Spittin Chiclets - Spittin' Chiclets Episode 460: Featuring Tuukka Rask

Episode Date: September 5, 2023

On Episode 460 of Spittin’ Chiclets, the guys are joined by Tuukka Rask. Rask joined (00:15:44) to discuss his career in Boston, his AHL snapshow, playing with guys like Patrice Bergeron and David Pastrnak and tons more. But first, the guys open the show talking about Murls first daddy-daughter dance class and the most epic Pizza review of all time. The guys wrap up the show with Grinds My Gears and the return of All Right Hamilton.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 460 of Spittin' Chicklets, presented by Pink Whitney, from our friends at New Amsterdam Vodka, here in the Barstool Sports Podcast family. Summer coming to an end here, hopefully everybody enjoyed their Labor Day weekend. Gonna check in with the fellas right now, see what's shaking across the pond once again. Matt Murley, EBR, up and running running how's it going so far buddy i was going good i had a nice weekend over here something i never thought i would be doing i went and i went to a dance class went to my daughter's first ever dance class it was a big day it was the first activity we did with her

i mean when you're a kid or even as you're getting an adult, I'm just assuming my first thing is going to be a hockey practice or soccer practice or baseball, because that's all I did as a kid was that kind of stuff. So it was definitely interesting. I was definitely out of my element in the in the dance class. But that was it was fun. How'd she do? She loved it. She she loves dance and she she could dance dance all day listen to the music all day long she wears her little tutu she has little slippers that look like ballet shoes so she was

all about it good little sunday morning activity that led into i got to have a little fun afterwards went down to the sports bar watched some soccer i became an arsenal fan through the day i made a big wager on them so i I'm an big Arsenal guy now, but I got to shout out wit. The wit comes from nowhere. I haven't heard from the guy in like a week. He's like, Merle's,

you know, that Swedish guy, the golfer, this Ludwig Aberg, he's like the big amateur. He's like, he's got a chance to win today. Throw a little something on him.

Plus 900. Boom. The guy came all the way back in one. So the wit gave me a nice winner too so great little sunday over here there you go no i'm assuming no labor day over in sweden right no everyone's back to work today i um i was up mowing the grass we got a little community here everybody's supposed to chip in i end up doing all the grass mowing because i'm around during the day a couple hours free so i take care of all the lawn work, pick up all the apples that are falling off the tree.

It's, it's, it's, it's fall over here. If you need help with the grass, hit me up. I'll, I'll be happy to help.

Mr. G what's going on, buddy. How was your labor day weekend here? Uh, pretty, not the best labor day weekend for myself. Played a little golf.

Uh, had to go to the vet, which cost me a casual five grand. Uh, because my dog decided to go into my girlfriend's purse and eat some things that she probably shouldn't eat. So, yeah, I spent the weekend just kind of hanging out basically on my phone the entire Labor Day weekend sitting inside because of because I was at the vet the whole time. But it led me to I don't know if you guys saw the Dave Portnoy pizza review that happened last week, but I was sitting in this veterinarian waiting room, just watching meme after meme after meme of the,

fuck you, no, fuck you, you're a fucking clown. It was so funny. I was getting so many weird looks but all right I don't know if you've ever been to dragon pizza I don't know why don't you lay the whole story out for our for our listeners here and go ahead yeah we had Dave Portnoy last week I know I was kind of surprised at how many people complained about it I know not everybody who listens to chicklets is a Boston fan we understand that but you know Dave's you know one of the most successful entrepreneurs in the country, in the world, basically.

We had him on. We never had him on before. And two or three days later... It will be one of our most viewed episodes all summer, too. It will be our most viewed episode all summer. Yeah, and I thought, you know, people just listen to him, man. Even if you don't like him, I mean, hear him out. I mean, I know all these hit pieces over the air.

People get the wrong impression of the guy. And that's, you know, I think we kind of want to show people that this is who he is here. A couple of days later, his one bite pizza review come out. Actually, he teased it on his interview with Tucker Carlson. And I couldn't believe it. I couldn't believe that he went outside, did his review, and then the guy, the owner comes out and starts barking at him.

It's like, this guy just gave you money, spent money. Whatever score he gives, people are going to go there. 6.4 is not the worst score in the world. He even said, I'm not a huge Palm fan, and that's why he scored a little low. And this guy should have said nothing, and boom, you would have had business up the wazoo. Instead, he comes out because he read a New York Times. By the way, the New York Times wasn't even a hit piece. It was the softest fucking article ever on Dave.

And Dave snapped. They went back and forth, and it became a firestorm here. I got to say, gee, I don't know. Was that top? Was that the best review ever? Or top two, top three? Yeah, I mean, personally, I think I think that's I mean,

just because I used to live right near Davis Square in Somerville, like I I just thought it was the best review ever. There were two things that stood out to me. One, when the guy called him out

right at the beginning, he's like, I don't like what you do for small businesses. Dave's like, I raised $50 million for small businesses. In my head, I'm like, I don't know if there's a person in America that's done more for small businesses than Dave Portnoy. And when he was like, he's like, I work so hard. I own a business. Dave's like, I sold my business for $450 million and then $100 million and then bought it back for a buck.

Who's the clown now? I just loved it. Everything about it. I would say it's the best review of all time. Number two, being the Pink Whitney pizza review where the pizza fell and just the first chicklets one. That was incredible. Yeah.

And this one had the other characters in it, too. There the Dom guy comes sliding in. Dom of the year. And then the girl that was the big fan, she's taking the selfies with them. The other guy fumbling the earpiece with the kid. It was just, it was just chaos.

Absolute chaos. And like you said, G like of all things to say to Dave, you wrote, you, you hurt small businesses. The guy raised $50 million. Like,

and he honestly thought like you're going to ruin people's businesses with one bite of food it's like buddy that's it's an ironic name dave says that one bite he's 17 fucking bites of it like it was that was just all right that's the perfect person who is that guy's a headline reader you know what i mean like he did no research like to actually think that dave takes only one bite of the pizza and then rates it like what a fucking idiot. It's like what an idiot. And then, I mean, I I had to go check out the Google reviews, the Yelp reviews. I'm pretty sure Yelp shut the page down. Stoolies just just completely destroying this guy's business.

Completely destroying this guy's business. I imagine like waking up in the morning, just like going to work, checking the Google reviews and just being like, wow, last night we were a four-star restaurant, four-star pizza place. Now we're zero. Yeah. The guy could have said nothing and made a ton of money. Instead, he had to be a big mouth.

And he, you know, he didn't even make a point. Like Dave's like, what'd I do? He's like everything, everything, everything. He just made a total asshole out of himself. Nothing. And like, yeah, Dom of the year, that everything, everything, everything. He just made a total asshole out of himself. Nothing. And like, yeah. Dawn of the year. That guy had the comedic timing of like Richard Pryor, just popping it at the right time.

He's been blowing up since then. The two girls there, the nurse and the other girl, you know, mass hole chicks defend, defend the wall. Just absolute chaos. But you know, this guy is, I guess he's had a hard on for Dave. He read the post article. I'm sorry. The times article before.

And it's like, buddy, like just, you know, make up your own mind. Don't judge people on a fucking news article. And he made an asshole out of himself. And it was hilarious. But I guess we move on. Hopefully you folks enjoyed it last week. I know maybe not everyone's cup of tea, but try to give you a little side of Dave and, you know, get a little shine to him. What's up, guys? I'm back. Whit's back. Pink Whitney's back. And last week, I talked about Labor Day and summer ending. It's unfortunate. I hope you all enjoyed great celebrations to end summer 2023. But now, we're basically on to the fall, and we're on to Pink Whitney season in a sense of football, right? I talked about college football last week. Well, NFL, baby, we back.

It's the season. It's NFL season. And I feel like what goes well with the NFL besides barbecuing is drinking. And if you're going to get involved in having a couple of drinks and enjoying your favorite team play, I'm a Patriots fan.

You know, I was spoiled. Pink Whitney wasn't around for all those soup bowls. But if you start drinking it now, maybe your team goes on a run. Maybe there's some sort of magical shot with Pink Whitney that you and your buddies do, and then all of a sudden your team wins six in a row, gets in the playoffs, and goes on a run. So NFL begins the season of Pink Whitney.

Also, fall golf, my favorite golf. I'm a New England guy. So New England golf in the fall, nothing beats it. And Pink Whitney makes it even better. So in the summer, I go Pink Whitney on the rocks. But in the fall, I might just chuck even like a little dash, a little splash of lemonade, right? I know it sounds crazy, but if you go Pink Whitney with pink lemonade,

it's kind of a double dose of wham. So we got NFL football. We got golf in the fall. We got soon to be hockey season. I mean, we're coming down on 30 days till opening night. So Pink Whitney's where it's at. New Amsterdam's where it's at. We can't thank you guys enough. Keep drinking it. Keep enjoying it. Keep getting a nice little buzz off it. And we'll see you around pink Whitney season, 2023. It just never ends. I got to give a little bit more shine to Dave here too,

because I woke up Saturday morning and I have a, I have tweet notifications on for Dave. So it's just, it's a thing that a lot of us do. Like a lot of us had it at the old office. And so anytime Dave tweets, I get a notification on my phone, which is unbelievable in this situation because Dave tweeted out he loved Colorado. Colorado plus 800 on Saturday.

Right away, I happened to be looking at going through my lines, going through all the lines, and I'm like, wait, I love Colorado. I'm taking that. 200 bucks plus 800. Nice little payout for my Saturday. Helped pay off that vet bill. So shout out to Dave for that one because that was huge.

Wow. They must have missed college football being back though, boys. It's amazing. Amazing. I love it. Merle, what's Buffalo doing in the Super Bowl this year? You throwing a little something on them or what? I think I saw them at plus $900.

I'm not betting on them. That's my team. I do not bet on the Bills. I bet on the Bills one time. I'm not betting on them. That's my team. I do not bet on the Bills. I bet on the Bills one time. It was against the Giants in that Super Bowl, and the guy missed the kick three feet right. I cannot bet on my team. I will just be happy if they win.

I actually just listened to the interviews. They had Josh Allen and the coach on PMT a couple weeks back, so I just listened to those to get me ready for this, this week here coming up, I'm all fired up for the bills and it could be a big year in general for Buffalo. I mean, just like I, I love the Sabres heading into this upcoming year,

the bills are going to be good. And then boys, we have a chicklets cup a month away right now, one month away from today. We have a chicklets cup in Buffalo. So I can't wait. That was another thing i saw this weekend uh terry ryan was in buffalo he was doing a dry run first at the world championships of the

street hockey and he won so hopefully he found a couple guys for the big deal selects there and they can get over the top this year against the nose face terry ryan is incredible he every like probably once a week i wake up to like a voice message, just a voice message from Terry Ryan. It'll be like eight minutes long of him. Just like breaking down the big deal. Selects roster, like talking about who does what good,

how great they're going to be, why they're going to win this year, why they're going to take down nose face. He's so excited. I can't wait. Merles. I mentioned EBI earlier. How you hitting them so far?

Yeah. Yeah. We came out hot first Merles, I mentioned EBR earlier. How are you hitting them so far? Yeah, we came out hot. First game of the year. We take it. We get a puck line Jesus to cover the minus one and a half. I'm counting the money. Everything is great. Saturday, I was doing all right. The team was up 6-2 with six minutes to go.

6-2. I had them minus one and a half. I'm laughing. This is going to be another big day. I had them minus one and a half. I'm laughing like, oh, this is going to be another big day. I'm going to sweep the board, tied it up. Six,

six and six minutes goes to overtime. So I lose the bet. And it's been a little bumpy since then, about 500 on the year. So we'll get it going again. I actually have a game. I'll give you a pick right now for Friday. This is an early pick.

Help you. G would pay off the rest of that debt. It's Friday. It's the Champions Hockey League. It's ILVS, I-L-V-E-S. It's in Finland, ILVS. It'll be three-way, minus 127. They'll take care of business against the Czech team at home.

So a little winner for you Friday. And yeah, it's great. The Champions League is back. They did a couple of funky rules I talked about before, and the one where you can keep scoring on the power plays. So it's been really cool. So I've been doing some live bet, and I see the team down to get a power play.

Like, well, they can score two quick ones on here. Do you think any of these rules will come to North America? I could see that one coming over. It was good for the two-minute power play, but it got a little weird. This one team took two penalties at the same time, so they had a five-on-three for a full two minutes. Oh, Jesus. And they scored two on it.

So in that situation, I thought it was a little unfair, but I loved the full two-minute power play. Score as much as you want. It was really cool. Well, Merrill, you must know which team changed that rule back in the day. It used to be you got the full two minutes, and what team was so good they had to change the rule. Oh, wow.

The Patriots. Oh, was that long ago? Yeah, I think it was the 50s. Yeah, you used to get the whole two minutes, and they were so goddamn good. They cashed in all the time, so they made it so once you scored, that was it. That was the end of the power play way back in the day.

A little trivia for you. what do you say gee we got tuka rask uh bruins icon no doubt about it won the stanley cup back in 2011 he met us at the hotel a couple weeks ago had an awesome chat with him uh you gee you were dying to get that shit question uh-huh yeah i mean i used to live in newton so for those who don't know i put we put it in the vlog i asked tuka rask there was that there's just there's been this long-running conspiracy Yeah, I mean, I used to live in Newton. So for those who don't know, we put it in the vlog. I asked Tuca Rast. There was that. There's been this long-running conspiracy theory that when the Bruins lost the last game of the season a couple years ago to not get into the playoffs, Tuca Rast was at Buffs the night before, which is a big wing place.

And he ate so many wings that he ended up shitting himself in the morning. I had to ask. I had to ask as R.A. was taking the picture picture just put my big j journal hat on just like we should and uh yeah tuka said it wasn't true that like the the owner's daughter created this rumor and uh so yeah i'm just just doing the the people of boston some some service putting my big j journal hat on but this is an incredible interview uh i think tuka rask is the best bruins goalie of all time. So, R.A., what do you say we send it over to him?

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The colors are great. Vehicles are great. And you can learn more at chevy.com slash electric. All right. It's a huge pleasure to bring on our next guest. A first round draft pick by Toronto in 2005. This Finnish goaltender played his entire 15 year NHL career here in Boston. He set team goalie records for wins, games played, this Finnish goaltender played his entire 15-year NHL career here in Boston.

He set team goalie records for wins, games played, shots faced, and saves in both the regular season and the playoffs. He also won the Vesna Trophy in 2014, the Stanley Cup in 2011, and just two goalies in NHL history have a better career save percentage. Thanks so much for joining us on the Spit and Chicklets podcast. Tuka Rask, how's retirement going, my friend? It's going great. Thanks for having me very very excited i've heard a lot about good things about this podcast so i did the loose for loose i gotta do the two there we go every time you use two k's two points who uh do you know who the other two goalies are who have the better save percentage

career-wise uh i think hasasek's one of them. Not a bad one to be. Yeah, I don't know. Marty from the 70s. Did you pay attention? Who was the only two? Hasek and Kendra. That's unbelievable.

I'm surprised it was that low for that era, too. Yeah, exactly. That was a big-time goal-scoring. Did you pay attention a lot to the goalies and their stats when you were coming up? Were you a big goalie nerd? Not really, no. Like our, you know, in Finland, growing up there, we got like the NHL Power Week every Sunday or whatever. So we'd show one game or something?

It was just like highlights. Oh. You know, and then you'd see the Stanley Cup Finals. That's about it. No shit. So, you know, that's like mid-90s, I'd say, when I was around seven, eight years old, when I started paying attention to hockey more and more. There was like John and Beastbrook, Mike Richter, Patrick Roy, like those guys.

So the Finn goalies, which is now just crazy, the development, they hadn't really been over there yet. Who was the first dominant Finnish goalie? Dominant? I think Pasi Norminen was the first one to get a starting job. That was probably early 2000s, maybe. So maybe Kiprasov was the first, to get a starting job that was probably early 2000s maybe so maybe kipper soft was the first like kipper was like a superstar yeah like yeah norman was in atlanta so yep no to really pay were you a goalie right from the beginning yeah always your dad or no my uncle was a goalie for the local team then my cousin picked it up he was uh two years older and i just like i just liked it i mean

i did i always say that i was so lazy to back check that i figured it's just easier to stand there and like take the frozen tennis balls in your head you know but yeah i just you know i fell in love with it there was never any fear either from the pucks coming in like you wouldn't like wince as they would be shot at you loved it no get right in front of it i think that's that's something that these days kids don't even realize that when we were playing there was no masks in the backyard games and you know in finland it's you know 20 below in the wintertime and the tennis balls freeze up so you kind of learn to use your glove head pretty quickly no way okay interesting wow when did you start thinking a pro career might be in the offer for you someday?

Probably around 15, you know, when they start doing the select camps for the national teams. I get selected to the whatever group of four goalies and how many players. And then, you know, you play four or five tournament, national tournaments a year. And now, you know, that's 15 16 so then i did good in those and then i you know moved away from my hometown to a bigger town to kind of make it to the next level and that's kind of when i started thinking that maybe i could make a profession out of it so your hometown team wasn't one of the teams is it league what is it called over there uh yeah it's like league league yeah the hometown team was

maybe like a minor one yeah it was like one tier below okay yeah like ahl to nh yeah yeah so you had to move pretty young right like was that rattling i was 16 no you know my parents tell me all the time that i ever since i was five or six years old i would inform them that first chance i get i'm gonna get the fuck out of here oh Oh, really? And that was, you know, it's just, I don't know what that was. But, you know, then 16, I probably had seven or eight teams that, you know, I could have picked. But Ilves and Tom Peretz was the right fit. There's no, like, draft or anything?

It was almost like free agency? Yeah. Really? Yeah. I mean, you know, the scouts go and look at the national team games, and then they kind of just approach your parents at that time. I didn't have an agent, obviously. You know, then pretty quickly after that I did.

But, you know, the scouts, man. Who were the other kids your age from Finland that went on to play in the NHL? Were there any others? The 87s, not too many like i don't think maybe five or six of us played all right you you said you told your parents when i hit a certain age i'm getting the fuck out of here like that's the way you said it to them not within those words with the f-bomb but like yeah pretty much is it because you thought that there was more for you, maybe even outside?

Yeah, you know, like you have that vision, you know, you want to be a hockey star or something. You know, obviously you're not like thinking clearly when you're seven or eight years old. But like that's kind of like the mindset that I had, I guess. And I, you know, I realized that my hometown of 25, 30,000 people is not going to be the no the end game yeah and did you always have a killer instinct like were you putting in the the work in the off season was it kind of just like what everyone did where as a group you guys from like your team would work hard or summers would you take off play soccer and be a kid exactly so i played soccer until i was 15 and i was basically when you left yeah yeah that, you know, you have to kind of make the decision at that point,

you know, which one you want to pursue. I was pretty good at soccer too, but hockey just fit better. You know, I grew a lot when I was 14, 15, and then, you know, coordination wasn't as good in the soccer field. And then hockey, you know, worked out better anyway. When you got to the senior senior team or tamper or whatever was there a goalie coach there that kind of like helped you was there somebody where you were like wow i just took a big step because of this person oh for sure like we we had goalie

like they were so far ahead of like anybody else as a country i think yeah what is even my like when i was a kid starting at like seven years old, you would have a goalie coach, you know? And we started working like the butterfly style came, you know, maybe at the age of 10 or whatever. So you kind of like start working on that, but you know, it's, it's a small town and you know, there's one goalie coach for how many goalies there are. But then, you know, when I moved out at 16 at 16 we our team had a goalie coach and then you really started getting technical and like just doing repetitions summer skates we'd like the no pucks we just like glide and move around in the skates you're on the ice too on the ice yeah

wow so when you were so you when you were 10 that's around the time that the butterfly came about yeah yeah who was the origin originator as far as goaltenders that came out with that wasn't it Patero? Wasn't he like the... Was he the first guy? In the NHL, I think so. And before that, what? It was just stand-up style?

You just kind of figure it out on your own? Yeah, kind of. Just get lit up. Just get lit up. Stop the fuck, yeah. And did you stick with that your whole career, the butterfly? Or did you end up like adapting? Is there any other different ones now?

No, I think I was probably considered more like a hybrid guy like try to stand up more than just a full full-out butterfly goalie you know like some of these bigger guys now like all they need to do is go on their knees and they cover the whole whole net but yeah i was probably more like a hybrid when was your first trip to north america it was 16 17 maybe i think we went to uh outside of edmonton there's some kind of a tournament there i played like under 17s i think or something something like that yeah but i like so i jumped an age group like so i played with i'm an 87 so i played with the 86s and fives in the national team

yeah i saw you even played three world juniors yeah it's like pretty i mean people get one it's good yeah yeah i what was the first one it was grant forks i had a luxury of playing against that was the crosby that was the 85s yeah the cross well crosby was the underage but they have like yeah it's love perry bergie That was like the FNUF double Dion. They had like, out of 23, they had like 20 first runners. Good luck trying to beat that. Did you come over for the draft that year?

You got drafted? No, my draft year was the lockout year. Oh shit, that's right too. What were your expectations going into it as far as where you might go? There were some rumors that Ottawa would pick me. That was like the most interaction I had from all the teams. And then, you know, after that, I had no idea. Like then, because obviously I think they were number nine or something.

They didn't pick me and then just kept going and going. I had no idea who might pick me. I was just hoping that first round choice would come and then Toronto pick me. Toronto. Jesus. Yeah, whoopsie no clue goalie ever since they got ready for fuck's sake is that your team that's why i root for them the most i grew up liking them and then i'm on the payroll with the coyotes and then i i jumped on the la king's bandwagon too this year i just i'm a i'm a bit of a i like that when it comes to a lot of teams it's i'm that way too.

You've got seven teams. Yeah, it's good. Whoever's on top, that's for your friends. So when they traded for it, well, when Toronto traded, were you pissed off, bummed, indifferent, happy? Did you have a clue it was coming? No. So I don't know if you heard this story.

I think it's documented somewhere. But it was a midsummer party in Finland. I don't know, 18, 19. We're on a three-day bender and and it's not getting dark out either it's not getting dark so like I don't know midnight 2 a.m. I get a phone call from I think from my agent or whatever like hey you've been traded to the Bruins I'm like oh okay great I hear shit you know it's like 25 beers deep at the time, and then we'll deal with it on Monday. But it didn't bother me because my plan was always to stay in Finland a year or two anyways.

So I never even attended the Leafs camps or nothing. They sent me the draft jersey. That's about it. So there was never any emotional connection? No. I never went there. And then I didn't know anything about the Leafs. knew the maple leaves are a great organization but i knew even less about the bruins i'm like who the fuck watches the bruins but you didn't even know like the media like shit storm that you would have been in had you

not been traded right like you didn't know if he was even no yeah so it probably was a good thing in the end yeah Yeah, true. Oh, as if all the media isn't hard in Boston. It's nothing close. Nothing. No, no. I mean, it's... Okay.

Fair enough. Nothing close. Yeah. I mean, just the fact you didn't know that, I guess you're right. Like, I don't care. Yeah. I haven't played for him yet.

Right, yeah. And I knew the reporters called me after the draft, and, you know, like, they start stirring the pot, by the way, like, he's the next guy, he's the next guy's the next guy so i'm like what the like i haven't even been there like what are these like toronto reporters whatever so yeah worked out great blessing in disguise right what did you know about boston before you got here anything at all nothing nothing no shit nothing and expectations to make the nhl or just planning on being the AHL that year? Because, I mean, you had a ridiculous first season, right? You got called up a little, it says.

But did you go into camp thinking like, oh, I want to be a starter right away? Shit, I don't even remember. So the first year I stayed in Finland. You know, when I got traded, I played in Finland. And then like- Was it obvious you were ready to move on though? Like, I'm kind of like, I'm dominating here. I'm ready to go.

Yeah. I was ready to take the next step after that. Cause I, I think I played two years, maybe two or three years as a one, number one in Finland, you know? So then obvious step and the plan had was to go to Providence and, but you know, like you coming over, you're not going to make it if you were just like, Hey, I don't know. You know, I'm just going to go and see what it's like. So when I came to camp, I'm like, oh, I'm going to be the best goalie.

And I don't know how good of a camp I had, but obviously I didn't make the team. You don't know that as a young kid that the team's set. You're just like, you kind of like think that you have a chance. You're looking at it as tryouts and like the GM's like, dude, you got no chance. Yeah, and you know, like all the speeches before the camps are usually like oh there's some spots open and then you're like what the fuck I had a good camp and you sent me down no trust no more trust who like who were the

guys you were able to lean on when you first got here because you were up and down between Providence and Boston but did you have any good mentors as far as vets down there yeah so the first year I think I was up quite a bit because the goal is where I hurt so I was I think I played like four games or something and I was probably up 20 and those were starts or just I played I played four games up and then I was backing up for like whatever 20 so but our our group in Providence was a veteran group you a bunch of guys who had been around six, seven years. So that helped a lot. You're 19, come from Finland, speak English. Any other Finns?

First year, I think Noki, did you play with him? I played with Noki. I think he was there first or second year. And then Mikko left and then forward. He was with me for one year. But the Bruins never really had any Finns, you know. Yeah, I know. That's true.

Yeah. That's actually a good point. When I think of Finns, I kind of think of Nashville and Minnesota. Maybe that's just like obviously Rene and then Mikko Koivu. But yeah, Boston has never had that many at all. No. Never thought about. But in the NHL, was Krejci already over?

Was he already in the NHL? These guys who it's finally kind of over, right? I mean, Lucha's back. But what was the core in terms of age? Were you pretty friendly with all these guys? When did Marshawn come? So me and Marsha came the same time. Oh, okay.

Kretsch had been here a year. So he was kind of helping me out too. You know, I knew him playing against him in the national teams and whatnot and being a fellow European as well. But he was, Kretsch was up quite a bit that like his second year, you know, in here. Quader came.

You're still real good friends with him. He still lives here yeah yeah yeah he's a development guy for the broers too nice uh you know luge came the same time but he was he's the big shot i don't think he played a game in the minors no he went to the show yeah exactly i can never look back everybody exactly him johnny boy chuck you know he was there we had a great group of guys who actually you know ended up playing for the broins too so yeah i know it wasn't even like a crew where guys got traded like everyone was pretty much there in 11 and yeah kind of this influx of like the veterans that were already there and then some nice young blood being injected into lineup yeah and then i mean you wanted what a few years after you'd gotten over here you were the

backup to tim thomas at the time yeah yeah so that was was that my fourth year maybe yeah because i started i had a lot of starts that my third year here and then you know we lost the infamous serious dude flyers and then you know we go to europe start the next season we don't know what's gonna be the starter so teammate takes the job we played played you. I was there. What a great time. That was awesome, buddy. Prague. Worked out for us, but not for the Coyotes. You guys must have partied more than we did.

Oh, yeah. We were done after that trip. That's what I thought we would be, too. Spent my salary at the discotheques there. The bar discotheques. The women there were incredible. You go to the grocery store, and the clerks were 20 out of 10 but uh but but back to your team sorry to hog the mic here but you guys yeah you guys started the year over there and that was uh yeah but it was an open competition at that point yeah yeah i mean i we lost then julian yeah cold

was yeah i started the first game i think we lost four one was Colton then, Julian, obviously. Yeah, Colton was, yeah. I started the first game, I think we lost 4-1 or something. Timmy played the second one and probably had a shutout or something. And then, you know, he played most of the games. We split the net during the regular season quite a bit that year. But then, obviously, playoffs was out of this world how he played. But, yeah, so that was my fourth year in the league. And, you know, we won't win. So they say, hey, you know, it's kind of.

Yeah, this is easy. This is easy, you know. Like, every year I show up, just go to the finals. You know, Sagan was, whatever, 19 at the time. So we had, like, a bunch of us young guys. Put him in that game against Tampa, and he had, like, a couple sick goals. Right. It was like his coming out party.

Like, they have this guy, too? Yeah. Right. Yeah. And then, so that was a good run. What was the relationship like with Thomas? Like, I know him a little from the Olympic team. We actually were the two guys who missed the flights home because we were out the night before.

But like a different guy and such different goalies, right? Like, you just stand there and the puck hits you and he's fucking kicking and out of position. But as a guy, was he helpful? It seemed to me maybe he could be like kind of get away from me. It's my net. Like I guess there's different relationships and all that. Yeah, no, not at all. Because I think we learned a lot from each other.

Well, first of all, he played in Finland for a long time. So he's like half Finnish. He still has a bunch of friends over there. So that helped. We had the know over there yeah so that helped we had the same agent you know that helped um but yeah i think just to watch him in practice and how much he battled kind of like gives me as a young guy kind of like well hell i just can't like be the first rounder here who's kind of like fucking get the job on and you know so you actually have to work for it so he taught a lot in that sense and maybe from my end you know like being calm and like more technical

than he was you know he probably took some out of that and then you know go about the legend coach you know awesome guy yeah he's an awesome guy his his gear was terrible though the way he was oh helmet and stuff would you ever chirp about that stuff yeah you think but he like i was i was polar opposite of that because like i stuck with the same gear like i never changed to a point where like these equipment guys are like come on like oh he was just harassing him let's yeah let's just like get you some new you know chest pads or something i'm like no no i'm good but But Timmy would have a garage full of pads. He would just fix them by himself and show up one day and bring this new invention he has just created.

Come on. What was the craziest thing that he changed about his gear and brought it to the ring? I think we talked to somebody when they had a goalie where they created a claw on the end of the skate blade so they could push off a little bit better the way that they would they would sharpen it probably stuff with the skates well everything one year it was towards his last years here he like eddie belfer i guess trademark some like uh you know like the outside part of the goalie skates whatever so timmy like contacted him and like asked his

permission to wear them so they were like from the fucking 1970s it looked like you know this is like 2010 timmy but yeah yeah i don't know his own helmet yeah you gotta try to get a whole him and ask what the craziest thing is i think i don't know if he has the internet where he's living in a bunker, so we'll see. Are you able to keep in touch with him? Yeah, yeah, yeah. Talk to him every once in a while. What's the story? Like he just moved off the grid after?

I think it's all like kind of like embellished of him like living in a bunker. But yeah, I don't think he's in the mix. He's not living in a bunker. He's not in the freaking Prudential Tower here. I saw him recently. He actually, Vermont had horrible flooding. And he went out and helped and did a ton of volunteer work to really help that state.

He played at UVM. But I more make the joke, I just think when he was done, he's like, I'm out. He's not interested in doing media. He's not interested in any of that stuff. Right, yeah. You're lucky to have me here. Exactly.

I mean, four years. I mean, we might as well get to that i mean that was one of the questions i was going to ask you a little bit later on like how did you feel with dealing with not only the media but maybe the fans in boston like you feel that you were given the respect that you deserve based on your career stats and what you did for the organization because there were it seems like there was a few instances the bubble especially one where you had to attend to a family issue where i felt like they unnecessarily like almost like some of which turned on you well that's that's that comes with the territory you know like the media is hard here that's for sure but like that never bothered me because maybe early on when you're like

well i guess not because you're a young guy you play good they're like pumping you up you know and they're just waiting for that one opportunity to like turn on you and and start chirping so then you just realize your skin gets thicker and you realize like hey it's they're doing their job i'm doing my job like might as well not even pay and you're not reading or listening to stuff no you can't i mean no dude yeah you would not how do you shut that off though i mean you're i think it gets better once you get older like it definitely not happened to me but as far as the fans like i think the fans are great like they i walk in the city like people are just like thanking me and like hey thanks so much for everything you did for the city and for the team and it's not the fans but it's like if you listen to the media and you get wound up in that shit you know you might start thinking like whoa maybe the fans turn on me but

no it's yeah it's the vocal minority and they're loud and they're on and sports radio is looking for oh sports radio is like in this city probably bigger than anywhere else right and like so if you get a couple guys that go against you there's fans who don't know the game they're like oh he's not good yeah and and i guess that's true like it's almost like uh yeah very rarely does somebody come up to your face and say anything like me and edmonton that was a different story but most of the time you think people don't like you and like you said in the street like oh great for me you gotta get a picture yeah yeah you know that's all you experienced yeah exactly that's and i always like i'm i didn't care if i had a bad game or good game i'd go out and eat and hang out you know and then at least that that way you get the real feedback if somebody wants to come and tell you you suck then hey i mean correct me if

i'm wrong i always thought it was one of those instances of like thomas kind of flopping around and just like making these crazy saves and then they see you where it like looks like you're not trying as hard do you know what i mean by that where it's more his style and what they saw and then they're like oh this guy it just doesn't look like you're giving it like carrie price was effortless in the way that he was able yeah and then halak was doing things that he didn't really have to do and then there was canadian fans like halak's better like i yeah yeah you think that had something to do with it i'm sure it plays a part yeah yeah you know especially you know when when you know me and tim were playing then timmy left and i took over and you know if i didn't play that well you know they still compare

us and you know it's a fresh in their memory seeing timmy you know making these incredible saves and stuff and then you know but i don't think it didn't like get crazy like that i don't think but i'm sure in some instances do you think the um cup loss to chicago was the best hockey ever played that playoff because that was a lock for playoff mvp for you had you guys won but i just remember you at a level then i was like holy shit like you think that was the best you ever played yeah that one and then uh 19 ones well you know like fuck. I was here for that. Were you? Yeah. That was fun, huh? Game seven.

Yeah, good times. Oh, my God, dude. That's heartbreaking. But you go back to saying it's like you win it early and you won it as a backup when Timmy Thomas was a starter and you think you're going to be back every other year, especially with that group you guys have. I know.

It's just like, but, you know, it's hockey. That's how it goes sometimes. Like, you know, we play great as a team. I play sometimes. Like, you know, we play great as a team. I play great. And, you know, it's just, we had games. I remember that Chicago series. I think like Dogovic or whatever had a post, like we would have been up, like maybe 3-1 or something.

Like shit like that just happens, like within the series that like could turn things around. Then, you know, he misses an empty net. Now it's like 2-2 and then like battle two and then like yeah it's such a game of inches yeah yeah you know um with your career numbers like obviously the longevity speaks for itself like how were you able to stay so focused and so even keel throughout the entire process obviously it seems like fins are just even keel people but like did you do like mental training in order to like visualize before games like what was it in your routine

how you were able to do what you did throughout the 15 years uh well i had an episode in providence i don't know if you guys were one of the all yeah so you know yeah you do that snap show oh yes no oh buddy oh 100 but then like you do that and like you come to the NA. I think you made SportsCenter top 10. Yeah, 100%. Or not so top 10. But this is great entertainment. The Providence owner must have been like, when's the last time we've been on SportsCenter? Yeah, yeah, yeah.

And I remember somebody told me that they were contemplating whether I should be suspended because I freaking tomahawked that stick at the ref. But somebody had said, yeahed that stick at the ref. And like, you know, but somebody had said like, yeah, that's an understandable snap. Because like, it was absolute bullshit what happened in the shootout. And the ref, he's been in the league, Freddie, he's been in the league for 15 years.

So we always joke about that because he was the- Oh, so he was down in Providence. Explain what happened. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Go give us the back story. Yeah, yeah. So it's a 0- zero game throughout the overtime. I'm playing like the best game of my life at this point.

Like thinking like I'm feeling it, feeling it. Nobody's going to score on me going to shoot out no goals. And like, I don't know if like we scored first and then like there was like maybe the last shooter. So I go poke check. The guy loses the pocket goes like a little backwards,

sideways. He skates to the puck, wraps it around and then like shoots it on empty net okay and then the second one like we don't score then they come back and you know the guy rips it over my shoulder i just hear a cling and the ref's like goal i'm like there's not a fucking chance it's a goal there's no video replay at that point and you're already on tilt from the first yeah yeah you know so then see you later the wires cross yeah so you kind of learn from those things you know and then i snapped a hundred times but just not on the ice i've just gone to the locker room and break steps did coach or when you're putting one of the teammates pull you aside and say hey you can't be doing that or were they

they just as visibly angry as you were about the way the ref called both plays? No, I don't think nobody said anything. Nobody said shit. Probably wouldn't be smart because I probably just start throwing haymakers at that point. But for you personally, was that a learning lesson where you kind of remained a little bit more even keel? Or you would still have your snap show between there and there? Oh, I would have my snap shows up until towards the end of my career but it just happened behind closed doors i once got locked in at joe louis arena after we lost the game you know that little

shitty ass yeah changing room they had so i went there i smacked that door like 10 times the freaking handle fell so so their assistant trainer had to crawl through the room oh no come down and like you know you're like sorry man we were like they had to hold the bus because i just stuck there for like 40 minutes that's a tough it was julian the coach then uh i think claude was still oh god yeah fuck um i heard you're a big heavy metal enthusiast. All the fins. I wouldn't say enthusiast, but I love the heavier stuff more than something else, I guess. And you're big into the drums?

I like it, yeah. I haven't played, well, I mean. You used to play drums? I played when I was a kid, you know, like a little bit. And then I had an electric set in Providence, so we're messing around with Matt Lashoff a little i can play the guitar oh he just released an album yeah yeah he did yeah handsome bugger too yeah so like i've played and i know how to play i keep a beat but like i'm not a drummer i just give me 10 beers and i think that i'm the best in the world which you know i've showed up the stages and play freaking songs but something fun you know what I've showed off the stages and played freaking songs. But it's something fun, you know. What about back when you played, calling out guys in the locker room at all,

calling out the team for their effort, or more just like individually focused on yourself? Like what kind of guy were you? I mean, most goalies aren't very loud in the room. I didn't know how you were. I wasn't loud, but I would, you know, if I had something to say, I'd say it. Didn't happen too often. I would snap every once in a while and something to say, I'd say it. Didn't happen too often. I would snap every once in a while and start yelling at somebody.

And guys just knew it's too snap and just... Yeah, nothing that would happen on a weekly basis. Speaking of speaking up in the room, Bergeron just retired. Kind of talk about him, what he meant to the team, what he meant to you as a teammate, and just any stories of him in that moment. We're looking for bad stories, actually. It can't all be good, so give us some dirt. Give us some dirt on Berg.

You should know that he's perfect. There's no bad stories about him. No, but he had been around, I don't know, four years already when I came, because he was an 18-year-old when he came. Yeah, I was at BU still, and I was like, this kid's a second round draft pick what the fuck yeah you know so he had learned a lot like Marty LaPointe was in you know French Canadian he was with the Bruins at the time he kind of took Bergey under his wing showed him the ropes and and um you know when I

came he was already a leader you know at the age of 22 you know so then obviously it's just like developed from there and you know yeah he's he's just a leader i mean what do you think he would end up could you see him like an eisenman role like you think he'll always be in the game like front office guy i feel like guys like that like there's like crosby bergeron it's like if they want to be gms they probably will be i don't know if yeah i don't know i don't knowon. It's like if they want to be GMs, they probably will be. I don't know if – Yeah, I don't know. I don't know. It's up to him if he wants to take that route. I think it would be a waste if he didn't stay with hockey.

Yeah. And it's like I talked to him actually when I retired a year and a half ago and you're kind of like, well, what am I going to do? And like I'm not going on TNT and start talking to camera for – No? No. Or maybe I don't know. I'll make a call. I'll give you my seat for a couple of days. You know what, though?

Me and Z, actually, we were joking about that when he was at Bruins. Zdeno, if somebody would pay you like three million bucks, you would 100% go on TV and start roasting these guys. Like, no, I would not do that. Well, that's because he's made a lot, and I heard he likes to save it. He's not a big spender. Alligator arms yeah here but uh yeah if they you know pay pays there yeah do whatever but um

yeah so it's kind of like it's it's an easy transition for a guy who played like you know 15 plus years to stay in the hockey somehow because that's your school you know like would you ever want to coach oh hey they pay enough it's all about that pay i don't think there's enough payment in coaching no like goalie coach like people ask me that all the time like where you want to go there your hours are worse than the players you start breaking down video and like so at this point you know when the kids are young it's like that's not in the in the cards for sure but you never know. Never say never.

I was talking to Looch. I said, you got any dirt on Duca? We're interviewing him today. He goes, ah, he's a chicken wing enthusiast. That's the bad story? No, no, no. But that's all he had. He said, you're kind of like Bergeron,

where you got a clean slate. There's not much dirt. Other than the fact he was bitter that you guys weren't allowing beer. That is so bullshit. Oh, wow. So I heard about that. The beer at the wedding.

It was only spritzers. So my buddies, you know, a couple of my buddies in Finland, they listen to you guys. And I was talking to him. I talk to him like every day. And he's like, hey, did you hear about what like Looch said? I'm like, what the fuck? And Tory actually, he was, Kruk was in town too. He was like, did you hear what Looch said?

I'm like, what? And he's, yeah, there's no beer in here. I'm like, I called him. I'm like, Looch, what the fuck are you saying? Like, there's no beer in your i'm like i called him like klutch what the fuck you're saying like there's enough beer maybe like during a cocktail hour after the ceremony there was not like 15 peronis for you but like there was no shortage of beers during that week and that's for sure what about after you guys won the cup um some legendary parties i mean the one down at foxwoods or wherever it was like what did you do with the cup your day and what do you remember in terms of like the four or five days after in this city or do you not

remember anything uh yeah well we i do remember me walking out of the bus with the helmet on i had nate horn's helmet on that's another one he told me for two days you wore a helmet after wouldn't take it off yeah yeah i was definitely sober that time uh but yeah we did the the parade then we went to foxwoods i think i don't know how long we part maybe like three or four days everybody's just like i mean i'm ready to party because i didn't play a second through the playhouse but like everybody else who grinded it out to blow yeah ready to blow anything from sagging that run i mean 19 years old kind of like you said i mean he was every time you'd go on the internet in particular barstool you'd see him on a bar shirtless him and marsh and just going to town yeah didn't they get kicked out of here after like a week like they did

it's time oh the gm told him to go home not a gm one of the senior members of the team said all right boys maybe you should go home now. Yeah. Wow. Yeah. They got the toss after bringing home a Stanley Cup. The party's over. I think Seggs was 19 and Marsh was probably

21 or 22. So like, he shouldn't even be at the bars, Seggs, but like, I mean, what are you going to do?

You win the cup sitting like this. So like, it's tough to like, let me take it easy here as a 19 year old. Like, you were in Providence with Marsh when he was young. Was he the me take it easy here as a 19 year old like like you were in

providence with marsh when he was young was he the same exact same way when as an 18 year old kid it was like you know cocky and multi or was he kind of like oh yeah and did you know he'd be this good because i mean he was yeah i mean he was look we played against each other in the national teams quite a bit you know he was always you know kind of like the maybe third liner second liner because you know they had some good uh players there as well but i mean he's the same guy he's calmed down a lot obviously but he's he's always been the same guy passionate he's got that fire and like he works out harder than you know he was skating i think five days after they lost this year that's what somebody told me like and he's been skating since.

It's like he must just love the game, but that's fucking nuts to me. And he's not young anymore. I don't know. Was he trying to rip his groins out or something? Berkey retired so he doesn't want to play anymore. He's like, fuck this. Well, I think if I could go back,

that'd be one thing I'd change because I used to take the full summers off until about August. But to stay on your edges and stay on your blades, I think from the overall career standpoint, definitely helps out well yeah i guess like we used to like we had to work out for our like shuttle run you know so you're like you have to run yeah like well i know you know which is stupid like it's conditional okay but like you're skating like i think you can do the conditioning on the i think that's where it's trending nowadays anyways what i hear like

guys skate oh these kids skate like maniacs. Yeah. To the point where I guess the problem is they're probably not developing enough muscle. That's why they're all so much skinnier and thin. Right, right. But then I just feel overall the game's becoming faster. Yeah. And maybe there's not as much emphasis on this side and bulk where they want these guys buzzing up.

And I think the product on the ice, I mean, I'll ask you as a goalie, from like the shot velocity from when you originally came in to now, like with the technology, the sticks, did it change drastically? Well, glad I got out like two years ago because this- You were even noticing like, holy shit.

Yeah, I mean, how fast it is and how fast it goes sideways, you know? Yeah, it's the cross and then you know these releases like you can't even read them anymore it's just like like a ripple wrist and freaking goes you know so guys like matthews i mean bedard who's coming in now too yeah the way the way that they're also able to like pull it in and then use the flex yeah does that affect you guys that much just changing the angle half a foot? Is that that? Yeah.

That's what they talk about. Yeah. Yeah, it's tough because, like, it's tough to get reset and then react to the shot, you know, like, it's almost impossible. So, yeah, it's tough. But I definitely noticed that, you know, what was my first year, 0-9 or something, 8 or 9. And, you know, some guys were probably still using wooden sticks back then.

What was, like, if you look back, back like what was your weakness as a goalie like was there one shot or one part that you you always kind of were fighting against or did you feel like actually at your peak you were you pretty much didn't have many weaknesses uh yeah probably when when i was playing my best i was there's no like's no one thing that would stick out. It would change. Sometimes you'd get beat low block or more. Sometimes it'd be high glove. Were you watching video of yourself? Yeah, we would break down video at least last, I don't know,

eight, nine years of my career when Golik Bob came full time. What makes him so good? Just easy to work with? Yeah, he's very smart he understands who he's working with i mean look what he did with lenis too like yeah he's really good at kind of like figuring out what a guy needs and you know because some guys at least what i've heard through other goalies like some goalie coaches might may have their own like mantra that like they can't steer away from you know like yeah

you dude my way or highway and talked about that with us remember biz one of the goalies it was a legendary goalie coach and they were he was like we don't we don't fit you remember that oh uh maybe it was lung well i don't know if it was sean burke but it was uh um lungquist guy yeah it was lungquist's guy and we interviewed a goalie and he's like he's a legendary goalie coach but it was his system yeah yeah so that's like what works for not one guy doesn't necessarily work yeah I remember Jersey when uh Berder was playing they would teach like the younger guys like playing the puck and like stand up like you know hug the post like this and it doesn't work you know now it's called reverse vh is it's called lundquist always talks about

it on the broadcast dude i i don't even but but uh we were uh we had sean burke on though but that's why i felt that he was such a good goalie coach because it was more about the communication and how is he gonna get to know the person yeah and then from there he would establish the friendship earn the guy's trust and then talk to him about adjusting certain styles and what he was doing. I know with Mike Smith, because he was such a bigger guy and he covered more of the net, he'd say, why don't you give yourself a little bit more reaction time and then stand a little bit deeper in your net? And I didn't even realize how tall you were because maybe when you're out there on the ice, I don't know if it was the way you position, like you're a pretty tall guy. So would you tend to play a little bit deeper in your net because as a result of that i started doing that more uh as the years went on yeah but uh i was always you know pretty quick on

my feet i could move so i would get away with that being like too far out and stuff like that but definitely when you get more comfortable with the shots and you know gain more confidence it was it's easier to kind of stay back a little bit and kind of like cheat for the easier route for that pass if that may happen you know i don't know how much hockey you watch now but like in terms of the whole goaltending position changing with it's like 50 50 now right like there isn't there's a number one guy on a lot of teams but a lot of teams don't and now the number one guy I think teams wanted to play 45-50 games max like do you see that making sense like could you see that as your career was winding down and do you ever think like there'll be guys playing 65 games anymore I well they might be but I don't think they're

gonna make a deep playoff run so that's so you're you're on board with all that i would so i was i was saying that my last six seven years like i had seasons when i played like you played a lot 70 games 60 some games too much and and i think the both runs we had with the like to the finals i don't think i played more than you know definitely not more than 60 games i would guess and no shit those playoff runs you catch fire yeah you know it's like you you get a bank on you know playing 20 whatever four games on top of the 82 so like you know the guys are taking a beating if your number one goalie is like playing 72 games and then like almost 100 games total like yeah may have lasted like 10 15 years ago but now like where the game is like there's no way you can you know so it's for both the mental and physical aspect of it because like i couldn't imagine being a

goalie because you got to go out there the full 60 and then the mental preparation going into the game seems a lot harder than what like maybe a normal player would have to right and on top of that the up and down the up and down and the groin situation so is that is that why you can't be playing 65 70 games as a goalie anymore yeah it's yeah i think everything everything together kind of like adds up you know mental physical the whole wear and tear but like my other point always was too like hey like you know games would be two one three two like tight game so it's a grind right but nowadays it's more trending like hey seven six it's okay so i but nowadays it's more trending like hey

seven six it's okay so i'm like hey if i don't get yelled at letting seven goals and winning you know eight seven i'll play every game i might you know get pulled a couple times but like just you know fuck around and like all right like more like shitty hockey type of thing it's like it's not like as tight of a defensive game it was was not at all. My first year, it's like we lost three, two or four, three, like four, three would be like a bad game for me.

Like, Oh my God, you're letting like four goals. Why? Because of the defensive system? Yeah. And like, you know,

we would just, they would be two, one, one, nothing, maybe three, two. Why do you think the bottom line for goaltenders is getting so good?

I feel like the parody is kind of what you were alluding to. Yeah, there's just so many good – I feel like there's no position in the world where there's guys in the minors that are like, if this guy got a chance, there's so many good goalies. Well, you look at Vegas this year, right, with Aiden Hill being able to step in. I think he was their fourth or fifth goalie used during the year. So why do you think the drastic evolution in this past maybe 10 years i don't know i'm sure the goalies are more athletic they're getting coached you know

more the younger age but it plays into it like i don't know i haven't really thought of that everyone gets better it's no different everyone yeah everyone gets better and then i think the teams you know realize that we need depth in the goalie department because you can't just have three goalies who might be able to play. You need five or six. You may need five or six. What about your memories of the Olympics? Did you get to play two games?

One, only one. Yeah, because 10 was Vancouver. Did you play? Yeah, so that was my first yeah that was my first year I thought I had a chance to be number 3 guy because we had Kipper

and I think Backstrom and Nitsimaki so I had a great start for the year and I thought I'd be

you know number 3 guy but didn't get selected and then Sochi I played how did you guys do there we beat you guys in bronze US number three guy, but didn't get selected. And then Sochi I played. How did you guys do there? We beat you guys in bronze, US.

Fuck. I forgot about that one. I wasn't on the team anymore. You stopped following after all. Traumatized by torts. I got screwed. Duke, if you were to lose your confidence at any point, would that happen quickly from a goal, a succession of games? How would that happen in your case?

Lose my confidence? Yeah, lose your confidence. Would it be like one goal, one game, a series of games? How would it go? I don't think I would ever lose my confidence, but it's just like the feel for the puck sometimes is like just some days it's not finding you. And it's, like, tough. But it's not a confidence thing.

You know, I was always confident. Like, then you just go. Next day you practice, feel good again, and, you know, give it another 12 the next day, you know. Were you superstitious? No, not really. No, before games it wasn't the same. I had my routines kind of, but I wasn't like –

I've heard guys like, hey, if you're like – Who was the craziest, do you remember? Marshy was kind of – or maybe he was just routine i remember he did the same shit at least summer skates yeah but like i was always like doing my own like i was just there playing soccer and laughing i was just like hanging out in the trainer's room and just focusing and then i go stretch so i wasn't even paying attention what the other guys were doing i guess i have written down here that uh lars ulrich he's uh in metallica yeah ulrich yeah he presented you with uh what do you give you a drum kit yeah 500th game how did that all get lined up so the guys know that i like metallica's my favorite band so they got in touch with uh you know lars's drum tech jimmy jimmy clark i think it came from our

like trainers keto and those guys they got in touch with them and they're like hey you know took is a really big fan you mind if like i mean they bought it but then they got um lars to like record a video saying congrats have you been to a bunch of their concerts yeah so we went uh i've been to three or four. And then a year ago, they played Boston. So then Jimmy came. We hung out at the house a little bit, and he treated us awesome.

We were side stage watching them play. Really? Also had written down that you're a big Phish fan. When you go to those types of concerts, do you smoke weed? Do you take mushrooms like R.A. would do? Are you allowed to talk are you a fish fan oh okay maybe it might maybe i just made it i was like metallica fish i'm like what the this guy's all over them yeah you are all over the place yeah yeah when you go to metallica concerts do you indulge in any type of cannabis

or much just strict strictly booze just beers and yeah. And you even launched your own booze, did you not? Yeah, what's the beginning of that? Long drink. Yeah, the Finnish traditional long drink. Yeah, these guys kind of created the recipe. What's in it? It's gin and grapefruit. Okay.

Yeah, it tastes like fresca. And they get you buckled. Yeah. I've had some. Yeah. They're excellent. They sell them in North America? They sell them everywhere.

Oh, really? Yeah, so the traditional one is in Finland. They made it for 1952 Summer Olympics, and they just never brought their recipe over here or really sell it here. So these guys, they're younger guys. They wanted to figure out a way to start making it here, created the recipe, i don't know

seven eight years ago and it's caught fire now how did they get they just got in touch with you to invest yeah yes yes so um you're an influencer did you play with hard to kind of team in edmonton yeah i did so part of it yes so he's buddy finnish guy knows these guys. And they were wondering if any hockey guys Timo would know would want to be involved. So me, Timo, and Kimo, teaming in. Oh, OK. Yeah. So I actually played with that Hart to Kynan.

And then he went on. Is he still in the KHL? He was unreal over there. Yeah, he played there for- Making bank, too. Yeah. But now he's in switzerland i think he's out yeah he was in ufa i remember um there was like a a wasp that were were named after you

yeah this whole backstory and how the hell did this happen can you explain it i do we're just talking about that with my daughters because they're like how did this they got stung by one well no yeah this is something about bugs and like hey you know there's actually like a wasp named after pretty cool you know so i'm just trying to pop my own you're making that up yeah you know so then i pull it out i i can't spell the name thermidoritis to kabrasky or whatever it was why why did they do that like how the fuck did the guy the guy who discovered it was like from from cambridge or boston you, like one of these scientists or whatever. And he thought that that wasp resembled like- You on a long drink.

Exactly. The same movement, right? Something like that, yeah. The way they flew and stuff, the way they moved in their net or their hive. Yeah. That's how it happened? Yeah.

And then he just named it. But I think it was- Did you get like a plaque or did you receive some type of award? Not yet, but that's reminding me. I think I got he just named it. But I think it was- Did you get like a plaque or did you receive some type of award? Not yet, but thanks for reminding me. I think I got to get on it. But I think it was one of those playoff runs where we're playing good

and my name was probably on the docket. So that helped. I think our ass wasp. Is that the best accomplishment of your career other than a Stanley Cup? I think so. That's got to be up there. And then the drink.

Oh, R.A.'s alarm. Oh, his alarm works. Two o'clock so. That's got to be up there. And then the drink. Oh, R.A.'s alarm. Oh, his alarm works! Two o'clock alarm. That's about right. You must have a couple Boston questions for him. He spent 15 years here. What's your favorite Metallica album? I've got to ask that first. We were just talking about it. Well, it's got to be the Black

album. The first one I ever got introduced to. Is that where Enter Sandman's on? Yeah. Can you sing for us? Could you sing a little Metallica? I'll Can you sing for us? Could you sing a little Metallica? I'll let you sing. I'll let you sing. Where were you playing the drums the other night after the concert? Loretta's.

Oh, yeah. Did they ask you to come up? Yeah. I don't know. I just went in there and talked to the guys for a little bit. All the old goalies in the NHL could start a band. You got Lunkus who plays the guitar, that handsome bastard. And then you'd be the drums. There we go. any other goalies that play instruments need a bassist need a bassist

i don't i would ask about pasta when he joined the team must have been like a breath of fresh yeah did he have like like i guess a ripple effect on the room because he's such a happy bubbly guy i even oh yeah i mean has he been on the podcast podcast oh yeah yeah he's a great dude he and he hasn't changed one bit you know if anything he's you know become more animated and going you know after he like gets comfortable speaking english i mean he still can't speak english whatever uh yeah but he you know he was whatever 18 19 when he first came and he's a he's a very outgoing guy but he listens and he wants to learn from the veterans you know that's one of the better qualities in him you know he had the respect when he yeah you know

respect like he's like he's outgoing but like he's like paying attention and listening and yeah it was definitely what do the boys make of the suits when he first showed up were they hey tone it down there or did he gradually get to the craziness he definitely gradually got to the craziness he wasn't he's like nobody showing up at 18 and wearing that shit like you'd be like buddy we're gonna take you shopping tomorrow what what percentage of outfits that he would wear by the end were you like yeah i'm down with that i mean you you weren't throwing on nothing too crazy were you no i no nothing like that. But I don't know. He was pretty stylish. He pays attention to style.

But nowadays, who keeps up with style? I can't keep up. Biz sort of does. You do? Yeah, I do. No, I have the same pair of black jeans I've had for, what, six, seven years now. Once you hit a certain age, you just don't have the time

or you don't care. What are those? Those are Bottega Veneta. These are actually very cool. There you go. Yeah, $1,500. You know what that is. $900.

Justin Bieber wore them, and I liked them, but he had the yellow ones, and I figured if I got the yellow ones, he'd get dirty too quick, and I don't got Justin Bieber money. So these ones have actually lasted me over a year. But those are the type of what are those shoes. Yeah, it's what are those, but you pull it off. Thanks, buddy. You pull it off. Do you keep tabs in the league every night you like a watch of any every nhl game but just kind of casually very casually yeah i like to play off hockey yeah

were you surprised when the bees didn't go to swayman like were you thinking about no yes and no i mean it's tough but like my i I mean, I'm on the other side. I'm an ambassador, so I just go to the games. I don't even see the games because I'm hanging in the suites. Go meet in the season ticket holders. Yeah, you know, like, yeah. But it's tough when you, like, you keep rotating throughout the year. That's what I'm saying.

You know, like, then you've got to just keep it going. But I know a goalie, Bob's mentality has always been, like, one guy's going to take the reins and run with it once it comes to playoffs yeah but yeah I don't know it's tough I mean I wasn't in the room

obviously so I don't know what what was going on but goalie Bob got thrown I heard about that I don't know I was loving it

though because like he would always run under the radar like like you know he should but like every once in a while it'd be nice like yeah step up and say something and take it take one of these interviews you know he should but like every once in a while it'd be nice like yeah step up and say something up and say something and take it take one of these interviews

you know so i was i called him after i'm like oh hey buddy was he pissed i wasn't pissed but it's just like he's a happy-go-lucky guy anyways i hate to go back to game six chicago then but after the blackhawks tied up to what guys on the team may be expecting claude to call a time out in that spot or did you want to kill momentum even though it was going the wrong way? R.A. is obsessed with this. He would have 1000% called a timeout. So you always go back to it. Because Claude always left them in his pocket.

He never used them. So I wasn't surprised they didn't. It just seemed like it might have calmed you guys down a little bit. I have no idea. So they tied it to 1-1 or what was it? 2-2? Whenever they tied it later, I think it was 2-2. I forget the actual score, but before they ended up scoring 17 seconds later.

Yeah. I don't know. I don't know the answer to that. Shoulda, coulda, woulda. Yeah, I have no clue. Did you guys know Bergeron had a punctured lung and shit and was playing? Were you even aware of that? Because I remember it came out.

I was like, what the fuck? Yeah, I think. Everyone's injured, but. I don't know. It's a long time ago. You don't remember all the details. I know he was hurt, I think. I'm sure we knew, yeah.

Yeah. But, yeah, I mean, it tells a lot about the guy. You've blacked it out. Yeah. Blacked that out. Yeah, yeah. But, I mean, it's just one of those games like that. Right.

Who was your funniest teammate? I mean, there's a bunch of them. Yeah. Tough to name one. I don't want to name one. Yeah, leave a guy out. But, you know, Marshy's funny. Pasta's funny.

Kretsch is funny. Everybody's funny in their own way, you know? Like, you know, Kretsch is like, he's funny. Dry humor, right? He's so dry. Will he go back to Czech? Do you think he'll live here? No, I think they'll stay in the States.

Yeah, his wife's from here. Not from Boston, but from the States. And will you spend summers in Finland? Yeah, yeah. We just got back two weeks ago. Nice. We were there for a month. Usually we, like, month, month and a half we go there.

That's the best time to go. Have you been? I've hung out in Sweden a little bit. I've been to Finland to play a couple games, but then it was right back. But I mean, beautiful country. Usually, it's pretty dark and gloomy during the winter. But in the summertime, right around July, August, it pops.

And it's basically like it is today outside. It's beautiful. Yeah, we usually go like late June till end of july or something that's the best time 22 hours of sunlight so i know right now on the ambassador which is to be an ambassador for especially a team like the bruins like you have to have a pretty special career are there thoughts on what else like are you kind of just taking it day by day you mentioned it is hard after you retire i mean to figure something out but yeah i i haven't really put too much like thought into like what i would want to do you know this this gig's good because you meet a lot of people yeah and from there who knows from there

you know maybe there's some kind of an opportunity you can pursue after that but i kind of like figured after i retired that i'd give myself like a year or two just to unwind, hang out with the kids and, you know. Golf. Exactly. I want to say like stay home with the kids. But like my wife listens to this. Like, she's fucking, you're never home. You're always gone.

So, yeah. But at least my golf club is like 10 minutes away. So, I'm not gone for like. Last year, there was a big group of guys. We played golf together and we teed off at like, we weren't in the same group, but there was four foursome. and we teed off at like we weren't in the same group but there was four foursome say we teed off at 11 to 12 and then at 10 o'clock we're at salem country club me and him are the last two i'm like i gotta go he's like what where are you going i'm like dude i've been at this course for 13 hours it's time to go i wanted another drinking buddy for a few more long drinks left he's like you're fucking leaving you pussy that's awesome but

that's like that's why i like to stay close to home. Yeah, you can just walk home. You can just walk home or you know you're not going to get too crazy. When you travel somewhere and you have no possibilities, then you have a couple too many. You're like, oh, I might as well have a couple too many. Next thing you know, I fucking go home and get yelled at. Would Big Z ever lose his shit in the locker room?

Who? Big Z, Jara. Oh. No, he wouldn't snap. I mean, yeah, he would, yeah, yell, but he's not a guy who would, like, snap. I mean, he snapped on the ice a couple times on opponents. That's terrifying.

You don't want that. Yeah, we don't want him grabbing people in the home team. No. Any more, Ari? Well, you guys already asked about the goalie situation like the last two years they haven't needed to steal wins a series do you think that's almost a trend because there's so many good offensive players these days yeah it's probably part of it i mean yeah i don't know it's fucking hockey questions i don't follow hockey that much like i said i go to

the bruins games i don't even watch the game get drunk as an ambassador well buddy i mean we can't thank you enough for popping by and uh i mean a hell of a career um amazing i'm sure fuck with the way the guys are getting statues out in front of the rink i'm sure you'll probably get one pretty soon but uh an amazing career man and uh we appreciate you coming by thank you thank you next time we'll see you uh on the golf course yeah we got a uh sean thornton Thank you. Next time we'll see you on the golf course. Yeah, we got a Sean Thornton Tukaras sandbagger at one point with apparently Keegan Bradley on the bag. So that's big news.

And then you mentioned Teeman and him and Hartnell won our smoke. So you guys will come out, come for the crown. We'll see what happens. There you go. Not happening. Not happening. Thank you. All right, before you go any further,

here's a word from our friends at Body Armor. Spittin' Chicklets is brought to you by Body Armor. From sports drinks to sport water, Body Armor keeps us hydrated all day long, all summer long. I've been riding on this stuff. Body Armor water has been clutch. Love the strawberry banana as well. Whether we're talking, watching, or even playing sports, Body Armor is our go-to choice at Chicklets, at Barstool. Everybody dogs this stuff. It's so good. watching or even playing sports, Badiama is our go-to choice at Chiclets, at Barstool. Everybody dogs this stuff. It's so good. It's real hydration, real ingredients packed with electrolytes,

vitamins, and nothing artificial. All kinds of great flavors. I've been on the strawberry banana for a long time. Blue raspberries is another good one. The best athletes in the world are on Badiama. Ronald Acuna Jr., Christian McCaffrey, Alex Morgan, and the latest athlete to join the team, Joe Burrow. Awesome quarterback. My favorite one, like I say all the time, Strawberry Banana. Gets me through all these episodes me and G been doing all summer. We've been up late. Whether it's the water or the sports drink, we pound these all summer long.

Keeps us nice and hydrated. Didn't play much hockey this summer, but a little street hockey. Afterwards, boom. Got to get hydrated hydrated body armor all day all night it's the best stuff to keep you hydrated all summer long it's available in stores nationwide so head on over to body armor store on amazon and get yours today body armor you can't beat it huge thanks to tuka rask for joining us awesome chat with a man Such a good guy. I love that he's still in the area, so hopefully catch up with him later,

have a pop of two of them. But gee, hearing some rumors out there, I understand. Yes, yes. So I think we've added a new member to the rumor boys. Barstool Chief has jumped on the train, and he posted a blog today that, and I'll read the headline, there is speculation that Patrick Kane will sign in Detroit once he's recovered from hip surgery. And I want to puke.

That's the headline from Chief. There were some reports. I think Bleacher Report posted a quote from Kane saying, could I come back early? Yeah, probably. It's a lot better than I was last year. So the rumors are swirling. Patrick Kane potentially to Detroit. Merles, you were the Detroit guy last year.

I'd love to hear your opinion on this. Yeah, I mean, I would be a huge pickup because the big thing is they think he'll go back with Debrinket. He wants to play with him as part of that rumor. I can't see him going to Detroit. I still think if he comes, it's Buffalo. It's Chicago or Buffalo to me. I think he wants to go home

Buffalo is is gonna be really good I guess Detroit's gonna be pretty good too but Buffalo is right there play at home I I if I had a bet on either one Buffalo or Detroit I'm going Buffalo I see I mean I know Detroit Chicago historically have a great rivalry but since Detroit came to the east it's just not the same you know I mean it's I think St. Louis is more of Chicago's main rival right now so I don't know if he goes there I don't think it's just not the same. You know what I mean? I think St. Louis is more of Chicago's main rival right now. So I don't know. If he goes there, I don't think it's as big a deal if it happened when Detroit was still in the same division.

But certainly not going back to Chicago, it doesn't look like. Yeah, I mean, I think Chicago, he could definitely go back there. They have 12 million cap space. I think, like, if you asked me a year ago, I would say there's no chance that he goes back to Patrick. I mean, that Patrick Kane goes back to Chicago after last year, but they got Bedard. They got Taylor Hall. It's it's just seems like the perfect like it just seems perfect for him to go back there to teach Conor Bedard how to become essentially the next Patrick Kane.

But I love Buffalo, too. Buffalo's got eight million cap space heading into the season. I don't see why he wouldn't go there. They're a young, up-and-coming team. They have a lot of offensive talent, a lot of guys on the back end. Devin Levi, Rasmus Stalin, Owen Power. Being able to play with Tage Thompson, I mean, I just, I don't know why you wouldn't go back to Buffalo.

It makes too much sense. But I think Detroit would be interesting. Detroit would be super interesting. And that'd be a great, great ad for them. I mean, if Dylan Larkin could play alongside Patrick Kane, I think that would be an Alex to bring it.

That's a line right there. Yeah. And I would think he's probably going to be looking for that fourth Stanley cup at this stage of his career. I don't think he wants the mental guys and, you know, play with a team that's going to be fucking chasing teams all, all,

all season long. Again, Bedard, man, I'm saying it. What did I say, Merle? 42 goals, 46 assists. They're going to be down all year. They're going to be chasing teams all year. That kid's going to light it up. 42 goals.

Me and Pasha, we have a little bet, 31 and a half goals. I've got to say what the bet is. It's significant, but I was willing to go five figures with Pasha. We can save these bets now, all right? We can save these numbers. Oh, he don't give a fuck. Yeah, I got $1,000 on Badad over 31 and a half. Pasha's under 31 and a half.

Pasha's the king of this shit. One time, Pasha found me so drunk at a bar in Vancouver, he fucking takes his phone out and videotapes me and is like, let's make a bet. And obviously, I'm not going to say no. And we bet, which was the stupidest bet I could have possibly made. It was like, who will have a better record in the year 2026, the Boston Bruins or New Jersey Devils? And I think we bet like three grand on it. So just a terrible, terrible bet by me. But just typical Pasha coming in and scheming his way to a W bet. Scheming is a good word for it because he tried to get me because I've been talking about the Sabres.

He's like, oh, let's do a little Sabres Devils points bet. And I said, oh, let me check it out. And on the sports books, they're like 15 point different. He's trying to go even money bet with me like Pasha. Go punt. Yeah, I mean, I was going to go even money bet with me like pasha go punt yeah i mean i was going to go up to ted g is legit i'm like if you're willing to but he only wanted to do a dime on it so uh you just mentioned uh devin levi a second ago did you see that save you made in

practice you know it was like a three on oath in a situation did you catch that highlight yeah i mean and we can play it i'll run the the video here. I mean, this is incredible. R.A., when you made that pick, when I said if you could start a franchise with any player in the East, who would you take? You said Devin Levi. I kind of gave you some shit. I don't know if I did over the air, but in my head, I was ripping on you. That pick, it's not a bad pick, I don't think. I think he's going to do very, very well in the NHL.

Very unproven still. Still got a lot to prove but man this kid can play and especially like we went to we went to uh I don't want to give too much away but we're working on this college hockey project and we did go to to Northeastern I won't I won't divulge what the project is but we talked to some people there about Devin Levi and they said first to come first in the locker room last to leave they'd have to come in on on off days and basically kick the kid out of the room he does all this like VR headset stuff where he's not always on the ice but he's always just like doing VR stuff with these like crazy head for uh like I I phone VR set I don't fucking know but uh yeah I think he's gonna be a stud yeah I mean still young too I think that was a key part of that. I don't fucking know. But yeah, I think he's going to be a stud. Yeah.

I mean, still young, too. I think that was a key part of that. So you don't want to take a 28 year old guy to build a team. Get the young goalie. Anyways, rolling right along. Weekly thing. Gee, grinding my gears this week. Brought to you by Big Deal Brewing.

Once again, go to BigDealBrewing.com slash finder. Find out where Big Deal Brew is near you. And this one, I told you sometimes it's you know i i struggle to find something that pissed me off recently but this was easy man uh i can't stand when a grown-ass adult completely ignores a polite greeting from another adult like outside my building the other day hanging out the guy comes out and i was like hey how you doing the guy keeps walking i'm like i was invisible it's like and it it's like these like i'm always yuppie bashes i know gentrification happened 40 years invisible. It's like, and it's like these, like I, I'm always yuppie bashes.

I know gentrification happened 40 years ago here. I'm over it, but it's like, you motherfucker do like, how rude can you be? If someone just fucking walks right by it, doesn't say that. And it's like,

you live in the same building. That is fucking drives me crazy, dude. Like just smile, say something, but they act like you're a fucking ghost. And that ties into this one too. G when you walk into a building,

you hold the door for somebody. And I, they don't say fucking thank you. When you hold it from a hundred, you hold the door for somebody, and they don't say fucking thank you when you hold it for them. 100% of the time, if they don't say anything, I always go, you're welcome. And I wait for them to say something back. It's like, fucking, just fucking say it, man. It takes two seconds, bud. When people just ignore you, dude, fucking someone says good morning, good afternoon, and they blow you off.

It's fucking crazy ignorant, dude. You just want to fucking trip someone right into the curb. Do you deal with that? What if the guy had headphones on, though, all right? Did he have headphones on? He did. He did. And listen, I know I grew up in Charlestown.

Back in the day, it was, like, still the old school place. And, you know, it got gentrified 40 years ago. And, like, we revolted against it. You know, like, we used to, like, I can't get arrested now for, like, stab fucking tires and, like, you know, key cars. You thought like people are going to be deterred from like moving to your neighborhood. Just stupid, stupid teenage shit.

Matter of fact, the building I live in now, I can say, I used to steal bikes out of here in the garage like 35 years ago. Now I'm fucking paying crazy dough to live here. And it was just, you know, stupid, ignorant, like, all right, fuck these people that are coming here. And you get older and you're like, all right, well, I go to college and my friends live here

and they move here. And you realize everyone's just trying to make their nut, but there's always a small percentage of people who just think they're fucking better, or they're just highfalutin pompous, because I worked on Warren Tavern, Tavern in the Water, and I would overhear them talking. It's like, motherfucker, you're paying three grand to live in grandma's

old fucking apartment. Like, you don't make this place better. Settle down. But just ignoring anyone, anytime, anywhere, just fucking say hello, whatever, dude. It's just so fucking rude. And when they're fucking living in your building and they're ignorant yuppies, man, it's 10 times worse. So that's what's grinding my gears this week. Gee, once again, Big Deal Bruin.

Go to BigDealBruin.com slash finder. Find where Big Deal Bruin is. And hopefully your neighbors say hi to you when you say hi to them. Exactly. Had a couple of big deals on the golf course this weekend. And hopefully, I think people have been waiting and wondering when are Biz and Witt coming back next week. The boys will be back. They'll be drinking the big deal brews. We'll be drinking

the Pink Whitney, but they will be back next week. And I believe there's also a sandbagger coming next week, too, boys. So big sandbagger coming. Kevin Bieksa, Ryan Getzlaff. We filmed it in Nashville. The boys are super excited. It's already made a sandbagger debut. It is so funny. I can't wait for you guys to all watch. We've had this one in the holster for a while.

So excited for that and excited for the boys to come back. I think all of Chiclets, the entire Chiclets world is excited for Biz and Whit to get back on the airways. I know I am. I'm missing those guys. I haven't talked to them. I miss those guys. But the other thing I saw, you just reminded me, Pink Whitney had a birthday over the weekend, right? Yes, yes.

The four-year birthday of Pink Whitney. We actually launched some Pink Whitney Golf Club shirts in honor of that. They're pretty not bad, the Pink Whitney Golf Club shirts. But yeah, four years. It's kind of crazy it's gone by so quickly. I still remember sitting in the first taste test room that we had when I thought it was going to be a mixed drink, and I basically tried to chug it, and everyone was like,

no, no, no, it's vodka, it's vodka. So yeah, it's four years. It's flown by. Before we go any further, here's a few words from our friends at Labatt Blue. Lots of things are better together. Hockey, food, golf, disco dancing, going out with the boys and gals, having a good time.

But if you really want to take things to the next level, drink some Labatt Blue Lights with your friends and live life to the power of we. Me and G had a great summer, man. Whacked back tons some Labatt Blue Lights with your friends and live life to the power of we. B&G had a great summer, man. Whacked back tons of Labatt Blue Lights all summer. It's a great beer. Canada's best Pilsner. If you haven't had one, you got to go out and get one, man. You want to take a page out of the Labatt Blue Light book and enjoy your beers together so you can live life to the power of we. If you can't find Labatt Blue Light, then go to labattusa.com slash find it and see where it is close to you. All right, I got to hit the golf course yesterday.

Very excited to go out on the golf course and the Labatt Blue Lights were flowing. I actually, I was going there. I didn't have any, you know, I didn't bring any alcohol or anything. And when I opened my trunk, I forgot that last weekend I left a 18 pack of Labatt blue light in my, in the trunk of my car. So basically had free 18 Labatt blue light beers for the course. It was incredible. And like you said, it's the fresh Canadian pills.

They're nothing. Absolutely. Nothing is better than a fresh Labatt blue light. Nice and cold. Absolutely. They tasted great on the course last week. Once again, you can find Labatt Blue Light at labattusa.com slash finder. Gee, another thing we're bringing back today.

All right, Hamilton. If you kind of, well, not really knew the podcast, in the early days of the podcast uh all right hamilton was a question thing we did be sending questions with hashtag all right hamilton and we basically just took fan questions and uh i don't know we just kind of did away with it i guess it kind of got a little stale for a while and we haven't done it for a little while but we threw it out today because end of the summer not much to talk about so we're gonna fuck around and throw a couple of these questions out there uh we'll go to you first g Would you add two inches to your wrench or four inches to your height?

This one's from Steven Miller, 44. All right, Hamilton. This is the easiest thing in the world. It's four inches to height. Even if it was two inches to height, two inches to my wrench. Are you packing down there, buddy? No. No, I just don't give a shit at all.

Who doesn't want to be like 6'2"? I think, yeah, I just, I think that's the easiest one in the world. I'd add four inches to my height any day. Merles? I got to put it on the wrench. I'm six foot, 6'1". I'm plenty tall. I wouldn't want to be any taller.

I wouldn't want to be ducking under doorways, and it's harder to find a couch that fits you. And why not add a couple onto the wrench i'm irish you know absolutely man i'm definitely going with the wrench i mean i'd rather be uh six one with an above average crank instead of six five with an average crank definitely i got the standard issue so you know no one's no one's complaining about it but definitely not going to be right let us depend see i fall below that six foot line so it's like everything changes for you once you hit that six foot line so if i can just

get those four inches i'm happy all right uh next up uh greg snyder g snyder five he's been a long time chicklets fan how you doing greg uh what's something that's popular that you just don't see the appeal of g all right something that's popular that I just don't see the appeal of Kodak Black. I've always thought Kodak Black as a rapper just stinks. I just, I don't know what it is. That's one that's always come to mind. Anytime Kodak Black plays, I don't know how he has made as much money as he has. I don't know how he's as famous as he is.

I think I don't know what he's saying. I can never understand the words coming out of his mouth. So, yeah, I'm going to say Kodak Black. What do you got for us, Merle? Popular. You just don't see the appeal of. I would have to go with the Kardashian show. My wife was watching it all the time.

I get stuck in some episodes, but I have no interest in that act. And they're huge. So she always told me she's a billionaire. She's done this and that. And they're great. But I have no interest in that act and uh they're huge so she always told me she's a billionaire she's done this and that and they're great but i have no appeal for him okay i would go with uh the big bang theory i have no idea why people like that show i know it's wildly popular but i just never seen the appeal to it no idea why people like it but i don't know whatever floats your boat i suppose i got one too that i'm to get a lot of shit for, especially being the fellow Italian on the podcast. Aperol Spritz.

It's the drink of the summer this year. I just don't get it. I'm just not an Aperol Spritz guy. I'll stick to my Pink Whitney and Big Deals. It's too fruity. It's too sugary. I'm not an Aperol Spritz guy. What about you, Moros?

Are you an Aperol guy? I've had one or two. No, I've had Sif. My wife used to drink them the last couple summers. Not this summer. She's pregnant, but that's not for me either. I'm a beer guy. I can drink the beer all day.

I love it. And then do our Pink Whitney shots for goals and winning bets like we usually do. All right. Here's a good one from Jamie Hay. Hey, Aray. Long time listener of the pod here. Just wondering, if you had to choose one fellow member of Spittin' Chicklets to live with indefinitely, who would you choose and why? We'll go to you, G, first.

Who would you choose and why? All right, Hamilton. Definitely, definitely Merle. Definitely Merle, no question. No question. I think that's the easiest. I mean, it would be yeah i think i think it would be merle because i feel like we would just drink and gamble all day

and like who who doesn't want to do that um wit would be a near second though just because fuck and then biz to business building this beautiful house in arizona that i would love to live at with him with this wellness center hot, hot tub, cold tub, sauna, all that. Witt's got the unreal basement set up. We probably golf all the time. But I'm going to go with my guy Murr, just because I love to drink and I love to gamble, as Charles Barkley said. What do you got for us, Murls?

Well, I did live with the Witt. I lived with the Witt his rookie year and then his second year in Pittsburgh, too, our second year there. And he was like, you just got to manage him like he's high maintenance. But I got that time. We were like perfect gear because we're playing party poker. We would just sit on the couch playing time out. Isn't this when you guys ran like an underground casino?

Yeah. Then. Yeah. And Wilkes-Barre, we opened up the casino lockout year because we'd be playing cards we'd have like six guys every night playing poker would get stale like all right let's let's deal blackjack for these guys and they would just dummy us it was the craziest thing ever we couldn't beat him but um we had a lot of fun but he was some work I feel like gee I don't know I think you would be easier to handle so I I'm going to go with you officially. I'll put G in and we'll be roomies. Let's go.

What about you, R.A.? Probably Biz. You know, I mean, I know we've had, we're very emotional. We've had a few fuck you matches over the years, always for good reasons. But at the same time, I think we're on the same wavelength. You know, we have a lot in common. And yeah, if it wasn't work related,

if we were just there indefinitely and, you know, we like to burn to burn and you know he likes to tune out for a while i like to tune out for a while so yeah i think biz would probably be uh the guy i would probably get along with the most all right one more for my jack o'connor at jack underscore o'con if you could star in a movie what current director and co-star would you want to work with G? All right, Hamilton. If I could star in a movie, what director? I think NRA, Ben Affleck. I would love to work with Ben Affleck. I think as a director, as a co-star, I think I'm just a big Ben Affleck guy. You know, with that probably comes Matt Damon as well.

But I'm a big Ben Affleck guy, Boston guy. So I'm going to go with him. So he would be a direct to end coaster. He would two in one save a little money. There you go. Merles, what do you got? Yeah. I mean, when I think of a director, I just think of Titanic right away.

James Cameron, right? He's the biggest and best. I would want to probably work with the best. He's a legend. And while I'm thinking of that movie, I guess I would say Leo, because then we can go out after, and I just want to see his whole act, and I think we could have some fun together. I would go, well, this is one of those, like, pair of directors,

like, we'll count them as one. Not the Coen brothers. I usually say them the Safdie brothers, the guys who directed Uncut Gems and Good Time with Robert Pattinson. I would like to have them direct and co-style with Michael Shannon. You know who he is? He's been in a bunch of movies. He's kind of crazy looking, wild eyes.

I should know 17 movies off the top of my head, but look him up. You'll know who he is. He's a kind of crazy actor, a little bit out there. I'd like to style with him with the Safdie brothers. I think that would be pretty unusual. Oh, Michael Shannon is awesome. I know this guy. This guy is incredible.

Yeah, absolutely. Yeah. He's a dynamite actor. So, all right, one last one. Fuck it.

We'll just do one more. This is from J. Why not? what's the longest amount of time it's acceptable to use the bathroom at a family function? And how do you explain you had an emergency when you were in there too long? Gee,

you can relate to this recently. Yeah. I mean, as someone who almost shit himself at DJs and then had to go use his girlfriend's family's toilet for basically the whole night, I'd say at a family party, I think anything longer than 15 minutes is unacceptable. But yeah, I mean, when you got to shit, you got to shit. You got to tell people, hey, I had to go. Yeah, that's basically it. Merle's, well, it's an acceptable amount of time. And what would you explain? Yeah, I don't know. I would say anything over five minutes, you're going to start raising some

red flags. Good move is, though, you always come out and pretend you're on the phone, start making a conversation, be like, oh, yeah I was in there, work call or something like that. So you can always pull that move off. If it's going longer than that, you might as well just take off and go home and then come back to the party or something like that. Yeah, me, take as long as you need, man. I mean, as you get older,

things don't maybe work as good as they did like 10, 15, 20 years ago. So fuck man, if you're in there 15 minutes, 20 minutes and people are like, oh, what you falling? No, man, I had to do A, B, C, and D, and fucking, I got to give you a TMI. I'll tell you why. If you're going to bust my balls while I was in there,

then I'm going to give you way more information than you want. I used to have this fucking fainting spell. Knock on wood, it hasn't happened in ages. And I had a note for one of my jobs. It was like, I had like a note to take as long as I needed in the bathroom. So like, I would go in there for like a half hour just reading the paper and shit and they couldn't they couldn't say that because i legit had a doctor's note i mean i never fainted at work but i had four times i fainted man stitches two rides to the hospital fucking concussions weird fucking thing used to

happen i know yeah uh post was it post micturation syncope syncope is when you faint it was right after i pissed you my blood pressure would fucking drop. And fucking, I'd see paparazzi, like, boom, down for the count. Scary shit, man. Jesus. Yeah, yeah. But it got me a note for work and got a fucking half-hour deuce, so it worked out in the long run.

All right, boys, any final notes before we wrap up this wild episode of shit talk and whatnot? I think I speak for all of Chiclets Nation when I say thank fucking God. Biz and Witt come back next week. Thank God these guys can bless the airways and they don't have to listen to us three goons. Also got a sandbagger coming out next week. Biaxia Gexlov and by the Pink Whitney Golf Club merch. It's unreal.

Yeah, I told my mother, I was like, my, if you don't like that little clip from the first Nashville video, don't watch the golf video. You're not going to be happy with it. So watch the one we did with Eichel and Hennepin. It'll be a little better there. So Merles, thanks for stopping by. Always a pleasure. G, good stuff as always.

And the boys are back next week. So everybody who's been dumping on me and G for the last three months or whatever it's been, the boys are back next week. We'll be talking hockey. So have a great week. Hope you had a nice summer, and see you then. Take care. Have a good one.