Spittin Chiclets - Spittin' Chiclets Episode 420: Featuring Peter Forsberg

Episode Date: December 20, 2022

On Episode 420 of Spittin' Chiclets, the guys are joined by Peter Forsberg. The Hockey Hall of Famer joined the show (01:32:45) to discuss his career, his terrible injuries, winning the Stanley Cup/Gold Medal and tons more. But first, the guys open the show breaking down the craziest World Cup ever. The guys then dive into Biz vs Reaves on TNT, the Rangers, the NHL schedule and tons more. The guys wrap up the show talking NHL news from around the league and talk mental health.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 420 of Spittin' Chicklets, presented by Pink Whitney. From our friends at New Amsterdam Vodka here in the Barstool Sports Podcast family. Happy holidays to the Chicklets gang, whatever you may celebrate. We have a huge guest for christmas time for you you're gonna love it lots to talk about let's check in with the gang for us let's mix it up a little let's do reverse order ryan whitney the whip dog we got a lot of

soccer to get to but how was your week your weekend and whatnot excellent excellent week i mean ended off with maybe one of the craziest sporting days i can ever remember in terms of viewing some wild stuff went down on Sunday. My week prior was fantastic. I went down on a 545 a.m. flight on Tuesday to Fort Lauderdale with everyone knows Ned from the podcast and my buddy Shazi. We went down to see Keith Yandel. We all know Yans and he was nice enough to bring us to his golf course called Coral Ridge. It's in Fort Lauderdale-by-the-Sea, this beautiful course. It's surrounded by some really beautiful neighborhoods, just right in the middle of like a residential area.

We had a lot of fun playing there Tuesday. And he then took us to the Grove, Michael Jordan's paradise, golf paradise in Hope Sound, a little north, just past Jupiter. And it was just a time and a half. I mean, I also, when I say striped the golf ball around, I striped the golf ball. I was making putts. I will blame my caddy, Ben, who was just a fantastic guy at the Grove. I had four birdies, and I was, I think, even par with five holes to go. And all of a sudden from the clouds, he's like, hey, if you make five birdies, that's a big deal.

You know, you could then maybe bring me up on the podcast. And there was like three big time birdie holes coming down the stretch. I missed the putts on all of them. I said, thanks for the absolute mush there, Ben Dogg. But still a fantastic day. And then the following day we went, we met with our buddy Jovo and we played over at Adios and then flew home Thursday night. It was great. It was absolutely great.

Jovo is the man, maybe the most, just such a great guy. He only could play 11 holes with us. And then he took off. I believe he had to get home for something. And we buzzed around for like 27 more, just, just us four. Um, you know, not even with a member. So thank you very much to adios. What a great place that is. Uh, an all men's club. I don't know the town it's in, in Florida, but just, just a fantastic three-day getaway playing some golf. Um, the reason I was able to go on that is because earlier my wife had mentioned to me about a month earlier, she was going to go to New York city with some

friends. I said, Oh, okay. Can I go to florida like a couple weeks after that she said sure well she didn't go to new york but your boys still went down to florida so that's a win-win in terms of the uh husband wife agreements in terms of going away and and leaving one with the kids um now you owe two yeah oh i i know i owe 22 at minimum. But how pickled did Ned get on that trip? Not at all. We just had a couple of casuals at night after playing golf. It was really fun to just hang around the boys and see Keith. And what a life he's living in retirement right now. You know, he goes up to Toronto. He does the Sportsnet Monday nights.

Then he's done some TNT. I think he's doing one December 27th, right around that. 28th. Yeah, he's 28. So he's excited. And I believe that's actually the boston devils game that night so bruins devils which should be a pretty special matchup so he also just launched a hockey camp gotta give that a quick shot and he's launching a hockey camp with his brother brian part of the ring shrinks shout out ring shrinks mike motto and brian yandel they had my dad and buddy yandel on for their 100th episode so go give that a listen if you're interested in hearing um how us goofballs were raised and brought into this wonderful world of hockey.

So then Saturday night, we got together with about 14 or 15 couples. I think this is the fifth year in a row we've done a big kind of Christmas get together. You know, it's a bunch of us like lifelong friends. Our wives are really close. It's just a blast. One of those moments where you feel so... Key party? No, no. where you feel so pardon key party no no we stayed away from the key party this year that's the 10-year anniversary we're all

gonna switch each other's wives around it's gonna be a blast just a couple swap for christmas uh year 10 but it was one of those you know nights where you're just so thankful the turkey baster out of there holy shit okay yeah you've taken it far enough um i was trying to be very heartfelt and saying i was thankful for some wonderful friendships I've had my entire life in which I heard just in a hilarious, hilarious story. There was many flying around, but this one I'll quickly share and I won't say his name. He's got two girls and he they had a boy a little little little time ago. So wonderful help, healthy, happy family. And he doesn't make many of the appointments with the doctor,

you know, the 12 month checkup with the pediatrician. So finally, he went to the 18 month checkup and their oldest daughter was with them because she she wasn't feeling well. She was missing school or something. So the doctor comes in, the pediatrician comes in all friendly. And she says to his daughter, his older daughter has has your brother uh has he been learning some new things has he been learning things she goes yeah daddy taught him how to go get him beers from the fridge has he learned anything else so shout out my boy you know who you are one of my best friends teaching his uh his year-old son to go get him beers out of the fridge i said i hope they're big deal brewings um but yeah overall

just a fantastic week and this time of the year is just special uh we'll get into that a little bit later i think so it's great to talk to you guys and uh and be here ready to record because i have some amazing well i consider my thoughts amazing i'm sure many people listening don't necessarily agree with that but i have what i think are some amazing takes on just a wild sunday yeah well not only sunday but also some great hockey being played and fucking some some crazy wild card races especially in the eastern conference yeah the rangers fans right now you got me um you got me i had you a couple weeks ago right now you got me i'm openly and willing to admit that. But a long season.

A long season. We can get into that in a little bit. Yeah, I'll get to that in a little bit. Next up, Paul, Biz Nasty, BizNet, resting up. You're on the road again, man. You're home for a little bit. You were just doing TNT the night. We're going to get to that shortly.

Home for a stretch. And then, yeah, you're going to be in Buffalo this Friday for yet another big deal brewing draft tasting. Yeah, it was quite the eventful week. I've been sick as a dog. I think I got sick on that big deal brewing draft tasting. Yeah, it was quite the eventful week. I've been sick as a dog. I think I got sick on that big deal brewing trip when we went to Philly. Ended up ending it off in New Jersey. Oh, the trip where you had 500 beers in four nights?

That one? Ask Grinnelli. I was in bed by probably 1130 every night. Yeah, would I have a couple with the fans at the events pregame? Absolutely. But very responsible in my old age wit by making sure i'm in bed by at least 12 o'clock yeah you need your hours but this flu this flu this season like the cough it just doesn't leave you it just lingers and on top

of that i think from coughing so much i got this like infection in my nut i i was worried that i had buddy i thought i had testicular cancer my fucking nut is about as swollen as my fist right now so i ended up going to the coyotes game i had to do back-to-back coyotes game friday saturday where they played the islanders and then they ended up playing the saber so i had to double dip on the coyotes duties as well and all through kind of being at the end of the sickness and i was i was nervous i called my buddy peter franchen who i grew up playing with in saginaw who'd had testicular cancer and i was like hey what the fuck what's going on like how does it feel when you have it asking a bunch of questions he's like go see the doctor right away

luckily why are you calling me he over over uh facetime just say hey how's this look how's this swollen grapefruit? Show your wife. She must have saw it before. What's behind the Forsy? Roll back the Forsy. But luckily he told me it's just like some sort of infection. It might have had to do with getting the flu and all that coughing.

So, buddy, it's been a tough goal. But I got to watch a lot of live hockey. We had the Wednesday TNT broadcast, which was a blast with Revo, and I know we're going to get to that. But it was fun, man. It was fun getting to see not only the Islanders, but Tage Thompson live in action, man. This guy is a fucking beast.

24 goals in his last 24 games. So great to be at the Mullet Arena. No scraps in the stands this time so it was uh it was all very tame but everybody was in a festive mood it sucks though because i was working so much in the past week i was a little low on energy especially coming off the sickness that buddy i slept i didn't even get to watch the world cup we interviewed peter forsberg early in the morning earliest interview we've ever done at 7 a.m and then i went right back to bed and it was it was two nothing off the hop and i'm like okay not

big deal because i checked my uh my phone and then when i woke up they were at the end of penalty kicks and i'm like holy shit i must have missed something you missed uh something special it's always nice when the fans at m Mullet Arena get to leave with all their fingertips and stuff, so it's great we didn't have any more brawls. That's a win. But it was good getting back in the mix and watching the Desert Dogs. They're great at home. Great atmosphere, and they've been a treat

to watch, and they've been working their fucking bags off, so I'm hoping that they might lose more games in the back half of the season so we can get a stab at the top three picks coming up because you don't want to fall out of the top three because we've got three difference makers in this year's draft. I think there's four.

I think there's four. I think there is four. Okay. Well, every time we talk, we add a guy to the list. So I don't know where they're breeding these kids and in which lab and which country. But hey, as long as you get them in the top four. But Coyotes have never

had a higher draft pick than third overall so i'm hoping they got a horseshoe up their ash this year and uh and they can they can muster one up but it was all hockey focused in the last week for me guys nothing much exciting in my personal life other than having a a nut the size of a grapefruit so in terms of the nut did you see or talk to a doctor yeah dr liberto for the coyotes he ended up fondling it and he told me he goes no this is uh he goes this is pretty common and he put me on some antibiotics and uh yeah hopefully hopefully the swelling goes down and i get to enjoy the holidays with my folks jesus biz uh just to let the fans know in buffalo you're going to be at the draft room this fr from 5 to 7, correct? 5 to 7 o'clock, I'll be pouring beers.

It was where we ended up going for the Chicklets Cup event. Great, great atmosphere there. So everybody who wants to come before heading over to the Sabres game, I'm going over to the Sabres game with a bunch of friends. They are going to be playing the Tampa Bay Lightning. And I know they went on that seven or eight game slide not too long ago but the Sabres have picked it up and they're right outside of that wild card spot so it's good to see them playing meaningful games around the holidays and I'll be there to check out the the Tampa Bay Lightning and Tage Thompson and staff hearing from Sabres fans online I think what they're most happy

about is the fact that it's exciting hockey yeah they're winning games and they're like they're playing better and things like that but more than anything they're watching an exciting team so win or lose i don't think many fans expected you know a monster season in terms of the team's uh points total and standings wise but to see excitement and a lot of goals being scored i think that makes the fans happy enough to find they'd be watching some competitive hockey the most goals being scored their first in the nhl right now with 124 goals so definitely some very exciting hockey and uh and and on top of that um little secret i guess i'll let you guys know uh going over to rochester that afternoon before the event to go sample the next wave of uh of the next beer because there's gonna be plenty of samples to try for the next wave of the next beer,

because there's going to be plenty of samples to try for the next one that we're going to launch. Not exactly sure where it's going to come out. We're going to keep fine-tuning what the idea is, and hopefully by summertime we have a new big-deal brew for you guys on top of the original Golden Ale. So the Golden Ale will be on draft, and we'll be rocking it on on uh on friday the 23rd

before that game five to seven stop by i'll pour you a pint and we'll we'll kick things off in style right before the holidays so thank you to everybody who's been uh supporting the the big deal brew and uh we love you guys and make sure to pick up a 12 pack or our case for uh for your loved ones during the holidays absolutely had a few myself yesterday uh producer mikey granelli by the way great job on the on the roadie blog we did from the big deal brewing tour that we all you guys did the full monty i hit newick and philly but what you've been up to buddy how was your weekend uh my weekend was great uh granelli claws spent the weekend christmas shopping uh christmas is my absolute favorite time of year i'm a gift giver love giving gifts i actually hate receiving gifts. Unfortunately

for me, I always wait till the last minute to do my Christmas shopping. I don't know if that's the case for you guys. Have you guys finished up your Christmas shopping yet? As I started it. Are you, when it comes to relationships, are you more of a giver than receiver? Definitely more of a giver. 100%

more. We decided the... I think this is two years now. No gifts on Christmas. Me and the wifey. It's like, you know, you get stuff throughout the year. You need, you want. It's not about us giving each other gifts.

Now, she's never listened to an episode. So I think I'll end up getting her something. And hopefully, I'm sure definitely she won't get me anything. So at least I'll kind of win. And maybe here, you know, you had to have something. But I haven't even decided that for sure. By the way, I booked another golf trip, sweetie. I hope you enjoy that bracelet I got.

Well, she said sometimes she says, what do you want? You know, I'm turning 40 in February. What do you want? What do you want to say? Just allow me to go on golf trips. That's literally the only thing you should get a punch card. That was a little punch card for the year. Very true.

It's like, it's like our Ray, did you just ask if that was part of his prenup? I mean, no prenup in the Whitney relation in the, in the Whitney house. Thanks for bringing that up. All right.

It's not awkward or anything. No, you, you, you talked about on the show in the early days. Like you made it clear that, you know, golf was your passion. And that, you know, like, oh, yeah, we met when we met. I thought I thought he said prenup.

I'm sorry. I was exaggerating. Yeah. Yeah. No, no. Yeah. That's been made. That was made clear.

Our first date, our first date. So what was it? Oh, is in terms of the punch card. I actually don't mind that. And then when you get the 10th one punched, instead of getting like a free sub or a free coffee, that's the one I can take a private jet on. Right. Okay. Okay.

There you go. Now we're talking. Better be moving that pink Whitney, buddy. Well, fuck it. That's up to you. You're the workhorse. Yeah. Oh, all right.

Before we go any further, here's a few words from our friends at pink whitney gang it's that time of the year again holiday season lots of parties lots of holiday cheer make sure you head over to your local package store pick up some of that fine pink whitney the pink lemonade flavored vodka from new amsterdam unbelievable stuff gee i know you probably got 9 000 bottles in your shelf right now. Yes, I do. I actually got my Pink Whitney ugly sweater on right now. But I've mentioned it last pod and I mentioned it again. There is no better stocking stuffer than the Pink Whitney nips. I can't stress it enough.

I got three brothers every Christmas. You just drop a few of them in each of the stockings. And it's the gift that keeps on giving. All right. There you go, buddy. And if you don't want to go to the liquor store, if you'd like to venture solo, head over to your local bar, get a shot, maybe get a little club soda.

Either way, get that Pink Whitney at your local bar, and happy holidays from your friends at Spit and Chiplets. Well, boys, we're coming. R.A., what the hell have you been up to? Like you, Biz, I was under the weather a couple days last week. I fucking never get sick. Twice already this winter. Just whatever.

Bugs going around, whatever. I don't know if it was stripped throat. I was laid up for a couple of days, but I bounced back. I went down across the street to my favorite bottle. Warren Tavern for a little late night bite. He ran into some listeners. They invited me back for a nightcap. And like I said before, I'm in a non-smoking building.

4 a.m. later. No, I take a shit in their apartment. They off. They had a bong and they off. You know, I can't do bong hits in my house. you know, because I'm in a non-smoking building. I always appreciate a couple of bong rips. So, yeah, I met some listeners and then similar to what you said,

meeting old friends. A couple of weeks ago, a bunch of us were together and there was a drunken plan like, oh, let's all go down the tab in the week before Christmas and lo and behold, it all come true and like 50, 60 of our oldest friends get together yesterday. Just an awesome time. And I got a whole bunch of my friends on the Big Deal Brewing yesterday.

They all loved it. Not one person complained about it. And trust me, if they didn't, they'd tell me to my face. So, yeah, I had a couple of pups hung with some awesome friends yesterday and kind of get in that holiday spirit. I could be a little bit of a Grinch, a Scrooge and whatnot. But it's always good to see old friends, especially the older you get. And, you know, you kind of lose a few over the years. So you appreciate your friends and whatnot, the older you get for sure.

Can I make a quick point about Big Deal Brew? A lot of people have been asking me in New York and New Jersey, like, where can you find it? You need to call your liquor store or beer store, obviously, and request it because they're all individual stores. They're not chains in New York and New Jersey. So make sure to call your favorite store wherever you get your beer and request that they order big deal brew and order lots of it there's

also a finder on the website where you can you can see all the locations what's the website that they can go to to check that out you can go to big deal brewing.com to find that okay well that's pretty simple there you go it's it is funny how many people uh they'll they'll like tweet at you or whatever instead of just calling the fucking liquor store or asking the liquor store. It's like, I don't know, cut the middleman. I'll reach out to people. I don't think kids like call or young kids call the place,

find out what they have anymore. Do you get that perception, Biz? Why are you saying they have no social skills already? I guess at the end of the day, yeah. They're just less likely to go to the source instead of adding an extra layer in there. But whatever whatever works by the beer it's delicious the holidays are here and like i just said the winter classic and the live show just around the corner and we are going to be doing an appearance before the game january 2nd at game on g do we have a

time on that yet or is that tba it's tba right now we will post it on our social channels everywhere once it's official okay absolutely can't wait for't wait for that. I mean, Christmas next week, then a week after the live show, my first one, I can't fucking wait. But you boys have another sandbagger coming out this week. Eric Cole and Justin Williams, correct, down in Carolina? Oh, yeah. Big one. Big match.

All I can say is, wow, I watched it. I've been through it. And just because I can't really say much without giving things away but does wow kind of describe it to you i would say uh top three most competitive matches and going against a juggernaut justin williams him and ray whitney are the best golfers we've ever had and and sure enough a former teammate of his who won a stanley cup so we lost to the last group of guys who won Stanley Cups in Commodore and Ray Whitney. So now this is our rubber match against the Carolina Hurricanes on their home turf. I think Justin Williams lives on that golf course that we played.

And what's the name of the course? I think it was McGregor Downs. Beautiful track. I just saw actually the trailer that'll probably come out tomorrow that Pasha put together is pretty funny but yeah Justin Williams complete stick Eric Cole very funny we then have an interview dropping with him next week so you'll be able to kind of learn about him in terms of his personality and how funny he is and then our interview will drop after the the sandbag has been released so yeah I just I don't even know what to say i don't even know what to say you'll be

entertained and this is number 15 and we're going for six in a row we are going for six in a row we will see you wednesday night that's when it's dropping right on the spit and chicklets youtube channel 6 p.m eastern time make sure you subscribe and uh we'll be at a time we were five and four and things were like what's going on are we just that average and boom we shot up to 10 and four so i mean 11 and four or 10 and five either way we look pretty good but i'll tell you what the first one sounds a lot better to me tune in and you'll find out love it yeah wait can't wait i have no idea i don't like to ask i could be surprised myself uh what you already mentioned, crazy Sunday in sports.

I can't believe how many people in America, my boomer uncles, were texting me during the soccer game World Cup final. They're saying it was the best ever. Argentina beats France on penalty kicks. Insane game performances. Messi and Mbappe. This kid, he's already got the record for most goals in final, right? He's not even he turns 24 tomorrow, I think. Absolutely insane. The de facto soccer guy on the show so let's go to you first on this insane all right i i don't even really know what to say i i guess i can go over how amazing it was to watch that it was over the course of three hours and it was the most entertained or maybe the most entertained i've ever been watching a sporting

event i think i don't even really know what I could compare it to. The entire storyline of the GOAT, Lionel Messi, many people say he's the GOAT, whatever. It's an argument to be had. But he hasn't had a World Cup. It was kind of the final thing he needed to complete this resume in terms of being the greatest of all time against the young gun, the up-and-comer, the maybe future GOAT in Mbappe from France,

who already has a World Cup when he was, I think, 20 or 19 years old. They won the most recent one. So just the fact that FIFA was able to get lucky enough to have these two teams square off. I mean, you could have actually seen Morocco play Croatia. There might have been seven people in the United States watching. Instead, we have Messi versus Mbappe in this amazing game. And what happens?

They come out gunning. Mbappe gets a penalty game. And what happens? They come out gunning. Mbappe gets a penalty kick. He buries it. Won nothing. Shortly after, about 10 minutes. Now, the first half was domination. You mean to say Messi scored? I'm sorry.

I'm sorry. The M's really messed with me. The M's. Especially around Christmas time. No, Mbappe, you lost, bitch. But my father came over. He's a big soccer fan as well. So we wanted to watch the game together.

Never in a million years did I think it would turn out that way. Now, I was rooting for Argentina, partly because I think Messi, and now granted, I follow him on Instagram. I don't know anything. But in terms of famous GOAT-type athletes, and especially in the soccer world where it can be very flashy, it can be very dramatic. They show off their cars.

They show off their watches. He just seems like such a centered family guy. You look at his posts. You've never heard a bad word spoken about him. Now granted, I haven't heard many things, but just seems like a true salt of the earth winner who teammates and fans that like seem to love.

So he's going against it. he's trying to get the title. The first half they dominated. They had this guy, D Maria, just a freak with the ball. Now he hadn't started a game until the final. So he came in, he was the best player in the first half.

Argentina goes out to a two nothing lead. They score on the PK by messy. D Maria scores up one of the most beautiful passing plays I've ever seen to go up to nothing. That's when biz decided to go to sleep. And you looked like maybe this thing's going to be a runaway. I said to my father at the time, I said, oh, I don't want to be greedy. I want Argentina to win, but I want it to be a great game.

He said, I just want them to win. I don't mind if they get two more and they win four nothing. I just want them to win. Well, sure as shit, what happens? France ties this thing up with two late goals. Mbappe is such a freak. He's so fast. And I remember watching clips of the World Cup final against Croatia four years ago. I mean, he's doing things that I've never really seen be done in terms of speed with the ball, just

straight up gassing by defenders. But what does he do? He gets too late and they tie it up. Now, the second one, it's like, I think they have everything in order. And for me, my problem was, and I'm all over the place here. All right. Hop in. We only hop in.

I know you guys watch it. It seemed totally like Argentina. They got up to nothing. And it was just like any sport. If you sit back and play prevent defense, it never works out. Now I tweeted, why did they take out D Maria in like the 63rd minute?

Well, everyone said he's older. He hadn't started many games. He wasn't fit to play the whole 90 minutes. Well, never works out now i tweeted why did they take out d marie in like the 63rd minute well everyone said he's older he hadn't started many games he wasn't fit to play the whole 90 minutes well i i guess that that all these soccer people are telling me that's a no-brainer it's a good sub i'm kind of like this is the world cup oh i saw your tweet you're saying wouldn't this guy be running on adrenaline which i agree with you it's the finals you got the messy storyline everybody's trying to get it done for him and everything seemed to be going well.

So all of a sudden the sub and it seems like the feng shui gets thrown off. Yeah, and part of the sub is that, all right, well, he's not great defensively. He's older. He's not fit to play a full 90. So get him out. But it just led to the entire team sitting back.

And in the same sense that Argentina dominated the first half, it was complete opposite. The field was tilted or the pitch was tilted. Excuse me, you soccer, hard-o football fans. The pitch was tilted and they tie it up late. You're like, oh my God, I can't believe this is going to extra time. And as an Argentina fan since December 20th or December,

whatever it is, 16th, 2022, I'm like, well, they're done now in the final 30 minutes. They're already getting owned. Well, it seemed like Argentina was able to kind of change the tide a little bit, and they controlled the extra time real well. And Messi gets that goal on an amazing play. And I went nuts. I'm jumping around. I'm like, oh, my God.

Like, when in life does it end? I thought of Ray Bork in a sense. I don't know. Anyone else hop in? and and i went nuts i'm jumping around i'm like oh my god like when in life does it end i thought ray bork in a sense i don't know anyone else hop in like when does it end this way this is his last international game or last world cup game i think it was is this goat really gonna end it with a goal in the last minutes of extra time in a world cup final like just how a movie script would draw it up nope killian friggin mbappe he buries another penalty kick on a handball now i believe it hit hit the guy's elbow it's just crazy to see how quickly those soccer players are able to realize no that's a handball like boom right away the announcer knew and you knew mbappe

wasn't missing that right guys it was it was a no-brainer he He's a gamer. He's a legend. He completes the hat trick. I believe it was the second hat trick in the history of a World Cup final. And boom, we're off to PKs. Now, this is the issue where a lot of people who didn't enjoy the game, which I think it was few and far between, it is super frustrating to see an amazing contest in international sports end on a skills competition. I've said it long before about the olympic games

and iihf you saw czech republic winning a shootout when they beat russia with dominic hasik in in nagano nagano but what happens argentina gets it done and what was amazing to me is messy with the world watching the pressure not that he's feeling it when you're in the moment you're just doing what you do the fact he kicked that ball three miles an hour on the ground. I mean, what balls? What courage? What? Absolutely bigger than mine.

What? Oh, way bigger than your grapefruit. Not just cool, calm and collected to just slightly kick the thing in, knowing the goal he's guessing. And the biggest moment of all that I can't forget is that fucking save that the argentina goalie made a foot save yeah oh my god oh my god and for for so many people that will argue soccer is a shitty sport which whatever like if you think that no problem there's many people who do what made it so special for me is it's the passion involved and it's seeing the tears within the fans and the country explode and this means so much in the crowd this means so much more than any other sport to any other fan base it just to me

soccer is just a different thing it's the beautiful game they say and to see the videos of buenos aires going nuts i saw a video of a guy on a bike he's just recording his bike ride and then that final goal goes in on the pks and you just hear a city erupt and it was just so amazing to see one of the greatest athletes of all time and lionel messi end his career by winning the world cup and having his teammates carry him off on his shoulders the same way diego maradona had happened to him for argentina and overall like i don't remember a sporting event that ever really, I don't know, what's the word? Captivated? Delivered.

Captivated, like, the world? Yeah. Like I said, my crazy uncle Mitch, the ice cream man, you guys met him. He's like classic boom, oh, soccer, blah, blah, blah, bitches about it. He was texting me during the game, like, and when Messi scored, he's like, oh, wait a minute, they're still playing. I'm like, yeah, it's not sudden death OT. And he kept bitching about it, but he watched till the end.

And I think a lot of old guys and people who normally wouldn't watch, watch the game. And that run and gun, like in overtime, like those guys are out there for two hours already, and they're still going full speed. It was like watching the Lakers back in the 80s up and down. And that Mbappe, my limited soccer knowledge and viewing, whatever. I've never seen a guy go one on three with the footwork on this guy.

He's absolutely insane. He's only 23, too. He's only 23 years old with the footwork on this guy is absolutely he's only 23 too he's only 23 years old so much so much runway for this guy couple things uh four billion people watch the final that's insane numbers and agreed with you on the penalty kicks all the way up into the final i get why they got to save and preserve guys energy but hey it's the world cup final lay it all on the line you just got to go sudden death ot at that point even even if they do sudden death ot in the first 30 minute what would you call it like a like a half like it's 15 15 halves for like their extra time i love how they obviously don't make that sudden death because then you have the drama of the team still having the opportunity to tie it in which they did in this situation after the after

that maybe start peeling away guys where it goes to 10 on 10 9 9 verse 9 8 verse 8 but to end it fucking in the penalty kicks it's such a joke only the second world cup final that's ever ended in penalty kicks um i think italy was the one who lost in the penalty kick. It's such a joke. Only the second World Cup final that's ever ended in penalty kicks. I think Italy was the one who lost in the penalty kick final where the guy went over the net. Baggio back in 94. Was that the final? That was in the US.

I think that was the final. Well, what I do, what I do want to say for the people, and it's a valid argument in terms of the people who want it to be sudden death and the extra time. It almost creates a thing where a fluke goal isn't going to necessarily win it, right? If you get the fluke goal, you may hold on. But the fact that that's not over,

like you said, we were able to see Mbappe tie it up after that handball. Yeah, it's just like such an incredible thing to see a country care that much or, you know, multiple countries care that much and get it done and see a career wrap up that way. It was it was it was it was full blown. One of those stories that if you sent to a film executive, he's laughing at you. He's like, no, no, no, no. That's too unrealistic. So I don't like Ovi's goal chase right now, how everything just aligning. It's wild.

Ovi's goal chase right now how everything just aligning it's wild I know we're going to get to that in a little bit but he does have the opportunity to uh tie Gordie Howe's record against the Detroit Red Wings and that game is happening Monday night so we're recording Monday afternoon right now um I mean it's just been a a world one with this guy and a storybook a storybook style story if that makes any fucking sense, with this guy just pumping goals in left and right. And he ends up getting the hat-trick the other night in order to tie it. Just fucking insanity. Yeah, Biz, we'll get to a little bit more of that with Ovi in a second.

But my favorite highlight, Whit, might have been after the game when Salt Bae was on the field. Let's think about it. Well, you think if he plays an mls for the next three years there's a world cup in the states right there they come asking like parring at messi did you see the clip uh buddy reeks at bostel but wrote a blog about it like legit like parring at him and i'm a star fucker and i was offended i was like oh my god buddy like he just won the world cup like leave him alone he was like like claring at him like a like a 15 year old at the Beatles back in the day.

And like he, Messi just looked at him like literally walked away. It was like wicked embarrassing. I'll say this. I've never met Salpe. I don't know him personally. And I don't know anyone who knows Salpe. But what a fucking loser. That guy.

I'll tell you, he so he opened up a restaurant in Boston. Place sucks. Horrible restaurant. Oh, really? Just an awful vibe. Awful food. I haven't even been there. And I'm able to say awful vibe. food i haven't even been there and i'm

able to say awful vibe awful fool so salt bay got stuffed in a locker by messy right after he wins the world cup a fantastic ending to an awesome game and seeing salt bay getting crushed but then people are people are heated because later on he stayed on the field and he got a picture of him holding the world cup trophy and i guess i don't know if you if you didn't win it you're not supposed to hold it or something all right seven times yeah yeah we can't really speak on that we're being hypocrites from this yeah exactly point of view if we're talking about that suck it's all pay yeah well either way it was a tremendous event and everybody hopefully you enjoyed a great breakdown with holy shit i feel like i watched the game i didn't even need to watch it watching with my old man.

It was a blast. It was really awesome. I actually remember watching the France-Italy final with him when Zidane headbutted that guy. I want to say that was 0-2 maybe. But yeah, World Cup final just grabs me by the balls. And luckily it's not my grapefruit ball or business grapefruit ball. But the only unfortunate thing about Sunday was the New England Patriots.

What the hell was that? What is now the biggest blooper worst play in NFL history? We don't have to go into it, but we got to we got to get to that later. We got to see. Yeah, we'll do that in the back end. Fucking they'll be hanging up on us. This is just chomping at the bit. Well, we got some big topics.

I'm hungry for this pod right now. We got some very spicy topics in the national hockey league. I'm leaning away because I've had some tough takes lately, so I'm trying to steer away from the hockey because then I'm going to get, I'm going to get kind of, what do they call, embarrassed? Or what do they call it when you really, when you have a D-man and you're just abusing him all night? Ask Revo. Oh, that's a, is that where we're going to kick things off? Is that the segue? Gee, wow. You sound like Nate Revo. Oh, that's a wow. We're going to kick things off.

Is that right? Gee, wow. You sound like Nate over there. Yeah, Revo, man. He was all over the news this week. Absolute textbook hit. Dropped Detroit's Philip Roenick. I mean, he was looking the other way.

Even Derek Alon said, I think Philip would want that one back. Exposing himself. I talked to him quick there. He thought there was a penalty on the play. He was waiting for the goalie to come out. I know Reeves was not malicious. Now, a lot of people busy saying Reeves was fired up because your pregame interview got him a little fucking chippy, little pissy, whatever.

What do you got to say about that? The back and forth between me and my future opponent and rough and rowdy Ryan Reeves. I tell you what, though, he backed it up. I told him, I said, I'll ask you a question when you score your first of the season. That was a power, power move there, Biz. I saw that.

That might have been what really set him over the edge. I think the wires crossed. And my apologies to Philip Roenick and the Detroit Red Wings because he just got completely bundled. That was one of the biggest hits of the year. A lot of people saying that in the history of hockey, a lot of people saying that it was dirty. Fuck off. I'm so sick and tired of every time there's a lot of people saying that it was dirty. Fuck off. I'm so sick and tired of every time there's a big open ice hit that everybody wants.

Everybody's suspended. He was, he had his legs planted for probably a good two, three seconds, probably expecting Ronick to pick his head up and then maybe make a move or get rid of the thing. It was interesting to hear after the game that the explanation was, he assumed that there was a penalty being called but regardless that still makes you fair game considering you have

the puck on your stick maybe he thought revo was going to retreat because of that but back he's a big time retreat guy yeah sound so he ends up just cleaning his clock and i i when he makes direct contact with him his elbow is and, and as he goes through the hit, he does like push his arms out, but no way is that an illegal check. And even Derek Long stepped up and said that, you know, Hey, you gotta, you gotta, you gotta fucking take accountability for having your head up in the middle of the ice. And then even in that second period, he, first of all, he got them going, um, that, that whole lineup. And ever since that second period, first of all, he got them going, that whole lineup. And ever since that trade happened, you think sometimes like, oh, you're getting a tough guy,

a fourth-line guy for a fifth rounder. How much is that really going to shake things up? This Minnesota team looks alive. They got that locker room chemistry back. They look like they're having fun again, much like last season. Some much-added protection. Also, where Fol felino and greenway and those types of guys can just focus on playing hockey where now if anybody's gonna clutch and

grab capri soft you can have revo go respond and even in that second period he threw another monster hit so i take full accountability red wings fans for firing revo up pregame. But what in addition to the Minnesota Wild team that Revo's been. And then even later in the week there, he ended up coming out as Santa Claus during the pregame warm-up at home. So this guy is just a big bundle of joy right now. And I'm actually, I feel bad that I'm going to have to pump his eyes shut in the next rough and rowdy whenever he finally retires. Biz, for reference, let me play the audio of you on TNT

going back and forth with Revo. I'll ask a question when you get a goal. When you score your first goal of the year, Revo, that's when I'm going to start asking. No, ask it now. It's okay. No, I'd rather talk to this poinsettia. It's got more points than you this year. Wow.

Revo, don't take that. Are you stopping that from him? Don't take it. Come back? Oh, man. One guy at a time. I can't hear. Everybody's just yelling.

What are you saying? Ask your question. Revo, it's okay to say that I jammed you up on live TV. You're on a loss for words for the first time in your career. I didn't hear what you said. Ask the question again. No, I said I would have asked you a question, but when you score your first goal,

that's when I'll start asking you questions on the broadcast. Oh, man. You know what, Ben? You've been out of the league for so long, I don't even remember who you are anymore. All I know is you're just a commentator that used to be some AHL plug. Like, what are we talking about here? That's true. I was an AHL plug. I was a plug at all levels. Respect that.

But hey, can you promise us a goal tonight because of your TNT performance? You've got to get one. I am hot on TNT, so you know me. I can't guarantee anything, but I'm going to work real hard for you, Biz. Don't let him sweeten you. We know that when you retire, you want to put the gloves on and throw down. Listen, you can start training right now. You have two, three, four years max,

and then I'll take six months, and I'm ready for you. Revo, escrow's still high. Don't beat too many pucks into a square tonight, buddy. Oh, come on now. Who are you talking to? Who are you talking to right now? I'm a Draft PC. I'm allowed to say this type of stuff.

He's feeling really good about himself right now. Revo, it's not my paper. It'll be one second. You know what's funny? You're really tough sitting in, where are you right now, Atlanta? You're real tough a couple states away. Get back on the ice and then we'll talk. Alright, buddy.

Revo, just tell them the Wilds, 6-3 since you've gotten there. That's right. 6-3 since you've gotten there, man. We're looking for a big game tonight from you. I appreciate it. Alright. I got you. Don't worry. I a big game tonight from you. I appreciate it. All right. I got you. Don't worry. I got you.

All right, guys. I love your people. You know that. I love you guys all. You know what you're getting into, right? He's what? With this boxing. You know what you're getting into. Yeah, he called me out.

We're trying to drive up the pay-per-view prices, so that's what I'm doing here. But here it is. Oh, the dragon punch. That's where I took him down. But on a serious note. He's going to hit back. Yes.

He hit you hard after the no goals comment. You know, you could tell then he's like, oh, my God, you goofy motherfucker with a big ass green ball. Shut your mouth. But he also, not only did he come as Santa and have the Santa beard on and warm ups, he had Kaprizov come as an elf. So he did. They walked in together. Just a classic old. not only did he come as Santa and have the Santa beard on and warmups, he had Kaprizov come as an elf. So he did. They walked in together. Just a classic old,

let's change around Minnesota season by Revo coming in. And that, that you're right, biz has perfect breakdown. They're buzzing around. They look really good right now. Zuccarello has kind of just taken over, right? He had a four point game this week,

but before getting to some of the other guys, the cherry on top though, was when he had the empty net against Detroit. And I was tripping about not having a goal this season. And cherry on top, though, was when he had the empty net against Detroit, and I was chirping about not having a goal this season. And, buddy, the sea had parted. Moses had parted the sea. Like, what is it, Ten Commandments?

He had the whole fucking lane, and he ends up hitting the side of the net. So I ended up sending out a tweet like, holy shit, how the fuck do you miss that one, Revo? But as far as the team's concerned, you said it.

Very top-heavy in scoring right now. Zuccarello and the chemistry that he has with Kaprizov. I mean, you could put anybody in the middle of the ice on that line, and they're going to be all right. But definitely going to need some more secondary scoring as the season wears on. Greenway only with one tuck right now. Foligno's got three.

Hartman's been out of the lineup, but his production was not there compared to last year where he had 34. So they're just going to need to pick up the offense a little bit. But other than that, it seems like they're heading in the right direction. I don't really have much else on the wild. Besides, it's good to see one of the best home ice atmospheres in the league finally really start to get going.

Yeah, Revo's been huge. We got to give kudos to Ben Sherrod as well for jumping in there for his teammate. Now, Revo's the toughest guy in the league, and he stepped up and backed up his boy. So we want to give him props for that. Actually, last thing quick, I was almost impressed with how little people I saw online saying it was dirty. I know you said there was a bunch of biz, but I actually thought for every hit now it goes bananas. I thought even people who might say it was a dirty hit could admit, all right, well, that's just something you got to pick your head up

and take a look. You're looking backwards. Just know who's on the ice and when they're on the ice. Another point that we ended up bringing up on the panel was lack of toughness for certain teams and where it can really hurt you where listen ronick gets lit up there and it's his own fault but the fact that there's not really a response from the red wings at that point to me the game was lost they got their shit pushed in revo was

able to do whatever the hell he want obviously eventually it got to the point in the second period when he threw that second monster hit where charlot was like all right i guess i'll have to fucking do something but when it comes to toughness and team toughness um i i still think it's such an important part of the game that we saw for a window of time more and more teams get away from i think the trend is going back the other way i mean look at some of these up-and-comers too i mean i don't know if we're going to get into the wi-fi conversation but montreal montreal looks like a better team with him in the lineup and a lot more you know a lot more confident where their young guys can just roam freely where they know if somebody takes a run at them that he's going to end up answering the bell so detroit's one of those teams since darren mccarty they haven't really had a guy and another one that we're going to get to in a bit was um

you know barkov ended up going down because of a little run in with Heischer. Do I think it was dirty by any means? Absolutely not. But Florida, after that, came and responded and was taking runs at Heischer. Who do they have really besides Miles Woods? No one. So it's interesting, man. I think that I think that's five in a row.

They've lost five in a row, Biz. They've lost five in a row, and I know we're hopping around quite a bit, but I really wanted to get to that team toughness element, and Minnesota's definitely one that has it. Yeah, Revo, huge effect. The Wildwood, five in a row, a 9 of 11 to climb back into the top three in the Central. Kaprizov hit 200 points in 167 games played.

The 23rd player in NHL history to hit those numbers, 200 points within 167 games or fewer. The fourth fastest among active guys. The other three, Sid, Ovi, and Gino. So that's a pretty elite company. And then to go back to the fight and stuff is Saturday night, Saturday we had the big rig versus Wi-Fi. I got to give it to Wi-Fi on points.

And you got to ask, is this kid a top three fighter in the league right now i'm devastated because minnesota has already played both games against montreal and so revo was not there at the time and new york rangers in january were set to play montreal twice i thought that we were going to have a heavyweight style belt between Revo and Wi-Fi. This kid is so young and hungry and he is chomping at the bit. He reminds me of a McDermott McDermott. Like I play with McDermott in the, in the a, I never saw anybody hungrier than that guy for fights. And it seems like Wi-Fi has that same, that same mentality night in and night out. If there's anybody who's challenging, there's not a chicken dicks chance that he's saying

no, even in a situation where they have the lead, he doesn't give a fuck. You saw him in training camp. Come on the scene. Uh, you saw him earlier in the season when they played the coyotes that, that fight with Zach Cassian. I think that that's where he really jumped up another notch and made a name for himself. And I love Patty Maroon, but yeah, he, he got his, he got his shit another notch and made a name for himself and i love patty maroon but yeah he he got his he got his shit pushed in in that one and this wi-fi it's hard to put him top

three because you you haven't really seen him scrap mcdermid uh you haven't seen him deloria yet but there i would that martin right yeah i would confidently say that he is in the top five. And I would pay. Hey, maybe I'll put my seat aside on the rough and rowdy thing, and maybe we can get Wi-Fi and Revo in the ring, because that would be an electric ticket. Look at Grinelli smiling ear to ear right now. I want to see you in the ring. You and Revo, I realistically think,

could be the biggest rough and round of all time. It will be. With what's happened in the past, and it will be round three, it's like that is a full-blown must-watch event when it goes down. It has to be in Vegas or at a bigger venue than, like, no disrespect to Providence, but, you know, I think we're going to West Bank, or Wheeling, West Virginia.

I'm coming home. I'm coming home. I'm coming home. But back to Wi-Fi. PMT has embraced him and took him in as their own. So we're basically the second podcast who's jock sniffing Wi-Fi right now and his come up in the National Hockey League. Shout out to PMT. Well, good shit to see some fighting back.

This is always going to be a part of the NHL, Bissell. We love to see it. 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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They're a combo of the DHM Detox and Hydration Replenisher. They are the only recovery products worth using because they work so damn well together. That's right, folks. DHM Detox. No days wasted. Check them out. products worth using because they work so damn well together that's right folks dhm detox no days wasted check them out and we're going to hammer you with a biz 30 promo code for 30 off at no days wasted.co not.com no days wasted.co for no days wasted after drinking moving on to another subject our boy hazy he got scratched from torts Saturday. His home loss to the Rangers. He had benched him in the third period of the previous game.

He's got 29 points in 31 games. Whit, you had a tweet about it. You were wondering why he scratched him. Our buddy KY Yandel, he had a big Instagram video about it, and they asked torts about it. He said, it's kind of a big picture in my mind as far as the team concept. I'll put it to you this way. I can't keep looking by things just because we're worried about scoring. I've got to look at the big picture of what this team is going to be,

what the standard is of how we have to play. That far away is losing some offense in a particular game. I'll give you that. He says he has standards. He holds every player to, and there's no disconnect as far as he's concerned. And then Hayes said, I don't think I should have been benched, but he's the coach. I'm the player.

But obviously, I know your buddy, and I know you had some strong takes on it. So let's go to you first. Well, first, shout out Keith Yandel saying that coaches should be able to be healthy scratch. No, no. I got a kick out of that one. Whit, let me play that audio. Let me play that audio of Keith saying that here. Okay, so today I woke up this morning to a little bit of some disheartening news

that Kevin Hayes won't be playing tonight for the Philadelphia Flyers. And just one of those things I can't really wrap my head around, a guy that's leading the team in scoring. You know, having played there, I know what he means to that locker room, the leadership that he brings, the enthusiasm that he brings. It's hard for me to realize that a guy like that won't be playing in a game because maybe a coach wants to get his point across, which is hard for me to see what the point is right now.

Just even watching some of their games this year, it almost seems like they're being outcoached in a lot of those games, that they're games that they could have won and, you know, maybe a decision that the coaches make where it costs them a game. So, you know, you talk about accountability and, you know, being there for the team. I think it's one of those things that, you know,

is it time maybe a coach gets healthy scratch where, you know, the responsibility is brought upon himself. All right. So right there you see now Keith and Kevin, they're best friends. Right. So I understand 100 percent. And and yeah, like people come at me, you're biased. It's your friend. OK, yes. you're biased. It's your friend. Okay. Yes. Well, also I could put the friendship aside. And as I tweeted, has the leading score of a team who can't score goals ever been a healthy scratch? And I'm not talking like leading score through three games. I'm talking like up to the middle of December, a point per game player who's scratched by his head coach. Orts' act is so old to me where I'll put it this way. When, when he became the coach of Philly this summer, I immediately said,

well, he's going to hate hazy. And, and it's one of those things where he picks a guy, he picks a guy who's really big, doesn't fight and makes a lot of money. And he decides I'm going to torture him. And you can say all you want about maybe defensively. Some fans

don't think Kevin Hayes is doing the job right now. Well, I mean, he's scoring. You can't score. And when he says he doesn't want to, you know, it doesn't matter who the player is. There's stuff he's not willing to look past. I guarantee you, if you've watched every Flyers game this year, it's no different than any other guy. At he's producing points and the problem with torts is like once he gets a thought in his mind there's just no there's no way around it like i'm telling you right now like no matter what kevin hayes does sports in his head is watching every shift and the first time he maybe turns away from the defenseman in the incorrect direction and towards his mind there it is it starts over again he him down. He sat him down for the whole third period of the game before,

and then he decided to scratch him. It's like it just doesn't make sense. And when you go through the same thing over and over and over, you just start to wonder, like, when does the message get old? And my other thought on the fact is like, all right, well, let's look in towards his mind. Let's look at a guy who's considered a leader and probably everyone's favorite teammate in the locker room. And I hate the culture here.

Let's go after him. And he's going to be the guy that I bring down to basically tell everyone else. I hate what's going on here. And this guy's going to be the one to pay. So it's just crazy to me that like, you're able to look at certain deficiencies in a guy's game. Yes. Like who doesn't have them besides a select few in the league and decide that even though he's producing and your team once again can't score goals we're gonna sit him down just because my ego is so big that i don't really give

a fuck i just want to prove my point and not worry at all about the wins or losses and flyers fans like i feel like some of them are like oh it's good Kevin he's not he's not playing the way he should be it's like all right man yeah I guess defensive nobody is what nobody is I mean because because like the easy way to go is like plus minus right he's minus 12 but he also has the toughest matchups night in night out and the team is just overall not very good so you talk about like okay, okay, well, what's the standard? Who is he comparing it to? Where you look at a guy like, I love Travis Konecti. I would probably say he's their most complete player offensively and defensively. Or Tate's him too.

Right. So he's minus 14, right? So he's been on for a lot of goals against as well, if you want to talk about the defensive side. We both know Tony D'Angelo, who's minus 18 as well. He's offensive-minded. Well, he's got one of the worst plus-, who's minus 18 as well. He's offensive-minded. Well, he's got one of the worst plus-minus on the team as well. So is there going to be those guys getting healthy scratch?

But as you said it, it seemed like right from the get-go, Hazy was the easy target and the guy to go after. And maybe the reason that is is because I feel like he's the ring leader where guys in the locker room love him. They love being around them. Um, some of the torts is comments with does like, does it reek of like,

maybe like a, a buyout situation where, where, where he's trying to basically say that, that the way that this guy's leading and the, and the way that the young guys look up to him is we don't want this around here because am I saying that he's responsible as other guys around the league at in top lines on both sides of the puck no sometimes you need to

sacrifice a little bit defensively to make plays offensively and you need to add a little score and especially when your team can't score when we say the team can't score guys there's only two teams in the league who score less than them and that's the nashville predators and the chicago blackhawks basically the chicago rockford ice hogs because they're fucking brutal so let's even take them out of the equation so it just it it seems like a deflection on where it's like instead of playing these mind games if he maybe focused more on x's and o's and and working with his players in order to get more out of them that it seems like that energy would be better suited spent in that area as opposed to maybe making the group a little bit more divisive and and no like it's always being it's always

being covered as like uh doing what's best for the team and setting the example where he's the only way that you guys are generating night in and night out and that's proven by the offensive numbers so if you're not happy with a few of the back checks I mean there's probably other guys around the team that you could say well how about the fact that they can't make a fucking play out there and produce any type of numbers so it's just it's a little wacky me. I know it sounds like we're being biased because we're sticking up for our buddies. I just don't know a situation, like you said, where a team is health bombing their top offensive player

in this type of situation throughout how many games through the year. And there's also other guys who could probably be health bombed opposed to him who have been worse defensively. So where is that example being set it's torts 101 and if you want to tell me that it's like best for what the team needs or best for the team yeah if you want to get the first overall pick it is but don't forget this is a guy who benched marion gabarik because he didn't block shots i i hate to be the one to say it, and I'll also say this. John Tortorella's had a lot more success in the NHL than I ever had.

He won a Stanley Cup. But you cannot treat every single player the same. Maybe in high school hockey, maybe in junior and college hockey, it doesn't work that way. And so, like, when you just look at a guy who can produce points and your team can't score, to health scratch and health bomb a guy who can actually maybe get you a couple goals or a couple points on a night you're looking to win a game, that's not the dude you scratch.

And, of course, they go out and they lose. It's just – That was my other theory, Whit, is they're not being shit enough to potentially get a top three to four pick. So maybe they need to find other ways in order to be worse because you don't want to be that team to finish eighth or ninth from the bottom and then not get a good draft picked in order to advance the organization. That was my other theory is them playing chestnut checkers and using Hazy as the scapegoat. But just from Torts' comment, I guess it reeked of them maybe looking towards a buyout.

And we're going to see how things progress in the second half of the season between this relationship. But it seems like Hazy's taken the high road on it. He said he didn't agree with the healthy scratch, but he's a player and torts as a coach. So that's about that. Wait, is it fair to say, though, it's business, not personal, to paraphrase the Godfather line?

In other words, he's not doing it to pick on Kevin, but maybe use Kevin as an example to the rest of the team. Well, if I'm going to do it to this guy, then it could happen to any of us. Is that a possibility? That's a possibility. I'm not willing to say it's not personal with him sometimes. Okay. All right.

And that's an opinion I have. He could say that idiot's full of shit. He doesn't know what he's talking about. I've heard that many times before. But it certainly seems to be personal, right? He goes in every team he goes to. He picks a guy or two that he hates. And it's always a guy who isn't super physical and makes a lot of money.

So put it any way you want. Okay. I just want to present another side out of the fly. No, no, no, no, no. Meanwhile, haven't won back-to-back games since early November. And they just announced Cam Atkinson is going to undergo neck surgery. You're going to miss the rest of the season. So I'll say this flyers fans deserve better, but Comcast,

they don't deserve Conor, but that I know they're not that low yet, but like the fans, I feel bad for the fans. Cause you know, people pick on him, but we love the Philly fans, but Comcast, they don't deserve Conor, but I know they're not that low yet, but the fans, I feel bad for the fans because people pick on them, but we love the Philly fans, but Comcast, their owners, man, they don't deserve to get a generational player right now. Screw Comcast, but moving right along, Ovechkin, Biz, we already mentioned he got his 800th goal on a

hat-trick Tuesday in Chicago. Awesome moment, man. Chicago fans, they really appreciate it. That was pretty cool to see. They haven't had a lot to cheer for this year, but it was nice to see them acknowledge because we've seen other events like Bergeron's getting a thousand point. Fans in Tampa were clueless. They didn't even know what was going on. So it was pretty cool for Chicago fans to acknowledge it,

to be cognizant of what was going on. Ovi's the first guy to do it with a single franchise. Also his 20th goal of the season, giving him 18 straight years with at least 20 goals. How's got the record with 22. Shani's got 19. His 162nd multi-goal game, second only to Gretzky's 189. And it was his 136th game opening goal, breaking a tie with Jaguars.

So we're lucky to see this, boys. It's been, what, 29 years since Gretzky did it, and Gordie Howe did it back in 1980. So it's history. Enjoy it, and it's good stuff. All right. The next thing. Conor McDavid, not happy with the NHL rulings. Pretty much an NHL fan

this year like everybody else. Leon Dreisaitl thought he got an OT game winner versus St. Louis this week. It was overturned. They said McDavid was allegedly offside. The Oilers go on to lose in a shootout after giving up a shorthanded goal to Tarasenko. 20 seconds left. Binnington on the the bench this game was unbelievable if you caught it but the play I mean go to you first business was he offside I mean how did they say he was offside I

so so the after review and we're going to get to that they it it was like based on the ruling in the rule book to the naked eye nobody nobody at home could figure it out. Um, originally, and then it was being compared to the kale McCarr one against the Edmonton Oilers last year in playoff, where it was more of a tag up rule situation. My whole just thought on all this,

the fucking review, the offside review. I am so sick and tired of this offside review. And then you hear him chime in and after the game, we're like, it's like the rules aren't specific enough to determine what the fuck is going on out here. So everybody being like, oh, well, he's wrong. I don't care. Regardless, I just care about the time in which these games are being delayed, not only with these reviews, but TV timeouts, it's making games. It's making NHL games, like going to watch an NFL game live. Like I like watching the NFL on TV

because like after the play is done, you get to see a couple of replays. And then all of a sudden you're off, off and running to the next one, but going to watch live is a fucking nightmare with that's, that's my only takeaway from this is the fact that, okay, yeah, maybe they got it right. But to the naked eye and for how close it was, is it really worth slowing the game down and stretching these games out three hours long and fucking fans are twiddling their thumbs up? And most times in the building, people aren't even getting the review either.

Like they don't get to see any of it yeah they won't put it up there they won't put it up for the so so the refs aren't getting booed or or whatnot for whatever reason but it just it's making the product shittier in my opinion yeah i'm with you and and mcdavid makes a good point in terms of the confusion on offsides on goalie interference on kicking the puck and all these different things in terms of you watch it and you're like, I don't know. I don't know. For me, the most confusing is goaltender interference. That's the one when I look at reviews, when they are reviewing it, I have no clue. I honestly can't really tell you which way it's going to end up going. I guess

usually it's dependent on what the call on the ice was, But that's that McDavid offsides to take away an OT winner on that call because he's not touching the puck. He doesn't have possession. It's not like O'Reilly hit the puck. O'Reilly never even touched the thing. Exactly. It's like if O'Reilly gets a stick on it, all right, then it makes a little bit more sense.

But like, if you're telling me of all people, Connor McDavid didn't know exactly where the puck was and didn't have possession. That's when you just look at a replay like that after seeing this fast-paced awesome play for an overtime winner go down and get called back on that review it's like yeah what are we doing here and and so the confusion for me still number one is goaltender interference but the offsides thing i thought right right back to my car i know being a tag up that was the main difference but the whole possession and and puck not over the over the offensive blue line but your feet are over the offensive line but if you have the puck it's fine it's just like holy shit people think soccer offsides is confusing i mean what's going on here

so i understood the frustration and you can't think the league is thrilled to have one of the greatest players ever in Connor McDavid basically calling out the league in terms of as a player saying, we don't even know what the rules are. So hopefully they can get it fixed. But this also solid point in terms of it just adds time to the game. It adds time for fans sitting around. While also, if they're checking on their phone at the game, they still don't know. Nobody other than maybe the guy, St louis's video guy in the room who probably you know got to one of the assistant coaches in the earpiece and said hey we're going to challenge us i think the league

did that i think the league did that the league flagged it down i think so okay well most of the time it's the video coach who does it but to the naked eye nobody's saying a fucking thing and you have the biggest superstar on the planet scoring an ot winner come on man what are we doing here and all right it goes to a bigger point too and i'll throw it over to you for the the the other chatter yeah i'll get to that in one sec i was gonna say this these calls like they have the like building to building consistency of like the fucking tsa like every every time you go to an airport the the rules are different. That's, like, the same thing.

Like, every, whether it's goaltender interference, the fucking, everything's different. There's no consistency. It always comes back to R.A. getting searched at the airport. Right. It always comes back. When he actually had drugs on him and he was still upset to be getting searched, that one. Yeah, I might be getting off the custom list, but I can't say more about that. But, hey, McDavid, first to 50 points last week, first to 60 points this week,

62 points in 32 games. But anyways, Biz, Vegas last week, this was via Dave Goucher, who used to be the terrific radio guy here in Boston. I don't know how we didn't keep him for TV. But alas, he tweeted, not a single commercial break in the third period tonight. Fastest game of the season for Vegas, two hours, 13 minutes. Now, I was like wait a minute how how they not have a tv timeout I went looked up the box who are there were 10 face-offs

three goals no penalties there were no reviews to kill the flow but but you can't go to a commercial after a goal or icing and the tv timeouts after 14 10 and the six minute marks but I was like I was still trying to do the math in my head I'm like I can't believe that I mean there was so much flow obviously that was the reason but I've never seen that was still trying to do the math in my head. I'm like, I can't believe that. I mean, there was so much flow. Obviously that was the reason, but I've never seen that at no TV time on the third. What are we going to say? What?

Well, I was going to say it's you can't do it after a goal. You can't do it after an icing. You also can't do it in the middle of a power play. Right. Because then it gives the chance for the number one unit to get a little rest and stay out there. If that were to be the case, but. All right.

How long was that game front to back? You just said two hours 13 minutes there you go yeah that's what should be going on and as far as the tv timeouts with gasm it takes the bottom lines out of that ads go busy that's the money i you bud adam between the periods add more time between the periods that's it there's your solution okay we're they're talking about doing an 84 game schedule okay we're they're talking about doing an 84 game schedule which we're going to talk about later in the podcast and i'll give you my breakdown on that i think tv timeouts are completely ruining the flow of the game or drop

it down to one a period and that's it midway through at the 10 minute mark once there's a whistle without the the things we talked about like as long as it's not throughout a power play or often icing, because you know, you have the defensive zone face off and the guys have to stay out there. It's fucking killing the flow of hockey. People don't want to be there sitting around getting bored. In some cases with the way the rules go, you'll have a TV timeout and,

and four minutes later after a stoppage, another TV timeout. And then all of a sudden you see the third and fourth liners out there skating during the TV timeout and and four minutes later after a stoppage another tv timeout and then all of a sudden you see the third and fourth liners out there skating during the tv timeout to keep their legs warm because you know with all that rest they got to get the top two lines out there so it takes the bottom lines out of it and the flow out of the game and the attention span from the people in the building and next thing you know you're fucking there for three and a half hours to watch an nhl hockey game gas it right now i want to say that it's 18 minutes between periods yep it might be 16 i don't think i don't think it's 20 it's 18 minutes buddy make it 22 give them a little bit of longer and then add in those commercials there and then

they figured out other ways to get in the ads, including on the boards, on the jerseys. We got to stop with watering down the product for the money because there's plenty of it to go around and there's plenty of other ways to generate it, including we talk about a World Cup of hockey. That's got to be coming at some point. Okay? So to me, I know it's a strong point

and people say oh it's never going to happen i think it's the tv timeouts have have completely taken the flow out of the game and they're making them nauseating i i talked to a buddy who went to a canucks game the other night and he said the same thing he goes yeah man he goes like it just becomes a little bit boring like going to an nfl game where there's like not enough action to the amount of just like standing around like nothing going on yeah i don't i don't hate the idea i don't know if it's possible because i want to say if you're saying go from 18 to 22 there's three tv timeouts i think those are all two to three minutes so you kind of have to add more i completely understand what you're saying i would love one of them so do one

of them and then add the extra one tv time so then people have more time to go grab a beer. And by the time they sit back in their seat, it's like, boom, high flying action, no stoppages. And then you get that prop. Hey, it's just going to mean more beer sales during the actual intermissions. And then every team's got to do these. Oh, the mites are playing against these mites. And then they zamboni the ice. And then it doesn't really have much time to dry. So then the quality of the ice isn't even as good.

Make it between periods. Take a page out of soccer's book. I was just going to say that. All right. The biggest complaint right now in watching golf is the amount of ads, the amount of commercials and the amount of golf shots you actually don't see in terms of a broadcast. And the greatest thing about soccer is you get two halves and there isn't one commercial and they load it in beforehand and they load it in at halftime.

So yeah, that that's actually a pretty cool idea. I don't know if it'd ever be possible, but busy boy is onto something here. No, it's buddy. There's a way to solve this problem. So there's,

there's been talk about them this problem so there's uh there's been talk about them moving to an 84 game schedule and um minimizing the length of training camp we had patty maroon on talking about how ridiculous it is these guys are training all summer long now they're they're not just boozing and getting out of shape and then using that month of preseason to get back into shape make training camp two weeks long, add the two games, do less back to backs as far as, you know,

keeping these guys healthy and not having to wear their bodies down because, you know, two games and then getting that full two weeks and then being able to spread things out, that's going to work out just fine. And I wrote down and did the math. Bear with me here be careful here okay put you guys everyone pull over if you're driving put a helmet on folks

okay so if you go to make it as fair as possible an 84 game schedule home and away every team in the other conference so let's say i'm the toronto maple leafs and you're going obviously with i'm picking the leaves you go to the western conference you play one home game and one away game that's 32 games three three games they're gonna have to divide it between half the team so four of the teams inside of your conference in the other division you're gonna play three games against each of those teams two of which are gonna be at one of which are going to be a road and you flip flop every, which of those seasons. Yeah.

Well, some teams have the advantage of, of having those home games against worse or better teams, but that's as fair as you're going to make it. And that's going to equal 24 games, those three games against everybody in the same conference in the other division. And then you go four games versus the other seven

teams that are in your division and that equals 84 games so everybody has the exact same fair shake but the key to this is is instead of watering down the product by condensing it less back-to-backs use that two weeks don't make these there should be no three and fours fuck off with the three and fours the the level of playing is is way too high i feel like that's why we're seeing more and more injuries throughout the season let these guys get proper rest let them get a little bit more practice in between games in order to keep their skills and their everything, but I'm okay with 84 games. I know we talked about minimizing it, but it all comes down to the rest and how you're going to work out the

schedule and, and get these guys, you know, the, the, the proper, you know, the,

the, the proper time in between. So I've been long winded about that. No, I love it. I think, I think that's as fair as you can make it. I think you're making a ton of sense um oh and one to eight fuck off with this keeping everything in division yeah

once again you're playing every team has basically the exact same advantage as to who they're playing and how many times shuffle it one through eight after the first round, restack the deck, fuck off with these in-division rivals. Everybody hates each other enough now. You don't need to force anything. Well, funny enough, the reason that they're trying to add the two extra game is for more inter-division rivalries. That was what I read, at least. Now, you guys know my dream.

You guys know my dream for the playoffs. Right, G? Can you say it? You're nodding. Do you know it? One through 16. That that's all I want R.A. told me it'll never happen many people tell me it'll never happen I I a man can dream though um yeah I I just think the main thing and being the good thing about adding those other two games is is the increase in revenue while also shortening up camp so you're able to bring guys in. Like Biz said, it used to be, come on in, get in shape. Remember the old letter from the Maple Leafs?

You're going to have to do 20 push-ups. You're going to have to do 30 bodyweight squats. And then you're going to play a ton of golf. It ain't the 1960s anymore. Everyone's well aware. These guys are skating all summer and coming into camp probably in better shape than they are mid-season. Actually, definitely in better shape than they are mid-season actually definitely in better shape than they are mid-season because they're not battling injuries

that they've been dealing with so i love that idea biz i don't know if we're going to get away from the the one through the you know the top 14 top three teams in the division making it and then the wild cards but yeah i agree with you on all aspects of it. And I saw originally the 84 games. I'm like, what? I know they'll never drop games, but they're really going to add them. But if the rumblings are true that camp would be shortened and that the back-to-backs would certainly change things up, I'm down for it. But you're firing on all your messy and Mbappe combined right now on this podcast. Hey, I'm not saying there can't be any back-to-backs.

I just think with using that two weeks and being smart about everything, you can really get these guys the proper rest. And with that extra two games and that added revenue, you can improve the on-ice play by getting rid of some of the TV timeouts and then also extending intermissions. There is so much they can do collectively

with everything that we just talked about to improve the product and also continue to generate just as much if not more revenue you could kind of just i don't know like this is such a pipe dream i don't think it had ever happened but i love the thought of what did he say can you can you kind of read through it all right uh yeah what that was uh sean shapiro he used to write for the athletic until they fucking bait and switched all their hockey fans and got rid of all their great writers. He tweeted, since we're all throwing out crazy NHL schedule ideas today, here is mine.

Play every team twice, home and away for 62 games. At that point, split league into two groups. Top 22 and bottom 10. Remaining 20 games are played within your grouping. Top 16 still make playoffs from top 22 and the bottom 10 group and you start new mini 20-game season

with team with best record winning number one overall pick in the draft. I mean, it's probably unlikely, but I wanted to chime in here with. All right, before we go any further, here's a few words from our friends at GameTime. If you want to see any games this season, you need GameTime. GameTime is the ticket and app that makes it easier than ever to score the best deals on tickets to sports concerts and shows and they guarantee the lowest price if you haven't given game time a shot yet i don't know what you're waiting for you guys are going to love this app we've had tons of barstool fans using this we all

use it me g biz wit you've seen us all over the road lately game time has been hooking us up left and right and they will hook you up as well hit us up on social, you've seen us all over the road lately. GameTime has been hooking us up left and right, and they will hook you up as well. Hit us up on social when you use it, when you get the great deals. Let us know. Everybody else who uses it as well, we've been doing it all year. Can't wait for the playoffs to get here. All right.

I actually used the GameTime app last week when I went to the Toronto Maple Leafs versus New York Rangers at MSG. So thank you for GameTime for getting me in the door there. And like you said, it's the best app. It's so easy to use. I can't suggest it enough, especially around the holiday season here. No doubt. No doubt.

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Basically, it's like you're rewarded for playing well to get that first overall pick in the bottom 10. I thought that was kind of cool. All right, you want the number one overall pick? You actually got to go win some games against these bottom 10 teams with the final 20 games remaining. So that was an interesting idea. The other thing that's been thrown around a lot and was immediately shut down,

I was reading Pierre LeBron in terms of talking about the play-in. And when you talk about the play-in, what he's saying is 7-10 and 8-9. They play a mini two-out-of-three series at the top seeds building, so there's no travel involved, and the winning two teams get the final two spots in the playoffs correct in each division you hate it okay so many people hate it some people love it in terms of uh half the half the teams make the fucking playoffs so buddy 16 teams made the playoffs when there was 21 teams in the league now 16 teams make the playoffs when there's

32 teams so it's half the it's's half the league makes the fucking playoffs. But half the teams are still going to make the playoffs. It doesn't change that 16 are getting in. No, I understand, but I just... So to me, it hurts the product because all of a sudden you have a team that went and played a first round, and then you have these other teams sitting around, and then, like, okay, you get this...

You get the 10th seed, ends up playing the first seed and then they dummy them four games because they're a little bit tired from already playing a few playoff games like i i just i all right well lebron talked to i think 12 members of the board of governors all 12 said they'd like it betman said absolutely not and his point was a good one in that he said our first round the nhl first round is the best experience in sports right now bingo but it's really not going to change it's only going to add a little bit more excitement within four teams in each conference to be able to just make a little bit more money you know the playoff gates add a little bit more it's a possible three games maybe just two i i'm

not saying one way the other which way i'm leaning but in terms of more teams, you're not changing the overall makeup of the first round. You're just adding a little teaser. It's a little appetizer. It's a little pig's wrapped in a blanket. It's a little bit like having some chips with guac right before the meal, and then the fire starts. So I'm not going to sit here and say I hate the idea. I love the first round.

I just know the first round is not going to change. We're just going to get a little excitement for three nights prior to it all beginning. As far as that specific one, I just don't personally like it because half the team's making playoffs, especially now for talking to moving to an 84 game season. It's like, why are you playing 84 games to have that many people in the mix? Like if you fucking, if you deserve to get in in you did so with that 84 games that you had on deck now to the one about the bottom 10 teams and like reshuffling it for them competing against one another to earn that first overall pick i i don't like it because you i mean you also have

certain guys on the team who are like oh what we're gonna fucking earn a right to get this first pick and the guy's gonna end up taking my fucking job i think i think what should happen is is those teams that end up being whatever the worst five teams in league or how many how many ever teams and you bracket it to get who get extra balls or extra percentages as to win it they should get bumped up on percentage based on how they played head-to-head against those other teams who have availability for the lottery.

And to wrap up the schedule, the TV timeouts, all this talk, in terms of business point in cutting down the TV timeouts to the period, I think they do pay a lot more to have it within the period because so many people change the channel for intermission. So I just wanted to mention R.A. with a

solid point there. Thanks, Whit. Appreciate that. I want to give Greg Wyshynski a little shout-out, too. He's the one who reported the league. It's right now, they're internally discussing this 84-game schedule. Nothing officially yet. Again, the division rival is the reason for it. They will decrease the preseason games, but of course, the NHLPA would have to sign off

on any of this. It's not the league decision. It's, it would be a mutual thing. They've played an 82 game season since 94, 95, excluding my walkout years, of course. And the GM meetings in the spring, they're going to talk a lot more about it and what just to, I would love to see one to 16. Believe me, I just don't think it's going to happen. It was back in the crazy eighties.

The whole front office was probably doing a bunch of blow. The reason I'm saying no, the reason I'm saying no from one to 16 is because of the way that i structured that 84 game schedule where you're playing way more against people inside your conference therefore it's hard to balance it in a sense of like oh well they if you if you have a shit conference you're going to get that number one spot because you're just picking off of those teams all year long well it makes no sense i just think it would be exciting as hell okay yeah it would just the whole the whole concept of anybody could play anybody like sort of like the uh bruins edmonton in round one oh yeah good shit uh also too real quick on gary i loved how he said

that uh nhl polling indicates fans find games more watchable with digital heads. Yeah. I want to know what these three people are, Gary. That's some Kim Jong-un shit going on. Let me see the fucking let me see the analytics on that, Gary. They had a guy pinned down with a knife to his throat, said, how do you like watching games with the new ad board on boards on the ads? Water boredom. Yeah, it's like it's not a distraction.

Ask him again. Ask him again until a defenseman comes crawling out of a dunk of donuts sound like the fucking terminator in the middle of the game because the fucking things are glitchy uh i hope you boys are hungry because you're about to eat a little bit of crow you might want to get the salt and pepper uh the leafs we've been stroking them off lately but they lost in regulation for the first time in 16 games and mitch mana's point streak ended at 23 games in Madison Square Garden when the Rangers beat the Leafs 3-1 Jimmy Vesey got a pair

of goals then they beat Philly and Chicago the Rangers seven wins in a row points in seven of eight they're now on the wild card spot number one Sunday was their third seven goal game of the season you guys are calling for gazes two weeks ago fans are saying trade everyone fire the coach but my help things have changed

boys whoopty fucking do i still can't stand them i still think they're going to get bounced in the first round that's even if they make it to playoffs so hey congratulations on this little little run after we gave them the the the we poked the bear i i will say seven and oh since true but chucked his his lid and they did have some great wins at the start of this little stretch. They have been picking off of a – I mean, they beat Chicago 7-1 last game. Whoop-de-fucking-do. And the funny part about that one, though,

is going back to that loss against Chicago, that was their last loss before the seven-game win streak where Anthony Ceo had those comments for Trouba about how he's overcompensating. Well, Trouba asked him if he wanted to keep the puck uh the other night after he had left so some good some good joshing going back and forth uh on with the on ice chirps but uh hey a couple solid uh a couple solid games in net I think there was four games in which they only allowed one goal too. So, hey, every squirrel finds a nut, but I still think they're Fugazi's wit, and I don't give a fine fuck what their fans think about it.

Yeah, I don't think they're a threat at all to win the Stanley Cup. My point in which I'm getting owned by Rangers fans was my Sorokin versus Shisterkin argument, and in typical wit fashion, Sorokin's completely shit the bed since I said that with Shisterkin completely turning things around. And yes, they did beat Philly and the Blackhawks for the last two games of that seven game win streak. But the first five were St. Louis, Vegas, Colorado, Jersey and Toronto. So they had some very legit wins coming in there, including the comeback win against the Devils. And I'll finish it off with my main argument about Sorokin.

I think at the time I mentioned how, you know, he owned the Oilers. What was the game that he owned at the Rangers that Sorokin Shostakovich played like shit? I don't remember. But I said, talk to me in 10 years. Talk to me in 12 years. I think the overall body of work by Sorokin might be better. Right now, that's a tough take. But I'm going out on a limb.

I'm kind of walking the plank and seeing how things go. Right now, I got nothing to say to Rangers fans besides your team will never win the Stanley Cup. I think diehard Rangers fans deep down inside in their plums, in their big biz grapefruit nut, know the team can't win the Stanley Cup. But they've turned it around, and good for them. They're third in their big biz grapefruit nut. No, the team can't win the Stanley Cup, but they've turned it around and good for them. They're third in their division right now. I think Pittsburgh's right behind them with a couple games in hand. The teams in front of them have two games in hand.

So we'll see what happens. But, fuck, it's been a nice run for the Rangers. And a guy, Trouba, who I've been hard on, it certainly looks like he changed things around with calling out the team. He threw the helmet. He had the big hit, and he's now talking shit to Anthony Seau. So things have switched around for the Rags. Yeah, I said it, the Rags.

So I got nothing to say besides I'll eat crow. I'm doing it every day. I'm married. I think probably the biggest difference in the seven games, too, is the kido caco heidel lafreniere that's what they were missing a little bit of jam from the young guns so congrats congratulations on this nice little run but uh you guys are still fugazis and you can lick my nuts yeah what you were correct the range is right now as recorded in third place pittsburgh Pittsburgh point behind their first wildcard. But Pittsburgh does have two games in hand. And they have they have Pittsburgh, the Islanders, the Capitals who are playing some good hockey and the Lightning as their next four.

So has your mind changed on the Capitals with. Not really, although I heard Backstrom's getting closer and closer. So that's a dangerous thing if he's able to come back with that crazy surgery he had and make a difference. But I'm still on board with the next few years as kind of the OV goal chase as opposed to chasing down another cup. I'll tell you, if I'm the New Jersey Devils,

I'm getting a little bit nervous. All these other teams that were behind them are on twin streaks right now. Well, they're tied now. Carolina's on fire. I think that was the next team we were going to talk about, wasn't it? I'll go right ahead already. Yeah, Biz, we're going to get to them in one sec, but just to piggyback on Witt's point a minute ago,

since the Jacob Truba Helmichuk off the boards there, 7-0 the Rangers are outscoring the opposition 33-14, so it's obviously had an effect and a pretty cool stat. Helmichuk's that, not one you get every day. There you go, Rangers fans. There's your double wrister.

Enjoy it while it lasts. Carolina, yeah, man. Not only nipping at the New Jersey Devils' heels, but they pretty much caught them. They beat the Penguins Sunday for their fifth straight win, their ninth win in 10 games. They got points in 11 straight and 15 out of 16, 44 points. They're tied with the Devils right now.

New Jersey does hold the tiebreaker, but Devils have been scuffling, man. But Carolina taking advantage of the big reason, this rookie goalie, Petor Kachetkov. Three shutouts has him tied for the league lead. He's only had 12 starts. He's tied with Huso, who's had 20 starts, and Hellebuck, who's had 23 starts.

9-1-4 with a 2-0-1, 9-2-3 save percentage. Freddie Anderson is going to be back soon, but the speculation, the team's going to carry three goalies given the health history of Antti Ranta and Freddie Anderson. One of these guys might get hurt again. So, either way, this kid's been playing out of his mind. Natchez, Svechnikov, and Ajo, they're carrying the

load, but is this another team with the offense is too top-heavy right now, and are they a full threat because of that? Well, they still got Pacioretty, who's going to come back after tearing his achilles um and also tara vinan has not been producing the way and he has been out of the lineup a little bit they're just getting contributions from everybody right now and you mentioned uh that new goaltender pitor um they play such a good team structure that they do limit other teams, high danger chances, and they work so hard.

And that was one of the things that we maybe criticized them on is they go so hard during the regular season. Sometimes they run out of gas come playoff time. But I think that we all knew that this was going to be a team that was going to be fighting for the top of the division. And I looked to a guy who got put on waivers at the start of the year Martinook he got put on waivers he's on pace for a career seven goals and seven assists so far so they're getting a little bit of depth scoring off of him you mentioned Natchez who's just completely came out

of his shell they had to replace D'Angelo what he brought offensively on the back end what did they do they went out and got Brent Burns. He's fit in fucking unbelievable there. So overall, man, this is, I think what we all expected out of Carolina. We talked about them when we went and saw them against the Edmonton Oilers, when we were there doing the sandbagger, this is just a full on well-oiled machine, a great, great organization. And it starts at the top with Rob Brindamore. And I see them being very dangerous, especially when they get Terravine and roll in the way that he normally does, and then Pacioretty in the lineup too. So that'll help bump back guys down to have even better line matchups, RA.

I don't see them going away anytime soon. I think they're going to win the division. And we talked about that team structure. I think they're going to win the division and that we talked about that team structure. I feel like any competent goaltender could step in and have success with this team. You saw it with Freddie Anderson when he came over from Toronto. Even auntie Ranta's had good numbers. It's just the health component with those two goalies. That is a bit of an issue. So if this young kid could take the reins and get going, Hey,

having three guys, they're not a bad thing. Cause I don't think Anderson's cap hits too bad. I know Ranta's isn't bad. And then this fucking Pete tour guys probably making peanuts at this point. So they do a good job of drafting and developing, and they know exactly when to move on from guys too.

And in terms of Brent Burns to be playing this level, 37 years old, and he just looks like he's 25 out there. It's similar fashion to the way Eric Carlson looks this season. It's just like going back in time and playing like they were friggin eight years ago. It's amazing to see. I want to bring up a guy and it's Stefan Nozan. I hope I'm saying that correctly. But he's 29 years old. He spent all of last year in the AHL. What does he do?

He gets 48 goals. He completely lights it up at Chicago. And then in the playoffs, he had 25 points in 18 games. But if you're 28 years old and you're spending the entire year in the minors, I think he had two games with Carolina. But you then make the team and you're having the season you are there. That's like a sign of Rod Brindamore, I think, in terms of getting a guy and knowing, all right,

I think after what he did last year and what he showed in camp, he can add a lot to our team. He's got 15 points right now, right? He's fifth in the team in scoring, tied with Seth Jarvis. And let me shout out Seth Jarvis for one of the funniest interviews of all time. Maybe we could throw that in quick. This dude loves sleeping. Play it quick, G. I take a lot of naps i love naps i'm a big advocate for naps so anytime i have time to

just shut my eyes at like 2 p.m sometimes i take them later like 7 p.m it's uh guys don't like because i think it messes up my sleep schedule but i love naps so i just take as many as i can he looks like a sleeper you know usually like a sleeper there's no chance he has kids i'll tell you that right now if i was like hey babe i'm gonna shut it down at two o'clock day huh the kids are getting home from school you ain't going to sleep bitch so i love that this kid loves to sleep he said he takes a nap at seven o'clock he must play then video games till one in the morning but um just a great team so nosing that's an awesome story right to spend the whole year at 28 a lot of guys at 28 they want to call their cup there in chicago and and a lot of times you have a guy who will have a huge year at that age in the minors

you're looking to europe and maybe if it was a different time in terms of what's going on in russia he would have got a huge deal over in the khl but no he comes back and he ends up making the team and he's making an impact. So that's a cool story and probably not a story that would happen with a lot of other coaches, but I think Brynden Moore can find guys and see roles where they may fit in and he's fit in perfectly.

So as far as your question goes, R.A., I don't think they're too top heavy. I think they've actually addressed some of those issues and we talked about some of those guys who are contributing in the bottom six. And that's with Coctiniemi doing nothing. Nothing. Another guy not pulling his weight either.

So, well, well said, boys. Also, we want to say congrats to Paul Stastny, who played in his 1100th game Thursday versus Seattle. Hell of a career he's had. But boys, we've been making the fans wait long enough. We have Peter fucking Forsberg on ice. I think it's time we send it to them. Hall of Fame.

Can't add much more. Without further ado, Peter Forsberg. This interview is brought to you by Shopify. It's time to knock that new business idea out of the park with Shopify, the all-in-one commerce platform to start, run, and grow your 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,

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One more time. Shopify.com slash chicklets. Well, it's a huge honor to welcome our next guest on the show. This dynamic center was the number six pick at the 1991 draft, and his rights were traded a year later in one of the biggest trades in NHL history. He would play 14 NHL seasons with three franchises, putting up 1056 points in 859 regular season and playoff games. In addition, he won two Stanley cups, a call the trophy, an art Ross trophy, a hot trophy, two Olympic gold medals, and was inducted into the hockey hall of fame in 2014 2014 thank you so much for

joining us on the Spittin' Chicklets podcast Peter Forsberg, how you been Peter? No I'm good, thank you thanks for the nice introduction there yeah it feels like a long time ago since I got drafted there in 91 but yeah a few things happened since that yeah I had to decide what to leave out

it was some tough calls but what's been going on lately what have you been up to? No we've moved down to Switzerland and Zoob here for maybe five years ago, three kids playing with the senior team occasionally down here, and life is pretty good. What made you

move to Switzerland? Well, we bought into a shoe company. It's called Inwiki, so we moved down here. It's right outside Zurich, the headquarters, and my fiance works with it. uh and you know i kind of wanted to get away switzerland it's always been a little dream for me it's a good country it's an awesome place and so it's also a good hockey place you know they won the championship two years in a row down here so i don't miss i don't get to miss out on the hockey even if i move down here so it's great where did you learn all this business sense because we're i mean we're gonna get into all the croc stuff later like

when did you learn all that no i don't know i don't know if i'm really great at it we'll see about that but it's you know i went to economy school there back in the day it's actually me marcus went to the same class back in a day so and then uh you know, well, like Nicole was also interested in doing business. I think she went to a good school in Stockholm. So we decided to keep on doing that. So, you know, we have to do something, I think, after hockey too. I couldn't just retire and not have anything to do. To be honest, also, you know, the last eight years I was half retired.

It's like 45 comebacks. So I had a good time to get ready for the business side. Well, you brought up the name Marcus. And of course, for people who don't know, that's Marcus Naslin. You guys were born 10 days apart in the same town. So came up together in the ranks. And we love starting where guys grew up and how they got into the game. Your dad was kind of a legendary coach.

Was he your coach your entire life growing up and is he the guy who made you fall in love with hockey like how did that all come about well it's it's uh the city i think it's just uh urchins week which is uh you know headman comes from there nicholas sunstrom a few sardine twins and a bunch of other guys so kind of what we do there uh you know we have a good hockey team there moto and then everybody grows up. When you grow up there, you go watch them play. And also, you get an opportunity to play. I think you have six rinks. It's 50,000, 60,000 people, so you get the opportunity to practice,

to do the things. And my dad, he was a soccer player and a hockey player, and then he was a coach. He was a coach, actually, of my brother for the most of when I was growing up. I didn't get him until I was 14, but then i couldn't get rid of him for a few years you know adam emoto juniors and then the a team and then the national team so i got i was with them for a few years after that so maybe 10 years did he push you really hard or was he very laid back as a coach i wouldn't call him laid back i wouldn't say that he was he would yell at me occasionally if i didn't do the my job

but I think he treated me like everybody else. I got yelled at. He demanded that you did what you were supposed to do. Not only in the games. He was actually pretty hard in practices too.

I wouldn't say overly hard. I wouldn't say that. I think it was fair. Were you growing up, are you playing other sports? In the summer, are the skates going away and you're playing soccer and stuff? Or was it kind of year-round for you then even? No, no, no. This is way up in the northern hemisphere.

I was there. Okay, so yeah, I know you have to play, you play soccer too. We played, you know, Marcus played on one side of the city and I played on my side. So I think both of us kind of retired when you have to go to Hockeness even though you're 16. And then before that though, that's, you know, you played hockey for six months and he played soccer for six.

So that's kind of what happened there. And then you got roped into working at your parents' electrical company. Is that true with Marcus? Those were your summer jobs? 7 in the morning to 4 o'clock in the afternoon, you had to – oh, horrible to get up that early in the morning and then go to work out after that. So maybe it was not the best way to get ready for the season, but I think it was good that you learned that you had to actually work pretty hard occasionally. What did you have to do there?

Well, you know, we were more making sure that the trees didn't grow up on the electrical cord, you know, in the woods and clean up and we didn't do any specific electrical work i wouldn't say that we're more maintenance underneath so you know during the winter the the trees wouldn't fall over the electrical whatever you call it lines so you never got shocked or anything like that there's no crazy stories are you guys getting electrocuted no no no we didn't we're not allowed to do anything of that no maybe i thought maybe that's how you got so nasty on the ice you got like shocked one summer and all of a sudden you had like the silkiest mitts going no i don't know i think that is born with that little kind of short fuse i would say

occasionally it happened i don't think i was born mean i think it's just happened you know outside of hockey i really seldom get really mad but on the ice it was i think it's i don't know what it was it's just kind of legal to get mad on the ice occasionally yeah we mean this as a compliment when we hopped on here with like hey not only was he nasty but this guy was a prick on the ice well you cold shoulder me you cold should shoulder me one time in philly and i'm still feeling the effects of it so the reverse actually the cold shoulder the cold shoulder might you might be most known for that like is that something even as a young kid you kind of realize like all right i'm going to use this guy's momentum and just bury him while i have the puck no i think that came up later and then i think i i got rocking i think it was world juniors actually against a russian

guy and i'm like seriously i should be able to run that guy and then i was like why did he why was that successful and i was just you know for me when you do one of those uh you have to be a little sneaky you know you can't just be ready you you know you gotta hide it and i think that's my specialty because that's uh i was just trying to try to look at the puck and maybe you saw him in the back somewhere you knew he was coming and then you try still to play with the puck and then you run it try to i i certainly didn't know that you saw me yeah i was like oh he doesn't see me yeah yeah and then you always have to you have this you've stuck him and speared him a little bit before before that he was a mad dude and he thought it really was going to run you

then it really worked even better I would say that's how you bait him in, you stick him in the nuts a couple shifts beforehand and you know he's coming exactly, that's what it works with I was looking online so who gave you your nickname and is it pronounced Fopa?

yeah, Fopa, I know I think it was the media that just gave me Fopa. It was a football player against a soccer player an hour south of where I'm from. And he played in the highest division. He was called Lille Fopa. And his last name was Forsberg. I think that's his company, Forsberg.

So that's why I ended up everybody was calling me Fope after that, at least in Sweden. Did you enjoy it at first or were you like, what? You know, to be honest, I hated to be called Peter when I grew up. I thought I was a little stiff to be called Peter. Hey, Peter.

Fope, I was actually better than Peter. I was fine with it. Your hometown, you guys only guys only had what four hours of sun a day During the winter time and someone come up at ten In the morning go down at two in the afternoon How much like hockey would you play during An average day in the winter Depends when it was how cold

It was but yeah You had a you know if you're in the Rink and practice but then you also Can skate at the school or replay it on The street outside you know One of you're in the rink and practice, but then you also can skate at the school or replay it on the street outside. You know, one of those classic story where the bus came and we had to move the nets and then move the bus. You know, even if it was a close game,

the bus had to wait for 30 seconds until the game finished and all that kind of stuff. But I would say we were playing, I don't know, on the weekends, like six or seven hours a day, you know, even wherever it was. And I think we became pretty good about reading the play and knowing the play. Maybe not the most skilled guys, but we were always playing and having fun on the street.

When you're, you know, an early teenager, are you late 80s? Are you into the NHL? Are you more into the Swedish league? Like, are you dreaming of playing in the nhl and following it as much as you could or back then was it even possible in sweden no you couldn't really watch it uh the live feeds was not often you got to watch nhl games i would say uh i don't know if i watched the game until 90s uh at all almost and and my goal was playing since i grew up in moto that was my uh my marcus is you

know he like the other some other kids from that area is not they're not motor kids you know you could be on another suburb but i grew up in moto that was my team since i was five and that's why i wanted to play when i got older and it had no i i didn't even even look at nhl to be honest i don't think i ever it was going to be good enough. And I was pretty small when I was. I only ate pancakes and cinnamon rolls when I grew up. So I didn't have a muscle. So for me to play in NHL, that was just a little too far.

So my goal was to play in Moda in the highest division there. Heading into the draft, the 91 draft, a lot of North American scouts had you pegged for the second round. What did you have for expectations? Or did you even have expectations going into that draft? No, not really. It was pretty early in my career. I wasn't that great. And I wouldn't say I was, you know, came up in the Swedish mode of there, but I wasn't doing any damage or anything.

So I didn't think I was going to pick that high. And I didn't really care either. Of course, it's going to pick that high and i don't really i didn't really care either of course it's it's uh great to pick be picked high but on the other hand there was more expectations and i was a shy kid i didn't want any expectations i just want to be okay i get drafted but then we got over there and don basically was my agent like you know you might get picked pretty high you know there was some talks about moving up to 11 12 or something like that i'm like oh okay that's pretty hard and then and i knew philly was interested and never tried to trade down if if i remember this right but then uh i had no clue i was going to get picked at

number six that was total shock for me i would say but definitely like you said it was going to be beginning of the second round or at the best and because you were maybe i don't know undersized or just younger and was it ever a thought of going over to the at the best. And because you were maybe, I don't know, undersized or just younger. And was it ever a thought of going over to the NHL? You see, I think you played three more full seasons in Sweden before you went over. So was that kind of just in the plan the whole time? I'm not going to rush to get over there. Or did you just really want to stay in Sweden?

How did it come about not leaving for North America quite so soon? Yeah, it was not really a plan. Like, OK, I'm going to develop better in Sweden. It was not like that. I think it was just not, I was not mature and ready to go over. Philly offered me a contract and I think it was 92 in the world championships,

you know, to come over. I'm like, not a chance, you know, I'm staying home with Moto. And then I actually signed, I think 93. And then I even got to stay home another year because I didn't really want to go over. I don't know what was wrong with me. I was just home.

I loved my hometown. I had a good time. It was fun. There was just no need for me to rush. And then all of a sudden, the day came, and I had to get on the flight to fly over to play for Quebec, and I didn't like it. I'm like, oh, I hate it. Why do I do this to myself?

I just want to be home and play in my hometown after a couple of months in quebec i i enjoyed it over there i loved it over there i got new friends but i was not into too many changes and and really like i said enjoyed being home was it a massive pay upgrade from going from from moto all over to quebec yeah i would say it was you know i was signed it was, in Sweden, it was 40 million. I think it's like six million US dollars. And yeah, I remember

because I remember because, you know, the opposition teams were chanting 40 million for nothing. It was their chance at the game. So, yeah,

it was definitely an upgrade. To be honest, without the money, I don't know if I would have, there would be no need for me to move. But also, I mean, because there's more money in Inshallah, all the best players were there. I mean, if you're going to take the step one day,

I guess that's where you're going to have to be. Well, not only that too, I mean, you probably spoke a little bit of English at the time, I'm assuming, but then going somewhere like French speaking, was that just a massive, massive culture shock for you? Not only like not maybe wanting to go originally and then having to go somewhere where you can't speak the language. Uh, it made it a little harder, I would say. Um, but it was also, you know, I'm at Dead Marsh and a few other guys there, Nolan, Richie, they were at a good young group in Quebec. So that helped out. Plus it was not the biggest city in the world I mean Quebec was you know and it's cold it got snow so at least when I woke up in the morning

I felt like home uh but it was hard to watch the news and all that uh a little by myself uh except if I you know with the teammates so but uh I would say it was a good step for me to come to Quebec um it was you know you, you compare Quebec to my hometown. You know, everybody loved hockey, cold, and that's kind of what you do. You live for the games. And to me, it was easy for me, too, because we had such a good team. When I came there, I think we were 19-4-1. We lost one game, home game, if you look at home games.

It's only 48 games. So, for me, was made it so much easier it came from you know and Quebec had been so bad and then I came there and made it easier of course doesn't really matter what language you speak as long as you win to be honest that really helps that was a half lockout year too so at least you got to dip your toe in and it wasn't like a full season so you weren't like stuck there as long as you normally would have been agree I wouldn't call it stuck in Quebec you know like i said i enjoyed it and then we got knocked out the first round against the the reindeers but yeah i i agree there was not the

longest season ever uh and then obviously we got sold the uh the whole organization down to to denver next year and then we got to play the whole year. But yeah, it was probably good that it was not the full year, the first year. I got to ask about, you know, 1994, the Olympics. You became this international hockey legend with the shootout winner. But leading up to that, you mentioned Naslin and how close you guys were. He actually went over to North America that 93-94 season. So he didn't get to play on that team and you stayed back. Was that like hard for you guys?

Was he just ready to make the jump? And he probably knew that meant he wasn't going to be on that team and you stayed back. Was, was that like hard for you guys that he, was he just ready to make the jump and he probably knew that meant he wasn't going to be on that Olympic team with you, right? No, he was ready. He was a much more mature when we were that age. So he was right at the go over. He, uh, I would say dominated, uh, in practices in the league when he left. So I don't think I was, uh, I wasn't that good. I would say. People say, probably say I was okay, but he was ready to take the step.

And yeah, I don't know if it's only the Olympics I stayed home. I would say it helped out. That was, that came up that year

in 94. And, but, but, yeah, it just, to be honest, it was more like I didn't want to leave my hometown.

I wanted the Swedish meatballs for another year. I think we've got to go back to the trade. I mean, one of the biggest in NHL history. We sort of fall in the Lindros saga from afar, where you're just kind of doing your own thing. Did you have any preference, or were you ended up? No, not really. I mean, it's a lot of things that happen.

All of a sudden, we had a really good team and they've been drafted first, you know, Sandin first and then Nolan and then Lindros. So then they had Sakic and like I said, you know, with the foots and the reaches and the ones they had. So yeah, people said, well, it's going to be tough to go to Quebec. They've been so bad for so long. But on the other hand, like if you can keep this team together hand, like a few, if you can keep this team together,

I remember they saying that if you can keep the team together, you're going to have a good group. You're going to have a good team. And then we got sold the next year, which worked out great. If the Quebec Nordiques couldn't pay the salaries

that the LA Avalanche could. So unbelievable, perfect match. If you looked, you know, so bad for so long and then came to a team that could pay the salaries and even get more people in. You know, we got Borke there for a while, we got Blakey, we brought in Lemieux, we brought in Roy.

Maybe that wouldn't happen. Probably not Roy. I don't know if he would have gone to Quebec, you know, Keane either, when that trade happened with uh with montreal so uh it was really lucky for us and for me that that ended up in in quebec but yeah when it happened you didn't know it was going to be that good oh i was going to ask about mark crawford your coach had you ever experienced a coach that was that intense because you hear stories about how, you know, sometimes you would blow a gasket on guys and just how demanding he was.

Yeah, I know he was pretty demanding. And to be honest, I think it was good that we had a young group. You know, I think we learned to work hard. So he couldn't cheat either. He was pretty tough, you know. A couple of funny stories with him there. He gave some shit to some players or me. funny stories with him there.

He gives some shit to some players or me. And so, but I think to be honest, he, he, he demanded that you play it hard. You can discuss maybe the ways occasionally, but, but back in the days,

it's kind of okay. We went with it. And then, and I think we, we, we got better as a group, you know, cause I think it was pretty tough.

We just mentioned the 94 Olympics, of course, the goal against Corey Hirsch to steal the gold medal. Had you ever tried that move in a game before? Was that the first time you dusted it off for a game? No, I tried it in the Swedish League a couple of months earlier. Of course, I missed. That takes a big set of balls to then pull it out in the gold medal game. Yeah, exactly.

It didn't work last time, so I'm going to pull it out absolutely when it counts. But I was just a horrible penalty shooter back then, and I couldn't do any other move. I had like two, five holes on that one. And, yeah, I guess it couldn't work out any better than it did. Was that the first time where maybe you'd gone around Sweden and you were getting noticed by people?

Like, did your fame significantly rise after that goal? A little bit. But I won, you know, I won the world championship two years earlier when I was 18. And then me and Marcus was running around in Sweden, and we were staying there 93 and made some headlines. And no, I think, yeah, it helped out. But I guess if you knew hockey, I think you kind of knew who I was before that.

And then after that, too, we ended up in the Swedish final there. And I kind of embarrassed myself after the loss in the final. I actually said that I was going to beat up the referee after we lost the final. I was going to punch him. So it didn't really help out either to stay incognito there in Sweden after that. Did you get fined for that one? Did they come down with a hard penalty? No, I got no fine.

I got nothing for it. No, I don't know. I think they blamed the camera guy or the interview guy that, you know, showed up with a mic 30 seconds after the game. So nobody really blamed me, which is good. They still play the audio. Give your father five minutes to cool off, guys. Exactly.

Don't they still play the audio during some games in this current day, like the audio from that clip? No, I don't know if they do it. But, yeah, a few dads of the kids. I, you know, I have some, my own kids in Sweden, they come up and they remember that actually the clip that was going to beat out and try to punch the ref. But I think when you, if you look at it, you know, you can see that I had passion for the game at least.

I think that's what people say when they come up. I understand them. The ref wasn't that bad, but, but they but we can see they were pretty crazy after that. They actually liked to win. When did you guys find out that you'd be moving to Colorado? Was it during that rookie season? Was it after? When did you guys know and realize, all right, this is it, and then I guess we're going to Denver,

where nobody knew anything about that area, I'm guessing? Well, to be honest, I flew home to Sweden after we lost to the Rainiers. I was not really involved with all the negotiations. It wasn't that close. I didn't live over there. I just got a phone call in the middle of the summer there. We heard rumors it was maybe Austin, Houston, maybe Phoenix.

I don't know if Phoenix. Then it ended up being Denver. I just got a phone call. I didn't follow the news that much where we're going to end up. For me, I had never been to Denver, never been to Houston or anything. So it was just me. Okay, we'll go to state somewhere. I had no clue.

You guys started out pretty good that year, 16-7-4. Then P.L. LaCroix turns on and gets Patrick Waugh. Did the team almost think it was a joke that you guys were able to get Patrick Watt out of the blue like that? Yeah, obviously, you know that story, too. We didn't have a clue until he got really mad. If I

talk to my teammates, yeah, then I think Pierre had Patrick as a client before, so we kind of knew maybe it's a little chance they're ever going to get him and end up getting Patrick. And also Mike Keane, I think he meant a lot for us too when he came over. He was a pretty demanding guy and played hard on the ice and was kind of a good leader too.

So I think, yeah, it was a really good trade for us. If you looked at the team before that got knocked out against the Rangers, we added some leadership and with Claude Lemieux there, we went for Brendan Clark and then we added Patrick and Keener so I think maybe I would say Lacroix knew

kind of what we wanted, what we needed to go all the way. Was the team already thinking cup before you got Warr or did that really solidify it after you got them? It took another step when you add these guys. They bring another element to winning, I would say. I don't say put any fingers in between there. I mean, they do everything to win.

So they definitely added some attitude and atmosphere in the dressing room and that we could go all the way. They had won before, and then they knew what it takes, what it took. And then I think they really helped our younger group know what it takes to win. Had you ever seen a goalie with that much intensity before? And there's also stories of like him him like helping and teaching guys where structure wise where to be in d zone and and that was eventually what ended up like elevating you guys to that level yeah it's uh yeah hey you think it's just the

guy he should stand behind in the net there and just save this puck but he had a lot different view of uh of everything you know he he made sure i don't know if i told the story but you know one year in the class you know we got knocked out i think 99 against um dallas and the next year i was gonna you know because i was running out of gas and when we played the last couple games i was uh had to have an iv because i was uh you know fainting after one game and just running out of it was hard to play in dallas so i was gonna take it easy against san jose we won the first two games and i thought okay i'm gonna take it easy to save some energy and then we lost the next two games and i remember

hartley coming in the dressing room like and asking like hey guys why are we losing and patrick you stood up and just pointing at me like that's his fault like that he's not even trying and i didn't even think it would you know he would you know anybody can tell but he had full control i think he saw everything and i had to stand up you know i apologize that i you know i last year i was you know game six and seven i was out of gas so i was gonna save it for the semifinals and he's like there's no saving at all and okay i get it let's play hard the next game and And then we actually won 4-2. So I had a goal and two assists the next game.

But he could tell who's playing hard and not hard and how people were playing on the ice. So definitely he added that, too, that the players on the ice had to – you had to do your best every single game. I thought that guy's going to be all over you. It's not only saving pucks. He's got to give you control of the team too. I thought him letting a softie and be like, Hey,

wake the fuck up back there, buddy. Oh yeah. No, you try that. I'm not going to try that. That's how this guy is. Yeah, no, no. I'd be very careful to say that sorry no i was gonna say i thought he would just threaten to kill people for maybe looking at his helmet but i didn't know he'd

call out hall of famers too to wake the fuck up so i guess i didn't do it all but i had to ask you when you came over to quebec i think sakic had played like six seasons already and already become a superstar did he take you under his wing was he a guy who kind of really learned a lot about the NHL game from? For me to end up with him, I think it was the best combination that could ever be. You know, we had, he helped me. You know, you can say, you know, if somebody's coming in from Sweden, you know, it's taking ice time, power play.

But nothing I would say that I remember that was, you know, he was jealous or somebody else coming in. He was just, thank God, you know, maybe this guy is going to help us win. I think that's – when I think back with Joe, what I admire him most about that, you know, he wanted to win and he didn't care if it was him or somebody else that made the team win. So never any hard discussions with him or nothing. We that made the team win so never any hard discussions with him or nothing we just both wanted to win the game so he i would say he helped me out you know

definitely uh the first couple of years so it was great when you guys uh moved over right that that your second season well you get claude lemieux and he just won the stanley cup in jersey what's your first uh memories of meeting him in training camp? And I believe during your Cup run that season, you guys played on the same line, right? Occasionally. He got suspended a few games, but most of the games we played together.

Yeah. Yeah, no. No, for sure. He was... We knew. I knew he played really well, but I also knew he was known for a few dirty shots. I'm like, oh, if we're going to play with this guy,

people are going to try to run us and murder us every game here. I don't know if that's going to work out. But, you know, he was a fierce competitive, I would say. He left everything on the ice every single night. And he also demanded that you played well and played good every single game. I enjoyed playing with him. He was not shy to put his nose in front

of the net and put the pucks in. When I think back, I don't think I knew anybody that cheered more than him when he scored. He was really happy when he scored. That's a funny thing. I can't think of Claude. We don't think of the Detroit Red Wings.

Were you ever part of a rivalry that had that much hatred to it, Peter? No, no. That's never been part of anything like that ever before or after. That was him in his summer job. All right. Yeah.

Two, three years there was tough. It was tough for me. I mean, I had six or seven Swedes and then around, around like i mean getting on the flight 98 i was flying with the detroit guys to to nagano i'm like hey guys what's up yeah that was very awkward yeah i would say you know uh maybe that's why we lost in the

quarters too and then i got games yeah yeah because as big as a prick as you were on the ice i believe you only got in one NHL fight in your entire career, and it was Martin Lapointe? I don't know if it's really a fight, but yeah, we throwed one or two punches, but we didn't drop the gloves. I think we had kept the gloves on. But he hit hard, I would say. I was actually surprised he hit hard.

But I had, I think in in preseason I fought Avery. Actually, we both dropped the gloves. And so that's my – I didn't count on the NHL stats, but that one didn't end up good for me either. I think I actually hit him, but then my teammates were screaming, or everybody screamed, help him. And then I got helped by the rest of my teammates. That's crazy that that was the one fight you got and it

was in pre-season i'm sure that him chirping and him getting uh him lipping off had something to do with it in order to get under your skin for you to even consider it well it was uh yeah i mean like we're in vegas i'm like come on leave us we can just enjoy playing the game and and go out after the game like why do we have to be so intense in the game? And he was all over it. It was a funny story too because I was in the hallway there and one of the defensemen said to my teammates,

just start with Avery, I will kill him for you. So I started, but then LaPierre jumped my defensive partner and then I got stuck with Avery. So that's why it ended up. That's why I tried to start it with him. Somebody's supposed to come in.

Yeah, yeah. Where's my guy? Yeah, exactly. Somebody helped me. But then I guess somebody yelled from the bench to help him, and then I got help. But he didn't really hit me, so I got away from her scrap with not any blue marks or nothing.

The crazy fight night versus Detroit. I mean, the spark plug for that was probably you and Igor Larionov, two unlikely guys. I don't think you got a fight made for it, but that was sort of almost not the trigger for it, but that kind of got the ball rolling a bit that night. Yeah. You know, I don't know why I didn't think about it, but who thought that I was going to wrestling Larionov,

and I didn't have a clue either. Larionov played that McCarthy or Shanahan was going to be on the ice at the same time so it's just me being in in the game not thinking about what could happen there had been so much talks about what was going to happen back and forth and no I didn't think about it we start wrestling and all suddenly when sudden the wrestling game is over. It's like, what's going on here? I'm like, oops, sorry, sorry, Claude. Didn't think about it.

After your first Stanley Cup win, what did you do your day with the Cup? Did you have it over in Sweden? What was the day all about? Yeah, it was kind of so-so when I got the Cup because we had the World Cup. We went so, you know, the game was the last game, uh, Florida, I was in June sometime and then we had the world cup and I was got to celebrate it. Then two days later, we had Germany in the world cup. Uh, so I kind of a bad timing to get the cup, I would say. Um,

cause you don't want to be, you actually want to be behaving when you play against Germany, you know, be able to back check a little bit at least. So it was kind of a quiet night with the Cup. Was that easily the most grueling experience of your career, like going through four rounds like that? Because I know the year before you said you guys got bounced in the first round when you were in Quebec.

Like, had anything – was there anything that could have prepared you for that run? No, it was a tough run. I think we also stayed in the hotel the whole way, and it felt like eight months, those two months you went through all that. But I would say we didn't think about that. I remember me and Deadmarsh looked at the quad, brought the ring there pretty early, and when we ate there before in the playoffs,

and we're like we want that thing like we're gonna we don't think about anything we're gonna have that we want that ring we want the cup and and the first year i would say uh it's all happiness even if you stay in the hotel i would say the next year when you got in the room and and stayed another month and a half and it's like a little long but the first year i would say it was just a another month and a half, and it's like, oh, a little long. But the first year, I would say it was just you had one goal, and this was to win the Cup.

And then after you guys did get that Cup, I mean, the next few years, a couple of losses to Detroit and Dallas, but then Ray Bork's on the team for his first full season there. You get Rob Blake, and you guys end up going on to win. But for you, you played with a – was it your spleen, and you didn't even know it was ruptured in game seven of the second round like how did you figure out that was the issue was it even in question of you playing in a couple of those games when you did get injured how did that all happen i don't think i knew before uh after game seven we knocked out uh la i think in game

seven at home i was just at the restaurant. And all of a sudden, it was starting to hurt, especially the whole left side. And then I called the trainer. And the trainer said, the worst thing it could ever be is you rupture your spleen. I'm like, OK. But then you go to the hospital. And you walk in. Maybe it's not that bad. You just get out of here.

And then an hour later, it's like 1.7 liters of blood in your in your uh your body there and then you almost died so it went pretty fast i would say but nothing that i knew in the game that i was gonna that it hurt it should start bothering me maybe an hour and a half after the game uh i don't know why but that i guess it was maybe it was just a tiny opening before that and then totally the floodgates opened there right after the game. But I was lucky. I remember asking the doctor there, you know, they're like, you're going to, am I going to survive?

Yeah, you're going to be fine. You're going to live a normal life afterwards. And the next question, like, can I play anymore in the playoffs? He said, no. And then got a little sad. I didn't really care about the surgery. I was sad that I couldn't play anything the rest of the playoffs. But everything went fine. I had the best care about the surgery. I was sad that I couldn't play anything the rest of the playoffs. But everything went fine.

I had the best doctors and right now I'm fine. And I think that leads into one of the most legendary stories, which is the following year. And with all the injuries you kind of accumulated throughout that season, you took the whole regular season off, followed by leading the playoffs and scoring. So when did the team decide

that you were just going to be shut down for that whole regular season? No, that was my own because I had such a problem with my feet and the bursa sacs and they were hurting so bad. And then I think it was also a combination, lost his spleen and almost died. And I was like, I did the surgery on my foot that year and took away the bursa sacs because I barely got him in the skates. And then they came back when I started practicing for the camp. And I'm like, I can't go through another year hurting so much in my feet.

And then the spleen and everything, I don't think I was ready. So I decided just to tell the team, like, don't pay me. I used to go home, and I'm going to come back when I'm ready. Then I came back in January, and I had an infection from the surgery there and they kind of ate up my tendon. So I had to do, as soon as I got back to Denver, I had to have a surgery on my tendon there for the rest of the year. So that's why I missed all 11 months.

And it was really close, I would say, not making the playoffs too. But I remember, it's kind of funny, I had one two-on-one as an only contact drill before they throw me in the playoffs. playoffs too but i had i remember it's kind of funny i had one two on one as a as a on only contact drill before they throw the in the playoffs and they're like here you go you can start playing i'm like okay let's get it going and i got thrown in first game against la and i guess it worked out i was in good shape i had worked out for for 10 months straight so i was in good shape okay so despite the injury and the burst attack stuff, you were still able to like keep your conditioning up. And I was going to ask, like, did you offer not to be paid?

Did they still end up paying you given everything you'd done for the organization? Okay. Sounds good, Pete. Yeah. No, I said, I don't pay me. I just want to take my time. Cause I, you know, I did the burst attack.

That's such a problem. It's hurting every single day. You know, I'm going to put practices. I'm like, I have to take my time. You can't, you know, force me. And I want to be under any pressure. He says, don't pay me. Stupid.

The worst thing, it was my highest year of pain, too. So it was bad timing for me personally. But I guess my economy studies didn't work out for that one. At least I didn't have to take my time. Hey, well, good thing the Crocs thing ended up working out. And I kind of want to throw it over to you because I don't want to spoil it, but you were an early investor into Crocs, the silly shoes that guys wear around in the locker room.

And every nurse wears in every hospital in the world. I think it was more like a boating shoe i think that's what i heard when they came up and there was a couple of friends from boulder that was uh in really early investors in that and then they said oh if we're gonna make it if it booms here everywhere in the in the united states you're gonna help us out in scandinavia and that's what happened because i had the foot problems and i had a foot guy that took care of me and he had a couple stores i'm like of me. And he had a couple of stores. I'm like, could you help me with this?

We started Crocs. And yeah, we made a budget selling maybe 5,000 shoes. And then I'm selling about half a million the next year. So it was kind of funny how it ended up. And that's how we got into shoes. And that's why we're still in shoes too with the Crocs. So this was just a local friend of yours. And he was from Boulder, Colorado.

the croc so so this was just a local friend of yours and he was from boulder colorado and because i think when i heard the story he like somebody said that the guy brought him into the locker room and put him in the in the dressing room and everybody was looking at him being like yeah no what are those what are those exactly well that was before i think they were white that these when they got yellow and blue and no colors. And then I got really the rift in the Swedish media. Like I brought the worst shoes ever to sell in Sweden, but especially when you mix the blue and the yellow, they look horrible. But yeah, that's kind of his name was Tom Duran.

Actually he helped us with a few other things. We sold the skate sharpening machine. He helped us there too. And then we decided to help him out with the Crocs selling in Scandinavia. And they worked out great. So you still currently like own the rights of like distributing crocs in all of scandinavia no we do that in wikina we upgraded the shoes are really beautiful nowadays so we upgraded that's amazing i want to i want to go into the the foot issues you mentioned was that the first year that those kind of started in that run

when you guys won in 01 and you had to miss the time? Like, when did all the foot issues begin? Did they go back to when you were younger? I've always been curious as to how that all started. No, that's not what had happened. I think it started, I'm not really sure about the year, but I think it was 03. It was my best year then. I played really well in the regular season.

And then maybe one game before the playoffs, it didn't work. So what happens is the foot doesn't stick in the skate. I lose the balance all the time. But it was more like one game to another. The weirdest thing and maybe a trauma or whatever it was but i had maybe 10 or 12 surgeries afterwards and never got fixed so still have the same problem as today i had some serious foot issues as well one of my surgeons was guy dr anderson in north carolina did you see him for some of yours yeah no he uh he cut my heel off and moved it in and

we decided to actually find out it was not the problem. So we cut the heel off again and moved it back. So it was just a painful surgery too. Like, yeah. So I tried him too. We tried that too. It was not only his idea. I wanted to do it.

Just didn't want to do it like really permanent. That would hurt me for the rest of my life, just walking and doing things. So I tried a different few things, but I guess, nope, nothing worked. So you're not in pain walking or anything. It's just in terms of skating. I would say in terms of skating. Somehow, I lose the balance. For a while, I almost could tie it up

and then I could twist and turn and maybe almost lift the foot out of the skate. It was the weirdest thing. I can make a – could almost pull it in to, you know, go from a size 8 to a size 6 with it. And so that's why I didn't really stick in the skate because then all of a sudden I got, you know, a lot of room in the boot. But I'm okay with it now. I have to say it was a frustrating year.

So many surgeries, so many weird things going on there. So I guess it didn't work. Even to the point where didn't they have like an electricity pack? Yeah. And they had to build it into your skate and like what was the purpose of that was it to try to distract the pain no not to distract the pain was more like the like i said i could shrink the foot but if i had the electrical if the muscle was on all the time i couldn't shrink the foot so that's why i had it on so

so the muscle would be i don don't know what to call it, like totally back in the electrical working. You can see I didn't work at the electrical business either. It made the muscle like whatever, strained all the time, like hard all the time. So I couldn't move the foot. That's kind of the reason why I used that one. I tried so many things believe me i i

tried every little thing that you could possibly do i try to put it in a cast i i tried i would say everything in that foot 4 000 things but nothing worked and honestly i know what you mean i was doing the same exact thing and i think just, it's so exhausting to keep having to try things and then they don't work for me. At least I was just like, this is mentally crushing me more than physically in a way. Wow. Yeah.

It was always a battle. You know, I try to keep the skates cold. It's a harder than a word that would be easy to skate. But, but I would say that the hardest part was i knew the left foot and i knew i could play and i knew when i was good and some games that i'm like this is going to be tough and you know you're going to go in the sold-out building you're going to get a hatcher chasing you try to

kill you and then it's like oh i can't even hold my balance so to be honest the last couple of years kind of first surviving the two first periods and then it was close and then then you you get going in the last because then nobody had the time to chase you down and you know i even retired in the game in philly you know i said this is it i can't skate i can't do anything about this i hate it we had a meeting after first period me and gagney and stevens was the coach i'm like i'm retired'm retiring. I can't move. Come on. And then I tipped one in and I had an assist. We beat Pittsburgh 3-2.

I'm like, I think I got first or second star. I'm like, I can't retire. This is not – so it was kind of back and forth struggling. But I would say the hardest part is like you knew you couldn't do the best out there, even for your teammates. And then people in the stands watching and trying to play harder, play tougher, but

I guess you couldn't keep the balance. You just mentioned a couple guys from Philly, Peter. I want to go back to the 2005 lockout led to the salary cap, which led to your departure from the Avalanche. How did you end up settling on Philadelphia as the team to sign? I was close to Boston first.

Well, we didn't have any room for the Avalanche because we had way too many players, and they got cut down so many foot. Yeah, it was okay trying something new, too. And then almost Boston, and then I ended up in Philly. I think Philly actually, think about how people play there when they get liked. I think it would actually fit my playing style. I think the Flyers fans

they want you to play physical. They want you to be involved and I think that actually fit my style. That's kind of when I end up with the Flyers with Bobby Clark and how he played and I thought that would be a good fit for me. Was there any animosity with the Avs

giving you history with the team and did you feel like they maybe picked other guys over you or was everything kind of kosher? No, I was totally fine with that. So no, didn't argue with that. I had a good talk with Pierre. He really wanted me to come back

and play for the Avs but he didn't fit with that. I had a good talk with Pierre. He really wanted me to come back and play for the Avs, but he didn't fit in the center cap. I have no problem with them taking that decision. To be honest, the way I played in the lockout, it started a foot problem. I did a few

surgeries before I came back to Philly to try to get it fixed because I thought maybe the doctor said it was going to be fine. And I didn't play as bad in Philly either, but I think I had 75 points in 60 games, even to have the foot problem. So I think kind of okay. But back to that with the avalanche,

I didn't see that they wanted to throw me out there. I mean, I had good talks with Pierre and with Kroenke and everybody. So they were really nice to me afterwards too. In Philly, you had 75 points in 60 games and put your shoulder through the Whitdogs' nose. So, yeah, I think you did all right. With your kids now, do they play hockey? Are you getting them into the game in Switzerland?

Yeah, they're playing in the EVC here, the Zug team um with uh with the young guys here so yeah though they're out there uh the older one i think he may be like soccer better than hockey but well i'll see if i can get him the right direction here so do you guys still spend time in the summers in in america or are you kind of there all year no we're here're here and then I go back to Sweden in the summers back in my hometown. We have a summer cabin up there so we go back in, I would say July, August. I go to the States, I would say, in the fall

and in the winter to watch when it's NHL games at the same time. I think that's when I head over there. I was just in Denver and it's actually Nashville when the games come canceled. I was supposed to go see two games and they got canceled in Nashville for the Water League. So I guess I have to go back here soon to see if I can watch some games. It was kind of sad. Yeah. Fly over to watch some games.

And I guess both games got canceled. They were going to play the Avalanche on Friday morning, Thanksgiving the day after, and that got canceled. I just wanted to ask you, like, obviously with the career you had and how talented you were, I'm sure it was a relief to retire because you didn't have to deal with the pain. But, like, how was it emotionally and mentally at the fact that you probably felt that you had so much more to give, but due to the injuries you had to retire early? It's so hard and that's why I kind of didn't want to get out.

I battled this problem for 70 years, I would say. and that's why I kind of didn't want to get out by badly this problem for 70 years, I would say. And I always wanted to try as much as I probably could to fix it. But I tried everything and I'm glad I did that at least. It's not like I gave up and said, oh, I didn't try hard enough. So I was actually kind of happy that I did everything I could and I couldn't get back and get it fixed. And to be honest, I'm actually happy that I got to play

in winning teams before I was 30 that could win a couple of championships. I actually won with the fog foot problem in the Olympics 06 with Lindstrom and Sandin and a few other guys. So I had a good career. I can't complain too much, but it was very frustrating when you know you can play good, and then somebody that's barely having any skills outplay you on the ice. That's very frustrating. I would say. Well, I mean, because like you were asked, like, what's,

what's the hardest thing about not playing? And you said no more, like no more winning, right? Like that's how competitive you were. So where did you, did you, were you able to find that competition away from the rink anywhere else? Like, did you, did you maybe take up golf? Like what did you do in order to try to get that competition back in your life? No, well, when I retired at 11, before that, I tried everything. You know, I was rehabbing, you know, getting on the bike and trying to get ready

and then started following a little business on the side. But I would say during that time, I was always focused to come back and play. And after that, it's when the career is over. I have a hard time finding the same. But I think it's also good that I don't have to be competing in everything. I did actually a few competitions on TV here in Sweden and in different sports against different athletes. So I got to do a few other things.

I've done that for every other year for a total of eight years. So I got to compete a few other things. I've done that for every other year for a total of eight years. So I got to compete a little bit afterwards. What was the game show like? What were you doing? Well, it's different athletes. It could be a cross country or downhill or high jumper. But you bring in old athletes and you compete in different sports. It could be swimming.

It could be doing puzzles. It could be lifting as many things at the same time or holding your balance. It could be swimming, it could be doing puzzles, it could be lifting as many things at the same time or holding your balance. It could be anything, actually. So it's different sports, and so you get different athletes. It's pretty popular in the Swedish TV, so I decided to do it for a few years. Well, speaking of television, you actually ended up doing something with the Trailer Park Boys at one point? Yeah. I thought it was funny thing i heard they're pretty

uh popular over there and i was just gonna shoot a couple slap shots and yeah we had a fun day with recording so it was good did you have any idea what the trailer park boys were like were you it was at a show that you were watching when you were going on road trips and stuff no i never watched it before uh and then somebody had to, of course, research it before I was on it. But then I found out that it's actually a popular show. Oh, yeah. And I think it would actually fit. The thing I was going to do is going to fit pretty well into the story.

So it worked out great. Maybe Bubbles was the guy who made you get those glasses you have on right now. Those are very similar to the ones that Bubbles was the guy who made you get those glasses you have on right now. Those are very similar to the ones that Bubbles wears. Maybe. I don't remember exactly. I think, wasn't he wearing a helmet? Maybe he didn't wear a helmet. Oh, yeah.

I'm sure he had it all on. He was a big cat guy, too. Big cat guy. We can't thank you enough. I know this World Cup final is starting, so we're going to have to let you go. But this has just been an honor talking to you. What a career. And we really appreciate you joining the show.

Thank you for having me on the show. It's a, and congrats. You're doing a good, good job. You know, I hear about you guys all the time over here. So,

uh, that's great. And, uh, yeah, let's see who went to woke up and take care. We're making a Euro trip out there. So maybe we'll connect in person.

And you're part owner and a golf course. So maybe we can get a sandbagger. I don't know if you've seen those videos that we do. Talk about getting those competitive juices flowing again, buddy. Maybe you and Marcus Naslin versus me and Witt. No, I don't know. Marcus is awful. Perfect.

All right, Peter. Thanks so much, Pete. That was awesome. Perfect. Take care. That interview was also brought to you by Omega Accounting. Perfect. Take care. eligible to receive up to $26,000 per employee. All it takes is a quick, easy, and free 10-minute consultation to determine if you qualify. Omega is the small business champion with teams dedicated to maximum tax credits.

CPAs even turn to Omega for ERC guidance. Take advantage of this exclusive small business tax credit now. The three-year sunset deadline for filing begins to close march 31st 2023 so learn if you qualify today call 800-309-ERC that's 800-309-ERC 800-309-ERC or visit omegataxcredit.com slash barstoolsports now. Man, huge thanks to Peter Forsberg joining us. What, what, it's 7 o'clock for you, 9 o'clock Eastern time. He was over in Switzerland.

Just, it was one of those ones I don't get nervous too, too often these days, but I was up early that morning drinking the coffee, kind of had a little stomach anxiety going. I mean, goddamn Peter Forsberg. So hopefully you all enjoyed it. It was an absolute honor and a pleasure to talk to him. So I was going to say, I wish I could have went a little bit longer, but we were cutting into the world cup at least.

And if people are mad at me for kind of ending it before the interview started, he kind of mentioned, yeah, game starts at 10 o'clock. Like, so I, we were, we were well aware that he wanted to be watching that game. It was like 10 Oh two biz as the couple more. I'm like, Oh boy, we want to try to set up a little in-person European interview with Peter sometime.

So we let him go quick, but just thinking back to how he played. And I think now that he's been passed by McDavid fifth, all time and assist per game played on the edge. Like you wouldn't believe. I mentioned the cold shoulder I took. There's probably 500, 500 other guys who played in the league that dealt with it.

Just such a joy to watch growing up. And in the peak years of watching hockey at 12 years old, like that was the guy or at least one of them. So it's amazing to talk to him. It's, I mean, I know we talked about a little bit. It just sucks that the hockey world was deprived of not seeing him longer through his dominant years with, uh, with, with the foot situation. And you know, you were, you, you talked about it, you went through it too.

And it's just a mental fucking grind. And, uh, you know, to hear that he, he tried absolutely everything and he, he left it all on the line and he's at peace with it all was, was pretty cool. It's just a, it's just such a shame for the, for the hockey world to have not seen him dominate the way that he did for longer. The surgery I had is called an osteotomy

of the first metatarsal. I had it on both feet. They basically cut like a pizza shaped piece of your bone out of the top of your foot, which then for me lowered my arch is crazy. Pretty much foot reconstruction. He ended up, like you mentioned, cutting the heel. And it's like the rehab I went through in the front of the foot, add that times 10 when you're dealing with the heel. And so it's just so amazing to see what he went through. But like, I'm a complete pigeon. That's a Hall of Fame. Great.

But just to know the foot stuff and not being able to be on your edge and skate the way you once did, it is truly mentally exhausting and torturous so to hear him kind of talk about it kind of brings to light what he went through and trying to give it a go yeah buddy i broke my big toe one time and i felt that i was fucking for six weeks i was the biggest bitch i couldn't even imagine having to try to go through your full career the way that he did so uh the feet and the boots man just because it's so stiff and it's so cold and the minute you get whacked or a puck hits your foot it just spirals out of control with the pain so i was having like flashbacks when he mentioned about how the the the harder the skate was the

better it was so in terms of he tried to keep them really cold same for me like i almost could have used new skates every three games which is is impossible. It's just, it sucked. And then to have me do it, yeah, whatever, see you later, Whit. But to have a guy that every fan's paying to see in the building, there's probably another pressure in his mind of people are paying to watch me, and I just can't do what I want to do. And last thing before we move on,

going through his numbers as the interview was going on and preparing, the years he couldn't even skate or play in quotations, was a point per game it's like holy shit so what a player and we thank him very much him thinking about retiring and he's like oh i got one and one i guess i can't so good i was telling my boys last night everyone's fight face was shocked like yeah man it's you got a legend like that it's awesometh all-time in points per game, too. I mean, you think of the esteemed history of the league, man. He's right up there. So, hopefully, again, everybody enjoyed the interview.

Meanwhile, the team he made his bones with, the Defending Cup champs, currently the second wildcard team in the West. They got whacked with the injury bug real bad. They lost four in a row. They righted the ship a little bit. But, you know, the miss of Landerskog, Manson, McKinnon, Allheart, Mikko Ranthinen, man, this boy is carrying them 38 points in 29 games played. Of course, you know, the missing Kadri Kemper, Burakovsky,

they all lost a free agency. Um, let's see. Biz do they get through the stretch? Are they going to make the playoffs this year? Is this a little bump in the road? I mean, not the guaranteed, obviously, but what do you think they pan out here? I think we all agree that the Western conference is weaker than the East, especially this year. I think that they definitely survive the storm. This reeks of long-term IR money being able to be used to go and get a big guy at the deadline.

So if anything, I think it's working in their favor to get these big dogs who went through that long run last year, a little bit of rest through the difficult grind days of the season um but yes i think that they make it through even if they get to a wild card spot and they get everybody back healthy and maybe they're able to then go and and get a big move at the deadline they're gonna have to address that second line center spot and we don't need to talk about it today we can we can bump it back to who we're going to assume might be a guy that they go get at the deadline but uh colorado's fine there's no reason to hit the panic button right now they got all their guys there they just got to get healthy i'm with you biz but i i just devil's advocate it's like as time goes on and you stay this way and you're losing ground more and more to Dallas and Winnipeg and

in that central and Minnesota the way they're playing it yeah they should get they're gonna get in the playoffs but it you gotta right the ship at one point injuries aside it's like you can deal with it now if we're into the beginning of February and they're playing the same type of hockey they are now that's when you start to wonder like all right they they gotta get a winning streak going here yeah they gotta get off the schneid a little bit more. You just mentioned Winnipeg. Unfortunately, they're going to be without Blake Wheeler. He's going to miss at least four weeks after groin surgery. He took a shot from Josh Morrissey. I don't know if he's, you know, you hear groin, you think, you know, nuts and balls, but I don't know if it was the

actual groin muscle. Either way, he's going to be out. He briefly left the game. He returned to finish it. What a goddamn warrior. Nate Schmidt also going to be out missing him for four to six weeks. Upper body injury. Jets currently a point back at Dallas for first in the Central. They do have two games in hand. And shout out to Morrissey, man. Still leads the team in scoring 36 points in 31 games. Just a point away from tying his career high already.

And he just passed big buff for the longest assist in point streak by a defenseman. Franchise history. And Connor Hellebuck, man, this kid, he started 24 out of 30. He's third and save percentage, fourth of goals against tied for first and shutouts. Is this another guy where we should probably be mentioned in the MVP race? Yeah, I think that would be fair to say. And it's no surprise that the way that he's performed this year. I mean,

I know there was times that people wondered what was going on last year, but he just seems to be so dialed into his game. And I think that the entire change, we kind of mentioned it briefly a few weeks ago, we talked to Kyle Connor, that the change in the culture there and getting a new voice in his head coach and just figuring out things, it certainly worked to their benefit.

And at times I think our podcast has maybe been a little bit hard on Pierre Luke Dubois, but holy shit, is that guy playing some hockey right now when you talk about power forwards maybe his name doesn't get mentioned enough because he can score he can skate and if you want to fucking test him he'll drop he's got no problem so that's a guy who's really stepped up um the wheeler injury sucks and i'm glad you shouted out him coming back into that game i think even the gm had mentioned in the interview interview when talking about the time he's going to miss, how tough he is to get back into that game. Morrissey probably in Norris conversations right now, too.

If you're leading your team in scoring, yeah, you have to be mentioned. And he's more known for going against top pairs and shutting them down. So with that, with the points, man, fucking Winnipeg making some noise 60 to 1 beginning of the year so i heard oh yeah here we go 30 future bets i know i only got a couple this year uh vegas defenseman alex petrangelo returned to the lineup he missed nine games due to his four-year-old daughter evelyn uh she became seriously ill around thanksgiving she caught the flu which led to encephalitis which led to a lesion on her brain. And she lost her motor skills.

Real scary stuff. I mean, anybody, but let alone as a parent. Fortunately, she was able to come home last week. She's been improving enough where dad felt comfortable to return to the game. She's going to make a full recovery. So we just want to reach out to Alex and say we're very happy. She's doing much better.

Of course, Evelyn. So best wishes to them and happy health going forward. It sounds like she's going to be okay. But, you know, you hate to hear any stuff with kids involved in it. It's good he made his family their priority. Maybe not something would have happened 30, 40 years ago in this league. And, you know, there's no reason it shouldn't this day and age. So continued good health to the Petrangelo family.

Trevor Moore signed a five-year extension with the LA Kings worth $21 million. Comes out to $4.2 million a year. He's got 18 points in 33 games this year. He had career highs in goals, assists, and points last year. He would have been unrestricted, but this is an undrafted local kid. They got him in the trade that sent Kyle Clifford and Jack Campbell back to Toronto, but he's felt a nice little role for them, Biz. Oh, he's a heck of a player.

He had a big breakout year last year and a great trade for them to make use of of those guys and and get a big piece back and a nice commitment to him secure him up for the next five years at a great cap hit and i see that i think that that that he can he can continue to accelerate his game and definitely a guy that they want around for a long time so la's kind of biz i looked into some of their stuff that they want around for a long time. So LA's kind of. Biz, I looked into some of their stuff. They're not as bad as it sounds. Their goaltending is horrible. Yeah, their goaltending's really been killing them. And I think that as of late, they've been struggling.

They came out of the gate playing pretty good, but they got to figure out the goaltending situation. And I don't know when, is Cal Peterson back up at this point? No, Fedex Coppy's been playing his ass off lately. Ironically, you know, he's been, you know, kind of a journeyman, Phoenix Coppy's been playing his ass off lately. Yes. Ironically, you know, he's been, you know, kind of a journeyman career, but he's been playing his ass off. And I mean, as bad as their goaltender has been with,

they're fucking second in the Pacific right now, 39 points. So if they can get quick and tackle Peterson to those levels, man, you know, they're in the catbird seat. They sent Quinton Byfield down, which is totally understandable. A young kid, that high of a pick. Let's get him playing more minutes. And, and he's done a good job in terms of going down there and playing well, but it's still a bright future. And it's a team that I thought might take a step back this year, but

like if they had better goaltending, they could be challenged in Vegas right now for the top of that division, or at least be like playing a little bit better. So I still think LA is going to get into the playoffs. I don't know if I picked him to get in in our pre-season preview but uh yeah i think it's it's it's it's kind of credit to todd mcclellan he's done a good job and and that team they'll figure it out jonathan quick you know he'll get hot at the right time bizarre to see a team with a minus 10 goal deferential and be second in their division like you don't usually usually the goal deferential is a strong correlation to where teams end up so um just a kind of a bizarre season for them and like you said though like that's a imagine being second and you're still not i guess playing up to what you think is your

standard so yeah that that's a very sneaky team out west that could do a lot of damage especially if they get a hot goaltender no doubt no, no doubt. All right, time for the double risk of time, as Biz calls it. Shout-out to Craig Anderson. He became the second-oldest goalie to ever record a 40-save shutout, 41 years old, 206 days. Johnny Bauer's the only guy who's been older than him. How about Andrew Hammond, the Hamburglar? He retired after six NHL seasons.

Obviously, he had a lot of years in the AHL. He was with Colorado, Ottawa, Montreal, and New Jersey. But we got to go to that 2014-15 Ottawa Senators. He went 21-2 with a 9-4-1 save percentage, a 1-7-9 goals against, three shutouts, carried that Ottawa Senators team into the playoffs. They did end up losing the first round. Of course, the fucking Berger gets thrown on the ice. Curtis Lazai eats it.

Just such an epic tale from the Ottawa Senators. So shout out to the Hamburg Andrew Hammond, man. He's just one of those great little stories that was hot for a little while and kind of like Moose Hedberg back in the day, Biz, right? I think he got a card that gave him McDonald's for life. That's

Grinelli's dream. I'd take it. I'd love that. Holy fuck. He'd never leave McDonald's again. I got a buffalo chicken pizza waiting for me on the other side of this. This laptop right now. Not from McDonald's. Sounds great. This local place, this local little pub Darcy's in Milton.

They have a honey mustard chicken pizza. And some people may say, dude, dude, dude biz you're the biggest hero whole foods fucking hiking loser to kind of make that noise at this pizza this pizza is so legit it's crazy okay well hey we're coming there for the winter classic i'll go there and i'll try this honey mustard pizza all right well i mean i bet half the people listening probably puked outside their window in the car when they heard honey mustard chicken pizza i mean biz when you were here at joust on a couple years ago we had the house right by brewer's fork how good was that killer bee pizza with the it had the pepperoni with the hot that was a spot phenomenal stuff but we ate there

14 times seriously thousand kept them in business during COVID. Wade Redden became the first player inducted into the senators ring of honor last week. Just the second member to be inducted after Brian Murray. I don't know. You would have thought at least one other player would have got there by now. I mean, I know that retired a few numbers,

Chris Neal's number 25 is going to go up in February, but either way, congrats to Wade Redden, a hell of a presence in Ottawa for a long time. Got to the Stanley Cup with him back on the day. And Ryan Reynolds, man, he's very horny for Ottawa. We said last week the NHL is basically going to pair him up with whatever money works. He said, I will be a frothy, rabies-infused fan, the likes of which the NHL has never seen.

I mean, that's debatable when you look at some of the fan bases around the league. But either way, man, I think everybody wants Ryan Reynolds to be involved with the NHL. I think it's pretty fucking obvious at this point. And let's see, Jason Robertson and Miko Ranthen are the 11th and 12th players to have 100 points in the calendar year 2022. Only three years have had more in the fucking history of the NHL, 1992, 1983, and 1984.

We still have a couple weeks left in the season. So just the scoring is so good. The league is so good. We talk about it all the time. Awesome stuff. Dynamite time a couple weeks left in the season. So just the scoring is so good. The league is so good. We talk about it all the time. Awesome stuff. Dynamite time to be a fan of the league. All right, quick. Just another quick shout out to remind everyone.

Every fan out there who wishes their team had a stalwart, a superstar in net and in D and at up front. The Dallas Stars got Robertson, Heskinen and Ottinger in the same draft. So there is hope. Yeah. One draft. They got three studs. That's for some of you loser fan bases out there.

It could change quick. Yeah, that's fine. That's a great call. A great call for the Thrasher fans out there. We know there's still a few of them out there. The Atlantic Gladiators of the East Coast League. They bust out the old threads this weekend business you gotta look at them i never realized how cool they were when they had them back in the day i don't know if people picked

on the thrashes but shout out to anson carter for making it happen what they got about 18 8 000 people in the building the other night my tnt brother anson carter man he's a part owner in that team and since taking over they've make it a splash, especially attendance wise. I want to say they had 8,500 to 9,000 people at that game with the throwback jerseys. That's a shit ton of people for an ECHL game. So a great way to grow hockey down South. And they're doing an incredible job since taking over. And also Nesbitt's involved.

This is assistant coach. Now after retiring, after hitting his thousand game mark last year, retired his Jersey this year, and now he's a, an assistant. So a lot of positive things going down in the East coast hockey league. Super nice arena there too,

where they play at great barn. Your other desk mate gets a shout out as well. This week, Wayne Gretzky congrats to him in the Las Vegas desert dogs, the new national lacrosse League team in Vegas. He's a potter owner, along with Joe Sy, Steve Nash, and Dustin Johnson. Are you going to be able to make a game up there, or what, Biz? I would love to do a little behind-the-scenes video

of going to see a lacrosse game with Wayno. Wayno is a big baseball and lacrosse guy in the summertime. He liked getting away from hockey. So maybe we can do round two interview round two and we can go check out a game he said once a year it's funny actually i got the desert dog because he sent me a merch package so i got it yeah i got that merch back i like the logo maybe uh maybe he'll even let me try out for the team next year just like the the vancouver warriors did when they fucking snubbed me maybe you can go to a game and then you and Revo can fight at Caesars Palace afterwards, ideally.

That would be fucking sick at Caesars. The World Juniors, man, talk about burying the lead here. They start Monday in Halifax and in Moncton. Seattle, Shane Wright was named captain of Canada. Whit, real quick, a successful journey for this kid, would that give him enough confidence to join

Seattle and actually be a force, maybe, or at least much more of a contributing factor later in the season, or what? I mean, you saw him go down to the AHL, light it up, and come back, and as Bistradamus called it, he got his first goal. It doesn't really matter. It sounds crazy, but no matter, if you're in the NHL and you go down to a different level, you go down to the AHL, you go to World Juniors, and you light it up, no matter what, that's a good thing.

Now, I don't know if he'll be what that's a good thing now i don't know if he'll be going back to the nhl i don't know what's going to happen in terms of maybe going to the ohl if there's a trade for his rights but no matter what if he goes down and plays well which i'm sure he will canada has a wagon of a team it just is so nice as a player to feel the puck get your touches produce offensively and then feel like yourself after being in the nhl and grinding away not playing many minutes. So no matter where he ends up post-tournament, it's all for the better. I love the fact that they sent him there.

And if you remember, during the lockout canceled season, my first year pro, when the AHL was loaded, Patrice Bergeron was in the AHL with Providence, and he went to the World Juniors with the greatest Canadian team of all time. So if he can do it a year after playing completely full-time in the NHL, or maybe two years, then anyone can go there and really gain a lot of good things from playing well at a tournament against the best players in the world your age. I know we're going to talk about it next week,

and you kind of mentioned it briefly there, but this Canada team is going to be fun to watch. They are going to be so good. Shane Wright, Conor Bedard. This is going to be one of the better Canada are going to be so good. Shane Wright, Connor Bedard. This is going to be one of the better Canada teams we've seen in the past few years. Yeah. Gia,

once again, the world juniors do start Monday. So be sure to check it out. Now a couple more notes here before we let you go. We want to send our deepest condolences to our very good buddy, John Butch grass on the death of his father, Edward Michael Butch grass, who passed away at 90 years old.

I reached out to Butch on DM them, and he told me that, quote, he couldn't have had a better one. He was a salty beauty talking about his dad. And, Bucci, we just hope you're doing all right, buddy. We're so sorry to hear about your loss. And your dad sounded like a great guy. And condolences. That's why Bucci was a hockey fan.

He got him into hockey. The guy played goalie. And I've known Bucci for a long time. I shot him a text as well. Just that's really hard to hear. But what a great guy he sounds like he was. Yeah, guys, certainly a tough thing to bring up, especially around this time of year. But, you know, tragedy struck in London in the OHL.

Abakar, because Beckhoff passed away this past week, and it's just such a heartbreaking story. I actually spoke to the kid whose parents billeted him. And naturally, the family was just so devastated. The kid mentioned that his dad would always tell him how great of a person he was. A truly special kid to have around. And I think with our show, we've mentioned many times that, you know, we try to make you guys laugh. We try to have around. And I think with our show, we've mentioned many times that, you know, we try to make you guys laugh. We try to have fun, but there's no more rewarding feeling than

times we hear from people in terms of, uh, helping them when they're not feeling great and coming from somebody, I lost my aunt. Um, you know, she took her own life years back. So it's a, it's a thing that, that, that hits close and personal to home. And it's just like when we talk to you guys, I know we can all say it. And everyone has times of battling stuff. Nothing is ever that bad. It'll never be that bad. It's something I remember as a kid, my father and my mother saying to me, nothing's ever that bad.

And I look in the eyes of my kids and it's something I'll pass forward to them. And mental illness is such a scary, horrible thing. We've mentioned it so many times. It's such a heavy, tough subject to talk about. But I want everyone listening, whoever's going through a tough time, it's never that bad. There's people who love and care about you out there. There's people who will do anything to help you. You got to reach out and you hope that people reach out to you but i'll say it again it is never that bad and it's such a heartbreaking story for the london knights teammates this kid his family his billet family and i think that's why uh maybe i mentioned the saturday night i had i spoke to this kid on saturday and then i went out with my friends and i looked around and it's like realize at this time of year how blessed you are to have friends and family that that love you and care about you and if it's a time realize at this time of year, how blessed you are to have friends and family that, that love you and care about you. And if it's a time in your life that you feel like there isn't anyone, I promise you, I promise you there is. And, and please just reach out to

people, tell people how you're feeling and just know nothing is ever that bad. And at this time of year, I'll also say, just look at people that you love and care about and appreciate how lucky you are to have loved ones, to have friends, to have people who truly care about what you're doing and how your life's going. And we feel so sorry to have to talk about this and have to mention this at this time of year, but being Christmas, being the new year, appreciate what you have and know for people who are struggling, it's never that bad. And so I want to wish everyone a Merry Christmas. I thank you so much for listening and please reach out to me if you ever need to. And just know that things will

get better. And we wish his family, you know, prayers that they're in our thoughts and prayers. And it's just a horrible thing. But at this time of year, just know you're loved and appreciate your family and appreciate your friends. And we thank you so much for listening. So God bless. Merry Christmas. Happy Hanukkah. And we'll be back to you next week. Bye.