, I think I like put the water On it, maybe like all of it didn't go down You know how some of it goes down, then the water Goes down, then the stuff like levels Off, maybe that happened But I certainly didn't expect to get Called after being healthy, scratched the miners

To go fix my fucking hair sink. By the head coach, too. By the head coach, exactly. That is so good. Nikita. Now, before we get to the last question, it is brought to you by Chevy, of course. From Bolt to Blazer, Equinox to Silverado,

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I know you don't tweet too much anymore, but early on you were very funny on Twitter, had some good chirps at ESPN, but I saw you had a movie tweet. Someone asked what guys would you want in a movie you were casting. You had Leo DiCaprio, Morgan Freeman, and Clint Eastwood, so you must be a big American movie guy, no? Yeah, I used to watch lots of movies. With COVID, when COVID hit, I feel like everybody switched back to TV

shows and everything. You know, it's probably getting more popular. But yeah, no, like, I definitely like, I probably see lots and lots of movies. What's your favorite of the last five years, so say to speak? Five years, tough.

My favorite movie is Snatch. Oh, really? Yeah, Guy Ritchie. I don't even know what they're saying in that movie. Well, yeah, it's so, yeah, like, that's why it's unbelievable. Like, Brad Pitt, the way he played the, who are the gypsies, or I don't know how you call them, right? Like, yeah, like, it's just, yeah, all-time the best, I think.

Well, buddy, we can't thank you enough. This has been awesome. First Russian player, and yes. Keep up the good work, man. You've had a great, great couple years in Calgary, and I think the team's starting to turn around a little bit, so we appreciate you coming on and joining us. Yeah, well, thanks for having me, guys.

Appreciate it. Did you get any dirt on ra from the guys no okay well because you said you said you got a bunch of dirt on us before you came on i was wondering if anybody had i didn't have anything i think you're doing a good job fucking yourself up all the time so okay okay i think all of us have gotten chirp so that it's about time to end this interview well i mean you're you're lost hair because of us that's true i kind of exactly i didn't want to go hard at you okay but i was actually i was actually proud of you like were you still cheering for our team so oh buddy i'm i'm all in i actually think that this is the year slow start get all the

momentum in the second half of the season i don't even know if edmonton's gonna make playoffs this year and this is the reason we wanted to get you and i think we're gonna have tyson berry added to the same podcast we're trying to reignite the battle of alberta it's been a little lackluster so far this year yeah tice tice is, too. He's a great dude. I love him. He's the man. Alright, buddy. Appreciate it. Good luck. Thanks so much. Man, big thanks to Nikita for joining us. What an absolute

character. We've got to get some more of these Russians on if they're all this funny. Pretty funny guy, so we're going to be rooting for him the rest of the season. Absolute character. Alright, moving right along here. Congratulations to David Perron. He played in his 1,000th NHL game Saturday in Dallas, and he scored as well. He's the sixth active player to score in his 1,000th game. Pretty cool.

In his 16th season, he's the fourth member of the 07 draft class to hit 1,000 games, along with Patty Kane, Jake Ivorchuk, and Wayne Simmons. So congrats to Perron. You guys played with him. I know you met with him in St. Louis, right? A little training camp. A cup of coffee. Yeah.

He wasn't there then. Was he? I don't know. I already brought it up. I just kind of wanted to just, you know. Yeah, he's definitely changed things for the better for Detroit, though. He's been awesome on the power play. He's a prick.

Plays hard. Played a long time. I guess he was like I saw Alan Walsh's tweet, who's his agent, about he was a very, very late bloomer. Like, you know, at 14 years old, not even thought to be

much of a prospect and goes on to play a thousand games, wins the Stanley Cup and has had an amazing career. So congrats to him. Yeah, vital to that Stanley Cup win too. But yeah, definitely has aged like a fine wine. Still has a lot of game left. Thanks to our buddy Jeff,

who sent this one over late this afternoon. As far as Deadpool buying the Senators, it looks like the NHL wants to line up a buyer and then have Ryan Reynolds become part of the group. It's not so much that he's going to spearhead the group. What it says right here, Bettman and Daly are making it clear to anybody bidding to buy the Senators that they want Ryan Reynolds to be, quote, a minority partner. They want him to be the front-facing guy.

They figure after what he did with that, you know, soccer documentary he did when they bought the team. Wrexham Raiders? Wrexham, yeah. He has the means to do that. You know, he was initially going to align with whoever he could align with, but now basically the NHL is going to kind of gear it all together. And like Jeff said, he does not remember the NHL ever putting their thumb on the scale quite like this before.

Have you ever seen anything like this with a league favorite, one guy to get a team? I can't recall. I don't know why I called them the Wrexham Raiders. Maybe I was thinking of a different team, but it's the Wrexham. Wrexham. Oh, Wrexham? the Wexham football. Oh, Wrexham.

W is silent. I got a message from somebody that said, I got a scoop for you, Whit Dog. The lawsuit between Melnick and the Labretton development bid has been settled out of court. Should pave the way for new ownership

to move full steam ahead and the sins to finally move out of that hellscape in canada to a downtown rink i have no idea what any of that means but i'm reading a possible scoop that may or may not be real no no brainer not only with what he did with the soccer club but he owns that uh that company that where they produce all their own commercials so with the connection that he the connections that he has it's just going to amplify the entire nhl and bring more eyeballs to hockey so no and and if anything they probably should give him a sliver of it at no cost just for his association i mean if he wants to throw in a you 15, 20 of his own million, I mean, between him and Blake Lively,

they got to be worth at least 200, 250 now, if not more. They got the aviation gin, but he's got a lot of irons in the fire and a no-brainer for the NHL to want him on board. Yeah, he was initially going to align himself with one group, but the NHL said, hold off on that. They're going to see who's going to buy the team, and then they're basically going to bring

Reynolds into the mix. So the NHL must be big Deadpool fans. Either way, it'll be good for Otto to have a big guy like that, a very famous guy on the team, certainly better than we got right now, I'd say. Let's see. Ryan McDonough returned to Tampa for the first time since the trade that sent him to Nashville, and he got a hell of

a well-deserved tribute. Coop said, I don't know if there was a dry eye on the bench. That was one of the best tributes I've ever seen. And McDonough, he was broken up when he got traded. He said, I don't know if you ever really do get over it, the amount of success we had here, the runs we had. But that's the good thing is those relationships will stay there forever. And those memories will always be there. Ironically, he was on the IR.

So he wasn't even playing in the game. He was on the dad strip. But we'll go to you first. It was a former competitor of yours. I actually watched the video and said the same thing Cooper did before I read his quotes. It was probably one of the coolest welcome home videos I've ever seen. And mainly because that guy is such a truck, such a dominant player defensively, will also make an unreal plays offensively throughout his career,

but so reliable and so difficult to play against. And then he's sitting there injured with a swollen face and a black eye watching the video. So it made it, I don't know if that's what Cooper meant, but it just made it so relatable because that's who he was to all these Lightning fans who were standing there clapping. You could tell he's super emotional. Two Stanley Cups. You can hear the audio as he scored a couple big goals, like screaming with the guys in celebrations when they won the Asian Conference

against the Islanders, won nothing on that Yanni Gord goal. Just an unreal teammate and player. Anyone who I know who's played with him um in new york and tampa speaks of him so highly but just the fact that he played or plays the way he did he does and had the black eye for this like video he's watching in which he laid himself on the line over and over to win two stanley cups made it pretty cool for me to see that was pretty much perfectly said absolutely thanks. Thanks, man. Coming from you, that means a lot.

We also saw the return of the Gortons fishermen over the weekend. The Islanders brought back probably the most divisive jersey in team history. Brendan Burke, their play-by-play guy, had a nice little soliloquy before the game. It's about a minute long. I don't know if that's too long to air here. I'll repeat it, kind of. It was basically, folks, i know that many of you

despise this jersey it's disgusting and the team was pathetic bunch of losers while wearing it but it's been a long road to get here and it was actually awesome what he said but it was pretty funny to hear announcer talk about how much fans actually despise that jersey as the game's about to begin? Maybe not as the team's official jersey, but perfect situation for a reverse retro. Like that's the, or a third jersey, whatever you want to call it. Like that's the perfect jersey you want to put on there.

I think it's a beautiful jersey. No? I hated it back then, but now this one, my opinion changed. It is a pretty cool-looking jersey. I do like it. It's beautiful. It's a perfect placement for it. I think if they'd been good when wearing it, they were so bad with that jersey that it completely changes everyone's mind

in terms of thinking to the memories you have of that jersey being worn. You're like, we were the worst team in the league, so it crushes the jersey. If you just look at the jersey, I think it's pretty cool. Well, yeah, the silhouette of the face on the fisherman is Mike Milbury. That's probably why they hate it so much. But, hey, that's fucking ownership and management went that route.

But who cares? It's still a nice jersey. Well, I should have mentioned this a minute ago. We were talking about the Senators, but that was a late addition to the show uh thomas shabbat almost killed his uh defensive the fellow defenseman travis hammond oh my god friendly fire have you ever seen that a guy get hit that fucking had on the bench inadvertently like that yeah when uh slashed his coach in the face in

russia on purpose though or when uh oh my god who do we have on i'm drawing a blank when he had hammer oh ballard wit if you're on the bench and shabbat does that to you you're probably filing your retirement papers that next day i'm going on ltir the rest of my contract biz what if you did this to win at a Chicklets Cup? I would have gone directly to the airport and said, thanks a lot. Enjoy the meet and greet

tonight. I'm fucking out. Right to the dentist. I'd be on the new Mindsies podcast. If I... I'm not playing a Chicklets Cup because I'll get injured. Let alone if you're standing on the bench and your own teammates slashes you in the face yeah if Whit was

working the door at Chicklets Cup and Terry Ryan or Senior got him with one of those ones it would not be good it was pretty vicious you could see in his face how bad he felt afterward now I didn't see why he was so enraged.

Was he yelling at an official for a missed call? I don't know if it was a missed call. I also didn't see an angle where you could see the contact on Hamannik. I don't know if it got him in the half shield or in the mouth. He's like, enough with the grenades coming across the ice, right in the face. Kneepops, can you keep a pass flat? Top scene either way.

Hopefully he's doing all right. You can't eat more shrimp than R.A. No fucking way, baby. Matthew Schneider, NHLPA president, was on with our pals Cam and Strick, and he said the NHLPA and the NHL have talked about canceling the All-Star game. Obviously, the money being pumped into host cities is, you know, essential to those cities, but would the players really miss the all-star game, especially the older guys and would they replace it?

Biz, what's your take on all this potential no more all-star game? My take is, is I think that the NHL all-star game doesn't really have anything that excites the fans. The players are so banged up the day of the game and they're all going half speed and no one really gives a fuck and even when they even tried to entice them with money and make it three on three i just i don't get the appeal and i hate to be negative even the skills cop i don't think it has had anything quite like the dunk contest and even i want to say the

dunk contest has lost its want to say the dunk contest has lost its luster over the last couple years like they're not really getting any crazy viral moments that would attract kids they might be able to show me numbers on why i'm wrong i just i did i like going when we were in vegas and did i think vegas was a good landing spot. Yeah, it was a good time. But I think you invite the plugs, the fourth liners. Then you put some money on the line. You make it in Cabo, Cabo, Mexico, and you make it Mexican theme and you get the fucking – you know, like the – What are you talking about?

What do you mean what am I talking about? You got to – they do the Pro Bowl in Hawaii. Why do you think all the guys want to go the whole family comes yeah they don't bring the guys from the practice squad for the pro ball dude yeah but don't but the guys in the nhl aren't gonna get the stars ain't gonna give a shit you entice fourth liners who were making league minimum with like a million dollar bonus from the team hey put a little fucking tony yayo from mexico in the water bottles let him fucking go at it they'll be selling out every all-star game they could double up the ad prices fuck with the the board ads just do the all-star game in cabo guadalajara next year in guadalajara

mexico i don't even know what you could do like Like, yeah, when we were at the game, I remember being like, oh, my God. Remember during that game? How if we weren't betting the matchups, I would have fallen asleep. Yeah. No. If I wasn't having if I wasn't having ladies blow ecstasy up my asshole, the straw there, that game would not have been exciting. What's what's funny is that one of my favorite memories as a kid was when the game was in Boston I think 96 and um my dad brought me to the skills competition the night before and the game

Ray Bork scored the winner with about a minute left with a backhand I remember and it was it was crazy back then maybe they maybe I didn't realize how soft the guys were playing but it certainly didn't seem that way and the skills competition was amazing now I was probably 12 or 13 years old so that's at the time when you're just so into it maybe kids that age are still so into the all-star game but as I've gotten older it's definitely gotten more boring well okay so let's go to baseball they have the home run derby I think that that right now is gaining the most attention year over year from an all-star perspective that everybody's talking about it it's it's uh it's good for the viral clips it gets everybody engaged it's completely sold out everybody's

fucking waffled and watching it and instead of shitting on my mexico idea and growing the game uh you know south of the united States to an even bigger population. What would be your idea and where would you put the All-Star game in order to revamp it? I don't have an idea, but me having no idea, I think, is better than your idea of Guadalajara. All right. Yeah, Mexico. Get a mariachi band on the ice. Enjoying the guys.

Just give the guys the weekend off. Let them take a little fucking four or five day vacation or something. And then that's one revenue for the league, right? Quebec City could be cool if they did the all-star game in Quebec City. That could be a cool, cool idea. I just I think the guys would rather go to a warm climate and go be able. But is it about the guys, though? Isn't it about the fans

correct but you're trying to keep everybody happy in order to elevate the product that's what is not happening because i actually think they're they're giving owners a gift in terms of giving them the game like that's all it comes down to because they're they're giving the owners money when they give them the game they're basically saying here you go here's another couple gates for you for being a good owner if if we're if we're talking eliminate the nonsense of maybe moving it to guadalajara i would say with the board ads and the jersey ads they don't need the revenue that the all-star game generates and just give them the rest you keep the 82 games and and let the players get four or five days off to hit the reset button maybe maybe they book their flights a day before or two days before you have to be back

and that's mandatory because of z story but give them the three days at least rest. We'll see what happens with it. Guys and girls, before we go any further, I need to talk to you about Shopify. It's time to knock the new business idea out of the park with Shopify, the all-in-one commerce platform to start, run, and grow your own business. Forget the off-season work. Shopify makes it simple to sell to anyone from anywhere, whether you're selling warm-ups or wall hangers, it's time to start selling with Shopify and join

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We had a waiver claim today on Monday. The Seattle Kraken claimed Ely Tolvin an off waivers from Nashville. He was the Preds first round pick back in 2017. He had two goals, two assists in 13 games this year. Still only 23 years old. He has another year left at 1.45 million. Twenty-two teams passed him by before Seattle grabbed him.

Writer Sean Shapiro said that the Preds were internally confident he would clear waivers. But a lot of bad teams passed on this guy. He could have been a free asset. They could have potentially flipped. So I don't know what the deal with this guy is. He could have had him and maybe did something with him. But only Seattle grabbed him.

What do you guys think? Well, Biz, you're hot tonight. You can tell some Preds fans to suck it, right? Well, I remember, I don't know if it was two years ago, I wasn't critical. I just said, you know, they don't have many prospects, and I had a few of them jump down my throat about this. Tolvanen is how you say it?

I was like, hey like hey fuck sorry for not mentioning every fucking first rounder that you guys have drafted as prospects and guys who are going to all of a sudden be the next tage thompson uh but yeah so he's on waivers and i think that there was high hopes when they drafted him and what he was going to be able to accomplish i think that he did have good success at the american league level they thought that he did have good success at the American League level. They thought that he was going to be able to transfer that to the top. There was glimpses of it, but hey, maybe a fresh lens and definitely a team that lets it fly more offensively. Hines is more of a structured coach, so maybe a new place.

He flourishes, and I hope the best for him but for the for the the three nashville accounts that were down my throat hey you were wrong i was right i'm a genius you're an idiot i uh i think there's there's probably some sort of um what's the word i'm looking for here like seattle is having a ton of success from Daniel Sprong right now. And that's a guy who was picked, I think, second round by the Penguins. Penguins, yeah. And then he was with Anaheim and he was with Washington. And now he's really found a home in Seattle.

And maybe they look at it like, all right, well, this is another high pick. And the guy has a resume and stuff he's accomplished prior where we think maybe we could have another Daniel Sprung type player here. Tolvanen's shot's awesome, which so is Sprung's. So we'll see what happens because that's a good move by Seattle, I think, because they really have nothing to lose. Like Ari mentioned, it's a free prospect who, if you turn him around, great. And if not, you didn't lose anything in giving him a shot.

Yeah. Low risk, potentially high reward. Biz, you just called yourself a genius. Biz Stradamus nailed it again. Shane Wright, first game versus Montreal. Tucks won. How are you? That was impressive.

I think you said he was going to get two goals, but I am here. No, that was me. Ellie mentioned that it is Bistradamus. Ask away, R.A. What's the lottery number tonight? I do not know that I can give you some scratch and wins. Where does Patrick Kane get traded in Bistradamus? To the Arizona Coyotes for their playoff push.

They're the only competitive team with cap space. Oh, boy. Bistro Damas, I did say goal assist in 11 minutes. He had 11 minutes, the goal. Didn't have the assist. Had a couple other opportunities, though, G. So you were not far off with the two goal um the two goal call but uh great to see great to see him get his first and again to have seattle win that game against montreal would have been the the sweet it would have really really kept

with the petty theme going on this year but we just couldn't quite get there because seattle couldn't pull off the win but uh other than that um yeah good good uh it was a good little reboot in the american hockey league and now he's back going uh going at the the rate that they expected him to and he will be playing for canada in the world juniors we'll talk about that as we get closer uh the legends himself yarame yaga back on the ice this, suiting up for Kladno for the first time since April the 50-year-old future Hall of Fame had two assists, two shots on goal and 15-10 of ice time and a 7-3 loss I mean, all he's doing is just

extending the time he can get to the Hall of Fame because it has to be what three years after you play professionally and it's like he takes another nine months off, he's just like delaying the inevitable getting to the Hall of Fame Yeah, I guess like who cares though if you're going to get in Takes another nine months off. He's just delaying the inevitable of getting in the Hall of Fame. Yeah. Yeah. I guess who cares, though, if you're going to get in. I don't even understand why that's.

It should be like three years when you're done with the NHL. Yeah. Well, it's the Hockey Hall of Fame, so I'm assuming that's. Oh, yeah. They don't want to keep it NHL specific. We want to send congrats to our buddy. I was going to say he's going to be playing in that Quebec Fighting League in a couple years. Just taking anything he can get.

Just fucking chucking them with nasty moral. Him and Nasty Morassi and Bossy going on a three-way Chinese checkers punch in the face match. Hitting people with his ass. Congrats to our buddy kevin weeks

and his wife megan on kevin's latest scoop i love the way he did it act like he was a it was a trade but uh he was announcing the birth of his son princeton anthony weeks he joined the world on saturday seven pounds eight ounces and kev's his mom and baby are doing well so congrats to kev great guy and his first child and best of luck to them uh Not a boy. Weeksie going great. That's Weeksie. He's going to be doing. He's going to have like the baby feeders on like the man ones you put on breaking trades. Hopefully they got a night nurse. I never had one of them.

Jeez. Game changer. The World Cup with your area of expertise down to the final four. Croatia versus Argentina. Morocco versus France. Also a very sad story out of there this week. The soccer writer Grant Wall died at 48 while covering the game. I guess he hadn't been feeling well.

He collapsed during covering one of the games, and he ended up dying. Just a terribly sad story. But, Witt, what's your take on the Final Four here? Yeah, I was rooting for England. I had mentioned kind of wanted to see them versus possibly Argentina in the final four here uh yeah i was rooting for england i had mentioned um kind of wanted to see them versus possibly argentina in the final that would have been pretty cool um and watching the game england kind of dominated like they gave up the first goal and they were bad until then i

think around 10 minutes rest of the game they had so many chances england's a lot there are a lot like the maple leafs like they just can't get it done. And I felt bad for Harry Kane. I mean, the guy scored on a PK to tie the game one, one, they go down to one, they get another PK and he misses. Somebody actually mentioned that. I think it was a, they were waiting on the, like the VAR ruling, if it was going to be a penalty.

And it was like four and a half minutes before he took the kick, which, you know, just so much time to think. But the guy went up and missed the net. Worst part is you didn't even force the goalie to make a save. Completely missed the net. And England loses. So now I'm hoping for France to beat. I think they play Morocco and Argentina plays. Who do they play?

Croatia. Croatia. So I'm rooting for Messi versus Mbappe. If you want to look at the star power, I know by no means is this expertise, but as kind of a layman's soccer fan, is that the right term? I have no idea. I think Croatia and Morocco does not get the people going the way Argentina, France would in terms of Messi, who many people call the greatest player alive or

of all time playing for a World Cup or France repeating. So hopefully that's what the final is. But it was a great game. Some people hate soccer. I totally can kind of see why. I more get so amazed at how

famous these people are and how global the game is. It's like these people are so much bigger than any athlete in america and for me it like makes me appreciate it more because of the fans and how it's so like meaningful and do or die for them it's just it's just like more than a sport so i i was all into the quarterfinals, and I'm actually going down golfing with Jans for the next three days. I leave. I have a 5 a.m. flight tomorrow.

Come on. Where are you going? Nice. Down to Florida, Fort Lauderdale area. Oh, you're going to stay with him? Yeah, I'm going to stay with him. He fixes internet? I know, man.

The guy's internet. Jesus. um a couple other internet i know man the guy's internet jesus but i will be missing because i'll be on the course for the semi-finals on tuesday wednesday but i'll be uh catching into i think the final saturday or sunday i'll be watching you know what's turned me off of soccer uh listening to to messi and ronaldo fans argue online about who's better yeah it's kind of just like idiots although we did argue about the top five players for like 20 minutes in this episode. Yeah, but not like back and forth, back and forth, all day, every day, they're just going at each other.

It's fucking ridiculous. I think it's kind of the Ovechkin-Crosby where I think Messi, while scoring a lot, creates for others, whereas Ronaldo's more of just a goal scorer, like Ovi. But doesn't Messi also have more goals? Does he? I don't know. I'm asking. You're the soccer

expert. No, I'm not an expert. I'm not an expert. I'm hoping my 50-1 ticket from Croatia back in August cashes in. You have a better Croatia winning it? Back in August, I put it in. Yeah, 50-1. Ronaldo has more goals, too, just to clarify.

Okay. How many more? About, if my math's correct, like 25 more goals. Oh. Nothing crazy. Nothing crazy. Did you boys have any final things you wanted to share? Because I just had a final few words I wanted to say. Thank you

to Pasha for this wonderful doll. The new Yes, But a Brat. Yes, But a Brat. And I think that's pretty much it. Nothing really else caught my eye this week. I feel like I have something. I'm so disappointed. I can't remember.

In the news. That puppet. Oh, I think my dad. Yeah, my dad and buddy Yandel went on the hundredth episode of rink shrinks with our friends, Mike model and Brian Yandels to check that out. Some Dan Whitney, buddy Yandel action.

One last thing. We do have the big deal brewing tour. The tour we just went on. We have, we filmed a vlog of the whole thing. That's going to drop Wednesday at 6. PM. So tune into that.

It's a hilarious fall vlog. Find it on our youtube channel also on that same youtube channel spit and tricklets youtube check out all our social media the vlog for uh the carolina trip we i know we teased that last episode but we got that going and uh a future guest coming up in a few weeks here he will be in the sandbagger uh eric cole he's in that one he is a silly bastard folks uh he brought us these crazy eye drops have we talked about the eye drops yet the ones from japan what are the it's like rope what's the company you'll get you'll get more of a uh behind the scenes look

at what eye drops we're talking about in that vlog on our youtube channel he brings in these eye drops it basically it's like putting your eyes through like a washing machine. It's nuts. The first 10 seconds is a little bit wonky. You think that it's acid and it's burning your eyes, but after it's done, it is just a complete game changer, especially if you like the wakey-bakey RA.

You know. All right, guys, we like to have fun and keep it light on here, but I just want to share a few words about a special person from my neighborhood that we lost over the weekend. Mimi Wren was her name. She was a huge part of the Charlestown community for 57 years. We were blessed to have her. Most recently, the director of the Charlestown Community Center. Mimi always worked in service to others. She made sure kids had a clean and safe place to swim, play hoops. She volunteered at the local food bank to ensure less fortunate folks got what they needed.

She always helped out any residents that needed it regardless. She was also a devoted hockey mom to three great boys. So there's a lot of people hurting in this neck of the woods today because we lost a terrific woman who personified what it means to be a townie and be in service to others. So I just want to say to Paul, Paul, Patrick, Sean, Mimi's extended family and her many, many friends. I extend my most heartfelt condolences

for your tremendous loss. She was a terrific woman and I will be solely best. So I just want people to know about her. So take care of everyone and be kind to each other. So I know it's kind of sad at the end, but she was rich. Needed to be mentioned. I just wanted to leave her like that.

People like that keep a community together. She sounded pretty special. So I just want to take take a minute. No, it's tough. Let the world know about it because she was a special person. So, again, I know it's a little sad. No, but, you know, let's let the part of life in that. I just want everyone to know about it.

So, boys, we can finish up here and we'll see each other next week. Alright. Peace, guys.