Spittin Chiclets - Spittin’ Chiclets Episode 489: Featuring Jason Allison

Episode Date: March 26, 2024

On Episode 489 of Spittin’ Chiclets, the guys are joined by Jason Allison (01:04:38) to talk about his hockey career, his time with the Boston Bruins, and life post career. But first, the guys recap a wild weekend in Chicago and Scottsdale at the insane IceCon. Later on, the boys talk about the race for the playoffs and what teams are on watch. We got some new members to the 50 goal club and Nathan MacKinnon is continuing his insane MVP caliber season. Will NCAA hockey remove neutral site regional tournament games? But in the end, another solid episode from the boys.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 good. I like to poke a bear. I like to stir the pot. But then you come on in and take it up a notch. But baby, come on in and take it up a notch You hit me with a cheap shot, a cheap shot Hello everybody, welcome to episode 489 of Spittin' Chicklets Presented by Pink Whitney from our friends at New Amsterdam Vodka

Here in the Barstool Sports Podcast family What is going on everyone? Hopefully you all had a good week We're in crunch time right now, playoffs less than a month away We have no idea who is going on, everyone? Hopefully you all had a good week. We're in crunch time right now. Playoffs less than a month away. We have no idea who is going to play who. Let's go check on the boys way out west. Holy fuck. Single R.A. has some spunk, ladies and gentlemen.

Plenty of that. Jesus Christ, R.A. He's coming out of the gates high-stepping. I love single R.A. I don't know how many of our fans do with the fucking backlash online. I would say maybe the worst divorce announcement in the history of divorce announcements. No offense, RA. I disagree.

We're very, very happy for you to be in a better spot, as you told us. But, I mean, to come on and kind of just glance over a 27-year marriage by describing that you're horny as shit was an incredible way to go about it. But that's why you're you, right? Yeah, that's it. Should tell you everything right there. But anyways, enough of that bullshit. What do you mean enough of that bullshit? We're starting the show 20 minutes every pod.

Biz told me that we're starting every pod getting your like single life escapades and i said dude we'll have no listeners left like can we just do it at the end of the show but i mean biz is the boss no i hate the fucking boss now all right i would say that yes backlash for sure but i can understand from your perspective because the excitement for new push overtook everything else maybe you wanted to express. And that can happen after holding a nut for 27 years. So I'm on your side on this one, buddy. Now you've sent some pretty weird texts from, you said the DMS are open. Like some of these, I don't think you expected. And that was a message to the lady listeners. And you seem to be getting flooded by the dudes right now.

Well, first off, the DMs are always open on Instagram. I never closed them. They just always been open. And yeah, it's mostly dudes. First off,

actually, I do want to say, I mean, a lot of people, it's the internet. You got to hear all kinds of shit, but a lot of people were extremely nice. I did get a lot of DMs from guys,

girls, whatever, just checking in on me, wishing me the best. It was really, really nice to have those people. They were genuinely checking in on me and had very nice things to say. So all those people, I do want to say thank you to them. That's awesome. But yeah, it wasn't so much about the getting out.

It was just a step I had to take at some point. It's not new. It's been a couple of months I told you guys what was going on. It was just kind of more of a block for me to get past. I think part of the percentage is you slightly using the podcast to get new push too. Let's just call a spade a spade. Maybe like 20%, 80% getting it out there to get it off your chest, but 20% kind of like, hey, let's throw three lines in the water here.

Now, have you had any girls reach out? Well, he sent us one. He edited the picture picture he cropped the picture so he couldn't see a face or a name but it was just hey ra with like the tongue out emoji like a picture of a bin or some tits or something and you're sending us like a winky face emoji like you just got your ween sucked dude it was probably a bot anyways paul this fuck with the way instagram is now it's all fucking bots on you. I'm not expecting genuine, like,

awful, like, hey, come fucking pound me out or something. It was like more of a joke. Come pound me out. Have you maybe looked back at the 27, 28-year-old range comment and thought about that that was a tad aggressive? No. No, I was being honest. And again, like I said, it was probably fresh

in my mind because i was i don't know that weekend i was i wasn't going up to any girls a couple girls come over she added and i was like all right it does play in your head i i'm fucking not stupid i know how old i am but i did get a message with another dm from a woman and she said thank um thank you so much for saying that she goes she's younger she's dating an older guy she's i've been with this guy for six years. He's like about the same age range. And she said, thank you. She's like, it's just weird how people give a fuck what other adults do in their own consensual time. I mean, you know, 20 women in their late 20s out little girls.

And it's to say, like, they can't make their own decisions. It's like, oh, well, fuck it. Who you tell a woman? She can't do what she wants to do. So I did get a message from from a younger woman. It's like some like saggy balls and old men, like 100%. If you're into what you're into, then keep doing you. It's not like I got a target.

I mean, for this, you asked like the lowest. It's like, okay, that's not my target date. Just saying like if it were to present itself. But I'm not like, okay, fucking go to a date now, 28 to like 33 age. No, I'm not even doing it. The idea of a date right now is so fucking far down the line. It's not even where my brain is right now. I swear to God, it's just like,

it's still like, I'm still in the muck here a little bit, boys. I mean, I'm free to do what I want. Well, R.A., we love you, and as far as the backlash, I know if it hurt your feelings at all, like I said, I think your excitement to be back on the market and have this fresh new look and perspective

can be a little bit enlightening. And you took the approach you took, buddy, and we love you. Yeah, thanks, buddy. I love you guys too. And honestly, the levity, people were like, oh, those guys, like, fucking fuck away. I was like, no, I needed that levity. I needed to be able to laugh with the boys about it because I haven't been able to.

You don't see, you know, in your my age, you don't see all the guys like you used to. So, like, I haven't been able to, like, just have don't see, you know, when you're my age, you don't see all the guys like you used to. So, like, I haven't been able to, like, just have fun and joke around about it even though it's a weird thing to maybe joke about. Well, we weren't really joking about the divorce. Ah, he's joking a little bit. No, no, no.

We were joking about your, like, one-on-one, like, maybe pickup lines. Like, there's a little difference between, like, laughing at a divorce. Like, it was like, all right, well, Ari's in the bar and he's wheeling and dealing. What's he going to say? And maybe the game show, the bachelor style game show uh maybe took over uh but i will say the response to that was pretty positive even to the point

where i've had people who work for the league reach out and say anything you guys need from us keith yandel had an incredible idea where every single fan base would be represented. So you find a girl from every city where they would wear those jerseys. Now, we're obviously going to have to get clearance from Bettman on this, but we're boys now, so I'm sure we'll do it. So we'll have 32 to start, and then we'll cut it down from there. Kind of sucks that we can't throw more Boston girls for you in the mix, because I feel like that's a match made in heaven. But ultimately, that's what I'm saying. So I think this is in motion and we're excited about it.

So we can move on from this. I know some fans probably had to hit the skip 15 seconds button a bunch of times, but we don't give a fuck. I want to know what's going on in your personal life, R.A. Yeah. And as far as to answer your question, Biz, I kind of took it easy this weekend. I popped across the street, had a few, and it was hilarious. Whitney Houston, I want to dance to somebody who's playing at the bar.

This girl pointed and pulled me out the dance front. I was like, come on, will you? I'm too old for this. It was kind of weird because I just started twirling around the floor, and then all people started pulling their phones out. I was like, man, can't you let a motherfucker just get a little disco dance? Wow. You're so fucking famous, Ray. You're so famous.

I love this. Let a guy get a little twirl out here, a little Tony Manero shit. Oh, you're so fucking famous, Ray. You're so famous, bro. I love this. Let a guy get a little twirl out here, a little Tony Manero shit. Are we going to have to get you security? No. Yeah, the guy doesn't let him meet a dealer. That's security, blocking him from meeting up with people, not necessarily saving him from getting pictures taken. Because if people start taking pictures, Ray,

there could be some girl that says, who's that guy? all this all right he's gonna turn into kanye he's gonna start fist fighting the popper yikes yikes holy shit he gets one punched by a little cameraman oh my god all right you're you're the best you're the gift that keeps on giving and this is why i want to continue to get stories about your single antics and all this stuff, because it brings humor and a first world that I lens into your world, man. It's awesome. What up guys? It's Whit here.

And I'm here to talk to you about Pink Whitney, New Amsterdam's own flavored vodka, the number one selling flavored vodka in the United States of America. And it's all thanks to you guys listening, all thanks to your support, whether you're grabbing a nip and bringing a bunch of nips to a game or whether you're going to the bar and ordering a nice pink Whitney on the rocks or maybe a splash of an energy drink. It doesn't matter how you drink it. It tastes great. And in Scottsdale, it's been ripping. It's been all these different spots we've been at. Guys, we're actually sneaking them in to do a couple nips at the Coyotes game.

Every goal, there was a little group of ice people that were just ripping them. They were trying not to get caught, and I respected the hell of it. I got to be honest. Maybe it wasn't a great move, but I loved it. And they're looking over, wet, wet, wet, and they're pointing, they're pointing. Look, Pink Whitney. I said, thank you. Thank you.

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party. Pink Whitney, New Amsterdam, spitting chiclets. We love you guys for listening, and we appreciate you guys for drinking it Yeah And the stories, they'll get better as time marches on But let's dig in with you guys You guys are way out in Arizona right now You just have had a hell of a trip, man

I don't know how you guys don't have Vegas voice right now You had the live stream in Chicago All the gambling stuff Get us up to date, what have you guys been up to? Tell the fucking listeners Losing Well, they've been losing bets i'm not a heavy gambler so if i lost a couple hundred bucks over the course of march madness so far like that's probably the extent of it uh i'm not a

huge gambler but getting to to witness it firsthand it was a spectacle like the the sweating it out i'd never really i mean what the fuck are they talking about sweating it out so all the this verbiage i got to see firsthand and at those, uh, the barstool Chicago offices, by the way, what a tremendous job they did in setting that all up. So that was a, one of the, like the start to basically our week on Thursday, we went there for two days. And I mean, you were more in the mix because you're throwing in heavy bets. I think Dave Portnoy is down $2 million since I first saw him Thursday. That is just an astronomical number.

I know it's all relative, folks, but it's not part of the small unit gang. Let's put it that way. But to see Big Cat and Rico Bosco, who ended up having to take a bus from New York all the way to Chicago, give us the backstory to that. Well, the basis of that was that he just constantly kind of fucks up, I'd say. Like, he just gets in his own way a little bit. And the week prior during the conference tourneys, right when Big Cat had left the stream to go home and maybe say goodnight to his kids, Rico got on a recliner, put the foot out, and then got a blanket and curled up and went to sleep.

He told me he was only asleep for three minutes. So I guess in the end, it wasn't the biggest deal, but Dave was disgusted by it. So he first suspended him from coming out to the streams for March Madness. And then he said, you know what? That's probably what he wants because he'll just get to lay on the couch and watch all day. So he made him hop on a bus. And I think he had like 25 minutes to get to the bus station and he hauled it down in New York and he got on a bus. And all of a sudden, I think he got to like Columbus or Pittsburgh, Columbus, Chicago. It took him 24 hours. So he walked in and kind of just had to stand the entire two days.

He wasn't allowed to sit down for two days. He had to be a servant. He was a servant. I wasn't trying to take advantage of that. A couple of times he asked me if I wanted something, but Dave and big kind of like Rico coffee. So he did a great job. And it was one of those things where it was a guy kind of learning his lesson and crushing it after that. So I think that's going to be, um, that could be the beginning of a, of a resurgence in Rico Bosco, like never making mistakes again. Now, some people say I'm

crazy to say that, but I'm a rider, But the weekend was awesome. I mean, the Thursday, Friday was great besides losing everything. But the main reason that we were there and we're in Scottsdale was IceCon. Now, we've described this a bunch of different times, I believe. Elio is one of Dave's longtime friends and he started betting overs in hockey. So we've been through this. I actually asked him on the flight out, how did you, did you play hockey? Nope. Like, how did you start betting hockey? Then he goes, I lost in every other sport. He gave every sport a twirl throughout his gambling career and lost in everything and then found hockey and has hit at this amazing clip, probably around 65, 70% winners for two years now on betting only overs. So he wishes for goals. And in the process

of him building his following the ice people have been born now let me tell you something these people let me tell you something d gens i said it was like on the plan it was like being on an all-inclusive carnival cruise with nowhere to go it was just people in your face now wonderful people we had a meet we had a meet up before the game at the draft kings um sports sports sports book it's incredible it's at tpc out here and we man the the the ones that they've built so far the one in wrigleyville was incredible they all they all have their different looks but like you said we're just they rolled out the red carpet and everybody met there as the meeting grounds for for ice con so everyone uh

100 and i think 182 people came so that included their tickets to the game that included um you know like all you can eat and and drink uh at draft kings and they set it up nice half of it's outdoors so just a cool spot and these people were great a lot of obviously chiclets ice people crossover so biz and i and murals were getting to meet everyone so friendly just like a really kind of tight group of people that just all bet overs well what happened is they started boozing naturally and and i'll tell you right now this might have been the drunkest group of people i thought chicklets meet and greets people were drunk i never seen anything like this one ice person puked on another ice person next to Portnoy.

I met the nicest guy in the world. He had a pink Whitney hat on. You know who you are. You know, I know you're listening to this. And I chatted with him for like 10 to 15 minutes at DraftKings. Well, then he sits next to me and I ended up putting morals between us. This guy was so goddamn annoying by the end of this game. Hey, wait, you want a beer?

No, thanks. I wasn't drinking. Hey, wait, you want a beer no thanks i wasn't drinking hey wait you want a beer no thanks the eighth time he asked me no i'm good man you're a pussy stop being a pussy he's yelling fucking cons because there's no goals there's an old woman next to me it's just the ice people were out of control the ice people i'd never seen anything like it screaming yelling there was a woman next to me that somehow ended up in the middle of the ice people. She was like, what is this? What is ice con?

And I was like trying to explain it. Her face was so confused. And then I just said, we're searching for goals. And she just like, she had, you couldn't even describe what we were doing there. And unfortunately, it lost. It ended up six goals. The over-under was six and a half. I got a push.

I had taken it for six the night before, but it was an amazing event. It ended up six goals. The over-under was six and a half. I got a push. I had taken it for six the night before, but it was an amazing event. Because to see what somebody's grown through truly organic gambling, and to see him win and unfortunately lose on this one. But the best part of the week for me, the most memorable moment, and probably the hardest I've

laughed in years, was in Chicago. Elio was there as well, and he's been on a horrific losing streak. All right. Did you see this? I did. Yeah. So for anyone at home, Dallas and Pittsburgh had, he had this over under and it was four to two. Was it four to two? Either way, either way, they needed one more goal and Sagan got the puck like 30 feet in front of the net. I don't know what happened. He just missed the net. So it's like, oh, my God,

like the easiest empty net goal you've ever seen, and we're losing his mind, and Elio is now not sitting with us because he's so stressed. He's in a phone booth in the back end of the Chicago office, and people were getting behind him videoing. He's this little old phone booth from the 1950s, it looked like.

Well, Sagan misses the empty net. Dallas ends up getting the puck again, and Sagan, I don't remember who it was, we're on like a little two-on-one, and the guy didn't dish it, he just went and put it in, celebration, Elio wins, the ice people win, the slump is over, and all of a sudden, as we hear Elio storming out of the phone booth, let's go, let's go, I see the ref get together with the other ref and they're going over to review it and everyone's like what's going on here and immediately the replay shows sagan went off side got lazy well elio hadn't seen this because he immediately left the phone booth

and so we just got to witness a man see a ghost he was i told him it's all sides it's no goal yeah right yeah right and he walks to the other side of the the the gambling cave and then he notices it and it was just a face of utter shock disbelief and disgust and and i was crying that's a bad beat well that that's why i said i got to experience all these emotions that these guys go through the unfortunately the only emotion i I didn't see was when you guys are on a heater and everybody's going crazy. We didn't get on one. Because they didn't get on one. And collectively as a group, you guys are hurting right now and licking your wounds. But overall, hey, I got to shout out the Coyotes.

They rolled out the red carpet for us. We basically took over the arena. I don't know. Our seats didn't have backs. But other than that, we had the red carpet. That's the student section that has nothing to do with the Coyotes. That's the ASU arena.

You guys were on TV more than the fucking team in the last five minutes of the third period. They kept panning to you guys all the time. They weren't expressly saying that you guys need to go, but they were like, Tyson. What was bizarre was that Dallas went up 4-2 with a minute 40 left. So obviously you still pull the goalie.

Especially being Arizona, like what do you have to play for? And they didn't pull him, right? They got it in the zone and the goalie's standing there and the ice people, the loaded drunkest people in Arizona pull the goalie. They're screaming. And he wouldn't do it. And then all of a sudden he decided to with like 40 seconds left. But Portnoy thinks that somebody called down

to the video room who then got on the horn with the coach and was like, pull the goalie. These lunatics are going to storm the ice. That did not happen. So it was weird that they somehow didn't pull him right off the hop of winning the faceoff down 4-2.

But in the end, Jamie Benn had a great attempt at the empty netter. It just missed to the right and that was it. I had another half shot. I missed the net. I can't even hit the net, let alone the little hole from center ice. Biz had a tough one. Dave had a tough one. Elio almost scored, but then we did an intermission interview. It was

a great time. All right. I don't think we're ever going to be able to recreate that moment we had in Chicago. No. The fact that you sunk one from there. No. Imagine we had in Chicago. No. And the fact that you sunk one from there. No. Imagine you were single then. No. Don't comment. Hashtag Whit missed.

I still cannot believe that that would end. I almost think there was a magnet or something that they made that happen, because I just can't fucking still believe that. So I got to bring one more thing up, where these guys stayed when they got to Arizona. And gee, you gave me a hard time. You're like, oh yeah, how much they paying you? When I went to

that Global Ambassador and pumped its tires, wit, what did you think of Global Ambassador? It's the best hotel I've ever seen, G. There's no part of it. Yeah, Pasha texted me the restaurant was 10 out of 10, one of the best meals he's ever had. Buddy, like,

biz ain't getting paid from here. Because this place is just like, it's like you're in Vegas without being in Vegas and without the obviously table games and gambling. But just the whole vibe in there, the room, it was it was incredible. As Biz mentioned, not really my bag as a married guy. I'd say maybe the most attractive group of people, even just women. Biz is looking around like a bird on a stoop. His head's going back and forth.

Why do you think I'm going to the time of Seuss three times a week, buddy? My neck's as stiff as my cock walking around that place. Pitching a tent 24-7, R.A. With your 20 milligram Viagras. Shut up, Beavis. Honestly, the Sam Fox guy is a genius every restaurant

there is a 10 out of 10 and uh i can't speak more highly about it so if you ever come to arizona go there i don't know what rooms cost dave did a pretty funny room review yeah after the place in uh in in orlando florida or was tampa fucked him over 5k awful sweet well this place hit it out of the park for him. So I think that's pretty much it we could talk about from IceCon. Thanks to Elio for bringing the ice people down to Arizona. Shout out to the Coyotes for rolling out the red carpet. We got to take over the broadcast where this guy was saying he doesn't care if the Dallas Stars win 7-1.

Well, I was being honest. They had me on. What a Coyotes broadcast. I said I don't care. I'm here for Ice car talking about ice con what do you business like asking me like breakout questions no i need goals i need goals i put one on a fucking t-form guys i go what do the coyotes need to do in order to get to jake ottinger who's basically cock blocking ice con because he was making tell that paddle save he made basically

one of the saves of the year one of the saves of the anyone hasn't seen that so he's starting to heat up but overall dallas looks incredible that was there was it was it was hard for uh arizona to get to the goal so no no no seven pop and unfortunately some people got the line at six and a half but six is what you got yeah yeah the night before and i'll say about dallas like i first time getting to see st Colvin live, water bug. I didn't realize how tiny he is. Him and Wyatt Johnson playing with Jamie Benn,

it's hilarious. It's like the old man and his two kids. It's like Gordie Howe playing with Mark. But they buzz around. Ben had a nice goal in the first one from Wyatt Johnson. But Heskinen, if you could ever go see Dallas play live, like this guy is the smoothest cat I've ever seen.

I know we always talk about McCarr and Hughes. Heskinen, he made it 4-2 with a rocket slap shot, or maybe 3-2, I don't remember. But the way he moved, Merles and I the whole time were just like, look at him. He's so fluid, but his hands are unreal. Like, that guy just has it all. I love that Dallas team.

The worry was Ottinger for a while kind of being off his game, but he had one of – I bet you if you asked him last night, it was the best game of the season because Arizona outplayed him. He made a couple 10-bell saves, and the Stars seem legit. They have every makings of a cup champ. Yeah, definitely wide open right now. Like I said, we don't know who's going to play who yet. Still got a long ways to go.

But, gee, big Wednesday fight coming up tomorrow, I should say. North Dakota on the old Chicklets U. Yeah, Chicklets U drops Wednesday. North Dakota, the holy grail of college hockey. We got in the mixture with the fans, hit the tents before the game. We saw the insane marble floor, same one as the Vatican. Zero gravity beds beds red light therapy high altitude rooms it's all in there so wednesday 6 p.m it's dropping and what a time the

college tournament starts this week so it's going to be awesome hey since we're on the college topic and we're going to save it to the end of the pod g i've been getting a lot of fucking dms that you spoke at a turn saying that unb would have no chance against a top NCAA division one team. I will take back that I agreed with him. And after talking to a couple of guys that I'm friends with that played and going over their records against big schools that like Minnesota and Michigan, they played, I should have never said they had no chance. I think it'd be a pretty good game. Let's go over their record since 2016, 2017. i'm talking about a different guy that played like 10 years ago that they played like like i i think that for the most part there's more way more skill

on the ncaa champ but these guys are older and these guys are stronger for the most part and in the end for us to say no chance we were incorrect i'd say yeah we were definitely incorrect to say no chance i would say i mean the statistics fall towards that they wouldn't win a game against the national championship. I think they could hold their own against a top 20 team, top 15 team even. But I mean, since 2016, 2017, they played six games against NCAA opponents. They're one in five. They've lost to Merrimack, UNH, lost to BC. They've beaten Maine 5-0 in 2019 when they weren't really too good. So I definitely hear you, Biz. I mean, their leading goal scorer, Austin Keaton, he's 25. He played five years in the OHL. Then he played three years at UNB. So these guys are old as fuck.

That's a Quinnipiac junior. That might even be a red-shirted freshman at Quinnipiac, for all we know. Fucking with his 16 kids. Fireman on the side. I think... Okay, so when was the last time they played an NCAA team? 2019. This is according to their website as well.

So 2019 was the last time they played. They were 26-4 that season. So they were one of the best teams in U Sports. They lost to BC 4-2. Since 2019. I think that's since UNB has been on this insane run where they've been like a joke for two or three years, kind of like the Yukon women's basketball team, where they're just like running over teams. I mean, in 2019, they were 26 and four. They were the best team in U sports. Same with 2018, 25 and five, 2017, 24-6. I hear what you're saying. I think this team is separate from those teams.

This team, I think this year, could hold their own with an NCAA team. I will rescind my statement. That's all I wanted. I just wanted to hear a little bit of respect for the UNB boys, given the run they're on right now. And I'm sure you boys are celebrating,

having fun. Don't have too much fun because we might get this game set up somehow. I don't know. I know you're not a big fan. That game's never happening. It's never? Never happening.

Okay. Well. I'm not saying I wouldn't want to see it. I would love to see it. It's just it would never happen. The seasons are over. It makes no sense for the NCAA team to do it. It's like a lose-lose for them.

What could happen is that those guys line up a legit exhibition schedule prior to the season. They could probably get two or three NCAA teams. That would be awesome. That's what they should be trying to do. And with their record and how much they dominated in the past being out there, it would be crazy for a good NCAA team that wants a nice test before the season not

to bring them down and give it a go. They did it every year. They had done it every single year until really COVID happened. And once COVID happened, it kind of stopped. But I think I wouldn't be surprised in the next year or two if they get back to doing it. So blame Trudeau. Exactly. Blame for everything. Yeah, 38-0

and actually 5-0 in the preseason too. So they went 43-0. Didn't give up a freaking goal in the tournament. That's an absolutely insane year. So congrats once again to the University of New Brunswick Reds on an unbelievable season. What up guys? It's time to talk about DraftKings. We know hockey games move fast, but with DraftKings Sportsbook, an official sports betting partner of the NHL, you could score faster than anything happening on the ice. This week, new customers can bet five bucks and get $150 instantly in bonus bets. Tuesday night, we got the Bruins down in Florida, a matchup of the Atlantic heavyweights. The Bruins plus 114. All you Bruins fans listening, all you Bruins fans scattered around North America, plus money for a top team in the league in Florida. That could be very, very, very interesting for you guys.

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Please play responsibly. On behalf of Boot Hill Casino and Resort in Kansas, 21 and over. Age varies by jurisdiction. Void in Ontario. Bonus bets expire 168 hours after issuance. See dkng.co slash ice for eligibility and deposit restrictions, terms, and responsible gaming resources. Boys, let's dive into the NHL, though.

Torts, back in the news once again, Biz. This time he scratched his captain, Sean Couturier, not once but twice last week. Now Couturier, he's been struggling a bit, hadn't had a goal in 27 games before his scratch, one assist in his last nine games before the scratch. His minutes went down about four minutes per game from January to mid March. First captain scratched since the Jovo cop, Eddie Jovanovsky, back in the 13-14 season, which was his last season in the NHL. Does this affect the room at all when a guy

scratches a captain? Do they take it in stride? What kind of ripple effect could this potentially have in the walls of the Flyers' locker room? Yeah, big time. I think it does show that nobody's safe, though, and torts doesn't give a fuck. i think at first when i like i first heard here heard a break with i don't know what your reaction is a player like

i think if like shane doan when he was my captain if he would have been handled that way i would have had animosity towards the coach because i i viewed it as a little bit like not only disrespectful but like the way it was kind of publicly handled like a good coach might say hey we're gonna say that you have a lower body injury or something like maybe protect him in some way because he is struggling keep in mind he's coming back from a fucking like some a lot of missed time and injuries so we always talk about these college kids coming in having played 40 42 games a year before, like, man, getting back into that 82 game schedule rhythm is difficult. And he's going up against top line matchups night in and night out. So nonetheless, after I kind of calmed down and even a former player of torts, the Binsky had a very inflammatory tweet. So I think that he kind of

agreed with my initial sediments. He ended up sending me a direct message later on where I think that he was probably his wheels were spinning and the more he thought about it was like well maybe I'm not as emotionally invested in what's going on in Philly and what what they've accomplished this year and what torts has put into that team like who am I to say torts handled it wrong like he knows the pulse of that locker room more than anyone. And of the, in the two games he was out, they got three or four points. And, and I'm not saying that's that decision was the reason, but I think it probably set an alert in the locker room.

Like, Holy fuck. He's scratching cooch. Like, like anybody's fucking available. Am I wrong here? So like originally, and initially I was kind of like,

that's fucking bullshit. But the more i dialed it back it's like well this guy's putting his heart and soul into it and sometimes i feel like torts his antics may come across as if he's making it more about himself sometimes than than the team but i genuinely don't think that that's where he's at i think he's just so mentally wrapped up into it and he's a savage like that and ultimately he thinks he knows best about his personnel and i can't argue with what he's done with the personnel in which he's had this season the fact that this team is in a playoff spot has everybody just as probably perplexed especially

at the fact they lost their starting fucking goaltender as probably Washington being in a playoff spot. Yeah, the whole aspect of the scratching, it was so surprising to me. And then when you think about it and look more into it and know it's torts, it's like he doesn't care. He does not give a flying fuck who it is. He will scratch anyone. Truly. The guy was named captain about 30 days prior to this. Okay. So if you take a side and don't even really discuss yet the actual scratching of the player, my problem with it is towards his approach in the media. Okay. You have every right to scratch him. And as Biz mentioned, you get three or four points. You kind of understood this guy isn't doing his job. I don't really care who it is. I'm scratching him. Well, man,

you're the head coach. You got to go out there. You can't scratch him and then say to the media, I'm not talking about it. I'm not giving you anything. And on top of how he handled it with the media, probably more so I should have mentioned how he handled it with Couturier. He didn't even have a discussion with him. And if you're going to scratch a rookie or a third or fourth liner, I can see coaches being like, hey, assistant coach, tell him he's out. I don't care. I don't need to talk to him. I wouldn't really do it like that. I'm not a coach, and who am I to say, but I would at least like to think I'd have a conversation with each guy.

Hey, this is what I'm thinking. You're going to get another chance, whatever. Sean Couturier's been there his entire career. He was just named captain, and you can't sit down and talk to him? I mean, all right, you sent us the quotes. Was that Couturier's been there his entire career. He was just named captain, and you can't sit down and talk to him? I mean, R.A., you sent us the quotes. Was that Couturier's agent? Yes, that was his agent, yeah. Like, that's a lack of respect.

And, like, Flyers fans were going at Dubinsky and kind of going at anyone who was chirping the scratch, and they look at it like, we're in the playoffs right now. We were supposed to be in the lottery. Like, we're kind of ride or die for torts because without him in their mind, they're not where they are, which, which is probably true. I don't know if there's another coach that could have these guys where they're at because of how he approaches things, but you have to have the ability as a longtime head coach to have the respect and understanding that Couturier is going to want to sit down and at least hear it from you and hear why and hear exactly your thought process on not only causing a ruckus in the locker room,

but causing a ruckus for him within the media. This is Couturier I'm talking about because this guy now is answering all these questions about getting scratched and he's sitting there saying, well, I don't even know why I'm getting scratched. So going back to the communication aspect this could be just as much as like Couturier maybe his body's not feeling good right and maybe we're playing he has been struggling we gotta be honest he hasn't played well he has right and and let's say RA now all of a sudden he can go to the coach and say hey maybe I can play in that 14 15 minute range maybe even a little bit less on that based on how he's feeling I would imagine he's not

playing well because he's not feeling well as far as maybe his body to some degree. That would be my assumption. There's no real other reason as to the fact that he's in a pretty big slump. I think in that 10-game stretch before he got scratched, he was minus 15. So that's when it comes down to the communication, the way he handles it. But as far as torts and the reason that I believe in some cases he has a short shelf life

is he seems to maybe even take it a little bit personal where he's like, this motherfucker's going to play like this in the stretch where we need him most and he's our fucking captain. And he's going to be minus 15 in the last 10 games and no goals in the last 27. And instead of having a conversation, he thinks that Couturier's play

is speaking for him so my assumption is it festers up it festers up and he's like fuck that i'm scratching him as opposed to i'd be the type of coach but i also we joked around about the whole national predators thing like i would have been the softy coach to be like all right we're going on the field trip but you guys better start playing better. Right. I'm not, I don't have that type of mentality where I can maybe go above and beyond. If I had a captain and I've watched the coaches that I've had communicate with their captains, like you need to be locked in on what's the pulse of the locker room. Your communication has to be like top tier. So the fact that it was handled the way it was in the media and and couturier being a lifelong flyer was somewhat disrespected in my opinion that's why as a teammate of his i would have

been like fuck this but torts could also be playing 3d chess here and knowing a last-ditch effort for a last season push is i'm gonna rile these motherfuckers up scratching their captain and they're gonna be in the law group saying we're not doing this for fucking torts her brook style her brook style and it was the same way that daryl sutter used to do it they fucking hated him in la you think he gave a fuck his job was to make sure the players on the ice were galvanized my favorite new word and then they won two stanley cups that's all that fucking matters and torts has done it before in Tampa. And I bet you if you pulled those guys 75% the way through the season in Tampa the year they won the cup, they would have probably told you, if this guy got fired tomorrow, I probably wouldn't care

because I fucking can't stand him. Dubinsky's tweet, the one thing I wanted to bring up, and as a former player, this is exactly how I kind of looked at it, where he mentioned at the end, you bring him in. He's the captain. You say, hey, you're playing 18 minutes tonight. Go out, play loose, play free, and just fucking give it. And as a player, you're like, yes, that's all I want. But there is another side of that where Torts is one of those guys that you're not playing through slumps with Torts.

He's never been that way. Remember when we talked to Hartnell about him getting scratched? You don't play through slumps with Torts. There's been that way remember when he talked we talked to hartnell about him getting scratched he doesn't you don't play through slumps with torts there's coaches that'll let guys play through it now my thing is let the captain play through it torts doesn't give one fuck so in the end he said you're gonna sit down and what's really hard is then they they they won the first one right or they lose an oh yeah they beat toronto yeah so then you can't switch the lineup and then they lost in overtime but got a point and he gets back in. So in the end, it's about...

I know I just said in the end again, but... In the end... I have a tick saying in the end. It doesn't even matter. In the end, we're galvanized as a podcast. Yes, we are. Yes, we are. Now that R.A.'s single, we're even more galvanized. We're the two single ones.

The two single bucks. Dubinsky hasn't played in five years, but his PTSD is still pretty strong. Post-Torch fucking stress disorder, man. He absolutely fucking hates that guy. And as far as not putting him out there again, I mean, what Dubinsky said, put him out there for 20. I mean, Torch probably knows if he does that, it's not going to help the team at that particular stage. Well, I think what he's saying is you're essentially calling him in it's not going to help the team at that particular stage I mean well I think what he's saying is you're

essentially calling him in RA and saying like I believe in you I know you've been struggling we don't really need to talk about it you're aware of it I'm I'm going to put you 20 out there I need

your best effort and like knowing that and sometimes feeling that confidence from your coach is sometimes what a player needs like it right like if you feel that your coach is providing you confidence it actually believes in you you play completely different and this is why we wanted

to start the podcast today with this because this ain't a philadelphia flyer topic it's just like a a coach and player relationship and it just seems like maybe 80 of the time when we're talking about them it's torts related right so it's well there's not a lot of old school guys left. And old school guys, they did not care or think about putting confidence in players. That wasn't ever their job. They weren't, like Michelle Terry and John Tortorella, Mike Keenan, they weren't, those guys were never sitting down.

You're playing unbelievable, buddy. Keep going. That's not how it went. And that is how, I bet you, I bet you Carberry and washington's had discussions the guys this year buddy you're going right now keep going and it's just a different mentality torts will never be that way and and and his success this year as flyers fans have been vocal about speaks for itself like they don't really care how the players are treated by

the coach if they win that's all the and in end, the players just want to... I said in the end again. What the fuck's wrong with me? Nothing, buddy. If I say it again, you get to give me... If I say it again... Sometimes I have crutch words. You get to give me a sack whack. That's how Adam and I am. I'm not saying it again in this podcast.

I don't think you should feel bad about that. Sometimes I have crutch words when I'm talking about it this is three this is three words either way man the Flyers they've still been surprising people and I hope Torts gets that Jack Adams baby 50-1 alright boys we gotta move along

to the Nashville Predators this is unbelievable they had back to back shutouts over Florida then Detroit they're now 15-0 and 2 in the 17 games since the U2 concert at the Sphere was canceled. They've essentially locked up that first wildcard spot in the West. 99.6 chance to make the playoffs. And we were supposed to have a predator on with us today.

The youngster, Luke Evangelista. But I think the team realized, like, they don't want to mess with this comment right now. They're on a heat. They don't have a guy talking about this shit. They heard my take on the tramp stamp on the jersey for the Red Wings. And they're like, hey, we got a stretch going on on right now we don't need the spit and chicklets tramp stamp right i could just see like uh the the head of media relations being like hey mr trotts um luca's gonna do a interview with who he's like chicklets he's like no

fuck no he ain't going on those those assholes. There's no chance. Are you kidding me? We're 15-0-2 and you're going on chiclets? Oh, my God. But you know what? Evangelista has been an awesome player to watch. And this entire team, it's been a magical run. It's been one of those things that as much as the U2's fierce story became a big headline,

like some things do get groups together and some things get guys to kind of all push in one direction and they've been on fire. But without Roman Yossi. Oh my God, this guy. This is not happening, okay? Like we got since that game, all right? So since the U2's fear,

the 9-2 drubbing at home by the Dallas Stars, he's got 23 points in 17 games. He's playing close to half the game. He plays the power play, the penalty kill, the last minute if you need a goal and you're down by a goal. And it's a true number one defenseman that is just pushing his way. So, Hedman or Yossi is getting hosed this year on finalists of the Norris. One of those guys isn't going to be in the top three,

and one of those guys is going to have a legit gripe about not being in there. But Roman Yossi probably is leading the pack on packing, passing headman. Cause it's always later in the year. It's the Corey Perry heart trophy year where he dragged his team into the playoffs and he had 23 goals in the last 23 games, whatever it was to get 50, to get the heart trophy. So it's doing it later in the year matters more. So I think it's kind of a done deal that he'll be in the top three. But this guy has just lived up to everything that anyone ever expected and more. I mean, he came into the league and he had a great shot.

He could move and he could pass. And it's like, we'll go into Zach Hyman later. Like, guys get better and better and better. And a lot of times as a scout, you're wondering like, where's his ceiling? And I think there was people within Nashville that knew like this kid hasn't even touched his yet in the first few years. And then, you know, some guys leave. Ellis is in there.

All these defensemen end up leaving. PK was there. He's gone. And you're getting a bigger role. And it's like, he's somehow turning into one of the best defensemen, the best defenseman the Predators have ever had. No doubt. No doubt.

He's better than him or Shea Weber. You got to look at it now. I was just going to say their track record of drafting and developing defensemen during that period of time when they got what Suter in there. They had Seth Jones. Weber. Weber. So Yossi.

The fact that like. Ekholm. Yeah. Ellis. Did you just say. Ekholm. Ellis. Did you just say Ellis? Yeah, Ellis was another good one. So the fact, and some of these weren't drafted there. They were more like scooped up in trades and also.

No, they were all drafted there, all those guys. Ryan Ellis was? Oh, really? Oh, I think so. But regardless, I guess the point I'm making, the fact that they ended up moving on from all those guys and ended up just keeping him and him turning into the player he has. You said that true number one and year over year, he's like a top five defenseman every

time. The best component to his game though, and it's such a relief, the fact that he can get out of his own by himself. He's a one man breakout. It gets put below the goal line in his corner. He goes back and he's such a big guy. So I don't know how he's shimmy-shaking these guys and making a miss, but just as far as overall skill and assets, man,

this guy is top tier and dragging this team into playoffs. Brunette's done a tremendous job this second half of the season, obviously finally getting adjusted to the team and the players that he has, but just, I mean, Forsberg's lighting the lamp. They were questioning on whether they should bring him back at the money that he was requesting. What a move. What a move.

Like, I would say that one came down to the end because I don't even think he signed before the season had finished. He didn't. So that was a huge risk going potentially in a free agency and losing that guy, a 40-goal man. And he's been, everything is advertised, and they continue to roll. But what's crazy, like, he's got 40 once and early he came into the league and like his third fourth fifth year he had he had 82 games played then he

was missing 15 18 games like 18 games like he missed the he's missed a ton of time when he's healthy he's one of the top guys in the nhl he's so big one of those dudes who maybe doesn't look like the fastest player but is buzzing by people. You know, we talk about it because he's so big and strong. His shot's amazing. He's got some, go through his highlight reel goals, his top goals. I mean, they're incredible. The Michigan moves, like the one-on-one movement, beating defensemen.

His shot's unreal. So he's been carrying the load offensively up front. I think that in the end,'s it's when you have a star forward like that a star defenseman what happened oh no what oh no what he said in the end again so i have to give him a little nuts oh we'll do it after the show okay you gotta write me a check i'm getting a nut whack and it'll be on video i don't think it's that bad i think that you're pointing out i've said it seven times this show. We've been on the horn for 40 minutes.

What do you think? Pasha is such a prick too. He was just listening. He's like, he was like Leo DiCaprio in that scene. And once upon a time in Hollywood, whatever, they have a star goalie.

They have a star defenseman. They have a star forward. The whole team's gotten together and just rallied around not getting to go to the sphere and do drugs with ra and it's a special run i don't know if if they're in my mind like super dangerous in the playoffs though it's because it's a deep team but there's not a ton of offense after a few guys so if you if you're able to beat their goaltending which is harder than way easier said than done, I don't know if they get out of the first round.

I think it's like one of these amazing runs, but then you run into a top-end team with a lot more talent up front. It's going to be difficult for them, no matter how well they've played in the regular season. R.A., if they do go on a magical run, I think it would be fitting, and this was a comment from Jeff, they would have to get you two to play at the parade, correct?

It probably cost them a pretty penny. By the way, a little part of that story, Biz, the day after the concert... You don't think it would be cheap? No, not at all. But the day after the concert they didn't go to, like when they had a morning skate away, they were going back to the locker room and some unnamed player played

I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For, a famous U2 song in the locker room. I guess the whole fucking locker room just started pissing their pants laughing. That is so good. And that's when they've gone on the streak. And we can't mention Forsberg without talking about that fight this weekend with Mo Sider. I mean, that was one of the best fights of the year. Probably one of the most unlikeliest fights of the year. Those two guys going at it.

And Forsberg talked after. He goes, yeah, just two guys battling. And he said, I got in there early. He goes, then he just took over. I mean, Sider's a big kid. I mean, Forsberg ended up taking a bit of a beating there, but he took the questions out. It was a hell of a fight. I don't think anybody saw that coming. I love the fact that you brought that up, but those are just like two

high-end skill players who compete, and sometimes the wires cross. I mean, Sider's a guy, if you're going to the net, he's giving you a little fucking two-handed cross check in the rib area. He has that old school element. And Forsberg had probably seen enough of it.

And like you said, I thought that Sider got the best of him. But shout out to Forsberg for chucking him with Sider. That was Sider's first fight. He did a great job. And he switched from right to left. It looked like he drilled him with the left. But there was no marks on Forsberg's face after. But for your first fight, I was like, holy shit, this kid can chuck them both hands. He saw Lucas

Raymond in practices. I can do that too, bitch. Yeah, it was a long one. Shout out to whoever filmed the cinematography right on the glass. That was a tremendous fucking job filming that fight. Too busy. What a job they've done down in Nashville. We talked about that sustained relevance

and I'm drawing a blank on the old GM's name who stepped down. David Poyle. Poyle. Like he had that stretch run at the hand, the keys over to trots. And now the job that he's done in that. This right now, that's a retool. That's not a rebuild. That's a retool.

On the fly. And on the fly, done quickly. Bravo to the national predators organization i love seeing these like smaller markets in the mix this has been an incredible race how about mcdonough though like what a valuable piece that guy is wherever he goes rangers tampa they just win character guys a character guy that never takes a night off like biz when you and i played when we got over nights off well i didn't have a choice i didn't have a choice i didn't i didn't either by the end but there were nights

like i wasn't purposely doing it but i was like this guy's a no-show today you're probably thinking about the pint every mcdonough if there's a night he's like struggling with the puck he's like all right i'll just block every shot and hammer a couple guys in the D zone. Where you're like, ah, not my night. I was like, yeah, I don't have it tonight. I don't have it tonight, guys. It's not true if you want to call your pal. I had Nick Cousins back up, but he finally dropped the gloves. Him and Zucko went at it.

He didn't answer the bell. I'm sure you were happy to see that. But I got nothing against Cousins. Oh, I do. I know. Yeah. I mean, I love it. I think that it's great.

It's an element to our game. This season has literally had everything, and the league needed a rat to step up and be the villain, and he did, and bravo to him. And I hope that he gets a fucking four-year deal at 1.5 from some team, and it might be in Florida because he's the ringleader of the Hyenas. I thought it was also a great stop, and Zucker with his new team

man he's you know that's a good trade quiet too not another quiet one kind of like the anthony duclair one although he's hot as a pistol oh yeah right now um yeah the the zucker move it didn't really make many waves but you're also happy for him like seeing arizona yesterday that's a tough goal right now and he's played in the league a long time. So he gets to go right into the mix of a team that's on this unreal rise. They're in the, they're going to get in the playoffs

and he gets to be a part of something special. So to make, you know, he's got two goals in seven games and he got a fight. So a fight against the most hated player in the league. So he's fitting in perfectly with them. All right, before we go any further, here's a few words from our friends at Game Time.

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Our buddies, the Empty Netters boys, they've been tooting Dylan Lockett's one to get some MVP votes as to how good he's been this year. Detroit looked absolutely lost without him. He got back on the lineup Thursday, led the Wings to a big 6-3 win over the Islanders, put him right back in the playoff position. But, Biz, I know you want to talk about Lucas Raymond. He's been a huge reason why the Wings are still in the playoff position right now as well.

60 points in 71 games. This kid's only going to be 22 on Thursday. So much fucking potential down the line. There was also the practice skirmish, Biz. Like, how much does that galvanize a team when there's a fight in practice? And, you know, Newsy Lalonde said it was productive for the team. They were carrying the heat that you know that they're fucking that animated that that fucking so I gotta take it over I got fucking my brain no no no I know

you don't buddy you're fucking fired up just like Lucas Raymond was in those fucking battle drills and at this point in the season when things aren't going well you need you can't be doing just like the morning skate practices you got to get to the basics and the foundation of winning hockey. And to me, that just shows you're competing in practice. But even when you're having winning stretches of hockey and you're, and you're practicing like that, fights can arise. Like winning teams have them all the time. So as far as Lucas Raymond, man, he has stepped to the next level.

If you're a wings fan, you got to be over the moon. And one of the most rapid fan bases online too because i was pumping patty kane's tires when he scored the ot winner the other night fucking 40 of them down my throat saying lucas raymond why aren't you tweeting about lucas raymond well we're fucking giving him his double wrister now and he's everything is advertised and and just an unbelievable skill set he's got that low center of gravity he moves with such fluidity on the ice. Do you like that word?

Fluidity? Fluidity. I brought that out for the Wings fans out there. Brought the vocab out. But he's been great. He's a Swede. Swedes are just money. They're always so cool.

They're good defensively. I'm pretty sure that Raymond stuck around Detroit this summer to train too. Yeah. And that's like a big thing, right? Like sometimes guys want to go back home, especially if you're from Europe and like, all right, let me just get away, see my family and friends. And he's like, no, I want to get better.

I want to be around this organization so they know that I'm invested. And that's going to be an interesting storyline seeing the cider and Raymond's deals. We talked about this a couple of weeks ago and both of them have just ramped it up. Raymond's awesome. And I,

I remember, remember I was all over him for getting rookie of the year instead of bunting when bunting was 38 and won it, or it was a part of the, the, the final race. But I think wings fans are more, more than anything.

They're just rabid. They're intense. They want to see love for their players and their team, but we have to, we have to be honest. That run they went on, what are you going to say anything good about? There's nothing to say good about them. And that fight gets them going.

I don't think it's going to be the Blues having a fight with Bertuzzo. Who did he fight that year? Sanford. And going on and winning the Stanley Cup. But they've turned it around since then. And it's minor things. It's little things that guys are pissed off. But you're still buddies.

I think after they fought that night, they were in the penalty box together, actually, Sherratt and Raymond. So it's one of those things. The guys compete hard. The coaches love seeing that. At least it means they care. The good news about their contracts,

there's no way he's making more than Dylan Larkin. And you touched on him when you first brought this up. He's their MVP I don't the league this year has had some guys go sicko mode so there's no way he can be in the conversation but he means everything to that team and the fact that they got him locked up at what it was eight years 9.5 maybe even 9.25 that's the standard for the team I would say that the fact that the you know he's there they probably end up getting Lucas Raymond at probably eight, eight and a half million

on an eight-year deal, which in a few years will be an absolute bargoon. And you look at all these other guys who might be getting handed that, this guy is a for sure eight times eight guy, not one of these fugazis. Yeah, right now the wings, I'll point back to Washington.

8.7. Dworkin? 8.7. Dworkin? 8.7. Oh, I thought he was up at 9.2. I didn't think it was overnight, yeah. Okay, well, there you go. So he's coming in under there already. That's the precedent.

So they're going to have a few nice contracts to lock in. The Ray Bork rule. Yeah, the Wings are a point back of Washington right now for the second wild card. Caps do have a game in hand, but they have a huge game tonight. Big game, see what happens there. But speaking of the Capitals, I mean, Ovechkin started off real slow, but he's been on an absolute heat lately.

Eight goals over a five-game span. I know we've been talking about the Caps. It's just so, like, improbable what this team has been doing. Ovechkin, 848 goals right now. He needs 47 to break Gretzky's record. He also cracked the 20-goal mark once again, became the only player in NHL history to record 19 consecutive 20 goal seasons.

His 0.6 goals per game. That is like preposterous. It doesn't even sound that crazy until you think about it. 19 years in a row, playing in the league for nine years is impressive. That's because I did that. So I had to throw that in there. But 20,

like, and how many of those are 30? I don't know. I didn't count them off. I counted them. The record was 19. I don't want to make it too consecutive. Don't do too much math. Interesting note about Ovi guys. They were talking about Colby Cohen was talking about it on his show this morning.

Apparently, before the season started, he completely changed his stick specs. I don't know. I've been told that CCM actually stopped making his old stick and they didn't make any more for him to last out the rest of his career. But apparently, Curve, whether it's Curve or Lye, he has completely different stick specs this year. Wow. That's the second time it's happened to a capital. Do you guys remember when this happened to Mike Green the year that he had 30 tuxeses of defense. It was the blue synergy. It was the stealth, the blue synergy stealth. And he had a bomb with this thing. And I believe it was even come playoff time.

They just didn't have any left. So he had to switch sticks. And all of a sudden he went cold at that time. But interesting. It was the same thing a few years ago with Phil Kessel, where all of a sudden they discontinue. Martin St. Louis, we had him on our podcast. He used that yellow synergy forever.

And all of a sudden, you're so used to it, and your muscle memory, it's so embedded to your brain that the slightest change in whether it's a flex, torque, your lie, or whatever it may be, and how it kicks, that could be the difference. And you talked about a slow start. He had had slow starts before. A few where he hadn't started the season with scoring in the first four games, That could be the difference. And you talked about a slow start. He had had slow starts before.

A few where he hadn't started the season with scoring in the first like four games and then went on to win the Rocket. This year, there was like a long period of time where like, oh my God, is this guy like done? Like, is this guy, we're going to have to wheel him out here in four seasons from now to like cross the goal line for the goal record? Now we're looking at this thing happening

at the back half of next season. I still think he's going to get 30. He might even get 40 this year. And some of you are thinking, oh, here comes a hot take from Biz. Well, if you've been watching their games... 15 and 21. I think that they've been instructed,

nobody shoot on net and only pass to Ovi. Because if you saw Dylan Strom in that grade A scoring opportunity where he decided... He had a breakaway. He had a breakaway. The defenseman had dove towards Ovi and he still kept pump faking,

pump tanked and pump faking. And then he finally slid it over. By the way, I tweeted after that. I tweeted the video and said, when you don't want to get screamed in Russian when you get back to the bench. And Capitals said, no, he's a great teammate. I said, I tweeted the video and said, when you don't want to get screamed in Russian, when you get back to the bed and capitals, no, he's a great teammate.

I was like, Holy shit. It was just, it was Jesus. It was a joke. Maybe the joke wasn't great, but in the end he scored. Oh,

I said it. Cause you said it, but, but, but I was going to say, all right, it's every year, not including this one.

It's every year over 30, besides 2021, in which he only played 45 games and he had 24. This year he'll get 30. He needs four more. He's got 15 goals in his last 21 games. The stick thing's interesting because the stick manufacturers and those guys and the reps for all the companies, they'll tell you, and they're not lying.

Putin just bought the manufacturer that used to make them by the way over the over the news channel he said they'll say they're the exact same everything's the exact same but it doesn't matter one they can't be the same if a different model and two once it's in the player's mind that it's not like you can't beat that feeling of there's something different about this twig you know the two of the biggest lies in hockey told are like uh you're only going down to the minors for a week and your sticks are in the mail like these these stick rep guys they'll tell you anything they want to hear but there's another lie to that but i'm not going to tell it i'll tell you off camera what do you mean there's it's the three lies but i i i i'll have tell if you ever run into me ask me but it's not the right time to drop it i'll say that um so ovi is just proving all of us kind of to be morons once again the best the best

goal recently was when he stole it off mcmichael stick who was in the process of trying to rip one cheese and just grabbed it right before he released it they actually shot at the same time but it hit ovi stick at the stick closer to the net, and he got another one. So I don't know how. I think if they get in the playoffs, they're going to get swept. I'm not trying to be a Debbie Downer for Capitals fans.

None of this makes any sense, but it's an awesome storyline no matter what. Shout out to Ovi's physician for crying out loud. This guy's just working overtime. Couple clicks for Ovi's physician, boys. Yeah, I wasn't sure on 30 goals, but he's had at least 50 in nine of his 19 seasons so far. So I did have that one written down. His.60 goals per game, same as Wayne Gretzky.

The best among active players,.65 from Austin Matthews. No surprise there. Boys, would you not say that, like, could Carberry win Coach of the Year? He's going to. Took the words out of my mouth, Biz. Took the words right out of my mouth. Yeah, he's been good.

If you look at rosters, now, if you went into this season, everybody would have said Philly, especially with the goaltending situation with Carter Hart, that Philly was probably ahead of Washington in the standings. Say that again? Would you have assumed that most people would have said that Flyers had a better team and were more likely to finish ahead in the stand no do wash flyers were considered bottom five team

okay well that's why i'm going to speculating on coach of the year so you oh yeah if both philly and washington make it do you think one of those guys deserves it or do you guys believe it should be a guy with a top team like vancouver it is a good argument to say that if somehow Philly and Washington get in, torts might deserve it more based on that. It's been all season long, right? Like Washington, they started decent and then they went,

then they went in the shitter where it's like, they both didn't have a chance in making the playoffs flyers more so than the caps, but most people didn't have either team in. And then the flyers have been in it the entire time. So it's kind of like consistency as a coach would lean towards torts but carberry being the first year guy there and this being like making no sense i think it would hurt more that their stats are so ridiculous that their goal differential is that bad and they're in it that almost like helps torts in a way for coach of the year you know what i mean i agree with you

and and also we didn't even mention this part. The fact that they've won the last couple with that, you're in the midst of this wild card run trying to get a playoff spot and you lose probably, in my opinion, your most versatile and dominant power forward in Tom Wilson's six-game sussy. We haven't talked about that, right?

No, we have not. That's a devastating blow, man. This time of the year is when you need that guy in the lineup. He does absolutely everything. Yeah, it looked like sort of a reactionary high stick on Noah Greger of Toronto. I was surprised he got six games. I know Willie's got a little bit of a track record.

I wasn't because it was him. What's that? Because it was him, I wasn't. Yeah, but it was such a weird play because if you watch it in slow motion, it looks pretty bad. I think, yeah, he was just slinging his stick around, just trying to get it. And obviously it's way too high.

I'm sorry. There's Tom Wilson haters out there. And I've said a million times, if I'm running a team, I want him on my team. I think every GM would say that. But even you people who hate Tom Wilson, there is no chance he meant to swing a stick into his face swinging his stick like that is reckless he's looking to get his arm there or his body and it was just way too high and caught him directly in the face and the head but he's not trying to do that but being tom wilson and his past and like how he's thought of around the league i i figured

it was at least five or six and then you saw the in-person hearing, and my suspension game has been top-titty lately, calling the Rempe one and knowing that one. I said it to G, I think. That's five games, so I guess it's not that top-titty if I even get it right. You actually hit it on the nail on the head. You said four.

Oh, Rempe. I'm saying Wilson. Okay. Yeah. I thought it was a little more than I expected, but either way. All right, boys, I think we should send it over to our interview now. This guy was a former Capitol, but he made his name here in Boston. So without further ado, we're going to send it over to Jason Allison. Great interview. This is a guy who people hadn't heard from for a long time,

so I know Bruins fans are dying to hear from him as well as the rest of the NHL fans because it's a great interview. So enjoy Jason Allison. All right, before we go any further, here's a few words from our friends at Bodyama. This episode is brought to you by Bodyama Zero Sugar. The brand new Zero Sugar sports drink from our friends at Bodyama provides real hydration with no artificial sweeteners, flavors, or dyes. Whether you're playing hockey all weekend, shooting some hoops, maybe at a few pups with the boys, you need to get rehydrated. That's why Bar-Di-Am-A Zero Sugar is the ideal thing to slurp down afterwards.

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Once again, Bordiamo Zero Sugar. Get rehydrated. Recover. Get a great taste in beverage. All right. I'd like to welcome our next guest, a guy guy used to roof all way back in the day biz an incredible passer this center was taken 17th overall by washington at the 93 draft after a few stints with the capitals he was traded to boston in a block busted deal

and blossomed as the number one center after five years in boston he was traded to la where he spent two seasons then finished up with his hometown Maple Leafs. It's a joy to welcome to the Spittin' Chicklets podcast Jason Allison. How you been my man? It's been a long time. Been good, been good. That's it? That's all you got? Thanks for coming. See you guys tomorrow.

So what have you been up to man? It's been a while, for real. Yeah, when I finished I kind of hermited for a little bit. I had a horse farm up in King City and did a little bit of thoroughbred stuff, just have some fun. Ran a minor hockey organization for a while. Oh, so you dealt with some crazy. Oh, yeah.

That's why you stopped. Really crazy. And then about six years ago, moved back to LA and started doing some movie stuff, some production company. So that's kind of where I'm at now. Kids playing sports and just kind of doing the thing, you know. What got you into the production stuff? You know, that's a good question. stuff you know that that's a good question i i started with uh kind of developing a hockey tv series to be honest and then just kind of wharfed it was really weird i got into a movie

called arkansas um with vincent fawn liam hemsworth and john malkovich and um you know enjoyed it and liked it started learning it and uh just kind of rolled with it so while you were playing or younger like this was never something post-career i'll do that like this just totally kind of came out of nowhere no i mean i i think for me it was always like hockey was the only thing ever yeah that that was kind of how you visioned it and that's why you're so good at it yeah you never picture the end you know and um you know and you do you you're you're having these grand dreams of doing stuff with all your buddies and whatever you know that kind of really doesn't usually work out either um so you miss some stuff right obviously and you know that trying to do something hard something uh tough

to accomplish and something you don't know. Yeah. Like it's so, you haven't done anything else. Well, it's, it, right. And it's like, what do you do?

Right. It's, uh, I think it's tough for a lot of guys, um, coming out. It's, uh,

it's, you know, you have all this passion and fire towards something and then it's gone. And, you know, it was funny. I knew I'd miss the guys in the locker room

and all, you know, doing stupid shit and whatever. But getting ready to compete in the fire and putting that passion somewhere really was the big missing gap for myself anyway. You're never going to ever fucking duplicate it. No.

You just hope to try to chase it. But it's funny because I'm guessing that if that's how it ended when you went away a little bit, you probably weren't even watching hockey, huh? No, I really, I really wasn't.

I, I'd watched the playoffs just cause, and you know, you can't not. I still had some of my boys that you're cheering for and stuff like that. But I didn't go to a game for like 10 years. And I remember the first game we went to in Toronto, like the national anthem and everything happening just kind of fired me up a bit too.

And, you know, I just. So when you, when you ended it, you just kind of wanted to go away. You didn't really want to see it at all a little bit. Like, was it just because it was hard, hard to step away and it was just. I think too, sorry.

I think too, it was, you know, a little bit of a tough ending for me in the sense of, you know, I had a neck injury that kind of kept me out in LA there for a year and a half. And then the lockout, so I almost missed like two and a half years there. Came back, played a year and I had a point of game. I was doing okay. And I broke my hand in a fight with 20 games to go.

And so it all, you know, I was kind of on path to come back. I was only 32 at the time. on path to come back. I was only 32 at the time. And, you know, I had my two oldest half the time and we were in Toronto and my head still wasn't right and my neck was giving me problems. And I was just kind of like, I flew out to New York to do some, you know, interviews and talk to teams

and stuff and it was the Islanders actually. But, and then, you know, I talk to teams and stuff and uh it was the outlanders actually but um and then you know i just kind of decided at that point like it wasn't you know it wasn't i wasn't good to go you know so yeah i didn't want to be away from the kid the kids and did um did working with the horses and stuff did that give you like a little bit of peace and and kind of just like center you a little bit especially after like a neck injury like was it fucking with your head maybe it was definitely fucked with my head it's it was it was tough time that way but um no it was more it gave me like i mean i don't know if you ever owned a racehorse but like no it's i'm thinking about it i just bought landon jackson i talk about it all the time. Would you recommend it?

Well, you have to have deep fucking pockets. I mean. I didn't snap them tape to tape on you. No, you know. This is invested in jockeys. Yeah, yeah. You need to be in a, you need to be in like a syndicate or something with a group where you have, because it's just, it's expensive and,

you know, one or two horses could just get hurt and be like huge money pits. Um, but it, it's so exciting and fun. It just really is watching. Like we had a couple steak horse winners that like, you know, I mean. Oh, being at the race after taking the picture? Oh, man.

Any at Saratoga? No, just watching your horse come around, uh, you know, the back stretch and stuff like that. It's, there's, there's, so it, back to what we talked about earlier, it kind of gives you a little bit of that. The juices.

Right. Get the juices flowing again. Right. And just to go back to the production stuff, were you ever like a movie buff or did you ever do any type of writing or was that just once again, just so random where it just, that's how you felt?

No, I love, I was always huge into movies and TV series. Oh, wow. Oh yeah. You and I could do a 30 minute. All right guys, you can leave. Oh yeah wow. Oh, yeah. You and R.A. could do a 30-minute water. All right, guys, you can leave. Oh, yeah. I watch everything, and I've been to everything,

and I analyze everything. It's how I played, too. You just, I'm just, you analyze everything, you do everything, and you're kind of like, oh, why did they do this? Well, they should have done that. You know, playing, you know, backseat driver. Would you be the guy, would you always be going

to the movie theater when you were a player? I went quite a bit. Yeah. I mean, I would say, yeah. I mean, a lot of blockbuster back in the day. I could tell you that. Yeah. Just hoping that the new releases were back, where you check out, because they were all sold out.

Well, and I would like take like an hour in there trying to figure out what movie I wanted to pick. I was a nightmare. That's a good custom. Like, what do you lean toward? Just anything, whatever strikes your fancy? Yeah, I'm pretty like thriller, action thrillers, but into some good drama stuff too and like my good comedies like everybody else.

Do you find that the older you get, the more I guess you're less in tune, maybe action, you want to maybe think a little more the older you get as far as a movie or is that just me is what sir you like a movie that makes you think a little bit more as opposed to like an action movie for sure 100 yeah um well especially because i'm in the business now and you want to you want stuff that's got some depth to it exactly right and there's a lack of that serious oh my god yeah there really well it's because it's hard to sell yeah exactly I could go make the best drum ever and lose money.

Because the 17 comic book movies. Unless it wins every award. Right, it's got to win awards. It's got to do stuff. So it could be really good, doesn't win anything. But yet you can make an action movie with Bruce Wilson in it for 20 minutes and you could sell it for 5 million bucks.

It's like there's a formula there that it's much easier to do thrillers and action movies. So you hate all this Marvel bullshit then too? Well, at least the Marvel has, you know, some storylines and some of them are good. Okay. You know, I mean, you know, it's more of the, you know, those cheap action movies like the

Bruce Willis ones at the end and, you know, some of the ones Nicolas Cage did and a bunch of those oh like gone in 60 seconds i watched it the other day cheesy it was like you it is but those are higher end than what i'm talking about yeah yeah no one's i'm talking about her you know they've been making a living off of doing those kind of movies so i actually watched uh i meant to tell you this on Netflix, there's a great Sylvester Stallone documentary on there. Yeah. Did you see it?

I haven't seen it yet. No, I just watched it on the slide out today. Slide? Slide. There's so much about his life I didn't know, like the action movie aspect. That's funny because they just did one on Arnold Schwarzenegger that was a big part.

He was in this. He was in this one. Because the one on Arnold was incredible. It went through his bodybuilding to get him to America, then it went through his movie career, and then it went through his politician career, which him to America. Then it went through his movie career. Then it went through his politician career. Did it go through his nanny? Yeah. I give him credit for that.

He did own his mistakes in that. That's for the flight home then. There you go. If you download it, you can watch it. Anyways, enough of the movie talk. Enough of the movie talk we gotta talk about your career obviously you played with the london knights so we can insert our london

knights bribery joke here at this point no they weren't doing that yet back then all right um so you're talking about hunts you know no we joke we always joke from them they were actually pissed at first because people were thinking we were serious but because they always land all the top prospects and like even guys who were saying they're going to go to college and they're drafted, drafted fifth round, somehow they ended up getting traded to the London Knights. Magic. Shocker. Shocker.

Don't mess with Huncie, man. That's what I'm saying. But he could also hold these guys, the NHLers, and he's got that pedigree. So I'm assuming that they trust him. So that's kind of the ongoing joke. But when you were drafted there, were you fired up? And did you even know anything about the orange gel at that time?

Oh my God. It was like just everything. If I look back, just everything happened so fast. It was, you know, it was crazy. I grew up in North York, a shitty neighborhood, you know, and it wasn't like I was that experienced with knowing how everything works and all that stuff and then um as a 15 year old turning 16 i got drafted out of bantam i wasn't

even playing junior b or anything um so it was like you know you're going from playing with you know 14 year old boys they're 15 year old kids to 20 year old guys who are oh you went the next year right after draft? Yeah, yeah. Wow. Did they change that rule or were you that good that you were? No, back then it was each team could have two underages.

Yeah, okay. So you had to draft them in the first three rounds if you wanted them. That's kind of how it was. But it was weird getting, it was uncommon getting drafted out of Bantam. Actually, Pekka got drafted the year before me in Toronto out of Bantam, but it was weird getting, it was uncommon getting drafted out of Bantam. Actually, Pekka got drafted the year before me in Toronto out of Bantam, but we were like the

only two forever that got drafted out of Bantam. Usually, you know, like I could have played for the Guelph junior B team that year. I, I went and I made the team, I didn't go. So that's a more standard route. And all the guys who got drafted with me were playing junior B. Oh, okay.

So it so still the same couple midgets yeah yeah same age couple midgets um but mostly mostly played junior b so out of bad i'm just saying the competition was obviously shittier than they were having yeah um because you know you're playing against you know not 14 15 year olds instead of did you have an agent then uh did you already start no no no not not back then it's the call from london hey be at camp in september there was a scout there that kind of was grooming me to want to come there and you know hoping you got me because it was kind of in that range where um i think i went 10th or something i mean i think it was 10th

but where you know one team could take me at seventh, Windsor at seventh. They were talking. So it was kind of, he was grooming me to kind of go there and he was kind of walking me through the, from Christmas to the draft kind of timeframe. Yeah.

But you know, once you, you know, once you get there, it was just like, London's a great city. So I was wondering, was it a big time organization then as it is now?

Yeah, they were just at that old barn. Right. Probably weren't drawing as well and it wasn't as big of a spectacle where now it feels like it's ran like an NHL team, right? You go there, it's like 11,000 seats. They sell out most nights, the beer sales. I want to say the organization's probably

worth 30 million bucks if they sold it. I don't even know, but it's funny. Huntsie bought it for like, I think it was two and a quarter. Oh, for probably six. Pretty good. I know that because I was in the other group. But he's put his blood, sweat, and tears into it. No, we were.

True story. You're like, we offered you 2.1 for Christ's sake. No, he did. It's a long story. We don't want to get into it. But anyway, the point is it was like two two five or two five at the most um but and they were already planning the move was coming in a year and you know so it was crazy they sold for that even back then they should have got way more for that oh i was gonna

ask was it an overpay but it was actually kind of a steal oh yeah i think he had pitchers i don't know he must yeah he had the private investigator on him just like some of the trades i see stevie why i'm like how does he win every fucking trade now i saw that your numbers your first year and you said hey it all happened so fast so that first year is probably just a lot of trying to get adjusted to the speed and and learn the game at that level yeah we were a really good team too it was us and the sue and um you know it's weird too because it was really tough back then and you're coming out of bad and there's no fighting there's no and you're a big guy it was it was physical and you know even a minor hockey but it's physical for 15 year olds not for grown men who are i had chris simon running around like trying to butt engine the

face and do stupid crazy stuff and you know this big six four 225 pound you know guy running around the ice with his long hair you know and i'm a 16 year old buck 75 you know and just trying to stay out of his way at time but uh it was kind of crazy time it's a huge adjustment i mean for a young kid um yeah i think i'd like 30 points or something in like 60 games well i'm looking here you had you jumped from 29 points to 118 like i wonder 89 points that might be a record for one year to the next in that league yeah like you must have maybe just like become that more accustomed to it or had a big summer going into the second year there was no big summers back then buddy no train what was your summer give me like a monday through friday summer during junior

hit the bottle like any riding the bike run or nothing i did nothing back until i got drafted once i got drafted i went to washington the first year and worked out there all summer and that was like the first taste i got of actually working out, being a professional in any kind and not even being a professional, but just working out. Yeah. I mean, there was no, yeah, it was, there, there was zero of that stuff.

So how, how the big jump then? That's crazy. Honestly, I, I think that some of it was, I wasn't as bad as I was the year before. I wasn't getting as much. We had a really veteran team. We were two best teams with the Sioux, two toughest teams.

It was kind of like trying to coach, trying to find, I don't know if you know Gary Agnew as he was coaching. Yeah, he coached at Columbus, didn't he? Yeah. And, you know, trying to find ice time for a young kid and when you're in a, you know, the gust of it and all that, I think was tough. But also I think really it was confidence, you know,

like I, even though I didn't do much here before, I came home and I was like, you know, I kind of told a couple of my teammates I was going to get a hundred points and I said 50 and 50. So it wasn't, I didn't get 50 goals but I said 76 apples though I had 42 I think 42 or something yeah 42 yeah I could get a memory on that um but I I literally went in and you know they're basically laughing at you right yeah of course like yeah good good one buddy

you know you're gonna get um I'm like yeah we'll see you know all the veterans left so it opened up opportunity so it gave me confidence in camp. I went out and I. Power play, everything. Well, you have to earn it. Yep. Right. Like it wasn't like I wasn't giving it to me.

That's for sure. You know, he went out in camp, I played hard and earned it. And then it was, it was just kind of like, boom, it was like something clicked. And I changed my game too. When I was in minor hockey, I was deking everybody scoring two goals a game.

Um, my first year in junior, I'm trying to figure out how to be effective at that particular level, which for me was learning how to make other people better. Yeah. That's, I mean, that's what I was going to ask. Well. It's just, you were known for your passing.

Like when did that, that, that year, that's when it clicked? I think a lot of the guys who kind of were smart players who cerebral read the game. I think they adjust, you know? I mean, I, I mean, it's, it's like, you know, we were talking about McDavid today. Even it's like, he's going to get better down low. Is his games going to get, he's the best player of all time on the rush. Like not even in my mind, nobody's even close,

but he hasn't dominated as much down low yet, but he will, he'll figure it out because he's getting tools. He's learning the game. He's going to figure out that that's going to buy him a little, you know? Yeah. Cause there's, I mean, if you look at Sid,

there was certain things when he came in, he wasn't good at that. He naturally was like, whereas like you're saying like down low, Sid was always pretty low center of gravity, good at battling in the corners for pucks where, where that's what you think that McDavid needs to add to his bag. Well, you know, I mean, I mean, I just think

he's going to naturally get better at it. I mean, you know, I played with 32 or close similar style players. Um, I was 22, 21, 22 when he was 18, kind of, you know, followed each other and he used to be all over him all the time. Like, like, dude when he was 18, kind of, you know, followed each other and he used to be all over him all the time. Like, like, dude, hang on to the puck there, go in the corner, get it behind the net more, like you're big and strong.

And again, 18 year old kid trying to figure it out. Right. And I watched, you know, we used to get shitty highlight tapes from the Bruins at the end of the year that you see all your points, they show you all your points. And I was saying from my first year where I was ninth in the league to my fourth year where I was third or fourth, I think it was fourth, my game was totally different.

Like, you know, similar, but totally in year one, I was more off the rush, more trying to get to the net more and whatever. By the end, I was more behind the rush, more trying to get to the net more and whatever. By the end, I was more behind the net, using the net more, being smarter, using my body better. So you, you, you know, you learn that. Figure it out. You do.

They're smart, great hockey players. You're going to figure it out, right? It's. Were you a kid that was obsessed with it? Oh yeah, for sure. And so like you're on the ice or you're at home shooting pucks? Not as much on the ice.

It wasn't a whole lot of ice back then for like meaning we were only on two, three times a week at the most. Not like now the kids are on. You mean in junior and OHL? No, no, no, no. Oh, okay. Okay.

Sorry. I mean, as a kid, no, we were on the day. Yeah, like all obsessive hockey parents on, they got like the skating coach, the stick handling coach. It wasn't, you didn't have access like that. No, no. And we didn't have the funds either or anything, right lot a lot of street hockey i'll tell you that that's like all the

older guys i mean we had uh nobody skated then mickey vocoda came on and talked about street hockey we just had sean but do you not do you not think the guys are a little like the back and they were a little headier a little better kind of murrell's so we got a buddy who's part of part of our show and he always talks like yes the skill and the speed and the one-on-one moves are different now but he's convinced and i've kind of agreed with him that the hockey maybe we just sound like older guys the hockey at hue was was maybe a little better right a little better than well because you're experiencing all those things right i mean just those hours of road hockey you're learning oh i got that little extra time to flip it up i don't have that extra time you know i watch the kids now they all can

skate around pylons and shoot good and where can they know the ice right and do they know they have that extra split second that we're even doing road, you're experiencing those a gazillion times a week, right? Yeah. Just like out there all the time. And you, oh, shit, I could do this. And oh, I got a little extra time. Just, I think the poise and, you know, the patience and all that kind of stuff,

I think was a little different. But to your point, the skill and speed right now. Oh, it's ridiculous. It's crazy. Your third season in London, you did get the 50 and 50, 55 goals, 87 your third season in london you did you did get the 50 and 50 55 goals 87 assists but what i know is that yeah you actually played for washington london and uh portland the hl fifth two seasons in a row how did that like that that's not something that could go down today i don't believe i you know it was it so the first year i played a couple

games in washington when i was 18 at the end of my junior season. So I, you know, I got, I signed my deal. I played a couple of games there. The plan was for me to go back there next year and the lockout happened. So I missed half the year. And then I did go there for the back half of the lockout, but I'm in and out of the lineup kind of thing and what have you.

And then when the season was done, well, actually, sorry, the first year when i was 18 and played those two games they asked we made second round in the playoffs to the rangers when they won the cup and then they asked me if i wanted to go to portland for the finals because they were in the calder cup and i was kind of like they're my buddies and stuff on the team they train with i'm like i don't want to go in there like the finals. Take their ice. Oh, man. And then there was only. And if we lose, I look like the. It wasn't even lose.

It was just stealing their. And you're sitting there thinking, do they even want me there? Yeah, you haven't put any emotional investment into it. They've been doing this all year. And you're like, do they want me there? Because it's like, you don't want to go and disrupt things. And I had a long goddamn year. We did the summer in Washington.

And then junior. And then world juniors was a long time. And then We did the summer in Washington and then junior and then the world juniors was a long time. Then I finished the year in the NHL and then, you know, it was, and then, and then you just keep going. But, you know, it was, it was funny. So I had a talk with David Poyle and he asked me and I'm like, okay, just two things. Promise me two things.

One, I'm going to get, like, I'm going to get to play. I'm not going up there to not play again, you know, like that would just be disruptful for no reason. And two, that, you know, do they want me there? Like, what's, what's going on? And he's like, I talked to Trotsy today, Barry Trots was coaching. And he's like, he really wants you, da, da, da.

And I went and, you know, he, I played and got some, I helped them out and we won and it all worked out. But, you know, it was But it was a weird situation. Anyway, the whole next year when I was a 19-year-old, that's when the lockout came. And I went back to junior so I could play in the world juniors because you had to play junior hockey at that point. And then halfway through, I finished in Washington.

But again, not getting as much ice. And then when my junior season was done i went back to uh portland to finish out because i wasn't getting much ice um it's when your junior season was done you were allowed to go to uh the minors but you couldn't play in the minors as a 19 year old correct yeah if your junior team was playing because they don't want to they don't want all the kids leaving juniors. That's how Jeff Carter and Mike Richards, they went to the Phantoms and they won.

I think Ryan Getzloff and Corey Perry did the same in Portland as well. I mean, you already touched on it, but world juniors, you had to play back-to-back years. So how shocked were you that first year when you got the call? And was it one of those ones where you had to go to camp and then if you made, you'd get the knock on the door if

you made it and if not, you had to send it. Sort of. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, um, it was cool because I was a huge world junior guy growing up in Canada and, um, watched every year, watched every one. So for me, it was really special.

And, um, it's amazing. You get all these kids from all over who are amazing hockey players, NHL draft choice, first rounders. And they all really do go there and sacrifice and do things right. There's guys in the fourth line.

Yeah, it was, it was, it was special. I mean, probably one of the, you know, more rewarding moments of,

of my life doing those two things, you know, winning two gold medals back to back. It was, it was fun. We got to shout out 14 world junior games, 24 points. Yeah.

That's like. And you were a player of the tournament in your second one, correct? A leading scorer. I don't know. A leading scorer. Yeah. Well, that's pretty good.

Either way. It was okay. I don't know if they gave you like a Tassat watch or something. It was something like that. Yeah. I don't remember exactly what it was, but it was something like that. No,

we, we, we, we had, you know, the first year we're actually ranked fifth or sixth. So we weren't expected to win.

Um, so two totally different tournaments. One, we're going to Sweden as a fifth ranked team and we had no NHL, like high nhl guys or anything like that um we end up you know winning that one in the last game and it's crazy back then it was just round rob i was gonna ask if you were still part of that it was seven games and best

record okay so so so we were five oh and one right going into the game seven. And the game we tied, we're up 3-0 in the third to Russia and kind of blew it. So now we're going into game seven. We're playing Sweden. They were 6-0-0. So we could have went in there and been 6-0-2 without losing and got silver medal if we lost that last game. So you're kind of going in there, you're kind of down 1-0.

Kind of crazy it worked out that that was the gold medal game, though that last game. So you're kind of going in there, you're kind of down one, nothing. Kind of crazy. It worked out that that was the gold medal game though. I know it was, it was really cool because, because you know, we didn't really have one the next year that, that was the lockout year and our team was just gross. And you played Sweden in Sweden? Is that what you just said?

No, no, sorry. We were in Czech Republic. Oh, Czech Republic. Yes, yes, yes. I did say go to Sweden. It's my bad. No, we were playing Sweden in the last game. But yeah, it was really cool because we still kind of had that game.

Yeah. That intensity was there and all that. But yeah, it sucked not having a semis or finals. Nobody likes that. They must have changed that pretty soon. It wasn't too long after. Yeah. So you got a few cups of coffee with Washington.

Were you getting antsy, though, being a first-round pick? They brought you up three different times. I mean, who was ahead of you on the depth shot? They didn't really bring me up three. I was kind of there. And if I went down, it was to get some work in. Okay. So, you know, back then they were kind of into their older guys,

and they were a really defensive-oriented guys and they were really defensive oriented team it wasn't just myself i mean we had myself anson uh andrew burnett uh sergey gonchar he wasn't really playing much like there was a whole bunch of us that were really good actually they did a really good job there back then uh do uh drafting players. Um, so it was just more circumstance, I think. And, and, but no,

it was frustrating to shit on him. You kidding me? I'm watching guys who I know I'm better than getting 20 something goals in the NHL. I'm not even fucking playing. Um, you know, they,

I was playing a line with Craig Brube and Kevin Kaminsky for, for most. Yeah. Never getting a chance to show your, you know, it, it, you know, and you know how it is.

At least you weren't going to get beat up. Well, that's not true because then they get me in trouble. You know what I'm saying? It's like, you know, so, but yeah, it wasn't, it wasn't, I didn't really get a great shot, I'm going to say. You probably wished at that point after going to um play for trotsey that he was the coach in washington could you did you enjoy your time with him could you have seen the success he'd have in the nhl sure i mean you know don't forget too

we're 18 year old kids showing up there and you're trying to figure shit out um and that's not easy either um you know i talk about time it's like i moved out there by myself i had no bank accounts no clue what's going on cleaning the house laundry and i'm paying your rent how overwhelming oh my god it's it's and then you gotta worry about the whole city being you know pissed off you when you're 18 years old you're co-training your new teammates who are 30 year old men you know it is bizarre there was no fact back then or no you when you're 18 years old, your coach hating your new teammates who are 30 year old men, you know. It is bizarre. There was no, back then there were no families that you were staying with or anything.

I mean, I was, I was on my own, you know, and, and I didn't have, you know, the, the, like I said, the way I grew up, it wasn't like, you know, we had a whole lot of resources and stuff like that. So I was really out in the cold, you know, it was like, I had like four checks in my drawer for like 50 grand at one point.

Yeah. Because I didn't know what to do with them. I'm like. You're like Manny Ramirez. Oh, it was, it was, it's, it's crazy though. Right. So my point to it all is, is that, you know, I think you need time to adjust to and, and,

you know, you have, I had a chip on my shoulder and it was funny. I look back and I had a couple of tiffs with Poyle and, but not, you know, just in the chip on my shoulder and it was funny. I look back and I had a couple of tiffs with Poyle and, um, but not, you know, just in the sense of I want to play, right? Like that was my whole thing. I just want to play. I just want to play.

Trade me then, you know, like kind of thing. And, you know, in his head, it's like, just be patient, you know, he's a GM and he's right. But in my head, I'm like, screw you, man. I need to prove myself. I, you know, but that's what made me a good player is that having that. So it made you tech. Yeah. You know, you get pissed off. myself. I, you know, but that's what made me a good player is that having that shit. So it made you tech.

Yeah. You know, you get pissed off. I played better. You know, it was one of those things that, you know, you, you kind of like have to, the approach it's you against the world kind of thing in the sense of, okay, nobody's, I never had nothing handed to me.

Like I was always, even when I got drafted, I drafted the 120 points, six, six, three. I was the highest scoring guy in the draft. I went 17th, right? Like. So you were at the draft like what the fuck's going on? No, I kind of knew just because of rankings

and all that. Well, I figured. What was holding you back? I figured 10 to 19 was my. What was holding you back? The boots? Were they worried about your boots? Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah. But I feel like then. For sure. A big powerful. No, but it was still about, oh, they don't 19 was my what was holding you back the boots were they worried about your boots yeah yeah yeah but i feel like then for sure big powerful nah but it was still about oh they don't skate good enough yeah um and it's funny though because it's like of all the heat i ever took with skating it was like um when i do the testing in uh la by the time i was older my career i finished like second out of 70 guys and goal line to blue line. So the conditioning wasn't the issue. No, no. I wasn't a good skater, but I wasn't slow.

Yeah, yeah. And no one beat me to puck. It was more so how you looked. Nobody caught me from behind. Yeah. So it wasn't like it was effective enough is my point. Fuckin' great it was. And Bruno was way slower than me.

Sorry, B, but it is true. But he had a career of, and he was super effective and just super skilled, super smart, great hands, all that stuff, big boy, used his body. You know, I have discussions all the time. It's like, you know, he'd get a little small skilled guy if he looks really good, but he. Can he play?

Right. And then you get some of these, give me a big guy who can play. I take him all day long. You teach him how to skate a bit, you know, to get by. But you guys like Char and stuff. Look how clumsy he was when he started. Yeah. You know, he was awesome he's amazing but it take i think it takes a little longer some of the bigger guys

well business thing it sometimes it takes guys longer that that size to get into the season too almost where like he talks about right you were saying that yeah just more about like the feel of the game like i don't know if you were a notoriously slow starter i just feel like sometimes guys who play those power positions and like to muck it up they're like well we got 82 games here if we're counting playoffs too i don't really need to get going till about the 15 20 game mark yeah that's my philosophy i 100 think guys do that that was not me because i was always just worried about somebody thinking that i wasn't as good as I can be. And, you know, I always look at it like what drove me was kind of like, it didn't matter who I was playing against.

I go into a game being like, I'm going to be better than him. Even though deep down I knew they were probably better than me. You had some serious self-motivation like your whole life, whole career. Right. That was kind of what got me ticking. Was that self-taught or was that something, maybe like some advice you got? No, it's just, it's just who you are as a

person, I guess, with the way you tick. Yeah. Um, you know, you, you, it's not good enough. Someone was better than you today. You know, that was, and I took it home. I'm not going to lie. Like, you know, I go home and be grumpy until the next game if I didn't have a good game and

where other guys wouldn't, some guys can. Fuck. I envy, I envy home and be grumpy until the next game if I didn't have a good game. And where other guys wouldn't. Some guys can. Fuck, I envy the guys who can leave it at the. But they can't. I know, but they're usually not the gamer guys who you want. Okay, that's your theory? Uh-huh. Well, like, I know because we were talking about.

I mean, I don't know if Timu brought it home, but he seemed like a very. He never played bad. Yeah, there you go. There you go. There's the answer to my question. No, but you're right, Biz. If Timu was it home, but he seemed like a very... He never played bad. Yeah, there you go. There you go. There's the answer to my question. No, but you're right, Biz. If Timu was...

Yeah, if he didn't score, he's like, I didn't score tonight. I'll get two. Yeah, you're right. Yeah, some guys were just good at doing it where I feel like it would... It wouldn't cause as much stress where they could maybe even not go into ruts as long as certain guys who were on themselves. I think guys who are on themselves don't go in as long a ruts, to be honest, if they're doing it in a positive way.

You know, it's, I mean, I'm going to use some of the best players ever, Michael Jordan, Ron James, all these guys. Are you kidding me? If he goes, you don't think when he went home, if someone's better than him, it didn't eat at him until the next. Sid was probably. Tom Brady. Yeah, there's stories about. Yeah yeah but that's why he's but again i'm not saying

he's going home and he can't sleep for two days and he's i'm not that's not i'm talking about i'm saying a little anger i'm saying not even anger it's just eating you a bit yeah yeah it's like you're like fuck like they say that mj and and even lebron like like some nights to motivate them they'll listen to a guy in the crowd chirping them and saying, I'm going to put up 40 to fucking tell that motherfucker to fuck you after the game. Like stuff like that.

Yeah. I mean, it's Al Niverson, you know, for all his flaws and stuff. He was a gamer. He got out there and he played into this thing. And I'm sure again, chip on the shoulder, right? Like it's, you know, you, you want the guy that, you know, if he didn't have a good game, he's

going to come back and be better. He's not going to go in that 10 game slump. He's not going to do those things. Um, and I, I'm a huge believer in Stanley Cup teams are built that way where it's like, you know, you put together enough winners and you're going to win. When I say winners, I mean, you know, guys who

just, it's such a hard game as you know, especially getting the playoffs and all that. The guys will do anything. And yeah. And you need the guys. Yeah. That's my point is. Given.

It's not the most talented guys. It's the guys who are kind of going to do anything. And if you have 70 guys who won't do that, you're not going to win. Yeah. Was there, was there anything that you would do where if like you were too wound up, you

needed to get your head away? Was there one thing that you would do as a hobby that would get you out of your hockey mind frame? I mean, I was the booze after the game. Okay. All right. Six pack is the answer.

Okay. Right. I think that was most of the boys. That's the era you grew up in. Yeah. Well, that was a stress release, right? It was like you. Like in the stall waiting for you after the game?

No. We were, well, back of the bus on the road. Okay. Billy Gare and I used to pay the visiting team attendee to make sure there were two cold cases at the back after every game. I remember seeing that for the first time when I got into the NHL.

I was like, oh my God. That's national. I was like, where did this come from? They were like, oh yeah, you tell the visiting training room guy. I was like, this is the National Hockey League. And they had, in my first few years, they had booze on the planes, right?

Yep. And you could just get loaded. Well, some teams still have it, but some teams have nerded out where they won't allow alcohol or even sugar on the plane. So, you know, the whole Steve Chason incident, not that that was the cause, but because we

played them actually. I don't even know what this story is. He played for Carolina and they flew home. What were they? Yeah. They flew home from Boston. They played in Boston and flew home. And after the plane ride, he got his car driving home.

I think they went to someone's house first. Oh, really? And then when he was driving home from that. Yeah, he passed away. I don't even think he was hammered. I think he fell asleep or something. Who knows what happened. But it did change after that.

Yeah, it was a shitty time and sad yeah you know sad thing happened but um it well liability right i mean yeah you know it it kind of yeah i i'd be nervous serving my guys booze on the plane and then they drive home and yeah oh it's a good call you know i mean you're gonna do it you know some of the are going to do it anyway or sneak it. But, yeah, they get the wine in their travel bag. What do you got, R.A.? Yeah, well, of course, the big trade. Whether you were threatening him or not, the trade did come.

It's a huge blockbuster. I mean, I would love to see one of these today. It was you, Anson Kata, and Jim Carrey, who I believe had already won a Vesna trophy, for Adam Hodes, Bill Ranford, and Rick Talkett. How's that for a slob and ocker of a trade? Did it catch you off guard? Were you excited? What was your reaction?

And it was great for you. I think my original reaction was, you know, what the fuck's Boston doing? You know? Oates? Well, in all fairness, if you look back at the time, I was a fourth liner in Washington. AC was up and down from the minors. And Jim Carrey was probably the centerpiece of the deal

and only played another year or something. Yeah. That's wild. As a 21-year-old Vesna winner. That's fun. Yeah, his career ended pretty quick. So, you know, and Ranford was a freaking awesome goalie. Yeah, yeah.

He was still really good at that time. They had Ole, but, you know, he was still a top goalie. Yeah, yeah. He was still really good at that time. They had Ole, but, you know, he was still a top goalie. And obviously, Otzi was Otzi. He was, you know, putting up 70 in his sleep. Pretty good passer. You know, that kind of stuff. And then Taka, it was kind of his deal was up. So, you know, yeah, I get that piece a bit.

But, you know, it was kind of like, and it was funny, the trade actually worked out for Boston fairly quickly too in the sense that it was, you know, and again, nobody would ever seen it coming. But when you got, I think Hanson had, what, 20-something goals that year and I had 80-something points. Yeah. In year one.

Yeah. Yeah. We were there and Ace was brutal. Yeah, because Bruins fans are probably like, Jason Allison's on the fourth line, and then you come in. No, everybody's like, what the fuck are they trading Oatsy for this guy for? Well, because he shot himself out of town.

He knew if I, you know, he complained about, well, rightfully complained about the Bruins not spending money. Well, you know how it was back then. Oh, absolutely. Absolutely. He's open about it. I couldn't even get authority to come to the 100th centennial know how it was back then oh absolutely you know absolutely he's open about it he's i could i couldn't even get 30 to come to the 100th centennial anniversary because he's still bitter

the stuff that went down back in the day but um you know it was tough i'm not gonna lie it was tough we had a ridiculously good team back then young as hell yeah two centers 30 and i that were i was 25 i think he was like 21 and we're like, you know, top scorers in the league, big boys, hundred pin, you know, like. Yeah. Doing all that. Billy Guerin was the oldest at like 28 or something.

Oh man. Scoring 40. Samsonoff was Joe's age, 21. We had, uh, Rolston who was 26 and putting up 30 goals and it's not, you know, we were just, we were loaded, man. It was like, and then the second every time someone's deal came up they wouldn't pay him you're gone no please that's so stupid because

they were making so much money and they were like their original six that wasn't it's not like the pittsburgh pittsburgh pirates where i get that it's not a big market you're the fucking boston bruins why wouldn't they pay to keep guys around it's not what they did but yeah they'll send him was paid to like make sure that his owner made money and he didn't care about it. He was basically keeping contracts down. Like their priority was to make the owner money and it wasn't about building the best team.

At that period, how much do you think that that cost him from winning a Stanley Cup? Fine. You know, nobody can say, but we would have had, you know, with the group we had we would have had, you know, with the group we had, we definitely had the core to. Absolutely. When you look at cores now who's getting paid,

like if they paid you their core, then you guys would have had a run. And they weren't even making it close guys. It was like. Yeah. So you're given your idea of your salary and they're coming back. Not even. No, like I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm getting offered seven to nine from everybody and they're like under five holy so it's like what do you you know i'm like just i loved it there you kidding me i

was i was with my boys we had a great group of guys you know i had success i was the captain of the team there was 25 years old 26 just turned 26 i don't go anywhere i love boston i love boston's amazing city. So it was like, it was, you know, really tough thing in my life looking back at, but you know, what choice do you have? It's kind of like, they really weren't putting a competitive offer out.

It wasn't, I wasn't. They knew. They're like, you're crazy if you don't take it. What were the guys on the team saying, knowing that you weren't going to be taking it and they were going to be losing their captain? Wow. You know, it happened to Billy right after and

Joe right after that, like one year, like we were all a couple of years apart, like boom, boom, boom. You know, give them credit. Eventually they kind of came around and started changing things but um you know it was the whole stanley cups come and go hot dogs and beer here forever you know yeah you were there i mean joe's first year like he didn't even play he was yeah well yeah brunzi

but put the leash on him more or less like he was protecting him yeah he was taped but like he was just he was like a 12 year old back then he was. We used to call him Spicoli just because he had the long hair. He had the kind of boob demeanor. He's still a 12-year-old. He's my boy. I love him. You still talk with him? Oh, yeah, all the time.

When you got to Boston, though, you finally got that chance, right? You're playing minutes. You're scoring right away. So then did you realize, like, all right, I got this? Or even before, did you know like all right i got this or even before did you know i can do this just give me the chance well that was in my head whether i was right or not well you were no you know everyone's story but but you know back to the whole being pissed off when you go home you know it's the same thing as your seasons i think it's important that you

know i i believe again a guy like sid or whoever, Michael Jordan, go home, he'll put new tools in the toolbox in the off season. Kobe, you know, you gotta go home needing to be better the next year. Right. And everybody's not kind of built that way. And that was my, one of my benefits is, you know, it was kind of like, okay, I remember this

specifically, I'm 21, 22. I finished ninth in the league in scoring. I go home and, you know, I want to be better next year, but I didn't put in the work. I didn't do the shit. Ended up being 14th or something like that. You know, just miserable, pissed off, you know, 23-year-old kid that was like, you know, okay,

that's the last time that's going to happen. This is on me kind of. Yeah. I got a speed skater friend, an Olympic speed skater friend to come and live with me for a month. And you want to talk about training compared to what I, oh my God, those guys are freaking animals and beasts. Helped me with my stride, made me a little faster,

more powerful, but also just stronger. Like we were squatting a ton, like press student, three a days, like, and I came back and I actually got hurt and then had tendon transplant and all this shit in my forearm. Went back till the next year, did it again and ended up, that's when I ended up finishing in the top four in the league.

But it was, I needed that, you know, to get to that next level. And, you know, I didn't go home being like, way to go, buddy, you finished ninth and, you know, you're going to be the best ever. Yeah. Yeah. It doesn't work that way, so.

But how about that, the 95 point season, like it was your free agency year, correct? Well, I wasn't an unrestricted free agent. Wow. It took that long to become. Oh, fuck yeah, man. Back then it was 10 years. It was like 31 years old.

Yeah. That's what the players fought for in that lockout. It was like 31 years old. When they took the cap, they made the UFA earlier. Yep. Really? Yeah. Now it's seven years by the time you play your first, right?

Yeah. Which is insane. I would have been 25, right? Yeah. And 31 was the age. Well, Boston wouldn't have paid you anyway. Yeah been 25, right? Yeah. And 31 was the, I mean. Well, Boston wouldn't have paid you anyway. Yeah, no. Well, I know that, but at least I would have been able to kind of not miss the start of the season and go, which I had to do, and pick where you go.

And you're going to make way more money too, because you're going to go to a spot where they want you the most and they usually pay you the most of the ones who want you the most. So as opposed to the ones who can actually pull off the trade, right? So it's not easy trading for a top player. You know, it's, you know, especially back then, it wasn't like now where, you know, everyone got qualifying offers. You never gave away your top. Like it was different, right? So it wasn't easy trading for top young talent back then.

Well, before we send you out to LA, I got a couple more for Boston here. You took over the captaincy at the Ray Book. It was obviously a big deal in Boston. Did that give you additional pressure? I know it's only a letter, and sometimes fans maybe make more of it than the players do, but did you feel additional pressure having to see the original six supplanted in Borked from that captaincy? I fucking loved it.

Yeah, I love it. Love the answer. It was, you know, it fueled me, you know. That was my best year, point-wise. And it just, you know, again, I don't know. I played in Toronto also later and stuff, but I never ever felt pressure from outside. It was, you know, any pressure was from me or my,

sometimes a coach and, you know, that kind of stuff. But I just, I don't know. The outside noise never really bothered me. I saw it as motivation. Like, you know, it's like, do you kid me? You're in an original sick city, the Boston Bruins. I got the C. I want the fucking C. Give me the C. All right. We'll give it to somebody else, you know it's like do you kid me you're in an original sick city the Boston Bruins. I got the C. I want the fucking C give me the C.

All right. We'll give it to somebody else you know. Do you have a most memorable moment you look back on with the Bruins like that was I would assume that was probably the pinnacle of your career like what do you what did you enjoy most about being a Bruin? We had a great group to be honest and that's

always one of the most, you know, people talk about, oh, where's the best place to play or where do you like playing the most? And I think you could be in, whether you're in Columbus or LA or somewhere in between or hockey city like Toronto or Boston, if you have a good group and you're tight and you're winning and everyone's pulling for each other,

I just think that that's where you enjoy the most and we kind of had that. And that was the sad part about that not staying together and what have you. But we also had one year, our whole line went to the All-Star game, which was cool. Billy Guerin, Sergei, and Samsonov, and myself. So that was special. Oh, yeah, the gas line.

The old gas line. Yeah, great. There you go. Why did they call you the gas line? Guerin, Allison, Samsonov. Oh, yeah, the gas line. The old gas line. Yeah. Great. There you go. Why did they call you the gas line? Darren Allison Simpson. Oh, okay. That's all right. Are you looking like I'm an idiot, Whit?

No, I'm like, I think you're still like, I don't get it, though. What do you mean? No, I get the fuck. No, I get it. The first letter is the last name, Whit. The gas line. These guys give me shit for my. In LA, it was the LAPD line. P me shit from la was the lapd line uh puffy dead marsh

allison okay all right everyone's super creative out there yeah big time big time oh shit i know one other thing in boston how would their relationship with the media obviously i know they didn't motivate you but was it contentious i knew you were probably more of a quiet guy there but like kevin paul the pawn i mean, I think he's a pack ahead myself, but did you get along with the media for the most part there? Or was it a little standoffish? Sure. I mean,

to be honest, most of the guys fought with the team more than the media. I mean, okay. You know, it kind of, not going to lie. It's not,

it kind of pisses you off when you put everything out and you have a huge year and then they're picking you apart in the media, the team, because the contract's up or something like that. Red Sox ownership. Which would never fucking happen now, by the way. But it causes issues. I don't care what anyone says. Everyone has feelings.

God damn it. Well, they're just trying to make it look like when you're not there, there's a reason you're not there. They're justifying reason justifying 100 and we know that we're not dumb you know it's like you kind of it's funny though you think the fans know that and they don't always they're like mike felger said this it's like you know it's like it's like you know allison left because he wanted more dough you know it's like it's my fault. And it's like, okay, whatever. But you'd figure the fans would know just because it's pretty obvious what they were doing. Were you drinking the Kool-Aid, R.A.,

or were you aware back then? Oh, I was pissed. R.A. was wearing paper bags over his head at the game. I was. I did, too, do that. But there was 8 billion a year. That was the thing. Oh, he was looking for too much money.

That was the spin the team was putting out. But, I mean, were you asking for 8 million back then? Because no, those guys were getting it. No, that's the realm I was in. Right. No, absolutely. That's what I ended up getting. It wasn't that I was asking for it.

I probably would have taken it. You got 8 million bucks per year? No, no, 7. I ended up getting 7. Fucking A. Still bad. Good for you. It probably would have been.

But my point is this. If the offer is 6 or six and a quarter. Right. You're thinking about it. Right, 100%. Get to six at least. But that's still a big difference. Yeah.

And it depends on how many years too, by the way, you're thinking. I mean, nobody really knows this, but when I got traded to LA, actually originally it was supposed to be traded to the Islanders and that was the Ashen deal. So I was getting thrown that money at me at that point in time, I got traded to LA actually originally was supposed to be traded to the Islanders and that was the Ashen deal. So I was getting thrown that money at me at that point in time, which was, you know,

he signed what? 10 years, 90 million. So 90 year for 10 years, the deal they asked me about when at that point in time was eight years for 70, but nevertheless, those are the number like that was one team i don't know you don't know who's trading for you right like you don't know who's

gonna and la was actually the lower making marvel movies now if you look at that right you imagine how much nice nicer life would be right when boss no headache no headache uh yeah No headache. No headache. Yeah. No headache. These special effects. Four years, 20 million. You're like, what are you talking about? No, no. Not even four. It's two years. I was going to say, yeah.

What? You're not fucking sending. It was two years, like 7.8 or something. I don't know. It's low ball. Instead of recognizing what they had. Wow. And it pissed me off, too, because they signed Marty LaPointe for five million. Yeah. Well, that was because of, what they had wow you know and it pissed me off too because they signed marty lapointe for five million yeah well that was that was because uh what's his name

jacobs was pissed off at um oh illich they were they had some owner beef so fucking la pointe was he went and stole this guy and he thought he was stealing he gave mine the point four years 20 mil like and the bruins gave nobody a fucking cent you know my was a good player but he wasn't you know like fucking well i don't think that makes me feel like. Exactly. I'm 25 and I put up. Exactly. The numbers I've been putting out.

They were going to give it to this guy. I think he got six goals the next year too or something like that. Yeah, he kept me all fired up over here. No, it was shaking. Yeah, it was kind of shitty. It was bullshit, man. I'm still pissed off. It was kind of shitty.

You know, we just had the reunion, like I was saying, and you know, I've Bork, Sam, Snuff, Axelson, we were all hanging out and talking about it. And it's just kind of like,

you know, it's, it's, we loved our team, you know, it was shitty that it had to go down that way. That's all. Yeah.

Cause things were so dark. I mean, when they bought them out on Stevie Casper, after the bench in Neely, the next year, the number one pick, yeah, you came the year later, you got the tail end of this. I got Stevie Casper for the last 20 gamesely, the next year, the number one pick. Yeah, you came the year later.

You got the tail end of this. I got Stevie Casper for the last 20 games. How was your experience with him? Because I know he never coached again after that. It was tough. 20 games, I just got to a new team. Right. Yeah, I couldn't really.

There was nothing super positive or negative that I. One way or the other. Remember being like, oh, he was a great coach or bad coach or this or that. So you then went off to LA. I saw you play with Zygmunt Palfi. Was he not the one who just retired mid-season when he was with the Penguins?

Yes, yes, yes. One of the best players in the league. Nobody knows about him. Yes. The year he retired, he was unbelievable. No, but the thing with Zyg is he could show up and play at like 20% in practice and still make everybody look silly.

He'd come into camp with, you know, was he 5'9"? He's not very tall. Walk 60. Pop belly, no arms. Like didn't skate. Hey, leave me alone. Didn't skate or work out all summer. And he'd still go out there and, you know, be the best player on the ice.

Gator workout all summer and he'd still go out there and, you know, be the best player on the ice. He was, he was a special, a special talent that, uh, uh, you know, he, he got 40 and 80 in his sleep, you know, 40 goals, 80, 80 points almost every year in his sleep. And that's without, you know, I, not just training. I don't think he really gave a fuck. He didn't, I played with him. He didn't give. Some guys are better when they don't give, really gave a shit. I played with him. He didn't give a shit. Some guys are better when they had that no-give-a-fuck meter. He was competitive in his own way. You have to be to be that good.

The game started, and he's getting loose pucks and stuff, but just before the game in practice, he's just... Right. Well, and you get in the playoffs, and it's like, does he want to go play for Sulaki at the world? You know how it works. Or does he want to grind out? Stop coming.

Oh, we don't get paid during playoffs. Paycheck starts coming. Do you want to get the shit kicked out of you with broken bones and this and that for the next eight weeks? You know, it's tough decision. I mean, listen, we grew up different. You have to remember, you know, you're growing up, you're growing up in Canada and it's like,

that's all you ever dream about is winning a Stanley cup game seven, this and that, blah, blah, blah. Um, back then, especially those guys weren't watching NHL games. They were thinking about winning the world championship. Fucking right they were. So you bring them over here, you put them in this little tiny rink where everyone's beating the shit out of each other and fighting and doing stuff. And you think when they're not getting paid that they want to stick around for another eight weeks. So true. I'm not even blaming.

It's not, it's just, it's so much easier for a Canadian kid to be tough in the playoffs and play through stuff than it would be a European player at that point. I think it's different now. Now they're seeing everything. Yeah. And they're experiencing and stuff like that, but it's like, and not to mention the game was like super tough back then oh and and they were playing in a league with no hitting and shit yeah and then you bring

them over here and he's got like got guys trying to kill him yeah playing sword fights out there just like swinging and shit seriously it's like it's like what you know they're they're like what the fuck am i doing here you know they're playing in boston garden a little tiny ring oh god cam trying to kill him and okay so you seem to watch still a little bit because you mentioned mcdavid and watching his game do you feel like the lead would be more beneficial by maybe taking some of the games away like do you think 82 i think i think i always have thought that i've always said that it's crazy waters down the product it's crazy it's crazy what you expect the guys to do for the course of that. I mean, and it was worse before because there

was no load management or rest days. It didn't matter if you played 30 minutes a game or three. Did you have a team masseuse? No. Well, we did at home games. Not in Boston. Yeah.

Well. And the travel wasn't as easy. Well, and then, you know, nutrition, all that kind of stuff wasn't great. But just to expect guys to play three games and four nights in three different cities with what you go through your body wise and stuff, it's hard.

I mean, to me, a 60 something game schedule, maybe high 60s, even low 70s possibly. Yeah, I 100% agree with you. I think it's, it's a little much to ask. Any other strong opinions about the game, the state of the NHL? No, I mean, you know, we have to give them credit.

They've grown it. They've done everything. You know, it's bigger now than it was. It's a faster product. I do have one, it's nothing they did that anybody did. It's just evolution product. I do have one. It's nothing that anybody did. It's just evolution of the game. I do miss some of the grittiness of the game. You know, the post-whistle activities and some of the.

I think they can get that back if they shorten the schedule. Because guys are going to be more invested in each game because there's more. They're calling everything now. It's a little hard. Softer than puppy shit. The kids on the the and i've had conversation you know i mean um you know rob blake donson jims they were friends of mine and stuff like that even about it it's hard i mean they're not they're not playing through what we would have played

through when we were younger so it's like you, you know, it's tough. But I still, I'll argue with anyone all day long that the tougher teams are still the teams with the advantage and winning. I mean, and you look at two teams in the finals this year, they were tough. They were tough. They played tough. I don't care what anyone says.

For this day of age, that was tough hockey. They were physical, both sides. You know, and, you know, when St. That was, they were physical, both sides, you know, and you know, when St. Louis won, they played physical, Berube had them go. Even Wash. Yes. When they were, yeah, when they had Orpik, they had Tom Wilson, they had guys who could

play that game. And I think other than Pittsburgh, maybe when they won their couple, but Pittsburgh was gritty. They, they were small, but they were gritty man i also yeah i also value toughness like where we talk about like sid like the amount of punishment he could take down low like to me that's toughness well and just scrapping it's giving it back it's you know sid gives it back all the time it's it's giving it back it's it's not everybody's not gonna be macho

tough and fighting and well fuck he's even fighting now for crying out loud. Yeah. Even in preseason. Stand up for yourself, basically. Well, you have to once in a while. And you know what? It's team toughness and stuff like that where it's just like, you're not going to get pushed around.

You're not going to get intimidated. You're in a playoff series that many games. If they're running the shit out of you all the time and cross-checking all the time and cross checking all the time and you're not giving it back, it's wearing. You gotta do something. It's wearing. Yeah.

It's wearing. I don't care what anyone says. So if you're building a team, you have to have guys who are going to play that way. And good GMs know that. They're, they're, they're, you know, they want all the skill and stuff like that. And, you know, in all fairness, Toronto's had

trouble, um, in the sense of super, super talented and skilled, but you know in all fairness toronto's had trouble um in the sense of super super talented and skilled but you know are they gritty enough are they and and they go out and try to get grittier but it has to be some of your core guys too right we'll wait to get to the leafs did you want to ask anything more about la i had a question la um because you mentioned the lapd line like dead marsh you know i'm american watching him like i know he played i think he played whl but just a machine and i know he had the concussion problems but when you were playing with him he had some serious game uh he was one about grit he was one of my favorite guys um to play with and i say that like in the sense of he didn't want the puck which

is great because i wanted a little fucking time so but it'd be like he was like i'll say this he was the best four checker i've ever seen he had these little choppy strides and he could zoom in on anybody and he was so like quick and just aggressive and get in on it and then he gets open he had a quick shot and he fought anybody he was just you know he was one of my favorite guys to play with he he was he was awesome were you with him when he fought jovo in that fight that that really messed him up um was that maybe another year i think it was another year okay yeah well and it happens right yeah i mean no and the way he played i mean it was the way he fought too he He opened himself up.

Oh, yeah. He would chuck them. Old school. Yeah, there was no. No defense. I mean, for me, it's like tie up if I hit you three times. Yeah. You hit me zero.

It's a fucking good day. Let's go to the ground here. It's a good day. I'm bragging to everybody. I kicked his ass. Da, da, da. If I take, you know, if I land 57 and 46 get landed on me. No, thanks.

That was not a win. No, no. That was not a win. I did not enjoy that process. I'll punch his helmet three times and then fall down. I'm happy. But Daddy would just go in, just throwing like lefts, rights. He's lefty too.

So he'd go in and throw on. And he left himself exposed. Yeah. I mean, he was tough as nails. I wouldn't want to mess with him either, but you know, it's just, but it happens. You play that way, right? I mean, it's unfortunate.

He was such a great hockey player, great person too, so. Yeah. I actually want to ask, how long did you sign with LA for? Because you played the two years. Three years. Huh?

Three years. So like the lockout, yeah. How did that, I forgot how that played out was so long ago. Because you were a free agent after the lockout ended. Right. Because obviously if I was, back then, if you were playing and put up numbers, you're always going to get your qualifying offer. Okay.

And I would have still been stuck there because you have to be 31 to. That's when I came into the league and you still weren't a ufa no i would have been stuck there still and you had a 24 rollback but i would have had to take the well no because if i was healthy i would have negotiated a new deal with them okay okay right but when you miss a year and a half and the lockout's looming they're not giving you fucking deal yeah not at 78 million they can't they can't afford to do it if I don't play. You know, they don't know anything. So that wasn't on them or anything.

That was just a situation. Were you excited to go back to Toronto? Like, would you consider that your hometown team to play at home? Because sometimes people have good stories about it and some people have underwhelming stories about it. Yeah. Again, I think it comes down to your team and all that kind of stuff.

It wasn't really about what team I was going to. I mean, listen, when I was young, Maple Leafs all the way, right? Like, I mean, it was, and when I was getting drafted as a 18 year old, Maple Leafs, they were talking to me and they would have been my first choice and all that stuff. But once you go and you start playing elsewhere and stuff, it like fuck the maple leaf you know yeah no seriously yeah you know how it is i'm a bruin i'm this i'm that i love the bruins i play for the maple leaf i'm with the fucking boston brunes so it was a little different um and then when i eventually went back at that point in time in my career, it was just more about trying to find a good fit. And, you know, to be honest, it probably wasn't the best fit. And I took it out of convenience of, you know, again, having my kids half the time, being able to stay home and not be away.

That was really the reason I, it wasn't the right time or fit to be there. Yeah. I mean, maybe later. It just wasn't. The team wasn wasn't the right time or fit to be there. Yeah. I mean, maybe later. It just wasn't. We, the team wasn't in the right spot. You know, it just wasn't. Who else were you talking to then? Ah.

Or was it more like you kind of focused? Columbus, New York, Nashville, right? Trotsky was there at that point. I was talking to some different teams and, but, you know, it just really, like I said,

in that time in my life, that stage, hockey wise, wasn't the best fit for me. Yeah. Right. But yeah, you still had a great year statistically.

And then, and then, and then that was it. Like that was just. I didn't feel right, but I was just, you know, I played,

I did okay. The wrist injury as well too, right? No, I broke my hand. Yeah, okay. I didn't fight at the end of the year and a line brawl against freaking the Canadians. But anyway, it ended up like it, you know, it was tough because the year was over.

I wasn't going back because, you know, it wasn't the right spot for me. I was looking elsewhere. My neck and head were still not right. You know, I had my kids half the time. And if I left, and I'm sitting there going, how many years am I leaving now? I'm not going for one more year. If I go, it's going to be, you know, three, four. So just, you know, it just, I'd say mostly the injury but it just ended up

not being the right time i mean i was close to i don't know what the stats were but it's close to a point of game guy that year it's not like i couldn't have i know no shit people must have been like calling like hey i kind of disappeared man and hermit that was then yeah i just kind of disappeared, man, in hermitage. That was then. Yeah. I just kind of was like. Were you seeing other doctors and stuff? Like, you know. Oh, dude, dude, dude. Yeah. It was different.

Yeah. They still know shit, by the way, when it comes to that stuff. I mean, no, it's a lot. It's not. Well, Crosby's ended up being like that, where they thought it was a concussion, and it wasn't.

I know what you're saying. Yeah, but it wasn't just that. I'm just saying they don't know how to handle it or what to do to make you better or anything like that right so um and you know listen a lot of guys go through a lot tougher time than i did that's for sure um you know it's who was the first person you called when you made your decision that you were going to be done playing do you remember who you called i don't even i don't just i don't even know if i i'm pretty like keep your cards close yeah i don't know i literally just there was like i didn't even have a phone does anyone know where jason alice is like five years later you know um wait a minute he's not playing anymore well. Well, just like, no, but like just what, what

happened, right. Um, and it, I think that's what made it harder for me to watch too. And to be part of stuff is I had years left. I mean, I, I got hurt when I was 27, 28 and I had all those years before that, but that's not even your prime, you know, you're kind of. Well, I mean like went, went through it.

I, I, I did my last year, but like, I i think it was time anyway but i don't feel like i had any left like it is crazy though i was done at this is eight it was i was done at 32 and you're you're like i thought i was i think i'm gonna play till 40 right like you just kind of think that when you're younger and then all of a sudden you feel old because you're out of the game right but you're light you're so young in life that it that it's like wait i'm only 32 what the hell am i doing i don't even know if you realize you're so young at life no you don't because you feel because you're old in the game you feel like an old man yeah yeah your body does yeah i feel like an old man? You do. Not just your body, your life experience. Yeah, that's true.

I mean, are you kidding me? Look at all this shit I was doing at 18. These kids are still going to prom. That's the thing, yeah. Sometimes I try to remind myself. It's totally true. Move away from home when you're 16. Yeah, you feel so much older by the time you're 27, 28.

You feel like, you know, I mean, and listen, a lot of the guys, yeah, you have to grow up fast, right? So it's, it's, it's different. Um, so I think, you know, even though we're in our early thirties, you feel way, way older than that, right? Do you ever skate now after Hawk, like after retirement, you ever put them on or? I, I've, I, I was coaching for a long time and, um, back when I was in Toronto for a bit, I was doing a Friday night game with a couple of the guys. Yeah, shinny hockey or whatever.

Beer league stuff. But I've had like three different hip replacements. Oh, really? Jesus, really? Yeah, so I just got my left one redone for a second time. How many years apart were the two on the left? Three. So it's supposed to be like 15 years it just it just didn't go right oh problem brutal you know so the the right one was like six seven years ago left one three years ago and the

left one again just four months does the Does the right one feel good though? It's okay. I got a little like problem, like hip flexor growing, but the hip's fine. Hip's great. Good. Yeah. So the left one's feeling a lot better, even

though it's only been four months. I should have gave you a heat pack before we started. Right? Fuck it. I used to walk around like the Michelin man before games when I was 31. I'd be completely wrapped like a mummy with

those fucking heat packs. I just had a surgery on my hand for some nerve thing. And I'm like, a few weeks ago, I'm finally starting to be like, okay, I got my hand surgery, my hips are better, and my fucking shoulder surgery. Yep.

You got a torn leg. I'm like, I swear to God, I can't even lift my arm up. I thought you were going to say you're ready to maybe make a comeback. No, thank you. But I was trying to shoot a basketball today at home. Oh, yeah, you looked like R.A.?

Big, big failure. Huge failure. And I'm like, fuck, I can't even shoot a basketball right now. I'm like just pissed off that hopefully it's not a surgery thing. Well, I didn't play as many games as you, but same like you start feeling good and then something else pops up like i i kind of i kind of came to grips with it like a year or two ago like i think this is just it now like what we did and you even more so it we we kind of crushed our bodies right just no it and i wouldn't change a thing well and it's funny i get it's hard i get. I get asked that the other day. I get asked that all the time.

Like, the shit you went through and all the injuries you're doing, like, you know, it's crazy. And I'm like, what the fuck else am I going to do? Yeah, it was a trade-off. You know, like, yeah, it sucks ass. It's terrible. It's, like, shitty, and I don't like it. But would I have traded it no

fuck i think every 44 year old guy who loved hockey growing up they'd they'd probably switch it right i'll deal with that that stuff um now the head stuff's a little different but i've been i've been lucky with that and hawk home would but yeah i i don't have anything else man we're very grateful for your time this is awesome as i told I told you, my buddies, Bruins fans, watch you, and you called yourself the Hermit for a while. I hadn't heard your name. So I'm glad everything's going well, and thanks for coming on. This was awesome.

It was a blast. I'm still a career. I'm stealing a Pink Whitney. Take three. Sure, by the roadie. No, absolutely. Okay, before we move along here, here's a few words

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Visit verizon.com slash barstool to learn more. Oh man, huge thanks to Jason Allison for jumping on us one of my favorite pro ones back in that era he was a captain for one year just a guy was one of the most I think underrated centers of that era I mean he already left Boston because Harrison didn't want to pay him but I know he kind of like ducked

out a little for a little while didn't talk to anybody so we were very honored that his first time talking was with us and yeah and even you know he started off kind of quiet and we I feel like we got a little bit a little while. Didn't talk to anybody. So we were very honored that his first time talking was with us. Yeah, and even, you know, he started off kind of quiet and I feel like we got a little bit more out of him. But, I mean, even his final year in the league, look at his numbers. And he was just talked about the health and how hard it was being away

that first year. I loved interviewing him. He was a great guy. And I just remember back to, I don't know, I guess like 15, 16, always watching the Bruins. And, oh, dude, he would drag people on his back behind the net. Beautiful passer. Unreal career.

So we appreciate him coming on. It was cool to hear what he's gotten into since he retired. Yeah, like sitting down with like a legendary uncle, having a couple pops, just telling stories. Just very old school. You could tell just a calming presence too. Yeah. So it was great, man. Appreciate your time, Jason. Yeah could tell just a calming presence too. Yeah. So it was a great man.

Appreciate your time, Jason. Yeah. Definitely happy to do that one. I just mentioned Ovi, 950 goal seasons. Well, a couple of guys got their first ones ever on Sunday. First, Zach Hyman, his 50th versus Ottawa. And man, how about the reaction of his teammates? Just like they were so ecstatic for him. You could tell they were over the moon for it.

Just one of those like scenes, regardless of who you root for. Just one of those like plays you just love to watch as a hockey fan. Well, that's what I love about Edmonton this year. It seems like every, every guy reacts that way for every guy when they have something positive happen. Like Cody CC,

we talked about him a few pods ago, but I mean, Hyman, his post game interview had said it all, man, you show up every day and you do things the right way and you keep going at it, depending.

It doesn't fluctuate whether you're having a good day or a bad day and he just brings his fucking work boots and you know obviously it's a result of playing with mcdavid but he goes and four checks like a madman uh he's relentless he gets those pucks and provides them to mcdavid and he just goes to the hard areas so uh not a lot of guys more deserving and as far as bang for your buck contracts, this might go down as the greatest free agent signing of all time. Like he makes, he's a 50 goal scorer making five and a half million bucks. Yeah, I could argue the greatest.

It's an awesome one. It's an awesome one. But, you know, there's like Chara in Boston and Hosa in Chicago. But I know what you're saying. The deal is amazing. There's an awesome article in The Athletic about him, Zach Hyman being one of the most unlikely 50 goal scores in league history. There's been 11.

I think he's now the 12th player in league history to get 50 or more goals at 31 years old or older. And he's one of them. So the fact is that he goes in the article to talk about just relentlessly looking to improve. And over the years, we've mentioned plenty of times of Crosby every summer figuring something out that he could get better at. The first year was face-offs, the next year was his shot, and it goes on and on. And Hyman's one of those guys where, all right, well, my skating was doubted when I was drafted.

That was the big question mark. Florida picked him in like the fifth round or something like that. Say, all right, I'm going to work on my skating, goes to Michigan, plays four years, becomes a better skater. All right, what's next? I got to learn to have a little bit better finish. He starts working on that and he's never looked at it like, oh, I'm in the NHL. I'm good. Like there's some guys with the mentality of I've made it. And those guys don't necessarily last that long. Even the super talented ones, they'll be there seven, eight, nine years. But it's the guys who are never thinking that they've made it. They're always thinking somebody's coming from my job. Somebody's looking to take over what I now have. I need to get better. And he goes in to say, I used to kind of, when I started playing with

McDavid, I'd just kind of go in front and create a screen. Well, he's so good at beating people one-on-one that then it's a two-on-one with me and him. And if I'm just standing there in front of the goalie, the guy covering me is going to immediately go to him because he's not worried about me. He starts working on just that little step back. And you've seen the 50th goal was exactly that. He just does a little push off step back bangs it in i think of the 50 41 are in the crease that's just like that but the enemy everyone says like oh it's mcdavid it's mcdavid tappens buddy not everyone could do that i'm telling you like you could grab so many different players with more skills than hyman bigger than hyman faster than hyman and they it wouldn't work like this he's he's been so good at becoming better every season that you just have to give him a tip of your cap and so much respect for the fact that he's never felt comfortable enough in the NHL

to not outwork everyone. And it's an amazing story to see because Oilers fans, and Hyman says, that's the worst, Hyman mentions people like, that's the worst contract ever. He's going to be brutal by the final few years of that deal. And he says, if you look at it like you're always trying to get better and you're treating your body as a temple, you can play later into your 30s and still be elite. And the whole notion of NHL players, their prime being 26 to 30, he almost believes the opposite, that from 30 to 35, you can still be dominant if you're looking after yourself in the correct way.

So as an Oilers fan watching him, it's amazing. He's always there. And he's also on the forecheck. He's a biz honey badger. That's biz's term. He gets in there. He gets in the mix. And he's very easy to play with.

For somebody that has not even close to remotely the same skill level as McDavid, not really that anyone does, he's able to work with them perfectly. So it's an awesome story, and congrats to him. A good four-checker individually is such a tough skill. I know. To hound it down, because when you dump it in, most of the times the defenseman's going to win that foot race. To somehow get the proper body position to knock him off the puck and then just get full control of

it it was just like i felt like and i know i hate to bring him up with a little ptsd but kunitz i felt like kunitz was extremely good at it and that's a skill set in itself so when you can find a very reliable one i look at uh leckanen in um in carolina much like or carl colorado excuse me like when when colorado went and picked him up, like they knew what they were looking for. When they got him, I think most people who didn't really follow the Montreal Canadiens were like, oh, that's kind of like an average pickup.

But no, he's specifically good at that so he can hound it down, retrieve it, and then get it back to the players that you want having it. And obviously having other skill sets too. But that just so happens to be his best in my opinion among being an incredible net front presence now his shot or goal chart looks the opposite of that guy from uh from oakland the guy making all the threes where so this guy from

oakland who took over the ncaa march matches at least game one uh what did he sink like 13 three pointers in one game in the first game it was i think it was 11 yeah like it was it was a tide for the record ncaa history he'd only taken eight shots throughout the entire course of this full ncaa basketball season inside the three-point mark everything else he shot from the outside we We're talking like 40 games here. I think it was 373 point attempts. And eight two-point attempts. I feel like you really know what you're saying right now. I thought it was like two.

I thought he had like two points from non-three threes. But Hyman, the best, the comp to me, it's similar to Kreider. Like always in front of the net, always tipping, beast on the forecheck, never had popped off like his 50 goal season. I think he'd had 30 and upper 20s, but then boom, it's that one magical year. And because it's McDavid,

it's not fair to say it won't happen again. It's kind of unlikely that he gets 50 again. I think he can get 38, 42, and maybe I'm going to be completely proven wrong here, but I mean, Crosby's only had 50 once. There's a lot of guys who've only had 50 once that are great goal scorers that it's that one year that everything you touch has turned to gold. So I don't know. I think that unfortunately the Oilers had one of the worst weekends in months. Yeah. I was going to actually bring up the fact that the Leafs spanked them. And I'm not even

going to rub it in with, cause I'm a classy a classy guy unlike you the biggest thing is just like the lack of respect you have for the toronto maple leafs like they're a good fucking hockey team they are a good hockey team right now they spanked your oilers i i lack of i feel like i show them respect i feel like i say it's a good team that won't win the cup. You laughed at my toughness comment. You don't think they're the toughest team in the league. And you compared, you compared, what's his name to a Ferrari,

Matt nice. Like I laughed at a Ferrari comment for Matt nice. And I laughed at them being the toughest team in the league. They smashed my Oilers and they look good. They're not winning the Stanley cup. I respected Leafs. I do, but they're not cup contenders. You know who's a Ferrari?

Bobby McMatthews is a fucking Ferrari. I know he scares you. If you're a Bruins fan, does Bobby McMatthews scare you already? No chance. Oh, here comes G again Mr. UNB. Not at all. Doesn't scare me one bit. Big Ray gets back in the lineup by

the end of the month. I'm not worried one bit. The problem with the Oilers was they were getting pushed around by the Leafs. And not much was happening in terms of response. That was disappointing. I mean, they sort of made it a game in quotations in the third. Not really.

But the bigger problem was, alright, stinker in Toronto. The Leafs were buzzing. That's a one-off. We're going into Ottawa. Buddy, you lose to Ottawa 5-3? That's when you're like, all right, what's going on here? That's a tough bounce-back game. You should go into Ottawa and be firing.

You're pissed off about the effort. You're pissed off at the lack of response. And then you don't even get a point out of that game. That's when it's like, ugh. I mean, they smashed Buffalo before that and then go to Ontario and lay an egg two in a row. They probably went to Marble and hung out with Burgess. Hey, Connor.

Hey, McToskey. Holy fuck, Connor. You want to look and have a Whitney bomb? Yeah, Whitney bomb. Let's go. Come on, Dreisaitl. One-two punch here. Hey, Kuba.

Get over here, Kuba. Connor's here. Oh, yeah, man. At the same time, though, considering where they were not too long ago, they basically got themselves back in the mix. So I'm not surprised they're having a little bit of a lull here. I mean, they're firmly ensconced in a playoff spot. So a couple

little bit of a game slide. I don't think it's too big of a deal for Edmonton. But later in Sunday, Sam Reinhardt, he got goals number 49 and 50, just the second Panther to hit the 50 goal mark after Pavel Bure. Got it done in 71 games. His prior high was 33 a couple seasons ago. He got it done in 78 games.

Whit, is he looking at at least a $10 million per annum deal next time? No, not if he's in Toronto. He won't get $10 million a year, and he doesn't need to with the no state tax, all that discussion. Oh, you see him in Florida? You said Toronto there. That would be a great ad for the Leafs. This is hard.

Well, we already have one in Bobby McMatthews. Yeah, sorry, you're McMatthews. No, I don't know what that deal, I don't know how that deal is going to come in. They have some big tickets there. They got a lot of guys signed to big go long-term. So obviously they want to keep them. And in talking to Posh and even talking to him,

he'd love to be there, right? Why wouldn't you be with the success you've had? I don't know how that ends up getting done. It's going to have to be a Philippe Forsberg deal where the season ends and you're able to get him locked up before July 1st when he can go to anyone or after July 1st and still stick with Florida. I think we mentioned before, and I don't know if his agent would laugh us out of the building, but if Florida was able to give him eight, eight and a half times eight. I would think that at this point right now, he's looking at eight times nine.

I don't think that. But to stay in Florida and love it. Yeah, but I think, yeah, I guess at his age, I could see another team giving him probably nine and a half to 10. So I think that they'll have to get at least to eight and a half. And if not between there and 9 million, and I think you would stay because even if you're, even after

the state tax ramifications, like even if you're making three, 400 K less, you're living in Florida, man, these guys love it there. That team loves each other. They got the new practice facility in Lauderdale. They take their golf carts over to it. It's turned into, it was a laughing stock of a franchise. It turned into Vegas. It turned into Tampa kind of where everyone's, like the crowds in Tampa and the teams they had and the players they'd get. And the Panthers were a laughing stock and it's all switched. You got to give Vinny Viola credit. He's the owner there. And he's done an amazing job of like just building the entire franchise in a different way where they've kind

of started taking care of the players a lot better i think it wasn't necessarily like it didn't always feel like the highest um highest class like nhl facilities and how you were treated and like little things that fans may scoff at but as a player it's like ah a couple things should be better here and now it's it's as top notch as anywhere else. And so guys want to be there. It's a great team. Now, interesting little nugget for the Panthers fans. Tarasenko went over there.

I think he had two goals in his first game. He hasn't had a point in five games. He's playing on a top line with Barkov and Reinhardt, right? So kind of got to get that going. I don't know what's going on there with him. Maybe a little bit struggles in getting involved with his new team. But yeah, they've peaked all season.

They've shocked us. We didn't have them in the playoffs. I mean, it's pathetic. It's embarrassing to admit, but they're my favorite out of the East and I've said it for over a month. And just going back to Reinhardt quickly, I think that the 50,

a strong component to that is the way that they figured out to work this power play i mean he's obviously the sniper on it but just the way that they operate and their puck retrievals how if one lane closes they're able to adjust and find the other they're they're strong their their goal line game is strong because they have kachuk and they have guys who can play down there they got the bombs from the point so really no weak links. And anytime that they've looked for a goal, they've been able to came up with it on the special team.

And he's the bumper guy. So he's the guy in the middle. So you're not really in possession of the puck as you're snapping it around. And sometimes people hate being the bumper guy. You don't feel in the mix. You don't really know where to go. Well, he's mastered it. And that's how many of his power play goals are one-timers it's much like you just talked

about hyman it's these like quick subtle movements where all's it is is just making your stick available where that passing lane opens up even if it's six to twelve inches or even even if the guy's got a stick down you know a guy like barkov or or matthew kachuk are gonna find a way to sauce it over in that perfect little weak side spot and that little bubble area and how he's able to move around. And it's just that quick knee drop. Just touch it.

Boom. Right off the stick. Top cheese. How's your mama? The Polish prince is back and he is buzzing. What's he have? 30 power play goals. I'm not sure at the top of my head.

I don't have it written down. We don't want to work it too hard. No worries. He's at the top. Maybe get like a stat machine at the top of my head. I don't have it written down. We don't want to work it too hard. No worries. He's at the top. Maybe get like a stat machine at the top or maybe get some numbers. You think if he get 50, you might know how many power play goals he has. Hyman only has 13. I was too busy.

That's pretty impressive. Too busy looking up that Tarasenko actually did score yesterday. I was just going to let you know. Okay. Okay. Fair enough. Fair enough. And in the end, you're a fucking moron.

Five games in a row, no points. And now he got his sixth game. He got a goal. So I'm wrong. I'm wrong. I'm wrong. Shout out to the Panther Bots, too. What a great staff they have in that spot.

Well, you don't even remember being in there. Come on. I give you a play-by-play from that night. What are you talking about? All right. Before we go any further, here's a few words from our friends at ZipRecruiter. Our friends at ZipRecruiter conducted a recent survey and found that the top hiring challenge employers face for 2024 is a lack of qualified candidates. But if you're an employer and need to hire, here's good news.

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within the first day. Just go to this exclusive web address right now to try ZipRecruiter for free. ZipRecruiter.com slash SC. Again, that's ZipRecruiter.com slash SC. ZipRecruiter, the smartest way to hire. Boys, Denver, the Nate Dog continues. Absolute ridiculous season. Abs down 4-0 to the Pens with under five minutes left in the second period. They pull out a 5-4 OT win. Nate Dog, a goal to assist. Gives them 122 points in 71 games.

He passes Joe Sackick for most points in a season in avalanche history. Stastny has the record for the franchise record, 139 points. He extended his home point streak to 34 games. He scored at least a point every home game so far, second only to Wayne Gretzky's 40 back in 88-89. In those 34 games, he's got 76 points. He also has an 18-game point streak with 37 points in that. He joins Wayne as the only two guys who have two different point streaks of at least 18 games in the same season. Just an unbelievable fucking year this guy's having. Biz, we've talked MVP enough on this.

Just a special season with the Nate Dawgs doing right now. I have blisters on my hands from the double wristers we've been giving the Nate Dawg because he's in fucking sicko mode right now. That's all I got to say on it. This guy's on a different planet. He's in zone two post games doing the cardio he is locked and loaded he had to he had to dig deep in order to go to a different level

in order to win an nvp trophy while connor mcdavid is in the national hockey league this is this to me makes him a first ballot Hall of Famer in itself. The fact that he's going to pull this off. It has been a remarkable display of commitment, and it is just so fucking fun to watch. Tampa fans are flipping right now. Oh, about my comment or the fact that he has earned this in the season in which Kucherov has done what he's done? Tampa fans would say, like, this is insane.

Kucherov's done the same thing, ifa fans would say like this is insane kucherov's done the same thing if not more that's what that's what i'm getting messages about you guys don't understand you're talking about mckinnon non-stop what the fuck why aren't you talking about kucherov the same way he's doing the exact same thing okay so so we're doing uh wednesday we got tnt with wayne gretzky and he watches a ton of hockey. I'm going to ask him. This is a season where McDavid might end up finishing off winning the points. Yeah, it's going to be hard right now.

I don't know, man. He might ramp it up. The craziest thing about McKinnon is this home point streak. Going into the third period, they were down 4-2 against the Penguins. They scored late in the second to make it 4-2. didn't have anything yet it was it was one period away from from and i i'm really invested in this now not only because it'd be tying a wayne gretzky record

but it wouldn't be tying it would technically be breaking it because wayne only played 40 games that year right so he can end up being the the obviously it's each home game so it's a tied record but an extra game almost gives him a little leg up that is insane obviously it's each home game so it's a tied record but an extra game almost gives him a little leg up that is insane to think about the home crowd buying the mckinnon jerseys them being everyone's favorite player that him bringing a stanley cup the first overall pick who changed his career after a few years and became one of the greatest players in the league he now has a chance to bring joy every single home game to these fans. How many people are going to more than one game?

A lot of guys, they get their tickets for Christmas or beginning of the year. They got one game and he's got a chance to show them every single time they've been there. That's unreal. And like all these kids, oh, I want to see McKinnon get a goal or an assist. He's done it. So that's a big time storyline coming down the stretch. The third period, he got one so easy, a beautiful pass across the zone in the offensive zone,

goal, and up there, Merle goes, there it is, he got it. So I can't wait to see how this plays out. It's so fun to watch. Merle says that they are going to win the Stanley Cup with ease. And the biggest point being, I don't know if there's a player more important to their team like nikchuskin when he went out all of a sudden what's struggling he comes back dude he was a monster in every game since he's come back and they are somehow a different team with him in

the lineup it's one guy that just changes everything and i guess one more big weapon that really can't be stopped down low. His skating is unreal. He beats defensemen wide. It's just like another element to their team. Somehow you shut down Ranton and McKinnon and McCarwell. If he's not in the lineup, don't worry. You're good. You beat him.

No. Now Valerie Nachushkin's in the mix again. So Merle says no one's sniffing him. We got to talk about Sid Crosby too. He had four points in that game. Goal and three assists. It's given him 73 points in 70 games. He became the first active player in the ninth ever

to have at least 70 points in 14 or more seasons. I mean, impressive as hell. Sid Crosby, just add to the record. Kind of the way the season's gone for the Pittsburgh Penguins, fumble, fuck, and everything. And also, you might have already said the stat. First time in a long time, back-to-back days, had a four-goal lead blown. and also you might have already said the stat first time in a long time back to back

days had a four goal lead blown in the NHL I don't know if you picked that one up online is that the new worst lead in hockey biz? It went from 2-0 to 3-0 then 4-0 we've seen it a bunch man it is crazy it makes the fucking game way more exciting

than it used to be I mean 20-30 years ago if a team was down 2-0 after two periods, it was pretty much good night, Irene. But this fucking league is so good right now. We've got to congratulate Nick Letty. Played his 1,000th NHL game with St. Louis the other night. More than half those games came with the Isles. Also a few games with Chicago. But we've got to talk about the Blues for a second.

They're still hanging around. People thought they were dead a little while ago. They got a huge game versus Vegas tonight. They're only four points back of Vegas. Vegas does have a game in hand. Who gets in on these two teams? St. Louis or Vegas? Here's my theory. I think that Vegas is doing this on purpose so they can end up playing

Vancouver. I don't think Vegas is doing anything on purpose. The cap circumcises aren't fucking... They don't have something up their sleeve wet? Oh, really? Vegas the other night. Well, I heard a Oh, yeah. The cap circumcises aren't fucking... They don't have something up their sleeve wet? Oh, really? Vegas the other night. Well, I heard a little rumor that Stone wouldn't be back till the finals, if anything.

Interesting. Yeah. So apparently the injury is as legit as it sounded when you hear spleen. Who knows how that plays out? But Vegas, they're not doing anything on purpose. Dude, the other night, they snuck out a win against the Blue Jackets,

which everyone's like, oh, this is a lock. It's Columbus. They played the night before in Denver where they got slapped around and then they flew down and they played in Vegas. Vegas, the first period they were getting owned. It's like, what is happening to this team? Luckily, they figured out and got a win.

But Vegas is just, this is not on purpose. Nothing's on purpose. I think they get in. It's going to be interesting if the blues beat them in this game, but they still have a game in hand and they'd still be up two points. I think it's probably a little too, too little, too late or no,

that's not correct. Yeah. Too little, too late, but it's not too little. Cause they're doing a lot. I want to ask you this. So, this so uh i mean you guys might know more than wit actually did bruce cassidy i want to say overstay his welcome but maybe he is is uh

his approach in the locker room wore a little thin on the players in boston oh yeah do you think that could be you think that could be having its effect on Vegas? Possibly. Possibly. Like what's the reason right now? I mean, goaltending hasn't been what... Aiden Hill's out too, right? They've played a lot of hockey the past few years though. You know what I mean?

Well, I know, but they also have a lot of players in the lineup who can alleviate pressure and still help get the job done. Like you just mentioned it about Colorado. Like what makes them good is it doesn't have to be that top line every night. They have a second wave of offense. Like we can go through the personnel and the players they have in their lineup. They have a great back end. I think they have competent goaltending,

which has been kind of shaky since the start of the year. I felt like Logan Thompson was buzzing at the start of the year, and then that's dropped off. So what is it? And to me, the only answer would maybe be sometimes the message runs a little bit dry. I think a big factor is Stone not being there. He is a leader, dude.

He has the pulse of that team. The way he plays, they follow. That's an enormous loss. Day-to-day practice-type plays they follow like that's an enormous loss day-to-day practice type habits things like that where this guy is getting these guys to play a certain way maybe there is some sort of factor with with cassidy like oh my god like this guy's driving me crazy right now but it can't be lack of leadership they got petrangelo it doesn't but when it's like they have captain it's the it's the the guy wearing the c man. Okay, so what happened when the Avalanche lost their captain?

They didn't just fucking roll over and die. Look at them. They still don't have their captain. I would say that Landis, Gog, and Stone are pretty comparable in skill and talent. You asked a question. I'm just chucking out possible answers. Oh, okay. I don't know.

I'm not in the room. But this isn't like the last three weeks since Christmas. Vegas sucks. They're like a bottom 10 team in the league, I think, for the past few months. So for some reason, and Stone hasn't been gone that entire time. So yeah, I guess you're right. I don't really understand what's going on. And gee,

yeah, they've played a lot of hockey with the run last year, but they mentioned how they didn't feel any sort of... They could have played another round. And they didn't even make the playoffs the year before. So it wasn't like a long run the year before they won it all. Yeah, Tampa's saying, hold my beer, bitch. Fucking one run? Congratulations.

That's cute. But if Vegas does get in, which I think they will, you can't just flip this switch on. You can't all of a sudden be struggling the last three months of the season and get in the playoffs and just turn it on the the teams that you worry about and i know i said i'm not too scared of nashville if i'm a top team in the west you got to be playing well going into the playoffs though there's no chance of just struggling and barely limping in and then turning it on when a team's i don't remember ever a time where we've seen that like

i can't think of a time like you're talking about when la one is the ac they played great oh they were humming in the back half so it's it's you're not gonna limp in as a lower seed maybe a lower seed who comes flying in like nashville has a chance but vegas is in a tough spot right now and if those rumors are true that Stone is out. If there were to be a team, though, to all of a sudden it starts and they turn it on, it would be the cap circumcisors. Yes. Agreed.

Yeah, they were getting some shit because they did place Thomas Hurdle on the LTIR. And everyone's like, oh, they're doing it again. It's like, it doesn't matter now. The fucking trade deadline's passed. They can't add anybody further. And the guy hasn't played since January 27th. I think people are just jumping on Vegas. Could you imagine the Vancouver Twitter folk, the Canucks, if they meet in the first round and all of a sudden they start drumming them?

Oh, my God. To go back to Reinhardt, 27 of his 50 goals have come on the power play. Florida has 61 power play goals. He has 27 of them, the same as the Columbus Blue Jackets collectively. Columbus has 27 power play goals in the season. That's what Reinhardt has. Florida's 26.2 power play, fourth in the league. So, once again, congrats to Nick Letty on 1,000 games.

Dude, the Carolina Hurricanes, I feel like they're flying under the radar. They're only two teams with more than their 97 points. 11-2 and won the last 14 games. They're right on the Rangers' heels. This Seth Jarvis, man, we got to get him on the show. This kid is an absolute character. Yeah, he scored in six straight games, seven goals, four of them were game-winners. Then he tripped Bernsie for his

pass in the overtime game when it said it was a brutal pass. And then he was slurping on a Red Bull in the postgame interview saying, I got to get some puck luck or whatever he said. This kid's an absolute character. But wait, are people underestimating Carolina right now or what? I'm not anymore. Nobody is. I'm not anymore

and I always was one of the people who dogged them. I think this year they can get it done. I've never said that before and Gensel has fit in there. Oh my God. Him and Jarvis,

it looks like they've played together forever. They're pointing at each other after sick goals. And Ajo, Ajo is just out of this world right now they have a great defense anderson's healthy they are an awesome team what's crazy is i would say what there's like seven teams that could win the president's trophy the president's trophy in the

end i mean we saw boston it doesn't really matter each guy makes about 25 grand what each guy gets a little bit of a bonus too do they if you win the president's trophy you get a i think it's like a million dollar bonus for the guys in the locker room to share but how many times have you seen a race like this for the president's trophy where it's it's it's there's we got the rangers we got florida we got vancouver we got colorado we got carolina boston it's kind of wild going coming down the stretch in terms of who... Do you think they're going to call each other and just say, we'll split it? No. It's home ice throughout the playoffs.

So... I meant the pile of money. No, I know. I know. I know. Yeah, I didn't think that was going to happen. You talked about Gensel fitting... You talked about Gensel fitting in so far. I think he's been on the ice for 15 goals for, zero against. He hasn't been on the ice for a goal against. Not for a goal in so far. I think he's been on the ice for 15 goals for, zero against.

He hasn't been on the ice for a goal against. Not for a goal against so far in his tenure with the Carolina Hurricanes. So if you're there, man, you're a fan. You must be loving life. Their team is firing on all cylinders. The Kuznetsov story and him reviving and being back in the mix

and contributing and smiling and doing, I mean, as far as entertainment value in the postgame interviews, their team is providing everything right now. There isn't anything they're not doing. Remember we were chirping. They had the mom's trip this year. They had Martinook's mom on the broadcast. They've been doing it all.

Remember beginning of the year after dominating with the Bruins, Orlov was brutal. He was struggling. And he looks great now. Figuring out that man-on-man maybe helped after a few months being on Carolina. I can't wait to see how it goes. I need Rangers Carolina in the second round.

I need that. I mentioned the game a couple weeks ago. It was out of this world entertainment, back and forth, great goaltending. Those two teams in the second round will be one of the best series of the playoffs. Yeah, Gensel, he's got two goals, ten assists in eight games already. Huge addition

for them. And we got to shout out Freddie Anderson as well. I know every time we talk about Carolina, I mention him, but he's been lights out since coming back after the blood clot issue. 5-0 with the 1.40 goals against 9-4, 6-8 percentage, a shutout, and just seven goals allowed in those five games. frank hitting your stride with hitting your stride with energy where he could maybe handle a playoff load now by himself because they usually done this one two goalie system

that's another big element too that you gotta you gotta factor in this season could be a girl quickly quickly staying in that division quick t's and p's to the islanders and their fans holy shit man everything looked great it was it was wa came over they started winning and they they fell apart i i did not see this coming i think i said on a show they're gonna get in and i don't want to play them and it's been complete downhill misery ever since for christ's sake the devils beat them pasha the Devils beat him. Pasha's Devils beat him. They're horrible.

I was talking to Frankie about it. He supremely, I don't know if that's the right word, disgusted with the fans and the energy in the building. I guess it's been not even close to sold out and just not getting the love. And granted, now it's like the fans are probably pissed off. Should they move them? and just not getting the love. And granted, now it's like the fans are probably pissed off. Should they move them? That arena is in a terrible location.

That was one of his biggest things is it's just hard to get people there. Like for games in terms of like after work and you're not getting the crowd from Manhattan and it's just, but I watched the game. It seemed dead in there. He's like, yeah, dude, it's been tough. Been tough sledding. I'm surprised Vaughn hasn't gone to Valamo off more width. I mean, Sorokin, as good as he is, he's been struggling a lot.

He hasn't looked good at all. I mean, Valamo's a pretty goddamn good goalie. He's got better numbers than him. I'm surprised he hasn't gone to him a lot more in these mushroom situations. I agree with you. Definitely surprised with that. Well, back to New York. The Rangers, a couple of milestones from they spanked the Bruins here,

5-2 Thursday night. Then they beat Florida in a shootout to hang on a first in the Metro. Terry Panarin, absolutely on fire, had his third hat trick of the season. His first 40-goal season, he's got 99 points in 71 games. Shout out to Jonathan Quick. He earned his 391st win versus Boston that night, tied Ryan Miller for the most wins ever by an American goalie. And congrats to Peter Laviolette, coached his 1500th NHL game

here in his home state Thursday. So congrats to those guys. Rangers keep rolling along. I mean, do you think teams are scared of them? I mean, Shesterka's been playing out of his mind. They should be, right? Yes. And talking to Rangers fans, Lazarus mentioned it on the trade deadline show.

Like, this window will close sooner than people realize. And Panarin is having a career year and Shosturkin turned everything around. And Adam Fox is this top level defenseman and Kreider's in the peak, probably the back nine of his career. He's still a great player, but everything's going to just end in New York

a little quicker than you might think. So it's like, this is a go year, buddy. This is all in. And they've been all in, obviously, last year with the Kane and the Tarasenko deal. But you got to look at it like there is no first round exit this year. If we can't get it done this year, I don't know if we will get it done. I mean, buddy, they got one cup in about 90 years. Yeah, and they're worth a shit ton of money.

And this is an original six top-notch franchise, and you can't look at the future right now if you're the Rangers. And in saying all that, they have a chance as good as anyone to win it all. I love that team. Panarin, for Panarin, what he's done to not be in the MVP discussion,

it shows, as Biz said, the sicko mode of McDavid, McKinnon, and Kucherov, because he's right there. He'll probably finish fourth or fifth, because to get 40, he'd never had 40, right? Did you just say that? Yep, yep. Yeah, sorry.

And he's probably got, he's got 99. Say he finishes right around, I don't know, 110, 115 points. To waste a season like this is, I'm long-winded in saying, would be an absolute disaster. Yeah, and I think, you know, he's obviously going to get it done in the playoffs. That's, I think, probably been the one knock in his career

since he's been in the Rangers. He hasn't got a time then, so we'll see what happens there. And I mentioned they beat the Bruins here Thursday. Well, the Bruins, they lost that game. Then they lost to the Flyers on Saturday. They do have 97 points. I mean, only two teams have more than them, but it feels like, I don't know,

you talk to other fan bases, it doesn't seem like people are afraid of the Bruins. Pavel Zaka, one of the few bright spots. He's been awesome. He's averaging a point a game in March so far, but the goalies, man, they've been struggling lately. I even saw their save percentage, team save percentage, third overall, but I haven't been too impressed with the goaltenders.

Biz, what do you see that the Bruins are doing wrong, and are they a real threat? Are they fugazis? No. No, they're not fugazis, but they could easily lose in the first round, especially if they play the Toronto Maple Leafs. I talk about this all the time. They have a great...

No, buddy, they have a great power play. They have a great penalty kill. They got a solid back end. They got superstars up front. Now... He brought it to Toronto. No. It's just funny.

He's like, what's up with Boston? You're just listing off Toronto's strengths. No, I was about boston there i'm saying telling you what they got oh i thought you mentioned that i'm sorry no no they got a better back end than toronto i've said that before they got charlotte mcfarlane you talk you talk about the the the goaltending though like that to me is the the biggest issue about you're going into playoffs that was what kind of fucked them over last year was the mismanagement of that i think that they have a very competent team they try to address the middle of the ice the fact that zaka is coming into his own and playing his best hockey right now is is huge

but yeah i just uh i i don't view them as a big of a threat as last year i i view them as a coin toss team come first round regardless of who play, whether they can make it out alive. I think that they're considered, you said frauds, RA. I wouldn't use that word at all. But my thought process is probably the high percentage of NHL fans thought process that if you couldn't do it last year,

there isn't a chance in hell you're doing it this year. And yes, it's been a great defense-oriented and led team with the goaltending and McAvoy and Lindholm. But in the end... I'm going to take it over. You can just take a few breaths. This is a twitch.

I have to see a... Where's BetterHelp? I got to do that ad today. I can't speak without saying those three words. RA, I think that if you wanted to view a team as a threat, you would say even if they get average goaltending, I could see them steamrolling through the Stanley Cup. I think that's probably why Merle said that.

And going back to when they won it two years ago, like if you look at Kemper's numbers, like they got average goaltending. Hey, yeah, you need to make the big saves when they come up. But if Boston were to win the Stanley Cup, you're going to have to see average goaltending hey yeah you need to make the big saves when when they come up but if if boston were to win the stanley cup you're gonna have to see their goaltender either play like tim thomas or rask the year they went against st louis like you're gonna have to get that 9 15 say percentage in that two goals against average so like they're relying heavily on that and if it's a little fickle going into playoffs that's where i just don't deem them as a threat are they frauds no because any team they end up playing against they're going

six or seven games and they're playing their dicks off and they're going to play boston bruin hockey so a fraud to me would be like a team going in there and just getting drummed and looking out of place that will not be the case for the b Bruins. Last thing on the Bruins, a little exciting prospect, I guess, is this Justin Brazal. Cool story, never drafted, played in the OHL North Bay Battalion. Didn't you play for North Bay? I did.

I played there when it was the Centennials. The North Bay Centennials. That's such a classic OHL name, but spent time in the coast his first year pro and even 21-22, played 18 games for the main Mariners in the coast. Buddy year pro and even 21-22, played 18 games for the main Mariners in the coast. Buddy, he's got seven goals in 15 games or five goals, seven points in 15 games, a big body in front of the Nets. He scored some really nice goals in tight. So that's a guy

like as a bigger guy in the playoffs, that could be a huge, huge find for them. So there's going to be some question marks in terms of is it Shattenkirk? Will he be in the lineup for playoffs? Or is it Peek, the guy they brought over? Maybe they got to make a decision there. All of a sudden, will Brazzo be in the lineup? Will we see... Who's the young rookie that's played real well?

The fourth liner, G. Geeky? No, not Geeky. You're not thinking of Lauko, are you? Lauko, can he like bring his game to the playoffs because like he's a water bug out there with energy so i i would never say they're frauds but to me they can't win the cup i'll leave it at that uh they fuck they got a lot of like are these no-name guys all of a sudden that have came up like a lot of like non-traditional brewing guys where it's like their first or second year is making big impact. So yeah,

he's been awesome. You just mentioned him biz. He had a great assist the other night. He's been, I think he's been incredible. Great in the face off draw too. Did the,

I know they made it two, two and then Fox made it three, two quick against the Rangers. I didn't watch that, that game. Were, were the Rangers taking it

to them or was it more evenly matched to it? So we got two empty netters. Okay. So it was a hell of a game then. Yeah, it was a battle. Alright. Alright, before we move along here, here's a few

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that watching sports while getting a haircut sure beats watching your reflection getting a haircut. I can speak to that for myself, which is why at Sport Clips, every day is clippers and curveballs, high tops and Hail Marys, and even waves and wickets. Yeah, if you're into that kind of thing. At Sport Clips, you can check in with the pros and men's hair and totally check out with pure uninterrupted relaxation. So yeah, come watch an endless stream of sports on TV while getting an awesome haircut. I got one across the street from here, man. I know I got a little, not too much left on the top, but I do got to take it down the nub every once in a while,

and that's why Sport Clips is ideal. Sit there, watch the highlights. If there's a game on, boom, check that out. And I get right down the nub, I look good. Sport Clips always takes care of this. Nice little melon here. Sport Clips, it's a game changer. All right, boys.

They had the GM meetings last week with Gary Bettman, and they're going to add a couple of rule tweaks for next season. Among them, that coaches are going to be able to challenge the high-sticking penalties in puck-out-of-play, something that they weren't able to do. I don't know. Is that a big thing with, I guess, challenging the puck-out-of- I mean, it's pretty obvious if a guy hits it out of

the goal. What do you mean? Well, he's saying why even make it where you can challenge it? I saw something where they've gotten too wrong. Like this year, they either missed or called it and it was incorrect twice, which it's like, why does that end up being something that you can challenge?

I guess they're looking to button up any possible thing in the playoffs that a team and a fan base could go bananas in terms of missed calls. So I guess I understand it while also seeing, we might not even see that once, that review. But you said the high sticking review, they couldn't, they can't, I thought they were already able to review that.

Or were they able to review if it was in the follow through of a shot? I think it was more of, it was a major penalty. I think it was, that's what the rule was before. If it was a major penalty, they wanted to double check so they didn't give a guy a match penalty and throw him out. This is just a typical high-stick incident where it's not necessarily a guy getting bloody or a five-minute major. Oh, so if they make the call a high stick and then they go back, they'll be able to review if it was his teammate's stick now. Yeah, it's not the five-minute major type thing.

Okay, all right. Well, people don't want to hear about more reviews being available. I was just going to say, slow it down. But if you're going to make sure that there's nothing that can be left to chance, we've talked about the offside, we've talked about the goaltender interference, then you've got to go all in. I don't necessarily agree with it, but I kind of understand where they're like, all right, we're taking away any single thing that you

can't review that you now will be able to, like, with a team being screwed over. Anything that they went over that you think that people would have liked to have been changed, but they didn't? OT. Oh, okay, so they went over that, whether to extend the three-on-three?

Yeah, I think it came out no changes in the near future, right, R.A.? Yeah, they're not doing anything with that. And as far as the high sticking, the challenge can be initiated when a player is struck by a teammate's stick, the puck, or his own stick. And as far as the puck over glass, a challenge can be used to take down a penalty

as opposed to just getting stuck with a penalty. That's a huge thing, too, with the puck over glass. We've seen playoff games decided by that shit. I can't stand that friggin' rule. I think it's, I don't know. Would you rather see guys go down to two on two than one on one than see a shootout? I was just thinking one on one. One on one, you might not even see a shot, though. One on one, like, how often are you going to just completely burn someone one on one besides a few guys in the league?

I would say if you're not angling properly guys will be getting roasted but it wouldn't be much angling it would just be like playing like backwards skating i feel like oh but but in like a length of the ice one-on-one no because you have to gap up like a guy can just gain speed rounding the net. Who's passing it to him? You would have to create the separation one-on-one. So at some point, you're going to get it. And you can quickly attack to back him off. And then, boom, regroup.

So quote, unquote, rag it. But let's say you get the puck back at, let's say, the blue line. You can start wheeling behind your net. Now, if that guy doesn't kind of gap up properly and take a proper angle he's fucked so so if it was two forwards it would be entertaining as hell but if you threw a defenseman out against the forward i don't think it would i don't think it would be as entertaining as you think okay that's that's my opinion people people might be confused right now but back when i was playing minor hockey when more time when i would go to summer hockey tournaments that's how they would figure out overtime where you would start out at that time it was five on five and then ever after every like i think you do five minutes of

that and every minute after that you would lose a guy i just if you're playing two on two to one on one there's not there's not a lot of games in my opinion that are going past 10 minutes yeah that's an extra five minutes they don't even want to do an extra two minutes but i i i've always brought up i i want to just get rid of offside review literally it disappears but it was interesting talking to big cat who's who's a hockey fan but not you know when the blackhawks are in it he's watching all the the time. And he said right away, he's like, well, what if they miss a call? Like he didn't even, he looked at it more like, what if you get a call wrong? So maybe that is a bigger sentiment with fans that they'd rather do the reviews than a team be offside and end up scoring and their team

losing. I didn't even think of it like that. Obviously it's kind of stupid of me to say, but I just want to just get rid of it where you're counting on the refs who for the most part get it right bang on and you just live with that but as a as a as a not a fringe hockey fan but on the outside he was just like right away he's like well what if they miss it so i guess that is that is the new age of like we're not going to miss anything that's what they're looking at i think if you i think in order to eliminate a lot of the review and then offsides in general would be as soon as the puck touches blue ice, it's then onside as opposed to it crossing. That would be my only silly rule change. I guess we could move on. Yeah, I think as a fan, when you have the technology, you do want to get it right.

Because, I mean, if your team loses a playoff series on obviously offsides play, man, that's a kick in the balls when you have the technology to, you know, go back and fix it. Or like when Elio lost the fucking Mr. Heist bet. He would have won. Also, one other note, the league, they have not started the formal expansion process yet. Who knows if they're going to, they don't appear to be any rush. Obviously St. Louis, I'm sorry, Salt Lake City and Atlanta,

they put the bids out, but the league doesn't seem to be in any sort of rush right now. So move right along. Gee, NCAA, the tourney is set. The brackets are set. What do you got for us, buddy? Yeah, I mean, even last weekend, it was an incredible weekend in college hockey. Championship weekend, Big Ten Championship, Michigan versus Michigan State.

Ended in an OT thriller at Michigan State's barn. So you just want to see. Did the Iceman score? What's that? Did the Iceman score? The Iceman did not score, no. Wow. But the bracket did come out, like R.A. mentioned, Sunday night.

And it's super exciting because it could lead to a BCBU national championship. And that's actually how I have my bracket playing out. I have BC coming out of the Providence bracket. I have North Dakota coming out of St. Louis. They probably would have been a one seed if they didn't blow it in the NCHC semis to Omaha. They were a top five team all year. Just dominant. Jackson Blake is incredible. The Springfield division is super tough

because Denver got pretty shafted here. They have to play UMass in Springfield. So essentially a home game for UMass. I could see UMass pulling off that upset and then I could see Maine actually coming out of that bracket. I mean, they're an older team.

They do have the Nadeau brothers. I bet them the other night and they lost. Who'd they get beat by? BU? Yeah. You bet Maine that game. Oh, no. Sorry.

I bet the draw. That was a Merle's bet. The Merle-y draw. Fucking Merle's. Maine has Cornell, so they're always tough. They're usually a big team. Frozen Four is going to be electric in Minnesota.

So BU's in Maryland. They have RIT. Yeah, BU's in Sioux Falls, actually. Sioux Falls. Let me ask you this. You tweeted something out about how you think

it's ridiculous that they do neutral site games in the regionals. Yeah. I think if this weekend was, we learned anything from this weekend, seeing a Big Ten championship game

between Michigan and Michigan State at Michigan State, the crowd raring, it was just an insane atmosphere. That is by far the best part of college hockey. I think if you go to a game, it's the band's plan. It's the chance.

It's the crowds. You need to embrace that, right? So I personally believe that the one seeds should be hosting the instead of so how the NCAA tournament does it is they host regional neutral location regional spots. So this year it's Providence, Springfield, Mass, Sioux Falls, and then Missouri. So it's St. Louis technically. And that's ridiculous because like last year, Manchester, New Hampshire, St. Louis, technically. And that's ridiculous. Because like last year, Manchester, New Hampshire, Allentown, Pennsylvania. If it wasn't

for Penn State being in that, it would have been a joke. It doesn't really make much sense to me why they do this. David Carl, the head coach of Denver, has been adamant all year. You've been seeing him pushing it on social media that it's time to change this. This is antiquated. This is stupid. And let's embrace the fans let's embrace the traditions and let's

let the one seeds host the yeah it gives people something extra to play for to get that one seed now is the reason behind that is because like a one seed could be from a conference or division that's a lot weaker but yet they steamrolled through it. So that's why they do it. No, no. A weaker conference would never get like a one seed. What do you mean? Well, just like for instance, like between BC and BU,

like what makes one, what makes two? Is it their record? So they have pairwise. They have the pairwise standings as well that help a lot it goes into strength of schedule like it's it's totally like a math equation in terms of who has the the top ranking based on who you've played how you've done against the best teams all these different factors go in to like the pairwise ranking which ends up being the ncaa top so

that's obviously factoring factoring in then if a team was playing weaker competition in a weaker conference so then that answers my question so and and listen some some years you're going to get shafted by like a couple percents where you wouldn't get to host it but i agree with you g at least like for two of those regional games you're gonna have a sold out barn and i'm sure like a fucking even the kids not playing at home at or you said it was michigan michigan state those michigan guys probably love the fact that that was exactly exactly like who loved you love playing villain i think kids would so much rather play villain as opposed to going and playing in manchester yeah they want to go by the student section with

like the glove on the stick acting like a selfie stick and and giving the crotch grab to the crowd i hear you i'm all on board you guys got me invested in uh boston high school hockey now i'm invested in ncaa you guys are just all over the map so according to the grand forks herald um they said that according to conversations with a dozen college hockey leaders there are athletic directors and coaches who believe that it's unlikely their teams will ever be in a top eight of the pairwise rankings and then have the ability to host so they'd rather play in empty arenas in the middle of a college hockey what a bunch of fucking idiots it's so stupid it's fucking mind and they go to dumps too no offense to the the regional spots but they're always it's about selling the fucking game yeah just because

your school stinks i guess and you can't pay't give them a ton of money to come over legit article though if you look at yourself as a team who will get into the ncaa tournament but never be a one seed you're like it's going to be so much harder for us to get out of a home team's barn i kind of see that and hadn't thought of that i'm still completely on your side g like bu bc denver how about this how about doing a fucking rev split of what that gate is and then you can have a little bit more money to continue to develop your program like money talks there's ways around this uh i do have to mention bc just walloped bu in the hockey's title game this This frigging Fowler kid. Oh my God. This goddamn goalie is a nightmare.

The same kid you've been pumping his tires. But you should have seen one of the saves he made. And it was already like five, one when he made it, but diving across like Dominic Hasik. And I do think BU BC, you're going to play in the national title game. It's insane.

It's like they've set it up this way for it to happen. And I think Will Smith ended up leading the nation in scoring, correct? Yes, he did. Leading the nation in scoring as a freshman, first time that's ever been done. He's from Boston area, and he had a hat trick in the hockey championship. He had four.

He had four in the hockey championship. For Christ's sake. What an absolute stallion. Actually, a quick note for he who shall not be named. JT Miller, just the fourth Canuck, hit multiple seasons with 90-plus points. Joining Marcus Naslin, Hendrick Sedin, and Pavel Bure. We don't have to mention that guy's name, but shout out to JT Miller for another season with 90 points. All right, boys.

This is the tough part of the program. There was some tough news after we recorded last week, just actually terrible news. Chris Simon, an enforcer, played 15 NHL seasons with seven different clubs. He died via suicide per a statement from his family. He was just 52 years old. The statement from

his family read, the family strongly believes and witnessed firsthand that Chris struggled immensely from CTE, which unfortunately resulted in his death. We are grieving immensely with the loss of our son, brother, father, partner, teammate, and friend. The entire Wawa community is sharing in our grief. We will not be releasing any further details at this time and ask for privacy during this very difficult time. We appreciate everyone who shares in our tragic loss. Simon, he said some difficulties since leaving the game. He said bankruptcy, significant brain trauma,

just a terrible story and then just an awful day. Later on the same day, it found out that former Penguin Konstantin Koltsov also died as well. He was just 42 years old, I believe, Whit. You played with him for a stretch. One of the best skaters I'd ever seen. Just a horrific day

in hockey once again. We hate to see this stuff and obviously without Koltsov saying, we extend we hate to see this stuff. And obviously without goals, I don't say we extend our deepest condolences and sympathies to family, friends, and teammates of these guys, but it just, I don't know, I'll throw it to you.

Cause yeah, you, you played, you, you, you, you know, been through this road.

I haven't, I just, I don't know. I'm kind of a loss for words. We, we deal with this stuff. Yeah. I mean,

you know, we talk about fighting on the podcast all the time and, and, and this is the, you know, this is kind of the other side of it and how, how dark it can be. I mean, we talk about fighting on the podcast all the time and this is kind of the other side of it and how dark it can be. And obviously we're in a time where guys aren't really doing it like they did in the past. And Chris Simon was one of the toughest guys to do it. And unfortunately, it can cause issues and and sometimes those issues also in the feeling that you get before the games and after the games can result in in in other things that happen so i don't want to speak at a turn here but obviously he was going through some personal struggles that resulted into to where where it ended up and it's just horrible like i don't want to take away from what happened by by speculating either and it's just uh it's a tough way to earn a dollar. Um, and like you said, condolences to his family with, and I was on the JR podcast and we talked about just like, you know, when you're, you know, what are the emotions going into games and what are the result of maybe dealing with the anxiety of having to get up and go fight guys constantly. Like, I don't know what his struggle was in order to manage that. I know that, you know, sometimes that anxiety led me to, you know, drink and, and do

other things to take my mind off it. And, you know, it's, it's not, not the, not the best result. Let's just say that. So it's a tough job, like I said, and just a horrible, horrible result. That day was just so horrible. And, and you and you you think of of koltsov and chris simon's family right away and and then my mind wandered to glenn healy and and what a what a a really hard day for for the alumni of the nhl to see two guys that um had so many friends and and so many fans in the game and and for them to pass away, it's truly heartbreaking. Like, suicide is such a horrible, horrible issue that probably, I feel like, doesn't get talked about as much as it should. I mean, there are people everywhere in all walks of life, and like,

all you say, and our family was affected by it. My aunt, my father's sister took her own life. And you're just so broken inside and thinking that somebody thought that that was the answer. And maybe thinking, you know, these people would be better off if I wasn't here. Like that's never the case. And I remember talking to my dad after, and I actually remember growing up and he talked to my brothers and, you know, things like that come up in parent-child discussions and him just saying, nothing is ever that bad. Nothing is ever, ever, ever that bad. And you could tell somebody that till you're blue in the face and you're dealing with depression. Chris Simon, I've heard he really had some financial troubles

and all these things rolled into one. And you're just heartbroken to hear that somebody would think that that would be the answer. And it's just terrible. And it's not just hockey. And people bring up the CTE. There are arguments to that, no doubt. But I mean, people are committing suicide everywhere.

And men, younger men, and dealing with not being able to deal with issues in life. And you understand people are down and out and broken inside. But you just hope you can get through to a few people maybe listening right now that nothing is ever that bad. ever that bad. And so to, to, to hear that news, it was just horrible. And I played with Koltsov. He was a great guy. One of the, as Biz said, one of the fastest skaters I've ever seen, the biggest legs. He was just a horse first round pick. And he was, he was a good dude. He didn't, you know, I didn't know him super well because of the language barrier. I actually texted Brooks Orp because they were pretty close. And as, as anyone who was friends with him, Orp was stunned and just so crushed by that. He had said he'd spoken to him a month prior. He was dating Sabalenka, I think top tennis player in the world for women. And you can't imagine what these families are going through. But when talking about suicide, it's just you hope you can get the message through to someone that talk to someone, even if you think you're in the depths of hell and that nobody could make you feel better, like give it a chance, give it a try, like a last ditch effort, I'll say in terms of just speaking to someone and trying to make your feelings be felt in terms of how much you're hurting. So it was, it's a horrible way to end the show. And then that news, it hit me hard and it's just it was a sad day. Yeah

another tough day for hockey and another death I just want to pass along. Someone who's a much older actor, the actor Emmett Walsh he played Dickie Dunn in Slapshot. This is actually the third cast member from Slapshot we've lost in the last few months. He passed away at 88 years old. One of the most prolific character actors in Hollywood history so he was a

Vermont guy so any friends and family of his we extend our condolences as well. And G before we wrap up, uh, chicklets you Wednesday, what times it got popping off at, uh, 6.

6. 6. 6. 6. 6. 6. 6. 6.

6. 6. 6. 6. 6. 6. 6. 6.

6. 6. 6. 6. 6. 6. 6. 6.

6. 6. 6. 6. 6. 6. 6. 6.

6. 6. 6. 6. 6. 6. 6. 6.

6. 6. 6. 6. 6. 6. 6. 6.

6. 6. 6. 6. 6. 6. 6. 6. 6. 6. 6. 6. 6. 6. 6. 6. 6. 6. 6. 6. 6. 6. 6. 6. 6. 6. 6. 6. 6. 6. 6. 6. 6. 6. 6 take down that video on our YouTube channel and obviously they were okay with it. So they're always rolling with the punches. They're incredible sponsors. So thank you to them and everybody who showed up to IceCon and all the

staff at the Barstool Chicago. It was an incredible four days for us and DraftKings Sportsbook and DraftKings in general. Just thank you guys for everything. I know Jens is punching the steering wheel right now. Well, I got to thank you. I can't believe we almost forgot. The golf podcast Subpar. Oh. Colt Nost and the Sleaze Man. Yeah, Sleaze Man.

The Sleaze. So they host an awesome podcast. So you can check that out wherever you listen to your podcast. We got their studio. These guys were nice enough to let us use their studios. Awesome office they have here. 8 a.m. golf, I believe. Yeah. Justin Timberlake's an investor.

The owner of a bunch of different like Miura golf and all these different things. So check out Subpar. I think Biz and I are going to be going on there with these guys a little bit later and we appreciate them letting us use their studio. So everyone, tough way to end the pod, but hug your loved ones. Have a great week. We're excited for playoffs, excited for the stretch. And as always, thank you so much for listening and all your support. You can get like a G, but how much is your love?

They say a drunken speech is just so good that I like to poke the bear, I like to stir the pot But baby, come on in and take it up a notch You hit me with a cheap shot, a cheap shot She hit me with a cheap shot, a cheap shot She hit me with a cheap shot, a cheap shot I bet 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 the line And I know she felt it Someone said she could Have a free one on the chain She went but no the chain She went below the bell She had me with a cheap shot A cheap shot She had me with a cheap shot

A cheap shot I think we need a deep talk We've been so on time