Spittin Chiclets - Spittin’ Chiclets Episode 481: Featuring Michael Bunting

Episode Date: January 31, 2024

On Episode 481 of Spittin’ Chiclets, the guys are joined by Michael Bunting (01:05:10), to talk about his hockey career, his time in Toronto, and what it’s like playing for Carolina now. But first the boys are in Toronto for All Star Weekend and talk about everything that’s going on around the league. Not to mention we’re recording in “Gretzky’s Basement” a pop up shop dedicated to Wayne’s childhood home filled with some amazing memorabilia. Wayne’s youngest son, Tristan Gretzky joins the pod (02:29:23) to talk about the shop and everything it has to offer. Lastly, the boys share a major announcement for Spittin’ Chiclets, the guys will be live on TV February 14th watching and commentating the Penguins/Panthers game!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, she's your love. They say a drunken speech is just so the thought. I like to poke a 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 Hello everybody and welcome to episode 481 of Spittin' Chick That's presented by Pig Whitney from our friends at New Amsterdam

Here in the Barstool Sports Podcast family Family, we're here all these eight years down. We're in Toronto. The whole crew, we're at Gretzky's basement right now. I'm off the wall business. I've been so fired up for this fucking trip. I don't think I've ever heard that note on a hello everybody. I thought he was having a stroke. Well, that's later in the show and I'm trying to do math. But boys, we're finally in Toronto.

We've never had a group trip here. Awesome so far. Got a huge week planned, but let's check in with the fellas as we do. The man who comes over from Sweden every time he does this stuff, Matt Murrow's the Merman. What's going on? This is a big shift, too. You're here for what, three weeks?

Three weeks, full-time chicklets. Chicklets for 24 hours a day for three weeks straight. The reason I had to leave Sweden, I was just too hot with my picks. The game notes has been on fire. The country of Sweden said, get the hell out of here. So I'm here in Toronto talking game notes. There will be no game notes this week on Thursday because obviously there's no NHL

games. What's things you're going to do? So that's what I got. We're going to drop a little something for the game notes fans at Chicklets University, Penn State on Thursday and game notes. Where can you find that on the Chicklets YouTube channel? How many got there?

327, I think. 327 maybe now. Holy shit. We've been pushing hard on that. We're coming on up. That's it from me. I'm here. I'm excited. Canada.

And I haven't had a poutine yet, and I'm looking. Hey, from the Chicklets guys, a couple clicks for game notes. Hell of a first half of the season. Game notes is buzzing. You guys came stepping out of the high gate. And I want to go back to your last game notes there's a couple things one i want to talk about that you said but merles what's this with like lou lamorello starting a cult there was all these things that you were listing off that you

said that the employees have to do i didn't hear the whole clip but it sounded like basey lou started a cult on long island yeah when i first said, I didn't expect anything to come from it. Just, I thought everybody kind of knew that it goes on. It's from an ex employee. Okay. And it's funny. It's funny as I've had a ton of DMS from Bridgeport people from Toronto

people. Oh, I can agree. They're all right. This is the same thing, blah, blah, blah.

But, uh, and I've actually had a couple friends of mine who were New Jersey employees are like, Oh, everybody thinks I was the tip everybody thinks i they were not the tip the friends were not a tip is all i'll say it was a very reliable source insider was it the same person who let you know about the the potential hiring of patty wall is his biggest fumble of all time no no it wasn't It wasn't the Patrick Waugh tipster. This was very close to the family tipster.

So this was one thing. This was one topic that I was scratching my head about is you were in the group chat and you were so disgruntled that you didn't break it. Why wouldn't you just have tweeted out that you're getting a rumor boy? He wanted us to give him like the, yeah, do it. But in the end. I didn't say that. I go tweet it and say. No, you didn't you said that afterward you said it after it broke you said it after it broke his response i read

or his original text i read and i was like i don't know what to do i'm just not saying anything you ended up saying it okay fair enough so he was looking for one of us to just be like dude we're idiots just send it rumor boys we have a rule here like even the chicken stuff that got completely swatted down like i was going full hardcore right at the chicken eye of the storm you can't be like merles also one of the biggest things that he did this year too yeah you missed on the patty wong thing but the petterson well that was part of why i didn't do it i'm like i can't have two shit storms coming at me i'm skating over he these cool bands like this. Okay, be honest about that. That was your first experience being on this side of it

where you've really riled up a fan base to the point where I'm sure you got DM threats. Yeah. Was it a little unsettling? Were you nervous for a couple days? Was your anxiety higher? And is that probably why you didn't pull the trigger on it? Yeah, 100% why I didn't pull the trigger on it.

It was part of it. And it was witching hour at home. It was seven o'clock. We're trying to get the kids to bed. I had a huge pick on the avalanche. They were playing the flyers. So I had the flyers fans. I was fighting them off on Twitter at the same time because they were going nuts.

They were dummy in the flyers and it was witching hour. I put it in a group chat waiting for one of you guys to just like push me over the top. By the time I did everything, it came back, it was announced, and Lou kept it to himself. Nobody had it. Nobody had it except me. Were the Islanders the one that broke it?

Yeah, they just announced it on their website. I know where. That was the biggest tip of chickleting history. That would have brought credibility to my Pedersen, and it would have been like, get off my back. And as a pod, we then could have said, we basically got a coach fired and hired.

We do it all. We'll file your taxes. We do it all here. Turbo spit and chicklets. We get it done, baby. Next up, his pod, not Colby Armstrong. Great to see you, my friend. You've been working your balls off lately. He knows this town already. This guy knows everything here. Buddy, I dominate here in Toronto. As a player.

They bought me out. They had to get me out of here. That was unbelievable. I get ticks when I come back to Toronto. As a matter of fact, it went so well for me here. But the thing I'm super happy about is having you guys here for this All-Star game. Because I come up here for Rogers Sportsnet, one of my eight jobs that I do.

And I introduced the boys today to the underground tunnels around town. I know those are big in New York City. It's different here where it's the path. And so I had the boys down in the path. You don't actually have to wear a jacket. You can just wheel around town. So I don't think a lot of Americans know about Edmont edmonton has it for sure i didn't know toronto toronto is above ground no no winnipeg's above ground toronto's no montreal's underground winnipeg's

does have parts of it that is kind of underground yeah kind of like it's it's weird you're up and i will i will say the one in winnipeg is like not that nice you know any of them you just don't want to freeze the ones in toronto are stunning they're sick yeah like unbelievable shopping down there you never have to breathe human air it's another world like when you go down there you're just loving life yeah like it's like a whole nother world but welcome to canada boys welcome to toronto i was here the other night i worked the uh the uh sends preds game wild back and forth affair um for rogers so yeah we're gonna have a great week where i can't believe we're at gretzky's basement this whole thing this is also lucky and yeah game notes game notes is buzzing merles is just fucking drumming up rumors we got everything

going right now and and partnership with you guys underneath you guys the mothership and we're just having a blast we built up a really fun cool community and with my other job with the penguins boys i get to travel around going to road games so i see people in all these different cities and like they're just loving it they're loving it so that's been the cool thing for me is you think you're in this little bubble living my life i got four kids like my wife whatever i go on the road and everyone's like game notes chit glitz what the fuck you're like i'm leaving my family i'm just gonna go on the road i know that i unpacked john madden i unpacked singzy out of my uh suitcase and away we go we're just buzzing the golf club's case hey so you get at least stretch the legs you're

gonna finish our intros. The Whit Dog, Ryan Whitney. We shared a flight up today. What's going on, big guy? Not much. I believe this is my first time back in the country of Canada since the Edmonton Oilers debacle going home after the Western Conference Final against Colorado. So it's been quite a while since I was here. Love this city, though.

It's unreal. I think that it's going to be a great week based on the interviews we have lined up, what's going on here. It's an action-packed city, right? There's always something going on. So it's a great spot to be. I love that we're recording in this Gretzky's Basement pop-up. So I'm looking forward to everything, man. I mean, all of a sudden, I got a new job today, too. I got a new radio show, I guess, once a week with Portnoy and Minahan. Yeah, what happened? So that'll probably last about three weeks before someone kills one another.

But I don't really know. I got a call from Minahan. He said, say yes, say yes, say yes. I said, yes to what? I checked my phone. Portnoy said, we got to do this show. So all of a sudden, I'm in 42 shows. 42 weeks we'll be doing that.

So, I mean, Minahan, I mean, he's insane. Like, and not like, like oh that guy's insane No he was in a mental institution He's a nut and then Portnoy's fucked Who knows what the hell he's going to come up with So I'm looking forward to that that's going to be Mondays then we'll record after as we usually do Are you responsible for bringing

No topics? No Minahan's the host right? Yeah I I haven't I am not bringing any topics I'm not a topic guy as you know I'm not really a Topic guy for the show. He's right? Yeah. I am not bringing any topics. I'm not a topic guy, as you know. I'm not really a topic guy for the show. I just kind of go. You don't even tell me. I'll just go.

But I can't think of stuff to talk about. That's going to be probably a fault of mine. He's a riff man. He goes off riffs, man. He's a full-blown raff. It'll last three weeks. It'll be a beautiful... Is that the under-over-mer?

Dave's tweet said, he goes, it'll go 40 weeks or until somebody quits the company my brother colin said it might end up it'll be like uh the biggest radio show since howard stern or it'll just absolutely fall apart the first one i have no idea what'll happen but it's fun it's fun to get involved in something else so but it's all about chiclets this week it's all about toronto it's all about the all-Star game. And I'm really looking forward to the skills competition. I said this from the go. Biz was going against me.

He's now flipped over to my side. A million bucks these guys are going for it. All I want is JT Miller to win just so I can be in Posh's stupid face. That won't change his mind. That won't change his mind. Kevin Hayes texted me. He said, when is Posh going to walk this statement back? I said,

he won't. He's so stubborn. So if he could win a million bucks right in his eyeball, that would be a great way to send off Friday night or Saturday night.

We're looking at a lot of tweets right now for asking for a Pasha ban. A Pasha ban. Yeah, they want a ban. I mean, if they're Vancouver fans,

they'll be wanting more than that. They want to go under the dirt. JT, oh yeah. Witt here. I mean, if they're Vancouver fans, they'll be wanting more than that. They want it under the dirt. JT. Oh, yeah. Wit here. And it's time for some Pink Whitney talk. Yup.

It's that time of the week. My favorite time of the week to chat about New Amsterdam's own Pink Whitney vodka. Head on over to your local bar and make sure to order some Pink Whitney. You know we're in Toronto. We're at King Tap Friday night. We're ready to party. We're going to rip it up. Everyone's going to be doing night. We're ready to party. We're going to rip it up. Everyone's going to be doing it.

We got the shots going. We got the bottles going. Memesie's going to be crushing it. We got the nips going for the All-Star Challenge this weekend. I walked into an LCBO in Toronto. They had Pink Whitney right in the front row. We were able to buy some. The nice bottles right here we got. I like the bigger bottle, the 1.75.

But there's so many different variations of your favorite drink out there. Pink Whitney's where it's at. So if you're in Canada, if you're in the US, if you're listening anywhere in the world that has Pink Whitney available, go check it out. It's a nice smooth drink. I like mixing it with nothing but ice, but you can throw a little soda water in there. You can throw a little Red Bull in there. Whatever you enjoy most with your vodka, it's Pink Whitney Vodka, the number one flavored vodka in the world. And the 1.75

liter bottle. More of Pink Whitney we know and we love. Great for parties and sharing with friends. Take your shot with Pink Whitney and thanks for drinking it. Well, we got a busy week too. We have our live show, our third live show Thursday at the Winter Garden Theater. We are dropping tickets,, our third live show Thursday at the Winter Garden Theater.

We are dropping tickets, releasing a small amount Thursday morning, 10 o'clock. So grab, if you can, at barstoolsports.com slash events. Hope you get your hands on some. Friday, we get the meet and greet at King Taps. Biz, you ever been there? What's the take on it? I've been to King Taps. It's like a bar version of practice club.

What's that? King Tappins. Yeah. It's like a bar version of Cactus Club. What's that? King Tappins? Yeah, for Cocktoberfest at King Tapps on Friday. And a chicken with meat and green. The only women are waitresses. Yeah, exactly. And even they're like, can I get that chipped off? This is a free-for-all.

I got sausage. She has an extra sausage. King Tapps, I even want to say it's owned by Cactus Club as well. But a beautiful bar, awesome location, uh, tons of room. I think you can get probably at least 500 people in there. If not a thousand, it's going to be a blast live show Thursday. And I'm excited for this fucking skills competition to million bucks on the line. And, uh, it's going to be an incredible week. It's going to go by like this. It's going to, we're going to blink and it's going to be

done. Oh, I know what I wanted to say. Oh, I got a few done oh i know what i wanted to say oh i got a few i know what i wanted to say okay how biz eats pizza did you see this did you see this it's not that crazy so it's not it's not that no it's fucking crazy bro he pulled the crust no no that's what people thought when i tweeted we got pizza with yans after the pink whitney night in orlando we were just having a hot stove down the lobby and i looked over and and he he folds from the corner of the triangle into the middle of the crust and then rolls it up so it's not a fold it's like a crust pizza cinnamon bun where people thought i was saying i've never seen somebody do this like crust to crust no problem that's normal as hell end of the triangle to middle of the crust is a caveman move. And he says, like, apparently it's a Canadian thing,

but a lot of Canadians, once I kind of clarified what happened, said, no, no, no, we don't claim that either. So that's like Biz in a nutshell, right? He gets food. He goes nuts. He was starving. And I guess he's standing by that it's a normal way to eat za. So what I do when there's a lot of crust,

I take a bite of the tip of it and then i fold it from the end of it to the crust that way it's kind of like basically a cannoli where yeah the bottom base part at the end of the crust doesn't it's a calzone it's a calzone fair it doesn't spread the full width of the crust. I understand that, but you're getting a better pizza cheese to crust ratio. So that's my explanation. Some people had never seen it done like that. We thought it was the craziest thing. I think it was Yance first. I personally think I'm a genius.

I know what I'm doing with calculating and evaluating cheese to crust ratio. And I'm going to leave it at that. Well, I mean, the nibble off the tip and then the fold in so it fits you don't want you don't want that point part coming out yeah yeah that's like an ocd thing i didn't know you nibbled the tip off so that that makes it

talking about the tip and folding stuff back i got my mind somewhere just the tip game with his wagon and we're in toronto so god knows there you go we're in canada what about pizza pops too sorry to take you off no we're fucking we're talking about this um these uh time massages i've been getting since we're talking about my horn so the picture you sent to that place is i did another three crack house i sent it to you too didn't i yeah there's chin it was stains on the wall i was like are those chin up bars no that's where they that's where they prop up so they don't fall down when they're using their feet to massage you now i didn't know that so in the last six weeks i've gotten a dozen time massage i'm usually doing he's obsessed folks i'm obsessed i'm

not one single time have i asked for a tug i told you guys on the last podcast about how the lady was getting lazy with her hands i had never had maybe potentially at that point one repeat lady still don't think i had a repeat lady this time this three and three i went back two repeats but the one in the middle on saturday was easily the most attractive and the most bizarre experience i had in there not only was she being lazy hand but she pulled this maneuver where you know how they stretch you while they're doing it too no i don't i've never been to a time this is what i mean these ones you're talking about walking on you i've never ever had that so they walk on your posterior chain and they really loosen you up guys shut the fuck

don't make me laugh while i'm trying to get my my and articulate my thoughts you're not off at the time massage i didn't get my nut off so they often like beat up your posterior chain loosen you up and then try and stretch you i'm a very stiff person like i don't breathe properly i don't sleep properly i'm a fucking disaster that's why i've been going all these massages now she finished my posterior chain and then she pulled off this move that no other lady had done. It is ridiculous. She puts, she puts my arm behind my back, but lays it flat.

So my palms facing the ceiling and it's on like, kind of like where my ass is. And she proceeds to straddle her vagina on my palm. Like it was a fucking sibian machine and then she pulled back my shoulder in order to stretch that part of my body but i'm telling you bro i felt her every single like an extra hand of and and i was like i was taken aback man like i could feel her vagina rubbing right on this part of my and then she proceeded to do it with the other side where guys like this is just so like you made her come with your palm and on top of that every time she wanted to talk to me she'd come up right up to my ear and go am i doing it too hard oh my god

every time i felt my penis i would say no i love getting beat up i'm like no harder like i say that i'm like beat me up more legs are you naked i'm completely naked and instead they got this see through sheet i mean you might get you might get like extradited back to scottsdale prison right now this led me back to being maybe robert craft just really liked thai massage and he was a victim of circumstance where it just so happened to be a tug place. She had his cock in her mouth. Oh, that's what happened? Yeah.

Okay. All right. Well, that hasn't happened at this one, but going back to Saturday, easily the most I've been turned on at this thing. And I still didn't ask for a tug, which is very respectable of me. Yeah, because you're giving the tugs. I think that maybe she was sent in by the parlor to send a message. It was like your role as a hockey player. Like, go set the tone in that room.

I don't know. I don't know. You should take her out to dinner. Go get some Thai food. It's not chin-up bars. When they get on you and they're working. So they hold onto the bars so they have grips so they can weasel around. Yeah, they're standing on your back it's not the most does your body feel

better oh every time they do such an incredible job like that's why i go back it's uh and how much does this cost for i've been doing the 20 bucks please no no no i've been doing the two hours and i think with tips two hours wow i started with the 90 minute ones and then now i'm at two hours compared to how much i would hang out with my ex when i was back i'm basically dating these thai ladies at this point i spend more time in arizona with these thai ladies and i deal with my act he's a vagina callous on his palm but on this if this one pulls that same stun if i if i double up on the hot one that rode my hand like a sibian machine i'm gonna i'm gonna ask i'm gonna say listen i don't want one but is this a tug place i need to know i need to know the chick needs to know here's the problem though it's it's it's broken english so maybe she thinks i'm asking for one she's like like that's the thing so it's a risky move but i think the whole thing's risky like i i these

should i do should i do a tie translate and like yeah get the google translate out and then like there's a chance though that like they don't even know what they're doing like i think you can like break your back at places like this. They're walking on you. They could step on your spine. And all of a sudden, you've got a dislocation. These ladies know. They know the perfect tension to apply.

Enough with the Thai stuff. I just felt I would bring that up. And it's getting. Enough with the Thai stuff. Jack talk Thai. The plot pickings. I have nipples, Greg. You won't be a business wedding the

like my junk load do you think it's a set like my heavy sack do you think she's like what do they call it that's what i think you think you're getting entrapped she had actually kind of a green tracksuit on like the one i'm wearing maybe it's it's that tracks it's subliminally it's actually hers oh this guy won the masters it's hers i pulled i pulled the reverse you know how the girls usually steal the sweater from the guy i'm stealing her anyway but all right i know i was long-winded there i don't think that's right oh time massage i did have something from a few weeks ago that i wanted to bring up with wit was the fact that you got to hang out with brooks kepka yes i forgot to bring this up

what i forgot to bring this up so good friend of mine mike shaw um he owns a a bar loco in south boston awesome spot and um they're opening one up in west palm it'll be opening in november so uh his wife did a great job she got uh his closest buddies that he grew up with and myself and a couple others to totally surprise him for his 40th birthday in Florida. And Jans hooked up Saturday. We all went and played the Grove. His wife got us a bus, stacked it with high noons, a big deal brew. And we took the ride up to Jordan's place, the Grove, and we played. It was awesome. Did two foursomes. Then at the end, we did nine holes, eight guys. There's no rules there. It's a phenomenal time. And so we finish and we come in and I see Yans is talking to Brooks Kepkin right away. I was like, oh, shit. I was talking smack. I've talked shit about this guy for about five years now.

The guy's the best golfer of this generation. And I got to like, I can't go up to him and not bring it up right like you gotta like be a man yeah you gotta be a man and um so i met him jens introduced us and i was like yeah you know i've kind of talked a lot of shit about he's like oh i know i love it i absolutely love it he was the man i right now can sit here and say i was wrong he plays a role in terms of just like he's on the course doesn't care if you hate him doesn't care if you love him he's there to win and he was a great dude and he sat there and he talked to us forever he's a just it was one of those things like you can't stand someone watching him on tv and we do it all the time right like you hate certain athletes and then you meet him and you're like, this guy's the man. So I'm now all in on Brooks Koepka. I'm rooting for him in every

tournament. I mean, this guy didn't give a flying fuck. You can tell why he's so goddamn good. He's a confident bastard, good looking cat. And he just flipped everything on me, right? Like if, if, if you're going to meet somebody who's been shit talking you and then all of a sudden they're really nice, right? Or you're really nice to him. Like, what's the person going to meet somebody who's been shit-talking you, and then all of a sudden they're really nice, right? Or you're really nice to them, like, what's the person going to say? So I just had to eat it. I had to just leave and say I was wrong. I was incorrect.

And he's now my guy. He's now my guy. You're dabbing him up every time? Well, I don't even know if he'd remember me at this point. But I'm telling you, the way he – We knew you were churning out. We talked. And his best friend growing up ended up moving to massachusetts

and working for my buddy mike shaw i was talking about so shawzy walked in and kepka's buddy was like shawzy so there was a whole connection right all right but so i think he probably knew that his his good friend is friends with you know one of our guys so it made a little bit easier but but in terms of like a type of guy just the man like he comes off as a cocky prick he probably is cocky but he's got every right to be so i i had to eat it i had to eat it when you're wrong you're wrong he he obviously doesn't follow the show because the last thing he wants is for you to be on his team i know that's the problem he doesn't know that i'm a complete mush but to tie it back into hockey too too, for me, going and playing, like, world championships, when I got to do that, and you know how I played,

and I got to see and meet all these guys. Oh, I know. That you've tried killing. Yeah. They hate me. I kind of hate them. They don't really know me. They've only heard I might be a good guy.

They don't really know. They're all the best. They're all the best guys. All the best. Yep. I fucking love every guy. I know. So, Kepka for the Masters. K guys. All the best. I fucking love every guy. I know. So he still tried to talk.

Kepka for the Masters. Kepka for the Masters. I met Dion Phaneuf at under 18, and I couldn't. You fought him at the Prospects game during your draft year, too. That's right. That's right. Good memory, but the old arm's not. That's a heck of a memory.

That's unreal. That's a. No, but you go. You meet him, and you like him. I'm also convinced, though, that's why rivalries and the fighting was way more brutal back then. Because guys never got traded. And there wasn't much. When you would go to a golf tournament and there was a guy from a different team back then, they wouldn't even sit at the same table.

It was that fucking ruthless. They hate each other. They might break a beer bottle over your head later on in the parking lot, but they ain't fucking shaking your hand. But even with these US kids, because now they're all playing together in that that development program so they're all best friends when they're 15 16 so we didn't have that when we were growing up let alone in the old days either just sparked the memory of of the the under you the u.s program from now on they're not doing the top prospects game the way they used to do it they're doing the top prospects from the United States going against the CHL guys. That's how you do a fuck.

Now you might start seeing some fucking scraps. I got some other rumor boys. I got some other rumor boys info. Whoa, whoa, whoa. This is rumor boys, right? Like, what was the last rumor boys I said? Because I ended up getting it correct. I remember Patrice Bergeron coming back. No, no, no.

No one before that one. Oh, it was the Nylander deal. I got the Nylander deal. That's right. This one, apparently, as soon as 2025, once you're 19 and done in major junior, you'll be able to go play college hockey. So they're canceling all the whoever you're talking about.

So you'll be able to play WHL, Quebec League, OHL, and then go play NCAA hockey. What? All right. Now, this is rumor, boys, with a Z. But apparently... So I think this is smart on both parties. They have to.

Because the early age talent, like the 16, 17, and even in some case 18-year-olds, they're going to end up leaving anyway, right? If they're that good. So you still get the top talent, olds they're going to end up leaving anyway right if they're that good so you still get the top talent yet they're not burning the possibility they play two years junior and say i want to go off and get a better education and in some cases i would say playing less watered down hockey i would say college hockey is better quality because you're playing against older guys than junior yeah junior is watered down, but you're playing more games and you're getting your reps.

You're a pro. If it were to hurt anyone, I think it may hurt the USHL, which has now become probably... I think USHL teams can now compete with the O and the WHL teams. I would say it was getting close, and I agree with you that that's who's going to suffer from this, if that's the case.

But we'll see. That's totally rumor boy stuff, but we'll see where it ends up. Wow. And they'll need these other colleges are going to need better players because these big schools with their NIL deals are taking over. So these smaller schools are going to need some other players to look at to keep it all competitive. Otherwise, there's only going to be six or seven good college teams.

Yeah. It's including the big college football programs. Quinnipiac will have more 26-year-old players. Now they'll have 30-year-olds. Yeah, their average, no, it's actually going to drop a year to 23. But I think that's because the college game, when those

guys come out, like we see, they have all the play, right? They're ready. They're older. No, but they're more developed, yes. They don't play as many games as Warren down, but they have the developed, yes. They don't play as many games as I was worn down, but they have the advantage come negotiations with signing or going back. All that stuff is way bigger. Well, if you're undrafted or you've got to wait four years.

Yes. You've got to play all four years. Yeah, which isn't a big deal. No, no. I mean, in the end, oh, I get a degree, and then I can pick what team I want to sign with. Yeah. So in terms of college, I attended,

it was a tough weekend for the Terriers. Real tough. They got swept by Boston college, two great teams. I'll say this and I'm biased. I sound ridiculous. BU has a better overall team. Now here's the issue.

BC has four incredible forwards. Like they're all going to play a long time in the NHL, okay? They got Perrault, Leonard, and Smith as this freshman line. And this Conor Gauthier, boys. Is he nasty? He's gross. Like, good enough to say, I don't want to play for your fucking. He should be in the NHL right now, which probably goes into why he requested the trade,

because he wants to be in the NHL right now. He's amazing. And Will Smith and Leonard's a motherfucker. They're a great team. But what I took away from the weekend, the goalie on Boston College, Jacob Fowler, he's got to be one of the best goalies I've ever seen in college hockey. I'm talking lights out saves time after time, two on one.

How tall is he? He's 6'2". Montreal took him in the third round. The fact this kid got picked in the third round the fact this kid got picked in the third round i'm telling you montreal canadians fans oh you got montembo montembo signed for what three more years three more years whatever poutine in your hand and this kid fowler is gonna be an nhl all-star it's your joe louis i i can't no army i don't the game was the beat beat the second night BU dominated at BU.

They couldn't score him. He's unbelievable. It's like Dominic Hasek in net. There was 3-2 at the end. 2-1-1 BU. Kid kicks one out. They go back the other way. Will Smith buries 4-2.

I left Riders crying. We got out of there quick. But third round pick, Jacob Fowler, Montreal Canadiens fans, get ready. Who's he like? He's like Hasik combined with Price combined with Waugh combined with Brodeur. I was just going to say, perfect segue. Could it be the next Patrick Waugh? I saw a college goalie this weekend that I've never seen before.

And he's a freshman. And it's very scary because we have them in the first round of the beanpot. Now the good thing is we lost both. So like, we're not going to lose all three, right? Like we're going to get Monday,

next Monday night at the beanpot, but God, God help us. If Fowler's kicking like this again, God help us. We do have to congratulate the ladies at BU. I went, they won the ladies.

Yup. Yup. And it was at the garden for the first time ever. It was a great crowd. Women's hockey is buzzing. I saw a video of Merle's daughter skating, a little athlete. She's skiing. She's skating.

She's three years old. So I think that we're going to – Is she gambling? And she's picking on me. Who do you think got me on that 18-2 run? There you go. EBR. Women's hockey.

Fastest growing sport. I know you just mentioned Patrick Robb, but one last thing we've got to get to. You just come back from Orlando, had the big guy on a solo biz, Pink Whitney Knight. What a fucking trip. What a crowd. What an amazing night. The game was insane. I was 5-0 in lineup reads going into it. Did the lineup

read. Switched it up a little bit. Said we just don't lose on Pink Whitney Knight. Well, we lost on Pink Whitney Knight. I know, but we gave it our all. Gave it our all. You still got a point. Still got a point. 6-6 and ended up going to overtime. Incredible overtime. Goalie got hurt in the third period for the other team.

I don't think we tested him enough. Oh my God. Dude, we I can't even go into this right now. This goalie comes in. This goalie gets bundled, bundled. And Yanz's buddy's like, get up. He's going to keep playing. I'm like, dude, they're bringing the stretcher out.

I think this kid's hurt. So sure as shit, the new goalie comes in, and Orlando's got a power play. And Biz is like, we got to test him. We got to test him. They got to test him, which is fair, 100%. Got to test him. They had two sifters from the point that got tipped that were, like, he made decent saves.

And then with about 30 seconds left in the power play, bang, bang, play to the slot, like, 10-bell save. It's unbelievable. The power play ends. Biz is like, we didn't test him. I'm like, buddy, that was as much of a test as you can. The rest of the game, Biz, we didn't test him early. We didn't test him early.

The kid, he didn't give up a goal, I don't think. Was it 6-6 when he came in? I think it was 6-6, yeah. The kid was unbelievable. Biz just thinks we didn't test him enough. The kid had to make four saves. And then the shootout. Now, shootouts in the coast.

Oh, yeah. I don't know. Ice wasn't great. Yeah, maybe the ice was bad. But we saw some of the worst moves I've ever seen in a shootout army. I'm talking going down, no fakes, and just shooting it directly into the goalie's stomach. The shootout went about 13 rounds,

but it was still an amazing atmosphere, awesome night. Biz, me, and me and you and Keith did the center ice shooting, and none of us hit. Now, Biz thought he hit one. It was right in the middle, but it just caught the corner. and then we're finally trying to leave we got to get out of there and all of a sudden this woman's like it went in i got video she's running down with a macbook no i'm like what and we get over there and the woman she wasn't necessarily like a hockey mind this much of it went over the red line so she thought it was like football yeah yeah classic

hey miss the whole thing's got to cross the goal line. He didn't score shit. She still didn't even know what we were talking about. He broke the plane. Where it goes, this ain't the SEC, lady. It ain't breaking the plane. I was like, no. Overall, amazing night, though.

That was our second one. So we're 1-0-1, but the Orlando Solar Bears, they do it right. They do it right, no doubt. And it makes me want to buy and get together with the boys on a coast team that much more. I was texting you. I know. Oh, yeah.

We're going to do it eventually. We're still trying to figure it out. We don't know where. But, R.A., you're going to be our GM coach. Oh. Starting goalie. I'm 0-4-1 in lineup reads, too. The Stingrays lost the night I did their lineup read down Chalice.

It's tough. It sucks. But it was fun to do it, man. You did a good job. Thank you, buddy. I was all pumped up. I was in Coach's office first. I was like, Coach,, man. You did a good job. Thank you, buddy. I was all pumped up. I was in the coach's office first. I was like, coach, you got the roster yet?

And he hadn't made it. I said, oh, no, I don't want to. I don't have any pregame superstitions or whatever. So he gave it to me. I had to check the names. But then I had a little flare to it. His last name was Lepid. So I threw in Def in the coach room.

And they all started to piss themselves. So I threw it in. I love it, Rier. I love it. Listen, to summarize, I know that's a long intro for you people who are like, make sure you get the hockey. It's great being back with the boys. It's great being back in Gretzky's basement

and kind of revitalizing the Gretzky name and how much greatness he brought to hockey. So it's going to be an incredible week here. We're so fired up. And I'm also fired up to talk about some of this hockey. Yeah, another great guy in the history of hockey, Patrick Waugh. He returned to Montreal last Thursday for the Islanders game there game there i mean it's not like he'd never been back

to montreal and you know since his career and he was coaching there when he was at colorado but it's been eight years the reception they gave him man one of the best things i've seen those years it was like two minute ovation after the anthem i mean they got up halfway through started clapping for him just an incredible thing incredible scene that that night. That was the last Canadian team to win a Stanley Cup. He brought them to Stanley Cup in 93 and before that it was 86. Which is rookie year.

He won Conn Smythe both of those years too. I know we chirped the ovation videos where guys play like 20 games somewhere. Van Riemsdyk just got his second one in Philly I, in two years. They gave him another one. Okay.

All right. Well, there you go. But he's – He could get five of them. Watching it and then watching it again on Twitter, like it was biblical, right? Like the standing O and the way they incorporated all the vintage photos and videos into the anthem too. It just made it that much more special.

And I don't know, man. Hockey is exciting exciting right now and i think it's on a fucking heater and the fact that you have like the you know the one of the greatest goalies of all time you know if you're picking all time he's on the mount rushmore and the guy who brought canada's last stanley cup and a guy who brought montreal his you know his home province too that just that's something that gave me chills and the reason why we needed to open up the full hockey talk. And shame on the Islanders for coming out the way they did after that. Yeah. To go down 3-0 that quick, that's – come on, guys.

And then they battle back and they make it 3-3 and they give up that goal. I believe it was Monaghan who scored, right? Yeah. With about a minute and a half left. The Islanders – Walsh said it when he got hired. Every game is a playoff game. And they gave up a valuable at least point there by getting to ot but in terms of monaghan guys we're looking at a guy who will have a bunch of teams looking to grab him and if you remember montreal was given a first round pick just to take him from calgary wow so now they might

trade him and who knows maybe they get a first rounder for him i don't know how that's having a good year he's having a great year he's got 35 points and he could play up and down the lineup so for any team looking to go on a run that's a guy that he could center the third line fourth line if somebody gets injured move up so if you got him as a fourth line center you're in great shape what a move by ken he might end up with a first and either another first or a second for for sean for taking sean monahan and then trading him and i think he's he's skating the thing is like he's an older guy right but he's like skating better than i probably have seen him in years time he's been healthy in what two three years yeah yeah he battled injuries for a while yeah he's awesome oh patrick one more thing do you

guys think he was like crying no he held he did like a cough he did like the coop coop where he holds the thing up he coughed did the cough thing and then he kind of looked like he was like close to he was tearing up maybe in his eyes it didn't come down but he it looks something like it's big if you're tearing up if you can keep the tears in the eyes yeah the one indian roll like when i just watched the sarah mclaughlan dog commercial. It was probably special to him because I don't know. No, no. No!

No, no, no. We got momentum. Come on, boys. We got the momentum. We're the Canadians. Let's sing it. I will remember you. You guys should clap like Trudeau if we're in Canada.

I will remember you. I don't think that's how it's how i don't think he's expected it that's why you know i mean because he had been back there a couple times expecting because he was i don't think he was maybe ever expecting to be back in that situation behind a bench receiving that that's why i thought it was emotional like yeah who know if if lou doesn't hire him like who knows the next team that would maybe consider him? I know he interviewed for the Columbus job, but you just simply never know. It was cool to see. The other reason we wanted to start the outline with that is the Gallagher hit,

which was probably the dirtiest one all season long. One of the ones that garnered the most attention online. Now, I think five games is probably enough. I mean, the more you watch it, maybe the more you kind of like, I already disagree. I thought five game was weak. I mean, we've been saying this for years. These are the hits.

We want to get out of the game. These are the hits. We want to win. I thought at least 10. I tweeted out. I mean, if you said 10, it's a message. It's exactly. I know it is.

I think a first time a friend hasn't been suspended within that. Not if you ask Merle's and we'll get to him after. Dude, exactly. I know he doesn't think a first-time offender hasn't been suspended within that runway. Whoa, whoa, whoa. Not if you ask Merle's, and we'll get to him after. Yeah, I just think, like, you always hear, these are the types of hits we want out. We don't want any more concussions. And that's as blatant as you can get.

The chicken wing going at a good speed, knocks out a hell of a player. And what? How long is he going to be hurting for? Well, ramifications down the line. Should have been 10, Colby, just to send the fucking message, like, we can't tolerate this shit anymore. Five was just slapping the wrist.

He had gone. It was fucking bullshit. Was it Pelich? It was Pelich who came back from injury just recently. Could they ever do? All right. He's concussed. You're coming back when he comes back. Could they ever do that? I think they should do that for regular season, but here's the problem come, like, let's say, playoff

time. I'm not saying a guy would ever do this. Yes, I'm like, maybe sell it a little longer to keep a better player out of the lineup. But here's the thing. It would have to be a hit that blatantly dirty. And let's remember, I was shocked to find out that was the first suspension for Brendan Gallagher. He is a little rat.

He's the biggest rat in the league. He's gotten away with it his whole career because he's small. They let the small guys get away with that. Marshy doesn't get away with it. Watch all his goals. He cross-checks somebody in front of the net before he scores, and they never call it. So I tweet that.

I get a million guys coming after me again. It took me a minute and a half Google search to find three clips of him making dirty, dirty plays that they didn't even get, let alone suspensions or wasn't even penalties on. And what's amazing too, is like he gave a press conference this year where he gave it to Tim Stolza.

I don't know if you remember that. He said, we've played against these guys. I played against him two, three years now, every time he's laying on the ground, and next thing you know, he's back two shifts later, and he's on the power play. It's kind of hard to be given press conferences talking about guys diving

and totally embellishing injuries if you're then going to stick your elbow into somebody's jaw and knock them out with a concussion. I kind of thought that was a little ridiculous, But, R.A., I was with you. I thought it was going to be seven games. Five is still a legit, you know, suspension. He probably lost 150-ish grand. But if you want to send a message and get – which I will say in terms of getting rid of these hits,

they kind of have gotten rid of these hits. Yeah, there's not many of them anymore. There's not many of these anymore. There's like no hits. Here come the head shots. Here come the head shots. Yeah, we just pushed it again. Yeah, like he gets

five games. Meanwhile, Shane Pinto's buddy bet fucking New Orleans plus the three and fucking got him a 41 game suspension. So I don't understand

that shit at all. The Pinto part comes up again. Also, he's shorter, so he's going out of his way to get that elbow up there. So that's another

reason it should be a red table. It looks like it looks like an eagle fucking flapping his wing. We're going to do a red table. Hey, red table talk. We let it out. Merle's how long I've just watched him for so long. Get away with these cross checks. And

I mean, I like to fade Montreal. I always bet against Montreal and he always scores when I bet against Montreal. It's another reason. I don't like to be a personal. Watch him play. He never takes two hands off his. Let me ask you this. He takes a lot of abuse. I agree with Arby.

Oh, Arby played with him. I did. Hold on. I want to ask you this. Would you like him on your team? Oh, 100%. Yes. 100%.

I said that about Nick Cousins. I'll say good. He gets away with it because he's small. Cousins, same thing. Who's worse? The chicken wing schlanker or the pancake from behind knockout hit on Cousins by Zucker? Because he hasn't played yet. Merle, I'm asking you, who's the rat king?

Cousins got it this year for sure. I'm not that bad on Gallagher. All right. Not the only suspension for Elbow. Your boy, Truba, at it again. What's his name? Pavel Dorofeev on Vegas. Just another, you know, off the face off, like, you know, coming intentionally.

Again, that's a guy probably to the head. Should have got more than two. He's got a track record. He's got a history. That's his move. That's his move. The best part of that one was Johnny Lazarus, right? Gee, the Rangers fans.

He tweeted about 10 minutes before that. Trouba's got that look in his eye. The guy watches every Rangers game. I think like any diehard Rangers fans, like Trouba's going to get suspended this game. They were losing again. The Rangers and Shisterkin. I called this. Guys, Shisterkin is like legit bad.

I called this. I told you. He's legitimately bad right now. I said he was going to get sick and tired of saving their bacon, and they were going to miss playoffs. No, they're not going to miss playoffs. I know. That's what I said at the beginning of the season, and I'm sticking to it.

I couldn't believe the Rangers were fucking minus 160 at home versus Vegas. I know Jack's out a couple of the guys. Made no sense. I mean, the Stanley Cup champions are a plus fucking 140. They should have a million on that fucking game. In terms of Rangers fans, I actually feel really bad for them because they needed Felipe Hidal to get back in this lineup, and the kids battled concussions.

He was missing time. He was in Czech Republic, and he got another one in practice, and he's out for the year, and it's like, that's a guy who – Yeah. They mopped him up off the ice in practice. It was like, no one saw what happened. Trouba. Trouba get him? It might have been one of those. He got Trled in practice. No one saw what happened. Trouba get him?

It might have been one of those. He got Trouba trained in practice. So, I mean, a lot of Rangers fans were really waiting. Let's get Hito back. He of, what is it, Lafrenier and Kako. Like, Hito was kind of the guy that was coming on. You're seeing something special here, and it just sucks. I mean, head injuries are the scariest ones,

and he's just got another one just coming back. But he's shut down for the year. That's when you know. But if he just came back from one and you get another one, that's like immediate, we're taking the rest of the year off. It just sucks. Sucks for him and sucks for the fans. Going back to Trouba, I think he's that guy, though,

every, like, 10 to 12 games he's making sure a clip goes viral so the boys who are thinking maybe about coming through the middle at MSG reconsider it's every 10 to 12 games I feel like when they're playing bad it was the Chicago game last year

when he lost his mind he got Sid in the playoffs he did the same little elbow-y thing. He kind of does the can opener. He does a little tight though. It's tight. A little jab shot. But he hides it.

He keeps that elbow tight enough. He keeps it tight. He's like a UFC guy that just grounded pound. You know, like he does a little swivel. And that's how he got suspended too, was that same little schlanker. Would you guys not agree though, the violence overall seems to be picking up back up?

Not the dirty head hits, but the league seems a little bit more violent. I want more. Is that just because I'm watching Florida too much? I think you're seeing every Panthers game just causing a ruckus all over the ice. And I tweeted this out. If there was four other teams that play like the Panthers,

I would be glued to watching hockey every single night. And some teams are just painful to watch where it's like, hey, if you're not going to be good, at least play with some balls like Philly. Muck it up. Muck it up. What the fuck is this shit? Brant Myers texted me.

Remember we interviewed Brant? Mizey, great guy. He texted me. Can you believe this? Mark Recchi retirement day at philly and they're getting pounded by the bruins and all these old philly tough legends are in the stands they were down on center ice and they puke it on themselves they didn't do a thing it was a good point like it's kind of surprising and like obviously that's a team that delore is there like tortas and they'll play tough but i mean what they're they're down five nothing in the first period they didn't do

a thing right so something like you always should get your name on the score sheet if you're not scoring get in there get get a fight get a four minute double rough that's how i approached it that's how i'm the american hockey that's how i approached it if i got an assist early maybe i take the night off i can think i was a skill guy maybe chop it up on the half wall a little bit like biz you chipped it off the glass that was a phantom phantom assist oh when i was 41 number 41 in edmonton one time i ended up getting third star i had two assists one of them i legit dumped it in and like it like jumped over the d-man stick and like hansel set some up and we scored and the other one was like a dump into kind of double yeah oh yeah i was fucking just strutting

out there i will remember um another thing we got to talk about too is you you mentioned um the bullshit performance on flyers night and recce night how about the fucking LA Kings dropping that one to the Buffalo Sabres on Kopitar night brutal up 3-1 to the Buffalo you know what jinxed it your tweet is that not the greatest uh opening celebration for Kopitar I've ever seen whip was it wit yeah I thought it was you no i sent it to the group i was on the group chat no i sent to the group chat class it was awesome it was awesome but they came out fine they had a great first period yeah and then just an incredible quote after by tom mcclellan what do you say ra the stupidity of that loss yeah i heard the stupidity that went into this loss is beyond explainable like that is a coach that's so disgusted.

And listen, Drew Doughty came out after. And without naming names, he said, guys want their points. They want their cookies. We're up 3-1. Next thing you know, we lose 5-3 at home. Buffalo lost to the Ducks the night before. And played in a back-to-back. That's the craziest part.

That back-to-back doesn't really count, though. It's a bus ride, 45 minutes. Yeah. I think back-to-back doesn't really count, though. It's a bus ride, 45 minutes. Yeah. I think back-to-backs matter with the flights. Yeah, I think the Mai Tais and the Sun do a little bit, though. And the Thai massages. And the Thai massage murals. Yeah.

The Kigs come out 16-4-3, they start. It looked like they were going to cruise in the playoffs, maybe challenge for the Pacific. Things have gone sideways. They've lost four straight, 14 out of 16, going 2-8-6. They got a few points, only 8-9-6 at home. You mentioned Rob Blake a couple weeks ago. We mentioned he said that his job saved McClellan.

But I mean, when you're on this kind of tailspin, I don't know if he's going to reconsider anything. I would say the only considerable number would be if they win one of their next seven games and like drop the other ones in regulation. I could see them maybe doing something, but he's a great coach. He's one of the league's best coaches. You can't replace him. This is just a dry spell.

They can't score, Biss. I don't know. Wait, they can't score, but you look at everything else. Goaltending's not that horrendous. It's more about the breakdowns. Their PK is first in the league at 91%, and their power play is middle of the pack. I think it's clicking just above 20. So their goals against over the last little stretch yeah not great but as dowdy said geyser what are

the la kings when are they good and what are they when were they in their championship waves structure mode structure two on three one three one so i'll see special put your nuts in a vice anaconda choke cold they dowdy said it like they're just fucking opening things up and they're trying to play west coast offense where that's not really how they have their success allow low danger chances you know muck it up to one and fucking so two points um i got one thing before you go about todd mcclellan i respected the hell out of him i don't know what game it was it might might've been the Buffalo game. A lot of times you'll see a coach get asked the question.

Are you worried about job security? I don't know. Did you guys see this press conference? I just read the quotes. So are you worried about job security? And, and for the most part, unless we're talking about spec in Edmonton,

I don't think reporters love asking that question. Everybody reads spec, like everybody reads spec, but you know, that that's something where like you're, you bringing on a confrontation but you're doing your job and a lot of coaches like immediately dismiss it and get disgusted todd mcclellan sat there and he said you know what i respect you asking that question if i had your job i'd be asking the exact same question and right now this is on me i'm taking responsibility for this it was just

something that like you really got to respect as a fan of the Kings. Like, all right, well, the guy's not shying away from it, and he's taking responsibility, which makes me think he is the guy for the job. I think you're crazy if you fire him. I think you're crazy, dude. Like, he's had success everywhere. I remember him as the assistant on Detroit when we lost the cup to him in 08, or whatever year that was.

And it was like this guy was so involved talking to Dan Cleary. He was bound to be a head coach, had great teams in San Jose, a little run in Edmonton, and LA's had a couple of real good years. So I don't think it's coaching. I don't. This brings me to the thought of the LA Kings, because I've told people, who do you think is going to win the cup this year?

Who do you think? I'm like, I don't know, boys. You might want to sniff around LA. And I know you've been on them for a while now they're one of your teams one of my four one of your four he ruins every team but i'll say this what's their flaw what's their flaw look at them this year they couldn't win a game at home they'd only went on the road they something's been up with them all year, masked by something. So is everything just coming to a head right now? Who are they missing?

What are they missing? What do they need? What don't they have? Because they look pretty good to me. They look like you look at them. You're like, oh, shit. Yeah. Always a question has been goal sending.

But it's like, what the hell is going on? I'm not going to pull a posh here, but like I just said, number one penalty kill in the league, it clicks at 91%. So what is it then? I just think it's a string of bad luck, and I think it's going to work itself out. And people are trying to make a bigger situation of the PLD signing and what they gave up to get him.

Has he been playing his best? No. And as of right now, it doesn't look like a great signing. He needs a Thai massage. He needs the Sibian riding Thai masseuse. I'm going to send her over. I'm going to give her back her track suit and I'm going to send her back over to LA. Shipping and handling, baby.

But my biggest concern about it is just the lack of maybe, it looks like he's not competitive out there and i don't it's it's like a body language thing because i'm just like dig in a little more there like ben you get a little more competitive he's like me talking to rider no i'm like look at your knees bud you know army am i crazy no use your body position a little bit if you're a bigger maybe not so fast guy be good along the walls like win those battles like look at look at fucking city he's good at everything else where is he good he wins the

wall battles he's not the fucking hugest guy either is he built like a brick shithouse yeah well so is fucking pld you see the fucking instagram photos he posts the guy's fucking a unit he's like vinnie la cavalier so you think though as a third line center getting those matchups would be beneficial where it's like oh i'm gonna be able to chew these guys up last game he played 13 fucking minutes okay so what is it give me minutes and i'll play better no no i'm i think that's like a if you're making eight for eight it might be time to all right let's give him 20 minutes tonight and you know why i also respect Tom McClellan.

It took him forever not to say anything about it, where eventually I think it was what, probably a week ago now, maybe 10 days. And this is after we need more. We're talking to poor hop first half of the season. Now, the only other thing in my books is maybe he's one of those guys that,

Hey man, fucking 82 games here. Let's fucking chill out. Let's just make sure we get into playoffs. But now all of a sudden you find yourself in a wild card chase. You said it to me yesterday, and I tend to agree with you. The pace, because of the clutching and grabbing in playoffs, maybe sometimes it slows down a little bit,

where these guys who are maybe a little step behind can become beneficial. There's a list of them. Well, you got to get in the playoffs. Kachunk. Who else we got? Who did you just say? Before Kachunk?

Stone. Stone's not good. Okay, these guys are awesome in the regular season. That's right. That's the other argument that I said towards them, too, is like they still show up in the regular season, but can still perform in a playoff type, you know what I'm saying?

Yeah, battle zone. You know what it is maybe merle's little game notes flavor into this they need tarion bring in michelle well what's crazy you asked for an la i had i had a screenshot from uh december rick talk it was a favorite six six to one odds on coach of the year because i was trying to tell my buddy i'm like dude hammer this talk's gonna win it he's got it who was second back then in december mclellan mclellan well they were undefeated on the road and yeah could win at home crazy i'm interested to see business take though that maybe it is partly bad luck and and we'll see if they can get turned around but the

problem is you're like running out of time a little bit and with the oilers tightening up the way they're playing don't talk about them with no Witt. No, I've been talking about them lately. So don't blame me now. I mean, I doubt they're going to buy him out, but someone did the calculation if they were to buy out PLD because he's in the first year of this contract. He's got no protection. It'll be like a Bobby Bonilla buyout.

Yeah, it'll be $27.8 million, but it'll be over like 14 years so it'll be under three million all almost all those years except for two of them so it's like it's not in other words it's not a huge cap so you get nothing to lose you can't buy that guy out already though i know we're getting we're talking nonsense right now but good to know the calculation now you're saying that you don't get punished as punished as much per year it yes the way it's calculated this year like i mean they're gonna know but after this year doesn't that thing kick in where he's got a like uh this is the year that you can do it where it makes more sense well because he's got his no trade kicks in next season so they he can veto a trade in other words if the king's like

fuck this we we're done after one year and want to shop around like i don't know if it's gonna happen this is that the year they could do it because he's got no protection for like the next three years okay fair enough fair enough but but but the point you're making though is you actually get punished like less money if you do it over a longer period of time because we talk about the pre-zay and uh suitor buyouts where those two are hitting them for like 14 million this year yeah yeah so it's because they did it later in their deals and it just all of a sudden comes up harder on the cap crunch he's got yeah because 1.6 1.5 for the first years then goes 2 5 3 7 3 8 3 8 and then everything after that's like one and a half million 1.1 i mean that's not too bad it's tough yeah i i can't i can't see that

i can't i can't either but we're talking we're getting in the weeds here. Just the fact that people are talking about his first year. You don't get that deal with just like, and then all of a sudden it's done. Like there's something there. You don't become a bad player overnight. The question is the heart, as Biz mentioned, the motivation. And you know what? If he's a proud guy, which I'm guessing he is with all the success he's had in his life, maybe we see him really turning up.

Here, here. I'm rooting for him too. I don't like seeing people take all this heat. I want Pierre-Luc Dubois to go out there, bend his knees. Just a little bit. Am I crazy for saying that? No, no, no. You had it right on the other podcast when you said he looked like Terry Ryan.

He did. Same skating coach. And I want him to play Pierre-Luc Dubois. That's how I looked out there. I want you to play with more reckless abandon. Same skating coach. And I wanted to play. That was business skating school, man. Here, look to Bob. That's how I looked out there. I want you to play with more reckless abandon. Oh, okay. I want you to go. I want you to be on the edge.

Go get a suspension or something. I want you to play on the edge. If you get suspended, you get suspended. Okay? You could probably use a couple things. What's the worst thing that could happen? You either get hurt or you get suspended. Who gives a shit?

And then more time for the Thai massage over the next couple of weeks. Yes, rehab, they call it. One team that's been doing pretty damn good all year, Carolina, we're going to bring in Michael Bunton in a little bit. We did an interview with him a little while back. This team, this team's save percentage is 888. 31st in the league. They've been missing the number one guy all year with Freddie Anderson.

They have two points back in the ranges for the Metro League with a game in hand. How are they doing it? Obviously, there's offense, but how do you win with that such fucking bad goaltending? Well, lately, they've been scoring some goals, and they've been playing some awesome hockey. Did you guys see the game where they played against Boston, where Martin Nook ended up winning it? Yeah, oh, yeah. It was cool. They got some good mojo going, too, right now.

I want to say they were like 8-1-1 after that win in their last 10 stretch. So that was a cool moment. But they're forechecking like madmen now. Their man-on-man defense is buzzing like it once was. Their special teams is always dialed in. They can kill penalties with the best of them. But, yeah, I think they're just playing so good. I mean, I think other than the Boston game, the two games before that,

they allowed less than 20 shots and back-to, back, back to back of those games. So they're just like they're going trots, defense, nuts and the vice and not really giving up a lot. So it's they still don't even have Shvetsnikov right now. And if you if you're a Carolina fan and you're listening, like I would imagine that you'd probably say Orlov hasn't lived up to what you expected he would bring based on like the fucking playoff run he had and like the last half of the season with the bruins and also you got him for another year at like close to eight million so i don't know what happens at the deadline but i think that top to bottom like very solid team and where you always talk about team them peaking too early who knows man maybe this is their year man i talked i think we could go back to a 2019 random chicklets episode talking about the hurricanes and i feel the exact same way like i do not see

them winning the stanley cup like they'll probably win the metro again and they'll have a great opening round matchup and they'll probably win the first round against whatever seed seven or eight and then they're not they're they don't have like a stanley cup roster i don't know how to explain it they're like missing a superstar it's what i always say game breaker and aho's awesome and like sveshnikov can sveshnikov excuse me he can be but he had the torn acl now he's hurt again it's like i i just don't see them as as legit cup contenders every year it's it's a broken record with them they're awesome team but they i don't see them as legit cup contenders. Every year, it's a broken record with them. They're an awesome team, but I don't see them raising Lord Stanley in June.

They need one more power forward, and those don't grow on trees. I don't know who you would add to the mix, but they need a big guy who can fill the net. Like Shvetchnikov is great and all, but he hasn't had the best start to the year. He's back on the IR. Their D are fine. Their D are great. And I think the goaltending will figure itself out. When Ronta gets going, if he can stay healthy, that's all they need.

He's a respectable goaltender. I think they had a move with the Pacioretty thing. I think that was the guy. Big, power forward, straight lines, his shot. 30-goal guy, automatic. His shot is like, you hear it. It. Big, power forward, straight lines, his shot. 30-goal guy on that. His shot is like, you hear it. It's like, and they need a game breaker. They just need a guy that when it hits a stick,

it could change a game, and they don't have that. Like a Toffoli type? Yeah, like somebody that's different like that, that just has that, right, that can score. And he might not fit in. They got enough guys that play Rod Brindamore style, Rod the bod, but they need a guy that separates that's just different and it might not work out concept team wise but it's it's gonna put them over the top in certain situations or in certain games

and they haven't been able to go get a guy like that or find a guy like that or make a guy fit i would say it's similar to like vegas before they got eichel that's all they needed they needed that one they needed that one stud that can do it both ends of the ice 200 foot who's the one ford i can't think of his name right now who has taken that next step for carolina netches that just they want him to go higher though they. They want him to pop bigger. I think his thing is that there's a night or two nights where he's the best player on the ice. And then the third game, he's just kind of non-existent. And then the next two games, he's unbelievable.

And then for two games, I think it's the consistency with him. I mean, when he gets going, dude, him three on three is a sight to be seen. He flies. He's got a great shot. But they're probably going to lose in the conference final again, which is like an amazing year, but it's just, what do they need to get over the top? What are they going to do?

And now, obviously, it's goaltending, right? I already mentioned at the beginning, but we'll see. Is Freddie Anderson... He's still on the IR. No, there's no update. I thought he was skating a little bit a while back, but nothing is in the time frame right now, So I'll see what happens there. Actually, because you mentioned Wendy Martin got interviewed after the game.

Great scene there. But it seemed like there was a lot of family-oriented stuff last week in the league. We had Owen Zellweger. His first game, his parents were in attendance to get his first point. This one was pretty wild with Ducks assistant coaches go head-to-head against their sons. Anaheim assistants Brent Thompson and Craig Johnson went head-to-head against their sons. Anaheim assistants Brent Thompson and Craig Johnson went head-to-head

against their two sons, Tade Ryan. I'd never seen that before. I know there's a lot of family stuff, I believe, but never head-to-head. That's like in the Super Bowl. We got Ed McCaffrey won three Super Bowls with Mike Shanahan as his head coach. And now Christian McCaffrey will be trying to win the Super Bowl with Kyle Shanahan. I didn't fucking know that was his kid, man.

It would be two father-son combos for Super Bowls. Kind of interesting. And I think the Chuck family may have set a record. Big Walt was on the dad's trip of Florida. He was drank on the dad's trip. Oh, God, yeah. He had the big cowboy hat on.

They did it in Nashville again. Oh, my God. He's dummied that city between the awards and the dad's trip. Holy fuck. Yeah. So the same time

he was on the dad's trip, Chantel, the mom, she was on the mom's trip with Ottawa. It's like, I wonder if that's the first time that two parents, one of each side,

you know, have been with a team at the same time. Yeah, no. It seems like every team is doing a mom or dad's or siblings trip this year. Yeah. And within like the last two months.

Also, congrats to Big Walt. He got into the St. Louis Blues Hall of Fame. I guess there was a real special moment during it. A fan had bought like a used, a game used Pavel Dimitri jersey back in the day and had it. And he came, I think, and presented it to his wife who was there because he got in the St. Louis Hall of Fame. She had no idea it was coming. I guess it was a very emotional moment. So pretty good stuff.

And Big Walt also gave his dad a shout-out for being in Vietnam. His father, Chuck, he doesn't say it. Keith's like, he doesn't say much. He also did two tours in Vietnam as a Marine. The whole place got up and fucking gave his old man a big standing ovation. Yeah, it was good stuff. So good job, Walt. But anyways, it's time for Michael Bunton.

Enjoy him. Check it after. All right, before we. But anyways, it's time for Michael Bunton. Enjoy him. Check it after. All right, before we go any further, here's a few words from our friends at Bartyama. Spitting Chicklets is brought to you by Bartyama Zero Sugar. Bartyama Zero Sugar is a new zero sugar sports drink from our friends at Bartyama with no artificial sweeteners, flavors, or dyes. Whether you're looking to stay hydrated or recovering from a long weekend body armor zero sugar has got you covered body armor zero sugar

has great taste and flavors like fruit punch lemon line all kinds of good stuff my favorite's been the fruit punch i might have done a little switch over from before but either way this stuff makes you feel terrific after you get a sweat in oh like i said had a rough weekend whatever great for wedding planning workouts workouts, late night recordings, whatever you got out there. It's good stuff. So you want to check out the new stuff from Barty Ammo. Barty Ammo, zero sugar.

It's available in stores nationwide, but you can head on over to the Barty Ammo store on Amazon and get yours today. All right, it's time to bring on our guest. This left wing from Scarborough, Ontario, is Arizona's fourth round pick at the 2014 draft. After six years with the Coyotes organization, he signed with his hometown Leafs and was a Call the Trophy finalist,

and he made the all-rookie team as well. And this past summer, he signed a three-year deal with the Carolina Hurricanes and currently has five points in their first six games. It's a pleasure to welcome to the Spittin' Chickas podcast, Michael Bunton. What's going on, man? How you been? Good, good. Thanks for having me, guys. Our pleasure. Where's a pleasure to welcome to the Spittin' Chickens podcast, Michael Bunton. What's going on, man? How you been? Good, good. Thanks for having me, guys.

A pleasure. Where are you coming to us from? I know you're on the road right now. We're actually back at home. We came home. Yeah, yeah. Came home for the day. So we're back in Raleigh.

Awesome start for you. I mean, right off the bat. And I think when your signing was announced there, when we did like our, you know, recap of all the signings and season previews, we said you fit perfectly into that system. I would think like your speed, how fast the team plays. How's it been the first couple of months there in terms of training camp and getting to know everyone? Yeah, the guys are great coming in here. It's been pretty easy to to fit in with this group. They've been you know, they've been together for quite some time and they're really close but they welcomed me uh right from the get-go and uh you know

obviously it's not the the start we've wanted uh we've lost the last couple but i think it's just uh you know getting into the new season gelling with one another and figuring that out but um you know obviously you know this team's had success in the last few years. And that was one of the reasons I wanted to come here. Like you said, I thought I could be a good fit. And they kind of play my style, like in your face, you know, on the on the forecheck energy and whatnot. So so far, it's been great. They did on the first day of free agency, they called you and kind of just like told you where they saw you in their lineup and where they thought you could be as a player. That must've been a pretty good feeling, especially, I mean,

with the money ended up getting, that's a huge contract for you. Yeah. Yeah. This is my real, like real first contract. Obviously, you know, the last couple of years in Toronto, it was, it was my first one. Fucking bargoons, couple of bargoons in those years, buddy. Yeah.

Those were, you know, obviously it obviously my first one way out of America. Minimum wage. Yeah, which I was pretty pumped taking that too, obviously, where I came from. But yeah, July 1st kind of opened up, and I actually wasn't really sure where I was going to go. There's teams calling and showing interest, and it was my first kind of real July 1st of not knowing what's going to happen. And actually Rod called me and gave me his thought and where he thought I would fit in and whatnot. So that was real nice of him to reach out and kind of get this ball moving. And it was pretty easy on my end to make that decision after that.

Are you allowed to talk about the other teams and the other offers? I'll leave that out. Come on. No, I'll leave that out right now. But can you answer us this? I'm assuming you and your agent made a list up in your mind of teams that you kind of thought you might fit in, and were some of them not just Carolina reaching out as well?

Did it work out that way at least? Yeah, it did. Perfect. I wanted to still win, obviously, coming from Toronto, getting the taste of the playoffs and whatnot. That was my main goal is still to go to a competitive team. And then once Carolina kind of came in on July 1st, they'd been competitive for so many years,

and I thought it was a great fit. Well, that's the compliment I would say, is that you can get to be a free agent, and all of a sudden there's teams that are kind of planning on being bottom dwellers reaching out. So for you, it must have felt great. This is a contending Stanley Cup aspirational team, and now you're here.

But I mean, I wonder when Rod called you, could you tell how intense he was biz and i and ra interviewed him biz didn't say a word because he hadn't been to bed yeah he did the guys with his shirt off yeah for sure um yeah rod is definitely he's really intense and i think the first time i i met him uh when i came down to carolina to just visit the facility and meet people he was was in the gym working out, so that was my first impression of him. But he's been great with me since getting in, making me familiar with the system and kind of just teaching me along the way and just had success as a player.

He has a lot of respect as a coach as well, so I'm looking forward to continuing this. So that walkthrough, was that before you signed or after you signed? It was after I signed. So I flew down like a week or so later just to kind of, you know, see the place, see where I would be living and whatnot and see the facility. So now are you allowed to say whether Toronto made an offer or just,

I guess at a certain point, it just couldn't work with, with where they are with the cap and stuff. Cause I would imagine staying home and playing in Toronto would have been your first option. Yeah. Um, yeah,

obviously going through that whole procedure, um, with me at my hometown, like obviously I, I love playing in Toronto. That's, that's where I came from and I made a lot of good friends there. And obviously the organization is great and the fan base are,

are awesome. Um, but yeah, just with a lot of things that were switching up in the organization, I kind of didn't know where I would stand and whatnot and just kind of like, you know, how it is, just back and forth and whatnot.

And then July 1st hits and I got to make a decision. And I think I came out with it early in the summer. There wasn't really a firm offer or whatnot, just more just preliminary talks. And I just thought I had to make a decision that was best for for me at that time Mike was the adjustment to Raleigh like relatively easy coming from a fishbowl like Toronto yeah like it's uh it's been great here um you know Toronto is is the mecca of the the

hockey world and and whatnot so I I knew what that was like growing up there too and I actually really loved it just being in in that and experience that, like those two years, I'm going to remember for the rest of my life, just because I grew up a Leaf fan, but yeah, coming to Raleigh, it's been a great transition.

It's a little calmer. It's, but the fans are just, just as intense. I remember that home opening game just last week. It was, it was so loud and the fans are, we're rocking it.

So that was a really cool experience coming here. Did you feel like when you got there, you had to be a little bit more tight-lipped as far as media was concerned? Because you came from Arizona where maybe a quote wouldn't be misconstrued. Did you have a situation where you learned the hard way with something that ran in the media early on?

Because that's such a switchover and all of a sudden you had an impact on the team right away. Yeah. I think that's one thing Toronto does really well, just kind of media coaching you and knowing what to say and what not to say and how to answer certain questions. So that's one thing they do really well there. They're prepared. They're on top of everything. And it was pretty easy, actually.

I actually didn't get in much trouble with the media in that part. never went off script one time no i actually just got in trouble on the ice okay we'll get to that then yeah that's usually where my uh my name popped up but you know the the media was great um yeah like they're just doing their job obviously just covering the leafs and that's just that's just what happens when you're in a canadian market was it hard sometimes or you just want to be like fucking like just fucking pop off i think honestly like i like i said toronto did a very good job it was more like they got you at the right time like if i was in a heated moment like a heated game or whatnot like i wasn't talking to media after that or whatnot so it was always your clear mind i remember when you went when you went to toronto um because i i knew who you were obviously but playing in arizona it's just it's tough and you you'd had a long

road of getting to the nhl and becoming a regular but to business credit you went over there and he said watch this kid's gonna be really good for them he's gonna know i mean this is a compliment you're the biggest piece of shit to play against. Yeah, I know. In the minors. I'm like, who the fuck is this punk rat fuck in the locker room when I was with the Reign? I couldn't believe it.

I remember playing you a lot. We played each other eight times in one year. Yeah, 25 times, half the season. Literally. So I saw a lot of you. That was great. I remember when you got an assist you came by our whole bench chirping about one apple that was great assist second assist on a

dump in yeah i remember that pretty clearly and then and then that was the game where i i believe fish ended in overtime and shot the arrow and and we like we had a bench clear and brawl and there's bunting's face like the officials like ah like you just wanted to fucking punch him but buddy you brought it every game and and that was one of the questions and and what kind of alluded to it like your your come up like were you always a piece of shit to play against was that always how you were yeah uh yeah for for as long as i, I just kind of like off the ice, I'm pretty, I'm a pretty relaxed guy and I'm like, I am loud and whatnot, but I'm pretty chill. But yeah, once I got on the ice, I just get very competitive and it's, it's always been like

that since I was, I can, I remember even when I was a kid, that's what everyone laughs at that. I'm really nice off the ice or, or even anything I would be playing. I grew up playing a lot of school sports, and people would say I'm really nice, but once I get competitive, they don't even know who I am. But that's just my nature, and I enjoy it. Do you think part of that was like a late-round OHL pick, a later-round NHL pick? So it was more, you know, you kind of have so much to prove,

and that that was part of that that of your game being like that or was it more just even when when you're 10 11 years old before any of the draft nonsense started you were always that way yeah i think it's yeah a little bit of both for sure obviously i had to work my way to to get where i am it's it's been quite the grind but it's been a lot of fun going through all that but yeah i always kind of had that chip on my shoulder just kind of to show people um that they're wrong about me or whatnot and and just bring that competitive edge because I think that's when I'm most effective when I'm playing my game and and playing on that edge and and hopefully not going over it

so look at the list of all the sports you played as a kid, volleyball, tennis, baseball, basketball. I can give you a few lessons there. Badminton. Always a huge competitor. You used to like give stand downs playing volleyball. Is that true? I actually got a yellow card in volleyball and I didn't even know that was, or a red card. Sorry. And I didn't even know that was possible, but yeah, it just, I think, yeah, growing up, I didn't really want to like go to school much.

So I, I joined all the school teams and that's, that's how I, uh, you know, got involved with all these sports. And, uh, I, I feel like that, you know, made me more athletic for almost hockey, like the tennis hand, I, and whatnot. So I feel like that's helped a little bit. What was your second best sport other than hockey? I would say, uh say i would say volleyball a little weird but i i loved it and uh i was actually really good do you wear the little

booty shorts do the guys do that do you wear the knee pads no no knee pads i was yeah fuck you you probably had the headband on the elbow pads no i could like the guy from dodgeball yeah really no but uh yeah no i was a big volleyball player in high school what was the red card for i i think i was chirping under the under the net with another player yeah bag tap bag tap when the guy went up for a spike just um so uh being that like smaller player like you know aggressive in all these sports and having that chip on your shoulder did you have an influence like who you looked up to like sometimes some undersized guys like like theo flurry like who were the guys that you looked up to or the

guys who had impacts on your career as you were coming up like i know i know you have an older brother christopher is it christ Yeah, it's Chris. Yeah, he definitely played a factor. We would battle head-to-head in sports all the way growing up. But more as a professional, I'd probably say I grew up in the era of Darcy Tucker and Gary Roberts, that era of Toronto Maple Leafs. So that's who I watched a lot. I really liked Darcy Tucker.

I feel like he was in your face. He wasn't the biggest guy, but he was willing and able, and he was able to contribute sometimes offensively as well. That was the era I grew up in. Hopefully, a little bit of a model of that. Is number 58, was that the training camp number and you never got rid of it, Or does that have some meaning to you? No, that is exactly it.

That was my first camp number in Arizona. And then I got called up. Whenever I got called up, I still had that number. And I ended up going on that little bit of a run. So I said, it's working for me. I'm not going to change it now. Mike, growing up, I know you didn't have the latest stick or always the most popular equipment. You mentioned going to play it against sports quite a bit. You didn't have camps or lessons.

Like I kind of wonder, do you think like eventually a guy like you, the cream rises to the top? Like if you're that good, you will be found out even if you're not necessarily at all these showcase events? Yeah, it's, I think, I think that, you know, played a big part of my career. Like I wasn't that kid that just lived hockey growing up. I was a normal kid. I honestly, I went to high school all the way out to grade 12. I graduated before even going to the OHL. And I was just basically a normal kid living my life, but also playing hockey for fun. And like you said, just the right place at the right time kind of thing. My hall monitor actually was taking over the Don Mills Flyers at the time. And he asked me

if I wanted to come play. So I went, tried out, ended up making the team. And I remember I was like, I was like, I went, I drove there by myself and I saw how much it was for the AAA. And I walked in the room and I said, yeah, I'm not paying that. I'm not playing this. I was going back to AA and just going to go back to high school and then uh thankfully don mills uh you know helped my family out and and then the rest was kind of history i ended up doing really well that year and um and then i ended up getting drafted to the ohl and i it's i always i laugh at this i i played an all-star game um in triple a and then this uh west clark he's actually the head scout of toronto now he was the scout of sue saint marie he came out to me, he's actually the head scout of Toronto. Now he was the scout of Sue St. Marie. He came out to me and he's still good friends with me. And he's one of my mentors,

but he came out to me. I was just some punk kid and he pulled me out of the room and said, do you want to play in the NHL one day? And I looked at this guy, I said, what the fuck is he talking about? It wasn't even a thought in your mind. It wasn't even a thought in my mind.

I was going to take a victory lap in high school and go back and be a firefighter or something. And this guy pulls me out of the room and asked me that question. I go and look at my buddies and just tell them what this guy just said to me and whatnot. And then later that year, the Sioux ended up drafting me where Wes was. And then a year later, I was getting drafted to the NHL. So it kind of all happened really quick. Pretty impressive of Wes Clark.

Obviously, he saw something, right? Like that's sometimes I think scouts maybe get like a bad grade from people for misses. But there's things like that where they see certain things that early on. That's pretty impressive. But what I wanted to kind of explain to everyone listening is just reading over this. As you mentioned, you went to the O, then you got drafted, went back to the went back to the old lit it up the next year ahl you spent time in the coast next year full-time ahl next year full-time ahl the following year only five nhl games and this is the one that kind of blew me away the following year 1920 dude not one call up man and and it must have been at

that point like i've lit up the ahl for four years now i've spent time in the coast was there ever a moment of like i may go to europe like i like what's what's going on here because it's it's that 1920 season for me that you didn't have one game up that must have just been like what the hell yeah uh yeah it's funny you said i um i remember that year and i i was i think I was leading the league in assist, and I was playing really well. And I was obviously expecting a call because I was just called up the last year. And then COVID struck, and then I ended up not getting invited to the bubble as well.

So I spent six months at home, and we weren't getting paid. I didn't even know what the American League was going to go back. So I had one more year on my deal. I think it was like a two-way, it was obviously a two-way contract. But I was getting calls from Europe because they were still going on. And I was this close from taking a deal over in like Switzerland or Russia. And then I was just like, you know what, I'll wait one more year and just play out my last year of the contract.

And then that was the year I ended up getting called up. That was the year where you played the 20 games and had 10 goals yeah yeah so I was really close of taking off to Europe and I probably wouldn't be in this situation so what's the call-up story and did you view that as like I need to make an impact in this 20 games and this is basically my last tryout yeah no that's exactly that that was. I, I ended up doing really well in the American league at the start that season. And then, um,

I, uh, yeah, I got called up and I basically just said like, I have nothing to lose. Like what's the worst that's going to happen. I'm going to get sent back down and play more in the AHL. I've been doing that my whole career.

So I just kind of went in that mentality and I feel like my first time around, I was more in like, awe. Like I gave a lot of respect, like, which I should have went up and gave a lot of respect, which I should have, but gave a lot of respect to players that I was playing against

and kind of tiptoeing. Then I felt like this time around, I just said, you know what, fuck it. I got to go all in here and try to make it. I just kind of went in with that confidence, and I was fortunate enough that I got on a roll there. Were you surprised that you got called up when you did and how much of an impact?

Because it was Toc who was the head coach, right? Yeah. I feel like he didn't hold back on your ice time too. He was giving you that opportunity because you were making the best of it and you were working your bag off. Yeah, Toc was great with me and I credit him a lot with giving me that opportunity.

I thanked him at the end of the year for that too, because he, I was able to play, you know, good minutes. I came in right from the start and I think it was against Colorado. It was my, we were down like two,

nothing before I even had, I had a shift and he put me out and I ended up scoring right off the draw. Like Goligoski passed it to me for a B way. And I scored. And then ever since then, like talk just kept rolling me, rolling me. And I just,

I, I, I, I just remember like everything i shot almost went in for like the first like 15 16 games so it was it was it was a good little roll and uh and i just kept building confidence uh the more and more i got to play mike i know early on you got sent down uh to the coast for like seven games did any sort of doubt creep in or did they say this is just going to be temporary we'll bring it right back up what was the story behind getting sent down there that was a great story like uh you know like you're you're coming out of junior and like i had a good junior career so i thought i was obviously the man and then coming up to pro that's not the case at all like you're playing a man's game now and i just remember uh um like going getting called up i don't know making the HL and then playing a

couple of games that didn't go really well for me. And I just was practicing nonstop. And I lived with a guy named like Dakota Mermis. He's playing on Minnesota right now. And, uh, we were living together and he gets a phone call and, uh, in the kitchen and, uh, he's looking at me and he's like pointing, he's like, I'm going down on the coast. I'm going down on the coast. I was like, no way. So he hangs up and he goes, yeah, I'm going down the the coast i'm going down i was like no way so he hangs up and he goes yeah i'm going down the coast someone else is coming with me and my phone's like beside us and all of a sudden two seconds later like our coach is calling my phone i just started i was like oh no way like so i knew oh man yeah so it's kind of funny we started laughing about it i answer we were on a flight in two hours and down to rapid city, but, uh, you know,

rapid city was great. Like they love their team down there. Uh, they're very passionate. Their fans was great. And, but we were only down there for a couple of weeks. Like we, I think we played one road, one home game. And then we were straight on the sleeper bus, like, uh, straight to Utah. Like it was like 12 hours. I was in the pit and bounced up off, off the ceiling, every bump. Like it was, uh, it was quite the pit getting bounced up off off the ceiling every bump like it was uh it was quite the time but it was it was a cool experience just like i i take everything and i learned from it so

it was definitely it was humbling coming into pro that way and i learned a lot from that experience in the coast the coast will humble you yeah that's what i always tell everybody the coast will humble you the first the first game down there in utah i remember there was a fight on our bench and i was like this is pro hockey like what's going on here oh yeah yeah it was not it's not pro hockey till you're swapping buses with the booster bus because your sleeper bus broke down and you need to get to your game in johnstown yeah yeah and then that same did you do that oh yeah buddy you fucking name it i did it in wheeling and i wouldn't trade it for anything it was fucking it will put some hair on

your nuts buddy you're getting into the cockroach hotel at four in the morning you're playing like a home and home and home series where you're you're traveling six hours you're playing at home on friday you're traveling six hours to play trenton on saturday and then you're coming back home to play them again on sunday it's just like what the fucking like who smoked ra's stuff and made this schedule i i remember that actually we got there to we finally got there for how long that bus was and we were drove right into like the the denny's eight denny's oh yeah morning skate right to the Olive Garden game time. It was like...

Oh, my God. It was great. What a lineup. That sounds like a NASCAR fan's dream lineup of restaurants. Yeah. Waffle House, Dodge, and Bullets pregame. Oh, yeah. It was great.

But for somebody like yourself, you beat the odds, right? And considering how hard it is to make it. And then those years when you weren't getting called up, it's all about attitude. But there had to be times that you kind of... And it's nothing personal, but you're looking up at Arizona like, I'm better than him. I'm better than him. Or were you able to kind of push it aside and at least at the beginning, stay pretty positive in terms of your situation?

and at least at the beginning stay pretty positive in terms of like your situation yeah i i was i was pretty positive from the start like at the first few years i think i just kept wanting to push push push but i also never got the chance to play and then i think after um like after i got called up and had the taste that's where i started getting a little frustrated but um i always kind of you know believed in myself i just said you know what like what am I going to do? I got to just keep playing well and keep doing my thing. And then hopefully one, one day, like my chance will come. And I was fortunate enough that, that it did. And I was able to run with it that year in Arizona. Who were you able to lean on from like a, just like talking it out? Like when you're having that frustration, was there a teammate, like who did you lean on for that kind of that mentorship down in uh in tucson yeah it was uh a couple guys like

i remember like steve poppin he's the coach down there now um in tucson he was assistant coach when i was there and then the head coach when i my last season there but he was he was great with the players and whenever you know i had wanted to talk about stuff he was always there to to chat about stuff and and went on and then obviously like i mentioned before west west clark has been uh you know a friend of mine since day one now so um he was always there no matter even when i was in tucson i i would chat with them and whatnot so um those guys i think played a big role and um and then obviously my family they're speaking with them and you know they're always there to support so um but yeah i just try to you know stay positive like it was pretty hard to you know obviously with the hockey aspect and um being upset with whatnot but then

when you leave the rink you're in you're in tucson arizona it's beautiful it's sunny we all live we lived in a complex like there was two pools, hot tub, movie theater. Were you single? Were you single there? No, no. All right. No. We can end the conversation. If you were going through this in Binghamton, though, it might have been.

You might be bald now. Yeah, yeah, exactly. Looks like Merle's. Bald is beautiful. Yeah, exactly. There was so much to do in Tucson. University of Arizona was there there it was great like got that was one thing that i think was really cool for the tucson team like you guys know like team funds like um whatever you'd build your team fund like

we'd go out as a team and it'd be like 250 bucks for the night because it would be like it would be like college town like it'd be like bucks the beers for nothing and the guys would have so much fun like friday saturday schedule in the ahl saturday was the whole team would go out and have fun so it was a great group of guys there that made it a little bit better um was dubas the one who drafted you when you were in the ohl yeah he was so is that's obviously the connection as to why you ended up signing in toronto right like and wes and the guy west yeah like uh like maybe talk us through that signing and like obviously like getting to go play in toronto is like that was a that must have been huge and then knowing that you were going to go

play there with those guys that were there so like you're playing with fucking like mitchie marner matthews these are world-class guys that all of a sudden you get to mix it up with on the first two lines. Yeah, I remember when at the end of the season I was becoming a UFA and I didn't know what I was going to do and I kind of wanted experience becoming a free agent for the first time and then

right before free agency opened, little talks happened with every team and then once it opened, Kyle called me and asked basically if I wanted to be a toronto maple leaf and then where they would they would see me fitting and it was kind of like a no-brainer obviously um i knew the the left side was a little not as deep and i could you know i didn't expect to start with maddie and mitch and and kind of go on that run but i was just like you know what i'm gonna go there and basically have the same mentality and then if i get that opportunity and run with it and kind of the rest was history there so that's

interesting because i was gonna say like you'd only i mean you'd only had 26 games in the nhl so you had success but i guess it made a difference that you went into camp already knowing you were going to be given a shot on the top two line it wasn't like hey we're signing you let's see what you have in camp at least you had the confidence of like they see me here as of now yeah exactly and i played through like sheldon and junior too so i kind of i knew him and then he gave me a call after signing and and then he kind of basically said yeah like hey this is where we want you to try to start and see how camp goes and we'll roll from there so i i went in with confidence knowing that you know i had a spot on the team i wasn't worried like oh i might be getting down going down try to start and see how camp goes and we'll roll from there. So I, I went in with confidence knowing that,

you know, I had a spot on the team. I wasn't worried like, Oh, I might be getting down, going down the Marley's and in the next day. So I went in that and went into camp with confidence and, and knew I belonged.

So, um, yeah, it was actually just, it was pretty smooth just going into it. So, so like your, like your transition there in,

in Arizona, when you finally got your shot where everything was going in off the start, when you got paired up with those guys, there weren't any first bit of nerves, like you weren't fucking off. It took a while to click. It was just boom seamlessly. Yeah. You know what?

I give, obviously going in, I was playing with the two top guys, but I'll give those guys a lot of credit. They were great off the ice. I mean us three are like really close friends still now and so that they made it a little bit easier like playing with them because they would joke around and then basically tell me like hey listen like like you can play with us let's go like you got this and then like right from the get-go like i think that that helped me a lot with my confidence and just knowing that you know i can keep up and, and play there and play in this spot. And,

uh, yeah, so I, I give, uh, both those guys some credit. That's awesome. I also want to mention Mike,

you, when you left, you were Tucson's all time leader in games, played goals, assists, points, and penalty mats. So I just want to give you props for that.

But as far as the agitating part of your game, were any like old events, maybe coaching you, like when, when, and way to do it, maybe certain reps you can't do it with certain players with who was giving you advice in that regard what were they telling you yeah um yeah that's kind of always been uh been my my yeah there's everyone

kind of just say told that line but not go over and you know i'm still working on it to this day but um yeah no i think i think every coach I've ever crossed paths with, they, they've tried to, you know, talk to me about it and I feel like I'm getting better every single year and, and, and the more mature I get with that.

But, um, yeah, definitely from the start. Um, yeah, just all, just going into pro,

I think every coach that, um, that was the main thing. And, um, as Biz will say, I was pretty good in the American league, so I'm still on the line.

Oh yeah. Yeah. Uh, no, Hey, so I'm towing the line. Oh, yeah. Yeah. Hey, maybe not so much with officials, though. All right, was that what you were going to ask? I saw it, but go ahead, let him answer. Yeah, I know. Yeah, for sure. How did this all start?

Yeah, is this being blown out of proportion, like TMZ style, or are you actually fucking getting into it with refs all the time? No, you know what? That was definitely, once again, again, like the Toronto media, they're great, but they obviously, you know, they love the Leafs. They love any Canadian market. That's the mainstream. So, yeah, I think it all kind of started once I got pushed off the ice

by the linesmen, and then it seemed like it just got more focused on on that but um yeah i know i'm i'm working on my relationship with the refs and they're working on with me they've been great with me actually even this year so far that line dummied you that line i played yeah i played against them in the american league but you know why i i saw him this year too and you know we had a good laugh and like things happen so quick like i don't blame him and i there's really it wasn't really anything like it's so emotional out there clapper up the wall next season yeah get him back just right right the fucking shit yeah like i things happen so fast that like like it just happened so i kind of just brushed that one off and that was another thing like but yeah, just the media obviously brought that up a lot more.

And I try to stay away from it. But yeah, it kind of just unfolded. Last year, I thought it was so interesting. And it was kind of the same with Jersey and New York. But you knew you were playing Tampa from January 1st. And the first round exit storyline and losing to them the year prior like were you guys already kind of focused on that series even though you had a lot of the regular season yet left or is that a ridiculous question in terms of there's so much hockey you didn't even think

about playoffs till that last regular season game ended yeah uh I think a little bit of both like obviously we were focused on um like every single game and whatnot but like once the season started getting closer and we kind of realized we weren't going to catch Boston they they were taken off with it that it just it would align that we were playing Tampa once again and uh that was once again another great series it's always it's always pretty competitive with them obviously they've been good for so long and um yeah it was it was it was a battle and uh you could tell you know the weight was lifted off a lot of the guy's shoulders that's been in Toronto for a long time once uh once we were able to pass that first round so um because obviously that's been the talk of town for for

quite some time what did you make of the moves at the deadline like how excited was the room when you guys picked up all those guys and also I think you guys got a little bit tougher to kind of match, knowing that you guys were going to go against Tampa Bay as well. Yeah, I thought the moves were great. Obviously, adding Schenner, he's a big boy in the back end. And then Factor and Cookie Achari, they were both great. And yeah, like Factor, obviously, you know, he's been around the league for a long time. And he's won a cup, so you could tell.

And you could tell even in the playoffs, like he came up big a few times in the playoffs, and that's why, you know, we got him. So, yeah, we were all really excited, and they were great guys, and they fit the room really well. And actually, and McCabe and Lafferty, too. So, yeah, there was a lot of good ads. Going into the first playoff game, anything that really caught you off guard?

You're like, Holy shit. I wasn't expecting this first playoff game with the Leafs. Just the overall intensity. Yeah. Intensity. That's, that was the,

that was the biggest thing. I think it was, it was fast. It was in your face. It was, it kind of like the, yeah, the first 10 minutes,

it's like, there's not even a puck out there. Everyone's just flying around and, and hitting each other and whatnot. But I like that kind of hockey, and that gets me going and whatnot. So it was really fun to be a part of. You've got to get yourself going sometimes in that Toronto building, the fucking lower bowl, man.

They're all in the fucking bathroom doing woof. They're not there cheering you guys on. What's up with that? Why aren't they there to cheer in the lower bowl? I't know well in playoffs they were great for us i don't know how they've been this year but um but yeah no uh playoffs i thought it was it was really loud i think that they bring it maybe they'll wait for playoffs to bring it oh is that how spoiled they are but it's now they just wait till playoffs like they got nine cups. That's true. Patriots fans.

I don't know how it's been this year, but what I will say is Carolina's barn is loud. I forgot how loud it is. Yeah, we went to last year. They played Edmonton. They put a beating on the Oilers. And I kind of forgot, too, from playing there. I was like, oh, when that place gets rocking, it's unreal. Yeah.

I bet you they throw more than 10 hats for a hat trick if you got a hat trick there. Well, the hats at the Leafs Arena are $58, so it's not like you can chuck it away right if you buy it. Canadian. Hey, did you ever have to put a limit or an uh or an axe on like tickets you must have been getting hounded being the local boy that's why i said he's playing for minimum wage yeah yeah um yeah i think at the at the start of the when i first became a leaf i i bought like a handful

of tickets for like friends and family and whatnot and um so i got them to see like my first game as a leaf and then after that i had to shut it down because i knew it could get out out of hand i'll be basically paying playing for free because like everyone would want to come to the games but um that was pretty cool too like for everybody to come see that first game like everyone i grew up with were our diehard leaf fans so uh for me to be playing that they were they were pretty pumped did you get a car deal there or or or i did yeah and the boys cock blocking all the deals no i i i got a i got a cadillac deal when i was there holy shit yeah that's old school man yeah i couldn't even get a hertz rental for the coyotes and they got you in a fucking cadillac

escalade escalade yeah oh shit they the boys were giving it to me when I was rolling in with that, but I didn't care. How silly that locker room was with all those guys. Those guys got the world by the balls. Yeah, the guys are great. That's one thing I'll say is we had such a close group. We liked being around one another, and we had fun too. You had so much personality.

You had Mitchie going all the the time and you had myself and um yeah it was it was uh it was a really close group and it was it was a fun uh group to be a part of did you ever dap up bieber yeah yeah he came in a couple times so that was yeah he's uh he's a big leaf fan so we had the like whenever we wear his jerseys he he shows up so You text buddies or not that close? No, I'm not that close. No, no, no. At least you left Toronto without your medical records all over the newspapers. We won't mention any names.

But when you got to Carolina, a couple of class clowns down there, Jordan Martin, is he basically the class clown of the locker room down there? How did you react to his first Svechnikov? I won't try to do it like the last time I butchered it. Well, yeah, Svechnikov? I won't try to do it like the last time I butchered it. Well, Svechnikov hasn't played yet, so he's still hurt. But Marty's great. You can tell he's the energy of this group. He's always going before a game.

He's screaming, getting the guys riled up. So, yeah, he's a great guy. And this whole group, it seems like, yeah, they're really close and they've been together for so long. So I'm starting to really get familiar with one another. And it's a great group. The defense there is so good, like all six of them. And we talked about them in like Vegas, maybe the top defensive cores in the league.

But in terms of like Jacob Slavin, did you know how good he was from playing against him? Or have you kind of already seen? Because in terms of like watching games, he never really gets credit, but he is legit. Yeah, he's legit. That's funny you say that. He doesn't get the credit he deserves. But he makes those little pop plays or perfect breakouts. And he's on, actually, a roll here offensively, too.

So it's nice to see that for him. But yeah, right from the get-go when I got here, I forgot what I i was saying too but i was like wow slavo's like he's nasty like i didn't really realize how good he was until getting here and he yeah he definitely needs a little bit more respect on his name they dog put him in a blender last night yeah but that's not fair that's how sick is that when that guy gets chugging through the neutral zone it's something else a bunts yeah i was playing against you i knew i had to retire i couldn't imagine playing against How sick is that? When that guy gets chugging through the neutral zone, it's something else, eh, Bunce? When I was playing against you, I knew I had to retire. I couldn't imagine playing against him now.

Yeah, he winds up and gets all that room on the power play and you just see him coming and you just got to hope to shut him down or push him outside. So yeah, he gets flying out there. Was it hard to adapt to the team defense? Because they typically go man-on-man in the D zone, right? So that's not the way you guys were playing in Toronto. Have you gotten acclimated to that system yet, or is it hard? I'm getting there.

I'm not going to say I'm right on it right now, but we're six games in. So that's one thing. I'm learning every single game. Like, yeah, it's man-on-man. You've got to make sure you're on your guy or it might end up in the back of the net. So, um, but yeah, I know it's, it's, you know, we are very good defensively and, um, like you said, a defense. So a lot of guys are bailing each other out, but, um, yeah, I'm going to get used to it

and I'm looking forward to, you know, keeping it going. So as a left winger, right? Like if you got the right D, if he he goes anywhere it's straight on man on man it's not even like a little different than like how little kids play it yeah yeah like sometimes you can switch off if you communicate but yeah like most of the time like sometimes like yeah i just gotta make sure i got my guy like especially when it gets a little scrambly so that's almost so that i bet you by the end of the season and because you skate so well it might it might end up being easier in a sense. Because you're like, all right, just be on this dude.

I don't have to worry about anything else, really. Yeah, you know who you have and whatnot. Let's hope he doesn't have the green jacket. Orlov's running away with that thing. Oh, no. Oh, no. That is a fucking good D squad. You got one?

Sorry. Yeah, that's all right. A couple of young guys on the squad. Natchez, Jarvis. Do you feel maybe they don't get as recognized or appreciated because of the mock you guys are in? I mean, they're terrific young players. Yeah, they're both really elite, and they're showing it right now.

I don't know if you guys caught that Natchez goal in San Jose. The wraparound? The wraparound, yeah. He can fly it's he he's on yeah he's up there with uh one of the fastest in the league when he gets going so really but yeah i i think he flies yeah when he was taken off for that goal i couldn't believe it so um but yeah he he's he's got some sneaky skill to him and so does jarvey too jarvey's smart with the puck he's silky so um yeah no i i like i like both of their games he's a crafty little player a jar he is he's really crafty yeah yeah he's funny to watch man

he looks like he'd be a fun time at the bar with the boys yeah he's he's a good dude he's a character off the ice and like the guys love him too and like he's just like he's he's a good guy he's funny and like and for a small guy too like he can throw around like he's, he's a good guy. He's funny. And like, and for a small guy too, like he can throw around, like he's thrown around a few hits too. And I'm, I'm pretty impressed by him. So, uh, yeah. Have you gotten a tour of the Brentburn zoo yet? Or did he, does he have a bunch of animals where he is now?

No, I have, I haven't been able to, but he carries on that big backpack every day. And we're always on him about it. And he he's, he's all time. So what's in the backpack. It's a coffee. He's got a lot of supplements right he's hardcore yeah he's got everything i don't even know what he's got is there beef jerky in there there probably is if but i i i know he has a lot of stuff like he takes care of his body really well like obviously he's been playing for so long you got to do that but yeah like you said he takes out some coffee he takes out a roller and whatnot.

So I don't know what else he has in there, but that thing is full. I would love to do an unbagging with him. You know, they do, you know, they do like a, is it GQ?

They do the 10 essentials. Like what the fuck is in that backpack? What's the most awkward thing in that backpack? One of these days I'm going to have to go look in it. Yeah. It would take a while. It's one of those deep ones'm gonna have to go look in it yeah it would take a while it's one of those deep ones there's a lot a lot of shit going on that's huge um who who's like the one guy still on the team because i feel like carolina they're not talked about enough

also there's so many of these sneaky good players that nobody knows about who's like the one guy that surprised you the most of any guy on the roster where you were like, I had no clue this guy was this nasty? Yeah, Slavo was one of them for sure. I think he's unreal. Fishy Ajo, he's really good. I always thought he was really good defensively and smart, but he's got skill. I know a lot of people already know that,

but watching him in practice and whatnot, and I played with him for a little bit before he got, uh, like hurt here. And he, he's, he's up there with, uh,

like elite skill and it's pretty impressive to see. Is there one guy in the room where when he speaks, everybody listens. Cause he doesn't really say much. So everyone's like, Oh, he's talking. We got to pay attention here.

Who's that? Probably like Stoller, like Stoller is. Yeah. He's the leader and he's been around and he's won a cup and whatnot, but he's talking we got to pay attention here who's that probably like staller like stallers yeah he's the leader and he's been around he's won a cup and whatnot but he's yeah he he is a little more quieter but he he talks a bit but when he's when he's speaking and it gets serious like everyone's listening to him so he's a good leader i want to actually go back to toronto for a sec now like i said local kid your first time in that room first game getting ready it was like almost in a dream

like a pinch yourself moment? You didn't even think you were going to be in the NHL until a few years prior to that. Take us through that night or day, whatever it was. Yeah, that was pretty cool. That was a pretty special moment, obviously, growing up in Toronto and an elite fan. I think it was like I was sitting there and I was just standing up in one section. And there was one section I remember going to a game for my brother's birthday. He got tickets for his birthday and me and him went down against the Boston Bruins, I think they were playing.

And I just remember looking up there and just thinking like, holy, I came a long way from sitting up there and now I'm actually playing in the game. So that was a pretty cool moment and having everybody in the rink to experience that. That will be a night I think everybody will remember for a while. So I got to ask too, I mean, game one, you guys are down 4-2 and you throw that hit on Cernak. And did you know right away, like, fuck, that's probably bad? Or did you think, like, oh, I hope that wasn't as bad as I just thought it was? Oh, I'm so happy you asked this.

Because I just remember being like, oh, my God. He might get three or four games. And you got three in the playoffs, which is basically six or seven regular season. You must have just been so bummed out. Kind of take us through your mental thought process after that went down. Yeah. To be honest, I didn't even like when we made the contact, I wasn't even looking at him. So I didn't really see the hit until after.

And the rest unfolded. And it was unfortunate that happened. Obviously, I got suspended and I missed a big chunk of that series. And he got hurt too. I do play on the edge, but that's not something I try to do out there. I don't try to hurt anyone and whatnot. So I felt bad for him. And and obviously i felt bad for myself and that's not the the start to the playoffs i i wanted especially in you know a market like toronto i they weren't everybody

wasn't really happy with me but uh you live and you learn and i just kind of had to wait for my chance to get back in were you were you catching a lot of heat like in the mentions and stuff oh oh yeah that's oh yeah it was a ton but i like before like playoffs like happened i deleted like my instagram just because like just kind of like focus it but when i read threats yeah when i reopened my instagram when i was all done and said i had like 100 so that's just that's just how that's just how it goes oh man i know after that series when it was do you think there might have been maybe I had like a hundred. So that's just, that's just how, that's just how it goes. Oh man. I know after that series,

when it was, do you think there might've been maybe too much elation between the area and perhaps the team where, you know, that, that was a hump they couldn't get over in 20 years. Maybe it was too much celebration for just getting out of the first round. Do you think that might've affected the team in the second round a bit?

Uh, I don't, I don't think so. I don't like, obviously, you know, we were excited and whatnot and we were all, but like right after that that day was like it wasn't like we went out or we're celebrating that went for a while like we went back to the hotel had our post-game meal

flew out the next day and back back to back to toronto we were ready for the next round so i don't think we yeah like obviously it was a weight lifted off our shoulders, but, you know, I'll give Florida credit. They came in and they ran through three really good teams to make to the finals. They went through Boston, us, and then Carolina. So, you know, they were hot and it seemed like nothing was stopping them until the end. So they played a good series. How long does it take after a playoff series like that where you pretty much

blink and it's over? Were you guys sitting around after being like, fuck, after getting over the hump, I thought you guys were in great position. They had to go through a seven-game series with Boston. You guys, what were your thoughts? Yeah, it happened fast. Honestly, I don't even know what I was thinking that night.

It was very quiet in the room, and guys were just kind of – It happened fast. Honestly, I don't even know what I was thinking that night. It was very quiet in the room, and guys were just kind of in shock. Like you said, it happened really quick. It was in five games. It wasn't what we were hoping, and it didn't go our way. But yeah, it was quiet. Guys left, and then a few days later, we just regrouped and just basically said our farewell so mike it was an article in the athletic a while back and your mom described you as an

aggressive kid even as a two or three year old do you think you know your upbringing i know it was you your brother your mother and your grandfather a single mom did did your environment even kind of add a little more grit over the years just you know you kind of like you said couldn't take anything for granted yeah for sure um yeah obviously you know you know growing up uh with with an older brother you're always competing with him i said i said that before but um i always i like to mention scarborough um people that come from scarborough kind of for people that know you kind of you got to grind um and you work for what what get there. I've always had that mentality. It's like that working mentality and nothing's ever handed to you and nothing ever has really been handed to me in my whole career.

I've had to work for it forever. I have that mentality and I think that's what's helped me get to this stage of my career. Bunce, do you have any hobbies? What do you do away from the rink to get your mind off shit? And if you don't have any hobbies, did you spend any dough once you signed that nice ticket? What was your splurge purchase?

I'm picking up golf. I did golf a little bit, but now coming to Carolina, it seems like all the guys just like the golf and some great players here like Shazy. I think he's going to plus two. Yeah, don't play him for dough. Oh, my God. I've never seen – he strikes the ball.

He's unreal. His tip is 330 yards. Oh, no. Shady, Brady Shady? Yeah, it's Brady Shady. He's probably got a weapon on him too. What doesn't that guy have? He does.

The kid has everything. Come on. He's a stick. So, actually, that's the first guy i golf with coming here and now and so um yeah confirmation on the big rope yeah so i do we get confirmation did we get confirmation on the big rope from his teammate that's one thing uh that's i'm gonna pick up is uh is is golf so that's that's the hobby i want to pick up is golf. So that's the hobby I want to pick up, yeah. Fucking Shazy, man.

Yeah. Jersey sales just went up. Move over, Taylor Swift and Kels. We got a new guy in town. Yeah, he's a good golf player. So what? Your splurge has been like the best clubs and getting dialed in? Yeah, and I bought a car too. I needed a car because I actually i actually had to give back my escalade so i had to buy a car no they

see you bud they're like whatever i was ripping farts with it for fucking 18 months anyway take it you fucking losers yeah so the car went back so i had to buy myself a car yeah what what'd you get i bought i bought an audi uh sq8 oh i like that thing yeah yeah now you're in the warm weather too yeah it's perfect for here too so um yeah that's that was my one purchase just zipping around zipping around yeah it flies it's a little different than the escalator on the plane, you a playing cards guy or do you watch TV or movies when you're flying? In Toronto, I was a big poker guy.

What's the action like on that? You can't bluff those guys. You can't bluff those guys. It was a lot of fun. I didn't play it until this year. They had an open seat and then they were cheering for me to get on and I ended up doing pretty well. i was i was all in on it uh or like sorry last year um and then um

my second year and then but this year guys the tables are full they play i think super talk and and ace it um spades so i i'm i'm out of the card game right now i could see matthew sucking at cards does he play cards no he's not a card guy he's just oh what's he doing on the plane then yeah watching movies yeah he's watching movies he's chilling yeah like what what's he watching i don't i don't know he's but like i sat beside sat in front of him my first year and we we would bring on like we played nintendo switch that was our thing for the first year and then the next year i went to cards what's the game on that uh mario kart yeah we'd play like mario kart tennis mario party like there was four of us so it was actually pretty fun but um that was

before i transformed over to poker now i'm hooked did you play growing up or did you learn it late i did actually i played growing up my my grandfather like you said he i grew up with in my house and that was his like his game so we'd always play uh growing up uh like a couple nights a week um so that was that's a bit my family's like a big card game family like euchre and whatnot so i always grew up doing that did you play for like real stakes so you actually lose money then you learn the game better that's my grandmother deal with me anyways. Yeah. Oh, shocker.

Oh, that's what happened. This is coming from a guy whose mom signed him up for Playboy when he was 12. He's fucking gambling at six. No wonder how much action you got on the games you got. He loses dinner. He didn't eat for three days. Honey, McDonald's again.

Pickle at number one with fries. Can I just get one piece of chicken? No. You lost it in the parlay. You got rivered. You got rivered, bitch. Get that toast out of your mouth. Are you living right in Raleigh or are the guys in a suburb?

Yeah, we're just outside of like five minutes from the game rink. It seems like everyone lives in this area, like a suburb or the apartments here. Are you at a practice facility most days? No, we mostly practice out of the game rink. I like that. I like that too. And then we have a practice facility. We practice there before a flight because it's right beside the airport.

So that works out well, yeah. Bunce, can you do me a favor? Can you ask Rod if we could do a content video where we show up in the morning and all of us have to go through his workout routine? I will do that. Imagine watching R.A. I'll film it. Fuck you, R.A.

You're involved, man. We got Grinelli too, those bitch wrists. Yeah, I'll bring that up to them. I'll watch. I won't take part of that. Is he still a machine? When you get in there, is he doing fucking chin up with the weight vest on? Well, the first time I met him, he was in the gym working out.

But yeah, I think maybe he goes in before all of us now. But I haven't seen him in the gym in a little bit. But, yeah, he's still a machine. Oh, is he getting lazy? No. Rod's getting lazy? No, he's doing it at 5 a.m. Yeah, he's probably in there a lot earlier than us.

Grinnell, tweet it. Bunt says Rod's getting lazy in the gym. Oh, this has been great. The Toronto Stars fucking alarms are going off. Yeah, yeah. No, but Bunce, thanks for coming on, man. This has been great to get to know you and hear your story. And it's been a grind to get where you've gotten to, buddy,

but everything's been earned. So congratulations to you. I don't know if you guys had any other questions, but we wish you well in Carolina and your chase for the cup there. Yeah, fun team to watch, man. We're looking forward to it. So thank you. Yeah, thanks for having me, guys.

I appreciate it. My pleasure. Thanks, Mike. Good luck. All right. Thanks, Munch. All right, before we go any further, here's a few words from our good friends over at Muggsy.

Muggsy makes damn comfortable clothing for guys everywhere. Mugsy started by reinventing the jeans game back in 2015, and now they make the best jeans, chinos, tops, and joggers ever. Mugsy works exclusively with some of the best designers and manufacturers around the world to deliver the finest quality fabrics directly to your door. Their entire goal is making guys more comfortable at work at the bar and of course on the course and wherever you are by giving them one place to shop made from buttery soft patented stretch materials that look stylish but are insanely comfortable never too baggy never too tight over 18,000

five-star reviews from dudes of every shape hand size like me with no butt we had the Mugsy stuff on we did the NYPD FDNY last year we were looking styling man myself with the Canadian tuxedo and we have some duds we're going to be showing up here this week so first-time customers can get 20% back on their first order right now all you need to do is head to mugsy.com enter your email and your discount is automatically added to your card that's 20 back on the only jeans and pants you will ever wear again free shipping and free returns on every single order so the only risk is never known how great they truly are big thanks to michael bunn for jumping on this great interview i can't wait to see what those hurricanes do come playoff time but uh big sign and big extension since the last time he met the

flyers gave owen tippett an eight-year 49.6 million dollar deal that comes out to a 6.2 aav man this kid really blossomed once they got him last year he had 27 goals last year got himself a nice payday what a turnout just goes to show like business if a guy gets a perfect change of scenery or maybe you know in florida three coaches in three years it's tough for a guy to get any traction though but he's been a he's been a treat in philly so far uh not exactly a judd type contract i believe that the team won this one 6.2 aav that's what he's making guys i think that he's still got a bigger ceiling too uh i think he was born to be a philadelphia flyer i feel like torts is kind of add a little bit of spunk to his game even.

And I think this is a great contract. I think this one ends up just as good as the Couturier one. Good for Breer and the Flyers. Correct. Right. That's what I'm saying. It is a win-win. Right off the hop, I kind of thought that the Flyers really won the deal.

I thought he had closer to a point per game this year. He's just basically like a big-time goal scorer. Last year showed. Kevin Hayes told me the guytime goal scorer. You know, last year showed. Kevin Hayes told me the guy's like fast as shit. You wouldn't even notice how fast he is maybe if you're watching the Flyers every night. But in the end, I think it's a really fair deal. I think this kid's set for life. He's smart with his money.

The Flyers get a true top six forward that can score at a reasonable price as the cap's going up. And it does seem like he really kind of found something when he got traded from florida and you know 10th overall pick and florida trades him and all of a sudden you're kind of questioning your first trade you get dealt you're like oh shit a little bit of a panic sometimes but he's just blossomed there and i love the deal because he does play a hard style and did you just say he's yeah he's that way he was born to be a flyer yeah yeah okay he's got the same chair he's like gritty it's like gritty orange he was born to be a flyer. He's got the same fucking orange hair. He's like gritty. It's like gritty orange. He was born to be a flyer.

Like Merle's coat. Had the orange hair. He was a great flyer. He's the same. He drives that offense. I fade the flyers a lot, so I watch them a lot. He is dangerous. He is dangerous every time he's out there.

I'm worried about him all the time. That's a guy for $6 million. Who were we just talking about for $9 million that is never dangerous on the ice six million dangerous guy for that long is danny b's the man i think yeah danny b's the man but i think it's the way he's been scoring this year like he has he's been ripping highlights he's been pretty consistent but this is the guy that he was supposed to be too like in junior when he got drafted he was supposed to be this guy i saw him at the prospects game i saw him through junior he was supposed to be this guy so the pressure of that trade and coming in replacing someone else that was pretty monumental for your franchise for him to come in and just kind of take off as this like up-and-coming guy i think where the flyers are at is huge i think

you know they're trying to establish some kind of obvious culture but like build guys up and find like a core and like start to you know find their way of who they are and he's a part of that now and that's probably the perfect uh perfect coach for him perfect right to like really be like hey i see all this potential you got to be a pro he's like no i'm a sniper he's like no you're gonna fucking work the nice thing. He's like, no, I'm a sniper. He's like, no, you're going to fucking work. The nice thing is he's going to work. You're going to take a team deal. Sign it, you fucking brat. He's like, man, my

fucking hair is red. Sign the fucking paper tip. I'll put you on the fourth fucking line before you know it. Fizz just smoked. Holy shit. Glad I laid off the offer. Was that a good torts impression? It was really good. Fizz just smoked. Holy shit. Glad I laid off the offer.

Glad I also extended Ryan. Was that a good torts impression? It was really good. Come on. Ryan Payton got that two-year, $3.8 million deal. But, Merle, I want your opinion. The Stadium Series jerseys, a lot of people weren't very impressed with them. Did you have a favorite? Oh, he's the fashionista?

I don't know. What'd you think, Merle? Hey, it's because I got the nice Muggsy jeans jacket on. It doesn't mean I'm the fashion guy. I got mine, too. They made the jerseys. I was too hot. Muggsy jeans jacket doesn't mean I'm the fashion guy. I got mine too. They made the jerseys Muggsy jeans. They're stretchable, comfortable. It's like the Rangers.

That's what the Rangers was the worst one. The Devils jumped out at me. Devils were the best. Devils were the strongest. Don't talk Devils. Don't get Tasha too excited. Jonas Brothers got a Devils one. I actually, believe it or not,

liked this outdoor jersey, the NYR, better than the Malik one that they brought back. Which one? The one that had the Liberty Lady. Yeah. Oh, that they're wearing this year? That dark blue? I'll say this.

I don't like letters that big. If you put a fucking shiny helmet or a see-through Bucky or one of those fucking brutal new age helmets. You go Matt Black. That's badass right now. So is the Kings one. I don't like the shiny silver. That's not Saskatchewan. I don't need this. Vancouver did the blue and they lost.

They're brutal. Those are the worst By's going la it looks cool because it's la vegas it's fucking vegas vancouver stick with the matte black ones and fuck off those are bruce what were we talking about right before that though um stadium series i think they wasted their shot at putting the big Rangers crest. They did that for another jersey already this year. But the logo, because it's Stadium Series and it's so far away, the idea that they worked that devil logo in and it's bigger, you see it.

It's more prominent. And that's why Isles, blah. That's such a Lou jersey. And then the other one was. You know, it's Frankie Borelli's sweatshirt. Did you see that? Did you see that did you see that it's literally his sweater it's the one he wears all the time he designed it they stole his

sweatshirt frankie barelli's we're going to barelli's they stole his sweatshirt and they made it the jersey how unoriginal is that by the islanders it might have been frankie's idea he might have it but i thought the thought the New York one was second best, opposed to the other two were just using the name. I don't know if the occasion was just to trot another one, but did you see the Shackster jerseys? Those are sick. Those are sweet.

Just a dorsal fin coming out of the water. Did you see the ad they did with Rafi Torres? He's in a car, right? He's in a classic car, and it's a side profile of Rafi Torres with all his tattoos. Just killing someone, the gangster. Run somebody over for jaywalking yeah you thought five games wasn't there's some old guy carrying his groceries out he just bretton and gallagher is him with his chicken you want to see a 25

hey how many eat my grill here's a gamer. Here's your new fucking third jersey. Rafi Torres was an absolute tank. He was lethal. That's a cigarette machine. I pushed him in front of the net once and he didn't move an inch. I was like, oh, he like elbowed me back. I was like, who is this guy? My neck is his neck right now. Like my neck right now was his neck when he was playing.

There was probably top prospects in junior that he would line up in the middle of the ice that you probably never heard from again. I think he was with the Brampton battalion. Yeah, he was. Yeah. He would just. You think he retired people? He retired people.

Rafi. I think he for sure. I think. Did he retire? Did Hoso play again? One referee system on a Sunday afternoon. They're all. They're all hungover. Can't even open their eyes.

And all of a sudden, Rafi just steals someone's soul. He probably didn't even get a minor penalty for it. And there was no video back then. It was all grainy and shit. It was like a billet dad was taking the video. Kind of looks like somebody walking across the catwalk. But I guess it could be Torres cleaning his clock. Anyway, yeah.

No, he's a gangster. He unveiledaurus cleaning his clock. Anyway, yeah, no, he's a gangster. He unveiled the jersey though. That's badass. Desert Dogs made a little history since we were last on Gino Malkin redirected a Chris Letang back pass into an empty Penguins net. It was a hold goalie, an appending power play. The Coyotes made

history by becoming the first team to score a power play goal without registering a shot on the power play. I mean, like, Army, I'm going to throw it over you. What the fuck is wrong with the Penguins? Best stat I've seen in a week. Reinhardt had just as many goals, power play goals, as the Penguins power play had.

And I think, like, six other teams, too. Yeah, okay, we can throw them on there. Their power play, though, like, if their power play was middle of the pack, they'd be in there. I said their power play though like if their power play was middle of the pack they'd be in there i said their power plays cost seven games why is it so bad or seven games i don't you see every game i don't get it they're stand around in their spots no net front guy no shooting mentality no attack mentality passing mentality power play that has got everyone figured out. They push up high.

They pressure them up high. They paint themselves into corners, and they're done because no one moves, and they just stand in their spots. And they've tried to move it around. They've taken Carlson off. They've taken Geno off. They put Letang on. They put this Pustanen kid on who actually wants to shoot the puck, and it looked a lot

better the last game before the break. I don't know what's going to happen with this. If they don't figure out the power play, this is a power play special teams league. You know what they have to do? They got to get a shooting mentality and they have to put someone net front. You know, you can't have a front.

They got to have somebody net front. They need some meat out there. Nope. Get the barrel in there. Nope. Hey, sign. Sign. Are you a PTO?

Get the barrel of all of this thrown out there? Buddy, easy. When I was on Anaheim, the power play was Scott Niedermeyer roamed around. He had no position. He would go anywhere. He was a forward. He was a D. And I think they should do that with Carlson.

Carlson's pretty similar to Scott Niedermeyer, right? If you look at the way they played, amazing skaters. Put Carlson as a roamer. He's going in the corner to help out. Third guy, get the puck back. Get him in the slot. The power play was sick. Prongo would be up top.

Getze would be over to the left for the one-timer. And then Niedermeyer would just be roaming. He'd be behind the net. And at least then the killers are like, all right, well, this is the one guy. We know where he's going. He can play up top. He can play down low. They should just have Carlson be a full blown roamer, no position power play

and see if it works. Go watch clips of the ducks with Niedermeyer and Pronger. Why don't they put Carter on the power play net front? They tried it. They've had him there. They have him on the second unit. I think they should put Lars Eller in there. That's what I think. You need a grinder. You need a guy that can retrieve pucks, can get in there, can retrieve pucks.

In that Florida game, the only one who had balls was Carter. He was the one sticking up for everybody. Yeah, he did. He played well in that game. He would be able to take some punishment. He's old school. And he's pretty thick. I think Eller would be good.

He's strong. He's on pucks. He's fast. He can jump on loose ones. He can keep second, third opportunities alive. But if they don't, honestly, I'll say this. That's a big thing with them right now. Inconsistency, yes, up and down.

A lot of it has to do with just that bad power play. And they've got to somehow figure it out. I don't care personnel. They've got to put everything on the table. They've got to figure it out. And to Witt's point about Carlson, the best thing about carlson is his unpredictability he's not your usual guy he's not your usual defenseman he's not your usual player he appears he disappears he appears in places that he should not be which makes him good it makes him nasty because he's willing to think differently and be in different spots

he's a ghost he's a silent and he'll just appear i think being on the power play which i don't think traditionally his power play numbers are really that great but i think it's just it's pretty standard setup carlson's power plays aren't great power play numbers yeah i think last year out of 101 points he had i think he had like 27 power play points no believe it or not. He was on the sharks. That too. So you could say that. But I think what makes him

good though, to your point, is his unpredictability to let him maybe let him roam a bit. Okay. Yeah, I could see that too. Tang up top, Crosby to his right, then have Carlson roam, get Gino on the side and and get Gensel roaming. They should all start roaming around.

They should all roam if they're going to roam. Gino just stands there on the half wall and gets grumpy if he doesn't get the puck or score. But the empty netter that went in when LeTang dropped it to Gino, it was the most classic. Gino immediately starts looking at LeTang, blaming him. Meanwhile, he went one-handed two feet away from the net, and then Crosby puts a stick over his helmet to scuss him. It was like a straight-up blooper. And then you could see Geno blaming LeTang.

Oh, yeah. Buddy, that rink too, Biz. You know the mullet. I was in the rink calling the game. It was 70% Penguins fans. They must have gone nuts. Buddy, no, because the rink was so small you could literally feel people's souls leaving their body because it was three two right like

10 minutes it made it four two it made it four not not the shit on a man when he's down but if you don't live on the internet or twitter there's this picture of todd reardon oh that is that video i guess it's all yeah it's old it's a video and he's got the board out. And he's got the Sharpie ready. And hey, sometimes the ideas aren't exactly full. And he goes to start. And it's like 30 seconds. And the guy behind him filming it must have been like, oh my God.

And at the end it just ends. What did he end up writing on there nothing he put the board down i would love to know the context of when he was doing that but great guy but can you imagine being a guy that power clock in between them time massage the power play guy and like you're in this funk right now with the players you have like that's got to be a bad yeah i feel i love this that we're the special teams meeting i bet you they're going to have this on in the locker room yeah we're going to a wildcat offense with carlson where everybody's just going to roam

there's no crosby up top put like do something do something put carlson down in front let him roam and get all retrieve all those pucks and float do something what do you think they stand around what do you think su Nope, they stand around. What do you think? Is Sullivan trying to maybe say, hey, maybe it's my turn to take over the power play? I don't know. You don't get the weeds? I don't know. I'm in the weeds.

I don't know with that one. I just think everything has to be on the table. It's fucked up. It's more than costing them games. How many points it's costing them i would say probably right now through this season i would say i would say maybe more i said seven wins 10 points seven wins is 14 points no but uh some uh ties and stuff get them in a game an overtime point instead of getting two yeah yeah, yeah, yeah. I would say it might be.

I'd say it could be more than that. For example, the other night. I still need to know how seven points, seven wins gets you ten points. We need to open that window. I actually did the stuff that was in R.A.'s pocket. Man, you might be hit. I could hit the disple.

It's that crocodile from Russia. It's a math strain. Yeah, no wonder I'm putting... Before the disbuff. No wonder you can never add. It's that crocodile from Russia. It's a math strain. Yeah, no wonder I'm putting... Yeah, never mind. Before we continue, guys, I need to talk to you about Robinhood. Did you know that even if you have a 401k for retirement, you can still have an IRA?

Robinhood has the only IRA that gives you a 3% boost on every dollar you contribute when you subscribe to Robinhood Gold. But get this, now through April 30th, Robinhood is even boosting every single dollar you transfer in from other retirement accounts with a three percent match. That's right. No cap on the three percent match. Robinhood Gold gets you the most for your retirement thanks to their IRA with a three percent match. This offer is good through April 30th. Get started at robinhood.com slash

boost. Subscription fees apply. And now for some legal info. Claim as of quarter one 2024 validated by Radius Global Market Research. Investing involves risks, including loss. Limitations apply to IRAs and 401ks. 3% match requires Robinhood gold for one year from the date of first 3% match must keep Robinhood IRA for five years. The 3% matching on transfers is subject to specific terms and conditions. Robinhood IRA available to us customers in good standing. Robinhood financial LLC member SIPC is a registered broker dealer. financial LLC member SIPC is a registered broker dealer.

Lars Zeller. I mean, first Dane Danish guy to play a thousand games in the NHL. So that's, I'll tell you Lars Eller, man, when, when Washington won the cup,

that guy was incredible. It's been a different player since, and he's getting a little bit older, but I just think when I think of his career, that cup run, he was a horse. He was a monster. He could PK, could play on the second unit great career thousand games man i'll never i i i not to sound like the guy i played in the nhl i hear someone played a thousand games and every time i'm like

holy shit like i i think it's just so amazing i got 450 and i barely made that and it felt like i played for 20 years so you think of all the heat packs and like all the the mental grind for the repetition keeping your body ready it's it takes everything and you know what the cool thing is he started what st louis montreal washington colorado pittsburgh right so think of all the people you meet too yeah That's one thing. Like, you played on a bunch of teams. I got to play on four different teams plus Sweden. Merle's hockey DB looks like.

Yeah. Jason Bourne over there. It's like Biz's receipt at the time massage place. Like a CVS receipt. But you know a ton of people. You've got to meet some great friends. And like 1,000 games games that's not only great for your career but amazing for your life and these guys now that played the thousand games is still

impressive because they played probably more than half of them back in the old days when it was an absolute grind now if guys like in five years from now when guys played a thousand games i'm gonna be like yeah there was no hitting there's no fighting there's no hooking there's no back-to-backs you got you got chefs you got flight i say the opposite we didn't have any of this we're out and i say the opposite roberts put me in a headlock because i was having fruit loops the morning of a game it's all we had to me it's about the lower body and being able to keep pace with these guys that's's a good point. That's like a different element. Back then it was shoulders and like, yeah, it was a little slower and we're all hooking and

slobbering all over each other three on three. But now they're just fucking zipping around like Ferraris out there. Yeah, and be more you got to keep up your pace, your play and as opposed, I'm thinking more like stay healthy for a thousand games. Yeah, yeah. And the way we had to play all of it. Well, the penguins

are going to be playing florida on valentine's day and it's going to be the first ever chicklets cast yes us dummies are going to be on true tv and max you can check us out there we're going to basically like beavis and butthead the game more or less right biz it's crazy it's crazy where we've where we've came all right we went from you. You've came everywhere. And a Thai massage pillow. From you playing with your toe cheese from the Warthog. Guys, yeah, it's going to be awesome on TNT. We're going to be throwing a simulcast. You said it's going to be airing on True.

True TV. It's like a sister network. And we're going to get to do it like we did from our couches through COVID. And we just get guests on. And it's going to be very similar to a manning cast, but it's going to be different. It's going to be our version of it and it's going to be a blast and, uh, it's an honor and I can't wait.

And fucking you guys are going to be on it too. It's going to be amazing. I think that we did all these streams or we've been doing streams for years now, but the entire time somebody would have to throw the game on their TV and then maybe throw the computer on and watch us. They're just watching us watch a screen. Now you can watch the game and watch us talk some shit, talk some nonsense.

It's Valentine's Day. Who knows what surprise we have in store? And I think the Manning cast, it's pretty similar. We're going to make it chiclets. Maybe they're a little more quiet. Maybe we can get a little more rowdy. Who knows? But just the fact that you can tune in and hopefully watch a great game florida pittsburgh they just had a

battle last week they were going at each other's necks so we got a little rematch there all of us hopefully you tune in the best way to describe it it's like the podcast where it's like not traditional like we're not polished like this would be what you know when i go to fucking tnt man i gotta put two filters in and it takes a lot for me not to drop f-bombs because i just like this is how i talk with the guys in the locker room and now we're going to be doing this this uh this like live stream style where that's how it would be like if we were sitting around watching the game you know whether we're you know talking to a guy interviewing them or like it reminds us of an old story and

it's kind of awesome i mean this is going to be a rematch a game just happened of florida and pittsburgh we all played in pittsburgh it's going to be awesome to talk about all that you know what kachuk and the florida panthers have going on and it'll bring up old stories of when fucking wit like fell over mark andre flurry the day after they got reamed out by one of the best post-game pressers ever and we're going to be able to use that footage because TNT has the right. So it's going to be fun, and it's going to be a different experience and one that we think a lot of you Chicklets fans

are going to love. And it just so happens that Valentine's Day of all days. So I know we have a strong male demographic. Maybe, just maybe, you can eat in and cook dinner for your lady that night and convince her to stay in. It's a factor. I'll have the lasagna.

What's up? Those factor meals. Factor meals. Game notes. Yeah. Romantic little factor on a Valentine's day. I'll give you some winners. We'll have plenty of winners for the games.

You know, pay for those roses, go all in. I'll make sure to take care of you and give you the winners to pay for it. And we're going to give you the green light on. That's a cooked meal by you to present to your wife or significant other on Valentine's Day as you join us for this stream. And we can't wait. And was there anything that you had to say about R.A. as one of the OGs?

Can we smoke? Hey, man, can we rip the bong there on the coffee table? It's cable. Do whatever you want. But no, like you said, it's on Max, which is basically a part of HBO. So to have my dumb ass on an HBO network, even if it's a streaming thing,

that's a pretty cool aspect. So I'm actually, in order to promote it, we get there on the Tuesday and that's when they do NBA TV with Shaq and Chuck. And I'm trying to get to promo it and cross promote.

You going against Charles one-on-one on NBA TV. Yeah, that seems fair. I'm going to win. That seems fair. Maybe a free throw contest. I'll wear my McHale jersey so I get in his head. It's legit the only basketball fucking throwback I have.

I mean, yeah. Okay, so why would it get in his head? Because he said McHale's the toughest guy he ever went against. The toughest forward he ever played against. I think this needs to happen now. That would be a very cool moment for Chicklets in order to promote it. We'll see you guys there on February 14th.

We got special guests in store. Witt, anything else? No, I can't wait. I might get a spray tan before. I might go around too. The first disaster in Anaheim great makeup oh they do

unreal makeup like I'm not doing this right you don't need it I will say this remember when we do the streams though and wit it would be like what time is it on the clock you guys at 1402 those were so annoying pause it pause it and then we'd all

pause the whole stream would be us trying to link our game times up and then whit would always end up 30 seconds ahead of us he wanted to be now i was making sure i was ahead of you guys because it was always oilers game i'm not watching them see an oilers goal you didn't you were you trusted yourself not to elevate if there was a goal no i would every five minutes what time you guys got it let's link it up pause it pause it so so it's funny you mentioned that for the authentic feel we're actually doing that we're unsyncing the programming so we'll be doing that throughout the stream so what's still gonna i got another question too that i think people might find interesting because they want to know behind the scenes what went into getting this done like this i know but like i know because busy you're in there you know everyone in there like

boots on the ground right mer what went into like getting them to agree to like thinking about that or like grinding them down or how did that work They probably saw the success of the Manning cast. People want to consume things in different ways. Some people maybe love traditional broadcasting. Because when we ended up doing it a few weeks ago, we kind of got jammed up, and we never ended up talking about it. We were supposed to do a Sabres game. It was snowed in.

It ended up being a Florida Panthers game, so we didn't have a crew on the ground. So they made us in studio, call the game and do the intermission and also do the intermission. And, and all my, and I was also being like, I was pumping Florida's tires.

Cause they were just working Detroit through the neutral zone. So everybody online was like, I want to hear the fucking announcers. What are, who are these fucking idiots? Turn these guys off. Cause like we, we don't,

we don't do it but this will be like a little bit more like us just sitting around watching it where there are people who want to consume it that way we'll do it and i just think that they were open it open to that and they saw that and the fact that obviously you know with g as our producer and and you know sean and fish who helped set all these things up, we tried it during COVID. We realized that there are people that want that. And now that we're able to do it in a more, you know, synchronic. Yeah. Keep going.

You got it. Thanks. Synchronic. Hey, people will be able to watch the TNT broadcast. It's a synchronic. It's the same as Monday Night Football. Yes. So you can watch it the traditional way.

Or if you're a Chipmunks fan you're like oh well we don't have to link it up now we could just watch the game they're in a smaller box we're gonna have back to the Thai place and we can't talk about the Thai massage place on that broadcast we'll bring her in she's i'm dressing up as her she zooms in she's all we should have her come in. We'll expense it. That's the intermission report. We'll expense it to TNT. Imagine this.

Hello. She steps on our A and just goes directly through. Look at his forecheck. My back cracks. She steps on our A and there's just dust comes up. Angel dust. But going back to it. So we're going to be doing this once this year on Valentine's day,

February 14th. We've already said that make it a special night for you and your lady. If it, if it, if it goes according to plan, we'll do these moving forward. And also there's more broadcasts that I believe that they have access to. So it could be something that may be moving forward. We do eight or 10 of them a year and on special nights that they believe that they have um access to so it could be something that maybe moving forward we do eight or ten of them a year and on special nights that they had that broadcast anyway where they don't need to do the traditional broadcast or send people there or maybe it would otherwise been a shit burger game that nobody wanted to see let's fucking make it silly let's get elio

in the mix let's get the spice it upice it up. Three plus three equals... Mr. Ice. $9 pizzas. Three plus three equals 14 points. Yeah, yeah. Seven wins. All right, we don't have anything else, right? A couple of small... One more, a couple. Okay, what you got?

What you got? Pretty sick, buddy. You're doing that Rory McIlroy match with DJ Khaled? Yeah, so I'm sitting with DJ Khaled on that. That's going to be phenomenal. Another one. I'm just interested to pick the guy's brain. I don't think listeners want to hear you just picking his brain though you got to get him into the golf like you're not interviewing him oh i'm not we're

not playing we're just there to like mess around in a golf cart we're not there to hit hit balls personalities yeah we're not there to play there's a uh a two female announcer sorry buddy i didn't mean to get your hopes up. Buddy, I'll tell you this. I thought you were playing. No, no, no. I'll promise you this. If I'm ever in a match,

I won't do one unless you're my partner. I don't even care. I just thought you were playing. I thought you were playing with DJ Khaled. You know what I'm going to do? I'm going to antagonize Chuck that I'll take him on with anyone he wants. Imagine MJ did it or whoever.

Imagine me, you against somebody. my last match against a live stream hey they're willing to do a live stream with us maybe they'll they'll collab on a sandbag and we're doing fucking pink which pick whitney shots we're but you know what i'm saying yeah okay okay but still that's gonna be awesome that uh max holma he's an awesome dude. Can't wait to see him. I've played with him before. And then McElroy is the other dude. Before we go any further, here's a few words from our friends at Game Time. You shouldn't have to worry when you're buying tickets to your next big event. We're in Toronto right now. All kinds of hockey events going on.

And if you are in town, you haven't gotten your tickets yet, by all means, you want to hit up Game Time because Game Time is the fast and easy way to buy tickets for all of these sports, music, comedy, and theater events near you. A couple weeks ago, Bruins were in town. I'm sorry, Tampa was in town. Got some tickets off GameTime. Saved $20. It's your first time using it.

That's a great deal in itself. But up here, like I said, if you're in Toronto, you're trying to maybe get the skills competition, maybe the games themselves. Boom, GameTime. They take care. A couple taps, a few minutes. You get last-minute get last minute tickets flash deals zone deals all kinds of great stuff it's so easy to find and buy tickets for every kind of event in your area game time is the only ticket on app that gives you complete peace of mind with your purchase see the view from your seat before you buy so you know exactly what to expect when you arrive.

All prices show you total upfront so you know you're getting a great deal without hidden fees. You can buy tickets in seconds with two taps. So take the guesswork out of buying tickets with GameTime. Download the GameTime app, create an account, and use the code CHICKLETS for $20 off your first purchase. Terms apply. Again, create an account and redeem code CHICKLETS for $20 off your first purchase. Terms apply. Again, create an account and redeem code Chicklets for $20 off your first purchase. Download Game Time today. Last minute tickets, lowest price guaranteed. All right, we're going to bring in a friend of the program, Tristan Gretzky,

Wayne's youngest son. He's going to tell us the evolution of this whole Gretzky's basement thing, Biz. Well, he drew the short straw. I don't think the other two wanted to come on. Maybe they were a little nervous nervous a little shyer but uh yeah he's gonna come on and give a breakdown as to to what where the idea came from to do Walter's basement incredible pop-up here it's gonna be jammed uh and it's gonna be a great time so he's gonna come on and explain how the idea idea came to be and uh and kind of how they run things they got a hockey school they go

in the summer too so so as far as Trevor and Ty as well, man, they're keeping the family name going, and it's awesome to see. All right, now we're going to bring in Tristan Gretzky. Enjoy. Did you draw the short straw? No, no. I wanted to come up and talk about the basement a little bit. I love that.

I love that. Go ahead. That's the voice of Tristan Gretzky, Wayne's youngest son. What's up, pal? How you been? Been good. We're fired up for the week. Get everyone to come by, see the memorabilia.

Whose idea was this? Kind of came about from me, Ty, and Trevor. So, yeah, collective group. All the family was supportive about it and well the coolest thing i saw so far down there is um wha all-star game and wayne got to the arena and his jersey's way too big and so you can tell it's kind of sewn together at the bottom in three different spots it was actually gordie howe who grabbed it and made it like cut it made it smaller and sewed it together it's down there so there's all these his 801st gold stick the original you know the silver gretzky's down there he's got his

nike wheels from the rangers so i'm i'm really excited for people to see this because i think that like nobody understands once you get around this memorabilia you realize like how much this is worth ra might end up robbing this place you gotta be careful but it's an awesome idea by you guys and you're selling merch here too right selling a little bit of merch but obviously the main attraction is all the stuff that was in the basement before and nice yeah so i i got a question because i i know about the basement i've heard about the basement i've met your grandfather playing for the leafs you'd be down on game day and he'd always have someone there like a special guest or um someone like charity or special needs that he would bring down just an amazing guy i always heard that he could you

could just go knock on his door and like say could i see the basement anyone i was i heard it was like you could just go to his house and be like hey what's up walter which was like canada's dad he was canada's dad. He was Canada's dad. And you go, hey. And he wore that jacket all the time, right? He always had that on. So, yeah, we have. So behind us is one of the Roots jackets that he always wore. And we made replicas of it.

That'll be here in the store. So we made 99 of these for people to purchase if they want to. And that's a tribute to him. And yeah, we got the original address of the house. My dad grew up in there. But you could go down there anytime. Like people would knock and Walter would let them in. It was always an open door.

He'd love to show people around. It's amazing. That's something we're trying to replicate in here where people can come see the stuff. He's like, you want a beer? He's like, I'm 10. So you were born the year after your dad retired, correct? Yeah, 2000. So the only time you get to see him play is in all these videos

and VHSs and stuff like that. So is it, I mean, that must be pretty crazy. No, for sure not. Got to see him play in the fantasy camp a little bit, but never actually in the game. How did you just get into my house and snag this red leather couch i don't know what that's coming from wait did you just like a find a vintage find or something uh this is actually our buddy's couch that looks similar to one that we had in

the basement and uh yeah that kind of was that got a lot of miles what are your fondest memories down there did you ever have any other hockey legends down there and tell slinging stories i mean i hadn't been back since i was pretty young but it was uh exactly like you guys were saying we'd be there for a week and random people would always be coming by and my grandpa was always showing them around so that's awesome you still get amazed that when you're walking around with your dad in a city like this just the reaction to people do you still kind of maybe step back i was like holy shit you Yeah, it's kind of funny. I mean, I never saw him play. So seeing that and then growing up more him just being the best dad.

And that's always what I've seen him as. So nice. Awesome. Thanks for stopping by. I think we're going to have a little bit now. We'll catch up a little bit after. Awesome. Yeah.

Thanks for stopping by. Big thanks to Tristan for jumping on. I was hoping we'd catch up with his brothers a little bit later, but, boys, moving right along here. We want to send our best wishes to Columbus Blue Jacket, Patrick Laine. He entered the Player Assistance Program this week, and obviously we wish him the best when he's going forward. Well, I've seen a lot of this.

Maybe not as much as maybe we saw before. And, you know, obviously you want to make sure the players are okay. And, man, this is like, it feels like every week somebody's entering the program, right? Well, that kind of ties in with the next story, the Hockey Canada story. Like, it's no secret we haven't done a deep dive on it. And the reason is, folks, it's nothing concrete.

It's a story that's been ongoing for a couple of years now, when it got kicked back up after they found out how they were paying off these lawsuits. And we've been, we maybe should have said it earlier, but we're just waiting for the story to be over before we do a deep dive, because we don't know 100% what's true or false. We can use Occam's razor and decide what

they think happened. We're not going to do that here. We're going to wait until the story is concluded and then we can give our opinions on it, but it does affect the NHL. Philly's kind of hot. Calgary dylan dubay and michael mcleod i'm sorry calgary's dylan dubay michael mcleod california the devils and former senator alex formington uh they've all been summoned by the london ontario police to submit themselves alex formington turned himself in on sunday uh it's related to a sexual assault uh allegations back in 2018 you know there's been rumors and stuff on bandit about it's you know nhl news we're just passing it along because again nobody's been convicted of anything

uh you people can make their own opinions but we're not going to do that now we're going to wait because i don't know if you wanted to add anything else every serious topic like this that comes out we say like we just it's got to get handled before we speak on it like that's not our lane like we're not an investigative journalist like people be like oh hypocritical about the babcock thing that was something that was brought to us like we just don't this is not our ball game guys and uh it's it's a it's a crazy story obviously it's been talked about for many years and it's kind of just like now coming to fruition where it's going to go through legality and maybe court stuff who knows and that happens, we'll be there to talk about it when it does.

And that's kind of all we got for you. And it's, you know, this is, it's brutal. It's, you know, we don't want, nobody wants to see this kind of stuff. Absolutely. And about five minutes after that, Utah, a potential expansion over there. He sent out a tweet, his press release saying

they want to initiate an expansion process. Now, it could have been an oddly timed coincidence that it was five minutes after. There's no way. But I know I'm kind of being facetious, but like the fact that like they were going to, if the NHL had something to do with that, I mean, come on, man. It's so cynical, like that they would put that all five minutes out.

The first off, like people know what you're doing. You're trying to cover the story or bury this other story. Second of all, you kill the fucking buzz for Utah, man. Like if you drop that later in the day or on its own day, wow it seemed like becoming to utah instead when they drop it five minutes later everyone's like jesus look at these sons of bitches trying to cover up the news you know what i'm saying like they think they fudged it i would agree with you that out of poor taste you wouldn't want to be in there like rooting and raw and about utah when everything else is going down so yeah i would agree that that uh that's probably the case um i i think that utah

would be a great place for a team yeah i think it's gonna happen i think you would get great local support the owner is incredible he's willing to build those all new facilities i think he would also do a new basketball uh like all this practice facility and a new hockey rink so it would be a whole like kind of like an la live style. Yeah, and if not expansion then I saw Valley say he thinks the Coyotes are playing there next year. Yeah, I mean, they don't know they would. They plan on three years for sure.

What do you mean? You can't play at mullet when when it was a no like they wouldn't all the Coyotes will stay the Coyotes but be playing there or it'll be a new franchise. It's a Salt Lake City Soakers. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Game notes. of coyotes but be playing there or it'll be a new franchise it's a salt lake city soakers game notes jack i got named like because they don't fornicate it's against their religion they just put the dick in there

hard and it just soaks in the vagina what's the difference yeah i mean that's what i mean that's a fornicate right there once you stick stick a hog into a vagina, I'm pretty sure that's considered sex. So if you're not actually thrusting, that's okay with their god? Yeah, a little soak. Go for a little soak. Are you trying to – you don't think there's – you think there's a difference? No, I'm agreeing with you, but I'm saying like, ah, yeah, maybe just – fuck, maybe I'll try it. I wouldn't mind a soak.

Maybe it's unbelievable. Soak for about three seconds. Three seconds soak. Most of mine are soaks. Splat. Let's go round two. Shit boys, well. But what were we just talking about before that?

Yotes. I think it would be a great market. You guys don't have anything else? I played a tournament there when I was 18. we were just talking about before that i think it would be a great market what's a you you guys don't have anything else i played i played a tournament there when i was 18 it was a cool spot i think coyotes could leave but they're coming back to arizona i think that scottsdale should eventually have a team that's kind of some of the rumblings i'm hearing now that it could move but i think also think atlanta is going to go back and they've been there twice already so it's so the final would be 34 this 34 team 17 in each conference that's yeah it's coming i mean buchi a week's a pretty convinced expansion's coming so we're gonna get some and since you

mentioned him quickly i thought it was a great idea he had i think like the mlb there should be in a western conference and an eastern conference mv. There's too many good players in the league now, and people on the East don't get to watch McKinnon as much. And I'm on the West, and I'm just drawn into watching Colorado more. I don't watch Kucherov and the Lightning enough. And these two guys and what they're doing, I think both of them deserve acknowledgement and a trophy, and I thought it was a great tweet.

Do you guys agree, or are you like, no, one? This is like everyone gets a trophy. No! Back in Canada. Two gold medals. Here's where I'm going to say that you're contradictory, because you said that it's harder to play in the West than it is in the East.

I think it's different. There you go! It's two different leagues, and you're not playing the East the East. You said it's different. There you go. It's two different leagues and you're not playing the East as much. Okay. So that's where I thought that you would agree with. What do you mean? The West, but I was the East,

the same. I was just making fun of you. No, you're playing. You're playing. You're playing. You're playing. You're playing.

Everyone should get a conference more than you are. Yeah. More, but you're also playing every team twice. No, I understand, but you're being tested against your own conference more. And I agree with you. I feel like the West is heavier and harder to play. It's not as flu flu. Is that but you're being tested against your own conference more, and I agree with you.

I feel like the West is heavier and harder to play in. It's not as flu-flu. Is that what you're saying? I'm not saying that, but yeah, I think the West is a different game, I think. Okay, and that's why I feel like both should have acknowledgement. And in baseball, there is a different rule where there's a DH and then there's no DH. I think they got rid of that. Yeah, they got rid of it yeah okay so but i feel like in hockey they are separate leagues and you're playing against your own conference more i would be okay with hockey

doing that and it ain't the they give out a players awarded mvp and they give out a other mvp i feel like doing different conferences wouldn't be that extra you heard it here folks uh everyone gets a trophy yeah i would like to see that changed. The MVP and best player got to be different. Do you understand what I'm saying? If you're going to change one award or add an award, it should be a best defensive defenseman because the D don't get the credit unless they get 80 points or 90 points.

So get an award for an all-around great defenseman. Norris is just highest scoring. And I would say the last... Norris is Norris. And then the Bobby Orr is the Bobby Orr. If you pulled most modern fans who followed over the last 10 years, I think most would agree that McKinnon probably could have won the heart the year that Halsey did.

And that's where I'm like, fuck, dude. But what Halsey did for his team was very valuable. And compared to his peers on his team, because I think he had like two, a doubled amount of points than the next guy on his team. Like he single-handedly got them in playoffs. That's a year where I would have been like, that's why I feel like there should be two.

Because both of their greatness in that year. I'm not just going to argue. I don't like it. I'm not looking to argue. It's the history of the Hart Memorial Trophy. There's controversy with Norris, I believe, when Dowdy won it, that Dowdy deserved it. Do you remember that?

Well, he won it, you said. Yeah, he won it. They voted for him over others, but saying that he was due kind of thing and it wasn't yeah yeah yeah in terms of like hey it's his turn even though even though maybe that year there was somebody better or it was close here's the thing like they already have the heart and then the ted lindsey so there already is a second mvp yeah okay yeah fair i know what you're saying biz but i i don't really agree with it because you know the team in the East still plays 32 of their games versus teams in the West and vice versa.

And also, as far as baseball, the reason they had two separate awards is because the NL and AL used to not play each other. So they were basically separate leagues. Like, nationally, they haven't played any teams in the American League and vice versa. But as of more recent, they do cross over. But given the percentage of games, it's not as much as the NHL. Yeah, that's very

small. So anyways, G, you got another chick that you coming up this week. Thursday, 11 o'clock. It's in replacement of game notes. Who we got coming on, G? Which college? Penn State University. You're out there a couple weeks ago. Looking forward to that one. Boys, before you wrap it up, what do we got, Merle? Just while we're here, it's all-star break.

I like getting the predictions from you guys so I can use it against you later on. Let's go around the room. Stanley Cup final, Stanley Cup winner. We're going to start with you, Whit. The Edmonton Oilers are going to beat the Florida Panthers in the Stanley Cup final. That's your bold prediction? No, not bold.

Just who you think. Yeah, who you got right now at all-star break. I think... Spoilers, of course. I think Colorado. And I think... Yeah, I'll go Florida too. But I say Colorado wins.

I think Vancouver-Toronto final. Buddy, buddy, buddy, buddy. Samsonov, have you seen him last? You said a week ago that the Leafs are done. Have you seen Samsonov the last three fucking games, buddy? This guy is a cartoon, folks. The cup is back on, baby.

How is this guy the voice of hockey in the wall? He's an idiot. The cup is back on because Samsonov's kicking. It's right here on the briefcase. Holy shit, what are you smoking? Bros, I got Winnipeg over Tampa Bay. Yo, I love that Tampa.

Did you get your fucking mouth off Coop's cock? I just said he was losing. How's that on his cock? I'm going to do a mix of you guys. I got Colorado over Tampa Bay. All right. Should be good either way, no matter who it is. I got Colorado over Tampa Bay. All right. Yeah. Should be good either way, no matter who it is.

I'll announce yours for you. The cup is coming back to Canada, folks. Bees Oilers. Bees. Bees win. Bees. I didn't say I knew Gee Woods, though. Hey, that would be a fun final.

I could have just... That would be a very fun final. I could have done that, Gee. I could have done it without even asking you. Bruins Oilers would be... Oh, my God. Is it crazy to think, like think record-setting viewers? No.

In terms of original six and McDavid? In the U.S., it would hurt with obviously the Canadian team. I don't know, man. I don't think it would for the McDavid. No, I think because of McDavid, it would probably go on par with California. What's the league of the possible good teams? What's the league's nightmare cup final? I say Winnipeg, Florida.

No, Winnipeg, Carolina. Oh, yeah. I mean, last year was kind of a nightmare. New Jersey. Vegas, Florida. I love that. Conference final, Jersey. Second pass you.

Jersey, Carolina. I don't know. They played a great series uh year was it 2003 if you had vancouver toronto the viewership in canada the country is 40 million i bet you i bet you they get 20 million viewers remember big cat did that you could bet canada to win the cup that's that'd be there's some yeah he, he had the hat for the team. That's my bold prediction. This might be the year. This is probably the best chance the country of Canada has had since, in a long time at least.

We got real teams. Vancouver's so good. Winnipeg and Vancouver. Winnipeg, Van, and Edmonton. Trying to get busy going. Oh, no. I don't have many expectations for the Leafs this year. I've thrown those out the window

so I'm playing with the house's money and I actually think that Samsonov's going to go on some fucking crazy run he's just going to fucking start kicking don't put all that pressure we'll wait and see what happens but day one in Toronto in the books can't wait for the rest of the stuff this week

enjoy the ep and we'll catch you a little later Go Leafs, go! You can get liquor cheap, but how much is your love? They say a drunken speech is just so good that I like to poke a bear, I like to stir the pot I pulled the veil like a stud pie But then it come on in and take it up a notch 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 But I said something that crossed her line when I know she felt it so I said she could have a free one on the chain she went below the bell shit she had me with a cheap shot

a cheap shot she had me with a cheap shot, a cheap shot. She had me with a cheap shot, a cheap shot. I think we need a deep talk. We've been so on time.