Spittin Chiclets - Spittin’ Chiclets Episode 476: Featuring Wayne Gretzky

Episode Date: December 25, 2023

On Episode 476 of Spittin’ Chiclets, the guys are bringing you a special surprise Christmas gift, The Great One himself, Wayne Gretzky (01:28:01). In our second interview with Wayne, the boys go over his time playing for the L.A. Kings as well as his international play in the 80’s and 90’s. We find out what was the best Christmas gift he ever received and how Connor McDavid is the second biggest Nickelback fan ever. But before The Great One joins, the guys talk shop about what’s going on around the league. Later on, the boys hand out some coal and coins to some teams around the league. Hope you all enjoy the Wayne Gretzky interview and Merry Christmas Chiclets Nation!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 Hello everybody and welcome to episode 476 of Spittin' Chicklets Presented by Pink Whitney, from our friends at New Amsterdam Vodka Here in the Barstool Sports Podcast family Merry Christmas everyone

We're a day early this week, we've got a new year on the corner. We have the best gift ever. You probably heard the best sequel since the Dark Knight. Biz got us Wayno once again. Wayne Gretzky coming to you in a little bit. Part two of what will hopefully be a trilogy. Let's go to Biz first. How'd you finagle this?

You know how you did first. What should have been? Sandbag them. Ho, ho, ho, ho, everybody. That's how you should have kicked today off. I couldn't believe you didn't start it with a giant oh my ocd my ocd won't allow for it that's true that's true uh no man well first of all it's it's so awesome to be able to drop a surprise like this for our spit and chiclets listeners we

love our fans and uh for wayne to give us his time again um you know he's a busy guy so uh i mean we're very blessed at the fact that he was able to sit down with us for another what was it about an hour and 10 minutes and uh share really the kind of the second segment of his journey you know this is going to eventually probably be a trilogy and hopefully more but uh it was great that we got to cover the a lot of the hockey canada stuff too in this one and i mean I would probably say that one of the crazier stories about Walter's basement, and we won't get into it too much, but just a very special interview.

So aside from that, man, I'm excited for you guys to hear it. Yeah, it's good stuff. Part two of three. Whitdog, Ryan, Whitney, what's going on, brother? All excited for the big day? Two boys, one mom, maybe a boy? A tough little spot right now with the kids, with the flu. Not great timing.

You know, just the old swab with the doctors. And, you know, last night I said, Ryder, you want to go to hockey practice? He's like, no. I'm like, you're being lazy. He's like, no, Dad, I really don't feel good. And 20 minutes later, he's on the couch for like three hours from five to eight so i knew we knew something was wrong but you know what it's just being around the family that that's all that matters and we've got some nice gifts planned out actually this year he really wants a net so i went and bought a net i gotta put that together

which i am not like the put together guy but i said i'm gonna do this i'm gonna be a real man and a real dad and i'm gonna spend my time the basement, maybe put some tunes on and just kind of put this thing together. We'll see how it goes, but it should be a great time, right? I mean, I know it's Christmas day today for all you guys. We're recording on Saturday the 23rd. I know, Biz, I'm very excited for you. You work a lot. You work probably too much in my mind, but I understand why you're going to get away to Mexico. Very excited for you to get a little break, a little turn the mind off for a little bit after you're always buzzing. RA, G, I know you're coming home, G. RA, I'm sure you're just chilling with the fam. So it's an awesome time to kind of reflect on how lucky we all are and also kind of

have thoughts and feelings for people who are maybe going through a little bit of a tough time, especially around this time of year. So I love being with you guys today and I'm excited for the holiday, no matter what's going on in our family right now. What'd you get Ryder? Like, what do you, what do you get the kids? Dude. So we, you know, my friend, um, his wife kind of started this really good thing where she's like, I'm just so sick of the toys and same for us where, you know, you give toys, they play with them for three minutes and you got toys everywhere. Like what I do now is I, when I, and for every parent that knows every night it's groundhog day, you go around and you clean up the room, you clean up the playroom, you clean up the living room. And I just

throw away toys. Now, every night I pick a couple, I chuck them right in the trash or actually, no, I put them in a trash bag and then we give them away. But I'm just like deleting. Good save. Good Allen Iverson style. Hey, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. I was going to throw them away. Let's all shame Wit now for throwing away toys instead of giving them away to the last four.

All right, I'm not going to tell my story. I guess it's pick on Wit day again. No, no, fuck off. I was going to throw them away, so I had to give my wife credit. She said, no, no, we can give all the toys away because they were like random little parts that aren't with the rest of the parts, toys, whatever. I digress.

So long story long, she ended up saying, well, what we do now is we do a gift you want, a gift you need, and a gift to read. So like three gifts, and then you can do another one like a gift to wear. So I kind of tried to push for that this year and not do so many gifts because the thing is it it's there's so much stuff that you think the kids want they open they have no interest so they probably are both getting about six things they're both gonna get the net and then um i need my son rider to learn how to ride a bicycle he's six now so it's like buddy the time is now so we got him a bike it's like a little you know no training wheels though it's like the way they teach they teach kids to skate now without pushing the milk crate and stuff which i kind of don't necessarily agree with but nonetheless with bikes it's similar

where they don't put you know you get the bike with no pedals and you learn to like run on it lift your feet up and cruise and balance this one has pedals so it's just going to be hey bud go in the backyard even though it's rock hard right now and put a helmet on and figure out how to ride a bike like you're six years old so then we got picture wit pushing this kid down the street he ends up in the fucking woods ah yeah right off to the side right into the ditch yeah yeah thanks appreciate that so i wyatt has a bike with training wheels. And then what else? Wyatt, he's got a jersey coming, a little hockey jersey coming that he really likes rocking jerseys all the time. And other than that, as most guys would say, I think a lot of the wives do most of the shopping. So nothing too crazy, nothing too interesting. But it'll still be like a fun

setup when they come downstairs. I'm sure the room will look great. That's my memories of Christmas. As we get into Christmas time and memories, it's always kind of coming down the stairs. And my parents always had nice, soft Christmas music playing from a little speaker in the background. Or back in those days, it was like a radio. The station would rip them all night long. And then you see each kid's got a little section of a couple toys. And then as Biz, you mentioned in the Gretzky interview, your favorite present. I won't give that away. I kind of had a similar experience once.

I think I've said it before. I don't know if you guys ever got the, oh, we're done unwrapping the gifts. Oh, no, what's that? What's that underneath the couch? Yeah, the Ralphie BB gun incident. Exactly. Like, oh, what's back there, bud? And I got the Easton aluminum

and I, and my, like my dad wasn't even a big picture taker and he had a disposable camera and he snapped the perfect photo of it. And, uh, that was probably the best gift I ever got. My parents were smart though. Cause we would go to, we would go do like a party the night before with my mom's sister, uh, her husband, my grandparents. And of course the, the, they would be getting into the booze, right? So they didn't want to wake up in the morning because we're all excited. 5.30 a.m., we're ready to go downstairs and start tearing all these Christmas presents apart. So what my parents would do is when we get home from that, before we would go to bed,

they would give us one gift. And my parents would always give me my Lego gift. Oh, you were a Lego guy? Huge Lego guy. Love it. Imagine seeing this dude try to do a lego now what do you mean my mom i thought i was going to be a fucking architect i was so good at doing legos why are you laughing i just i don't see you having the patience to do legos at this point in your life i would actually you know i should probably start doing it because it's always

good to work with your hands although i've taken over cooking now i'm basically chef boyardee move over emerald um but yeah they do a bang and then a notch um but they would give me the like a lego set so that way when i would wake up at 5 36 in the morning i would be occupied for a few hours doing that and so they could lick their wounds and then eventually make their way downstairs but my mom was unreal she we had these big stockings probably about i don't know four feet tall and yeah there was some socks in it some underwear but there was also like cool little gifts and other other things that would would that was what she was known for was the big stocking stuffer so uh i i always had great christmases my parents were unbelievable and i was very blessed as a child to to get everything i wanted did you have main street usa biz what's that the like the big lego set it was like a whole

like downtown no i think the coolest one i ever got was like the monorail and much like the one in the simpsons no it wasn't this no no it wasn't the simpsons version one ra so could pump the brakes here i know you're getting excited you got a half chub me talking about the simpsons and then you could put a battery in it and then the monorail would go so that one probably took me about what six months to figure out the setup with so to your point yeah i wasn't the best lego guy uh but i was never into legos i i i find them like even now like if i looked at a lego set like it's just overwhelming to me i never did that stuff well you just got to read the sheet and you follow the steps.

Yeah, I was stick handling. I should get one for my contractor. Maybe he'd finish my fucking house. Anyway, R.A., what was your favorite gift as a kid? Playboy. Oh, yeah, that's right. You guys get that. But by now, I got hustled when I was 12.

That's the story now. Favorite gift, it was probably Atari 2600 when it first came out. It was like either 78 or 79. I never even heard of it. Didn't even know what it was. My stepfather, he was very much ahead of the curve, one of those early adopted types.

So we woke up and I'm like, what is this thing? We didn't even know what it was. It was a groundbreaking video game at the time. It was just Atari then. It didn't get the 2600 until later. So that's probably the coolest one that comes to mind. It was just Atari then. It didn't get the 2600 until later. So that's probably the coolest one that comes to mind. And was that just Pong, RA?

Like the game? Actually, it was combat. The first one to come out, you got one game. It was combat with the tanks shooting and you would bounce off the walls. Wicked, rudimentary 8-bit shit. But at the time, it was groundbreaking. It's what you had to do to play video games. Plus, a whole bunch of Star Wars shit. Those are always my favorite things. Isn't it wild to see where video games have evolved? It's what you had to do to play video games. That, and plus a whole bunch of Star Wars shit. So those are always my favorite things.

Isn't it wild to see where video games have evolved? It's scary in a sense. It is like, it's not that long ago that it was just a ball going back and forth on the screen. And now you see like people's heads murdering hoes and shit. Every corner. I always say,

I think that we've, is it naive to think that we've been alive, especially me and you and RA, even you as well, maybe G not so much. Cause when you were a kid, like when were you born G what year? 93. Okay. So by the time you were coherent enough, there was probably already no Nintendo, even maybe Sega Genesis. Yeah. Yeah. I'd say by the time I was like 10 years old, like most kids had like an N64 playing. Oh, so you never played Nintendo growing up?

No, I was more of an N64 guy. Nintendo ice hockey is. Blades of steel? You get, it's like, it's like skinny guy, fat guy,

medium guy. No, not blades of steel. Blades of steel is awesome too, but it's ice hockey. Nintendo ice hockey. That was NHL hits. NHL hits was good yeah that was fun you used to get light guys up like nfl blitz but yes i i actually i find those video games more enjoyable they're just more simple i don't need

25 fucking buttons and then every year when they drop a new one the buttons are different where you have to do it's just so stupid yeah i agree the controllers for me is big i mean i haven't i played video games a lot i was always playing on i played an mlb game and you know back in the day it was like nhl 96 or 95 was probably the best game i ever played along with ice hockey but i never really played like anything but sports games but i was a gamer and then i I think 10 years, 12 years ago, I haven't played one since, I think because it got overwhelming with the controller and the amount of buttons.

And I like the simplicity of the old school way biz. I know what you're saying. Maybe we sound like big time boomers here. Well, we are. Yeah, we are. And the point I was going back to is I feel like we've been alive for the craziest advancements in technology

throughout the history of the world. Is that fair to say? Was there a point in medieval times where something happened in a 20-year span that was like... There was a new death machine, a new way to kill someone that pissed off the king. Yeah, maybe when the guillotine came into play,

everyone was like, holy shit. But biz, we are the generation. I wish to chop the 4Z, not people's heads off. Oh, shit. Okay, well, fuck it. Freedom! Biz, we're the generation. I find it hard to put the number on how old you have to be now to say this,

but we lived with and without the internet. And it's like to see both. I mean, we've talked about this before i think looking back it was probably maybe a little bit more enjoyable and simple like the prior life before everything but time oh but ra and me and you maybe g a little bit but you're probably a little bit a little bit not much i mean that 10 years between you and biz and me is pretty big but it's like yeah we will be the last people to ever know before and after. If you had the power

to be able to say no more internet ever, would you use it? If we could still keep our jobs, yeah. No more internet on phones, I would do. All of a sudden, we get no paychecks. Sounds very hypocritical. The only reason

anybody knows who the fuck I am is the internet. I get your point, Biz. There are times I think we should just unplug the internet. Everybody's had enough of the internet. This is enough. Let's unplug it and start over again. Because there's a lot of shit storms that have come out of it. It's been great, obviously.

Look how many people got jobs off of Twitter or made some great connections or a million other things. But it's fucking, it's a lot of cringe out there. I mean, without the internet, seven-year-old Butch Goring wouldn't be bending me over and pumping my eyes shut. And Butchie is in your face right now. He runs my show. Wow.

I mean, are we going to get to it later? Do we have anything else to talk about? We got to talk about a live show? Just quick hi to G, that's all. Oh, yeah, G, what the fuck's up? Yeah, we don't want to leave that producer G hanging. Nothing. Oh, yeah. G, what the fuck's up? Yeah, we don't want to leave that producer G hanging. Nothing really. I mean, I'm just feeling very grateful as well,

especially after a successful Chicklets University release last week. So if you haven't seen that, go watch it. Filmed a video with Will Smith at BC. But very grateful for the holidays. Very excited to be back home. All the boys are going to the greatest bar tonight. All the OG guys. So it's going to get a little reckless. So I'm super excited. Very excited to be home.. All the boys are going to the greatest bar tonight, all the OG guys, so it's going to get a little reckless.

So I'm super excited, very excited to be home. Fucking right. Good stuff. You know, I'm grateful for our whole team. This is a time of year where we got to really mention the whole staff. We got Pasha, Sean Apuzzo, Elliot Fish, obviously G, all the work you've been doing.

Army and Murr. Army and Murr. Chess, Army and Murr. Hammer and Game Notes. The Game Notes boys. I forget anybody, G? Mimsy. Mimsy. Mim Mer. Army and Mer. Chukwu, Sugeis, Hammer and Game Notes. The Game Notes boys. I forget anybody. Memesy. Memesy.

Memesy. Dale. Dale. Do his voice, Whit. Hey, boys. Merry Christmas. I'm up in London pounding a milf. I asked Santa for a couple, but I only got brought one.

But it's pretty sick, dude. She's really thick. And go, go. A little round of applause for old Bale. I just feel like Mimsy, Christmas must be, I just see him crushing drinks, just having a ball. That guy just lives the life, man. Never a bad day in Mimsy's world.

You know he's just got a coke can cock too just thumping these milfs oh yeah just an absolute weapon on him but uh grateful for our whole team man they they make the whole engine work and uh it's been a great start to the year and ra i know we kept pumping you up you're the hog you're the hog but buddy i you've been dethroned we got g the content factory now he's doing the chicklets university. By the way, I think we actually gained our first female YouTube subscriber. Cause we dropped that chicklets you with Will Smith.

Have you seen that? This guy is a fuck. This guy is an absolute weapon. And I think he has a sister at BC too. So then like her friend, it's just like, Oh my God, Will.

They're ranked number one in the country right now for hockey. Oh, yeah. Yeah, and then they have Will Smith's going to dominate the World Juniors as well. His whole line, Ryan Leonard, Gabe Perrault. Yeah, he's on top of the world right now. Guys, Witt here. And you know what time it is. It's Pink Whitney time.

It's holiday season. It's the gift grab year. It's the secret Santa year. And every single person out there should be giving a loved one, a friend, a big old bottle of Pink Whitney or a pack of nips or maybe a small Mickey of Pink Whitney. They got all sizes available now. They got the best flavored vodka in the world. That's right.

Somehow in the world, number one selling flavored vodka, Pink Whitney, that pink lemonade flavored vodka. You catch a nice buzz sitting by the fire, opening up some presents, spending time with your favorite cousins, maybe your favorite uncle. Hey, bud, let's go have a Pink Whitney on the rocks. Let's do a shot of Pink Whitney. Let's have an absolute time tonight, and we can thank Pink Whitney later. So if you're not about drinking at home, head on over to your local bar. All the bars I know, they serve Pink Whitney, and it's exceptionally smooth.

It's great tasting, and it's got that refreshing lemon taste, right? It's got that nice aftertaste. Everyone takes a shot. They're worried about, oh, I need a chaser. Not with Pink Whitney. Pink Whitney could also be the chaser, so it's a double shot. So they also have the 1.75 liter bottle more of the pink whitney as we know and love great for parties great for sharing with friends and great for just

having an all-time holiday whether it's new year's or christmas hanukkah kwanzaa doesn't matter pink whitney's where it's at take your shot with pink whitney we are going to get to some world juniors chatter later but uh quickly another thing about uh we gotta talk quickly live show so a lot of people barking online you guys need a bigger venue you need a bigger venue some people were saying that they had tickets already in the the waiting area and then all of a sudden they were going to pay and then boom they they didn't have them anymore they lost them so i don't i don't know what the fuck happens with all that stuff and the technology and ticket master or whatever we sell them through so if you were one of those people who didn't get them we apologize i don't really know what to say gee you might know more

than i do and as far as going to a bigger venue we just tend to do things a little bit more intimately and we've done these live shows with about a thousand thousand people and the winter gardens in toronto that's what it holds there is another venue inside of shows with about 1,000 people, and the Winter Gardens in Toronto, that's what it holds. There is another venue inside of there that holds 1,600, but the character in which the Winter Gardens Theater has is just so cool that that's the one that we wanted to pick. So once again, we apologize, but the good news is if you do want an opportunity to see us,

we're going to be collabing with the Gretzky's on something that's really cool. I'm going to throw it over to G to give it more of a, more of a, a breakdown of where we're going to be doing interviews, recording podcasts in a space that's recreated, uh, for the Gretzky's go ahead there, G. Yeah. So they're recreating Walter Gretzky's basement. It's going to be very cool. I don't know if they want us to release the address yet, but it's going to be a pop-up shop in downtown Toronto. Walter's

basement will be recreated. They're going to be selling Gretzky merch in there. We're going to be there. We'll be there on Wednesday. We're going to be doing interviews. We're going to be hanging with everyone. We're going to record the pod there on Tuesday night. So it's going to be really, really cool just to be able to see Walter's basement recreated where so many historic hockey conversations have gone down. I think it's going to be awesome. And then the whole Gretzky fan

will be buzzing around. So it's going to be cool. The thing about the bigger venue is, I mean, we have trouble speaking when we're alone in our offices. Like a thousand people, it's a lot. And the bigger you get the not just the more intimidating and it might might be for us even though when the lights are at you it's kind of nice because you can't see anything but the more people in there then like the more side conversations are going on and then the more madness that happens so i i feel bad for people and i can't believe how quick it sold out i think it was two minutes so thank you so much to everyone who bought and and i do feel really bad for people who tried to get one and couldn't. But it's kind of hard

to picture ourselves in like a 3,000, 4,000 seat arena when we can barely talk to when it's just us four. But thank you to everyone who bought a ticket. I think one thing too, in typical chicklets fashion, we didn't have this planned out a year ago. Most of these theaters, you have to have planned out a year, nine, 10 months theaters you have to have planned out a year nine ten months in advance so we got the best theater essentially that we could so you know a lot it's nhl all-star weekend in toronto a lot of good theaters were booked so winter garden's an amazing theater though it's going to be an awesome time we're going to be selling merchandise there so it's going to be a blast yeah and just to go back sorry ari i got a little jammed up off the start when you when you threw the the way the, the Wayne stuff to me, it's like, obviously we're so grateful for his time and these iconic stories that he's telling. Um, the first podcast, we went through a lot of the Edmonton days and then eventually the, the, the beginning to the move over to LA, this one, we cover a lot of the LA and a lot of the international play. And one of the stories that's told, like I had never heard it before.

And you guys are going to fucking shit a brick when you hear about it. And it takes part in Walter's basement. And just being able to hear these stories from Wayne, he talks about his dad because I don't, with no Walter, there is no Wayne. Like he was a revolutionary mind in the way that he helped his son,

you know, have access to all the things that he had his son you know have access to all the things he had access to in order to train to become the greatest player to ever play like the pond in the backyard like training with the the tennis balls in order to soften up his hands like you know go to where the puck is going to be not to where it is and all that type of stuff so he speaks like so highly of his father and to hear these iconic stories about the greatest player to ever play the game is i mean our jaws are dropping while he's telling them so for him to come on this podcast and share that that is is awesome and the fact that with that story taking place in his basement now they're going to recreate it at the all-star game in toronto with a pop-up shop where you can

you know purchase merchandise and come by and you'll look at the trophies that he won and all the memorabilia and stuff like that i just think it it's super cool. And the fact that we get to be a part of it at the all-star game in Toronto, it's just going to make for an incredible week. So we're fired up for you guys to listen to this. And once again, we're pumped to surprise you guys on Christmas day. And we hope that you guys really enjoy the interview and everything that we provided here. Well said busy boy. And for those of you who are going to be in Seattle, we're going to be at the Press Box Saturday night from 8.30 to 10pm.

That's at 1518 First Ave South, Suite 100. Once again, Press Box in Seattle. Looking forward to getting out there. First time ever going to Seattle, man. I'm looking forward to it. Oh, it'll be a... Winter class is going to be awesome. I'm actually going to get to meet and interview Marshawn Lynch. I'm working with the NHL.

Like 15 minutes with Marshawn Lynch. I mean, he's a busy man. You got to get his recollection and story of when he took that golf cart on the field when he was playing college football. I mean, just ripping it around and his

skittles consumption to try to just ram home more. I was just just gonna ask him about the goal line play for 15 minutes gotta ask probably what he wants to talk about around the holidays um i'm just saying you did touch on it though too is some people are like well where's this pop-up gonna be closer to the date we're gonna announce the pop-up in toronto where we're gonna be doing all these podcasts and recording a bunch of interviews. So anyone that couldn't come to the show could come over and we can meet people there and stuff? Shake people's hand.

Get to chat with them and have a good time. So I think that's pretty much it as far as house cleaning, right? Oh, yeah. Follow the Spit and Chicklets YouTube channel. Subscribe. 315k now, Witt. Suck on that. Boom, get those numbers up. Like it doesn't help me. I mean, I don't know why you're saying suck on that. Like, I Suck on that. Boom. Get those numbers up. Like it doesn't help me.

I mean, I don't know why you're saying suck on that. Like I'm happy about that. Well, no. I know last time you gave me shit because I kept mentioning it. No. When you said it, if you say it 19 times this show, I might give you shit. But I do love that the number's going up. That's good.

It's a good thing. Because he says it 19 times, though. That's why it goes up. Yeah. Suck on it. Wait a moment. Subliminal. Subliminal.

By the way, NHL 94 was the best hockey video game ever. That was the all-time one. I don't know too many guys who pick a fight with a 74-year-old who played 16 years in the NHL during its toughest post-Violin era, won four Stanley Cups, and his name is Butch. Only he would pick a fight

with a guy like that. Butch Gorin, Island is great, but you offered an olive branch to him on television the other night. I did. I just try to say that I know I've been critical of them playing boring hockey

in the past. But over the month of November and December, they've been pretty electric. I mean, whether they're giving up leads, whether their power play is buzzing at top five

in the league, Matt Barzell and Horvat being one of the best dynamic duos in the league. There's Noah Dobson, kid who is tied for the team leading points, is having a breakout year. I mean, he had pretty good numbers the last couple years,

but he's on pace to fucking, what, put up 70, 80 points. Pretty impressive, especially with a bunch of other D out of the lineup. But going back to Butch, the Butch stuff, I just hope that he's having as much fun as I am. Because this is a blast going back and forth. I sense he's not. I sense he's serious. Oh, you think so?

I don't know. Those old school guys, man, they don't fuck around. You're shitting on his team nonstop. And then all of a sudden, you come with the whole change of heart. Maybe it's the holiday season. Maybe Gary Bettman got in TNT's ear and said, Biz, you not continue to ramrod this team and ruin their entire fan base by constantly bullying them but butch to me unless

he comes on the pod and we could chat with them and laugh i think he's sitting at home and he's on it he puts his glasses on to get on his phone and tweet away at you and he hates your guts so i dm'd him about coming on the podcast he's ghosted me he's not responding this is not a joke for butchie baby but she hates you i mean it'd be pretty funny to fucking like me and him and rough and rowdy me against blue pulaski you my boy blue um but dude he's a fucking comedy on twitter like the. What was the one? So we did, Ovi's been struggling. I think he only had four goals so far,

maybe five goals during this season. So we did a demo of the power play and right after the period, after our breakdown, he's like, oh yeah, Biz, way to go. I'm sure that'll get Ovi out of his slump, like coming at me right away. So then I go back at him and he's, I mean, for as old as he is

he knows how to work the twitter machine that's for sure and you hit him with a cannonball right it was like yeah you could come on and show people how to put on diapers and and and put in their dentures and boom i mean i read that i said holy shit this is getting out of control and like butch is probably still trying to think of a comeback for that one. Has he responded to the dentures comment yet? I'm all, but who's the old? Then Neil Smith came in. Yeah, Neil Smith. It's me against the senior citizens this holiday season.

Bad Santa. Oh, shit. Yeah, Neil Smith. Biz is the only person in the world who could somehow bring together the Rangers and the Islanders. He's got old GM legends who, I mean, I worked with Neil Smith once. He's a little out to lunch, I'm not going to lie. And then we got Butchie Gore and the old Islanders legend. And these guys usually probably hate each other.

And they've combined to form some unit to just battle the bully that is Paul Bissonnette going after the eldest statement of the nhl currently so i i respect butch though he's not backing down um now some people are correlating the fact that we're going back and forth and i chirped them about the the diapers and dentures that i don't have respect for a four-time stanley cup champion and a guy who ages smith that is not the case this is all just fun banter to me and i apologize if he takes it seriously and he wants me dead. But, I mean, it's fucking Twitter, man. All of a sudden, people started taking it way too seriously. And I ain't doing that.

Well, I believe it was probably you just carving the Islanders over and over. It didn't really begin on Twitter. He started on Twitter, but you started the... I mean, I think if you ask islanders fans like you hate them you really really hate i just i began to hate them actually more than the rangers because at least the rangers fans will buy the rangers fans will come at you and they don't like they don't really care they're not really that sensitive about it they like it's more of like a fuck you and they'll fuck you we're islanders fans like they're they're a bunch of fucking babies man

they're just miserable babies. Based on the replies I usually get from Rangers fans compared to Islanders fans, I almost want to hop on the Rangers bandwagon just to hate on them even more. People fucking hate their team if you're not watching. I tweeted about one of the games last night, a goal or a save, and someone's like, why aren't you watching the Oilers game? It's like, who said I wasn't? It's like, fucking people take it personal if you don't mention

whatever they're fucking specifically talking about. It's like, come on. No, it's hilarious. Did I grind my gears? No, not at all. I mean, I literally got four TVs going at once. I'm like, buddy, I got all the games on. It's like, it's fucking crazy.

People assume the craziest shit. You got four TVs at home, all right? No, no, I got the TV. Yeah, all stolen off the back of a truck. They fell out of the truck. No, I got the TV, laptop, and two tablets, plus my phone if need be, too, yeah. Nice.

Yeah, I don't like four actual TVs. I don't like that setup. I mean, it's good. People like it if they have it, whatever, but it's just too much going on. I'd focus on one main one and then have the smaller screens. But, Biz, back to Butch. Maybe a handicap match.

Lou and Butch versus me in Rough and Rowdy. Do they alternate rounds. Some Randall called him out for his grandma, and Butch replied, why? Biz can't read. Yeah, he's just going at it. Holy fuck. He's popping my eyes shut.

How about the New York Post? They're right on top of it. Ten minutes later, Butch Goring rejects Paul Bissonnette's Isle of the Olive Branch. Legit fucking story in the Post. It's fucking crazy how it happens in real time like this. Where's the post at now? What would you consider the post?

It's just like a gossip magazine or gossip newspaper? I mean, it's the fucking tabloid rag of New York City. I think it's way more. I thought Page Six was. I think it's part of Page Six, isn't it? Page Six is Page Six in the New York Post. Oh, okay. They've sort of expanded their own little fucking content machine or whatever.

But yeah, page six is in the New York Post. Yeah, they've been, I mean, still I believe the most popular, most sold newspaper in Manhattan, if I'm not mistaken. It's a pretty good accomplishment. But yeah, it's always been trash. Trash, you got a fucking tablet. Oh, thanks, R.A. That's what people like.

I thought it was a badge of honor. I wouldn't say the Post has the best reputation among fucking well-known newspapers that have been around for 100 years. Biz, you weren't done yet, man. Aquaman, when you fucking come out with that old school Aquaman thing, what was the setup for all that?

I mean, Jason Momoa was there. People were a little confused, obviously, but they're doing promo because the second one the sequel's coming out and they said hey in order to do it they're gonna have jamo my buddy jason momoa he's gonna give you a shout out on whatever he pre-records so i was like fuck yeah i'll do it i'll put the suit on i didn't know it was gonna be that suit i thought it was gonna be an actual legitimate one and then i get hit with the pigeon suit so obviously obviously I put the, I'm the clown.

So I'm clowning it up for the camera. And, uh, but it was pretty cool to get Jason Momoa saying your name. I mean, he's a legitimate movie star and he's pretty close buddies with Terry Ryan. He worked on a movie set before where Terry was like a stunt double or had a small role in a movie. And this is when Jason Momoa was just coming up.

Um, so I reached out to Terry and I said i said hey maybe we can get him on the podcast so i'm waiting to hear back but i think it'd be cool to hear from jason momoa a huge hollywood celeb he's a handsome devil you were like the perfect dollar store aquaman though like you know you got you got the same skin tone i'd say and then like the suit it was perfect perfect. You were like the bad Santa version of Aquaman. And that costume, when you came out of it, I said, oh my God, did Jazz just make that thing in the back room at TNT? But you pulled it off pretty good. Thank you.

Thank you. They had to cut one part. Anson's like, oh, he's like, you're supposed to put the battery pack in the back of the suit. I said, yeah, I'm a girl. We're not a show or race. And then they just had to. They wouldn't let you say that?

No, no. That got cut. That got cut. Bitch, you'd get fired as Aquaman if you're eating all the fucking fish for the fucking sushi reasons. Yeah, exactly. And then you guys see the, well, Hank quit TNT. He's done. After I was lead vocals in that holiday song sing-along thing we did

i i had a tough time hitting a few of those notes so he said fuck this i'm going back to sweden that was coming back that was it so it was a good run hank and i don't blame you uh finally playing the sandbox with our buddy army too you guys she had the desk duty the other night always good to see you two oh god army told this hilarious story about you know uh you you mentioned the movie what's the movie called again christmas a christmas story yeah christmas story i always forget the name of it but he his his mom even texted him because we saw she saw the promo for it and she said you watched that movie for a month straight and then you went to school and then you licked one of those icy poles and then his tongue got stuck and then army had to pull it off and then his tongue was bleeding the rest of the day at school

so that uh that's colby armstrong for you that's a good old sass boy and didn't he do it every year he's basically every year winter would come he would do it again like i think that was his first and only time i don't i don't think he did a couple times oh i mean i would have thought he ran face first or to a pole with his snout looking like that. I was going to say that on TV. I was going to say, did they get the tip of your nose too? The bird nose?

I have things like a half-chewed caramel. I think my favorite moment of Game Notes so far this year is when Tim Conley came on and his nose was curved one way and Army's nose was curved the other way and they were on the perfect side of the screen, just noses facing each other. So, you know, the old hockey player get the wounded snouts along the ride.

But Army putting his tongue on a frozen pole in Saskatchewan is the least surprising thing I heard today. You know, what else is not surprising? The Nate Dogg. What a goddamn machine he's been thus far. Absolute tier. He scored his 300th career goal during his fifth career hat trick, the Avalanche 6-4 win over the Sens Thursday. He's got a 17-game score in streak right now, the longest of the season.

During that time, he's got 33 points, 12 goals, 21 assists, averaging 23-38 a game. His last three games, he's got 10 points. First in assists, first in even strength points, second in points, second in power play points. This guy, no shock that he's unbelievable. But wait, you ever seen him play this good at this level before? I picked him to win the heart,

and I would say most entertaining player in the league to watch right now. You picked him preseason, or are you saying just the other night? Preseason. Did you? Yes. Wow. It's a great call. Preseason.

Did you? Yes. Preseason. Wow. It's a great call. All right. I would say that he's as close to McDavid as we'll get in terms of nobody else flying through the neutral zone with the puck on their stick can take you out of your seat the way McDavid and McKinnon do.

And he's got so much speed. Also, the fact that he's a heavy, big boy, dude. He throws his weight around. He crushed something. Who did he crush a heavy, big boy, dude. He throws his weight around. He crushed something. Who did he crush? It was on the broadcast. It was on a back check right around the top of the circle where he got him close to the wall. I forget who it was, too, but he fucking blew him up.

Blew him up. And he gets those Pistons going. And when I say Pistons, it's those cros crossovers feet in the air and just blowing by people and i think that mcdavid the way he's so fast and floats mckinnon's more just like you hear the the skates just ripping into the ice head up his release is incredible so dominating that when he gets the puck it is a true like out of your seat type moment i love seeing him do this. I actually love what's going on in Colorado right now. We'll talk about Devon Taves' comments in a little bit.

But since January 1st, so this calendar year, Nathan McKinnon, 52 goals, 78 assists, 130 points in 80 games played. That's number one in the league in points for the calendar year. And you got to remember when talking about young prospects that one in the league in points for the calendar year. And you got to remember when talking about young prospects that come into the league, and we saw Jack Hughes start a little slow. Nathan McKinnon, man, it took him a while. There were a few years, like three, four years of 50 to 60 points. And then the explosion happened when just his body grew a little bit more. He really grew into his body, I guess I should have have said and all of a sudden now it is dominating every single night and like to go on a 17 game point streak tops in the league so far this season it's not just like he doesn't have 20 points in 17 games

it's two points per game in this run it's big hits it's carrying this team when they've needed to get going a little bit and it's such a joy to watch this guy and i think probably because you know we did get to sit down and interview him and see how serious he is about his career and his life and realizing that you know you don't know how long you have doing this and there's going to be no wasted opportunities for him i mean you saw the press conference he gave when they lost to vegas that year how pissed off he was they come back they win the stanley cup last year they fizzle out in the first round game seven at home they lose you can only imagine how pissed off he was they come back they win the stanley cup last year they fizzle out in the first round game seven at home they lose you can only imagine how pissed off he was again and he's brought it into this season so it's amazing and it's it's true must watch tv when he's on the ice

based on my comment saying he was going to win the heart it does have a lot to do with what he did in the back half of the season last year and also what he's able to accomplish five on five we all know with how good like team structure is and how good goalies are it's hard to produce five on five and he's one of the best at it uh just watching him too and like obviously the comparison to mcdavid and the skill set and you know how they're able to move out there and just if you're if you're just a casual fan you know nothing about the game and you go and you watch you're like okay this guy's drastically better than everybody else something's different yeah but it's just that also that physical edge like the way that he's like oh oh there's a loose puck he's going in there fucking shoulder first he's

not going in there for the poke check he's going there to separate you from the separate you from the puck taking himself and get the fucking job done i mean you just mentioned the numbers which are crazy and just his his the guy he looks up to the most is sid right and sid is obviously a first ballot hall of famer and has collected many of league awards the last real true award that that uh mckinnon won was the calder yeah okay he got the lady bing one year but i don't think players hold the type of value of lady bing like they do the the heart uh the ted lindsey in any of those types of awards right the rocket so i just feel that he wants to solidify himself as a hall of famer where you know there's still obviously a lot of work to do some people might already say he's there based on his body of work i would say there's still work to do and he's just so driven in order to be the best that right now he's in a league of his own.

And I got him right now as probably the front runner for the MVP. Some people might argue with that. But as far as the whole team's concerned, he's had to put the T on his back. Last year with the injuries they had in playoffs, they were the only line that they could go to. And right now, and Ari, I don't know if you want to throw it to the audio of Devon Tabes or if you want to continue talking about McKinnon. Well, the one thing about McKinnon, Biz, is you're right in saying like everything in the awards. It would be a real shame to me if at the end of his career he didn't have an MVP.

Right. And it seems like this year, like he's probably never been as close to one as he is right now throughout you know maybe what what are we no we're not halfway through the season but just about and so like where he is right now i think it's all about stanley cups but in the end he would be lying i think if he said there wasn't part of his mind thinking like i gotta get a lindsey i gotta get a heart and and this is the year for him to do it now kucherov's gonna have a lot to say about that what a sicko he is. But McKinnon right now is on the path to getting his first heart,

which I think all hockey fans agree. He needs to get one at one point just because it wouldn't make sense if he doesn't get an MVP. I would think that if anybody had a brain, they would say he's one of the top three candidates as we speak. So it could be up for debate, but he's one of the guys who's had a start where he deserves to be in the conversation and let's throw it over to devon tave's comments he's he's pissed and this is a group guys that's been led by the top guys and we all know in order to win nowadays you need

that depth you go back last year to vegas i mean you go to the tampa bay you go to all these teams now it's impossible to win just being top heavy and i think that this is frustration from the core group of guys saying we need some of these guys who have been brought in who are lagging a little bit behind i don't think we need to name names but i think majority of people know some of the people that he's point essentially pointing the finger at so roll the tape i mean it's it's self-awareness we need guys that know you know know how to play in our system how to how to play our game and know what it takes and uh we have guys in here i think. We need guys that know how to play in our system, how to play our game, and know what it takes. We have guys in here, I think we've got some guys that think they're playing well, and I think they're kidding themselves at this point.

It's frustrating to play out there when you've got guys that think they're playing well, and they're doing things that you have no idea what play they're going to make or where they're going to be on the ice. It's tough to play in this league when you don't know where your teammates are going to be. So, you know, that's where a lot of the frustration stems from. Yeah. I mean, I think it's fair to name names, though, because it's hard to just, like, hear a player say that. And now I'm not saying he should. I'm not saying he should.

What I do really like about this, Biz, is this isn't happening as they're in the middle of a nine-game losing streak. This isn't happening when it's really low and it's like, guys, we got to band together here. We got to really figure this thing out. Let's come together as one and figure this out together. But this is happening while they're the fourth best team in the league. They've had a good season, but still it's like not having complacency and not being okay with, yeah, we're in a great spot right now. We're tracking in the

right spot to be in the playoffs. Hamhoven vice, home ice advantage. It's still about, no, no, no, no. We're playing well, but we have that much better to go. So like, I don't know, Ryan Johansson was brought in to be the second line center. There's been times lately he's been on the fourth line. That could be a guy. I know Bowen Byram's dealt with a lot in his career so far, but maybe that's a guy he's talked about. And so I guess it would be a little unfair because I'm guessing, and I'm not in that locker room in terms of who he's talking about,

but I will say he's blatantly talking about one, two, three guys, right? Correct. You're not saying that without having someone in your head as you're talking and and that's why i didn't really want to name names i'm just basing it off of you know watching them and seeing maybe where some guys who have higher expectations aren't producing i think jonathan dren's one of those guys they thought was going to come in and with the chemistry he'd had in the past with mckinnon playing in halifax winning a calder cup with him and him kind of being, I don't want to say a suitcase, but a guy who's been around the league a little bit

to maybe understand it's a little bit, it's maybe time to change the style of play up a little bit. And when you watch those top guys for that team play, it's not just the skill set, it's the fucking work ethic. They're putting it in off the ice too. So when you're not seeing that reciprocated, and I'm not talking about from a production of point standpoint i'm talking about from an effort standpoint that's why

i feel like the top guys are getting a little bit tired they dealt with it last year in playoffs where they only had the top guys as i mentioned earlier if they're set to win another stanley cup i think they have to eventually address that second line center role and that's why i think it was elliot friedman who talked about on 32 thoughts with the lindholm stuff i i feel if you're sackick and and uh who's the gm there now i know sackick's the president they what's his name brian mc something um mick something i think i can't remember all these fucking names guys blame the cte thanks a lot john nasty marousty and j. Josh, Chris McFarland. Chris McFarland. But I think they owe it to these top guys to do whatever they can.

And some people have said, Biz, they wouldn't move on from Byram because he's a restricted free agent and he's having a bit of an off year. You can get him at a good price and he could be a really strong piece moving forward. Sure. I don't know what the fuck the answer is. But I think that in the West, with what they have right now and just being so top heavy with lack of contributions from the bottom guys i think that that i don't think they're strong enough to compete with everybody else who's going fuck i i would i

would maybe take winnipeg in a seven game series over them right now i watched winnipeg last night friday night the 22nd come out of the gates as hot as i've ever seen a team against the bruins and for 60 minutes dominate them but quickly back to taves's quote because i'm not sure if everyone um so everyone hears the quote then you look at how guys are playing on the ice and you look at stats and that's why it is really unfair for us to try to think about who he's talking about because what he's really mentioning is something that nobody outside that room would know. And it's how you act after a game. And that quote was given right after a game. So if you're a leader and you're one of the top players and you're playing well, a guy like Devon Taves, what you see is that nobody else would see is a guy who has an off night. He didn't bring

what he needed to bring. The team didn't play that well. And then maybe you see him laughing in the shower. You see him just chilling on his phone. You see him not really giving a shit. So it's not necessarily about what you're doing on the ice. And I know that that's directly what he's saying in terms of like, you're not bringing what you need to bring. But when he's saying, yeah, and you think you're doing well enough and you think you're playing up to standards, no.

And you can tell that by what a guy's acting like around the rink right if and this sounds bad but because you you want guys to stay positive but it's a fine line because if you're not playing well and you're not doing your job and you're in the locker room every day and you're laughing and you're joking around there's guys who will take like serious offense to that like what do you find so funny like how are you having so much fun right now because you're not doing what this team you shouldn't be doing helicopter cock in the shower when you're fucking losing and not contributing like that's like that type of shit that's nonsense you know you can't be doing that type of stuff can't be doing the mangina post game when you're fucking dropping games to did either of you guys ever get reprimanded by like a vet for doing that for like i did not i

got reprimanded for being like too loud in the locker room as a rookie no but i never got because when i played bad i was i was like i'm not gonna be the guy that's like joking around but everyone's different where you want to just try to forget about it some guys but it can piss other teammates off that are like dude you're playing like shit you're not bringing what we need you to bring and it seems to me that it's not bugging you as much as it should be bugging you and that's the sense i got from tapes is that they're seeing guys that maybe are coming off like they don't care that they're not doing their job and and the good thing is it's the sign of a good team that that's an that's a call out that doesn't happen that

often in hockey but to be having the team playing this well and still have guys like being you know responsible and and being on their teammates like, that is what good teams have. They have accountability within the room. So as much as some people think it was out of line, I don't. No, I was fortunate enough where I always had good leadership, where at a young age was taught. Not really taught, but it's just like you lose and there's no music in the locker room like you shouldn't be putting a smile on your face like after the game i mean uh where i don't know about you but when i was in junior if we lost the game there would be no movie on the bus we wouldn't get the movie on which sucked you know you got a sign or how about

the silent flights even in pro oh i guess we got a silent flight again. And going back to the technology thing is I didn't have a cell phone until I think, what? I never had a smartphone. I didn't have a cell phone until I was about 18 or 19 and playing junior. So you're sitting there four hour bus ride alone, just fucking chilling. And obviously I can't read, so I can't do anything.

I just have to sit there on my thoughts, according to Butch Goring. I don't want to so I can't do anything. I just have to sit there on my thoughts, according to Butch Goren. I don't want to be thinking your thought. Thinking of you just in your thoughts is scary. He's just talking to himself. He's like, I don't know. I don't know. What do you mean you don't know?

What do you mean? Oh, did you get the club set up? No, I didn't get the club set up. Who are you talking to, Biz? Myself? Yeah. My imaginary friend? Worrying about hosing in a water bottle make sure i don't drink somebody's uh some spit bottle oh did you see that that was actually with colorado ryecroft was that right he was there was a he was having a coffee and it was to the right of him and the the other announcer fuck i'm drawing blanks on all the names today my mind's going a million

miles an hour. Nightmare city. Yeah, and then he thought he was grabbing his coffee, and he grabbed the other guy's chew cup and down the hatch. That is brutal. Does that ever happen to you guys? Yeah, one time in junior. Me too, one time.

I'm one for one on that happening and puking. I don't know how he didn't puke. It was an amazing recovery. Yeah. You could tell he was close to throwing up, and he kind of gathered himself, but I did it once. Yeah, Keith you could tell he was close to throwing up and he kind of like gathered himself. But I did it once. Yeah.

Keith was the other guy's name. And the only other thing that compares to that is if you maybe take a swig of a water bottle and it's somebody put vodka in there and it's more about what you're expecting to taste. Yeah. Yeah. I have not. Cigarette beer can too.

I've done that where people put their cigarettes out in a beer can and then you sip it. Oh, fucking Spalding. Caddyshack. Oh, you're going to eat your fat. All right. Before we go any further, here's a few words from our friends at Straight Talk Wireless. There's a new Straight Talk Wireless offer now available where you can get a Walmart Plus membership included on select Straight Talk Wireless plans for free. Only Straight Talk Wireless gives you unlimited data, talk, and text,

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Straight Talk Wireless is available at Walmart and walmart.com. A couple more on Nate Stats. He actually had four goals in that game. He's the first player in Avalanche history to score four in a game. The fifth in franchise history to score 300 goals after Sackick, Goulet, Peter Stastny, and Milan Heyduk. Also, he's the first player from the 2013 draft to score 300. So he keeps chugging right along. And who else has been chugging along this season? Our former guest, our one-time guest, Dylan Strom, leading the Caps with 13 goals.

Out of his 13 goals, eight of them have come in the third period or overtime. He's got two winners so far this year. The only other Capito with double-digit goals right now, Tom Wilson. But the Caps, man, we talked about a few weeks ago, they're still fucking chugging along. 16-6-3 the last 25. Even with Ovi's struggles, no backstrom, tons of youth on that team.

They're still in the wildcard one spot. And then Thursday, Ovi got off the schneid, sixth goal of the year. He snapped a 14-game goalless streak. It was the longest of his career. He became just the second player, along with Wayne Gretzky to have 900 career goals in regular season and playoffs. His 135th game winning goal passed Brett Hull for

second all-time after Yair Mayagos. But the real thing... What was that stat? He was the 900 goal regular season playoffs? What does that mean? That means combining the regular season and playoffs. Sorry. 900 with both and

only wayne's had more but i think the most exciting thing to talk about was a little mix-up in the cage elvis mers-leakins and toon wilson i guess they had a little bit of a history i sent you guys the gif uh i think willie might have slew footman the crease a couple years ago they got at it pretty good man he got ended up getting the penalty probably cost columbus the game i don't think it's really going to affect their playoff match. But did you get a look at that live with the fucking Merzlikens? I did. I didn't know about their prior history, but I was kind of shocked because Wilson goes into the net.

And then basically Merzlikens just like won't let him out of the net. He's kind of throwing shots at him. And you could tell Wilson is probably snapping inside his mind because he can't get up. He's trying to get up. He probably would have murdered him if he was able to get up but he can't get up because Meshulikid's in his face he's holding him down but it all led to I would say one of the best pictures I've ever seen in the Washington Capitals getting together celebrating and every guy from the team and I guess it makes sense they they seem like a close team I don't know how this team continues to win like you look at the offensive production worst power play in the league leading scorer has 20 points it's like they're I don't know how they're doing it but I gotta give

him credit I actually think a lot of credit goes to Charlie Lindgren who's just been playing fantastic and for a guy who's kind of been up and down his whole career it just shows how crazy the goaltending position is but that picture where picture where it's 20 guys staring at him and you can tell someone's yelling, everyone's yelling something different and they're just giving it to him. And it just shows like they all got Wilson's back. And I mean, it was kind of a Bush League move

by Merce Likens. Like I guess with the history- What, the blocker sandwich? Just, yeah, like all of a sudden he's attacking the guy as he's down in his net. And we've interviewed Merzlik it's very funny guy pretty colorful dude that we really enjoyed uh having a chat with him but I was kind of shocked because he had to be thinking if this guy gets up I'm dead he's gonna

smash my face in but in the end the Caps get the last laugh and you get this all-time classic picture out of it with Merzlik it's skating away you know shaking his head just an entire team chirping him it was awesome um going back to uh the abs quickly is Mark Mosier I forgot to say his name properly the other guy is Kyle Keefe so uh but overall I had this team making playoffs they're an anomaly right now they should be not in a playoff spot given how brutal their fucking power play has been but I would say the two huge bright spots have been obviously the play of dylan strome who i mean fuck they didn't want him in arizona went to chicago he ends up getting shipped out of there and i mean he's been one of their breakout stars man between him and tom wilson they're kind of carrying the team right now and i don't know how much hockey of of the washington capitals you've watched and army got shame for on the broadcast

saying is this now tom wilson's team but every shift out there you see army got shame for on the broadcast saying, is this now Tom Wilson's team? But every shift out there, you see him, whether he's on the four check or there he's back checking and making plays or putting the puck in the back of the net. I think he's been tremendous, especially coming off of a torn ACL. Like that's not hard to recover from.

I mean, you see what Shvetchnikov is kind of dealing with early in the season with the Carolina hurricane. So he's been a beast. And I, I just think five on five, Carberry's got them all bought in. And there is a youth movement there.

The other night they had nine first-rounders in the lineup for the Washington Capitals. Fifty percent of their offense is coming from guys that are 27 and below. So, I mean, that seems to be where the league is at right now. But like you said, right now Dylan Strom and Tom Wilson are the only players that are double digits and goals it doesn't make sense how they're having success even if you look at uh Darcy Kemper's number the numbers they're not overwhelming so you mentioned Lingren and what he's been able to do but even still man it's just they continue

to get the wins they continue to get those even if they're losing they're forcing overtime so it's they're chipping away and i i don't know i don't know if they can sustain this with the lack of uh the lack of production from kuznetsov tj oshi who's dealt with injuries over the last couple years who's been injured this year is not producing like he once was and then of course with the uh the no backroom it's going to be hard if uh if you know these young guys don't continue to produce. And last year, as the season went to the toilet, it kind of all went back to losing John Carlson. And with him back, that's another guy you've got to mention.

Just like such a calming force out there. Can play a ton of minutes. Great first pass. Leader in the room. Won a Stanley Cup. He's kind of one of those guys that it makes sense last year everything fell apart without him. So him being there definitely has a big part of it. But the Kuznetsov thing is bizarre. For a guy that's that skilled, and I know obviously he's

a little older now, but he requested the trade. Who knows if they tried to? Who knows if anyone wanted him? But now he's still there. He's playing like shit. You know he doesn't want to be there. So it's pretty amazing that with the lack of production from Ovi, the lack of production from Kuznetsov and his unhappiness, and all of the other things that have gone into this team, like offensively being struggling or struggling as much as they have been, and they're still winning. So you got to shout out Lindgren,

and you got to shout out the guys that are getting the job done. But I'm kind of with you. Now, I've been bullish on them, not being a playoff team all year. And I've continued to look foolish about it. But in my mind, I still think like, there's gotta be a time when this slows down.

But another team I said that about is continuing to roll on. And that's the Philadelphia flyers because somehow they continue to do this. With, before we get to that, I just want to mention the capitals, Ivan, Mira, Shink mention the Capitals. Ivan Miroshnichenko. Great story.

He was diagnosed with Hodgkin's lymphoma in February of 22. He got treatment, came to North America this season for his first pro season, was down to minus for a bit. He made his NHL debut Wednesday night. And they had a nice video of the coach, Spencer Carberry, telling him he was going to be in his first game. I think one of the teammates there was translating for him.

It kind of reminded me of Hard Knocks, the football show, except it wasn't a guy getting cut. It was being told he was going to be in his first game. And I think one of the teammates there was translating for him. It kind of reminded me of Hard Knocks, the football show, except it wasn't a guy getting cut. It was being told he was going to play in the game. But for where he was a couple years ago health-wise, it's just a nice story. I just wanted to share that as well. It was Protoss. Is that how you say his last name? The big beast, the 6'6", 225-pound giant.

Dude's a monster, yeah. Yeah, that was such a cool moment. He had a couple cracks at scoring a goal too. He played well. He was all over the place. So just an amazing story. Also too, his 14 letter surname is tied for the longest ever in NHL history biz with

John Brackenborough from the 25-26 Bruins. But his jersey Miroshnichenko is now the record for the longest name on the back of an NHL jersey because when that other guy played, they didn't have names on the back. So he's now the record for the longest name on the back of an NHL jersey because when that other guy played they didn't have names on the back

so he's got the record for one name not including the hyphenated names yeah little fucking goofy trivia that's a little fun fact for everybody

the logo the logo and fucking number shit from elbow to elbow fucking savage yeah with the Flyers man 7 of 8 they went points

and 9 straight before Nashville cooled them off the other night. Friday in Detroit, what a game. They're down 5-1 after the first. They score 5 straight, go up 6-5, end up losing 7-6 via shootout. But, dude, second place in the Metro, 40 points. Cotterhart was out for a bit.

He came back in. Samuel Erson was great subbing in for him. But this team, they just got kind of scoring up and down the lineup. They got grit everywhere. I don't know if everyone wears out the phrase, are the Flyers back? Is so-and-so back? Dude, this looks like the Flyers playing right now more than it has,

I'd say, the last five or six years, yeah? Big time. I think Tortoise said maybe twice this year, like, we just got balls. This team has balls. And, like, you watch the comeback in Detroit last night, Friday night. It makes sense. There's no quit in that room. Travis Konechny, like, he never stops coming at you.

He's a dog. Yeah, he's just a dog. He's just out there barking. He's in your face. He's forechecking. He's getting back in the play. He's just one of those players that you win with. And he's very offensively skilled, too.

So, like, when you have a work ethic like that, and then you're able to have the touch around the net, it makes sense that he's their leading scorer and he's playing this well. But Travis Sanheim is a guy we've brought up a few times this year. He shouldn't even be on the team if Torrey Krug was willing to go to Philadelphia. They had him dealt to St. Louis and Krug says no and now Sanheim's there and he's lighting it up. I mean, like he had two assists the game against Detroit. Beautiful points, shots from the point. They get tipped in. He's a great skater.

He's huge too. So defensively, he's got the long reach, but he's like really reaching his potential. And that's, it's hard for somebody. I would think it didn't happen to me in terms of like, yeah, you're traded. Oh, well now the trade can't go through because somebody else didn't want to get traded.

Well, now you're here. And a lot of guys, like you take it trade can't go through because somebody else didn't want to get traded. Well, now you're here. And a lot of guys, like, you take it personally, like, oh, this team didn't want me. Now I got to go to camp knowing they didn't want me. It's kind of hard to mentally get around that, that you know that the team you're going to play for and the coach you're going to play for didn't necessarily want you in the room.

But, like, what a response by him. And also, in terms of torts, like, maybe they were going to trade him. Well, you're still here now. We're going to give you a chance to play. And he's kind of ran with that and becoming the number one defenseman there. On the back end, too, Cam York's a really good player, really good skater. He was a first-round pick a few years ago.

He's kind of coming into his own. But, like, for me, the way I talk about John Carlson coming back after missing so much last year and the Caps doing well, Couturier is kind of the straw that stirs the drink in philly i'd say like he's been there so long he's so good defensively he's been up for a selkie a guy that's like so a coach is so confident having him on the ice no matter if you're up a goal down a goal that like just to get him back akinson's back there's all these players who missed so much of last year that are making such a difference that it makes sense that

they're doing this well i i felt bad for carter hart you know he didn't have his best stuff in detroit and then they mount this comeback they take the lead and he lets in you know what he would say is one of the worst goals he's ever let in larkin tied it from below the goal line in the corner he just throws it and just off his angle it ends up going in and detroit ends up getting the win in ot but it's been it's been tortorella kind of doing what he does holding guys making guys play a certain way and if you're not going to do it you're not going to play and everyone's buying in so i know i'm kind of just dropping names but the kid bobby brick too oh yeah he's nice dude that's just another young guy that's getting a chance and running with it so i got Gautier and Mitchkoff, too.

Gautier is probably the best player in college hockey this year. Yeah. Yeah. They do have prospects, which would make sense with how bad they've been. They should hopefully have some nice draft picks coming in. I just put it this way. If I'm looking earlier in the year that Washington and Philly, this will end and this will come. I think Washington is much more likely to slow down than Philly is at this

point. Now, obviously it'll be the opposite. Cause I just said that. Yeah. But Philly has some sort of mojo around their team right now. And biz, you can mention the toughness they got.

They got Deloria. They got sealer. They got guys who will get in there and fight and be a pricks. Well, it's just, they're like, they're like the Panthers. They're engaged every night emotionally. And that's what torts does, right? He's got them firing. And it's hard though, you go back be last year uh you just did touched on carter hart and how he had a tough

performance but he's finally playing like we saw in the rookie year right he's back to that status so overall they just have everybody pulling the rope and you know sometimes these trades have to work out too when they decided to part ways with claude geroux and send him to florida who'd they get back ow Owen Tippett. The book wasn't out on him. He's having a great fucking year this year. And they have Florida's first round pick this year, Biz, because of that deal. Correct.

So I tweeted this out last night on, what was it, on Saturday. Or no, excuse me, Friday night when all the games were going on because the Jets look so good. And then obviously Vancouver is leading their division. Who would have thought? Those to me are the two biggest surprises in the league so far. You would have to throw Philadelphia in there as well, based on expectations coming in. Probably even more so than Vancouver,

because I think everybody saw Vancouver as maybe a bubble team, where I think that everybody had Philadelphia as a lottery pick team. I did. So Torts, in my opinion, through the start of the year, would probably be my nominee for coach of the year in how he has these guys bought in. It's a culture thing. He's got it all turned around,

and this is all coaching, in my opinion. So I tried to give my flowers to the Jets and the Vancouver Canucks, and the Philadelphia Faithful kept me accountable, and I'd have to agree with them. So it's fun to see. It's always a good time when one of those original franchises, I know they weren't an original six team,

but going back to the Broad Street Bullies days, this is how you embody the city, right? The fucking mucking it up, grinding it out, and fighting night in and night out to get the two points. So it's been fun to watch, and they deserve a massive tire pump. I think that Torts is way better off having a team where people don't expect much as opposed to be coaching a team that has enormous expectations because he's going to be able to get these guys.

And don't think for a second he's not telling guys in camp, like people are saying you're going to be the worst fucking team in this league, like challenging their pride in a sense whereas if he's coaching a team uh like colorado say it'd probably be harder for him to get guys fired up and get guys to buy in when everyone's kind of pumping your tires as a team as opposed to just ripping on you so it's been incredible and his work with morgan frost who's very talented player and Torts has been hard on him. Well, he's kind of like reaching another level right now. And you got to give Torts credit. He sat him down. He's benched him here and there. And all of a sudden now, after realizing this is how I have to play every night to be able to get minutes from this guy, he's kind of growing as

a player. So we've been hard on Torts on this podcast in terms of his message going stale over the course of a few seasons. But in a situation like this, it's almost perfect for him. He challenges your pride. He makes you play a certain way. And he also knows that the way he needs them to play is the only chance they have of winning. So props to the Flyers. And I'd say that the same thing about Philly, I said about Detroit earlier, the NHL is a better league when the Flyers are good. I said that about Detroit and I think Philly's the same exact thing. Everyone, even if you hate the Flyers, you want them to be good. Their fans are nasty. The building gets rocking

and when they're struggling, it's a franchise that is so big on the national level that it kind of hurts the league a little bit when they're really down in the dumps. So them playing well is good. Remember we went there last year for that game and how dead it was? It was one of the worst atmospheres I'd seen in the NHL in any time experiencing a live game.

So, guys, if we told you that this team would be able to accomplish what they've accomplished with their top D coming in, who is Travis Sanheim, you would have said, no, they're not sniffing playoffs. That's the night we did cake farts with Gritty, right, Biz? Yes. Yeah. Holy fuck. Oh, by the way,

Tortorella, what is odds for Jack Adams beginning of the year? 200-1. I was going to say 75-1. 50. 50-1. A couple pesos on him. Big shocker. Oh, you got it? How many coaches? How many coaches did I bet?

Yes. I must have had something for the tees this year. I got Brunette at 33-1, Torts at 50, Tarkin at 20, and Tarigny 33-1. All right, those might be the four most likely guys right now. Good job, all right. Oh, yeah, let's not get the cat in front of the horse.

But, yeah, you hit one of them, Biz. Good job, alright. Oh yeah, let's not get the cat in front of the horse. But yeah, I mean, he hit one of them You brought it up. No, no, I mean, as far as talking like I already got a winner, that's all. No, I mean, I don't know. That was like last week when he said, care to elaborate? It's like, I literally just talked for three fucking minutes. I don't know where you were, but... I was cutting and pasting.

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Manscaped's got your grooming resolutions covered. Get 20% off and free shipping with the code CHICKLETS at manscaped.com. That's 20% off with free shipping at manscaped.com and use code CHICKLETS. Happy New Year to your ball bag, baby. We just mentioned the Red Wings. David Perron had his six-game suspension affirmed by Gary Bettman, which basically means your appeal is no good. So that was the bad signal to Alan Walsh.

He then tweeted out, After Gary rubber-stamps the Paros Kangaroo Court with a nonsensical illogical opinion, expect David Perron to appeal to the neutral arbitrator. We expect to finally get a fair hearing and look forward to presenting the case. So I guess there is one more appeal you can go after, Gary Bettman, because he's starting to remind me of Goodell a little bit, huh? Like Bettman, kind of like the whatever he says goes type thing.

Yeah, I mean, I don't know why it doesn't just go directly to the arbitrator, right? Because obviously you would never see Gary Bettman just go right against George Paros. I mean, that would make no sense to me. And when you look at the league standing as one, obviously I think that it's a no-brainer that Bettman upholds the suspension.

So then it goes to somebody else. It's like, why don't you just skip the step where you know what's going to end up happening out of that? So I don't know what will happen. I mean, obviously now he missed the six games, so you're just looking to get some money back. So it only changes his financial statement a little bit. I thought the suspension, I mean,

it was a cross-check to the head. I mean, I think six games in the end was probably correct. I know at the time I was saying it was the right move and his wires crossed and it wasn't even the right guy, but it was just a moment of kind of losing your mind a little bit on the ice, seeing your captain laying down. But I don't know what an independent arbitrator would look at and maybe change.

So I guess the system's broken in a sense of it should just skip Bettman. Bettman's never going to go against what Parrow said. And I think he has in the past in really long suspensions. Somebody got like 20 games and ended up turning to 15 after they served the 20 games. Wideman. Wideman. Dennis Wideman.

Exactly. So maybe you just go to the independent guy off the get-go. But the league probably doesn't want to do that because there's probably a better chance a guy's able to come back a little sooner. I think they like the fact that it's just money-wise because they'll always end up kind of having it all figured out once the suspension's already been served. Keep it rigged. There were reports coming out last week that Nolan Patrick, who was taken second overall by Philly back in 2017, that he retired from the game. It turned out to be not accurate. I guess a program he works with listed him as a retired NHL player on their roster there. It was later changed, though. Elliott Friedman said, reached out to Patrick today. He politely

declined to talk, but did text to say he's not officially retired. It's clear that he prefers to stay under the radar. 25-year-old is currently unrestricted free agent. You know, I don't know what the future holds for this kid, but either way, it's been a star-crossed few years. You just feel awful for this kid, taking that high. You know, the head knocks early on in his career. He just couldn't seem to get on track, obviously, with multiple concussions. And I don't know. I don't know, Biz.

Do you think maybe two, three years we'll see this kid, or is he just trying to keep his options open? Either way, it's tough news, I think. Yeah, I mean, you pretty much said it all. It's horrible, man, especially a guy so young. You have so much life ahead of you, too. I mean, but in that same breath breath it's like your health matters more than you know playing the game you love if it's going to cause that much pain and damage to you so i hope he makes a return man and you know there's

a lot of advancements and and uh you know getting guys back neurologically i mean remember when sid went through it and then they ended up figuring out it was more of like a neck issue and and how maybe it wasn't supplying as much oxygen to the brain or blood flow so hopefully he could find the help he needs with with all the the available resources and hopefully the league is able to to also provide some of those as well so it would be it would be a great story i feel so bad for him ra yeah you know like being that high of a pick he was incredible in the whl i think he was mvp of the playoffs one season and had all this promise and then injuries are just such a motherfucker dude and like we've talked a lot about what it can do to your mind and just to see him have to

go through all that it sucks and um riley cote has a podcast with uh nasty Derek Settlemeyer, who's the old equipment manager in Philly. And I saw a little, um, little social media post. And he was talking about him, how saying how good of a kid he was and saying that when he was healthy, dude, this kid's his hands and his skill were next level.

He could also fly. Like he was going to be a special player. And with him saying he's not retired yet, you know, you hold out hope that he could find it again, but more than likely he probably can't and it might be over for him. And it just makes you feel so sad for a kid who worked that hard to become that high of a pick, to make his dream come true and become an NHL and to have injuries rip it all away. So just hearing from Nasty and hearing, you know, up close and personal, how good of a person he was and how crazy skilled

he was on the ice, you kind of robbed as a Flyers fan of seeing a possible stud um you know just get torn down by injuries and so having having injuries ended my career a lot later luckily uh you know my heart goes out to the kid and hopes he can he could find peace with whatever happens so I watched a piece I want to say it was on TSN a few years back where a younger player was dealing with this type of thing with the concussions. And sometimes all it is is like a reset where he ended up going to, I want to say it was the University of Michigan. And what they did was they set him up and originally it was just with him doing ping pongs, like hitting ping pongs back and they would kept sending him over to the point i would have ended his career then he didn't want to play against me then then uh then they would get him on like a balance thing so he would have to worry about his balance while while doing the ping pong and what it did was it it like slowly programmed him to get all his his like brain wires firing again i'm doing a horrible job of breaking this

down but he could have just flossed or he could for fuck's sakes oh god back back to the floss either way uh we wish him the best uh whatever his he ends up doing the future so did you not did you guys never see this piece that i'm talking about i didn't but biz i think he actually then he had like core injuries he had an injury with his core so i'm sure mainly it's the head stuff but i didn't i never saw that yeah it was it was pretty it was pretty cool how they they developed like a program in order to hit the reset button on the brain sometimes that's all it needs is a reset button well how about i mean the the craziest um head injury recovery stuff we've heard i is Ocposo telling us in that interview we did with him prior to last year about how the doctor had his hand, his finger at the roof of his mouth and the pain he was going through.

But it all ended up helping him get better. So there's so many different insane ways, I guess, to get your brain and your mind healthy again. And even Sid, everyone thought it was a concussion. It was more a neck injury. It's just there's so much stuff that could be done but i haven't just talked about five of them we talked about flossing the ping pongs uh the the sid with the neck stuff the the going in there with the pushing of the top of the roof of the mouth so there you go there's i mean there's just not one answer so hopefully he finds whatever it is if it is in fact his head that's what's holding him back.

Yeah. Yeah, that was crazy when Kyle told that story, just like a magic button there or something. What you did mention, the Jets earlier, they did dummy the Bees Friday 5-1, points in 9 of 10. They're in an 8-1-1 stretch. They're back in first place in the Central, at least for another day. Big pot. This Gabe Vellati they picked up in the PLD trade. He's been absolutely on fire since joining Nicky Shif and Scheifele on the top line. He's got

12 points in six games. He's got at least one goal his last five games. All his assists are primary on this line. 30 shots on goal. Sometimes just chemistry comes out of nowhere. You wonder why it might not have happened in camp. But this line 5-on-5. Outscored the opposition 10-2. Outshooting them basically 2-1.

And then Connor Hellebuck has been incredible this month. 6-0-1. A 1-8-6 goals against 9-3-4-6 percentage. Winnipeg's another team that's back and kicking ass. I know you want to talk about them a little bit here. Deep. Deep is. Join Deeper.

One of the coolest stories of the NHL season so far, considering personally how I talked about them and how a lot of the league was talking about, where's Scheifele going to get traded? Where's Hellebuck going to get traded? Boom. They both signed right before the year. And I think when that news broke, we might've been recording. I think G came in with a breaking news report of those guys resigning. And we kind of said like, maybe this just gets everyone together. Like this is the thing this team needed. Like these guys are willing to be here. They want to be here. They're signing. Now, all of a sudden, we can kind of go together the same way like Torts is having Philly.

Say, everyone says you guys are going to suck. Like, there had to be some minds on this team thinking, like, we have to just prove every single person wrong this year. And they dealt with fans not maybe showing up as much as they'd hoped at the beginning of the season. That barn last night, Friday night. Biggest crowd of the season. Oh, that place was rocking. And Biz, you say depth. Like, we talk about Pittsburgh and what's lacking in Pittsburgh.

Oh, they can't get bottom six scoring. Last night, I watched the third line in Winnipeg. Lowry, Appleton, and Niederreiter. It's like, dude, they're coming at you. Like, what a captain decision. To give that to Adam Lowry, a lot of times you see the best player become the captain, right? He's not the best player on the team. He's probably the toughest player on the team, but he's responsible.

He's a leader. He sticks up for teammates. He's hard as shit to play against. That's the perfect captain choice for that team. And then the top line, this trade andois it's it's kind of hard to chirp dubois his offense is not there right now he's playing with two young wingers he's playing on the third line because of what they have four points in his last 15 games i know like listen i i we don't want to hop over quite yet but i test man like he's yeah he's he's struggling right now he's struggling and and like you do have to give credit where it's Kopitar and Deneau,

and they're the one and two center. So he's playing on the third line. He's probably not getting the offensive minutes, the offensive zone starts that he necessarily wants. But I look at this trade right now, and like Velarde, he's the one that's making it really one-sided for the Jets, I think. Now, L.A.'s playing amazing hockey, at least on the road they are. So it's hard to say it's like a completesided for the Jets, I think. Now, LA's playing amazing hockey, at least on the road they are. So it's hard to say it's like a complete lose for the Kings

because Dubois could get going. He could be a monster in the playoffs. So there's a lot of things that have to happen before this trade is finally sealed, I guess. You can look at who won. But Ayafalo's a solid player. He's playing with Nemestnikov, who, Biz, you talked about about four seasons ago as the biggest deadline move. I don't know if you player. He's playing with Nemestnikov, who, Biz, you talked about about four seasons ago

as the biggest deadline move. I don't know if you remember. He's a gamer. On Sportsnet, you were talking about... You guys laughed at me. You asked me if I got into R.A. Shrooms. And I think he had four goals in the first round of that playoffs. He played awesome.

And then the other guy is Perfetti. Perfetti is getting that chance, high pick. He looks phenomenal. But they have depth. They roll four lines. And then last night, Morrissey made some plays. He scored a goal, which he continues to do. The past two seasons, this offensive explosion we've talked about. But also, I think one time, whether it was Posta or Marchand, fired one cross ice. It looked like it was going to be a great one-timer for whoever was getting it. And he just stepped in. He read

the play perfectly. He's immediately buzzing up ice, creating an offensive chance. So it's like they have everything going together at once. And like I said at the beginning, they've battled adversity. They lost Rick Bonus for a while. They stepped up in that. He comes back. They continue to win. And like any good team, and it goes to show any bad team, they usually don't have goaltending. This team has Hellebuck. He's playing incredible he just re-signed there everything's kind of coming up jets and they deserve it because it's a team that um probably doesn't get mentioned enough by us definitely and and around the league you don't hear a lot about them but like with their play and and it's impossible not to talk

about them and once again i got a shout out army saying that they were going to win this division we all looked at him like he was crazy. And right now, it looks like that could happen. Yeah. They don't even have Connor right now. No, I know. They just play so well as a team.

And I was watching their broadcast the other day and they were just talking about how like one line after the other, they leave the next line in a good spot. They don't stretch out shifts where if, you know,

they're in the offensive zone for a minute, 10, minute, 15 seconds, they're not trying to extend it to maybe get the cookie themselves where they'll do that offensive zone change i kept talking about uh one of the best cycling teams in the league a lost art you're not remember back in what was it early 2000s where yeah hitchcock it's all cycle cycle cycle they fucking cycle the puck. They got some big guys. You mentioned Lowry being one of the toughest guys on the team. I think that Dylan as well. There was somebody who got lit up the other game,

and he was the first guy there challenging. I think it was someone from the Detroit Red Wings. I forget who he was trying to go after. So they have that perfect mix of skill, hard work. Everybody's bought in coaching and team toughness along with the goaltending. And it's a great story right now. And I called out that fan base early in the year for not supporting that good play.

Well, now they've came out in droves. I think they're selling out every game and those guys deserve it. This is a, I tweeted out, I got a lot of hate. This team could win the cup. Why not? We keep talking. I mean, with a goal like that

dude yes only like that with with with an underappreciated back end and with four lines that are fucking willing to work and play for each other it's uh velarde's popping off at the perfect time right now and he's making uh shovel day off also needs a ton of credit because it's not easy to fucking get guys to buy in and commit and stay there well he's got a group that's willing to do so i think right now he's the favorite for um the gm of the year award i don't know the name of that award but with what he did right before the season like all the question marks and and what they've done and and shifley like you have number one centers around the league who are just point producers and could get it done. Like this guy just plays 200 foot hockey,

like in his own zone, there's no cheating. And I bet you a lot of that has to do with all the work he does with Adam Oates and all the clips he's watching defensive play body position, but there's no cheating in his game. And I think it kind of leaks down the rest of the lineup. Like nobody's going to be on the wrong side of the puck on that team. And a sign of a good team is when they can get cycling

and they can get changes while still holding on to the puck. I see the Jets doing that all the time. They're cycling down low. They're holding the puck. They get a wing and a change. New guy got on. They're able to switch a whole line and never even lose control in the offensive zone.

And then the crowd gets buzzing and the Bruins, they felt it on Friday night. It was a shit kicking. This is a a jets bag licking account mind you but i found this to be an interesting tweet uh um they've turned cop uh dubois guy who didn't want to be there in a sixth into velarde ayah fallow baron kupari lambert salamonson zillock millick a second and all while not tanking now you're probably some of those names some of those names you don't recognize while they haven't been able to make their impact yet some of the guys that aren't there anymore but shovel day off deserve and staff of course because you don't can't do it alone deserve so much fucking credit for for

keeping a a team that's very difficult to keep guys around by keeping them relevant. And they extended their own record. They've held opponents to three goals or fewer in 22 straight games. Pretty impressive stuff, too. That's crazy. So imagine just taking the other team's total under all these games, how much dough you'd have.

So that's just a shout-out to team defense and goaltending. Well, we'd be a we'd be remiss now that you're talking unders and betting to not shut out elio and the ice man with one of the craziest wins on friday night where a goal was scored with 0.01 seconds on the clock it was the new york rangers to push the over to. And he's been on an absolute heater ever since going on game notes two weeks ago. He started off the season on fuego, dipped a little bit. He was at the point where he was going to retire from gambling.

He goes on game notes to make his retirement pick. And ever since, he has been scorched earth. The best part about that was, forget the.1 second goal, meaningless by the Rangers to make it 4-3 and hit the over it was 1-0 at the start of the third period the Rangers were winning and all of a sudden it's 4-1 Edmonton and the Rangers get these two late ones including this miraculous cover I saw him tweet a picture of the the miracle at MSG December 22nd 2023, with his face with the sunglasses on.

So this, as all is celebrated, this. So he's just the over king. If you're a big hockey gambler, you've got to follow Mr. Ice on Instagram, Twitter. He'll give you great picks. Third time this season that a goal has been scored at 0.1 seconds left to affect either the over-under or the spread. No shit. Yeah, third time this year. His record is 106.79 in the last year. That's for gambling, dude.

That's incredible. What do you call the magazine in Back to the Future? You got the Alma Mac? What'd you call it? Is it an Alma Mac? Alma Mac, that's where Alf's from. I'd kill me. Is it called, what's it called?

Yeah, it's Sports Alma. Say it again. Say it again. Alma Mac. Mal Mac. Guys, remember, French is his first language. Butch, don't be too hard on him. Don't be laughing at the radio right now.

I speak two languages. Yep. Probably two. I've always said that to everyone, Brisbane. Franglish. Butch, you should lay off you. Wait, I heard you mention Adam Yep. Probably two. I've always said that to everyone, Bruce. Butchie should lay off you. Wait, I heard you mention Adam Oates a few minutes ago, but there's another guy who can pass the puck pretty well.

I think we should probably send it over to him right now, Mr. Wayne Gretzky, part two of the Spit and Chicklets trilogy. Merry Christmas and enjoy. This interview is brought to you by Chevy. The Chevy EV, man. I'll tell you right now, Grinelli needs a new car. We've been saying this. I don't know why he hasn't pulled the trigger on The Chevy EV, man. I'll tell you right now, Grinnelli needs a new car. We've been saying this. I don't know why he hasn't pulled the trigger on a Chevy EV, but Chevy has convenient ways to research and shop electrical vehicles online. When researching, utilize Chevy MyWay.

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Wayne, we're fired up, buddy. We are fired up. Round two. We didn't even scratch the surface the first time we had you on. And actually, it just so happens that this podcast was supposed to drop on on december 26 which was a tuesday we said why not bump it up to the 25th drop a surprise episode with wayne gretzky on christmas day considering the best christmas gift i ever got was the gretzky aluminum hockey stick which by the way lasted me probably seven years how durable that stick was well i got a gordy

how jersey that was the best christmas gift i ever got so you and i are even right no my mom and dad brought me out this when i was five years old gordie how jersey and i thought okay i've died and gone to heaven it was the greatest gift i could ever get so i feel your pain no buddy amazing. Actually, my mom hid it underneath my couch in the living room, or her couch, I guess. And all the gifts were done being unwrapped. And then my mom's like, well, what's that extra? Is that something sticking out there?

And I was like, go find it. It's like Ralphie getting the BB gun. Buddy, it was insane. And then my dad snapped the perfect picture. I had the biggest smile on my face. And I was just unwrapping. But isn't it so cool when you're a kid what you want like i didn't want like toys or i didn't want anything i didn't want for nothing you just get me a gordy hoe jersey and i'd be so happy and for you

all you wanted was a hockey stick right isn't that cool that's so canadian but isn't it so canadian that's all we wanted absolutely We weren't asking for the world. We weren't asking for a new car. We just wanted something that would really entice us and really make us feel good about what we believe in and what we love. And for me, it was a Gordie Howe jersey. For you, it was a Wayne Gretzky hockey stick.

That's what makes Christmas, right? And you can't make it up and so i'm so fortunate i got five healthy kids five beautiful healthy grandchildren and they don't want for anything they just love having family around right and that's what life is all about i love how you tied it back to not only family, but also Gordie Howe. And I think going back to the last time we had you on at the end, that story you told about how everyone maybe thought it was Janet who was enticing me to go to LA, but Walter always being five steps ahead after knowing that you were going to be traded. He was the one who said, you know, Gordie Howe was in Detroit and you know, you're never going to be Gordie. Why don't you go to LA and set your own path? And it just, in my opinion, it kind of set the foundation

for hockey growing in Southern America or Southern United States, excuse me. And I think it was probably the craziest story that, uh, that we heard on that podcast. Isn't it funny that my dad, you know, my dad made $30,000 a year year his whole life. And he was so happy to work for Bell Telephone. And he was very proud of it. He was a wonderful blue collar guy. And when I said, okay, I got a chance to go to Philadelphia, New York, LA or Detroit. And he said, are you out of your mind? You should go to LA. There's only one Gordie Howe in Detroit. You should be in LA. Do something different.

Do something unique. And why don't you be a trailblazer? And I said, OK, that sounds good. And then poor Janet, she took all the heat that everybody wanted. Janet wanted me in LA. That had nothing to do with it. It was totally my dad who said, Janet actually said, you should go to Detroit. And I'm like, OK, we'll go to Detroit.

My dad said, you're out of your mind. You're going to LA. And I said, OK, I guess I'm going to LA. You want a little sunshine. You still listen to your dad, right? Oh, yeah. At the end of the day, you always listen to your dad. Absolutely.

So I ended up in LA. And you know what? It was the greatest thing that always listen to your dad. So I ended up in L.A. And you know what? It was the greatest thing that ever happened to me in my life. I hated leaving Edmonton. And I always tell people this story. When I played against the Edmonton Oilers, I hated every minute of it. I hated playing in Edmonton. I didn't like it.

I loved every minute that I played in Edmonton. I loved the fans. They were so good to me. The people were so great to me. And I knew they had to boo me. And it just really hurt my feelings that they had to boo me in Edmonton because I knew they didn't really want to, but they had to because I was the enemy, right?

And that's okay. But I hated playing against the Edmonton Oilers. That was the worst thing that ever happened on that trade was I had to playing against the edmonton oilers that was the worst thing that ever happened on that trade was i had to play against the edmonton how many how many games did that last just the first one and after that every game every time you came even when i played for the new york rangers and i played in edmonton i didn't like it i always felt like you know what deep down somewhere inside of me i'm an oiler yeah and you know I started there in 1978 and I started with Sparky Kalchinski who's a trainer Barry Stafford is a trainer Joey Moss

Glenn Sather and it was just hard for me to ever play there because those people were my people. I, you know, everything I have in my life, I owe to them because they made me the player I became. And it was so hard for me to play there. It was so difficult. And I just really never enjoyed being an opponent of the Edmonton Oilers. It was just always felt that way. I think it's once a month you remind me, hey, if you're ever talking about edmonton or to anyone from edmonton tell them i love it and the people there what makes it so special but what was unique about it was i would go out for dinner i would go for a couple beers nobody ever bothered me people were so nice to me they were like you know we love you

in edmonton so mark messi was from edmonton right so the the the mantra was mark messi was edmonton. So Mark Messier was from Edmonton, right? So the mantra was Mark Messier was Edmonton's son and I was the adopted son. And so we got treated so well there. You can't imagine how nice the people were to us. And I always say to people, if you ever go to Canada, if you ever go to Edmonton, the people are so nice. And you got to go there edmonton the people are so nice and you got to go there in the summer they're so nice and they're so respectful and they're so polite i you know i hated being an opponent of them because i loved it there so much and it was hard for me well i was just gonna say it was it was all you knew at that point and then obviously the trade goes down like how was it getting acclimated there?

Who did you get put in touch with first who made it a soft landing? No, no. So I was staying. Janet and I were staying with Alan Thicke. Remember Alan Thicke? Yeah. He was a wonderful man. He was one of my best friends in life.

And we were staying at his house for a week. And Craig Simpson, who I played with, we just won the Stanley Cup, he was coming down for a week to stay with us. And I said, Craig, you're not going to believe this. He was one of the first people I knew I was getting traded. I said, Craig, I'm getting traded out of Edmonton. He goes, you're out of your mind. I go, no, I'm telling the truth.

So we're at Alan Thicke's house. And Alan Thicke says to me, are you sure you want to go through this? Because Alan Thicke was the biggest hockey fan in the world and loved hockey. And I go, well, I think it's out of my hands. I think I'm getting traded. And so Janet was like seven months pregnant or six months pregnant. And I got a phone call and said, you're flying to Edmonton tomorrow morning. The deal's happening. And I went, oh my gosh. And I'm at Alan Thicke's house. And I said, Alan, I'm flying tomorrow morning to Edmonton and this

deal's going down. I'm getting traded. But you know what? In hindsight, when we look at it, it was really good for hockey. I remember my first game I played in L.A. There were 6,000 people in the game. I was going to ask you about the crowd. Yeah. And I remember thinking, oh, wow, what have you got yourself into here? This is not going to be good. oh wow what have you got yourself into here this is not going to be good because in Edmonton 19,500 people every game right my first game in LA was 6,500 people and I'm like oh my gosh and I remember

distinctly we're in Van Nuys and we're driving by these tennis courts. And I said to my wife, I said, you know, these tennis courts in Canada, every kid would be playing ball hockey, inline hockey was just starting. This would be like hockey here. And I said, oh, we got a lot of work to do here. And two years later, we went by the same park, and there was a big sign on the fence that said, no inline hockey allowed. And I said, OK, hockey's come here. That's awesome.

We've come a long way. No, no. It chills up my back of my spine. I was like, OK, we've come a long way. When you got to L.A., you mentioned there wasn't a huge crowd at the beginning. Was it hard for you? Like you're hard a little still in Edmonton or were you already all bought into the Kings

and really light? Or was it tough the first few games? No, no, no, it was really tough. But my heart was always in Edmonton. But I bought into it and I got lucky because I got Kelly Rudy, Luke Robitaille, Marta McSorley, Bernie Nichols. And those guys, we all understood. So when I got there, there was

four high school hockey teams. And in two years, there was 124 high school hockey teams. And those guys, it wasn't just Wayne Gretzky. Those guys went out and promoted hockey and did so much stuff. And then I got really lucky. Brett Hall was in St. Louis, and Brett Hall was a superstar. Iserman was in Detroit, and he was special. Mario Lemieux was in Pittsburgh, and he was special. And Mark Messier then got traded to New York. So between all of us, we all understood not only what we had to do for the game and be part of the game,

but to sell the game, right? So we all, I got lucky. I rode a wave. It wasn't just Wayne Gretzky. I rode a wave with everyone. So, hey, listen, I feel fortunate. And then on top of that, Michael Eisner used to sit with Janet at every game in L.A. with Larry Bruckheimer. And Michael Eisner said, I'm doing this hockey movie, Mighty Ducks. And I remember at dinner when I go, Mighty Ducks? That sounds so silly. Who's going to do a Mighty Ducks movie, right? Doesn't it sound silly?

I mean, yeah. And then he said to me one night, he goes, I'm going to have an NHL team called the Mighty Ducks. And I went, okay, this doesn't make any sense at all. And he brought in the Anaheim Ducks. And then there was a guy named George Gund, and people don't know who George Gund is, but he owned the Minnesota North Stars,

and he moved and created a franchise in San Jose. So now you've got San Jose, Anaheim, and L.A., and all of a sudden everybody started going, wow, this is pretty cool. We've got hockey on the West Coast. And that's how it all developed. It was George Gunn, Michael Eisner, Bruce McNall, those three gentlemen created hockey on the West Coast. And now I was watchingore play last night for the la kings and he's from thousand oaks where my kids all grew up where i lived for 30 years

player too no he's unreal unreal so i'm watching him play last night and i said to janet i said janet this kid's from where we grew up and all our kids grew up and she was like that kid is i go yeah and he's really good so you know what hockey's come a long way good for them um so i think when you told the story originally about maybe going to vancouver i think that you mentioned that they offered you also a chunk of the team 25 percent oh jesus how dumb am i no no no i talked to nelson scalvani all the time right i text him yesterday because we're good friends and he changed my life he signed me when I was 17 years old and I still stay in touch with him and I have a great deal of respect for people in life and I love the man dearly and I

text him yesterday and you know he changed my life and offered me, he called me the 7 a.m. when we won the Stanley Cup and said, I'm going to buy the Vancouver Canucks. I'll give you 25% ownership of the team and $3 million a year. Now, the highest paid player in hockey was me at that time, was 800 grand Canadian. Oh, that's a nice raise. I know. He said no.

How dumb am I? And I was like was like you know what Mr. Scalvania you know I love you to death but it's not gonna work for me but no how dumb am I oh my god my wife still says to me you're really dumb I'm kidding is there truth to the rumor that you also were offered part of the Mighty Ducks too? No, to be in the movie. Okay. All right. Nevermind.

I thought maybe we were talking about this afternoon. No, no, no. I got offered to be in the movie. Okay. And Mr. Eisner said, will you do this for me as a favor? Okay. So I did it. I said, I don't want to act. Because one of the things about playing in LA, you get offered roles, right?

Yeah. And I didn't want to act. What do you mean? You were unreal in the roles that you had. Young and the Restless, right? Young and the Restless. No, that was before. The only thing I would tell you this,

so Saturday Night Live called me and said, will you host Saturday Night Live? I said, there's no way. I said, I can't do that. So I get on this private airplane, and I'm flying to Kentucky Derby and I'm reading the USA Today and it says, Wayne Gretzky is going to host Saturday Night Live.

And I had the paper like this and I pulled it down and I looked at my wife and I said, you didn't. She goes, you're going to love me forever that I told them you would host. No, she didn't. She did. She called him back and said, he's going to host. No, I will tell you this. So Mike Myers, who's so nice, him and Dana Carvey,

and a guy named Phil Hartman, who unfortunately passed away. Yeah, he's the best. Now, Phil Hartman is from my hometown, which people don't know. No way. He's from Brantford? He's from Brantford, Ontario. Wow. Yeah.

And I swear to God, I'm like, you got to be kidding me. I was so nervous. I was like you, the first game you did. Oh, TNT? TNT. Oh, I was shitting bricks. I know. I was shitting bricks.

But I know the feeling. Oh, yeah. And no, no. And I'm like, Janet, you couldn't do this to me. She goes, you're going to thank me when you're done. And when I did it, it was so cool. And I was like on cloud nine at 1.30 in the morning because it goes from 11.30 to 1.00

and then they do an afters party, right? At 6.00 a.m. we're walking around. I'm like, she's like, I told you you'd love this. I said, yeah, it was pretty cool. But I got lucky. Those guys were so good to me. They carried me. I did nothing.

They just kept saying to me, just read the thing. I said, okay. Didn't you mention like the prep for it where you had to be there for a couple days, full days? So you get there Tuesday to take the picture, you know, to do that picture that they show. And then Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday is rehearsals. And then you do a dress rehearsal, 8 o'clock to 1030 on Saturday night. And then you get a break and then you do the show and i'm like oh my god this and i had to sing so you know me you got me on a tangerine yeah

biz asked me the other day we we do we're gonna do this musical special we do and i go yeah i'll play the triangle yeah yeah i'm completely i was at a studio with david foster and uh i can't remember who was a singer and he goes i can make anybody sound good i go david i can't sing i'm tone deaf i was out there three seconds he said i i can't make you sound good i got i got bumped yeah it was with kenny loggins and goes, you're off. Get off. That was one of the questions I was going to ask you. Because you moved over to LA and you were going to carve out this new path and try to grow hockey in the southern United States, did you feel a little bit of pressure to get more involved,

whether it was with SNL or photo shoots or advertising? No, not at all. Nothing? Not at all. Just play hockey. You know what? It's got to be down. I just wanted to win, right?

I said, if we win and we're good, people will come. You know, it's like you build it, they'll come. I just wanted to play hockey. I had no interest. Like I got offered every TV show there was to be a guest appearance, but I had no interest in it. And I'd be like, you know what? I just want to play hockey.

And I love, you know, this is a great question for you guys, okay? You guys are asking me other questions. Do you know who sang the National Anthem my first game in L.A.? Hopefully not Carl Lewis. Dolly Parton? No. That's a good Dolly Parton? No. That's a good guess though, no? No, no, no.

That's really... Roy Orbison. No way. Sang the national anthem of my first game at the LA Kings, which people don't realize or think about. And my wife grabbed me after the game and said, you have to meet Roy. And I was so excited to meet him.

And her and I were, I was like, okay, this is pretty cool. So how cool is that? So Roy Orbison sang the first national anthem I played in LA. And Brian Adams sang my last national anthem I played in New York. I called him. I said, Brian, it's my last game. Will you sing the national anthem? And he said, of course.

So I had Roy Orbison sing my first national anthem and he said of course so i had roy orbertson sing my first national anthem in la and brian adams sang my last national anthem why brian adams like that summer 16 well i know he's canadian i've known brian since he was 17 okay so we're friends from way back i did his walk of fame connor's got nickelback and then you have brian adams right so everybody well i did nickelbacks oh that's the end of the tour i'm still ahead of fuck connor hasn't been in the video yeah that's the rock star music video where you take this i didn't realize that that was your place directed it i was like i had these clothes on and she goes what are you wearing i go well i'm doing this commercial this video she goes, what are you wearing? And I go, well, I'm doing this video. She goes, you're not wearing that.

She redressed me. So your wife always has control, right? You did mention one of the more controversial things you said. Oh my God, what did I do now? No, you said it last podcast. And when you went to LA, one thing you want to do is you talked about maybe eliminating fighting from the game. I did. To change the mindset of. No, no, no.

I didn't say we, my, my theory was the thought of the people in United States was it was a goon sport. And I hated hearing, we went to a boxing match and a hockey game broke out or I hated that right and I'm like okay fighting is part of the game but we don't need to make it the eccentric part of the game so that was my point and and I give the commissioner so much credit in the sense that he Canadians love fighting in hockey right that's that's love fighting in hockey, right? That's what we grew up with, right? So Canadians think, oh, you play hockey, you got to fight. So he never got rid of fighting in hockey.

What he did was he left it alone. Now these kids at Bantam and Midget, like when you play Bantam and Midget, you fought. They don't fight now. And they play junior or college, they don't fight. So they play junior or college they don't fight so when they get the nhl they've never fought so you see a fight every now and then okay that's part of it okay i can live with that the brawls and all that went with that we don't need that that's gone that's out of hockey and i give the commissioner credit that he quietly sort of eliminated fighting out of hockey but it's still

part of it yeah listen no i think it's in a great place yeah yeah i do too i was i was if you're gonna fight you're gonna fight i was coming in at the end of the knuckle drag what do you call knuckle dragger era like ahl i fought back-to-back 30 fight seasons where like you don't need that no i know my brain didn't either and my night don't fight no i No. That doesn't happen. My brain didn't either. We didn't fight. I didn't do anything. Well, he did have one against Tim Jackman. I don't know if you've seen the photo. That one was great.

We don't need to talk about that. It's Christmas, guys. I don't know if I've ever told this story. I got awarded Sports Illustrated Man of the Year. I've never told you this story. It's a pretty big honor. Like, if you're Canadian to get the Sports Illustrated Man of the Year, it's pretty special.

And this guy's at Center Ice, right? And I can't remember his name. But Mark McCoy, I think, was the editor of Sports Illustrated. And this guy is presenting me. And I still have the trophy. It's unreal. I got it at my house. I have two trophies in my house.

That one and Rock of Rashard gave me a trophy. So I have this at my house. And he says, he does this big speech about Wayne Gretzky and being such an honorable guy and so nice and et cetera, et cetera. Second shift, I get into a fight. And I fight Neil Broughton, right? No, no, you can't make it up. So I get back to the bench and Dave Semenko says to me,

you got five minutes for cat fighting. And I'm like, oh my God. I don't even know why I fought. And Neil Broughton and I laugh about it still to this day because it was like it was the dumbest thing that ever happened to me in my career after this guy gave this great speech about how classy guy yeah okay now how dumb am i right and mark messi says to me on the bench he goes so, that was really good. I go, I don't even know what happened. Yeah, it all happened in a flash. There you go.

Did you have any other fight in Majors or was that it? No, that was it. I fought Bob Murray one time in Chicago Stadium. And we were center ice. And I kind of grabbed him and I threw him down. And he got on top of me. And I was so mad. And he got on top of me, and he goes, don't move, I'm not going to hit you.

And I looked over at our bench, and I have five guys with their legs over the bench. I go, I'm not going to move. He didn't touch me. I got back to the bench. I go, nobody's allowed to touch Bob Murray the rest of the night. Don't do anything to him.

Not one guy went near him. They were like okay please Wayne please let me get him he's got quite a bit of space out there he could have killed me he had me like this and he was like I'm not going to move

I'm not going to touch you and I go okay I'm good I'm good that was the only two fights I ever had in the NHL can't make it up so I got to ask you got to meet Roy Orbison.

That must have been a thrill for you. Oh, my God. It was so incredible. My wife was so excited. She grabbed me by the arm. She goes, you have to meet Roy Orbison. You know, listen, when I went to LA, I didn't know what to expect. And here I am, a kid.

I was a kid from a little town in Canada. And Roy Orbison was so excited to sing the national anthem at my first game. I'm like sitting there going, okay, this is pretty cool. That's when I kind of changed my focus from, gosh, I hated leaving Edmonton, okay, to like, okay, this could be really cool. Like we could have something special

going on down here and that's kind of that was the night that's well you mentioned just winning and like that bringing the fans and and like the 92 93 season it was really memorable we were actually talking before you came over about that year you you only played 45 what was your injury? So this is really funny. So in April and May of that year, we went to Hawaii, Paul Coffey and his wife, Rick Tocca and his wife, Janet and I, and I was lying on the ground at this restaurant, and the girl actually came over and said, Hey, listen, he's going to have to leave.

And I said, No, no, no, I got a back injury. I don't know what's wrong. And she was like, okay. And I was like devastated. I had a pain in my side that was so bad. And I went to four doctors who checked my, they didn't know if I had like a torn rib or cartilage or they didn't, they had no idea.

And I went to training camp the first day September 14th my son Trevor was born and we were in Big Bear and I said I can't move and I went to this doctor the Kirtland Job Clinic and he said I'm going to check your back I said it's not my back, it's my side. And I had a herniated disc. And so they said to me, we've checked around six doctors. Three said do surgery, three said don't do surgery. And one athlete's ever done surgery was a downhill skier, and she couldn't perform again. It was 18 months of recovery. And I said, oh, my gosh. And he said, look,

we'll put you on steroids. I went to Kerlin Joe Clinic and I did steroids for four months. I did treatment. I did everything I could do. And you know what? I came back in January. I missed the first 40 games and the team had played really well they were in first place and I came black and I was like oh my gosh I don't want to mess the team up because they're playing so well at the time right Kelly Rudy was a goalie and Luke Robitaille was playing unreal and Marty McSorley and I came back and I was really average for the first 15 games and then Barry Melrose called me in his office and he said hey just be yourself like you're trying too hard and then we got on this roll and we went to the Stanley Cup finals and so maybe the 40 games gave me a little bit of a rest and a breather that's what we're saying 40 points in the playoffs I think it was your second or third best playoff ever

I played really well in the playoffs. Our team played unreal. It was an incredible run. We weren't as good as Toronto. We weren't as good as Montreal. But we beat Toronto, and unfortunately, we lost three overtime games to Montreal. But it was one of the most proudest moments of my career because when I was in Edmonton, when we won, we were the best team

we had the most talent we were good when I was in LA we got to the finals we weren't we weren't the best team but our team played with heart we beat Vancouver Vancouver should have beat us we beat Calgary Calgary should beat us we beat Toronto Toronto should beat us but our team played with heart and I loved every minute of it. And that was the most fun I ever had in hockey and the most ejected I ever was. We lost that game two in overtime over the stick call. Yeah.

So early. So I came in the locker room after the second period at 2-1, and I said to Luke and Marty, they're going to check your sticks. No shit. Yeah. Were they that big of hooks, they're going to check your sticks. No shit. Yeah. Were they that big of hooks, or did you? Yeah, of course. And I said, you guys, I'm just telling you guys,

they're going to check your sticks. Is that something new? Maybe I told something new here. I said, I'm just, and listen, we wouldn't have got to the finals if it wasn't for Marty McSorley. It's not his fault. We wouldn't have got there the finals if it wasn't for Marty McSorley. It's not his fault. We wouldn't have got there without him. He played unreal.

But I remember sitting there after the second period saying, you guys, they're going to check your sticks. Are you guys OK? And they said, we're OK. Wow. But we got to talk about the Toronto series. Well, one of the funnier stories ever told on this podcast was by Bob McKenzie, and he brought up how,

I think it was in game five. Cut me up. Yeah, the quote was, it looked like he had a piano on his back. I think Wayne's slowing down. Piano on my back. That was one of the quotes, right? Game five, yeah. Oh, my God.

So did you? Oh, I took it personally. Give us the whole series. I mean, you're going back to Toronto. Yeah, but in those days, there's no social media, right? Right. You read the papers. That's what we read, right?

Next quarter. So we're playing Toronto game five, and next day we're flying from Toronto to L.A., and I'm reading the Toronto Star, the Toronto Sun, Globe and Mail. Wayne Gretzky's got a piano in his back. I'm like, oh, my God. So I went up to Barry Melrose. I said, Barry, and Barry's a wonderful guy.

I said, Barry, am I playing that bad? He goes, no, no, you're okay. And Barry's so positive, right? You're okay, you're okay. And I knew I was playing bad. He goes, but you're okay, you're okay. I said, okay. You know, you're okay, you're okay.

And I knew I was playing bad. He goes, but you're okay, you're okay. I said, okay. And I took it personally, and I'm like, okay. So then I scored the overtime goal in game six. And then I always tell people, I played a lot of bad games. Don't get me wrong. Everybody does. Bobby Orr did.

Gordie Howe did. I did. The best game I ever played in my life was game seven in Toronto when the whole country is rooting for Toronto to win so they can be Toronto-Montreal final, right? So I was in the elevator. Have I ever told you this story? No.

So I was in the elevator. I don't know if you guys remember the St. Louis series. And St. Louis Blues in Toronto played game seven, and the city went nuts, and the buses were turning over, and it was crazy. So we're playing game seven in Toronto, and we have extra security on our floor. And I go to the rink at 2 o'clock for a 730 game so quarter to two my wife calls me and

says hey and I'm under an assumed name she only knows so when the phone rings I know it's her she's I wishing you good luck and I'm like okay we got it so I get in the elevator and two security guys and the one guy stays up and the one guy gets in the elevator with me and i'm going down the elevator with him and i go hey big night tonight huh and he goes yeah and he goes yeah it's gonna be crazy i go what do you mean it's gonna be crazy and the guy says to me innocently he goes he goes, oh, at 10.30 tonight, this town is going to be crazy. And I go, okay. Oh, really?

So we get down to the bottom of the floor. This is really funny. We get down to the bottom of the floor, and I stop the elevator. I say, you know about your job at 10.30? He goes, yeah. I said, don't worry about it. He goes, what do you mean? I go, my job starts at 7.30.

Oh. Yeah. True story. And then what? what and then five point night there you go so oh my god first guy in the locker room after the game was the security guy he goes i didn't blow this game did i go no no no no no true story. He comes in the room and he's like, I go, you know what? It's all good. But it was so funny because he was so thinking that Toronto was not going to lose, right? I said, don't worry about your job. I got a job at 730. And that wasn't the third goal that you banked in off the goalie?

No, Dave Ellett. Oh, yeah, off his foot, right? Totally on purpose. It was a bullshit play. You were going off his foot right yeah totally on purpose there was a bullshit play it was just you were going off his foot right there was no other kings in the area i was just throwing it out okay i like to brag about it i just threw it out i love the honesty yeah there's no rhyme or reason you gotta be good to be lucky no no no uh but kelly rudy was so good in that series. Like he was a phenom.

And I always say like, I got lucky. I played with so many good people in my career. And sometimes you win, sometimes you lose, but guys like Kelly Rudy and Luke Robitaille, Marty, Craig Simpson,

Mark, Mark Messier, there's just good people. Right. And we all want to do the same thing. We want to win. Right. That's what we're trying to do. And we're all on the same page. Like if everybody's on the same page, that's more important than anything. Um, Marty McSorley, like he was probably the most famous guy on the team, wasn't he? Oh my gosh. Just mingling with all the stars. So Marty, I will give you a great story. When we traded for Marty, Glenn Sather said,

I traded for this tough guy. And the first day of practice, after practice, I said, that guy's on our team? No, I couldn't believe it. Like, he was so bad. Oh, no. Really? No, no.

I'm not lying to you. And Marty McSorley, every day, I promise you this, and I tell kids this all the time, you can't be Mario Lemieux, you can't be Mark Messi, you can't be Gordie Howe, but you can be Marnie McSorley. Marnie McSorley, every day, skated an extra hour after practice, every day, he'd go in the locker room. There was a guy there who was a Canadian boxing champion,

and they would box, because those are the things you fight, right? Him and Semenko and a couple of guys, Kevin McClellan, they would box. And then Marty would take his skates, and he'd go to an outdoor rink and skate for two hours every day. And Marty McSorley became a hockey player. And I always say to people, this guy, I give him all the credit in the world. He became an NHL hockey player because of his desire and work ethic. And you can't be Marilyn Mew.

You can't be Guy Lafleur. You can't be Mike Bossy. But you can be Martin McSorley through hard work. Right? I want to ask, wait, before Game 6 or Game 7 versus Toronto, did you did you give a pep talk to the boys or just try to keep it business as usual going no i i was quiet captain okay i i would never i was always a quiet captain i never thought that a captain needed to

get up and scream and shout and talk and yell um i'd call a couple guys aside and say, hey, we need you to do this or, you know, we need you for this. We had a line of Mike Donnelly, Tony Granato. They just were a grinder line. They got the winning goal in game seven. They made it 4-3. But I never felt like I needed to tell guys what to do. I always felt like, you know what, actions and being at practice early,

being the first guy on the ice, being the first guy on the bus, being the first guy at the rink that was more important to be a captain than to yell at guys and say hey we need you to do this or do that that's what I always felt you you mentioned leaving the hotel at two for a 7 30 game was that normal or just because you'd always be there that early yeah so I learned that in 81 so this is really a great story. So I played in 81, and my idol was Guy Lafleur, and I played with him in 81. And Flower said to me, kid, he called me Curly. Curly, we're going to the rink.

I go, we're going to the rink? It's 1.30. And so Guy Lafleur learned that in 76 from Bobby Orr. Bobby Orr would go to the rink at 1.30. And he always felt like if you get to the rink and get in the locker room, nobody could call you or bug you or bother you. I'm like, okay, this is pretty, okay, I get it. So that's kind of, I learned it from Bobby Orr,

or Guy Lafleur learned it from Bobby Orr. I learned it from Guy Lafleur, and that's how it happened. So that's, and so when you get to the rink, you know, you have a cup of coffee with the trainers. You're sitting on the trainer's table. And those days, it was a locker room, right? It was a trainer's table in the locker room. It's not like it is now.

It's like par blanche, right? Lounges and everything. Back in those days, it was a locker room. But no, that's where I learned it from. I learned it from Bobby Orr and Guy Lafleur. What would you do to kill time? Would you have a cup of coffee? Yeah, just a cup of coffee and sit and talk to the trainers crossword crossword

you were your crossword guy never that's Brett Hall Brett Hall was the biggest Gordie Howell Bobby Hall and Brett Hall the three biggest crossword guys I know okay never um uh going back to Gordie um how special was it I mean you ended up breaking the goal record with LA and I mean you talk about how you'll probably fall around Ovi as he gets close if he does because Gordy always set the example and that's probably why you're so generous with your time and feel like you need to constantly grow the game and being an ambassador is because you learn from him. So having him around and following that around for, and that experience must've been just so special to you.

It's amazing. So I met Gordy when I was 10, greatest day of my life other than all my kids and getting married. Yeah. Yeah. That one too. No, no. When you're 10 years old you meet your idol i remember my dad saying to me how was it and i said oh he's bigger better nicer than i ever thought he was so nice and then we became good friends and i played with his son i played with his son when i was 16 years old and we used to get on the bus and his son who became a doctor and he's an unreal guy. He gave his dad's eulogy at the funeral when we were there. Incredible eulogy. And we get on the bus and one of the first times I met Murray, I said, Murray,

you know, you're Gordy's son. I'm wearing number nine. You should wear number nine. I'll switch my number. And he goes, no, no, no, Wayne, you keep number nine. I'm not playing. This is my last year. I'm doing this for my dad I'm playing one year and I told him I said okay so I get on the bus and he have all these books right because he was a really he was a student and he'd say to me Wayne you never know you might not make it in hockey you need to bring books on the bus and I said okay so the next bus trip we had I bring these five books on the bus and then we sit down beside Marie and he goes okay I'm glad to see you got your books what do okay, so the next bus trip we had, I bring these five books on the bus and we sit down beside Murray and he goes,

okay, I'm glad to see you got your books. What do you got? And I go, Gordie Howe, My Way, Gordie Howe Hockey. Matt Christopher. How to be a NHL player. I said, you want to be a doctor, I want to be an NHL hockey player. I want to be your dad.

When I was six years old, I asked this barber to give me a Gordie Howe haircut. That's how much I love Gordie Howe. And then when I met him, he was even nicer, and we became best friends. He was a fucking unit, too. No, no, and he was tough, and he was mean. Oh, yeah. So the first time I played against him, I said to all the guys after warm-up,

I was 17 years old, I said, oh, my God, Gordie kept winking at me the whole warm-up. He's like, he's not winking at you. He's got a blinking problem. I said, oh, my God, Gordy kept winking at me the whole warm-up. He's like, he's not winking at you. He's got a blinking problem. I said, oh, okay. So he stole the puck from him, and he hacked me on the hand. He cracked my thumb, and he goes, don't ever take the puck from me again, kid. That was Gordy Howe. And I said, never again.

I'll just shadow this guy out here. Stay on the defensive side so then i played with him in the wha all-star game i didn't think i was gonna play jock demers picked me and i'm like okay this this will be fine i'm you know i'm part of the team so i walk in the locker room and the trainer says coach wants to see you and i said okay so okay. So I walk in, and Jacques says, kid, call me kid, you're going to center Mark and the old man. And I went, who's the old man? Like, I didn't know who the old man was, right?

He goes, Gordy. I go, okay. I'm like, Mark and Gordy? He goes, yeah, that's who you're going to center. So I get in the locker room. I'm sitting there. Now, in those days, they had the sticks there, and Gordy's got his, yeah, that's who you're going to center. So I get in the locker room. I'm sitting there. Now, in those days, they had the sticks there, and Gordy's got his feet on his stick, right?

And he's lying in the back, and he's got his eyes closed, and he's sitting there like this. And I turned to him. I go, Gordy, I'm so nervous. And he opened one eye, and he goes, so am I, kid. He goes, win the faceoff, get in the corner, and we'll get a goal. I win the faceoff. We got the puck in the corner.

No lie. In eight seconds, Gordie Howe scores a goal. And I go, this is the greatest frigging person I've ever seen in my life. Eight seconds. I went, are you kidding me? That's like a Mark Twain moment. No, no, no. I'm sitting with this guy going, he's better than...

No, no. I thought he was God. He was God. He was the greatest player ever lived. It must have been a little like, maybe not stressful, but he's following you around. You probably just wanted to break the record, right? Because he's coming around.

But it ended up being McSwirly gave you a great dish for that goal, huh? Oh, yeah. He tells me about it all the time no no no got a text reminder so when i was breaking the record this is a great story and it's all coming to fruition now but i said to my dad the night before i said i'm so embarrassed and my dad said to me what do you mean said, I'm so embarrassed. And my dad said to me, what do you mean? I said, I'm so embarrassed. Gordie Howe is the greatest hockey player ever lived, and he always will be in my eyes, and he'll never change.

And I said, you know, I'm so embarrassed to break his record. And he goes, are you out of your mind? And I remember looking at my dad. My dad's pretty straightforward, right? He's never really controversial. And he goes goes don't even think that way and i'm thinking where is he going with this and he says you have the same dignity and respect when the guy breaks your record the gordy how he's so excited and so happy that you're

breaking his record you make sure you have the same respect for the guy that breaks your record. And I went, okay, yeah. I remember I looked at my dad, I go, okay. I go, I'm thinking at that time, who's going to break that record? You're like, somebody's going to break this. No, but that was what my dad told me. That was awesome. No, no. But my dad was so ahead of his time.

He's like, you know, Gordy's so proud of you. You be proud of the guy that breaks your record and i go okay you got it that's all that's what we said at dinner that night isn't that funny and here we are and we're close so uh yeah three years in la yari curry you guys get reunited now did you have any input with the gm as far as like acquiring his rights and like how much say did you have in any moves the kings did if any at all yeah you know what um this is a hard one because i really didn't i did but i didn't so if they asked me a question i give them an honest answer right it wasn't like i would go in the office say you got to trade this guy we got to trade this guy. We got to trade this guy. That never happened. And that's why in a lot of ways I feel bad for Connor McDavid and Edmonton now. Like he's under that microscope that I was under that people feel like he's doing things.

So of course they're going to come and ask me questions. But I never one time said, you have to do this or we have to do that. That was never, I was a player. I never wanted to be a GM. I never wanted to be that guy that said, hey, get rid of this guy or we got to get this guy. If they came to me and said, hey, do you think this is a good deal? Of course, I gave my honest opinion.

I was an NHL player. But no time did I ever say we have to trade so and so for so and so that would never be in my macho never um i think we were going to ask about talk got brought in and you would have played with them in 87 at the what was the canada cup was that maybe something that you were pushing for to get a little bit more sandpaper in your guys lineup and somebody who'd obviously want to stay on the cup before? Well, of course I want to talk on my team,

but I would never say trade a guy to get talk. But if we could get talk, I would love to have him, you know, listen, Rick and I are best friends and we've been best friends since 87 and we laugh and giggle all the time and we won some championships together. And, you know, listen, I love him to death. But I would never go to a GM or a coach and say, hey, we got to get this guy, trade this guy. Like you just, as a player, you just don't do that. I had enough going on to be the best player I could be.

I would never do that. I think all the people who reached out when you came on last year so many of them said oh if you ever have them on again you got to talk about the 87 Canada Cup which people some people say is the best hockey ever played so the five the final the best two out of three against the Soviet Union all six five games right so you played with Lemieux you assisted on the game winner. Like, take me through that tournament. And I was reading before, and you didn't play with Lemieux until game two of the finals against Russia? Well, it was interesting because we lost game one, 6-5 in Montreal.

And we had chartered, the team had chartered a plane from Montreal to Hamilton. And we were all disappointed as a team that we weren't playing in Maple Leaf gardens. Right. Cause we want to play game two and three in Maple Leaf gardens. Cause we're NHL players. We're going to Hamilton. We didn't know what that was. Yeah.

We didn't know anything about Hamilton. Right. So we're all like, so I'm walking out of the locker room and my dad says to me, you love that you guys will love this story. He goes, well, you cost them the game. I looked at him, I go, what are you talking about? Your shift was too long on the sixth goal. And I looked at him, I go, what? So we lose 6-5, right?

And he goes, it's your fault you lost tonight. That's what my dad says to me. No, it's my fault, but you did something wrong. I'm like, okay. So we get on the team plane, and we fly to Hamilton, and we're thinking, okay, we're going to Hamilton. So we play game two in Hamilton, and I'm thinking, okay, I've got to have a good game.

So I start the game, and Mario and I are playing together. And earlier in the tournament, we had a shift together. We had a two-on-one, and I passed it to him, and he passed it back to me, and we didn't score. And I got to the bench, and he's 21 years old then, and I said, Mario, when I give you the puck, you're a better goal scorer than I am. You shoot the puck.

Don't ever give it back to me. He goes, okay, okay. Now, he's a kid, right? I'm still young. I'm only 27, but he's a kid. He's 21., right? And I'm still young. I'm only 27, but he's a kid. He's 21. He goes, okay. So we get into game two and we played really well together.

And we were in game two and he scores all these goals. He was phenomenal. Like he was unreal. So I remember we drove after the game because the games were starting at 820. We didn't get back to, I was, Janet and I were staying at my parents' house. We got to my parents' house at 2.30 in the morning. And Mike Keenan says, we're going to have a light skate at one o'clock.

I'm like, a light skate? We just skated forever. So we went to the rink and we skated for 10 minutes. And so we get into game three. But the cutest story of all was I get a phone call at my parents' house from the prime minister's office and says, Mr. Mulroney,

the prime minister wants to talk to you, and I said, okay, tell him to call me, so they call, and I said, Dad, answer the phone, and my dad answers the phone, and he goes, this is Prime Minister Mulroney. My dad goes, oh, my God. He goes, really?

He goes, is your son there? I had it all set up. So we go to the game. Now we're down 3-0. Before the game three starts, we're down 3-0. And Mike Keenan says to Mario and I, I think it was a mess you guys sit down so we sit down and talk it Brian prop and Howard Chuck scored two goals and we're back in the game three two and Keenan kicks me in the ass and he says okay you guys ready to go now and we have

winning six five but the moral of the story was we were so worried about Toronto and the Hamilton arena was so incredibly crazy we're all sitting there going thank god we're playing in Hamilton this crowd is so incredible it was over the top um my wife and my dad couldn't even think they would sit at every game and they were like so nervous. It was one of my wife's first hockey games she ever saw me play in person. And then I said, you know, next week we're doing training camp in Edmonton. It's not quite the same. The hockey won't be what you, yeah, this is not the normal. So you had started dating her that summer before the tournament began?

Yeah, we went to Canada Cup together. That's when we started dating. I think it was Toc who mentioned that like six days you guys were able to hide it and keep it out of the press. Yeah, we tried to hide it as best we could, and then it came out like a parachute. Oh, no, all the publicity. That's okay. Toc said you guys had

a three-week training camp in montreal and you went to get your hair cut one day and the buddy who was cutting your hair must have like let his buddies know and within like 20 minutes there was 300 people outside this barber shop of you getting your salad chopped that's where talk had hair yeah he had a coif that's probably why you read the barbershop so talk played unreal in that tournament let me tell you he was so good you know what all our guys were good you know we were five five and three of the games and grant fear would say to the guys don't worry they're not getting six he was unreal to me he was the greatest goalie ever lived. And listen, Ken Dryden was unreal. Billy Smith was unreal.

There's so many good goalies. But listen, push, cup, and shove, Grant Fuhrer was incredible. I just want to ask about playing with Mario. And I think the quotes were like, you just put the best players with the best players. Was it instant chemistry? I know you said that you had to say, hey, shoot the pill when I send it over over but was that probably the easiest line mate you ever got to play with not even close he was the greatest player ever ever ever saw not not even close so big no he was so good uh he was the best player i ever played against he was the best player I played with. Mark Messi was the best player I ever played

with as a teammate. Mario was so good. Like he did everything. And the funny thing was when we played together, we saw the game the same way. So I knew where to go when he had the puck and he knew where to go when I had the puck. It was incredible. Like he just was special and unfortunately through you know injuries and his disease he they had to battle through he would have broke all my records there's no question like he was that good the funniest thing about the the game winner with a minute left is it's a three-on-one and larry murphy's driving the far post i think he's's like, I knew I wasn't getting it. Was he never even an option win? It was a decoy. Not even a thought.

Less than zero? No, no, no. But in fairness to Larry Murphy, okay, it could have been anybody. He did the right thing. He went to the net, right? Took the defenseman. Could have been Bobby Orr. He wasn't getting the puck.

Yeah. You got to getting the puck yeah you got to give the puck to the guy behind but he did the right thing he went to the net so unfortunately for Larry Murphy everybody says oh Murph was never getting the puck but it could have been Dave Keon it could have been Gordie Howe that guy takes the guy to the net yeah the next guy is getting the puck right I saw Mario soon as I got the puck I knew where Mario was when is getting the puck right i saw mario as soon as i got the puck i knew where mario was when i got the puck between the red line and the blue line i knew where mario was i was like all right mario's getting the puck not even a question uh interesting story during that you actually had a barbecue with some of the russian players over here right oh yeah and uh your dad had him

downstairs sneaking beers because they couldn't drink ice cream with the enemy coach no so i met uh larry on off in 84 in calgary and i took him out for dinner and snuck him out for dinner and so i knew he spoke english so he said to me in 87 during the uh warm-up tournament exhibition games he said wayne can we go have dinner and i said listen bring whoever you want my parents live 20 minutes from here let's go to my house and he said really and i said yeah and he goes okay this big five kasitonov, Larionov, Krutov, Makarov, and... Petisov. Petisov. But Tikhonov has to come, and two KGB guys.

I said, no problem. So I come to my house, right? And my mom did a barbecue in the backyard, steaks and corn and baked potato. And my basement was downstairs. And I had this old friend, Charlie Henry, who was a family friend forever. He was the first coach to ever take a minor league hockey team to Russia. 1973, I think it was.

And I said, Charlie, you stand at the top of the stairs here. Don't let the KGB down. And I took the guys down there and I had beers down there for them, and they all had a beer. They had one beer each. They were so happy and so thrilled and so thankful. Because they were so strict where they wouldn't have let them drink otherwise? They couldn't have a beer.

So they came down to my basement, and they had a beer. We all had one beer and i showed them all my trophies and memorabilia and everything and they all spoke pretty good english kasitonov didn't speak great english makarov didn't speak great english but fedosov and larionov speak spoke for all of them we had one beer sat down there they loved it we went upstairs it was unreal i mean that's i mean that's rare for like the i mean like back in those days it was uh cold war yeah it was cold war do you think that if if that would have became public knowledge at the time there would have been backlash towards like hanging out with the enemy before the

tournament not from us but for them okay yeah not us, but for them it would have been not cool. And what was it like at that time, like, experiencing playing against, especially, like, Russia? Because, like, I think from an international perspective. So those guys all wanted to play in the NHL, right? So they're, like, they wanted to know about us. They're good kids. They're nice people.

They want to play in the NHL, right? So it had nothing to do with our, they loved our country and our people. It was right, what was it, 89 the wall came down? Yeah. So it was right before the wall came down. So they were thinking, like, we want to play in the NHL. That's what they were thinking, right? They were great kids.

They were so nice. Did you have Canadian teammates at the barbecue as well, or was it just you? No, it was just me. It was me and my mom and dad and my wife, at that time my girlfriend, and Charlie Henry, my friend. Not a lot of people uh talk uh was joking around he said that keenan had this like um nutritionist on board with the team oh yeah i can tell you all about that oh go ahead i didn't agree with what the nutritionist was saying no no

no the first so our first pre-game meal was in, right? And at that time, it was switching over to pasta and chicken and all this. And so I walked into the first pregame meal, and I said to the gal, I said, where's the baked potato and steak? And she said, Mr. Keeney said, no baked potato or steak. And I said, well, I don't play without baked potato and steak. I said, I've done this my whole life. My dad taught me this when I was seven. You have a baked potato and steak.

And she goes, Mr. Gretzky, we'll get baked potato and steak. And I go, and we need vanilla ice cream for when I'm done. These are still the pregame meals. It's like the Wayne Gretzky NHL pregame meal. And I'm like, no, no, no. I don't play without baked potato, steak. That's why my whole career I had baked potato, steak, corn, chicken noodle soup, salad, and vanilla ice cream.

I ate it every day at 1230. I said, my dad taught me that when I was seven years old. I said, tell Mr. Keenan, does he want me to play tonight or not? Yeah, that's what the talk said. Within 20 minutes, there was 30 sizzling steaks right on the table with the baked potatoes. Because he had salmon and chicken. I think we're going to need that guy in the lineup.

Let's get the New York Strips out here, please. And you know what? Mike is unreal. Mike didn't care. Mike was like, okay, that's what you need. That's what you want. That's fine by me. He was fine with it.

Yeah, none of this sweet potato. Another international tournament, the 96 World Cup of Hockey. We have memories of that. Obviously, he came out the wrong end. But what level, I guess, compared to 87? Was that probably just a notch below as far as the caliber of play? No, it was unreal hockey. The Americans were unbelievable.

They played. Richter was incredible. The Leachie was good. They, you know, Hulley, they were a better team than we were. We won the first game. I think we won the first game, right? And, you know, we just, we weren't as good as them. They deserved everything, and they deserved it.

They were a better team than we were when it came, push come to shove. Brett Hull played unreal. Tichouk was good. Richter was good. Leach was good. Chelly, they were a better team than we were. We just weren't as good as they were. They deserved to win.

Probably pivotal. So, I mean, Americans and Canadians, you think Americans pretty much caught up to Canada as far as the Calgary? One hundred percent. There's no question. Hockey has grown so much in the U.S., and there's so many good kids in the U.S. now. You look at Austin Matthews,

and we're talking about thinking about the Olympics. You pick three American goalies, how good all those goalies are now. Well, I had to ask you the pressure you must have felt in o2 when you were running team canada you weren't playing it must have been even worse with no control it was horrible it was the worst feeling in my life and then i would tell you this i got so lucky pat quinn was an unreal coach i got really lucky i had eiserman, and Sackick that were running the team. And I remember thinking one day when we were

struggling and we beat Germany, I think 3-2, and I was driving back from, we had to play in this little town, every team had to play in this little town one game, driving back thinking, oh my God, we just only beat Germany 3-2, this is not good. And then we tied the checks the next game 3-3, and I thinking, oh my God, we just only beat Germany 3-2. This is not good. And then we tied the Czechs the next game 3-3.

And I said, Theo Fleury got cross-checked in the back by Roman Hamerlick, I think his name was. And it kind of resonated our team and brought our team together. And then we got lucky. Sweden got beat out. Yeah. That was like godsend for us because we didn't for some reason match up great against sweden but when sweden got knocked out that was a big thing for us and then we kind

of marched our way into the final and we were a great matchup for the u.s because we had such big forwards with shanahan uh aginla lindros our team was big, right? They had Leachie, Chelly. We just matched up good against them. And Marty Bruder played out of his mind. To me, he was one of the greatest goalies who ever lived. And when we went up 4-2 and then Sakic made it 5-2, I remember thinking, this is the greatest day of my life. I'm like, it was so overwhelming

because, you know, we hadn't won a gold medal since 1952. People don't realize that. The thing is Canada's game, right? We hadn't won a gold medal since 52. That's a long time. We flew a lot of the guys from the Edmonton Mercury team who won the gold medal down to that game who were still alive which was really cool and i remember i'll never forget somebody said you know 30 million people in canada watched the gold medal game out of 37 million people and my dad said what were those other seven million people doing i said dad somebody's got to work. How do you think the power stays on? It was pretty amazing, right? That'd be like 290 million out of 320 million people watching the Super Bowl.

Crazy. Pretty amazing. So it was one of the greatest days of my life. I had nothing to do with it other than I was part of it. I remember I went in the locker room, and Steve Eisenman was getting worked on his knee, and the trainer was working on his knee, and I would always go down to the locker room before the game just to wish the guys good luck.

I didn't want to bug the coaches or the players, and I'd just say, hey, good luck. And Stevie, while I was on the table, and the trainer comes running out after me, and he goes, Wayne, Wayne. I go, what? He goes, I just want you to know, if this was game seven of stanley cup final i wouldn't let steve eisenberg players knees so bad i said well thank god it's only a gold medal game you gotta go i think you got a goal to assist

and then he missed the next six weeks he had surgery that's canada right yeah this shows you the guy played on one leg and played unreal and then I was at the cup final that year and he was same thing his knee was a mess against Carolina and they won it they got he got the double that year he's unreal that play um in that game remember Mario's legs remember he let it go through his legs I don't know that's one of the most iconic goals. No, no, no. Even I was like, okay, he's pretty good. No, no. When I saw that play, I couldn't have done that. I thought it was a pretty good player.

There's no way I could have done that. Mario was so special. You know, I saw Mario play at 16. I said, if that kid stays healthy, he's going to break all my records. He's that good. And obviously that was like, I mean, going back to Nagano, that whole ordeal.

I don't want to end on a bad note, but obviously not getting. Let's not talk about it then. Okay, sure. That's a perfect answer. No, no,

no, no. Here's the thing. I will tell you this about Nagano. The greatest thing I ever went through in my life. I loved every minute of it. Because you know what was cool about it? Everybody thought, because we were the first professional team to go play there, right?

Everybody said, oh, they're egotistical. They won't fit in. We got in the village. Everybody in the village, the skiers, the skaters, the curlers, we all got along. Everybody loved it, right? We did everything right, except we lost in a shootout. There's nothing bad about it. Like it was unreal. And that's why I continued on in my mind. It was so cool. We'd sit around and watch the curlers.

We'd sit in the common room and watch the downhill skiers. All the hockey players. It was like going to a Pee Wee or a Bantam hockey tournament, right? We all fit in. Everybody loved it. There's nothing bad I would say about Nagano other than we didn't win. No, I mean, such a classy answer. Now, did you think you were getting picked to shoot? No, I mean, come on. This is the coal for Christmas.

I will tell you this. I didn't know who was getting picked. I was sitting beside Steve Eisenman on the bench. And I said to Stevie, do you know who's getting picked? He goes, I have no idea. He goes, do you? And I said, I have no idea. None of us knew.

So that's a true story. And I said to Stevie, Joe Sackick hurt his knee. He was sitting in the stands. And I said, Stevie, see that guy up there? And he goes, yeah, Joe Sackick hurt his knee. He was sitting in the stands. And I said, Stevie, see that guy up there? And he goes, yeah, Joe Sackick. He's the only guy I've seen score against Dominic Hasek on a breakaway in the last 10 years. And he's up there. That's a bad sign.

That's a true story. I go, that's not a good sign. Called it. I mean, that's an unbelievable win. Hey a hey listen i don't know who could have scored on dominant he was so good at that time and you know what the sad thing was patrick wall was unreal too yeah like patrick wall like he allowed one goal the other guy didn't allow any like it was this the sad thing about the tournament was we didn't know what happened after regulation. That's what was sad about it.

We didn't know if there was overtime, sudden death overtime, shootout. We didn't know as players. That was the one big—you can say who picked to shoot the shot. who picked to shoot the shot, my grief was, or my complaint was, nobody knew what we were doing after the game ended at 1-1. That was my complaint. None of the players knew, okay, we're playing 20 minutes? Is it 10 minutes, three on three?

Like, we had no idea. So that was unfair to us. That was the only complaint I have. Who they pick for the shootout, hey, it is what it is, right? Wayne, we're extremely grateful for your time. And I said that every year that I work for TNT or we work together, we'll get an hour from you. And I think we're over an hour at this point. We're good for next year too.

Next year we got the Blues, we got the Rangers. We got Blues, retirement. Oh, we haven't even gotten into the Blues. We'll save it for next year. We'll save it for next year too. Next year, we got the Blues, we got the Rangers. We got Blues, retirement. Oh, we haven't even gotten into the Blues. We'll save it for next year. We'll save it for next time. We got a lot of great Blues stories. Any last Christmas story you might have? And we do have a couple gifts for you on the way out.

I know. One of my Christmas stories. Oh, you like your tequila. Okay, thank you. One of my Christmas stories. That I got a Gordie Howe jersey that's the greatest story ever that's all that comes to mind I'm very grateful

what's your favorite Christmas movie gotta ask that one Home Alone 33 years ago yesterday came out that's unbelievable well once again we thank you for your time, Wayne. Thank you, Wayne.

Awesome. Our fans are going to love it. Just send me my 10 grand. It'll be in your stocking on Christmas. Oh, oh, oh. Merry Christmas. All right, before we go any further, here's a few words from our friends over at Game Time.

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Download Game Time today. Last minute tickets, lowest price, guaranteed. Huge thanks to Wayne Gretzky for jumping on us once again. Hopefully you enjoyed that interview as much as we enjoyed doing it. Just a great guy, great storyteller, and hopefully got one more in the bank for you a little later down the line. But, boys, season's out, about a third along. It's Christmas time.

You know, you're going to get coal in your stock, and you might get a little money in your stock. So we have a little segment called Coal or Coin. Which team wit is going to get coal in your stock and you might get a little money in your stock. And so we'll segment called coal or coin. Which team wit is going to get coal in their stock and in which player is going to get coal in their stock? Oh, I hate to do this to the the faithful Senators fans up north. But last place in the Eastern Conference right now. Are you serious? I mean, with a year full of absolute madness,

DJ Smith's gone, Jacques Martin comes in, they blow a lead in Colorado, they still look bad. It's just been a disaster. I think Brady Kachuk mentioned he's never, he's as miserable as he's ever been. That's a leader. He called himself out. He said, I have to be better.

Our team has to be better. But with the expectations going into this year and what people thought the Senators were going to be able to do, they still cannot play defense. They just give up way too many chances. And it's one of those things where you bring in a new coach, but you just cannot change immediately how a team plays and the patterns that guys get stuck in and turnovers at the wrong part of the arena and coming in and giving up odd man rushes immediately into a game and just not being ready to play. And with all these Senators fans out there, and Sabres, don't let the Sabres squeak by,

but the Senators fans are expecting so much this season and to be sitting on Christmas Day and have them in last place. Now, granted, they have games in hand, but 22 points in 28 games played this year. It's been an absolute disaster in Ottawa. There has so much, so much to be left to be fixed there. I don't understand it, but right now they're getting called, no doubt, from me.

Biz? For me, I'd probably say Buffalo. Fourth worst in the league right now as far as giving up goals and i know that uh you know with the goaltending situation coming of the year maybe too much expectation on devin levi but uh uko peke lekin oh fuck help me out here uko peke lekin lekin um but it's the fucking team defense i went and watched the other night against the coyotes they fucking suck there's too many holes uh they don't really have a team identity uh you could blame some injuries i mean the quinn injury coming in they've had other guys in their lineup tage

thompson missed time but i think that for two teams that had the higher expectations of maybe being bubble teams and and and finally maybe getting over that hump and for buffalo uh getting ring getting rid of the longest playoff drought in all of professional sports, it's not looking good. And you talk about how quickly there's coaches turnover. I mean, here's one for you. Sheldon Keefe is the longest tenured Canadian coach right now. Isn't that fucking crazy?

How about this one? Martin St. Louis is the 10th most tenured coach in the nhl right now just bizarro lands bizarro lands so i don't know how much longer granado is going to be involved in the mix if this team keeps playing the way they've been playing i think that you give them till the end of the year to see what else can change but uh they have been a major disappointment i think that fans are uh a little uh disappointed at the lack of uh maybe uh sandpaper and character and veteran presence that they brought in uh outside of those top end skill guys so uh we'll see what happens here still a lot of runway left but i'm

giving them coal and as far as uh anything other than that the new jersey devils need some love on the negativity side because they've been fucking brutal and inconsistent uh we don't need to go into why same kind of issue the goaltending seems to be a big problem and you know they just really can't play team defense either but i would probably lean towards the the carolina hurricanes goaltending would deserve coal in their stocking it has been an absolute nightmare Rod the broad's probably pulling out the the little hair that he has left and uh just a a muck scene going on in Carolina right now they are starting to trend a little bit in the right direction but that to me has been the biggest disappointment where I think with everything that they had coming in their d squad on paper looked even better than they did last year probably the the most highly touted

defensive squad in the eastern conference and to be where they're at right now not good enough i i gotta also just shout out edmonton all they had to do was beat the friggin sharks that game and i'd still be being able to be wearing the blue and orange face paint and and being that guy but they lost to the sharks when the sharks were as down as you could be. So they've had a turnaround, and they look good, but they're still looking up onto the playoffs. So it's been an upset. I mean, if you told all Oilers fans where they'd be at,

no matter the run they've just been on, at Christmastime to be sitting way outside the playoffs, that's a tough goal right there. Although things are looking very different than when I stopped. R.A., who are you giving Cole to? For a team, I'm going to go to Seattle. I think after the expectations they raised last year, I mean, you know, a hell of a run out of nowhere.

And then they've just kind of been, no pun intended for a water team, but just been floundering basically this whole season. They haven't been consistent. I know, what's his place, has been hurt. Blanking on. Burakovsky's been hurt. Schmaltz has been hurt. Or Schwartz.

They're out of Schwartz. They just don't look like that confident team that we saw a ton of last year. And for a player, you kind of just stole my thunder a little bit there. I was going to say the New Jersey collectively, their goaltending, I mean, the same percentage and the goals against, it's just brutal. It's like 8-8-3 or something for a team. You shouldn the same percentage in the, what do you call it, goals against. It's just brutal.

It's like 8-8-3 or something for a team. You shouldn't even get in the playoffs if that's your same percentage for a team. So, yeah, Jersey goalies getting some coal. Seattle as a team getting coal. Biz, who's got to get the biggest present under the tree for a player and a team? Player, I got to go with McKinnon, my heart pick. I think that he's been an absolute bulldog. For team, I said it earlier in the podcast i i like to snap the presence around i'm in the giving mood the vancouver canucks deserve it to be at the top of the pacific division of of how good i mean we're talking about a division that has the kings in it the fucking

oilers and the the vegas golden Knights and for them to be leading that division at this point in the season I don't think anybody had that on their radar and they've been continuing to win and you know who deserves the most presence on that team is these role players the bottom six Dakota Joshua he's been incredible I didn't even realize that he's an unrestricted free agent after this year so he's going to get a pretty little payday. Hoglander, who he has been playing up in the top six more as of recently, he's in double digits in goals. Mikheyev, who's now was playing the last couple games on the top line,

who's a fucking puck hound. All those guys who maybe you didn't expect outside of their top end dudes have been lights out for that squad. And it's been impressive to watch. And of course, a guy who the Leafs had, Lafferty, who's a fucking bulldog out there. So between those four guys and the contributions that they've brought,

I think collectively they're close. I think they have like 35 goals between the four of them. Like that is remarkable production from guys that you maybe didn't have that expectation. And then the Jets. The Jets deserve a ton of gifts as well as tortorella and everybody we basically covered in the first half of the podcast give them whatever they want fill up their fucking stocking stuffers give them the lego sets give them a yoli stocking stuffer

because they all fucking deserve it what uh two teams i'm kind of battling between picking here. I think I got to go the Bruins, though. It's like for what everyone said to lose Bergeron, to lose Crecce, to have to come back from this horrific, numbing loss in the first round to the Panthers after breaking the all time record of the best team in the history of the regular season. And then this year to just show up and play as well as they have. Amazing goaltending, awesome defense, Marshawn Imposta, world-class players. Nobody expected this. There's nobody out there who could have thought they'd be sitting in first place in their division. So shout out to them. And then the other team that was... It's Arizona. I mean, fuck, dude. Same with Philly. Everyone kind of thought it was going to be another year in the desert. No clue where they're going to be another year in the desert. No clue where they're going to play next year. So many questions marks around the entire organization, all the players, and they've played phenomenal.

They're sitting in the playoffs right now. They got the second wildcard spot. Clayton Keller is an elite level player. He can skate like the wind. His vision's incredible. They have contributions from everyone. I mean, Karkoni, the Cy Young winner, 14 goals, I think four assists. So it's just a team that's fun to watch.

They're great at home. We've chirped them playing in a college rink for a long time, but it's become a big-time advantage for them. And I think everyone looking at them has no chance at making the playoffs. And them sitting in it around Christmas, they deserve some coin in that stocking. And a player, I just got to go with Quinn Hughes. I love watching Vancouver play. I think they're really fun.

They score a lot, and he just controls the play like no other. It's him and Makar's race for the Norris. I think he's ahead of them right now. And the way he skates, sees the ice, just playing so many minutes. He's one of the most fun defensemen in the league to watch. So he's my guy for a special Christmas present this year. I think Pablo deserves a little love too. 26 tucks right now. People thought I was crazy

for saying that he's going to potentially pass the all-time goal record. I don't think it's that crazy of a take. No. No, they think you're crazy anyways, Paul, but I don't know how much that has to do with it. All right. Big present. I've got two guys, Charlie Lindgren and Connor Ingram. We've talked about Lindgren a lot lately.

Just sort of come out of nowhere. Basically kept the Capitals afloat. And with Connor Ingram's down in the desert, same thing. Basically had a huge impact on Arizona. They're a team, man. All the stockpiled draft picks they have in, talent, man. Hopefully they do get a new arena because they are going to be fucking nasty in a couple of years.

And that's my team, Nashville, theville the predators i think they deserve a big present uh obviously saros my guy there but they could they were terrible i mean they were like the last place a couple weeks into the season they just been playing their asses off so yeah they're worthy of a couple snaps so all right guys before we go any further if you like using debit over credit i just learned about something that's definitely a game changer discover cash back debit it's a checking account that rewards everyone with cash back on everyday purchases which means you can get cash back on hockey ticks or head to toe hockey gear to make this season a total win check out eligibility and terms at discover.com slash cash back debit discover bank member fdic now back to the show uh all right boys uh world cup world

juniors g we gotta go to our world juniors guys the best the best experience you can have as a young player is playing World Juniors. I think there's so much excitement. I look back to the – I was lucky enough to play in two of them, Czech Republic and Halifax. Halifax, one of my top memories ever, just playing Canada and the chance to go to the gold medal game. Jeff Wawicka came down the slot and buried the winner.

Wawicka, excuse me. Jeff Wawicka came down the slot and buried the winner. Wawicka, excuse me. I should have said his name correctly, but scored a huge goal against us. And just looking back, and it's pretty cool. You're leaving your team, and you just hope that the team can play well while you're not gone.

I mean, Boston College, G mentioned, they got seven guys on Team USA, and you just kind of hope that guys can get it going. But it's so exciting to meet up with a lot of guys you've met before and played with before internationally, under 18s or whatever. And then you get this chance to spend the holidays together. You're with the best players in the world all around the same age group, and you have a chance to win a medal for your country. So I think anyone who's ever had the chance to play and guys who are younger now and have grown up watching it, they just dream of representing their country right around Christmas time. All eyes are on you.

So I'm excited for this year's tourney, no doubt. And I feel like Gothenburg's a great spot to have it. One of the most beautiful cities in the world. And I expect the crowds to be pretty crazy, at least for the Swedish games. We'll actually have Merle's boots on the ground in Gothenburg throughout this winter. I mean, throughout the World Juniors. So that'll be awesome. But U.S. is the favorite at plus 175. So I think it's their tournament to lose. Eight players returning from last year, 10 players who have been drafted in the first round. I think eight of their top nine guys in their forward group are first round picks. I look at the freshman line from BC who's been lighting it up this year. Ryan Leonard, Gabe Perrault, Will Smith. I still don't know how Gabe Perrault fell so far as far as he did in the draft to the Rangers.

Steal of the draft last year. But Cutter Gauthier, I've seen a few BC games this year. I think you've seen him play a few times as well. He is a man amongst boys. He looks like Nathan McKinnon almost playing at college. He could jump into the NHL. Kind of like Metavish looked just a built like a brick

shithouse. Exactly. He just looks like he's a step above of all these guys playing just from a skill level to a shot is incredible, but I'm going to throw some names out there of some guys. I want you guys to keep an eye on first Maverick Lamoureux biz. You should know him Arizona draft pick last year.

First rounder. He's six, seven without skates like that kid. Emeril, uh, biz, you should know him. Arizona draft pick, uh, last year, first rounder. Uh, he's six, seven without skates. Like that kid. I watched the game right before we started recording USA versus Canada exhibition game. This kid looks like Zidane O'Chara out there. He's just so, he's so raw. He's so skinny. He has a lot to develop, but I think he's going to be a promising prospect. Uh, another guy, Axel Sandin Palika, Detroit's first round pick from 2023 from Sweden. Now this kid's 18 years old playing in Sweden's top league. He has nine goals, 13 points in 25 games as a defenseman. This kid's an absolute stud. He's been compared to Nick Lindstrom,

Victor Hedman. So I'm keeping an eye on this kid. Matt Poitras from the Bruins. I think he'll be Canada's best player. The Bruins loaned him to Team Canada recently. I think he's going to be playing with Savoy from Buffalo. So I'm keeping an eye on him. Liam Ogren plays for Sweden. Minnesota's the Minnesota Wilds first round pick in 2022. And then lastly hudson went how good is this guy i mean in the beat in the usa versus canada game he had that 100 foot pass was just threading the needle uh bu kid montreal's defenseman yeah he's just montreal's second round draft pick yeah just dipping and dodging like bob yor dude he has head fakes that are out of this world, Biz. Like, he's last guy back on the blue line, and his head and his eyes are going one way.

Spinaramas, ridiculous stick handling. Like, the skill level he has, I think he has a good chance of being the best defenseman in the tournament. But, I mean, they have Seamus Casey, too, on D for Team USA, who's lighting it up in college. But Lane Hudson is just... Was he named Captain G? No, Rucker McGorry was named Captain. Oh,

Winnipeg's first rounder. Yeah, he's a stud too at Michigan. And he was hurt and he just got cleared to play. So he's captain and then Gautier and Hudson are the assistants. He was the kid who came up to us at the draft in the... Oh, you weren't with us. It was me and Merles. He came up and he was there for Fantilli,

all his buddies, and Brindley, who's Columbus' second round rounder who's on Team USA. Hell of a player as well. He was a beauty, dude. This kid was hilarious. We ended up having some drinks that night. So I'm very excited to watch Team USA. They have a wagon. I think this is probably on paper one of the best teams they've ever had, their favorites. And it'd be awesome to see them get it done. I know there's a question mark in goal. Will it be Fowler from BC or Augustine from Michigan State? Both of them studs, so we'll see who ends up getting the job for them. Canada, it's kind of going to be the Celebrini show, I think. I've got to witness this kid, and I've kind of talked about it, but turned 17 in June, and he has been lighting up college. Definitely a Hobie Baker favorite. He's going to be the best player on Canada.

I kind of disagree a little bit in terms of G. Sam Portra. I know he's older and he's played in the NHL, but this kid is that good. He'll be the first overall pick in the NHL draft. He's so young, he's still got the full cage on at World Juniors, but it's just going to be an awesome tournament. I love the December 26th. I know Boxing Day in Canada, the games get going. Usually, back in the day, there was always the USA-Canada.

Oh, it's the worst. No US-Canada game's the worst. New Year's Eve game, but they're not in the same divisions. They haven't been in the same brackets for a little bit. So let's hope they meet up maybe for the gold medal, at least in the semifinals. But it's just awesome to see how many young stars are on the ice at the same time. And it's one of those things. You look back five years later, and you're just like, holy shit, there was that many star NHL players playing in one tournament together, all playing for their nation's pride.

And it's going to be an awesome tournament to watch. So personally, it sucks without Russia being in it. I guess I understand why, but they just always add that. Cheaters. They add those crazy storylines in terms of all these stud prospects. Will they form as a team if they end up winning? There's madness. You remember the celebrations of the Russian teams

who couldn't even get on the flights home? I think they won when Yakupov was on the team. They were smoking cigs in the front of the plane. They got booted off. So it's going to be a great tourney. I think all the games are on NHL Network here in the States, TSN in Canada. You get some great broadcasters,

and you see some future NHL stars. So I think it's also cool for fans of teams. You don't know much about your first, second, third-round picks, and then they get in this, and you get to watch them in the biggest games they've ever played in. You see what they're like under pressure. I mean, how many times were Oilers fans excited and reminded of what they had in Jordan Eberle and his heroics for Canada and tying it up late against USA or Russia? I think it was in Ottawa that year and doing it again in Saskatoon.

doing it again in Saskatoon. So there's all these different storylines every year, and you get to see guys whose dreams are to be NHL studs get a chance to do it against the best in the world. So I can't wait. Celebrini dodged a bit of a bullet there, not getting sussied. I know. Although I feel like everybody seems to be catching on and the guy's turning late.

Maybe in the past, especially double IHF, they would have gave him a PPWAC one or two games, but you can't be sitting the star of the tournament because of a turn hit. It did look bad, though. I thought he'd get a game, but maybe, as you mentioned, Biz, they

figured, all right, we need this guy. We need the fans in the building to see Celebrini play. Yeah, I can't wait. That's up tomorrow, Wednesday. We want to send our best wishes to blues legend Kelly Chase. He disclosed on Twitter last week that he's been diagnosed with leukemia, and we know Kelly Chase never backed down from a fight.

He's not going to with this one, so Chase, wishing you the best, pal. Go knock that shit out. And also, to our listeners, the best listeners on the planet, Merry Christmas, Happy New Year, whatever else you celebrate, happy that. We love you guys and gals. Wouldn't be where we are without you.

And it's another year down, and we're happy where we are. We want to keep on chugging along. Boys, any final thoughts or words for our wonderful listeners? Yeah, the last time we'll be coming to you guys is after the Winter Classic. So it's nice that we're going to give our crew, after this podcast is released, a little bit of time off to spend with family and friends. They deserve it. We hope you guys get to enjoy the same.

And we hope you guys enjoy this surprise on Christmas Day. Biz, anything special planned for Mexico, buddy? Or are you just going to relax? Just taking those rays? I'll be playing golf three times. Yes, dude. Yeah, yeah. I need it.

I need it. So we get this fun little match there where we uh it ends up whoever the loser ends up paying for dinner it's a best of three and i play with jackie the alien my gal pal her husband and then we go against uh mr carl's where i'm staying they have a beautiful place on the san jose side on the water it's got to be worth 15 15 sheets and um i get the bunk up there and they got fucking awesome food, awesome restaurants. You're not on the side where everybody's trying to sell you cocaine every five minutes. You're on the very chill side.

That's R.A.'s side? Yeah, that's where R.A.'s doing all of his mixing and shaking. But it's going to be a good time, buddy. I'm looking forward to dialing completely out. And that's it. That's all I got. Love you guys. One thing real quick. Our next podcast is going to come out uh january 3rd on wednesday uh that'll be because of travel

situations with us leaving the winter classic from seattle so january 3rd will be our next podcast after this and we'll see you at winter classic if you're going to the event what's the bar again ra the press box baby we'll see you there. 1518 First F South, Suite 100. That's where I used to do all my damage. The Press Box. Love you guys. Go USA. Merry Christmas. I like to poke 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 She hit me with a cheap shot, a cheap shot I said she needs a detox to cleanse her mind Another week rolls in, we're on the road again Thought I was safe and sound in my minivan Thank you. Have a free one on the chain She went below the bell 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

We've been so on time Yeah