Spittin Chiclets - Spittin’ Chiclets Episode 465: Featuring Pierre-Cedric Labrie

Episode Date: October 10, 2023

On Episode 465 of Spittin’ Chiclets, the guys are joined by Pierre-Cedric Laurie. PCL joined (01:11:14) to discuss his career, Patrick Roy, playing in Tampa and tons more. But first, the guys open up the show talking all things Chiclets Cup. Is it time the Big Deal Selects throw in the towel? What went wrong in Buffalo for Biz and the boys? The fellas then break down the Atlantic Conference and give their predictions on who will and won’t make the playoffs this season. The boys wrap up with some major NHL news including Rasmus Dahlin’s contract extension and some HUGE Winnipeg Jets news.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 465 of Spittin' Chicklets, presented by Pink Whitney, from our friends at New Amsterdam Vodka here in the Barstool Sports Podcast family. What is up everyone? Another successful Chicklets Cup here in Buffalo, another NHL season on tap tonight. We're coming to you from Buffalo, so let's check in with the boys first. murley wait wait how about this fucking intro this is the most actually buzzing you are buzzing this is the most professional i've ever seen you oh other than that conversation we had with kevin adams where he was that was that was we'll get into that one i mean but but besides sleeping

through the first half of every big deal he's been buzzing this weekend i'll give you i mean i as i said uh i don't remember where we were when i said how do you do it all right like you were a complete mess again but right now you're feeling it and flying high so keep going but i think it's the air guitar from last night yes the rock star all right but i didn't know when dirty honey who was the uh a great band that we had for the live concert last night um they told re they were going to bring them up for a rolling stone song a mick jagger song that's his guy but it was a keith richard song re told me after so you had to kind of think on the fly a little bit in terms of like you didn't know all the words necessarily it wasn't great for you but but the movement was very much i think your crack arm kind of like distracted everybody it was somebody said

he doesn't have triceps yeah well it is it's yeah i'm a jag guy and and i said when he got there he goes what are you doing he goes happy and right off oh my god that's a keith song because you can't prance around like jagger singing when he when he's not singing right so like but he just kind of does that thing where he just kind of hits the that move i was doing kind of what was your heart rate when he told you that song and you're like i was i was kind kind of prepared for it because I'm like, if he throws they throw a key tune at me, I got to be ready to rock roll because they do get some huge hits that Keith sings. But I just vibe to it. But then at the end, when there was no singing, I threw a little Jagger in there for the crowd.

And I would say overall, I'm not a lyric guy. I can't remember the words to songs like where I mumble them out. You don't remember many. You you are incredible at it. No, no, I'm actually not. I'd have to know a song real well if i know a song real well i know the lyrics i think that kind of probably stands for everyone listening right now i don't but i don't i don't like hear something a couple times and remember

everything no chance okay also every time i'm in your car you can like build that's because it's my playlist my like list from spotify so i probably know those songs i still i think you're gonna take a compliment i will say all right um you sorry you uh you came out to do the kind of hype speech to the crowd about dirty honey coming on and introduce them and i was a little nervous and you started out i think posh has the video and you came out and you're and i was like oh shit but then you reeled it right in and gave him a hell of an intro so you had me panicked for a second now that was actually a mick jagger nod because at the beginning of one of their live cds i was talking about he speaks gibberish yeah he comes out he goes oh i think i busted a button on my trousers i hope they don't fall down oh that's what you said okay okay so i was it was a nod to the get your eyes out which is an album me and mark were talking about before the show so

it was kind of a little stones reference and plus no one knows it's keith richards is singing anyway so i kind of got off the hook with that one. Okay. All right. Last thing with you that then we'll really get into the weekend. The video will be out. What's up with the scratch in your ass at the bar? I don't think he's seen it.

Oh, you don't know. Oh, my God. So you're, you know, you have this kind of habit right now of your hands down. Well, so he gets buckled and then we obviously had this camera crew following him around and all of a sudden throughout any of these a video starts circulating of like how buckled you were or just something that you did that was so preposterous that you're unaware that you're doing it yeah you had your fucking knuckles up your cornhole in this one video i have the most ink it's the perfect chicklets cup video where we're at the hotel

bar where r.a has his hand all the way down his finger in his butt we're not we're not talking about like uh uh you saying that inside the pant outside the underwear we're talking about you can see probably four inches of his underwear and his your your elbow deep in your arse what is going on i don't know i don't know sometimes itchy bum with uh new new actually i did bust out new boxes this week sometimes do you you wear them they get a little itchy you see one the wrong way it could be that i don't know if i had like a a little sore ass or something just rubbing the muscle i don't have much of a muscle in my ass but yeah as long as like i said as long as it was my ass i was groping on somebody else's i'm fine with that but i got this i got this video though it's it's

r.a hand down pants it pans across the bar to terry ryan just sucking face with someone we'll get into terry ryan we'll get into terry ryan but but in in finishing this the best part was after it was a 30 40 second just scratch of the cornhole by you and then you came out and you high-five some guy with that hand so hard. I said, holy shit. Oh, my God. The poor guy. Hopefully he didn't see the video.

He'd probably be in a hospital right now. But it was a hell of a weekend in a sense of the fans, I think, really enjoyed coming out here. All the participants, all the people who just came to watch. We have an issue on our hand, though. You stink. You guys stink. And it's at the point. We're going to address away we're gonna dive right into it the big deal select so uh for those of you who don't follow the social media and know what's going on we throw these massive

ball hockey tournaments uh we're in the aid division i'm with a bunch of world champions terry ryan and crew we're called the big deal selects we've been first tournament we ever did was in detroit this nose face kid met us in the casino he starts barking yapping off he ends up running through the whole tournament and then winning in overtime that tournament he scored the winner in ot against zach wierenski and all of his buddies right that's right he beat a bunch of nhl or so i thought why not put our own team in? So we did. Our first tournament was Vegas. We got spanked twice by him and then mercied in the finals. I went to last year's Chicklets Cup in Buffalo.

We lost them in the finals. Great game, lost by a goal. Ended up meeting them in the round robin in this one as this tournament's growing in the A division, and we end up losing in a shootout, which is bullshit. We'll get to the rules of it. We ended up tying them up late, losing to Noseface Killa. He scored the winner.

He only scored the winner in the shootout. But we both get to the semifinals, both teams, Noseface and our team, the big deal selects, and we both lose to these unbelievable ball hockey teams who showed up, one of which is ranked 10th in all of Canada, I believe. Yes, the Ottawa Godfathers. The Ottawa Godfathers. These guys were a bunch of like legit like plumbers like one's a fireman one guy frames houses and these guys came out and they whooped the shit out of us they they beat us to a

man we have goaltending issues um we talk about the con man all the time on our team con man's probably going to be uh the post-practice bike crew for a little bit. There's a few players that are going to be moved up to the front office. There's a few players that, well, let's just say that it's our tournament, right? We're throwing this Chicklets Cup. It's pathetic at this point. Four Chicklets Cups. We can't win one.

At some point, you got to look and say, Biz, like, I don't know what's going on. But for me to be a part of this, I'm ready to jump ship. And people know that maybe I'm not the most loyal motherfucker when it comes to sticking to teams. I'm usually the one traded. Your team is disgusting because guys come in here and everyone wants to have a good time. And we love the guys staying out late and ripping it up. I told TR, I said, I need more told tr i said i need more out of you i need more out of you so i didn't drink for a month leading into this because i didn't want to embarrass myself again and i was pretty good i didn't drink all weekend

i still haven't drank i took a little bit of shrooms i smoked a little bit of weed but i kept it on the rails and was in bed at decent hours but these guys i Con Man, every time he shows up, he's 10 pounds heavier. Yes. What did Keith Yandel text you? He said he's right now shaped like a plasma TV. Now, here's the thing. Con Man is the most skilled player. Con Man isn't an issue in terms of the team. No, no.

But he's getting out of breath quick. So against this Ottawa team, what's their name again? The Godfathers. The Godfathers. We lost lost eight to three it wasn't like a close game they like worked us a pumping so there was never any like sustained offense so like con man as good as he is didn't really see much in the final from him uh we had a i thought hauser and schlegger who are two of the best american uh born players in the ball hockey world they're on our team as well I thought they were solid con man's coming off a torn rotator cuff too he tore his rotator cuff like four months ago too so let's keep that in mind okay okay okay wasn't aware of that wasn't aware of that he's also coming off a 2 a.m casino night with me yeah getting getting carried out in cuffs for fuck's sakes no that didn't happen but and he's also gassing probably from the minute the games end till he goes to sleep easily 24 drafts yes yes yes and he mixes in ipas too i mean he's

hammering he's hammering beers the whole team's hammering beers which i enjoy now you run into these other teams that aren't drinking or most of the guys it is part of the experience though to come here and get fucked up and have a great weekend with the boys. I just think that until we win a Chicklets Cup, I think that we need to maybe tone it down. And it needs to be taken a lot more seriously where Terry Rank can't be up until 5 a.m. rolling around. Like win one. Win one. It's like you throw in your own tournament every year and you never win

and you lose to the same kid every time. It like enough's enough it's it's pretty embarrassing and i love these guys but biz also you work your balls off out there i was very impressed but like if we want to win i don't know if you're playing either i don't know if you're playing i gotta look myself in the mirror i had a bad turnover in the final game and that put them up three two that was that was you go one-handed a lot it's like you're kind of running pushing it one-handed but then you never throw the left bottom hand on and then you just flick it and i'm like that's when the problems start happening that's like we talk about my golf swing when you go past halfway man i mean yeah i'm not that good but here's the thing so we have three lines and two extra which

are the on the bench guys now i love these guys i know i'm better better than the on the bench guys we might have to make them but to win yeah look i don't think you guys are i want them around black aces they're perfect black but now i i said last night i said i don't know if terry's terry might be up in the gm spot but all the guys came up and said he's our glue no trust me no i'm not gonna give up so i know i knew right away i said all right terry's fine we just can't have him you know he has to sleep a couple couple hours this is the text i got from terry ryan he's not going anywhere i'm not gonna bail on my team it also wasn't my last chicklets cup in fact from that aid division i think we're gonna expand to 16 teams oh you'll never win time out we're we're

going to keep it three on three we are talking about and i've talked to every team about this even the teams who won at this time uh the ottawa ghost riders or whatever the fuck their godfathers we'd be okay with expanding these rinks a little bit and then implementing sport core i've said it what what what i know but for years i know but that it's more of a process and it's more to add on jonesy's crew who helps us out with setting these things up they do an incredible job they every game starts on time they get the best referees but i've talked to every team and we're trying to expand the rinks a little bit add sport court because playing on this cement does take the skill out of it and we do have a lot of ball hockey skilled players but here's the text i got from terry ryan biz thanks for everything sorry we didn't deliver i believe in us obviously with

some changes but we'll talk about the other that another time i totally understand if you can't go with us again and if that happens we are grateful for everything and he did like the the pray hands and the heart i'm throwing emojis at me bothers me we didn't fucking win because I know we could have. At this point, it's all the best players around. We lost to a great team. However, I still feel shitty about losing. Anyway, whatever happens, we had a blast, and you guys are friends for life.

Love you, buddy. Thanks again, especially for treating seniors so well. The guy is happier than ever. Have a great season. That's a leader. You can't bail on that guy. No, no, no, no, no, no. But he's got to play better.

And that's the text you send to GM after the season when you're like, I stunk this season. He doesn't have to play better, but he doesn't have to have so many minutes, maybe. Yeah. Maybe one shift a period. Listen, goaltending, we didn't have Mosier. I don't think we ever talked about this didn't even know this story i don't even know if the guy wants it out there i

mean we could probably leave it with chicklets cup like kind of destroyed his life a little bit in terms of the home front um but but he missed him but he also is quoted by saying it was worth it but the best part of the story is on the way back i guess they stopped at the border and he was already three hours late to their van he didn't have his id he didn't have his passport he didn't have his phone and apparently the canadians custom guy opened the van door and just looked at him and it was apparently just death death eyes and looked right through him and he just goes go ahead guys didn't check one passport. Just seeing Moser, he said, get out of my face. Go into Canada.

So that's pretty much how we lost our goalie. Tequila, he was our goalie this year. Great guy. Didn't have his stuff. In the finals. In the finals. But once again. Semi-finals.

He didn't make the finals. It was 8-3. We don't want to run too long on this whole chicken we have a lot of thank yous to send around but he didn't make a couple stops i made a mistake terry wasn't good to a man we got smoked by a bunch of lumberjacks and this ottawa team along with other great teams are going to keep coming so we're going to expand to 16 that is going to happen we don't know when the next Chicklets Cup is. We're thinking about moving away from Buffalo, but it's such an amazing venue at Riverworks.

We'll talk about the sport court and maybe expand the rink a little bit with Jonesy. Yeah, the finals definitely represented a higher quality. They had an auto team. Plus, they got to shout out the London team as well that lost in the finals. Those are the guys who, remember I told you I had some recruits from London? That was a few of the guys on that team.

Yeah, what's their team name? Do we have it? I forget. They know who they are, and they've been to every one. Downsie, the defenseman, a good kid. This tournament has become an elite tournament. The best ball hockey teams in the world are coming to this thing, which is pretty cool.

Because we don't have the sport court, the guy said the French teams won't come, and apparently the French teams play hard, and they're greasy, and they eat a lot of stick work. So all of a sudden, when we get the sport court and get the French teams won't come. And apparently the French teams play hard and they're greasy and they, a lot of stick work. So all of a sudden when we get the sport court and get the French teams in the mix, this is going to turn on to an award. We might not get out of the round Robin.

We're going to talk about Wario, Wario with the kid on auto. They were saying that he looked like, no, right away. I saw him like big receding hairline, tall, pale.

And I was like, that's me out there. And then he had 91 on and i wore 19 when i could that was my favorite number he was unbelievable he was he had four against them four goals yeah and then like snipes knocking pucks out of midair and it was it was like it wasn't even like i'm the walmart version of wit of 91 on the ottawa godfather so uh a very very impressive uh performance by that guy. I told him after, a hell of a player.

He's like, who are you? Your brother. Yeah. Hey, bro. I bumped into him last night, too. I gave him some props, too. He's a hell of a player. But, gee, we got to the semifinals.

I'm sorry, the finals, and I was at Roller C. A couple guys, we auctioned off Merle's and Ami. They played for a team. What division were you in, Merle? Very cool. This is a cool story. Yeah, so we sandbagged a little bit me and army we end up in roller d it was um a great family they auction us off it's jeff and jess weiss their their son tried actually die in a car accident he was hit by a drunk driver so they have a big foundation they've

been to every chicklets cup every chicklets cup and i don't know why they're donating monies to to this foundation but they did and they were just the best people gave all the money to alex tux foundation foundation yeah and they were just the best people they were so happy it was my fault i i had the game on my stick i I didn't score. We lost. You've seen this save list? It's on, I think, our Twitter. It's a ridiculous. Twice in a row. It's a 10-bell save. But Army almost got in a couple fights out there. He still has that WHL jam that he played with,

kind of flexing his shoulders after he's kind of running through people. So I got to see some of that. Saw a little of G's game. And, I mean, it was cool to get to auction you guys off. And I never thought, I mean, they got, I think, $1,400 and then $1,700 for G. $1,400. I was kind of blown away by that. And then G has to match it.

So don't let him sneak out of that one. Beforehand, me and Merle's are talking about how much we're going to get. And we're going around to people being like, hey, I'll pay you to donate. Because I didn't think anyone was going to donate. You didn't want to get embarrassed. I didn't want to get embarrassed. It was like $5. I started at $ at 299 so i had people in the crowd i'm like if no one bids throw 100 bucks up there i'll give you the 100 and it ends up being 1600 because i said

i'd match it so i'm like fuck but i ended up with the best group of guys the myrtle beach riptide who are actually playing in honor of their friend who recently passed of cancer bruno shout out to bruno and his family um but yeah just the best group of guys we lost in the finals ra's redemption arc got fired by team barstool last year took us to the finals this year but just the best group of guys and one guy during one of our games scored the best goal i've ever seen on video got it on video 30 yards out probably 30 yards out comes down on a one-on-two picks it up on a stick and just throws it over his shoulder picks the top left corner sick comes back to the bench and i'm like that's the craziest goal i've ever seen and all of his boys on the bench were like the craziest parts he said before the game he was gonna do it no way yeah i gotta i gotta see that video yeah

it was an all but merle beach riptide there it was an awesome time the roller division merles how fun is that rollers theer's the best. Maybe a big deal selects move to roller. No, we're sticking with ball. It's going well for you guys. There's rumors of a Game Notes team potentially next time. You guys were talking about it. You guys want to have your own team.

Well, we threw Sean Owen. He played a game, got two goals. I know memes he can play. Let's see. We'll see what happens before we continue it's wit and we got a pink whitney new york city trip on the line if you think any of your friends or particular friend is the ultimate life of the party nominate them and you could win a trip to new york city the pink whitney new york city trip

one lucky winner will receive an epic New York City trip for them and three friends, complete with a tour of Barstool headquarters. 10 secondary prize winners will receive Pink Whitney party packs with everything you and your crew need to take your shot and throw the ultimate house party. It's easy to enter.

Just go to pinkwhitney.com to enter your info. Nominate your life of the party friend and describe how they always make the party next level for a chance to win the ultimate Pink Whitney New York City trip. And of course, make sure to head on over to your local bar and order some Pink Whitney. Enjoy. God, thanks to Alex Tuck, too.

We stopped by for a little bit the other day. Also, shout out to the Mohawk Palace business. We had a nice smoke session on Thursday night. Oh, my God. They asked me a while back to coach them. They brought us weed right off the reservation. All right. All right.

I didn't smoke as much as I normally would because I know that it's straight gas. And then you did. What was that blunt? How big was that thing? That was a three and a half gram joint. So it was Nathan. I thought I was making an interracial porn when I fucking. That's when we went upstairs and we ran into Kevin Adams and talked to him for him for 40 minutes ra was just drooling well mind you so right before kevin adams showed up

ra was asleep at the bar and i'm videoing and you kind of wake up and you're just like oh and then the bartender comes over us nice girl laurence says can i get you another cadillac um margarita and and you're like yeah and i said hey hey i said excuse me i go this guy's completely crippled like do you do you do you not do you cut people off here like maybe you don't give him that one she goes we're in buffalo i was like my girl and then she made him another margarita so then kevin adams comes up awesome conversation what a guy he is uh he is a great guy and you know getting into the Atlantic division, obviously maybe not quite yet,

but in terms of meeting him, super impressive. I remember kind of playing against him in his NHL career. Well, then he was telling us that he had coached here for a little bit. I think they made a bunch of changes. Head coach was fired. And Pagula, Terry Pagula kept him on. And from there, he was working in the hotel here.

He was working in the business here. He was working in the business office. He'd actually, until he became GM a few years ago, had worked every step of the way in like all of kind of Terry Pagula's, I guess, ownership things in terms of the Sabres and business. And so a pretty cool story that he's now seen everything, which I think is important for people who come up. It's hard to just hop in to be a gm you got to know what's going on beneath you so and he had some great comments on his excitement for the sabers just a really down to earth guy that we're going to sit down with i wish we were recording the conversation we were like grilling him for 35 minutes i was asking him all these different players and then all of a

sudden you know we just get the ra you boys good good mr adams and i was like don't mind him he's just one of our friends i remember chad he doesn't oh yeah so i know like don't mind him he's just one of our friends oh i do remember chad he doesn't oh yeah so i know like the whole his whole come up and stuff he can't you know he come out of nowhere i remember we got hired like okay he's kind of baffled not to put you on the spot they were giving him credit first not to put you on the spot but like tell me one other thing that he talked about other than what witt just said and you repeated it um I mean well his come up mostly I remember talking so uh one cool thing was that they have so many first overall picks what Owen Power and then and now Eric Johnson so they picked up Eric Johnson and he also talked about the amazing

habits already that Eric Johnson's rubbing up on him like hey regardless of how like how big your ceiling is like in order to have a sustainable career you have to take care of yourself like he's already convinced them to get saunas yeah you uh he had dalene talking he's talking about the infrared sauna he had one with another 20k in suits that he ordered but just like little things like that to be professional so when you know when you have all these young studs coming up you need a lot of leadership around who have been around a while and done it like i mean it's like a guy like chris chelios in the room you know like yeah you want to go for beers the night before well you better be in the fucking sauna riding the bike sweating them out and being the first one at practice and and having your gear

on and out on the ice and being in there with the boys. So just like learning that type of stuff. So that was another element that I liked. Like being first at the Chicklets Cups Friday morning. So it was similar to that. You? Yeah. Right. I was first with him.

Yeah, he was there. Did I do a good job of breaking down the Eric Johnson, bringing him in and what he articulated to us? Yep. He was talking about, you know, lining up guys and signing guys early in terms of Dylan Cousins, getting him locked in for a long-term deal.'re gonna try to get power done obviously and there's and dalene right so yeah he it was it was a cool conversation and um you know he was he was cool to chat with us and give us some inside info what was one other one he said he talked about uh

when he went to see uh uh it's for i forget dev Devon Levi. Oh, yeah, that was a good story. Devon Levi. So that was a really cool story that he told about when you're a prospect and you're coming up, and he was already drafted by Buffalo, I believe it was the first ever game that he was going to go see him play, right? I don't know if it was the first game, but Northeastern was playing Harvard, and he had already been in town for Buffalo playing the Bruins. And so he hung around for

the game and obviously when the GM's coming and you're a big prospect you know the GM's gonna be there yeah so Levi's getting ready for the game and and he gave up eight goals they were down like eight to three he got pulled it was the first time he's ever been pulled and so all Kevin Adams was telling us is he's just watching the body language you knew how good he was but it's more about wow I'm seeing him on a big time off night. He said the body language is incredible. Never gave a look at a defenseman. Didn't he go back up to the coach and ask him to put him back in the game, right?

So he saw him walk over to the coach, and then after the game, obviously as the GM, you're interested to know the interaction. Apparently he went in and said, hey, I don't want it to seem like I'm giving up on the guys. I'd appreciate it if you put me back in there. So it wasn't this arrogant comment that he said. He wanted to learn and grow from it. So this is the mentality that his future starting goal is going to have.

And it was just cool to hear a GM be so enthusiastic about every player he was talking about. Like Tage, he went down the list of everyone. And one of the kids I didn't even realize was having such a good preseason this uh benson this town loves him everybody's talking about his new josh allen sounds like he's gonna make the team i just ran into him down on timmy host he's gonna be on the opener night roster no way that's great after seeing him play the other night he had another goal i think he's going an apple yeah so i think he's over a point per game preseason which whatever it's not the real nhl but this young just drafted he's now definitely gonna get his nine games why not right just check out see what you have because

he fit right in out there and he's he's not that big but the motor on him it was non-stop and he kind of talked about that i was reading draft interviews that he doesn't take shifts off so impressive young player and i actually remember the day after the draft i went to meet hazy at his hotel in nashville and i saw benson and all his buddies and they were like grinnell he said he was gonna help us get into the ball he never answered us last night so i said to grinnelly at the game the other night he goes they're 18 years old what was i gonna do so uh but hey the craziest part about we're in buffalo buffalo i'm not cutting off this guy benson's a carny like he's his family ran a carnival in the summer so he would travel around and he would just join all these different hockey schools across canada like every time they'd go to

a new city he would just jump in on that hockey school in that city yeah and then he worked the mini donut stand in the afternoon he did he did carnival he worked the mini donut stand in the afternoon. He did. He did. He actually did. He worked the mini donut stand. You can't fucking make that up. I'm not kidding. Swear to God. Had to fix the tilt-a-whirl. And then he sat in a box, and the magician cut him in half. Really, he did it all.

Oh, shit. Unbelievable. Bill, before we wrap up, we got some thank yous, of course. Oh, yeah. Huge thanks to Pink Whitney, as always. Big Deal Brewing and Labatt. Friends of Barty Amma. River Works, of course.

Jonesy and the great staff at Hockey Fest. Another tremendous job. True Hockey, too. True Hockey came in as a late sponsor. They gave us all a ton of hockey equipment. I've never used a True Hockey stick before. Incredible. And really funny story that I was meeting with the owner beforehand just to talk about the deal.

And I made a joke. I called out Biz on this big business call. I'm like, yeah, we don't have to worry. it won't be like biz taking a picture with his ballistic stick that he has on his instagram oh yeah and the guy's like are you fucking with me and i'm like no what do you mean and he's like well we biz we were ballistic he's like before true we were ballistic he's put your shoe in your mouth i didn't know that he's like biz was the first guy that we ever signed that's why we had to change the name of the brand shut the fuck up i have that picture on the bench where i'm sitting there that we use for like 12 days to the to the

you know the season starts and uh they were giving you a couple grand now you were 10 grand why are you gonna pay me to use these shovels like but no but here's the thing though great stick they're like a true one piece so it's all connected not connected at the blade and like some of them uh and it was me and yarmir yager using them in the nhl yager was using them dude so i was like fucking the skates i guess they have the skates right yeah oh that's their skate the boot dude and and and you you they're completely like molded to your foot i actually think if that technology was around when I was still playing. Here we go.

Here we go. I'm just saying. Maybe show up to the rehab and get on the bar. I couldn't have a skate to actually fit my foot. No, but it's a great company. Awesome gear. So thanks for them for jumping on. Yeah.

Oh, no. A couple more thank yous. Obviously, the Buffalo Sabres, the ticket thing, that was great. I mean, to be able to have that many guys come to the game, it was awesome stuff. Well, yeah, and we're going to dive into the game uh crosby yeah yeah crosby fighting in pre-season now if the chicklets guys aren't there you think he gets in a scrap he knew we were in the fucking building bump he knew i don't think he gives a flying i think that he saw latang get run over and like as we talked about last year, he's the guy that kind of has to do something.

I was trying to correlate. I said all offseason they have no goons to go out there and defend their players. I was trying to correlate the two, but next time he's on, I'm going to ask him. Yeah, we will. We will. Carlson, he is ridiculous. The puck is on a string. He had a sick cross ice from the blue line to the goal line,

tap in for Malkin. So it's going to be pretty exciting. I don't think, I know we're doing the Atlantic. I don't think the Letang and Carlson on the power play together is going to work. They looked kind of like a little disheveled, but we'll see how it goes. But the Penguins, some excitement there. They ended up coming back and kind of thumping the Sabres. That kid Harkins looked pretty good.

He did. But in Winnipeg. Yeah, number yeah number 43 no it's not jansen i think it's thomas harkins um i looked at his hockey db played it for a while in winnipeg i remember him there but then last year he was in the ahl most of the season i think he had 50 60 points so it's that could be a guy that's like what the penguins need some cheaper kind of not unknown but guys to step out of nowhere and fill a role for speed and physicality on the bottom two lines. So he looked good to me. Yeah, it looked like they were having some chuckles on the penalty box too,

Sid and Krebs. I mean, they were laughing about whatever was going on. They didn't seem too. Oh, it is Jansen. It is Jansen. Okay. Stay out, Whit. Jansen Harkins.

The other thing that stuck out is just how big Tage Thompson is out there on the ice when you get to see a game live and sit in the lower bowl. Even Malkin looks fucking huge. Yeah, he's huge. I've always wanted to tell a story about Thompson. You know his dad was Brent Thompson. Yeah, he played in the NHL. Yeah, he played against us in the AHL.

He's so funny. You wouldn't know it was him. He used the old wooden sticks. It was square so if somebody would cross check it'd feel normal but his cross check was like a sharp edge you're like what was he using you're like oh yeah it's brent thompson you knew it was him it was an old sherwood brown sherwood it was and you just felt you knew it was him he was so slow and old by then you could just like wheel around him you knew it was him he was so slow and old by then you could just like wheel around oh it was him unbelievable guy toughest guy remember the fight he had oh you might not

have been there with uh he fought frankie relu they had a face no i wasn't i wasn't but i can't believe his son has this much skill yeah yeah he's popped off you know a couple more final thank yous dirty honey of course uh thanks to them for showing up city of buffalo and of course our fans our listeners whether they, come to hang out. Just a great vibe, man. It was awesome. Always great vibes. So thanks again to everybody for coming out.

Subscribe to our YouTube if for some reason you have not yet. We do got a new sandbagger coming later this month. Follow our socials as well. And like I mentioned, hockey is back tonight, Tuesday night. Season kicks off at 5.30 on ESPN. Nashville's down at Tampa. Then 8 o'clock, the Conabadad era is officially underway. Pittsburgh, Chicago visits Pittsburgh to open up.

And then the nightcap, Seattle at Vegas, 10.30. We just talked about Sid's little fight in the preseason. But how about this red zone-like thing that ESPN's going to do, huh, Whit? You know, we talked about the day they're going to have 16 games playing, all staggered starts. Wonder where they got that idea, huh, Merles? And they're going to basically have like a red zone type thing. They're going to show all the big hits, power play goals.

That should be fun, huh, Whit? I love this idea. And granted, like red zone, once they get in there, they can flip over to that game. So hockey will be different. I'm sure it'll just be right on after the goal is scored. Power plays too, I'm sure. And yep, they'll go to power plays.

That's true, five on threes especially. So I can't wait for it just because it gives you the chance to just see all the highlights of every game, whereas the next day you usually catch the highlights of the games you didn't watch, but you're more in-depth with the game. If it's going to power plays right after each goal, then you see certain ones that are going to get called back. I mean, the whole gambling aspect is incredible.

Next thing you know, they'll be doing it on Sundays. Sundays at 1 and 4 o'clock. You don't have to wait for 17 LeBron dunks to get John Morris before you get a couple assists. No, but I love it. I can't wait. I think Bucci will be running that. That's right up Mr. Ice's alley.

Absolutely. Elio should just, he's going to be on top of that. I was about to text Bucci, dude, you need a live gambling account. Get Elio. He's going gonna bring 15 white hanes shirts to rip in the course of the night so we'll see how that goes but i can't wait that'll be a good one yeah it's gonna be good stuff uh preliminary projections suggest the cap could go up to between 87 and 88 million for next season what i know you were talking about jack hughes

at that number they have met the more this cap goes up the better better value you just many guys you just see some of the eight8 million guys out there are right around there. And Buffalo fans kind of came right at me with Thompson and Cousins deal. We've chirped so many GMs or chirped the fact of lining guys up for long term without proving much. But the ones that actually do work out and turn into what you thought, if not more, you're laughing. And I mean, if it goes up to 87 and a half the next year

then the year after that it hopefully goes up say a million or two you just you can't even picture where it's going to be in 10 years and then if you got guys locked up six seven eight years at this money that are going to be producing close to 100 points guy like hughes you're you're just you're laughing at everyone else you took a risk and it hit absolutely a couple signings since our last episode anaheim did sign restricted free agent defenseman Jamie Drydesdale as what says three years 6.9 million dollar deal uh he you got a lot of grief for that for that trade caught a lot of grief but um I will say I also thought he was the second overall pick turns out he was the sixth so once

again misinformed wit making a little bit of a fool of himself um but his rookie year when he was 19 or whatever he he lit it up. And then last year he had the injury. And I think Zegers is going to – I mean, if Zegers is at 60 points the last two years, what's to say he can't get 70, 75? So let's just see in four years if Darlene looks what he may become to be true. That was good English. And wins like a Norris trophy and continues to get 70 to 80 points.

I was a fool. english and wins like a norris trophy and continues to get 70 to 80 points i was a fool but if drysdale pops off and zegras goes and then you think about two verse one we'll just see we'll see i'm not giving in yet even though i've kind of flip-flopped 17 times um i thought that 2.3 a year was was low for three years he had no leverage i know he had i know he had no leverage but like to like hold out like i wonder what they were offering him if it was even shittier than that beforehand. Or maybe it was term. Yeah, I think, well, he probably wanted,

because he knew the number wasn't going to be big enough with long term, so then you want as short as possible. And they kind of just end up getting a great, I mean, if he comes to be that- He's making minimum wage living in California. They have 10 million cab space heading into the year too, so it's not like they don't have any money. He's going to be selling donuts like Benson.

I watched Anaheim play in L.A. preseason, and L.A. looked great. They had their whole lineup in, but it's going to be, I think, tough sledding for the Ducks this year. At the same time, the future does look very bright, so it's more about just sticking with the plan and seeing how these guys can kind of develop. Minnesota signed Ford Ryan Hopman to a three-year extension worth $12 million. with the plan and seeing how these guys can kind of develop uh minnesota signed ford ryan hopman to a three-year extension worth 12 million dollars because this is the guy i think jacob

middleton called him a piece of shit on tv right wasn't he talking about hopping in that interview yeah his own his own teammate yeah um in a good way yeah he's not a guy like that yeah heck of a player and it seems like the team got some pretty good deals on guys who had career years two years ago who had a bit of a setback where they get to keep this group together i mean they've been very successful in the regular season over the past couple years it seems like they have great uh team chemistry in the locker room they all get along so i think it's a great number and if he can get to you know 75 offensive production in which he did two years ago. That's more than a fucking bargain.

And what's cool is he, his last deal with the wild, he took a pay cut and Billy Guerin talked about kind of how much like he appreciated that and remembered that. I think he took 200 grand less a year than he'd been making. So to go out and then have that huge season of 30 goals or whatever, two years ago, it kind of sucks.

That wasn't the free agent year, but Billy Guerin remembered and knew that maybe last year battling some some injuries it was just a little bit of a one-off so i love the deal yeah because you just mentioned the locker room a lot of people wondering has the locker room been canceled in canada uh hockey canada has implemented a new policy for the 23 24 minor hockey season including a quote minimum attire rule with the goal of respecting privacy and making dressing environments more inclusive. This is from hockey Canada to best promote inclusion and to respect the

privacy of all participants on a team. Hockey Canada requires all participants to wear minimum attire at all times in a dress room or in dressing room environments where more than one participant is present. This means that participants should arrive at the rink wearing a base layer organization or that a base layer could be shorts and a t-shirt, compression shorts and a shirt, or a sports bra. And the new policy also outlines recommended best practices

for the use of showers, where players must wear minimum attire in open concept scenarios. So it sounds to me like showering with a bathing suit on, if you read it different. What age is this? This is like all all of youth hockey kind of i think i think the showering with a bathing suit i mean like that's fine if that's where they want to keep it basically when you dive into these type of issues you try not to like freak out because of the headline

because of the way that you know when i used to go to a hockey rink all the kids would go in there we you know we'd shower the coaches would be in there and like you just trusted that there wasn't a coach who was a fucking pervert trying to stare at the kids horns so you have to go down to the lowest common denominator because let's say an area like toronto toronto where all these random families are playing together everything going on with like you know maybe one of the sons wants to be a daughter and you got to respect that and you know everybody's in kind of that safe space where they're just protecting themselves for the chance that one of these fucking idiots who are coaching want to stick around and do what,

what it is at the lowest common denominator. So they're just protecting themselves. Do I think it's gotten to a ridiculous place? Yes. Like I, it'd be nice if it, you could just go back to normal where it's like you're fucking you know you're 12 years old you play on a youth hockey team the dads drop you off

you go to the locker room you get changed with the boys and you and you fuck off like it ain't that complicated right am i going crazy here in terms of like girl boys or girls i guess you've reached like a certain age and you just it's not a big deal i get when the kid's seven years old no problem but once they're like in the room alone like you're not in the room alone until you're old enough to then probably be sitting there naked i i don't really see what what this is how this is even a story but younger kids a hundred percent so i also i also did hear a story about like a um a parent who wasn't necessarily getting along with one of the coaches and both their kids played on the team obviously where there was like an accusation that was thrown out there because the the other the the mother or whatever it was wasn't happy with

the way that the kids ice time was going and things like that so sometimes these situations arise where like all of a sudden there's an investigation going on i think what they're trying to do is implement these rules. So it's just like, there's really no gray area anymore. There can't be some fucking massive blow up with, with some of these stories that end up coming out of minor hockey. I remember when, and also on the flip side of it,

like then the Graham James shit happened. Right. So like it's, it has happened before there are sick fuck. So I guess it's just from a legality standpoint, this is kind of what happens. So to see that headline and freak out and be like, why can't it be the way that us boys used to do it?

It's kind of like ridiculous because the world has just gotten a lot crazier. When BU was building their new rink, I never got to play in it, right? I left after my junior. I would have played in it my senior, but legendary coach Jack Parker, he was a huge part of building the rink and figuring out where they wanted things and the

original plan had had like stall showers like individual showers he's like no no no no no you open that up all the boys are showered after the game together like yeah so times have changed jans would be furious but they go back he's like i want to see soap on your cock right now when i when i was coaching youth hockey you have to do training you have to do safe training and some of the questions you like for us it's like how dumb can you be but a lot of it is you never have a meeting with a door closed like i could never drive a player there's a kid that lived right next door to me but i couldn't drive him home from practice because who knows what will happen yes but the you have that training

but people aren't listening to it so that's what hockey canada is doing is they're covering their base oh you're saying that that they are teaching this stuff but these these coaches aren't implementing all the rules properly therefore they have to hit their hammer down harder exactly so that's why like sometimes we make murals drive him home i'm like no dude safe sport i can't do it i can't do it i'm not allowed to do it i think it's like a five hour course and you're like we know you're not a creep what i'm like you can't drive another kid because i can't i'm a coach i can't be alone with a player when like that's not my kid so you're they they try they're trying to eliminate all that stuff which is wild for us because when we were

kids yeah our parents would send us off i was thrown in the trunk in a carpool so they're trying so i think this is just more they're trying to yeah i can only imagine like little timmy there with his bag he's like my parents forgot to pick me up can i get a ride home coach you're like no fuck you can't do it i know. Got to follow the rules. Give me a pick from Monday. I would sit there in my car and wait for it and watch him until his parent came just so we didn't have to stand there. Just stalking him. Coach Mills kept talking about bird cages and action reverses. It's cold out here.

Can I come in the car? Nope. Nope. Stand on the curb over there. Not allowed to do it. All right, guys, before we go any further if you like using debit over credit i just learned about something that's definitely a game changer discover cash back debit it's a checking account that rewards everyone with cash back on everyday purchases

which means you can get cash back on hockey ticks or head toto-toe hockey gear to make this season a total win check out eligibility and terms at discover.com slash cashback debit discover bank member fdic now back to the show all right gang we do have the atlantic division to preview the last one uh we do want to let you know we have an unreal guest come up in a little bit p.s cedric labrie oh this guy was great epic stuff coming but we got some uh divisions i'm sorry some teams to talk about first we'll pick up uh with the buffalo sabers we were just talking about that a minute ago 91 points last year only one point out of the playoffs they had a nice little rush at the end they haven't been in the playoffs since 2011 when they lost in the first round of philly 35 to 1 to win the cup this year Merles

that number was a little lower than I thought uh they brought in Eric Johnson nice little veteran uh help on the back line Connor Clifton they signed a three at 10 million dollar deal too uh said bye to Vinny Henestrosa Craig Anderson retired plenty of cap space if they want to do something but this is a team biz they're looking to take that next step they got a lot of offense you know Tate Thompson we just mentioned Alex T tuck jeff skinner dylan cousins middle stats really come into his own the defense we've talked about non-stop devon levi i think is the key to the season biz go to you first on buffalo i mean my expectation is they're the the devils from last year and they just have this massive explosion where these all these guys together take that next step and and uh i mean as far as the goaltending

concern i'm not going to evaluate the performance from the other night against the penguins after sid got the boys going but i would say that with split time i would hope that that levi goes in there and has an incredible rookie season uh i'd like to see him top three in the calder voting i'd like to see owen power take that next step i know he was hurt a little bit last year with the boot on, but it's going to come down to this high-flying offense too. I mean, I know the coach, he lets them fucking go, right? And sometimes that's fun at the beginning of the season when things are a little bit more opened up,

but come crunch time, the games get a little bit harder and you can't always win like that, right? So there has to be a fine line between this offensive flair and some structure and once again i feel like this team is ready to take that next step but are my expectations too high yeah i just think with the way they play levi's not going to have that year everybody thinks like he's going to be good enough he's going to be better than they had but when the way they play they're so open over it's not for a goalies like they're not a defensive shutdown team so

his numbers will not be great but he's gonna make them win more games than they did last year if that makes sense i i think basically what you kind of mentioned it's it's all about some guys making that that extra step it's like like peterka right a great rookie season what can you add on to that second season and and you look at middle stat who really kind of finally had last year a solid season 60 point guy kevin adams mentioned i think he had 16 points in his last 10 games can you jump up even a little bit more krebs right he kind of had a little bit of an off year what can you do so it's you know what you're getting from uh thompson you know what you're getting from tuck i i think you know what you're getting from cousins but that's

another young player see what he can do and then there's just the the secondary guys jack quinn i mean this kid is a sniper can he hop up to 25 30 goals it's just there's a lot of question marks but they're my eastern conference team i i think they're going to get in the playoffs i think it's going to be such an exciting season around this team because of how they play high scoring high offense. But if some of these guys don't make the step up, it could be a fight for them to get in the playoffs. Even if they do play great, it's going to be a battle in this division,

in this conference. So I'm very interested to see how it all plays out. I had something else, but I can't remember. So Jackwin? Yes. That's his name. Yeah, he's missing, I think, a month or two. He just got injured. He blew his knee out or something, I believe.

So he won't get your 30 goals. Tough start there. He is really good. He's a really good player. And now we just talked about Benson to Benson. I think that's why Benson is going to make the team is to fill his spot. Also, another we talked about the last two years, but Jeff Skinner was ridiculed. Oh, yeah.

Count it out. And his contract. contract well I mean he did sign that huge ticket it was yeah and then he and then he was brutal after and it was it was it was a kind of a laughing stock of a deal he's coming off 33 goals two years ago 35 last year 82 points last year so I I feel no reason that it's not gonna continue obviously he's got some sort of chemistry uh with Thompson and Tucker and tuck or whatever it is they have a lot of offense offensive weapons i i like when they brought over greenway they need a little bit of toughness in that lineup to protect those guys as well along with a post so so i feel like

they have a really well-rounded team where from a top nine perspective when quinn comes back and if all of a sudden benson keeps doing what he doing, like they have, their top nine is pretty filthy. Yeah, it is. It's fucking pretty filthy. Loaded. And they got, I mean, those two big, Power and Darlene, like the way they skate, how big they are, how much minutes they can play.

So the only worry is, and I was kind of with you, I said to Posh, like they could be like the devils. I don't know if they'll pop off that much, but in like a team where you're like, what an improvement, things switched overnight. The only thing is there's a thing called sophomore slumps right and they got a few got you're not every sky's second season isn't going to always be better than the first so they're just going to have to battle through whoever is struggling and not playing to what they kind of counted on the coaching staff was all right playoffs in a row i got them in what got them in biz i got them making

playoffs this year yep and third seed g uh i got them in i got him in biz i got him making playoffs this year yep and third seed g uh i got him in i i hope if they get off to a hot start patrick kane signs there i just they still have eight million i said that like two years ago i think that would be the story of the season especially especially if he comes back the way they're saying lighting it up and feeling good maybe he'll come back halfway through so he doesn't have to come like be back in buffalo for that long yeah he's like just give me a few months in buffalo although you can't get cut off here ra's proof yeah we got the full gamut of weather here too man four different days four different fucking degrees uh all right toronto maple leaves business team oh baby 111 points last year second

in the atlantic they finally got over that first round hump but then they lost in the second round to florida nine to one to win the cup this year. They went out and got some muscle, some gristle. Tyler Bertuzzi, one-year deal, five and a half mil. Max Domi, one-year, three mil. John Klingberg to help out in the back end. Ryan Reeves, a little toughness out front. Martin Jones, a little depth goaltending.

They don't have much cap space, really none, but they do have Muzzin and Murray's money. They could put LTIR of over $10 million. But I mean, this is the same thing with the Leafs, Biz. Once again, we'll go to you, the ER squad. They're trying to get to the cup final. They can't get there. Is this year they get over the hump?

And are the moves that Tree Living and Shandy made enough to make them a top-tier contender? I don't know what he's going to say. No, no, I like this team. I do. I think, hey, I'm not even being an asshole. I think all of us have them as top three in the East. I think they're the best team in the East.

I think they're going to win the Atlantic. I do too. I think that's a fair assessment. Third line center, this Holmberg kid. I think he's going to fucking take it. Pontus? Pontus Holmberg. Don't know anything about him.

Oh, he works his fucking bag off. Can he move? He can move. He's a great skater. He's a great skater. So where it's going to come down to is who are these guys filling in the bottom six another guy he got hurt in playoff last year he's a big boy this nice kid that's going to be a big question mark

is this going to kid it kind of going to come in and light the fucking league on fire other than that we know what we're getting from everybody else you know you're getting from marner matthews bertuzzi great addition on the top line that is a an increase from bunting okay i love bunting i love what he did he's a little bit of a shithead come playoff times i feel like the refs are so annoyed on him he doesn't get any of the calls and doesn't do what he did in regular season bertuzzi complete upgrade in that situation max domi came over i feel like him and matthews are so close off the ice they were at the drake concert the other night he's feeling what do you why are you why why why can't i yeah it's just yeah it's just funny it's like yeah we're just working on that breakout and no buddy you gotta have you got a team camaraderie it matters max

domi's home his father played there like the buzz around the city like there was rumors there were locker room issues this summer they said they needed some locker room guys i'm with you make some friendships here friendships team camaraderie the boys getting together it's a hard city to play in you got to lean on each other when the during the dog days when all these fucking writers and media are trying to kick up dust um just looking to make something up make some make up stories make up all the bullshit release their covid test god damn it simmons um i think the the back end is a little bit underrated i actually don't mind it i thought mccabe maybe struggled a little bit last year in playoffs a lot depends on him and clingberg because i don't think necessarily you can lock

them like you love mccabe i really love i think i don't know puck moving wise top four like i does he move it defensively strong and his physical but yeah i think you would rather a better top four but i'm saying like i i think he adds that physical element with a guy like giordano maybe not getting as many minutes i like having a guy on the ice who's willing to protect the protect the net front like a gudas type okay i like those guys i think it's a positive and i didn't like that hall guy had to go like it was just a matter of time and hey listen i think he's gonna have success i think he's what in detroit now sometimes you become the leafs fans whipping boy and I felt like he became the whipping boy

and that can be a very unpleasant place and your game can continue to deteriorate he's out of there now they got Sandin out of there I got the Lindgren kid stepping in I think overall with Klingberg and his offense I'm happy with where the D squad is at everybody's questioning goaltending I think that Samson off kid was fucking awesome in playoffs last year. I think they got him in a great number at this year. I am confident about the team. They're going to win the division, and I'll leave it at that. Okay, the one guy you didn't bring up, and I'm talking about people stepping up their game in terms of Buffalo,

this is the year Lilgren has got to bring it. And apparently in camp he's looked awesome. He's looked, like like really assertive he's looked better defensively basically more confident is kind of what i read that that guy needs to to take a step right if he if he does imagine that d compared to what you're thinking now and so i think you know he was getting scratched in the first round five of i think the six games and in the second round two but that's a skilled puck-moving defenseman. You need him to play well to get the puck to these guys

because, yeah, Morgan Riley does it, and I think Giordano's great at times, but you need some puck movers back there when he's forward to that skill. And Lillegren can do that. Yeah. So what I would say is we always have talked. You love to call teams like vanilla. That's what Toronto was.

They, the three guys right here on our A's list that they jam Reeves, Domi, Bertuzzi. They're just jam. They're guys that are in there mixing it up. I love that. I want to see Klinberg.

Just let him play the whole power play and let riley and giordano focus on the five on five and four on five so i don't know i know i know you like right you're gonna roll the two whole minutes with klinberg yeah just let him go he's a wild card that's his minutes he gets eight minutes of power play game and then let riley play everything else don't worry about the power play kid you just shut down everything else you know what's gonna happen they're gonna they're gonna be 500 after after 12 games and the fucking city's going to be losing and i'm going to be just like every every year it happens every year at the start of the year don't fall hey don't they always start slow don't take the bait online though they might win their first few games and

then drop like three or four in the row they're going to be 500 after 12 and the fucking city's going to be ready to burn down i'm telling you it's happening don't fall don't take the bait folks all right obviously we all have toronto in the play yes yes yeah all right uh sticking and the fucking city is going to be ready to burn down. I'm telling you, it's happening. Don't take the bait, folks. All right, obviously we all have Toronto in the playoffs. Yes. All right, sticking in the same province, Ottawa Senators, another team trying to get back to the playoffs. They look like they might have got there last year,

struggled with, I don't know, a little inconsistency, some injuries, but they brought in Yunus Korpisal, a new goaltender, picked up Dominic Kubelik in a trade, another big sign in Vladimir Tarasenko. I think he kind of comes in, basically replaces Debrinket, who they lost in the trade, to Detroit. But, Whit, go to you first on this one. You know, they got Kachak, Stutzel, Giroux, Bathurston.

Unfortunately, Josh Norris missed all but eight games last season, had the shoulder surgery, and he got hurt again Saturday. He said he's going to be out indefinitely to stop the year. Exactly what they didn't need, but is it going to be too much for them to get into the playoffs this year, Ottawa? Oh, this is the toughest one for me. I like the team. Exciting time.

New owner, Steve Steyos, comes in. They have a team that they finally believe can take that next step. It's the whole thing we've mentioned, Buffalo, Ottawa, Detroit. What's going to happen? I personally think that Buffalo and Ottawa are a step ahead of Detroit. I don't have Detroit getting in this year. I think it's more likely for one or both of Buffalo and Ottawa are a step ahead of Detroit. I don't have Detroit getting in this year. I think it's more likely for one or both of Buffalo and Ottawa to get in. I do love that on D, like Shabbat's an unreal puck mover, so you had him,

but then Sanderson comes in and he's this good already. It's like, holy shit, like they got two guys back there that can skate, can play offense, and can move the puck. That's the game now. So Brady Kachuk is one of the top leaders in the game. I think we can all agree to that. Giroux looked awesome last year. Can he continue?

He's getting a little bit older. The one guy for me that I didn't respect nearly enough until even halfway through last year is Stutzel. He is dynamic. He flies around. He's a complete sniper. I already saw a preseason game like bar down rocket wristers from the slot he brings a lot to that team i mean he's their best offensive player so the norris things that's unfortunate because it seems just like he can't he's so good

when he plays and he can't catch a break what did they say in terms of how long it'll be out indefinitely he's not gonna be man after like all this and then camp and then this happens again that that's a big loss for them like they're not deep enough offensively to lose him again that that's the if they were to miss him for a long time i don't think they get in shane pinto still unsigned yeah yeah yeah i guess that yeah i don't know what's going on there but i do like their d and chikrin came in trick Yeah, Chick. Chick was sick. Yes. So that's three. Now, granted, they're all lefties, but Shabbat and Sanderson and Chikrin, those are three studs in your top four. Well, I think the biggest difference is Annette with Corpozalo coming over.

He was awesome last year in LA. I mean, he was incredible in LA. At the end, he fell off because of the power play for Edmonton. So everyone kind of was like, oh, Corpozalo was letting in six, seven goals the last few games. It's like up until then then he was saving their bacon. So I think that's a very underrated signing. You just mentioned the D squad.

Adding Chikrin as like that third competent defenseman, that is so huge. So all of a sudden you have a decent back end. And if everybody healthy, much like we talked about Buffalo, plenty of weapons to go around. Like they got a lot of offensive guys um yeah the the goaltending's great i also wonder too it seemed to be pretty public um that jabrinkat wasn't happy there that can leak into the locker room right so so in this i don't

know him at all but he's gone he didn't want to be there he wasn't happy with his role so maybe that changes a little bit we talked about the karma within the room that uh who was the guy was the guy i think stutzel said he's like if you don't want to be here then we don't want you here and that's what like that's a young you whoa so you're saying that was directed at the brinkett stuff definitely okay so we weren't just kicking that up because i know it was reported and then i think it was kind of obvious the way he said it okay it's so public that he didn't he was on the internet so it had to be true yeah well that's what i was saying when we said it i saw a couple messages like hey that's just like shit that the

internet's trying to kick up and i'm like no i'm pretty sure an ottawa reporter who's like legitimate reported that and then now you're saying that stutzel made a comment like that yeah i think they're they're a vibes team like brady kachuk like he's a vibe guy he's a team guy that's i made a horrible prediction when i did my predictions i got them out of the playoffs and it's gonna be i'm gonna have to deal with this i i wish i could change it but it's already in print so you got him out of a team i have them out. But I think they're going to get in. What are the odds in terms of making playoffs for Ottawa and Buffalo? Are they the same? Do you know?

I can look that up for you, Ryan. Thank you, sir. Let me know if you want them in or out of the playoffs, though, while we're thinking about it. Gee, what do you got? Ottawa playoffs? Five years Brady Kachuk has been in the NHL. Zero playoff games.

That changes this year. I think the Vladimir Tarasenko and the Kubelik signing. They're both flying under the radar. I feel like the smart money is on Ottawa right now, and I'm being blinded by the beauty of Buffalo. Exactly. Those blue jerseys the other night. This city.

If I pick them, that means I don't have either Florida or Boston getting in. Merles, what do you have? Playoffs? I have Ottawa out, but I want to change it. I already have it in print. So I have Ottawa out. I also feel I'm going to regret my pick. That's the one team that I feel like.

No, I'm going in. Grinnelli got me with Brady. Ottawa to make the playoffs minus 125. And what is Buffalo? God, Ryan. Well, I did word the question with what are the odds of Buffalo and Ottawa getting in the playoffs? Buffalo to make the playoffs, yes, minus 110.

So just a little bit bigger favorite for Ottawa. Okay. Wow. Wow. I got him in. That means I got a team. Go ahead. So in or or out you're fucking about officially i have him out okay i don't like it because i picked three from the i think i have three from the metro from the metro so i think i have five to play with in the atlanta so i got to yeah as much as i want them in i i i don't i i got them out i'm what that

you're in pesky i. That's your team. You bet him to win the cup when they finished last. I know. I'm still going to bet them too. We did mention Tarasenko too, right? We did. Huge sign. Fuck it. I'll keep it. I'm going to throw some.

Game time decision. I can't leave my pesky sense hanging. Next up, Montreal Canadiens. Obviously, they're at full rebuild mode right now. 250-1 to win the Cup. They brought in Alex Newhook. They got him via trade, then signed him to a four-year deal worth $11.6

million. They waved goodbye to Jeff Petrie, Joel Edmondson, Jonathan Drouin, Chris Tandy, Rem Pitt. A whole bunch of guys left. They got a fair amount of cap space, 5.5 mil. They also have carry prices ten and a half mil if they need to go lti uh looks like just another year rebuilding hammerles basically marty st louis i think he's just trying to get suzuki caulfield kirby doc all these guys the experience because you know they're not ready for a cup run quite yet i'll keep this real quick i have them out they stink marty st louis best guy

in the world great coach three years away from being good but i love marty um i think this is going to be ugly this year i watched them in preseason one game against the leafs and they looked red rotten um yeah a lot of moving pieces too like a lot of guys coming in and out they're trying the new hook experiment they brought monahan in for his leadership so i i don't know what to expect i don't know i still don't know what i think about this anderson kid either like is he is he going to establish himself as a league top power forward yeah i just don't get why they keep him he's the guy they should have traded at the deadline or use him at this deadline like he's already too old

he's not going to go with caulfield and them on suzuki on the right i also feel they picked up you need some veterans you need some good players i agree with you and it doesn't play their style he's not going to go with Caulfield and them and Suzuki on the right. I also feel they picked up that. You need some veterans. You need some good players. I agree with you. And it doesn't play their style. Like, you know,

but you need like a good, please a good player. Like you can't just trade everyone. It's like, it'd be the big deal. Selects. I, yeah,

I'm with Merle's. It's, it's a few years away. Kind of one of those things where last year it's like why did slavkovsky make the team but now he's there let's see if he can kind of because if all of a sudden he has a monster season first overall pick the vibes are way better way higher because you know you didn't see much granted he's so young and then he got injured i believe right so at least cole caulfield being back healthy, that's a big thing.

Get him to 40 goals. Suzuki, I love as a player. So yeah, it's about developing these solid topping guys who you consider part of your future. But you can't just be, you can't go through seasons, like season after season of being really bad. That's tough on culture and you're not going to learn that much from it.

I think the most exciting part of their whole season is going to be if Wi-Fi is going to try to get the heavyweight title belt. Oh, I think he's... He was ragged on a couple guys last night. He had two guys at once. He was ragged on. I think every game he's going after the toughest guy. So you have Reeves in the Atlantic, you have Wi-Fi in the Atlantic,

and now you have Luchich back in the Atlantic. Somebody told me Reeves and Luchich have never fought fought they haven't so to first toronto boston game i think we're gonna see the revival of the heavyweight title belt in the nhl this year at least the atlantic that's a that's on the spot hot take from biz right now um three of them in the same division and i and i might be missing a team that has another one in this division. Not thinking off the top of my head, but I just want to say Caulfield was on a 46-goal pace last year. You know what's been since 94, since the Canadians have had a 40-goal scorer?

Vincent D'Amfousse. No way. We're coming up on 30 years of them not having a 40-goal, man. Uh-oh. Uh-oh. Jesus. The whistles will be coming out in Montreal. Also, too, last year they were 26th in goals per game,

29th in goals against per game. So injuries are obviously a factor, but nobody here has the clarity of the playoffs, correct? No. Okay, before we go any further, here's a few words from our friends at Max. Get into the game with the Bleacher Report sports add-on on Max. Stream select live games from the MLB postseason,

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slash sports all right moving right along here. Next up, the Tampa Bay Lightning finished third in the Atlantic last year, 13th out of 32 teams. They lost in the first round to Toronto, four games to two. 20-1 to win the cup this year. A couple new faces in town. Connor Sherry, goaltender Jonas Johansson, Luke Glendennen, Calvin DeHaan. They said bye to a lot of guys, man.

A lot of veteran leadership, too. Alex Colon, Patrick Maroon, Ross Colton, Ian Cole. Guys they won all these cups with. No real cap space, although they do have Brent Seabrooks just under $7 million in cap room if they need for LTIR. But, Biz, are the dynasty days of Tampa winding down? They've had a nice run. They're going to have Vasilevsky.

He's going to be hurt to start the season. Is that going to put him behind the eight ball or what i think that uh all this adversity early on is gonna be something that coop's gonna lean on to motivate these guys basically seeing that everybody thinks that they're done i have them making playoffs but i'm just so much more interested about this like i love dynasties i like seeing teams win like three in a row but i also like seeing like the crumbling of it like kind of like what the Patriots are going through. Oh yeah. I guess Belichick done all this bullshit.

So that's kind of what I'm, I'm invested in this year. I mean, you saw the Stamco's drama early on between him and the GM. Now Vasilevsky is going to miss time. So I mean, I love, I love it.

It's a great story. I like their team. I don't think that losing that, that veteran leadership that they, they saw go away matters because of the core group they still have assembled. You still have all the guys. You got the points, the stammers, the coochies, and Hedman, Sergachev, and Cernak. Once they get their goaltender back, they're going to be fine. That's too good of a core group, especially in a bottom like it's a very weak bottom of the division and they'll be able to pray the points off those fuckers all right i i got him in the playoffs as well uh could be a struggle at the start but my thing is kucherov like when that guy wants to he is the top five player in the league he makes it look so easy he plays with an edge too i kind of love that i mean he'll stick yeah He's not at all floating around out there.

I'm sure there's times Koop may think that. But his skill level, along with point, and like you mentioned, just head man and Sergeyev, it's too good of a core for me to think that this is over yet. I don't think they're going to win the Stanley Cup. But I think whoever they play in the first round, it's going to be a hell of a series. Like, they're still right there for me. And it seems like when they get new guys in, now, granted, they've lost a ton. Kill it's going to be a hell of a series. They're still right there for me. And it seems like when they get new guys in, now granted, they've lost a ton. Killorn is going to be a tough one.

I think just in terms of leadership and character in there with how long he'd been a part of the Lightning, they'll miss him on and off the ice. But they seem to be so good at getting guys and filling them in. Replenishing. Yeah, and Koop's able to figure out where they fit in and where they play. i i like them to have a strong season and get in i do have to get ahead so i picked four in the metro right so i only have four left so i actually am knocking ottawa out i'm not having ottawa make the playoff i'm not having ottawa is out oh no ottawa is out ottawa is out just

think of the fans and the new ownership right now i have tampa uh buffalo and toronto from the atlantic i have one more atlantic pink yes that means i either have the panthers or the bruins out it's safe to say we're not doing a chick let's trip to ottawa no no um maybe when they get a rink downtown i'll head up there i couldn't tell you one like prospects that they're supposed to be excited about tampa fans like i wouldn't know one name that sticks yeah but we don't know anything about it yeah i'm supposed to have that I was more sending that out there to see if anybody had anything no they because they've traded all their first rounders every year for these runs they always trade the first round pick to bring that guy in but it doesn't matter Braden Point Kucherov

you said top five player one of them I think they're both top 10 probably and then Hedman I have as my favorite defenseman in the world and sergachev is right behind him i think i want to say we'll be better than him yeah i want to say they have i want to say they're like colorado they have two of the top 10 defensemen yep mccarty's sergachev headman who i'm but you're saying who's a better tandem and they're just two saying they have two studs so you're gonnas, so you're going to win. Okay. They're definitely in the playoffs. Okay. And I think they can win it again.

I would say, yeah. With the rest. And Vasilevsky, like every single person you talk to that's a goaltending expert or people that know the position, he's the number one goalie in the league. Like they don't even question anyone else up there. Who's Petro's D partner in Vegas? What? They have Theodore, Hag Who's Petro's D partner in Vegas? What? They have Theodore, Hagel, Petro.

That D course. Overall, they're good. But you're saying a one and two? Yeah, I don't think anybody's to the equivalent of Petro there. No, not Hedman. Hedman. I like Hedman. Yeah, yeah.

No, I'm saying as far as a tandem. Maybe Theodore. Theodore is pretty. I don't think he was as dominant in playoffs last year to be considered in that top 10 conversation. I think his numbers were pretty ridiculous. In playoffs? Yeah, because I remember in.

Hockey DBL tells. Please be wrong. G, Tampa playoffs? I do have them in the playoffs. I do have them in the playoffs. 13 points, 21 games. Not bad. And Biz, they're the 31st ranked prospect pool.

The Athletic has them ranked 31st. Okay, there you go. Wow, smartest thing I've ever said in the pod. Yeah, I mean, this is the first time for everything. The most well-rested they've been in years, man. I got them in. I think they got enough strengths to overcome not having Vassie early. They'll tread water, and once he's back, they'll be golden.

And I think with the Vassie injury, it sucks, but now he's going to be really rested and hungry to play. I remember when Lundqvist got hurt with the rangers everybody's all up in arms but then when he came back he was like rested and that's when they went on their run so he's feeling good you know how it was playing 80 games by the time you get the playoffs you're gas considering vassy like won't let uh coop pull him and plays 64 games it seems like yeah i think that could be a good thing as long as everything comes back normal and he's all healthy,

ready to go. All right. We all have tamper in. And while speaking of Tampa Bay, we mentioned we have a PS a drink, the breed coming on, just a hilarious interview. This guy,

because I wasn't familiar with it, with this game. I was beforehand. You were, he come on just an all time interview. I know coop was a big fan of his as well. So we're going to send it over to him right now. What a story. What a story to make it to the league. All right, before we go any

further, here's a few words from our friends at Chevy. Chevy has convenient ways to research and shop electric vehicles online. When researching, utilize Chevy MyWay. Vehicle specialists and hosts give a virtual tour and help answer your questions. When you're ready, you're able to buy online by reviewing available EV inventory or build your own at participating dealers. You can do as much or as little of the buying process online with help from a participating dealer. You can configure finance and lease payments, apply for credit, upload documents, and finalize your purchase through our secure checkout process. You can configure finance and lease payments, apply for credit, upload documents, and finalize your purchase through our secure checkout process.

You can even schedule vehicle delivery at home or at the dealership. If you'd prefer to purchase the traditional way in person, the Nationwide Dealer Network is available to help as well. Learn more at chevy.com slash electric. All right, it's time to bring on our next guest. This undrafted foe had actually stopped playing hockey as a 17-year-old, but eventually returned to the game, then worked his way back all the way to the NHL, where he spent parts of three seasons with Tampa Bay.

He ended up playing professionally for 16 seasons and won a Call the Cup with the 2012 Norfolk Admirals. We're very happy to welcome to the spit and chicklets podcast. P.S. Adrigue Labrie. Thanks for joining us, PC. How you been?

Pretty good. Thank you very much for having me. I like Nacho though. I like Nacho. What a nickname. How'd you get your nickname Nacho? Who do you think came up with it? Coop?

No, it was, uh, uh, Bugsy Malone. You heard of that, right? Oh my God. Oh my God. Oh, geez.

Is it because you like the cheese? He did, yeah. No, it's it came he couldn't say La Brie so he started saying Libre

and I just stuck with the natural in front. Okay. All right. Now it's all making sense. Great one. Yeah. And the Brie cheese's all making sense. Great one. Yeah.

And the brie cheese is also a good reference. And yeah. He said you're one of the best teammates he's ever had. And you always bring the fun. No bad days for natural. Likewise. Like I was lucky to live at his house for like a month during training camp instead of like going to the hotel during the training camp.

And oh my God, this guy just got me off like my shelf like he just took me to another level just elevate natural i think what happened was it was when he was going through his divorce and you were living with him as as probably two single guys probably doing all right for yourselves yeah yeah and you know you know what's funny is that he lived like in the gated community and, and like for the whole month I was going through the gate cause he was like letting me borrow one of his car to go anywhere. And, and the guy at the gate was always like, Hey Ryan, hi. And he always left me like going through and all this.

And the day that I got sent back down to Syracuse, cause there was a lockout year. We didn't have a training camp and I had to go back. That was the day I took, I came back with a cab to go get my stuff at Bugsy's house. And the guy wouldn't let me in. And I'm like, come on,

man, you're not Ryan. You're not Ryan. I'm like, are you kidding me? I've been not Ryan I'm like are you kidding me I've been living there for a month now and you always thought I was Ryan so I missed the plane I got I got delayed I missed the plane I got like everything was going wrong at that point that's not the first time you've missed travel I got an insane travel story about when the team was traveling the lake placid when you like tried to book a fucking helicopter and shit.

You got to tell this one off the hop. Yeah, that one was rough. That was my send down, like last send down to the AHL. And I got back to Syracuse with my old teammate, Eric Nielsen. The guy's a legend. So what we did is we went to a spa day and we kind of went after it. And later on, we went to the campus in Syracuse, which is kind of all right. And got back to the hotel and we don't really know what happened in the hotel.

But neither when I swipe my key to get in the hotel, I guess like neither didn't follow. And the door just shut in front of him and he kind kind of pass out outside the, the, the hotel and they give him a room. So I woke up the next morning, I go to the lobby. I know I'm late. I missed the bus. And then I asked the lobby, like, have you seen my friend? And they're like, Oh, there's a guy sleeping outside. We give him a room. I'm like, what room? Like I need him. And then we end up like communicate. And we, we were like calling everywhere to try to get to Lake Placid where like we had no clue where it was in the upstate New York at around back.

And exactly. We try to call like a private charter, which we couldn't really afford and try to try to call helicopter. Nothing happened. So we we jump on the kneel's pilot and on the way we go and and my phone stopped working and kneeler had his phone like and and we got it on the map so we're we're going in the right direction and at some point he's driving and and he pulls his phone out and oh shit i just lost my my phone's broken i'm like why like what happened the guy just peed his pants and he had his phone between his legs and he just ruined the phone so like right there we we had to go the old the old way we stopped bought a map and then i start

driving and next thing i know i looked over kne I'm like, neither is it a left or right here. And he's with the map trying to zoom in like, like neither. It's a real map. And so, yeah, we got down time now on time for practice, but late before the hour before. And then, uh, Zettler put us a full cage on. So we had to battle one on one drills me and Kneeler with our cage on and that's how we got punished and it was all that's what he made you do is throw cages

on and then you should be like head button yourself yeah that's and then we try to tell him like hey I think I think we really think we got roofies last night and that didn't work so I didn't go you lied to your coach about getting roofied yourself Nach we got roofied last night and that didn't work. So that didn't go. You lied to your coach about getting roofied? You roofied yourself, Nacho.

You roofied yourself. That's probably what happened. So you're from Baie-Camau, Quebec? That's it. That's where you're originally from. So obviously, if you're from Quebec, you kind of get thrown on the ice probably at an early age. Did your parents play hockey? Yeah. Yeah. you kind of get thrown on the ice probably at an early age. Did your parents play hockey? Yeah, yeah, my parents played hockey,

but nothing like crazy, just for fun. And yeah, I mean, it was the same. You know who else plays in Beckham? It was Dave Morissette and Jimmy Bono. So growing up, I played with Jimmy Bono, and we actually went all the way to the gold medal and the provincial Pee Wee Double C. So that was our biggest minor league accomplishment. He was a pretty tough guy, Jimmy Bono, too, wasn't he?

Oh, yeah. I think I played against him in the ECHL. He was a fucking nail gun. He's a nail. Him and Mirasti had a few good ones. I mean, he's fought them all. And he's pretty tough. I mean, we always talk about the Quebec Fighting League,

like the pro league over there. Is that just kind of how the hockey's played, even at a minor level? Like, was there a lot of scrapping going on? We had some really big rivalry growing up between, like, our team that was, like, 10 minutes in just a different sector of the town and that was like that's how we grew up in the culture where like it was pretty rough between the between

just the same town like were you were you kind of shocked or or disappointed when the Quebec League came out and said fighting is going to be gone because we were doing an interview um earlier and we were talking about this in the sense of like there's a lot of tough guys who came out and said fighting is going to be gone? Because we were doing an interview earlier and we were talking about this in the sense of there's a lot of tough guys who came out of the Quebec League, right? Obviously, the game's changed, but in your opinion, was that the right move or are you confused by it? I feel like for my

kids, I got two sons. It's probably a good move. Now I'm happy they can just grow up and don't have to follow the same path, but I don't know. Kids are going to get in the pro hockey now, and they're going to be kind of a step behind from the WHL. I don't know.

I feel like the ban is a little bit heavy. They should evaluate case by case. There's always going to be fighting in hockey. I think there's always going to be fighting in hockey. I think there's, there's always going to be room for that. I think I, I don't see the full ban being a good decision. Yeah.

To be honest. Yeah. Well, that's a good point too. If guys are coming out of the O and the dub and granted college doesn't fight, but, um,

that, that is a little odd, but going back to your beginning, like, did you love the game from the start where you, you, you fall in love with it? College doesn't fight, but that is a little odd. But going back to your beginning, did you love the game from the start? Did you fall in love with it? Always skating in the winter, outside skating, practicing, things like that?

Oh, yeah. Every day on the ice. At school, we had that program. Yeah, that's what kept me in school, to be honest. What was the program? It was just like you go to hockey in the morning until 10 30 and then after that school no way yeah and you had to keep like a 75 average something like that fuck it how did you do that who were you whose notes were you copying oh i i had to like kiss babies and shake hands left and right teaching that teacher's kid how to fucking

shoot a wrist shot just so you get a b minus on your report card that was my biggest battle for do you remember when the nordiques left like was that just heartbreaking for so many of you guys oh yeah especially uh on the east side of quebec where where i'm from we were all nordique more like because montreal is more west and we were all Nordique more like because Montreal is more west. And we were all about the Nordique and the Fosberg and Sackick. And that was huge for us. Yeah. I'm still believing that they're coming back.

I said, you know, I don't know if a team in Canada, they'll ever be another team in Canada. I can't really imagine it. But Quebec would be perfect. Beautiful city. Passionate fans. They got screwed out of a Stanley Cup because that team was completely loaded when they left. So that would be fantastic.

I just don't know if it'll ever happen. I know. It's tough. Economy-wise, it's kind of down here. Yeah, it's tough. What were the junior leagues like there? Oh, the Rampart. They're killing it. Well, yeah, so that's the cue, right? Oh, the Rampart. They're killing it. Well, yeah.

So that's the Q, right? So that's major junior hockey. Did you have to play at a lower junior level before you ended up going to the Q? Oh, yeah. I actually got sent down from the Quebec Rampart camp. I was the last forward cut. So I went to junior AAA in a town called Coaticook it's like near Sherbrooke and the first year was nice because the the Rampart still had

me in the plans for next years and in the next year when I showed up at camp I got cut the last forward again and now they're like we're not yeah we're not paying for your billet anymore so i had to like go at the corner store and just start crushing hours midnight to eight in the morning go to college come on yeah and then after college practice at five go to nap eat go back to the corner store sleep in the backstage in the back store store of the corner store. And it was like that till Christmas. And when I went back home to Christmas, I just quit. I was just like, that's enough. That's how it all happened. Yeah. I'm going to be a firefighter now. I'm like, I'm just going to have a regular life. And the senior league call, That's where the call-up happened. And I took my skate back from the shelf

and went back senior double A. And it was a crazy league. Like, it was like a different, like, you can't even like, like, you see what, you watch a slap shot when you grow up and that's like, it's pretty much identical of that. Like, see bloods every day. So were you having to fight grown men at that level?

Is that how you kind of gained all your toughness? Well, first game, I scored four goals. So the hockey was okay. But the thing is, like, you play the first night against the team. Both teams are going out in the same bar. And then the next day, you're playing it back-to-back. So everyone's kind of hang over so now the level of hockey just dropped but then you got guys that get paid like five out five hundred

dollar a fight so like they just got to go to bat and they just got to pay their debt too like everybody's going after the guy who wheeled the only the only girl in the bar that night just getting this shit pushed in because he fucking ended up getting laid pretty much like the bar back then were buzzing too like it was it was a different kind of mentality like after the the village was i think 2000 people in the village and we probably had like half the village in the stadium so it was jam-packed and it was the the thing happening like what what was the corner store called that you worked at a kushtar you guys got some weird names over there i'll tell you that but you you know what it is you're paul bissonnette that sounds pretty french oh no i know but i'm from welland ontario and i i mean yeah my were, were French when I grew up and I lost it early,

early on, but I grew up in Ontario. I have a very French name. Je peux le parler un peu. Ça fait longtemps que je le parle. Je suis rouillé. It's all chopped up. It sounds like shit. I can understand it better.

Yeah. Well, the Couche-Tard is like the 7-Eleven of the United States. Yeah. So that's what they have. You do ringing people up or were you stocking shelves? He was eating. Yeah, no,

I was like, I had to make muffin during the night. So at 8. A.M. They're on the shelf. Oh yeah. My coach started calling me muffin. I was like,

I like, that's why I appreciate natural natural it's like way better than muffin yeah so so were you getting paid then uh no just by the corner store holy shit so then obviously like that year you had an incredible year like you're scoring all these goals getting tons of points so in your mind we were, I got another chance here because of this. And then you went to the Quebec league the next year. Did you still kind of think this is it? Well, senior, senior,

usually the average age there is like 24, 25, going up all the way to 40. So I thought that was just going to be like my little 75 bucks a game that I was getting paid in that league. But, but really like what happened is I met a guy that played in junior, a maritime in new Brunswick. And he's like, Hey kid, you gotta, you gotta go. Like you, you can't be in this league at 18. Like you're, you're going to miss all the good stuff.

So he called the owner and the maritime team and I ended up, he paid my, how do you call it? He paid my my own my rights and i went there the next year and i i really had a great year yeah and then the next summer i uh i work at the rink as a summer job and and while i was painting the the stairs of the arena i was watching watching the Q team practicing during training camp. And I was just like, so the head coach is Eric Dubois. I was like the head coach of the Drakar, the Q team. And every time he was coming in our little kitchen, grab a coffee, I'd be like, hey, I think I can make your team.

Like I'm just watching it from the stand like painting and he's like what like yeah good one like just thinking and I'm joking you know end up like the GM came and smoke a cigarette behind the Zamboni and I'm just like hey I kind of want a shot like I think I can make the team and so I end up like asking pat who drafted me they asked like pat roy who was like the the owner and gm of the quebec rampart my rights were there and i asked him uh if i could go to the camp for a tryout and so they took me straight up from the ring not having i haven't skated all summer and i just went to rimoski and play against the the oceanic and i did well in two game i had a few goals few pass a tilt and they were just like you know what 19

years old i will just gonna go let you play one more year in junior a and we'll see we'll see what happened you know and so i went off and and then the next year at 20 years old i was a rookie in the queue so that's all get the fuck out of here what an unbelievable story is so you were basically vouching for yourself with gm smoking darts and and what's crazy is so patty waugh was the owner of the quebec ramparts like even that early on and for those of you who don't know you end up going on to marry his daughter yeah this summer we did yeah yeah like that so when did you end up meeting her like at that time when like at training camp there or like was this years later no i didn't even know he had a daughter back then it was just the two the two uh son uh fred and

joe were i knew them i started working out in quebec city the year after my 20 years old. And randomly, I joined the same group as Fred, the younger of the two sons. And we had a few times together. But it's later on when I came back around 20, I think I was 24 years old. And during the summer after a season, he invited me to go have a beer. And I don't know, we just, he's ending like he had a full plate of shots and he's just handing shots and he's like pc take one and his sister walks in and here's another one and we took a shot and soon as we look at each other me and her we start making out and he was like oh no hey this is for not playing me on the team motherfucker tongue dart oh he was like get out of here you know like you guys i don't want to see you and and i was like all right let's get

out of here and off we went and since then we haven't we haven't left each other and it was kind of kind of crazy first eye contact really love at first sight i mean okay so we got to get back to that but this amazing story of you vouching for yourself and end up getting an opportunity with this bay camo track all team you end up having an incredible team 68 games you you're almost at a point of game you were fighting you had pims like talk about finally getting that opportunity. You must have been a machine coming in that year ready to go. Oh, like, honestly, like, it was like a do or die for me, right?

You just got to the point where, like, you're 20 years old. You're a rookie. Just enjoy the ride. But that's my last, like, stride. So I'm just going to go all out. And every game I was so focused. The mindset was, like, off the roof. but that's my last stride, so I'm just going to go all out. In every game, I was so focused. The mindset was off the roof, and it was my own crowd too.

I knew pretty much half the people in the crowd, so it's like playing in your hometown where it was one of the best years for sure of my career. Did you feel like Rudy in a sense because everybody was rooting for you that you'd finally gotten this chance? you must have been a local legend I think that's what the GM said when when I asked him a tryout he was like okay Rudy like come on like but one thing about the Drakkar is like like it's a boat right so like every time you'd score a goal you start rowing as a celly and the whole crowd would be like oh oh and it was just like push you to score more goals you just wanted to roll with them and it was it was like out of the movie for me like insane so like when you're when you're

vouching for yourself and painting and trying to just get on this team like ripping butts with the gm yeah you never imagine playing in theL, but that season in the queue, and then you had a great playoff too. Is that where you started thinking like, man, I could play pro hockey. Like, I think I could do this. Like, this isn't going to end yet. Or were you still almost like,

this is probably the last year? Yeah, I think Eric Messier really saw something. He was the assistant coach to Eric Dubois that year. And Messier took me aside. He's like, hey, I think it's time for you to get yourself an agent. And you can use my agent that I had when I played. And so he made me in contact with his old agent, Paul Hamel. And really, like, we had two offers from Philly and the Canucks after that season.

So I was like, the first contract that comes on the table was signing it. So the Canucks sent the first one and I just didn't even care. AHL deal or two-way? It was a two-way entry-level Vancouver-Winnipeg. Was it Berkey who sent it over oh you don't even know english i couldn't read english back then so i that's what that's what coop uh john cooper said he goes the first time he met you like your english was like it was basically french you couldn't even speak a lick hey let me tell you a story about the first time we met. Okay. This is insane.

Like I just got cut off from my tryout in San Antonio. I'm 20, 24 years old. I'm out. They're sending me to Vegas in an East Coast team. And that's why I called my agent, Paul Amell, still at the time. And I'm like, I cannot go to Vegas. I know myself too well. If you send me there, I'm done. It cannot go to Vegas I know myself too well if you if you send me there I'm

done it's like no way like I was I was already having too much fun in Coaticook back then like I don't want to see myself in Vegas and he's like hold on just just try to stay another night or two at the hotel and of course the guy that took the job on the pto was eric nielsen again that's why i met the guy the legend and uh he just like hey come to my room like i took your spot like i owe you this like come sleep at my room until you find another spot and i'm like what and of course every time i i wake up like kneelers pissing in the closet or something like the guys honestly anyway so fast forward i get a call breeze boy they lost the mitch fritz at the the big guy remember the giant oh yeah a monster so he got hurt at camp in tampa so now that domino effect all the way to the a they're

gonna need a tough guy there and i remember Breezeball asking me like hey just so you know we're only gonna sign you for the tough guy spot like and I'm like let's go I'm on my way so I get there I land in Norfolk 8 30 p.m start walking down the street of Granby street and uh I hear someone knocking on a window from inside the restaurant. And I just turn over. I have no clue who this guy is. It's John Cooper. And he's like, come on in.

And I'm like, I walked in the restaurant. He's like, what are you doing? I'm like, I'm just looking for something to eat. And he's like, hey, I'm John Cooper. I'm going to be your coach. I'm like, oh, nice. Nice to meet you. And he's like, hey, why don't you sit down and have dinner with us and he had he had his assistant there mike flanagan and i'm like okay i'll sit down and

you know like i'm just like what's going on yeah like how the fuck is the chance i met the coach randomly walking down the street he said i see the pictures from your phone yeah he said he said it's because you had an expose hat on that's how we kind of just he put two and two together and he's like that must be a new guy yeah smart man and then right off the bat i just wanted to go to war for that guy from day one i was like i'm gonna go through a wall for this guy whatever he needs i'm the guy you know and and from there we just build a incredible relationship and today i can say he's the best coach i ever had right it's it's easy to say now but even back then it was he was the guy well before we get into all the norfolk stuff you did spend some time in manitoba i reached out to an old teammate of yours uh alex balduke and he

says you used to ride your bicycle in the middle of winter to the rink like because you didn't have a car he said that was your transportation around winnipeg well i was living with um luke bourdon at my first year and uh he got called up so i i couldn't use this car uh so i had to find ways to go around with with the minimum uh the minimum wedge back then was what 37 and a half for the year like if you if you take the tax out of it like i had to really like i remember one day i was in the city bus going to the game with my suit and and i had a homeless guy between my legs like grabbing an old piece of bread and just eating it on his knee i was like what the hell am i doing here like this is not pro hockey this can't be well yeah no most of the time i was running the bike was probably like the the old

bold duke exaggeration but you'd run to the rink yeah i'd run to the rink yeah that yeah but at that at that time though they had they hadn't gotten their nhl team back right so you guys were the main attraction in town. So it must have been a cool professional experience, you going from the Dracau to there, and all of a sudden you're playing pro, which, I mean, it feels like you're playing in almost an NHL rink. Oh, yeah. And right off the bat at camp, I put two and two together,

and I was like, okay, I'm the next one getting cut here. So I just start fighting kind of anybody, every game. Oh really? Yeah. So like I put kind of a sticker on my shoulder pads of like the tough guy, which like, I'm not, I understood my role, but I didn't want to be that guy. I didn't want to be the guy that just show up and fight.

Like I wanted to play like I was playing in junior but you're if you want to stay there you have to adapt to what the role is and and that was the role that I was able to fill so at the beginning of that year was it was it one of those two minutes per game go out get in a fight and that was it and you just almost had to prove yourself in practice a little bit that you could play yeah exactly and and it was like you know you guys been there like back in the day where like the rookies like you had to like it was not like today like the rookies walk in and they get everything whatever they want right like it was scott orneal was like yeah scott orneal was a hard ass and I think today when I see him, I'm like, hey, thanks for being that hard ass. You know, like you show me the right way to do it.

And Mike Keane was the captain. He was like 41 at the time. Like you can't get any better leadership like in your leadership group. And I was playing with like Rick Ripien and Mike Brown. Those guys were like legit like business. If they walked in the ring they meant business you know like so right away I was like okay this is what I gotta do to stay and I'm not gonna be a skill guy here so that's how I had that I was gonna ask you about Rip like was he

toughest pound for pound guy you ever see go at it no brainer it's for sure toughest guy pound for pound yeah he was he was just i mean sometime you watch him fight and i remember he fought that big defenseman in long island he was six eight i think charlie karnes karnes was it was it karnes or button or i can't anyway he got split open right here. It was so wide open. And he went and got stitches and came back in the next period and went and fought him again with his arm protecting his. And it was just against a giant for him, you know, and he was just going and throwing.

The guy was just an animal. And then Mike Keane as well, just like you talked about him quickly about his leadership, just like how cool is it to be around a legend like that? Because I think he'd played just over 1,100 games and then he went back to his hometown to finish off his career for about five years with the Moose.

So just probably awesome to just kind of learn the game from him and just be around him. Yeah, it just gives you kind of a three step ahead of the next rookie that goes in whatever organization that they just don't have that, you know, you just know like so many things that goes on. Like, you know, those little details that, Hey,

what are you doing with your jacket from the Drakkar? Like, what do you, we give you a bonus, you know, that's, that's to go buy yourself a new jacket, just little, little detail like that, that at the end of the day, it just made sense, you know? Were you a self-taught fighter or did you have a tutor or someone help you out with it? Yeah, one of my neighbors was like a boxer. So he was probably like 40, 35 when I was like, I think I was like 13, 14. And I started boxing with him in the garage. And he just took me along for like, I don't know, six, seven, eight years.

And that's why I was able to use my left pretty good. And that's what got me out of trouble many times is just start going left a little bit and surprise a guy. And so that was kind of what gave me the edge. Like growing up as a kid, did you have a lot of street fights? Was that not your nature? Well, Jimmy Bono was always trying to fight in a street hockey game. That was just – I still hear the voice of the parents opening the door front yard.

Hey, what are you guys doing? Jimmy, stop! That's just like what kind of every every street hockey it was just jimmy just starting a fight the royal rumble again yeah that was part of the culture in becamo and then take a look at your stats i mean they blew up when you started playing for coupe i'm assuming he gave you a lot more ice time a little more freedom out there yeah yeah he trusted me and just uh well and the thing is he elevated everyone around so like i remember when he put that piece of paper in the in the pisser

early in the season and hockey news magazine put us like dead last or or like in the bottom three you put it right above the pisser so every day you go piss you see where we're supposed to be and then you had guy like palat johnson like conacher that were not supposed to be where they're at today and he just elevated them and by christmas those guys just became studs so these guys were like bottom six so for me it's like now I was playing with incredible player on the bottom six too so I remember Tyler Johnson just uh just beat me on the plus minus at the last game of the season he someone did a turnover I end up eating a minus and and Tyler was so happy and I was so pissed at him he ended up plus 33 and I was like plus 32 or something and yeah that was it it was like uh an inside like competition about like I don't know it was just those kids they they got the

best coach right off the bat that their first year pro like it really helps them and you look at them today like they're all they all have been able to achieve a lot like so credo to coop for that you uh you guys must have been having a good time playing in norfolk because we would when we're on the road there that was probably one of the best american league cities especially if you were playing in the east did you boys ever find yourself in trouble like was coop trying to wrangle you guys in yeah he first of all he knew pretty much every owner of of any bar like so there's nothing to hide with him he knew he was just kind of putting rules like hey you don't you don't go out with all those kids like you can do it because you know how to act the next day or whatever you can but like I don't want you to

touch these guys these guys these guys and it was kind of a unwritten rule of like just respect like so but eric nelson was always the one kind of putting himself in in those kinds of situation like there's one time he was uh the guy from uh at halloween he was the guy from uh blow the movie blow oh yeah johnny depp yeah yeah like oh my god he he started like we're at the bar and he's he had like uh powder cake on the bar and he started like faking and he's like ordering rounds and when the bills come he's like i'm not fucking paying i'm'm fucking George Paul, like whatever his name was. And then now they call the cops on him. And when he's outside, he's still like, what do you think it is?

It's fucking cocaine. And now they call the old like drug squad. And he's getting inside the cops car. And he's like, I know it's labs. Natural knows all the cops here. So I know it's all a setup. And he's acting like the cop's car and he's like, oh, I know it's labs. Natural knows all the cops here. So I know it's all set up and he's acting like it's a setup. Oh, he thought you planned this. Oh, yeah.

Oh, he actually got thrown in the clink? Yeah, he got in and they're all like, no, you got to wait. We're waiting for the drug testers. And the guy was like, hey, come on, guys. It's like cake powder. I'm serious. Try it. And the guys are like, no, we're not trying it.

Like, that's it. Like, that's the kind of trouble that we were getting at. But we always got out of it without, like, any, like, real problem. But Eric Nilsson was, like, the number one costume guy. And he raised the level of everyone else to, try to beat him but he was unbeatable i can tell you another one if you guys want to hear that one buddy keep it going let's go like next next halloween uh now we move to syracuse right we won the cup and they already planned it before we moved that we're gonna go down to syracuse the next year we're switching squad wish no one was

happy and uh neither we decided to have like a team party in the bar but with actually like real like it wasn't our bar like it was regular people in the bar and neither decided to be mcgruber and he had that little skit going like he was like trying to fucking make a bomb and and people got so bored they're watching the skit he was like trying to fucking make a bomb. And people got so bored. They're watching the skit. He's like trying to make a bomb for like 15 minutes. And people are like, what is he doing? And as soon as people don't pay attention, he's back in the bathroom,

plugs a celery in his butt and completely naked, ends on his ball. Sorry, guys. This is just a distraction. This is just a distraction. This is just a distraction. And everyone's just cracking up, and he's going around the bar with distillery, and it's cracked. It was just insane. Unbelievable.

What's the story? I think Coop was telling me that he was trying to make sure you guys weren't going out, and then you guys end up going to the beach. You got a sunburn. You had to get IVs the next day. Yeah that was great what's that one well we swept a third round of the playoff in saint john and how it works we were supposed to play two in norfolk which we won and then we went to saint john and we booked for three games down there but we swept so after two games we just had like a full-on bender for 48 hours on

the rock and then you know you know how it is there right oh my god yeah we know yeah it's where terry ryan's from potty central yeah yeah so yeah like so whatever we come back from the trip and coop is like hard on us like no one at beach, we're playing in five or six days. Like, I want you guys to like, make sure you don't get too much sun. And we're like, all right, all right. And now it's like, next thing you know, it's like 90 degree out. And me and Grudas were like, I mean, we're just going to go and like longboard. That was the thing.

We just longboard there. And next thing we know, oh, there's a full-on surfing competition. We're like, oh, let's go check it out. And then we go on the beach, and then the same photograph from our team is there. He's like, hey, guys, come over here. You guys got to give the trophy to the winner. All right, sure. So now we end up the trophy to the winner and i click

click in the newspaper and of course coops coops bring it when we're stretching at the next practice brings it to stretch and he just drops it on the ice like i know you guys went to the beach who else besides dudas and nacho and we're just like that was just us no i want to know who else besides Dudas and Nacho? And we're just like, that was just us. No, I want to know who else. Meeting in the locker room. So we go in the locker room and we're like, shit, he's really pissed. Like, what can we do? So I asked Chavi, the trainer, bring me some IV and the oxygen tank.

So he pulled the mask. I had the mask on. I had the IV liquid right through my vein. And as soon as Coop walked in the locker room, he tried to hold it, but he just started laughing so hard. What a move by you. Yeah, that's a veteran move. That's it.

We didn't have any meeting. It was just like, all right, fuck this. You guys are fine. That reminds me of another newspaper story that somebody teed me up with so you guys were before you had moved to Syracuse I think you were still playing in Norfolk that was when Syracuse had like Kanopka all those all those like meatheads Morasty and you've said some quotes in the newspaper and they're they go out for warm-up wit and Kanopka

and Morasty those guys they have the newspaper and they're pointing to his quote, stretching at center ice. They had the newspaper on the ice. Yeah. That was, we were in Winnipeg. I was in Winnipeg. Oh,

you were in Winnipeg at that time. Sorry. Yeah. Yeah. And these guys, they had almost like a, the, the,

the trasher, like the, the, the Danbury trashers. They pretty much had the same lineup kind of thing like they were so tough like even though I thought we were tough with like Ripien Brown McIver uh we had all kind of toughness but but these guys were just on uh on a different level of like I think Kanopka was probably feeding them every like pre-game just like like we're gonna be like

a bloodbath tonight and and those guys were all buying in and you could tell they were on the ice and they looked like hyenas and and Kenopka was with the newspaper and I'm like oh shoot like again my English wasn't really good in Winnipeg. And I was like, ah, I said something stupid. And then they were chirping me like, who are you getting? Who's the clown now? Who are you going to fight tonight? And I was like, not Mirasti. This guy can take 100 punch and he's still going to stand up.

You're telling me. You fought him? Oh, yeah. Three, four times. Fucking broke my nose. Broke my hand from punching his bowling ball head we just had him on the podcast but like you said they were a pack of hyenas they had uh dorset was there they had uh i think sugden was there marat like they just had like five or six

guys deep and if you and if you if you were beating them by a goal it was fine but then all of a sudden if you got up by two or three it turned every every single whistle was a scrum and they were just trying to beat the fuck out of you yeah it was that was the old days like i don't know i don't i don't remember playing at that tough of a team after that i think they were like the the toughest team i played in my career in the in the ahl that's for sure well you you had the mcdermott one year with you that was oh yeah he's a tough son of a bitch um yeah going back to norfolk quick so you when the year you guys won the calder cup you guys did set the record for the american hockey league win streak that must have been the best year of your life just Just you guys couldn't lose. It was ridiculous.

Like even I remember I got one of my first call up and like they were missing the playoff up there. So I was just like, hey, the old like atmosphere was just bad up there because like they were going down and they were not winning. And I was just like, can I go back down? Like can I just go back to the Norfolk Admiral? Like, you just walked in the rink and it was like, everyone, first of all, everyone showed up with their longboard.

So that tells you how much swag we had. We just like start kicking. And even when we're in the rink and we're going to the locker room, we're still kicking. And we park our longboard. We had like 15 longboard parked next to the locker room and and i right from there it was just like i don't know what like really it was just a bonding i think like yeah i think the veteran and and all the the character guy we had in the locker room

they just they just everything was an event we just made everything like a team bonding. There's stuff that we can't even talk about. We won't get there. The road trip were the best. They're just the road. Just running trains. Yeah. You know when you love getting on that sleeper bus, that's what was happening.

A becky no domo running trains. If you love getting on a sleeper bus, that's when you know it's a good team. That's it. Was it 28 wins in in a row is that what the number was yeah yeah and then the playoff started so how many did you guys lose in playoffs we won the last 10 and then i think we lost three total that's like us when we won the calder. I think we only had three losses the entire time. Or four. Four losses. You guys beat us. Yeah.

Well, I mean, it's still pretty good. Four losses. Like, you're a wagon at that point. So you did mention it. Like, you said you got your first call up. Like, fuck, man. How did you find out? And at that point, was Koop already up in the NHL?

Is that who called you up? No. So he wasn't. Okay. He wasn he wasn't no he was still pumping your tires though to the coaching staff up there yeah like uh i remember my second call up was in tampa against uh montreal the first one was in montreal the second one was in tampa against montreal And this morning, that morning, I went to the rink and I'm like, hey, Coop, shoulder's not lifting. Like, I don't know if I can play tonight. Like, I can't even lift the arm. He's like, all right, day off for you.

You're not skating. Morning skate's over. Bring me in his office. Hey, they called. They want you up. What do I say to them? And I'm like, well, I got to go. This is like, you know, I got to go.

And then I get there and he's like, just don't do anything stupid. Like, just do your game and that's it. Just punch in, punch out. And next thing I know, I rock someone a little late and then Stobitz came in. Brad Stobitz, he's a tough fucker too. He throws both ways. Yeah.

He starts teeing off. He started teeing off on me and I can't even use the left. So I'm just kind of, so next thing I know I'm in, I'm in the newspaper the next day, bloody face and LaBrie is looking for an opportunity. And I'm just like, shit.

Talk about, that was, yeah, that was was uh that was a good call up pc when you look at that coops record i mean the guy just wins everywhere like what is it that makes him such a winner that like the players just like tune into him listen everything he says not every coach can do that well he brings a lot of uh swag for everyone like swagger and and the other thing is he knows how to detect the guys that are not buying in. So he just doesn't keep them around. If you're not buying in, then you're out.

So he doesn't really care who you are. If you're not buying in, you're going to go play somewhere else. So I think that really reinforced the, all right, if you're here, you better give your all because you're not going to stick around for long. Would it take a lot for him to snap in the locker room? Well, a lot of guys are using intimidation to get authority. He's more like using his wisdom. He comes more like, he will snap, but never to the point where i would call it a snap like it's just he tells the truth and it makes sense he's never off limit always respectful so everyone respect

him he's he's kind of the new generation type of coach that the nhl like right now needs like that's the new adaptation columbus might need one soon uh or at least when we're recording this um but you know you know pat i think pat was in the run for that spot and and pat roy oh and yeah and i think i think like if you talk about adaptation i would say i was not a big fan of pat the first couple time i met him and of course i understand why he wasn't a big fan of me either like him i'm going with his daughter his daughter yeah but but like it took a while and and i would say the past five years the guy did a full 180 like he is no more the guy that you would think would snap if this and this happen he has done a full 180 he adapts to the young kid

now he i think if someone is willing to give him a chance this guy could win the the stanley cup once more time fuck you might get thrown in the will you might get thrown in the will now for that little plug i don't know i'm just like thinking who's gonna have enough balls to do it though because the guy comes he did prove it last year because the Quebec Grand Parts, didn't they win the Memorial Cup? Yeah, they crushed everyone, too. Everyone. Yeah, so he knows how to do it. Yeah, and it's not like he has superstars on his team, either.

He didn't have, I don't know, Cindy Crosby or Corey Perry that the London Knight had. Like he doesn't have those, like he actually built those guys up. Like Malatesta, like got, guy was like MVP of playoff and he's going to Columbus right now. And he's, I think he's going to be a hell of a player by watching him play last year. And who knows, who knows what's going to happen. That would be such a fun hire for the National Hockey League right now to get Paddy Waugh back in the mix. Wasn't his first game and with the abs when him and boudreaux were

going at it yeah yeah i was like hey i'm just here for the fucking buffet boys like i'm not fucking here to go toe-to-toe with patty wa but i was gonna say uh to to rear and uh whip so first time i met this guy i was in arizona and at the time I was just the out of the lineup guy when I was in the lineup I was playing three four minutes and usually I would get texts from the other team like hey can you help us out set up rookie party and I think it was Teddy Purcell who reached out to me and I set you guys up at the W and they made all you got you rookies dress up for rookie party and I think you went as Nacho libre i did yeah that was like credo to bruno gervais yeah morning skate he took me he took me to walmart to try to find a costume

we couldn't find a good costume so we're like hey we're just gonna make a natural libre costume so we just start going down the alley and picked up like a red speedo and blue leggings. And I think the mask was like a dog vest that we just kind of put two holes for the – and we just ripped the bottom part for the mouth and I put it over my head. And it was like, oh, what a night. And we had a – Because I'd also known Bugsy because when I was a rookie at penguins camp i mean he was there he was the young stud he made the team out of camp that year that's when he was cruising around with his f-150 his harley davidson edition so it was cool like i i ended up hanging out with you

guys the whole night because i don't even think i played that game and then that was the the days where i would be going to wayne gretz's pad. Cause he kept his place there and his sons were living at it. And it's a mansion down in paradise Valley. And then after the club at W we ended up going over there and I want it. Was that, was that the night that Tom green was there, man? I was in on a different planet.

Yeah, you were. Yeah. You were. All I remember was we, when I realized it was all Gretzky stuff on the wall, I was like, what is going on here and then guys were going crazy bruno gervais just jump in the pool with his full suit on just because

i think he tried to push one of the trainer but i warned the trainer right before so he got out of the way and it was man that was one of the best night of my life, to be honest. And I woke up the next day and I got Sharpies all over my body. Like, I don't know. I was like, email address, phone numbers. Oh God. Oh, what about, uh, what about this, uh, Teddy Purcell dirty 30 yacht party? What was that about? I mean, I was not supposed to be there.

I couldn't afford it and bugsy and all those guys they decided you know what we'll chip in for natural you're coming here you're gonna have a great time just hang out with the boys and enjoy your cup of coffee while you're here and honestly like again it's just something that i've never really did after that it's just to another level where like, Hey, those guys are treating me so well. Like I can't believe I'm here right now. And at some point the sea got bad, it got really bad. And, and I don't know why me and Stammer, we decide like, Hey,

let's go to the bar there, like on the beach, it's going to be cool. We'll grab a beer and have a good swim. And so we dove in and it's further than we thought like it's probably like 150 meters so like we're swimming we're swimming and there's a lot of wave like and we get there we grab a beer and there's a lot of people watching the yacht and just like that yacht should not be on the water right now like it's going like, and we're like, okay, we should go back.

This is not good. And so by the time we get there, the boat is just slamming down and Bugsy just grabbed my hand and just like kind of slingshot me with the boat going backward. And I mean, we were, we were kind of fearless because that is dangerous. Like I wouldn't do it again.

PC, I want to go back to the call the cup run. You scored an OT game when it was 0-0 in OT. I had a little bit of a celebration I heard you put on after that call. Yeah, yeah. Teddy says that I did the moves, but I was just going, like, to the crowd, like, give me some love. The Hulk stuff? Yeah. but but i was just going like to the crowd like give me some love stuff yeah like you know the old you you know the old uh block shot with the two pads stacked like this like straight up and

bounce right in front of you for a breakaway and just we were over time that was probably the biggest goal of my pro career and just i don't know i blacked out i just shot like anywhere and it went like kind of post in and that's it i think that's why i got my call up from right there say you mentioned that radco gudas earlier i know we saw him the playoffs just an absolute animal out there burying people what was he like as a teammate is he is he crazy off the ice as well or a little more quiet no off the ice is just that gentle bear that he's got that great de ver on his chest that you just want to kind of pep and he is awesome he's one of my best men at the wedding and he he flew from prague he missed the he couldn't get on the plane the first day so he show up on the day of the wedding and he left the next day back to prague like that just tells you

loyal that's a friend man wow loyal yeah through the spine like this guy is just a legit you you hate playing against him i i get it i've never played against him a lot of people think he's a dirty whatever but i would say this guy you you want him on your team any day of the week like good for anaheim there grab him and i don't know florida couldn't sign him i think i don't know they he wanted to sign back so bad before the deadline and i think he was willing to take like a million bucks and they were like nah and really no what do you end up getting from uh what was his number in anaheim three and and a half i thought it was four i thought it was four good for him for a year take the payday i was just gonna say when you went over

to germany like how did that come about did you you like playing in the DEL? Like, take me through how you ended up over there. Well, I took a job as a player assistant coach in Wichita, in the East Coast League, before going there. And I just wanted to get into coaching, kind of after career type of thing, and end up kind of loving it. But Riche called me the gm of uh of berlin and he was like hey would you come play next year with us like we're looking kind of a little bit of toughness and

we'll sign you to a tryout we don't know if you can skate on on an olympic ice and well i was like yeah i'll come on a tryout like i mean why not like germany berlin capital of the club you know like i'm gonna go try it out and end up having a blast there it was before the covid so the second year kind of sucks we won the cup but it was covid year so we didn't have any fans that kind of killed the vibe but but the first year was just and the wife was great because she let me enjoy one club a week it was kind of oh i heard the club i heard the clubs there are on a different level yeah so like even like that's why the blackhawks came during that year for uh just one pre-season game to play us just because they know that it's a good team bonding in Berlin. And honestly, like I would go back to Germany anytime.

Great fans over there, right? Unreal. Just like soccer when you watch the Premier League or whatever. Like that's the same type. They just sing the whole time. They're standing up. They have like drum sets and flags everywhere. Different level.

Um, what was it like when you met Patty Waugh, I guess again, but he probably didn't, did you remember drafting you when you, when you like went and met him when you were dating his daughter? So, um, the thing is when he drafted me the next year, the draft was in my hometown, Baycomo. And I was working as a server, like a water boy in a restaurant, where they had a reservation, the whole staff, for the draft.

So, unlucky me, I end up with their table. Oh, for Christ's sake. And not one of them knew who I was during, I was like serving them. And, and I, I kind of got pissed to be honest. I was like, are they seriously? Yeah. You guys don't even recognize me. It's only been like a year ago. So obviously I was like, well, good luck at camp. So I, I called my buddy. Um, and I was like, Hey, they don't know it's me.

Bring me a T-shirt, jeans. We're going out tonight. Bring a six-pack. We'll crush in the parking lot in the back alley. Because the beer was expensive at that bar. Again, I was grinding. So he brought the pack and we crushed a few right before coming in. And we go to the pisser.

And I'm in the last, like the furthest pisser at the wall. The head coach of the Rampart walks in the toilet. And I know, like, okay, no, I'm not having a high contact here. But my buddy is starting to feel the buzz. And he's having the longest high contact while pissing with the head coach. But he has no clue who that is. And the head coach is like, hey, would you just stare at your own dick? Oh, no.

Yeah, and Liret just like kind of, oh, yeah, old man, you want to take it in the back alley? I'll show you. He's trying to go home. Yeah, and I'm just like, oh, boy. I'm like, I can't even say a word. I don't want to be part of it. Like, I'm going to camp in like a month.

Like who comes in next was Alain Vigneault because he was the head coach of PI, Prince Edward Island, the Rockets team. He comes in, loves the show. He's like, because he was a tough guy, right? So he was like, oh, you're about to fight a kid. Hey, he's just kind of funny about it but my buddy's not laughing he's just like hey let's go come on i'll show you then just kind of

i don't know it's just and i'm just kind of this like who who walks in next pat roy and i'm just like god now he's the gm of the rampart so i'm like like this on my side like and pat's like, God, now he's the GM of the Rampart. So I'm like this on my side. And Pat's like, oh, what's going on here? You want to fight this kid? Do you play hockey? And Lerat's like, yeah, no. I played midget double A. I played a little bit like there and there.

He's like, yeah, you want to fight? Give me your address, your phone number. And then two weeks later, he had an invitation by mail. Your buddy did. Sent to his address. Your buddy did. From that his address. Your buddy did. From that beef. From that bathroom beef, yeah. That's how you scout for fighters in the Quebec League.

Hey, then Nacho's like, hold on, hold on. What do you mean here? I'm a draft pick. He's my buddy. Hey, did you puss you out or did you say something to him? No, I didn't say a word. I was. He's my buddy. Hey, did you pussy out or did you say something to him? No, I didn't say a word. I was just proud of my buddy. Why didn't you say something?

I was pretty shy at that age, real shy. I haven't met neither at that time, you know? So that's what I took. But we drove together to camp, and my buddy just start fighting everyone. And he did well too. And I was like, man, they might keep you. And end up like I got caught before him.

I walked out the office and I'm like, I'm looking at him like, no, not good. So he knows he's next. He goes in, he's pissed off. Then Patty's like telling him like, good job. But you know what? Like we already have our tough guy here thanks for coming and doing your job and and leah is just getting up that's bullshit like i fought everyone beat everyone that is bullshit comes out slam the door as hard as he can

walks down the and we go back on his car and we end up like back in the park. And, and when I got Patty over, like, I don't know, a few years later, I told him that story. He doesn't even remember it. Like, he's just like kind of, yeah, I remember a little bit of it. And then it kind of clicked. Oh yeah. That guy came at camp when he slammed my door. Like if my, my windows were, I was able to open the window from my, from my office, I would open it and tell him to come back. I just loved his attitude.

And that's just because of those sealed window. He didn't get the call back in. That's an amazing story though. Yeah, it's so good. So good. I mean, you almost got shriveled by him though. He almost took your spot. Yeah.

That's what Pat wanted me to do at camp too he wanted me to fight show him that i could and he keeps telling me if you would have shown me that you could fight you wouldn't make the team but then at that time i was just like trying to play hockey then normally like hadn't clicked yet no the senior league made me click so when when you first went and met him when you started dating his daughter, did he completely remember who you were from training camp and stuff? Or did it take some like, oh, no, hey, and you reminding him? I think he did remember a little bit, but not crazy.

I think when he cuts someone, he just kind of has no emotion. What was the relationship like early on? Were you obviously intimidated at a certain point that he finally opened up and i'm sure you got to hear all these incredible stories of his playing days and stuff you guys must sling the beers now yeah no no it's good it's really good and and to be honest he's like i said before like he's become like an incredible guy and and everyone that i know of that played for him in the last four or five years they all enjoyed it and they all say the same thing that like it's not what the the reputation that he's built in the past he was like always like a emotional guy and but the thing is the guy is so passionate like when you have a beer with him, you start talking hockey and it just goes on. We can, you can go all night with him and, and, and you just don't want to stop.

There's so many good stories about him. And what do you, what do you mean by that? Do you mean, because like when he was a player, he had to put himself in the type of mind frame of where he had to be a killer where like when he finally retired, like he couldn't, he couldn't really shed that where he, he, he kept kind of being that dog, but it's like, Hey dude, you're just like a coach and you got to maybe chill out a little bit now. Yeah. I think, I think that's what happened when, when his career was done as a player, he just kept having the same mentality because they always worked for him. Exactly. Yeah. him yes exactly yeah yeah so now when when he came back from colorado that's where like he came back took the the rampart again and i think that's where i personally start seeing the change and even with uh with the approach that he had with me and and we just start clicking more and and now that that like we're married we got two kids. So obviously it took, I would say, like three, four, five years

before we really hit it up. But he was in Colorado at that time too, so I wasn't seeing him much. But when you did though, it was like, oh, fuck, this guy's an intimidating guy. Just give you the dead fish handshake, not really communicate much. Well, yeah, he was always busy too like i'd walk in the house he'd be like scotting other players like i said he's so passionate like you'd be watching the draft already like watching video of like other players and like whatever i would say was just not his priority right so i So I was just, we'll talk later.

Has he ever given you his story of when he got yanked against Detroit and went down and told the owner that's the last game I'll ever play for the Montreal Canadiens? I haven't got there yet because here in Quebec. Are you kidding me? That should have been like he's so mad he walks behind the coach looks at him and he just fucking you don't know what he says and it turns out he says that's it i'm done yeah no that's that's yeah it's on the list i i'm gonna ask him but the thing is he got so much like interview that they're trying to make him spit

out like yeah what happened and they finally got the big piece out of him with that Uber commercial that he made with Mario Tremblay, the coach that was there behind the bend. And that was a funny commercial. Oh, they did a commercial together? Yeah. Oh,

I didn't know that. Yeah. And they're both like ordering meals on Uber and they finally look at each other, like all smiling. And so like that, that kind of fixed the old drama of things that happened so many years ago but that's what i said he would have never done that commercial yes back you know

and and that was just another proven point of like hey this guy is actually like turning it like he's turning it around to the point where like people have people who still believe he has the same reputation as before, it's completely changed. Do you think the only reason we actually got you on the podcast is to try to get to him? Do you think he would do it? I honestly think today he would. He's got some great stories, and he's open-minded,

and you've just got to pick him with the right force. Tell him I'll get him the Columbus job if he comes on the podcast. All right. Okay, that's a deal. What's the story about you almost getting stabbed? Yeah, like we're in Syracuse. We go play in Binghamton at night, so we have like we're in Syracuse. We go play in Binghamton at night. So we have a morning skate in Syracuse

and some guys took an apartment like on the bad side of town in Syracuse. And you know how Syracuse is, like it gets a little sketchy sometime. And so it's like after morning skate, so the guy's going back to eat lunch, like it's 11 or 12, enter the parking garage, which is like a gated security thing. Once he gets in, there's a guy that comes, he parks the truck and there's a guy that comes in next to the door and he's like right in the window.

And he's just like dropping his window by just a little bit. He's like right in the window. And he's just like dropping his window by just a little bit. And the guy's like, Hey, I don't want, I don't have anything for you. Like tickers. Like, I don't have anything for you. Like, I'm sorry. The guy just start pushing the window down and he pulled out a knife and he's trying to dig in to Tickarski.

And then so ticker just jump over the passenger seat and escape and runs all the way to the elevator. And thanks God, the elevator was already like closing. So he opt in with that old lady and just like close the door. This guy's like, he's got like a bullet in his shoulder and he's bleeding. And he's got a knife and he's coming and they just shut the door. It goes to the security and they tell the security, don't let the elevator go back up. There's a dangerous guy. The guy just stole Ticker's truck and went on a

high-speed chase on the highway. Next thing we know, the guy totaled the car and I guess Ticker's insurance were not covering it in the US anymore after a month or so because he's from canada and then so now coop goes to the police station and and help out with tech and just like make sure they file all the report and paperwork and so now we're on the bus already to the bingo and we're missing coop and ticker so the game. So we go with just one goalie and then we're losing five, nothing by,

I think it was by the third period, but in the second, at the end of the second period, we just decided, you know what? Fuck this. We're going out like, just like we're fighting everyone.

So everyone started fighting like GP Cote, myself, Ratko started fighting, goalie fought. And I think it was, uh, uh, I gotta, I gotta bring it back. Uh, that legend that was in Vegas a couple of years ago, you guys know, the goalie that was in Vegas a couple of years ago. Yeah, yeah, exactly. Leonard, that guy, he just like start pumping and feeding our goalie. And it was just an incredible like scene of everyone just fighting,

except the stud. Like you have like Pallat, Conacher, again, like Johnson, Panik, and all those studs that were like, okay, so they kicked out half of both team out and Takarski show up with Cooper, entered the net in the third period, and we end up coming back winning in overtime. Come on. Yeah, yeah.

6-5 and Ticker got the win, just almost got stabbed to death. That is such a morale boost. The bus ride home must have been unreal. Did you guys stop and get beers and everything? Oh, you know it. You know it. Oh, yeah. That's just one of those.

Another story of the crew we had, because it was pretty much the same crew that we had in Norfolk the year before. We just kept rolling that year. I end up after the lockout going back to Tampa, and they end up losing the lockout going back to Tampa, and they end up losing in final against GR. So they would have pulled the back-to-back. And the thing is, they didn't send me down for the playoff. They didn't send Killorn, who was a bigger asset than me.

But if they would have sent Killorn down, I think that would have helped them to get through Grand Rapids. That is so good. That is such a good story. PC, after Germany, you came back for two more years, but your very last contract was from Tampa Bay. The two-way deal, was that kind of like a thank you from the organization? I think you were 35, 36 years old at that point. Yeah, no, I think that's how I took it.

And I was on a PTO in Hartford, that's how I took it. And, and I was on a PTO in Hartford and I, I show up there at the last, very last day of training camp in Hartford. So the next, I had one practice and next day, next day was a game opener and I got my PTO. And at Christmas I had offered to go back to Europe for multiple year. Cause I had a really good start in Hartford. So that kind of put me back in the loop. But then once they let me kind of call other team in the aid and Syracuse kind of popped in and they were like, hey, if you want to come back here, we're

almost dead last of our division. We could use your kind of role and mentorship and so I decided to go back because of just being loyal to who actually put me in the show and and and I end up having like a really good group of guy that we battled back to the second place of our division and it was it was fun it was fun to go back what uh like I don't even remember the start of the interview now. It's been so long we've had you on. What are you doing now post-career? I took a job at college, like, really, like, five, ten minutes away from my house. It's a Division I AAA college team.

So, it's below the Q. So, a lot of kids don't want to go to the Q team. They want to keep their eligibility to the NCAA. So I'm dealing with a lot of smart kids that have a really good score at school. Their focus for hockey is there. That's the Lions, St. Lawrence Lions. I got a really good timing to get in there. And for me, it's just grabbing experience right now. It's just head coach and hockey up.

So there's a lot on my plate. Like there's just not just like the practice and coaching a hockey team. There's the sponsorship and all this stuff that's around the team that you got to organize. We're trying to get a showcase right now to go in either Boston or Lake Placid. And we just want to do a fundraiser to send the boys to go and show their true color to the NCAA or whatever scout that might be there.

Maybe Big Deal Brewing can throw in a couple bucks, sponsor the boys a little bit. Maybe send you guys a few cases of beer too. I don't know if we can get it into Quebec yet. I'll have to ask, but maybe we could do a special little shipment. We'll send R.A. up there with a truck. He's used to shipments. I don't know if he

can cross the border though. Oh, yeah. Oh, wow. Really? That'd be nice. He doesn't know how to sharpen skates, but he'll figure it out. We bought the Spark, so that's good. We're fine. I would love to help you out though if you got some teams around boston like i i could i could reach out to people i know maybe set something up and i guess it's the head coach too if you got some nice players you're gonna probably be talking to some college coach or coaches you know

trying to help these kids out get recruited and and go and go and play college around here yeah exactly right that's what we're kind of trying to build like rebuild the program get recruited and go and play college around here. Yeah, exactly. That's what we're kind of trying to build, like rebuild the program. Since COVID, it was kind of let down. And now we're just kind of trying to put the program back on the map. And it's an English college. So they take our credit to the university in the United States.

So that's one of the good perks that we have for the kids that wants to join the NCAA, D3, D1, whatever is best for them. And yeah, if you guys know a good showcase in Boston, like in the first week of January, just send me the options and we'll sign up. I'll ask around. I'll ask around for sure. That'd be great. That'd be great.

Hey, congrats, man. Congrats on an unreal career on getting married this summer nuts yeah it's such a such a great story man and uh we appreciate you sharing this with us i know it's been a long time overdue to get you on but uh from first first meeting you with the nacho outfit on till now buddy uh no bad days man that's for no bad no bad days i i always love seeing you like walking around like anywhere like just you you got a good vibe man biz it's people people feel it it's fun to be around i love you buddy i love you tell patty wah if he plays his cards right maybe we'll get him on

sometime yeah okay i'll put him up next hey pc thanks so much man this was awesome yeah you guys are welcome thanks for having me guys all right before we go any further here's a few words from our friends at straight talk a new straight talk wireless offering is now available where you can get a walmart plus membership included on select straight talk wireless plans for free. Only Straight Talk Wireless gives you unlimited data, talk and text, plus a Walmart Plus membership included on select plans for free.

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Huge thanks to PC for jumping on us, man. Just great stuff, funny stuff. How long have you known him for? Did you guys go way back? I met him at the Tampa Bay Lightning Rookie Party that I helped set up and brought Bugsy Malone,one st louis and crew i think vinnie le cavier was there um yeah they dropped about 25 g's at the w scottsdale and at that time i was hanging out with the gretzky boys and because wayne hadn't sold his house there from uh from

being the head coach they still they lived in it the mansion and we brought them over there for the after hours and i got chat with labrie and what an absolute fucking character mind you he was dressed like nacho libra the whole night yeah i think he had sharpie all over him the guys have been drawn all over his face drawn dicks all over him so it was a fun night and uh like you guys said before the interview just an incredible story of of how he never gave up and eventually found himself in the nhl i think one of the most interesting things from that interview, we kind of got swept under the rug,

is that he said that Patrick Waugh almost got hired by the Columbus Blue Jackets to start the season. They went with Babcock instead. Wait, did he say that he interviewed for the job? Did he go into that much detail? Yeah, and he said that he thought he was going to get the job. And with what he did with Quebec, and in terms of how Labrie and many others have said,

he's kind of changed maybe his psychotomy a little bit. I think you said it 20 times. I think we could see him in the NHL coaching again. I think that. Quebec keeps lighting it up. I think after listening to Labrie, it seems like he's trying to reestablish his image. He's doing some meditating maybe like you. A lot of good breathing exercises.

But I would imagine with him wanting to get back in the league and emphasizing that he is a changed man. I mean, we're talking about maybe a guy with a little bit of a temper on him. We're not talking about somebody who did anything like that wrong other than challenge Bruce Boudreaux to a fight at center ice mid-game. So, yeah, I'd love to see him back in the league. People forget Patrick Waugh is the reason everybody pulls the goalie so early now. He was the first guy.

He started pulling them with like three minutes left. Yeah. And then they went into the analytics of it. So us gamblers look for puck like Jesus and over. We like that. That's why you want him back in the league. Yeah. Okay.

He might start pulling them earlier. A lot of happy overbetters when he was coaching. That's for sure. All right. This week, it's got definitely an old man yelling at the cloud here. Biz Grimey. Yes. Brought to you by Big Deal Bruin dot com slash finder and uh yeah memes memes are talking yesterday when the ottawa godfathers the name come up and it reminded me of one of those things

that absolutely drives me crazy as a movie nut when people say the godfather part one or jaws part one or rocky part one dude i know it's weak nothing that means it was a good week for me with nothing well you don't remember most of the week but fair enough i was a few hours the other night just it drives me nuts because like why he pot one you know why does it drive you so nuts because because it's rocky it's rocky it's not rocky pot one it's not the godfather you clench your fist when somebody says it like you want to punch them no he scratches his bum yeah i get knuckles deep up the old cornhole there yeah like i said i was we had a very happy week nothing to bitch about i know like what's he whining about this week but yeah it's just that

one of my real old school pet peeves is people like con move like the first movie in you know a chain of movies with the fucking pot i think that's gonna irritate a lot of people and i can't wait to read the comments love it love it once again brought to you by big deal brewing.com slash find we enjoyed quite a few of those this weekend rolls i love the big deal brew i brought an empty suitcase here and i'm just filling it up with big deal brew to bring back and like this is not an ad read i'm on wife's like no no gift for the baby it's like oh there wasn't enough room big deal in his bottle all right moving on the boston bruins last year uh one of the most disappointing post seasons in team history after rolling out to a record set in regular season

they gagged in the first round then they lose patrice bergeron and david creche to retirement had to trade taylor hall for cap reasons uh but they still got pasta masha and mcavoy lindholm all marks swayman all back they brought in luic, JVR, Chattenkirk, short money replacements. Gee, it looks like this kid, Matt Petra, is going to stick with the big club after a very impressive camp for the 19-year-old forward. I don't think they're going to have a cakewalk

to the playoffs this year. Whit, what do you have the Bruins doing? Do they even make it? So I have them in. So yes, that means I have the Panthers out. I have the Bruins in. I look at a ton of uh worries a ton of maybe things to panic about but then i look at the defense and the goalies and

and for me it's like the longevity of the season and montgomery now granted it was one year and it was this incredible wild legendary run in the regular season i think that he's able to at least get this team to play a certain way and he knows how they need to play to win so while losing Krejci and Bergeron is just kind of nightmare fuel up top not to mention Bertuzzi and Hall they have that core of solid D-men and and two great goalies not just one the worry is and and now Marchand and Pasta lock them both up for what 80 to 95 points I I don't know if Pasta goes lock them both up for, what, 80 to 95 points. I don't know if Pasta goes on the run goal scoring-wise the last year. I'd be shocked if he doesn't get 40 to 50.

So those two guys, you know what you got. Then we talk about Zaka and Coyle down the middle. That's like just such a drop-off in terms of what they had. The worry is like, I think those guys can play. I think Zaka, Pasha can't stand him. I think that guy's a really good player. First line's a huge step up. I think the comments were that he'll disappear for like a five to seven game.

And he was able to do it last year where he played. And now this year he can't. My thing is with this team, if there's any injuries up front, they're fucked. There's no depth there. And now is it, what's the kid's name? Poitras? Poitras. Poitras? Poitras, yeah. Wow, okay. I kind of like that name? Poitras? Poitras. Poitras?

Poitras, yeah. Wow, okay. I kind of like that more than Poitras. Matty P. Poitras. So if you all of a sudden have this kid step in and nobody even thought about him, who knows, right? Bruins always seem to get a guy like that.

Yes. Yeah. Who would have imagined Pasta would have done what he did? Yep. No, well, Pasta was a high pick, though. No, he fell to the end of the first round. End of the first round. No, no.

Was that McAvoy? Yeah. Okay, yeah. But even a guy like McAvoy mid-first round, like, those are fucking... I know. Even Marchand was not, like, a big deal coming in. You're right.

But the Bruins drafting hasn't been great, but if this patois lights it up, all of a sudden that's a little heat off Don Sweeney and his drafting. A little bit, yeah. So considering nobody even said anything about him, but he lit up the OHL. I mean, this kid, it looks like one of those things where he's definitely getting the look at the beginning of the season.

And in terms of what I saw and what I've read, I don't know how much he has left to give in the ohl right so it's like it's hard for them to send him back right he would be going back he would he would be going back he's fourth in the ohl last year in points he led the team the bruins in the preseason this year in points he's been playing with marsh and in the brusque on that top line all signs point to the bruins finding their number one center and maddie P I'm all in on this kid I fucking love well it's a bridge year two for the Bruins I like the Bruins a lot this year I think they make the playoffs but there's a lot of exciting things about this Bruins team where you still have

Pasternak you still have Marchand you still have McAvoy but there's a lot of kids now that they can insert in the lineup which that hasn't happened in years for the Bruins it's always been veteran teams Mason Leroy this kid out of Ohio State. Johnny Beecher, the first-round pick from Michigan. And then you have guys like Favre and Marcel, too. It would suck if last year happened and you didn't have anything to look forward to, but I'm going to say they make playoffs, but just on a cultural standpoint.

They didn't lose enough to not understand how to show up and be a Bruin and how to carry yourself. They have enough weapons. You summarized it perfectly. I love their defense, love their goaltending their wings are fine my concern obviously with the middle of the ice is just sustainable offense like last year when Coyle and throughout his time with the Bruins when they've lost Bergeron or they've lost a top guy he stepped in and played awesome like last year playoffs too last year they didn't have him I want to say the big boys in games like two three and three and four and that was the best games

they played and and and i think he contributed i think he scored a goal and he stepped up but to do it over the course of 82 games with having to like play his game which is a such kind of a shutdown center role but also put up 65 70 points i don't know maybe with playing with better wings and better players that's going to happen but i don't know man it's hard to it's hard to turn that third line checker type guy into all of a sudden a 20 22 minute guy a little interesting tidbit we found out this weekend though is he remember we interviewed alex talk a couple years ago and he said this guy completely like reinvented his skating style well he told us the other day that charlie coil has now gone to this guy and okay working on there yeah i came i was working with her to be able to maybe keep up at those top speeds apparently that's what tuck was saying so

it'd be interesting to see yeah it was a guy i worked with francois mathon rochester charlie came out worked with us i don't think i'm much help for him but anyway Bruins you got Montgomery you got pasta yeah Julia I gotta them in the playoff I can't go against I don't want his agent coming after me if we don't have him in the playoffs Julia came over to me he said Witt can you do this like little ad for Pink Whitney during Chicklets Cop

so I did it and then she walked away I'm like thanks Julia and this kid's head snapped he goes that's Julia that's Julia that's where he's like holy shit where's Julia? That's Julia? I go, yeah. He's like, holy shit. Where's pasta? No, I don't think the kid had ever put a face to her name. So it was funny.

Yeah, they're in. Monty's the man. He wins wherever he goes. He'll get them in the playoffs. And who knows? Yeah, we all have men. 16 to 1 to win the cup. And Morgan Gigi was another guy.

I mentioned that they added as well. Next up, the Detroit Red Wings. The eyes are planned. Kind of stalling a little bit. I't been the playoffs for a while already already taking shots at the big man i know what do you have to say about this wet 70 can't believe it that's my guy all right 75 to 1 win the cup uh they got you know five and change the cap space a lot of a lot of guys came and went they brought in alex to bring in the trade jt confidant jeff petrie shane gostas bear clem carsten justin hole uh they said bye to dominic kubelik philip zadina payasuda alex jason whole bunch of personnel changes we're gonna bring in the memes man he's the requisite red wings fan in the building what do they do this year what's the problem

memes what do the red wings need to do to get back to the glory days hello everybody what's up is this your first time ever on the podcast first time's on game notes but this is the first time you were in the mind what do you mean you're only on game notes yeah this is his real accent folks he ain't fucking around is there anybody in uh london ontario you want to shout out right now? That's your hometown, isn't it? Yeah. Shout out Rick. He lives in there now. Couple of milfs I know from the main street down there. I'll just shout out Rick. Keep it clean. What do you think of the Red Wings,

Mimsy? I had them sneaking in the playoffs. Like that's why I was going to come in. And then like you guys started listing off like all those teams. I was like, all right, they're not making play. It's going to be, they to be second last place again, but it's a marathon.

The eyes are playing. So you're confident where he's going? Oh, yeah. It's Stevie Y. He's building Tampa, too. 2.0 Tampa. Print the Ds. Oh, yeah.

Well, they need about a 12-point improvement, Merle, to get in the playoffs. Do you see Detroit doing it, or are they still going to chug along a little more? No, yeah. I the Ds. Oh, yeah. Well, they need about a 12-point improvement, Merle, to get in the playoffs. Do you see Detroit doing it, or are they still going to chug along a little more? No, I really like Detroit. I was big on them last year. The goalie that they got, Huso, they took him from St. Louis. I thought he was going to be a little better.

Stole him. Yeah, Eiserman had a private investigator follow Armstrong around. He had something on him. He didn't do well. So if he does better, I think they got some great great young prospects all these swedish guys this edvinson i don't know if he's gonna make the team big lefty d we know cider we interviewed him he's a norris candidate i love detroit but there's just not enough room to get them into playoffs yeah tough biz i want to know what do you think about

their forwards uh raymond he'll get plus 30 goals. Okay. I think. That's a big bet that year for him. That's a future. He had a tough second season. All for Norris. I would have to argue with that because now Debrinket's going to be on that spot now in the power play where he was picking up the goals.

No, he'll still be maybe a bumper guy. He's got to be on the first unit. Raymond? Yeah, I know, but he's not going to get those same goals he got last year, think memesy what do you make of the rumors uh patrick kane's coming over uh is it weed league or he doesn't smoke weed i was thinking of steve why sorry no i think memes just about hall though hall like uh we have like a bunch of buddies are leaves fans and like we always like grilled them about hall and then as soon as wings picked him up we're like hall for norris like one bunch bought a hall jersey right away so you so he was the whipping boy in toronto oh yeah yeah you guys were giving it to him yeah yeah okay what do you got in the wings buddy uh i think you're gonna see a step up to

bring cat i i think you pencil him for 35 uh he's gonna he's gonna get that chance that he wanted an auto of all the first line ice time and all the first power play stuff cider's gonna need to to make a step up um after that monstery monster rookie season i i don't think he was bad last year but just it's just hard right it's your second year you think it's gonna be a little easier but i still think norris trophy ceiling for him um the goaltending is a little bit suspect i'd say i just don't necessarily look at like when i'm looking at boston being one of those teams fighting for a playoff spot and i look at their d and goalie compared to detroit that's that's for me just a no contest so i just don't think there's an

up depth there i'd love to see what larkin does it seems like he just continues to get better um you know he's got the long-term deal now. There were some serious question marks last year on that. So that's definitely a bright thing for them. It's about seeing what guys could step up and, you know, make a difference in their second or third season. I don't think there'll be enough there

to get in the playoffs, but I do think it'll be an improvement on last year. I mean, they were considered probably out of it with what, three weeks to go? Yeah. Yeah, what happened was, it was that back-to-back with Ottawa. And it was right before the deadline. And Ottawa shit-pumped them at home and then shit-pumped them on the road.

Or it might have been vice versa. But it was two. And Eisenman came out and said after, why would I try to add to, you know, I'm paraphrasing. Why would I try to add to get this team in the playoffs? Like, those two games, they weren't even contests. We didn't even show up. So you've got to think that this year in terms of like competitiveness things will be better guys are a little older i just don't think enough's there yet to get in the playoffs all right g detroit in or out oh no they stink all right because i'm not sure if we got an

official answer no okay all right sorry newsy i wish i could pull for i'm still pulling for you buddy but i don't have you in this year. I think they'll be in the mix late. They're going to get squeezed late. Do you have a hot take for the year? One hot take for the Detroit Red Wings? No, but I have Oilers winning the Cup. Thanks, buddy. Me too. The last two years

they lost to Abs in Vegas. So now they're winning it. Okay. Thank you, Memesy. Great job, Mem now they're winning it. Okay. Thank you, Mimsy. Great job, Mimsy. All right. See you, Mimsy.

Thanks, buddy. Okay, before I go any further, here's a few words from our friends at Zinn. We're all looking for a change in routine, whether it's hitting a new machine at the gym, listening to some new music, or what have you. So if you're looking to move away from the hassle of traditional tobacco, Zin nicotine pouches are a simple way to introduce that change in your everyday life. And get this, the America's number one nicotine pouch, only the best for our listeners. Zin comes in 10 varieties like Spamint, Coffee, and Whipped Green. So you guys have your pick when it comes time to throw in the old three milligram, six milligram of that satisfaction-packed pouch.

And let me tell you, these pouches deliver that pure nicotine satisfaction no matter what strength or variety you choose. Zinn Nicotine Pouches are smoke-free, spit-free, and hands-free that works to your advantage on or off the ice. And if you're curious about what a premium nicotine experience looks like, check out the Zin 10 Challenge, a 10-day risk-free trial. Head over to your nearest convenience store or order online at zin.com. Warning, this product contains nicotine. Nicotine is an addictive chemical. All right, last but not least, the Florida Panthers. Of course,

they went all the way to the Stanley Cup final last year before losing to Vegas. 16-1 to win the Cup this year. They got some new faces in town. Dmitry Kulikov, Mike Riley, Nico McCullough. OEL may be reviving his career a little bit down there. They did say bye to Anthony Duclair. Radko Gudis, going to miss him on the back end. Mark Stahl is gone as well.

Not much for cap space, but I think they have some LTIR if they need to use it. Surprise of the season last year, Biz. They're not going to creep up on anybody this year. Offense returns largely intact. Kachuk, Barkoff, Reiner, Bennett, Verswage, Lundell, Lustreinen. Evan Rodriguez, I think he's a nice pickup for him as well. But like I mentioned, Gutis going to Anaheim. That's going to be tough for them.

Also, what kind of regular season are we going to get from Bobrovsky? I'm not sure if he's going to be backed up by Knight or Lyon, but I don't know. I believe Knight was sent down to the AHL, and everyone's rooting for him. Everyone knows that I think he went away to the player assistance program, so hopefully he's doing well.

He finds his game again and has a chance. High pick, obviously a big ceiling there. I got him out, and I love their forwards um it came down to boston or them their forwards are great i think kachuk's going to continue to be one of the top players in the league playing with the edge one of the fun most fun players to watch it night in night out barkov is barkov he's amazing for haggie they have some awesome forwards and then if you even look at like their third line technically of reinhardtardt, Lundell, and Luster-Reinen, that is big time.

So this is like I could be completely made a fool. I look back, though, to the 2002-2003 season. The Anaheim Ducks went on this wild run to the cup final, backed by Jean-Sebastien Jaguer, winning the consmite as the losing goaltender, but out of his tree insane. Unbelievable play. The next year, I think he had one of the worst years of his career.

Anaheim finished, I believe, last in their division. And I just see, like, it was all Bobrovsky. Was it not? At least, like, granted, he didn't start the first round. He didn't start the first round. I shouldn't say that. They had clutch scoring and Kachok. But how is he going to repeat that and there's been struggles the past few years in the regular season not to mention in terms of the d on the bruin side

they got no um ekblad and no montour till december january oh that long no i'm sorry one of them is november to january the other is de to January. You lose Mark Stahl. You lose the horse, Gudis. You don't know what Bobrovsky is going to bring. And I just think after that run last year with a short summer, I don't have them making the playoffs. I don't think they're going to be bad. I think they're going to be right there.

And they could end up winning the division. They're that good up front. But for me, it just seems like it was that miracle like run that nobody saw coming and the next year there's a step back and you don't and you don't get the adrenaline of the win either right and and along with a few injuries i love this core and it's hard to root against them and you mentioned some of those key losses they faced i really like their pickups like this Rodriguez is super skilled he's fucking awesome he's got wheels on him that Kulikov's good that Mikula who was in uh i think he was originally in st louis and then moved over to new york yep and i thought he was

tremendous he's a big body so every i mean you mentioned eckman larson too a place that he can get away get away from fucking negative media in vancouver he's got no boots dude i will got no boots so far in preseason he's made a few nice plays he's had a few home run passes hey if he's doing this thing offensively i think if you can sacrifice a little bit of the offense for maybe how he's doing in the defensive zone but overall as far as these pickups to replace the guys that they've lost like the gudises and like the i mean duclair is a tough one on the third line too i like them but i don't have them getting in wow you too i don't have them getting in no wow and now they're definitely in.

I doubted them last year. I thought they weren't going to miss playoffs. They go on this, finally, this magical run in the last 20 games to just get in, and I agree with you, Witt, way too much on goaltending, and I don't think you can have that sustained magic, especially come an 82-game regular season. Merles, what do you have?

They'll probably win a Stanley Cup now, because I don't have him in either. Oh, wow. I don't have the man. I love Pachuk. I love him. He's like the player I wish I was. He's going to feed off of this.

I wish I was him. I wish I was the guy that could score and fight and do everything and then drink beer at the bar, but I stunk. But it's just Bobrovsky can't play like he did in the playoffs for a full season it's impossible to recreate and maybe if uh Brady and Matthew Kachuk had actually done the sandbag over this this summer I would have him getting in so is there some personal grievances maybe going on

there I don't know I'm not gonna say but always always always think about taking Florida at home we know what the elbow room is like we know what that that Ritz-Carlton where all the visiting teams stay. So Florida will always have a chance because they're going to win their home games. Well, we're going to get 86 from the pay of the buyer after these predictions anyway. So, G, what do you got? I feel like 90% of the team

spent the entire summer rehabbing injuries. So I have them out as well. I just don't feel like they were able to, you know, give a full summer. They had a shortened summer and they're all hurt. So, come on. I mean, have you ever heard of guys coming back from a broken sternum? don't feel like they were able to give a full summer. They had a shortened summer, and they're all hurt. And also, I mean, have you ever heard of guys coming back with a broken sternum? I mean, that's not a common injury.

Like, that must be tough. No, I think he's 100% fine, ready to go. I think that was just something. Like, they didn't do surgery on him. So it's something where over time, like, just a horrible bruise. I know it's broken sternum, but I'm assuming it's like it just takes so long to heal. But once it's healed, you're good. Yeah. That's what I would go on. I got out as well too i think holy shit no black blad montauk to start that's gonna hurt and yeah we we didn't know i mean they didn't get their asses

and get a second half of the season last year so g booked the flights of florida from the finals i can preserve the table and i'm packing the elbow room for merle so all right a couple more notes before we let you all go here uh The WHL suspended head coach Kevin Constantine indefinitely for, quote, violating the WHL standard of contact, I'm sorry, standard of conduct policies by making derogatory comments of a discriminatory nature, end quote, said should Constantine

wish to return to coaching in the WHL, he will be required to formally apply for reinstatement to the WHL commissioner. Constantine will be required to formally apply for reinstatement to the whl commissioner constantine will not be eligible to apply for reinstatement until july 2025 at the earliest so effectively essentially business a two-season suspension at a minimum before he can even be considered back in the league but based on what we heard it sounds pretty appropriate punishment yeah i mean yeah he's gonna probably have to do a lot of work if what you know we heard that he said was true and in order to eventually get reinstated so

if it is true i i know i just don't get it especially after a prime example it's like i mean i'm sure he reads the news and knows that bill peters got reinstated for pretty much the same thing so i don't know what that was, what subconsciously made him come in and think that, oh, this is bullshit. A guy got fired for this, blah, blah. I don't know. And is it also that because he's back in the WHO, they couldn't fire Constantine?

I don't know. Right? In terms of like, I don't know. It's kind of weird that he wasn't fired. That's all I'm saying. Right, because they didn't use it. You're right. They didn't say term.

It's just suspended. So I don't know how that goes as far as his pay't fired that's all right because they didn't use it you're right they didn't say terminate it's just suspended so i don't know what how that goes as far as his pay or whatever it's they didn't really answer those questions but either way it is whether whatever the reason is it's 2023 there's just no you know no reason for any coach that to have that language at all anyway yeah and i'm like once again like i mean like second chance it should be a thing but i think that if you know what we heard, you have to go away and understand deep down why you did it. Why you fucked up. What was bottled up in there in order to have that little flare-up, right?

I'm sure he's feeling pretty embarrassed right now if what we heard is true. Yeah. Like I said, go put the work in. Derogatory comments. I know him. I played him two years. It was just a mistake. He is a good guy.

He's a great coach. It's an unfortunate mistake, but that's what you deal with. He's an older guy. He'll probably just retire anyway and be done. Yeah. If it is, it's a shit way to go out. But good news to end the show anyways. Derek Stepin officially retired.

Okay. 13 NHL seasons. 1010 regular season and playoff games with the rangers coyotes and hurricanes a huge goal for the rangers back back on that cup run and then he had that dynamite assist for the canes when they eliminated uh florida was it who they eliminate last year he picked the puck off devils uh what's his name paul stassi got the game when he had the devils unreal assist anyways you guys know step a little bit. Hell of a player. Just grit all the way.

His whole career, just a gritty, gritty player. Yeah, he was just smart, eh? He was very smart. I remember first kind of seeing him, 2010 World Juniors. They won the gold medal. He had 14 points in seven games. He was lighting up the World Juniors. You're like, who's this kid?

Played at Wisconsin. And then came to the nhl and i don't think ever obviously became a 70 80 point guy but consistently 50 to 60 every year and when you do that for what is it yeah i mean 57 points 55 53 55 56 that's a good run with with two long runs in the playoffs with the rangers just one of those guys that you could fill in like anywhere in the lineup always so responsible defensively teammates loved him there's a reason he played that long without being the quickest player as well was never it was never a speed burner just so smart and a hockey iq off the chart so a great player oh and and uh very like hockey knowledgeable and

i think that he's gonna end up trying to get into management of some sort he's been hanging out with billy g yep there's been a bunch of pictures of him in the press box learning off of him oh really yeah i think if you would have asked any of his former teammates like of the guys on the team who would be the most likely to step into management they would have guessed step on so just always watching hockey and and you said not the guy to burn you physically but just more of the mental side of the game, a very smart, intelligent player. And I want to say he had a hat trick in his first ever game with the Rangers. Fourth player ever to have a hat trick in his NHL debut. Just got off to a really hot start there.

And I mean, that run you just mentioned in New York, man, was incredible. And he was a big part of those runs. Yeah. Ten out of 13 of his seasons. He was in the playoffs. Yeah. 20. His second year in the league, 20 playoff games.

Next 12. Next 24. Next year, 19. Like, they had good teams in New York. They obviously had Lundqvist, but they had a lot of smart players like him that were perfect come playoff time. It's not an accident that he's in the playoffs every year. Yeah.

They play the right way, and they drag everybody to play the right way with them. Yeah. Now, Mike Russo did report he's been tagging around with Billy G, so I assume he's probably going to work at Minnesota at some point. Hell of a career. Yeah, congrats to Step. Boys, another tremendous weekend. Chicklets Cup, Buffalo, tremendous host.

Any final things you want to wrap up before we go? Shout out to Taylor Ray. Taylor Ray is the guy at Barstool who he spends all year working on this thing. It's a live event, Lisa's team. There's so many people that work on this. Hannah Crow, Ashley Cascio, but Taylor Ray is someone who's really grabbed this thing by the balls and works on it all year. So shout out to him. He really killed it once again.

I'll give a last shout out to the team that hired us. We were hired guns, but we stunk. www.jacksonweiss.com. Donate to their foundation. Donate, donate, donate, baby. Thank you very much for listening. That is the preview of the NHL over the course of four weeks, four divisions. My Stanley Cup champ, Edmonton Oilers.

Everyone else? Need a Stanley Cup champ at the end. Ottawa Senators. Ottawa Senators, all right. He doesn't have them in the playoffs, but he has them in the cup. I got them in. Oh, you did? I put them in.

So who do you got your real pick? Yeah, fuck it. I'm going to go Ottawa. Fuck it. I got Toronto. Toronto Maple Leafs. Oh, Bruins. I'll pick the Leafs too.

Colorado beating Leafs. All right, folks. Thank you so much. Chicklets participants, thanks for being here. Buffalo, what a gracious, drunk city. We love you, and we'll see you next week, guys. We got hockey back. Here we go. Deet, deet, deet,

deet, deet, deet. The boys, we got to jump back on. We got some big breaking news on Monday. We already taped in Buffalo, but huge stuff we have to address. We woke up to news, or at least some of us woke up to the news, that Buffalo extended stud defenseman Rasmus Dahlin with an eight-year, $88 million deal, carries it an $11 million AAV.

He's got a no-move clause for the final seven years of the deal. He's heading into the last year of a three-year, $18 million deal. Biz, let's go to you first. This number about what we expected. High or low, what's your take? Well, sorry about the car noise. I'm on my way to the airport in Buffalo for my hometown. And obviously with this news breaking, we knew we had to hop back on.

People, when we're doing the Atlantic breakdown, we're probably losing their minds at the fact that we haven't mentioned this because most people think that we're recording on Monday. But what big news coming out of Buffalo. I have a lot of thoughts about it. First one being, I'm just happy for the city and the organization and the team going into this season with such high expectations that they don't have this kind of like little dark cloud flying over them. Because sometimes, as you know, with the big dog and more than likely after Opozo moves on, this is probably going to be the Buffalo Sabres future captain.

And sometimes when these contract situations are kind of looming over the team going into a big year, they can play a little bit of a distraction. So for them to get it out of the way before the season gets going is huge. It's such a fucking morale boost in that locker room. I'm sure everybody's ecstatic for him because he's such an amazing guy and all the boys on the team love him. Obviously, bag secured. obviously bag secured. I believe that makes him, at least as of now, he's going to be the highest paid defenseman in the NHL after the final year of his bridge deal kicks in.

That's kind of where I want to kick back off the bridge deal. Anytime a player wants to bet on himself and take, I would assume, Whit, you would agree with me, taking that three years times six was an absolute bargoon for the Buffalo Sabres to get that type of production from a world class defenseman at that six million number. Mind you, he's going

to be playing this year after being nominated for the Norris and having career highs in basically every statistical category. He's going to be playing at six million. That's a bargoon. People who are maybe upset about the 11 million as far as the hometown discount perspective gambled on himself and the news of the cap going up probably by about four

maybe even five million next season could not have came at a better time for him and his agent that is the stars aligning uh well deserved and. And that is with timing the market perfectly. That is a home run contract for him and his agent. And I don't really have many other comments other than the fact that in a few years when the cap goes up, this still won't be that pricey. It's going to be right about where he's worth

if he continues to excel and play at the production in which he did last season. The only other area of his game where he needs to maybe improve to get up to that number would be on the defensive side of the puck. But if you watch closely enough, that has improved. And I am very, very happy for the Buffalo Sabres and where his number is at. I think he's worth every goddamn penny. I hope I summarized that nicely for you. Yeah, you did a good job. I'll disagree a little bit in terms of betting on himself. I mean, I don't know what options he had when his deal ended,

his entry-level deal, because that year he signed the six million a year for three years. He was minus 36 that season with 23 points in 56 games and actually had dipped down from his first two years in the league. So obviously, it wasn't like one of those things where I think he had a ton of options, not to say he was in issue or trouble in terms of his contract, but what he's done since is incredible. Obviously, last year was the pop-off year, the year all Sabres fans had waited for a little bit. First overall pick, all the expectations. It's so much harder for a defenseman than a forward to come into the league and dominate. That's why I still remember when Dowdy did it at his age. It was just kind of mind-blowing because

at 19 years old, he's not that easy in the NHL. So Darlene's really figured it out. I've been on him a little bit defensively, but people have told me, Sabres fans have told me that I'm missing the boat on that one, that last year in his own zone, he was a lot better than he had been in prior years. Obviously the offense is there. I'm not too worried about the deal either in terms of the payment, the number. The cap going up is the main reason. The other reason is they have such deals with Cousins. That'll end up being a deal. Thompson's an obvious deal. They have good contracts in place already where they're able to give a little bit more to a guy who is their best player. So I love it. I mean, the team is set up now. Obviously,

if Owen Power is going to get resigned, I don't think it'll be a number like that because Darlene's there. And I don't think Owen Power's that talented offensively in terms of Darlene's skill level. He'll probably never put up those enormous numbers to kind of get that $11, $10 million cap hit. So they're still going to have to get him done.

But now you kind of know where everyone slates. Nobody will be getting any more than this guy. The Levi contract at some point will be coming up. I know he's just a rookie, but if he plays as well as everyone believes he can, that's another guy in the future in terms of thinking ahead. But it's a win for the Sabres fans. You're right, Biz.

Just to go back, like a great point on the fact that he had a really tough year the year coming out of his entry level where the leverage probably wasn't in his favor but at that point where you have a bad year and maybe your confidence was a little low like i would imagine still at that time he probably could have got an eight times eight and it's it's i would imagine what what are you body arm i was just shoving out body i was just chugging out body arm. I was just chugging some body arms. I was chugging out a sponsor. You know what I'm, I'm all about the sponsors. Classy guy.

But to basically at that point say, no, I'm going to say no to 64 million. And all of a sudden you're waking up two years later after betting on yourself and you're getting an extra 20, 20 something sheets. What would it be? 24 sheets. Well, look at it, Biz. He's got, he's got, he's got 88 coming to him. He's coming off 18. I mean, dude, you're at $106 million in your career at the end of this deal, which I think he will only be, I mean, he's got one more season. He's 20. It'll be like 32 when that deal ends. So, God, this kid, he's set for life. That's needless to say. Yeah, much impressive negotiating.

Great job by Zed. You're right. I shouldn't have said, maybe the team did go to him after that tough year and tried locking him up long term, then getting the bargain because of the struggle of a season. And maybe it was him. So I'm not exactly sure of the details on that bridge deal. But you're right. The kid just kept going, kept booming. The team continues to be on the

rise. That's why they're my Eastern Conference team this year. So I'm happy for him and I'm happy for the Sabres. After interviewing him and seeing how down to earth, I mean, like pretty much every Swede I've ever met, humble, team first, good people. It's an incredible group of people, that country and their players. They teach kids humility growing up it's never bigger you're never bigger than the team and he just seems to come across as that way as one of the guys with just this incredible skill level to be able to dominate at the nhl at the nhl uh level as well so it's an awesome deal and i second that i actually got the opportunity after we interviewed him to spend a little time at the e shoot with him for the NHL video game.

I know Kale McCarr got the cover, but he flew out to Vancouver, Darlene did, and we did some fun videos. So just a great guy to spend some time with. And as you mentioned, extremely humble and exactly the guy you want in your room leading this team. But Biz, I'd say the real shock was Monday afternoon. The Winnipeg Jets out of nowhere shocked the hockey world. The team announced that it signed both forward Mark Shifley and goalie Connor Hellbuck to identical seven-year $59.5 million contract extensions. The deals both have an $8.5 million AAV. Both were scheduled to be UFA after this season. I think everybody thought they were

going to get traded this season. Pretty much not going to happen now. One thing I've noticed so far though, Hellbuck has a no-move clause for the first three of the new deal and a modified no-trade clause for the last four. There's nothing listed for Scheife yet. It could be posted at some point. Cap Friendly says it's not official, but right now there's nothing there as far as his trade protection.

But, Whit, go to you first on this one. What's your take? We were shocked as everybody else seemingly is. Well, I think everyone probably woke up to the Darlene news, and then this news broke this afternoon. That's what you woke up to, right? All right. You will. Yeah. Perfect. There we go.

I made a reference to that already. Yeah. No, no. I, I, I actually, when I saw this deal, I, these deals, excuse me, I was more excited for Jets fans and, and, uh, and it kind of puts aside these players who deserve these amazing contracts. They don't pretty much round out their careers, I think you could say. Obviously not to the extent where I don't think they'll play after them. Who knows what will go. But this is their big last contracts for both of them.

And I just thought of Jets fans. And it goes back to kind of what I said in the preview of the Central. Like, just not much there. I got no real excitement around the team. central, like just not much there. I got no real excitement around the team. And now I think that was kind of a opinion shared around the league a little bit. And Jets fans, it's just a struggle to get free agents to go there. And all of a sudden, boom, you're two top players. You get the news that they're going to be there for seven more years. I mean, even eight more years because they have deals this year. So it's just one of those things where you're excited for a fan base that is looking for a total bounce back season

and army right now his his his um prediction of them winning the central looks a lot better i mean obviously we'd heard about some locker room stuff and blake wheeler there was always kind of things going around going around in terms of like the locker room seemed a little fractured and it was stale. And bonus last year was disgusted at effort by certain guys. It was just kind of a clusterfuck of an end of the season in the summer for the Jets where everyone's just talking about, hey, where's Hellebuck going to be? Where's Scheifele going to be? So all the fans that are panicked and worried about losing these two guys. They're now like breathing a sigh of relief, now excited to get this season going. Now a team that probably has a ton, not probably,

has a ton to prove. And you know when that room is looking around like saying, nobody's believing in us. Everyone's counting us out. And we just got our two big dogs to commit long-term. It's a hell of a feeling for a franchise and a fan base that kind of deserves it, in my opinion, right? They've had some good teams. They had that run to the Western Conference Finals years back when Vegas beat them their inaugural season. So it's time to kind of like, all right, we got the new room in quotations, I'll say, and a new vibe here. Let's go on a run now that these two guys are signed. So it's great moment for for all jets fans i think what a breakdown by whit dog um probably the biggest question mark i have ra is the fact that they've

already it's already been posted that there's a no move clause for hellebuck early in that deal where it hasn't been posted for shifley and if it ends up rolling out that there is no like there's no structure to it where it keeps them put where there there's like, let's say, a no move clause. I just find it very interesting. And then I guess hard to believe that part of this conversation and negotiation is, listen, let's see how it now plays out at the fact that some guys are gone. And we've we've and sometimes people think that we're withholding information other than the fact that the locker room dynamic just wasn't working. I don't know any of the nitty gritty details as to why it wasn't working. But what we do know is that Blake Wheeler, right, and as Blake Wheeler as one of the leaders of that team has moved on and Dubois, who I would have considered, I would assume a guy of a core group standard, kind of wanted out at that point. Now he's gone.

It kind of seems like it's Shifley and a few other guys' team now. Well, if that experiment doesn't work out in this first half of season, and let's say a team, and we keep mentioning Boston because they're lacked of depth at center ice right now, maybe it's almost as if a sign in trade, but at least Winnipeg gets the the leverage of being well if things do work out we get to keep this guy and build towards the future with all these other young players that we do have coming in and at a contract that i think is extremely fair and i know

the strife is getting a little bit up there in age and some people sometimes are like well once you hit 30 the decline really happens this is a guy who's been playing on a contract where he was making six million bucks at a point per game so he's already had that bargain deal and i believe that he's worth every bit of this eight and a half uh even giving his age and what his production can be so still very interested to see what could happen moving forward and interested to see what the jets can do this season because I think that most people in the hockey world are completely counting them out if Army ends up fucking accurate with his prediction that they win the central that'll be the most insane hit and I hope that he put money on it if that's the case so overall going towards Hellebuck I'm just as surprised as everyone else that this these deals ended up happening but but i mean hellebuck's

a world-class goaltender um i'm happy for him because i don't think that the money is necessarily there in free agency for goaltenders especially at the fact that moving forward it seems like more teams are relying on this two goalie system and specifically at the fact that it's a copycat league and we saw what happened last year with the vegas golden knight so i know on the flip side of it you're saying well look what bobroski ended up doing you know with his salary and taking them to finals but we're seeing the the first example a lot more than we are with bobroski ended up popping off and spending all this money on on one particular guy so uh very happy for him obviously well learned but uh as whit mentioned at the end of what he said,

very happy for Jets Nation. It's what they do in town. They care about that team. So very interested to see how this season plays out for them. I also think that, like Biz said, timing's everything. Shifley has his career high in goals last year. Hellebuck, did he finish third in Vezna, I believe, last season? He won one prior in 19-20. So it's like these guys performed when they had to. Now, granted, it wasn't their UFA

season, but now you just see. If you could have a monster year, teams want to lock you up with that other year. And I thought that there was just a chance that, in a sense, the Jets organization was willing to move on from these guys, try to get younger throughout trade. But obviously, if that was looked at this season, they weren't looking at returns that they were comfortable with. And they could have not even been shopping around. I don't know. But in the end, they look at it like, all right, these guys are 30 years old.

They're both 30. They signed the same exact deal. We have to probably plan on three to four years and that's that's that's like being possibly like a little maybe too extreme like that's what you're hoping in terms of elite play still you can't count on a 35 year old forward and a 35 year old goalie to be maybe worth that price tag but for shit, they are right now. And they still have one more year on their old deal. So I want to ask you this question, Whit. So you, we were going back and forth on what value in the summertime,

as opposed to getting them for a whole season, as opposed to maybe at the deadline value. Do you think that this benefits Winnipeg from a trade perspective for, for Shifley now, because teams will know that they have him locked in at a at a fairly reasonable number like let's say let's say worst case scenario Scheifele on on a team is it becomes a second line center I look at it like a Tavares type production where you're not having to pay a guy 11 and a half where now he's maybe not in that

top center role but at eight and a half that's got to be a pretty reasonable number where the value goes up, in my opinion. Yeah, and if he stays like a 30 to 40 goal guy, a 70 to 80 point guy, that 100% is a nice deal. Now, I will be shocked. I guess if it's already come out that Hellebuck has the no move clause early

and a modified no move later, I would be shocked though if Scheifele didn't have something like that. And maybe it was almost his idea in terms of like, maybe I would want to get moved, but to sign a long-term deal with another year on your current deal, it's crazy to me that the thought would even enter your mind of possibly being traded throughout it. Like that's the whole thing about these long-term deals with guys. They're thinking in their mind, I'll be there for every single year of that.

So of course, if you look at now, where say Boston, for example, everyone in the trade for Shifley, they had to figure out what that they then could resign them for, considering what anyone would have given up for. You got to resign them. And then now they kind of know.

So I just would be very surprised though, if it comes out that this is a deal with no sort of protection for the player but if it is yeah i mean anyone's going to move them it makes it easier in terms of knowing what you're signing up for all right you seem like you got something to say right now yeah just to reiterate that the no trade thing that has that little like sort of black circle with the white exclamation point on cap friendly unconfirmed this is uh contract based on initial report. Once the details have been confirmed, the contract will be updated,

assuming there are more details. But what I noticed is the press release from the team said identical seven-year, $59.5 million contract extension. So if they're identical, wouldn't you conclude that they would have the same clauses or no? Yes, yes. But I think the meaning of that is more the years and the AAV. But you're right. If you're saying identical, it would be the exact same thing.

But I will be super surprised if that deal doesn't happen. The only reason we're speculating is because one's posted, one hasn't, and the fact that I think a lot of people are shocked that this happened right before the season where I would have said, if you said top five players that you would predict top end players that you would predict to get traded at some point this season, Shrifley would be on everybody's list. Absolutely.

I think they were both, they were both like probably number one and two go up into the season. Yeah. We basically had to have traded. That's why it's great for jet. No, it's all right. That's why it's great for jet spans because I think once the season starts it's like that's the last thing you need and the players

never want it how many times you see a player i'm not doing anything when the season starts well they got it done the night before the eve of the edit christmas eve for us nhl hockey fans they got it done no worries no confusion no questions for those two to answer throughout the season just time for a two to answer throughout the season. Just time for a team to go get some wins and surprise a lot of pundits like myself. Yeah, they sent the message to fans. Like you said, they're not stripping it down. The time is now. I mean, Hellebuck's a top flight goalie, Scheifele a top flight center. They got Amarcy signed till 28. Let's see, Kyle Conner, three more years. Yale is two more years. So like,

basically the time is now for Winnipeg. I mean, I guess you consider them still a contender because after these few years, who knows what's going to happen. But right now, man, I'd say the Jets are back having these two guys locked up. It's a huge day for Jets and Jets fans, no doubt. Just like Witt said, I'm looking forward to Jets fans and their team shoving it up my hoop.

I'll take that. Maybe they become the surprise of the season. Yeah, absolutely. I would love to go up to Winnipeg for a playoff series in the spring. Because I didn't pick them doesn't mean I don't love that place. I had a great couple nights there at the casino. I remember me and Merles, we stayed up all night at the casino. We were sick as dogs, too. That's before COVID.

You'd probably be thrown in prison in Canada now for having the sniffles in public. i'd love to go find my future i'd love to go find my future ex-wife at the shark club or earls there yeah yeah that'll boy but it's a fucking rights buddy will the prime minister listen to wit once again listen to me but i'm glad i'm glad this all broke you know with enough time for us to hop back on uh because it would have been unfortunate with this episode drop without recapping. Three huge deals signed on Christmas Eve of the 2023-2024 NHL season. And the fact that

we could reiterate just a big thank you to everybody in Buffalo. I don't know if we gave Dirty Honey Band enough flowers. Those guys are great. Go follow them. Go listen to their music they're incredible live performance was like it was fucking nuts they were shredding in the guitar they got ra up there so everything that they did for us the city of buffalo everybody at barstool

who makes those chicklets cups possible there's so much there's so much effort that goes into setting that up and then of course all the participants that make it worth doing so we love you guys. And yeah, that's pretty much all I got to say. Tons of content coming to from the chicklets cop. We'll have a series on the big deal selects coming next week. We got a vlog coming from the whole thing and then we're ending the month

with the sandbagger. So tons of content coming soon. Tons of question marks coming out of the big deal selects corner guys. It's just, it's, I'm still trying to wrap my head around that weekend. Well, we had a great time up there. Once again, thanks to Buffalo, like

Biz just said. Thanks to everybody who came to Chicklets Cup. We'll see you at the next one, whenever and wherever it may be, but have a great week, everyone. Enjoy the next NHL season. See you next week. you