Spittin Chiclets - Spittin' Chiclets Episode 431: Featuring Tage Thompson

Episode Date: March 7, 2023

On Episode 431 of Spittin’ Chicles, the guys are joined by Buffalo Sabres Superstar Tage Thompson. Tage joined (01:44:53 - 02:22:49) to discuss getting drafted by St. Louis, the big trade, playing in Buffalo with this young core and tons more. But first, the guys open up the show discussing the crazy week in the NHL and break down all the big trades. Should the Kings have dealt Jonathan Quick? Why didn’t Carolina do anything big? Are the Bruins the best team ever? We broke it all down.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 431 of Spit and Chick. Let's present to you by Pink Whitney, from our friends at New Amsterdam Bar. You're hearing the Barstool Sports Podcast family. Gang, trading season is over. Great couple days, playoffs just around the corner. Awesome time of year.

Let's check in with the fellas here with our up-to-up Paul. Biz Nasty, Biz Scent, We're checking with you, big guy. First out of the gate, Biz. Boys, I'm a little tired, but I'm going to find my energy for this one. I've had quite the week. I did two TNT broadcasts. Ended up going to Canada. Did the Sportsnet trade

deadline. Ended up seeing J. Cole and then Drake in back-to-back days, two of the biggest rappers on the planet. Did you end up hearing that story that Armie told when we went out to dinner? That was so funny because I actually, at the beginning, I was like, he was waving at Armie? I don't know why I didn't think it might've been somebody behind him, but that's just classic. Armie's eyes lit up and he was giving her the double wave. And I turned around, Drake was smiling just as hard

back at him but the guy behind him so then i turned around and started waving at drake and as soon as i started drake was like who the fuck are these losers waving at me and then obviously the guy in the corner got up and went walked over so we got pigeon tossed ate our meals underneath the table the rest of the time and uh i was gonna say drake was probably like get these guys out of this restaurant. It was a famous Italian place. I think he's rapped about it a few times called Sotto Sotto. So obviously ever since he started rapping about it,

they've jacked the prices up and it's been even busier. But yeah, all in all, a great week of hockey. Of course, the trade deadline. And it was great to get back to Canada over to Sportsnet and see some familiar faces.

You know, David Amber, one of the best bus drivers in the business. Jen Botterill, who I've worked with with TNT. She was there for the deadline. Anson Carter. Kevin Biexa, who's turned into a Hockey Night in Canada star. Getze. What's that? Getze.

Getze was there too. Yeah, he's jumping into the media game too. We were talking about his pet goats on the broadcast. He's got four baby pet goats. Or sorry, miniature goats, not babies. They're miniature goats. I saw that video and I saw his son interviewing people. What a natural that kid is.

Keep him away from Mike Harrington in Buffalo. But for anyone who doesn't know what happened, you can go check my Twitter. If you don't have Twitter, you haven't seen this video. I guess the video is actually a year old, but this little kid, I don't know if it's a girl or boy, I can't really tell, just is like nervous to go into the scrum of a bunch of beat reporters.

I guess it's wrist aligned and being asked a question, and then he just looks at the kid and just shoos him away like the biggest asshole I've ever seen. So just an amazingly scumbag move. But Biz, I wanted to ask you. Oh, no. First, I want to bring up Getzlaf's son who reminded me so much of him, not just the way he looks, but how he was interviewing Troy Terry. And he said something about like, who makes fun of you?

He's like, your dad made fun of me the most. And now I guess you're carrying the torch because the kid was just chirping him. Just a bully. But I had to ask you. Like father, like son. I had to, I had a couple people. Did you say early on in the trade deadline special that Don Waddell needed a key bump?

Yeah, I definitely said that he needed a key bump. A bump it was, yeah. Don Keeba, just a bump. I shit my pants. Well, at that point, he'd only dealt for Pauly Harvey. But we'll get to Carolina later. I'm really happy that Goss Despair ended up going over there. He's done a heck of a job for the Coyotes the last year and a half.

Just a silky, silky offensive defenseman. Fuck, he's already bolstered their power play, that stunk. Let's not get into hockey talk quite yet. Yeah, looking forward to this. I got a week off of the broadcast, so I'm actually going on a 47-mile hike. That's going to probably take 12 to 14 hours. Yeah, I'm looking forward to challenging the mind and the body. Definitely excited to put the phone away and get some exercise

and get away from the technology and clear the mind. Did you say 12 hours, Biz? Yeah, it'll probably take about 12 to 14 hours, yeah. Jesus, that would take me two years to do. No, it wouldn't. 46 miles? With your weight, you'd be buzzing through that thing. What are you, $1.60 right now?

$1.65. You think G could go walk 47 miles this week? No chance. He couldn't do seven miles. It's all what's between the ears, G. I think you could do it. Look what's between these ears, dude. You know what's in between his head.

Make sure you bring some towels to wipe your hands off if you have to piss because it runs to that guy again. Holy shit. Okay, speaking of that, so some very opinionated people online, the biggest group of losers are the ones who play the ur fish game of that so some very opinionated people online the biggest group of losers are the ones who play the urinal game so the ones who say oh you walked in there was three urinals the guy was on the right you chose the middle urinal i and it's like shut the fuck up

man i think like i'm staring at his horn and they have the dividers in between the urinals anyway i know i'm saying the vast majority though was in like was almost shocked you didn't dummy i'm like i think you were getting like 93 percent backing in terms of the online i'm up for a nobel peace prize after not caving the guy's face in for shaming a buddy of mine who said i cannot believe he didn't dumb him i'm like i think he came pretty close he was just blatantly throwing water in the guy's face at one point that's why i have to go on these 47 mile hikes so i don't fucking snap on civilians who try to shame me for my fucking pissing antics and i also i i missed a quote um that i think foals maybe not for somebody said i missed you

saying it when you're describing the story of people people have become way too comfortable telling strangers what to do that was a phenomenal quote yeah so i i just think that the 47 mile hike shouldn't lead to any shenanigans but i guess you never know with some people being upset at certain things right i tell you what i tell you what buddy but uh just going back to Toronto, too, and going back to sports now, I just want to thank the entire staff. Not only – why are you laughing? You just said, I'll tell you what. I'll tell you what.

I always say that. We did that ECHL video with Nicky Clicky and KB. And then KB was like, I'll tell you what. And I was like, what? And he's like, nothing. You fucking hockey players always say that, you dummies. Well, I use it as almost a crutch. But going back to Toronto, it was great seeing everybody.

Saw Elliott Friedman. They didn't really have much or many big trades to announce. There was a few of the fourth line grinders and the glue guys that were traded. But yeah, I just want to thank him too. He's been in the industry quite a while And especially early in my media career I've really leaned on him for advice And stuff like that

So I just appreciate all those guys over at Sportsnet So thank you once again Great people up there, man Great people I like working there a lot It was me and Marek I think it was every Monday night I was up there for a season.

Army was there most of the time. Other guys were in and out. Doug McClain, he's a legend. But those people are good people, and they had a lot to do with me getting involved and wanting to do this as well. Yeah, so I got to actually see a bunch of my old friends too. Anthony Stewart was there.

I won a gold medal with him at the under-18s. He was a beast back then. So was Getzlov. I've talked about it before on the podcast. He was the MVP of that tournament. I don't know what he was ranked going into the draft, but that definitely helped boost him up. I want to say he went 15th overall to the Ducks that year. And that completely changed the trajectory of their franchise because Perry ended up going later that first round too. What was the other thing? Oh, and I got to have a special moment with a guy I've also mentioned on the podcast, Mike Futa, who I don't know how the fuck this guy

doesn't have a job in some form of management at the National Hockey League level. He worked with LA in player development. He was the assistant GM there at one point and helped them win two Stanley Cups. But that was, you know, he brought me onto the under 17 team for Team Ontario when I played and represented. At that time, under 17, they broke up the provinces because obviously Canada's a wagon. And then we had to play provinces against the whole country of the United States

and still waxed them. And then in my junior career, my last year traded for me in Owen Sound. That was a story he ended up telling on the broadcast, how I was like in the, in his, his GM room and his parents were actually in there at the time. He tells a story that I was still in my gear where I came, I walked over, I still had my

gear on and I was begging him to trade for me to get me out of Saginaw. Cause they had a wagon of a team and then to, to go even further when I, uh, I couldn't get a deal and I ended up getting snipped snipped from Portland the American Hockey League he reached out to Dean Lombardi and said hey I think we could add him to the AHL team to give us a little toughness and maybe a little uh spice in the locker room and he he I never forget he called me back and he says hey you can come on board but Dean says stay the fuck off of Twitter and that's when I went that's what i took a couple years off no ra i went i went pretty

silent for like that was the original zero dark 30 that's why exactly so hey i've never heard the story i'd never heard that you might have told me before i don't remember hearing how you went into there after the game when saginaw played and then and then what's what's cool is like there was legit tampering i guess it was 100 which was hilarious and then also the fact that when he got you the gig when we were hanging out that year in boston when you were playing for manchester i mean that that led to a calder cup for you so that guy i could tell like means a lot to you. It was pretty cool. Oh, he saved me, man. I appreciate him. I love him.

And it was a good rip. So that's pretty much all I got to report. It was a great week of following it all. I got to see some great hockey games. We did the broadcast, Tampa Bay, Carolina. We'll do that in a bit. R.A., I guess throw it over to the other guys and see what the hell they've been up to. Yeah.

The Whit Dog, I know he already talked about. Ryan Whitney, what have you been up to? Was it all weekend? Anything fun? Golf? Not much. Just a chill weekend. I'd been away for about, I think it was 16 days.

So it was nice to get home. Granted, I'm living in a construction site, but it's still good to be back. A swamp. I went on, let me see. I don't want to mess up the name. Ruppers Show. That's hockey talk. It's a live show.

I think they do it on Wednesdays. It was a blast. It was with two guys, Nick Miraldo and Gump Cathcart. They're both on McAfee's show, both big hockey fans, but I had a blast. We were just kind of talking about the league, telling some old stories. It was a lot of fun. I owed Ruppers. He'd been asking me for about two months. I kept him off so he's glad i was glad to join his show

they do a good job and he told me a hilarious story i'd never heard he asked me if i was on the team when this happened i guess he wasn't on the penguins neither was i but he'd been told the story that so you know like biz when you flew with pittsburgh or most teams you kind of drive right to like the hangar and the runway and you just get on the plane yep and when they landed one time you know they end up starting your car so they're not cold when you get back to town and stuff and i guess one time gino just hopped in his porsche and just started ripping it down the runway he's going 120 miles an hour on the runway i'd never heard that i don't even know if it's necessarily true but i was dying laughing at that and then in the most shocking thing said in the 45 50 minutes we did this

i don't remember if it was nick or the other guy they're like so weird talk about um you know when r.a and grinelli started spitting chiclets and you hopped on. I go, whoa, what the fuck did you just say? You think those two started? No, it was me and R.A. and Grinnelli. I told them the story. I was just the ultimate timing in life. But I was almost getting pigeon tossed into just like the guy that like begged them to let me on their show. So I took a little offense to that one.

Set them straight. Exactly. But what else? No, chilling this week um do you watch hanging out got really nothing planned next week shooting down to naples for two nights uh gonna play a little golf and actually uh with the help of game time the amazing way to get tickets i just uh purchased some tickets to the masters fr Friday, April 7th, the second round. I will be there.

I've been there once, and I've wanted to get back ever since, so I cannot wait. I'll be experiencing the second round at Augusta National. Might even try to sneak in some Pink Whitney nips. They take your phone away, so no phones allowed, but I don't see anything on the ticket about no nips allowed, unless it means women pulling up their shirt and showing Jordan Spieth their titties. Oh, yeah.

They won't allow cell phones, but they'll fucking have tits out for the boys at Augusta. You get kicked out if you run on the grounds of Augusta National. But I can't wait. I'll hopefully have some funny stories from that weekend. Have we talked about the urban legend? It might be a rumor if you find a weed on the course, they'll give you $100 cash. I have heard that, too. I don't know if it's true i might just bring a weed with me and then fucking plant it and be like yo look what i found i like one give me my money bitch but i do remember everything's like three bucks there beers are like 450 it's so old school it's like kind of

taking a step back in time um i know my boy minahan might be there i think he mentioned to me in arizona he's going he's been a bunch of times i think with his brother so hopefully he's there during that second round friday day but i'm i'm all jacked up dude i'm all jacked up was the was last year's winner the his meal thing with the live guys meet me at the 9th at 9 p.m. So that's Shuffler. I think that was a joke. I'm guessing. Okay, but it was in fact printed.

It was real. It wasn't dubbed over. No, because the menu comes out like Monday of Master's Week. I think the dinner's Tuesday night. That was just a meme. That was just getting sucked into the online rumors. Wayne's going. He's doing the TNT broadcast and then flying right over there.

So maybe he'll bump into him. I wonder if he's going Thursday or Friday. I bet he's there for both days. And then if Dustin Johnson makes the cut, he'll probably stick around. Yep. So it should be interesting. All those live guys there. I can't wait, though.

I mean, I'm just like the masters. It's my favorite weekend of the year. I think sports-wise, it is the number one thing for me every year. Stanley Cup playoffs, first round, a close, maybe a 1B. But Augusta National and that four days in April is what I live for. Before we go any further, you know what I'm here to talk to you about. That's right, Pink Whitney by New Amsterdam Vodka, our presenting sponsor. One of the reasons this pod even exists. New Amsterdam Vodka gave us the love, became our guys,

and what came from it? The greatest pink lemonade flavored vodka and the first to ever be created. Pink Whitney is where it's at, I've mentioned. On the ski hill, on the beach, on the golf course, maybe even surfing. Maybe even surfing if you want to carry some nips out in your bathing suit. Also, it's birdie juice. We've talked about that. Golf related, I'm a golf nut, I'm a golf junkie.

We have sandbaggers where whenever there's a birdie, not that often, but whenever there is one, we crush Pink Whitney. And what am I going to do? I've mentioned I'm going to get Pink Whitney nips into Augusta National Golf Club for the second round this year, 2023. Can you imagine a beautiful little shot of a Pink Whitney nip right at Amen's Corner? Well, it's 12th Pole and Augusta. It's the most beautiful piece of property maybe in the world. And if I could get just some sort of image, I know no phone's allowed, but who knows? Who knows how we're going to get it done? Pink Whitney, Amen's Corner, birdie juice. Maybe even Jordan Spieth will hammer one if he birdies 13 right

after 12. You never know. Some guys like to loosen up on the course. That's why it's the birdie juice. Go to where you get your liquor and get Pink Whitney. We got big bottles. We got small bottles. We got little nips. We got anything that you could put your mind to making a drink with vodka. Start with Pink Whitney. New Amsterdam Vodka. Pink Whitney, our presenting sponsor, and the GOAT. I know you got construction going on at your place too, Whit. Next door, I'm renting this place out until my place is done being renovated. This guy's been drilling for three weeks straight. It's a 1,200 square foot apartment.

I don't know what the fuck is going on over there. I can't even hear myself think right now because this thing is just going nonstop. All day long. From 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. I walked over finally today. I said, buddy, I said, can you give me at least a couple hours during the podcast? He basically told me to go fuck myself. He's like, yeah, no.

It was actually the guy who told me to wash my hands. He is just ruining my life. There's going to be a hole in the desert soon, that guy. Yeah. Gee, what's going on buddy congratulations you are closed in your apartment since our last episode nice job al yeah thanks guys uh i yes kind of crazy weekend for me as well i spent the weekend moving into hoboken new place here is looking awesome i even got myself a rutgers scarlet knight hockey jersey to feel feel a little at home here in the great state of New Jersey. But the kicker to all this, there's a golf simulator like two blocks down from my apartment. The lessons start next month, early April, the lessons start. The goal is to be breaking 100

by midsummer, consistently breaking 100 by midsummer. So And that is playing by the rules. No mulligans. If you hit it out of bounds, re-teeing. Not just like, oh, I shot 98, but there's not a chicken dick's chance you're breaking 100 on the red. I was going to say, I don't even know if you could break 120, but have you played golf? Have I played golf? I've absolutely played golf.

I've gone golfing with Biz before in Kelowna. I told him I was a great golfer, and then about two or three holes in, Biz looked at he's like i thought you could fucking golf so i yeah it wasn't great then uh but boys i'm mind on the prize here eyes on the goal i think i can be breaking 100 by midsummer and i'm willing to place a bet on it i think it's eyes on the prize yeah um you sound like me i almost would be willing to bet i would almost be willing to bet that steady lessons steady playing come may 2024 so over a year from now i still don't think you could be biz i will i will i don't know if i can be biz but i i would say i'll get the Pink Whitney golf tattoo,

the new logo that we just created. I will get that tattooed somewhere on my body. If I cannot in one year consistently break, I'll golf three rounds with you, Whit. If I don't consistently break 100 in the three rounds, I will get the Pink Whitney golf logo tattooed somewhere on my body. You're done. You might as well do it now. You'd get that anyways, though, G.

He already has it. He just hasn't told us. Did you watch the Arnold Palmer at all? Yeah, it was a great event. Great event. I've played down at Bay Hill. It's a cool place. Actually, one time, for people who don't know about Arnold Palmer as well,

I know this is a hockey podcast, but let me tell you, this guy changed the game for athletes, basically creating money and income for themselves off course, off field, off ice. I mean, he also started the golf channel. There's a million different things about Arnold Palmer, a true legend in life. And one time we were down there, he was hanging around and he was sitting behind the sixth green on the seventh tee when we were all coming through and one of our buddies had like a three-foot putt and all of a sudden he's like hey give it to him for christ's sake or something like that we were like oh we aren't palmer's tell us we got to give it to you we have to shut the fuck up yeah fuck you arnie so sure enough behind the seventh green is uh barker your ass bitch

oh he would have pumped me just like Bob beat up Happy. But behind the seventh green is a bathroom. And one of our buddies, Bunzo, he took the grossest smelling shit that a human being has ever taken in that bathroom. And I'm going to say no less than five minutes later already kind of drove up the seventh hole which is a par-3 and then he walked in the bathroom I was like oh no no no no no and he fucking passed away about four days later so I think like we kind of say Brendan killed Wow has dark his shit killed him that could die but that's just man I know man

that's funny what crazy you know I'll know, man. That's fucked up. Crazy. You know, I'll give you one guess who I had going down the stretch run of that journey yesterday. English? Yep. 75 to 1. Tied on 17. And I wanted to hit that nice birdie, and that was it.

Oh, my God. So that would have paid. Did you have a hundo on it? A little more than that. Oh, that's a 15G payday? Fuck, R.A. That's all right. We'll get him in the playoffs.

Friday also. I'll say this before we get into what's happened this past week. Friday and Saturday, myself, Dave Portnoy, Big Cat, Jersey Jerry, I think, we're going to be doing a little gambling. So Massachusetts, if you're a Massachusetts native, Friday, March 10th, this Friday, it's live, baby. All right, maybe we'll get you to swing down, and you can gamble on the Barstool Sportsbook app starting Friday in Massachusetts. So we got the Players' Championship.

We got college basketball, hockey, so it should be fun. I'm sorry, where are you going to be watching from? Did you say played field? I don't know, actually. I haven't been told. I don't know. We'll figure it out. Wait, so I never finished that, though.

We never finished that. Do we have a deal on the Pink Whitney tattoo? And if I can consistently break 100, you have to fly me anywhere I want to play golf. No. We don't have a deal. Okay. Fucking super easy. That's a no win for me.

I don't care if you have a tattoo on your body. That's true. Just thought you were a gambling man. I thought you liked to have a little fun. Guess not. When I have the ability to win something, I'm down to gamble. Unfortunately, I have no money left. Gee, you've got a couple other things going on.

The Raleigh tailgate video, that's coming out, what, Wednesday? Yeah, so we had the ASU locker room video come out this past week. That was great, dude. I like that. Thank you. That's something where me and Merle have been talking about for a while. We want to start doing with schools all around North America. And yeah, on Wednesday, we have the tailgate video coming out. Me and Merle's did a little Merle's on the street, buzzing around the Carolina

Hurricanes tailgate. And it was awesome, man. Merle's got some hilarious stuff. We got talked to a bunch of shit-faced Carolina Hurricanes fans. So that comes out Wednesday, 6 p.m. on the YouTube channel. Nice, looking forward to it. Biz, back to you about the TV stuff. It was great to see you and Ami on the same panel there, but any pee-pee wax? You might have been straddled on that line a little bit when you first got on it.

You might have called the principal's office. What do you mean, was it a key bump comment? I think it flew under the radar. I never heard anything about it. Yeah. I think BX might have caught it and not said that, but my head snapped. He did not just say that.

My wife was pissed in her pants. She's like, is he going to get in trouble for that? I was like, no. He's kind of reached the point where like, what are you going to say to him? Like he's become the guy where it's like, you don't know what he's going to say. He brings in audiences.

I hate to pump your tires right to your face, because I'd rather do it when you can't hear me. But you're almost untouchable, I'd say. No, don't say that. Fuck off. Knock on wood. I watched The Untouchables last night. Great movie.

Kevin Costner, Robert De Niro, back in the 80s, about chasing down, what was the mobster's name? Al Capone. Al Capone. And ironically enough, I shouldn't have said it, because one of the G-men, one of the FBI agents chasing down Capone. Al Capone. And ironically enough, I shouldn't have said it because one of the G-men, one of the FBI agents chasing down Capone, they murder his ass in this elevator and then he writes touchable in blood.

So I guess you aren't untouchable. Oh, Jesus. That's how it's going to go down? Yeah. Sorry, buddy. I think this jackhammer guy is going to bring me down. Guys, if I'm awful this podcast, like most podcasts, it's because I can't even hear myself think.

That's brutal. This is the worst setting. I want to almost fucking yell at this. Give me one second. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Dude, I would do anything right now to have a cameraman following him. Fuck off! He does.

Take a fucking break! Holy shit. This is the last guy. This has been going on all fucking day man for fucking three weeks what are they drilling dude I walked in there they're fucking drilling legit to China it's a 1200 square foot apartment they've been drilling for three fucking weeks

how about the fucking go over there and knock somebody out I could tell the wires aren't touching, but they're very close right now. Well, if you do end up going over and beating the shit out of him and getting arrested, we'll hold down the fort this epi. Okay. All right. Went from untouchable to fucking in the clink. God.

Isn't that just like a walk? Ten city for two weeks. I'm like dash three, first three shifts right now, just like when McDavid ended my career. Wait. Isn't that just like a wop? Ten city for two weeks. I'm like dash three, first three shifts right now, just like when McDavid ended my career. Wait, isn't that just like a wop? Brings a knife to a gunfight. What a great movie, Jesus. Yeah, good shit, Brian De Palma, awesome director.

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I sent you the video. I don't know what they're, they might be mining for Bitcoin over there. It's not that far of a stretch to say I'd rather walk in on my brother-in-law thumping my sister again rather than deal with what i dealt with in that first 30 minutes and had to have been forced to watch the entire sesh and then it was like watching a live meltdown like i guess i was having a nervous breakdown yeah i couldn't i couldn't hear myself think. Do we have the video of G when he's like, oh, I don't know what to do. Oh, yeah, we got it. We got it all.

Oh, my God. But I tell you what, man, we could talk about hockey. I don't give a flying fuck. Whatever I say, the rest of the podcast, whatever comes out of my mouth, do not listen to me. I'm a moron. I had to go do my breathing exercises again. Yeah, I'm a psycho. Let's roll.

Join the fucking club, buddy. Obviously, trade deadline was Friday. Actually, this is a crazy stat. I think I made a sentence. Let's roll. Join the fucking club, buddy. Obviously, trade deadline was Friday. Actually, this is a crazy stat. I think I might have sent it to you guys last week. As of last Thursday afternoon, there had been 41 trades in the two weeks leading up to the deadline. Over the past 10 years, the previous max was just 20. So they doubled the amounts of trades that had been in the last previous years. 41 trades, that's just going into Friday.

Well, ironically enough, I've always said it made no sense to me. And I understand teams wait and they kind of figure out what we need. And it takes a while with other teams bidding for players. But the sooner you get it done, the better. It's just more time with the guy on the roster. So it kind of makes sense that the league seems to be switching a little bit. And who do we have to thank? Hitman Lou. Lou lou started it the horvat party began while we were recording a few weeks back and then the league just kind of seemed to fall so i think that'll be the future as well as it's going to start happening more and more and poor james duthie and amber and all those guys at sports and tsn will continue to just have to create content i think i think there was enough for like to at least make the day somewhat exciting,

like adding like a lot of glue guys. And finally, like the teams like Pittsburgh, I guess they did minimal shit, but they did shit. We'll get to Pittsburgh and Philadelphia in a little bit. That state is in a depressing, depressing spot. I feel bad for Chuck Fletcher. That video of him. Chuck Fletcher, let's save it. He's a great guy and I understand the hate, but that state is a disaster.

Like at the town hall meeting, like give it a, to them, for them to schedule it the next day though. I know. Like what the fuck were they thinking? I would have been like, can I zoom in? The PR guy must have been out fucking butt chugging beers or something, doing fucking. Oh. Doing, oh, he must've had his neighbor jackhammering.

He must not have gotten any sleep to make a decision like that but i was also going to say i couldn't be more wrong remember i said in the hard cap era uh you know not many exciting things happen at the deadline i think we've legit had the most exciting deadline and then the hard cap area era and that's why and then all of a sudden i think what liam mccue described it as, like the Coyotes are the, not the Bahamas. Where do you go to like basically bury money and not pay taxes and shit? The Caymans?

Cayman Islands? The Caymans. So I heard. The Arizona Coyotes became the Cayman Islands in the National Hockey League. We have a Hall of Fame roster, and we're just paying all these people who aren't even in the league anymore.

And by the way, of all those guys, Shea Weber still has the largest contract in NHL history to this day. Yeah, based on the fact it was 14 years, right? And now it'll never be touched. Yeah, there was a couple of those mammoth deals. Parise got one. Suter got one. I remember Kovalechuk's.

Quick had a 10-year. He's ending a 10-year right now. Yeah, yeah. A great way to segue into Quickie. Holy shit. Absolutely. How about the slap of the face? Disrespect. That's disrespect. I mean, talking about the biggest surprises, this was it, man. I mean, you didn't hear his name anyway. Why would you? Last year of a 10-year contract, what, 36 years old, most likely probably going to retire, a franchise legend, and yet you stopped

in your tracks when you heard the Kings traded him to Columbus for a defenseman, Vladislav Gavrikov, and now the goalie Yunus Korpisalo, and they had to do it. That was the only way they could have got those two players, but it was like, holy shit, and then where were they? Winnipeg or Edmondson? And then he flew back with the team.

Buddy, they called him off the bus. Jonathan Quick, Conn Smythe, two Stanley Cups. He's going to be on that statue. Jersey retired. They called him off the bus. That's how you trade Paul Bissonnette. You call him off the fucking bus.

You don't fucking do that. That's how you fire Gallant if you're the Panthers. But he still flew home with them though, right, Paul? Like back to LA. Yeah, and apparently it shook up the plane. Apparently he lost his mind. Now this could be all fucking rumor boys shit, but like this is like from some pretty legitimate people talking about it.

That is the hardest part about being a GM. You have to think with your mind and not your heart. Obviously, I'm loyal like a dog dog so i probably couldn't have been able to trade him i would have believed that he would have been able to turn things around in time to lead him in the playoffs because he did it last year like last year i want to say goaltending was rocky at the start and then i mean by they brought uh they brought oilers to to seven games was it was it an overtime it was three two was 3-2 LA in that series too. I think the Oilers won game six on the road

and seven at home. What's ironic about the whole thing is like Kopitar gets four goals. They have this big win and all of a sudden it's like, boom. It's just like terrible what happened. Now, as much as it's kind of like a bizarre move and

you're like, oh my God, Rob Blake, I kind of respect him for it too. I hope that doesn't come off as the wrong way because I'm a Jonathan Quick guy. Not only is he an incredible player with this amazing career and the two Stanley Cups and everything he's ever accomplished, he's a great guy. He's a great person. Teammates love him. Johnny's a pizza. And like you said, last year he turned it on, but I think Rob Blake's looking at maybe this year, he doesn't necessarily see it. He knows this team realistically could win the West. If this team went to the Stanley Cup final- Korpisalo doubt he ain't getting any younger either.

They're not getting any younger. Korpisalo was a great goalie and Gavrikov is a hell of a defenseman and it was a move that Rob Blake talk about a business decision man that is a ballsy move and it sucks for Jonathan Quick and when you hear Kopitar and Doughty talk dude they were emotional and I completely understand I thought back when I was reading all this I was shocked too like I already said I couldn't believe it but I just remember I played. So I left college my junior year, played in the AHL. We went to the cup final. So I met Army then.

The next year we played the entire lockout year for Wilkes-Barre. So that's a season and a half. The next year we were horrible in Pittsburgh, two and a half years. And then the next year we made the playoffs and lost. So three and a half. And then he gets traded at the deadline, right? So I'm with Army for three, four years, becomes a really good friend. And boom, that day comes when he gets dealt for Marion Hossa. And I just remember being so upset.

Like, it was the excitement of Hossa's coming. But it was just like my first experience of the business and friendships. And just like, boom, it's over. And then you think to what Drew Doughty, Kopitar, and Jonathan Quick have accomplished together. It was the big four. Dustin Brown got to sail away his final season. He got the statue.

And then there's three left. Then there's three left. And boom, the goalie, the stalwart, the guy who did it all in the crease, Robin Kane, making an incredible season against the Rangers and the Devils. I'm getting a hockey boner. Keep going. Boom. He's gone.

And that's when you realize, like, if it was hard for us when Army left, you imagine these guys who have gotten to the pinnacle. They got to the top of the mountain two times together, and their best friend, Drew Doughty, said it's one of his best friends. And he's gone. So now it turns to Kopitar as the leader of that team to really kind of be able to get the team to get over it. And I'm not saying that that's something that's going to have to happen, considering Doughty and Kopitar are really the only two who were super, super close, I'm guessing, with the Cups.

But it's just amazing to see how much of a business sports is. It doesn't matter what sport you're in, and it doesn't matter what you've done, and it doesn't matter what the fans think. In the end, GMs make tough-ass decisions, and Rob Blake made a tough one. And I don't want to dog quick, but I think the Kings are a better team now than they were before. What's wild is he could end up facing them in the playoffs. How dramatic would that be?

He got his first win. Give it to me right now. Oh, that? And that's the one thing. Kim Jong-un's going to make it happen if you think he's not. Oh, yeah, Kim Jong-un. He's setting all the pieces up. Vince McMahon.

The last thing in the world the LA Kings want is to fucking play that guy in the playoffs. Now, that's not even to say he'll definitely be the starter. So that Aiden Hill is 6-1, I think, at his last seven. He's playing great. I told you guys he was nasty when he was playing with the Coyotes. I know. He was built in a laboratory. He's like 6'5", huge wingspan, good skater.

Like, fucking everything was fine with him. He just said it went over to San Jose, who stunk. But beware of the man whose pride is called out is that even the correct term i don't care this is a proud athlete this is this is i've heard from guys who play with jonathan quick that he's the most competitive motherfucker they've ever seen so you're telling me he doesn't have a chip on his shoulder right now and if he somehow plays the LA Kings put it in my veins bitch my basement might be done by then I won't leave

I'll be ripping Red Bulls before that 10 o'clock face off and I would love to see it happen because I just hope and I'm sure it'll happen that he gets a statue or he gets the night he deserves which he will in LA but just to have it'll happen that, you know, he gets a statue or he gets the night he deserves, which he will in LA.

But just to have it end like that, man, that's a tough fucking hard-nosed business decision right there. Did you see the guy online with the quick jersey for Columbus? No, he didn't. Oh, yeah. Right by the cannon. And show no Yarmulke Kalainen. Because that's, you know, I don't think quick, what I read, he wasn't going there. He said, I'm fucking retiring, dude.

Done. And you know what? Classy guy. He's like, I'm going to do what I can. I guess that was probably the entire, like, agreement in terms of like, I'm going to get the guy out of here. But he gets him to a place that's not far from LA. Whoa, whoa, whoa. Let me ask you this.

Do you think Rob Blake would have known his landing spot? No Okay, I was going to say, holy shit If you would have okayed that Knowing you might face him first round Let me ask you this Do you think if he said I might not trade him

Rob Blake wouldn't have done the deal? No, he would have done the deal At that point, you don't give a fuck I know it sounds crazy. You don't. You're trying to win a cup. Let's talk about the return. So Corpus Allo. So I asked Hank.

He's an extremely athletic goalie, and Hank said he's figured it out where he doesn't overcommit. So they got a legitimate goaltender, and now they have a legitimate backup. I don't think Copley was going to bring him the distance. This Corpus Allo, with how athletic he is, he skates so well, he almost looks like Shostakhin in net. And I'm not fucking comparing the two. I'm just saying skating is a very important aspect now.

And on top of that, I've been bullish on the Kings, I think, since the beginning of the season based on their top nine. One issue I thought they had was maybe they could add one piece on the back end. Now, this Gavrikov was the other component to the trade, and I think I was seeing online where he disrupts the most plays in the neutral zone. So he's one of those big defensemen that's a great skater who's confident enough to get up and break up plays. Where sometimes, fuck, I mean, the reason I probably couldn't play D in the NHL

is because I was like, yeah, I was like skating forwards back, and my gap would be dog shit, so you're giving up the line easy. And you had the drilling was going on during your pregame meal, and you couldn't play those nights. Yeah, you'd think. There's a lot of chinks in the armor. You know the first time I saw Gavrikov is? Oh, when you were in russia sochi

leopards went into town to play locomotive great barn good team and they had this fucking defenseman gavrikov i said who the hell is this guy nothing crazy offensive just great first passes and a mean prick and a big body i know this guy's playing in the nhl sure as shit i think two years later he comes over he's been been an awesome defenseman oh he's just a not all around but just a defensive fucking beast he's he's a poor man slaving we had him on the broadcast uh last night or so i mean this is dropping tuesday we had him sunday uh tampa carolina he was off the first time i saw him on the broadcast i think he was out injured with something He missed seven games But talk about one of the best defenders In all the National Hockey League

The way that he uses his stick The way that he re-gaps up That Carolina team is fucking nasty Yeah, we'll get it I got a couple opinions on them I'm going to backpedal on a few things on this podcast But going back to LA I also thought that they had a weak fourth line.

Gee, I don't know how far you got to go back. I'm pretty sure I said all these things and I think that out of the West, they could win the West. So they ended up getting McEwen for Lemieux where, buddy, I think Lemieux's a character of the game, but I didn't think he was doing enough. This McEwen's a fucking big body they can now throw on that fourth line for the Kings and I keep beating this dead horse their top three lines I'm not saying they have like four or five guys that are fucking like maybe the Boston Bruins but they have a incredibly strong middle of the ice and they got all these like fun little pieces on the outside and and as well as young legs so credit to Rob, he probably had one of the best deadlines and didn't really have to sacrifice much.

And out of the West, man, I look at them as probably the second or third strongest team in the Western Conference. And if this Corpus Allo can fucking get the job done in net, that was the one thing that was dragging them down at the beginning of the year. And then it got good when Copley first came and then it's evened out a bit if they get fucking above average goaltending i'm telling you western conference finals for sure give me your one through five

colorado dallas edmonton la and uh minnesota for every you're talking about everyone west i think that once the abs are completely healthy i think it's one of those cases of where they're just going to be able to all gel at the right time where everybody's feels refreshed and they're, and they have a very strong, that's who I would put my money on. If Edmonton can get some half decent goaltending with that fucking move, I don't know, do you guys

want to hop into Ekholm right now in that move? That was such a big, they didn't really have to do much. They fucking went out and got a guy who's very competent with the puck. He has experience in the playoffs. He really settles down that back end and he is fucking nasty to play against. He was one of the guys who didn't sit out when he played against the Coyotes. And I was talking about how hard Nashville plays. He ain't fucking, he's already gotten his money. He ain't shipping it in. After scrums, if you're around his fucking goalie, he's going to give you that fucking cross check and he ain't backing down. Is he fighting Revo? No. But how many other

fucking guys in the, that actually are going to be playing against Ekholm will intimidate him? Nobody. He's a fucking great piece. What a move bylland i the goaltending is is a converse i watched that jets game and i feel bad for campbell i don't know what the fuck's going on there like i but also like skinner's kind of even off too skinner would obviously be your guy going into playoffs no yes yeah i don't know what's going on with campbell either i could be way off base he almost seems like somebody who gets like a little down on himself and it's like a confidence thing. Like you can even see that he feels so bad when he plays bad. I know earlier in the year he was apologizing and like, I'm going to be better. And it's, I don't know if it's a, I don't know if it's a technical thing. Cause I don't know

shit about goalies, but I just seeing his interviews and stuff. I don't know if his mental game is that strong. I think when he's on, he's on, and when he's off, he's just kind of like mentally out of it a little bit. I could be way off here. It's kind of unfair to say that, considering I don't know him and I'm not on the team, but what a move. Talk about exactly what the Oilers needed, and all the Oilers haters, all they do is come at me about the goaltending. I'm never going to sit there and say that that's not an issue. What I constantly say is, it's an if, it's a big if, but if Skinner can turn it on or Campbell somehow finds the game again, they can win the West. They're incredible. And Ekholm is exactly

what they needed because like you said, it's a calming influence. It's a guy who has the first pass ability, has the one-on-one defense, is a leader, is a prick to play against. All the things that they just needed to add right there in one guy. And he came over, he flew the day of the game against Toronto. He looked unreal in that game. He looked great in the win against Winnipeg Friday night.

Unfortunately, they had kind of tough goaltending. They lost 6-5 Saturday night to Winnipeg or whatever it was. Gave up a ton of goals again, but an awesome addition. Holland had to do something. I think he sees this team as a legit chance in that conference to go all the way and he goes out and gets the one guy I kind of hope they got, right? You heard earlier in the year, Carlson to Edmonton, you never know. That's got to be a summer move. There was just too many moving parts, too much money. To go out and get at Coleman and then know he's signed for three more years,

I think it's around six, 6.2, something like that. That is just a perfect addition. They got Canes going to be back soon. They got McDavid, who broke the Oilers' all-time record with 58 points on the power play in one season. Is this the McDavid segment? Amazing to see. With 58 points on the power play in one season. Is this the McDavid segment?

Amazing to see. The all-time record of power play points in a season is 80 by Mario Lemieux. I think it was in 89. I think Lemieux's got the top four single season records for power play points. Sheeps. McDavid's at 58. He might even be past it now. I'm not sure about Saturday night.

That's well within reach. it now i'm not sure about saturday night he that that's that's well within reach and at the same time leon breaks a record for the edmonton oilers with his 25th power play goal in one season the all-time nhl record for that is tim kerr with the philadelphia flyers in 85 86 he had 34 so nine more and he ties that guy with this humming right now that's what buddy, I did my research. I have to do research and shit on the Oilers. But that record's well within reach. So you're looking at a team. We talk about special teams all the time. I'm not exaggerating.

It might be the greatest power play to ever be in the NHL. It's so fun to watch. It's unreal. They don't even have positions. And I know Tyson Barry possibly be gone, and he's probably a better passer than Bouchard, but Bouchard's got

the shot that Barry doesn't have, and that's a cannon one-timer. He got a couple blocked late in the game in Winnipeg. They could've tied it up, but it's a good team. They need goaltending, but it's an exciting time to be an Oilers fan. You gotta send Jack Oshie even out the dog to cat ratio

I think the cat thing's fucking him up Gee what's going on buddy No I was just listening to episode 409 At the 109 mark where you went on In the Western Conference preview You went on an absolute tangent About the LA Kings How you love their team, you love their prospects

You love what they're building You said I took the L last year I ain't taking the l again la kings are making the playoffs do you know do you know that saying biz you know like blind squirrels they're crawling around the grass and all of a sudden they just like step on a nut hey you take enough at bats buddy you're eventually gonna hit one out of the park got that one i've been beating that drum all year and it's definitely in my top three right now to jump on the bandwagon now i have a few other teams we'll get to them later in the podcast yeah oh for sure no you know what there's no there is no battle of alberta because the calgary flames stink they have completely lost their mojo. They suck.

This is an embarrassment. So I am going to be a great guy and allow the whole Battle of Alberta to be simply Edmonton Oilers conversation. Yeah, it's over. Suck on that, Flames. My last thing on the Oilers, I'll say three words. That's it. Ryan Nugent Hopkins. Killer.

You mean killer? This guy is so fucking underrated and so good at hockey and doesn't get the shine because of those two dogs up front. And I understand maybe they're a reason why he has so many points. He is an all-around awesome hockey player who deserves to have this career season and beat the absolute shit out of maybe, I'm going to say, in the past 10 years,

one of a fan base's least favorite players in Justin Holl. And I feel bad for him because I've been that guy, you know, the big, not too physical defenseman who seems to turn it over a lot. I can't remember Leafs fans hating a player, maybe Larry Murphy. So I feel bad for him. But to have the season he's had and then to get your eyes pumped shut by Ryan Nugent Hopkins, that's just a tough go. That's a tough go. What else are you going to say? I mean, I wasn't going to bring it up.

How do you not? It looked like if I fought Ryder. I think he gets more hate online than Babcock on the way out, for crying out loud. That's how bad he's feeling. I feel horrible for him. I'm not being sarcastic. We might get more hate than Corey Cross. Why is he still playing?

Is he doing a better job than we think? Am I just a stupid fan? They have 9D right now, too. They have so many D. That's why it's unfair. There's something he does that Sheldon Keefe likes, and I've never seen a guy get hated on like this. It's crazy. He's why it's unfair. There's something he does that Sheldon Keefe likes. And I just, I've never seen a guy get hated on like this. It's crazy. He's loyal like a dog.

As for the trade, Edmondson got Matthias Ekholm a sixth and 24. Tyson Barry, as you mentioned, went back to Nashville. Prospect Reed Schaefer, a first rounder in 23, a fourth and 24. And the Preds will retain $250,000 of that deal. Ekholm has four more left after this year with six and a quarter. Barry's got one more left at $4.5 million. They'll both be unrestricted after. I'm not sure if you mentioned Bukestad because you may have just said it in all that chaos. No, I didn't.

Okay. Edmondson also picked up Nick Bukestad. He's $900K. He'll be UFA after this year in a prospect from Arizona. They sent back, let's see, oh, actually, hold up, Bukestad, a prospect in a third and 23, and the Yotes are retaining 50% of that. So, I mean, that's a little good bottom six for him,

help out Adelaide. He's got a little style to his game, too. He's a gazelle, 6'7", just a massive human being, can help on the penalty kill. He was playing power play net front. I would imagine he goes nowhere near the power play, at least the first unit on that team. Maybe the second unit that gets the last 15 seconds

of the power play in Edmonton. He'll get to do the power play practice for the PKers to work on the PK. That's the only power play he's going to see. Exactly. But just to finalize the Oilers, goaltending and their role players can't fuck this up and they got a great team what's going on with evander kane he's in the

lineup right i haven't heard his name much i think he's coming he did pre-game skate today they play buffalo uh this obviously monday night i don't know if he's playing tonight but they got mcleod on the first line with mcdavid that kid has wheels let's see if that kind of goes anywhere. I heard he's a beauty and loves his pops. That's all I keep hearing about this guy. Oh, I heard the locker room loves him. I heard he's a beauty.

Just kind of like the goofy young guy that they can all have a laugh at. But, bud, look, Hyman's having a ridiculous year. Imagine Kane comes in. He's kind of like the Ekholm of up front where, fuck, is he a mean prick to play against against and he can snipe. They have a great, they have so many, they have enough stars to win it. They have enough guys, they have a good enough

core group where they can win a Stanley Cup. Goaltending and the role guys can't fuck it up. Want to know my guarantee before we move on? If they get to the Western Conference Finals against Colorado again, they'll win a game. They'll get a game. Alright, man. Biz, I got some stats for you. We have Team A and Team B over the last 16 games. Team A went 12-3-1 with a plus 24 goal differential, 11.5 from the power play, 84.8 penalty killing. Team B also went

12-3-1, plus 24 goal differential, a better power play at 20.7, a better power play at 20.7 a better penalty kill at 87.7 which two teams am i talking about okay um minnesota's on a run right now that would be a guess of mine am i wrong yeah yeah i think i have at least one of them okay so avalanche have also been humming lately but let's go yeah who do you got carolina i got ottawa as one of them yep oh yeah what and i bet you the other one and i bet you the other one's boston boom done so yeah i'm fucking buzzing right now you are humming right now i'm buzzing because boston basically just every 15 games it's 12 and 33. Probably actually 13-2, so that's standard. This Ottawa Senators team might be one of the most fun teams to watch in the league right now.

And Brady Kachuk doing what he did to the Detroit Badgers. Go ahead, R.A., I'm sorry. Bent him over. Oh, absolutely. Well, the first off the trade, I mean, Jacob Chicken, we've been waiting for this for four months or whatever, finally goes to Ottawa. Let's see, goes to Ottawa. Arizona gets a top five

protected in 23. A conditional second in 24 and a second in 26. People thought it would have been a lot more. Chickerman is signed for two more years after this one at a team-friendly 4.6 mil. Claude Drew, I guess he was a big push behind this. Pierre Dorian said the players come to him, said, we want you to do something here. We feel good right now. And Dorian said, we owe it to our players to do something to help that push. Our players said, please do something. I also made a promise to Claude Drew to get something done. He got something done.

Biz, did you think Arizona was going to have to get more of this? What's the return? What's your take on it? I was hoping the return would be more. And I don't talk to Bill Armstrong enough. I'd be interested to pick his brain. I don't know if he overplayed his hand. It just didn't seem with what the buildup was that they got back.

I would have liked what they got pick-wise and like a good prospect. And then I would have felt comfortable about it. So to the other side, though, as far as what Dorian did, for what he gave up, man, they get a guy for two more years at an unbelievable number and his ceiling could be sky high. By the time the next two years go, he could be worth seven, $8 million defenseman. The gamble is the amount of injuries he's had, I want to say he's had like five major surgeries dating back to when he was his draft year

and or his last year of junior with the Sarnia Sting. He got shoulder surgery. Two ACL surgeries on one knee, one on the other, and then he had a big issue with his wrist where he had to get surgery on it. He played most of last year with like a fucked up wrist. He showed me it. I was like, so, but like he's such a fucking unit he skates unbelievable so any mistakes he makes he can

recover well he's always got a pretty good stick maybe maybe lacks an edge like like a like a mean guy streak we talked about at comb like that but i think for what he lacks in that offensively one of the most most lethal shots you'll see slap shot one timer or even wristers he'll send wristers sometimes and they'll hit the bar and it will shake you to the core if you're in the building mind you it's at mullet so uh you know maybe maybe it wouldn't do it if there was an upper deck but he is such a good defenseman to go over there and he could turn into a number two maybe three i've always said that i believed he was a four on a stanley cup winning team but he he's going in there where he's got family ties his grandpa's been at all the games like you tell it was such an emotional lift off

his shoulders to finally be on a team that's going to be competing the i don't blame him the rebuild and what the coyotes have moving forward for probably the next three four maybe if not five years he didn't want to hang around he's already been experienced it since he came to the league he feels like he has more to offer and i'm excited to see what the ceiling is for this guy surrounded by other guys in ottawa i'm i didn't realize they were playing that good but i do know that i think the two games they bent the detroit red wings over where let's keep in mind here them in detroit were neck and neck for like who was going to be the team to come up and compete for that wild card you mentioned brady's name fuck him going at the bench going who wants it he's a fucking dog dude

both those fucking kids man they're out of their mind that's what hockey needs a captain who could talk every night he's he's Walt he's Walt and he's got a fucking edge he won't back down from nobody a true leader this is at the beginning of the year where the fan base was calling for the coach's head he said shut the fuck up he's like this is on the players we'll figure this out we'll get it done and then dorian to give him that piece for them to potentially get that wild card i would rather see them in a wild card than even the pittsburgh penguins and they fucking drafted me there you go how do you like that one wit yeah them in buffalo uh i think they're both like two points back. Big one in Buffalo against Edmonton Monday night.

But Dorian deserves a lot of credit. And I think two years ago he mentioned we got to be patient. We can't be trading big prospects and picks quite yet. And then he saw what's happened with this team. And as he mentioned, players went to him and he promised Claude Giroux and he did it. And they had Zaitsev making four and a half. They get rid of him and they bring in Chikrin making the same thing and they got him for two more years. Dude, that left defense, Thomas Chabot, Jake Sanderson, Jacob Chikrin. 24 years

is the oldest. I think Chikrin's 24 is the oldest one. That is a big time left defense right there. The one guy in Ottawa who doesn't get enough credit, every time I watch them, this Stutzler is something else. He's over 30 this year, already in goals. Early to jump to, I try not to be the hot take guy, even though I have about 47 of them a podcast. The LA Kings took Quinton Byfield second and Tim Stutzler third. I know it's early. I don't know if you possibly would maybe redo that one if you could. He's fast. He competes. I think defensively once in a while, but a young stud offensively. You understand that comes with the game. He's going to learn. He's going to have to learn for

them to be a playoff team. He's a game breaker. And that team's fun to watch. Like you said, Brady Kachuk pretty much ended the Detroit Red Wings season. They signed Larkin and just started selling everything. He flexed at their bench. What are you going to do? It's a fun team. And Dorian's taking heat. I think right now it's like that fan base is excited. The whole place is chanting, we want playoffs as they're beating Columbus the other night. It's been a cool season and a cool last few weeks for Ottawa. And I don't think they're going to slow down. I think their entire goal this year was to play meaningful games at the end of the season. And they're doing it, you know, up to the end of the year, they're going to be playing maybe the last five, six games. They're going to be out of it. Who knows? But I like watching them. And I think next year now as a fan base, you're looking at like, six games, they're going to be out of it. Who knows? But I like watching them, and I think next year now as a fan base,

you're looking at like, all right, we're going to compete. We're going to get in the playoffs. Hell of a move. And Chigwit's first goal was a wrist shot that had to be going 93 miles an hour. All you heard is crossbar it in. He had a nice assist too. He kind of laid a saucer pass in the neutral zone to somebody. They went in on a 2-on-1. Just an awesome start for a guy who deserves it. Now going to Arizona,

I can't imagine some of the deals he turned down for him. I would love to know the top five offers he had that he turned down. And what's weird is he wanted the trade last year. I don't know how that doesn't get done this summer. There had to be offers at the draft. There had to be different chances where you had these offers coming to you that maybe never looked as good as what you wanted. Well, you're certainly not going to get the offer two days before the deadline that you want. It's like I think he overplayed his hand.

Now, who knows what in terms of – Or it goes back to the Rob Blake thing where maybe it just drew out so long where it was maybe a buddy pass at that point. Maybe he did have stronger offers. Obviously, the smart play would have been just hold him to the draft because at that point, you know you're- That's what they should have done. Or at least know, like Michael Fuda who i told said at the beginning of

the podcast when i had the drill going in my brain i'm pretty sure i mentioned it anyway was he uh he should be in management to some degree he said i don't understand why they don't keep it till the draft because then you at least know what pick you're getting and who the player is going to be so it's and i was like oh i would have never Like thought to like hang on to it You might be listening and say Well that's not rocket Scientology Scientology right like that's not the Fucking smartest thing in the world But you know he obviously knows what the

Fuck he's talking about so that's why I would like to pick his ear or pick his brain Excuse me not pick his ear About what you know what maybe why He did it at that time and maybe what the Prior offers were. But there's no fucking possible way he hadn't been offered more than what he got at the deadline, at least before that.

Numerous times. Zero percent. Numerous times. Zero percent. And what happened was Edmonton got Ekholm, LA got Gavrikov, Boston got Orlov, and then you're like, oh, fuck. We're now left. Ottawa was out of it and then came back in and like, all right,

well, you still want to deal him? Here, take these draft picks. Last thing I'll say, though, like all the praise in the world for the way that he conducted himself and how professional he took it. I said five major surgeries, guys. Like that is so much of a mental grind. You've talked about it and how you finally were like, fuck this. He's done it five times to get his body back to where it needs to be.

Fully committed, like two-a-days all summer long. Major surgeries here. So he's a dog. I'm so happy for him, and I hope he stays healthy and helps that team win. What was crazy is it was kind of scary that first game in new york he went down too i was like oh no poor fucking guy finally you didn't get hit in the chin i i don't even know what it was i just kind of saw in the highlights that he was down in the corner and he ended up obviously he's okay but that was scary so

congrats to him on getting traded and um ottawa, it's been a long road, and you deserve this success, and you deserve the excitement around your team. So it's cool to see. Yeah, Ottawa, 5th Street, they've scored at least 5 goals in all 5 of those games. We've got to congratulate Derek Brassard as well. Played his 1,000th game Thursday versus the Rangers. Got 2 goals in it. Got to congratulate the guy for that.

He got a nice role in the locker room. There's a video where he gets pretty emotional. one other thing they're doing this without Norris who's another awesome player you know isn't he out for the year yeah he's out for the year and then Forsberg he tore both MCLs on the same play he was kind of their stud goalie so they've had who yeah they got who's there I'm drawing a blank camp talbot and then that mad some yeah sword guard or something he's actually he's he was a pretty high pick i think he's six seven he could be he's i think he's picked in 19 and you know that's a possible big time prospect in net for him but yeah pretty impressive to not have norris and to not have you know forsberg playing and be

doing this 37th overall in 2019 yeah for a, I mean, it's a pretty high pick. It's not fifth overall like yours truly. The other team you mentioned, Boston, should we just get to them later? I said Minnesota, but Minnesota's been hot over the last seven. They've only allowed seven goals in their last seven games. They've lost one game, and it was in, I think it was in overtime to the Leafs

where Nylander scored a nice one. So they made a few crafty deals at the deadline where they added the offense that they needed. Klingberg, that's a great pickup. I didn't think he was going to go anywhere, especially with the money that he was making. He's had a tough year. I don't know. Buddy, he's had a brutal year, but what does Minnesota have to lose? If you were a Minnesota fan. Oh no, I agree. Yeah, like three, four weeks ago, if you would have said, yeah, you're probably not going to make playoffs, they would have been like, eh. Now they look great. They're getting

the goaltending that they need, the nets being shared. Dumba's back in the lineup. He's playing pretty solid, and they got a good mojo with Billy G. He's fully invested in this tarps off. That's all you keep hearing about online. Yeah, he didn't have much.

Shoto Revo. Revo got his first as a member of the Wild. He said he was getting chirped at, I don't know, was it his kid's practice? He's getting chirped by some young kids, he said. So then he banged. It was a nice one, too. Batted it out of midair. Nice goal.

Congrats, Revo. They got Johansson. And who was the other one? Nyquist? Yeah, I think Nyquist is hurt right now. Gustav Nyquist, Oskar Sundqvist, and Klingberg, like you mentioned. He didn't have a lot of cap space, man. He did a great job.

So you get four guys on that roster. He did a good job. I don't think people thought they were going to get four guys at the deadline. But do you think that's enough to push them to the upper tier of contention biz those those four guys with what they already have i feel like teams are just like giving players away to them so they could call them and talk to them just chat a little bit that's how cool billy g is like hey like two hour conversation you want to take this guy i just take clenberg fucking take him uh what was the question again all right is this enough to put them in the the upper tier of contenders in the West?

No, no, no. Like I said, it has to be a team of destiny for them to be able to make a run. I still think they're really weak at center ice. They've been juggling that position all year long. And no, I just think that they rely too much heavily on that first line to produce offense. They just don't have much secondary scoring. And then they parted. I thought they did a good job where they had like two tough on the team.

Where they had all these huge big bodies. And I didn't see them moving Foligno. So they parted ways with Greenway. It was sad. It seemed like everybody really liked them there. And it was an emotional goodbye, but then a team like Buffalo, who I think we can all admit are softer than puppy

shit. They got a lot of other things going for them, but they're softer than puppy shit. They end up getting Greenway. So I think that they did the proper moves in order to get more skillful and maybe compliment the offense. Let's see how it works out. Like I said, they're doing a good job of keeping it out of their net right now.

They've only let seven goals in the last seven fucking games. That's a pretty fucking good run. Imagine whether they beat without Karel Kaprizov. He's been carrying them. He has 48% of their goals since the All-Star break. He scored for that team. 48% of the goals, almost half the goals since the frigging All-Star break. Guys are awesome to watch.

I think you said it three podcasts ago. He's worth the price of admission. Well, Biz, you mentioned Boston already, so I suppose we should just jump on them. We woke up last week, me and Grinelli, very happy. Awesome moves. First off, the Postler extension, eight years, $90 million. It's 11 and a quarter a year.

No move clause for the first five, then a modified no trade for the last three. Biggest contract in Bruins history, and you knew he was going to stay. I don't think he even threatened to go anywhere else. One of the top, what, four or five players in the game right now. And then later in the day, they get freaking Tyler Bertuzzi from Detroit for their first rounder in 24, protected in a fourth rounder in 25. He's in the last year of a two-year $9.5 million deal. Detroit actually retained 50%. This kid

could be a perfect Bruin, man. He's got that like gritty style. He's not afraid to mix it up a little and he could score some freaking goals, man. So I hope he has a good run here and they lock him up, man. I'm like, geez, let's get Yacht-Tate for these moves. I'm still over the moon with them. Adding Tyler Bertuzzi to this lineup with Hall out, with Foligno out, I think it's crucial right now for the final stretch here, and especially for a playoff run. And people are talking about a potential extension for this guy after the season. I would love that. He is the perfect Bruin.

Keep this guy a Bruin as long as you can. People seem to be mortified about his stick, though. No tape up top, nothing up top. Raw dog. That's amazing. Granted, if it's a grip stick, I guess it'd be a little easier. But without the grip, it's so slippery without the tape. I don't know. I mean, this kid certainly seems to beat to his own drum. Kind of a poor man's Brad

Marchant in a sense that he's an absolute rat. He'll do anything it takes to win and he's really skilled. I think Marchant's like a superstar. I don't necessarily think Bertuzzi's obviously as good as him, but a lot of similar traits and And that's exactly what the Bruins play like. That's exactly what they need. That's why they brought in Hathaway, Orlov. Speaking of defense, maybe the greatest start to a trade in the history of the NHL. I mean, he's looked outstanding.

So this team is firing on all cylinders. I think they're one of the best hockey teams to ever play in this league. I'm not even joking either. At this point, like, oh, they're one of the best hockey teams to ever play in this league. I'm not even joking either. At this point, like, oh, they're going to slow down after the all-star break. They've won 10 in a row again. It's incredible to watch that beatdown they put on the Rangers

Saturday afternoon was just total domination. The hit McAvoy put on Trocek, oh my God, I don't even think they showed the replay on ABC. Give me Kale McCarr and then give me Charlie McAvoy. He's the second best defenseman in the NHL. All around, every single year, he's getting better. He's getting bigger. I texted Chris Wagner during the game. I go, dude, this kid, he goes, he's a fucking animal. And that's

how he plays. and not often do you see these complete players anymore i mean mccarr you saw the big hit against jordan stall last year this year whenever it was but from a game to game basis from a game to game basis and then could skate the way he does it's just i would like to see them, if I'm a big-time fan of the Bruins, the last 10 games, maybe Bergeron and Krejci play every other game. I don't even know if they want to. Now, they had the chance to break the all-time record. I think it was the 77 Canadians, right, R.A.?

Yeah, record fastest to 100 points, they beat the 77 Canadians. But isn't there, what record are they gunning after? Like, most points in the history of the league? I think it was the Red Wings for wins maybe, I think it is. Come on, all right. Who cares? That's my ball, who cares? I just said it.

It's wins for Detroit because Montreal had the points. Grinnelli's on it. To beat a fucking 77 Canadians record, dude, I think that's one of the best teams ever. It's crazy. And I just, my point was more that like i don't think they do care i don't know but who gives a fuck nothing matters besides this run and that's the great thing about bertuzzi with felino and hall out it's like all right well

where does everyone slot in when they get back who cares you need depth you need a bunch of different players right now i think they've scratched gri I think they've scratched Gryzlik. They've scratched Clifton. Like, people go down in the playoffs, man. The depth that they have, too, is just wild. I couldn't believe when they got Bertuzzi. I was hitting balls. I checked my phone. I'm like, what? I mean, the Maple Leafs and the Lightning must have thrown up

when they saw that. Like, that was the last thought in my mind, that the Bruins still could add Bertuzzi. If they don't win the Stanley Cup, it's an enormous upset and an enormous disappointment because they're truly one of the greatest teams to ever play hockey in this league right now. This season has been- I think it's a fair comparison to say he's a poor man's Marchand, where if you look at the percentages of scrums that Boston has, I bet you Marchand is probably starting 65% of them, whereas if you looked at Detroit,

every time you see a video of the Goon Squad, it's fucking Bertuzzi in the mix. Isn't there a couple videos that went viral of those two in particular going at each other? Oh, yeah. A few times, yeah. Yeah. The one video I saw, Bertuzzi,

he's telling him, let's go, let's go, like right in his face. And then Marsha like stick the goalie. Yes. And then he went and jumped him. Skate to the bench. And then jumped somebody else. Yeah, yeah. More of that, please.

Is the points record you asked for, though, Montreal Canadiens 76, 77 was 132 points. And then the win record is the Tampa Bay Lightning 2018-2019 was 62 wins. That ended well. So you were just mentioning a little bit of load management. I asked Coop on the broadcast about that. So you would recommend that just because of their age? So we were talking about it with the Leafs earlier on because Matthews was a little bit banged up. And just mentioning it because they, and Liam McHugh,

I think brought up the original, the point. They already know who their first round opponent is and they're pretty much going to have home ice. So why wouldn't they? And in the case in which, and then I got a text from Charles Barkley saying it's a sad day when we're talking about load management in the National Hockey League.

So, you know, obviously ask Coop about that saying, hey, you guys look exhausted right now, especially the top guys who he called out in Buffalo, sat him out the entire third period. So I said, hey, like you guys know you're going to be playing the Leafs. Looks like they're probably going to get home ice. Why? You've been on a run three years in a row to the Stanley Cup finals. The fucking nervous system on these top end guys, that core group must be shot for how much competitive hockey they've had to play. Maybe why not ease them in? He said, fuck that. I think it's going to fuck up with their timing. And that's more of a mental

thing where you're telling me that they should be sitting those guys out every other game. I agree. It's going to be a long run. They got got older legs same with tampa bay so you would do that as a head coach easing into playoffs if you were montgomery no brainer now the question is like what coop's saying there's a valid point to it because bergeron and grachy they could say i don't i don't really want to like maybe play me 15 17 minutes opposed to the 20. But for me, as an analyst, if that's what you want to call me, it's going to be two and a half months if you can reach the goal that you guys are setting out to do. There's going to be injuries.

There's going to be battles besides the first round. I know the record they're chasing is the Lightning who got swept by the Columbus Blue Jackets. The Bruins, can I bet that they'll sweep the first round, whoever they play? Can you bet that a team sweeps already? That's a bet I'm going to be making. So for me, it's like, let's just give them a little rest

leading up to the playoffs. You always get those three, two, three days of practice leading up to the first game of the first round. So I don't see the harm in it, unless they really do want to break that record and it's kind of coming down to the end yeah it's i don't think it's worth it i mean if if they break the record don't win the cup nobody nobody gives a shit nobody gives a shit and then if you win the cup nobody gives a shit about the record they're the patriots when they had randy moss you went completely undefeated and lost in the super bowl then that's different that was

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Now back to the show. But back to the load management biz, I'm curious to see if they do follow the NBA. And there's a big misconception about it in the NBA. The players don't decide they're not going to play. I think people, oh, they make a $30 million, they don't want to play. It comes from the front office. They have all these scientists.

Yeah. You don't think the players are the… I mean… All right. I don't know. All right. You were born at night players are the – I mean, all right. I don't know. All right. You were born at night, but not last night, brother. I sent you guys the text.

It was a week ago. I think he might have been an agent. I would have to disagree with you. You have proof of the comment in an article saying that? Because didn't LeBron go to the – where did he go? Oh, he went to the Super Bowl and didn't play in the following game. I'm pretty sure the management's not saying, hey, pal, we're in a playoff race here. Why don't you go enjoy the Super Bowl and take the next one

off? All right. That could be whoever them saying it to kind of take the heat off the players. Some of those NBAers, you cannot tell me they're not like, yeah, yeah, yeah. And tomorrow night, I'm not playing. Well, this guy, I think he might've been an agent. He had a long tweet thread. I was really interested in it. And there's actually a quote from Steph in the article. And he's like, they say we want to play. They tell us we're not going to play. They measure their sleep. Every little scientific thing you can imagine.

Basically, the nerds are sort of dictating. And people are like, well, they can play if they want. It's like, no, players don't hand in the lineup card before the game. What do you got, forge the name on the lineup card? I mean, you can't force yourself in. What, Piz? Coach Whoop. The fucking Whoop's deciding if you're playing or not.

Hey, man. You're only 80%. Your biggest asshole in the NBA is that John Morant, too. What an idiot. What's he doing? What an absolute idiot. Waving a gun around in an Instagram live video, and he's getting called out by other players for being fake hood.

You went to Cranbrook, a private school. I don't even think he's hood called out by other players for being like fake hood like you went to crambrook a private school like i don't even think he's hood at all and he's just trying to absolutely come off as this like gangbanger it's like buddy you're literally leading this entire franchise to become a good team and you're acting like an asshole off the court wait it just it just came out today too that they had a team meeting like hours before he went to the club where Steven Adams was running the meeting and was like, the whole meeting was about guys who need to stop partying so much. We're bracing for a playoff race.

Can't be going out doing this shit. And then five hours later, he's brandishing a gun in an Instagram video. Selfish. Great teammate. You have the world by the balls, dude. What is making you try to be a tough guy carrying a gun around buddy it's like it's it's fucking infuriating to me and i don't even care about basketball it's crazy am i not am i not right you're hitting the nail on the head i just don't

yeah i don't understand it i don't know what's wrong with them i mean i think so they suspended him for two games i'm pretty sure the the the NBA is going to do a bit of an investigation as to why he's thinking about even doing this. Then there were some tweets that were out there. I don't know if they're true or not. Somebody said he might have brought it on a team flight. That might be a complete rumor. Whereas the NBA was looking into it where that would be a 50-game sussy.

I think Gilbert Arenas was the last guy to bring one to the locker room. He pulled out of someone's locker room. I think one of his teammates owed him big dough. Yeah, a card game on the plane. Sick league. But I think Morant also was a part of a... I don't know if it was for sure proven,

but there was a story that he was in a car that put a red light, almost like a sniper light. His friends were... His friends were kicked out of i believe it was the pacers game they shined lasers and it they they insinuated that it was a laser from a pistol or gun at the employees and they were freaked the fuck out jesus christ sick holy fucking how the hell did we get on this well load Well, load management. We started talking about guns. Yeah, load it up.

Well, before that, we were talking about Tampa, and they're slumping right now. Fifth loss in a row, longest streak since March of 2014. Also dropped 8 out of 10. And Vassie hasn't looked like Vassie. He's in a rough stretch right now. He's given up at least five goals in three of his last five starts. So, what do you think?

Is this a slump, lack of confidence, tough part of schedule, or just the last three years catching up to them? I would guess the last three years catching up with them. I would guess this is also the time of the year, as Biz said, they know they're playing Toronto, and it's just like, oh, this three-year grind, and this is the part of the – can we just get to the playoffs? It's kind of like a bunch of different things probably rolled into one hopefully headman isn't hurt because that's

a guy they can't they can't they got no chance of going on another run without him i don't know if there's been any news today in terms of his injury shvetsnikov hit him he kind of went into the boards awkward it looked looked kind of bad the way he was grabbing his back hopefully he's okay the other thing that's crazy is i don't think that vasilevsky like allows cooper and that's probably the rod wording because cooper's the coach he'll do what he wants but he doesn't get pulled do you notice that he never pulls him and i don't know if that's him saying don't pull me like i want to grind through things but at some point you'd think with the run he's on right now maybe give him a little rest or get him out of a game early if he realized that he doesn't have this in the bubble i want to say

in the in the sense of the say the reason he says don't pull me it's because the information he gathers like still as the game's going on late in games like maybe how to push through things when he's feeling a little bit tired or what he needs to do a little bit better i'm pretty pretty sure we talked about that and Coop has. And even when I asked him about the load management thing, he goes, he goes, when you guys, when you asked me that question, the guy I was thinking of was Vazzy. Oh really? Yeah. He's the sometimes saying, no, no, no. I want to play. I got to play. I got to get, I got to get my timing down. So yeah. So in, in, in his case, it is coming from the goaltender. As far as the other guys, listen, Koops won two Stanley Cups. He knows what the fuck he's doing.

Who the hell am I to question him? He was the guy who told me, like on the Larkin thing, he goes, hey, you don't know what you lost until it's gone. So he knows what the hell he's talking about. We'll get to Larkin later, but I trust that I'm not going to give this team any judgment until they hit playoffs. Yeah, you can't. You can't because there they might, you think you said,

they just might be bored right now, and all of a sudden they fucking turn it on. So I don't know. So when he benched Kucherov, Point, and Stamkos for the third period of that game, I don't mind it. I know those guys. There's a picture of the guys sitting on the bench. Kucherov has his gloves on with his arms crossed. He looks disgusted. And Kuch had a great, I mean, Koop had a great quote after. He said, 99.9% of the time, those guys give us the greatest chance to win. This

one time, I didn't think they did. And we almost came back and beat Buffalo. Buffalo's hungry, dude. They're trying to get in the playoffs. They're playing a team that's just waiting to get this thing going again. And those three guys were having an off night. So he sits him down. And it's not about punishing them. It's more about showing the entire team, I don't give a shit. If I'm going to bench these guys, where do you think the rest of you sit? So something like that pisses those guys off, probably gets them a little hungrier. I mean, they go on to lose six nothing the next day, we'll see if anything comes of that but they're proud athletes they're all star players they're gonna they're gonna bounce back and overall in the entire run that they're on

right now in terms of losing so often if I'm a lightning fan I'm not worried and and like Biz said you just can't be it's like just get us to the playoffs, and then you've got to trust what's happened here in the past could happen again, and we can't really worry about what's going on in the regular season as they already know their matchup. Damn, what? Fucking rolling today. Well, I just repeated everything you guys said, basically. No, that's cool. People like to hear you say it, too.

Speaking of superstars, we do have one come on a little later. Tage Thompson from Buffalo. We chatted with him a couple weeks ago. We got to bring him on, I don't know, another 15, 20 minutes, but we got some more shit to get to. You just mentioned Dylan Locke in Detroit. Locked him up with a nice extension. Eight years, 69.6 million.

Comes out to 8.7 AAV. No trade clause for the first five years. A modified no trade clause for the last three. And then, like you said, immediately into sell mode. They traded Philippe Ronick, the defenseman, Tyler Bertuzzi, Jacob Verana, and Oscar Sundquist, all in a 48-hour period. But they picked up a first, a second, and a fourth this summer, a conditional first and 24. It's Boston's pick that's top 10 protected, and a fourth and a seven and 25. So the ISA plan is kind getting like rewritten on the fly here a little bit,

a biz. I look at it like St. Louis. He knew exactly when to fold them and he got a great return for it all. He doesn't care about these years. He's building the core through the guys that he still has in his lineup. Dylan Larkin being one of them and fucking, we carved out that deal myself,

Pat Brisson, Stevie, why Larky? We jumped on the zoom. It was a long one. There was some heated words exchanged, the second line center on a Stanley Cup winning team really got to him

so we fucking, hey, we landed in a great spot for the organization but going back no, going back to the trades he made the only thing about the Roenick trade that surprised me was what the fuck is Vancouver doing? They are a disgrace They can't get out of their doing? They can't get out of their own

way. They can't get out of their own way. But Detroit, they just, I think those two losses to Ottawa was legit the time he's like, I'm jumping off. And that's what St. Louis did with the guys that they ended up getting rid of. But the one thing about St. Louis, what they did well is the other guys that they ended up taking over too. I mean, Kapanen scored in both games. I've been riding this kid all year, but they're giving other guys opportunity. Vrana, another one. He was set to be a stud in Washington.

They get rid of him. I thought he had a great start when he was in Detroit. Then he got hurt, and then obviously whatever happened at the beginning of the year happened, and they seemed to give up on him. So Army did a great job of unloading old assets where this wasn't going to be the answer stocked up young on on low risk things and gained all those draft picks but no i don't really have much to say about detroit in in like a negative sense of getting rid of everything i think stevie y knows what the fuck he's doing and he didn't see those guys as helping. He said after, I was never going to be a buyer. There was no shot I was going to do that.

He actually even said, if you look at Otto and Buffalo, I think they're ahead of us right now in terms of where they're at. So honesty, the Iser plan is still looking good, I think. These last few weeks have been tough and I think he realized, why am I going to go out and try to buy? It have been tough, and I think he realized, like, why am I going to go out and try to buy?

It's the same exact argument I gave to you, Biz, when I told you and you were ranting and raving about Buffalo having to do something. I'm like, no, no. The time is not now. Patience, patience. And Eisenman realized they're similar in the fact, like, why are you going to go out and buy?

I mean, if you could make little deals here and there, but why are you going to go out and try to make this big move when you know for a fact you're not winning a cup yet? It's just waiting. It's the same way Dorian said. We've got to wait. We've got to wait. And then this year he sees something.

He gets Chikrin. Buffalo and Detroit, they're not there yet, so let's at least move on. I want to make it be known, though, I wasn't saying go out and get a rental. I was saying Buffalo, maybe go get Chikrin where you got some time left with them and you know, you can get them, you can get them to stay. And that's also an area which they need to improve. I would say defense is their weakest asset, maybe other than goaltending, but they have that Levi

kid coming. And the other name I said was Vemelka, wasn't even sure if he was available because he's got two years left and at a really low number and I looked at him like a corpus allo just this young athletic goalie where it's like fucking why not and you got him for two more years so but totally agree on what you're saying uh biz you talked to hot rod the other night when you had the tnt show he finally talked to him even though we interviewed him a week before I said right before we got on I said hey just to let you know I slept last night and he goes okay good he goes you did a great job but just staying out of the way though biz and i said yep fourth liner off the glass i know buddy

that was before we ended up going on but i asked him uh what did i ask him i asked him what the i complimented him on the back end most goals by defensemen so far this year in their lineup like leading the league, and then they end up going to add Gossespierre, where one of the components they needed was they needed help on the power play. And in the two games that Gossespierre's played, he's got four points, all of which on the PP. He is a cannon, Hubbiz. Absolute cannon. And he's going to be that third pairing defenseman. So A, is he the best defensively? I would say he's going to be that third pairing defenseman. So, A, is he the best defensively? I would say he's average.

He also talked about how he had a 45-minute video session. Army brought up this point. I knew that they did it, but I didn't know that they were the only team in the league. They essentially play a man-on-man defense. So even the D-man, they have to follow their forwards all the way up top. If they're up by the blue line, even if they exit the zone, you stay with your fucking guy. Most teams are that defenseman is staying net front and he's not wandering too far outside the house. So coming from a system that doesn't do that to going to one that does, that's a hard mental adjustment.

Because every time you're in the D zone, you're mentally programmed to go to your areas. This one, it's a free-for-all. And also, talking to Rod, he said it's like you've got to trust your teammates and you've got to have the personnel to be able to do it. So it's been working for them, dude, and they spanked Tampa all over the ice. Did you watch the game, Whit? No, I didn't. I was watching the Arnold

Palmer, but Gossespierre, you said it perfect. Third pair, 14 to 16, 17 minutes, and then power play. You remember Marc-Andre Bergeron? He played for the Oilers. He played for the Oilers. He played for

Tampa. I think he was on Carolina at one point. I think Gossespierre is like a better skater, quicker, probably a better player overall, but it's similar to the fact of like power play guy with a cannon and then put him against the third and fourth lines and you can have a pretty valuable player. So good move by Carolina. I still, if I'm like a Canes diehard, a Caniac, I'm a little upset. And they are looking to prove every single pundit wrong. And Don Waddell stuck to his guns and didn't see anything out there. I know they were in on Meyer, but I don't know.

I think this team is sick. You mentioned how good they looked the other day. They've looked that good all year. They've looked that good the past few seasons. And then you get into the playoffs. The Rangers own them. I mean, if the Rangers beat the Devils and get Carolina second round, I think the Rangers will beat them again. And it's just something about the chance to, with the patch already injury, to do something. And this year being the best chance the Canes

have to win the cup. And it's now on those guys, Prove everyone wrong that said you needed another stud forward. We don't need them. We're fine. We got the chemistry. We got Brynden Moore. We got what we think we need to get to the cup. I think that they should have tried to do something. And I'm not saying they didn't try to do something, but

to see the Bruins, the Lightning, the Leafs, the Devils, and the Rangers, the top five in the East along with Carolina, that's six of them of what those teams, the other teams did. And then to have you do nothing besides Goss's spare. I mean, I guess they got Pui Harvey too. Who knows if Brynden Moore can kind of fix his game. I was a little surprised.

At least they addressed that back end in the power play. They got Slavin back. I don't know, man. After seeing that second line and the way they've been playing, it would have been hard to give up. And who knows what the ask was for Meyer if they had to go out and do a big move. Maybe it's another guy out of the lineup. Watching their full team play and how they work as a five-man unit, the way they pressure the puck in all zones. I don't know, know man i'm okay with this lineup i would consider them top three for one of my bandwagon teams too i i i really thought too um that we'd

end up you know max domi two goals beats the bruins in game seven thought he might be going back there i don't know if they looked into it dallas ends up grabbing him but i mean just just that remembering what he did in game seven of the first round, I thought that he'd end up back there. And he's been playing center most of the year on that Chicago team where I was worried about the second line center position. But I don't know, man, this team looks really good. And I agree. It's kind of like Tampa. You got to see what you get in playoffs. They might also be looking at Co cockton amy and seeing kind of something going like this uphill he had five points sunday so maybe maybe it's brindamore and waddell talking

like no i i think i think these next few weeks i think you're gonna see even better better better out of yes and we'll see what happens there yeah the market's weird like there's no consistency like one guy's getting two picks for this a guy who's worse than him gets three picks. You know what I mean? Like, usually it's kind of some sort of consistency between picks, players, and assets. It's off the wall this year. It's crazy. Do you agree?

Yeah, I mean, look at what Eisenman got for Philippe Hironik. Yeah, exactly. Like, that's just Vancouver. Yeah, a lot of head scratching. Love the world, though. The Penguins, they picked up a few guys to try a little help for the playoff push. And hopefully the playoffs as well. They grabbed Mikhail Gramlin from Nashville for a second in 23.

The 31-year-old has two more years at $5 million per. They also added Dmitry Kulikov. He's last year of a deal making two and a quarter mil. He'll be UFA. Got him from the Ducks. They sent Brock McGinn and a draft pick back to the Ducks. The Ducks are retaining 50% of the deal. And they brought back old pal

Nick Bonino. Bonino, Bonino, Bonino. Making a little over $2 million. He's going to be unrestricted after this season. It was a three-team deal with San Jose and Montreal. Of course, he won two cups with them back a few years ago. How much does this increase Pittsburgh's chances, if at all? None.

And I actually love Nick Bonino. Great guy. BU guy. What a career he's had. Granlin, that move. It's like, I actually think Granlin was textile saying, like, I have to do something. But, I mean, two more years at $5 million,

they didn't even get any salary retained on it either. That just screams to me, like, I have to make something happen here so let's go out and get this guy but i don't know older underwhelming it's just it was just to me that penguins deadline and and what can you do with the cap and the lack of prospects but it's just a blah yeah it's just underwhelming underwhelming unfortunate for how that team's looked we. I mean, they got rid of Bluger. He's in Vegas now. I actually thought with all the chirping we've done with physicality, wasn't he like relatively physical?

Our Army said he was having a tough year. Oh, really? But I will say they did address the areas in which they needed to improve. I just don't look at these guys who can move the needle for them. Kulikov's a pretty solid defenseman. I mean, hey, their D's been struggling this year. I don't think that Petrie's, he had a great start, but he's been fizzling out.

And he got hurt. Yeah, he was hurt for a little bit. Seems like everybody on their D squad's been injured at one point this year. I won't count them out because they haven't had a full healthy roster for most of the year. And Bonino was a guy who helped them win where he's a good penalty killer, good on the bottom six, but overall, very underwhelming. I think he felt pressure too. Of all the problems with the Penguins, the biggest one is that Jari can't stay healthy and they can't get any goaltending if he's not playing.

And then he seems to just be in and out with these injuries. It's like if he gets hot and those guys come in and make a difference, like I know I said blah, like they're all three NHLers. One of them's won two cups with the team. So I understand your team's better now than they were before the deadline. So that's a win in a sense. But like similar to Edmonton, you've got to get some goaltending. Could be worse.

They could be the team on the other side of the state, Philadelphia Flyers. Holy fuck. Did you see that clip? The Rangers, they played the home game. Rangers scored the goal. You would have thought it was MSG. Thousands of fans were stood up. I mean, that's wicked embarrassing, your own bond that happens in.

But fans are going nuts, man. I think they might be the angriest fans in the league. Exactly. Chuck Fletcher, worst record for a GM in team history, pretty much capped out. He ended his press conference addressing the dissatisfaction from the fan base and calls for his firing. He said, quote, the last two, three years,

there's no question we've been trying to be a competitive team. Clearly, I haven't done that. I haven't done the job. It's like, well, what the fuck are the higher-ups doing? This guy's saying I blew it, and he's still got his job. I'm not trying to get the guy canned, but clearly his track record is what it is. The fans are revolting. They want Comcast to sell. Just an

absolute clusterfuck there right now, Biz. Yeah, I feel bad for him. He was self-admittedly horrible over the last few years, and a lot of the moves he was making, I was like, oh, gee. It all started with Ellis. They got Ellis. And he was hurt the whole year.

And he's never even played. And from there, it's been just an absolute disaster. The fans seem to be most furious about them not moving Van Riemsdyk. Well, according to Elliot and Marek, I don't even think there was much of a market for him. Didn't he go over to Detroit? No. Oh that oh dude that ended up falling apart oh that was that didn't even go down i don't know what happened but i was at sports net and they announced it so maybe i never heard that then it came back and i don't know it's just like he probably didn't get

it in in time to make matters worse a A fax machine broke. Oh, Jesus. Like those qualifying offers to Versteeg and Bufflin, remember Chicago? They still won two more cups after. But yeah, Philly right now is just. That's a tough text to get on the golf course. Hey, Talon, having his postgame pops of the 19th hole. It's like, hey, we never got your qualifying offers.

What the fuck? Call the assistant up. Yeah yeah i don't know what philly does either i don't it's it's just like knowing chuck fletcher it makes me like biz said i feel i feel bad he's a he's a he's a great guy and it's just everything everything he's tried to do is kind of just backfired and there was rumblings that kevin hayes would would hope would possibly get traded i actually heard that carolina had a deal for him where philly would eat the remaining 50 on the remainder of his deal and um and the owner in carolina said no i think brindamore was down with it so i don't i don't know if that's definitely true but just the fact that the fans in Philadelphia, like a proud fan base, the Broad Street bullies,

just the way that entire team has always played and always been in contention for so long to have, it looked like it was Madison Square Garden already. Yeah, brutal. It was crazy. I also think there's a bit of comedy at the end with the fact that they traded Lemieux for McEwen where it's...

I know. And not to bash it early, but I think that they lost that trade because I think that McEwen's a pretty good fucking player. And not to say Lemieux isn't, but he hasn't been able to figure out how to produce offensively. So to make matters even worse,

that's probably at the point where the guy decided to wear the garbage bag, the CVS garbage bag over his head. I don't know if you guys saw that one online. Oh, yeah, I retweeted that because I did it for the Pro 1s years ago. That's when you know you're desperate when you wear a bag to the game. I did it right behind the bench. Mike Sullivan was coach.

Sturm, Sam Stoff, Tommy Fitz is right in front of me. Devil's GM. Why am I not shocked that you're the type of guy who would wear a garbage bag to a sporting event? Because that was the only way he could hot box himself in the arena. Yeah, a shopping bag, not a garbage bag. The brown paper shopping bag. Oh, yeah, sorry.

Like the unknown comic used to wear. Sorry. Who knows? Hey, they won a cup a few years later, so maybe it worked. But I don't even know what to say what Philly does now. It all started with you, buddy. You were the spark that they needed, R.A. Way to go.

Did you get a ring? Not yet. Maybe I'll get one this year. No, he stole one. I went to the game Saturday, though. The place was buzzing, man. It was a great time. Like I said earlier, the Bees would just dominate them.

I want to actually look up the fancy stats after to see how much the Bees dominated the puck possession that game. But good take. I might go to Detroit this week. I, go look at Newsy's team. Well, quickly, they played Kane and the Rangers. I think that the trade broke after we last recorded. It finally went through. The chemistry maybe is not there yet with Panarin.

They haven't been able to connect. And how were they live, R.A.? It looks like the first two lines for the Bruins put an absolute wet blanket on that Rangers team. Kane did nothing. I don't think he had a shot on that. Actually, here it is. Two games so far, Kane has no points, minus four, six shots on goal,

only two versus Boston. Panarin has an assist, minus five, six shots on goal. They were all versus Otto the game before. He didn't get one shot on it that day. So, I mean, yeah, obviously he's trying to get the chemistry back back but they did nothing out there man the bees were just dusting them out there so but let me ask you how long does it take for guys who hadn't been teammates for a while to get that sort of chemistry back does it take like a couple weeks couple games does it depend who it is i'll say it's not even a guarantee i'll say that maybe fans don't really know uh some of the some of the the in-depth parts

of being traded and and this is coming from a guy who like i was i was traded after a couple years pittsburgh one year and i'm i can't describe to you how tough it is going to a new team no matter who you are you then take patrick kane and you move this hall of fame legend who probably thought he'd be a Blackhawk forever, to New York, okay? It's not just the on-ice stuff. It's not the chemistry with Panarin. It's not the new power play.

It's not different forechecks. It's the off-ice things. And when I say that, I mean, all right, so you get so accustomed to, all right, I get a massage at 11.15 after pregame skate. I sit here on the bus. I'm with these guys for pregame meal. There's like, I'll say hundreds of all these aspects that are your daily routines, game days, practice days that you just get into this new locker room and you have no clue.

Where do I sit on the plane? I know this sounds like elementary school stuff, but it means a lot more than I think fans maybe understand in terms of how comfortable you are in your situation. So he has all this success, and all of a sudden, he's on a new team with all these expectations in one of the crazier markets with the dumbest fan base maybe in the league. Rangers fans, I'm taking you in the first round against the Devils, big bet. I'm taking you against Carolina in the second round, so don't come after me. But as a fan base, they're so dumb. So who knows how long it'll take them to get on him if he doesn't start scoring.

But there's all these different aspects to getting traded that you never even think about. And you think about the on-ice stuff. Well, I think about the trainer who knows where to put your gloves after you get him dried and i think people will probably say you sound like the biggest baby but it's mentally being comfortable and then going to a place you don't know what to do and when to do it you don't know the pre-game handshakes it's like all these things that just go by the wayside to the normal fan yeah no he's a good point you know what i'm saying same with junior this type of guy who's Yeah, no, he's a good point. You know what I'm saying?

Same with Junior. This type of guy who's never been moved, right? He's always been in one place. He's never, he doesn't know anything else. So you have this sensory overload of this new team in the uniforms and the jerseys and the original six in New York City, and then you're trying to figure out how to get to the practice rink and stupid shit that I'm going to say, RA, two to three weeks.

I remember getting to Edmonton, and like I said, it's nothing even close to the same. I think you bought him one more game with Rangers fans. Yeah, I got him one more game. With your little speech, you bought him one more, that's about it. But RA, it's two to three weeks to just feel normal again. And I still hold down the call that Patrick Kane's going to dominate and be a superstar this season in the playoffs.

But I understand completely what's going on in his mind and his body where you're just like, where the fuck am I right now? So maybe that doesn't make sense to people who haven't played the game, and I hate saying it like that, but there's just all these factors that you'd never think about if you'd really never been through it. Wow, good stuff. Good answer, Whitworth.

I mean, all right, think about if you don't have your fucking chair and not everything's ready, how fucking crazy you get. Yeah, if you had a different bowl that you smoked on and shit. I'll definitely start doing multiplication tables in my head with odd numbers or some fucking weird shit like that that I do. I know you mentioned the Sabres already got Jordan Greenway earlier. They got him from Minnie for a second rounder in 23 and a fifth rounder in 24. They also got defenseman Riley Stillman from the Canucks for forward prospects.

Josh Bloom, third round pick back in 21. Talking about the Sabres, boys, I think we should probably send it over to Tage Thompson. Fans have been waiting long enough, eh? Sounds good to me. Warning. This product contains nicotine. Nicotine is an addictive chemical. This interview was presented by the one and only nicotine pouch that's helped millions achieve lasting change.

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you know there's lots of options out there when it comes to nicotine satisfaction. But there's only one Zinn. Find your Zinn online or in a store near you at zinn.com forward slash find. That's z-y-N.com slash find. Superstar, Tage Thompson, here he is. Enjoy. All right, it's time to bring on our guest. This center was taken 26th overall by St. Louis at the 2016 draft. He won a gold medal with the U.S. at the 2017 World Junior Championships. After two years at the University of Connecticut, he went pro and made his NHL debut in October of 2017. He was later traded to Buffalo, where he's now in his fifth season as a

Sambit and has become a bonafide NHL sniper. Thanks so much for joining us on the Spittin' Chickens podcast. Tage Thompson, how's it going, brother? Good. Thanks for having me. Man, our pleasure. Our pleasure. So you guys, things turned around pretty quick in two weeks in a playoff spot right now, huh? Well, I didn't think you bumped out last night, but you're right nipping at the heels. Yeah, we're right there. The boys are buzzing right now. A lot of energy. The city's buzzing, too.

So, it's kind of right there. So, after, you know, the past few years have been a struggle, and not for you, but for the team, but are you noticing this rabid fan base just every game at home getting a little louder, a little crazier? It's kind of what we said before the season. we just hoped you guys would be in the mix come march is that crowd really starting to kind of turn out in a different manner throughout these last few weeks or this season overall yeah i think so i think early on there are i mean they're still there but um like i think you notice now like the rowdiness is starting to pick up you know um the energy level part of it yeah exactly

the the energy level i think they can sense that we're right there we're winning some games right now and uh yeah it's been electric in the building so i think that just gets us that much more you know jacked up to to make playoffs and um i mean i can't even imagine what the the energy level would be like in a playoff atmosphere there you got you guys got a young. Are you guys doing a lot of 4AMers on the chip strip, or are you guys trying to dial it in because you're in this playoff run? No, the boys are dialing it in. No chip wall runs. You guys run a tight ship there, but it's hard, though,

because you guys got some guys in the wall. I know Tuck likes to get after it. He loves Buffalo, so you guys got to rein him in. Yeah, I think, no, we pick and choose. Tucky's fine. We have fun, I think, no, we pick and choose. Tucky's fine. We have fun for sure. But I think right now is kind of, you know, it's the playoff push here. So we're trying to dial it in and just kind of be smart, pick our times.

So do most of your damage on the road. Speaking of Tuck, I mean, it's like when he came over last year, obviously things changed and like Eichel finally being gone was probably a weight off everyone's shoulders and a little sense of like, all right, we got some more kind of drive going forward in terms of what we know who's going to be here and who wants to be here. But you guys connected right away. I mean, I think of the game in Columbus this year, your five-goal game, it just seems like you two right off the bat kind of had a special connection, no?

Yeah, I think so. I think it was one of those things where it's just kind of natural chemistry um i felt like i've always had that that chemistry the last couple years with with skinny um playing with him he thinks the game so differently and then just adding tuck i think just adds so much um you know to our line i think it gives us so much more time and space he's so big and fast that it just opens a lot more up for us um you know when we're in the offensive zone we just that it just opens a lot more up for us um you know when we're in the offensive zone we just feel like we have a lot more time with it since we're already on the hockey talk like last year something obviously clicked what was it that clicked for you because

all of a sudden it's just like you you're all you're probably a top 10 player in the league now what was it was a coach's confidence ice time um mates there's there's probably not one thing in particular, but I think it's a collection of things. That opportunity from Donnie, I think that's kind of the first time I've really been given a shot to show that I could produce and be put in a situation to score at the NHL level. And then I think it's just kind of been an accumulation of the work that I put in over, you know, the long period of time in the, in the pro career and even leading up to that. But, um, you know, once you get that opportunity and you get some confidence going and then it just kind of snowballs from there.

I also find you're scoring a lot of your goals from that weak side around the dot area. Are you, are you starting to coin that area much like Ovechkin coins that the top of the circle? I don't know. I like being over there. I feel like I can get lost a little bit on that side of the ice. I just feel like that's kind of a comfortable spot for me to shoot from. I feel like when I'm getting the puck on and off my stick quickest, that's usually when I'm having the best success.

For me to kind of get lost in that area and get a one-timer off is something I'm always looking for. All right. You made a weird face when I said that. Ovi, I mean, you got to start at some point, right? You got Gretzky behind the net in his office. You got Ovi at the top of the circle. This guy on the dot.

I like that. I've noticed about like half your goals seem to be scored from that area. He's going to be selling t-shirts with a copyright on that area. Well, that's where I'm trying to get. Well, he's the fashion guy. I think maybe we could do maybe a clothes collab because I noticed that Sarah Sivian's always got the top 10 list with most fashionable players, and you're usually hitting it. So who's helping dress you?

I don't know. Probably the Euros. Just try to copy them. You don't have Darlene's suit, guy, do you? You probably have no money from that contract left over. I'm sure you guys heard that story, so I don't want to be spending that much on suits. James, we like to go back to the beginning.

Guys come on the show, and your dad played in the NHL, played pro for quite a while. You had kind of like a nomadic upbringing. You kind of bounced around all over the country a little bit, huh? Yeah, yeah. I mean, I feel like every couple years we were picking up and moving, but that's just something I think, you know, that's helped me with the pro lifestyle is you just got to be able to pick up

and go whenever. I think, you know, he played 15 years and now he's into coaching. So the picking up and moving was something that's just kind of been second nature to me. So for people who don't know your dad, Brent, I played against him the lockout year. I think he was in Providence probably, but when we talk about players being like their dad,

I'm going to say you're nothing like him. The guy was a straight-up killer. No offense to you, but constantly over 250, 300 pims. Was he kind of always almost against you fighting and being that type of player? What was it like? I mean, in terms of being raised by a guy who was a straight up killer as he played? Yeah, no, it was great. I mean, I think obviously he knew that my brother and him were not much like him in terms of playing style. I think obviously we're both forwards too. And I think from a young age, he saw that we were both had an act for scoring goals and we're pretty skilled

and it's not, not our game fighting or whatever, but I think it's always something that he's tried to help us with and try to add to our game. I think, you know, fighting is not really as prominent as it was back in the day, but I think it's still useful and something you need to be able to do.

So something I'm trying to work on with him. I just don have that killer instinct that he he does he's got some screws loose in the head so I don't think I have that. R.A. mentioned going back to the beginning and what's cool about you as a player at least from what I've followed is it's truly been kind of a marathon not a sprint for you and I'm just wondering as you were little talking like 13 14 years old even before you went to the national program, were you always this tall? Did it take you a while to grow into your body? Because, I mean, I know you were a first-round pick, but even on the national team, it didn't seem like you were

one of the top-end players at 17, 18. Is that how you felt, or was it more that you weren't even getting the chances then that you are now? No, I think you're right on that. I think going into the program, that was something brand new for me um yeah i went in the obviously the second year so um they'd already been together for a while and um before that i wasn't i wasn't always the biggest guy actually i was i mean i was pretty tall but not not like always the tallest guy where i just towered over everyone growing up really i was always just like kind of middle of the pack height and super skinny um so growing up like just playing hockey i was always like one

of those little skill finesse guys and um that's when i went to the program i was the year i grew like four inches in one year i went into the program i think like one 160 61 and i left it at like 185 64 65 oh that whole year was just kind of uh it must have been hard for sure like going to play with the best in the world at your age and i'm growing like it felt like couldn't stop growing so i get comfortable in my body for a couple weeks and then hit another growth spurt and then get comfortable feeling super awkward feel like Bambi on ice and it was a weird year for sure. Some of these skills and these tools that we're seeing you on the ice with now like how much did you siphon from that group because you look at that list of players on that team you got Matthews, Roslevic, Kachuk, Fisher, McAvoy like these are half the team's bona fide NHLers yeah our team was stacked

um I think that's something that helped my game for sure too like going there and just practicing and playing against them every day like in practice you're competing against these guys and look at the half our team is you know just disgusting players in the NHL right now and um I think that's just going to make you a better player. And I think that's something that was huge for me, like, especially the year before I was just playing U16 travel hockey. So that was a big year for me. Where were you the year before you went to Ann Arbor? I was in Long Island. My dad was the assistant coach there and I was playing the U16, just a junior Islanders, US usphl like a regular u16 travel so didn't even really

have the opportunity or the invitation to play for the under 17 team like no i didn't get invited i you know how they have the national camps you get like selected out of new york state or whatever yeah i didn't even yeah i didn't even go to that so oh shit yeah i was actually when when donnie saw me there at the national camp i wasn't even supposed to be there i was uh i was like an extra and someone got hurt and couldn't go so they asked if i'd still be interested in going so i was like the last guy in and uh they didn't even have my number or name on the roster so like donnie was there watching he's like who is this kid doesn't even he's not even on the roster how How did you settle on UConn, decide to go to school there?

Yeah, so I knew I wanted to play college hockey. My dad was kind of, I wouldn't say against me going major, junior, but I think we kind of all knew I was one of those guys that was going to need some more time to develop and just get stronger and bigger. And I think college was probably the best route for me. And then I wanted to stay hockey east. So I toured most to stay hockey east so i

toured most of the hockey schools um and then uconn was actually like the last one to to like offer me a tour so i was like uh i don't really know much about them kind of just gave him a courtesy i'll go on the tour and just got to the campus fell in love with the campus um fell in love with the coaching staff and i think the biggest thing for me, why I went there, is just because it was going to be my draft year that year, and I wanted to go somewhere where I was going to play a ton and get a big opportunity to kind of show what I do, especially leaving the program, not really being able to showcase

what I could do there, kind of being lower on the totem pole in terms of skill and guys there. I wanted to show that I could play and kind of go somewhere where I wasn't going to have to play third, fourth line and not be able to showcase stuff. And the head coach there, Mike Cavanaugh, he was a longtime assistant at Boston College when I played at BU. And I know your agent, Jerry Buckley, his brother who's now at BC,

Brendan, he was the assistant coach at yukon so i'm guessing that maybe had something to do with it were you already signed on with with jerry buckley as your financial advisor at that point yeah i actually had brendan at the time and then brendan got the job at yukon so i switched over to jerry oh no shit yeah so it kind of worked out like that but yeah that's kind of a big reason too just the uh the comfortability of you know i knew who was there in terms of coaching staff felt comfortable with cavanaugh and um just felt like it was going to be a good fit for me so tage when you decided to go pro is that more of a st louis kind of pushing you toward that or was it strictly your decision how did that play out yeah i think it was i think

it was more st louis i think they came to me and uh towards the end of the year um end of my sophomore year they said hey we're we're gonna pull you out if you're comfortable with that and i mean i was excited for it i think looking back i probably could have used another year of college um definitely wouldn't have hurt um but i think just the excitement of you know being able to try to turn pro and make your nhl dream come true i think was too exciting for me to turn down. Money's not too shabby either. You're just there for kind of one year and then like, did you have any idea you were going to be traded? Obviously, you end up being the biggest part of that move and it definitely worked out for

St. Louis with O'Reilly, but were you excited? Were you nervous? Did you hear rumblings leading up to the trade? Kind of how did that first pro trade come about for you? No, it was crazy. I didn't see it coming at all, actually. I had just finished playing in the World Championships that summer, and I think Mike Yeo was there. There was a few other guys from St. Louis' staff that were there, and they basically told me,

hey, we've got some big plans for you next year. You're going to get some opportunity. i'm excited like be ready basically so i finished that world championships exciting going back in like hey i'm going back into st louis i'm gonna get a shot here and um got a missed call from doug armstrong i was like oh this is kind of weird and um just basically told me hey um we had an opportunity to get Ryan O'Reilly. We took it. And, uh, you're kind of, you're one of the pieces in that trade. So you're going to Buffalo and it was that, so kind of a shock. And it was like, what's going on here. I didn't really expect that, but so many emotions going on, right? Like kind of sad, disappointed.

I thought I was going to be in st louis for a long time and be a big piece there but then at the same time you're excited you're going to get a new opportunity fresh start so kind of one of those things where it's kind of um you know a little bittersweet did you shrug it off pretty quick or was it something that maybe lingered a little bit where you maybe there was some self-doubt that crept in i think it was one of those things i tried to shrug off pretty quick but it was one of those things i tried to shrug off pretty quick but it was kind of tough too you know there's so much outside talk and um especially the following year he goes and wins a cup there and um you know gets mvp so it's like you try to

block out that stuff but you can't really like it's it's everywhere you look so you just try to focus on the things you can control and um for me i was just kind of showing up each day trying to get better i knew there was a lot of talk from the fan base on you know where i was at in my development is this gonna trade you in a pan out or whatever but um i i had confidence that it was and that it was gonna just take a little bit of time and um like i said just focus on things that i can control and let the chips fall where they may. That's so difficult though. Cause I look back and how maybe I would have wanted to handle things differently and change my mindset in the moment. Um, were there any veterans or leaders or any people that you could lean on during that time when maybe those thoughts kept lingering in?

We've had Nathan McKinnon on, he talked about, uh, working with a sports psychologist to help his game. I mean, obviously you had your father, I'm sure, to lean on. Who are the people and influences your life where you were able to finally break through and lean on? Yeah, I think the biggest one was my dad. Obviously, he played for a long time and he went through it. I think it's just kind of him reaffirming like, hey, you're a good player. It's going to work out for you. Just keep putting in the work. Things will change and you're going to get an opportunity and just make sure you're ready for it. So that was kind of one of those things where I tried not to focus too hard on where I was in the lineup or whether I was in the lineup or not, just try to go to the rink every day,

put my head down, do my work and get better. And then when the opportunity arrived, then I knew I was going to be ready for it. And that's kind's kind of I think where where Donnie takes over and gives me that shot and now things are going the way they are well that's funny because you knew Donnie way back I guess but but you know you get to Buffalo it's Phil Howes that I believe and then Ralph Pruger comes in I love Ralph as a guy I don't know you know how you guys got along or anything but now Donnie's here it must have been difficult not only with what was going on in Buffalo and losing games but all you know having different coaches that must have been somewhat of a struggle and probably a relief now to have a guy there who's there who's been there and you have a system kind of cemented in place right for sure and I think

that was a big thing too is like those seasons I didn't have anyone who really knew my game like I hadn't really been able to show what kind of player I was to these coaches and um and then I feel like they'd get a little bit of an idea of what kind of player I was and then they were gone the next year and then I'd have to kind of prove myself or show them who I was all over again so it was nice when Donnie came in that we already had that familiarity from the program where he knew what kind of player I was he knew the potential that I had and um he had that belief belief in me from a young age when I was back there. So to get him to take over, I think I probably wouldn't have gotten the opportunity I did had I had a different coach. So I think a lot of that credit goes to Donnie for giving me that opportunity and that trust. So

I think that was definitely a tough thing. Trying to show yourself to a new coach every year is not fun. Is that how you address them? You call them, hey, Donnie. Is that what you say to them? You call them coach? How do the boys call them in the locker room? You call them Donnie Meatballs in the locker room? No, that's his nickname.

It's been gaining some traction. I just call him Donnie. Hey, Meatball, am I going here? Am I playing PP1? Am I going? Give me all the ice, Meatballs. Come on, Meatball. Another t-shirt biz. Am I going here? Am I playing PP1? Am I going? Give me all the ice, Meatballs. Come on, Meatball. Wake the fuck up.

What are you doing back there? Hey, he seems like a player's coach. I think the biggest thing that tucked stress was how he doesn't harp on you guys when you try to make plays at the line, and let's say it were to get turned over. There are obviously some lessons to be learned, maybe with game management and puck management at certain times but did you did you feel like the leash was very long for all you skill guys and being able to just kind of freelance and play the way that you guys want to play for sure he coaches the same way he did at the program um very like high flying offense if you're gonna make a mistake at least make it hard um track hard as long as you're you're

trying um you know on the defensive side of things and you're you're working hard he doesn't really care what you do he wants you to use your skill and that long leash was something that a lot of our guys weren't really used to so um i think that's kind of why you see a lot of the skill coming back out like guys like jeff skinner like you know he has two seasons where he's not putting up the goals he's used to and then you know donnie takes over again and he has two seasons where he's not putting up the goals he's used to, and then Donnie takes over again and he's playing the game he's capable of playing. I think you see that with a lot of our young guys. They're just letting us play, and if you make mistakes and turn it over,

it's all right, learn from it, but I think that long leash is good. Obviously, you've got to be a little smart with the puck, especially where we're at now in the season uh these are some critical points but i think we've got a good mix of some older guys like oki that kind of rein us back in a little bit here when we we get a little bit you know too careless um so it's a pretty good balance that we got right now does donnie uh donnie meatballs ever have a snap show in the locker room he seems like he's pretty he's pretty calm. He's pretty chill.

We don't really have anyone that snaps. I think Oki's kind of the bad guy, I guess, if you will, that has to yell. But he even doesn't really do it too much. I think we got a pretty positive group all around, and I think we do a pretty good job of self-reflection. We know when we're not playing the way we need to, and I think the guys take it to heart, and we're pretty good at turning it around. So we don't really have anyone that snaps.

The first couple of years when you had that coaching carousel, does that start to take a toll on the team in the locker room when it's just that much turnover and you can't really get any stability? Yeah, I think so. It's tough. Just getting that familiarity, I think, is so crucial. I mean, even coming into this season, you know, we had Donnie for, you know, the last half of the last season or whatever, and, um, our full season last year and then the last half of the season before.

And, um, coming into this season training camp, you just, you already know what to expect. I mean, before that we had no idea what to expect for training camp with the practices were going to be like, like anything with the system, learning new systems. So it just makes you think less on the ice. You just can go and play your game. So I think it's nice just not having that constant rotation. Do you think that Donnie Meatballs looks a little bit like the teacher

from South Park, Mr. Mackey? I do, yeah. You guys ever joke around? I haven't thought of that before, but I think he does every time after he says like stuff pre-game you guys could just follow up with them okay maybe make that no like a t-shirt maybe hey if you sign off on it buddy if you'll promote it maybe we'll get you on a big deal brewing sponsorship too with you and buffalo all those mutants in the crowd drinking those draft beers. What do they call them? Crack beers in Boston, Whit?

Well, yeah, any draft beer. It's just I don't know if the pipes get cleaned. All of a sudden you have three of them, and it's like having ten. You're waffled. And Buffalo people have ten before the game anyways, so it doesn't really matter. When you first got to Buffalo, did you have any buddies in the locker room? Was it mostly strangers in there? Yeah, I don't think I knew anybody besides, obviously I got traded with Bergla and Saboka,

so I knew them a little bit coming in. But I think we had, Dahls came in the same year I was, and Mitzi were probably the two closest guys that I hung out with my first couple years. I actually lived with both of them my first year, so those were kind of the guys I hung out with the first couple years. I think by the time you went to the program for under 18 you'd been you'd been at nine different schools so like i mean i know you probably got used to it i know at a certain point you probably

got used to it but they're like did it fuck you up at a younger age to be moving around that much no not really i mean i think i was so used it. I didn't really know anything any different. You know, I, I think the longest place I stayed was Illinois for four years, maybe. I feel like every two or three years we were moving. So that's really all I knew. And I had my brother who's like a year and a half apart from me. So we're, we're pretty close. And, um, I think every time you move to, like we had a new, new hockey team we're going to, so you automatically have 20 new friends. So, like, it wasn't really an issue, you know. But I enjoyed it, honestly, getting to experience new cities

and, you know, make new friends that I kind of still keep in touch with here. So I think it was good for me. You guys got that pedigree. Your brother, Tice, who's a New Jersey Devils prospect as well. Yeah. I was talking to somebody who mentioned that, you know, and you just told us, right? You had the growth spurt at USA. Then you have the early trade in pro.

And then finally, you're lighting up the AHL in 1920. You get called up. And I think you blew out your shoulder. Was it one of the first games? I had to get called. Oh, my God. So take me through. First game I call up up so take me through

like are you just it was it was it a fluke hit was it something but there had to be some some frustration and self-doubt all of a sudden you're like oh my god now i gotta go through surgery and rehab like how did that injury hell happen yeah so i had finished the season um i think it was my first season i finished up in rochester i made a little playoff push, got bounced in the first round by the Marlies. And then the next season I started in Roche. They told me I was going down to Roche and I was confident in my game, was playing good hockey. I'd finished up playing the year before in Roche, felt like my game was good. Started off hot in Roche. We had a three and three. I think it was with Utica. We had a three and three i think it was with utica we had a three

and three and we're driving back and they're like hey you got the call up you're going to play in chicago so i was playing a four and four oh i flew to chicago played i don't know how much ice time i was maybe nine minutes and then i didn't touch the ice for almost the whole third and then i got the graveyard shift that's what it happened two minutes left in the game or something i just chipped a puck in harmless rub out olimata rubbing me out in the corner my arm gets stuck like above my head rubs it out pops out and i knew right then i was like i just messed up bad like probably should have just changed and not gone in on the four check but like i'm trying to get an extra minute here though that's what you call that minutes and that graveyard shift got got surgery and well actually we tried to rehab it for like

i think two months and it wasn't doing it wasn't doing any better um so we just went ahead and did the surgery but yeah that was tough you're feeling confident about your game. You just get the call-up, and then you get the season-ending injuries. It's not an easy one to hear, so that sucked. But honestly, if I look back at it, it was kind of a blessing in disguise because I was still so skinny and weak,

and that gave me such a big opportunity. All I did was work out every single day legs with our strength guys in Buffalo so I got big I put on like a ton of weight I was 225 felt super strong so um that actually gave me a ton of confidence just you know getting that mass and that size that I probably needed but yeah that was a tough injury for sure it's funny because you say like at the time probably the lowest moment of your career like i'm lighting up the hl and then you look back and in the end maybe it wasn't a bad thing it's funny how things work out like that yeah yeah little little show though doesn't hurt either oh come on yeah i i uh i had carter hutton here and he was

always like telling me he's like you're following the right footsteps, just fake injuries and click. He's a funny guy. Just throwing him under the bus. He's always true. He's a great guy. But yeah, that was funny. You seem like a modest guy who wouldn't go crazy on the spending, but after getting your big ticket,

was there something that you treated yourself with? I mean, I'm sure the suit budget went up where you could hire doleen's guy but what did you get did you go get a car or yeah i went and got a truck i got the uh the trx perfect country tunes in there absolutely yeah who's your guy um i honestly i'm more like 80s 90s i like george straight like kind of old school country um so that's kind of what I rock too. That seems like a Brent Thompson special, just growing up on that stuff. Yeah, that's that and classic rock. Ah, there we go. Now you're talking.

Yeah. We talked to your teammate, Rasmus Dahliendau at the All-Star game. He seems like a pretty charismatic guy. Is he one of the bigger personalities in the locker room? Yeah, I think so. I think he's definitely broken out of his shell a lot since like the first two years and it could have been a language barrier thing too um but yeah he's he's a great guy he's always energetic in the locker room i'm always cracking jokes chirping guys so i think it's it's not just like one or two guys i think we have pretty much everyone who's pretty good at giving it out and taking it so um it's it's a fun locker room man it's it's a lot of fun to be a part of and um i think you just see so many different personalities that blend

so well together he said that you were the core jester yeah yeah he said that you're the one leading the ring i said you're chirping you're chirping non-stop i just try to try to give it back i i think if i'm being honest i think jeff's probably the biggest pot stir in the locker room he probably starts the most stuff um but i like to join in on it for sure he's got this internet content series that just came out what's the name of it between two stalls yeah this is a little spin-off of between two ferns with zach alphanakis yeah when are you on it you haven't been on it yet right yeah i was on it oh were you okay i must have missed that one i think i saw somebody else a couple days ago but he's rattling them off now

i think he's got like three or four other guys that have been on it so uh they're good he's he does all of his own like he writes all the jokes he comes up with all the materials so it's it's pretty good stuff have you ever talked with him about um you know you mentioned the two years where he struggled and you know everyone's bringing up the contract and you just as a former player i feel for guys going through that has he ever talked to you about the low moments and and what was going on and how much better it is now with how he's playing uh we we haven't really talked about it um yeah since since it's happened but i think we kind of went through it together. Those two years that were tough for him,

that was kind of two of the years where I was still trying to find my way to, and we were doing a couple healthy scratch skates together, and I had all this confidence wasn't where it probably should have been. I think that was the biggest thing was just the opportunity again. You take a guy like that who's used to scoring 30 every year

and put him on the fourth line, no power play time, they're not going to score. So getting that opportunity again from Donnie, I think he scores a couple and then the confidence comes back. It's good to see. I love playing with that guy, so it's been a lot of fun. When we were talking to Darlene, we talked about how close the group was. Of course, so many young guys.

You guys are going out to dinner like 15 guys deep. But in order to truly change the culture and turn your guys' selves into a winning team, potentially Stanley Cup team, who's the guy really driving the work ethic, like in the gym after practice every day, getting on the ice 30 minutes early? Like who's like – because you talk to McKinnon, you could tell he's type A like that. You see Sid very similar like that, where he's the first guy in line of practice. Who are the guys really driving this team and to head it in the right direction?

Yeah, I think the first guy you look at is probably Oki. I think just a true professional guy does the right things every single day. And then I think if you look at a young guy you see dolls and he's always the first one on the ice he's always looking to get better I mean the guy's probably one of the most skilled guys I've ever seen in my life one of the best defensemen in the world and he's out there 30 minutes before practice working on things doing video every day he's just got that hunger to get better and I think that's what makes him so good is how competitive he is he's not comfortable or satisfied with with where he's at he always wants to get better and I think

for young guys to see that um just him leading by example he's not a guy that really talks a lot or says things he just kind of leads by example and goes about his business and I think all the young guys see that and say well if this first overall pick is doing this, then that's something I should be doing. So I think that's kind of someone that a lot of our guys look towards. Do you keep track of the league on a daily basis, like a fan of the league? I know some guys don't pay much attention. What about you? I wasn't prior to after break, and now that we're so close,

I've been watching a lot more. I honestly, during the season i don't really watch too much hockey um but i have recently just kind of see where other teams are at what they're doing um but before that i try to get a little break from hockey you know when you're when you're at home i i don't really i'm a big movie guy i love watching movies tv show here we go you and ra i'll be going another 30 minutes should we log off wit i'll see you later what do you what are you watching? What gets you going these days?

Yellowstone, you big guy. I was into Yellowstone for a little bit, yeah. But I'm more of a movie guy. I could watch the same movie over and over again. Just chilling on the couch, putting on a movie for a couple hours and just chilling. What's in your rotation like Shawshank? Which one are you going over and over all the time? All three hangovers and Step Brothers on repeat.

I think for like thrillers like Shutter Island. I love that one. With Leo? Primal Fear. Is Shutter Island with Leo? Yeah. Buddy, that was the worst movie I ever saw. I never even finished it.

That's one of the worst takes I've ever heard. I feel like it was a complete rip off of the you're alone on that one what did shutter island come out before the other one where it was the dream within the dream within the dream the inception yeah i think shutter island came out first yeah oh did it i thought that i thought shutter island was an absolute shutter island buddy it was a wasn't it a dream within a dream? No. Kind of? No? Maybe I'm off base?

You got to go back and watch Shutter Island. You got to watch Shutter Island. I'll give it a chance because of you, buddy, but that's about it. What do you make a Leo date in these young girls? No, Tay, we're getting off topic now. We've talked enough hockey. What do you make a Leo date in all these 21-year-olds? I don't know, man.

I would say good for him, but now it's getting a little weird. That's a good middle-of-the-road take. Hey, I like the off-topic stuff. So what other things besides movies are you into? What takes your focus off of hockey? What are your hobbies? Yeah, over in the summer, what do you get into? Oh, golf in the summer as much as I can.

Right now, there's not much to do in Buffalo on an off day, so I used to be a big Xbox guy I used to play video games with the guys but um I got a kid now so that's uh cuts into the time a little bit so I haven't touched a video game in over a year but um I don't know I play guitar a little bit I'm terrible at it but something to kill the time go grab it let's play a little tune for the Buffalo fans. No, seriously. Hey, I'll sing because me and Hank have a band together. Yeah, he's used to Lundqvist strumming them, though.

It's not exactly going to be the same. I bet you that's a little better than me. I can play like a few chords. That's it. That's it. That's all we need. That's all we need. Go grab it.

Come on, man. The fucking Buffalo fans will be stroking themselves off to hear you play. They're going to think it's John Mayer. I don't want that. Okay. All right. I don't want that. Okay. All right. I don't want that. Did you see On Top Gun Maverick?

I did. Yeah, it was a good one. Which thing? Yeah, it was better than the first one. I thought so, too, actually. I actually went out for an extra in Shutter Island, but I didn't make the call. I didn't make the call.

Oh, R.A. R.A. is a famous actor. I don't know if he was in the town. Did you actually get offered to go on Shutter Island, but I didn't make the call. I didn't make the call. Oh, R.A. R.A. is a famous actor. I don't know if he was in the town. Did you actually get offered to go on Shutter Island? Yeah, yeah. They filmed it local. Is that when you didn't fit into the costume or something? Yep, yep.

Martin Scorsese, so particular about the costumes. It didn't matter what the person looked like. They didn't have a 16 and a half to fit me, so they picked somebody else strictly because the collar was a little bit big on me. It didn't matter what you looked like, how tall you were. That's how particular he was. One of the guys fit better, so I got gassed.

That was like the day you blew out your shoulder was the day R.A. got gassed for having too big of a neck. You guys are very similar in that. Oh, just about Buffalo because I look up and down the roster and so many young studs coming in. Quinn looks good right now but then Cousins he's the one guy then you see him sign the deal probably see some truly great things in his future huh almost like he's gonna be keep getting better and better 100% yeah

Cousy I mean 22 20 is a great player but you talk about Cousy like I think that we stole him for for that number like this guy's he's a stud like he's gonna he's gonna be a player i mean he already is like look at the numbers he's putting up some unbelievable numbers he's already got 23 goals or 24 goals and um as second year so he's he's a good player and he's got that bite to his game too like he's a playoff hockey player yeah he's got a little meanness to him yeah he does did you go back up to to Kevin Adams' office after you signed yours, like maybe a couple months after and say, hey, maybe we could renegotiate that one?

NFL style. Do a redo? Do a mulligan? No, I didn't. The old breakfast ball? First big cards. Come on, Kev. It worked out.

Glad I signed it when I did. Yeah. Oh, man. Guy that's just it when I did. Yeah. Oh, man. Guy that's just happy to be there. Yeah. Do you have any questions for us? Why didn't I get the invite to the, what's the golf tourney you guys do?

Oh. Hey, that's on Oki. You're talking about him as your leader. He picked Molson. Do you guys do that in Scottsdale? We just did one. It was the worst experience of our lives. Anytime, anywhere, anyplace, buddy. Anytime, anywhere, anyplace. We just did Fiala. Who would you take? lives. Any time, anywhere, any place, buddy. Any time, anywhere, any place.

We just did Fiala. Who would you take? Yeah, who would be your guy? Middle Step. Oh, shit. Okay. All right. So you're in Scottsdale all summer?

For most of it. Well, just outside. I'm in Peoria. So a little bit west. But yeah, I'm there for basically the whole summer. You train with like Matthews and stuff? Skate with him, yeah. I work out at XO's. my brother and a couple other guys um i don't really know what matthews does for

workouts there but um we got a pretty good skate there a lot of good guys so it's been good the exos on rose garden and that's where i used to train i should get back in the gym with you boys maybe you got a spot in the lineup for me maybe i can get a deal with all that money they saved on you the sick spot oh there's some absolute mut Maybe I can get a deal with all that money they saved on you. A sick spot. There's some absolute mutants there. Some of these football guys. What do you make to everybody comparing you to the next Mario Lemieux? Did you hear all those headlines?

Witt was doing it. I think that tweet has 20,000 likes, by the way. Someone put a highlight clip of you, and I think the best one is the between the legs off the wall where you didn't even score at the end of the rush. But, yeah getting called like mario jr that's got to be a little nice though uh yeah i mean it definitely feels nice but i don't know i don't know if i like it unless i have eight seasons of 200 plus points a season and a couple stanley cups i don't think all right fair enough we'll wait till next year to really

drop the bomb in the new t-shirt. Well, actually, that brings me to a decent question, in my mind, is that everyone I've talked to has told me, like, you're super driven, super professional, team first guy. Have you given yourself any thought about 100 points this year? I mean, you got 24 games, you're 21 points away. It's been a truly rise to superstardom this year I mean you got 24 games you're 21 points away it's like it's been a truly like rise to superstardom this year have you thought about that or is it all about playoffs and team uh it's both I mean I think first first and foremost I want to win I think everyone on our team wants to win and make playoffs and get a good push there but it is something that's come up like I don't think obviously I've never even been remotely close to that so um to be able to

kind of have a chance at it is something that I'm hungry for and something I would love to achieve. Love that. All right. Well, you guys want to wrap it? Yeah, no, we appreciate it, buddy. We now have a sandbagger with two Americans, Biz, Middlestat and Tage Thompson coming to you this summer.

I would love that. It's unfortunate we're going to have to pound you, but we're looking forward to Buffalo getting in. I think you guys have games in hand. It's unfortunate we're going to have to pound you, but we're looking forward to Buffalo getting in. I think you guys have games in hand. It's a really fun team to watch. We've all hoped that you guys are the team to get in. So thanks for joining the show, and congrats on all the success because it does look like you've been through a lot,

and even being a first-round pick, there's been some highs and lows. So it's cool to see what's happened now. So congrats. Yeah, thank you. Appreciate it. Thanks for having me on. Absolutely. Good luck the rest of the year, Thank you. Attention, Massachusetts residents. That's anyone from Massachusetts listening. The Barstool Sportsbook will be live Friday, March 10th. That's right. Time to get in on the action.

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Get set before you bet. Talk to Game Sense first. Live chat at gamesensema.com or call 1-800-GAM-1234. Huge thanks to Tate Thompson for jumping on us. Awesome interview we did a couple weeks ago. Nice kid, man.

What a fucking trajectory Hub has. Eight goals up to 38, tearing it up this year. Love to watch these superstars. I regret not asking him what he took in college. Did we ask him

what his subjects were? I don't think so. No. You always look back on the interview regretting you didn't ask one thing. I wish we would ask him more about college. Did we ask him what his subjects were? I don't think so. You always look back on the interview regretting you didn't ask one thing. I wish we would ask them more about college. I look back on interviews and regret like 10 things every time.

Open my fucking mouth. Biz, your boys made a couple additions. Kyle Dubas, they got to win at least a round to save his job. He doesn't have a deal next year. He didn't really trade too many draft picks earlier, but he sent Rasmus Sandin down to the Capitals in exchange for Eric Gustafson. A little bit cheaper.

Pick was involved also. And he got Luke Shen from Vancouver. He's making $850,000. He's going to be UFA. Back to Toronto, where he was selected first-round pick back in 2008. Ryan O'Reilly, he's going to be out for a bit. He took a puck off the hand, broke a finger. He's going to be out for a bit He took a puck off the hand broke a finger He's going to be out on LTI for a bit

But what about those two moves Well at least it's a finger Because you can stay in shape you can ride the bike You can skate like that's the biggest thing Right keeping your conditioning Fuck I mean If it was playoffs he'd probably be playing with it Like Caudry right you get the thing shot up

And you go so thank god it's nothing like too too serious I think we can all agree they got tougher and looking at their first round opponent they got a pretty tough team they got a really strong bottom six they got some D-men that can throw the weight around so

a lot of moves so sometimes with all these new faces in the lineup it could take some adjusting you mentioned just like Kane very similar where like holy fuck there's a lot of moves. So sometimes with all these new faces in the lineup, it could take some adjusting. You mentioned just like Kane, very similar. We're like, holy fuck, there's a lot of new guys in and out. I like that McCabe, another tough presence, obviously Luke Shen. It would have been nice if they could have gone out and got an Ekholm. I think that that would have helped me be a little bit more confident about the goaltending. I'm gonna I'm gonna trust that he's made the right call on goaltending but overall uh top to bottom I think a great job by Dubas to get who he got at the at the deadline and I think looking at

the way Tampa's playing right now I'm very confident about the first round um and and overall that's all I can say that's all I can say about the Leafs right now. I'm happy with the moves. The one thing that does concern me and it seems like Lilgren surpassed Sandin from an overall play perspective where with like even with the puck handling ability, the way he's able to work on the offense and how they have that five-man offense where the D will swoop in and be a part of it. Sandin wasn't getting the reps that I think that he wanted. From my understanding, there might've been a little bit of negativity surrounding that, where he's the type of guy that likes to bark about it, where it's, hey, you know, it's kind of like, you want to be a little bit more positive and not barking,

where maybe he just wasn't good enough to fucking get those minutes. They move on from that where they're not going to need that, obviously, for what he was doing for the lineup. They valued that toughness, that McCabe, the more solid, harder to play in front of the net. So my only concern would be sometimes that does fuck things up. I talked about how they like to move around in the offensive zone. Army describes it as ticky tack hockey where they get the, the uptop cycles going.

Well, fuck man. All of a sudden, if you put these D man that just usually show up to the blue line and they get it and it's like, dump it right back around where that's easy to read throughout the, you know, the process of a whole game.

Yeah. That could fuck things up for everything else. So they got 20 games to figure that out and, and, and, and, and figure out how that whole fucking cycle works. And I I'm, I'm still very confident. Do you agree with what I'm talking about? Sometimes you put a little bit more of those meat and potato style defensemen in the lineup where all of a sudden in the offensive zone, the way they work, it's not as easy because a lot of their offense comes through getting the D involved.

Yeah, I just think a team like that needs guys who can make good first passes. I like Toronto's team. I really do. I just don't know if the Demons are just going to be too much again this year. I also don't know. Matthews is still. I mean, he'd be on pace for over 40, but he doesn't necessarily look like Matthews of last year. And he's kind of been battling injuries on and off, you know, come playoff time. That's hard to kind of go into it if he hasn't really been healthy at all this season and he's still

this good, but they got better, right? Dubas did a good job. Everyone wanted to do things. They did it. And I do like McCabe's game a lot lot but i i as i've said a million times like win a round i can't even talk are you happy with dubas's moves yeah i am i am i think he went out and and did as much as he could um that's definitely an upgrade on d when they got rid of sandin so gustafson moves it better i think sandy could actually Be as good as Gustafson if not better In a few years but right now he's not You gotta hope that he turns into Quinn Hughes He's just

He has to provide offense to it Like an astronomical level To put up with how weak he is defensively He gets pushed around too much He's so small Did I see a stat Quinn Hughes is the fastest defenseman Or maybe American defenseman to 200 assists or something like that?

Any defenseman ever is what I saw. Holy shit. Fucking crazy, man. Absolutely bananas. How do you have three kids that good at hockey? It's fucking crazy. It's crazy, dude. Genetics.

It's such a luck thing, man. Yep. Fucking. My brother can skate like the wind, me. I couldn't fucking Stand up on skates It's just fucking Oh I know we saw Yeah we've seen

Yeah We saw the public skate At the Winter Classic Alright Those who can't skate Talk about skating Those who can't skate Play basketball

So you got that going for you So Those who can't skate Or play basketball Smoke pot and watch movies On the couch A couple A couple more moves

To get to Dallas picked up Max Domi from Chicago Making three million This year Is going to be unrestricted He don't play basketball. Smoke pot and watch movies on the couch. A couple more moves to get to. Dallas picked up Max Domi from Chicago. Making $3 million this year. He's going to be unrestricted. They got Domi in a minor league goal. He got to Dallas. Dallas sent a second-round pick in 25.

And Darby Anton Hudobin up to Chicago. I'm not sure if he was down in the minors, so they got to say bye to Darby. They left him down at Dallas. Domi, man, 18 goals, 31 assists, 49 points in 60 games. Pretty good clip. He was up in Chicago. He's a biz. He still has a good offense to his game. You can kind of plug him, what, middle six anywhere,

you'd say, on that team? Oh, he could jump up. I think he's, I know, but he's also, like, not a guy you would want to line match against another team. So, yeah, probably second-line center. He's been playing center for the first time in his career all year. Like maybe there was like a game or two he would hop in, but he had some sustained amount of time at center ice,

and he's been doing well with it. He's used to playing with a skill guy in Kane. So yeah, I mean, Mark Wahlberg's pumped. I don't know if you saw all the videos of him bouncing around down there with a Dallas jersey on. He's familiar with Sagan, so he's got buddies there. So I don't know. They didn't do a crazy amount, but I like the pickup.

I like Domi in Dallas. Winnipeg Jets didn't do a ton either, but they got Nino Niederreiter last week, and they added your boy Vlad Nemesnikoff this week. They sent the fourth rounder at 25 to San Jose. He's your boy, Nemesnikoff. What's it like the fourth rounder at 25 to San Jose. He's your boy, Bes Nemesnikoff. What's the third time he's been dealt on deadline day? He's been on eight teams in the last three years, I think I read on an Instagram post. That's a good sign.

You know who's a guy who doesn't get thrown off by having a new routine? That guy. Yeah. He's the opposite of Kane, where he's fucking used to just not even unzipping his bags. So the first game I think he played in was the game against the oilers and he looked great he's a fast little bugger he gets up and down the ice and that offense likes to play with pace i think that the need rider moves great because he's a he's a big solid reliable 200 foot game guy another team where it's just hard for them to get guys and they're going backwards right now

it's been a tough couple weeks yeah well that that was a big win against the oilers but yeah you know it's yeah they just haven't had uh as much five on five offense that was really the first game they've exploded in a while um they got to get that uh perlini back is it perlini am i saying it right he's a little offensive water bug so that's it perlini that's how i did yeah that was a perlini was a guy who played in arizona jesus christ smoke another one bis um but uh but yeah they're kind of they're treading water right now but it's anson carter was talking about on the Canadian broadcast. Like half the guys who at least decent players in league have like a 10 team, no trade list.

They're on every single no trade list. They got to be the highest batting average of no trade list. And that's like, that's just being on. I don't know. I love Winnipeg. I don't know. Have you ever been to Winnipeg? The girls are unbelievable.

Most undercover city for women in all of Canada. I will probably have 15, 20 guys tweet me or Instagram DM me saying, it's just rocket fest here. I don't know if it's a government town. Same with Victoria, BC. It's a government town, so there's more women. It's like four to one. So there's just rockets crawling everywhere around Victoria.

Why do you think I'm at real estate there? I got chirped by the Edmonton Oilers Twitter the other night. One of my listeners or one of the Twitter guys said, hey, how do you rank the Canadian teams with the best chance to win the Cup? And, you know, I got money on Winnipeg, so I put them first. And they do have, I'd say, the best goalie out of the Canadian teams. I had Edmonton second, and they tripped

the next day. Like, oh, we saw what you did last night, R.A., because, of course, Edmonton beat them that night. But then Winnipeg beat them the next night. It's like, see, it the towel comes out in the wash, I'm not going to rub people's faces in it. Well, maybe the Oilers' Twitter, but. Here's another one. What's going to happen with, no, I hear you all right.

What's going to happen with Dubois? People are already saying that he's already signed with Montreal, basically. Yeah. So, like, now they can't even keep a guy. So, I hope they're able to make playoffs and go on a bit of a run, because, as you said, it doesn't get any easier. It gets tough sledding with having to keep guys. All right. Defending champ, Colorado. They sent the second round pick in 25 to the Caps for Laz Ella. He's in the last year of his deal making three and a half mil. He'll be unrestricted this

summer. Caps are retaining 31% of that deal. That's a nice little pickup for them. Kind of plug a guy in. He's a little bit of a water bug to go up and down the lineup, right? Yeah, for sure. I also think that the scary thing for Colorado is the whole time you've just been mentioning all deadline moves, whatever, we get Landis Kog back.

It's like making a big trade, but there hasn't been a definite date for when he gets back. I think he's skating, but kind of going on longer than I think Avs fans and Avs media beat writers thought that it would. So maybe I'm wrong and they plan on him to be out this long, but you got to get that guy

in. You know, you want 10 games before playoffs at least, you know, hopefully five, unless you're Peter Forsberg, you missed the whole year and then you lead the playoffs in scoring. So as long as they get him back and then Makar's back, but that was his second concussion, I think. For me, it's like when they get healthy and they get going, after Boston, they're number two. I mean, the team is just so stacked. They have the exact, not the exact same roster. I know Kadri's an enormous loss, but they could walk through the West again.

So they do got to get Landisgaard back. And I know Nieto got brought over there. And, you know, it's definitely a little different than last year, but it's still the avalanche with all these studs. It's like heads up once they get healthy and get going. And they're going now. McKinnon is, after McDavid, been the second best player in the league since January. Good shit to watch.

There's Pierre-Luc Dubois. He's got one year left this year right now. He's actually RFA, though, so they still have his rights this year. He's not totally unrestricted. It'll be a little tougher to go to Montreal than if the trade farm presumably. That was something that I was hearing from other people. That might be a rumor boy situation. That might have been going back to the Instagram DM.

Some, you know, I don't know. Some dude from some crazy Canuck. Let's see. A couple more here. Jersey added a little bottom six depth. They picked up Curtis Lazar from Vancouver for a fourth and 24. And while speaking of the Yotes, they were involved in a brother for brother trade.

I don't know if you saw that. They sent Troy Stetcher and Nick Ritchie to Calgary and brought it back. Brett Ritchie and Connor Mackey. I'm sure there's been other brother trades over the years. No, first time. Really? Yeah, first time in NHL history. I would have bet a dime that frigging the Southerners probably get traded for each other at a certain point, but no dice. Let's see. We had a goalie fight, a goalie score a goal, and a goalie throw a water bottle off a ref's head in three separate games last week. First off, the goalie goal was from Chicago's P-Tour, Kachetkov. Sick Selly ran all around the ice. The fight was between, let's see, Remy Poirier of the Texas

Stars and Yaroslav Askarov. Milwaukee Adros, pretty good tilt. And then over in Sweden, Kazimir Kaskisu, he do you say Kaskisu? He was over here for a little while. Fucking gun to water bottle. I don't even know what his name is. Doinked it right off the fucking ref's head. He got a five-game suspension. Hilarious clip if you haven't seen it.

But Goli's getting themselves in the news this week with some fucking crazy activities. I have to think he wasn't trying to hit him. And then you're like, oh, no. It's in the air going directly at his head. But what would you think the suspension in the NHL would be if you did that? 15, 20 games? Yeah. Yeah, way more than fucking a lot more than five.

You would get 15 games for that? Dude, if you threw a water bottle off a ref's dome in the NHL, I think you'd make it 20. Come on, five games. Come on, fucking five games. No, I'm not saying that you necessarily deserve 20. That probably isn't good for the respect referee thing. Three years ago, when every time somebody hit somebody

and everybody was fucking crying about it, yeah, I would say, like when they were suspending Rafi Torres for clean hits on Hossa. Oh, that'll get you going. I bet you there's 14 people punching the fucking steering wheel on their car right now. I will defend that hit until the end of time. Let's get that translated into Slovakian just to let the people of slovakia hear that one oh

yeah oh fuck i don't want to piss off hosts i'll probably never come back on the podcast jersey also said that when luke hughes season is over with michigan he's gonna uh join the big club right after his season and so and i wouldn't be surprised to see him in the lineup either And I wouldn't be surprised to see him in the lineup either. Who texted distraction to the group chat? We have a big group chat, and Posh has been running his fucking mouth. They almost blew one against the Coyotes the other night. He's insufferable. He's worse than Avery.

He's worse than Avery. He really is. It's crazy to think I have a good friend and that I hope his team loses just so we can shut him up. We want to send our best wishes to Chris Snow of the Calgary Flames. He's been battling ALS for the last couple of years. Valuingly, he's a hell man. He's always out golfing, playing this, playing that.

Tons of energy. And he had to go to the hospital to get some, you know, check with the doctors the other day. And Brad Treeliven, his general manager, spoke. And he was pretty emotional about everything that was going on. And he couldn't praise him enough. So, you know, we had Chris on the show a few years back. He's a friend of the program. And, Chris, if you're listening, we love you, buddy,

and I want to see you get back in that office. Do what you do good. Watch hockey, do the scout, whatever you do, buddy. You're going to get back out there. We'll be pulling fire. And also, Biz, you talked to Fuda earlier. I don't know if you want to talk about Stutzi. Mike Stutzi is your former coach.

Yeah, guys, he got some horrible news. He was on the road, and there was something going on, and he needed to get it checked out, and stage three cancer. But he's a tough son of a bitch, and I talked to him the other day. He said this thing picked the wrong motherfucker. And I think Anaheim's coach I'm drawing a blank here Dallas Eakins

Stutts he's never walked away from any adversity in his life he's going to battle this sucker and it was obviously very difficult news it's been an emotional week here for him but as I said he's going to fight this off and and we're all

gonna be thinking about him he's been a monumental person in my hockey career guys and like uh i get emotional talking about him so you know i love him i'm wishing him the best and uh i love you so you're gonna beat this motherfucker yeah is. And he had a great, the clip I saw online, R.A.'s been adamant about this since the podcast began, about if you notice something, go get checked out. And he said he felt a lump in his groin and probably took him a little too long, a tough motherfucker, a stubborn bastard.

And, you know, you go in and it's like it's in his it's like it's his lymph notes and so he just mentioned no matter what if you see something off nobody knows your body like yourself if you see something that doesn't look right or feel right just go get checked out and RA always says how stubborn people are in terms of seeing a doctor but I think Stutty was pretty cool in that message in terms of like doctors know a lot but they don't they don't know your body the way you do so if you see anything off just go get it checked out better safe than sorry and and our thoughts are um not only with chris snow and his well wife kelsey but but with stutsy and hockey communities as close as you can imagine and right those people mean a lot to a lot of people that are rooting for him and cheering him on and have their back and life's tough man so just just

stay on your health stay on your own body and and just beware of things that don't look or feel right that's what he said when he addressed the team one of the one of the first things he said he said guys he goes trust your body he goes you guys know it better than anyone anything pops up go get it checked out so he's uh he's a g and uh one final note here uh u.s olympian brianna decker retired so we want to wish her congratulations a terrific player she got a gold i forget what year she won the gold i know a couple silvers as well uh just a dominating player over a point per game in a career so uh enjoy retirement brianna it was a pleasure to watch her play and i don't know if you boys have any final notes you want to she went on token ceo actually to uh last week and kind of

talked about her career, what's next for coaching, all that. It was a great interview with Erica, so check that out as well. Hasn't she been on our podcast? I thought we interviewed her at some point. No, I think we saw her at the All-Star Game in St. Louis. Wasn't that it? When the girls were doing the skills?

I remember talking to Sarah Nurse there as well. But, you know, taking Ryder down to like skate and do these things, seeing the amount of girls that play hockey now and how good they are, it's so cool and it's incredible to see the sport growing. I know at one point it was the fastest growing women's sport. It was ice hockey in the United States. And Brianna Decker and these girls are part of the reason why.

So congratulations on an amazing career. The end of something just is the beginning of another thing. So that's so cool for her to have that career resume and that gold medal forever. So congratulations because yourself, if you're listening and all the successful women's hockey players out there are actually creating another generation to dream of being what you guys are, what you guys have done. So it's awesome to see. Well said. And she's a spark plug too. She'll come on. She'll let it fly. When did she go on Token CEO? Last week. Great interview. Okay. That about wraps it up. Biz, I'm glad you were able to just Take that time I could tell it was It was the biz snapping coming And you did a good job calming yourself down We took a little bit of a break And it was a fun episode so I can't wait for next week as always

And now We're in the stretch drive all teams are final And we're going to see what every team is made of In this final playoff push So we appreciate you guys listening as always Let us know whatever we fucked up on, per usual. And thank you so much for listening. We love you all.