Spittin Chiclets - Spittin’ Chiclets Episode 475: Featuring John Buccigross + Michael Bublé

Episode Date: December 19, 2023

On Episode 475 of Spittin’ Chiclets, the guys are joined by John Buccigross (01:17:54) to talk about what’s going on around the league, the college game, possible expansion teams, and when are we going to get a best on best tournament? But before that, the guys talk about the boo birds in St. Louis and Long Island. It’s that festive time of the year, and who else would be better to join the show but the legendary singer we all know, Michael Bublé (02:42:11). A die hard Vancouver Canucks fan, Michael Bublé talks to the guys about his fandom, what it took to become the star that he is today, and his whiskey, Fraser & Thompson. Is there going to be a Bublé vs R.A. shoot out coming soon in Michael’s basement?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. Well, here's your love. They say you're drunk in speech. It's just so good. I like to put the. But baby, come on in and take it up a notch You hit me with a cheap shot, a cheap shot You hit me with a cheap shot Hello everybody and welcome to episode 475 of Spittin' Chicklets Presented by Pink Whitney from our friends at New Amsterdam Vodka Here in the Barstool Sports Podcast family

Wowza, almost Christmas time, already three months into the season, but flying by. Lots of shit to talk about. But we got to check on the boys first. He was going on for the holiday. Paul, biznasty, biznet. What are you going on for Christmas? I get the nod first. Well, last week was a pretty intense pod.

And considering we're getting close to the holidays, let's be a little bit more joyful on this one. I enjoy bending wit over in that argument, but it's not about that it's about being friend you know if you want to start this again right now i swear i'll bomb i'll bah humbug your ass all the way to fucking new year's bud so i want to be friendly with you okay let's be friendly let's be very joyful tis the season right uh it was it was a great weekend actually shauna puso our videographer the guy who edits our pause, our Swiss army knife,

he actually came into town because he's considering moving here. He's considering making the move to Scottsdale. I don't know if you were aware of that, but I think he could tell you it's the perfect place to live. It was 80 degrees on Saturday. Brought him to the Coyotes game. Went and checked out this new place called Global Ambassador. Have you ever heard of a guy named Sam Fox?

No. Is it Michael J. Fox? Sam Fox, he created all these restaurants. True Foods was one of them. North Italia is another one. So they're all across the West Coast. And I want to say that he package-dealed the sale of all of it for like 300

million or something silly and he's just like a restaurant connoisseur really puts a nice vibe in there the food is always good no matter what what restaurant it is that he that he created or concept i should say and then he's moved on to where do you remember when we where we stayed in newport uh the pendry yeah how could i forget that place buddy unbelievable so a very similar concept here where it's really something that the area needed like normally like you know there's a lot of bachelor parties that come here so you got to go to the vortex you got to go to all these crazy bars where you can't hear yourself think well this place is great it's got three restaurants it's got the hotel there uh they got like a little cafe in the

bottom and then of course this like wonderful lounge and i mean as far as the eye candy's concern i mean a puso can hop on and tell you himself man it was it was pretty pretty nice scenery so how much are they paying you they're not paying anything gee you fucking asshole wow you coming out hot yeah okay you want i was trying to be joyful so much i was trying to be joyful yeah no actually uh um i think pasha and joey ended up going over there um uh we went there for like let's say the soft launch or whatever i think they're selling memberships for like 75k for when it gets packed like you have access to a gym and stuff. Yes. Is the tag very, very expensive, but Devin Booker's an investor. So they're trying to create like a private scene as far as like,

there's a private bar, private gym. You get first dibs as far as the restaurants are concerned. If you call in, like it doesn't matter if it's packed, you get first dibs on going in. So overall a pretty cool setting. So we checked that out. And then, as I said, we had a fun time at the Coyotes game. They had back-to-back shutouts. They played San Jose on Friday. Didn't go to that one. I think they won 1-0.

That's kind of a bit of a snooze fest. But I got to see the Buffalo Sabres. Boys, not looking good. Buddy, them and Ottawa, it was the year of one of those two, at least they both stink they both stink but the yotes at home man but i think they're whether 11 and 5 at this point and uh they they play their dicks off man and uh yeah then a back-to-back shout outs it was ingram night one and then uh the melka so you say it yeah melka there's no yeah i'm drawing a blank here. But overall, a great time. Tons of people from Buffalo here

celebrating bachelor parties. So met a ton of unbelievable people on the concourse, took some pictures, and overall, boys, a great weekend. Got some workouts in. So nothing too crazy, but if you... I always get messages, DMs, texts, what areas or what bars we should check

out when we're in town. Definitely check out this Global Ambassador, and you're not getting a promo code, and no, texts, what areas or what bars we should check out when we're in town. Definitely check out this Global Ambassador. And you're not getting a promo code. And no, gee, I'm not me. I didn't even get a discount on my meal, for fuck's sakes. Maybe I will the next time I go there if Sam Fox is buzzing around. But as of right now, no gratuity. Next up, the wit dog, Raya Whitney.

What's new with you, brother, since we last spoke? Not much. Had a great weekend weekend. Right around the holiday time time you get to see so many of your friends and so thursday we actually uh we took a rider out of school a little early and then um we headed up to north conway new hampshire which is a great little skiing area it's actually a cool little town it's great in the summer and the winter i think aditash mountains Mountain's up there, Cranmore. And currently, there's no skiing. We were headed up to do the authentic official Polar Express. Now, if you guys know the book and the movie, the Polar Express, the magic of Christmas, the ringing of the bell, do you hear the bell ringing? Do you hear the

bell ringing? Once you don't hear it ringing, you're old and you don't believe in Santa. So it was a great experience. I mean, we had done one in Rhode Island last year that was complete trash. And the people were awesome that were working there. It was just like the ride wasn't anything special. It was quick. You didn't get out. This one, you get on the train. They got all the Christmas music playing and the decorations. Now, mind you, going up up that morning, we left because we got the elf on the shelf and every parent out there knows about the elf on the shelf. And if you don't know about the elf on the shelf, the elf comes out in December and all of a sudden, every night he's moving around and he's watching and he's seeing and he's telling Santa what you're doing.

We named ours Keithy a few years ago in honor of Keithy Andel. You know, what's the worst name in the English language? Keith. So Keithy's our guy. I actually said Ryder when he wanted to name him when he was like three. Keithy. Okay. Now, everyone takes them out December 1st. I took them out, I said, two weeks before Christmas.

Because every night, it's kind of a panic attack. Like one night I forgot and then I wake up at two in the morning. Oh, my God. So the morning that we woke up and Ryder went and did a half day before we were leaving, he had not behaved the day before and why it was even worse.

Why it's an absolute. We're in one with that kid. So Keith, he didn't move. He didn't move. And there was a note. You behaved like shit. I didn't go tell Santa. No, I didn't swear. I'm just parap a note. You behaved like shit. I didn't go tell Santa. No, I didn't swear.

I'm just paraphrasing. You behaved like shit. I did not go see Santa. And you better straighten up and fly right today or I ain't never going back there again. Well, I said, Ryder, look, you got to read this. I read it to him. And he said to me, how does he know he's fake? I said, ohder, look, you got to read this. I read it to him. And he said to me, how does he know he's fake? I said, oh, what the hell? He goes, look at his eyes. They're all plastic. I was like, oh, I didn't know what to say on that one. But either way, he was very

well behaved that morning. And so we drove up and we went to the Polar Express. And then you're taking the train up the mountain and then you get out and then you walk up this big hill to Santa's workshop and all the elves are making toys and then and then Santa came out and he walked around the crowd now at this point like everything was delayed and I was so hungry and all these restaurants were closing at nine and I'm starting to do the math as Santa's walking like one mile an hour through the crowd stopping and talking everyone I'm like I'm not gonna be able to get food so I was kind of getting grumpy and then i got the look from the wife like we're not here for you we'll figure something out there was a 99 and everyone knows the 99 is great you get the chip you get the crackers you get the popcorn oh it's like it's it's i don't

know how to describe it all right local like a local restaurant pub pretty popular in the way good spot though it's good it has nothing to do with Wayne Gretzky? No. No. And people call it the nines. They got these gold fever wings. Oh, my God. So, whatever.

Once I figured out I'll at least have the 99, I was back to being cheery old Christmastime witty. And so, we finished that night, and it was a great time now the next day we were supposed to go and and skate they have this big outdoor skating facility and luckily i called because it was about 20 minutes more north and the ice not not frozen yet no snow up there no ice it's just hasn't been anywhere i'm not a big global warming guy. Like, I'm not. But, like, there's something about that I was skating my entire life as a young kid, you know, say 8 to, like, 11 around Thanksgiving time. Yeah, okay, Alex Jones. Thanksgiving time, if not Christmas time.

Nothing freezes anymore. It never snows here. So I don't know what's going on. Maybe something's going on. I got to get R.A.'s take on this. Yeah, I mean, I don't think it's... Do you believe in global warming? in global warming yeah i mean it's basic science really what do you think about it i mean it's thank you all right well i don't even know why i'm saying thank you i don't know what i just wanted to get your guys takes it's just warmer here in general so that's kind of what i'm going

with but then you know the pool had this in the into uh indoor pool with two slides the kids bombed down that it was just a great time. And then Friday night, just hung out. And then Saturday night, we got together with all our friends. Once a year, right around this time, all my close friends from home, all the couples get together. It's a great night.

Now, we were missing a few people. Fairway Foles' cousin actually plays basketball for Kansas. He played at Townsend for four years, then Kansas brought him in. He got an NIL deal. Foles did the deal. He thinks he's Bob Sugar's super agent. So he went. His cousin stuck him in the last row of the place in Indiana. Oh, nice. Legit the worst seat I've ever seen at a basketball game. So we were missing him and his wife,

a couple others. And we were having a great time. I was in the seaport and we had like one waitress that was doing an unbelievable job. You know, she's coming around, getting drink orders and stuff like that. We probably had 25, 30 people. Yeah, whatever. And at 10 o'clock, one of my friend's wives said to her,

hey, can I just do a glass of cap? There wasn't one like drunk person. Everyone was like a little buzz, but absolutely no like RAs on the chicklets cup type drunks. Everyone's just having a great time. She just fell asleep in their soup. Stealing one of the wives

food. She said, could I get a glass of cab, please? I didn't find this out until the next morning. The woman said, no, sorry, you guys are done. You guys are cut off. What? And the girl's like, what?

She's like, what do you mean? We're all just sitting around. We had a buffet out and some high tops, nothing, not loud, anything. And she's like, oh, well, there's a table. And she didn't point to the table, I guess. But she's like, there's a table nearby to your guy's section. And they're very offended by a conversation they heard happening. Oh, oh.

Okay. So when I heard this story, I was like, I'm so glad that I wasn't the one being told this by the waitress. Did you tell the flight attendant story or what? I don't know what story was told because there was probably like five different factions of people hanging out you know and like but but but my buddy's wife like she's like what are you talking about like so the manager comes over she's like no they're fine we're spending a good amount of money and and i ended up thinking after like you you can't like you can't get cut off if somebody's offended by what you're that's fucking insane dude that's that's like sums up where the where the world's at right now i mean

global warming is one issue but like censorship and in entitlement and my thing is like if you're if if you're that upset by whatever was being talked about wouldn't you go over to the person no instead you like go to the waitress and say like those people talking about something that hurt my feelings like it was just and then the fact that the waitress actually was like yeah yeah okay yeah you guys are done drinking it was like just an absolutely wild scenario but we ended up getting the getting the drinks back but i was just kind of amazed at the how how i would have been so intrigued that i would have went to the table to ask them or as you're saying they didn't point them out i would have went to the table to ask them. Or as you're saying, they didn't point them out. I would have went to every table to be like, hey, were you upset about a conversation that was going on over here?

I think my buddy's wife, Dee, she did a great job of not telling any of the guys because I think she knew somebody, one of us would have been like, hey. I would have flipped the table. So yeah yeah it ended up being a great night and then um just to wrap everything i know i'm going a little long but it was a great weekend so sunday uh my brother sean's home from san francisco with his wife and his son liam uh who's a year and a half i hadn't seen him since may this kid's a tank my brother's six five his wife's six feet her uncles are six seven and six eight like this kid might end up being a complete monster he's enormous so we did the Whitney family Christmas because

they're only around for a couple days before they go to her home her house in Pittsburgh and so um my my brother's wife gave me we did a secret Santa kind of a good move this year and for anyone listening with big families like as opposed to trying to get everyone a gift like you just everyone gets one and then you don't know who it is and then you get you're one person to give a gift and so we did that she gave me this i had to look up because i forget she gave me one of the best gifts of all time it's called box balling now i guess it's a free ad i don't know if you guys have seen this thing it is geez he has just perked up when he heard box box yeah not that we'll get to that yeah this this so this thing you strap it around your head and then there's a there's like a um i guess that

this is kind of sounding like geez box as of right now but there's a string like a stretchy string that goes down from the forehead and attached is a kind of the size of a tennis ball it's a soft ball and light but it but it's squishy. And if you YouTube this thing, you just punch it, and you get in a rhythm of like punching. I saw Brady doing this one time. I saw Brady doing a video of this. I guess Brady did it. And she gave this gift out.

She gave me three of them. I must have spent the next hour and a half sitting there. And you try to get in a rhythm, and you see the guy on YouTube doing it, but a phenomenal gift. And it was funny because she said, I didn't know what to get Ryan. 40 years old. All he wants to do is golf. Like he kind of has anything he needs.

And my brother goes, so you got him a cat toy. Because it's pretty much like a human cat. You're just like whacking it back and forth. But it was an awesome day seeing my nephew, seeing the family. We were down there for about seven hours. Got home. Had a very grateful feeling last night. And Biz and I, we had a good discussion. We kind of mended the fences.

You know, Biz and I, the podcast almost ended last week, guys. I hate to break it to you. It was close to being over, but little did we know that the Christmas spirit would bring me back to life and maybe understand that I did lose the argument and that I did get owned. And I'm here to admit it because I'm the bigger, better man. And I love all you listeners for listening to my weekend recap.

Good stuff. Good stuff. What? Hey, so what age do kids stop believing in Santa? So obviously, so I, I believe it's getting way younger and that's one of the things about,

I didn't want to go global warming. We got censorship and we got fucking kids learning about Santa too too early well these kids get on youtube and they're listening to grinelli talk about his nights out in new york city and then like all of a sudden they realized that not only is santa not real but the guy who's dressed up as santa is probably sticking a dildo up like some random woman's asshole like when he's off of his shift at the mall so i think so that was the thing that i i wasn't like dying to go up driving the two and a half hours to North Conway and Brie said, she's like,

we only have like so many years of like Ryder even and the kids believing in Santa. And it got to me. It pulled at the heartstrings. So Biz, I think it's getting younger. Like I imagine there's got to be some fourth and fifth graders who know, right? I'd hope third grade you still believe.

We probably should have had a spoiler alert considering some of the kids we do see when we do meet and greet. If there's any kids listening to this show, believe me, they are at a point where they already know. If your kid's still questioning or still believes that Santa's real and you're allowing them to listen to the show, you should have

your kids taken away. Oh yeah, child services right to the address of where this kid's red that's a red flag right I actually met a guy at the coyotes game he's like oh I let my kid listen to the pod I looked at him like ah he shouldn't be fucking listening to the pod I had that in a meeting the kid was about three foot two and I'm like buddy I I gotta be honest with you like you need to have him stop listening. Like, we can take one less download and not ruin this kid's life. So, you know. Before we continue, it's Pink Whitney time with the pink man himself.

Pink skin, Ryan Whitney. If I'm in the sun, I'm pink. That's what happens. Maybe even a little red like a lobster, but we're talking pink. We're talking pink we're talking pink whitney the exceptionally smooth great tasting vodka with notes of refreshing lemon that you can make so many drinks out of you can do them as a shot you can mix them with your favorite soda you can just drink it drink it on ice that's how i like it drink it a little on ice let the ice melt a little bit and boom, Pink Whitney coming right at you.

Perfect time to give away some Pink Whitney to your loved ones and your friends. It's Christmas time and I've actually started handing out a couple bottles to people as a thank you and as a little Christmas gift. And everyone who has already had it is ecstatic to have it again. And everyone who hasn't had it, they're very kind of intrigued by the bottle and they're looking forward to trying it. So thank you to everyone listening who does buy Pink Whitney, who does drink Pink Whitney, who's bought some of the merch. Could never thank you enough. Could never thank New Amsterdam enough because they're the reason Pink Whitney exists. Pink Whitney.

And now also they have the 1.75 liter bottle. More of the Pink Whitney we know and love. Great for parties and sharing with friends. Take your shot with Pink Whitney. Oh man, next up, our producer, Mikey Gridelli. Validated by Taylor Swift, allegedly. How, pal? Yeah, I'd say vindication is the perfect word. For those who don't know,

after we recorded the pod last week, I got a lot of shit for the box stories, just going in the box, just talking about it. And what do you know? The biggest celebrity in the world, Taylor Swift, the next night has her birthday party with all the celebrities in New York City at where else but the box. So vindication was felt.

Do you think that they did the same thing though? Honestly. I think they got crazier. They definitely got crazier. They probably rented it out and closed it off privately. That's what I think. I also don't know if you did the best job of dressing up the fact that it's basically a nightclub and then they turn it into that. I think that people just think that you went to a place where people are shoving Black and Decker drill bits up each other's assholes and it's just a freak show.

But it's a nightclub and it's trendy and there's a lot of attractive girls that are in there like it's it's it's a scene but i do think taylor swift rented it out and it was just like the club like i i just there's not what would be the point why wouldn't she just go to another place that rented out you think the drinks are mixed better there the the drinks are are mixed with hogs that look like mine imagine what kelsey and her are doing if she was into the box gee you took you had vitriol oh yeah coming at you over going there that was i know he's like are you okay can you handle this i'm like i'm good man i feel great yeah i'm like hey man are you doing okay there's a lot of backlash online right now about the way that you started the last. I had to check in with G.

Yeah, no, I felt great. I agree, though. I definitely think she rented it out, though, because if a video ever came out of Taylor Swift taking a beer out of a woman's vagina like we were doing, I don't know if she could come back from that one. If anyone could come back from anything, though, it's her. Yeah, that's true.

Oh, for sure. That's true. But my week ended up having kind of a crazier turn. I ended up going to a wedding this weekend in Wilmington, Delaware, a place I never thought I'd be in the entire earth, but ended up in Wilmington, Delaware

at a wedding where I didn't know a single person. It was my girlfriend's best friend from college. She was a bridesmaid, so I was there. Great time. Shout out to the bakers. Brandon and Allison, awesome time. But at the end of the night, someone from the groom's side came over and they thought I was a wedding crasher. So I almost got my ass kicked. I'm just sitting there. I'm a little high. I'm just eating desserts. I'm going through the cupcakes, just

going through all the whole dessert line by myself. Everyone else is dancing. And some guy comes over and he's like, let me see your card. I'm like, what? And he's like, let me see your name card. And I'm like, what are you talking about? And he's like, name card right the fuck now. And I'm like, whoa, I'm like, I'm like, relax, man. I'm like, like, what are you talking about? Like in this, this guy would have beat the fuck out of me, like absolutely kicked the shit out of me. And he's like, name card, write the fuck now or I'm tossing you out of here. And I'm like, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, buddy.

Like, what is going on? What did I do? Like, what are you talking about? Like, my girlfriend's in the wedding. She's sitting right over there. And luckily, some kid that came up to me was so drunk. He had a black eye. He was a hockey guy.

Comes up to me. He's like, I want to be Biz Nasty's assistant. Let me be Biz Nasty's assistant. No, no, no. Oh, yeah. Talk to Jeff about that one. So I gave him my email earlier in the night. And he's like, buddy, why are you talking to Mike?

Mike's girlfriend is basically the maid of honor. She's in the wedding. What are you talking to michael like mike's girlfriend is like the the maid of basically like the maid of honor like what are you taught like she's in the wedding what are you talking about and the guy just looks at me he's like sit down buddy and i'm like what like what did i do to this i was like i'm gonna get my cupcake holy fuck yeah it was crazy again for the boys here she's yeah what the hell did you get him down i I know. It was insane. I thought I was getting my ass kicked out. Did he ever apologize to you? Never apologized. And then the next day, I was pretty upset after.

I went back, sat down, and then one of the guys that I knew there, I didn't know one or two guys there, and they were like, let's go find him. Let's go find this guy. So then I got pissed off, and I'm like, the alcohol kicks in. I'm like, Like, let's go find this guy. So then I got pissed off and I'm like, the alcohol kicks in. I'm like, yeah, let's go find this guy. Fuck him. And then the next morning, too, I'm like at the brunch.

I'm like looking around to try to find the guy just to go up to him. He was, in fact, the wedding crasher. He might have been the wedding crasher because the second after it happened, I didn't see him the rest of the night. Didn't see him the next day. He was gonzo. Gonzo with the wind. Jesus G. Adventures. A lot of adventures for you lately.

Yeah, biz. My weekend, Friday, per usual, I went down on the nights. My buddy Rizzo Bartens went out and went down and watched the Bruins game. Met my pal Kevin McGonigal. No relation. One of my oldest, best friends. A couple pops, nothing crazy. Then Saturday, met a lot of my old school friends.

Last year, we had a surprise 50th for a friend. One of our other friends, hey, we should all get together this weekend down the warren tavern very spontaneous and it was a great time i mean obviously you know i'm fucking middle age at this point you don't see a lot of your friends sometimes it's basically funerals or weddings yeah you get older and so this is like a positive thing to go to not you know not at a funeral home to see see a bunch of friends it was like 40 or 50 of us we basically took over the warren tavern and i got a little disco fever going i started busting out a few moves what certain disco tunes hit man i just can't can't help myself is gotta go and cut a rug so oh i've seen yeah

like john travolta in um pulp fiction type moves or john travolta and saturday night fever probably a little bit oh shit all right suck on that wit yeah but i know great great time biz like you know just to be with friends it's the time yeah you up with people. So I had a real nice weekend. It was good stuff. Boys, I'm trying to keep my temperament down right now. You wouldn't believe this, but the guy next door is drilling again. No. Is he using the Black & Decker Peck-a-Recker?

It sounds like a very loud generator, and I can't even hear myself thinking. I'm about to blow a fucking gasket. This guy's been doing construction as long as the guy working on my house, for fuck's sakes. Might be the same guy, in fact jesus christ jesus christ keep the temp down boys oh sorry to say the streak is over i mean if you're gonna lose a sandbag i guess you could lose it to jr and our team was probably not what a sandbagger though incredible feedback it's actually going back to the weekend i had a i was at the at the grocery store and i had a guy come up hey man love the sandbaggers but i gotta be honest man you gotta start drinking again because

you're putting a shit when you're off the sauce and i said bud i'm off the sauce for good but i feel you i couldn't hit the broad side of a fucking barn in that sandbagger i might have gotten a little too west coast high too that that weed out there hits you a little bit different well it made jr like money i mean that was the perfect that was the perfect example of just vets just like physically and mentally dominating i mean from the minute we got there and then like the way jr once i got to watch it back and he's like i want to embarrass them like buddy they were playing well done they were playing with their food. Roenick was just barking the entire time.

Timu Solani, the coolest guy on the planet. But each of them take on a personality of their own, but it was just great to hang out with them and hear all these old school stories. Like, getting to play around with these guys was a blessing. And I'd never hung out with Timu before. Him telling that Bruce Boudreaux story. Oh, God.

About him pranking him as being Wayne Gretzky. And then retelling. I've heard the story about you getting traded to Edmonton and saying, I can't believe. How do guys play here? This place is a dump. And then getting traded there a few weeks later. Him retelling that and just his laugh was fucking 10 out of 10.

Absolute 10 out of 10. They were so good. Yeah, we want to thank them once again. And the feedback's been incredible. I mean, I saw a lot of people saying it was their favorite sandbagger ever. I think part of that is probably those guys being such legends, so funny on the camera, such good golfers. And then the other part of it is people just wanted to see us get our ass kicked.

So it was just like the perfect storm for viewers to really enjoy a sandbag with their stories. I mean, I swear to God, if I was balling hole, I probably would have shot like 94 that day. That was my swing right now is a little mess. I'm like ripping it inside the club heads inside my hands. And then I'm like across the line and I'm super steep. So I got to get to work. I'm actually hopping on a plane tomorrow morning. I'm going to play golf in Orlando for a couple of days. So I'm pretty across the line and I'm super steep. So I got to get to work. I'm actually hopping on a plane tomorrow morning. I'm going to play golf in Orlando for a couple of days.

So I'm pretty pumped about that. Just a little golf break right before Christmas. So I'm very excited to try to work on my swing. And then we'll be back in Orlando for Pink Whitney night. But that sandbag, it was just so good. And the other funny thing was that at the end, like I was just talking to JR. He's like, yeah we we knew like we

were smashing you guys like before we they saw us even like get to the club it's like we we and then like the fact that they're giving us more shots and then still drumming and i'm getting like nine shots at one point it was just it was it was one of those really humbling moments and it was kind of similar to what we did to Caulfield and Zegers as the older vets and just kind of wore them down mentally and physically. And then we just got our lunch fed to us. So thank you so much to those guys. And thank you to everyone who watched, because it was great to see the numbers spike up and all the comments say they really enjoyed it. And I think the next one, you're going to be just as thrilled because Sean Avery and Kevin Conley, two very, very funny dudes. And Avery's out of his mind. That one, I can't wait to see the first cut. And Shoto Pasha, who is doing such a good job, like a true director. He's unbelievable at editing his things. And he's only getting better and better with his production and all the guys who are helping. So we really appreciate all the support from fans

and in our crew. And it was a blast, even though we got thumped. Yeah, golf with J.I.B. He got more rules than Frigga Monopoly. It seemed like every hole he was coming up with. He knew it was making us look even dumber and dumber. He was just, he played us like a fiddle. He's an entertainer too.

He knew he would have finished you guys off in 13 if he didn't make all those rules. Yeah. It's almost like you guys had a certain element you were missing that wasn't there in maybe three games. Oh, hey, that's true. I don't know, though, because the more that a JR was drinking, the better he got. Witt, I think that you're a pretty good drunk golfer, too, but he just brought it to the next level. He was craving the Pink Whitney.

So I was on you hard and like i actually felt bad after because like you're off the sauce and honestly for a lot of people out there who like want to stop drinking like and i'm sitting there like all over you like if you don't want to drink don't drink like the biz being strong with the peer pressure was good my thing was was all right well we've won 10 in a row drinking you can't stop now but it was more about i didn't want to be drinking alone but honestly honestly, proud of you. You don't want to drink. That's a good thing. I love Pink Whitney and a lot of other people do too. And I know when you drink, you do as well. But in the end, my thing was, it wasn't that I thought it would make your

personality better. I'm never worried about your entertainment and your personality. It truly is like when you're playing golf and playing bad like drinks can really help they just like loosen up your feels you stop thinking do they give you a back swing please drink but then you were you were you were holding strong and then i was the cocktails do they give you a bit more of a back swing your back swing has gotten it's horrendous yeah yeah yeah that's the one thing too is if i'm not golfing a lot i have to shorten it up in order to make good contact. So it's pathetic. That was probably the worst my swings looked.

So people who constantly criticize me about being a sandbagger, it's like, when I'm not golfing, that's what it is. I'm an 18 easily. I heard the booze really helps out your cadence on the course, because I don't know if that's a rumor or not. That's something that you need to work on, all right? I meant to ask you like, what,

what, what is cadence and golf? I didn't, I never like associated that word with your cadence is like, just like, it's basically like a, like a pendulum, right?

You want your tempo more. It's all about tempo. Okay. Like, you know, you don't want to, you don't want to rush your backswing and then, or,

or rush your, your forward swing. You just want it to be nice and smooth. Who would probably be the best example? Freddie couples, tempo town. Freddie couples is an all-time tempo guy max homa is but he's also getting rubbing tugs every day maybe i need to get rubbing tugs who's getting rubbing tugs every day i think freddie couples is known as being a massive rubbing tug guy i don't i don't think that's ever been made made and it has now it has now jesus christ the rumor boys freddy just with an absolute bobcraft

ricochet shot to the temple what are we gonna say but all right basically in golf you want to gather gather gather and then smoothly come down and then the fastest you're moving is at impact so people move quick at the beginning and they move quick from the top, but it's all like slow. Like the saying that I like to say with golf is slow is smooth and smooth is fast. Like it's just, and, and, and biz and I were so quick from the top, from the beginning, the swing. So it was just a recipe for disaster. And, um, and you know what, sometimes, as I said, in the sandbagger, when you're on a streak and you lose that first game, you get trounced. You don't lose a close one. You get trounced.

And get trounced at the clubhouse after. Let's see. Dean Grinelli, Chicklets University. We got a new one dropping tomorrow. BC, I see you got your gear on right now. Yes. Wednesday, 6 p.m., Chicklets University on the Chicklets YouTube channel. Will Smith, San Jose Sharks' fourth overall pick gave us a tour of BC.

A little bit different than the UMass video. We focus a lot on the tradition of EC. We even get up in the crowd at one point. We're doing some fun stuff with the crowd, buzzing around the arena. So 6 p.m. would mean a lot to me if you watch it. So please watch it. Shout out Jersey Mike's and Blade Tech. Wait, you're going to boycott this one? this is bc um yeah i i love g and i love what he's doing and he's getting better and better at everything he's done with this show but i i cannot tell you how much i despise boston college i have four very very good friends that went there and like everyone else i've ever met from there sucks and their team is really good this year but they disgust me. And we have them first round beanpot. We actually have them in a home and home in January before the beanpot. So I won't be

watching. I hate the school. I hate most of the people involved with the school, but I'm very happy for G. How awesome is it, though, that BCBU number one and two in the country right now? That's so cool. Well, BC, I think, has seven kids on the U.S. World Junior team. They do. BU has one on U.S. and then we have Max Celebrini representing Canada.

So it's going to be a hell of a series when those two meet. And even though I won't be watching, I know that from what I've heard from everyone

is that this Will Smith episode, who's also a great kid and Ryan Leonard is. So there's more than four. I was being a little harsh. But this is going to be a good episode. So if you don't hate BC as much as me check it out please we're still early on what's the who's the favorite for world juniors this year

I think US is the favorite wow yeah okay they're loaded biz that just speaks to to the conversation we had a few pods ago about the fact that US is just they're making strides man and go ahead I'm sorry I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I tripped you for interrupting, and I just interrupted you. I was done. I got this drill bit in my fucking ear right now. No worries. There are a good amount of kids that could be playing for Canada

that are in the NHL, and actually one of them is going to be going. That's Matt Portra. And he got released by the Bruins to go play for Canada. They left the spot open. I think it's a great move. I know you might have had this later in the outline, but I figure bringing this up, it's probably a good time. He's slowed down a little bit.

He's going to be a hell of an NHLer. He's gotten scratched. He's gotten benched a couple times. I couldn't agree more with that. Go play against kids your age. Dominate. Feel the puck more. Play 20 minutes.

Have a big impact on that Canadian team. Maybe go back. I don't know if he'd have to go back to junior or the AHL after. I don't know what happened, maybe even the Bruins. But I don't disagree with that move because it's one thing to be playing in the NHL and learning the pro game, but it's another to be that young and not having the puck as much as you want, not dominating like mentally you want to be.

So I like that move, and I agree with the Bruins doing that. Because Geeky's playing well enough where you can, you know, Geeky's playing up higher than they thought he would be when they brought him in, and he's played good. So I don't blame the Bruins at all for that decision, and it helps Canada a ton. Speaking of college hockey, we have one of the biggest champions of college hockey come on a little bit later.

ESPN's John Bucciaross got some great chatter, and also a huge music star coming up as well, Michael Bublé. We'll get to that stuff a little bit later. But Friday, it wasn't a round number anniversary, but I found the tweets that the genesis of this podcast. They called it Chicklets Conception Day, the eighth anniversary of your infamous tweet. And dude, I cannot believe the feedback we got on that tweet or Instagram.

People were fucking so nice about it. I wasn't fishing for compliments or nothing, but the feedback on just that that tweet or instagram people were fucking so nice about it just you know we were i wasn't fishing for a couple of minutes and on but the feedback on just that tweet it was dynamite i'm sure you guys saw it but just want to use that to say thanks to everybody once again the support uh has always been overwhelming but that day it was just really nice the way people kind of responded to that i'm sure you guys caught that yes yes and you guys had one microphone when i showed up you guys were six inches from each other's faces recording on one microphone. So it still blows my mind every time we're at live shows and events. And it's been an amazing ride.

And it's all because of the fans. Yeah. And because KFC's brother, Brendan Clancy, gave me the wrong hyperlink, dude, to the product. Dude, that's crazy. Because if he sent me the right one, then the system wouldn't break. We probably wouldn't have called the G. Just crazy little things like that. Because he made a mistake and ended up opening the door for G.

So once again, thanks to everybody. We will be in Toronto for the All-Star game. We mentioned that. It's also a return to the theater for the Chicklets boys. Because we're putting on our third live show. Can't wait. Thursday, February 1st at 9 p.m. at the Winter Garden Theater. We're going to have some special guests.

It's going to be a bonkers night. Tickets go on sale this Thursday, December 21st at 12 p.m. at the Winter Garden Theater. We're going to have some special guests. It's going to be a bonkers night. Tickets go on sale this Thursday, December 21st at 12 p.m. right after Game Notes. Can't wait. This is our third show, Pittsburgh, Boston, Toronto. I know I missed the Pittsburgh one, Sciatica. Sucked missing that. Also, Seattle for the Winter Classic.

Me, Biz, and G are going to be up there. We're going to be at the Press Box in Seattle from 8.30 p.m. until 10 p.m.urday december 30th so stop on by bring some uh quickly about that northwest dank if you have it quickly about that i i can't believe how many messages i've got and i know i have some haters out there i have a plenty of them and i don't mind it but i've gotten a ridiculous amount of messages like you're too you think you're too good to go um oh you can't go join the boys prima donna like what fuck you holy shit i was told i was told by biz and biz is a big time true leader of this pod

we're going to toronto for about six nights we're gonna have an unbelievable week of content live show we're gonna be away i'm gonna be away from the kids for a long time then we're actually going somewhere else that we haven't announced yet about three days after that. So Biz said, wait, I'm not going to have you fly out cross country for three days for just pretty much a meet and greet. I said, I'm glad to go, Biz. He said, no, just get rested up. You'll be ready for Toronto where you're going to be away from the family a lot. Then you'll be away from them again for another four to five days, a couple of days after that. so this is not me saying i won't go so anyone who is out there thinking like i'm i'm refusing to do stuff with my squad these three

guys right here go fuck yourself if i had two kids and one on the way fucking i wouldn't be doing nothing other than trying to be a dad so the fact that we even get you for this podcast it's like all these people think that i'm the one, like, I'm not going. I mean, you've clarified. I'm not rattled, though. There is a reason we call you Whitney Houston, but, I mean, it's not this one. I want to dance. You've clarified a few times to us, Whit, too. You've clarified a few times to us, Whit, too.

I want to come. I will come. And we were like, no, stay back. Stay with the family. I'm not rattled, though. When is number three scheduled to arrive? Baby number three? I think as of right now, the last

I was told is a Cinco de Drinko, May 5th date. Usually, that's just a rough ballpark, but it'll be another home birth, God willing, which was very exciting the first time with Wyatt. It's pretty funny because that'll be right in the midst of our every night.

You know, we're up till 2 a.m. We're recording after the games and playoffs. So it'll be a little bit of a gong show, but I can't wait. I love more than anything being a dad. And we were thinking about, you know, having a third and we went for it. And I'm just I'm so pumped now. Boys, before we get going into the hockey, do you mind if I go next door and maybe ask if they can stop this drilling? Not at all, buddy.

I'm going to try to keep my temperature down. Put your GoPro on so we can fucking film it. All right, before I go any further, here's a few words from our good friends over at Bodyama. Spittin' Chicklets is brought to you by Bodyama's newest product, Flash IV. Oh, this stuff is fantastic. It's time to reach for it. The real rehydration with Bodyama Flash IV. It's packed with electrolytes, zinc for added immune boost, no artificial sweeteners, flavors, or dyes. Flash IV provides the rehydration your body needs,

whether you're feeling under the weather, had an intense workout, or you just had a long weekend in a case of the Sunday scaries heading into a new week. So head on over to the Body Armor store on Amazon and get yours today. Body Armor Flash IV is available at the Body Armor store on Amazon. Once again, get yours today. Also, one last note here. Don't forget to subscribe to our YouTube. I know I think we're over like 300,000 subscribers right now. You know what the total is at? 313, buddy. Pay attention. Keep up. Absolutely. And our social media as well. That's where you can find the Sandbagger. That's where you can watch the podcast.

That's where you can see Chicklets University, Chicklets TV, everything we have going on. You can subscribe to our YouTube channel and it'll pop up, alert you, and you will be dialed in to follow our every move. Along with me beating the wheels off my goddamn neighbor. Sandbag at like 65 inches is great. You can watch on YouTube. It was fucking hilarious stuff. And quick note, talking about Buffalo a second ago,

Devin Levi, since he was called back up 3-0-1 with a 1-7-1 goals against 942 save percentage. So whatever he did down there certainly helped him out. But that's not the big story this week. Craig Berube fired. Jordan Cairo had some comments, said, I've got no comment. It's not my coach anymore. This thing kind of blew up. I don't know if it was taken out of context.

And after the game, he was really upset. He got booed during the game. He got booed in the introductions. G, let's play his audio after the game, how upset he was jordan uh how difficult is it to have the fan base react the way they did tonight were you hearing the boos on the ice um yeah i definitely heard those um i mean it's not easy obviously but you know i see where they're coming from with all my comments on it. That's definitely tough. I love playing here. I love playing in front of the fans.

What would you want to say about Craig Bruby? You mentioned that he was your coach for a long time. How did he impact your career? What can you say about that? He helped me in a lot of ways. He's really helped me around it all in my game and tried to be more of a complete player. Like I said, I respect him as a guy. No hate towards him at all.

When did you find out that the comments kind of blew up? No, just earlier the day after I woke up from my nap. What, if anything, would you want to say to the fans? I mean, just, you know, sorry if it sounded in a bad way at all. I mean, just like I said, you know, I'm just really trying to focus on the future here and, you know, focus on what I can do to, you know, help our team win and, you know, help get wins for the boys. I mean, just a crazy turn of events. And then that weekend, he plays Saturday night,

gets a goal, two assists, first star of the game. He gets interviewed after, drops a couple F-bombs. Gee, roll that as well. Jordan, just a huge win here for you guys tonight. For you personally, it was a great performance. And you hear the cheers here tonight. You love these fans, don't you? It's awesome. I love playing here tonight you love these fans don't you that's uh awesome

i love playing here i love this rink it was a great win boss tonight i mean just a crazy turn of events and you know tony x the probably the most famous blues fan on twitter he basically called it said it was a tough watch to see him go through that but he says uh he'll bounce back the city will love him and that happened the next three days later uh but first off, Berube fight. That's a fucking huge shock. Nobody was talking about it. What was your take on Berube getting fight? I don't think nobody had that coming. Yeah, I don't think anyone did either. I think most blues fans were pretty disappointed in the fact that, you know, that's a guy who came in there and pretty much made himself a legend forever in that city, bringing them a Stanley Cup title in 2019 with this miraculous, you know, the glory

of the last place in January and all of a sudden going on this incredible run to win a game seven on the road. And for the most part, the team, I think, was doing right about what I expected them to do this year, maybe even above what I expected. So the fan base was more about like, well, and I love Army, Doug Armstrong.

He's been great to Biz and I our entire career since we met him and post-career. But I think fans are saying, well, he put this roster together and Berube's kind of, he's getting let go. It's not fair. You gave him these groceries. What's he supposed to do with it?

And they were, I think, two points out of the wild card when he was let go. Now, it's basically been the inconsistency of their play all season. That's the real problem. They hadn't lost more than two games in a row, but I don't think they'd won maybe more than two or three games in a row. So it was just kind of like a roller coaster back and forth. And then that week, I think it was four in a row,

they lost that game to Detroit. And that's where the Kairou things comes in. He kind of called out Kairou's play with the goal he pulled when it was 5-4 and they were trying to tie it up about making a soft play at the offensive blue line. All of a sudden, it's in the net. Detroit wins 6-4. But they'd lost three games prior to that. The weird thing was, throughout this year, I think they've beat Vegas.

They've beat Colorado. Yet they've lost to Columbus. They've lost to San Jose, I think. And so it's one of those things where it's like Jekyll and Hyde. And all of a sudden, if Army's looking at it like, I can't figure out who this team is. I believe in Berube's message. He's been here six years.

He's won a Stanley Cup. I just don't think the guys are necessarily listening anymore. And there was a really good article by Jeremy Rutherford. I believe his name is with The Athletic. And he talked to Berube after he was let go. Pretty cool. Same way Mike Russo did after, what's his name in minutes? Evison.

Dean Evison. After Evison was let go. So just kind of an in-depth interview into a coach's thoughts on being canned right after it happened. So check that out and read it if you want. In the end, I see where Army was coming from. And I also see the entire other side of the fan base being like, this is not his fault. Now St. Louis has won two in a row.

So it's similar to Edmonton and Minnesota getting this bump with the coach and being let go. And all of a sudden coaches are like, oh shit, like every team's responding when their coach is fired. Like I think there's a guy in Ottawa who's probably panicking a little bit. And I'll say this. I said it on game notes. And I think DJ's a guy in Ottawa who's probably panicking a little bit. And I'll say this. I said it on game notes. And I think DJ Smith's an awesome guy. I've never met him. But talking to Brady Kachuk and these guys, they love him.

I would be calling Craig Berube immediately if I'm Michael Ann Lauer. Like, I just think that is the perfect guy who's been through going to a team that's completely underperforming up to their expectations and switching the culture around. I get Craig Berube in Ottawa as quick as possible if it's me. Obviously, Ottawa has different ideas with that disaster of a season so far. But I felt bad for Berube. I think he probably didn't expect it. And in the end, he was kind of a sacrificial lamb

and one of those things where you can't trade everyone and what do you do when the team's underperforming? In the GM's eyes? You let go of the coach. So he'll land on his feet somewhere, no doubt. Just a tough end for a guy who had that amazing run, you know, whatever, four years ago now, five years. I think based on what he'd accomplished there, he deserved to ride out the rest of the season.

That's what I was most surprised about. And going back to you, like I love Army and he put together that championship roster. But I think the moves he's made since have really hurt the organization, right? and going back to you like i love army and he put together that championship roster but i think since the moves he's made since have really hurt the organization right like petro biggest one petro like completely overthought that um i can understand him thinking that parenko could take over maybe that that number one position the way that he did play in that championship run but man petro's a dog he can hit every area of the game and he's just that fucking he he's got that type a personality man where he's going for your throat going for the

jugular he can close in on guys he plays physical he can play power play he can block shots penalty kill he's not intimidated easily so that was that was to me the kind of like the the the beginning of the end so to speak to that championship caliber team and then here we are kind of in the midst of somewhat of a rebuild even even not re-signing perron yet bringing in other guys that they did was was shocking to me like perron's a fucking gamer right he's a piece of shit to play against who's who's awesome on special teams and has really turned into to a leader i mean maybe earlier in his career there were issues. That's why he was moved out of St. Louis, brought back, moved out of St. Louis, then brought back,

and then now moved out again. But yeah, so I would say that I can understand the frustration from a part of the fan base as to why Berube, when Army should be responsible for a lot of these moves. Well, I also don't think Army should be moved either based on what he's provided the organization. um i don't think that there was any surprise that there was conflict between kairu and berube like i'm not even close to the organization and i've heard rumblings that they just butt heads um berube being that old school style of coach i think that when he had

that old veteran group when they won the stanley cup they liked it i talk about it all the time like my favorite coach in pro was or one of them i love tip i really liked all of them but my favorite i would have to say was mike stothers and i liked his hard approach and i liked how he continually kept us accountable and yeah can some days it get monotonous and in a sense of where you know you're feeling like you're getting your fucking peepee whacked up nonstop. Yeah, but ultimately he's looking out for the betterment of the team and the way that everybody's playing and making sure they're playing the right way.

And it goes back to what you already mentioned at the comments postgame. I think that Berube just wanted Kairou to understand that if he does have championship aspirations, yeah, he's got high flying skill. He can move and, you know, it's fun to watch sometimes, but if you want to hoist Lord Stanley, you really have to learn how to, you know, work the corners, play along the walls, play better on the defensive side of the puck. Not always worried about your cookies where you might be less than a point per game player, but you need to play the right way and it didn't seem um at least from what i'm hearing that kairu was as receptive to that and or maybe just not as receptive as it

from berube maybe the way that the message was being delivered so when he did get let go and then all of a sudden kairu made those comments like i'll be the first one to say like i don't want to see a young guy go through that and you could see how much of an emotional toll it took. Maybe fuck, he was crying in his postgame interview. Like how often do you see a guy crying in a postgame interview when he's getting booed? Like when's the last time, have you ever seen that? In December, too. One thing in the playoffs, but not typically during the regular season. I can't remember many players being booed if they're in playoffs. But do you remember the last time a player being booed and then him crying in a post-game scrum? I think there's a chance it's the first time it ever happened, man. There you go.

I was trying to think about it. Yeah, and I felt horrible for Kyrou, and I guess I'll go into it in a minute about having been through exactly what he went through. But it sucks. But not though, Witt, because he had the opportunity to thank a Stanley Cup champion,

a guy who played a thousand games in the NHL as a scrapper and played the game very difficult. He put his blood, sweat, and tears into winning this city of St. Louis, its first ever championship, I think in hockey anyway, obviously not baseball, but take the high road if you're Cairo, right? This was a learning experience. And then he says what he says, like those comments were insulting. That's an insulting

comment. Regardless if you didn't see eye to eye with your head coach, to say what he said was a little gutless in my opinion. And the crowd booing some some people are saying oh the boos were ridiculous no they were warranted that's a fan base trying to keep a player accountable saying like hey buddy we get that you're you're sticking around but if that's the type of attitude you want to bring and especially to people who have done this city right fuck you and they did and i i'm sure after seeing the the post game scrum and him crying and you know maybe they probably felt that they were maybe were a little too harsh on him but ultimately i think that he learned his lesson he he had more comments and more thanks to give berube and kind of changed his tone as a result of the the fan base keeping him accountable

and then you know 24 hours later, it's a great swing. It was good to see. It was good to see him go out there and have that type of performance and then the fan base to be cheering him on and be on his side. And I think that everybody can move on from this. But to say that the boos weren't warranted, I think that's completely ridiculous. If anything, I think that the comments that he had

were gutless towards Berube. Wow. And I have nothing personal against Cairo either. I hope he goes on and flourishes and have an incredible career. We met him in Vegas the night before the skills competition. And what a move by the league with the new skills competition. I love that. We got that later in the show.

But we met him the night before. He was talking about hoping to win the, was it fastest skater? Then he ended up taking it down. He said, I'm going to win fastest skater. And we're like ah you're going against mcdusty i don't know no i don't think mcdavid was doing it that year oh he wasn't i think he took it off i think um i may be wrong on that one but kairi ended up taking that down and we had a good little chat with him a real nice kid and i i think that's that it's just a straight up like learning moment for him. Like you got to take the high road, as you said, and you got to be very complimentary to a guy that has a lot of respect, not only in that city, but around the league. And as a younger player who's really underperformed this year at times, it's like you cannot come off looking like you don't appreciate him and what he did. And in that Rutherford article I brought up, Ruby mentioned, you know, I was brutally honest with people.

And a lot of people probably didn't like it. And I'm sure him and Kairou are probably going at it a lot more than maybe others because of how important he is to that team and how he's kind of had a tough start to the year overall. So he's kind of probably happy that he's gone. That's just a fact. As a player, a skilled player who's had a guy in his year, he's probably happy that he's gone. And also, I do think it would be a little fair if we

had saw the video of the way he said, I've got no comment. He's not my coach anymore. That was just written in print. Nobody ever saw a video of that. Reading that, it looked horrible. It looked horrible right away. There was a bunch of hate towards him. I agree with you, Biz. The boos were warranted. And as a guy who was booed by his home crowd in not one, not two, but three cities, it sucks. And I remember the first time I started realizing it, it was the best year I had in the league. Lucky enough, it was my contract year. I signed that six-year deal in Pitt, had all the foot surgeries that summer, came back in January. Or no, I'm sorry. I was fine. I didn't have any surgeries that summer. I played that next year, but it was already really bad and I was struggling. And then the booze started, right? And then I remember

coming out after intermission once and there was like a... You could make your own sign. They weren't bigs, but you could get these pieces of paper with Pittsburgh Penguins logo and write stuff on it. And there was a section right near the corner to the right of our bench. And there was probably 20 people holding up signs at me, trade Whitney, trade Whitney. And I was getting the puck and you're hearing the boo birds. And it was tough. Now I'll say this, and I'm not trying to sound like some tough old guy i did not cry after the game to the media i don't really blame him he's young and he's

emotional and that thing came like a storm at him when he probably didn't expect it even mentioning he woke up from pre-game nap and he's trending on twitter like oh yeah elliot freeman talked about that in 32 thoughts where it's like i don't think this guy's ever experienced being being a talking point on twitter for a negative reason and a stud from a young age i mean you've had your ass kissed your whole life and all of a sudden you like your home fans are like all over you it's it's a quick like immediate shock um now i don't i don't mean to be chirping him for crying it was just like i've never seen that and obviously the kid couldn't help it he was super emotional but for me it was it's so tough because what happens is once you start hearing those boos.

I cried when the fucking Islanders fans booed Tavares the other night. I don't blame anybody for crying. Yeah, you were. We'll get into that one. You were bent out of shape. Butch Goring bent you over the railing too. But what happens is once you start hearing the boze and nobody has ever i i shouldn't say that but in my mind sergey gonchar got booed by the pittsburgh penguins fans harder than i've ever

seen somebody get booed ask murrells i'm talking where he got the puck that first year um out when the lockout ended crosby's rookie year gonch had a really tough start he signed a five-year deal in pittsburgh he ended up lighting it up from january 1st and on i think like over a point per game but the first two months i'm talking pick up the puck behind the net and 15 000 and so like i remember actually thinking like wow gonch has been through this and gonch was an incredible player already before he got to Pittsburgh. And a classy guy and probably hadn't said anything in the media that would have warranted it. It was just strictly based on his play.

Yeah, he was playing horrible. Horrible. Oh, he was struggling? And being such like a classy vet, he ended up getting through it and beating it. And I ended up getting traded. But I think that what happens is once i heard those boos then all of a sudden like you're getting the puck and you kind of hear them even more and then you make a mistake and they get louder and it just snowballs so much to the fact

that you're you're now like you're thinking about it so much and there's times you don't even really want the puck i hate to admit that but i'm like this is getting so bad I even remember um playing Philly in the second round the year we went to the cup and like first shift and I actually had a pretty good first round but there were a lot of against Ottawa there was a lot of fans who still didn't like me and first shift of the game I wheeled the net and I just went to kind of throw it off the glass and it went up over the glass for a delay a game and they came out loud again and I'm like holy shit like we're in the playoffs right now but i kind of battled through i was proud of myself and battling through

that and playoffs and we you know winning the series obviously really helped but it's it's it's a it's a mentally exhausting thing and and chris pronger um i saw i've read something where he was mentioning like being booed on the road that's a dream come true that means you're doing your job the fans hate you that's unreal when you're getting booed on the road. That's a dream come true. That means you're doing your job. The fans hate you. That's unreal. When you're getting booed on the road, you're a star or you've done something pretty bad to a star player. Either way, it's not bad news, right?

Getting booed at home, dude, like that's your faithful and that's like the people you want to make proud and you want to have cheer for you and it's just a kick in the dick. So I understand the kick being that upset. You were getting booed in playoffs? That was one instance.

Jesus. No, that playoff run, it wasn't bad. And I think I played pretty solid. I wasn't playing that much. I was kind of third pair with Letang or Daryl Sedor. But I just remember that one play. I heard those people from earlier in the season that had been pretty rough on me. So it's just a tough thing for a player to go through.

And anyone in the NHL, for the most part, as you're younger, not necessarily super young, but college age, you're one of the elite players. And then you're used to that. You're used to being one of the guys that all the fans love. And then all of a sudden you get to the nhl and these people are booing you and it's one thing to to just sit back and think like wow our home fan base who roots for everything we do hates me it can be really defeating and so i i felt for him on that one yeah knowing the fan base is having pops like pre-game just going to the bar just talking shit about you and then fucking knowing that they're going to rain the booze on you the only time i've ever experienced

that was at the trickles cup in buffalo this year when uh when we got yeah that was me booing you wait were you a bit uh compartmentalize it or did it like bug you when you were home just chilling out you know what i mean like you had to have been taking that home with you know because your dad said that's one thing you know i'm i was i was single then like that's probably a time when you'd be really appreciative to be like married and have a support system at home and have kids to get your mind off the game. She's like, no, I was booing you too. Little Ryder, if I was playing, is like, this guy sucks. That motherfucker didn't move the elf on the shelf.

Boo! You're a bum! That thing's not even real, you fuck! Wyatt's making a crayon sign. Whitney the plug. The elf on the shelf was just the people at that other table at dinner the other night fucking snitching on you. Yeah.

No, but you know what? It was a really cool arc to the story that Kairou had such a big game Saturday, something that blows over quick. And it's pretty important he did that right away to kind of end it. Oh, yeah. Because if he struggled after that,

then I don't know if those boo birds would have gone away. It's pretty important he did that right away to kind of end it. Because if he struggled after that, then I don't know if those boo-birds would have gone away. So props to him for mentally being strong enough to show up Saturday night, play that well, and get over it, and then get the fans back on his side. So a pretty good story in the end. I also want to mention he was replaced by Drew Bannister. He had been coaching AHL Springfield for the last three years. That must feel like getting out of prison, man. Coaching Springfield, all of a sudden they pull you out to go to the NHL. That's a tough years. That must feel like getting out of prison, man, coaching Springfield.

All of a sudden, they pull you out to go to the NHL. That's a tough town. That's a tough city, boys. Tough spot. It's Armstrong's fifth coach since he's taken over as GM. So, yeah, so far, so good for him. You think they get in the playoffs, Biz? I know we had predictions earlier.

I said before the season, well, Central's the weakest division. I said they would be my surprise team if I could say a team that I had out missing it could make playoffs, but I just don't think that they end up making it. No. Alright. Wasn't the only place the Boo Birds were out this week. The Leafs are on Long Island with their captain, John Tavares.

He was at 998 points. He scored his eighth of the year to get to 999. Then he assisted on Morgan Riley's goal later to get to 1,000 points. And how did the Islanders pay it forward to him? They booed him. He was there for nine years. Just a wild scene.

And there was an old video, too, man, when he was in the penalty box. Like, these Islanders fans are fucking nuts. I know Borelli's sort of the prototype of it. But were the boos warranted? Did he deserve that? Or was it just like a shithead? You got to go to Biz to start this one. This is his leaf.

This is his story. I got some opinions on it, but let's just take this one from the hop. There had only been 88 players in NHL history to reach a thousand points. And the main complaint Islanders fans keep throwing at me is that, oh, he told us he was staying. We could have got and things assets for the

future because he didn't get traded at the deadline where it's like they were in the midst of a playoff run like he wanted to stay there maybe at the time that that's how he felt and things can change in a four-month span so the fact that after he ends up recording that thousand point in the dying seconds of the game to tie it and then they give him put him on the jumbotron and give him a tribute for them to boo him i just think at a certain point you gotta fucking let it go like you already threw the snakes at him you already fucking booed him every time he showed up but to hit a nhl milestone like that and and for what he'd done for the organization up until that point he was like at certain point, he was the only reason that you want to even go watch the Islanders. So I just thought it was ridiculous. I thought it was

classless. I mean, I can understand maybe booing them just, you know, every game, just, you know, as a regular fan, when, when he, when he touches the puck, like you say, but when he reaches his 1000th point in a place that he played majority of his career i just think you need to put your your whatever you have against them aside and congratulate a feat that has only been done by less than 100 players in the history of the national hockey league like am i crazy here like all the all the like joking and fuck you islanders and and you know all the all the bullshit aside like i thought that that was just an absolute ridiculous showing by the Islanders faithful.

Am I crazy here, Whit? So you're crazy in the fact that like, I don't know if you're understanding or realizing like, these are New Yorkers, dude. These people are fucking tapped. Like this is New York. Like they'll boo anyone and they really don't care that he was there

and dominant and they loved him because he left them and forever, they will despise him. So I think there was a lot of people booing that obviously

or should have obviously really respected what he did, but the fact that they did it, he did it back in their building, that could bug them even more and they look to the fact of we should still have him. He should still be here. He screwed us over. And I don't think he was lying. I think it was a last minute decision. He dreamt of being a Leaf. When he said, I don't want to be traded, he thought, honestly, I might resign here.

It didn't work out. Now, I don't agree with the booing, but I also can kind of put myself in the fan's, and especially New York scumbags, and understand they're going to boo him forever. That's just how it is, especially in that city. And the best part about it was, though, he got the goal. I mean, what a reaction by his dad, too, when they tied it up. But they got the goal, and they're down one. He's got one more point to tie the game up and get his thousandth point. And I texted Borelli. I said, you know for a fact they're tying this up and he's either scoring it or assisting it. No shit.

You said him that? Oh, I said it. And he goes, how could you put that out there? And it must have been two minutes later. And what was cool was when the goal went in, when Jarnkrok scored it, like I kind of right away, I was like, oh, like did Tavares get, did that hit him?

And then right away, like they all realized at once, Tavares, did that hit him? And then right away, they all realized at once. I think it was Marner realized and starts pointing to him. And they all skate over to Johnny T. And even the goal scorer goes over. And just an awesome celebration and picture of Tavares yelling at one of the guys on his team in celebration. And having the dad trip go on and having his dad. His dad was standing up. He was so stressed out and just went nuts as he got it.

And I think he said something like, Johnny touched that one. It was just an awesome storyline. The drama that unfolded at that night at UBS was what a perfect scene. But in terms of the booing, I don't agree with it, but I totally get it. And New York, I could have never played in New York.

I'd be in a mental institution right now if I played for one and to clarify that last year he was there they didn't make playoffs no but they only they finished two games below 500 but by the time the deadline's there like you don't know what's gonna end up happening maybe you can make that late push and as the team's captain you just you just don't want to bail on your team. And who knows? When he had conversations with the Islanders organization when free agency hit, maybe he didn't like what he heard. And maybe all of a sudden the direction in which he assumed the team was heading, whether it was coaching or whether it was the players that they were going to try to bring in to surround him,

maybe all of a sudden Toronto just felt a lot more appealing. And of course, going back home. And I would have assumed that they would have matched any amount of money that, that Toronto would have paid them to, in order to keep them. But at the end of the day, you just have to cut the cord at some point.

And especially if you're not going to, you have to let it aside at a milestone like that. Under a hundred players in the league's history. Come on Islanders fans. Shockingly, I'm going to say this. You're better than that. Having villains is what makes being a sports fan so great, though. I hear you.

I hear you. There's nothing better than just picking out one guy across the league that you hate. And anytime he comes to your barn, you just boo the absolute shit out of him. That's what makes being a sports fan so awesome. I think that it's crazy that based on what he did, he becomes a villain, become becoming a villain. It's like,

that's crazy, buddy. I think you could do a lot worse in order to become a team. You talked about it. Like, like taking out the other team star player, like something of that nature. He fulfilled his duty. He fulfilled his duty.

He fulfilled his duty with the team all the way even to the end of that season. At that point in time, he felt that his heart was with the Islanders and things changed after the season had ended. He didn't give up on his team. That's the point I'm trying to make here. I get that they're pissed off

that they didn't get the assets because he didn't make the decision at that time. But this guy has make here. Okay. I get that. They're pissed off that they didn't get the assets because he didn't make the decision at that time. But this guy has a family. He's on long Island. He doesn't want to uproot his family. He wants to finish off the season and the contract in which he signed. I think that that's very honorable.

Um, I don't think if you ask, actually you get, you have to ask an Islanders fans, but like, so, so Bruins fans, they hate off Samuelson. He took out cam nearly, um, Islanders fan. So Bruins fans, they hate Ulf Samuelsson. He took out Cam Neely.

Islanders fans, they hate Dale Hunter. He took out Pierre Turgeon after that overtime winner. I would think that they would hate a guy like that more than John Tavares. But still, I understand the hatred. Like, you're there. You're the captain. First overall pick. And you left us.

So I understand it. It goes back to the biggest disconnect between players and fans. And there is so much that they might agree on. And then there's so much that they will always disagree on. And the hatred towards a player who left the team, most players are like, hey, I've played. You want to be somewhere else. You want to try to win a cup. You don't think you can do it there. And then there's fans. You left us high and dry. And that hatred and that feeling of him taking off

and not wanting to be a part of that organization will forever live on. Yeah, it changed his mind. The act of jilted lovers, man. It's a little crazy at this point. And they're New Yorkers. So people are scum. Do you agree with me, R.A.?

Yeah, yeah. I mean, at this point, let it go, man. I mean, the guy didn't do anything evil. He changed his mind. Circumstances change. It happens in life. And, you know, he didn't do anything where they still got to, like, dump on him like this. But congrats to John anyways.

The 98th play of his tit, 1,000 points. Oh, 98th? What did I say? No, you said under 100, I think. Oh, okay. Sorry. Yeah. I think I might have said 89th.

Yeah. My apologies. A little dyslexia coming in there. Yeah, yeah. Shit happens. I still gotlexia coming in there. Yeah, yeah. Shit happens. I still got that drill bit in my brain from next door. It's still going? No, it finally stopped.

It finally stopped. Did you threaten him? No. No, I kept it cool. Kind of like I have the entire podcast so far. Yeah, Biz, I think a few of those boo birds hitched a ride to Toronto as well because the Leafs were here on a Thursday night. They were down 5-0 to Columbus after two periods but you got to give them credit they battled back Samsona stayed in the game his goalie coach Curtis Sanford lobbied for that to happen

they ended up tying it late Auston Matthews 22nd 23rd goals of the year they lost in overtime but I got a feeling like does that almost feel like a win-biz that type of game you battle back five nothing tied up and they still got the loser point but what's i just thought it was an insane game i mean i don't know how many times in league you see a five goal comeback but i mean in this case the boos were definitely warranted with the with the play uh against a bottom feeder as i like to say in the columbus blue jackets but i like that move by keeping him in there you got to gain some mental strength as far as a goaltender at some point and i think you might've already said it. Like that's a page out of Vasilevsky's book,

staying in there, battling through it. And then they come back and finally get everything going. So I would say this year, at least they're always like this though, man, they have some insane comebacks that happened game one against Montreal. They've had a few throughout the course of the season and,

and ultimately a very entertaining game. Not ideal to lose to the Columbus Blue Jackets, but at least the fans got their money's worth. And just I think that overall, I don't know if Nyes was playing in that one. He might've been hurt, but I think overall, just to talk about the team, between Nyes and Domi,

I feel like I've really been impressed with their play as of late. Domi struggled out of the gate, coming back home to Toronto. Sometimes there's a little bit added pressure but I think that uh I think he's really finally gotten acclimated and he's making his presence felt uh one thing that ended up happening but this wasn't in that game was uh the Revo thing did you guys see that it was ugly oh yeah what do you think he did like an ACL or something knee or ankle but it looked like it could be a while, man.

Oh, God. He caught a rut and right into the wall. Looked ugly. So hopefully he's all right and he's back soon. But Leafs are buzzing, man. Yeah, they look good. Yeah, they look good. They're fucking flying right now.

Then Saturday, Leafs fans, they got the old chant, Darryl, but they were giving it to Dubas and they were blowing Pittsburgh out of the building. But wait, have you ever heard that chant before for a GM, the old Darryl style? No, they were thanking him for everything he's done for the organization. That was the reverse Islander. They were thanking him for locking in all those star players

and getting those team-friendly deals. That was crazy. I mean, that had to be tough for Dubas. You know that game meant a lot to him, whether he'd say it or not, and I think Pittsburgh probably knew that as well, and they just had a stinker of a game. And it was kind of brutal for them

because it was the end of the dad's trip. They had had a great win at home, I think, against the Coyotes, and they went on the road. They beat Montreal. The power play got going. Pittsburgh looked good. Try to finish this dad's tripotes. Then they went on the road. They beat Montreal. The power play got going. Pittsburgh looked good. Tried to finish this dad trip off with

a big win on the road. I actually gave out the pens as a pick on my appearance on game notes. That was an ugly pick for Saturday. They got blown out. That's a booing you got to just kind of chuckle at. I mean, Dubas, everything kind of ended. I don't think we'll ever get the real story on what

happened with him and Brendan Shanahan and how they decided to moveahan and how they decided i heard the rumor was what is he is he wanted to remove marner i've heard that rumor too and he wanted to move marner and shanahan said no way and that was the beginning of it now that's rumor boys talk right there but to hear a gm just do best just giving it to him in the second and third. That had to be tough, sitting in the box, watching a team who looks really good lately, who if they get goaltending, could go on a run. You never know with the Leafs. And then your team has just been so inconsistent, has had such a tough start to the year. You're sitting outside the playoffs right now. You got Crosby with 17 goals, lighting up this league. You got no secondary scoring. You got Crosby with 17 goals lighting up this league. You got no secondary scoring. You got nothing going on the power play until the past two games. And you're getting just ridiculed by the fan base that you were the head of for a few years. So pretty interesting. And that's a booing where you're like, whether you agree with it or not, it's pretty funny. I mean, that's a fan base just going at a former employee of the team that isn't there anymore and just enjoying their drumming of your new club as you sit in the building and have to watch it i

was surprised i wasn't watching the game completely because i was out were they were they panning to him on camera on the broadcast i from the clips that i saw yeah oh okay okay that's oh yeah that's tough that's it you know the camera's gonna be be on you and you just try to sit there stone-faced like, I'm so mad, I'm so mad, I'm so mad, but I'm not going to react. I know we're going to be going to Boucher Grasse. I just want to talk. So Matthew's 23 tucks on the year. Now he's actually at a goal rate that's better,

at a better pace to beat Wayne Gretzky than what Ovechkin was at the time. So he surpassed that at the start of the year. I think he was a little bit behind. So his first goal of the year ended up being the 300th of his career. So right now he's at 322. But, I mean, Butcher Gross,

and we're going to be talking to him, he kind of started that conversation sooner rather than later. I think he started talking about it around this time in Matthew's career when Ovechkin was around that age. I think that there's a high chance that Matthews ends up being the highest goal scorer of all time. He is a freak in the gym.

The way that the game's evolved kind of protects these types of players. He doesn't play nearly as physical as Ovechkin did. So as far as his body holding up, people do say he's been injured a lot more than what Ovi was, especially early on. But I think that there's a high probability that Matthews ends up breaking the overall goal record. So my buddy, my buddy Bunzo, he's actually brothers-in-law with Chris Drury.

He was at the game at MSG when Toronto put a beating on the Rangers. He had never seen Matthews play. He told me, he's like, I had one, no idea how big he was. Oh, he's a monster. And two, he is so dynamic and powerful and dominant out there. He's kind of a player, once you see him in person for the first time,

you're like, holy shit. You're just like, I didn't... I think the size is the major factor, but then the speed, how smooth he is, and the release. Yeah, I mean, if he goes on, if he continues on this run, I mean, the crazy thing is I was reading something that his goals expected. He should have even more goals. Like, I think the way he's played this year, MVP-type performance,

just so dominating when he's out there, and defensively, like, maybe a lot better than people give him credit for. And so just a world-class goal scorer. The shot and then the poise around the net. And then what happens? What is the term that you use for somehow great goal scorers and great players? The puck just finds them. The tying goal against Columbus, right?

He's always in the right spot. He finds open eyes. Same thing against Montreal at the beginning of the year, first game. He's always that guy to tie it up late and people think that's like luck and I guess sometimes it is but guys who the puck always finds like that's not complete luck like they know where to be they know the soft spots

and obviously he plays with some incredible players that are able to find them and it is an amazing thing to watch that guy play hockey he is something else. Hey Biz do you know where that chant started the sing sing-song thing? Daryl, Daryl. Do you know why?

I don't even know what you're talking about with Daryl. No, well, that's the first time that chant was done. It was 1986 World Series. Then the Fenway fans started chanting that Daryl Strawberry. Daryl, Daryl. And then that's literally the first time it happened, and it's become, obviously, a crowd thing. You think that's the first time ever i yeah i i don't remember i don't

like cam neely was the first ever power forward oh yeah people people really fucking took that one and ran with it holy shit i can it's not what i should bust my balls you know but everyone was like oh you dumb you never heard it like this guy that guy was like oh well i i mentioned gordie how you you didn't do a great job explaining that the term power forward was what began with neely i think oh i thought i pretty clear with it but either way uh biz you mentioned buchigras i think probably a great time to send it over to him uh i believe his third visit just an awesome guy to talk to with anything especially hockey so without further ado we're gonna send it over to Bucci. This interview is brought to you by Chevy. Chevy is working to make charging simple.

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I think it's more so that it's just an unreal ride. But either way, I like seeing them out there. The energy assist feature intelligently plans your routes, tells you where and how long to charge up, and gives you real-time data about charging station availability. There are three different home charging levels available. Chevy electric vehicles offer great options for charging, all of them as simple as plugging in your smartphone. Learn more at chevy.com slash electric. That's chevy.com slash electric. Well, we're very happy to bring back this friend of the program for his third appearance on the show.

You've been watching him on ESPN for the last 27 years from NHL tonight to doing play by play these days. When you think NHL on ESPN, you think of this guy. It's great to welcome back to the Spitting Chickens podcast. John Bucciagras. How the hell are you, Booch? Boys, good to see you. Thanks for all you do for the game hey you look unbelievable like what are you fucking taking right now for like supplements and

shit i gotta get on your program it's a filter it's old man ripped filter is it's on the new iphone fuck off what are you actually doing like give me what your like daily or weekly routine is right now i eat eggs fish and steak and i drink bourbon and that's any snaps on people on twitter who say steak's bad for you oh yeah i love i love a good steak so so what what would you consider that like a keto based diet yeah i don't really give it a name because i do like carbs too i'll smash some parm and some pasta my body likes my body likes carbs. I actually, I'm actually on an oatmeal kick right now in the morning, pounding some oatmeal as well. So, you know, did you listen to that long distance runner? Is that why you started doing that? The guy who like set the record for like the, uh, the quickest marathon.

Yeah. I read a lot of stuff. I went to probably heavy, high fat, no carb for a while. And that's not good for me because i'm a hard it's tough for me to gain weight i know people hate to hear that so uh yeah i i don't i just got to keep it simple with eggs fish meat and then you know once in a while some pasta and carbs and baked potatoes and tell you yeah i bet you these other guys like geez we kind of went off the rails go through your workout plan together no no time out i think that listeners once in a while like when we get off the rails and talk about different things and i think that diet especially as you get older and the way that it helps our fucking brain operate we were actually talking about flossing and gut health

last podcast as well and what did you think flossing is really important for your gut health because what about your brain health well, because the stuff gets in your mouth and it rots between your teeth. Then you swallow the juices and then it goes up to your brain and you end up like biz. We can't have that. You told me that last week.

I love it, buddy. I love how you fucking chirped me. And that's probably the reason we got you on for the third time. And you were pretty opinionated on the hitting situation. And that was an inflammatory thing that Tort said. It caught wind. third time and uh you were uh you're pretty opinionated on the the hitting situation and that was an inflammatory thing that that tort said it caught wind i tend to agree with him and then

you disagreed and i i wanted to get you want to get your opinion along with all this other stuff you have going on in the hockey world well the body checking thing as you know right now uh usa hockey it's 13 years old is when you start one of my oldest kid, Brett started back in the late nineties playing hockey, it was 11. And then when my youngest son, Jack, that's him up there. Yeah. They changed it to 13, which I'm glad for him because he was 54 pounds, you know, when he was 11 years old and he was playing against kids who are 140 pounds, three times his body weight. years old. And he was playing against kids who are 140 pounds, three times his body weight. So I just, I, kids like his late bloomers, like him quit hockey at that stage. Cause they,

they don't want to get pounded into the boards by some over hormonal kid with a maniac parent and a maniac coach. So, you know, and those are the years where kids brains aren't fully formed. They're just not fully formed. I mean, if we waited to give kids driver's license from 16 to 18, you know how many fewer accidents there would be? Imagine letting kids drive at 14, 15. You know, their brains aren't ready yet, especially boys. And certainly teach body contact starting at eight years old. Teach angling. Teach winning pucks. That's the big thing. If you teach winning pucks and angling, you'll have – like the women's game, right? The women's game is a pretty physical game, but there's not blow-up body checks to the head area. And I just think – because Luke Hughes isn't aware of who's on the ice. We're going to affect Sparky there in Missouri, that 11-year-old. He's got to start hitting because Luke Hughes didn know half the way it was on the ice. to it because you're not going as fast and maybe the hits aren't as hard and even maybe starting sooner than than that from from the context standpoint and you also mentioned the women's game where there's a lot more of the riding out and less of the open ice hitting right angling

and winning pucks you could do that at eight years old you know shoulder to shoulder um go for the puck when in doubt go for the puck so basically oh sorry to interrupt you basically and there have some been some big hitters from sweden but overall when i think of sweden that's it taking the angle taking you out of the play easily without an enormous hit and getting out of position and like smart hockey in a sense yeah but cronwell definitely your head's down but that but that was a tactical play where he is blowing up the, uh, you know, the, the going up the, the, the breakout, he's blowing up the breakup play along the wall. And let's say, say intimidation's good for adults. And if you AAA hockey with these kids who are similar size and similar skills, and they have those ability to change directions better than

your average kid, I guess I was looking at the average kid more than a AAA, then maybe you can move it back to a pro during private hockey and things like that when they're 11 years old or even younger if you want. But with the lack of fully forward brains, with obviously the concussion issue, and we don't want kids quitting hockey. We want to have the kids a place to play. It's just amazing. When we need boys to keep playing hockey 14, 15, 16,

when temptations and things are going on, that's when we discard them. There's no place for them to play. And that's a little bit of a different issue. But a way to keep kids, especially boys, in the game and as long as they can to be a part of a team, have a social aspect to their lives, exercise, fitness that we talked about. I just want them to make sure they stay in the game and give them every reason to do that. talked about um i just want them to make sure they stay in the game and give them every reason to do that i wonder if there's maybe a like a separate league that you could create in order to do that and or do you think a solution is is implement the learning aspect at maybe an even younger age like maybe you start learning at seven eight nine years old and then as it goes on then implement it

maybe make certain games where they are contact in order to introduce them at a slower rate i guess i don't know i feel like there's got to be some happy ground like i say you can have body contact at eight you can have angling if you teach them angling and winning pucks first then that'll get them in the mindset of how to make proper body contact and then uh you know to get the puck because that's what you want them we're trying to you know there's a reason why you want to start golfing when you're young, take music lessons when you're young, learn a second language when you're young. That's when your brain is in those talent acquisition years, age 11,

you know, 10 to 13. That's when we can really learn things. And that's why we need, that's why they realize USA hockey in Sweden, they're playing four, they're practicing four times and playing twice. In America, we play four times and practice twice because mom and dad want to be out there screaming Sparky on for the victory. And so that's why you said practice, we can teach these things. We can angle, wind pucks, and slowly a little more contact, a little more contact. And always play with your head up and

teach that and drive that home. Then when you're 13 years old, most kids are post-puberty. Not everyone still, but most are kind of at least have that chance to protect themselves, have the experience to see the ice, stick handle with your head up, and angle first and win pucks first, and then contact second and third. So when a 12-year-old with a full band tube buries you, at least you know it's going to be coming. He's got kids. He's got Copenhagen in his back pocket. I need that kid to

meet girls and booze to slow down on the ice. Yes. I want to bring up expansion. After Seattle came in, Bettman seemed to put a bow on that. There's going to be no expansion, but there's been a huge drumbeat around it. New Arena in Atlanta. Is the NHL going to expand again? How many teams? Do you think it's going to be no expansion, but there's been a huge drumbeat around it. New Arena Atlanta. Is the NHL going to

expand again? How many teams? Do you think it's going to happen or what? No doubt about it. A, it's an easy way for the owners to make money. It's a billion dollar entry fee now. They split that up 32 ways for the next team, and then 33 ways the team after that. It's just too

easy money right now. The professional sports team, there's scarcity, right? There's more people who can buy a team than there are teams. You know, since the pandemic, billionaires have tripled. There's a lot of people with billions of dollars and they want a sports team. So this is the time. And remember, there's only 25 teams in America for the NHL, you know, NHL. Major League Baseball, NBA, and football are all over 30 in America. The baseball only has the Blue Jays, and the NBA only and the diversity of those two cities offers. If the sport wants to get more diverse, then you probably want to go in diverse places. Then it'll happen because wherever hockey goes, it explodes. Youth hockey, beer league hockey, officials, everything, and now girls hockey. So it's just, it mushrooms. It happened in Columbus. It happened

in Pittsburgh with Mario, where NHL players are being produced. It happened in Texas, It happened in Pittsburgh with Mario, where NHL players are being produced. It happened in Texas, Blake Coleman from Plano, Texas. It happened in Florida, Gossespierre. So that'll happen if they built the right place in Atlanta and they have the right formula. Now it's a hard salary cap. Thrashers didn't have that when they entered the league. And Houston as well.

Those are two markets that come to mind right away. The middle of America, I think, still can have a market. Kansas City. Look at all those great USHL programs in Omaha and the D1 program, Sioux Falls, the Dakotas, that area of the world. St. Louis has it all to themselves. And we produce NHL players from there as well. So certainly, you see Houston.

You see Atlanta. You see Kansas City right smack dab in the middle. There's plenty. I think there's enough hockey players in the world. There's 6 billion people on this planet. We can find 100 more hockey players to field three teams. Do you think at all about the... I would be in favor.

It sounds crazy, but getting more hockey players more money, I'm in. I do think that there's times now where the regular season can be a little bit of a snore. And I'm wondering if you water it down even more, do you think it affects it that much? Or people wouldn't necessarily even know the difference? I just think, again, I think we're producing players at a faster rate than there's job openings.

And with the hard salary cap, we keep it very even. Look what a joke baseball is now. I mean, if you're a Pittsburgh Pirates fan, why would you buy a ticket or a t-shirt? There's no chance. The Dodgers just spent $700 million on a dude. You're done. Baseball is toast. Football, a little more even. Basketball, they got all kinds of luxury taxes and aprons and all kinds of stuff going on. So that's probably a little unfair too. But hockey right now is completely just. We have a very even league. And there's people want to go to games and people that want to own games and like i said with 25 markets in the

u.s and a country that continues to grow i just think we have room to grow and this is the time to do it booch uh going back to the atlanta thing like what do you make to people who say they don't deserve it because they couldn't sustain it twice already me and what do you make of the arizona situation where which to me another great market where if they can actually figure things out here i think it could thrive and you talk about the minor hockey program plenty of guys come out of here one being austin matthews no i believe in arizona they have to find the right spot for it like atlanta it's a car city like houston it's a car city. It's not a mass transit city, so it has to be in the right place. The Atlanta Flames sucked because back then when you joined the league, you were going to suck for 10 years whether you liked it or not.

Thrashers came in the league. Again, there was not a hard salary cap. The arena probably not in a great place as it turned out. They never got traction, and then boom, they leave. I just think if you look at the Braves now, this is the best place where the braves park has been they are thriving right now awesome ballpark great crowds loud crowds like atlanta again they always have that reputation not being a great sports town

so i just think it's such a big market it's in such a part of the country i mentioned the diversity um you know you got a little bit of a regional thing with carolina there maybe that could happen the florida teams i just i just think it's uh i i think it's it's worth another shot it's not my money i'm just gonna be some billionaires money so i don't care um but i i get it but they never had a fair shot i think you that's what's great about the expansion rules now it's like when you open up a star. If Starbucks knew that some brand new Starbucks on the corner of some hot spot in town has rats and drug deals and all kinds of shit going on, you would close that. You want that to succeed. We want the team to succeed. So we saw with Vegas, we saw with the Kraken, you make them good right away. It only benefits everybody, especially them.

You want to get them going because those places have an exaggerated amount of revenue because of the enthusiasm of the new team. And that only makes the pot bigger. That makes the cap go up. That makes the players richer. It also creates jobs. Look at us. We have jobs because of this industry. Sports is an important industry. It's not a flippant party fantasy thing. It produces jobs. It produces people pay their mortgages. They pay their tuitions because of this sport. And we can grow this sport and grow this industry, create jobs and, um, and give it another shot. If it's, I'll give it one more shot. Okay. So exactly. So Atlanta, so Atlanta over Houston, because of the roots that are already there. And because I'd want both to, you know, the East and West. Then you have a Western Conference team, you have

an Eastern Conference team. But if you're going to one at a time, I don't care what order you go. You probably do want to do Houston first. But then Salt Lake City is another great market. They're going to get a team. We know that. Him and Bettman, the owner, they love each other. And that's a cool part of the country. The Olympics are going to be there. We need

to have best on best. You know, you talked about the water down-down regular season. I get that. That's why we need more best on best. We need Olympics. We need a World Cup. We want Conor McDavid and Conor Bedard to play in a tournament and play for their country.

That's what we've lost. That's the one. I think Gary Bettman in the current front office has done an amazing job since he's become commissioner. He's grown the sport, the $6 billion sport. He took it to places people laughed at him, like Nashville and Columbus and Florida. But now,

that's the one failure is we didn't get the best on best juice. That's lighter fluid on a barbecue. That just gets it going. We see it with the World Cup. What was that dude played for France last year in the World Cup? What was his name? Belmar? Was it Belmar? No, the dude played for France last year in the World Cup? What was his name? Belmar.

Was it Belmar? No, the soccer player for France. Oh, Mbappe? Yeah, I never heard of him until I watched that final. I'd never heard. My radar is a little bit on the soccer, but I'd never heard of that guy, but I watched the final because it was messy. It was a World Cup final, and now I know who this guy is. There's people who don't know who Conor McDavid is

because they haven't watched him in the Olympics. Okay. That's fair. Before we dive into best on best one more question about the expansion fee. I know the new owner is going to pay a bill, a billion dollars that gets split up among all the current donors. Union president, Marty Walsh said, he's going to ask for some of that. Do you think that the owners are going to give any of this to the players? Is there any possibility that that happens? I think they should, I don't know what it is, a 2% tip. I don't know, like you tip your Uber driver. But I mean, if you're going to have some sort of a partnership, you can throw the guys a little bit of a bone. That is so much money. But again, their argument is we're taking the risk. We're the ones who are taking the risk

with this team in Atlanta, in Houston. And as owners, we take the risk every year in our franchise. Some of us make risk every year in our franchise. Some of us make these capital improvements on our arena. We might go a little bit of debt. And so, you know, we put these players in five-star hotels. We fly them around charter. We provide them with food. It's an expensive sport.

Once in a while, but of course, we know their franchise values are all skyrocketing. So they're making plenty of money. I think it's certainly worth the ask. I don't know what, you know, the history of the CBAs in our country with teachers and steelworkers and autoworkers, how that works. I'm sure that's where the lawyers come in. But it wouldn't be bad to throw the players a bone. I know the escrow thing would make me livid. I can't imagine losing that much of my paycheck because of something I didn't control. But it's worth a shot.

Marty, Marty, the one-man party. So with best on best, I have people from Kelowna, British Columbia, to Anaganish, Nova Scotia, coming at me for my take that the U.S. will be the favorites with our goaltending. Well, I think that you said that they would speed bag them. Then I walked it back.

Then I walked it back and I said, the days of Canada just owning us are over. Now, do you agree or are you still very scared of McDavid, Bedard, and Crosby? And McCarr. Well, I'd be scared of McDavid because right now he's 100% healthy again. And I watched him the other night. And I'm doing the Edmonton game Tuesday against Bedard the first Bedard McDavid game on ESPN plus thanks for subscribing um and so and he's an absolute

freak show again he's gonna blow away with the scoring title again the guy's getting three points a game it's unbelievable but um but no yeah America has the better goalies we have depth we're producing you know pretty much equal talent now it's kind of gone on for a little bit here um and so but canada has the pride factor that the u.s still doesn't quite have they have that that's a little secret sauce that canada has sweden has a little bit of it even the russians when they get together they're really into their country um and i know we have some pretty good patriots on team usa but i think that's if rank them, I think they're true patriotism. Probably because they've almost, you know, our country's, it's almost like you're a bad person if you're patriotic in America these last five years.

So I get that. It's like you're not allowed to be patriotic. And so that's part of it. But if they can, you know, Patrick Kane had that. He was the one guy who was really proud to play for America. And I would name him – whatever role he would have. He might be too old to play on the team. I'd hire him as assistant GM.

I'd hire him as a consultant or something. He's going. He's going to be at that Olympic Games. He's going to sell it to those kids. They look at him like a beacon. Whatever they do, Patrick Kane should be involved assistant GM whatever and uh and be involved with that team because he's the one guy who radiates red white and blue and I would say the two guys who'd be putting on the jersey that could kind

of provide that as well are the Kachuks I also great great call I feel like they're they're really embodying that right now especially with Kachuk going down to Florida and how he's able to control the mic he's like a WWE wrestler now for fuck's sakes the way he can work but uh yeah you must be flossing that's a great analysis a lot more lately yeah oh yeah all of it all of it with the toilet water get the tartar rinse yeah i just went to dennis for the first for the first time in eight years a couple weeks ago how How many cavities? Zero. Wow. So he's happy.

You're fucking buzzing right now. Do you want to talk more about that? You don't usually get cavities once you're older. Once you make a certain threshold, you don't get cavities. Yeah, I agree. I agree with that. All right, when's the last time you got a cavy? Oh, I mean, I got a root canal fucking a week and two weeks ago,

so I'll leave it at that. Actually, I did have I got a root canal fucking a week and two weeks ago, so I'll leave it at that. Actually, I did have another question. Where's your last cavity search? When's your last cavity search? Every time he goes to the airport. I plead the fifth. That's what I heard. Every fucking time, man.

The guy shows up with 50 milligrams of edible and wonders why he's getting the who. He doesn't think he's on a list yet he gets pretty much assaulted every time he flies. He is the list. Anyways, Butch, I know the Olympics coming up in a couple years. The arena construction, I don't know, is it a point of concern the arena's not done this year? It might not be

completed until like six to eight weeks before they start. Is this a legitimate area of concern or something that the league is concerned about? As far as the... The arena in Italy, it's not going to be finished. Yeah, I don't know, man. Yeah, I really haven't. I haven't dialed in on that, so I'm not sure. But that certainly would be nice.

I mean, like I said, we need to get that back again. And it has to be a part of the rotation. I know it's tough to shut down your business. I get it. And right in the middle, that was always Brian Burke's contention. And the Olympics was so shitty when it came to giving us video rights and things like that to help grow the game, grow the players. The IOC is the worst.

The worst. The worst of the worst. And so I get at some point you can't give away your product. It's so important for the Winter Olympics. We sell out those arenas. It's a huge revenue producer for the Olympic games. So they really should work and, you know, get into the 21st century and, and, you know, make it worth our, make it worth the NHL's while to,

to loan you these athletes for the, for the benefit of you, for the profit of you. So that I wanted to ask about that because I would say the one black eye that Bettman has on maybe his career is the lack of best on best, especially lately. I said it was more valuable for them to set up their own infrastructure from a best on best based on some of the things you just said, where the IOC and the Olympics isn't giving anything back to league yet. It's probably its most interesting product at the winter Olympics. So would you agree? Yeah. Yeah. That would you agree that they would be better off at least in the short term, trying to figure out

their own thing rather than look to the Olympics, even when it comes to Italy? Yeah. I mean, we had the world cup was a 2015, um, was 14 or 15. That was awesome. I was there. ESPN got that right in the middle of the NBC package. And that was pretty cool for us to get those rights and go up and do those games. And I thought it was really good. That North American team really kind of stole the show. And that was really cool. I'm not sure why they didn't build off that. I'm sure it made money.

Places were sold out. The tickets were expensive. The jerseys were bought. I'm not sure why they didn't build off that and continue that every two, three years. It's not that difficult. I think September is a great time to do it. I know Whitman remembers the World Cup and what that was for USA Hockey. It was in 1980, but that second World Cup with Mike Richter and that and Chuck and Garrett, that was huge. Again, that's lighter fluid. And that was just a huge

moment for hockey and the popularity of hockey in the 90s. And I don't know why we couldn't have built that off the last World Cup. But obviously, it wasn't a point of emphasis. Is there a storyline maybe in each conference or one that comes to mind when you're thinking of big-time surprises after 28, 30 games teams have played? Well, the one thing is kind of, as you know, the OV chase of Wayne, to me, is the biggest story in hockey these next two years right that's because you created it like nine years ago 14 years ago with 14 years ago was that when you first mentioned it this february it'll be 14 years when i wrote i scaled

out the article and i went back i looked at it because i projected obviously all his goal totals up until the age of 40 because you know playing to 40 is a very reasonable thing. So even now, I look back and I have him scoring – this was 14 years ago. I had him scoring 32 goals this year, which is about the best he's going to probably do. 28 next year and 27 the year after that. People were talking like he's going to keep scoring 40, 50 goals after last year, right? I figured at some point he's going to. So even if he just gets 32 this year, then 28 and 27, that's 914 goals. He's going to break the record by 20, just with 32, 28, 27.

He's unlucky right now. Shooting percentage is down. But I just look at him. He looks disinterested. He looks real slow. And to me, it's more disinterested. He's not fighting to get to a place. I watched Kucherov last night.

That dude is sprinting to get in a shooting position. Oh, he leads the league in goals. What a shocker. Like, you've got to work to get open. And Ovi's just at the bus stop, you know, waiting for the one-timer. I call – Ovi at the bus stop, straight-legged, just waiting for it. And, you know, maybe he's still trying to figure out his game. Maybe he's got a little injury.

Maybe the new coach, you know, he can be sensitive to a new coach. Maybe he's trying to figure it out. But so we'll see what, you know, but again, there's a lot of players off to a slow start. He's got as many goals as Jamie Ben and Timo Meyer. And,

you know, you get more goals and then Kachuk, then Brady Kachuk. I think, I think he needs a trip back to Russia. Hit the old gas up. What do you think boys? Yeah.

Just a little multivitamin. He'll be fine. That's what I'm saying. Just get the multivitamin pack. Get him whatever whatever dolman was taking he'll be right back to business but i think the big story is the evenness of the league the flat cap yeah has made this sport so even right now um you know usually you could usually like six you can see six teams win the cup i wonder if we're up to 12 now, you can see 12 win the cup. I agree.

Just because, you know, it's been so hard for Edmonton and McDavid. You know, they've had a flat cap. So whenever guys are due, they got to give them away. Yamamoto, give them away. Koston, a real player. Can't do anything with them. Just take them off our hands. You know, they can't even get anything for them because guys are due raises and that cap has been staying the same.

So it's made the league so tight. This is tough putting you on the spot, but so we're going up $4.5-ish million next year, right around there. Would you hope within three years, maybe five years, it'd be up, say, like $15-20

million from right now? Or is that over kind of ranging it? Well, you would need expansion in terms of creating more revenue in the pot, right, from two new teams, whatever Seattle and Las Vegas provided. The next TV deal is up soon, as Biz knows. Not that soon. It's a seven-year deal, so we're still four more years to go. But two years out, maybe an extension.

What are those rights fees going to be? It seems like sports might be going the other way now outside of football you know that NASCAR didn't do as well as they thought I think the NBA was expecting everybody to be at their feet looks like maybe that's not going to be as big as they thought you know so it it's interesting you wonder if that tide will ever turn. We see that, you know, streaming, the cord continues to be cut. The regional situation with some of these regional sports networks is TV and rights fees going the other way. So that's something I think if you're an NHL fan or you're buying NHL stock or certainly you're a player, that's an unknown. It's a big unknown.

I think it's going the other way, And that's why I think Cuban sold. I think he knows when to get out. He knows when to buy high. He knows when to buy high. Yeah. I think the youth not watching games and watching highlights is the main factor in all of that. I think younger kids do not watch full games,

no matter the sport. Maybe football is different, but highlights is what kids watch. And that is why it'll probably be change where you see like, you know, the packages in the morning, those those viewership numbers going crazy in the viewership of actual games until you get to the playoffs probably going down. I would still think come playoff time, a lot of people will be watching the NHL, though. Agree that it is. We are built for long, regular seasons. I agree that it is. We are built for long, regular seasons. No sports been in. That's why football works so well. Once a week for three months. It's perfect. But baseball every day, hockey, you know, all these games. I watch them all. But I know, like you said, the kids don't. And what happens when we need these kids, when these 18 year old kids, when they turn 30 and we need them to buy $150 ticket to go to a hockey game. Are they going to do that? Are they still going to have that need that we had, that passion to get to drive to Hartford and go see a Whaler-Bruin game, scrap up some money, park downtown, get to the game? That was like you had to do it. You had no choice. I don't know if these kids now, these 16 to 22-year-olds,

they really want to drive and go see a game. Now, luckily, the women's audience has grown, and they are hockey fans and they might help keep it going and keep it at least where it is. You want to at least stay like this. You just don't want to go down. Football is the only sport that seems to be growing, but golf seems to be in trouble. Some of these niche sports, you just wonder if it's just going to become more and more top heavy with salaries and teams and interest. Butch, another issue with the TV, and I get Twitter comments all the time. I've kind of been leading the drumbeat myself. We've seen changes at the RSNs, the regional sports networks, teams offering their own services now like Vegas has. I think these blackouts,

they just cut the league off at the knees. You're killing any customer support you could get. Are we going to ever see an end to blackouts or just some change? A guy in Montana isn't blacked out from seven different teams because he lives in Montana. It's ridiculous. It really is. This is something that should be so easy to fix. You don't want to turn off customers, especially nowadays with all the competition that's out there.

It makes little sense. I can't believe that. If anybody's going to go to a game, they're going to go to a game. The fact that a game is on TV, that's been going on for 50 years. If they want a night out and go to a game and have a dinner and have a couple of beers, they're going to do it. The game's on everywhere. It's on their screen. It's completely everywhere, omnipresent. And so there's a screen everywhere you go. So yeah, they got to fix that right away. It's so easy. It's so, like you said, some of these are so implausible. I get you want to protect Nesson for the people

who get ESPN Plus. And okay, I guess if you get ESPN Plus in Boston, you got to protect Nesson for the people who get ESPN plus. And okay, I guess if you get ESPN plus in Boston, you got to watch Nesson. It's going to be blacked out. But even that it's like, well, who cares where they watch it? If they're watching, it's still Nesson, still their commercials, still Jack Edwards. It's still, you know, in-game commercials. Don't you want more eyeballs on that as much as you can get? So I would think, again, that's a part of it. Some parts of the league is a little antiquated, and they need to really tighten that stuff up and really get young and aggressive in those areas.

I was going to ask you about, of course, we talked about the growth of hockey in the U.S., and you've been beating the college hockey drum for a long time. Now you have the responsibility of the NHL. But who are the teams you like? Why do you think the growth of college hockey has been so crazy, especially in the last, what, four or five years?

I want to feel like it's doubled in size from a viewership perspective. Just what are your thoughts on where it's at in college hockey? When I was named Frozen Four, dude, back in 2012, part of my thing was going on Twitter and doing rankings and stuff just because I wanted to make sure when I got to the Frozen Four, I knew the narrative of a season. I followed the season. So rankings make me do my homework every week. And so when I get there, I got a good idea of what's going on.

That just felt like the athletes were sold short when we got to the Frozen Four. The announcers memorized three or four players. They didn't know the whole teams. They didn't know how they got there. So I want to give the sport the proper respect for the student athletes so when mom and dad back in hibby minnesota are watching their kid in an ncaa regional game he's the third defenseman or the sixth defenseman on the third pair he's going to hear his name said i'm going to say his name everybody's getting their name said that was my primary goal when i became the voice of the frozen

four plus it was hard to find games back then on tv it was hard to find games back then on TV. It was hard to find games that were in high definition. I mean, first it was just standard death, you know, it was crappy broadcast. And so slowly the big 10, I know hot, uh,

hardcore college hockey fans hate the big 10. They felt like it ruined college hockey. It grew college hockey. They put games on, they put games on television, these big high profile teams with these great brands in the Midwest with these 60,000 people enrollments, students, 50,000, 60,000, 70,000 at Ohio State and all these big schools. And they forced Hockey East, they forced other conferences to put their games on television. Now you can watch ESPN Plus has every Boston College game, every BU game.

You can watch Macklin Celebrini play every game. Will Smith play every game. Will Smith play every game. Ryan Leonard play every game. Couldn't do that before. So that's why the game has grown. Media, and that's advertising. That's what we talk about already, about not blacking out games. You're advertising your sport.

You want eyeballs to see it. You want to make it easy, not difficult, because there's so many options nowadays. So that's a big reason why I think just the television aspect and the screen aspect of growing the game. And, and it's, it's a great game right now. A third of the NHL comes from college, the blue buds, you know, the blue bloods are back again. Now Boston college in Wisconsin and BU and Michigan state Sparty's back, you know, North Dakota. Maine, how about Maine? They're, they're number seven on my, on my Bucci Maine college hockey rankings, Michigan, Minnesota right now off a bit of a slow start, but they could pop up anytime. Maine how about Maine they're they're number seven on my on my Bucci Maine college hockey rankings

Michigan Minnesota right now off a bit of a slow start but they could pop up anytime so and of course Quinnipiac shows you know the the growth of college hockey where they can win a national championship um which is was unthinkable 10-15 years ago so you get 18 scholarships everybody gets 18 scholarships anybody can be good if they commit to it get the right coach and get the right vision and and that's what Quinnipiac did Quinnipiac's like the kid with the chew in his Everybody gets 18 scholarships. Anybody can be good if they commit to it and get the right coach and get the right vision. And that's what Quinnipiac did. Quinnipiac's like the kid with the chew in his back pocket playing against your 13-year-old. That's what I consider the Quinnipiac.

They have a 401k plan. Yeah, Quinnipiac, they have 401k plans and pensions by the time they are in the matting. Exactly. What's your favorite barn atmosphere? I think Yost is still the best rink. What they did with Yost how intimate it's the old field house look even the old windows up there the old field house and uh that's just and they're you're right on top of you it's a boston old school boston garden vertical type of seating

deal where they're right on top of you some of the newer barns actually are you know and of course north dakota is a great barn as well but and may may is another old school old field barn right bu it's kind of you know it's just you can see you can see sting in concert there and you can go see bu play hockey but there's not there's not a lot of character there so but as they built that next generation notre dame was an awesome rink teams will copy off notre dame and and build these small intimate i'm doing a game in yukon, actually, on New Year's Eve with Andrew Raycroft, UConn Hartford. So that's a real small 3,000

seat rink. I'm looking forward to seeing that. I haven't seen it yet. What about Noah's Ark at Yale? My son, Jack, played his last high school hockey game there. State semifinals in 2017, and that's a really cool place. Yeah, the upside-down ship there. Noah's Ark, good call. It's the upside-down ship there. Good call.

It's awesome. Yeah. Our producer slash college correspondent, Mike Grinelli, wants to jump on. He's got a few rapid-fire questions for you. Oh, yeah, here we got five questions for you. It's going to be awesome. Well, I couldn't agree more about your Big Ten point. I think next up is the schools out west, the USC's, UCLA's, the Oregon's.

Then they go down south to the SEC, get Alabama, LSU, Clemson in the mix. I think that would be awesome. But I got five rapid questions for you. Best jersey in college hockey. Well, I love this Sparty one they rolled out this weekend. It's like a cartoon logo. Tough to beat the cartoon logos. That's something right there.

And I mean, when BC, there's a couple of theirs where that eagle, where the whites is really fresh. Although their font's too small and their numbers are too small. Sorry, Will. Talk to pick against Maine, too. Maine's got a nice font. I like Maine's. That's mine.

Beautiful. Blue and blue, yeah. Best coach in college hockey, Boots. Man, there's some definitely. I was pushing for Jim Montgomery when he was at Denver, saying he could be in the NHL. Scott Sandlin could coach in the NHL. Nate Lehman could coach in the NHL tomorrow.

Rand Peckdall, again, he starred in a broom closet in Quinnipiac. And he'd been in three Frozen Fours in the last three championship games in the last 10 years. That takes vision and a message and an ability to connect with people. And he has it too. So, yeah, again, just like... And a grandfather. And a grandfather. There's too many players.

There's too many coaches for coaching jobs, individual and hockey. I mean, there's so many qualified people. Best player in college hockey. And I'll say this. I went and saw Cutter Gauthier the other night. He is NHL ready right now. He's a man.

He could have been playing for the Flyers this year. I'm glad he went back one more year and played this March and then maybe play a couple of American League games in April and then in the playoffs or something, and then play for the Flyers next year. But I just look at, you know, and Will Smith looks like he's going to be, he's got a one-timer, he can shoot it. But I just see Macklin Celebrini as a 17-year-old.

What he's doing, he's going to be 17 the entire year. I just love how he plays the game with a recklessness and an aggressiveness. I see too many college kids think too much, maybe because the coach, they worry about playing time and they don't play kind of abandoned. The way he can play with speed and shoot it. I just love his spirit. He'll be the first pick in the draft next year. And I'm going to, I think he's a great chance for the Hobie this year. Who would you compare that recklessness to? I felt like Taylor Hall, maybe early on and the way that he would go to the blue paint is maybe a comparison i mean i felt like mcdavid he would still go to the fucking paint hard that's where i look at mcdavid just a guy who's has that wide stance he goes hard he

shoots he plays fast he can play really fast hate to compare anybody to mcdavid because he could go down to the best ever in terms of skating but yeah i just love his love his confidence and swagger. He's been, obviously, he's been around professional sports his whole life. His dad works with the Golden State Warriors. So those guys have such an advantage. We see with the Kachuks that you talked about, they have an advanced, so many of the little things, the nuances, they have such an advanced cerebral

and mental game that if they have the physical stuff, they're ready to hit the ground running. I just got two more. Next big school to get D1 hockey. I know you're a big club hockey guy. So what do you think? Well, right before the pandemic, I had it from a great source

that Illinois is going to make the announcement. Chicago's been a great hockey city with the Blackhawks. They've been there forever. There's Northwestern. That's a great hockey school, right? 18 scholarships. It produces revenue.

You make money with college hockey because you sell out the barn at a decent price. And so I don't understand why Northwestern and Illinois don't have hockey yet. You mentioned the West. That's really, if we can ever get those. And really, the SEC has hockey now. It's club hockey, but they pack rinks. They have a huge following. Again, I'm surprised they haven't jumped on that bandwagon as well because it pays for itself. It does produce revenue, unlike so many college sports who don't. And football basically pays for the whole thing.

And last one here, what is the best tradition in college hockey? As you know, it's a very tradition-heavy sport. That is. Well, what fish do they throw out on UNH? Is that a strike bass they throw out there on the ice? I know they throw a big fish up at UNH. I don't know if it's a cod or not. It doesn't look like a cod, but it could be a cod.

I love cod, as you know. It's R.A.'s goldfish. It's a three-eyed fish from a river in New Hampshire near a radio bowl that stays there all year round. It's a Zip Lock. Springfield power plant. It's off the Port-A-Johns right to the river and you get a three-eyed fish.

Hey, one thing I love about you, Booch, Zip lock. Springfield power plant. That's the Port-A-Johns right to the river. He gets three-eyed fish. Oh, geez. Hey, one thing I love about you, Booch, is you're not trying to throw out the random trade proposal. Love it. You're a bit chaotic with it. You get the fan bases going. So I think your latest one was Allmark for R&H or one of your bigger ones.

Well, no, I actually had Allmark. It wasn't our nature. It was somebody else, but definitely when, when, when, yeah, when the Bruins had cap issues and Omar coming off his season, that's not a better time to trade them. Right. And I forget who it was. I think it was, yeah, it wasn't him. I forget who it was, but actually I was thinking about this today. Can you imagine like, just from a stock, these players are stocks like Marshan to Toronto. Okay. For knee Lander. And I think I, I think I try to make it bigger because if there's one guy Toronto needs, from a stock these players are stocks like marshan to toronto okay for kneelander i think i i think i

try to make it bigger because if there's one guy toronto needs it's marshan right five years from now marshan is not going to be in the nhl and kneelander is going to still be pumping in 100 points right so in terms of long term it makes sense for the bruins and maple leaves to do something to give toronto but the problem is the Bruins can still get to the Stanley Cup finals this year. They have that kind of team. So you wouldn't do it. But just because of the age of Marchand, what kind of player he is, what Toronto needs.

Can you imagine Brad Marchand in Toronto? That would take over the league. I don't think he would ever put on another jersey. I don't. Yeah. Again. Yeah. And I'm sure he would.

He's going to play and score in the first game six years from now and motherfuck you with the postgame press conference. Oh, yeah. He's going to play and score in the first game six years from now and motherfuck you in the post-game press conference. Oh, yeah, he's going to have the clipping. This is all because of John Bucciagras. Five years ago said I'd be out of the league. Oh, speaking of Nylander, or was it Nylander you said? You said him to the Blackhawks. You think that's going to happen or potentially?

He's going to a big American city. He's going to sign probably either LA or New York. Those are like Suck it, Biz. Don't fucking break my heart. He's coming to America. Sorry. No, he's not. It's four and a half million. He seems very sure of himself, Biz. I'd be panicked. Have you been talking to his old man or something? He can't have four

guys making 12 million, Biz. Thank you, Bucci. Thank you. You already have three guys making 12 million. That's why I trade Marner. That's what I would do. I would keep Nylander. Yes. I'd trade Marner.

I'm going to see if Tree can make it work. My Allmark trade was a bigger trade. It was like Allmark, DeBrusque, Patra, and a number one for Leon. That was the trade. That's what it was. Whew. Like, you know, I mean, something to think about, right? And Edmonton people were, no, no, no, no.

Ed Mitchell had to throw in Fogle just for the cap purposes because he's 3.7 and he's close. But Fogle is like a poor man's DeBrusque. Fogle's actually flying right now like Duke and Skate. And DeBrusque isn't scoring. They're actually close to even. But DeBrusque, that was like an interesting because Patra's stock would never be higher.

The Bruins thinks he's a Hall of Famer. He's the next guy so um maybe some other gm will think that too but that was my when they were struggling that's no i i i love it um am i crazy or we not brought up the espn frozen frenzy we haven't yet oh my god what a night holy shit i go this year when i do games at least one person says that that Frozen Frenzy was awesome. It's like the biggest reaction I've gotten in my 27 years at ESPN. That's awesome. Nice.

That one, I wrote the column back in the day when Whit came up to me in Florida and said, I don't understand why you don't. I guess you're very busy, but that column once every two weeks. It was every week. No, I'm saying if you brought it back now, he did a great job. But anyway, yeah the frozen frenzy has been yes that was amazing like i said just the goodwill espn is not used to getting goodwill so for people to say that how much they

loved it and again i was skeptical going i go i don't think he's going to be as good as people think they're really excited about this well i mean we go to a game nothing could happen it's not like a you know red zone you get in the red zone something's going to happen either team's going to score or team's going to stop them right one or the other we're like if i go somewhere what if nothing happens for five minutes but man i just i knew going in because we went on the air at seven and it was like 10 o'clock and it felt like 15 minutes when you're doing tv and it goes fast. That's good TV. Like you think you're,

you just started, you were there for three hours because it just didn't stop. So I was pumped. The league was pumped. They were there and, uh, it went well. And my sources tell me we're going to do another one this year.

Fucking right. It's booch. I was wondering if going into next year, cause the next one will be a huge hit as well. Yep. Once a month, I realize, too much. But what about four a year? Or is it actually really hard to do?

No, like you said, as long as you have, you need 12. You don't have to have 15. Not everybody has to play. It was nice that night everybody played, and they staggered the starts. You kind of need that help from the league, too. So, like you said, four nights a year. Why aren't they doing that anyways, Bucci? Well, because this is off the owners. They know they know hey my game needs to start at seven i owe

it to my season ticket holder that's when i get the most fans which is when i drink the most beer so i get it they they want their game but like you said four nights a year can you just kind of sacrifice and start your game at six and then start your game at maybe 8 30 you don't want to get as east coast game starting much more past 8 30 maybe eight and then help your game at maybe 8.30. You don't want to get as East Coast games starting much more past 8.30, maybe 8. And then help your West Coast. You know, you could do that because that made it. If we don't get staggered starts, it doesn't work. Maybe they could work it out to where they kind of make it a frozen frenzy,

but maybe do it more than once or four times a year with it. But they do similar to that tournament they did with the NBA to garner that interest where people won't really care about having to show up an hour earlier if it's this like fancier game or I don't know if you paint the boards a certain color or make the graphics on the boards different you make the jerseys different and kind of make it as this maybe this all-in season tournament throughout the year that doesn't add games that doesn't add games I'd rather a best on best though instead of the all-star game, right? Oh, you're saying just keep the schedule as it is, just like the NBA.

As it is, because I'm looking at what the NBA did, and I don't give a fuck about the NBA, but every time I watched the television, they had a funky court. I just found my eyes more drawn in. I cared more about the game. I can't tell you why, but neurologically, they got me. I don't know if I wasn't flossing as much those days. I don't know what the answer is, Booch, but they're selling more tickets. They're selling more

jerseys and they're getting the players more, um, invested emotionally because of the, the, the Uber tip you talked about. And maybe that's what you can do with that expansion money. We talked about just create a pot where players get a hundred grand a player if they won the winning team, but you're right. You could do an in-season thing with the frozen frenzy as a way to do that and create some sort of i don't know how many again i thought the in-season nba thing was a bit confusing i i didn't feel i watched a little bit of the game the championship game indiana and la i didn't feel that playoff tension and the post celebration was a little muted it was okay again these things time to grow, but at least they gave it a shot, right? I'm all for trying things.

If it doesn't work, just like rules, just try it. It doesn't work. Then they'll change it. Like with the shootout, let's go to seven minutes or let's go three on two. Let's talk about this. Let's go three on two for power plays. Let's, you know, let's try something. If it doesn't, if it doesn't work, it's like, oh boy, let's change it back.

You can change it mid season. If you realize after a month, three on two is a joke. But it'd be pretty cool to see people play three on two out there. I agree. Do you agree or disagree with my take that they should ban offside reviews and go back to old school? Guys make huge mistakes, but they also get lucky, get unlucky.

It's just the game. And it doesn't take away from the... Yes, you do? I agree, and I would just make it like they do now, 60 seconds to go, and overtime, there's no coach's challenges, right? It's all league mandated. So, yeah, minutes to go, someone

is 30 feet off sides, which happened in San Jose, right? That's what started the whole thing. Or say even three minutes to go. Three minutes to go in the game. Yeah, or five. Last TV timeout. After the last maybe, but again, with gambling now, and with all these sports buying in, if everything isn't, every

single second isn't dissected into being just and fair, and some guy who put money on the game, can he sue somebody or that linesman's in the tank, he just pocketed some, you know, that's what stinks about all the gambling stuff is that you, that's why these leagues are over the top on getting it right.

Outside of maybe the, the offside review, is there one rule that you would like to change? I mean, you just mentioned to take out the shootout longer three on three. Is there one like major rule change? Not really. I think the league's real and i don't like the fact that automatic when you flick the puck over the glass because it really a guy can it just can be brutal for a guy for that happened so unfair college

it's still the old rule where the it's on purpose they call you if not and they never call it because the guy very rarely does it on purpose i think chelly is the only guy who did it really ever did it on purpose back in the day it throw a hundred foot wrist shot right over the side of the glass you can kind of tell then right if it goes backwards and over pretty obvious yeah but anytime you try to chip it high off the glass that's a tough break but again it does make it easy and we want you know and the power plays and you get a chance to score but yeah overall i like the game maybe three on three you can you can try pond hockey and just have no offsides in ice scenes. Just play pond hockey. Give it a shot. I'd like to see the American League try that for maybe a month, a trial run in the American League to see how that works. That's what they did. That's what a great spot for the American League. That's where they did three on three. They realized, well, this is good. And so maybe that. But other than that, yeah, I think it's a great game. It looks great. It's fast. And I don't think it's ever been better. Boots, the Champions League over in Europe, they made some interesting changes. A penalty will still be served even if a goal is scored on the delayed penalty call. The penalized team will remain shorthanded even if the opponent scores like the NHL used to do before the Canadians changed the rule. And if a penalized team scores a shorthanded goal, the penalty ends.

Do you think we would ever see anything like this in the NHL in the next several years? I guess possible. But college, if there's a delayed penalty and you score, the guy still goes to the box. It's really cool. It's a chance to get two quick goals, right? You're down 3-1, bam, delayed penalty, goal, and they go in the power play.

That just creates excitement. We're in the entertainment excitement business. Anything that builds that drama, we would totally do. do and have a little bonus like that yeah you score a shorty the guy comes out that's pretty cool that's in would teams try i don't think they're going to try to score more goals because they're going to the first job is to kill the penalty um it would just be kind of a bonus i guess and um and if a guy elbows a guy he should probably serve the full two minutes right maybe there's those kinds of penalties there they wouldn't come out but again you could you could always you know obviously a major you probably wouldn't have that rule if you score a shorty he

comes out that probably wouldn't uh take place there but yeah i'm up for anything like that i like to try things we could always change it back nice but would you go to bourbon i didn't mention bourbon earlier uh yeah good ones i always say good ones. You don't have to spend a lot of money for a good bourbon. Buffalo Trace, Elijah Craig's, that's like my favorite bourbon. It's like 30 bucks at Luke's up the street here in Manomet. It's not expensive, but Angel's Envy, Basil Hayden. I like kind of a mid-90s, upper 90s proof, preferably weeded, weeded bourbon. And I went to Buffalo Trace after the draft in Nashville. I went down to one of those bourbon trails, Buffalo Trace. It was one of the best days of my life. It was just the coolest, most interesting. There's history, there's bourbon, there's a tasting. It's just, I was, it was an amazing day. If you're into bourbon, you haven't done the bourbon trail thing yet around Nashville. And there's a bunch of them. I highly recommend it. It was one of my favorite days it was just it was absolutely a plus that's

awesome and red breast 12 have you had red breast 12 yet already no i i haven't i just kind of got in the scotch pj stark sort of twisted it's an irish whiskey now i grew up with irish mist that stuff was rancid you know that's like straight turpentine but these irish whiskeys they've really improved them and red breast 12 it comes in a red box and it's it's like straight turpentine. But these Irish whiskeys, they've really improved them. And Red Breast 12, it comes in a red box, and it's unbelievably smooth. I highly recommend it. And it's a great gift. If you want to get a gift for somebody, like a thank you,

and you know they like the drink, it's a phenomenal thank you gift. You mentioned the Irish. Obviously, I know you have South Boston and Dorchester Roots. Were you a big Pogues guy? I know we lost Shane McGowan recently. A tremendous funeral the other day. I'm sure you caught it. What was your take on the pogues?

Yeah, absolutely. Absolutely. Yeah. Mom, mom and dad grew up in Southie. So I grew up with, you know,

heavily dad was Italian. So I kind of had, he was the only Italian in South Boston growing up in the forties. So he got his ass kicked every time, you know, if you were an Irish, he didn't like it, but my mom married Donovan.

Yeah. So I have a lot of, I got both sides of the tracks, but yeah, so all that, that Irish influence is really cool. I was going back and forth on Twitter today. People, you call it soda or do you call it pop? I go, well, in South Boston in the 80s and 90s, they called it tonic.

Tonic, right, yeah. You want a tonic? And then it wasn't a hoagie or a sub. It was a spucky. Spucky and soaky, yeah. Hey, John, you want a spucky? You want a tonic and a spucky, John? Spucky and tonic?

Spucky is shagging his head, yeah. Hey, John, you want a Spucky? You want a Charnick and a Spucky, John? Spucky and Charnick? Spucky is shagging his head. Let's go kick. Go catch some stripers. That's awesome. Spucky and a Charnick. Oh, keep going. No, I was just going to say, what games do you have coming up that you're excited?

I mean, I'm sure you love doing play-by-play no matter what, but any big-time matchups? That's when I feel most alive. I just love it being at the rink. I just, man, I love it. And then going on afterwards when I feel most alive. I just love it being at the rink. I just, man, I love it. And I go on afterwards, I have a nice little glass of brown with Ferraro or, or whoever I'm with is Ryan Callahan.

He likes to go hard with me. So we have a good time. Um, but I got Edmonton, you know, I got Edmonton and Bedard. I'm really looking forward to that on Tuesday. And then I got Edmonton against the Islanders the following Tuesday. I got my first OV versus Crosby game, January 2nd in Pittsburgh. I was born in downtown Pittsburgh. So to do an NHL game there is going to be a big deal to me. Got my first Bruin game in Boston. When I was a kid, I would listen to Bruins games on the

radio with my dad growing up in Pennsylvania and Ohio, not Ontario biz. And I would listen to Bob Wilson on Bruins radio. So to do an NHL game in Boston and that's against McDavid and Edmonton too. I've gotten six Edmonton games this year. So I just, every game to me is like I won a contest. It's just, I feel so alive. I love the rhythm of doing a game, coming down because I'm so intense and kind of have that empty feeling you get after a vacation or after a game, and then building up for the next game, you know,

watching every Blackhawk and Oiler game until I do my game, and then shift into the Islanders and this. And, okay, I got the Capitals in a month, so I better watch that game now. Where's Ferravari? Oh, there he is, 47. You want to be in tune. Because we know most of the people watching are fans of those two teams. That's awesome.

We got some other ones. So you want to be able to speak to those fans and respect their team, understand who's going, what the season's been like, and then offer maybe. And that's the cool thing about us. We can be more critical because obviously a lot of these broadcasters, they're employed by the team. Oh, yeah.

They don't like that. They got to send the PR. No, they got to send the PR message out. So I like, for us, being able to be more critical. I enjoy being that free agent broadcasting the game. I love it. Yeah, they go hardcore, some of these fans. Fuck, I was commenting on the Larkin situation with Joseph and Kelly, free agent broadcasting the game i love it yeah they go hardcore some of these fans they fuck i

i was commenting on the the larkin situation with joseph and kelly and i just gave my opinion on it and i i didn't think fans are animals oh man i didn't realize wings twitter i love them i'm on i'm gonna be fucking going yeah witness the most emotional game it's the most emotional game there is that's why that's why we have violent things that happen on the ice with the players it's like coaches getting arguments it's why fans are the way they are there's no sport that produces that absolute visceral animal quality in human beings than it's just and that it goes with it so you have to accept it and you do a great job biz as you you take that you don't take it personal which is how you have to accept it and you do a great job as you take it. You don't take it personal, which is how you have to do it. Sometimes maybe. Even when they call

him a big nose piece of shit scumbag, he's like, that wasn't meant towards me. That's why we have jobs. That passion is why we have a paycheck. I love it. Oh, I love him. Never squelch that. Never put that down. Who was your preseason cup pick and would you switch it now i don't know

who it was he's been stroking the kings it was colorado colorado was i thought that landis scott was eventually come back i thought they'd get their hunger back a long summer they still have mccarr mckinnon in their prime ranting ends of hall of famer uh for sure another hall of fame player and then but you know as it turns losing Kadri has been a huge thing. They haven't replaced Kadri. You've got to have that secondary center, almost three of them, right? They miss Comfort, too. JT Comfort is a guy they're going to miss him down the middle

as well come playoff time. That's why I like Detroit so much is they have four centers and they have a sniper on every line too to bring it Perron and even Sprong on that fourth line. He can finish from 30 feet away. You have four centers and one sniper on each line. I'm just worried about their D a little bit. I'm sure if Detroit has a playoff

D, I'm sure Steve is going to try to figure that out come trade deadline time. Watch for Edvinson as the season goes along. They're going right now. I'm telling you that they, I said McDavid is once again, extraterrestrial and maybe that, maybe that downtime is what they needed and that they're going to make a couple more moves. They're going to trade their number one pick.

They're going to get, they're going to make one more good move, whether it's a little more dynamic D man who can help with the skating or a guy in the third line who can pop in, you 25 30 so yeah i mean it'd be great for the sport but yeah i had colorado before the season and um and so we'll see what they do we'll see if you know the new gm could be as aggressive as joe sackett can pull off some of these miracle trades because they need to do something great points about edmonton it crushes my heart to hear it but i actually said edvinson a guy in the minors for Detroit as a defenseman. So he could get a look. He's playing awesome in the minors.

So maybe that guy's an option to come up. Again, 2021. Yeah, 2021. We'll see. But I think Stevie will do something. He's got some room. And that team's got a lot of stuff. I still don't think – again, they're part of that –

we've talked about the league being even. You can win any night and lose any night. There's just not that much difference, right? Every game. There just really isn't. The league is so even. Oh, Booj, I thought it was important to bring up Barry Melrose and the fact that, you know, he stepped away and you've been able to work with him

and just maybe reflecting on your time working with him and maybe one of your best Barry Melrose stories. I'm sure there's a ton of them. And everything I hear about the guy, he just was salt of the earth, unbelievable human being. No, just awful. Just really a tragedy for a guy that quick-witted back in the day. And everything I hear about the guy, he just was salt of the earth, unbelievable human being. No, just awful. Just really a tragedy for a guy that quick-witted back in the day.

There was no one had a quicker wit than Barry Melrose. Obviously, playing 300 games in the league and all those minor leagues and coaching, you learn, as you boys know in the room, you better get your brain sharp because you're going to get some stuff and you're going to be able to give it back. You're going to be able to take it. And if you're going to try to come back with a one-liner, it can't fall flat or the boys lose all respect for you, know your role. And so for Barry to bring that quick wit, you know, plus two handicap wit to ESPN and then bring it on television, just was amazing. So of all things to get Parkinson's that he was diagnosed

a couple of years ago, you know, he's worked these last couple of years after the diagnosis, we try, you know, we always try to put them in a position to win. There's no one who was nicer to the public, took every picture, signed every autograph. We'd walk into a restaurant, always with a jacket, you know, those boots and those jeans. And he'd walk, we'd walk across these steakhouses, the finest steakhouses in all the land. And everybody would stop and look, every man, every woman, every guy wanted to be him. Every woman wanted to be with them and just to be, be in his wake when the whole restaurant goes like this,

like even the people didn't know him. They're like, that's somebody, I don't know who that is. Now, some people didn't know who he was, but the people did like, that is somebody. And so just to be around that. And then again, in college, helping them out doing the college because you had to follow the NHL tonight. Just like kind of the big brother to me. And just to be around him was just so, just the best.

So yeah, it just makes me sad of all people to see that disease, which takes away your mind slowly. But I got a game in Tampa in mid-January, so I'm hoping to have dinner with him and his wife, Cindy. I checked on the other day. I checked with her first. And good days and bad days, right? Like we expect. We just hope it's a slow process and that he can really enjoy.

He's a young man, right? He's in mid-60s. He could have done this for 10 more years. He's got grandkids who he adores. So down there in St. Petersburg, Florida. And like I said, I'm looking forward to seeing him in a month. But thanks, Biz, for saying that. It's just – he's – you know, Charles Barkley called him the best analyst

on TV back in the day, and I know Barry got a big kick out of that because Charles was a big ESPN watcher and a hockey fan as well. So, yeah, we miss him, and it's not the same. And it's just. It's sad. You can't say anything other than that. You can't be fake and say it's not sad because it's sad. Hell of a tribute to your friend.

It's unbelievable. Thank you. Very well said. Boys, did you have any other stuff you want to ask? Any other items? Great hour, Booch. We appreciate your time. Just one more thing. It's kind of funny when we talk about the checking issue.

It's just so funny how hockey, right? How self-deprecating, I don't know what it is, but the fact that we called our kids, the different divisions, might squirt, peewee,

bantam, and midget. Like, what were we doing? What are we trying to tell these kids? Like any other sport, like basketball or football, like the mites would be shorties,

right? Squirt, there'll be, you're the little Kings, peewe sport, like basketball or football, like the Mites would be shorties, right? Squirt, they'll be, you're the little kings. Pee-wee, you're ballers. Phantoms, you're dogs, right? We're calling them midgets and pee-wee and squirt. Squirty. Let's build up our kids. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Vince loves the squirts.

The flight attendant. Oh, she's back. Oh, she's back. Oh, my God.. Oh my God. But we, we, but also, also loved your perspective on it.

And it's made me change my thinking a little bit. Cause you've had a kid who's been through it. So I appreciate your insight. I love it. It was a happy medium for sure. I'm sorry. We didn't ask you about. I'm sorry.

We didn't ask you about. I'm sorry. We didn't ask you about any chicky poos like we did Delzato, but maybe I will say that for the next one. Okay. Send me a text, Biz. We'll talk about it there. Okay.

Deal, deal, deal. That's awesome. Thanks so much, Booch. This is awesome. Okay, before we go any further, here's a few words from our friends over at Stacker 2 Energy. Loud, aggressive, and straight out of the attitude era, Okay, before we go any further, here's a few words from our friends over at Stacker 2 Energy. Loud, aggressive, and straight out of the attitude era, Stacker 2 is an OG in the energy and supplement space.

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To enter, simply go to stacker2.com slash Boswell. Again, that's the number two. Make a purchase online, take a screenshot of your receipt, and tweet us the photo with the hashtag bite back for a chance to win big thanks for buchi to jumping on with us always a great chat talking hockey with him uh speaking of skilled guys we talked about with david earlier duty i guess the nhl consulted him as far as the skills competition this year they're going to be doing some things different uh they're only going to have 12 guys in the skills competition uh variety of events but

there's a million dollar fucking purse this year with that's pretty wild huh these guys are going to be pretty competitive about time they did this i absolutely love this and and last year was kind of like the final straw i think for a lot of fans and and i understand they were trying to just make it interesting and and kind of crazy in florida with the dunk tank and i think brady kachuk was sitting in a in a beach chair but it was it was kind of a clown show, in my opinion. It was a little bit like, what are we doing? And now all of a sudden, you decide to pick 12 guys and boom, you got the eight events, you got a money prize, everyone's going on. I mean, a million bucks, dude, that's legit. And so you know now guys

are going to be all into it. They're going to be doing whatever they can. And I think it just creates some competitiveness, which is exactly what All-Star Weekend's lacked. I know that's a really hard thing to get guys to care. It's a physical, long season. So you get this break and you just want to chill, chuck some sauce and enjoy the weekend. But now at least Friday night before the game, it's going to be action-packed. You're going to see the best players in the world doing some pretty incredible skills. I believe the last one, I think they said maybe, I might be messing this up, like the top eight after the first few events will go into one final event that'll have all in one. So you'll see the best players having to do some pretty incredible things, playing for a big prize.

And I think it's going to be honestly must-watch TV, considering what the past few years in the All-Star Games turned into. So I can't wait for that. And I think it's a, it's a dynamite move by the league. Yeah, I agree. I just don't like, what are the other players do to sit around with their fucking thumb up their ass? Like, it's just so bizarre, only 12 guys. So they fly out there and then like those other guys maybe get like a couple three on three games. Like, I don't know. It's just, that's like the only, the only thing. And then apparently the players that are selected this year, they won't play next year in that skills competition. So it's like you get this year and then you don't get next year.

How do you? Yeah. So it basically goes, it's like I think the league ends up picking about eight guys or maybe, what's the number of guys that end up being voted in? No, but some get voted in and then some are, or maybe, maybe what's the number of guys that are end up being voted in? No, but there's some get voted in and then some are picked by the league. Yeah. The first eight players, I'm sorry, first eight players determined by hockey ops department and the NHLPA and the fans voted in the final four. So, so, you know, I'm guessing they're hoping that like, so is Dreisaitl not going to get voted in or, or, or not get picked and then has and then they have to hope that he gets voted in

where maybe there's other markets? So what if you have 12 guys and Dreisaitl's not one of the 12 guys? See, I don't think that's that big of a deal because whoever the 12 guys are are going to be superstars, dude. So if you don't have Leon, it's not the end of the world.

I mean, you're going to have all these incredible players. And then if you don't have Leon, then next year you have them. So I think in terms of guys flying out there and not doing anything for skills, I don't really think they care because part of it was like guys had to do stuff they didn't want to do. Everyone had to do something. And then, you know, you'd be the guy stuck doing that. You don't think flying there and the chance to win a million dollars would be enticing to them?

No, you just. What do you mean? Obviously Obviously you want to be picked, but if you're not picked, you're still in the all-star game the next day. You still get to have the front row seat on the bench. You're in your uniform. You're an all-star for the weekend and you get to watch 12 studs battling it out. If you don't get picked, it's like, you're still an all-star. Yeah. I think it would have been wiser to maybe have the whole group of players at least do the first amount of events and then drop it off based on the skill set and the points that you've accumulated and then to then narrow it down. I just think that that's a lot of guys just sitting around and not being able to participate where that's the whole point of them traveling and not getting to go on vacation and sip pina coladas.

Maybe they'll be able to do more stuff in the community with the fans fans like on the concourses and be able to be a little bit more interactive. I'm sure guys will love that. Dry saddle serving hot dogs. Hey Leon, you can't do hard as shot. Hey Sid, pass me another beer. You can actually go upstairs and sign autographs for two and a half hours. So have fun.

Yeah, exactly. Exactly. Hey, Hughes, can you please put this uh devil's costume on the mascot couldn't make it so we're gonna need you to entertain the fans up top on the concourse oh my god hey why don't you go fill up some gatorade for the guys that are competing for a million exactly hey you laugh but that's basically what the fuck they're doing i know but i also think it's in toronto you know, that night, guys are going to be ripping it up and they get to play in the game.

Oh, yeah. I don't know. Yeah, pack your Canada. Pack your Canada goose. For the fans who want to see something competitive, I think it's a good thing and I think it'll end up

being pretty exciting, that final event. Somebody skating and shooting for a million. I guess I'll say this. I love it, but also hate it at the same time.

All right. You got to elaborate. What do you love? What do you hate? I think you already explained it. I just literally explained it the last three minutes. You've got to elaborate. What do you love? What do you hate? I think he's already done that. I just literally explained it the last three minutes. Where the fuck have you been? He literally just said

for like four minutes what he doesn't like about it. I just, yeah. I would be the guy left out. I'm the guy not getting picked. So I'm standing up for the plugs at the All-Star game. Bud, you wouldn't be in the All-Star game to begin with. I know! Austin, come here for a second. Austin uh can i get a hundred dollars worth of those 50 50s that you're selling

oh there's not a chicken dick okay so that's the thing too like so basically marner and uh marner kneelander is my assumption will have to get voted in because leafs fans will be flocking online so you know there's going to be some big dogs that are showing up that aren't going to be able to participate and you know if wit i mean now that you're you're kind of off the wagon could you imagine leon having to sit there and watch you know that guy wants to be fucking competing i understand but if the league didn't pick you and then you had you had you have all these fan bases get to vote for in like tough shit dude no i mean yep i don't know hold on biz what don't you like about it

adjust another one yeah we can move on 12 guys eight events one million dollars we'll see who wins it we will be there can't wait to get there but we're gonna talk about the predators boys this team looked dead in the water about a month ago. Started out, what, 5-10. They've gone on a 13-3 run since. I put it all on UC Saros, man. Tremendous goalie. Had like an 8-9-2 save percentage through his first 14 games.

He's up to 9-12 now. He's just been incredible. He's got a six-game winning streak. He's only given up nine goals. Ryan O'Reilly playing that two-way game that he's been famous for. They just got a real good blend right now of veterans and some young guys. They've called up, what's his name, Tomasino. The kid, what's his name, Novak.

He's like 26, but he's only been in the league for a couple years. And we mentioned that trade to get Forsberg a couple years ago. They gave up Erat and Michael Latta, and they bring up Forsberg. 40-goal score. He's signed for another six years at 8.5 mil. Tremendous move right there, but I don't know. The Preds back from the dead looking good. Do you watch them much?

You were able to see a lot of their games. I haven't seen a lot of their games, but you said it off the hop. It's Soros just turning everything around. Tough start. All we ever mention about teams struggling is for the most part, usually the goaltending isn't great, and it's unfair to put it on them, but that's the position they played, like quarterback. And all of a sudden, Saros gets going and the team gets going.

And that's kind of been the story with this team for a while now is this guy's a stud. And once he starts kicking, they're really hard to beat. I think that Andrew Brunette is an awesome coach. I think he kind of got screwed in Florida, and that's worked out great for Florida because Paul Maurice is awesome. He's been doing it forever.

But you've seen what's happened with the Devils in losing Brunette, right? They definitely miss having him on the bench. He went in there. The team didn't start off great. A little bit of a disaster to get going. The goaltending switches things around, and Forsberg catches fire. I mean, that trade, I mean, that was like 11 years ago. And I totally understand. Washington is trying to win a cup. It's Ovechkin's mean, that was like 11 years ago. And I totally understand Washington

is trying to win a cup. It's Ovechkin's prime and they have a 1-1 yet and they're just trying to add something. But man, I don't know. I don't think Washington realized at the time what they were going to have in the future. This is a big, powerful dude, strong as an ox, skates like the wind. His shot's ridiculous. You've seen he scored some ridiculous of those Michigan goals. His skill level is top, top notch. And this year, it seems like he's taken an even bigger step where he's carrying the puck pretty much wherever he wants. He's so big and fast and smooth that it's just hard to get it away from him. So you have him, you have a phenomenal goaltender, and you have a superstar in Roman Yossi. Okay. And I think those three, right, you get the forward, D, and goalie. It's the same thing with Dallas, how we talk about what they

have with Ottinger and Heskinen and Robertson and even a bunch of others up front in Dallas. And you look at that core and that's why they're going now. But Ryan McDonough is another reason that you can look to this team, like switching things around. And obviously offensively, he's not really counted on or needs to do that much. But it's the leadership factor. And every night, guys looking like, oh, McDonough blocked three more shots. Oh, he played 23 minutes again, a bunch on the PK. And he's just a horse. He's working out. And you just see what it's like to be... You see a Stanley Cup winner preparing for every game, practicing as hard as that guy does, putting his body on the line.

And so there's a lot of older guys really leading the way for that team. So it makes sense that you got younger guys stepping in. Also, this Gus Nyquist, people kind of wrote him off. He's in Columbus. He had that great run in Detroit, but he's played really well. That was under the radar signing that's had a really good impact in Nashvilleashville so it's a it's a good head coach he's kind of figured out the team he's has the goaltenders figured it out superstar on d that's that's always going to be producing around a point per game which is wild to say and then other guys that are kind of buying in and and the final thing i'll say is an unreal home crowd a big and i i haven't even looked at their home record maybe it it's not even that good, but playing in that place stinks.

It's tough. It's loud. Country music is bumping. And so I love when they're good because it seems like when they are on TV. I mean, Biz, you mentioned you watch the- Guys, I got some breaking news. It's big. Uh-oh. According to Frank Cerevilli, the Senators have fired head coach DJ Smith.

Wow. Holy fuck. It makes sense. So it's Berube. It's got to. Holy fuck. It makes sense. So it's Berube. It's got to be Berube. It's got to be. It makes sense, and it's one of those things where Ottawa, everyone's talked about how they just want to get things in order

and they want to have stability and they want to have guys be able to finally have the same coach. But at some point, it's complacency biz. Like they're so bad that they had to yeah no this was the i i thought that berube was probably going to take the rest of the year off but they obviously haven't announced who they're going to hire as head coach this makes way too much sense to to bring him in um i think they shot themselves in the foot a bit uh fit of jesus christ shot themselves in the foot a bit by saying that they wanted the stability and that they were going to keep them around so just a lot

of moving pieces right now in ottawa but i think at a certain point it was it was time to pull the trigger and uh it sucks because you could tell that the guys liked them too it just uh it couldn't work out and sometimes uh being a player's coach can come back and bite you in the ass where uh you need to be a little bit harder on players, especially at the way that they've been playing. So Jacques Martin has been named the interim coach. Wow. Daniel Alfredson will join his coaching staff.

So while Martin came in and R.A., you said that. You're like, is that kind of tough? Is that like a sign right then for DJ Smith that things are getting hotter and hotter on his seat? And it turned out that was the case. Now, the final nail in the straw was Sunday night. I mean, Vegas just owned them. Vegas put a beat down on them.

They've just struggled so much. But Martin, back behind the bench, dude. That's crazy. That's a blast from the past. To just go back to Nashville, I mean, I don't know if we mentioned colton sisson's name he's got 10 goals on the year man that contract i think they got him signed at eight years at like two million a year it's like it was a it was a joke of a deal as far as how much of a bargain it was and one thing that i don't think that nashville's used to is getting goal scoring

on a regular basis right now they're 10th in the league at goals four where normally they're relying on on their defense and their goaltending where it seems to be a well-balanced attack overall and and it all goes back to coaching I think Andrew Brunette was an unreal coach uh he was great in Florida as you mentioned I think uh they it sucks that New Jersey had to kind of not, they couldn't bring him in. I know they had Lindy and they ended up locking Lindy in, but I thought that he was probably the coach of the future for them. And it looks like Nashville's got their guy.

So you guys pretty much touched on everything else. Power plays humming at a decent rate. They're over 20%. So it's been a pleasant surprise there in Nashville, R.A. I believe you had them making playoffs, didn't you? I think, but I can't. I'd have to cite tweets about it. I can't remember that.

Probably the only one because I didn't believe in them. But not often, you know, like you said, Biz, it's been like defensive and being solid in your own end. But like that game Saturday night against Carolina was incredible. Well, that has probably a lot to do with Ronta playing that. And unfortunately, he's been sent down. I think he cleared he cleared waivers so he's in chicago now oof tough tough for him oh quickly about ottawa my last thing um i don't know if you guys saw uh how mad brady kachuk was it what's the goalie's name peter kachukov yeah uh yeah he he went to poke check him during kachuk's

penalty shot late in the third game. It was over. It was 4-1, maybe two minutes left. And he went out for the poke check, and Kachuk was pissed off. He went flying into the boards. And I don't really – I guess he's just going for the poke check. He doesn't plan on – that could somehow injure him. But Kachuk was pissed off, and Kachukov's like, yeah, come at me, come at me.

I don't know if you saw Brady Kachuk fight that Tucker in St. Louis. He would punch your eyes shut, Kachukov's like, yeah, come at me, come at me. I don't know if you saw Brady Kachuk fight that Tucker in St. Louis. He would punch your eyes shut, Kachukov. So I don't know if you want to be like, yeah, bring it on, buddy, bring it on. Brady's fuming. The team stinks. He's an animal. So I got a kick out of the goalie when the ref gets in between him. Like, yeah, yeah, let's go, bud.

That might have been the fight of the year so far, Tucker versus Kachuk. That was a fucking – Old school tilt. Give that Tucker a lot of credit. I think that's just frustration with the way the season's been going for Ottawa. The wires cross. Fuck it. Yeah, Preds, they were in last place November 18th.

Now they're just two points back of Winnipeg and Dallas, man. I mean, they're in contention for the division right now. I don't think anybody saw that coming. And back to Forsberg, he's on a 42-goal pace right now. Interestingly, they got eight and a quarter million in cap space that, you know, if they decide they're going to do

some of the deadline, but they have 8.8 million in dead cap hits between Johansson, Ekholm, Duchesne, and Tarras. So,

I don't know. So, more money, dead money than they have available, but I don't know. I'm such a goof. How do you not mention how good Ryan O'Reilly's been there too?

Hell of a signing. already did touch on it, I think. Oh, I'm sorry. Yeah, yeah. Let me tell you why I don't like the skills competition.

Let me tell you. If I had a nickel. Also, yeah, back to the Canes real quick. Freddie Anderson has been cleared to start skating. He's missed the last six weeks with a blood clot issue. He may be about a month away. Hopefully Carolina can stay afloat because they're goaltending, man. It has been rough.

We just mentioned Ronta cleared waivers. He's with AHLat because they're goaltending, man. It has been rough. We just mentioned Rod DeCleared-Wavers. He's with AHL Chicago right now. So, yeah, man, go Preds, go Juicy Saros. Did I mention this on the last podcast? Like at what point do you maybe, because of the struggling goaltending, move away from the man-on-man in the D zone? Yeah, we brought that up. And maybe change up some structural things.

I don't know. I know he could be a little bit of a stubborn coach, but, hey, once they start mixing in some saves, maybe he'll be having me eat my shit here. I bumped into a Nashville fan the other night. He was like, oh, when are you guys going to talk about him? I'm like, pal, I already got the notes here. He used to be neighbors with Barry Trotz.

He said he lived right next door to him. He said, fantastic guy, great neighbor. He gave this kid a bunch of hockey gear. This kid wasn't really necessarily a hockey fan or knew much about it. Trotz gave him a bunch of gear to play street hockey and stuff, and the kid now he's like a diehard Preds fan. So just a pretty cool little story about Trotz, the great neighbor, hooking up the neighborhood with gear. It's just a funny way you can bring more people into the game, grow the game, as they say.

So shout out to the Preds. Whit, I know you want to talk about the Florida Panthers. This team, I don't think they're even playing their best right now. They're in the hunt for the playoffs. Bobrovsky, they're getting goaltended, I don't think they're even playing their best right now. They're in the hunt for the playoffs. Bobrovsky, they're getting goaltended, I think, that they did not necessarily get last year. And how about frigging Sam Reinhardt, man? What's he going to make next contract? He's making $6.5 million right now on an absolute tear.

What kind of bumps are you looking at, Wade? I think he's minimum $8 million right now. He came in the best shape of his life, too. Well, it's just hard, R.A., because he's having a career. I think most people are aware of it. So for a guy i don't think he's what 28 maybe 29 years old so getting that type of term for a guy like that would be nice so i would say like an eight times eight to stay in florida and he's fit and incredible there and i would say the funnest team in the league to watch because even when they're even when they're maybe not winning they're scrumming it up in front of the net the games are exciting every time you're watching and now that they're healthy with those two guys on the back end look out man i think that

they got an unreal squad they play like a bunch of pieces of shit they bring it every single night every time we've had them on the broadcast it's the same thing it's kachuk leading the way but you got sam bennett so so they got that old school toughness along with the skill set the depth is contributing uh the off-season moves that they've brought in to to fill in the holes that left that was hard man they lost stall they lost gutus they end up bringing in oliver eckman larson who's had a fucking awesome year man and it was a couple tough years for him not only the ending he had in Arizona uh going up to Vancouver I think even wit we talked about the bluebirds earlier in the podcast I think he was

facing some of those in Vancouver so for him to get bought out go there and refine his game I just think overall and and I I think a lot has to go to to um to Paul Maurice's demeanor and how patient and calm he is behind the bench. And I just think that that instills a lot of confidence in the group and they're oozing it because I had them missing playoffs. I thought with not only the injury to Kachuk

and not getting the full training and of course Ekblad and Montour coming in when it was said that they were going to miss maybe two to three months, I thought that they were done. And sometimes when you go through those long runs, it could take a lot out of you emotionally so i thought for sure stumbling out of the gate and wasn't sure whether bob could get back to that game that he brought but overall it's been very very impressive and as i said night in night out

for regular season hockey that can be pretty boring nowadays with a lack of emotion there's not with that team fuck they had the incident in columbus the other night too it's like every time you see something big and chaotic happen usually they're at the forefront of it i think it's no doubt my biggest fuck up in terms of having them miss playoffs and the goaltending like bobrovsky's been real good but look at stolars when he's played he's been awesome so it's like you get those two guys you got the D-men back and I think the best thing if you're a Florida Panthers fan is that Kachuk isn't even really lightening it up offensively I think he's got 21 points in 30 games so for him he's probably a little disappointed with his offensive production now he can like

affect the game in so many different ways but imagine what he gets going so their top two lines are just lights out the Varhegi kachuk line and then you got barkov reinhardt and evan rodriguez what what a signing that was he was in colorado last year they bring him over he's been awesome playing on that top line and in terms of reinhardt uh maybe he could get a little bit more than like eight times eight but i think it's one of those things where florida says to him hey you're playing Barkov. Like, you want to continue to play with him. You can go somewhere else for a little bit more. But if you love playing here, you got this stud center feeding you all night.

And you got all these chances that you're burying right now, partly because of him. Take a little bit less. Stay here. And this team's built to go on another run. I was completely wrong about them. They have looked awesome. They got a great coach. And it seems like the atmosphere for their games

has really turned it up a notch too. It's been unbelievable. Yeah, so Sean Thornton, I know he's in the office there. He's doing a lot of different things for that team. But I think part of it was him talking to us about making the atmosphere a little bit better, trying to get more fans in. And obviously winning does a big thing for that.

So I think Toronto's going to end up winning the Atlantic, and I actually think Florida might end up with second. Bruins probably finish third. And that's assuming Tampa Bay doesn't sneak into that top three in that division. So Florida, dead wrong about it. I apologize to the Cats fans. Yeah, OEL definitely resurrected his career. He's got 60 points in 30 games, but his 20 minutes, 36 seconds,

he's averaging a game. I don't think too many people saw that coming when he was with vancouver last year so good for him so i don't think i don't think he was expected to get bought out from my understanding in vancouver and before that he'd made the commitment where he was going to start working with a power skating coach i think the one criticism i would have over the last couple years is he'd kind of lost a step and he wasn't as strong on his feet so like throughout shifts and in battles you saw him falling a lot where this year I just noticed that he's a lot stronger back to like his old days when I was playing him with the coyotes and let's not forget man this guy had back-to-back 20 goal seasons as a defenseman this guy's got

some game and he's got some left in him and I'm really happy that he's got his confidence back all right boys well it's Christmas time. A lot of good Christmas songs out there, and one guy who's pretty good with that stuff, Michael Bublé. We're going to send it over to him right now. Hopefully you enjoy it. Okay, before you go any further, here's a few words from our good friends over at Muggsy.

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Thanks, buddy. Yeah, the old Canadian tuxedo. It looked a lot better on me than I thought. I mean, I might have been the best dressed guy there. I love the old collar pup. I felt like I was back 15 years old, looking good, hanging out on a main street, but Bugsy makes you look dynamite.

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He's a crooner from Burnaby, British Columbia, that has sold over 75 million albums. He's also won eight Junos and four Grammys, and there's no doubt you've heard his velvety smooth voice, especially this time of year. It's a pleasure to welcome to the Spittin' Chicklets podcast, Michael Bublé. Merry early Christmas, my friend. How you been?

Happy Christmas. You know I'm not a big fan of Christmas, but Merry Christmas back to you. It's good to be here, guys. You know, I'm a long-time listener, big-time fan, watcher, weirdo. So it's finally nice to be invited on. We were shocked to hear that. Now, since you're such a hockey guy do you have a hockey name what do we call you boobsy like what's your hot oh yeah the boobs the boobs for sure the boobs or mickey or mickey or mickey bubbles they called me why mickey bubbles

you know it's weird man even now forget about hockey in every country no joke they they have a name where that's just what they call me like in any spanish country i'm miguel burbuja which means bubble in spanish and it's weird like so people will be at the dinner table and like hey put on some miguel burbuja and in australia what am i in australia i'm in i'm mickey bubbles or the babes, the babes in England. I'm, I'm with the boobs, Mickey boobs, or I don't even know. It just, it's just what it is. It's weird.

You guys too, because my name, they always, they always wanted to like change the record company was always like, you know, this name sucks. You know, you need to, you need to name that a better name. Like it's, it's not a great name. And, uh, they always wanted to change it.

And I was like, no, my dad had hurt my dad's feelings. I could see. And I was like, no, I'm going to go with it. And,

and now everything I do, it's like Pepsi with bubbly and everything. You know what I mean? It's like, thank God. Yeah. I didn't change the name. No,

stick to your roots. That's awesome. Yeah, absolutely. Boobs. I big connects fan. As, as we know, you were at the ring of honor awesome. Yeah, absolutely, Boobs. Big Canucks fan, as we know. You were at the Ring of Honor ceremony for Roberto Luongo the other night.

You were out of the palace with Bert at all? I know Roberto. You know, it was emotional. It was nice for him. It was beautiful. It was a nice night to see him and his family there and see his kids, how grown up they are. And it was nice for the Canuck fans, you know, because we've been through a lot together and a lot of heartache the Canuck fans you know because we've been through a lot together and a lot of heartache and obviously you know had great moments but um it was nice to

see nice to see how emotional he was he deserves it how did you become such a hockey fan like what got you into it just like you guys parents fam I mean dude that is you know we talk about having core memories as a kid and for me, it was just big Italian family dinners and just watching the Edmonton Oilers beat the shit out of my Vancouver Canucks. It just felt like every game, it just felt like at that age, like it was like Gretzky and every goddamn record he ever had, it was like against the Canucks. But just core memories.

My grandpa taking me to the Pacific Coliseum, and we walked to the game, and those gorgeous yellow sweaters that everybody thinks are ugly that I thought were the most beautiful things. And, you know, my dad was young too, right? My mom and dad had me young at 18, 19. And so they were at the bars, and they would come home with the coasters, the beer coasters, and it would be the autographs of Tony Tanti and, you know, whoever, Gredin and Stan Smeal, the steamer. And I just, like, dude, to this day, I hold those memories.

You know, I remember the taste of the sub sandwiches and hearing that puck drop at center ice. And my whole life, like every other Canadian kid, that was my dream, man. And it was funny because I used to play in the garage and I just stick handle, stick handle, rip shots and bust up their drywall. And then, but then I would always at one point in those hours of playing in the garage, like I would stop and I would say like, uh, the Vancouver Canucks proudly select first overall in the 19th. And it's funny. Cause at first there was like this realistic thought.

Cause I was 13 and then 14 and then I was like 38 years old. You know what I mean? The oldest ever draft pick ever. Somehow just hanging on, just coming out of the WHL at 43 years old. Double overage for sure. I was actually talking to Kevin Biexa to try to dig up a little dirt on you. And obviously you guys are close.

And going back to Luongo night, I said, do you have any funny stories? And he said, yeah, this one time he came out to practice. And he did call you a little bit of a bender. So you came out there. You had the weird gear on. You had the full cage on. And you got to take a breakaway against Luongo. And he says he poke checked you.

And you ended up going ass over tea kettle on your helmet. That's not. But it's close. Firstly, they gave me the equipment. So I showed up with my shit. And then they were like, no, no, no. You wear this. And they gave me a bucket.

It was so, dude, it was so bad. So bad. The old Messier win. Well, it was terrible. And the best part is I remember getting onto the ice and dude, these are my heroes. You know, like these guys, I was, I was, I'm, I'm not the same guy now. I'm a lot older now. And I'm like, I, now I'm, I would have just totally enjoyed it way more, but I was like terrified. And Kevin goes, so what do you want, man? And I go, I want to break away against Lou. And literally he just sort of turned. And even without saying anything, because, you know,

the dude's such a leader and he's such a good, he's such a beautiful guy. All the dudes just start banging their stick. And you got casting the city and all these guys just banging their sticks. Listen, it was forget about me skating. I nearly shit my pants. I was like, I was like, are you kidding me against Lou? And the dude is like eight feet tall. And you come in on that and you see nothing.

There's not a space. And I think I hit the post. I know I hit the post and then I went down hard into the boards. I was so happy. I was happy that I even, I was just done, you know? Okay. He, he described that as a matter of fact, I just made a bet with, uh, with Thatcher and I think I offended him. And I was like, dude, I get five breakaways. was like, dude, I get five breakaways. If I score on one, I go, you have to come to my show and get up on stage in front of 15,000 people and you have to sing. And he's real dry, you know? And he goes, you're not going to score. And Elias, I said, no. I go, I'm going to come slow, but I got good hands. I will pop one in. And Elias Pettersson just started laughing at me. We were at dinner the other night.

He just started laughing at me, another dry Swedish guy. And he goes, oh, watch out, Thatcher. He's extra dangerous because he's slow. And I was like, no, you guys, I'm telling you right now, I'm going to pop one. And if I do, I say, you're getting up on stage with me and you're going to sing. And Thatcher looks at me and he goes, well, then I'm going to let you score because that would be my dream come true. That's awesome that you're so close with all these guys and still hanging out with all of them, even the current players.

They're good guys, man. I think it's weird, but a lot of time with a lot of athletes, and you guys will probably attest to this, I think that you have a lot in common with somebody that's in my business. It's a lot and you have a lot in common with with somebody that's in my business. Like, you know, it's a lot of pressure. You know, you love what you do, but at the same time, just a person. And, you know, fans and people expect a certain thing from you and you're doing your best. And if you're not your best, they go like, what's wrong with this dude? He's getting paid this much. Well, it's hard to say that to a guy who's a big fan of you know it's like yeah i know he's getting paid a lot but you know he's a person but it's easy because you forget you know you sit

and watch i mean yes listen guys i did it the other day on um on saturday i was watching. I had my fantasy football second week of championships. We started a week early. And my son came in, and I was literally screaming at Jamar Chase. Like screaming, just saying terrible. My son was like, what did he do to you, Papi? What happened? You know what I mean? He's constantly in my fantasy league.

That's what's going on here. Go to your room. Then he had the audacity to get injured and leave. But when I played hockey, if I had an off night and I threw a pizza up the middle, it was blatant. Like, Whitney sucked tonight. When you think you had an off show or an off concert, people wouldn't necessarily even notice right like you got the pipes like oh no dude of course they noticed yeah really yeah man they notice and by

the way they'll like they'll tell you like the people that are like i got a great mom my mom loves me and my mom was a support let me tell you like i'll go do a tv show or something and i'll come back and she'll go like, you've been better. And he's just, yeah, she's honest. You know what I mean? Like, how are you? Can I ask you, how are your parents like that? Like, how do they feel?

Oh yeah. Same way. My mom will shoot it to me straight. Hey mom, do you like the podcast? Ah, you're a little too vulgar on there. I don't really like listening when you're too vulgar. It's like, okay, I'll tone it down that is my dude that is my life like my dad my dad is such a gentleman and uh so when i do my press you know i'm i'm dirt and often i'm just me i'm from burnaby i can't

this is i know i it's hard for people because i know that i put on a suit and become that Michael Buble guy for a couple hours a night. But this is me. And my dad, my dad will go like, Oh, you know, Mike, I just didn't know why you have to use this word. I like it when you're, you know, my dad's favorite interviews are when, um, I'm really humble when I, yes. And I go, you know, I'm just, I'm really just, uh, just lucky to doing this and so blessed to have these beautiful people support me. And I'm really just lucky to be doing this and so blessed to have these beautiful people support me. And I'm just really thankful. But it's just, that's me sometimes. But the real me is dry and, you know.

Well, speaking of criticism, did you get any fan criticism when you canceled a concert to go to Game 7 of the Stanley Cup Finals when Vancouver was playing Boston at home? R.A. wedged you. I heard it's actually your fans that rioted the city. They were so upset that you canceled the concert. You know what, man?

That was a mistake. I look back and I go, if I had to do it over again, I wouldn't have done it. But, dude, and I canceled in Connecticut. Okay. And so there was a lot of people that didn't give i mean sure there's some bruins fans but a lot of people didn't get care and so when i moved it i came back and that night was it wasn't great what do you mean like boo birds boo birds thousands

just dude boo birds people just left oh no like the first song finished and people literally had just come to leave oh that's not a joke like they literally booed me and then you know not up and double barrel and see you later and i was like i was like you know it's funny man i was again younger you know way, you know, it's funny, man. I was again, younger, you know, way more, you know, just I wasn't thinking probably, you know, what's funny, man, if the Canucks had won, I'd probably have, you know, totally thought it was worth it. But that they lost just sucked. yeah I thought it was cool uh seeing that you're part owner of the Vancouver Giants and the WHL and when you originally got involved like Gordie Howe and Pat Quinn were part of the crew like how did that come together yeah those are the guys like Ron Ron Twigo um has owned the Giants since their inception and he's just one of my best he's one of my best friends and uh so when he called me and asked he was like hey would you uh would you like to be involved um it was a no

brainer like listen you guys it's funny we talk about me being a Canucks fan I'm I'm I'm a Canucks fan but I'm a hockey fan I watch as much hockey of every other team that I as I do the Canucks I know every player I know their stats I like I love. I think it is the greatest game in the world. I think it's a game of humility. I think there are incredible codes and, and I feel bad if people don't understand it and they make those jokes and go, there was a fight and a hockey game broke out. It's like, no, you know what? Those guys that are fighting, those are the, those are the real gentlemen. Cause there's a code that people will never understand. I like, I said it to, uh, I said it to, to Brock the other night, we were talking about his scoring all these goals.

And the other day my son was watching and my son's a big Besser fan and Brock scored and he didn't lift up his hands. He popped the goal and he literally skated over to who I can't remember who passed him, but it was Garland or somebody. And, uh, he just skated over to him and you could see who passed him, but it was Garland or somebody. And he just skated over to him and you could see, it was like, dude, thank you, man. That was great. But no hot dog celebration, no going into, you know what I mean? And I look at my kids and I'm like, watch, look at that.

Look at that. I'm like, look at that honor, man. Look at that sportsmanship. Like that's something about hockey that i don't think many sports have now i think everything is about you know the individual it's about putting on the show and me me me and uh i just love that it's a team sport and i love it when guys aren't team players even though fans don't know they they many times get are ostracized and either they're they're like i know the same stories you guys know about the same players and people like oh man he was a great player why wasn't

us you're not on the team anymore and it's like well he's not on the team anymore because he's an asshole who couldn't he wasn't team guy you know and we might not know that because of the code of the game no one outside was ever going to tell you that but when he was playing really amazing they'd keep him on the team because you know he's playing amazing but the second he started to fall off adios amigo michael i think it's pretty obvious early on that you have a big heart one of the other stories that uh bx had told me about was when during the lockout he threw a charity game yeah and you were scheduled to play in this game and you call him the night before. I hope this is true. And you're like, Hey, I can't play. And he's like, well, what do you mean? You can't play. Like you're on the flyer. Like everybody who's showing up, we got 5,000

sold out at UBCs arena. And he's like, and you were like, I'm too nervous. I can't play. And then he's like, listen, he goes, just show up with your gear. We're going to put you out there with the Sedins and you're going to be fine. And you ended like, listen. He goes, just show up with your gear. We're going to put you out there with the Sedins, and you're going to be fine. And you were still nervous. You didn't want to do it. You ended up showing up. And you said, hey, I can't play, but I'll go behind the back. You know what?

I'll tell you. So again. Not true? Is he bullshitting again? Here's really what happened. I'll just give you the. So he calls. He goes, come on, man.

You're going to come out and throw me on the line with Sedins. And I go, Kev, you he calls, he goes, come on, man, you're going to come out and throw me on the line with Sedin's. And I go, I go, Kev, you're playing against UBC Thunderbirds. And he goes, yeah. And I go, bro, I don't give a shit. What kind of charity you have? They're going to fuck it. They're going to want to, they're going to want to kill me. And if I was one of them, I want to kill me too. I was like, I'm not going to play. I'm not going to go and play against these guys who are having like, that's their Stanley cup. I said, like, what do you, you think they're going to just stop being competitive all of a sudden? Because it's me, the jazz singer guy.

I was like, no, Kevin. And then I said to him, I remember distinctly, I was at my grandpa's house. I said, dude, how much money are you looking to raise and he said we want to raise this and um and i said okay i'm going to give you that so whatever you raise will be a bonus on top of that and i just gave the money and then i came and coached and i was so happy and by the way it was a good decision because the ubc guys it wasn't like some old timer you know what i'm talking about it wasn't those kids wanted to they want you know what i'm talking about it wasn't those kids wanted to they want you know what i mean it was like i'm sure that some of them were like maybe i guess it would have been like pronger on bieber right with my giants and stuff i go out and skate with

the guys i go the way that he described it was i I think they raised about a hundred grand and you came out and grabbed the mic off him and you matched it. You matched the offer. I want to live in Kevin's store or all the stories. These are the two stories he gave me. So maybe the CTEs. He probably just remembers it like that. But I have like, listen, I, I don't know. You know, it's really funny.

I was actually watching him with you guys before this season started. Okay. And you guys did like this deep dive on the Canucks. And Kevin was like, no, you know what? They're going to be better than you think. They got some young players. And you guys were like, no, I don't see it. I actually remember.

I think it was you, but you said something like you go, really? Are they going to be better than Colorado, Los Angeles, Edmonton? And you just started listing all the names. And it was like I was sitting there and it's hilarious because, again, I'm on tour. My thing's open. I'm watching your pod. And I'm going, you assholes are wrong.

I'm telling you right now. I knew. I knew they were going to be better than you guys thought they were going to be. I knew they thought they were better. So it was so much fun. Even with Kevin, I was like, no, they're going to be better than you think they are you're a season ticket holder mike i am not a season ticket holder i think you could probably get him whatever he wants all right yeah no it's funny man i i pay like uh i'll go to the game sometimes with francesco or go to the game with

uh different you know different friends of mine or toygo but But like the other day, I just – sometimes it's just nice for me to take my kids, man, and sit. Go buy some tickets and go just sit. Honestly, the other night I took them against – who did they play against? I can't remember. We won, but I think it was one of the best nights of my life. I'm not even joking i brought my

my two sons and their little cousin and i went and bought all the swag i went and bought all the jerseys and they got in this chain with this gold chain and uh i had more dude it's just like dude you know what we were talking about those old games of the coliseum it took me back to the core memories that were built for me with my dad and my grandpa. And I actually came home and my wife was in bed with the baby. And she was like, how was it?

And I said, babe, I need to buy some packs of tickets because I have to, I have to do this. Like they, do your boys play? Hey, do your boys play?

Yeah, they play, they play like They play. Like their dad. Yeah. It's funny too, guys. It's so funny too because I'm like this so, I'm such a super proud, you know, Canadian hockey-loving guy.

And my wife's Argentinian. And it's like we go play hockey and then they score and they do like a ronaldo celebration like they love soccer man they just they're so argentinian it's i can't i can't get it out of them so uh you've um you've mentioned your grandfather a couple times he was majorly influential in in your life but also your singing career is it true that he told you to enter a contest when you were like 16 17 years old is that what kevin bx has said no i'm just is that not true too is that how it came about no my grandpa i did i did anything like i did contest that wasn't my grandpa was a plumber

for you know 50 years of his life who wanted to be a geography teacher but he was a plumber because it was better dough and he could raise his family, even though it was a hard gig. He was a massive hockey fan, started off as a Rangers fan. Then he loved, then he found, you know, Canucks in 70. Um, and he was, he loved music, loved music. And him and I were best friends. And, uh, like, dude, I miss him every single minute of every day we just talked hockey every day uh and musically he would sit on this carpet with me and and he would go okay sunshine he never called me Mike it was sunshine hey sunshine say uh you know I want you to listen to this this is Dean Martin this is the Mills brothers listen to this this is Bobby Darren

this is Ella Fitzgerald this is Sarah Vaughn and he'd play he'd go through all the music and I would dude I would eat it up and I would like digest it and like I loved every second of it um and uh just made our friendship so so great you know and then uh at 14 I was like grandpa you know I'm I can do this I can sing this stuff and I'm I can do this And so he used to go for the local musicians. I remember a guy named Dave Korn, this trumpet player. And we'd go to Dave Korn's a little place in the East Van, his house. And my grandpa would go and fix his a carburetor and shit, his hot water heaters. And he'd go and plum in his house. And then Dave Korn would let me get up on stage and he'd do it at the clubs. He'd do it at the nightclubs. He'd do it for the bar owners.

He would take me to auditions. Like I remember going to audition for the variety club telethon. And I think my slot was like four 30 in the morning or something. And I just, he just loved me, man. He just loved me so much. And I was really lucky. You know, I had like a great family, my sisters and all my relatives were so supportive and I'd go play clubs downtown and go kind of through the Pacific Northwest and just had, you know, and it was like, people go, holy shit, who is this guy? Like it's, it's busy. Like this club is packed. Who is this kid? And they would think it was because I was so good you know but it wasn't

because i was good it was because my mom had broken the balls of every single friend and relative that we had and we would all you know what i mean they'd all come down and you know what i mean be drinking and dancing and uh watching the kid cut his teeth and they did that for years man from that age i didn't get signed until I was 20, 26. So it was a little over 10, 12 years. Yeah. I moved to Toronto. Remember Jeff Healy? Oh yeah. Yeah. I used to go with Jeff Healy and I used to carry his guitar and hang out with all these great guys, James B and all these great players like Robert Scott and great Bob Scott. We'd go to the reservoir lounge and the bank and healy's club and i just kept playing thinking like somebody's gonna see this somebody's

gonna recognize this you know and uh and then i got lucky was there ever a moment where you you know maybe 24 25 you're like i don't know if i can keep doing this and just like or was it kind of like no matter what i'm gonna make it uh i think you know again again i i know this without speaking for you that we have so many similarities in our lives because i will tell you i know with both you gentlemen there were probably many times in your life that you know you deep down you wondered am i gonna get the shot am i gonna get drafted am i gonna get cut i'm gonna you know, you deep down, you wondered, am I going to get the shot? Am I going to get drafted? Am I going to get cut? I'm going to, you know, but you have this weird belief that's so deep and a drive that's so,

you know, this ambition that's so high that it's like, it was going to happen. I was, and you guys both did it. Like you, you made it happen. It just was going to happen. It's just how it is. did it. Like you, you made it happen. It just was going to happen. It's just how it is. And whatever it took, whoever you had to be, however hard, how many times you had to dig in and put your head down and go to the, go into the boards, it was going to happen. And that's how it was for me with music. It was like, I'm just gonna, you know, just gonna, I won't, I won't allow it to not happen. What, what would you have considered your big break? Like, how did you, what was the moment where you're like, wow, I finally't allow it to not happen. What would you have considered your big break? Like how did you,

what was the moment where you're like, wow, I finally got there. I don't ever think, I don't think I had a big break, but I think like one time I used to go and open for Jay Leno and, and I remember that night I killed, you know, actually it's really funny. I, I was, people were starting to buzz a little bit. And I remember that like entertainment tonight or something brought their cameras down. And, uh, I had gone on stage and I'd done this, you know, I was his opener and the audience went like crazy for me, crazy.

And I was like, I was like bowing and they were going crazy. And then I realized much too late that they were going crazy. And then I realized much too late that they were going crazy because Jay Leno had snuck up behind me. And, uh, and that's why they were going crazy. But, uh, but I remember it was like, Jay was so warm with me and, and, and I could see that he, I could tell that he was like, eh, this kid's gonna, this is going to be good. This kid's going to be okay. And, uh, and, uh,

and I remember I called my grandpa that night and I said, grandpa, I, I think this shit is going to happen. And by the way, there was a million other things and dominoes that had to fall perfectly. And I would go, I'd end up going to 50 countries all over the world before it ever broke for

me. Like dudes, I would go, I'd end up going to 50 countries all over the world before it ever broke for me. Like dudes, I was way, I was way more successful in the Philippines, South Africa, Australia, England, like the rest of the world. And I was an American signed act. And it was like, I had a manager named, I have a manager named Bruce Allen. And he just kept saying, Hey kid, you know what? America's okay. But you know, you want to but you want to go to Germany? Want to try Holland? Want to go to Switzerland? It was like, okay.

I remember every concert I've ever been to, it's like you see this packed stadium and you look out at someone performing. I just remember thinking, this must be so incredible. This many people just for you. I assume that can't get old, right? Like when you're having a big show and you know, you're on your game that night, like the rush you must feel is, it's just incredible.

No. Uh, I mean, I don't know. I think, uh, I don't know, man. I love it. Like, I love it, but I genuinely feel really comfy. Um, there are big moments, but again, I don't want to keep going back, but I mean, you guys played 82 games a year and I know you had big games. I know the playoffs, you probably, you know, obviously, but once you start, like, did you get a rush or for you,

you were just doing what you did and you loved it, but you know what I mean? Some nights it feels like a job. Other nights you remember what made you fall in love with it. So yeah, it, yeah, it can get, it can get grueling. It's funny too. It's like, I always think about this too, because the reason I had said to you before how guys have a rough game and fans are tough on them. Dude, I'll have a night where for whatever reason i'm tired and grumpy and i've been a dick and my wife is like you're a dick and uh and it's

like she hangs up the phone or something and then i'm like in a terrible i'm in a terrible mood and it's like you're on in 15 minutes and it's like oh shit you know like i need to get i need to get myself out of this but it's hard again, I'm just just a dude. And it's like and then I think about, you know, I'm lucky because before I'll like I'll close my eyes and I'll be like all of these people, all of these people paid hard earned money. They hired babysitters. They've got like their, you know, their college or university's tuitions are expensive. And they found a way to come and pay for parking and popcorn and to take hours out of their busy life to come and hang with you, dude. So get your shit together, get over yourself,

call your wife and apologize. And, uh, yeah, that's, you know, I'm it's weird cause I'm doing the show. I'm that's great. People pay to see you. And so there's a lot less pressure like as i just went and did um i just sang at the kennedy center i just did the kennedy center honors and i was honoring um um barry gibb and the bgs oh nice dude i was like so nervous so nervous like you know you look out in the audience and you just like, there's Robert De Niro just staring at you and Rob Reiner and all these people. And it's like, and you know, and what was funny is there was another artist with me there who's a super famous artist. And, um, and when I came off, she had, she was going on next and I, I grabbed her hand and I was like,

okay, you know, kill it it and I could feel that her hand was really sweaty and cold and uh and it made me feel better because I was like look at you know this is she's she's incredible you know and and she's scared too so you know made me feel a lot better oh sorry I didn't mean to step on you there I read uh Tony Bennett was a mentor you as by the way my condolences on the loss of your friend. How crazy was it the first time you actually worked with a legend of that caliber? Oh, man. It's all crazy, dude.

It's all. Again, I'm from Burnaby. And so I look up and I look across from me and there's him or Stryasand or even Justin Bieber. I've just done like this amazing, it's weird because I still find myself like as a fan. Like I've just done this song with Jason Derulo. It is, dude, it is such a slapper. I'm telling you right now, it is, I can't, I can never say for sure,

but if it's not a massive global hit, I will be shocked. But even with Derulo, like I kind of like a watch him. I listened to him and I'm like, Holy shit, this guy's really, this guy's good. You know, like, wow. Like, I'm, you know, I'm always, it's, it's always, I always have that reverence and respect. So like with Tony or, you know, some of my favorite people, Lady Gaga, she's, she's amazing. You know, like I go and see her and it's like, oh, my God, this girl is unbelievable. I can't believe I'm, you know, I kept on the red carpet.

They kept out in all these interviews. They're like, how do you feel about being at the Kennedy Center Honors? And I just kept saying, my manager always tells me that if you walk like a duck, talk like a duck and swim with the ducks. It'll be reasonable for people to assume that you're a duck. And so I just try to fake it and get involved with as many of these amazing... I mean, listen, Sir Paul McCartney produced the last record. I was trying to act cool. You've got a wild story. I was trying to act cool, but I wasn't cool.

Sometimes we get asked, favorite barn you know, favorite barn you played in, favorite city. Like, do you have one spot when you're going there? You know it's going to be a good show. You're fired up. Maybe a favorite venue. Weirdly, in America, I love Minnesota. Love it.

Just feels so Canadian. It's like I get out there and it's like I can't explain it. It's like really, really warm. Um, you know, really outgoing. Um, I mean, my favorite country to tour is probably America cause they're just outgoing people. Um, I love my hometown of Vancouver, but we're, we're a little bit less demonstrative. We're kind of, you know, I love my home, my home city, but it's, you know, it's, they're a little more conservative. I love Australia, love Northern England, love Germany. I think Germany is my favorite place to tour.

When you, when you say that, do you mean like, as in those other places, they get rowdier? Like the crowd is just like going crazy for you. That's what you mean? Yeah. Like, like people throwing panties on stage panties and bras like a drake show it's just definitely they're like way they're way in like they're just um they're nuts you know people are just nuts and it's so it's so uh some countries are different were you uh receptive when they they brought up the christmas album like initially because i feel like you know every guy who's got a voice Some countries are different. Were you receptive when they brought up the Christmas album initially? Because I feel like every guy who's got a voice in here is a venture.

I said no. I thought it cost me my career, truthfully. When you did it, you thought you weren't going to get the outpouring of support? No, no, no. I made the first record, made the second record, and then the president called me and he said, you'll be making a holiday record. And I said, no, I won't. And he said, I was in a hotel room in Florida. And he was like, yes, you will. And I said, he said, I said, no, I won't. I said, you know what?

I said, that just makes me feel like you think I'm a flash in the pan. I said, it's, I'm not ready. I said, give me a chance to really establish myself. And when I do, I will make's I'm not ready I said give me a chance to really establish myself and when I do I will make I will make you a great record like I love Christmas I will make you a badass record and uh and then he was like well I don't think you're understanding I think you know you're going to make that record and I said and then I said I I, I don't care about your fourth quarter. Right. I am not making that record. Then I hung up the phone.

I called my manager and I said, Bruce, I think they're going to drop me. And he started to laugh. I said, what are you laughing at? He said, don't be an idiot. He said, you sold too many records. They ain't dropping you. So I, and I knew, man, I knew I waited i waited i was like because i knew i wanted to be established i knew i had a great record up my sleeve i knew like dude i was so um it's funny man i remember sitting in the studio and these people kept saying ah you're making a

christmas record and i remember because over and over i kept saying no i'm not making a christmas record i kept saying i'm making the christmas making a Christmas record. I kept saying, I'm making the Christmas record. Because I really loved it. And I still, dude. Oh, it's incredible. Dude, before I came downstairs, I have a one-year-old daughter. And we were dancing to Bing Crosby, Jingle Bells. I genuinely love it.

So it's like, you know, the fact that it's done what it's done. And it's funny, too, because people will write me on my social and be like oh he's made another record it's like no dumbass i made one record 13 years ago it's not my fault that i'm dominating yeah oh it crushed i mean my parents blared all the time i know you're a little tire pump for yourself not a big deal my mom would also always blare a nat king cole oh absolutely just so beautiful my mom would tell always blare Nat King Cole. Oh, absolutely. It's just so beautiful. My mom would play the Crosby record, the Elvis record, and weirdly, Boney M sometimes.

What do you make of all these people butchering the Canadian national anthem this year in the NHL? Have you seen how many people have butchered it? Yes, dude. We got to get a pre-recorded Buble version where they just play instead of trying to get these other people out there. in the nhl have you seen how many people have butchered it yes dude we gotta we gotta get like a pre-recorded buble version where they just play instead of trying to get these other people out it is the reason that i won't do the anthems well you're afraid that you'll fuck it up dude do you know that it's the one it's the one fucking song that everybody knows it's like the one song like you could make it you could be doing whatever i could be singing

having met you say that's all right and people say oh but you mess up the national you mess up the star spangled banner oh canada you are a nazi murdering piece of shit that should die it's like like all of a sudden people that couldn't give a shit become the most patriotic and angry yes you know what i mean and it's like cancel them and it's like why you know it's a christmas album burn it burn it burn it to the ground it's like i i did one i did one i think it was like the covid year and they were like would you do it for the you know the reopening of the league and i was like it depends like can i i recorded is it like in an empty building they were like and i was like it depends like can i if i record it is it like in an empty building they were like yep i was like can i have the words on the thing they were like yep i was

like okay that's how i would do it for sure yeah man all right scary man uh i read your dad was a commercial fisherman he used to work with him in the summers out exactly what kind of fish fisherman was he i know there's all different types out there so he we had my dad, my grandfather, my great-grandfather immigrated from Italy, and he was a shipbuilder. And my grandfather, my Frank Bublé, was a first generation of Seine fishermen. They ran Seine boats. He was a captain of a Seine. It's like a purse, kind of purse Seiner. It's like a net that one side attaches to the beach.

The other is attached to the boat and a drum. And then you sort of open it up in a half circle. It's quite shallow. Uh, so it really only gets salmon and then the salmon come in to what we used to call Buble Bay. And then we would close the net and then we would on the drum lift up and sort of create a purse so that it would then come up and you'd catch the salmon in a bag and it would come over the stern and if you really got lucky and there were too many salmon to come up over the stern we would do something called brailing and brailing is you get this big kind of gigantic spoon and you would scoop the salmon out and when you did that you knew you were making money like that was like i i won like the best times of my life

man sitting on a freezing cold you know guys just you know dead tired but you're watching each scoop and you know that you're making you know 400 bucks every single time it goes in you know you have a big you know two three thousand buck day and we used to sing uh my buddy Dino used to, as we were coming up, he used to sing, I want to know, have you ever seen us braille? And we would do the braille. Was that done? So you're whiskey. We're in the booze business. You're now in the booze business.

You're the reason, man. I'm telling you right now. I watch you guys. I think, dude, these sexy bastards put this thing out. Look at them. They must be making making i want in on that shit oh i thought ryan reynolds was the reason that got you into it because he did aviation and you're hey you guys are the first okay all right well and by the way and by the way i think the

success you've had is bigger than i would say anyone else's is it not so we're fortunate enough i think we are the fastest growing spirit in the history of. You've done over a million cases. I believe we did. We did 807,000 cases in our first year. Yeah. It's, it was a,

it just, Hey, sorority girls loved it. And it popped off and it just, I love it, man. The shot of colleges. Now,

now yours is, is called Frazier and Thompson. yours is called Fraser and Thompson. Yeah, Fraser and Thompson. F and T. F and T. Is that where you used to fish a lot? What's the backstory? Grandpa used to take us out camping.

And there used to be this. Well, it's like, listen, I don't know if you want to tell people because I don't know if people know. But I'll just ask you, is your story real? Is it real? Of how it was created yeah yeah so yeah we've told it before that we we got new amsterdam vodka as a sponsor to come on and they said how do you drink your vodka describe it to him when you first talk about the introduction and then and then wit kind of went in the story about his favorite drink that he drinks on the golf course and he used to mix uh newman's own the pink lemonade and vodka. And he's like, I call it the pink Whitney.

So all these fans kept hashtagging pink Whitney, pink Whitney, love it, love it. Great summer drink. So we're like, we got to do this. So yes, it happened very organically, much like yours. Yeah. And that's the thing too, is like, cause when I had my first big meetings, they were like, we need to come up with a story. And I was like, what do you mean? They're like, you know, a story. And they were like, that's kind of what they do. And I was like, give me an example. Like, ah, like one guy, you know, one celebrity thing, they said he had it and put it around the party. And when it came back, it was always empty. And that's the story. And I was like, I was like, I don't, you know, I don don't have a story my grandpa used to make wine he's an italian grandpa that used to make wine in his basement he used to

make grappa you know what grappa is it's like moonshine and he'd like throw cherries in and so my wife and i we bought this we became part owners of this little this really wonderful boutique distillery in montreal with this guy named paca. And it was like, you know what, we got four kids and we wanted to do something where we could have something together. Like we didn't expect, literally, we didn't expect to make money. We didn't, we didn't think it would blow up. We just thought that, you know, like, sounds terrible, but like we were like, we talked and go like, Hey man, like, you know, when the kids are growing up and they leave, I'd love to be able to look at you. And, and we, you know, we're friends,

like we're, it's not just about the kids. Like we have our own thing. And so we bought the little boutique and then a buddy of ours was like, you should go and talk with this guy who worked with Reynolds. And, and I did. And we, I liked him and his wife a lot and then Paul and I literally two and a half years my wife him and I uh we tried to like I don't even know what you call it like reverse engineer a whiskey for people that might not love whiskey you know what I mean like I understand that you have Pappy Van Winkle at four thousand dollars a bottle and it's silly that's silly that's not what we wanted to do we wanted to do something

that was like accessible and for 35 bucks that you could bring that bottle into a party where some dude had pappy van winkle and you could and it could live and you could go like this is good and it was smooth and sweet and uh it's been a lot of fun man i didn't realize how hard like it's a lot of work yeah it is it's a lot of work man like a lot of work and but i mean i get to drink while i work so it's uh there's the there's the whiskey warm up your throat in order to perform you know it's funny i don't i never drink when i work i never drink when i sing but uh um yeah it's really good man and my wife likes i make like old fashions for i actually just take a little bit out of the top and then i put a little brown sugar and like uh oh yeah and like orange juice or and then uh a little vanilla and i just shake it up and put

in the freezer and she she loves it but dude it's so much, dude, it's so much fun. Like, and for me it's fun because it's like, I've, I've been a singer for a long time and I have had this like cycle of make a record, you know, write the record, promo the record, tour the record. And so it was really fun for me to go, you know what, how about now I go and like, you know, become a businessman and like try to, you know know make this the top selling whiskey in the world what's the story behind the name yeah f and t so i'll show you guys so look so you can see if you look at the bottle if you look at the

top thing here so you see those two kind of things with water it says f and t and you got the just above the whiskey so grandpa used to take me camping and in BC, if you go up, up the coast, the Fraser river, you know, the mighty Fraser, we call it meets with the glacier Thompson. And my grandpa would always take us up there camping. And there was this confluence where the two bodies meet. Right. And it creates this amazing thing. Well, they built the gondola over it now, I think.

it's this amazing thing well they built the gondola over it now i think but um so for me it was so cool because it this it it was perfect for what this was which was a a bourbon that was being made by heaven hill in kentucky and infused with a whiskey that we're creating in montreal so this canadian american blend which was like cool perfect for the story man that's exactly what you 're talking that's why i was asking about the story because it was like, oh, this is good. I'm not going to have to bullshit about something that isn't real for the next 10 years. Well, your story sounds a lot cooler than ours. Yours is good. Yours is good, man.

It's the real deal. I appreciate that. I just had two quick things. So R.A. before every show, he's always doing this. Ah! And warming up his throat. Is there maybe a new warm-up you could teach him so we don't have to be grossed out listening to him gargle into his microphone in our ears? This is hilarious. Chrissy?

Yes. Tell them. Just tell them. I'm not even going to tell them what I do. You show them what I do. Come on. What am I showing you? Do the sound.

What do I do when I'm warming up all day? you show them what i do come on what am i showing you do the sound what do i do when i'm warming up all day okay we'll stick with our race my wife my wife literally she's sitting there she's like shut up mike don't more and i can't i go because i want to check if I got the voice. And my kids, everyone, it just pisses everyone off. And then the thing that I do right before I go on, and it works, and it's weird, is this. I go. And I do like this weird thing.

I'm going to steal those two. I'm going to do those before I go on TNT now, even though I'm not singing. And then the last thing I was going to ask you is a quick one. So being a Canucks fan, do you have any enemies in the league? Do you have, do you have any players that you despise and you hate? The first name that comes to mind,

obviously being a Canucks fan would be, be Brad Marchand or are you just a loving guy? Nothing. I follow Brad Marchand on Instagram. Oh, my God. And he does not follow me. And you know what's crazy? Is that while I might dislike him,

I respect the hell out of him. Oh, yeah. I truly do. He's one of those dudes where I can hate playing against him, but damn do I wish he was on our team. He's a winner. He's a dude who steps up every single time in the clutch. And I just, you know what, man?

I respect the hell out of it. Literally, it's weird, I know. But as a Canuck fan, that probably seems sacrilegious, but I follow him because I have a lot of respect for him. Michael, before we let you go, I have to ask. And, uh, cause I have a lot of respect for him. Michael, before we let you go, I have to ask you went on our buddies podcast, KFC radio,

and you told them about this ice rink that you have in your basement, that Chad Kroger also has one as well. Can you tell us about that? How did that come to be? And do you actually have an ice rink in your basement? I do. I'm looking at it right now. No shit.

I do. Yeah. I'm an idiot. I'm a complete idiot. can make the christmas album for bill now i thought it was gonna be such a great no you know you guys it was you know uh my dad helped me so that we didn't like it wasn't listen it it's uh it's not cheap, obviously, but we did it. We tried to do it in an affordable way. There's no way to talk about this without people hating on you, man. No.

I've realized. Yeah, they do. You've earned everything you've got, buddy. She says he's a normal guy, but he has a nice – it's like, guys, I just – it was my dream. Like I suck at hockey, and I know I'll always suck at hockey, but I love it, man. I, it is my happiness, my joy. I still get like, like I still get like butterflies as I'm lacing up my skates. Cause I love going out. I, I don't know if there's a more

beautiful sound than the sound of a puck hitting a hockey stick and that that sound and that feeling of being with your buddies and you know probably being wasted and playing is like dude it's and and you know it's funny too i it's it's not like something i just do alone i get the kid a lot of kids from the neighborhood are out and they get to play. And I have like a, like a guy that comes in is a really beautiful cat who teaches the kids and skating. And like,

you know, it's cool for the community. As a matter of fact, the ice is out right now because my kids play lacrosse. So I wanted them to have something in this kind of yucky weather to be able to play. And tomorrow at four o'clock, I got about 17, 18 guys coming able to play and uh tomorrow at four o'clock i got about uh 17 18 guys coming

over to play ball hockey and there'll be guys they'll be you know they'll range from 17 years old to 65 60 you know i got two defibrillators just in case yeah yeah some oxygen that's awesome but it's yeah man it's like it was my dream man and david foster you know the producer david foster yeah yeah he used to like i remember i was like dude you know should i do this and um and i remember he just said to me do it once if you can he said do it once you know do get that you know do the big ticket item one time. If that's your thing, it's because I was never so into cars. I didn't want to go and buy some fancy jewelry or gold piece. It wasn't.

So if I was going to do it once, this was going to be the once. And I could, you know, basically like I built like a weird place that I could hang with my friends and play a little golf or soccer. Just like I love sports, man, just anything. And my kids use it all the time. So it turned out to be a good idea and I hope when you guys are in Vancouver I hope you'll come out and we can go for a rip together yeah we'll stick our ray and net we'll just can't wait but I haven't been there in 12 years yeah we can't thank you enough you're a Canadian icon buddy and this means a lot to us and hopefully at some point we can all meet in person

and hopefully it's in your basement snapping the puck around no seriously let's go okay we should we should absolutely man i'm bringing the ice back in i think in uh i think it's come back in january late january so um i know you guys are gonna be around so let's go let's have a day yeah we should we should film something we should be stupid and go and just definitely done. I'm down. Absolutely. Thank you guys. And congratulations on everything.

And thank you guys for having me. I keep, I'll keep listening and watching. Thank you. Merry Christmas. And enjoy those. Merry Christmas to you. Have a holy,

jolly Christmas. That's awesome. Thank you so much, Christmas. That's awesome. Thank you so much, Michael. That was amazing. Okay, before you go any further, here's a few words from our friends over at Lightbox Jewelry. Lightbox lab-grown diamonds. Wow.

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Might have been. Yeah. And then we had Brett Kissel, too, a few years back. Oh, yeah. That's right. Tom Green's not a musician, but he played an instrument on the pod. He was great. That's right.

Tickling the ivories a little bit. The Capitals could be on the move. The team is eye That's right. Tickling the ivories a little bit. The Capitals could be on the move. The team is eyeing a new arena in Alexandria, Virginia. The city wants to keep them. You know, these things always happen. The owners don't want to pay. The city gets involved. The city said they're going to put up $500 million towards an $800 million renovation. They obviously want to keep the Caps and the Wizards there. They stand to lose about $25 million in taxes should the new arena go out of state. The Virginia lawmakers, they approved the plan,

but they still have to get the General Assembly and the Alexandria City Council to give the okay. Whit, could you think off the top of your head one place that needs a new arena right now? What team could use one more than anyone? Don't say Arizona. Arizona. Did you say other than Arizona?

Yeah, I said don't say Arizona, and then you're like Arizona. I think I would probably, probably the three that would hop to mind would be Ottawa, Winnipeg, and the Caps. I never loved that building. I feel bad, right, for fans who maybe live nearby, but even when I played and then from what I've heard from people, that Chinatown area in D.C. isn't great. And it's kind of gone really downhill these past few years.

And I guess if a lot of people, especially people with money or living in Alexandria, kind of makes sense. But you could tell the panic of the city because after that was announced about the 9 a.m. press conference the next day, I think it was within the hour the city had come back with a report that they'd be willing to give $500 million to do the renovations to that barn and keep them in D.C. But I lean towards it would be a good thing because I think that anytime you get a new arena for a team in the league, it's just a good thing. You know, visiting teams, you come in there. for a team in the league. It's just a good thing. You know, visiting teams, you come in there. Maybe a visiting team's fan base would want to go and check out this new rink.

And you just get the excitement of more money being brought in through a new arena and new technology and all that stuff. So you feel bad for some people. There's a lot of workers there that would obviously be out of work. At the same time, new jobs are created in Alexandria. I know it's not that far away but it seems like i i mean i guess it is a different state considering dc isn't even a state stay hot wit but i would like to see a new barn i i think that's exciting anytime one comes around

you want to get check it out i still haven't seen um the the red wings new building so i'd lean toward that happening little caesar the reason i like it as far as a new barn is concerned it's not like it's not a generic one it's not cookie cutter it has character the seats are beautiful the concourse is like it's it's next level now i'd have to disagree with you on the winnipeg i feel like for the size of the city it's the perfect size and i actually like how the fans are on top of you there i just just, I mean, I get that it's only what, 15,000 people, maybe just shy of that. I actually think that the most needed new barn in the league

is the Calgary Flames. The Saddle Dome is old. It's brutal. But I actually love playing there too. Yes, I do like the character of it and the way, where it's situated. But I think that if they did build a new one, it wouldn't be that far away.

I just think it's about time that Calgary gets a new barn. So that's my pick, Ari, if you cared. Of course I do. I always care about your opinion, Paul. Yeah, they've been there since 97, so we'll see what happens. I mean, it's basically the same age as the Garden. What did the Garden open? I think 95, 96.

Well, it's good you bring up the Garden because about, yeah, I think it was 94 or 95. Pretty quickly after the Garden opened, I was 95, 96. Well, it's good you bring up the garden because about, yeah, I think it was 94 or 95. Right? Pretty quickly after the garden opened, I was like, this place kind of stinks. They've done an unreal job doing a lot of stuff, renovations to the garden. So that makes you think that if they did that in D.C. and spent all that money, they could get that place pretty sweet. But I don't know. The thought of a new building just excites me.

But the garden was looking pretty brutal for how new it was and they've made a really good step in making it a lot more fun to go watch a game and the colors they've painted all the... What am I looking for? What word am I looking for? Black and gold.

Yeah, but what's the area where you get food and drinks? Concourse. Conc drinks? Concourse. Concourse. Concourse. Holy shit, witch. Jesus Christ. Yeah, they were finally able to blow that back wall that's facing Causeway Street. Is it not true that there's a lease that's ending on MSG, and they said that they're

not going to renew it, and they're going to tear it down? I just can't believe that's true. I thought they just redid that place. I understand, but if you Google it, they're saying, and I think it's about 10 to 15 years that the lease is expiring and that they're not renewing the lease. Yeah, there was talks of them moving to like Hudson Yards area.

So I just couldn't believe, I can't believe that that's like the most known arena in probably the world. Is that a fair assessment? I think the statement is like most famous arena in the world. Yeah just can't it's it's almost like an eighth it's an eighth world wonder you can't you can't tear that thing down why are you laughing just just the world wonder just caught me a little by surprise i thought it was funny well you had a doozy earlier with a final nail in the straw he said i don't know if you realize that's what he said. I don't know what I'm saying right now.

My basement's flooding again. So, now I'm like. We're just all in a whack today, man. I have to get home so my wife can go get a general. I'm in a world of disaster in my brain right now. So, I apologize to everyone listening. When they did close the old Boston guard down, the last event they had was an exhibition game versus Montreal. A very special moment.

Ray Bork brought out Norman Levier. If the name is unfamiliar to you, he was a Boston Bruin. 1982 during a game in Vancouver, he suffered a brain aneurysm. He had to go rush to the hospital and his career was over. It was just a sad thing. And when they closed the guard, Ray brought him out on his skates. Really tender moment.

So, you know, it's the 100thth anniversary the bruins have been honoring all their teams from the past and the lunch pail ac that was the name of the squad from the late 70s early 80s that's the iteration of the bruins i fell in love with you know terry o'reilly mick rick middleton wayne cashman stan jonathan just a great team went to like three cups in a row i believe uh so they were honoring them the other night and lo and behold who comes out norman levier uh in the wheelchair the place was going nuts and he he stood up like he could see him like i don't know if he so they were honoring him the other night, and lo and behold, who comes out? Norman Olivier in the wheelchair. The place was going nuts, and he stood up. I don't know if he told the guys he was going to do it.

He stood up and dropped the first puck, man. Definitely some waterworks. Did you catch that live, or did you end up seeing it on the replay? Just a special, special night. It was amazing, and I actually did some Googling. I talked to my dad, a huge Bruins fan, and kind of asked him what he remembers. And he was saying his rookie year, I think at 18 years old, he looked awesome, like 33 points.

And then the next year, nine points in nine games. And then tragedy struck in Vancouver. And it kind of like, it shows like the frailty of an athlete. And like, thank God, I thank God that he didn't pass away and has been able to go on and live as good of a life as he's been able to. Just a horrible story, though. And to think about what type of player he would have been. Actually, Jean Rattel said he would have been better than Yvonne Cornier.

Am I saying that? How do I say his name already? Yeah, like that. I always butcher him, too. I apologize. But, I mean, just horrible story to, like, read about. And you feel so bad for him. Just a promising career cut short by such a tragic, you know, incident.

And to have him out on the ice and Middleton and other guys picking him up and him dropping the puck, that was tough to not get a tear in your eye because you just feel so much for the guy. Yeah, absolutely. Jean Rattel, what a frigging player he was, man. The Bruins got him, I think he was like 34. The numbers he put up at that age is absolutely incredible. He was like the Bergeron before Bergeron came around.

So this is a wild story, too. How about Miko Rantanen? He's doing a post-game scrum with the media, and he basically calls out his teammate's father, Turi Lekkonen's dad. He covers the hockey over in Finland. He basically was saying he didn't work out. He basically wasn't ready for the season,

and he fucking gave it to him. I couldn't tell if it was a joke biz. Parents don't usually say that type of shit, but we saw it last year with Big Walt. He basically said that the reason that he thinks that he's had a rough season and mind you a rough season for miko ronan is not a rough season and he actually had a great start i think the first three games of the year he had four points in each of those games which was some sort of record that was set so um he made comments that there were a lot of distractions off the ice that would have taken him away from training time, where the reason that Rotten and bit back is he was acknowledging that he was through this dry spell this year.

But if there's one thing that he's not, it's lazy in the gym. He is a fucking horse in the gym. So he took those comments and he was offended by them. And rightfully so, for based on the time and energy he does put into his game off the ice. So apparently there's no rift between him and his teammate. It's more so he just wanted to bark back at the old man who does media overseas. I said something dumb on TNT, shocker. And we'd filmed something in the afternoon for four hours. So mind you, after the eight hour broadcast, my brain was working as well as it has been today with that fucking drill bet next door in my, in my conscience. But, uh, I was like, Oh, maybe he just interpreted it wrong.

Well, if I could speak the same fucking language. So walk off that. But, uh, no, i love that getting spicy and if anything a little bit of motivation for him to get going and he's been great since so um uh since we're on the colorado topic i went did you have anything to say about it yeah i just thought it was it was bizarre i mean the only time I can remember anyone saying anything is when my dad was like, don't pass it to Bissonette. He's fucking horrible. But I felt bad, and I told him not to say that anymore.

My old man was probably like, fucking, I gave him the same advice. But I didn't really get it. I rocked it in 55 goals last year, 105 points, 92 points the year before that. He's on pace for 90 points this year. It was just kind of confusing to me to publicly call out one guy. And you brought up Big Walt, Keith Kachuk. He went after the Florida Panthers as a team for not playing hard and playing ridiculous hockey when they went on that brutal run last year,

included with Maurice just ripping into him in Toronto. So not like a great analogy, not even coming at URA, just didn't really fit the same narrative in terms of what Lekanen's dad said. So just a weird thing. I'm sure Arturi was like, Dad, maybe just leave my teammates' names out of your mouth. Kind of an odd thing. But I think Rantanen's an unbelievable player. And they got him at 9.25. I mean, he's only got one more year left on that, so he's going to get a monster contract this summer probably. I said, keep my teammate's name out your mouth.

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or order online at Zin.com. Warning, this product contains nicotine. Nicotine is an addictive chemical. Biz, what were you going to say about the abs um so on 32 thoughts i was just reading on twitter um they apparently they mentioned you know ever since they lost cadre there's been that missing piece of the second line center and as much as i like johansson i don't think he's the answer if colorado wants to compete in the west as far as winning a hoisting another Stanley cup. But, uh, the there's potentially mixing things up for Elias Lindholm out of Calgary. That would be

a lethal, lethal one, two punch. If they were able to somehow land him, I don't know what you send back the other way, I guess, easy answer. And I've said this before is maybe Bo Byram and package with something else and that's obviously probably if if Sam Gerrard's able to come back and get to back get back to the player that he was I just think that they have enough depth on the back end and and then of course you have Makar who's an incredible puck moving and skating defenseman Gerrard's the same where I think that would you not if you could do it right now in package where you have to part ways with Bo Byram to try to get Lynn home and then be able to basically a sign and trade lock him in I think that there's no way you can compete in the west

if you don't have strength through the middle and that's one thing that they're lacking right now outside of the first line I agree with that that. You'd have to have him signed. It'd be tough to give up Byron being that young and Gerard coming back. So important, as you said, but I think my thing right now with Colorado is, is talking about McKinnon who he's got the longest point streak of the season at 15 games. He's got 28 points and,

and these goals and assists are highlight real play. His speed and like fire right now with his game is something else. Just an absolute superstar in this league. I've probably said the word superstar 49 times this episode. I'm an absolute joke of a podcast host today. I apologize once again. But watching McKinnon is so fun. And that team is a blast.

They just come at you in waves. And I think that if they could get Lindholm, wow. Look out. Makar missed the game this weekend, and he had missed two earlier for an upper body injury, so hopefully he's okay. A little maintenance. Or maybe lower body. I don't know, actually. Yeah, quick trade. Colorado

sent Thomas Tata, a.k.a. Tuna, to Seattle for a fifth rounder in 24. He's a pending UFA, making a million and a half this year. Kind of an odd move. Guys, Seattle's been way too vanilla for me this year. I haven't been paying attention at all. I better brief up on my knowledge

though because we got them on the Winter Classic broadcast. Witt's not attending because he bailed on us. Over to you, R.A. Back to me. Something was grinding my gears this weekend of course grind my gears

brought to you by bigdealbrewing.com slash finder find out where it's close to you this is like another silly one nothing world change

but realize it drives me crazy when DJs got the whole place going and they turn down the volume on like the chorus

and have everyone else fucking sing it's like oh I love that RA you suck once in a blue moon but like over and over it's like I'd rather have you know fucking sing. It's like... Oh, I love that, R.A. You suck. Once in a blue moon, but like over and over,

it's like I'd rather hear, you know, fucking Axl Rose or Aretha Franklin or whoever it is singing instead of like 50 fucking drunk kids in a bar. You know what I mean, dude? It's like, that's why we want to hear

the original thing. I don't think you fucking turn it down and fucking... They do it with Journey all the time. Don't Stop Believing. That seems to be like the wicked popular song at parties and bars all the time.

Kind of crazy too. R.A., did you uh did you ride my gears all right yeah did you read that in uh in nyc there's there's a bar that uh lifted their age limit for reasons of like yeah just kind of like the younger generations getting too annoying so they raise the level of like to attend the bar 25 to get in oh there's a bunch of bars in New York that do that. Yeah. It's awesome. So that's happened before. All right. Yeah.

They have 23 plus bars everywhere. Now they're getting the 25 plus. It's actually awesome. Yeah. Because these millennials are, or what are they called? Gen Z's. Zoomers. Yeah.

Dude, they're not. Zoomers. They don't like fucking sex either. These kids don't date. They don't like, they're not out chasing ass like every other generation before them. I think that the porn consumption has skyrocketed, and that's probably a problem with a lot of Yeah, these things, man. That's how they communicate with.

So anyway, sorry to my boy DJ Mac. I quit drinking. I'm also quitting porn, by the way. No more belly button soup, boys. No more weed either. I'm going clean. I might be like a pastor in no time here by playoffs like a buddha the factory installed stuff i'll be a monk i'll be the only podcast host in history who just doesn't talk i'll just sit here in silence i bet you half of

our listeners would love that hey guys uh hey biz how, Biz, how was your weekend? It was good. What'd you do? Nothing. No, I would be... And on to Grinnelli at the box. So, yeah, sorry to my boy DJ Macca. He was spinning the other night. So, yeah, stupid little thing, but that was grinding my gears. Once again, bigdealbrewing.com

slash finder. Gee, Chicklets U. When's it coming out? Let the people remind them. Wednesday, 6 p.m., Chicklets YouTube channel, Boston College, fourth overall, Will Smith. Tune in.

It would mean a lot to me. All right, buddy. Great job with that so far. Happy 80th birthday to the one and only Keith Richards, Rolling Stone. Love that, man. Any final notes, Whit, Biz, before I wrap this up? No, guys, we have a very special episode next week for you.

We won't fill you in yet on what it's going to be, but I think you'll really enjoy it, a little Christmas episode. And as always, we thank you so much for listening. We apologize, or I apologize for being a joke today. But I hope you enjoyed the interviews. I hope you enjoyed the show. And we will be back to you next week with a special Christmas episode. The bear I like to stir the pot But then you come on in and take it up a notch You hit me with a cheap shot, a cheap shot

She hit me with a cheap shot, a cheap shot I said she needs a detox Cleanse her mind Another week rolls in, we're on the road again Thought I was safe and sound in my minivan But I said something that crossed the line. And I know she felt it. So I said she could have a free one on the chin. She went below the bell.

Shit. She had me with a cheap shot. A cheap shot. She had me with a cheap shot. A cheap shot. I think we need a deep talk. Outro Music