Spittin Chiclets - Spittin' Chiclets Episode 433: Featuring Mike Milbury

Episode Date: March 21, 2023

On Episode 433 of Spittin’ Chiclets, the guys are joined by Mike Milbury. Mike joined (01:19:39:10 - 02:49:09:19) to discuss his playing career, his coaching career, being a TV personality and tons more. But first, the guys open the show discussing the Jordan Bennington and Marc-Andre Fleury drama. Did Jordan cross the line? The fellas also take a look at the West’s playoffs race. Can Colorado repeat? Or will someone new come out of the west? The guys wrap up the show with the last of the NHL news and dive into some golf talk.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 433 of Spittin' Chicklets, presented by Pink Whitney, from our friends at New Amsterdam Vodka here in the Barstool Sports Podcast family. How's it going everyone? Hope you had a nice St. Patrick's Day out there. Very entertaining week in the NHL, we'll get to that shortly, but as always, we check in with the fellas first. Let's go to you first, Whitney. You brought the boys to the St. Patrick's Day parade this year. How'd it go? Yeah, you, Whitney. I actually, yeah, Whitney. I actually dropped them off.

Oh. And then I went back a little bit later, but it was a gong show in there. The South Boston St. Patrick's Day parade always held the Sunday after St. Paddy's Day. It's wild. I mean, you go downtown on like West Broadway. It seems like it's maybe a crowd who's usually not hanging out there. Maybe, you know, people coming in from the South Shore, the North Shore. But it was cool. I mean, the kids love it. The parade was long as shit too. And then there was a little barstool float for their pirate water drink,

which is, I believe it's kind of a new age for loco. I think somebody said it's like nine percent alcohol with energy involved so i imagine that kids drinking that'll be in real good shape and having great nights after they consume that how did rider enjoy his first one he crushed it he actually shotgunned it it was pretty cool he was bouncing off the walls after though um he walked it down with spank whitney though was good parenting. He came home with his first black eye. That's around the age when people in Boston start coming home with black eyes, right? Yeah, yeah, yeah.

God, yeah. First fight, if it's not before kindergarten, your kid's a pussy. Other than that, though, I mean, I went down to Naples, played a little golf Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, flew back. That was great, beautiful weather. Got out of here for a Nor'easter. So when you go away golfing, some guys that have done that, you know, their wives can be a little upset. You know, my wife wasn't. But then when a Nor'easter hits while you're in 80-degree weather

playing golf, having drinks, it's not always the best phone call home. We still had a good one, but it was more one of those, like, the wind's blowing, the power may go out. How'd you hit him today besides the last question? But other than that, it was a chill week. Just, uh, watched a lot of sports this weekend. It was a big time sport weekend. Uh, hockey, basketball, golf, all, all things included. So, I mean, I didn't, I don't the plane a little late, and then when we landed, a woman in the row in front of me was trying to get the bag down. She was struggling with it, and I just went to help. She said, does it look like I need any help? Whoa.

I said, yeah, but that's okay. It won't help. And I sat down, and the guy next to me on the other row, he goes, I had that wrath when I tried helping her get the fucking thing up there. So, yeah, not the friendliest woman, but it was a great week it was a great week boys that sandbagger has just blown up we're gonna get to that but i'm still waiting for one of these videos to come out online of wit having this old granny and a fucking headlock on one of these she'd probably stummy me it's like it's not exactly like it's Revo here getting in a plane fight.

I mean, I would have zero confidence. No matter what the sex. I mean, I guess you could team me up. He, him, she, they? What? Oh, I was gonna say Harre, you could team me up, but I'm just gonna get in right to what you mentioned, the sandbagger. It's a hit. Paul Biznett, he Biznett.

Holy shit. What a response on the Sandbagger so far. Probably one of the biggest videos we've ever released on our Spit and Chicklets YouTube channel. I know oftentimes I throw it over to Grinnell for this and you guys are like, ah, fuck off with the YouTube channel for some of you old

45-year-old heads. But we have a younger crowd that listens to the podcast. But for you older heads who have never even been on YouTube, ask one of your younger friends or your kids to link it up, get you subscribed to the Spit and Chicklets YouTube channel, and head on over and watch the sandbagger we

captured with David Posternok and Kevin Fiala. Already over 300,000 views in the last four days. One of the world's biggest, brightest stars in the hockey universe. And Grinnelli, why don't you tee up about 30 seconds of audio to some of the antics biggest brightest stars in the hockey universe and Grinnelli why don't you tee up about 30 seconds of audio to some of the antics that were happening during this hour and 10 minute video that captured this round that we had with him hey sorry I don't want to interrupt what the

fuck Fiala I know what he was gonna do he's gonna call you out on your line yeah yeah it was like here yeah look where you had to look now hey but hey but no no the ball was right there it wasn't are you is he calling a line you're getting a stroke on the part three let's go dude can we talk about it you still made a fucking hell of a shot after this hey the tape don't lie boys tape don't lie but we control the tape we'll delete that shit my favorite moment was still that we somehow managed to lose the first hole and pasta hit the ball backwards. That was not a good start.

But we got to make them feel comfortable and get them loose early on. And we did just that. And these guys opened right up. Fiala might have said three words before we started the round. You couldn't shut the guy up by the end of it. He was just chirping everybody and our mothers for crying out loud. So an unbelievable day on the course. we can't divulge the winner half of you who are listening probably have already seen the video but we're going to give it another week and let it breathe before we get in depth as

to how it all played out but it went down to the wire it was an incredible day and as i just mentioned go check it out on our spit and chicklets youtube channel. Don't be shy to subscribe. That's where we put all our behind the scenes stuff. We also do these, do the full podcast. You can usually catch at this rate. Now we're dropping them probably a few hours after the podcast drops on just audio, right G? Yeah. 9 a.m.

Eastern every, every Tuesday. It's on the YouTube channel. So you can find it there. And the reason that it comes out so quick now, and it wasn't always the case, is because of this incredible behind-the-scenes staff that we have. I know I tried to give them a shout-out last week, and I actually fucked up Fishy's name and called him Eric. I tried calling him, and he kind of pigeon-tossed me.

He was not happy about that. Elliot Fish, he's one of the guys behind the scenes. But thank you to Fishy, Quader, Logan, who does all the approach shots, Pasha, of course, who helps with all the editing. Gee, I got to throw it back over to you. Everybody's been asking about the tunes that play on it. We have somebody who actually makes- I get a lot of messages about what songs this, and I have no idea.

So it's actually funny. So a lot of these songs are custom made for the Sandbaggers. Now, everyone's been asking, how do we listen to these songs? Well, today I was talking to Pasha and we are going to put out a SoundCloud playlist with all the songs, all the tracks from the Baggers. So we'll post that on Twitter. We'll post that on Instagram and we'll get it out there for everyone to see. Because the guy's name is Zachariah.

He makes all these unreal EDM style beats That Pasha loves going to But he kills it So we're going to put up his SoundCloud Or wherever you go to check out So you can actually go listen to all the playlists That we've had throughout all these sandbaggers You might have already just mentioned that And I'm just repeating myself Sometimes I get in my own head about what I gotta say next

Pasha, obviously the delusional Shut up Pasha, the delusional Devils fan. He's the one that I met early days and we ended up filming Biz Does BC. He's been with us since the beginning. Another guy that helped us film this, Sean Apuzzo, who's helping with all the NYPD, FDNY stuff, who's gotten all the interviews and the behind the scenes stuff.

So we have an incredible team. I just wanted to, oh, go ahead. No, no, no. I have been told, i know some people who played the nypd team recently they are complete lunatics apparently i'm talking chip it in go run the defenseman through the wall four lines seven defensemen coach training staff and and guys are looking to play men's league and getting run through the wall getting stitches getting separated shoulders like this is not supposed to be men's league i said yeah these dudes are getting ready to play the fdny team how many years in a row has the fire

department won five this will be 23 so no wonder they're pissed off it's like dude they have healthy scratches too there's like seven to 10 healthy scratches on each team. I'll be hanging out with them. So guys are battling to get in the lineup every night so they have to play like that. So this will be the 23rd year that the game takes place. No, no, no. This will be the 49th. This will be the 49th. Oh, shit.

Look at me. I'm... Spread was 27 and a half so you covered biz. And for all those out there, Google or YouTube the 2014 fight between the NYPD and FDNY 27 and a half so you covered biz and for all those out there google or youtube minus 2014 fight between the nypd and fdny at msg it is fucking bananas we'll go in in depth in the documentary that we're putting out i love it i love it that game's april 15th it's already sold out but the good news is is we will be broadcasting it first ever time that we're broadcasting a game here at spit and chicklets tons of special guests one of which might be a guy that we have an interview coming up.

90 minutes. Wow. 90 minutes with Mr. Milbury himself. Incredible iconic. Slinging it. So good. So fucking good. So to put a big bow on it, go check out the Spit and Chicklets YouTube channel.

Watch the sandbagger. We'll talk more about it next week. Thank you to our sponsors, Peter Millar, whitney big deal brewing labatt that that's why we have the sponsors guys so we can go and create more hire all these amazing people and continue to produce some some unbelievable stuff like the fucking nypd fdny broadcast which is going to be a fucking hoot so i'm done rambling great start to the pod uh pod getting all that stuff out there. All right. Anything else you want to chime in with?

Well, we're going to have a proper intro to our producer, Mikey Grayley. I know we already talked to him a little bit. Gee, you didn't do enough of St. Paddy's Day, did you, Vian? No, I didn't do much. And that is because, boys, I started my fitness journey this morning at 6 a.m. No way. Yep. What did that include?

I had a morning session. I had a session with my new personal trainer, Adolphus. A trainer? Wow. How much money do you make, bro? I paid basically every dollar in my bank account for it. And it's funny. It's so funny because he basically said, like, my body is so tight and my posture is

so fucked. We have to like start from scratch. And I went in there and I'm talking to you guys and I get shit on this a lot by the chicklets listeners and I'm a product and I've always been like this of who I hang out with. So I start talking like the guys I hang out with. And so I'm in the chair doing the consultation with the guy and he's like, so, you know, why is your body hurting so much? Like, what's going on? I'm like, oh, you know, my body's been, you know, I've been going through it, man. You know, it's been a long 10 years.

I'm talking like I'm you guys. Like I played like an NHL career. And he's like, so what have you been doing the past 10 years? And I'm like, drugs, nothing. I actually haven't been really doing anything at all i don't know why my body hurts so bad it's and he's like he gave me the consultation and was just like because you've done nothing your body is so tight so fucked we're just starting from scratch here i'm like bench pressing the bar this morning i'm like jesus we really are starting over here it was

hilarious do you think right now perfect form like like straight body, nose down to the ground, how many push-ups you could do? You think you'd get 10? Oh, I've always been really, really good at push-ups. I think right now I could bang out. Actually, I did arms today at the gym, big biceps today. Be careful what you say because I'm going to see you soon. Hey, next time you see me, put me on the spot.

I guarantee you I can crank out 40 no problem on the spot. Wow. Kissing the ground. No knees on the ground. No knees on the ground, right? No knees. None of those girls in the EFWAS fucking cross legs and that stuff. I don't weigh a lot, though.

That's the thing here, boys. We should do a chicklets combine. I'll do a combine. We should do a chicklets NHL combine. A chicklets NHL combine. I would pay $10, grand to watch R.A. Imagine the high jump one. How about R.A. on the VO2 Max and Wingate?

Can you elaborate? High jump? Is that like high or like high jump? You just have to jump up and whack away these like wide sticks, but there's like maybe one one of us could get. Did he mention any supplementation? Like what should I be taking? Like creatine and shit like that?

Yeah, did he mention creatine, protein powder? No, dude, when I'm telling you starting from scratch, it's stop eating McDonald's, stop eating Calzones. It was like that kind of shit. How many times would you go to him per week? Three times per week. So I'll go Monday, Wednesday, Friday. And you're doing it 6 a.m.?

6 to 8 a.m. And then I'm doing this for eight weeks. And in between days, he's giving me stuff to do on my off days. So I'm telling you, I'm going all in on this. We got to get the before and after pics of your body, like the side view. If you promise to never send them to anyone, I'll gladly send those to you guys because it's disgusting.

Yeah. We're not going to go there,, I'll gladly send those to you guys because it's disgusting. Yeah. We're not going to go there, but I'll go to this. All joking aside though, buddy, good for you. Taking the initiative to get up and get moving, especially that early in the morning. I'm telling you, the first couple of weeks might be hell, but after that, it's going to be like a jolt in the morning and your days are going to feel so much better. Coming from the fitness guru over here. It's kind of crazy because I thought I would be tired this afternoon and just like from getting up and getting the blood flowing like that early it's just like i have so much energy that i wouldn't normally have so already feel the

the difference he's gonna become a gym bro he's gonna be coming out with those videos arguing with girls in the gym who are wearing the skanky outfits who say men have you been watching this this guy calling these people out on on twitter the gym who are wearing the skanky outfits who say men. Have you been watching this guy calling these people out on Twitter? The gym crowd is out of their fucking minds. Well, I saw one story. A girl said a guy was staring at her. The guy's blind. You see, it went viral.

Unless I was getting duped by something on Twitter. Yeah, probably. Get over yourself, honey. Just going back to the sandbag. I want to shout out Pasha. That trailer he did that was Oscar, at the Oscar theme, incredible stuff. I sent him a text. That was an unreal job

he did on that. And also, the music we play in, gee, isn't there a party that wishes we didn't get so big where we could still play the old Led Zeppelin and the old songs that we led into the thing? Remember when we first started? It kills me. Nobody gave a fuck about rights. We would put awesome songs on and then they're like, ah, now we got to do this again.

To explain to people what you're talking about is you're talking about the intro coming into the podcast itself, where we used to use licensed music, where we got big enough where we can't. So we always resort back to, what's the tune even called that we use right now? It's like a song without rights, basically. I don't even know if it has a title. I think it's called Whose Car. But if, hey, Biz, we talk about this every year, and maybe this summer is the summer we do it,

where if someone wants to make us a jingle, we're open to anything. We're not locked into this song. We want a new intro song. So if you're out there and you want to send me over something, feel free to send it over because we need something. We need a change. We should get the Wilkes-Barre re-scranton painting. Oh, few people send us tunes but they're very they're like horrible yeah to put it lightly

i feel bad for the people who are listening right now who sent us tunes yeah but it takes balls it takes balls and some some courage to even throw you know it know, it's like kind of like doing a podcast. You got to throw yourself out there and the feedback may not be what you love, but you had the balls to do it. And they did it. It just happened to be pretty brutal. 100% of the shots you don't take, right, boys?

Exactly. Michael Scott. That's good. Michael Jordan, R.A. Before we go any further, you know what I'm here for. And that's to bring up my love and passion, New Amsterdam Vodka's own Pink Whitney. It's got my name on it. It's incredible, the feedback, the amount of people that drink it, the amount of people that enjoy life when Pink

Whitney's in the mix. And the best part is I get to be in Pittsburgh, where I became a legend by allowing Chris Kunitz to become a part of your team in your city. I'm going to be back meeting and greeting all of you wonderful Yinzers that drink Pink Whitney and listen to our podcast. It's March 29th, 4 p.m. to 6 p.m. at Fine Wine and Good Spirits. I'd love to sign a bottle. I'd love to tell you my favorite memory as a Pittsburgh Penguin. I'd love to maybe explain to you how good the drink is if you haven't tasted it. And if you haven't tasted it, please go out and grab a bottle. You'll enjoy life.

You'll have fun with the people you drink it with. It tastes phenomenal. You catch a nice buzz. And at the end, you just get to get another bottle the next night. That's how this works. We have people sending us pictures of hundreds of empty bottles around their apartments, dorm rooms packed with Pink Whitney, nips being brought into sporting events. It's the best drink you can drink.

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And thank you so much for supporting our brand and buying that drink and catching a buzz while laughing with the fellas or the ladies, because we know the ladies love the pink wit. Maybe not me when I'm pink from in the sun, but they love the drink. So thank you to New Amsterdam. Back to the podcast. We're going to jump right into the hockey biz. You're on TNT Wednesday, one of the most entertaining games of the year, if not the most entertaining.

It was probably appropriate that Ric Flair did the lineup reading for the St. Louis Blues, given what happened. Ryan Hobbins scored on Jordan Bennington, and then I don't know if he did the Yerkel. Did I do that? And when he skated by, Jordan Bennington hit his pad and Bennington went snapshot. Like we've seen him a few times this year, hit him with the blocker. It brought Marc-Andre Fleury down. He wanted to scrap on him. The linesman's ruling that. Just an all-time clip. Everybody's been raving about it. Biz, you were on the horn. What was everybody saying in the studio when that went down in live?

Well, first things first, I'm pretty sure that Bennington got into Ric Flair's bag before the game. I think he is a full-blown WWE wrestler at this point. Even the quotes after. The way that I'm describing the game is the dark flower rises. It's much like the Batman movie where you have Bennington, who is the Joker, and you have Marc-Andre Fleury, who was Batman. And I know you're looking around, RA, like you don't like the analogy. I would imagine that every single hockey fan,

other than St. Louis fans, wanted Flower to go down there and beat the wheels off Jordan Bennington, given the antics that we've seen over and over and over. Now, I can't emphasize this enough. The fact that Jordan Binnington did this on a Wednesday night regular season game, I want to send him a fucking gift basket with anything that he fucking wants, because sometimes regular season games aren't the most interesting. This guy is a complete sideshow. And we know that he is already on tilt when he starts getting lit up. But I just don't think that sometimes he's built

for regular season hockey. He likes it more when the chips are on the table. And how this all started is it looked like St. Louis was in good shape during that game. And all of a sudden, Minnesota with this wild run they are turned it on the one thing that started the wires crossing was the fourth line scoring a goal on him and all of a sudden you see him come out and they had a great angle of it him coming out he started joshing at the Minnesota bench so as soon as you saw that you're like okay things are going to get interesting this had this had Codry Bennington written all over it water bottle gate here we. Light the firecrackers. So then all of a sudden Hartman buries one.

Now, Binnington on the play, he pushes off of his right leg and he slides way out of the crease. By the time he ends up making contact with Hartman, who was simply just skating in the line that he was already on as he shot the puck into the net. Bennington made contact with him. Well, they go over to celebrate the goal. Bennington calling ambulance, but not for me.

Wham, he comes in with the blocker. Melee ensues, and that's when Flower makes his way down the ice. And we're going to get to Flower's postgame comments afterward. So all of a sudden, after all that whole melee, Bennington, well, let's get to flowers post-game comments afterward so all of a sudden after all that whole melee binnington well let's get to the referees if you're a fucking nhl linesman and you're listening to this right now stop stopping fights never in never in your being told but there's no explanation for it if kim jong betman's telling them to not allow them to fight on behalf of me tell them the fuck off because that's what you can go yeah that is what's selling the game that is what separates our game from the other major sports and if you take that away

just like they're doing in the queue and we're going to get that later it's fucking stupid allow it you saw everybody on their feet. You saw everybody online and any casual hockey fan all of a sudden paying attention to that fucking hockey game. So what do they do? They don't let them fight. So anyway, Bennington gets the gate. He gets the whole game, ends up getting sussy two games. I guess I can understand it with the fact that with the antics we've seen from Jordan Binnington and them trying to defuse this whole situation, I get why they did it, but the fact they didn't let him fight drives me fucking bananas. Hartman ends up getting attacked

by Shen, but to Shen's defense, he's just being a good teammate and there's a chance that he didn't end up getting to see the replay because sometimes they don't show the replay on the Jumbotron. So he might've thought Hartman did end up going close enough to the crease to hit binnington he ends up going after hartman then he gets a 10-minute misconduct he fucking breaks the stick over the boards here comes the putter toss then the icing on the cake alex skoligoski i don't think he's had a breakaway his entire fucking career he gets a breakaway he scores and then he taunts binnington and i forgot to mention that the fact that after all of this happened and binnington got lit up and got given the gate before he exit the ice he starts pumping up the crowd lifting his arms in the air now mind you after giving up five goals five so like the entertainment aspect what we're

talking about the fans yeah it's amazing craig berube and doug armstrong must have been like what the fuck is this guy doing it would be it would be like like if i threw four pizzas so a usual tuesday night edmonton and was minus three like and then I got in a fight it's like all right at least you're gonna do something though but like to not even have the fight go down and have me be minus three with all these turnovers and raising the roof like even teammates must be like what are you doing dude but he just does not give a fuck he is in it for the entertainment and and i loved what lundquist said yes lundquist was hilarious he said something like he's like yeah if i gave up five like i'm looking to like crawl into a hole and hide and bennington bennington's brazing the roof

and and also mind you the the flurry the fact flurry was miked up during that we got to hear that hockey boner it would be fun it would be fun so i want to go to post game flower ends up getting interviewed and what really triggered flower was in the first period there was a scrum in front of bennington's net and he ends up giving it to stick to the groin to Erickson Eck. So the conversation in the room between the first and second, Flower heard the boys talking about it, where Flower obviously saw an opportunity to get vengeance back on Binnington for giving his guy the bag tap. He said nutsack in his post-game interview.

He's like, can I even say nutsack? Flower being the adorable guy that he is and so easy to root for, but that's what makes this game unbelievable. And I'm okay with the fact that that's why I called it dark flower rises. Like you need the hero and you need the villains. And I would, I would like it if there were even more villains in today's NHL game. There's not enough of them. They, they are what gets people talking.

So all in all, an incredible Wednesday nighter. That was the second game, by the way. We had a great game with Leafs. I guess not the most intense game, but two great teams going out at a potential final, in my eyes anyway, in my delusional eyes. But was there anything else from that whole sequence that you wanted to get into? I also love lundquist comments of him saying he wants to hide behind a rock if that happens and i guess the easy words to use were secondhand embarrassment is what lundquist had for bennington well i i think there's a lot of goalies out there and and that are just like oh my god like i i think he's my guess is he he is embarrassed at what's going on so he's so mad that the wires are crossing.

And then as he's doing the raise the roof, as he's giving up five and getting kicked out of the game or whatever it was, he probably doesn't even remember doing that. I mean, he has to have some sort of snapping in his mind to understand, like, I'm playing so bad, and now I'm kind of looking like a fool while also being entertaining and the fans are going nuts. I think he said after like

what's better than that center ice with the crowd going nuts. It's like dude you're getting lit up. Like there could be better things happening. You could be kicking out a shutout. That might help but did you see Billy Guerin's quote R.A. when they asked him what he thought as Fleury was skating down the

ice? He loved it. Said he absolutely loved it. Which is great. Like everybody else, he wanted it to actually happen. Yeah, so I was interested as the GM of a team who is buzzing, showed out Massachusetts native Matt Boldy with his second career hat trick. A guy who had to step it up Sunday against the Caps. Him and Johansson, that deal they made to get Johansson over there,

they got some sort of connection. And Kaprizov goes out, this team. I've been down on Minnesota. I know at the beginning of the year I really was, and then it's gotten much better, and I was still like, I don't know if they have a chance. I actually think now, like, the way things are going, the vibe that team has.

The Revo interview post-game was electric. How about pre-game? Pre-game we had him going, too. We had him pre and post. He predicted his goal, too, because I was – We call him Mr. – We call him Mr. Pre-Game One. Every time he's on TNT, he does something.

Last game we had him, I was teasing him pre-game, and then first shift, he ended up decapitating Roenick. So I asked him. I was joking around with his hairline, and I said, hey, what's going to happen tonight? What do you got in store for the fans at home? Last time you decapitated Roenick, he goes, maybe a decapitation. Maybe I'll put a few goals in the net because I've been hot lately.

What does he do? Goal and an assist. And then post-game interview, tarps off, which is kind of the theme around the room. Ever since Middleton came over, his term is he runs hot, so he walks around with just a cup protecting his nutsack and dick in the locker room with some high socks, and he's walking around tarps off. So Billy Guerin and the boys have adapted this,

and ever since this has became a real big thing, they've gained a lot of steam and morale. So he came on with his jacked-up body, and he says, hey, obviously with Kaprizov going down, they're looking to me to provide a little bit of offense. Among everything else he said, should we just run the postgame interview? How about when he goes, you've got to show the tats. I paid a lot of money for these.

Ryan Reeves joining us. I'm glad they kept it nipples up. Get the tattoos. I spent a lot of money on these tattoos. For weeks, you guys were struggling to score goals. You lose your top scorer in the last three games. I mean, it's an explosion of goals. Can you explain what was the message in the locker room?

It's just incredible to watch you guys the last few games here. Yeah, you know, you lose Krill and obviously that's our top goal scorer so naturally it's got to fall on me to pick up the slack. They trade for me for a situation like this so this is what happens. I think up and down

the lineup, that's what we've got to do. Obviously, when you're missing a guy like that, everybody's got to step up and you look at all the goal scorers right now, everybody's chipping in. You know, if you compare me and Business Stats the last two games to his whole career, it's got to be pretty similar. I'm going to shut up here.

I'm going to shut up because you've earned the respect of our panel. I would put you actually as the frontrunner as Mr. TNT right now. So just an incredible night of TNT entertainment. And it was great having Revo pre and post game for the interview, along with Binnington and his crazy antics. So from a hockey perspective, folks, not much more you could ask for. I liked how he referenced Goodwill Hunting when he had the hearing with the NHL. He said, it felt like when I was in Goodwill Hunting,

acting as Will trying to defend himself in trial, a new experience for sure, and definitely not something I want to go through all the time. And like you were saying, I don't know if it's going to get much better than that, to have 18,000 people cheering at Center Ice at home, Fight for Your Right is playing, the crowd's into it, that's a feeling that no one can take away from me. And saying that, I'm getting married, turning 30, you might see a new JB coming at you. So, you know, I think maybe he'll learn a little something from this, maybe not. I mean, for the fans, hopefully not. But, yeah, I think he's been an entertainer, and I think he's gotten way too much shit online.

I mean, people have, like, been crucifying him. I know it's Twitter. I know it's social media. But it definitely seemed overboard. I mean, this is the fucking NHL. It's the Premier League. These guys are fucking – it's their life, their job. They're going to snap once in a while.

He didn't fucking kill a kid. But, R.A., if he's playing great, if he's playing awesome, there's no hate, I don't think. Oh, fuck, it's twice as bad if he's playing good. But these weren't even Blues fans, Whit. These were just general fans. I'm talking about non-Blues fans. They view him as a punk. They want to see him get fed his lunch.

So every time something happens like this and he doesn't, in fact, have to answer the bell, it irritates him even more. i would say we're at a 10 out of 10 right now i understand that but like in terms of a lot of fans it's like he's not playing that well and he's doing this it's a little different you know what i'm saying like it's like you got to look at the fact like if he's doing this yes no matter, he'd be pissing people off and doing it more and more, but if he's, like, throwing in shutouts and playing outstanding, it's like, oh my god, this is, like, working, and it makes,

yeah, I guess it would make him more angry. I guess you're right. But there's some sort of side of it. Did you just say I was right? Wow. Is this a first in Chikl's... Clip it. ...Chikl's history? Let's go back to the Bruins missing the playoffs. Hey, but overall, RA, you might have some more notes on Minnesota.

This magical run over the last 15, 16 games. Flowers playing incredible. They're starting to get that offense that they weren't getting. Even with Kaprizov out of the lineup, this team is on one magical run right now. Absolutely. Marc-Andre Fleury undefeated in March so far. 2-5-1 goals against a 9-3-0 save percentage. Two penalty minutes, we should note. Mini 3-2 with seven points without Kaprizov. They scored 24 goals without him, which I don't think too many people thought that would happen. Right now, Dallas in

first with 89 points. When we record,, there's a point back with 88. So right now, I mean, things are good in Minnesota, even with El Caprizo up. And Saturday, April 8th is the next time these two teams play. Also, I want to make a note of Marc-Andre Fleury thanking his post each side. And he actually thanks them in French and in English. And they asked him why. And he says, I'm not sure where they were made. If they were made in Canada or America. So he thanks them in both languages.

And back to the TNT stuff. Sarah Nurse made her debut with you the other night oh my god awesome great great great woman great gal great hockey player and she killed it on the on the TNT broadcast Canadian royalty she fit right in I hope we get her back soon and you know sometimes it's difficult with five up there because there's not enough to go around, but there was, and it was great. So she crushed it. I know she's been doing a lot of work up north. That was her first TNT broadcast and first of many for sure. So we did a demo.

We really got to touch it all. And, of course, having Hank there, it was a special night for sure. This week coming up, we have Jans. So myself and Jans will be sharing the desk. Finally, they get you two together. Yeah. But I've been very fortunate. I've gotten to work with Hank.

I've gotten to work with Army and now Jans and, of course, Sarah Nurse, Jen Botterill. So it's fun getting different people in there to snap the seat around. All right, folks. Before we continue, I need to talk to you about our ticket sponsor, the best in the business, Game Time. This is an exclusive ticketing partner of Barstool Sports. It's created by fans for fans. GameTime is the ticketing app that makes it easier than ever to score last-minute deals on tickets to sports, concerts, and shows. Anywhere you want to go, any event you want to be a part of, GameTime is the spot to get there.

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The best, easiest way to get into any event or game you ever want to be a part of. H-I-C-L-E-T-S for $20 off your first purchase. Game time. The best, easiest way to get into any event or game you ever want to be a part of. Check it out now. One other thing. I got a little bone to pick with Minnesota fans. They get a little bit sensitive. I've been giving them double wristers for the last month here on the podcast. I say one thing about being a small market and I have people breathing down my neck and dms i went and looked

at the forbes list the 22nd valued franchise at 850 million i'm not saying that doesn't mean small market i okay all right do you want to step in i'm not saying they don't sell tickets they're second in attendance but the point i was making is for a team like that to make playoffs and go a couple rounds is big for them to make money they're 22nd on the values values of franchises that's I consider that a small market based on the value of what your team is I'm not saying you don't sell out I'm not saying that you're not the state of hockey I'm not saying that your fans are not passionate about hockey I'm simply saying that you might be considered a small market when looking at everything else. R.A., can I get a little backup here? Oh, man, you're going to make me sound like the

Witt dog here, besides when I hit the Witt dog. God damn it, R.A. I mean, small markets. I don't look at franchise values. Sorry, R.A., go ahead. No, no, exactly. That's what I was going to say. I don't think it's about franchise values. Minnesota, St. Paul, they have four major sports there. They're two major cities. The population between the two of them is, I think, 800,000, which is more than Boston. It's not a tiny market.

Even if the value is lower than you expect it to be, I don't think I see it as a small market team. We think of maybe Nashville. It's always cities that only have like one or two sports. Buffalo, Nashville, maybe Houston you'll throw in there. Well, no, not Houston. Take that back. Kansas City, maybe.

Those to me are small market teams. Any city that has four major sport teams in it, I think it's tough to call them a small market team. Okay. I think it's fair to say they're not a big market team though. Okay. I don't think they're small market. Oh, they're a mid-market team You're fucking blowing your workout, buddy.

I'm just saying. Holy shit. I mean, they're not small, but they're also not big. I think they're in the middle. You better start fucking chucking some weights around. I'm going to need some backup in these parts, motherfucker. You guys can spot each other doing your bench presses. Sorry, Minnesota.

Sorry. I probably can't even go to the high school hockey tournament now. I've been fucking banned from the state of hockey because I called it a fucking small market. Billy G will come back on the podcast now. He's going to have Luke Skywalker blow my fucking brains out. Nice. I like that reference, Biz. Yeah.

I love you, buddy. All right. Moving right along. Hey, I got to say, we pick on the NHL here and there when they screw up but Saturday was awesome man if you get out of bed what I do put the TV on from 1 o'clock in the afternoon to 1 o'clock at night we had 12 hours of NHL games no breaks in between unless

other than the admissions and it was unreal fantastic day we gotta talk about the Rangers Pittsburgh that was the prime time game on another network ABC third time in seven days the Penguins and Rangers played each other. Rangers absolutely dumbed them, 6-0. Then they destroyed, what was it, Preds next

day. The Rangers, man, you guys call them Fegazies. They're pretty much locked into that playoff spot. I have called them the Surrealsies. I didn't finish, and you did a take back. You took it back later, but I mean, is this team, is anybody going to be afraid of them? Shesterkin is back to the level he has.

They got Kane and Pinero with that chemistry. I don't know, man. They're looking even better than they were a month ago. I kind of shriveled myself in this conversation because at the start, the first two or three games of Kane, I said, give it time, give it time. And then I think the next episode, last week, I mentioned, oh, maybe too many cooks in the kitchen, all that thing going on. Wrong.

I was wrong. But I was also right because we gave it a little time. I think Kane now is like seven or eight points in eight or nine games. Like he's figured it out. He looks great. That team is unbelievable right now. And last year I was kind of all over them, or not kind of, I was. This year, as the season's gone on, I would say more than being negative, I've been saying this team can win the Stanley Cup. Shesterkin was

having an off year. All of a sudden, now it's like, all right, if he plays like this, the whole league's in trouble. I'll tell you right now, the Keiondre Miller is, this guy is something else. The only defenseman in Rangers history to have four points in one period, Sunday versus the Preds. He skates like the wind. I think he's at 40 points already, if not there, just underneath. So you have Fox, you have this power play specialist. Lindgren isn't even playing right now. He comes back. He's the playoff warrior. Yeah, nobody is afraid of them. When they look like this and that building gets going, you were at the game against Pittsburgh.

When that building gets humming, I've said many times, it's near impossible to win there, no? It was absolutely bananas in there. After every goal, just a, hey, hey, it was so fucking loud. It seemed like a playoff game. When Kane first came over, Keiondre Miller was coming off the suspension of you know three games uh the spitting in Dowdy's face incident which got cleared up and they they hashed it out we don't

need to dive into that but he was such a big component of that back end you mentioned the fact that they don't even have uh Lilgren right now that guy's an absolute fucking honey badger so when he gets in that's just going to elevate the back end even more Shosturkin's playing out of his mind and looks like he did last season. And all of a sudden Panarin and Kane, that chemistry's coming back. And if you're fucking in that Eastern Conference, you do not want to draw them first round right now. Especially if you're in the New Jersey Devils

and the way that some of their guys are looking and how they're starting to teeter off. They're the for realsies. And I'm going to go as far as saying this and i'll tell you all you rangers fans are still sending me messages like oh the fugazi the fugazi well you haven't been paying attention to the podcast because i've been stroking them off ever since they picked up kane and i'm this fucking close to jumping on that bandwagon so shut the fuck up i said before them my biggest bet of the first round is them beating the devils i think they're gonna spank the devils

not not necessarily a sweep but i think that is a rangers win now ideally they would have home ice i don't think they're gonna be able to catch them but that team yeah it's a special group right now and and when you get things going like this it's just like if they're in some sort of rhythm and to get in a rhythm right before playoffs is a scary scary thing can i just say real quick guys biz is mortal enemy number one around msg every single person some of those losers every kid that came up to me i talked to james dolan's son at one point every single every single person in there was like fuck biz every people would just walk by me and be like fuck this and that grinelli and i'm like hey i think he's rooting for you guys

now i think he's a for realsie guy now okay then i'll say this i think they're fugazis tell cowbell lady i'll fucking sucker her i don't give a shit that then you know what we get the owner son dog and biz i'll say this the penguins suck like really suck and the predators didn't have yosi or sorrow so let's settle down on the three big wins you guys had okay you didn't even beat anyone that good we'll go we'll just turn it back around the other way now so completely unlike the atlantic in the east the the race for that first spot is going to be so important because if you're carolina new Jersey, or New York, you just don't want to have that 2-3 matchup

because that's just going to be so hard. I mean, I guess at this point, you also don't maybe want to drive the Islanders, and especially if Florida gets in the way that they're humming. Pittsburgh looks like ass. I don't know if we were planning on to get into them right now, get in there right now, but talk about a season squandered if they don't end up making the playoffs Sidney Crosby 18 straight

seasons averaging over a point per game with that big three playing the way they are them not getting goaltending and them getting worse on the fence and getting older why did they get rid of Matheson why did they get rid of marino why did they really get no help at the deadline i get that they got benino back and maybe adjusted a little bit on that bottom six but talk about a fucking absolute colossal colossal deadline if they end up fizzling out and not making playoffs and now it's time that they would miss playoffs since Crosby's first year. And now Marcus Pettersson, who's been their best defenseman, basically, he's out. Petrie's out again.

Jan Ruud is out. So it's just, it's like things cannot get, and Jari can't stop the puck. They play Ottawa tonight, Monday night. It's like, Jari's starting again. I think he's been pulled four times in the last two weeks or something like that. R.A., have you been watching any of the Penguins games? Just even talking to Colby Armstrong, who works with them a little bit, he just says they look like they got nothing in the tank.

They got no punch, no burst. They're not really getting contributions from guys that they've expected. And if anything he like i know he works for the team but he's like the way they're playing i wouldn't be shocked if they end up missing playoffs yeah i have seen them they were on that national tv sunday like i mentioned earlier they play the rangers three times in a week and then of course uh saturday night uh you know tristan jari i think everybody is waiting for him to come back to Smith. This is obviously his backup. His last 11 starts, an 863 save percentage of 4.17 goals against, pulled four times. I mean, that's not even close

to what a number one should be. So they just have problems all over the place. I mean, Jeff Carter, you know, obviously a veteran Stanley Cup winner, and the media has been all over Sully for putting him in the lineup continually. And he gave like a passionate two-minute defense. It was over two minutes of an answer that he gave to the press defending why he's putting Jeff Cotter in. So, yeah, there's a lot of things going on there. The fans decide to get pissed off, although that's probably irrelevant to the front office.

But they do have eight of their last 13 games of versus non-playoff teams that probably will benefit them a little bit. But they're vulnerable right now, and I think the Panthers could possibly catch them. I've been watching majority of Panthers game, Panthers games, excuse me. They're fucking home crowd right now. I'm so happy that that hockey is flourishing in South Florida the way it is.

Because even last year, I want to say at the beginning of the year, they weren't drawing particularly well compared to how they were playing. All those crazy comebacks. I want to say that last year they set an NHL record in comebacks. I ended up checking out that game and live betting it against New Jersey when they were down 2-0 after 2 the other day, and they come storming right back. And I know we put the clown nose on Bill Zito early on.

He's looking like a fucking genius right now. Why are you all always laughing? He's going to say, I didn't do that. You guys did. early on he's looking like a fucking genius right now why are you always laughing he's gonna say i didn't do that you guys did well i mean is he a genius they're not in the playoffs it's march 20th fair coming from the president's trophy to potentially missing playoffs yes he would still have a clown nose on but getting rid of wieger and seeing what brandon montour is doing right now offensively i want to say you mentioned him last Whit. He's like three or four points away right now from setting a franchise record for points by a defenseman.

Guess who's number one? He ends. He. He. So all of a sudden, he's going to pass him, and he's having a monstrous year. So overall, a very, very exciting team to watch right now. They look a lot like they did last year.

I think a big reason for that too is getting duke getting du clare back he's added a lot to the lineup he had a 30 goal year last year and on on top of that i know we had the kodak black incident last year he ended up meeting future after one of the last couple games he's put up a post are you a big future guy uh yeah i have a bunch of bets, like R.A. No, Future the rapper. Oh, no, I don't know him. Oh, well, he got to meet him after the game.

I thought that was pretty cool. I guess you guys aren't into the hip-hop tunes that much. Hey, do you guys remember, I don't know what year it was, when Taylor Hall dragged the New Jersey Devils into the playoffs and won MVP. Yeah. If they get in, how do you keep Kachuk off the final three for MVP? Runner up. He's runner up at the MVP. This is, I mean, granted they had seven goals in the first period against Montreal.

The craziest first period in NHL history, seven to three at the end of the first, finished 9-5. I think he had four points that night. It's basically, you say, dragging him into the fight. There's Connor McDavid, and then most valuable to his team is Matthew Kachuk next. It's unbelievable. And then you see his brother Brady with the two late goals. I think they still lost to Toronto, but he scored the late two goals to get that they still lost to Toronto, but he scored the late, you know, two goals to get that into overtime. Too little too late for Ottawa this year,

but Matthew Kachuk, he's a finalist for the heart. Hey, and Bobbo is starting to make some saves, so look out. If they start getting some goaltending with the way that offense can snap it around, fucking look out, baby. All right, Chicklets fans, it's time to talk to you about a beer that's near and dear to my heart I know I like Big Deal Brew But I also love Labatt Blue Light And you guys know

There's a little bit of Canadian kindness In every sip of Labatt Blue Light How did it get in there, you ask? They're Canadian That's how You could spread the love yourself by sharing a Labatt And when you share a Labatt You're not just sharing a beer.

You're sharing an experience that'll pair with anything from hockey to hoedown. That's right. Even hoedown. So the next time you're watching the hockey game with your buds, be sure to share a Labatt. Because while you might not all root for the same team, you can all enjoy a nice, crisp Labatt blue light. Labatt. The pristine Canadian Pilsner. Yeah, he started the last 12 games, actually. He finished all but one, going 8-3-1.

The outscoring of the other team is goals against 8, the best. But right now, they're winning. The team has managed to hang around all year. Like I said, eight out of the last 13 for them against non-playoff teams. That's a beneficial thing for the Panthers, but if you're up top, you know, one or two seeds, are you Larry maybe catching the Panthers first round of say the Bruins?

I talked to a couple buddies, diehard Bruins fans like, who do you want? You want the Islanders? You want Pittsburgh? You want Florida? They all said the last team they want is Florida. Now for me, the Islanders with Sorokin might be a little bit more dangerous. That would kind of be the team I wouldn't want to face.

But I guess Florida's offense is that scary where it's like, I don't want to play them first round. Yeah, I'd be leery. Put it that way. I mean, they're able to play at a high pace. But for me, it's like even you mentioned Bobrovsky playing better now. It's still Bobrovsky. He still gonna suck a few in and so I think the Bruins would get by him no problem but I don't know I do not know if they even are able to pull this out right now if you're betting I don't see how they the Penguins get in over them and the Penguins

schedule yeah their last two games I think are Columbus. But I think their next three, Ottawa tonight, and then they have Dallas and Colorado. They're not winning those games. And they're on the road, I think, too. John, going back to that stat, though, Yans in the 18-19 season, he finished with 62 points, nine goals, 53 assists. And right now, Montour is on pace to break that. 67 games played, nine goals, 53 assists. And right now Montour is on pace to break that. 67 games played, 12 goals, 46 assists for 58 points. Snapping it around. Snapping it. So well done, Florida.

And shout out to that fan base who's having a lot of fun down there. And, yeah, the team the Rangers are chasing, the Carolina Hurricanes, huge two points. It was pretty much miraculous. They got a goal with.3 seconds left and then Ajo won it 28 seconds in OT. Big win for a Canes team. They had two huge losses. They lost Svechnikov and what's his name, Paci already

over the last month. People started to think maybe they don't have what it takes. I think we were just saying you want to avoid the rags, but the Flyers, that's the team they beat. They had a fan gathering at front of Comcast. What's the word I'm thinking of?

Protest. Was that a real, were those real people? Those weren't built in a lab to be like, hey, let's build some Philly people in a lab and see what they're actually like. Those people were human beings. Those guys, they actually run the app that Fletcher was consulting for trade.

Actually, let's roll the clip of them having a little powwow outside the arena. Think Fire and Chuck was enough? Fuck you. Fire Comcast. Sell the team! Sell the team! Sell the team! Sell the team!

When you're paying Rasmus Ristolano like $5 million for the next like five years, that's when you know you got to get the fuck out fuck out it's been what 1974 since we won a cup everyone says oh we're spoiled we went to the super bowl last year well what happened we lost we went to the fucking we go to the playoffs we lose we lose we lose this titty is tired this titty so there you have it philly's finest and uh you know they're not happy right now, and they want to put a pack of Newports in and then purchase the team off Comcast. So I think that that'll probably get the deal done. And if you heard the audio or you just did hear the audio,

please, you've got to put a visual. You've got to put a face to these voices because it makes it 10 times better. Yeah, picture the movie FUBAR, and maybe what's the NFL draft movie? Joe Dirt. Yeah, Joe Dirt. Mix a little Joe Dirt in there. What's the NFL draft movie? Joe Dirt. Yeah, Joe Dirt. Mix a little Joe Dirt in there.

What's the NFL draft movie with Kevin Costner? Giraffe Day. Oh, well, there you go. Mix that in. That's kind of like a nice little collab they got going. All right, over to the West. Biz, since January 1st, the top seed in the West has changed a dozen times. Vegas is currently there right now with 92 points.

8-2 in March. They've got a lot of balance scoring, 11 there right now with 92 points. 8-2 in March. They've got a lot of balance scoring. 11 forwards with at least 11 goals. Eichel had a hat trick the other night. 54 points in 57 games now. Injuries have made them use five goalies, but they're getting it done. This latest kid, Yerry Patera, stopped 65 out of his first 70 shots. First two starts in the NHL. They got John Quick, won four out of his first five. Eight out of their last 12 over his playoff teams they got la again on april 6th which vegas is uh strongest point in the weakest point heading the playoffs you want to know what their strongest point is a guy i've talked about on this podcast numerous times

sean burke the goalie whisperer every fucking time he goes to a team he helps out their goaltending situation and what's he doing in vegas right now with that carousel he instills the confidence in them and they go out there and they fucking help win games he turned logan thompson to an all-star or at least help he was in montreal when carrie price had that run do i need to name all the fucking goalies in arizona that he helped change his whole career mike smith all of them all ilia brrizgalov you name it he's done it Sean Burke deserves a position in management at some point in the National Hockey League he is an intelligent hockey mind

and he's fucking helped that goaltending there given the shit show that it has been over the last what 10 months but congrats to them man they figured it out love their back end as far as the Western Conference as a whole i think it's any one of those top i think it really anybody that's a chip in a chair if you get a man i disagree i think maybe maybe aside from seattle but you don't know if they're getting landy back

and you don't know how exhausting maybe it's been on the top three for colorado dragging their team in the playoffs it doesn't look exhausting right now. Okay, listen, if they get Eric Johnson back, if they get Manson back and they get Landy back, yes, look out. I think they're the top seed heading in, even regardless if they land as the top seed. But you can't sleep on Vegas because they got a great back then. They're getting the goaltending.

If Stone comes back and they get their health, they got good guys up front. They got a lot of guys who can play. LA, the team I've been blowing all fucking year, nine guys with at least 10 goals, four guys with at least 20. They got goaltending. They got a good back end. That whole fucking division is riled

up. Can't count out Dallas. And I know Dallas fans have been barking because we haven't been talking enough about them. It is a chip in the chair. The only team I don't take seriously. And the reason I say that is probably their best player all season long, Maddie Beneers, after talking to a couple scouts. And this is a conversation we can get into a little later, is there's a little bit of burnout. He hasn't been himself over the past five to 10 games. He's just, man, we talk about these college guys and not used to the workload your rookie year getting the adjustment it's hard man and he's been tremendous and they also don't have proven goaltending and you look at their back

end and you're kind of like so any any team there and buddy calgary calgary or nashville might sneak into this thing as uh as winnipeg's leaking oil. Chip in a chair in the West, it's anyone's game. And a hot take here, I think it's the year of the goaltender in the West. It's always the year of the goaltender in the playoffs. Year of the goaltender. Year of the goaltender. Well, Winnipeg, I think Winnipeg's 5-13 in their last 18 games.

It is just, it's gone so cold and so ugly there that I wouldn't be surprised. And you mentioned Dallas. We don't give him any credit. Go look at the highlights from the wild game that Calgary and Dallas played where Jason Robertson, I think he got his 40th of the year in overtime. Beautiful goal.

So good. And it just turns into a team that definitely doesn't get discussed enough. I don't know what it is. I guess it's on us, but it's kind of on the whole league. Just Dallas is a great team that just doesn't really get talked about, but you're right. They have a chance. It's just for me, that conference, what McKinnon is doing. McKinnon is second in the league in points per game this year. He hasn't played all the games. He's still a top 10. Yeah, I think he's top 10 in the league in points. Been on

this run, I think he's just about two points per game in around his last 15 ish, but it's like, if he's playing like this, Rotten is going to get 50 goals. Yes, without Landis Kog, I don't know if they can win the Stanley Cup. They can certainly win the West. Rotten is about to get the quietest

50 goals in an NHL season. I saw the ID at 46. I was like, what? Oh, yeah. I knew it. 46 goals. You never even hear him mentioned. R.A., you had some stats you were going to tee up there, right?

Yeah, absolutely. Yeah. What just mentioned the Nate dog. He's eighth in points, 30 goals, 58 assists. He's got 88 points in 57 games. The rest of the top 10, every guy has played at least 66 games. The 1.5 full points per game, second to McJesus, 1.91. Nate Dogg currently on an 18-point streak with six goals, nine assists,

has a point and at least 17 of 18, third among forwards in ice time. I mean, he's playing like the MVP that he is. He's stepping up. The Mistolander, the other guys you mentioned, he's playing like an MVP as well. To go back to Dallas, what you just mentioned, Robo. This kid is so fucking awesome to watch. He's a winger. He drives the play on that line.

41 goals he's got. He's a playmaker as well, an elite player, but also, I mean, what do I got here? Oh, you just mentioned rookies. Where is it? Wyatt Johnson. This kid, 20 goals. He's 19 years old.

I think he's center on the second line. Absolutely incredible. What else?'s center on the second line. Absolutely incredible. What else? Blind as a bat here. You're buzzing, Stack, I rear. You're buzzing right now. Dude, honestly, I've been pounding Dallas with the bets lately. And that Calgary the other night was a huge winner I gave out, by the way. Miro Haskin

in all over the place. They just got an unreal team. And last year, I think we criticized them for being a little bit of a boring team, maybe. Whenever Pete DeBoer changed around X's and O's, I'm not really an X's and O guy, but they're a much more exciting team to play. And of course, in net, they have a bonafide number one, Steve Archer, the auto, I'm sorry,

Jake Archer, the auto. Cat is coming out, potting the playoffs last year. This kid's legit. I don't know, man. This is going to be a tough team to beat. They're stacked in all areas. I would want to face them in the first second or third round another great building actually the business tell you what there's there's times throughout the regular season maybe like that that building it's loud but it's not always completely full i could be wrong on that but when the team's really good and playoffs come around that place is ridiculous so another place that's hard to play

and with a team this good you know the crowd's going to be into it yeah it's a wide open race in the west my whole thing is you guys are sleeping on the cup champs that that's my thought process on this one wait oh okay i thought you were going to chime in with your squad because talk about a perfect opportunity for connor mcdusty and dion dry sidle to step up and finally get past that. And Anson Carter on our TNT call actually compared it to when Sid and Olvey first came to the league. I feel like McKinnon and McDusty have taken over that one-two punch almost, right? But thankfully, they actually get to meet in the conference finals

if it all works out, as opposed to meeting in the division finals, which is the second round. So it could be a matchup of those two teams meeting again. That's if the goaltending for the Oilers don't fuck it up. You want to hear a crazy Oilers stat I heard today? Yeah, let's hear it. So Zach Hyman scored his 30th goal. They're the only team in the league with four 30-goal

scorers. McDusty, Nuge, Leon, and Hyman. Hyman is 30 years old. He became the oldest Oilers player to ever score 30 in a season. No shit. Yeah, because they were just so young

and running around and winning all those cups that i was shocked by that i couldn't believe it but yeah oldest oldest player to ever get 30 is zach hyman this year at 30 years old and all of a sudden you got evander kane humming now with the confidence of the hat trick he actually just uh he did a gender reveal he did uh on the ice he's having another boy. So good for him. Congrats. It's nice to see. I got the jersey.

It seems like that city just really embraced him and made him feel at home there. So it's good to see, man. It's good to see. What do you think about that, Whit? I just love where the Oilers are at. The only frustrating thing is they'll have two unreal games and then a stinker. And then they'll have another two unreal games. Here we go.

Here we go. Five out of six, seven out of eight, and another stinker. So it seems like the engine's chugging along two steps forward, one step back. You just want to be able to see the run that you need to go on once the playoffs happen, which they were able to do last year. I mean, granted, they had to deal with the shitbag flames in the second round. That was nothing. But the goaltending's the question mark.

Campbell, I think, is playing next game. I don't know if that's correct. That's going to be at the Mullet Arena, isn't it? On Wednesday, TNT broadcast against my Coyotes. Who, by the way, like, how are they so good? What the fuck? Because it's the magic at the Mullet, baby. All these players are going are they so good? What the fuck? Because it's the magic at the mullet, baby. All these players are going out to Mill Abnight before the game.

They're going to the lagger triangle. Just a horrible time to be this good, but you can't. It is. I mean, they're out of the race, I guess, for first overall. If they end up getting, can you imagine the conspiracy theories if they end up getting it? Oh, my goodness. Oh, my God.

That would be beautiful. Just watching the house burn down. But, yeah, they're up getting it. Oh my goodness. That'll be beautiful. Just watching the house burn down. But yeah, they're playing too well. But credit to the coach, credit to those players, and fucking Clayton Keller, man. What a season. Happy for that guy. BU Terrier, BU Hockey, Hockey's champs. On to the NCAAs. So

the Coyotes have kind of fucked themselves while also... Since we're already on the topic, congratulations to Josh Doan. He ended up signing his NHL deal. Oh, he left? After two years, he dominated. He had an excellent end to the second season here. And hopefully he ends up getting a couple games at the end of the year

at the mullet so fans can get a taste of the next generation. Second round draft pick, lit up college. So happy for him. He was captain pick, lit up college, so happy for him. He was captain in his second year too, so he's got that leadership, just like our boy Shane. Before we go any further, I want to talk to you guys about Pizza Hut and the Big New Yorker. Delivered by Pizza Hut. Pizza Hut is bringing back the Big New Yorker. It's bigger and cheesier with six. Yes, that's right. Six extra large foldable slices.

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It will be a must-watch. You'll have to tune in to see Pizza Hut live in action. But until then, make sure to check out The Big New Yorker today. Go to PizzaHut.com to order The Big New Yorker. Baz, I wanted to ask you about Barrett Hayton. He was held goalless in his first 27 games of the season, only three points. In his last 43 games, he has 34 points,

14 goals, 20 assists. Just an unreal second half for the 2018 fifth overall pick. Do you see him next season and going forward actually being able to step into this role as a top six forward? Yeah. First of all, he's had a great second half to the year. I think it helps

a lot that he's been playing with Schmaltzy and Kels quite a bit, and he's been earning his confidence that way. He did go down to the minors last year and was able to get the reps on the top two lines. Really didn't have much of that in the ice time that he probably needed in order to keep developing early days. But it's awesome to see he's uh he's deceivingly fast i i compare his skating stride a lot to eichel's where it doesn't look like he's moving the fastest but because he because of the type of stride he has but always has his head up a very deceiving shot too and he also has this uh this patience that you can't teach so where sometimes he gets it in the slot and he'll

take that extra split second with it where he freezes the goalie and then he'll just let it zip and boom it's fucking bar down so he's got a lot of skills and a lot of intangibles also came in knowing the game 200 feet where he was good 200 feet in junior so for for the coyotes sake man i hope he keeps evolving because they do have some young guys in the pipeline that look really really good aside from schmaltzy and kells like that michelli guy he's like a little lionel messi out there just making plays fucking between the legs backhand sauce whatever you want to say so between between all those guys it's it's been very impressive and with with cooley coming up who's another big guy that they've drafted?

I want to say there's one other name that I'm missing here. And then on top of hopefully they get a top three pick this year, which would make a drastic change, and then all of a sudden you have all these guys. So it's an interesting time in the desert right now, along with Josh Doan. So we got the donor blood back in the organization, so you know things are looking up.

Like I've been saying for years, man, players don't tank, and this Coyotes team is the perfect example of that. 20-11-3 at home. I believe it's a third or fourth best record in the conference, an eight-game point streak, so it's great to watch. Also, they have 65 points. They need just one more to hit the over for regular season points prop that a bunch of

sites had so i don't know it's good stuff out there hopefully they get that arena biz because you know we know that they supported them way back on the phoenix days before they had to go out to glendale so keep on chugging coyotes and wait uh and wait till they fucking dummy wits oilers on the tnt broadcast you want action on that oh what. What am I getting here? I'll give you $1,000 if Arizona wins. You give me $650 if Edmonton wins. Darre, talk to me. Is that good? That's probably a little bit too rich for my blood.

Minus $1,000 plus $650 the other way. Is that what you said? Did I hear that right? Yeah, he'd get $1,000. I would jump all over that, Biz. Yeah. I mean, you don't have to put it. It's me giving you good odds.

Yeah, you don't have to put Like a dime on it But I would you know I'd take a flyer on it What's $6.50 to you? Seriously It's a lot It's a lot It's a lot

It's a two weeks worth of groceries That's what that gummy bear That gummy bear vase Behind you cost How about I put that up And then if I'm gonna It's not a gummy bear

I got a toilet tray And wire it So that'd be perfect to use Okay I'll get back to you I'll get back to you On the bet I'll get back to you On the bet I got a toilet train wire, so that'd be perfect to use. Okay. I'll get back to you on the bet. I'll get back to you on the bet at the end of the pod. I'm a cheapo.

All right. Let's see. Marty St. Louis, he scratched Jonathan Drouin for Saturday's game in Tampa because he missed a meeting. But because Montreal had to address a minimum amount of guys due to the injury to defenseman Caden Goulet, they actually had to address in he sat on the bench did play one second had to sit there for the whole what a couple hours never got on the bench I'm sorry never got in the ice I don't know you ever see I've been on a team with any uh situation like that either one of you guys like where a guy just stapled to the bench for the whole game yeah 2010 Olympics uh yours truly just

sitting there being an absolute cheerleader for the boys no i actually heard uh st louis prescoff it's after it was it was exactly what you'd expect from a former mvp hall of fame legend that's now coaching it was like hey this kid fucked up i know i'm being looked at in terms of how i respond to it i can't just let it slide he was very complimentary about Druin and the season he's had. I mean, he has one goal, so I'm sure it's a little disappointing, but he said he's been good for us this year. I get along with him real well, but that's something that isn't going to fly. And if I ever coach, it'd be the same thing. If there's one thing I ask of you, it's to be on time for meetings. If you miss a meeting or you're late to a meeting, you're

going to pay a punishment. I was clear with him on why he wasn't playing and we have no issues moving forward. So it's kind of a nothing burger, but it also shows that you have to hold guys accountable. I mean, that's just how it is. It's no different than an office job. You got a big meeting at work and you miss it or you show up 30 minutes late, there's going to be some sort of punishment you should pay. And if there isn't a punishment, that's when everyone else looks around and says, what the fuck's going on here? What kind of leadership is this? So I think it makes total sense. Were you ever late for a meeting? I can't say I was ever late for a meeting. I think I was late for a bus one time, but it was my dad's fault. And then he got on the media bus, so he

didn't have to face the wrath. But no, I't ever remember being late for for a meeting i almost missed pregame skate one time i think i've told the story in the podcast we were in edmonton and i knew i was a health bomb the next day so i went out with boyd gordon who was on the ir and we uh we went to that new cactus club that they put up in edmonton at jasper ave and you know the rockets that they get in that one maybe maybe not so much anymore but when they first open them, they send in the best of the best to go open it. And then they would put, um, they would put those Victoria secret runway shows year after year after year, just on, on, they would put them on loop.

So we sat there and drank about three, four bottles of J-Lore wine. And I woke up to my phone going off it was jason service my trainer calling and there was red wine puke all over the floor race to the rink got there 10 minutes before the boys were on the ice obviously had missed the pre-game meeting and had to do the whole pre-game skate i was still buckled i was so drunk and then uh and then uh got bagged for a full hour after by myself with with our assistant coach so that was hell but tip was so cool about it he called me and he goes hey he goes you guys were you up with gordo last night i was like yeah and because he because he

had told me i wasn't playing so i already knew so he's like i gotta make an example out of you so he was cool about it i didn't end up missing any other games other than the healthy scratch i was supposed to be and uh got a little bag skate out of it if he really wanted to punish you you should have made you play buddy fuck you first of all every time we were in edmonton when i did play i would i would usually get a point i had one of my best games ever in edmonton most ice time i ever got in a regular season game and it was sec i was second star two assists two assists 11 just over 11 minutes and it was the the the next day we were back in arizona the first time i was ever able to take my optional oh you must have felt like a superstar i felt like i was wayne

oh yeah yeah yeah foam rolling as they're coming off yeah just acting like you walk into the power play meeting they're like whoa it wasn't that good settled down oh okay sorry so that was one time i miss me when i first got to the coyotes there were actually two pre-game meetings where i'd missed the bus and i'd slept into my alarm and the guys brought me out my gitch bag like this is like two hours before we're going on the ice for a fucking game game. So Jovo ended up saving my bacon on that one. I remember one was in Buffalo. I forget where the other one was. And this is when I first got into the team.

So they were like, what the fuck is wrong with this guy? He's late for every goddamn meeting. Warning. This product contains nicotine. Nicotine is an addictive chemical. This segment of Spittin' Chickens is presented by the one and only nicotine pouch that's helped millions achieve lasting change, Zinn Nicotine Pouches. What makes Zinn so special? Well,

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But Biz, the big news out of Quebec this week wasn't NHL related. Quebec Major Junior Hockey League is going to ban fighting starting next season. They got a new commissioner, never played hockey, doesn't have a hockey history, Mario Ciccini. He instituted a ban on fighting basically to change the culture. That's what he's saying. His quote, I think we need to adjust at least on the things that have been discussed like fighting and hazing. I don't know what those two things have to do with each other. But the governors of the league voted on a new rule that would see players involved in a fight given a game misconduct uh details still going to be hammered out whether it's going to be consideration given one guy defending himself or whatever but i don't know what are

the ramifications going to be for the juniors in canada going forward is it's going to have a ripple effect toward the nhl biz uh what's your take on all this it seems i think i don't know i think it's dumb but no shocker from the softest junior league on the planet where guys are just diving all over the place. I think Q is the softest league of the bunch. I think it's dumb. And listen, I've been adamant about the knuckle draggers and getting them out of the game. Right? The organic stuff that happens should stay in the game.

The days of guys lining up and fighting each other 25 times in a year or getting 25 fights is over. And I'm happy that that's the case. But what type of message are you saying when all of a sudden there's no fighting in a league where there's already enough rats running around as it is? There should be self-policing and consequences to those types of players running around and doing like that. And if you're saying, Biz, some of these guys are 16 years old. Well, yeah, if a 19, 20-year-old's running around the ice chasing down a 16-year-old, you can still discipline them. You're going to do it anyway.

But not allowing them to fight at least once before they have punishment is the most ridiculous thing I've ever heard. And when I heard it, I said it was somebody who never played hockey who made the decision. Sure enough, you just said it with your opening statements there. And I wouldn't be shocked if the government got involved in Quebec. That's how fucking soft it is over there. They got nothing else to worry about except for junior hockey. So it's a joke. It's dumb. I hope the other leagues don't do it. I think that if there's

a case where you want to punish guys in other leagues like they're doing, if you get like more than three or five fights, I think five fights in a 68 game season is a reasonable amount up to the max and after that if you want to start suspending them go ahead but i was 16 and i fought 19 20 year olds and i turned out all right right wit yeah yeah you're doing great. Yeah, right away, I was like, oh, Quebec League. I then said, if fighting's ever banned from the WHL, I'm done. That might be the sign that the apocalypse has come. The toughest junior league, maybe the toughest league in hockey history, the WHL, I could never see them getting rid of it.

The Sutter boys would drive their tractors all the way to parliament in canada in ottawa and and maybe part of the the whole trucker thing yeah the convoy would look like a you know like a lemonade stand compared to the the the fucking the sutter boys showing up my thing is is are we not in a pretty good place now in terms of fighting? Yes, exactly. I don't really understand. It changed a lot when the pre-setup fights got out of the league. The ones Biz is talking about, the arranged ones. The ones three seconds into the game when both fourth lines start for no reason other than just to get the crowd going or get the team going. Those are done.

Now we're at the point where fights, for the most part, come out of aggression and fury and anger and all the things that make hockey what it is. And those are the things that the fans still love. When you're looking at trying to change it, and now the Quebec League bans it,

I don't really know what step we're trying to take when I think the change has already happened. I think the change has already happened. I think the change that was needed has gone down. And you understand what guys have dealt with with concussions and CTE and all these things. And it's been addressed. So to continually try to just like get rid of it, it's like, all right, if there ever is no fighting, I guess they just do it through kids not fighting.

And then they get up to the NHL and then it's never even been a part of their lives. But you get to the NHL, and it's still part of it. Don't you want guys to know how to protect themselves and know how to be ready to get in a fight should they run someone over, which is another discussion out of the GM's meetings in terms of these fights after clean hits. That's something else we can talk about. But I don't really get the whole thing in terms of trying to completely gas it.

I mean, a lot of these guys are going to end up playing pro hockey where they're going to have to know what they're doing. So you're almost putting them at a disservice if you're not going to allow it to happen when they're playing junior. Yeah, I alluded to it a minute ago. I don't understand why they love fighting with Hayes. You got one thing which is sort of voluntary if you're on the ice versus something that guys know guys get pressured

into and they you know some pretty fucking disgusting stories we've heard over the years so I don't understand why they put them together like peanut butter and jelly they seem to have nothing to do with each other but. So less people would come back and argue about it. Yeah yeah I guess but. They lump it together like if you got a fucking hazing problem then figure

out the hazing problem. Yeah. What the fuck does it have to do with a guy going to the net and seeing Zach Goley, and then you want to pump his eyes shut? Yeah, exactly. Unrelated. Go ahead. No, I think the hazing thing's gotten way, way better. At least to what it used to be.

There should be none of it. I think we can agree on there. There should be none of it. Oh, yeah, I know. But now, compared to what it used to be, if there's anything even going on, there's no chance it's even remotely close to what we dealt with or heard about even prior to us playing hockey. It's like things are getting better. Things are kind of where they need to be.

The game's as good as it's ever been. So I don't really understand the whole getting fighting out of hockey. I don't see a time when there will ever be no fighting in the NHL. I hope I'm not alive for it. I think it would be the dumbest rule change the NHL would ever come up with if they eliminated fighting. 100%. I mentioned it earlier with the Bennington.

It's the only thing that's separating us from the other major sports. And what's on the rise i'm not saying i'm not saying ufc is like i'm not i don't want to compare it to that but people are gravitated towards fighting and it's an evolving sport where they're gaining more numbers and more numbers and people love it fuck they got they got that slap thing going on now what do they call that some shit that's a slap league that's a dog people want to see people want to see scraps and i think that we've gotten to a happy median and we're not seeing too much of it so let's keep it where it's at and everybody can keep having fun uh well boys i think uh it's about

time to go to a guy who probably wasn't too crazy about this new rule in quebec as well mike milbury this interview was brought to you by che Chevy. Chevrolet is a trusted company that has been innovating for the last 100 years. Up to now, most electric vehicles have either been too expensive, too small, and too limited in capabilities for most people. Chevrolet is committed to making EVs available for all Americans. There's a growing network of public charging stations. They have over 1,900 certified Chevy EV dealerships, and Chevy has convenient ways to research and shop EVs online. Chevy,

EVs for everyone, everywhere. Now, let's go on to the interview. Unreal Chad, about what, an hour and a half from his hockey career with the Bruins, his coaching career, all encompassing awesome stuff. So we're going to go to Mike Milbury right now. Okay, it's time to bring on our guest. This defenseman was never drafted, but went on to play 12 seasons for his hometown, Boston Bruins, playing in two Stanley Cup finals. He then went behind the bench to coach them for two seasons, reaching the Stanley Cup final in his first year. He then headed to Long Island where he served as head coach and general manager of the Islanders before moving over to television.

It's a pleasure to welcome to the Spittin' Chickens podcast, Mike Milbury. How you been, Mike? I'm doing okay. Are you officially retired at this point or what? I got a couple of little radio gigs going on with WEI and WMEX around here, so I'm not super busy, but, you know, keep keep my hand in it make a few bucks for vacation so it's it's good enough i mean i'd wish i was doing what nasty's doing over there you didn't get a severance package from nbc you know when it all came down they they paid out about another

year and a half of my contract just to keep me off the air and not sue them i wish they hadn't gave me i might have sued them got a lot more but at least i got my paycheck sounds like my playing career paying me not to play but hey i'll say this though this is much anticipated i can only imagine when we end up teasing this interview the amount of response we're going to get so uh we we usually like to start at the beginning beginning you've had a heck of a run in hockey. I mean, still a little bit involved as you mentioned. So typically we started off at the beginning. So how did you end up getting into hockey to begin with? Well, I'm a cheater. I played all sports, but just pond hockey until I was about 11. And my friends convinced me to try out for the peewee team.

And the peewee team was mostly picked. It was like 17 out of 20 kids already picked on the roster. So there was a whole bunch of us that were hoping for a spot on the roster, but with not many openings. So they cut the team into two different squads. One was clearly the A squad, and one was clearly the B squad. They sent me to the B squad, but while the coaches weren't looking, I slept around and got back to the A squad, and I made the team, and we won the state championship as a peewee. Your first year playing? My first year playing, yeah. So, that's how I'm a cheater. I'll probably tell you another cheating story in a little while.

That's how I got my start. Was this all with Walpole Town Hockey? Is that where you grew up? Yeah, it was. Walpole Town Hockey. It was none of these fancy programs now that you grew up with. It's just- Oh, that's insane.

And no private schools, no prep schools. It was just a simpler time. Would you just spend all night playing on the pond? I'd imagine growing up in Mass, it was probably pretty rough out there as well. And that's probably where you got part of your edge as a player. We had some great games on the pond. And the pond sometimes was frozen as early as October. And so you just get there and put the skates on the stick and head out and see who showed up for a game and it was um but it was always fun and he was always fun there were all levels of play but when i started to play peewee

then things got serious when you got into high school and started getting better and better like were you getting recruited by local teams around here i mean you ended up playing at colgate shout out colgate they made the ncaa tournament this this year but how did you end up going to that school it's kind of random for a guy around here although i guess wagner would disagree you know i was getting recruited more for football than i was for hockey no shit um so you know i had calls from yale and notre dame and other places i was uh you know pretty good set of hands tight end but i didn't really want to stay around the boston area i was looking for a change and And Colby flew me up there for a recruiting trip. And I don't know if you've ever been there, but it's a beautiful place.

It's in the middle of nowhere, but it's beautiful. And they kind of stole me on it, and away I went. We sucked all four years that I was there, but I did get to play. I was captain of the team in my final year. But here's my second cheating story. So I wasn't drafted, you mentioned, and I'm playing for the Colgate team at the Syracuse Invitational Tournament,

which we held every year. And there were a couple of pretty good teams in there, Michigan Tech, I guess Cornell. Anyway, somehow we won the first game of the tournament, which was an upset, but I played maybe 30 minutes of that game. I played a ton. And my mother happened to be in town. She was visiting to see me play and she had narcolepsy, which she treated with a little bit of dexedrine. So the day of the second game, I visited my mother and managed to sneak into her

bathroom at the hotel, picked out one of those little red tablets and popped it just about an hour before game time. Hit everything in sight. We lost the game, but that night I was put on a Bruins negotiation list and that's how I got my start in hockey. So thanks, mom. Wow. The story behind Cocaine Bear, the movie just released. I really didn't expect to get paid to play hockey. I really didn't. And there were a lot of guys at Colgate that snuck over to Europe and made a few bucks, but maybe just enough to buy a car when they came back.

But I got a call at the end of my senior year from uh john carlton who was scout for the bruins and he said you know we'd like to have you come up and play a few games for the brains the brains are still in the old boston garden uh about to leave but they were still there so i got called up and you know i got 100 bucks a game 50 of of which Harry took back because I got a fighting major. And there was no Harry paying for fines at that particular time. But I remember one game, we were playing Providence, and I was trying to make an impression. And it's a day when you could hit people with your stick and cross-check the crap bottom. And I cross-checked the guy into the neck, right into the crossbar.

You know when they had those big pegs so they didn't move at all? He just crushed. He went down. No penalty, except I went outside to see my mother, who was at that game as well. And she said, did you have to hit him so hard, Mike? Did you have to hurt him like that? And I said, get the fuck out of here.

Thanks, Mom. Did you have to hurt him like that? And I said, get the fuck out of here. Thanks, Mom. Anyway, so I didn't hear it from anybody after that season was over. And Greg Stoncher tells a story that he had a meeting for training camp, and one of my buddies from Colgate, John Hoff, knew Don from Rochester. He was from Rochester.

And he said, look out for this Milbury kid. He really works hard, and you'll like him. And apparently they went through the whole training camp roster and Grates who said he had a cold that day said, what about this Mulberry kid or whatever? And that's how I made my way onto the training camp roster. It was a very interesting experience to go there without you know anybody having any expectations for me i worked out like four times a day i was i was in still living in walpole i went north to stoneham to play with some other college guys in the morning came halfway back and did sprints at a public skating facility had a nap then lifted weights and ran in the evening. So by the time, and that was the time when guys weren't working out, right?

They were getting cheap. There was like a training camp was like six to eight weeks. So when I got there, I was way ahead of the curve. But I got to tell you, the first thing that struck me was it was Grapes' first year, and they had a tournament at bolton the international and there's heineken on silver buckets at lunchtime and then everybody goes and plays golf or tennis and they come back and and and just about everybody was plastered i was i couldn't believe it i mean i'm i had to get out of there. I had to take a cab home because I was afraid that I was going to join the group. But it was the next morning,

I go into the locker room. I'm on at the 10 o'clock hour, and I'm there at like 7.50. And I walked into the locker room, and there's Espo, you know, and he's fudging with his skates just before 8 o'clock. And I'm like hiding in the corner. I don't want to say anything to him. He's my hero. But then comes Orr. And he goes up to Espo and says, Phil, what the fuck are you doing? We didn't win the cup last year.

You know, there's a brand new coach here, and you're going to be late for the first thing in practice. Get your ass out there and get your ass out there now. I knew it was boss right away. It was just mind-blowing to see that exchange take place. practice get your ass out there and get your ass out there now i knew it was boss right away it was uh it was it was just mind-blowing to see that exchange take place and he didn't say a word back right like oh he was you know that italian wine started up right away oh well just get out there phil right but it was um a lot of people at training camp, a lot of bodies to battle.

One of them was Wayne Cashin. Did one scrimmage. We were facing off against one another. Puck came around the wall, like pinched down, hit him. Soon enough, the puck came right around the same side, pinched down, hit him again. Now he's a little pissed. Third time, he comes around, pinch down on him, and boom, up comes the stick. And not only does the stick come up, the stick comes over and it's turned

over. So the blade is pointing down. Now I know we were serious. Fortunately, guys stepped in, got out of the way. But anyway, so I went through training camp, played a few exhibition games for the B squad. And one of the last games I played exhibition games was in Springfield. And I'll never forget it because I wish I could think of the guy's name or remember the guy's name because I got to thank him. We had a power play and I certainly wasn't going to be on the power play, but I jumped out with a few seconds left. So we had five guys to their four and a fight broke out and I went over to Dunn Gibson who's one of our skill players and and somebody had grabbed him and I grabbed the other guy and the other guy started throwing punches at me and uh I had you know I listen I'd been in the stands a couple times at Colgate but no, but no fights there of very few.

So, when I started hammering him back and he stopped punching, I don't know what the hell he was thinking, but he just stopped punching. And I looked like the toughest mother in town. And that was a big step in the right direction for me. I was off to Rochester and about five, and about five, six games later, well into October, we were playing in Halifax. That was the home of the Canadiens farm team, but they had guys like Mario Trombley and Risebro were there. Pretty good team.

But Tom Johnson, who was the assistant general manager, took me up to the Chateau Halifax for a Moosehead beer and we negotiated a contract literally on a cocktail net and that's how my career got started. Did you even consider like, oh, I got to kind of call an agent or is it like, nope? No, no. I'll tell you what I did. At that time they had three-way contracts. They had NHL, AHL, and CHL. And so Tom tried to slip that one past me. I said, Tom, I said, Mr. Johnson probably was what I said. I said, I just came out of Colgate. I can make more money selling insurance or getting a job than I can in the CHL. I'm not putting that in my contract. So he took it up, which was my hard-nosed ability to negotiate with him. That's unbelievable.

Hey, I just want to back it up just a little bit. Like, what was your childhood like? And I know you didn't start playing travel until you said 11 years old. Was it a case of, like, your parents not being able to do the whole travel thing? Like, maybe it was lack of interest? Because we've had a few guys before who didn't pick it up until later on in life. Like, Joe Vernoski, I don't think, started until he was around 11, 12, ended up being first overall. They just worked travel teams. It was just the local program,

local talent program. And I grew up in East Walpole, seven kids. My father worked hard. He was a factory foreman for BF Goodrich. He also went to law school at BC at night. But I can tell you, Saturday was the happiest day of the week because he got paid on Friday, and then he was able to go grocery shopping on Saturday morning. He had no trouble finding recruits to carry him the groceries on Saturday. bologna and cheese but by wednesday the cupboard was pretty well bare but it was a you know as you can imagine with seven kids it was seven kids one bathroom oh one bath gonna get the guys out the door in the morning was kind of tough the sisters are all boys uh two sisters and i feel real bad for them having to smell your guys shits all the time well if you know my sister you real bad for them having to smell your guys' shits all the time. Yeah, well, if you know my sister, you'd feel bad for me. Oh, shit. Just take it. But we almost all died in a smoke fire.

My parents went out for like a New Year's Eve party, and they left the older kids in charge. And about one o'clock in the morning, my brother Will woke up to go to the bathroom, turned on the light switch, and it was completely black with smoke. And fortunately, he woke everybody up. They found out where to go. I don't know how they did it. They went downstairs and turned the furnace off. And then we opened the doors to let the smoke out. But these guys were so embarrassed that every time a car came by and saw the smoke, they closed the door again. They didn't want anybody to know.

When my parents get home, they saw seven kids all sitting around on the couch, all in blackface. That's what it really was, just all over the place. like in blackface since what it really was just all over the place by seven o'clock the next morning my mother had gone to the laundromat washed all of our clothes and we were at eight o'clock mass oh my god wow so it's a generation that's old school it was you know we we never went on vacation once in a while we went to the cape shared a place with some other family but uh our social life was built around East Walpole and the things we did there. We had a great park.

We had a great snack bar, actually, and that snack bar was frequented by Butch Sondland, who was the first coach, the first quarterback of the New England Patriots. And Butch used to corral me, and I would go and catch passes in the nearby athletic field for Butch Zombie. They saw his playbook was an old leather playbook that my coach actually used in Pop Warner football. It was all handwritten plays in a leather-bound notebook. It was white. Songans were big in the wall pool. They were athletes all the way.

But Butch went to BC and started there in hockey and football. So no shortage. Joe Morgan was a wall pole guy. No shortage of pretty good players coming out of there. Wagner now is not with the Bruins now. But it was a good sports team town and a good place to grow up. Going back to kind of becoming pro, and you mentioned that first fight

and thanking that guy for stopping fighting you, but you kind of, it sounded to me like it wasn't even necessarily in your mind, like, all right, to make it, I'm going to have to throw him. Like, did you kind of know that was the case, or was it more that one fight kind of led other people to believe this is going to be one of his roles? Because then you got to the NHL and you did it a lot.

I don't know. It just sort of came naturally. And I watched the Bruins. The Bruins were fighting everybody all the time. And, you know, they were role models in a good way back then. And I knew it was somebody my size, you know, I wasn't going to go unnoticed. I was 6'2", which 6'2", at that time, was a big guy. I was not a small guy.

But I will tell you, by the way, there were probably a handful of Americans in the game. Goddamn Canadians were, talk about prejudice, pissed me off. You know, I had guys come up to me at training camp like Bobby Schwartz and said, Slow down, kid, you're making us look bad. He also said, What did you do all summer? Work in a car wash? Because I wasn't tanned at all. But it was a struggle to get past, to get some respect from some of those guys. And some of it was gained by the fighting aspect of it, because I think people respected that at the time.

Mike, I want to go back to Bob. You're up for a second. I mean, your first season, it was only a few games. That was also his last season. So when he went to Chicago, what were guys in the room thinking? What were they saying? Did they have any clue what actually went down? a little bit eventually he'd get tired of doing that he'd slip it over to me and i'd pound it off the wall you know it was just to watch him play to be on the same pairing with him for just an hour was just i couldn't i couldn't believe it um but he was he was so special and i think around the team people knew that there were problems we didn didn't know until later. I mean, the story, you must have heard this story, Ryan, about Paul Mooney was the president of the club. A real asshole. I mean, really an asshole. And Bobby didn't want to have anything to do with him.

In fact, how big of an asshole was he? Well, you know the bull gang at the garden. The circus used to come to town, and the circus came to town one day after he had done something to piss off the bull gang, so they filled his car full of elephant shit. Like, that was great. You don't fuck with those guys. Don't mess with them. Anyway, apparently Bobby was on the bike riding, trying to get back in shape. And Paul Moody came down and said he wanted to talk to Bobby.

And Bobby said, I'm not talking to you, Paul. Talk to my agent, which was Eagleson at the time. Couldn't trust that son of a bitch. But anyway, he was apparently empowered to offer a significant percentage of the team. I think it was 18% of the team to Bobby as part of his deal. And he never heard the offer. And Eagleson never brought it to him. So, I don't know if that's fact or fiction, but that's the story that I heard.

And, you know, but it was really, there was animosity there at the end. I mean, different time. I mean, even Harry Sinden left, as you recall, in 1970. He said he went in to get Tony. Great guy, by the way. One of my mentors and special people in my life. He said he went in to get a raise. It was Milt Schmidt. And Milt wouldn't give him.

He wanted $5,000 more, I guess, to get the raise. And the owner, Weston Adams, came by Harry after that meeting was over. And Westy said to Harry, I hope you like it wherever you go, Harry, because you're not getting that much money. That's the way it was at the time. Let's take it or leave it. No options. No, there were no options. There are very few options, which is why it was such a shame that we didn't get more when the WHA went into the National Hockey League. Then it was the right time to get to free agency of a reasonable sort. There never was. But I'm now playing professionally, as you know, weekend league in the American Hockey League. We went to Hershey and I got into a fight with Jacques Cossette.

He's a lefty. And somebody on the bench started to yell at us, knock it off. And while I was turning my head, he hit me with a really strong left, broke my nose, went in to see the doctor and Hershey, put in a single stitch I said, get back out there, right? Finish that game. Next game is in Richmond the following night. Three bench clearing balls. And I don't get kicked out to the third one because I started all three of them. But then we're driving back and I'm thinking to myself,

my nose is out in left field and my head is hurting. And I'm just, why am I doing this? Why did I decide to do this? And we played Sunday night in Rochester and they had a picture of me in the Monday's newspaper, both black eyes and the caption was not just another pretty face. But I went to the doctor that night, no sedative, no Novocaine, Put me in a little bit of a vice strip, took out a hammer, and smashed the nose back into place. It hit about three times. I was kind of crying.

It was just, but that was the American Hockey League. And it took me a while to get out of it, but I learned a lot. I grew up a lot. Biz, we thought the AHL was tough when we were there. Oh, I know. I was bitching about the soggy subs. This guy's performing nose surgery on himself for crying out loud. But you mentioned Alan Eagleson now.

So you were pretty young when that was all going down and you hadn't yet established yourself at the pro game. Well, let me get there before we get to Eagleson because that will take a chunk of time. Okay, great. I was, at the end of my second year, I was in, we were in New Haven, played for Rochester now, and I got the call. I had played one game in the fall, and they played against St. Louis,

and Bob Gassoff was on the team. I don't know if you guys remember him. He was tough as nails, man. I knew it was a different league. I hardly played at all. But anyway, I got called up on a Wednesday night. We were in New Haven. We finished the game and my coach came over and said, you're going to Buffalo. Now, take a look at the map. It's a long goddamn way from New Haven to get to Rochester, then even further to get to Buffalo. So we stroll in at like 3 in the morning, whatever it was, 4 in the morning.

I get a little sleep. I'm all wired up. I'm going to get called up and walk into the room and look around. These guys have already kind of clinched the division title, but a couple guys were hurt or getting arrested. But we start the game. Buffalo's a good team, right? And then they start taking it to us a little bit.

And near the end of the second period, Grates, who works the bench all by himself, there's no other help there. He comes down to me and he says, what happened to you? You college commie. I said, what, what, what do you mean, grapes? He said, hit somebody.

Will you hit somebody? So I tried to hit somebody. I was going out of my way to hit somebody. Sure enough, next period, he comes back down the bench and says, what happened to you, you college commie? Hit somebody. And I was just, I thought this was my, I thought he was my guy. I thought he was going to love me.

So they sent me back right after the game. What a kick in the dick. It was. And then I got a call the next day right away that they needed me back in Toronto. So I get to Toronto and all the guys have gone to the track you know cheevers and catchmen and when you go to the track they don't just bet they drink so i had i was nowhere near them and i went to the around the corner to the hotel to bar and all of a sudden at like 6 37 o'clock they all come in and they're all like three sheets to the wind. It was just, I mean, I couldn't believe it night before a game.

And it was, get over here, Milbury, sit down, you know, sit down with us. I moderated my intake of alcohol at the time, but I went to take a leak. And somewhere around that time, Cashman picked up a chair and smashed it over a table. And the owner knew that the Greeks were staying at the hotel next door. So when I came back, there's only a couple of guys left, but then he walks Don Cherry. And I couldn't believe it, which is before 11 o'clock, but it was close to curfew time. And all the way back was like three other guys with me, all the way back to the hotel, all he says is, Goddamn rookie, hanging on by a thread. Goddamn rookie, can't believe this is way back was like three other guys with me all the way back to the hotel always says this goddamn

rookie hanging on by a thread goddamn rookie can't believe this is how you treat me after i get you called up so anyway big meeting the next day he walks around pissed off at some of the veterans and then he comes to me and says how many beers did you have i said? I said, I think I had two, which was not going to work for him. He actually chuckled at that. So, that night we're playing the Leafs and I got into a scrap with Pat Boutet. He's not a really big guy, but he started to fight and I split him open for a half dozen and I escaped back to the penalty box. I serve my time and I get back to the bench and there's great. So his hands on his hips looking just pissed off. He said, what did you do that for?

I said, what do you mean, Don? He said, you just made me come in my nice new brown suit. Unbelievable. Yeah. unbelievable yeah so i then we you know i stuck with the team then and we went to the we went to the playoffs and play la kings and i wasn't a regular at first but then dallas smith got hurt so of course the night before the game what does everybody go again they go to the track but i'll never forget it because up in the stands, there was Farrah Fawcett. And I thought, oh, my God, look at that.

I mean, it's a different world for me. And first of all, we flew first class where you got a meal and a Sunday afterwards, it was just like this has died and gone to heaven. But I will give the guys credit. They knew Dallas was out and i knew i was going to have to play and la had the triple crown line they were good they were they were a good tough team to play against and and uh we were down already two games to one and sure enough in the first period we we took two penalties or down five on three we killed some some of them, and then he taps me in the shoulder

to go kill five on three. I said, you've got to be kidding me. I mean, I don't really need that responsibility. But we played it pretty well, blocked a big shot by Marcel Dion, and we went on to win the game. And I never went back. No shit. And you're like, hey, because of Farrah Fawcett,

I came in my pants too Donnie We got a lot We got a lot in common here When you said he ran the bench alone Like How was he able to tell which D up were next And which forward line He did

He worked it And if he wanted a particular guy out there He shouted it out We had a pretty good rotation. First of all, we didn't use three sets of defensemen all that much. It was usually rotating four guys. And then once in a while, Peldy or whatever, they'd fit in the third pairing.

But that was a time when you had a minute and 30-second shift was an unusual. Not like today's penny waste 30 seconds and off was he as big of a presence was he as big as of a presence back then just like when he was on television he was he was he was fun he was unbelievably fun to play for i mean it was just sometimes i mean it's hard to put him in a box, but I'll tell you one thing he did. He made me drive into practice, pregame practice. And on the way in, he'd practice his pregame speeches on me.

So every, I'm driving in with a coach. I'm only in my second year here. Like, it's a little bit odd to be seen driving in like I'm sucking up to the coach all the time but I had no choice we lived down the street from one another and he'd come and pick me up uh and then on the way home after practice we'd stop at the Cowlens Chinese restaurant where he would order for himself and his wife and two kids takeout orders orders. He'd have two Budweiser's, and then he'd order spare ribs to go for he and I to eat on the way home in the car, just flip it out the window after we're done.

I mean, it was too much. But by the time I got to the game, I knew everything he was going to say. But I will tell you the weed story. A lot of our trips into Boston were on Route 1, and it's two lanes in each direction with a little barrier, middle barrier in between. So on one of these trips in, he says to me, look at that weed, Mike, growing out there right in the middle of the highway. So I'm right beside the barrier. That's that weed. And he just kept talking about it every time we went in.

That weed's got character. That weed could be a brew. And then one day we were going in, and you know what they do with the highways in the spring? They clean them up, right? They bring the cleaning crews out, and they brush everything away. And he said, Mike, the cleaning crews are out. We've got to save cleaning crews are out we got to save the weed you got to save the weed for him so he pulls over on this really busy highway going in the boss's neighborhood going in and i'm gonna run across the highway pull out the weed by its roots

dodge traffic get back in the car he races to the nearest gas station wraps it in wraps it in newspaper and wets it and takes it home and puts it in his guard so i asked it to him two weeks later i said how's the weed doing is it you know did it recover from that you know transplant he said i don't know we went on a road trip and rose was cleaning the garden down she threw it out but he made me stop and get it. Son of a gun. What an interesting guy. How many times did you talk him out of saying something in a pregame speech?

And what do you think made him gravitate towards you? Was it just the fact that you were a scrappy player? He only wanted scrappy players. I mean, you think of the teams that I was on at the beginning, you know, you could probably pull up the roster there. I mean, Secord was on them, Jonathan was on it, and Cashman was on it, and Wensink was on it, O'Reilly was on it. I mean, this was loaded for bear. Our breakout play was this. Hit it up the wall, and our forwards will

run through their defensemen. And then when we get it to the neutral zone, we'll dump it in, defenseman and then when we get it to the neutral zone we'll dump it in two men on the puck third man high and don't get caught on your pinches that was the system that that was all there was and you were expected to smash into every human being that you could possibly smash into and you weren't ever to turn away from a fight you guys must have seen the wensink deal when he challenged the minnesota bench i was and i was i was standing right beside him i'm thinking to myself wait what what are you doing you idiot get out of here but john was john was tough i mean he said he had a fight in the minor leagues once and he said mike i had my finger behind his eyeball i could feel cords back there and i said did i should i call it out

or not and he said i just decided i shouldn't but it just that was the day and age that's how he made it made it because grapes looked him he was tough it's hard to move on from grapes man is there one more that you got in you like one more grape story people love here in this shit i would have loved to seen him after that. Well, not, I guess, love to, but just after that goal by LeFleur, right? It was at 78? 79. 79. Jesus Christ.

In my first three years, we played in the finals against the Canadians. First year, lost in four games. Now, they had nine Hall of Famers on that team. Literally, half the roster was a future Hall of Fame. And they beat us four games in a row in the first year. Second year, they beat us four games to two. And then, of course, we meet them in the third year. This is the semifinals now.

The winner was going to play the Rangers, which was a foregone conclusion. Who would win that series? Rangers, which was a foregone conclusion, who would win that series. And we were two and a half minutes from the finish line, up by a goal, and too many men on the ice. It was 14 seconds of too many men on the ice. And the reason why it happened is that Marcotte was shadowing LeFleur and the left wings got confused. And, you know, he went through two shifts and the second winger didn't realize he wasn't going to be able to get on a shift. And anyway, who cares?

LeFleur gets a drop pass from Jacques Lemaire and he rings it off the post pass to Gilles Gilbert, who was just brilliant in that. I mean, I think 50 saves or something like that. But the winner was scored by Yvonne Lambert. If you ever get a chance to see the game, I hit him so hard in the first period, he'd still be in concussion protocol today. I mean, that's where the end boards were just like a rock.

And I crushed him. I cheated over him. My partner was kind of riding him into the wall and he never saw me come in and i just crushed him who gets the ball in overtime freaking lambert on he was driving the net right what's that he drove the net right and got like a through the crease pass yeah yeah mario trombley fat park he didn't have his man there there but but i mean craigs would do things like we we were in atlanta won a game in atlanta and he'd go out with the guys all the time right so it's closing time you don't have that much time after a game it's just close like a one o'clock and uh but his favorite song i don't know what

the hell it was comes on and the owner comes over the manager comes over and says you guys have to leave now and grave said no i just gonna leave i'll leave after my song is over he said i'm gonna get my bouncer he knows karate and he's gonna come out and start doing damage so out comes this chinese-american is that cool off can i get away with that or is there some other terminology tell me if i slip again please let's send it upstairs yeah we're good video review we're good toronto says okay yeah actually no way yeah yeah so uh al cc's waving it off and al secord goes up to him and just bang, one stiff left and down he goes. And then we all laughed and left the bar after the song was over.

Nobody got arrested. And it was another night where we couldn't wait in Montreal. So we took all the defensemen out drinking the night before. We got beat seven to3 the next night. He came in and said, well, at least we tried, boys. Tried to hit the reset button. Oh, shit. Oh, God.

Just for our classic old school stories. Oh, I love this shit. Grapes is Don Cherry. For listeners who might not be aware, Mike, so when he got fired, was the team pissed off or had his time ran out? What was the reaction? Well, we could all see it coming you know it got ridiculous he and harry were friendly for a while and then they just split because i'm not sure how the split developed to the point where you know they

weren't hard they were hardly talking in fact harry pulled me aside one time going to montreal one of those series in the last the last series and started to talk to me about penalty killing and so i get on the bus and harry goes somewhere else and grapes comes up to me and says what are you doing talking to that guy i said he he's the general manager what do you want me to do? I'd be a general manager. But it escalated to the point where it was pretty obvious that they weren't going to carry on. I don't know if they offered him a contract or not, but it certainly wouldn't have been reflective of the success we had

in the three years that I was there with him. Yeah, I can remember having everybody, he had everybody over at his house and it was like a week. Nobody wanted to see him go and nobody knew what was going to happen next. Poor Fred Creighton, one of the good guys in hockey, came in and he was gone before the end of the season. But it was going to be tough to replace Graves,

whoever you were. As far as Graves' suits, were they always as obnoxious and big like that? And did you ever ask him what the backstory was as to why he did it? He was always a dandy. And he always had tons of cologne on. You could smell him coming. And he just said, look sharp, feel sharp, mate. Look sharp, feel sharp.

But he was always decked out, always. But, you know, what made him a great coach, I think, was his ability to communicate. I mean, he made you feel special. Even the Black Aces, he'd hang around with them. There weren't any other coaches. Somebody had to hang around with them. But, you know, then they'd go out to lunch,

and they'd feel like they were part of the group and once in a while he found a a dog to whip you know dwight foster was one of those guys just needed a whipping dog you know and poor dewey was pretty good player but just couldn't get out of his couldn't get out of his dog house but the rest of us had those simple rules and he was a great good player, but just couldn't get out of his doghouse. But the rest of us had those simple rules, and he was a great guy to play for. Who did you play most on D? Did you play with Pac a lot? I played with, well, as I like to say it, I played a lot with Park. I played a lot with Bork.

I like to think that I put them both in the Hall of Fame. Bork, I'd like to think that I put them both in the Hall of Fame. But I also play with Mike O'Connell, who was a good player for a while. We had a great year, early 80s. Smart, heady player Mike was. Later became GM for the Bruins, and still, I think he's still working for LA maybe. But those first three years with Graves, there was no getting by the fact that there was going to be a lot of anxiety with a new guy coming in. And that was the first year of the, I guess it was 81.

Is that when the Islanders won the first cup? 80. 80 it was. 80, 81, 82, 83. Yeah. That's right. 79, 80. So that would have been first year of Fred Creighton's reign.

They came into Boston. Cheevers was in goal that year. He just didn't have it. We probably would have lost anyway. But the story is, and I heard it from Nystrom when I was on the island, he went into a local watering hole. He brought Gillies, and he said, we're not going to get part of these guys if we don't fight.

He said, you know, you take O'Reilly and I'll take Wensink. Then we'll see how it goes. And that's what happened. I mean, those guys stood up for themselves. And I think there was like four. We played five games, I think, and four of them were in overtime. But it was tough sledding, baby. It was just tough sledding.

Gillies and O'Reilly, I think, fought three times. One of them, the linesman was holding O'Reilly, and Gillies was free, and he blasted him. I don't know how Terry stood up and got back into it, but he did. And, you know, nice jump. He was no shrinking violet himself. He was a tough cookie. False.

He could throw with both hands, and they fought their way through that series and then went on to win it. God bless them. Mike, since we're on all the scrapping conversation, I think one of the most iconic fighting moments in NHL history was at MSG when you found your way into the crowd

and started beating a man with his shoe. One of the best YouTube clips of all time. It's one of the greatest hockey clips of all time. It's just straight out of the slap shot. Yeah, yeah. Well, you'd know around here because you're living in Milton. You'd see it every time at Christmas. It's like seeing the Christmas carol or something.

It's on every year at the same time. You know it's coming. seen the christmas carol or something you know it's on every year at the same time it's coming yeah um so ass in square garden at the time was not a very good place to play i mean they throw shit at you they throw batteries or empty bottles and there was no security getting through the gate at that time you just came in with whatever you came in with and the glass was low right and it was low yeah so anyway good game two good teams playing espo had a breakaway with 10 seconds to go and it was funny somebody from the stands must have been a ruined scent threw a tennis ball right in front of espo when he's going on on the breakaway and he missed the shot he always blames that

tennis ball for why it missed the shot on cheesyesy. But anyway, that was 10 seconds to go. The horn sounds like everybody does. Rush out to congratulate the goalie. And then because I know it's Madison Square Garden, right off the ice. I go right into the locker room. It's two days before Christmas. We've won the game. The Budweiser's on ice in the locker room, cold. We're ready to go. We're going's two days before Christmas. We've won the game. The Budweiser's on ice

in the locker room, cold. We're ready to go. We're going to be in Christmas holiday. And nobody follows me in. I'm like, what the hell? And so Violet Chevers came in and I said, well, Jerry, where is everybody? He said, there's some sort of beef going on.

So, you know, teammates do what teammates do. I run back. I left my gloves, my stick, everything in the locker room, and I get to the ice level at Madison Square Garden. You guys know where the visitors jump up, they jump onto the ice, and the stairs are to the left. I never got to the ice surface.

I just walked up the stairs, and I see O'Reilly, McNcnab and a bunch of other guys but mcnab's up highest and he's my buddy sit beside in the locker room so i gotta go up there and you know he's already got the guy over the chair so his feet are up in the air right i have no fucking clue why i'm there why am i here why am i in this position what happened i went from my i was singing christmas gals to my heart was racing like a thousand beats a minute it was just it was nuts so i you know i gave him a i just i don't know what happened there i just had a brain cramp and grabbed his shoe shitty little penny loafer and hit him on the thigh and you know you would have thought over the next three days number of number of times they saw that play that you would think that I'd committed, you know, murk. It was just, they actually did a study at BU. They showed the clip once,

and then they asked the students, how many times did he hit him? Most said three, four, five. Most said, where did he hit him? Most said in the head or upside the face or something like that. It was one little whack of a penny loafer on his leg. So I got six games, no satisfaction really from not being able to smack the guy. By the way, down below, guys would go into town on some of these other fans. They were getting their licks in really good. I didn't do anything. You were the distraction with the shoe and you got got ching-ching $500, right?

500 bucks you got fined? Well, I forget what the fine was. It was whatever the maximum was, but they did take care of it back then. They took care of it. We didn't lose any money, and we did appeal it. Those fans sued us for $7 million at the time, by the way. That got thrown out, fortunately. And we did appeal it.

It was, I guess, a very close vote. But if you vote to overturn the commissioner's decision like that, it's tantamount to telling him to resign. It was little twitty John Ziegler was the commissioner at the time. I can remember him skipping out as he had won. Just knew it. I'm going back quickly also to one thing. So you did mention at the beginning of the podcast,

you would get fined $50 for fighting in the American Hockey League back then? Yeah. Every time? Well, yeah. Well, I don't remember. That was the only time I remember having to pay the fine. I don't know if I paid other fines. I remember getting notices from the league.

Yeah. Did you know playing, when I'm done, I'm getting right into coaching. I love this. You know, I actually started to become a coach a couple of years before I retired officially. Butch Gorin came on board as a coach, and I became his assistant. But halfway through the year, they got dinged up and they asked me to come back. I wasn't really in shape to come back. But it's interesting because I've been studying tape so much and watching the game so closely

that a lot of the things, I could see a lot of things more easily than I could before. You know, the act of coaching, the practice of coaching made me anticipate things in a better way and see things in a better way. But I came back, and then at the end of that season, they did another collective bargaining agreement that included a pretty good sizable package of pension for somebody to play another year.

And so I stuck around for that. But I went in at the end of my last season and I told Harry, I said, I don't know, I think this is it for me. And I said, I'd like to get into management. And he said, well, if you want to be a manager, you probably should know how to coach. manager you probably should know how to coach um and so he he signed me to a four-year deal as general manager and coach in in maine portland maine and then two years to be determined back in boston i mean it was a great transitional move for me and they could speak to my relationship with him. You could tell him, I could tell him anything. And he was a great teacher for me.

And I tell you every story, my first year coaching. And actually, I'll tell you about my first year coaching in Maine. First, we had a hell of a year. Like, a hell of a year. We're running away with a division. And my goalie is Bill Ranford. And my tough guy is Alan May, right? And another tough guy on the team was Bruce Schubard. And Harry feels he needs a goalie. So, right at the trading deadline, the son of a bitch trades Billy Ranford, Jeff Cordell for Andy Moak. So there goes my goalie. And then he trades Alan May for Mola May and they call up Mola May. So I get shortchanged there. And then they call up Bruce Shoebob

and they left me with Doug Keyes and goal. And Doug Keyes had been playing for the Bruins and he was in a deep depression and sucked the rest of the way. But the odd turn of events from that is that when I got to Boston two years later and we made the Stanley Cup final, so he screwed me that year, and then we made the Stanley Cup final. Who's in goal for Edmonton? Billy fucking Ranford. Who wins the consulate?

Billy Ranford. Thanks, Harry, buddy. He's got a call to a couple of years ago. Yeah, it was really tough. That was a tough one. But that's what we're there for, right? Minor leaguers are there to be tapped into when necessary. The boys had Monty on for an interview,

and he talked about how vital it was for him to be a players coach before transitioning into being a full-time coach now how was it for you because he said having one foot on either side it just helped him kind of be the middleman and maybe interact with the players a little bit better when I first became coach I was too kind you know I tried to be like one of the guys. And then, you know, a couple of my assistant coaches convinced me that I needed to use the hammer more, and I did. And I think it was, I got their respect. I don't think I was over the top, but, you know, when they needed it,

it was, I could go to it. And sometimes they needed it. I mean i could go to it and sometimes they needed it i mean i montgomery he's mr rogers i mean i never it's a wonderful day in the neighborhood every day for him i mean but it's working so let it be when you win every game it's a lot easier right yeah that's right that's right you see how you have to change if like you're losing and guys are walking on you it's like all right this isn't working but what's he gonna change right now i think if you have to change if you're losing and guys are walking on you. It's like, all right, this isn't working, but what's he going to change right now? I think if you talk to the guys who played for me, Neely or Bork, Andy Brickley or something like that,

I think they'd recognize me as a good coach. I mean, I tried different things to keep their interest. I can remember we were on a long road trip out west. We got smacked in Winnipeg. But it was a long road trip and everybody was tired. I could tell everybody was tired, but I was pissed at the way we played. So I had them get on the ice and everybody's expecting, you know, one of those bag skates or something.

So I started off with Bork. I wanted to go right after the big guy. And I said, another loss. I can't believe you've done this to me. But now then again, I said, I can't believe I've done it to myself. I've watched you the last three games, Ray, give away the puck. Ray, Ray, give away, I said. I'm so stupid, I put you back out there after Ray-Ray giveaway. And then I did an over and back. Then I went to the next guy and told him what a jerk he was for turning the puck over at the blue line.

And I did another one. And I did one for all 20 guys in the roster that I could barely talk. And then I threw my stick at them and said, get the fuck out of here. And I left the ice. You bagged yourself and fucking shit all over him. And then the putter toss. But I think we won by a big margin against Vancouver,

and I think Ray had like five points the next night. That's unreal. But the other weird thing that I did was we're playing the Canadians in the playoffs. And we won the first two games. Then we lost the next two games. And we came home. So, you know how the guys sometimes get pulled out of their houses and they go to a hotel. They're in a playoff.

So, I told them we're going to stay at the Colonial Hotel, which is pretty nice. It's in the north part of Boston. Nice little suburb time. So they get there, everybody's got their car and they park their car there. And so I get them on a bus and we go to this crappy little arena, Kasabusi Arena, north in Saugus. And when I get there, I was the first guy on the ice. And I looked down and there was a dead bee there you know I mean perfect for me that like these these these guys are going to come out and look at me with this dead bee and probably kill me but anyway they gather around uh and I say to them you know this is how it goes guys I step out here today and i find this dead fucking bee that's what you

fucking guys are you're dead fucking bees threw it at them that had them you know we didn't skate very much because then it was the playoff time but then they get back on the bus after a cold shitty shower and uh i took them to the town line in which is a welfare motel just north of boston and uh i had them gather in the lobby which is you know it was it was basic let me put it that way but i brought some pictures from guys that i played with like cashman and o'reilly and said these were bruins they played like fucking bruins you guys aren't playing like Bruins anymore. You got to play with some passion. And I went on for a while. Then I made them stay there and talk about it.

And then they got their keys to the hotel. Fortunately, you know, there was a nice Italian restaurant around the corner. And we could have walked to the restaurant. So we have a nice meal and guys are settling down now. But I look over at Poulin and it's like, he's green. And I know I need Poulin. He's a Czech guy, so, you know. And I know I need my goalie.

So I said to Poulin, I said, you can go home. Get a cab and go home. I said to Moog, you can go home. I said to Bork, you know, I know he's going to play 35 minutes. Go home. And I don't know why I said to Glenn Wesley, you can go home. But I'm glad I did because to this day, Neely hates that I did that because he didn't get sent home.

Neely and Gianni had the room. I mean, this is really a dive. In fact, I went back to my hotel room, and one of the residents offered me some sexual activity for $10. Nice, nice. I managed to summon enough discipline to pass. But what I did do next shouldn't surprise you. When everybody got to their room,

and I made sure they were going to their room, I got in my car and drove away. I went home. Don't sleep at rest. No, in different ways. We won the next night. We won the series, the really tough series. And, you know, I don't know if it had any impact, but it sure left a memory for them. Holy shit. That 91 All-Star game, it was sure left a memory for them. Holy shit that 91 All-Star game that was

controversial you added Chris Nyland to the roster which actually resulted in a rule change did the league like try to talk you out of that or say you couldn't do that or how did that all go down? Well no I did it and then you know it was Brian Scruton and Gally and Nyland were my picks you know why can't you honor a guy that has a special role on the team, like third-line center like Strudelan, like a good defenseman stay at home most of the time. Galley, he's a good player. And everybody wants a fighter, and there was none better than Nyland.

I mean, he was, I'm glad I didn't fight him, but I'm retracting, going back to Bruin's exhibition sometime around the late 70s. We played against Northeastern University and Ferdie Flammon was an ex-Bruin. He was the coach there. And some little turd tried to take my legs out as I came around the net, went low on me, you know, one of those low hip checks. So, I grabbed him and believe it or not, we had a bench clear with Northeastern University and the Bruins. Never really got started, but all of a sudden, he felt my jersey get tight. I look over at this guy and it's, you, and he's looking at me like he's ready. He wants to go.

But fortunately, O'Reilly comes over and says, you better make it a good one because I'm coming at you with another one right after that. And he was ready to go at that point. So I knew what kind of toughness he was, and I fought him once some other time down the line but you know everybody wants a fighter everyone's a good fighter why can't we bring one to the all-star game i mean i wasn't trying to piss on anybody's parade i was just saying listen these guys deserve to be recognized too they play an

instrumental part of the game and i'm gonna recognize but they didn't give me any choice after that they just picked it and strew them got hurt nine of them got hurt and they couldn't play but anyway that's how that went down that's a lot of that's a lot of bees chatter we haven't even gotten to long island yet how did how did that job come about how did you end up popping over uh and leaving the bruins finally i was assistant general manager after two years with harry and actually boston college came knocking at the door to see if i would coach we'd had a conversation a couple years earlier they'd come looking for me but they weren't ready to make a coaching change and anyway this time they came and they were ready to offer me the job and i took it is this when bc had given out like 35 scholarships

that's right that's right uh the other previous coach had uh unbeknownst to the athletic director who had told me that i had eight scholarships to to divvy up the next year so i knew the first year would be a rough one, but I, you know, I was pretty recognizable in that town coming off some successful teams with the Bruins and I didn't think recruiting was going to be an issue at all. I was leaking maybe three and a quarter with the Bruins as assistant general manager and they paid me 150 to be the highest paid coach in college hockey at the time. And so I took the job and then two weeks in, I had the steady stream of guys that were promised scholarships with letters and the math just didn't work. And the AD tried to get me to stay out of it. But when you get kids and their mothers crying in your office for weeks on end, they got to be too much. So I resigned. So I went from making three and a quarter to 150 to being out of work.

I still had a pretty good resume to fall back on, but that fall, I went to work for ESPN, and I negotiated my contract successfully to include being paid even if there was a work stoppage. And if you'll recall, there was a work stoppage in 94 that lasted until January. And so, I worked for ESPN, actually did a special on Russian hockey called Cold Wars. I might YouTube it sometimes. It was pretty good. Talked to Fetisov and McGillney and about how Larionov and what their lives were like and how they, I mean, Fetisov and McGillney had brass balls to get over here to make a change in their lives, but they talked all about it.

Gasparitis, we interviewed. It was fun. But then hockey came back on, and I became an analyst. And in June, Don Maloney came to me and called me and asked me if I'd be interested in coming back as coach. So that's how it started. But I didn't i didn't do any homework i think i still could have got out of jobs

along the way i think my stock was high enough but at the time uh it was still owned by john pickett but he had given control of the team to four local businessmen and they were running the team for all intents and purposes, but they didn't have big bucks. Anyway, they fired Don in December and then put Darcy Regeer and myself in sort of a public race to be general manager. And Darcy and I weren't very close, So I didn't want him to be the general manager because I was pretty sure I wasn't going to last very long as a coach. But so anyway, I took the job as general manager and coach

and I did both of them very badly. And I actually went to visit with Bill Parcells, you know, the guy that says, if you want me to cook, you got to make me, let me buy the groceries. And so, we had a long chat about doing both jobs. And he sort the hallway to my office. And, you know, it was just 24 hours a day of Madden's. But I went to see Parcells and he said, you can do both jobs. You have to find some people around you that are good that you can fill in for you at certain times. Anyway, it didn't work out for me. Five years later, I'm listening to him. He's on with Mike Francesa. And Mike Francesa says to Parcells, if you had to do it over again,

what would you do differently? He said, I never would have tried to do both jobs. Thanks, Bill. Anyway, so I got to Long Island because of Don don maloney who i liked and was really disappointed the team was just absolutely dreadful and in january or february of that year the local owners came to me and said you've got the we're already i don't know what the payroll was but wasn't very high he said you've got to cut 25 of the payroll well how are you going to do that yeah i mean you can't you can't you can't sell all the 15 guys that are making 500 000 you're going to go to some of the guys that are making big money so it left me with no choice i had to

traded matthew schneider and uh wendell clark to toronto one fell step. Best players we had on the roster. But, I mean, it turned out okay. We got first-round pick in Kenny Janssen, who was a really good player for a long time for us. But, you know, we did take a step back. But that was the first group of owners. Two of them later, by the way, were convicted of fraud, sent to prison.

The second owner that we had was John Spano. I don't think I need to tell you about that guy. The fake rich guy? Yeah. Okay. I'll tell you one. Yeah, fake rich guy. I don't know how he got that close. He got very close to getting control of it. Great movie on that. ESPN deal, right? 30 for 30? Yeah. Anyway, I'm at home and John Spano calls me at home and says you got to get over here to the garden city hotel it's a nice hotel on long island so i get there and he's like mr big shot he's got a little roped off area it's like it's like a it's like a disco kind of a place they turn it into a disco at night so So we talk hockey for a little while.

And then he says to me, they'll be here in a little while. I said, what do you mean, John? Who's going to be here in a little while? The girls. He said, first they'll do each other, then they'll do us. Unbelievable. Unbelievable. Can't make it up. so anyway he comes he goes how were they what's that i said how were they yeah no no i i snuck out i snuck out through the kitchen i know yeah back to the gm's office yeah so anyway then who who next milstein and Gluckster. At one point, when things were going well, Stephen Gluckster said, we're thinking about the budget. He said, it's going to be somewhere like 25, 15, or 5. I mean, what do you mean 25, 15, or 5?

He said, well, 15, we'll lose a little money. 25, we'll lose a lot of money. But if we go to 5 with a TDd contract we'll actually make money i said you gotta be shit and fortunately that didn't come to pass but that's the same group that declared the coliseum constructively abandoned and moved everybody out of the office and and the office people had to go into the city because Milstein was a real estate guy and we had to move over to some other crappy building on Long Island for a while and then they lost that lawsuit. They were trying to get a new building built. But anyway, they didn't last very long. And so then came Charles Wong and Sanjay Kumar.

And Sanjay was the guy I reported to until he and Charles had a falling out. And he had a falling out with the law. He wound up serving, I think, 12 years for fraud. Worked at Computer Associates. for fraud, worked at Computer Associates. And then Charles came and he became the guy that I reported to. And that was interesting. Was that a reason for some of these trades, for some of these iconic trades? Oh, my God.

It was just, he was involved in everything. Like, I had a deal for Jason. He knew nothing about hockey, correct? What? He knew absolutely nothing about hockey, right? No, he didn't know anything about hockey. He deal nothing about hockey correct what he knew absolutely nothing about no he didn't know anything about hockey he knew nothing about hockey but we had a deal with jason allison and with the bruins pretty good player and our coach that year was peter labialette knew him from boston and one of the guys that was in the trade from rn was dade scatcher i was at the draft

and i called charles and'm going to make this deal. And I listed the guys that were involved and he said, you can't make that deal. I said, why? He said, because Dave Skatcher's in the deal. Dave Skatcher was like a fourth, third, fourth line player for us. And I said, well, so what? He said, well, he's the kind of guy we want.

He visits sick kids in hospitals. Holy shit. I mean, that's nice that he does visit sick kids in hospitals, but we're trying to run a hockey team, not a rehabilitation award. And so we wound up getting Yashin, and I knew from the beginning that that was going to be interesting. We went out immediately, got Mike Pecka and Chris Osgood, and we had a 40 point swing to the positive side that year but we were fundamentally flawed in the middle with yashin um and you know but i didn't care at that

point i just didn't care i wanted to i wanted to make it last i was finally making some good money i don't want to make it last as long as I could. I can tell you another Charles story. Yeah, you're like, I'm going to do whatever he says. Well, after that, after he was in, well, DiPietro was, you know, our high first draft pick, and he came to the end of his first contract. His end of his third year was not a great year. So I think he was making a million. And I said, listen, Charles,

a million one, a million two, that's where we should be with this. And then he said, okay, well, let's offer a million five and tell him for every day he doesn't take it, we're going to take $50,000 off. Not my favorite method of negotiation, especially when his agent's Bob Eeyore. So anyway, the next day, I'm going to meet with him at the Garden City Hotel. Again, the Garden City Hotel. And I walk up to him and he said, we signed Rick DiPietro. I said, we signed Rick DiPietro? I said, how much did we pay him?

$2 million. Like, what the? I said, you should just cut my legs out. I can't go negotiate with anybody anymore. It'll be impossible for me to be taken seriously. So, anyway, that was what I was up against. And I will tell you that, you know, at the end of my five-year contract, I had to sign another contract, but I didn't. He said, okay, let's give you a new contract, but let's give you no contract but uh it's going to be no contract it's going to be an evergreen contract and we'll just shake hands on it so if i ever fight in the middle of the year you'll still get another you get that year in the year

after that and that was my contract i mean who was stupid enough to do that i guess i i was i don't even think that's legal now yeah anyway um one year you know i'd always said i wish i wanted to make a million bucks i was making like 750 something at the time and um we didn't have a great year but anyway he wanted to take me out to lunch and he says to me okay mike um i'm gonna give you a bonus i said why are you naming me a bonus i mean it was a shitty year he said yet you always said you wanted to make a million dollars so i'm gonna give you a 250 000 bonus there was in the next paycheck holy shit any anyway i'd had enough of being general manager at some point so i i said to him on a plane ride out to the gm meetings that you know

i was you know i was done i said why don't you let me take a run at the business side you know maybe i can because we were a mess there too and so he said okay and um you know about a year later he came in to see me and said you know you gotta hire a new coach a new general manager ouch i should fall back on that before i kind of resigned as gm um he i told him that and then he went out to try to find a gm it took him three months three months of searching and then he came in one day and said i found a new coach and the general manager and i said don't tell me neil smith and tednoll. And he was jaw dropped and I said, you know, I have a few friends in the league, I know what's going on. He said, but what do you think?

I said, I think you're fucking crazy. And he didn't talk to me for two days after that. On the day of the announcement, he decided he wanted to have a board of governors sort of running the team. And the first thing he announced was he announced Neal as general manager, but he also announced Ted Nolan without Neal even getting a chance to talk to Ted Nolan. And then he wanted me on the board and he wanted Ryan Troche on the board and who else, Pat LaFontaine to serve as sort of the board of governors.

He said, Charles, they just resigned as general manager manager i don't want to be on the fucking board you know any we were riding around the parking lot of the coliseum just before this press conference till he finally talked me into it and i looked like a i mean i i looked like a spoiled brat up there my face was dragging i was pissed off i always had to be there but anyway i, I did that Rennetts course in what? What was it? Less than a month by the time he had enough of Neil Smith. And he fired him. And Neil didn't sign the contract.

So he got like 40 days pay and that was it. And then he had to go out and find another. He had to find another general manager i said well you know what you're gonna be running the show anyway i said so why don't you just find somebody that you like and make him general manager there you go garce snow have a nice job but anyway it's show yeah what a fucking show that was show of all time well it was it was wild and I said the only thing we led the league in was

convicted felons. But it was I went to run the business side and then about a year afterwards he said, you see yourself doing this for five more years? I said, there's no chance. No chance at all. I said, well good, because I want to bring in my

son-in-law to have him do your job. So he paid me for the, you know, for the rest of the year, as he said, and then he paid me for the following years, the evergreen clause, as he said he would. And then I knew it was the last check, but then they kept coming for another year and he called me at the end of the year we had a few conversations along the way i didn't even mention the money you know the extra money maybe it's a recounting mistake in my favor right but at the end of the year he said uh okay you know you know you got the extra money said do you need anything else i don't know why i said no i don't need anything else i should another't know why I said, no, I don't need anything else. I said, another year, I should have said. You could have signed the Rick DiPietro deal.

Remember those girls back at the hotel? Yeah. Sign them back over for one more rep. Hey, I got, okay, so amongst all this craziness with the New York Islanders, one of the best stories ever told on our podcast, the 95 draft. You guys had second overall pick. You ended up picking Wade Redden. But what happens, and it still does to this day,

is normally the general managers get to interview some of the top prospects. Well, you got to interview Terry Ryan. And at the end of this interview, you end up asking him this hypothetical question about curfew. Do you remember this situation? No, I remember somebody telling me about it, but i can't remember when it exactly happens or let me know the gist of it is is you gave him a hypothetical where is you have uh you have 10 minutes to get home from curfew and you have this girl who wants to plow you and but yet you have to get home

and then he took a he took a pause to answer and says, well, I fuck her fast for five minutes, and then I speed home. And then you said, get the fuck out. And you tossed him out of this interview. I can't believe you don't remember that. And would you grill all the other prospects with these types of – I mean, I remember interviewing Chara. The Chara selection came about. Andy Caller came to me with a DVR tape and he said,

you got to look at this. Now, this is a tape of chara and his coach at practice doing one-on-one agility drills. Okay, he said, you got to take him at least in a second, when it was about the first run. I said, Andy, how many times did you see him? He said, well, I think twice. They said, well, if he's so fucking good, we're going to pick him this high, why don't you go see him play more often? And so he showed me the tape. It was interesting.

And then we got to interview Chara. And I said to him, Z, can you fight? And he said to me, it's better not to fuck with me. And that's the truth. I mean, he was a great guy. I hated losing him. And that was really, he was good friends with my kids. He's still, you know, I mean, I still, he's one of the great guys.

And I really enjoyed his time in Long Island. Wish it were longer. Didn't you have a pretty funny story about how you ended up trading Todd Bertuzzi? Didn't he ask for a trade or something? And then you said, all right, I'll take care of you. And then five minutes later, I'll let you tell the story. Well, no. and then five minutes later i'll let you tell the story with the well i mean yeah he you know how he said he was having a bad time as i hate to say things about the dead but clark gillies i asked to

you know he power forward bertuzzi supposed to be a power forward i tried to get clark to come in and help him out and bertuzzi and he just just clashed and he finally just threw up his hands and And Bertuzzi, and he just clashed. And he finally just threw up his hands. And Todd was not the sharpest knife in the shed. And it was time to let him go. Mike, I can't help but think, some guys aren't into this, but how have you not written a book?

Your memory in these stories. Insane. You have to do it. I actually started to write it. And I felt like I was sharing too much. I don't know, man. When those book sales go through, you'd probably not think that. Well, anyway, maybe. I mean, I've got about 10 chapters written.

Nice. But I don't see myself picking up the pen anytime soon again. All right, he'll be your ghostwriter. You just got gonna give him weed it's gonna be like the dead sea scrolls so so i hate to keep digging on these islanders trades but obviously you seem to think that the owner had a pretty big hand and forcing your hand in most of them well not all of them you know we've traded uh for trevor linden which he was um you know i was all of our guys thought he was, you know, I was,

all of our guys thought he was going to be great, and they were fooled. First of all, he didn't want to leave Vancouver. And he just came in and, you know, gave it the, I don't know, I don't know what you'd call it, but it wasn't a great effort. That turned out to be a not very good trade. And, you know, there were a couple others too. I mean, the trade we were looking for for we were looking for a big centerman and i traded for oleg kovasha with luongo in the deal um and kovasha was so close to becoming a really good player but he just he just couldn't get it i was it was it was tough one so some of those deals i made on my own not on my own

with the staff included but there were plenty of the manager was was not the primary force like parcel said you are what your record says it is right yeah i've got to take it on the chin for a lot of that was the quick trigger figure always you or was a lot of it coming from above you i don't think i ever had a quick trigger. I mean, you got to think about these things. There's, you know, I mean, that Schneider-Clark trade took weeks to craft. Others were not so, you know, not so long. But, you know, it's funny.

You really have to get relationships with different general managers in order to see if he can trust them right i mean that's some of those guys out there horse traitors you know they'd sell you a bag of pucks for a good player but so varies you know i'm sure that there were i was surprised this year at the deadline that all the early activity, you know, usually it came in a heated rush right by the final deadline. It's a fun time to be a manager too, by the way. It's just like, you know, you're playing, you're playing with a deck of playoff cards, right? Dangerous time, but also it was fun. That and the draft. Those days are in the rearview mirror fellas do you miss it sure i miss playing the most yeah um coaching and managing required

more time and concentration than playing ever did you know it's just and harry used to say that he said you know these guys don't know they have it so easy. You and I, we're going to watch the game. We're going to fret about the losses, and they're just going to go home and have another steak, which is true. I mean, some of those guys will take it seriously, but they don't live like a manager or a coach, so that part of it is exhausting.

But there was action there. There was fun. But I'm glad I got to do that. And I'm glad I got to do the TV thing too. You know, I hit a lot of bases along the way. And, you know, that kind of refreshing my energy levels by doing different things was pretty good deal you let it fly pretty good on television you you know you wouldn't hold back at all did you ever did you ever see the blowback would it affect you i know like other guys who

might have been ripped online quite a bit like a guy like pierre mcguire he said he didn't pay attention to at all. Would it affect you? No. I mean, early on, Ovi was not the player he became, right? I mean, Ovechkin was, he's a great player. He's a beast out there, but he wasn't doing the little things that you had to do in order to get to where you want to be as a good team member. And he didn't get that until Barry Trotz took him under his wing and made him a better player, and they went on and won the Stanley Cup together. But I used to rip on him for bad line changes and staying out for three or four minutes, and that Ted Leontes would call Gary Bettman, and Gary Bettman would call Sam Flood, Sam Flood would call me,

and I'd say, well, was I right? Am I saying anything that you can't see on TV? And he said, no, he was usually pretty good. There were a couple of times I had to apologize. You know, I think there was one time when Laviolette, I think, was about ready to tear into one of the Pittsburgh coaches, Dan Bilesma, but Bilesma wouldn't bite. Peter was up on the boards and I said, you know, Dan better take the skirt off and act

like a man. That didn't go over too well. I had to apologize for that. But I had two occasions where NBC hired bodyguards for me. The first one was- Nashvilleashville went yeah oh yeah first one was uh vancouver um oh yeah you called the sadeen they called them the sadeen sisters maybe or felman louise felman i said the bruins just have to state take the felman lou Louise I mean Henrik and Daniel that that was oh that was um that required some this guy was about six five and he had to follow me everywhere until I left Vancouver

but uh I survived and the other one was in uh Nashville uh Crosby was getting checked by Subban in that series all over the place right he really being nasty with them. And once Crosby got on top of Subban in the quarter and gave him a couple little rabbit punches. And I said, you know what? P.K. Subban had that coming. Good for Crosby. So, I went back to the hotel. On the off day, I'm sitting in the hotel room and I get this call on the phone is this Mike Milbury yeah it's Mike Milbury we know where you're staying and we know what time you go to the rink and we're gonna get you I mean like and that happened like three or four times like three or four times so finally I call NBC and said what do you want me to do about this I mean I somebody's coming after me I'm'm going to have to defend myself.

And, you know, so they hired a bodyguard to stay with me throughout my tour of Nashville and then took me outside the city once the series was over. So nobody knew where I was staying. But so there was some serious blowback on a couple of occasions. But, you know, NBC stood with me. They didn't really stand with me in that in the final blow but that's a different story that we can get into right now did it did it amaze you the the final one when they were in the bubble when i mean you mentioned that there were no women around i think any logical person would take it you know your wife's

not around your kid's not around it's it's it's sometimes a lot harder when your wife's around asking you to do things and now it's just you and the guys and there's less distractions and that just blew up like wildfire like yeah well it's not only that a lot of these guys are single and you guys have been around the game long enough to know what happens on the road people it's the law of nature they're you know, I mean, I don't care where you get your friction, but a lot of guys like it with women, right? And that's the only point I was trying to make. There's not even anybody there to, no woman there to be a distraction. Now, I think that's an accurate statement. And I still think it's an accurate statement, but I immediately, or not immediately, the next day uh sam flood called

me and said well we're gonna have to see what we can do about this but you're gonna take you off the game for tonight and then i had to issue any comments that you're gonna issue an apology and i said well you guys write it write whatever the fuck you want, and then send it out. And so they did that. But then NBC, and they have now vice president of whatever the fuck she's called, inclusivity and, you know, whatever it is. She's the woke police. They insisted that they needed to issue a disclaimer on my statement. So that went on for a little while. Then NBC wavered in about two weeks. First, they told me I was going to come back next year full-time. And then about two weeks later, they decided that there was too much blowback. So, I had a year

left in the contract. They didn't want to jeopardize that. So, I didn't want it. There was too much blowback. So, I had a year left in the contract. They didn't want to jeopardize that. So, he didn't say anything until the end. But when the contract was over, I don't know if you saw it with the Sean and Stan Shaughnessy article was last year. And I told him that I'd called Gary Benton and said, I'm kind of looking to get my foot back in the game here. But I called and said to him, you know, Gary, did you really think what I said was that awful? And he said, Mike, I don't even remember what the fuck you said. And after fucking nearly five decades being around the game, know he that that really pissed me off that really pissed me off it just you know he said we're dinosaurs you and i said i'm not a dinosaur

maybe you are you know you're a dinosaur willing to take your seven million to the bank every year but you know so that was that but i i'd still you know i get to this day people come up to me saying you get screwed you got screwed but it's the woke movement for you you know, I get to this day people coming up to me saying, you got screwed, you got screwed. But it's the woke movement for you. You know, I was really disappointed when the two entities that got the broadcast. You know, I'd been along with Keith Jones, lead analyst for NBC for a long time. I'd been a Hockey Night in Canada lead analyst. I'd been a lead analyst on Nessun.

I'd been a lead analyst on TSN.'d been a lead analyst on tsn i you know can't do anything more to you know but to have that be my swan song to be my you know cross the bears give me the shoe incident anytime afterward like what did you end up saying to nbc like were you like there was no yelling back there was no no, like, I mean, they gave you a walk, a plank out of the bubble. Didn't they? Yeah. Yeah, they did. Um, but at the time it's sort of snowballed at first it was, we're not going to let you

broadcast tonight. Then it was, we're going to let you, not going to let you broadcast for the rest of this series, but we may send you to where, when the final bubble was that year Edmonton, I think. And then that blew up. And then finally, they came to me and said, you know, we're not going to have you back this year or next. We'll get your contract. And I asked them right off the bat, I said, is this, my contract is still solid? And he said, yeah, you'll get paid paid but we just think the blowback is too much and you

know you've said some other things in the past he said it hinted that it was cumulative but i i think i had been pretty tame for a while given the circumstances i think i had adjusted my broadcasting style knowing you couldn't use the word as i did at cba cbc as panzification was one of the things the terms i used that that didn't go over well there but uh you know that was a long time ago and and now i think uh i think preparing for this interview just looking back on that time in the bubble and that time in like like politics and everything the pendulum had just swung so far left and it got so fucking crazy you just really fell victim to circumstance as far as my wife has the same theory it's just it was

fucking awful timing it was awful for everybody i think there was a there was a writer from the athletic from washington that made a big stink but you know i still scratch my head at it and but it's a lot of things that I scratch my head at now. The world's a changed place from when I was your guy's age or younger. Not all for the better either. Well, maybe R.A. can help you write that book. Get you back on track. We need that book.

We need that book. Yeah, no shit. Hey, we're actually doing a broadcast. We should maybe have you jump on. Our producer, Mikey Grinelli, him and Brandon Mim from Barstool, we got the – oh, he's hopping on right now. We got the FDNY-NYPD game, and it's actually going to be on Long Island at UBS Arena come April 15th.

Oh, my God. That game can be – I don't know if it still is, but they used to beat the crap out of each other. It's not – this is a real macho game. I mean, it's for bragging rights in the city, and they take it very, very seriously. Big time. Big time.

Oh, we can't wait. Well, boys, that's incredible. Your memory in these stories is just outstanding. That was so enjoyable, and we appreciate it. No problem. My pleasure. Good to look back sometimes. Excellent. I enjoyable, and we appreciate it. No problem. My pleasure. Good to look back sometimes.

Oh, excellent. I always finish off on this note. Was there one thing that you thought we were going to ask you about that you didn't get a chance to tell, like a crazy back story? Oh, you know what? The one story I can tell you about, you know, I told you about Espo and Orr, but Ray Bork came to training camp in 1979 in the fall. You know, and if he had just come the year earlier, we all would have been wearing rings.

I saw him on his first day of training camp, first scrimmage, and he was awesome. Just awesome. and he was awesome just awesome he was just he knew right there from the first day that he was going to be a great player and i couldn't believe i was seeing it like that he played he was like dennis pot there in his front i mean that's how he played it was just it was an interesting moment what a career he had some guys you see like that was my first NHL training camp was Crosby's rookie year. It's like, it sounds the same thing. It's just something so different. You're like, holy shit.

That's pretty cool. You saw that early. Yeah. Thank you so much, Mike. We appreciate it. Have a great day. Yeah. Thanks a lot, Mike.

That was awesome. This interview is brought to you by Chevy. Chevy. Chevrolet is a trusted company that has been innovating for the last 100 years. Up to now, most electric vehicles have been either too expensive, too small, and or too limited in capabilities for most people. But Chevrolet is committed to making EVs available for all Americans. They have over 1,900 certified Chevyvy ev dealerships you hear that 1900 locations

because chevy evs for everyone everywhere man what a chat mike milberry i grew up watching the guy thought it was an awesome interview hopefully you all thought the same as well a hell of a career on the ice off the ice just a true character and he no flies on him man he just lets it fly huh biz milbs good old milb i i bet you so many people that came to listen to that who maybe weren't a fan of mike milbury beforehand are now fans of mike milbury uh we can't thank him enough he obviously let it fly some incredible stories where you touched on it his memory is incredible 71 years old and he looks great too looks like he's stressed i memory is incredible. 71 years old, and he looks great, too. Looks like he's stress-free. I did not know he was 71. 71 years old.

He needs to write a book. The fact he'd already written 10 chapters when I said that, no way. He's got to finish that thing. And if he's saying he's letting it fly too loose on the book, can you imagine? I know, huh? That was good stuff.

So, gee, we've got a lot of stuff coming up. I'm going to be down in New York with you later this week. We got some big deal brewing action going on. What should the folks look forward to down Manhattan this week? Yeah, so Thursday, me and R.A. are doing a little big deal brewing bar crawl across New York City to celebrate the release of draft beer, the big deal brewing on draft. So, 5 p.m. to 7 p.m.. will be at the Canuck on 202 9th Ave. From 7 p.m. to 9 p.m. will be at Bardot at 350 West 46th Street. And from 8 p.m. to 11 p.m. will be at Sucker Punch Sports Bar. And that's at 344 3rd Avenue. Guys, the tap beer biz, I mean,

you can speak on it. It's so good. I'm a huge tap beer guy So I'm excited So if you want to have a conversation with R.A. I'd go to the first spot Because by the end Eh we'll see what happens If you want to be looking on the floor For his roach and helping him get home Show up to the third bar If you want to help him put him into his Uber

Can you tie my sneakers please If you want him to take a shit at your apartment, just be outside of the third bar waiting for him after he's all done. So you guys are kicking things off at the Canuck? Super excited, yeah. Which I believe is the first place to ever have it on draft, right?

I believe so, yeah. That's where we did a lot of the photo shoots and all that. It's incredible on draft, and we have a very recognizable spout. It says Big deal on it, and of course, at the top of it, it has the Barstool logo.

Why are you laughing, R.A.? I don't know why you're laughing at me. Explain this. Everyone needs a granddaughter to take her to a prom this year. I'll see if I can hook them up. You'll supply the kegs? Wouldn't be the first time.

Unbelievable. But that's not it, we we also have uh on march 29th uh next week on wednesday uh wit and i will be in pittsburgh we'll be at fine wine in good spirits from 4 p.m to 6 p.m and that's at 3330 east waterfront drive in homestead pa so we're excited for that five five five Just give me the goddamn number. You're going back to Pittsburgh for an appearance. Maybe that's the spark they need. If I go back and then they go on a run, do I get the credit?

I mean, I brought them Kunitz. Can I now bring them another playoff run through the vodka? I don't know. I do not know. I think it should be a thing then. Every goal they score here on out, everybody's got to do a nip, just like we were doing in the sandbagger with those D-gens. Birdie juice.

And I got a couple of appearances coming up, so we're kind of splitting up. Everybody's going their own way. Witt's going to Pittsburgh. We got RA and NYC, and I am coming to the great state of Illinois and Wisconsin. I'm going to Chicago for a big deal brewing event, and then I'm going to Green Bay for the first time ever.

All day hammer beers in Green Bay, buddy. I'm going to the Dark Room with Aaron Rodgers. No, that's not the name of the bar. Give them actually all the locations. I think it's the Barstool Bar in Chicago to kick things off, and then we're in Green Bay, and give them the dates and the times, please. So Thursday, March 30th, Biswool from 6 to 8 p.m., I'll be with them as well. We'll be at Barstool River North trying some big deal brews.

And then the next day we're heading up to Green Bay. We'll be at Festival Foods. That's Friday, March 31st from 4 to 6 p.m. And the address for that is 1-0-0-0-1-0-0-1, Main Ave, DePere, Wisconsin. We're very excited. Say it again because you threw in a lot of numbers there. 1-0-0-1-1-5-5-0-1-5-5-0. Main Ave, DePere, Wisconsin. We're very excited. Wait, say it again because you threw in a lot of numbers there. 1-0-0-1.

Main Ave. 1-5-5-0. Deep Air, Wisconsin. There you go, Witty. Bit Deal Brewing. Coming to Wisconsin. See you there, folks. That's going to be a time.

Oh, man. He's just doing all of them. Grinnelli has to be. He's going to have to see if he's getting these workouts in Chicago, Wisconsin, Pittsburgh. I'll go for a quick lift with you, G. I need to be held accountable, boys. I can lift the bar up for you. Duffman over here.

But on a serious note, though, we want to thank everybody who supports our brand, specifically Pink Whitney and Big Deal Brewing. That helps us evolve as a podcast. We mentioned being able to do the sandbaggers, bring on more staff in like you know travel and get all these vlogs and other fun things we do like the biz does the coast biz does bc type anything we want to do creatively you guys supporting our brand helps out big our brands excuse me it helps out big time so to to pink whitney to gallo new amsterdam uh labatt big deal brewing everybody there thank you as well. So that's pretty much all I got for now. And 12 minutes into the game,

the Panthers are beating the Red Wings 2-0, and Kachuk has 1-1. Shocker. Just on to the awards, on to Nashville for the awards. Finalist for MVP, Matthew Kachuk. Hopefully his brother gets a couple points, get a little prop going with Brady, and beat the Penguins tonight.

Keep an eye on that, Whitdog. Okay, last week, the general manager meetings down in Florida, a little vacation for the boys. Lots of stuff discussed, but doesn't seem to be any imminent changes for the league. The salary cap may only be going up a million dollars next year, but Gary Bettman, he's going to meet with Marty Walsh next week.

The league's players still have $100 million they have to pay off. Bettman said the cap increases could go up a little bit more but they'll want a higher escrow rate so oh players are gonna love that yeah exactly so they're probably gonna want to wait just to get it all paid off i know that's boring shit so we'll do that quickly well the hundred million they owe back is because of the shutdown due to covid in which because of the way the cba is set up the players have to pay back that money in HHR. And then ensues, or coming up now, of course, there's going to be another CBA negotiation.

So they're trying to maybe get ahead of that, maybe relieve a little bit of pressure from the players, given the last deal that they negotiated. I think that the pendulum is going to swing, and I think that the players are going to get clawed back a little bit in these negotiations. That's my prediction. Oh, yeah, that's really always happened. You think it is going to swing and I think that the players are going to get clawed back a little bit in these negotiations. That's my prediction. That's really always happened.

You think it's going to continue? No, listen, I'm not saying they got a great track record. Do I think they've gotten fist fucked in the ass, all spit, no lube, sandpaper finish? Yeah, I do. But I think given the fact that they got this Walsh guy on board and the biggest thing in hockey since Wayne Gretzky is now a player, I think with his voice and some of the other top dogs, the Nate dog, I think that they can push back and claw back some stuff from the owners. Given the franchise values and how much they've skyrocketed,

how much ticket prices are, I know the fans never win in these types of situations, but I think the pendulum is going to swing. Now let's move on maybe to more of the rules changes and discussions, RA. Yeah, and I think it's solidarity. You need everyone on the same page, and that's been a problem in the past. But moving right along, let's see here. They've been talking about expanding the coaches' challenges for so-called friendly fire high sticking and the delay of games when the puck hits the glass but they don't want to rush into any decisions they you know it's the whole like careful careful what you wish for type thing uh there were 225 delay of game penalties only three

of them were the actual wrong call uh colin campbell noted that challenges were introduced to fix goals and now it's all about fixing penalties so it's kind of maybe run away from the original uh original reason to use them. And I mentioned fights after clean hits a little while ago. That was brought up and according to the NHL or the GM meetings, out of 270 fights, 271 fights this season, the league feels that 89 of them came after a clean hit. The instigator penalty was called 21 times. So GMs would like to see either an instigator or a secondary minor call them a player who starts the fight after the clean hit. I like the secondary minor. Just give them that extra power play. The fight happened. It's kind of the best of both worlds. You still get to

defend a teammate. Yeah. Open ice, clean check. Well, you ran over one of our best players. You're going to have to answer the bell. I know it sounds kind of ridiculous, but you're also going to pay the piper and that team's going on the power play and it kind of figures out all right if you want to do it you can't really do it at the big time in the big moments of the game take a number get them later but i i understand where they're coming from in terms of like all right well that hit was perfect why are we now fighting but it's like i understand the guy who goes after the guy too it's really hard to kind of argue yeah we've we've defended the guy who goes and sticks up for his teammate where if my guy gets hit clean i'm i'm going to punch a guy's face in and asking questions later

agreed though if that guy wants to go do that he deserves the extra two and they're going to know it going in so if you're in a tight game, it's 2-2, middle of the third period, and your teammate gets lit up with a clean hit, chances are you're going to hit the brakes and reconsider it and not want to put your team down late in the game. Beginning of the game, that might change, but I'm okay with that rule. The other thing is, in terms of the reviews, and I understand what he's saying, we wanted to make sure a goal was a goal. Well, it's like, it's too late now to go back.

And my thing is, you're not really challenging a puck over the glass or a high stick being your own teammate, unless you 100% know that that's the case, right? They get the replays, they get the video guys, they're so quick on their feet. So you're going to get it right. I know it might add a little time to the game,

but if it's a playoff game and McDavid high sticks Dreitzel and it looks like it was a defensive from the other team, you shouldn't get a penalty. You know what I'm saying? It shouldn't work like that. And at the same time, if a puck goes over the glass and actually does clip the glass, you don't deserve to serve the penalty.

So they're not even going to ask for the review unless the video guy's like, review it, review it. That wasn't us. So I don't hate those. You're okay with it not uh you're okay with it staying though where if you're a defensive player and you end up going over the glass even if it's not intentional that you end up sitting for two like you could only be okay with a Stanley Cup being decided on that type of call the the problem is you can't differentiate if it was on purpose or not. There's too much of a gray area. And so it's either get rid of the rule completely or be able to review

the fact that it might've clipped the glass. I don't love the rule, but I don't see that going anywhere. Okay. All right. A couple more here. Extending OT from five to seven minutes was another topic. No formal recommendation was made. Trade-related scratches, that was something we saw quite a bit of this year. Whoa, whoa, whoa, let's back it up here. I think that that would be the best rule change that they could do right now, is adding an extra two minutes of three-on-three overtime. When I was playing in the American Hockey the year we won the Calder Cup, not a big deal, it was actually a seven-minute OT,

and what they were trying out was the first four minutes of it was four on four. And then the final three minutes was three on three, obviously the full seven. But what they found is the amount of games that were actually ending not in a shootout had gone up like 15, 18%, which I cannot stress this enough. I think the shootout is the worst way to end a hockey game, and in my opinion, so anticlimactic. Is that a word? Anticlimactic? Oh, yeah. Very much so. Did I nail it? Did I hit it out of the park?

Fucking absolutely. When you're watching the current format of the five minutes, the last two minutes usually become such a gong show that if you just add two more, I would be very surprised if there weren't a lot more ot winners so wayne when we were at tnt he actually he said because the teams rag it a little too much where they want to keep possession he made a point of maybe in overtime introducing a rule like in basketball where once you cross the red line or once you

get in the offensive blue line at that point you can't recross yourself center ice. Like a shot clock? Yeah. No, I think it's the over and back rule. Okay. Because sometimes in order to go get the change, you get fresh legs. You fire it down to the goalie. Yeah, they'll fire it down to the goalie.

They'll rag it, kill a little bit more clock, where forcing guys to stay within the red line of the offensive zone and then work within the neutral zone to tag up, as opposed to being able to rag it all the way back in your own end. That would make for even more chaos and more games ending in actual overtime, but I would be okay with them completely eliminating shootouts, making the overtime seven minutes minutes because 10 minutes is a little too long and I get why they're doing it and of course the star players are the ones who are getting all the ice time so you don't want them getting too gassed but games can end in a tie let the games end in a tie and if anything it'll force teams to want

to play for the win a little bit more especially especially late in the season. And sometimes when games are tied midway through the third period, I feel like both teams are just trying to get that extra point, so it makes things a little less entertaining as well. Are you on board with no shootouts, you guys? If we're going to watch Kuznetsov go down the ice at minus three miles an hour, yeah. And I can't even hate on him. He ended up scoring.

I don't know if anyone saw this because that's i think it took him seven minutes to get from the red lines well they want to add a pitcher's clock like the mlb is doing to the fucking shootout now because of kuznetsov for fuck's sakes all right do you have any more to chime in on that just on koozie that that actually was not brought up and you know people have talked about it because yeah guys it's almost at a point where they're going side to side and they're not doing forward progress. But that wasn't on the agenda.

So obviously it's not on the NHL's radar. But a couple more here. Trade-related scratches. Again, that was a huge thing this year. I don't even think we talked about. That was even a phrase maybe last year. It was brought up. It's not considered an issue at all.

You know, Batman says that, hey, it's part of the CBA, whatever. There's no complaints about it. The playoff format is not going to change. I know we talked about going back to 1-8 or whatever. That's staying as is. And let's see. Yeah, basically that's it. No changes. They kind of had their meat and probably got a bunch of fucking nice steaks and seafood

and drinks on the NHL. A lot of golf. And that was it. So the draft lottery is going to be May 8th. Ten teams from the lottery teams will have a crack at Badaad. Did you hear where they did it? They did it at Hedonism this year. Did they shut it like I did? They figured they might as well check it out,

so they turned it into a swingers party. That's why there were no rule changes. Yeah, thank God they had weed and mushrooms. That's why there were no rule changes. Yeah. Well, thank God that weed and mushrooms. Other than spit swapping changes to the rules. Yeah. Yeah.

I don't think I'm going back to hedonism. All right. Moving right along here. Buffalo Sabres signed out the Hockey East Player of the Year, Devon Levi. Incredible two seasons. He had the last two at Northeastern. The second best college Sabres sentence ever. So, I don't know if he's going to get any time with the Sabres.

They kind of fade a little here. What are you going to do if you're a GM of the Sabres? Let them burn a year? Oh, I throw them right in. I throw them right in. Now, granted, that would burn a year of the contract. I don't know if sometimes it's signed in different ways where if he plays this year, it'll burn. Sometimes they're able to figure out where it wouldn't.

I'm not exactly sure on that, but it was big for them because if he'd gone back, I believe he would have been able to be a free agent. I don't know if that's for sure, but it was like they needed to sign him because next year if he stayed, then he could have picked. And they need goalies, right? They need to get a guy in there in terms of the future there looks so bright. You just got to get that tender that's going to be able to be your future stalwart net. I don't know if that's a word, but he was outstanding. I mean, the beanpot this year,

he just robbed BU of a title. He's been unbelievable since he came into college. He's undersized, so I'm interested to see how it goes, but the sky's the limit for him in my mind. After seeing a few games at Northeastern, seeing what he did in the Olympics, I mean, this could be a future stud in the NHL. And college hockey is exciting. I know a lot of Canadians aren't into it. Same way Americans aren't really tied in to junior hockey in the Memorial Cup, but it's going to be a special NCAA tournament.

Minnesota lost the Big Ten title game against Michigan, in which we might have seen one of the best one-on-one goals scored in the history of hockey. His name is Rhett Pitlick. I can't tell you how bad I felt for this poor defenseman. I don't even know his name. It was like... Doesn't have one anymore.

They took it away. No, I'm serious. If you haven't seen the goal, which went crazy viral, so I'm guessing most fans have, he went through this guy's triangle 73 times ending with the defenseman actually falling over on his face and the kids sniped the goal minnesota ended up losing the game that's why i was happy for the demon having been a d-man who was embarrassed on multiple levels by many different players it's like my my thoughts and prayers go out to him i can't imagine the boys the time they're

going to give him i mean it was just like think ding ding ding ding like oh my god oh my god snipe and the defenseman goes flying on his face so an all-time goal but Michigan got the win but Minnesota's the number one seed I think they have one of the best lines not ever in college hockey but maybe up there they got got Logan Cooley, who we already mentioned, stud freshman from Minnesota. He's lighting it up. He was second in points in the world junior behind Bedard. They have this kid, Jimmy Snuggerud,

who I think he's a St. Louis pick. That's his name, Snuggerud? Snuggerud, pretty sick name. I feel like these names are made up, but this sounds like a Star Wars name. He's a freshman as well. He's lighting it up. And then the third guy on the line is Matthew Nyes, who's a Toronto second rounder. He's a freshman as well. He's lightened up. And then the third guy on the

line is Matthew Nyes, who's a Toronto second rounder. He's a sophomore. So I don't know if any of these kids will be there next year, but Minnesota has a legit chance to win it. My boys, BU, they're in Manchester. They play Western Michigan, get the job done there. They play the Denver Cornell winner after that to go to the final four. So Michigan's in another bracket, and then Denver's the number one seed in Manchester. So it's going to be an exciting tournament. I can't wait. I don't want to say Manchester where I won my Calder Cup.

Exactly, Biz. By the way, this defenseman on TV, Lane Hudson, who the Canadiens stole in the draft this summer, he led Hockey East in scoring. He's the first defenseman to ever do it. He's a freshman, a true freshman, a game breaker. He had two goals in the Hockey East final, including the game winner in overtime. Biz, this kid is electric. American? Electric. Is he an American? Yes.

Head fakes, like quick feet, undersized, but I don't think it's going to matter. I really don't. I'm seeing Quinn Hughes as a possibility as as as a guy he could play like Adam Fox maybe it's it's crazy watching him so a complete animal in talking to Jay Pandolfo the first first year head coach to ever win the hockey's title so BU's coming boys BU's coming and if you're just lucky enough to get to the final four you may in fact get to meet Matt Murley, the leader of the EBR crew. He is heading down to Tampa, Florida for the final four with Kobe Armstrong. I'll throw it over to you, G, the Mur.

Guys, before we go any further, I'd like to talk to you guys about our friends at Dunkin'. It's hard to decide what the best part of a Dunkin' run is. Is it the coffee or is it the $1 donut? Or the $2 stuffed bagel minis? Or the $3 sausage, egg, and cheese that you can add to that coffee? Or just the simple fact that you got to leave the office? The answer, of course, is all of the above and yes. With the NHL playoffs approaching, I'm constantly on the go and drinking coffee. Between tea and tea, spit and chiclets, the yotes, my hiking, the workload

doesn't stop. But being able to get some Dunkin' makes it all worth it. It's not just the coffee too. The mini bagels, the donuts, and the classic sausage, egg, and cheese keeps me fueled up and ready to go. And we know the boys can be pretty picky with their coffee. Luckily, Dunkin' has so many different variations. Everyone can get their coffee exactly how they like it. Time for a Dunkin' run. They have great deals on food for one, two, or $3 with medium or large coffee. America runs on Dunkin'. And it's a $3 offer available on sausage, egg, and cheese sandwich only.

Excludes specialty, donuts, and fancies. Offer valid on medium or large coffee. Price and participation may vary. Limited time offer. Terms apply. Folks, I've said it once. I'll say it again. America runs on Dunkin. Yeah, we're super

excited to get down there. We don't know exactly where we'll be yet, but I think we have a ton of stuff planned from interviews with coaches to just Merle's on the street content. But one thing I want to ask you guys, Witt, you in particular, is Bucciagross had a really cool tweet and really interesting tweet, I'd say. And every year, the NCAA, they hold their regionals in neutral locations. Now, I think personally, I think the coolest part about college hockey is the environments, the atmospheres, the crowds. So it just confuses me why they do these neutral site locations when, as in Butcher Gross' tweet, he said, why doesn't the number one seed in each regional host their regional there?

I love that idea. It just makes no sense that they're doing it in Manchester, New Hampshire, Fargo, Bridgeport, Allentown. I mean, it's just, to me, I pay attention to college hockey a lot. I really love the atmosphere. I can't imagine how awesome it would be for Minnesota to be hosting it. There's three Minnesota teams in their bracket. That would just be so cool and interesting to watch.

I agree. It would be great. I think that you should be playing for something where, yeah, you should be able to. It is a little hard, though. Planning ahead and then stuff's happening at the arenas. Or just change the locations year over year to where every team ends up getting to get it snapped around. Now, going back to that goalie who's played the two years, and I'm drawing a blank on his name, the guy in Buffalo. Levi. Devin Levi. history in today's day and age is fucking nuts uh they could buffalo could have used him all season

talking about leverage i think that there's not a chicken dick's chance in hell that he doesn't at least get to play one game and burn a year off his deal i guarantee that was the negotiation as far as him him signing before the end of the season because he's got them by the balls as far as their goaltending depth right now and i think that most kids who end up signing this early do end up getting a shot of where they get to play a game to burn a year off. So these kids are, you're seeing these kids coming out of college have a lot more leverage

because the rule used to be, you have to finish all four years to become a free agent and be able to decide where you go. Now, if you don't sign after two years, you even end up going back in the draft next year. I believe that's the case. No, it's different for college. It's four years post-draft if you're not signed to become a free agent.

Okay. Yeah, it's different. Let's say, so if that goalie hadn't have signed and he went back to college next year, he could have been redrafted. I'm pretty sure, yeah, he could have been a UFA. He could have been redrafted. Which with Buffalo is he could have been a ufa could have been redrafted and then buffalo's like one thing we can't have that happen no he's fucking he's a stud and that's the one position i'm telling you i bet you they'd be in a playoff position if they

had him in net this year for fuck's sakes uh what was the other one there oh yeah we talked about that unbelievable goal who posted that video i retweeted of uh just the barn was that minnesota where yeah so that was so i didn't know that so the uh boston garden holds the hockey east tournament every year but this year the big 10 was at minnesota i don't know if that's always at minnesota or maybe because they were the number one seed they got it and they're doing it the way that you want the ncaa to do it but michigan Michigan went into Minnesota's barn and beat them for the Big Ten title. So Fantilli and crew, Luke Hughes, who, I mean, I would guess Luke Hughes has a chance to step into the Devils lineup when his season ends. They've already said he's leaving,

and the way he skates, I wouldn't be surprised to see him in a playoff game. I mean, it's happened a lot. I remember Jeff Farkas was a stud at BC. He left BC after his junior year. Boom, he's playing for Toronto in the playoffs. So I would have an idea that maybe Matthew Nye signs with Toronto and he's playing for the Leafs. I don't know.

What's going to happen? My hockey boner is fully erect right now. Imagine the Leafs getting a college guy who comes in. Yes, he he's I mean Makar is the best thing since Bobby Orr just ask Milbs uh Bobby Orr happy 75th birthday 75 years old looks great what a legend of the game a better human being than he was player so happy birthday to number four happy birthday Bobby what's Happy birthday, Bobby. What's crazy is Levi was taken to the frigging seventh round, man.

Like what he's done in Northeastern, you feel like a lot of teams were asleep at the switch if he went that late. I know he wasn't at Northeastern yet, though. Yeah, true that. He was drafted out of junior. Talent was there either way.

Quick Massachusetts high school note. Shout out to Canton High School. I went to a couple of the games earlier this year. My buddies get plays for them. They wanted the guard the other day, but gee, ties into you here. I got a text from my buddy. He goes, hey, we got the game Sunday morning.

We're going to be at the Greatest Bar at 7 o'clock in the morning on Sunday. I was like, I don't think I'm going to wake up for that. They open the bar up at 7 a.m.? Yeah, it's like a longstanding tradition at the Greatest Bar. We've kind of always been the home for at least – there's four floors, obviously. So we've always been the home for at least one two or three of the teams that are playing across the street in the garden the high school hockey high school hockey teams so every year it's just all the parents all the brothers and sisters getting crippled there before the game and then

the kids come by after that's awesome and with with g and chicklets game notes we're gonna be able to get a little bit more involved in the college game, which seems to be ramping up. And hey, from a national stage perspective, the amount of Americans that are coming up and dominating hockey, I think in 10 years, they're going to be even keel with Canada. College hockey is incredible. And I know there's junior barns. It's the same thing. But just some of these atmospheres and how good the hockey's become. And it's kind of an international game more so than ever. It's amazing right now. It's never been in a better place, college hockey. And we're going to be checking out some more of these rinks, the atmospheres, the facilities.

We did a video. Yeah, I ran into some kids, G. I ran into the UConn hockey team down in Naples. They got bumped out in the first round of hockey East. So about 10 of the guys were down just on spring break and ran into them. They're great dudes. And they said, they said, tell Grinelli we got a new rink. It shits on ASU. I go, oh, dude, that's close to New York City. Next year they'll be there, no doubt. Yeah, UConn, Sacred Heart, Quinnipiac, all in proximity to New York City. So we're going to bang those out.

Go hit RPI. See where Merle's laid the foundation. Maybe hit BU. Maybe you can come by for that one. There's so many big schools. I want to see Penn State. But let me know which schools have good facilities. The Ralph at North Dakota, that's an unbelievable one as well.

So me and Merle's are excited. We're going to keep doing more. Is that the one in North Dakota where they got the, like the gold plated seats and shit? Oh yeah. Yeah. Marble floor all throughout. Yeah.

It's like a techno concert in between periods. They play sky full of stars, the Avicii mix. It's fucking crazy. Oh yeah. R.A.'s going to feel like he's back at prom with some of those sorority sisters around him in the student section. Do college kids have a version of prom?

They have formals. Sororities and fraternities do formals. We should do a big deal brewing Pink Whitney contest where they win a keg and a case of Pink Whitney and then R.A. gets to be your formal date. I'll be the chaperone. Leave some proof of the Holy Ghost.

Actually, we got a couple more college notes here. Congrats to Ohio State's Sophie Jacques on one of Patti Kazmaier Award. She's the first Buckeye to win it and the second defensewoman to win it in the NCAA. Congrats to her. Also, congrats to the Wisconsin women's team on the national championship. The Badgers beat Ohio State one to nothing for their seventh title, the most by a woman's program. Also, congrats to mark johnson if you have a time to check this clip out really nice uh he said he was going to take the trophy to his mom and take a picture where i you know i guess she's older she's not doing well as he said the clip and you know he you could tell he was kind of getting a little bit emotional and it was just a really

sweet thing and you know that's that was his first instinct to go to his mom she's been a huge fan she used to bring a cowbell to game. So congratulations to Mark and all the women on that team. It was a really nice clip and very happy for everybody out there. So good stuff on that. And all right, that's Mark Johnson from the 1980 U.S. Olympic team as well. Oof, really nice. Good call. Gee, good stuff right there. But yeah, it was a nice clip. I put it in the outline for you guys checking out. We've probably put it in the Chicklets feed too. Great idea to share it with everybody. A couple of other stats here too. How about this, Biz?

There are only eight active players without a visor in the current NHL. Do you know who they are? Can you name any of them? The Ben brothers. Revo. Matt O'Reilly. Boom, boom, boom, boom, boom. Yep. Getzee's retired.

Do you got one, G? Do you already know the list? I'm looking at the list. Does Luchan wear one? He's not a mouse because he's not on the list. Yeah, Luchan, he wears a visor. How many do we need left? Three more.

Number 17. Luch? Yep, Luch. Two more. Delorier? Nope. Give me the teams. The Yotes in the Tampa Bay.

Cassian. Cassian. And Maroon? No, Maroon wears one. Tampa's the last team? Oh, Bogosian. Big go. Fucking great.

Oh, shit. Nice. Good shit. This is a Oh, shit. Nice shot. Nice. Good shit. This is a weird, like, obscure thing. Alex Daylock became the first goalie since 1934-35 when they started tracking penalty shots. He's made a penalty shot in three consecutive appearances that he stopped. Like, that's so weird. Three games in a row a goalie's had penalty shots to stop them all.

That's like Haley's comment type shit and of course mcjesus uh has the most points in a season among active players uh he passed uh kucherov who had i think it was 129 uh mcdavid he has 134 points in 70 games going into monday's action the most in a season since mario back in 96 i don't think anybody else is getting sick of listening to this stuff because anytime you mention records that Wayne, Mario, and all these guys are involved in, it's impressive as hell. So, McDavid, keep getting it done. Moving on to the et cetera stuff.

You know the Yankees don't pay for Wi-Fi on their team playing with? No. The fourth most valuable team in American sports does not spring. Guys have to put in their email and credit card and pay for the fucking Wi-Fi? It would cost the Yankees $40,000 for the year. What are they, finance spirit? It's actually Delta, because Delta charges the players, but the Yankees don't cover it.

I don't know, Steinbrenner was the same guy who didn't want his players to have fucking facial hair. I actually like this rule. From my understanding is they still get the free texting, which is fine. If you're on T-Mobile. I think you're laughing, but that's a time where you're supposed to interact with your teammates.

True. I would say for the majority. But charging them $6.99 isn't going to make them not do it. So then fucking pay for it. I mean, honestly, because if that was the reasoning for it, I get that. It's like going to the bar in New York City. Gee, what's at the Irish Bar where there's no TVs, there's no music? Mixed stories.

Yeah, you're going for the conversation like an old pub. Exactly. I like that. But I don't know if that's the Yankees' reason, but either way, man, fucking 40 grand. Fucking the Yankees. They give Aaron Judge 50 million a year, and that his Wi-Fi bill is what's going to cost him? Seriously. It comes down to principle for me.

Now, the last thing I want to do is defend the New York Yankees and being El Cheapos about not slapping down 40K, but interact with your teammates during that time. There's plenty of other times to be on your phone. They're hanging around the clubhouse as it is for the whole day waiting to fucking tee it up or bat it up or whatever. Let them converse with why you fuck off. Yeah, the Cincinnati Reds, only other team that does what the Yankees do

as far as not picking up the tab. That's because they actually don't have the dough, though. Yeah, probably not in that fucking team. Last but not least, there's some new golf rule getting bandied about rolling back the ball or whatever the hell it is. I don't know. Can you explain it to the folks and what the good or bad of it is? Yeah, I can't say that I'm super informed on this. The main thing of it is that guys are hitting the ball so far now that when you build a new course and they want

the PGA Tour to come to these courses, they need to be 7,700 yards. So it's become one of those things where all of like legendary old courses are almost unplayable for these guys because they're too short because of how athletic and they have become and how much speeds in the game and the technology. I saw Justin Thomas give a pretty good breakdown of how stupid it is in terms of like punishing these guys for becoming this athletic and this powerful hitting a golf ball. Personally, for me, it'd be like maybe limit the technology where it's at now. But it's hard to punish guys and all of a sudden have pros hitting different golf balls than

amateurs. And it just turns into this big thing where it's almost more confusing. I understand the fact that courses are becoming obsolete based on the speed and how far the balls are going, but there's just different avenues you could go down in terms of like changing it up. Whereas like build the rough up much higher and then guys aren't going to necessarily be willing to just swing away. Right now, what golf has turned into is a little bit of hit it as far as you can. And then no matter the lie you're in being that much closer to the hole ends up like creating it that much easier that much easier for you to score well so i understand where they're coming from but i i think justin thomas said like they're not all of a sudden

like if people become faster and faster and sprinting they're not like changing the rules where they're just not going to be as fast. It's kind of goes against like improving yourself. Like making it a 110 yard dash. Yeah, it's just, it's kind of goofy to me. I don't know if the PGA Tour would ever agree to it. I don't know if they would have to. The distance thing is just kind of stupid in a sense that like you don't, you're not rewarded for accuracy as much as you maybe should be.

And the thing is with these drivers now, like when you have this much speed and this technology, you're able to miss hit it a little bit. And it's still just going for miles where like back in the day with the tiny drivers, you had to hit it square in the center of the club face to have it go straight and have it go long. That's kind of gone to the wayside a little bit. I just don't understand the whole act of having different balls for players. I think one of the things about golf is it's almost cool for guys

to have the same equipment as these guys on tour, where you're playing a course they've played, and you're like, oh my God, remember we watched on TV? His drive was 120 yards in front of us. It's almost cool for fans to see how far they hit it. There's just different arguments for these courses not being able to be played anymore but do you think so do you think that like muscle tone and uh flexibility and their their uh ability to coil more has more to do with the the ball flight and how far it's

going or ball speed than the equipment itself or do you think it's because of the drivers more so i think it's more so because of the drivers but it's also why not do like like some racing circuits and and alter what drivers they can use where it does almost restrict them to where they can't really put it much more farther than what's the farthest drives now where it's at now just don't let it get any better from now well that's another thing i was going to ask you. How much more farther do you see them actually driving it? Man, I don't know. The way technology is, like, who knows in 10 years? What do you think guys are driving at highest on average now?

340 is the highest average? I think the longest, I think it's this guy Brandon Hagee. It's all about, like, club head speed and ball speed off the club. I think he's flying at like 320 he's probably the longest the PGA Tour average carry distance I want to say is like 280 right around then um but but my thing is if you continue to go this way like how technology is like I don't in 15 years like maybe they're flying at 350 like it's kind of like you don't know where these club manufacturers are gonna be able to go with technology so if you cap it now you're able to

at least know it's not going to get more ridiculous while not punishing guys like now all of a sudden golfers they're just more athletic you look at old 1990 golf clips or even before they're all fat guys drinking and smoking before and after rounds or during. Now it's just become a legit sport where guys are training nonstop. So obviously the speed is just going to become higher and higher. Yeah. I don't know if you saw the PGA event this week called the Valspar. This guy, Adam Shank, his name is Shank, dude. He's never won on tour.

I want to say he's like 150th, 160th start, he's tied for the lead on the 18th hole and hits a snap hook just the pressure, the pressure of golf the pressure of getting that first win which gets you in the Masters the worst possible bounce, he ends up directly on a tree and the only way he could hit it

is he fucking hit it lefty it was actually an incredible shot, he turned the club over and hit it lefty and it went through the fair shot. He turned the club over and hit it lefty and it went through the fairway. He hit it on the green and then lipped out the putt for par to go to a playoff. So it was kind of crazy

to see what he had to do. He walked up and saw the ball and literally just went like this. He was just so disgusted in where it ended up. But what I found funny That's the second craziest

lip out story of the last week. First one being Fiala on 16. Or R.A. at the prom. Ha, she was 18. How about the guy Adam Shank though? So just to have the last name Shank and be a professional golfer is hilarious.

I had my buddy Carbone, he sent me this picture. When he played on the Corn Ferry at that and it was called theweb.com, Adam Shank was paired with Jared Hack and Ryan Yip. So the scoreboard carrier walking around said Shank, Hack, and Yip. Unreal. I got a kick out of that. Holy shit.

That's a great golf. That's a little golf quickie. A golf quip. Taylor Moore won first win going to Augusta. Pretty cool. Yeah, what is the Masters with? That's the next thing you told us. So this week's the match play in Austin, Texas.

The following week's the Texas Open, and then we're on to Augusta. Yeah, April 2nd broadcast, Wayne's back in the seat, and then he's going right to Augusta. So hopefully you're sneaking in a few nips and enjoying those with him. Yep, I've had people reach out. I think we might get a couple nips in there. Will this be the first major after all this live nonsense? Yes, yes.

Whoa. And the champions dinner, I believe there's five or six, maybe seven Masters champions at live. So you go back, they're allowed to play, and they have the champions dinner. So all the champions get together, and the last year's champion scotty shuffler releases the menu he decides what's for dinner and fred couples is calling phil a nutbag and ripping on sergio and everyone hates reed so this year's masters champion dinner could get could get interesting

looking forward to head over you know what it's actually cool It's gonna look like the cafeteria scene in Matilda I've never seen Matilda I've never seen it I more feel like it could be the cafeteria scene In Mean Girls when they end up like Lindsay Lohan has The little daydream of the tigers And fucking lions running around

And cat fighting So yeah Biz is cranking it right now Best cafeteria scene ever Animal House wit. Yep, yep. See if you guess what I am now. I'm a zip. Get it.

Yeah, so that was an action-packed episode. Thank you to Mike Milbury for slinging it. Oh, yeah. Good shit. And we got some action. Playoff race is coming down. I mean, we got one. We only got Pittsburgh, Islanders, Florida fighting for the 7 and 8.

And then we have, I'll say, Winnipeg, Calgary. Nashville. Nashville. Nashville. They had a rough weekend. I don't think so either. Without Yossi too much. But we're in for some exciting times.

And just the fact that we have everything Biz has mentioned. We got the Sandbagger. We still have the Portnoy Josh Richard coming out end of April-ish. We have the FDNY game, which I know we've talked about enough, but we're just so excited to be a part of this and the action that that's going to bring. And us broadcasting is so cool. And then playoffs.

This is the best time of year for sports. It's the best time of year for chiclets. And we love you all so much. So thank you. Hey, and last thing, G, where can they watch that broadcast for the NYPD, FDNY? Well, let me tell you 15 more times before. It'll be available at barstool.tv and the Spittin' Chiclets YouTube channel. Love it.

Love it. All right, guys. Have a great week. Hopefully everyone's enjoying their ride to work right now and we could maybe kill a couple hours for you. That's our goal. And thank you so much for listening. I will forever be grateful to every person listening, even the ones who hate me.

I'm grateful for you. Tell them to subscribe to the YouTube channel. And if you don't go to the YouTube right now, Biz is going to come to your house with a cowbell and hammer it while you sleep. Yeah. And your old lady. YouTube. YouTube. Peace. Arrivederci. your host with a cowbell and hammer it while you sleep yeah you and your old lady youtube youtube

peace