Spittin Chiclets - Spittin' Chiclets Episode 422: Featuring Tony Granato

Episode Date: January 4, 2023

On Episode 422 of Spittin’ Chiclets, the guys are joined by Tony Granato. The Wisco Hockey coach joined the show (00:50:47) to discuss his playing career, his coaching career, coaching Biz and tons more. But first, the guys open the show discussing their week in Boston. From the live show to the winter classic, the stories are endless. The fellas also break down the World Juniors and the absolute show Connor Bedard is putting on.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 422 of Spittin' Chicklets Presented by Pink Whitney, from our friends at New Amsterdam Vodka Here in the Barstool Sports Podcast family What's going on everybody? We had a slobber knocker of a weekend here in Boston Our live show, the winter classic

Raisin' hell all over the city Let's check in with the fellas for us The Whitthogs, tell my left, we'll go to him first for a change. How are you feeling, my man? I feel horrendous right now. Just horrible. The voice isn't as bad as I maybe thought last night that I would wake up with. So still, that's, I guess, a win. But yeah, I feel horrendous. But it was a great weekend.

I mean, very special for, I would say, maybe a little bit more special for me and you being from here and having so many family and friends at the live show and getting to experience the outdoor game with all of them. It was just really cool after all the years of us traveling to every winter classic to have it be back home in Boston, and it was great. So I can't believe everything went as smoothly as it did. Shout out G. Shout out everyone behind the scenes.

But, yeah, I'm here. I'm ready to podcast. I'm at 70 percent wait i gotta thank you probably the best new year's eve i've ever had chilling with your boss and friends at your house you threw an awesome party um probably you'll never get the the sight of memes being fed lobster by your wife out of my brain has taken over this city like no one ever before him it's like david ortiz bobby orr and memes the guy shows up to my house and all my friends just heard him say hey brie is that lobster you're cooking and they were like

who is this guy and he had his nascar jacket on and his mullet and his mustache i love him to death my friends love him to death keith yandel feels like he's known him forever. The only problem is, and maybe on the YouTube version of this show, right now you could throw up the picture of his goddamn thumb. That is the most disgusting thing I've ever seen in my life. I have not seen his thumb yet. Who called out his thumb? It was Yance. I'm going to keep talking about it.

Yance goes, that's from memeing so much. But I guess the problem is, I think he got slashed in men's league, so it's something that he's going to have to get looked at by the doctor. But yeah, my wife basically spoon-fed him lobster for an hour and a half, and then he had other wives rubbing his back. It means his world. We're all living in it. Shit, I wish I knew what a lobster was.

I would have came down for these. Best part of that night. I know you're a recent Georgia football fan. Eight years years seven years yeah not too recent but somewhat yeah that football game was the best football game i've ever watched in my entire life both games were out of this world entertaining and i think over the past i don't know seven eight years of the college football playoff the semi-finals have been pretty brutal overall yeah those two games were unreal. The Georgia game, I mean, what an insane comeback.

I had a money line. I live bet them two or three times throughout the game. Made an absolute boatload, but they had no business winning. You called it. We had about 30 guys there watching. You called it maybe the best timeout a coach has ever taken in football history when Kirby decided to just drop that timeout right before the fake punt. So I don't know.

A lot of people might not have seen the game. Maybe all you Canadians up there weren't watching. But we had a time watching, and now Georgia gets to take on TCU. They're going to pound them. No, they've been busting out the lube, and they've been cranking themselves to Conor Bedard at the World Junior. This kid is a mutant. Hey, Kobe, how you doing, buddy?

Hey, good to be here. By the way, we're joined by kobe and murrells the chicklets game notes boys they were on the boston trip with us they helped us out at the live show i've never seen a guy play villain quite like kobe armstrong did coming out in that pittsburgh penguins jersey i'm surprised you didn't get shanked here but i do want to were you going to talk about conor bedard I was going to maybe touch on the ball dropping. Oh, yeah. The funniest thing ever is like, first of all, we do like a kid countdown, which I never knew about.

Genius. Everyone. I was at about 10. Chicklets fans. Anybody with kids out there who typically allow them to wait up till 12 p.m., listen to what Colby's about to tell you. Yeah, all his buddies and their wives were like, we're going to do a kid's countdown here in like 10 minutes. I'm like, what's that?

As I'm like mixing another drink. And she told me what it was. Your wife, I'm like, that's the greatest thing ever. They do like a fake countdown at like 10 o'clock or like 9.30 and then piece the kids off to bed, see you later. And it's like they thought they had New Year's. It's like when I change the clocks at 5 o'clock to 7, like random nights in the winter.

I'm like, time for bed. They're like, what the hell? Yeah, no, we had to have the kids at least celebrate and go nuts. But then the fact that ball drop was as the kick. The ball drop was literally, I think it was like Poos. Poos was like, did like, he was like, guys, three, two. He had like his phone out because we were watching this last kick to win or lose the game. And the guy misses right at the very end.

And right when he kicked it, it was incredible. And actually, I think it hit zero midnight 2023 as he made contact with the ball. So the wives were like, are we going to throw on like Ryan Seacrest doing the countdown? We're like, no. Woof, woof, woof, woof, woo Ryan Seacrest doing the countdown? We're like, no. Woof, woof, woof, woof, woof. Sick them, sick them, sick them. Go dogs.

The craziest thing was because it was like an explosion like New Year's happened. It was just degenerate dads hugging each other. That was Witt making it rain with his castrated one on that fucking live betting. I thought that was amazing too. Yeah, the New Year's at your house with your kids, your family, your friends. That feels amazing. And then Bedard last night, insane what he's been doing. Broke a record.

But like the move he scored. My wife sent a video of my kid. He was like almost crying because he scored an OT. He thinks he's so sick, but then he did the heartbreaker, Selly. He did the heartbreaker. Oh, yeah. The old Patrick Kane. Well, I mean, there was a bit of a panic button being hit after that first game against, how do you say it?

Do I got to say Chechnya? Chechnya. Chechnya. Chechnya? Chechnya. Chechnya is like Russia or something. Chechnya. Well, I don't know who the fuck I'm going to offend by saying it the wrong way these days

because it's pretty much impossible to dodge that. But they got worked in that first game. And a little bit too much individual bullshit for Canada, but it seems like they're back on their way to winning I'm not talking World Juniors right now what's going on here

but DART said settle down with DART and World Junior talk we just started two seconds ago we're not from Boston I'm actually I just wanted to get

my fucking Team Canada plug in there I'm actually more interested because you crushed it yesterday TNT long day it looked like

back and forth from the cool studio though out in center field. But what the hell happened at the end of the game with Marshawn? Did you have to apologize for something? No, no. I fake apologized. Oh, okay. I was like, what is going on? No, no, no, no, no. I was just joking

about chirping his snout pregame because I asked him if he was planning on putting the eye block on his nose considering the shine that was coming off of it. And then I told him if he was planning on putting the eye block on his nose considering the shine that was coming off of it. And then I told him not to lick anybody's face because it would get stuck to it with the cold. So we just had a little fun banter going back and forth. And then after the game, Jans was on the panel

because he's been joining TNT broadcast throughout the season. So they brought him up after the game. And as Marshy was coming to the stage, he lifted like six kids over to bring him over. So he's like, oh, we were just fucking around. We're like, oh, pull out games week. Yeah, get him a Cialis sponsorship. Just this guy's just going to the workbench.

So Marshy came on though, man. And he's a very articulate guy, very intelligent. Obviously, he has a complete pulse as to what's been going on with this Boston organization. And he just did a great pulse as to what's been going on with this Boston organization. And he just did a great job articulating what this team's all about, their philosophy, and really how close they are. Yance touched on it too. He's like, even when they're down in games now,

they were going to the locker room second intermission. Like, no panic. Everybody's still chilling. They're like, we know we got this. When the Bruins go down 1-2-0, immediately live bet them. I don't know if it's still chilling. They're like, we know we got this. Bruins go down one or two nothing, immediately live bet them. Yeah. I don't know if it's going to last this whole year, but it's like, no matter what, they force overtime. Yeah.

But, I mean, we should probably pump the NHL's tires. Like, what an event, man. They think of everything as far as the Winter Classic's concerned. They had Sam Hunt pumping in the pregame, a little country music. It was a party. He gets the girls going. Oh, yeah. They were just jamming themselves in the front row to him.

And then that was like down the street. And then first intermission, they had the Black Keys. That was probably the best. I like the Black Keys. Unbelievable. I like the Black Keys. And it was nice because they set up the stage to where I would imagine that you would consider the outfield over there probably the worst seating

of anywhere you're sitting at. Because sometimes you're in the low section. You can't really see the ice much. You can't see it at all. But those fans get treated with the live show from the Black Keys. They had the fireworks going. So everybody really gets to experience something and get the benefit of the Winter Classic. Even before, it was like Mardi Gras out there.

It was a party on those streets of Boston like I had never seen. What the hell is going on here? Oh, wow. It was a gong show. It was a gong show of people, like the game on thing to the street, to kids. It was a gong show. I think, too, the complaint, and we say this every year now, but people at home watching, whatever, they're like,

oh, another winter classic. It's solely for the people at the game. We've kind of of made that clear and that's why they do such a good job and then being at the game and seeing Zidane O'Chara out there with Johnny Busick and I'm sorry Bobby Orr and just to like get to witness the history of the Bruins involved and Jason Varitek the captain of those Red Sox teams, he comes out. It was like, and the players were lined up along kind of a mini ice hockey baseball field type rink setup. It was just, it was an unreal setting for the game. I thought the way the weather was, Fenway Park looked beautiful.

And the day was just perfect. I mean, we dealt last year, Minnesota had a great one with St. Louis, but it was minus 10. It was like 55 degrees yesterday. It was just perfect, though. So, yeah, I guess also back to the live show quick. Got to shout out R.A., guys. I mean, this guy, his wardrobe's been chirped here or there along the lines of this podcast.

This dude looked like a fucking snack, as the kids say when he got out on stage. I think a brand new tailored suit for the ceremony or for the show. I've worn it once or twice before, but definitely tailor-made. Good for you, R.A. Probably the biggest pop, too, in terms of announcements. I think it was smart. R.A., you end up going last as the announcement. Boom, the place exploded for you.

So you must have been fired up with all your family and friends there. Honestly, probably one of the top three special nights of my life. He did basically, it was like accepting an academy award when he got on stage. Yeah, it was. Well, you look so good, though. You look so good. I walked down the lobby and I didn't even recognize you. I saw you,

I was like, what the fuck? You saw us on Hootin' Ha. I thought Bo Derek was behind me or something. I was like, holy shit. Yeah, it was like, fuck it. I always say on the show, I look good when I need to or when I have to. And my whole family, all my boys, fucking gal friends there, I'm like, do I got to look good tonight? And yeah, the pop was insane. I didn't have any plan, any reaction. I just

gave the fucking, I put the honors up. My wife's like, you look like Richard Nixon up there. I was like, thanks, honey. But it was very special. My parents, my old man's 78. He didn't go out much. I said, Dad, come on out for this one. And, you know, I knew I was going to give him a little tribute. Then I kind of got, you know, fired up there and got everyone to give my parents a stand-in.

Because like I said, without them, I don't become a hockey fan. And, you know, who the hell knows how the rest of my life plays out. So, yeah, very special night. And then to see everybody after them back to local. It was just, yeah, very special. Well, you told the story on stage. Your first ever Bruins game was when you were in your mom's womb. Yeah, games one, two, and five for the 72 cup.

I mean, she was literally nine months out to here, and I was born like two weeks after. And you're like, I just did that whole fucking season. And then the next day I get up, and I get a shitload of texts from my buddies and family and stuff. And there's one from my mom, and it's like, no texts. It's just a picture of you on biz. I was like, oh yeah oh no oh jesus i have a confession to make oh no no no i already had one stepdad i don't need biz to be my second oh no me and ra's mom are seeing

each other we've um we've made it facebook official ra shit this podcast i'm your father yeah dude dude like two a ago, she's like, can you ask Biz where he got that blue sweater he has on all the time? That's the one I always ask. I was like, she's checking all your fucking clothes a couple weeks ago, and she sent me the pictures, so I don't know. I got to keep an eye on it. Yeah, we've been texting.

Yeah, I have a few of my family members that I will be feeling it for you, Biz. I actually got her the female version of it for her birthday, so just don't tell her. It's a thong. Well, that's like you said when I came out, double middle fingers in a Penguins jersey. Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah.

I had to hide behind R.A. the rest of the night so I don't get stabbed because he's like, buddy, he knew everybody in the neighborhood. I got a kick out of it, though, because in Pittsburgh, my first live show, Armie was kind of number one there. He lives at Pittsburgh and all these family and friends there

and then he comes out with a double middle bird. I'm like, this guy has no clue the enemy that he just made. Oh, it's getting so hard.

I started wilting so fast as soon as I sat down and I looked at, good thing I was sitting next to G. G looks at me, he goes, keep it going.

And I'm like, yeah, okay. Gotta play the villain card. The villain card, you have to. I thought I totally blew their brains up though a little bit because i had came out in a pens jersey double fingered then i turned around and it was a wit jersey yeah and they were like oh we hate them but like we like wit what they started just short circuit um another guy we had come out uh well

obviously yans was here uh brendan walsh oh what a beauty Walsh he just classic Walsh he stories he told the legendary brofie coffee in the face story which I believe we've turned into a cartoon after the first time he told it he also reminded us maybe G on stage that after that Brendan Walsh interview he's been on once correct yep so after that interview that's when um basically G was sitting there watching it and seeing the the way he told the story and like how into it he got and how we're laughing and that made him decide that we were going to film everything we ever did moving forward with interviews and podcasts when he was going crazy with his hands I turned my laptop camera on and I start filming it with my laptop camera which was

just ass quality so I'm like fuck we need camera guys we need to have this always filmed so we can put out the social clips and eventually now do the youtube buzz such a cool connection right with that moment oh yeah he made rent merles pay his rent and sign the mortgage we were laughing about still like we saw okay because these people aren't gonna see you you can go with a backstory merles yeah so it was first year pro and uh i i don't know what i'm doing and everybody's linking up roommates and this guy hey merles yeah so it was first year pro and uh i i don't know what i'm doing and everybody's linking up roommates and this guy hey merles come here we're gonna go check out this house over here and he talks me into renting this like seven bedroom house with a house with him and you've never met this guy other than training just at camp like we're a week into camp he just

speared merles like an hour before this and like i didn't really have a choice like he just completely muscled me into this. And we go over, we rent this beautiful house, and then he gets traded like three weeks later, and I get stuck paying the rent on this thing by myself all year. It was unbelievable. Hey, didn't he get traded? He ended up, I think, telling the story on stage

about how he basically baseball swung a guy in the face and then speared him with the broken part of the stick. And now he went to the room, and he was all animated. He's like, that wasn't that bad, right, guys? Well, he got kicked out and he went into the locker room halfway through, so like with a 10-minute mark. And the way he said it on stage, he goes, so these guys start coming in and the first couple guys in the room were Brooks Orpik, Rob Scuderi,

and they just finished killing a 37-minute power play. And they're like. And all Walsh cares about is playing lawyer, being like, hey, hey, hey, that was that guy's fault, right? You guys saw that, right? That wasn't that bad. Or because Cuds are like, dude, get the fuck out of my face. And then he ends up going...

I think, who was the coach at the time? Glenn Patrick. Glenn Patrick. And then I think he called him I think, who was the coach at the time? Glenn Patrick. Glenn Patrick. And then I think he called him in the office during that intermission. You know, Glenn's a pretty calm guy, and he's just tapping his desk with his fingers. And Walsh, he's like, hey, hey, I don't think I'm getting games for that, right?

And he's like, Walsh, he goes, you might be playing hockey again, but you ain't going to be playing here. And then they ended up fucking trading him because he got like a 10 or 15 game sussy. So he tells the story way better. We need round two of Brennan Walsh, and we will have the cameras on him because the most animated storyteller of all time. The hot lava. The hot lava guy.

Try playing with the guy. Try living with the guy. I got to play with him. You got to play with him, live with him. The connection is awesome. And for him to be a Boston guy, and he has a, like, Boston super accent, too. He's so charismatic and cool. Did you already mention the part that he put your name on that lease so you were stuck with it?

Yeah, I made him sign the lease. The rest of the year with it. He's like, Murdoch, you just signed it. I'll pay you. I'll pay you on the side. And then Minahan, too. Shout out, Kirk. Oh, yeah.

He hosted the show. He did a great job. Went there it was hilarious he's like i don't know if you guys know me but with my ego this is very hard that this show isn't entirely about me but um no we appreciate him coming on he did a great job so it was a blast to have everyone together yans was his usual hilarious self um i mean i think yans made even more jokes to just murle's off the microphone. I saw him whispering in his ear like the whole time. I had my own live show there with him. He was unbelievable. Just chirping everybody.

Oh, yeah. He loves the under his breath one liners. And then as you're the guy telling the story, you're like insecure. You're like, what are you chirping me about, Yance? You fucker. Yeah, you know he's chirping you. Yeah, he's just giving it to you. Oh, the one time when I was getting booed the whole time and then you saved me because you called out Biz

for not picking Boston to make the playoffs. Yeah, I felt so bad for him. Him and I were on the couch like you do. They wanted to just burn our couch. Throw that couch in the incinerator. I was like, thank God you did that. That's why everybody's so nice to me in Boston. I reverse mushed them.

They're going to fucking win the cup because of me. I'll basically do like I did to Colorado or Tampa the year before. I guess we should also thank the Wilbur Theater. Thank everybody who came to the live show. Our fans, man. You guys are hardcore. You're rapid. We love you guys, and we want to keep doing these things

and putting on shows so we can see you guys in the flesh. And we're never going to air these shows on our YouTube channel. We might. Maybe down the road? Yeah. Okay. I don't know. I like that it's special for the people who are there.

Sorry to everyone listening who wants to see it. Oh, my God. It's kind of like you got to get tickets to see this stuff. I just remembered one thing I did. I was throwing a pink Whitney up to a guy. And you know how we have monitors and sound things in front of us? He was down low enough that I underhand tossed him that hid behind the monitor just enough. Good thing he was wearing glasses. Just like clanked him right in the eye behind the monitor just enough good thing he was wearing glasses like clink them right in the eye i was like oh my god so sorry sorry he's like cool that he drank it i was like oh my god all right before we go any further we

have a few words from our great friends at pink whitney and new amsterdam vodka biz the stuff was flowing like lava this weekend between grinnelli on stage in the room here i mean what more we say about pink whitney oh it gives you a nice little buzz. It's great on the golf course. That's pretty much how it was created, right, the Wood Dog? Oh, it's perfect any time of year. I know I've mentioned on the golf course and in summer, but this weekend proves it's a winter drink as well.

People are ringing in the new year with Pink Whitney. We had so many messages, so many pictures being sent, and people were going nuts at the live show, just chucking out nips to them, giving them a chance. Just as it hits your lips, it's so good. So Pink and people were going nuts at the live show just chucking out nips to him giving him a chance just as it hits your lips it's so good so pink whitney is where it's at celebrate any special occasion by getting involved with the pink order a shot of pink whitney at your local bar and enjoy what one cool moment to end off the live show discussion uh jake tebow was there yeah and you you gave you know, you spoke on the mic very heartfelt.

And I think him and his family really appreciated it. Yeah. It's, you know, like Jake says, a shitty way to become pals with somebody. But we've really become pals. We text all the time. He's just such a great kid. And when I met his family, he was down in Spalding and Charleston. And I'm like, you know, I walk in and, you know, I've never been in a situation like that before.

You know, meeting a kid in that situation. I was kind of nervous. And right when I walk in, his dad's like, beer or wine beer or wine i was like you know like we click with the family right away i've been with the house a couple times and and it was great to get those guys there and my dad wanted to meet him and he got to meet my old man and yeah like it made made the special night even more special to have the team and for those who are listening who don't know the backstory jake tebow he was paralyzed uh playing in a hockey game yeah Yeah, Milton Academy last year, yeah, from the waist down. And, you know, the kid, he said to his, I think his headmaster,

I'm going to walk a graduation. And less than a year later, we had the video. He stood up and put the brace on, and he fucking walked. It was the hottest thing he ever did, and, you know, it made me so proud. And like I said, he's a great kid from a great family, and I'm happy to call him a friend. He's amazing. I got to meet him, too, at our events.

Amazing family, amazing guy. Now I text meet him, too, at our events. Amazing family. Amazing guy. Now I text with him, too. Just a great guy. He fit in so easy. It was so easy. His family and everything. They're such great people.

I got to meet so many great people here in Boston. It's been a great trip. Also, thanks to Game On and Loco. Shazi took care of us. Yes, my boy Shazi and Loco. That place was buzzing. For a couple guys from down the street uh ricky bell michael bivins and runny devoe bell biv devoe crushed the national anthem

with uh boston pub shares they got the old bbd new edition guys got a shout them out they sounded great they did sound great it was great to have those guys there and also to so many fans from around the world i mean i talked to people from scotland england they came from vancouver all over and you know hockey fans are the best so, awesome time, and thanks to everybody who came. It was epic stuff. And quickly about the outdoor situation, next year, Seattle. That's a fucking great place to have it. And then, of course, with the inaugural season, or not the inaugural season.

Who are they playing? Vegas. The last two franchises, yeah. What's the word I'm looking for? I don't know. Outdoor? What are the new teams called? I'm looking for? I don't know. Outdoor? What are the new teams called? I'm just going to shut up.

Yeah. So we might have to get the PJ for that one if we're going to fly out to that one. Oh, my God. All right. Jesus. Just worry about packing a suit, buddy. Expansion, Biz? Expansion?

Expansion. Thank you. The expansion teams. Great job, R.B. He went to my guy, Murr, here. The Murr. The college guy. The Murr.

Game notes guy. Wrap it up for the Boston trip boys Any final notes? I don't know Producer G What do you think buddy? Just feel lucky I mean I think that's kind of

They said it really Being from Boston Just being able to go back And do that in front of your friends and family Just really made me feel lucky And made me feel thankful You were fucking crying the rest of the night Because of how emotional you were

About the whole experience Was I really? No Like you were Again Bunch of Pink Whitney nips Could have been the wolf too Don't remember the second half of that night But again you were about the whole experience was i really no like you you were again bunch of pink whitney nips could have been the wolf yeah don't remember the second half of that night but again thankful for all the fans thankful that i could do it in front of my friends and family and thankful for

you guys for giving me this life because when i'm sitting up there i look it's nhl player nhl player nhl player nhl player ra granelli and i'm like what am i doing up here so just super thankful no we said it at the show, buddy. We pumped your tires. Everything that happens behind the scenes that goes unseen, social media, putting all the posts out, like organizing everything, it's all you, Grinelli. You're a fucking incredible producer, along with all the rest of the guys.

We got Sean Apuzzo. We already mentioned memes. We got Pashaasha fish who's a bit of a wild card weirdo i don't know where he's sitting right now and uh quater two and mcquade so thank you to the whole crew julia and hannah setting us up with the tickets yesterday and the parties we're snapping around i'll say this though too like they have g has to handle all of us idiots and all of them too and hurting cats're like last minute dinging him like, hey, you got three more tickets?

Hey, he's got three. It was crazy. So he's at home with all his family, all your friends, RA and Witt and all you guys. And you still made it like comfortable for us traveling in guys coming in here and still got the full Boston experience, man. That was badass.

Last thing I'll say is penguins, they stink. I mean, have they lost what what, six in a row now? Five in a row. They blew the 4-0 lead. What is going on? I mean, and then they couldn't close out the game yesterday. So some magic by DeBrusque. But things are getting a little scary in Pittsburgh.

And a goalie went down again, right? So the e-bug actually dressed. Didn't the e-bug have to get dressed in the game? I believe so. Mike Chase on the e-bug in Pitt. He's a beauty. that would have been insane and so i don't i don't know if you guys saw the replay though i felt like the call on doomlin in the third period on marshawn that put them on the power play i didn't like the call i hate i fucking hated the call they didn't end up scoring on the power play they scored right at the end of it. Coach Sullivan was fucking losing his mind.

And then even on the winner, I felt like DeBrusque made a little bit of contact with Dumlin coming into the zone, which ended up freeing him up because Dumlin blew a tire. And then after Halsey went POP, pass off the pads, a little Wilkes-Barre special.

Dan Bilesma, keep the change, Stanley Cup champion. It went right to fucking DeBrusque who ends up scoring the goal. So good for Spide or they call him cheddar bob do you ever they call them they have a lot of nicknames for him so i don't know who was it who told the story uh was it on this podcast they said about jake de brusque and how he's trying to learn the new word oh it was yeah i seen him on the way out when i was walking out behind you. He kept the uniform on. And he didn't see me.

I goes, hey, nice to see you. He didn't get health-borne. He turned around and started laughing. He's like, who is this? So we had a check. I seen a few of the boys on the way out. Can I ask you guys this? Your feelings on this when it was 1-1 late in the game on the outdoor, on the stage? I was thinking, I'm like, oh, my God, Crosby's going to dagger the Bruins.

I'm like, this is so, such a crud. Well, me and Merle spent overtime. So I was just like, yes, we're going to get OT. It was plus 300. Nope. Ruined. What time did they score with, too? Two minutes left.

That's right when I looked at Merle's, too. He's like, you kidding me? He's pacing up and down in the thing with his phone out. But I thought that was setting up to be like, because just those moments, you know, when guys are like that, and Sid's always been like that. Well, that's the thing. I was like, oh, this is. And Gary was there, so you know the Wizard of Oz.

Oh, yeah. Just pulling the puppet strings. And it was like Well, that's the thing. I was like, oh, this is. And Gary was there. So, you know, the Wizard of Oz. Oh, yeah. Pulling the puppet strings. And it was like, but that was the same. When they had Bucic, Bucic, Chara, and Orr, then it was Crosby and Bergeron. It's like. I know. So many legends here. I'm like, one of those guys is going to do something special.

The other thing I had to mention before we move on from this weekend was at the local after party post live show. This guy comes up to me. He's like i listened to the uh four bird interview he's like i'm one of the guys that's been to his fucking elevator like 65 times he's a firefighter so this guy gets called every single time somebody's stuck in there and forbes i don't know if he made it clear the elevator only goes from the lobby to his penthouse so it's not for the whole building so anytime the law that elevator's stuck it's either him his dog walker his family like so boston fire department's been there legit 60 times so the guy's like yeah the guy might have to figure out a way to get out of that building or a ladder or yeah or just maybe or a pole threaten the threaten the what are the people who run the

the hoa strata exactly the landlord threatened the landlord yeah johnny buce that was awesome seeing chief come on you know he's up there still ticking it was a special moment seeing that so biggest story since we last met of course we taped early with christmas last week ovi passes gordy how i mean only the third guy to pass 800 passes gordordie. Was that one of the best empty netters you've ever seen? I still don't know how he put that in the net. I feel like he's been getting, what is he at? Eight empty netters this season? Yeah, he's got a few. But that was one of the most impressive ones

I've ever seen. No, that was sick because it was just behind the back to bury it, but I immediately thought of, I think it was Bucci who mentioned he cannot break the record with an empty netter because even on that, I was like, I know it doesn't matter, and I think it was Bucci who mentioned he cannot break the record with an empty netter because even on that I was like I know it doesn't matter and I think still to this day Gretzky has

more empty netters than Ovi has it's getting closer but I was like oh my god it's just not the same when a goalie's in net I'm not trying to make this not be this amazing scenario he didn't even want to score it though he was like trying to pass it to Kuzi the shot he had before it almost looked like he tried to pass it to like Kuzi and then he lost it. It almost looked like he tried to pass it to Koozie,

and then he lost. It came back to him. He's like, ah, screw it. And he just did this weird wrist thing. Just snapped it in. It's insane. And then I think since that night, he had a hat trick. Against the Canadiens.

And then all the Canadiens' moms took a picture with him after the game. Oh, yeah. Oh, they were all lined up. Were they on the mom's trip? Oh, this is a MILF mudra he's like i already have ras mom don't worry about it amazing to see him though right amazing to see ovi like touching it's great to be alive there's like so many three guys in the history of the game scored 800 plus also the jets lineup to give the handshakes that was pretty cool classy gesture by them and buddy

they they were banged up at the beginning of the season they are fucking humming right now and i think the question was at the start of the year, if you had to pick one of these teams that are getting older and fading off between the Bruins, Pens, and Caps, which two teams would you say make playoffs? Storyline for the league, if all three of these teams with those core players end up making it again, the East is a beast.

The East is ridiculous. I don't know who's coming out of the fucking East, man. It could be anybody's game. I mean, Tampa's still in the mix, guys. It's great to see. Buffalo, Detroit are surging in those wild cards. We were looking at just the Atlantic. Every team has a winning record.

It's nuts. You know who might not make playoffs? The New Jersey Devils. Great call. Look at Pasha, this idiot over there shaking his head. Keith Yandel took a lot of heat. He took a lot of heat from, I don't know if he was on his sports net. Yeah, Cassie Campbell was there.

He took a lot of heat for saying, I don't even think they're going to make playoffs. People are like, oh my God. Since then, I think they've lost 10 of 12. They look beyond average. And it's been one of those things where you couldn't have seen this coming. At least I couldn't. I'll tell you what happened. I think I spread the word earlier in the trip.

When Jack Hughes, he broke that record for the seven-minute shift, right? He took a seven-minute shift. Everybody was so excited about that. They've lost eight out of ten games since then. Something like that just ruins. I don't think it was that. I think it was R.A. tweeting.A. Ruin a team. Tweeting out that shrimp platter inside the. I think they're like, I think they're like, they've lost.

They're like two and 16 since he tweeted that one out. You want a cool chicklets moment? We're walking into the game yesterday. There's a guy walking with you. Remember what? Oh, yeah. And your family and stuff. And Pasha's got like his camera.

He's wheeling. We're outside on the street. Some guys on top of the green monster and he yells down. Fuck you, Pasha. Fuck the devils fuck like down kids everywhere this guy's giving it i paid him 20 to do it actually then there was another guy too that's like ebr you're making me so much money i'm like what is happening right now and and i know i'm stirring the pot a little bit but when the devils when the devils were and Pasha's got the mic in his hand. I can't wait to hear this.

I just want to say, Merle, as you were reaching with that stat, saying that the six-minute shift by Hughes was a turning point in the season. Here's a fucking stat. Why can't anyone on the second line get a shift for seven minutes? Here's a stat for you. When they were first in the league, they'd had the easiest strength of schedule up until that point. Analytics busy.

And to the remaining of the season, they have the third hardest schedule. That's fine. That's fine. But if you want to talk numbers, during this whatever, like, lost 8 of 10 streak, they're still winning the 5-on-5 battle against most teams. Here we go, Mr. Analytics. They're still winning the 5-on-5 battles.

But their shooting percentage went down, like, 6%. So, like, it's unsustainably low right now. They're losing these games by one goal. That's what Leaf fans say. We had possession. We want Elon Musk over there. What are we getting to Mars? That's why I'm not worried about it.

It's not like they're getting cratered in every night. They're still playing good hockey. They're just not scoring goals. It'll even out, and they're going to make the playoffs. It's like a high school coach. We're winning the 5-on-5 battles, guys. We're down 8-0, but it's okay. Those stats are the same reason I knew they'd be good this year at WIT.

And how did that turn out for you? Well, I mean, they're like a mid-team right now, are they not? Fun to watch, though. Like, in the past three weeks, they're a mid-team, yes. Overall, in the league, where are they? If you told me in the summer that on January 3rd, they'd be second in the Metro, I would take that every fucking day of the week.

They're 100% way better than I thought. But I can just say that I flip-flop all in the Metro. I would take that every fucking day of the week. They're 100% way better than I thought. But I can just say that I flip-flop all over the map. That's what I'm known for. I was like, wow, this team's really good. They're really fast. I saw them play in person against Chicago when they had 12,000 people there, and they were in first place in the league.

But Yandel saying that, I was like, what is he talking about? And it turned out to be a little more accurate than everyone gave him credit for. Because now they're not exactly like a lock to make playoffs. It's all I'm saying. It was also a funny backstory as to why he said it. Because they said, we're going to make this a topic. And everybody had to make him play. So he's like, well, I guess I'll fucking say they are.

Hey, don't forget. He went bad guy style. Double middle fingers. That next pod that we talked about this, Yann's talking about that. I did say I agree with him. I was like, I texted him right after. I was like, Yann's, I agree with you.

You've been hot with your predictions. You had Czech coming into the World Juniors as one of your top teams. And they ended up fucking bending over Canada in that first one. Love you, Bernard. You're going to live with me first year with the Coyotes. Oh my God, can you imagine?

Yeah, I got him a Nick Papa Giorio fake id um you're gonna be crushing everything on him uh probably take that out uh where were we oh new jersey that's it another thing too is they're missing graves right now they're missing marino graves is back and palat is now practicing full contact so he'll be back palat's. Some leadership in the locker room is much needed, so we can move on from the stink devils. The Metro's a beast, though. The Metro is a beast. No, I'm just trying to think of what this all started with,

and it was Washington. So before wrapping them up, because they're fans, they get on us about not bringing them up. It's insane to see Ovi do this. It's now just a matter of time, which is wild to think. I think 80-ish away. And they're getting Wilson back soon, and in the next week or two after that, it'll be Backstrom.

So happy for the Caps fans. I know I've said I have nothing to say about your team. Well, fuck, you start playing like this, we're going to continue to talk about them, and they would not be an easy out. So we'll see how it goes. But it's cool to watch this goal chase go down, and it's going to be one of the top moments in hockey history whenever it happens in two years

yeah caps 11 or 13 they won third place right now you just mentioned those two guys coming back and shout out to john carlson took a fucking puck right before christmas buddy yeah for our program hopefully you're feeling all right buddy get back out there soon you hate to see that kind of shit happen but uh we got a nice little race there and then we gotta shout out the canes i know we gotta say canes yeah we've stroked them off. You've got to say Canes, yeah. Yeah, we've stroked them off very recently. But 11 straight, they've won 15 out of 16, a point in all 16. Anthony Ranta, back-to-back shutouts.

What's his name? Peter Kochetkov, back-to-back shutouts in this run. So just give them a little mini stroke there. Yeah, I just hope they don't bust their nut too much before playoffs. And, you know, we talked about how strong the East is. So it would be fun to see them make a run, man. bust their nut too much before playoffs. And, you know, we talked about how strong the East is. So it would be fun to see them make a run, man. I like seeing these smaller markets have teams that can, you know, get the fan bases going.

Pasha Reddy, too, though. He's coming back. He tore his Achilles in the offseason. So we always mention, like, getting a trade late in the season at the deadline. That's basically like adding a guy to the roster. 30 goal, man. I don't know how many fucking seasons now they're like no one plays like them like so it's like so weird i think they're so easier in the playoffs because you could game plan them for seven games but in regular season they play like man on it's like bridgeport sound taggers when

we're when we're in the minors they played man on men we never played a team that played man on men so you're going game to game then all of a sudden you got this weird alien team it's weird yeah it's also they play it perfect it's a hard way to play but they they play so hard they play playoff hockey all the time yeah that's why they don't have the much success once the playoffs come they can't ramp it up and they already are ramped up yeah they don't have a guy that i hope it's like one the one thing i talked to justin williams about i don't remember what he was saying in terms of agreeing with me or not about not having the superstar. Like even now you look of all these top end teams.

He's not over a point per game. He's not a superstar. That's like the point. I love Ajo. And he came back from injury recently. He's looked great. But they don't. Svej, yeah, great player, but not a superstar.

And that is sometimes the game changer for them. That's what I've harped on the past three seasons when they have had chances to run. It's just, it could be the thing that ends up holding them back. Like a five-star game breaker. A legit game breaker. They don't have one. So let's see if it can finally get over it.

And the back story to the argument against my point is they didn't have one when they won the Cup before in 06 or whatever it was. McDavid to the Canes. They had Cam Ward, though. Yep. Yeah, true that. uh we're gonna bring on our guest in a little bit we have a great one tony granato uh famous u.s hockey player he's got a great interview we got about an hour with him coming in a bit but a little bit of history biz made uh since the last time out first gritty ever in the nhl jake wallman detroit defenseman gets the ot tuck i mean i don't even know what the gritty is or where it came from. The old fogey on the podcast.

I bet your Grinnelli knows. I know Merle's hates it. Merle's hates this. Merle's Twitter went insane. I'm like, here we go. You cannot be doing that on Sidney Crosby's ice. What do you think Stevie was? I don't even know who you are.

You just got called up. You have two goals. You cannot do that on Sidney Crosby's ice. What do you think Stevie Y was thinking when he saw that? I'm a wings guy, but I just can't have that. I cannot have that going on. Is it from Jefferson on the Vikings when he was at LSU? No, it's just like a popular dance.

It's like everyone does it. Every 10-year-old hockey player does it. I feel like Mitch Marner did it. Football is where it came big. Yeah, I think a football thing. Yeah, exactly. There you go. There you go.

Well, that was also a 4-0 lead by the Pens. Yeah, I know. 5-4 overtime. Like, I mean, do whatever you want maybe at that moment, but we haven't seen it. Have we seen it? That's the first time like on a goal like that in the NHL. Kind of blew up.

Yeah, it did. Blew his brains too. He was mad. It's probably a little like old man yells at cloud to be furious at it but some people yeah it's about the respect and i guess this kid not being a household name people are like why is he doing it but in the end it's more like penguins fans maybe look at your team in the mirror you just blew a four nothing lead yeah guy i think it was a six career goal or something third of the year fuck it have a little fun man no one expected you to get it so good for

him before we go any further i need to remind you guys that this show is sponsored by BetterHelp. When you're at your best, you can do great things. But sometimes life gets you bogged down and you may feel overwhelmed or like you're not showing up in a way that you want to. Working with a therapist can help you get closer to the best version of you. Because when you feel empowered, you're more prepared to take on everything life throws at you. You guys heard me talk at the end of an episode recently about what therapy can do and how much it can help you. It's helped me in life. Anytime you're ever wondering what everything's all about or how you're supposed to feel, it can always benefit you to talk to someone. I'm telling

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If you want to live a more empowered life, therapy can get you there. Visit betterhelp.com slash chicklets today to get 10% off your first month. That's betterhelp, H-E-L-P dot com slash chicklets for 10% off your first month. How about this one? JT Miller and Colin Delia, the little, they were, I was watching that game,

the Canucks, they couldn't get the fucker puck out of the zone. You could see Delia looking at the, I mean, the fucking coach tells you when to come out. You've got to explain the situation. I will. Sorry. So it was late in the game. Vancouver's down a goal.

They're trying to pull the goalie. They're having trouble getting it out of the zone versus Winnipeg. And Colin Delia, he's looking to the bench for the goalie to – I'm sorry, the coach to get him out. JT Miller is coming around the zone. He's fucking screaming at him to get the fuck out, which I've never seen. And then he slams the stick down on the crease like that. I mean, was he showing the guy up? I mean, was he embarrassed? I mean, you guys played in the league. I think sometimes, you know, with the season that they're

having, tension's high. I don't know whether it was they were trying to pull their goalie or it was a delayed penalty. No, they were trying to pull him. They were trying to pull him, okay. Probably got a little bit overzealous with the stick. And I would imagine that's a conversation they might have had after the game being like, hey, man, sorry for getting so animated.

But the clock's ticking, right? So you got to be aware. And I don't know, maybe fucking Bruce Boudreaux had barbecue sauce on his face and he wasn't paying attention to what was going on. So JT Miller had to step in. Right. So, yeah, probably showed him up a little bit but nothing a little locker room I think he was just a little bit more aware than the goalie it was also probably

a little bit scared waiting for a signal yeah and Miller's like hey we got possession get our extra guy on there changes the way the ice looks like let's go we're times ticking and the guy like the wires were crossed so I don't think it's a big thing I think it like looked bad on social media but I don't think it was like a big thing when think it looked bad on social media. It looked way worse. I don't think it was a big thing when you're a heat of a moment and the game's ticking down for Miller to kind of go crazy. That's what Yans used to do when I was on the ice with him. He's like, get the fuck off the ice. We're trying to score a fucking goal here.

I need playmakers on the ice. I saw McKenna retweet it, kind of like dogging JT Miller. That's Mike McKenna, former NHL goalie. He was mentioning that you're almost told to not go to the bench until the puck leaves the defensive zone. Who knows, maybe like a turnover you put in your own net. So maybe that is like the rule for goalies. I think it was one of those things that looked way worse than it was,

but JT Miller might maybe regret it a little. If he's just yelling at him, it's one thing. When he slashed the crossbar, it's like, uh. The guy's like, what the hell do I do? the puck goes out you get pulled when you're in hl you see we got possession and it's really low time like you should like no okay shit we got to take a risk here well that's what they're saying now is they get them out earlier because why would you wait until he's in the zone now you'll have six guys to try to get the puck back instead of waiting and only having five guys this is that's what he was probably thinking the old way,

where JT Miller's in the new way of thinking. This is also a guy who was getting harassed at the pumpkin patch in October by the Haymays. So maybe he's just got a little PTSD from the Haymays harassment, and that's why he's snapping on his goalie. And his extension hasn't even kicked in yet. Yeah, yeah, 70 is 56 mil. But you can't say, I don't know why people are talking about it.

Again, when you smash your fucking stick over the crease and the goalie getting out. And if he did go out earlier, they would have actually scored the empty net or so. Either way, everybody will move along. He probably had the puck line, so he's trying to help us out. Hold the fort here. Your Leafs got double pee-pee whacked last week. There's a $100,000 fine for violating the CBA. You're not supposed to travel, have any team activities on the 24th 25th to 26th of december

they wanted to fly out to be in st louis for the game the next day they were supposed to leave at midnight but they ended up leaving at 10 30 they violated the cba a hundred thousand dollars now is that worth it for the team just to wake up and be in that city that's the shane doan rule when they were negotiating the cba that he's He was like, guys need time with their family. You're not even supposed to ask the team. You can't even ask them. Even if the leadership group was like, hey, if you guys want to leave early,

we can leave early. Maybe they asked them and the team was like, yeah, let's do it. $100,000 to the Maple Leafs is a front wipe. They took two breaths and made it back. They don't give a flying fuck. They're the richest team in the league shanney probably paid for it out of his stocking stuffer um i don't really know what to say they then they ended up going to arizona it was austin matthews return to mullet arena or i guess his first trip there back home but uh

it was uh it was a cool experience the building was rocking no scraps in this one but the the coyotes are six one and one their last eight games there and they've been playing some awesome hockey so they spoiled his return yeah a little bit of a little bit of a downturn for the least this time of year but i think that they're going to be fine it sucked i ended up running into uh to muzzin on the concourse and i don't think he's coming back anytime soon so the rumblings have started where maybe they're going to look to make a trade maybe get jacob chicken a guy who doesn't make a ton of money but could impact that back end so um i still like the squad i still think they're going to make it out of the first round i'm confident that they're

going to go on a run this year they went back to back cup so yeah that'll that means you get out of the first round yeah so i would stay take it game by game, series by series, buddy. Slow steps here. And who did they play, though, in that game? St. Louis, right? They won it all the time. So, 100 grand? I actually, as a Leafs hater, I think it makes a lot of sense.

I know you can't really do it. I wonder if we'll see that fine get higher and higher. But if all the guys are there it's like i want to be there i want to wake up there as opposed to just that extra few hours of getting in at 5 a.m it's like it makes a difference so the leafs don't care about that money um the the game in in arizona the coyotes at home like you said six one on one they just work teams to the bone there and the crowd seems awesome yeah even though there was tons of Leafs fans but uh that was that was sick to watch I watched that game I knew you were working it and that team at home now is like they better stop winning so often I know I said they gotta

trade Vemelka he slaps lipstick on a pig he is so good he's so athletic and it's just and Chikorin is like he's doing his job he's yeah I look I didn't realize he's like a point per game, playing a ton of minutes. He's a beast. Yeah, he's been a beast since he came back. So his draft stock's going up. So if I'm the GM, I'm looking to move Vemelka. I think he can get a shitload in return, and I think he's the type of – I mentioned the Buffalo Sabres.

Like, if they were to consider wanting to go on a run, I would take a look at this guy, especially at the fact that he's got two more years left at 2.75 if he's an elite goaltender and top 15 in the league for at that cap he's getting like 50 shots a game and he's like really good i think he's leading the league in high danger scoring chances saves or whatever the fucking analytics are ass pasha he knows fucking elon musk over there but uh overall very proud of the coyotes but i agree with you wit if you want a tank for bedard you got to start losing some fucking hockey games. And the Coyotes beat the Maple Leafs all four games played in Calendia 2022, Biz.

You must have been a little conflicted. There's an insane stat. I think that they've gotten points against them in 21 straight. They haven't lost a game to them in regulation since Christ was born since christ was born for crying out loud i i think it goes back to the early 2000s right is that not when it is it's like long time i'm sure g can pull up the stat right now a long time they've been owning the leafs and why does that happen it's like crazy i think they probably crosby's got like 128 points career against the islanders and it's like he goes against the islanders or the flyers, the Rangers, obviously in their division.

But this one's like, so weird. I think they probably just let down their guard. It's the one team they let down their guard against. Maybe they don't take him as serious and don't come in as focused.

And I'm sure that they, you know, with Matthews going back to Arizona, I mean, maybe they were hitting up Mill Ave or Old Town the night before celebrating his return.

Yeah, maybe it's Stiles too. Stiles a little bit. I remember we'd go to Arizona. You'd stay at that resort. Coyotes grind. Coyotes are committed to a hard-working grind game, and they just want to play possession like Leafs hockey.

I mentioned it before. That tour, and he has them playing, and the guys love them. They all respect them, and he can – what's the saying? He can squeeze the shit out of a beaver. What is it? Beaver nickel? My brain's clicking out. What were you saying about Arizona? Shaving squeeze the shit out of a beaver. What is it? Beaver nickel. My brain's clicking out. What were you saying about Arizona?

Shaving a beaver out of a nickel. Remember when we would stay there, you would stay at this resort. Guys are bringing their golf clubs. Oh, yeah. That was sick. Yeah. You're definitely not focused when you're down there playing the Kylo. It was like a Fairmont or something.

Now they're even down more, right? They're down where the college is. It's like sick down there. We can move on. I have that stat biz. It's just it's been more than 20 years since the Maple Leafs have beaten the Coyotes at home in regulation. That's a long run. That is wild.

Sheldon Keefe, he was fined 25K for demeaning conduct directed at the officials during that St. Louis game. Had a couple shit fits, and people are like, oh, that's soft, that's soft. It's like, I think that type of fine cold blend, it's like the supreme justice talking about point he's like you know when you see it it's like the way he acted it's like yeah i mean you're fucking showing up the refs here that did you i thought you don't see this very often though you know and like we hear on watching the games you hear f-bombs here and there and you see guys fighting with refs all the how many times so far though in the last like year has a ref been like hey my microphone's on he's trying to mute himself.

Get in the box before you swear at me, and we get in a huge fuck you match in front of the whole ring. This happens. It happens a lot. So to hand out a fine when you don't see it that often, coaches blowing gaskets and stuff. It's emotional. You get going.

You get fired up. The broadcast is just going to commercial. You just hear, cock, soccer. And then it's's like a church of latter-day saints commercial right after it yeah so what is that 120 000 the leafs got pinged in that 125 that'll come out 25 yeah out of his own pocket but yeah sick math yeah right big sign in dallas they re-upped joe pavelski one year 3.5 million dollars extension it can't get up to 5.5. Not bad for a 46-year-old. This guy, man. I tell you.

This guy, San Jose, he left San Jose because I don't think they'd give him – it was an extra year. And they're probably thinking, like, he's getting older. He's my age. I think he's 40 now. 38. Oh, he's an 84. Excuse me.

I'm a year older than him. But either way, like, played a long time. Well, now he's into the fourth year. He's still lighting it up. He's got a fifth year coming after this, and he just continues to score around the net. No one better at tipping. And Robertson and Hintz have come into their own as these elite levels,

especially Robertson, like superstar type player. I don't think it'd be fair to say that that would necessarily be happening this quickly without a guy like pavelski on his line teaching him the game teaching him the little things like a true hockey mind that always is working on getting better and i've said a million times kind of the justin williams thing he's good at everything the sick golfer the great ping pong player i always bring it up but he's just he's not slowing down he's not slowing down. He's not slowing down. He's a big hunter, too. What's up? Big hunter, so Texas makes a lot of sense.

And no state tax, baby. No state tax. I wouldn't want to leave the Dallas Stars right now the way they're going. Yeah, they're rolling right now. 12th highest scoring American ever and eighth in goals for America. And number one in playoffs. I think he's got the most goals in the history of the Stanley Cup playoffs by any American or points, one or the other.

Wow, a lot of nuggets coming out of there. Yeah, well, speaking of great American players, Tony Granato was one, and I think maybe we should send it over to him right about now, boys. This interview was brought to you by Big Deal Brewing. Wow, the weekend was flowing with the BDBs all weekend biz. I slurped on a few. The Whitdog had a few.

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I'm like, I don't know. He doesn't like many beers. A big deal brewing came out. He told me New Year's Eve at the party we were all hanging out at. He's like, this beer is so good. He's been buying it off the shelf. He loves it. I'm like if we can make this guy happy, we can make anyone happy because it's a truly great tasting

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Go to BigDealBrewing.com to find it near you. Big Deal Brewing. Thanks to Biz and G for setting this one up, and Tony Granato, long career, great stories. Check it out. All right, it's a pleasure to bring on our next guest. A six-round selection by the New York Rangers at the 1982 draft, this American forward went on to play 13 NHL seasons with the Rangers, Kings, and Sharks.

He made the all-rookie team in 1989 and was awarded the Masterson Trophy in 1997. And since 2016, he's been the head coach at the University of Wisconsin. Thanks so much for joining us on the Spittin' Chicklets podcast. Tony Granato, how's it going, Tony? Good morning, guys. Great, great. Thanks so much for joining us on the Spit and Chicklets podcast. Tony Granato. How's it going, Tony? Good morning, guys. Great, great. Thanks for having me.

Absolutely. A pleasure. How's things going out in Wisconsin these days? We're grinding through it. We're off to a little bit of a tough start, but we're a bunch of great kids, love our university, love our program, and we're trying to build something special here like it used to be when Chelios and Flatley and Driver and Suter and all those other guys were back here playing. And yourself.

You could pump your own tires for crying out loud. I was looking at your stats in college. I didn't have as many penalty minutes as you would have had in college, but I had quite a few. Yeah, but he couldn't get in. I couldn't get in. I went to Davenport University in Saginaw, Michigan, and they fucking kicked me out of there.

It's a fake school. Yes, it is. It's like fucking Trump University for crying out loud. Yeah, you had quite a few pimps in college. You like to mix it up back then. How much was the discipline with the referees and stuff back then? You know what's funny? I look back on that, and I'm somewhat embarrassed by those penalty minutes,

but I also remember the mentality of a college player back then thinking that if you're ever going to play pro hockey, you've got to show you're tough. And I don't know if it was a dumb way to show you were tough by taking dumb penalties, but I think that was the mentality that, you know, we had. And I remember Gary Suter was here at the same time. He was an undersized defenseman that went to the NHL right after, was rookie of the year, Stanley Cup, unbelievable career. You look back at his penalty minutes, the same thing. So I think as smaller players and college and college players the mentality at that time was if you're going to play pro hockey you got to show you're tough and that was one dumb way of showing we were tough that's how you stood out

to the scouts then right because at that time i feel like undersized guys it was very difficult to get drafted because americans yeah and americans too both i agree and i think i think the mentality that we had again wasn't the right way to look at it, but it was the only way to show that if you played hard and you stuck your nose in there against big guys, that maybe you'd get noticed and maybe you'd get a chance. Now you grew up, was it in the Chicago area? Where exactly did you grow up and play youth hockey?

Downers Grove, Elmer's Tuskees. Brett Hall was my teammate in my year. Was he really come on oh yeah oh yeah was he chirping people then was he that cocky back then too i don't remember that part he was a little chubby i remember that couldn't skate but we played in an outdoor rink and as a might player so i think we were seven the fence behind the the end zone you know because we were outside was probably 15 20 feet high over the boards and he used to stand on a blue line and take wrist shots

over that fence as a mite and hit the trains going by on the train tracks behind and I couldn't lift the puck to get it in the net let alone lift it over the net and over the fence to hit the trains and I remember that about Brett. But it was funny because he couldn't skate. I mean, he really couldn't. His ankles, he had those ankle benders out there, but he could shoot a puck. I don't think there's an area in the United States that has kind of upped their development of players and youth hockey like Chicago has in the past, I don't know, five, ten years. So growing up then at that time, I mean, there must not have been a ton of rinks,

a ton of hockey programs, were there? Well, the Blackhawks were going good there because Stan McKee, Bobby Hall, Tony Esposito, those were our guys. But we did not have great youth programs, or at least a lot of them. And we started getting AAA as I got into high school. We got the Minor Hawks came into play. Team Illinois came into play. But we had a few players.

Chelly was one of them. Chelly came and played quite a bit of his youth hockey in Chicago. And we had a couple others. Ricky Zombo was one of them. Stevie Richmond was one of them. But there weren't many kids from Chicago that were going past. I mean, some of them were sneaking into college, but not many. But very few were making it to the NHL.

So, but it was pretty good hockey. I think it's been great now. I think, you know, you look at the kids coming from everywhere now in the United States, it's kind of hard to believe that, you know, back then you couldn't get, you know, really good programs in Illinois, but that's come a long way. But all through the states now, Phoenix, Florida, wherever you're at, you get good programs and players come out of it and play not only college,

but they go on to the NHL. It must change recruiting big time for you. But when it comes to – you bring up Chelios' name, just a true legend. So you came into Wisconsin the year after he left. I think he left after his sophomore year. Must have been some crazy stories about how he was on campus, right, before you got there? You're looking for a few stories.

No, I'm not i know i'm not looking i'm not looking i just imagine there were some nobody has to tell him about chris because chris tell you himself he was the one that took me out on my recruiting visit so we became really close really fast so i came in as a you know on my recruiting trip chris took me out because i was supposed to be a big recruit and then they sent me Chelly. And he can tell you about that night. Somehow we got split up. I ran back to my hotel. He ran a different direction and we met the next morning for breakfast. So I will leave it at that and he can explain the details somewhere in between the events that happened. But Chris is one of those guys and players and people that once you become his buddies with

and you realize the big heart that he has, the competitiveness that he has, the love for the game of hockey that he has, you realize how special he is and how special he is to have as a friend. So he's one of those guys that I was lucky as a younger player to get to know early to really realize, geez, if you're going to play pro, look at what you have to do. early to really realize, geez, if you're going to play pro, look at what you have to do. And his competitiveness, work ethic, his courage were three things that I completely admired in a big way right away. And those were things that helped me as I got going.

We talked to a lot of guys who ended up obviously going to college. Now, was that your first recruiting trip? Because some guys say they go to the first spot and they're like, hey, I just fit in like a glove there. And I knew that that was a place I wanted to go. Or were you a guy that had your pick of the litter where you could have gone to any program you wanted to at the time? I was I was lucky. I did a repeat year in prep school because my grades weren't very good.

To be totally honest with you, I don't know if I could have got into college my my junior year. So I went to a prep school and I had to repeat a year just to get my academics in order to be ready for college. So I get recruited two years. So I get recruited by Bob Johnson, which was my technically my senior year, but I was only a junior school wise. The legend. The legend. He brought me in and he wanted me to come in as a true freshman. And he brought me in on a visit. And he actually, I remember the recruiting trip like it was yesterday. Cause Bob Johnson was this icon and I'm sitting in it at the end of the meeting. You always meet with the coach right at the end.

And then he kind of tells you where you might fit and everything. He goes, next year you're going to be on a power play. Driver's going to be on top. Flatley's going to be at the net front. Chelios is going to be over here and I want you right here. All you're going to do is shoot the puck. I want you to shoot the puck.

And I remember going, you know, Hey coach, coach, I'm only a not. I want you to shoot the puck. And I remember going, you know, Hey coach, coach, I'm only a junior. Don't worry about being a junior. You can take it. That's at the end of the season. We'll get you, we'll get you into college next year. You're going to be on, you're going to be on the PowerPoint next year. And I'll never forget that. And obviously I could not,

I didn't have the credits or was I qualified enough to get into a college at that time. And I went back for one more year. And a year later, Bob had left and gone on to Calgary Flames. Jeff Sauer became the coach. And so I kind of always knew I wanted to go to Wisconsin, even though I did go on quite a few other visits because the visits are special. Oh, yeah. You don't want to give those up. Don't miss a visit. If you can get on a college visit. They've changed. They're not quite like they used to be. Thank God. At least I hope not.

I mean, you hand them off to your players, and you give the players a few rules now. Hey, guys, make sure you stay out of trouble. Don't go here. These kids are only 17 or 16 when they come in on visits. Make sure you treat them and you understand they're only 16 or 17. And then you get a lot of trust in your players when you do let them take the guy you got your leadership group printing uh papa

giorgio fake ids for these young guys they're bringing in some things you don't want to know what happened and those are probably some of them but i don't they're they're definitely what there is no way they're like they used to be no no when when chris took me out like holy cow or you could just do like michigan and have a louis vuitton duffel bag with 50k in cash waiting for him that word worked too yeah i remember i've told these guys before but i had my uh my official visit at bu legendary coach jack parker just like you mentioned you meet the head coach at the end well it was the next morning and i'm sitting there got lucky charms, and I got dragged out by my afro from Daisy Buchanan's the night before.

I'm like, I might get my scholarship revoked at this official. But I meant to ask you quick, what prep school was it? A Midwest prep school, or did you go out east? Northwood, Lake Placid. Oh, nice. Okay, that's where Eric Cole's son is. Home of Jay Miller. Yeah.

Yeah. Nice. It was Chris Nyland. I went to a place that was supposed to develop talent, and Jay Miller and Chris Nyland, two of the toughest guys ever to play in the NHL, came out of Northwood Prep before I did. Then Mike Richter went there, and then we had four or five other guys. That's probably why you're acting the way you did in college,

because you had those guys protecting you at the program wherever you were beforehand. And I played with them in the NHL, and they both protected me there as well. Chris was with me my rookie year in New York. Chris Nyland was as good of a protector and a teammate that you could ever have. And I'll tell you a quick story about Chris. I'm glad you brought his name up because as a young player and as an American player and as supposed to be a skilled player when you come in, back in those days, it was tough to try to find your way in there and to prove you were tough enough and whatever else. And Chris, I was all excited because about 10 games into my NHL career, I felt I wanted to get in a fight just so I could get my name in the paper, fighting mate, get the model.

It'd be so cool, right. And I, and I get, we're playing Pittsburgh and it's the right time. I find the right guy, Johnny Cullen, you know, Johnny Cullen, because you play with them or play or know of them, but, but my size and I thought maybe I could do okay against him. So we get ready to fight and we dropped the gloves, the refs get in there and break it up before we can get the fight in. So I, you know, but at least I dropped my gloves.

It looked cool. I get back to the bench. Chris Nyland slides over to me as hard as he can, and he looks me in the eye and he says, don't ever drop your gloves again because if that guy doesn't beat the crap out of you, by the time you get back to the bench, I'm going to beat the shit. That's my job. You don't drop your gloves.

Tell me who you want me to beat up, and I'll do it for you. Wow. You talk about a protector. And then I'm thinking about, well, that makes sense. I get knocked out or beat up, it looks bad on Chris. Yeah. And it's for our team. And I'll never forget that lesson that Chris taught me.

But in the same breath, though, like you were that undersized guy that you talked about, you know, in college, and you had to establish yourself. Even at the NHL level, I found like smaller guys, if they did that early on in their career, most guys would tend to slowly leave you alone where they, you know, you maybe you got that little extra second in front of the net and guys weren't taking advantage of you. I don't know, Biss. I just I just I did what Chris told me to do. I think that was a good thing. But then I had Marty in L.A. I had Jay Miller in L.A.

I was lucky enough. So how many NHL career scraps did you finish with? You probably know better than I do, but I said the number eight, and that's a guess, and I probably threw a total of five punches or four punches. Same here. We were getting fought. I think I had four.

Did you? I think I had four. I'm similar Witt? I think I had four. Maybe one punch thrown, one punch thrown, and a bunch of punches taken. It's not good. Biss, do you remember our training camp together in Pitt? I do. I was talking to Witt beforehand, and that was the one that I got claimed off waivers. I was going everybody in that training camp.

I looked it up because I said to our video coach, I said, you've got to find this out i said i remember this fighting a lot in training camp that you had three fights yeah did you three games back to back to back yeah against toronto i think i fought whole whole wig rose hill i forget who else i fought in pre-season too but i was trying to make the team rogers who's andy rogers andy rogers that's who it was. Oh, yeah. You caught him? Big defenseman. I think he was 55 at the time.

Yeah, he actually lives out in BC now. But, yeah, I was trying to make a name for myself too, and I think that was the only way I could make the team. But you guys had picked up Rupp in that offseason who, you know, a few years prior had won the Cup and established himself. Game-winning goal in the Stanley Cup. I think he had two tucks that game. They won 2-1.

Marty Brodeur helped him out. And then I think Goddard was still there. So it just so happens – I didn't think there was a chicken-dicks chance I was going to get claimed off waiver. So I was like, okay, I'll maybe see you in a couple months because I'm getting sent down to Wilkes-Barre. And then fortunately the Coyotes ended up snagging me. I got a little show dough there.

So enough about my plug career. Let's get back to you, buddy. Well, I got a little show dough there. Enough about my plug career. Let's get back to you, buddy. I had a question. Going back to Wisconsin, you see Suter left after sophomore year, Chelios after sophomore year, your sophomore year, 67 points, but you ended up staying all four. One, I hope you graduated, and two, was there ever

a thought about leaving sooner? No, I had no chance. I was too small. Oh, really? It set up perfect for me because I missed the Olympics by one year when I came in freshman year. The Olympics expired four years of college hockey, then set up perfect for me to play on that Olympic team in 88. Then I knew at that point that if I was going to make it, the longer I delayed my chance of, sorry, the longer I delayed my training camp or first pro hockey, the better I would be. If I was five pounds heavier and a little bit better

and a little bit quicker, I had a better chance of making it. So I wasn't a rookie until I was 22, maybe 23, my year in the league. And if I started earlier, I don't think I'd make it. I don't think I'd make it, man. Those days were way different. Oh, those guys were mutants. The league was so fucking tough back then. Just a bunch of killers.

Tony, you just mentioned Lake Placid a second ago, and you ended up playing for the Olympic team. You took the whole year with the national team. Was that sort of a big dream come true, even before your pro career started, playing for the national Olympic team? It was. I mean, look at that team. Brian Leach was on that team.

Peter LaViolette, Mike Richter, Scotty Young. I mean, we played with Kevin Stevens. We had a phenomenal group of college kids prior to them all, you know, jumping into the NHL and having pretty good careers. But the other thing that Olympic year did, we played 10 exhibition games against NHL teams in September. So the training camp, we went to 10 NHL teams. So there you get a chance to play exhibition games against, you know, pro players.

I thought that was a huge thing for me to realize, geez, I know I can play with them. I know I can skate with them, you know, and again, now am I going to be tough enough to be able to compete at that level? So I got a little bit of a taste of it there. Then that Olympic experience, eight years after they won the gold medal, lots of pressure and lots of, you know, oh my gosh, how are you guys going to live up to the standards that Aruzione and Craig and all those guys set for you guys. But we had a great team. We just fell a little bit short in a couple games. We played the Russians to a one-goal game, played the Czechs to a one-goal game.

You know, and, you know, if you look back at it, you know, we were pretty close to doing something special, but obviously a little bit short. Now, that was the games in Calgary, right, 88? So that season before,'s it's if you watch miracle or know the 80 team but a lot of people don't you spend the whole season playing against all these different teams right so it must have been so cool you're done with college but then you're going around were you playing mostly ihl ahl teams how did that work but you must have

become so close as a group yeah we did it was it was probably the well it was it was the closest team that i've ever been part of, but that was the reason. We lived with each other. We lived out of a suitcase, and we just traveled around the country playing teams. So 10 NHL games, like you said, some minor league teams, lots of college teams. We played the Russians 10 times. You ever beat them?

Yes, because it was the Russians select teams. It wasn't the Red Army team, so they didn't show us the big team until we got to the olympics um so we didn't play krutov larionov makarov those guys we didn't play those guys till the actual olympics and we ended up losing that game it was an unreal game actually we're down five two and a third six two and a third we came back made it 6-2 in the third. We came back, made it 6-5 in the third period. And then they, let's see who scored.

Kasitanov scored an empty net goal. Or Fedesov. Fedesov scored an empty net goal to make it 7-5. But we were close. And that was, again, we were a bunch of 19- to 22-year-old kids playing against that basically the greatest team ever put together. And we gave a game so that's unreal because that was that was still the true red army squad and i think that

was the year they went and dusted up some nhl teams wasn't it i don't know what year it was they went to philly i remember at one point maybe that was earlier in the 80s a little bit the broad street bullies didn't they beat the fucking wheels off they like left the game but that that's that what a cool memory that must have been do you Holy, didn't they beat the fucking wheels off? They, like, left the game. Yeah, Bobby Clark. Bobby Clark broke one of their ankles. But what a cool memory that must have been. Do you remember looking back now, who was the most dominant player on the team? I'm guessing Leachie, but I don't know if at that time it was a little different. Oh, Leachie was so darn good.

He was sick. He was sick. And then he went. We had six Ranger draft picks on that Olympic team. And Brian, at the end of that Olympics, ended in February, he went straight to the Rangers. The other five of us signed. Two of us, Peter Laviolette and myself and Mike Richter,

went down to the Denver Rangers that time, played the rest of that season in the minors. Leachie went straight to the NHL and started his domination. Richter and I and Lavi went down to the minors. And the following year, we went to training training camp and that's the year I, I ended up making it. So were you expecting to get drafted? I got drafted before that.

I got drafted when I was at prep school in Lake Placid. Yeah. But were you, were you expecting it? Like, were you, did you, did you think you were going to get drafted? No. Oh no, no, no, no. No idea. I remember getting a questionnaire from the Rangers in high school you know fill out

the questionnaire how tall are you what's your favorite you know whatever drink all this different stuff and I sent it in I'm thinking I don't know they must send this to all the kids that are playing hockey and then so when I got drafted I got a call on Sunday morning so the draft was on Saturday in Montreal I got called Sunday morning from my house from someone that knew my dad that was in the Blackhawk organization that said, how come you didn't tell me Tony was going to get drafted? We would have drafted him. You know, the Rangers drafted him yesterday.

And then the Rangers called me later that day on Sunday to tell me. So the draft was way different that day. You didn't find out 24 hours later today? No, there was no tweets and no things to show what was happening live in Montreal. You found out the next day in the paper, and I basically found out the next day in the paper and from a couple phone calls. You mentioned that questionnaire. Was there a lot of psychological questions, too? Because when I was – it was my draft year.

They sent me a booklet about this. You were the only one who got that one, though. You're a fucking asshole. I don't remember that this i there were questions though to find out you know what kind of character you had so you're trying to figure out what do they want to know and then finally you just say i don't really know what they want to know so you just write down what you think is right and go with it so it worked because that's the team that drafted me that's so bizarre yeah so you look at that 82 draft just one american

in the first round 61 americans in the course of 12 rounds. So how long did the verbal and physical harassment last before it finally taped off your rookie year? Oh, being an American, you mean? Yeah, yeah. I don't know. I think that the 80 team was the team that if that didn't happen, I don't know how it would have progressed.

But that gave us the opportunity where people said, geez, these Americans are special in maybe a different way than the Canadians are with the enthusiasm that they play with and the smaller skilled guys. So the Neil Brons, the Mark Johnsons and those guys that kind of broke through from that era gave, I think, the rest of us an opportunity. But the part about being an American and being small, I think that was it of us an opportunity. But the part about, you know, being an American and being small, I think that was, it didn't matter where you came from, you were going to get abused until you figured out, proved to everybody else that you were tough enough to take it. That's just kind of the way it was. And, you know, Bess, you know that too. When you went in the training camp and you looked around, to beat somebody else out, you had to show your teammates that you were willing to take a

beating to to join their club so to speak and to be part of what they wanted you to be and that's you know I was lucky enough I had Guy Lafleur, Marcel Dion two hall of famers yeah my line it's my rookie year they were my line mates my first 10 games those guys probably were my line mates and six or seven of them so So, you know, here I am sitting between those two guys. And, you know, they were, I don't want to say slowing down, but they were towards the end of their careers. But they gave me so much confidence because of the way they treated me and the way they helped me. And that was, I was really fortunate to be part of that. And Leachie, obviously, I was there with Leachie as well. Mike Richter got called up a little bit later.

Peter Laviolette got called up. So I had some familiarity with some other players that always helps you when you've got some buddies in the group. I'm glad you brought that up because I looked at your rookie year and I wanted to ask about going to training camp and seeing Guy Lafleur, who I think that was his one and only year as a Ranger, correct? It was his comeback year after three years of retirement. It's unbelievable.

So, like, you get into camp, you don't probably have expectations of making it, or were you like, I'm here to win a job? Well, I played those 15 or 20 games in the minors the year before. Yeah, the numbers were great. Well, you know what numbers mean for small players. You hope they mean something. But when you get to training camp and your number's 39 and you're dressing down there in that other locker room with a bunch of think that you hope they mean something, but when you get to training camp and your number's 39 and you're dressing

down there and that other locker room with a bunch of guys that you never heard of, you know, you're a little bit on the outside looking in. So that's where I was. And so it was, it was, I think that was a point in my career that, that, that summer I trained with Chelly, Suter, Richter. I trained with all of the guys at a level that if I, when I went to training camp, I played it like it was going to be my Stanley Cup and I was going to make it

or I might not, I know, I don't know how long I could have lasted in the minors the way that the game was played back then. So, so I, I, I threw everything in to do it when I got to training camp and we were in Trois-Rivere. I remember this. I had a good camp. Things went my way. And Phil Esposito was the GM. And some of the older players started to take, hey,

look at this little guy flying around. And he's crashing and banging and he's scoring and he's doing all these things. So I could see I was gaining a little bit of momentum from the veterans and how they were treating me. And fortunately for me, I got some exhibition games and they went well and and i ended up making it so it was i was i would say i was a longer shot going in 36 tucks i looked at the numbers and i scrolled down hockey db to see if you won the caller that year who ended up taking it down are you kidding me oh okay okay there you go okay well i i didn't want

to look because i like so far above everybody else. That was Joe Sackick's rookie year, Trevor Lendon. And then Tony Granato was somewhere down here in the mix of rookies that year. But Leach, he's a Hall of Famer, and he was a Hall of Famer from the first day he stepped on the ice in New York. I would have done anything to see him play in the one year at BC I think close to 50 points. Like a true phenom. Yeah. The modest, most modest, humble, low-key, just kind of show up and play. Put his skates

on and go out there and play. Any Guy Lafleur stories? Anything that when you think about him, you remember a few instances where he just left you in awe? Every second i was there i would just watch him because you know um he was he was like a little kid going to his first training camp is this see i felt like he felt that's what i think he was so excited to put his

skates on he'd get this is one leach and i went to one of the games exhibition games and we get there at five five o'clock you know we think we're one of the games, exhibition games, and we get there at 5 o'clock. You know, we think we're kind of early. You know, it's earlier than we get to college games. We walk in the dressing room, Flowers fully dressed, sitting in a stall like this. Shut up. We walk in.

With his kiss. Gates tied. Gates weren't tied. They were late. But they weren't fully tied. Holding his stick, sitting in the stall by himself. And we're like, I think maybe we should have came earlier. That was one.

And then the other thing was, as a rookie that wasn't supposed to make the team, they only ordered me probably six sticks. And back then we had the wooden sticks. So they didn't last very long. You whack a couple guys, they break, and pretty soon you're down to one or two. I had to borrow Guy Lafleur's sticks because I ran out of sticks. So I used his sticks probably five or six games into my career and had to use them the rest of that year.

So that year that I did well scoring, I was using Flower's sticks. The bad thing that I did was that I never asked Guy for one of his sticks or Marcel. You know, on today's game, everyone's got a big stick collection. I was too nervous and too respectful to say, hey, Flower, can I have one of your sticks? So I didn't get one. But about two years ago when he started to, his health started to deteriorate, I found one on eBay. And I looked at it through all the pictures and I said, you know what? I examined it and I said,

that's his stick because I know, because I used it. I had one of my old ones. I ordered it and I said, that's his stick because I know because I used it. Wow. I had one of my old ones. I ordered it. I bought it. And I got it in my basement now. And it lines up exactly with my stick, so I know it's his. So I did that. I bought that just to have something of flowers because when he got sick there.

That's incredible. I realized how special he was to me and how I wanted to have something from him. So I had that stick in my basement. I also have to ask about Marcel Dion because I think for guys like maybe my age, like I'm turning 40 and definitely younger, and maybe it's because he was out in L.A. and Guy Lafleur is in Montreal, but maybe the most underrated, under-talked-about superstar of all time. What kind of guy was he when you got to play with him?

Quiet, loud. I just know nothing about him and you look at his numbers i mean one of the best to ever do it he was on the other end where flower was so flower came in and he came in all excited and hyper and energy and just like a little kid he was on the back end where he was tired yeah and just kind of kind of you know really reserved into himself but again at a level of respect on what he had done and still what he could do at that age was remarkable for me. But complete opposites as far as Flower wanted to be right in the middle

of what was going on with the guys and team, and Marcel was a little bit saying, I'm a little bit too old for this stuff. I'm kind of slowing down here. I'm going to kind of take it easy on some of the energized hockey stuff. But really cool, again, very unbelievable skilled at that age still. And Phil used him, and Michelle Bergeron used him on the power play for most of that year.

He's kind of a power play specialist. But then I saw that year he ended up in the minors for a little bit. Do you remember when he got sent down, or how did that all come about? Yeah, he started losing ice time, and I don't remember who got mad at who, and they just thought it'd be time to bring some younger players up. I don't really know how that happened. I thought he was still an effective player. Outside of superstition, why was Guy Lafleur there

like four or five hours before the game? Why was he doing that? That's what he did, man. He did go on the ice for practice. He was always the funny guy in practice that would find ways to make things humorous, no matter what was going on. Just happy, energized. And to me, as a player that when you get older in your career, you draw back on that,

saying these kids are looking up to the older players to see if they're just going through the motions me, you know, as, as a player that when you get older in your career, you draw back on that saying these kids are looking up to the older players to see if they're just going through the motions just to get through the day or they're having fun with what they're doing. So that enthusiasm that he had kind of helped me realize that as I get older, I want to keep that same passion that he showed so I could show others that I'm happy to be here. And, and, and that was really a big, show others that I'm happy to be here. And that was really a big, I mean, a quality of, that flower had that lots of maybe older players kind of lose as they get older. That's the first thing I remember about you from Penguins camp, like you around the rink,

you always had a smile on, you were so energetic, energy, energy, energy, and like, you're happy to be, it's happy to be around you. So i it definitely followed with you thanks yeah no no it's great man i know it's the one thing i remember man it's it's a big impact is you know he's getting his head punched everybody's like tony's in a great mood yeah there you go best good fight buddy as little as time we as we spent together that's the one thing that stuck out i want to say i said that to you on the way over to get a coffee this morning he didn't uh tony when you play with you what was the best career advice he gave you back then? I think the fun part of it. He didn't have to give it to me.

I could see it. Right, right. That's why it surprised me so much that he was able to walk away and be away from the game for three years. And then I don't know what he would have done in that time to bring that joy to himself, but you saw when he came back how much he missed it and appreciated it. And, you know, again, I wish I would have taken some pictures with him or done some different things with him to be able to celebrate that

in a different way now. But I got his stick. I got those memories. And I know how lucky I was to have had that opportunity to play with him. Well, the next year, you know, you have an unbelievable rookie year. And the next year, maybe a little bit of a slow start, I'd like to get your opinion. But you get traded to L.A., which probably turned out to be the best thing that ever could have happened to you based on what you did there.

But take me through that first pro trade, how you found out, and basically how the season was going when the deal did go down. You got dealt for Bernie Nichols. Really? Yeah, we put Sandstrom. Sandstrom. Sandstrom and Gennaro. It was a two for one. So it was, but Bernie had,

I think Bernie had 80 goals the year before. And we were off to a little bit of a slow start as a team in New York. Roger Nielsen came in. You know, he tried to change the philosophy on how to play defense. He taught me a ton about how to play without the puck, which was great.

But I wasn't scoring that second year nearly as much as I did the first year. So the trade happened over the all-star break. I ended up being back here in Madison, Wisconsin, visiting friends and family. When the trade happened, Bernie was playing in the all-star game in Pittsburgh. And during the game, I'm watching the game on TV, and they say there's been a major trade in the NHL today. Bernie Nichols has been dealt to the New York Rangers, but the trade is going to be held till after the game because they're still trying to notify the players on the

other end that are going to LA. You were watching this live. Watching it live. So I'm looking at this going, okay, they can't find somebody. Who the heck is it? I mean, I've got to be part of this trade. And sure enough, maybe a couple hours later, maybe not even a couple hours later, they called my in-law's house, and they found that I was in Madison. They called my in-law's house. We didn't have cell phones back then, obviously.

And they said, hey, we need to find Tony. Neil Smith needs to talk to Tony. So finally, I called Neil up and said, hey, Tony, you've been dealt in the trade, right? And a few minutes later, Neil gives Bruce McNall my number. Bruce McNall calls me, who was the owner of the Kings. And Bruce calls me up and says, Tony, we're so excited to have you. Gretz, Gretz, after the game you played against the Kings last year, Gretz said, we need to get Granato on our team. I've got to find out from Gretz if that's true. I never asked

him. He's like, who's that? I don't care. Ruth McDowell told me that, Gretz. That's all that matters. That's what he told everybody who came over. It's like, Gretz asked for you. It didn't matter. I heard that. Gretzky knew who I was and wanted me on his team. That's all you need. That's the he told everybody who came over. It's like, Gretzky asked for you. It didn't matter. I heard that. Gretzky knew who I was and wanted me on his team. That's all you need.

That's the confidence you needed. I'm going to L.A. right now. And so the funny part is, like I said during the off-site break, I fly to Vancouver with Thomas Sandstrom I got traded with. We get to the Pan Pacific Hotel. We check into the hotel. Back then you got roommates. I look at my key. Sandstrom looks at his key. We're in different rooms. Hey, excuse me, can you tell

me who my roommate is? They tell me, yeah, you're with Sandstrom, I think was with Kodalski. So I go, gosh darn, who the heck is? So I'm walking to the elevator with Sandstrom and I'm nervous now. And I don't know who my roommate is. I guess it's a guy from the minors or something and we ran into bob miller the broadcaster and i bob's tone he's all excited because he was a wisconsin badger tony it's so great to have you here this is going to be awesome and and i said hey bob who's he goes oh that's what wayne registers under so i go holy cripe not only only did I get traded to L.A., now I'm rooming with Gretz. So I get to my room that night, and Gretz was going to join the team the next day because he gave him an extra day off to fly back to L.A. after the All-Star game.

He was going to fly in on game day. So I'm sitting in my room for one full day knowing that when that door opens, Wayne's going to walk in, and that's my new roommate. full day with knowing that when that door opens, Wayne's going to walk in and that's my new roommate. So back at Wisconsin, my brother was playing here, Donnie, and a bunch of buddies were still back here. They would phone my hotel room every day, hoping that Wayne would answer the phone. You're like, why did I tell him? We'd have to put a do not disturb on our phone as soon as we got into every city, because I didn't want those knuckleheads, you know, calling to talk to Wayne.

And anyhow, it was, you know, as a hockey player, could you have anything better in your life than having a chance to not only play on Wayne Gretzky's team but be his roommate for a little bit? And it was incredible. He's an encyclopedia too. I'm sure he would just talk hockey nonstop. He doesn't sleep best. So post-games, I'm tired. And we'd come in the room, you know, and he'd turn the TV on after the games,

you know, whatever, get back to the room. And he would go over every play that happened the entire game. And I'm like, Gratz, I can't remember that, man. He's got the details of everything that happened. And I learned more in those two or three hours post-game than you could ever imagine listening to him talk about what happened. He's a genius. That's awesome. Now, if you re-listen to this interview, we're going to bleep that out

because I still think he registers into hotels under that alias. You bleep that out. We will bleep it out. We don't want to blow up Wayne Gretzky's spot here. I don't want him getting calls from all those guys. All the Seekers. Well, R8 now knows. Hi, it's ******.

Wayne's going to want it. Gretz can't be creative enough to change his name at the hotel registry. But maybe he's superstitious. It's been going good all these years, so why change it up, right? I agree with you. Hey, Crosby, I think Crosby learned that from him, too, and he registers under an alias as well. We can't drop it, but it has to do with one of his favorite movies.

But, Ari, I'll send it over to you here. These are great stories, man. We really appreciate these because we have such a younger demographic now. So hearing all these old-school stories, I don't know how many times you've retold them, but this is all new to us, man, and we really appreciate it. Yeah. You could tell you there's another old Montreal Canadian there too. Big Bird, Larry Robinson. What was he like? He was a real character, they said back in the day. It's the same thing though, about having fun and smiling

and laughing every single second of the day. He's a jokester, but happy. But yeah, it was, it was great. When I got to LA, you know, what I loved about that and Bruce is Bruce brought Yari Curry, Paul Coffey, Rick Tockett, Charlie Huddy, Grant Fuhrer, lots of super, super, superstars into that environment, probably one to sell tickets and to bring, bring some names in. And also, you know, people that Gretz knew and trusted to bring in the locker room that could add something to our team.

But I got lucky when I went there. Dave Taylor, Luke Robitaille. I go on and on about all of the guys. But Larry was one of those guys that I just was, you know, fortunate enough to cross paths with and learn from and watch. And the part about the great players that they all have in common, how much they loved being on the ice and playing hockey. Oh, I couldn't agree more.

You talked about Gratz. You put Larry Robinson in there. You put Guy Lafleur in there for me. Chris Celli also in there. They just love putting their skates on and going on and being on that sheet of ice and playing. Those are the things that all those guys have as the same character. Oh, you guys must have had some good times in L.A. too.

Was it a bit of a culture shock going out there to play pro hockey, just given that you were in NYC and all of a sudden you're in L.A. where you're probably leaving the rink and not getting recognized? And was the building packed then? Were you guys selling out every game? Yeah, with Grats and luke and dave taylor and kelly rudy kelly rudy was a big fan favorite there as well and then blakey was coming in and and we we we did we had you know the run in 93 when we lost in the and the final

montreal we were so darn close and and you know yari came back and you know cough was there for a while talk was there for a while we had we had a heck of a group of professional players and and you know guys that like when you're done playing with you're like so thankful that you had an opportunity even if it was only for a year to play with guys like that you mentioned yari kari there's another guy like we're just saying about dion very not so much under 80s in the hall of fame but he kind of flies under the radar why is that so much with kari you think maybe being being European, but those years it was funny because when he came back to L.A., he went to Europe for a year after Edmonton, and we traded for him in the summer,

and then I was playing on Gretz's line the year before, so Yari comes back. Obviously, Yari Curry, who had 600-some goals playing with Wayne at Edmonton, is going to play with Wayne. That was the year that they ended up actually in 93 and went to the finals. They moved Yari to center. So Gretz had line mates of Warren Reichel and Thomas Sandstrom. And then Curry played with Robitaille and Taylor.

And then I played on a line with Corey Millen and Mike Donnelly, two other Americans that were – I was the biggest guy on the line by a lot, guys. other Americans that were, I was the biggest guy in the line by a lot, guys. I had 165. Those guys are 5'8", 5'7", maybe. Maybe Corey's 5'7". Mike might be 5'9". But we were a small line, and they used to make a ton of fun of us and call us the Smurf line, our own team.

Marty McSorley was the biggest one, the Smurf line, you little whatever. And that was, but I remember about Yari being not just a great score, but being able to change positions for our team needs to help us go to the finals and come really close to winning a Stanley Cup. That 92-93 year was your career year. I know there was a season with more goals, but points-wise. And I got to wonder or imagine that with the depth on that team it and gretzky kind of being out injured was he out injured for part of that regular season

so you maybe got a little extra ice time first half of the year the back injury so the back happened at training camp uh and then there was i remember bruce called bruce called some of the older players he called me probably yari luke maybe blakey i don't know who but a bunch of us into a into a room and said guys we just got some bad news gretz might be done and we're like what do you mean done they go ahead a back injury happened and that they diagnosed a disc issue and not sure if he's ever going to play again i'm like what oh yeah so we started that year and we're we were overwhelmed i'm like oh my gosh. And, you know, so anyways, fortunately enough, during the year, we could see Gretz progress and start doing some different things.

His back was getting better. And we grinded through the first half of the year and did really well without him with the inspiration of trying to inspire him. We'll hold the fort together for a little while, but, man, we need you back. And he came back that year. He was as he always was he was great um you know he had that game seven in toronto with the three goals that helped us get to the finals which was you know i he i think he still says was one of his

greatest games ever uh but from a from a teammate standpoint to see him step up and just say hey guys we're not losing tonight we're winning and we're going to the finals was what I remember most about that night. And then there was the night before we lost in game six at home to Toronto. No, we did. We win in overtime. Maybe we won in overtime in game six to force a game seven. And I think Luke scored in game six when we were going back to Toronto. Everyone in the media was writing Wayne off as he's slowing down.

Doesn't have it anymore. He's got a piano on his back. Bob McKenzie. Piano on his back. Thank you. That's what it was. Piano on his back. And we're like, are they crazy saying that? I go, what are they watching?

And then sure enough, man, he stepped up. And as teammates, we couldn't be more happier for him after that game. To everybody, you know, could look back at the media and say, sorry guys, you were wrong again. And, and that was really special. I just wish we could have finished that off because that meant so much to him going back to LA. He didn't go back to LA to do anything except help the LA Kings win a Stanley cup. Yes. It was great for the game. Yes.

There's teams all over the United States now because Wayne did do that. So we can't forget the impact that he had on the growth of our game by him going to L.A. But he went back there to win a Stanley Cup. And I think as teammates, we felt so bad that we didn't do enough to help him achieve that goal after that series. But he was like always so classy and proud of all of us on him saying the opposite how we went through the wall for him to try to to help him you know make that a special way of of uh uh his contributions to la but whatever not not to mention it would have been taken down toronto and montreal like the exact opposite of the la kings to get it done but still

an amazing run uh another guy i gotta ask about because one of the all-time greatest goal scores of all time, Luke Robitaille, but always, people were always dogging his skating. And as a teammate and when you played against him, was it a little better than people gave him credit for? Or was it one of those things where you're like, he's horrible at skating? He couldn't skate. That's okay.

He didn't need to skate. He only stood in an area about five by eight, a little hula hoop area around the net. He was there. When the puck was there, it was in the net. Luke's so funny because I still give him crap to this day. So on the power play, most of the times I followed him because I'd have Luke. Luke would be on the first unit. I'd probably be on the second unit.

And he would never come near the bench when they iced the puck he'd find a way to go far away from the bench hey look look change he never he either was deaf and couldn't hear or he was smart enough to not come near the bench that he wouldn't have to change so we i still give him crap to this day about that but but and the big picture of things him tired at a two-minute shift was way better than me being out there 30 seconds fresh as far as having a chance to score so he was smart he did the right thing i want to go back to mcsurley that you know stick penalty in game one it swung the momentum so much uh after that what players kind of maybe talking privately like how did that happen was it on

mcsurley was it on barry melrose like the fact he was playing with an illegal stick at that portion of the game no we're teammates we, we're teammates. We're teammates. There's mistakes made. There's penalties that happen. There's situations that happen during games that sometimes aren't, you know, what you want them to happen. But Marty backed us and was there for us every second of the way. If we wouldn't have Marty, we'd have never even been close to the finals.

So he was one of those guys that, like, it happened. You know, as killers, we should have found a way to kill that penalty off. You know, Montreal took advantage of it and, you know, did change some momentum of it. But Marty, I loved as a teammate. He's the same thing I told you about Chris Nyland. He did for me in L.A. He did it for everybody.

So a ton of respect for everything that Marty did as a teammate. So, no, there was never any you know of course we were disappointed we lost the game we lost three games in a row in overtime you know john leclerc had two of those goals he's why i had the one in that game um so we were close patty wow you know kelly rudy was phenomenal for us in our net but patty wow made some saves and he had won 10 overtime games in a row that playoffs. One of those years, it didn't matter what we did and how we did it. It wasn't meant to be. And so Marty was fantastic.

So you guys were aware that he had a bit of a banana hook that he would use? There were multiple sticks on our bench that were banana hooks. Okay. So they picked Marty's. However, and how they picked Martyy's i don't know key cabano right yeah somebody's taking credit for it because they won you know because there are rumors that there are rumors that the uh they broke into our locker room the night before and measured them before to make sure you know there's lots of stuff going around and how that stick actually

was called but um you know regardless it was know, again, an incident that happened again from a penalty killer standpoint, from a teammate standpoint. I was like, hey, guys, let's rally and get this thing done. And unfortunately, Breeze Bob pounded one home and then pounded another one home in overtime. And we went back to, you know, we went back to L.A., tied 1-1. You know, you go on the road in the first two games, you split on the road, you're in decent shape. But the next two games, we lost in overtime again. What was Barry Melrose like as a coach?

I mean, he only coached one other team after L.A. He seemed like quite the character between the suits and the hair and everything. What was he like as a coach, though? He was great for our team because he took a lot of the pressure and different things off of Wayne and other things in a different way. He handled the media in a way that was kind of unique. I thought he did a phenomenal job with us. And we had lots of characters on our team. You know, you mentioned Marty, there were lots of others, personalities on that group, and he got us all to play for each other and together.

And sometimes it's hard when you get all these different personalities and these different stars to be able to come together like that. Your coach has to be in a position to be able to know how to handle these personalities. And I thought he did. Like I told you about the line combinations. You got Gary to get off Gretz's line to play center. You got Warren Reichel, who is basically I don't want to be too hard on Warren, but he's basically a fourth line crashing banger playing first line with Wayne Gretzky in the Stanley, you know, all the way through the Stanley cup playoffs and being productive.

So he, he was able to put our team together and have us be at our best. This kind of an obligatory question for any guy who played for the Kings back then, but you must've been in the forum club a couple of times back then, huh? You've been dying to ask that question. Fortunately or unfortunately, every way you want to look at it, I was married.

So I was married at that time. So I was in there. Yeah, let the single guys and the guys that were a little bit before me tell you more about the forum. But it was a special place. You go in there. But the thing that was cool about being in L.A.

at that time, Bruce McNall was friends with everybody in Hollywood and everybody in Hollywood wanted to meet Wayne Gretzky and be around Wayne Gretzky. Wayne in that town, Wayne was the biggest of the biggest stars there. You didn't, you could be a movie star. It didn't matter. Wayne Gretzky was Wayne Gretzky. So everybody wanted a picture or to meet Wayne. So we had our locker room post game was filled with super, super Hollywood people. And that part was cool.

I didn't know who half of them were because I didn't pay attention to lots of the stuff that was going outside the hockey world back then, but they were all there. Any of them are like a real peck ahead or act like a dickhead or, you know, you hear stories of what act is kind of, you know, given the small people to shove off, were they pretty nice because you guys were stars as well. They kind of thought you were on the same level. a shovel off? Were they pretty nice because you guys were stars as well? They kind of thought you

were on the same level? Most of the ones that I met were extremely nice. Yeah. And cordial and respectful and all that stuff. Goldie Hahn was one of my favorites because I did like Goldie. And her and Kurt Russell used to sit right on the glass. I'll tell you this story since we

brought up Goldie Hahn. So Biss, you remember Witt. You probably remember, too. I got a big suspension one year. Yeah, the longest in the history of the league at the time. Oh, no, no, no. Yes, it was. No, at the time, it was a 15-gamer, Neal Wilkinson,

and you gave him a two-hander, and you got a 15-gamer. I gave him a two-hander. If you remember where it happened on the ice, it was right inside the blue line along the bench side. OK, the two seats of the people that were closest to it, literally three feet from the incident were Goldie Hawn and Kurt Russell. So I do this. I Wilkinson knocks me down. I give him a little thing over the head. I give it was alcohol of town. So I get kicked out of the game. OK, and I'm I'm embarrassed. I realized what I did as I was going back.

I get undressed in like three seconds. I'm in a towel. Goldie comes running into the locker room. Only Goldie Hawn. Just me and Goldie Hawn in the locker room. I've got a little towel wrapped around my waist. And she comes up. She wants to hug me.

She goes, that was the coolest thing. He deserved it. You were so cool. And I'm like, oh, my gosh, what the heck is happening right now? So I want to see Goldie again at some point to ask her if she remembers what she did to me that day as far as making me turn completely red. And I'm hanging on to my towel. Did you ask her if she could pay your fine? No, I don't.

She just said that that guy deserved that so much he was taunting you. That was her words. I was just going to ask you about that. But then I want to say a couple years later, you sustained a pretty bad brain injury, I believe in the 96 season. And you ended up being out for about six months in a day. How did that all happen? And take us through that.

Real quick, we were in Hartford playing with L.A., crashing to the boards, chasing an icing call down and i got smacked you know i went head first in the boards i turned and then kind of slapped my head into the boards and then got up you shake it off you know hey i'm good you you know you kind of you see your little things that go in front of you what they say stars i don't know what they are. Tweety bird. Tweety bird, whatever they are, you guys know. And, you know, as a hockey player, you don't want to show you're hurt. So you jump up, you go back down there, you go to the bench, and the trainer comes to you and says, you doing all right?

You say, yeah, I'm good, I'm good, I'm fine. You spray a little water on your face, you go back out there. And then I didn't think anything was real bad until two days later when we played an afternoon game against Anaheim. So I played another game. And during the game in Anaheim, I couldn't focus or realize what the heck was going on in the game. It was one of those games. Some games you get into and you're a little foggy.

This game, I was in complete fog. Nothing was registering on how the game was supposed to be going on. I get through the game. Jesus. And then the next day is when the symptoms really started to come, where I got really sick and my memory started to go to bad places. And then got some surgery, fixed up, and then was fortunate enough that the doctor that did the surgery said,

hey, you know, I'm not sure I'm going to, you know, allow you to play again, but in a couple of weeks we'll find out. But I put a couple extra fasteners in there when I fixed it up and just in case. And I'm thinking, man, oh man, this guy thinks I might be able to play again someday. So, so I was fortunate enough, a couple of weeks later, I went back to see him and he said, start working out. See what you feel like working out. And I did. And, you know, when I started to feel good, I'm thinking, man, oh, man, I want to play again. And I did.

So I got to play again six months later, signed with San Jose, and got what I call five bonus years out of the deal because I thought when the injury happened and you have the surgery, you think you're done. But I got to play five more years. It was brain bleeding, correct? It was brain. I had a bleed. I had, you know, the blow had caused, you know, some bleeding. And the first, when they first diagnosed it, they thought that the bleeding would subside, that it had stopped. And then I waited it out about seven or eight, maybe 10 more days. And I started feeling worse and more sick and more memory issues and went back to a special doctor. And he did

another scan and saw that it was still bleeding. And it said, hey, go across the street right now. We have to do surgery today. And then so I uh, from the standpoint that I went to the right guy in time to get, get it fixed up. And, and again, fortunate for me. I, and again, I think some of the things that you look back on it and you go, man, was that dumb to come back to play? But part of being dumb was part of being why, why you were good at certain things because you were, you didn't get scared of things you weren't scared of, you know? Uh,

and so I, I, I'm mad at myself for coming back to play but i'm also proud of myself that i that decided hey what the heck doctor said i could be okay let's do it why you played is basically why you made the nhl it sounds crazy it's like i'm not hurt i can play that's that's an amazing story though and you you think you think to now and luckily just you get better care they're a little more careful because when it comes to your head, I mean, that just must have been so scary to be told, hey, we're going over to the hospital right now and getting surgery today. To end up playing five more years after that is just probably a miracle

if you really think about it. Well, I get it. I was lucky. And again, you guys know the same thing. Biss, how many times did you get knocked out in a fight? How many times did you get at the end of the fight you were somewhat concussed? I don't think we knew what it was back then. But how many times now?

I would probably say a good 10. Yeah, correct. Same thing. Wits, how many times did you get KO'd? Oh, he didn't touch the corner. Yeah, no, but I still got run over. I remember even growing up, probably like 8 to 10 times in my life, you definitely probably shouldn't be playing right

after and i'm just like whoa i don't feel great but can't leave the game so you can't let your team down or show you're hurt yeah do it yeah that was the way it was and we did and that's what we live by and that's why we made it but but um today it's obviously you get some sort of concussion symptoms and you're out seven days you know i mean we watch all time it's it's better because like obviously we're looking out for the health of and betterment of of our players um but but in those days you know i remember getting knocked out my first year um with the rangers luke richardson knocked me out and from i i slid on the ice from uh outside the blue line all the way to the end boards knocked out sliding along the ice and stopped at the end. If the end boards weren't there, I'd probably still be going.

And I remember going to the doctor the next day, telling him, I'm fine, man. I don't have a headache. I'm good, man. I can play. And they let me play. And I lied to the doctor, but I felt, you know, I'm a teammate. There's no way. Guy Lafleur's playing.

Marcel Dion's playing. I'm playing, man. I'm okay. And that was part of being a pro player. Were we smart? No. But were we good teammates? Darn right we were. And those were the things I remember about playing with Tocket, playing with Chelios, playing with Suter, playing with all of the players they have so much respect for. We did it for each other. We didn't do it to try to make money. We didn't do it to try to do anything else, except we loved playing hockey. And that was a great part of the memories I have about those

teammates. In those five years at San Jose, is that when you knew I want to coach? Or was that one of those things your entire life as a player, like someday I want to coach when I'm done playing? No. Here's the real deal on that. So when I got there, Dean Lombardi, one of the first things he said to me is, he said, Tony, I'm bringing you here because of your experience and the character that you have. And you're going to teach these kids, you know, Patrick Marlos, Jeff Friesens, you know, the kids that we had coming in. You're going to help them learn how to be pros.

That's what I want you to do. So I began my coaching before I left. Marco Stern was another one. There was lots of them. And so Dean helped me get ready for life after. Wow. Because my assignment was to basically start, you know, mentoring these kids, but more a little bit, not necessarily in a coaching way, but starting to think along those lines. So I got a little

bit of an experience while playing, kind of what it was going to be like after. So I was lucky from that standpoint. So when you get older, man, your ice time goes like this. I mean, you, you're playing 20 minutes, you're playing power play one year down to 17, 15, and then Daryl came, I was down to like seven minutes. You know, I had to, I had to stay awake on the bench sometimes. I have to, I'd have to stand up and do jumping jacks on the bench, ready in case my next shift was coming at any point soon. But that was kind of the pre-coaching phase of my playing career. When it came to signing that deal, Tony, were teams scared off because of the injury?

Did you get a lot of offers or were there a few because of that injury? I had three teams I talked to that year. One of them was Chicago because I was from Chicago. I kind of wanted to go back to Chicago. That didn't work out. I came in for a physical. One of the doctors there was a little bit nervous about clearing me. And then I was talking to Vancouver as well.

And then so there were teams that were scared. I went to Mayo Clinic. I went to the University of Wisconsin Hospital to see the head neurosurgeon there. And I went to the head neurosurgeon at UCLA that did the surgery for me. I went to three separate parties with all of the information, redid tests and scans for them at those places to make sure that I was, I knew that I was making a decision that the doctors could support me in. So I kind of was comfortable with it. Some of the NHL teams weren't. But San Jose, right away, as soon as I became a free agent,

I don't remember, it was July 1st, I guess it was, Dean Lombardi called, said, I need to fly you into San Jose. I want to get you here. We're struggling to find older players that can come in and help our younger guys along. And that's where I, you know, always felt that that was the right fit for me at that time. And it worked out really well.

How was your relationship with Daryl at that time? Because I mean, he's still, I don't know how many clips you see now. He's still up to his old antics. Yeah. How can he get away with it today? What he did, you know, that 25 years ago 30 years ago he's just to me I found I loved Daryl and I hated Daryl at the same time because I loved his intensity and his competitiveness but there are parts of me that that you know I'd go home at

night and wouldn't be able to sleep because some of the things that happened during the day but the respect I have for him from wanting to win and doing everything he could to try to motivate and get players going was unique. Whether it was Mike Keenan style or old school style, motivate by fear and hate and screaming and yelling and kicking, it didn't matter. I think Darryl changed as it went along for sure

because when he got to L.A. and they won the C cups and what he's doing now, he's a phenomenal coach now. Back then he was all motivating by whether it be intimidation, by fear, yelling and screaming, he's added and become and grown into what he needs to be, to be a successful coach. Now, back then I would have never guessed it. I don't know. I didn't think he'd be able to change and adjust because of how he was, but I get a ton of respect for him on how he's done it. You know, I love the pictures when I see him and Christopher, his son. I just saw a tweet the other day of him hugging his son after one of the games. That's who he is. He's a phenomenal person person sometimes as a coach he gets uh to one extreme that some people aren't real crazy about i was not crazy about it at times but like i said i got a

ton of respect and i love the man another intense guy in that locker room uh owen nolan he was pretty pretty intense guy he looked like the grumpiest motherfucker of all time tough tough tough irishman but he did he did point on Hasek. He scored on Hasek in the All-Star game in San Jose where he pointed top shelf and he went, boom, score. He called the shot. That's what I remember Owen about. But Owen I got to see, unfortunately, for all of us

that were friends with Brian Marchment. When Brian passed last summer, about, I'd say, 15 to 20 of his teammates from that era from San Jose went up into Ontario somewhere, I don't know, north of Toronto, for his funeral. And we all got together. And that was special in itself. You know, Mush was kind of that glue guy that was kind of, if you didn't play with Mush, you didn't like Mush

because he was borderline dirty. I don't know a better way to say it. But when he's on your team and you realize who he was, you would love him like nobody else. And his way of connecting and keeping us together, he was in charge of a group chat with Richie, Nabokov, Suter, Marlo. He had probably 20 of us on there. And every couple weeks or month, he would send a text out that would be goofy as heck. And I'm thinking, why would he do that? And he would do it so we all would make sure we could stay connected.

Scott Thornton was in that group. A bunch of Danny McGillis, who wasn't even on our team that year, became part of that group. So we all showed up at the funeral and and i think that's what really you realize how special it is to have a group of people that love and care about each other the way hockey players do and we can brag about our sport in so many different ways about why it's the best sport in the world but ultimately it's the people and the characters and the groups that you're able to be able to share something special with. You know, you've met. We already talked about how many guys I get. I mean, we mentioned 15 players or 20 players already. And if they call today and ask me to do something for them, one second.

If I called and asked them to do something for me, one second. And no doubt they would do it for me because we're teammates. We love each other. We're brothers. That's why hockey is so, so special. And you guys are creating a forum, I think, that allows us players to come back. That's why you get so many guests. That's why you get so many stories that people love to share because that's what we love to do. We love being part of this special group of people that are the best. That's it.

We're the best. I was going to say it's awesome to see that you're still going as a coach. And you mentioned those mentors you had when you first stepped into the nhl gila fleur marcel dion who were the guys when you first started as a as a coach who who helped you took you under their wing and and really helped you evolve and stay in that role well a couple one thing i drew back on bob johnson who we talked about that i i had a small opportunity to play for in the canon cup in 1991 he had a tremendous opportunity to play for in the Canada Cup in 1991. He had a tremendous impact. He was long gone. He died in 1991, right after I had him as coach.

But I'll never forget how he presented himself and how he coached and how he taught. And that's who I said, if I'm going to be a coach, I think he's the guy that I would model myself after. Barry Melrose was one. Darryl Sutter was some in lots of ways. Some of them you learn from on how you want to be and how you not want to be. So you learn both good and bad from all of them. But Larry Robinson, I had Larry Robinson. I was lucky because I had a wide variety of different kinds of coaches over my career.

And so I think from a mentorship side of things, just kind of the mentor and the guy that was Bob Johnson, for sure. Tony, how much, if at all, have you had to adjust your coaching style over the last, you know, 15, 20 years, given the way, I guess, kids have changed in that time frame? You know, as far as growing up with cell phones and all that shit. All the time. I mean, you really do. You just got to adjust and you can't get outdated with the kids. You can't separate yourself and use your era and try to teach them your era to where they're in. It's totally different times. You know, you talked about injuries and things like that. There's lots of times where I'd like to tell the kid, hey, you make him play through it and he gets hurt and then we're done. We're all fired and kicked out and we're sued because you just told the player to play that potentially has an injury that might be something more significant. So there's lots of different

adjustments, I think, as a coach that you have to just be aware of. But I love being around the kids because they help me understand them a lot better. So I think you got to stay connected with them. From our side of things, we recruit kids that are 16, 17, and we get to know them a couple years before they get here. I think getting to know the dynamics of their family dynamics and what motivates them and the different things that are going on in their life that you can kind of help yourself grow up and mature and understand. Tony, speaking of kids, you had Cole Caulfield for two years at Wisconsin.

What was that recruitment process like? And do you have any good stories of like an 18-year-old Cole? Sure. I mean, that's easy. Cole was a Wisconsin kid. He was committed to Ohio State. Fortunately for us, you know, he decided he wanted to stay in the state and he decided to decommit, come here.

Cole was easy to coach from the standpoint, the hockey part of it. You had nothing to teach him. His ability to score and shoot a puck was as good as any player that I've played with or coach. And I'm talking Sackick talking, you know, he can rip it. He can rip it. And it's, it's, it's a whole different level of goal scoring. The part that Cole needed maturity on was to figure out what's he going to have to do so when he gets to Montreal, this is a conversation we had,

and I guess I'll share it with him. I don't like sharing a lot of stories between player and coach relationships, but what Cole had to do was to put himself in a position when he got to Montreal, that Gallagher price, uh, Weber, all of the veteran players wanted him on their team. So, so eventually when you're going to make that next step to get to be a pro player, you know, it's not the coach and the GM who decide whether you're going to be on the team for me. It's the teammates it's, it's wit and this,

are you going to allow this guy into your locker room because he's going to help you because he's going to take someone else's spot. So he's got to beat one of your buddies out. So I think that's the biggest lesson for kids to understand is when you go to make your next team at the next level, you're taking someone else's job and someone else's job was somebody else's buddies that were together through battle in that locker. So you've got to figure out how are you going to fit in to show respect to all those guys and add something to their team that's going to help them win. And that's where Cole, I think, really matured as a kid, really understood about, geez, when I get to Montreal, I want to be a great teammate.

I want to go in there and I want those guys to cherish what I can bring to them, but I want them to love me for who I am. And I think he's just done a phenomenal, phenomenal job of it. He played his hundredth game the other day at 40 goals in his first hundred games in the NHL. So he's off to a phenomenal start and the smile and the energy that he brings to not just his team, but to hockey is really cool to watch as well. When he was going through the struggle, sorry, I went to the bathroom for a quick minute. When he was having those struggles, did he reach out to you at all at the beginning of last season?

Well, he did. The unfortunate thing, if you remember it, he got COVID and got stuck in Dallas. You remember that? Him and Arnia. Remember? The two of them got stuck, and then they went back to Montreal. He couldn't cross the border, so he needed somewhere to go well come on back to madison cole we'll get your eligibility back too we'll help us with a couple of things too but we got some

medicine for you so here's some here's some things that you know that you're going through that when you get back there you know so we it was good because he got to see his brother his brother Brock is still here I got to come back and feel good about himself about being around the college thing and he jumped on the ice with us for a couple practices and then he went back and things started to go a little bit better for him so I'm not saying because he got COVID because he came to Madison you know things got going for him but but I think just you know taking a little bit of break in the middle of all that stuff when it wasn't going well was a good thing for him mentally, kind of refocus. But you know, you guys all know there's growing pains when you make it to that

league that you're going to deal with that just are going to happen. And fortunately for him, they happened early. And fortunately for him, he got out of it real fast. And he's doing great. In all honesty, that was such a great interview. And I want to say, I'm a BU guy, but when it comes to Out West, I know we've got possible young kids, future recruits listening. Wisconsin, the campus, the atmosphere.

I know you said a little bit of a tough start this season, but I'll tell everyone, at least take a visit. Hey, no free ads. No free ads. You don't even know colleges. So we appreciate it. And congrats to you on all your success playing and coaching. So thank you. Yeah, and I appreciate you guys for, again, like the game of hockey is special,

and for you guys to be able to share different stories and bring new fans and new people to understand why we think it's so special, I think it's been cool. So great job by you guys. Appreciate it. Thank you very much. Thank you, Tony. Huge thanks toony granato for coming on us what a fucking great conversation that was classic american player biz you did you know him before the interview at all

i uh he was an assistant coach with the pittsburgh penguins when i was there for training camp one year so we spent a little bit of time but super positive in the locker room you know he he helped me on the ice a little bit always had you know kind things to say and just you know kind of kept in touch with him through the years a little bit but an awesome guy an incredible career and some great stories like the backstory with gretzky yeah i hope you bleeped out that name because i'm pretty sure he still goes under that alias yeah we did okay thank you and i'm brain dead so i just forgot what you actually talked about that in the interview but it it's been a little while. Long weekend. So a lot of teams got guys coming back.

A lot of teams losing guys. Detroit's Jacob Vrana, he had a stint with the assistance program there. Hopefully he's doing all right. He's doing a three-game condition and stint in Grand Rapids, so the Wings are getting him back. Also expecting Robbie Fabry back and Phillips for Zedina. So this is a team, if you point out a couple additions like that, man, they can be a little person in the playoffs. Yeah Yeah, that Sadina kid was a high draft pick.

I still think they're waiting for him to pop off in the goal-scoring category. That was the big thing on him coming in. So hasn't really found his touch offensively from a sustainable standpoint yet, but if they can start getting those young guys contributing, man, look out. I mean, you mentioned them and Buffalo as those kind of sleeper young teams in the mix like those uh wild card spot teams right now but i talked to stevie actually in in when they were in pittsburgh why stevie why what'd you do going to this i went into his gm's room i was freaking out i know i wanted how nervous were you so did you do this on your own or were

you told on my own so you were like i'm just going in. Yeah so he was the GM of our team at Worlds I played a couple times. Oh yeah. Remember he called me after that year in Pittsburgh we were at the Pirates game and he's like hey it's Stevie I'm like what? Yeah good one buddy. I shared that story with him there too but coming out of the Christmas break You guys won gold right? Yeah we won

gold but like coming out of the Christmas break he told me because I'd been drinking after the season ends. We were like pirates game. And I said, I was like, I'm nervous to like go. Like, oh my God, I haven't skated in like six days. Like, you know about, he's like, buddy, it's like riding a bike.

It's from Stevie. Why tells you that? You also turn into like a star in your head. So it was out of the Christmas break. I shared that story with him. He was loving it. So I said, after coming out of the Christmas break, it's like riding a bike.

His team was down like 4-2 at the time. But they ended up coming back and winning. But like, he's the man. You used the line back on him? Yeah, yeah, yeah. Did he love it? Yeah, he loved it. He loved it.

And he loved you guys. He was very complimentary. And I said I was doing some stuff and coming up here for Boston. He was laughing and he loved it. Did you ask him to do whatever it's called? He loved the chick. Did he have the sweater on over the...

Oh, yeah. He just looked so good. Like, my wife loves him, too. Like, she's like, oh, my God, Steve. I'm like, he's so good looking, you know? Like, he's just a stallion. Is that Mel's hall pass? Yeah. It's my hall pass.

Just a two-on. So I went in there and said hi to him. So then they had a two-on-one in the box. So, yeah, it was great to wheel in there and say hi to him. I just wanted to say, like, Merry Christmas, Happy New Year to stevie y he's a beauty and loved you guys i wanted to share that with you guys though he was like really happy about it and stuff and loved it so did you just slide in a hey maybe we could do an interview down the road yeah i did i was like hey buddy i was like aren't i didn't know he hasn't done it yet. You just got him on TNT, right? Yeah, Stevie Bongrips. Stevie Bongrips. Yeah, Biz turned him into a full-blown hothead degenerate.

So if we get him, that's when you know this guy's powerful. Stevie Y's like Spicoli now because of you. It's like the league here. The guy's never smoked weed in his life. He's just known as a burnout to the whole NHL. I was so nervous going there to say hi to him, though, and I brought up all you guys and everything, though, and he was loving it.

So, great dude. It was really cool to see him. Like, freaking Stevie Y, man. He's going to start locking his door. Yeah, I know. Actually, they left. Hey, who left his door unlocked? That's an idiot.

He's one of those guys that has an R about him. I seen the press box a few years back, and he's kind of like freezing his steps a little bit. And he's excited about his team, too, like the guys they added and getting through, getting some guys going again, as you were saying, R.A. Prospect pool is high. I actually saw yesterday a guy was walking through the lobby

with a Team Canada 91 jersey. So it was Sackick. I believe it was from the 2002 Olympics. So Eisenman was on the team. I wondered, like, Eisenman got 19 over Sackick? I didn't know how that worked out. Rock, paper, scissors. Is Eisenman older?

Okay, he's that much older than him? I just got a kick out of that. Haven't Joe Sackick changed his number for you? They're like, hey, how many Calders? Did you get a Calder? I did. They're like comparing their awards to see who gets 19. Me and you are looking at our second assist in the minors.

I'm like, all right, 21 second apples. The lock-o year. How many games you play in the coast? Detroit will be interesting, though. Like wild card, like I said, though, too. Like Detroit will be interesting. I think keep an eye on that team. Right, Murr?

That's my squad. My over point is looking really nice. Great job, yeah. What was the over point? 80? Yeah, what was it? 79 and a half, I think it was. That's looking good.

Yeah, that's easy. We got that one. Carolina's Max Pacioretty back on the ice, practicing with the Canes without the contact, no contact jersey gone. He's on track to return in January after the torn Achilles he suffered back in August. I mean, it's another team that fucking on fire lately. You got a sniper like that. Yeah, Biz brought that one up.

Yeah, we've legit talked about that this episode already. Smoke more weed, Turner. Yeah, that's that one up. Yeah, we've legit talked about that this episode already. Sorry, but... Smoke more weed, Turner. Yeah, that's what happens when you jump fucking 20 steps ahead. Cotter hot, suffered a concussion. Dude, Rasmus Ristlin and Barry's fucking Seth Javison. Why did defensemen do this? Barry guys...

I've talked to this about you before. It's like... What happened again? You're not... It can look so bad, but a defenseman is either going to not touch a guy who's driving the net or he's going to try to push him a little bit and then sometimes he goes into the goalie.

It's the biggest lose-lose for D-men. You either look like a complete idiot by not even putting a finger on a guy or you push him and it somehow hits the goalie. It's not like you always bring it up, like, what are the defensemen doing? Do you want the guy online tweeting you about being a pussy for not touching the guy going to the net, or do you want to be the guy getting chirped online for pushing the guy? Not even online. You're a coach.

I got chirped for both. Hey, worst one ever for that that I remember was when the Canes win the Cup. 0-6. Yeah. Remember Dwayne Rolison? Yeah, Rolison. Rolison. Rolison got hit.

Someone hit Bergeron, I think the defenseman, hit a guy into him and took Roley out in the final. And that guy was unbeatable. And he was on fire that year, too. Liquid Duano. And the exact same player you're talking about. Yeah. The drunkest guy in Edmonton during that run.

Liquid Duano. He said he was going to go play soccer as a professional goalie, too. They're like, have you played? He's like, no. But that was like a big moment to that exact play, R.A. Okay. Good point there. The Blues are going to be struggling for a bit.

Torrey Krug is on long-term injury reserve for a lower body injury. Going to be re-evaluated in six weeks. The Blues also placed Ryan O'Reilly and Vladimir Tarasenko on injured reserve. O'Reilly got a broken foot. Going to be looked at again in six weeks. Tarasenko going to be looked at in four weeks. Hand injury. Blues 17-17-3.

Five points back of the second wild card right now. Pretty much worst case Ontario right there with those two guys being hurt because I if I'm Armstrong I'm selling and I'm looking towards the future so that means you're selling everything almost I think you're looking to sell as much

as possible man like trade O'Reilly here's the thing I think it's I think Ryan O'Reilly is the type of guy, like he doesn't need to take a hometown discount there. If he wants to stay and he's willing to sign for cheap and you can solidify your second- to third-line center, and this is no disrespect to him, he's slowing down now.

Yep. He's – At least this year. Yeah, slowing down offensively. I think slotting him as a second-line center is fair, but you're going to need to save money. I don't know if he's going to take that discount where he could maybe go somewhere and earn more.

If he's not willing to do that, you have to part ways and give up on the season. I don't think there's any way they're making playoffs. As far as Tarasenko, he's been a guy they've talked about trading, and they left him exposed for the expansion draft for crying out loud. I think it's fair to say, too, there was a little bit of animosity when he didn't get the C for whatever reason he thought he should. Maybe there was some misconstrued comments coming out of Russia. That was then patched over.

But at the end of the day, I don't think that him and the team are necessarily gelling as much as they used to. Part with both of them see what you can get you have your future set up with robert thomas and kairu who have gone through some growing pain so far this season you got eight more years of those guys look towards the future sell sell sell it ain't your i think they're like caught between with like what they were with the guys you're mentioning that hurt and then Cairo and Thomas at play like this different style that like puck possession like wheeler and dealer and they're not like it's kind of like is that the blues like what are the blues kind of so they're kind of in the middle of like with their guys so it's kind of like where are you going but I still thought going into this year it was like I thought

they were I mean they gave Colorado the best shot anyone gave them last year it was like i thought they were i mean they gave colorado the best shot anyone gave him last year i was like the blues could be there right again and then just think they still look it's been one of those years everything o'reilly's offense kind of disappeared he's now hurt it was binnington was unbelievable then he was brutal it's been the most inconsistent season whereas now it's like the one thing about o'reilly i'll say is when we talk about pavelski maybe not the quickest, but they can think the game. Don't count him out yet as being, I'm not saying a number one 80-point guy, but he could have a bunch of years left.

He's a second-line center on a Stanley Cup winning team. Exactly. So I'm saying I don't think they're immediately like, oh, we don't want to re-sign him. It's just been such a clusterfuck of a year back and forth that now it's like, what do we do? So tough decisions for Doug Armstrong. And you talked about the playing styles

of having these young run and gunners. Berube has won a certain way, so your mind frame will always go back to that, especially in the fact that they do have guys on the roster who helped him win playing a certain way. So sometimes it's very difficult to not only part ways with maybe the way you won, but also reframe your mindset to the way the new NHL is moving.

And I'm not saying they've had success doing it, like a team like Toronto, like the way that they incorporate their D in doing that. I also would probably look to move Perenco too if you're looking to sell. Why the fuck are you guys laughing? Because I mentioned Toronto again? Because you're mentioning a team that's had no success. it matters i'm talking about the way that they're playing

offense and how it's like a like a beautiful butterfly in the offensive zone just flapping around i know they haven't had success but it's still beautiful as shit wit i know what you're saying stylistically stylistically pareko pareko'sco's another guy. I'm thinking of the old Montreal Canadiens defenseman. He's won everything. Oh, Larry Robertson or Sir Savard? Yeah, Larry Robertson. He was there helping out Perenco when they were there through that cup run, and he's not there anymore.

So sometimes that voice, like helping you maybe be a little bit meaner in front of the net and adding those little intangibles to what was making Perenco play to that top level, I think he's missing it a little bit meaner in front of the net and adding those little intangibles to what was making Perenco play to that top level, I think he's missing it a little bit. And I could see them parting ways with him too. Guys, I have a quick confession. So I don't know if you guys remember, but during the Western Conference preview, I ripped on the Blues and was like, I don't think they make the playoffs.

I think this is the end of the Blues run. It's kind of like you pumping your studio. He just keeps pumping his own cheeks. Listen, this is bad though. You guys ripped on me so bad after I made that Blues prediction. I just cut the whole thing out. I cut my whole prediction out. No, you didn't.

And I was like, right after I cut it, I'm like, they're going to not make the playoffs now. And this exact moment that I'm saying right now is going to happen. I think maybe I should start editing the pod. I was going to say, you're not allowed to do that. Anything anything said you can't just cut out without telling i know i say stupid shit all the time and you always call me at 2 a.m though and you're like gee you gotta help me out you gotta help me out no no i i said i think last week i said i want to say i said connor might have two years left and i i try to correct myself little shit like that yes i say hey if

there's anything I said that's a really dumb maybe save me but I don't care if you take it out I guess but we pump G's tires enough that was a classic Grinnell you're like hey guys I'm so dumb I said the exact thing that's happening but I cut it out like he just decided to let us know he was right but also cut it out so so have you completely lost the audio? Oh, no, we still have it. I could definitely cut it and play it. Oh, he will. Why don't I play it right now? What's the best at calling guys out, though?

No, Gant is the best of all time. We didn't even bring up when Walsh was telling the Brophy story. He mentioned like 45 times how hot the coffee was, and all of a sudden Gant was like, was that coffee hot? The crowd actually erupted laughing. He's like you i'm interested i'm interested to hear the clip let's play it right now grano i'll make it quick in the central i have colorado minnesota and nashville in that order in the pacific i have the oilers the flames in vegas in that order in van in for the wild card i have vancouver and los ang, and I don't have the St. Louis Blues making the playoffs this season.

What? I do not. The St. Louis Blues? I do not. Oh, my God. Are you in Dahmer's legitimate old apartment getting drugged by a copycat killer of his? It's coming to an end.

Their run in here is coming to an end. You're out of your mind. Their consistency. They just haven't been consistent over the past few years. It's just like, I don't know. I think it's coming to an end here. Wow, man. No balls cutting that out.

No balls. Yeah, it's tough. That's a tough look for me. But in the end, everything was coming up. He was right. Anything else that you know that we should talk about? The next lottery number? I'd say no.

Where should me and R.A.'s mom have our wedding? Greatest bar. Dad! Papa busy. It's that uncle busy boy. You're grounded. Fuck you, Dad. Give me all your weed, R.A.

You're done. I'm smoking it. To wrap up on the blues, you gotta remember Montgomery's gone. That was a big... You see how good he's doing in Boston. He's not there this year. Oh, guys, we didn't mention, too. I like that. We had Monty

in this room. Great interview. I'm gonna say about 45, 50 minutes. Went over his career as a player a little bit and how he got into coaching. Crazy story involving Quenville. That was kind of a cool aspect. We'll save that. And the next day,

one of the best interviews we've ever had. An hour and a half with Big Z, Zidane O'Chara. We've been waiting for that to happen. We got to thank his agent, Matt Cater, really helped hook it up. He sat in with us for a little bit I'm gonna say right now And then we'll leave it alone

The first 45 minutes of the Zdeno Chara interview Is some of the most amazing audio you'll ever hear I'm telling you It makes you want to be a better person A better player Any aspect of life he wants you to improve at And in the end made us feel like the biggest bags of shit of all time It almost made me go work out But just inspirational like nothing i've ever heard before he was getting

emotional even just describing his his life as a youth in the game to us so i think you guys should be super excited to hear that one bruins haters or not you'll love it yeah if you're if you're a hockey parent listen listen very intentively and and play it for your kid as well because this is just an incredible come-up story and a guy who uh most nhl games by defense by defenseman in the regular season i think all all together i thought chelios had him by a few i heard some playoff so yeah you're right i heard some lunatic quickly off topic hockey parent um scenario this past week in massachusetts this woman her daughter was playing in a game. Now she's on a team with boys.

And I guess some kid, I think they're nine, nine years old. I guess the woman was like a really successful college soccer player. Like I don't even know the lady's name. I saw her picture. Well, her daughter got like bumped into. And after the end of the game, she's waiting at the door for the kid who ran into her daughter and takes him and slams him against the boards and was choking the kid out and then ended up peeling out of the parking lot.

She'll probably get arrested. She should for pushing a fucking nine-year-old kid. Just crazy parents. You guys are nuts. She went full Dana White on him? Sure. Sorry, guys. All right.

Our old teammate, Sam Gagne, played his 1,000th game last week versus Vancouver. Six-round pick in 07. He's the 357th player to hit 1,000 games. I'm so happy for Gags. And what's really cool is that this is a guy I think two different teams, maybe three, but I think two have ended up sending him. He spent time in the minors throughout the way and this is a high pick and he came into Edmonton probably looking at and thinking of having him a

career as a point per game guy and like listen when he was young and he still has crazy hands you remember him dominating the shootouts he was so good in tight around the goalie but more than anything a great guy I love the time I spent with him and at that time he was you know trying to be a first line player second line player and as the career's gone on right it's changed and he ended up having a great role with Columbus when they had that run and beat Tampa and then he's been in Philly he's been on a bunch of different teams but like we've mentioned before the ton of different guys he's changed his game he's realized what he has to do to stay in the NHL and even doing that there was times he was down in the minors grinded it out didn't complain didn't talk about woe is me like just a guy who

probably learned from his father who had a super long career as well what it takes to be a pro and i had so much fun with him he's a great storyteller we're gonna get him on at some point after he retired we have we had oh no after he retires we're gonna get him on again is what i meant but he did talk about how how close him and his father were when he was coming up through his career and all the advice that his old man had given him. So you mentioned all the adjustments and changing roles. I'm sure he had a guy to lean on in his old man for that.

And there's a reason he's been brought into teams because they know if you're a team that needs to maybe switch some things around in the room, which Winnipeg talked about this summer, he's a guy that's always in a good mood, and he's always showing up. He's a father of three now, I think. So congratulations, Gags. What a run. Awesome guy.

And his dad, Dave Gagne, I just looked it up, 946 games. So he's got his dad. So he got him beat. Got dad beat. Suck on that old man. Yeah, I got to meet him too. He's just like a positive, happy, great guy. I met him and his wife.

Him and Cogs. You know the wives that go through that grind too. He's jumping teams all over and praying. Him and Cogliano, they, great guy. Met him and his wife. Him and Cogs. You know the wives that go through that grind, too. He's jumping teams all over and praying. Him and Cogliano, they came in together, and the careers went a little different than I think they thought them. First-round picks, but what a run for both of them. And he had that five-goal game in Edmonton years ago. Remember that?

That was like an eight-point game. He was like on the hunt. Yeah, that was a crazy night. I'll never forget that. Connor Bedard did something like that recently. we'll get to him in one second i want to say congrats uh 2018 stanley cup winner davante smith pelly he officially retired the other day announced on instagram absolute goal scoring stud for that caps team seven goals on that run played in all 24 games he had seven goals when they won that playoff? He had seven goals. A couple of fucking monster ones. He was so good. He was good. He got 446 regular season and playoff games with the Caps, Habs, Devils, and Ducks.

And he made sure to thank Joe Ward, Wayne Simmons, Chris, and Anthony Stewart for leading the way for his generation. He said he hoped he did the same for young kids, young black kids who looked up to him. And it left a great legacy. So we want to tell him enjoy retirement, enjoy your best wishes, whatever comes next. Either of you guys know him or play with him. Yeah, I skated with him at BioSteel quite a bit. Just an awesome guy and part of that whole workout group.

So just a pleasure to be around, and congrats on an awesome career. And, man, you mentioned the contribution during that cup run, man. He was one of those pieces. Was he picked up close to the deadline that year, or had he been there the whole season? I think, where was he, in Montreal, and then he got traded there or something at the deadline that year? Had he been there the whole season? I think, where was he? In Montreal, and then he got, like, traded there or something at the deadline? Yeah, because, yeah.

That's one of those deals that it ends up happening around the deadline, if it did. But it's like, oh, you know, that's nice depth. And then, boom, that type of guy ends up getting seven goals in the run for the cup. And we, like, need more guys like him. The minor deals around the deadline. Oh, and he might have not even been that, but those are always the deals that end up being the big ones. Manson last year in Colorado, you know? that you finish guy from uh leckanen leckanen boom that was a huge one it's always the guy who you're like oh that's a nice sign

in the off season yeah he was placed on waivers by the devils and then in the off season he signed with that that discussion made no sense so we just well hey we're gonna go against i gotta say this just say that for deadline show i wish we had more guys like him that play like him. Because, yeah, he could score. He was big. But he could pound bodies, too. He's a big kid. And his role there, when he went there, to add to the big body kind of game that they had, he changed it.

But then he was producing, too. So it was like, how do you not love a guy like that? Congrats on a great career, bud. Fucking rights. Badad time for you, Biz. First off, Canada is going to play the U.S. in the semis, and Sweden's going to take on Czechia. But Badad, he's got 21 points in five games,

the most by a Canadian in a single tourney, 15 goals in 14 World Junior games, the most by a Canadian, 32 points, the most by a Canadian at the World Juniors. He had seven points versus Germany. I mean, this kid's fucking obviously going to be a stud. But Merles, the other junior guy, what's going to go on in these semis here? Yeah, Sweden. My guy, Leo Carlson, don't forget about him.

He had two goals in the quarterfinal game. They came back and beat Finland, so I'd like Sweden to win that game, and then Canada, they're unbeatable, I think. I don't think they're going to lose again, so they're going to roll over our Americans. I like Czechia. Czechia's big. They hang on to pucks. They play like Canadian-style hockey.

And that D-man from Columbus. That D-man's sick. Want to make a little wager on that, Army? I don't want to. Not with Mr. EBR. Hell no. The cool thing about your stats on Bedard and how great he's been at World Juniors is like,

if you see it on how many games he's played also, he's played like half as many games as Lindros and those guys, too. He's played like 15 games and he's got 32 points it's i believe i believe it's insane and if you are we'll cut it yeah i sent out a tweet last night um maybe a little inebriated so maybe you know i'm not exactly sure but i'm kind of sticking with it and i mentioned i i think it's going to be hard to deny the fact that we're looking at a Crosby Ovechkin McDavid like generational talent and and what he's doing like these numbers all of a sudden they keep you see these names he's passing by it's like how are we supposed to deny the fact this kid I think he shoots the puck like Matthews I think he sees the ice in the game like a similar way to Crosby. He's so dynamic.

People kind of came at me, oh, his size, I don't know. But either way, even if it's like Patrick Kane, I just mean that you see generational players. I have an inversion table at my apartment. Once every 10 years. And it's like, I know it hasn't been 10 years since McDavid came in the league, but it's getting up there, and now you got this kid coming, and it's going to be one of those lotteries the same way when Pittsburgh won the lottery with Crosby. It's like

this is a game changer. This is changing an entire franchise overnight and R.A. made the great point. R.A. said to me, after what happened with the Chicago Blackhawks and that whole thing, they ain't getting the first overall pick. And I think when the vote goes down and

Tempe decides to get an arena I think with Arizona being Gary's baby he will be a coyote next season I know he will I talked to Gary yesterday they have never won the lottery they've never had the first overall pick they're getting a rink built Conor Bedard to Arizona and what

an amazing thing that will be for that city and that franchise so you're on board with that now? He's going to Arizona. R.A.'s 100% right. Oh, wow. Wow, can we get that in a frame? I just got tased.

There's three teams, right? What? Anaheim, Chicago, Arizona. Yeah. I mean, Columbus, who knows? They're horrible. I just think there's no... I think when you say things are rigged, this one, he's going to Arizona.

There's a reason all these GMs are tanking. I know these guys that fucking season – I have a full – Let's see what Philly does too. I have a full-aging boner right now after Witt just spoke. I don't have any blood in my body other than my cock right now, so you can keep moving along. It's still only three inches.

I mean, that pretty much wraps up all the hockey stuff. This is a pretty cool story someone sent on Twitter. A Scottish couple visited Alberta for their honeymoon, I'm dog. They made sure to hit up Red Deer because they heard about it on Spitting Chicklets. So congrats to Richard and Lindsey Gray of Scotland who went to Red Deer on their honeymoon. You guys are tapped. Because they heard it on Spitting Chicklets. How about that?

Oh, my goodness. That is just... I wonder if they saw my picture hanging in the lobby at the arena. That's right. You're a Red Deer Rebel legend. Memorial Cup, boys. Yeah. And goal-scoring legend in outdoor games, all that stuff.

Well, you still currently hold the record, actually, if you want to talk about it. Yeah, I hold the record. 21 seconds in. Still got it last night. Thanks for the support, boys. It was great doing it with you guys, being there. Every January 1st or 2nd when that game gets played, after 21 seconds, you don't give a fuck what happens. That's like the only time I tweet.

Still got it. The only other real big note here, Shaka Great Pele passed away at 82. What's a Shaka correspondent? Yeah, I mean, in terms of this one, it's tough, considering I started watching soccer about 18 months ago. But I did see a cool tweet. Haaland, who's the guy, this legendary Norwegian on Man City. He's like the best player in the world right now maybe.

He said anything you've ever seen done on a soccer pitch, Pele did it first. And I feel like the guy did a ton after his career in soccer with humanitarian things and just helping people forever. Actually, Horkoff, he sent me a picture. Him and Danny Cleary were in the Hamptons

with their wives one weekend just to play golf. And they went into this little 20-person restaurant and Pele was sitting in there. So they got pictures with him and said he was the nicest guy ever to talk to. So just a true legend in sport. And so rest in peace, Pele.

What a fucking run. Yeah, just like a juggernaut of a human being. You mentioned like the humanitarian. Three World Cups he got. Three World Cups. And like in Brazil, they did three days of mourning. Really?

For his passing. Like that just tells you the impact, not only on his country, but just around the world. Obviously, with soccer being the biggest sport, but when you have that type of impact and you're that popular of a person, when you show the gratitude and the humanitarian aspect, it just goes so much further, and it's such a good example for the guys that follow.

So just a juggernaut of a human being and it's uh yeah it's a devastating loss to the world well i think the thing about his story too and all right maybe maybe you know this too is like didn't it he came from like wicked bad poverty too to like you know you know just to stardom and like you know a hero world hero almost and with his talent so his story is also really cool because of what he's done all the way helping people along the way as well coming from like you know this really rough upbringing and part part of the world where he came from too so if you haven't read anything on him in his past and like what he did did off the pitch or off the field he's pretty amazing guy i think i think we'd be due maybe for one of those unreal HBO Sports Netflix documentaries on his life.

I don't know if one's out there. I haven't heard of it, but that would be pretty sick to see old clips of him playing. Especially for this generation to understand the impact. Yeah, because he came to America. I mean, he was in his 40s or whatever the league was in the 70s, the New York Cosmos. I mean, he helped put soccer on the map way back then. Did you ever see that movie, Victory? It's Pele, Sylvester Stallone, and Michael Caine.

They're prisoners of war and they have to play a soccer game. He got into acting? Oh, he, I mean, I don't know how many movies he did, but yeah, it was a soccer movie.

Like Stallone, Michael Caine, and Pele. They were in POWs and they had to play a soccer game. I think it was versus the Germans. I've never spoiled movies. You can check it out.

But yeah, they're like, Sylvester, can you put the dumbbells down, please? We're trying to play a soccer game. The only video I saw that came out with this too, I don't know, would Wayne O say anything? Remember, there's like a Sylvester, can you put the dumbbells down, please? We're trying to play a song. The only video I saw that came out with this, too, I don't know, would Wayno say anything?

Remember, there's like a race. That's what I was going to talk about. We talked about that with Wayno. It was Bjorn Borg. Borg, Pele. Wayne and Sugar Ray. Sugar Ray and Wayne busted them all. And Gretz, he destroyed them.

Gretz came out just buzzing. I think he had a false start like I did against the cow on my trip this summer. You're still wanted in Calgary by those fans. Well, I cost them, you know, what did I cost them? Chicken sandwich or something, right? Some Chick-fil-A. Hot dogs. Oh, a couple hot dogs.

Free hot dogs. At the stand. I think that's it, boys. I think we can wrap it here. Again, tremendous support this weekend. Everybody who came to the show, came out to see us. We love you guys and gals. It's been a fucking joy to do this.

It's going to continue to be a joy. And again, thanks to everybody, my family, friends who came out. I love all you guys and gals. It was a very special night, a great tribute, and I love you all. Love you too, R.A. Thank you, Boster. I love you like a son. Fuck you, Dad. What an ending. Thank you, everyone. fuck you dad what an ending

thank you everyone love you all peace