Spittin Chiclets - Spittin’ Chiclets Episode 522: Featuring Jacob Markström

Starting point is 00:00:00 Hey, Spittin' Chicklets listeners, you can find every episode on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or YouTube. Prime members can listen ad-free on Amazon Music. Cheers, you love They say you're drunk at speech It's just so the thought I like to poke the bear I like to stir the pot But then you come on in And take it up a notch You hit me with a cheap shot, a cheap shot

Starting point is 00:00:50 What up, what up, everyone? What an absolute pleasure to be back, back this year. We got some special, special previews coming up this episode. This is your boy, the Wit Dog. I am joined by Paul Biznasty, Biz Sinet, and Matt Merlion. We'll get to them in a second. The Mer, the Game Notes legend. But first, I need to talk to you about Pink Whitney.

Starting point is 00:01:10 This is episode 522 when we're talking about Pink Whitney per usual. And Biz, it's the Birdie Buckets. The Birdie Bonanza. The new old, big old bucket of shots of nips that you can enjoy with a little ice. Just add ice, it says on the buckets. That's the new thing that we're pumping. That's the new thing we love. And we still got the big old bottles and the medium bottles and the little bottles

Starting point is 00:01:32 but the birdie buckets and the big old add ice and enjoy your day. Beach season is coming to an end. Look at Grinnell is showing it. I love on the YouTube version. You get to see it. Does it say just add ice on there? I've seen liquor stores. It should. Just add ice.

Starting point is 00:01:46 And you know what they do, Biz? They sell ice right next to it. What smart people these people are. So shout out Pink Whitney. Shout out New Amsterdam. And shout out all the fellas as the 2024-2025 NHL season is going to begin soon. Paul Biznasty. Biznate.

Starting point is 00:02:02 How you doing, buddy? EBR. EBR. EBR. EBR. Matt Murley. Nice little offseason. How you been, brother? Good. I'm back in it. The European leagues have started. I was all over the Champions League this weekend, so I got the brain turning. I hit a couple picks, saw some hockey. It's weird watching hockey again, but the season's here. And you know I love this time of year. I love our previews. I love our predictions.

Starting point is 00:02:31 I can't wait to hear what teams we have missing the playoffs this year that will win the cup or win the president's trophy like we do every year. No shortage of hot takes coming at you. These pods don't win. No, and yes, this will be the metro division preview um i'll get into my thoughts on this entire division you know shortly but biz i was i was amazed and kind of excited to hear about a story after you drop the picture sunday morning the gross grind what we've talked about so often this summer with the man the myth the legendor Bedard, just a little fella in the picture, just a little fella, huge quads.

Starting point is 00:03:06 But how did it go? What? He packs a big punch. Does he? He's the new Quadzilla. He's going to take over Sid when Sid leaves the league. Well, Sid's still in the league. Sid's still in the league.

Starting point is 00:03:16 No, I know. He's going to pass off the torch, right? I mean, at some point. I mean, the way that Sid's going, he could play another fucking six years. He's going to be like Tom Brady, putting up 100 points when he's in his 40s for fuck's sake fucking six years. He's going to be like Tom Brady putting up 100 points when he's in his 40s for fuck's sake.

Starting point is 00:03:26 Well, let's hope he's not like Tom Brady if he ever does the broadcasting part of it because Tom Brady was an absolute disaster, I thought, on the first game of his career. He signed $375 million. He was doing the Browns-Cowboys game. I believe he burped at one point in the middle of the broadcast. I was saying to my buddy like i don't think

Starting point is 00:03:46 he knows much about what's going on in the nfl but because we were watching it i said he made two million bucks today doing that that was a pretty good payday or two and a half at least the way that you're describing it for the 35 sheets so pretty good payday to be burping on the broadcast not much of a game but um speaking of somebody who retired and then got into broadcasting, not saying I'm anywhere near Tom Brady's level here, but it's very hard when you first step in because I did with the Coyotes as the radio color guy to be critical. And I think I've told the story before when I took over as the color guy on radio with Bob Heat House, I think the Coyotes went winless their first 20 games of the season.

Starting point is 00:04:25 It's amazing. When I first hop and I'll never forget, they were about to win their first game in Philadelphia. And, and once again, it's very hard to be critical, especially when you step out. And I was playing in the American league the year before.

Starting point is 00:04:37 So for me to criticize guys in the NHL, fuck off, but they were up to nothing on the flyers. And in the last minute and a half of the game, flyers pulled their goalie and tied it, buddy was jammed up on the radio i had nothing to say heaters like biz and i'm like uh now were you afraid to be critical like because you felt bad you didn't want to be mean to the players like or were you afraid to be critical in terms of the coyotes being like what are you doing dogging our team even though we're pathetic uh more so critical of the players who i knew that were better than me and also like at the

Starting point is 00:05:09 chance that maybe like family members were listening and then all of a sudden i'm like oh my god what a pizza there by this guy like oh what a loser he's got a back pedal quicker there oh look he gets burned so i just try to keep it very like you know like just not not be as aggressive in my analysis but as time wears on and as we know on this podcast i don't think we're holding many punches so maybe by you know week six or seven he finds his groove but i agreed for the amount that he's being paid i didn't think he came out swinging uh but first game's hard first game it is and i think you'd naturally get better now in fairness romo was amazing at the beginning and he's horrible now at least i think like he he's just like almost gets

Starting point is 00:05:52 in there too much where he's kind of gone from the top to the bottom where he was calling plays that were going to happen everyone thought he was nostradamus so brady will probably kind of like like he came into the nfl slowly and surely in the momentum build. I think he would be good. He's great at everything he does. So it's just funny to see the excitement of him doing it. You know he's nervous. And then it was a little bit awkward at the beginning.

Starting point is 00:06:16 But I'm just kind of chirping, sitting in the cheap seat. No, I know. We kind of got off the rails, though. Now, I delete my apps in the offseason quite a bit, so I wasn't reading the feedback online. Was he gettinged where people like people were hard but but you know what i think even if he'd done a good job he was going to be getting hammered people are looking to hammer tom brady when you're when you're like the goat at everything you know like people are looking to hate haters galore and and a lot of people hate the patriots and hate tom brady so those people

Starting point is 00:06:43 were coming out but even myself a brady enthusiast i was like ah this is this is not a great start not a great start yeah well um before we get to bedard it was kind of a weird start to the week i think i messaged you guys the the day after we recorded uh the last pod and uh i fucking i shit my pants like on the way home from dinner that buddy like I've done it before like I talked about the paper out where I kind of squeaked out and I like ended up hiding the underwear and my mother's hamper and she's like what the fuck are you doing instead of just throwing it away too so yeah that was so stupid but I was young like this time it was on the way home from dinner and you know when like the minute you get to your door you kind of let your guard down well how does your

Starting point is 00:07:24 ass know too how does it know the closer you get to the toilet you kind of let your guard down well how does your ass know too how does it know the closer you get to the toilet i don't know they actually say like uh i think there's a statistic where like car accidents like a large percentage of them happen like a mile or two from your house like you kind of let your guard down you feel very comfortable when you as you're getting closer to home and buddy i i um i, um, I hit my fob on the door and it, it, I missed the knob. So it kind of, it locked again. And at that point I thought I was going to time it. We're right in the door.

Starting point is 00:07:51 That's where the bathroom is. And I just, buddy, I had no, no control over my bowels. I've been eating very healthy, all the vitamins and stuff. And I sent you guys the picture. Like it was a full blown. All of it came out. Merle's. Did you get it?

Starting point is 00:08:04 Yeah. i'm getting these at five in the morning when i'm waking up like just the thing i want to see breakfast burrito for you yeah so uh luckily enough i threw those ones out uh but the the weekend like i would have left like i would have thrown the apartment out based on those pictures i wish i could get you guys the surveillance of me going up the elevator like getting there like just squeezing my even down the back alley from dinner just like waddling in and then like getting in the elevator and then up again and the worst part is there's two other people got in the elevator with me and they kind of gave me the hello and i'm like like sweat sweat dripping down my forehead yeah i'm like uh yeah just pull the

Starting point is 00:08:43 hammy here um but then as the week progressed i've been hounding connor bedard i've been saying let's go do the grind i could beat you let's go i'm trying to get my motivation up and i got a random text i think it was on thursday and he's like hey he goes sunday 6 a.m grind and i wasn't gonna say no to that this fucking kid man 6 a.m on his weekends quickly biz is he is he sid level where it's just private number pops up? Like he doesn't, you know what I mean? Remember Sid? Sid would just, no matter what, text, call.

Starting point is 00:09:12 I don't think there's ever been a number listed. Yeah, he's always got the unknown number. Now, Bedard's never called me, so it's always text. I think a lot of these younger guys are texting and not calling. That's kind of the new wave. But I wasn't going to turn that down and i was just impressed at the fact of you know this this guy like normally i was taking my weekends off i was still getting home at 6 a.m on sundays when i was during my playing days but

Starting point is 00:09:36 you know this young kid obviously wanted to get up on one of his days off and uh so i ended up meeting him at the grind 6 a.m and at that time it's still dark out so we show up and he's there waiting by himself and obviously i'm sure he wanted to go early so he's not getting hounded like while we're taking the gondola down or whatever and uh i'd reached out to him to ask about his personal best before i think he told me his personal best was 39 minutes and so far this summer he's done it a couple times he did it in 41 well i brought my buddy and uh i'm a little nervous because i know this guy's going to be buzzing off the hop so we get going and right out of the gate he starts kind of like jogging the starting

Starting point is 00:10:16 portion well normally when i do it i just get a brisk walk going and i try to get my heart rate at the rate that i want the entire time so rookie by me, I'm trying to keep pace with this kid. Well, probably about three or four minutes in, I not that you could see far anyway, but people had headlights lamps on that were doing it. I couldn't see him. He was, he was already gone. So about 10 minutes in I'm fucking gas and I have to stop every, every so often because of the pace that he set well all of a sudden he comes by he goes i took a wrong turn he'd must take taking a wrong turn because it was so dark but then he ends up coming bolting by us about eight to ten minutes into this thing well obviously he'd set the pace so high i ended up first finishing with a personal best

Starting point is 00:11:00 but by the time i was done buddy i i hadn't been this tired all summer doing the grind i finished it in 52 45 this kid after taking a wrong turn did it in 37 minutes like unbelievably impressive like to do it that quick a time a lot of people were messaging that the sardines i think have done it in 37 or or excuse me 33 has been their best times and reminded me they did it 11 times in one day. But by the time I get up there- One of them did 11 times in one day. One of them, okay. By the time I get up to the top,

Starting point is 00:11:31 I'm just leaking out of gas and he's just sitting there barely breathing and he's already got the gondola ticket ready for us, for me and my buddy. And he's kind of laughing probably like, wow. And he's got short legs. Yes, strong, but short legs. And he's you know he's got short legs yes strong but short legs and he's very yeah he's small but he can move man he's just in such good shape and what was cool about it is at

Starting point is 00:11:53 the top i think we got there probably so we started at 6 a.m like just around 7 the gondola down doesn't start till 7 30 so we got to sit around with him and chat a little bit like i hadn't had that opportunity before to sit down and talk to him and not much of a boozer like he's never been a boozer so obviously that's helping him and his recovery and the way he trains and he even said that he listens to the pod he listened to the gary roberts interview in which he's trained with him before and just like one of those guys that's obviously understand that he is going to be the face of the league in a few years if not already and just has in in in my world would assume to be the weight of the world but he's just such a casual kid very calm demeanored uh we got to talk about his trade

Starting point is 00:12:35 training regimen um after finishing the grind in 37 minutes he was off to the rink burned to be eight rinks to go skate once again so he's doing two days on a Sunday. That's not the way we used to do things. I got to talk to him a little bit about how excited he is for the upcoming season. I know we're not in their division and we're not breaking down the Blackhawks, but he was thrilled about some of the additions, like some of these older veterans, Alec Martinez,

Starting point is 00:13:01 who's won a Stanley Cup. So he thinks they're going to be a lot better this year. And just an unreal kid with a great head on his shoulders. And I couldn't be happier that this is the kid that's going to end up taking the reins off the guys like Crosby. And maybe not so much McDavid because he's got a lot of runway left. But he seems to kind of be that next McDavid, right? Did anything come up with you asking maybe things he worked on this summer? We've always talked about Sid adding something each offseason.

Starting point is 00:13:27 Did you bring up anything in particular he might have looked at in his own game that he's looking to improve this past summer? No, we didn't get into that. It was more just asking him what his daily routines are like, his dynamic warm-ups, what he's doing. He talked about how the fact that he's been able to to go out east and train with uh the mckinnons and the mcdavids and join those camps and he marveled at what mcdavid can do he says that he was like he goes so fucking hard in in the off season where when the season starts that it's just like so easy to him so i think that he's

Starting point is 00:14:01 trying to really embody that makeup where he's just he's fully in he's in the you know he's in he's a kid who's in bed at like 9 30 10 o'clock on weekends getting up in the morning training non-stop they only get one recovery day which is saturdays and uh he's pretty good he trains a little bit i think celebrini goes somewhere else but they skate together and then they do other other certain training things together so like i said we just we try to pick his brain as much as possible but he was more just like really complimentary and what the blackhawks have done in order to kind of surround their team with with uh you know better personnel this year and that's not knocking who was there last year just you know just goes back to the fact that they got eaten alive and they also dealt with a lot

Starting point is 00:14:42 of injuries so he's excited to get halsey back there full time and uh like i said i was just it was an honor getting to spend an hour and a half with the kid it's crazy what these this younger generation is doing to advance the game and it's just nice to see that he he is he's so dialed into what he's got going on so glad i didn't shit myself on the hike trying to keep up with them and all in all finish off the weekend on a strong note yeah i would say just another or more proof that these true superstars they they live it they breathe it and that's all they think about and on the off days it's they're they're still thinking it they're probably stretching they're probably getting massages there's there's nothing else in crosby mcdavid bedard mckinnon like there's nothing else in Crosby McDavid Bedard McKinnon like there's nothing else

Starting point is 00:15:26 to their lives and maybe some people would judge that but when you're that good at something that's what it is and that's what it takes and I don't think a lot of people really realize that all the time and and it goes back to what he said about the Gary Roberts interview he go it's a lifestyle right like it's it's like it's not you can't fake it it's got to be every day it's got to be in your dna and your makeup and it is so it's not it's not being faked and and hearing that and seeing the kind of shape he's in i'm expecting like a 40 and 40 type season from this guy and and before i left the goals this year you think it's okay i was trying to be after what i saw last year and like i think bringing in Bertuzzi, if Bertuzzi's on his wing, getting pox, I think he can get 50 goals. That's all health kind of related, obviously, if he's able to play all 82.

Starting point is 00:16:13 I would not be surprised to say that. And I guess moving on from Bedard and talking about superstars and faces of the league, some amazing news. Amazing news. Congrats, Whit. Out of the. Amazing news. Congrats, Whit. Out of the city of Edmonton, boys. And I told you all it would happen. And I did say there'd be a nice hometown discount,

Starting point is 00:16:32 which turned out not to be the case. But Leon Dreisaitl has re-signed with the Edmonton Oilers in an eight-year max deal for $14 million per season. And it was one of the greatest days in Oilers history. And does that sound crazy? Yeah, it does because of their five Stanley Cups and what they've accomplished as an organization throughout all the years since 1979.

Starting point is 00:16:53 But Jason Greger, my boy out in Edmonton, made a good point. He had a good article written. I think it was on Oilers Nation. It was the most significant, biggest signing the Edmonton Oilers have ever had. It's the only superstar, current age superstar, to re-sign with the Edmonton Oilers have ever had. It's the only superstar, current age superstar, to re-sign with the Edmonton Oilers.

Starting point is 00:17:09 And it finally happened, and it means McDavid's going to sign one next summer, and it's on to Stanley Cup parades in the future, boys. And everyone's all over me on Twitter. They'll never win. They got to the finals. Leon didn't show up. That was one season, and what does it take? It takes going there. It takes losing once. Give it a taste. And what does it take? It takes going there.

Starting point is 00:17:25 It takes losing once. I hope that wasn't going to be the case, but it does. You look at Crosby, you look at all the greats. For the most part, the Red Wings with eyes are in a 95, they get swept. All these guys who've been through the torture of losing one to go on and win. And I just am so happy and so relieved because, you know, you had idiot boy Grinnell saying he was going to be on the Boston Bruins in a year. You had all these people. He'll never resign. His wife's an actress. She wants to be in L.A.

Starting point is 00:17:56 No, no, no, no, no. They're not going anywhere. And neither is McJesus. And the Edmonton Oilers have now made a statement that they're not going anywhere either. They are going to be back in the Stanley cup finals this year and they're going to win it. Mer, what did you think about the signing?

Starting point is 00:18:11 Yeah. The 14 million average. I, that's a lot of money tied up with him, but you're going to, like you said, you're getting McDavid back, the caps going up.

Starting point is 00:18:20 So they'll have to find a way. I personally did not think he was going to go back there. I just figured guy from Germany. He's over here. He's here one time in his life and his career. Maybe he wants to see a different city, a warmer climate. But nope, he stayed with your Oilers for now. And when they do win the cup, I wouldn't be surprised if he looks for a trade after that.

Starting point is 00:18:41 To go see better pastures. Holy fuck. Let it settle in. We were just up there. Leon said he put the Instagram out. Loyal to the oil. Always and forever. And yes.

Starting point is 00:18:53 Okay. Loyal. If you fucking pay me all in signing bonus, bitches. Listen, listen to the oil. Okay. Hey, loyal to the oil money.

Starting point is 00:19:00 $14 million a year. The highest paid player in the NHL until McDavid signs his next one. What do you think he's getting now? What do you think he's getting in Toronto now? I can't wait to see your face when McDavid ends up going the other way and signing with the Toronto Maple Leafs. I'll bet you anything.

Starting point is 00:19:18 You pick anything you want to bet. I'll come do the gross grind 11 times in one day if McDavid signs at Toronto. I'll get airlifted. Will you shit your pants on the way up too? Who knows what we did the day before? That's a possibility, I guess. No need for the gondola ride down

Starting point is 00:19:37 when I'm in a helicopter going to the local emergency room. Yeah, look at that blue light poopy pants. McDavid is not going anywhere. Okay, let's get to the $14 million tag. Yes, it's a lot of money. And yes, it's going to put a lot of pressure on Stan Bowman to fill out the roster in other ways, especially when McDavid and Bouchard sign their monster tickets. But here's the thing. He is a consistent 100-point scorer, one of the top goal scorers in the league. It's not just assists. An amazing passer as well.

Starting point is 00:20:06 I don't see in the next five, six years that stopping. Okay, so maybe the last three years of the deal. Granted, he has one more year left at his current hit. And then the deal kicks in. But you're getting a prime. And I think Leon turns 30. He'll be 30 when that deal kicks in. A little older.

Starting point is 00:20:24 He's a big guy. He's strong. He's able to produce in the playoffs. And I don't see the next, like I'm saying, say six years. I don't see that guy slowing down. And okay, it's a lot of dough. You had to pay him to have him stay there with all that dough. But wherever he went, he was going to get that amount of money.

Starting point is 00:20:41 So yeah, would you have hoped it was $13 million a year? Yes. That creates a million dollars. You can hoped it was $13 million a year? Yes. That creates a million dollars. You can get a solid player possibly at a million dollars. But that wasn't the case. But when you're that good, you produce that much, the games get bigger, you're that much better. I just am not that worried.

Starting point is 00:20:58 The cap will be, where will the cap be in four years? I don't know. But it's going to be high enough where they can fill out. I think it'll be at about 110 to 115 million dollars that's why i actually don't think it's that bad and i think it's perfect timing that he gets this big long eight-year deal at that 14 million number yeah maybe in one in years one and two of that deal when it kicks in it'll be aggressive compared to the cap but as we all know that that covid kind of fucked things up and it jammed things up for my leaf specifically because they'd handed out all those big tickets

Starting point is 00:21:30 to those four guys but but at this pace the way that the league's thriving and growing you're probably looking at a minimum of a five million dollar increase each year on the overall cap of teams would you not say that's a that's a pretty fair assessment i don't know about the minimum but i could realistically see that per year yeah i would say four to five million dollar jumps so isn't with that being said with next summer when mcdavid signs you probably see the number at 16 and then between the two of them you have a combination of 30 million against the cap between two players and would that be the largest amount of cap space between two players on a current roster since the beginning of the cap era yeah i i think so i mean off the top of my head i would say it'd have to be but bouchard's gonna

Starting point is 00:22:18 get a monster contract as well but like okay so i've kind of dogged these teams like the Leafs who, you know, they have four guys making like all the money, but these, McDavid and Dreissel are different. They are different than any other two guys you see out there. I'm sorry to say it. Yeah, you have Matthews. You got nobody else. Nobody else that compares to Matthews on the Leafs. Nylander, great player. Marner, great player. Dude, these two are that good. And they're that good in the playoffs. And I don't want to hear about Leon in the finals. Florida, they were just suffocating.

Starting point is 00:22:54 And I don't think Leon was that healthy. Not that anyone is when you get to the Stanley Cup finals. But the playoffs is where you worry least about Leon Dreisaitl. And without his performance in these past three years in the springtime, it's like, excuse me, I think there's more judgment about this deal, but I have none. I wish the cap hit was a little lower, you know, as a fan, but that's a celebratory day in Edmonton.

Starting point is 00:23:18 You had a superstar decide to stay. Everyone else left. You remember all these guys, they took off, and it's different now. And the passion of the fan base and seeing that arena and that city and that run to the finals, I think that had a lot to do with Leon and next year

Starting point is 00:23:34 Connor saying, I want to win a Stanley Cup here. And we're going to do it. And now that he's an oiler for life, forget Murley's except looking for a trade after they win the Cup. And to be quite honest with you, if they win the cup and then he wants to trade, well, we got the cup. Imagine what you could get back for him. Although that is a

Starting point is 00:23:50 huge ticket to get a big return on a trade. Either way, it was an amazing day. It was amazing news. I woke up. I saw Elliot's tweet. I think I made a milkshake. I made a milkshake. It was like nine in the morning. And I made a cookies and cream milkshake. My wife's like, what are you doing? I was like, Leon resigned. What do what am i doing i want to look i'm not at mcdonald's

Starting point is 00:24:09 we're going to durable too i'm just looking at his stats now he seems to always play right up near the full 82 games so that's something you got to look at too when you're giving these deals out the availability even from an ownership standpoint you solidify those two guys it means you're for sure making playoffs the entire time they're in there they're with the organization you're gonna go probably on deep runs the franchise value in in eight years will be fucking peanuts compared to what they paid them in signing mortis so it's a win-win for everybody in the city of edmonton and it it just keeps their alive for probably, like you said, five, six years. And after that, there's a little bit of a tail off

Starting point is 00:24:48 based on how much they've been worn down because of how much they have to play and contribute, then so be it. But I would say, wait, how much would you put on, given the fact that McDavid is going to resign now that Dreisaitl's back, how much would you put guaranteed that they will win a cup in the next five years?

Starting point is 00:25:05 Like, would you bet $100,000 that they will bring home a cup in the next five years? Yes. More? I don't know. I mean, I am beyond confident when I put it that way. I'm certain. Yes, I'm certain. I'm certain they win a Stanley Cup.

Starting point is 00:25:23 I don't know what else to say, Biz. There is no chance with what these guys do. Now, a big part of it will be putting that roster together and having Bowman be able to go out and find bargain players that fit into their system perfectly. But it's not just them two. It's Bouchard as this incredible power play quarterback. You've seen what power plays do now in this league and what they're specifically is able to carry them perfectly but it's not just them two it's bouchard is this incredible power play quarterback you've

Starting point is 00:25:45 seen what power plays do now in this league and what they're specifically is able to carry them through certain series in the playoffs throughout the regular season they're always right near the top if not the best and i yes they will win a stanley cup i think i think you're crazy if you don't think that that you do you think they will yeah i i think that uh yeah i think that they could pull one down in the next five years i i'm actually predicting a maple leafs uh oilers finals this year oh i can't believe you're predicting the leafs to go to the final i did so last year i'm going to double down and say that it happens this year but yeah i think that this is going to be their year they gain that experience in the finals much like florida did the year prior and

Starting point is 00:26:23 yeah i think i think that this could be their year. Mer. Yeah. They're, they're the favorite right now. Plus 800 I saw in draft King. So everybody's betting on them. It's just so hard. It's so hard to, to, to win and go back.

Starting point is 00:26:36 I wouldn't guarantee they're going to win a cup in five years, but they're, they're in a, they're in a good spot, I would say. But I, I, you, you can't guarantee a cup. It's so hard. All four series. I mean, Dallas, they're going to have to go through Dallas again this year. I just put $100,000 on it. With Biz, I got a gross grind. 11 trips in one day if they don't do it.

Starting point is 00:26:56 Or was that for if one of them, if McDavid doesn't resign? I don't care. It's a great day to be an Oilers fan. It's been a great week, and it's an exciting start to the season to know he's all locked up. No questions throughout the season, Biz. No questions at all.

Starting point is 00:27:10 And you know if you ask McDavid about his contract situation, he's not answering anyways. So we're good to go in Edmonton. I actually saw Leon do a little press conference. Most of the guys are back in Edmonton. He said, I'm getting that itch back. You know, you go on a long run to the finals. End of June, these guys are playing.

Starting point is 00:27:24 The itch is coming. Mid-September, in two weeks, boom, they're off and running in camp, and I can't wait to see how it goes. And especially after last year, you didn't even have, you had this disaster, you had this disaster start, that won't happen again. That will not happen again. I hope you don't clip this right now, G, but it will not happen again. Quickly, I do want to mention to everyone listening in the London area, I'm so excited. We will be in London, Ontario, September 19th, 20th, 21st for the Chicklets Cup. And there are hot stove tickets still available. We're doing a special little, it's a live show, but it's different than the other live shows we've done. We got Ken Reed, who will be hosting. We'll be able to just be talking all things Chicklets Cup,

Starting point is 00:28:04 got Ken Reed who will be hosting we'll be able to just be talking all things chicklets cup all things NHL preseason excitement and there are tickets available still so you can go to barstoolsports.com slash events to get one of those and we have that will be Thursday September 19th at Centennial Hall in London Murr are you playing roller hockey yeah I'll be in the I'm in the auction so I'm I got word there's a team coming for me for Enroller D, which would be just perfect. That's right up my alley. I play D. I just throw long sauce up. I've actually been training pretty hard.

Starting point is 00:28:33 It's funny that when the kids are going crazy, how easy it is to go outside and go for a run to get out of the house for an hour. So I've been training pretty hard. So I feel pretty good about what I'll do at Chicklets Cup. I'm almost going to guarantee a trophy if i do end up in roller d but just looking at this event thursday night hot stove don't let the big deal selects into that thing biz don't let those new guys as biz said we are we are there's going to be a no drinking policy until we bring home a trophy this year i got i got i got uh what do you call those devices you put on guys ankles tracking devices for especially terry ryan and senior they're the ring leaders now you talk about going

Starting point is 00:29:14 on these jogs do you wear a garment and do you track your heart rate and and uh what type of distance you're going like what are you normally running no i i don't go that far into it i didn't do that when i was playing biz let alone now when i'm an old fat retired guy i just kind of just go out in um you know 30 40 minutes if i have to walk for a little bit during it i walk a little bit like i'm just get out there burn the calories my latest one is because my wife's working right now so i have the baby i put the baby in the stroller outside and i just sort of watch that's how i pick up chicks on the seawall it's like it's better than a puppy he puts like a chipotle burrito just wrapped in a blanket and he's pushing it around trying to wheel and then like he shits himself and it all

Starting point is 00:29:57 ends in a disaster that's but yeah so i did it when i was playing too i would like you run up the hill say it takes 20 seconds to walk up the hill. And then it usually takes about 40 seconds to walk back down and you just keep going and do 10 or 12 of those. It gets the heart going. I figured that. Yeah. Oh yeah.

Starting point is 00:30:13 Good. Good for chicklets cup training. Yeah. So I, you know, the, the workout that I've talked often about my treadmill uphill, gross grind treadmill style.

Starting point is 00:30:22 I had a couple messages that I'm, I'm, I'm just like asking for an achilles tear doing that and even if these people are trying to get in my head like it's gotten in my head where i'm now not really doing it i'm so scared and my achilles like the back of my right achilles did start getting a little sore oh here we go all right so now i got it on level one speed five for three miles i can walk speed five which is actually amazing that's how tall i am you know i got these long money maker out of bounds sticks so i'm hauling ass like i'm not running you're going heel to toe hardcore heel to toe it's a full-on

Starting point is 00:30:59 sprint walk and i'm leaking by the end it It takes about 44, 42 minutes-ish. So, but I kind of miss, like, it was more of a sweat doing the uphill. Biz, I did have Will Compton reach out. I guess you reached out to him about working out during Barstool Survivor, which we'll be going to film right after London. And he was saying, what's up with Biz, like, doing double sessions? I said, oh, he's getting ready for chicklets cup, but apparently you're looking to continue the double sessions.

Starting point is 00:31:30 Are you just doing double sessions the rest of your life? Like, are you, Oh, I just like doing cardio in the morning to get my day going. And then I like doing weights at night. And then by the time bedtime comes around, you're just so gas and you feel so accomplished.

Starting point is 00:31:42 And I just kind of like that rhythm that I've gotten into. thing about the treadmill i've been doing that 15 incline what i do after about five minutes at the three speed is i'll go the other way like i'll walk backwards and it and it acted why are you laughing uphill yeah i keep the uphill and what it does and you kind of push away and what it does is it activates your vmos and the front of your quad so you're kind of getting both sides it's great it's awesome and as you're pushing away you normally you have to you have to lower the speed to about 2.5 so you obviously don't fall off and you look like a fucking idiot some of you who haven't done it before maybe hold on to the bars on the side so you don't wipe out if you're at your gym your local gym doing it for the first time but it's good to get both sides and to train both like

Starting point is 00:32:30 the both sets of muscles because if you're doing it the other way you're getting more like posterior chain glute i definitely feel it in my calves i try the incline is why i like the the the cab activation you're talking about achilles tear like i mean if you're not your, your Achilles and your calves before you even go on that, that's kind of a rookie mistake to begin with. I guess I'm a rookie. Well, you are. Yeah.

Starting point is 00:32:52 And I've not been, not been stretching. I mean, I, I, I guess I should be, you're kind of, you're kind of making me question.

Starting point is 00:32:58 The reason I reached out to, to will is, is I know that he goes hard. I often see him posting on social media when he's getting these morning workouts in. And I, it's, it's nice having a buddy to go to the gym with kind of sucked when you're

Starting point is 00:33:09 by yourself. Sometimes you have to, but I mean, I like the buddy up. That's just me. All right. Well, what else do we got for hockey news?

Starting point is 00:33:16 I did see that. Uh, finally Tyson Barry got a PTO with the Calgary flames. That's huge. I mean, somebody had to reach out and offer it. I mean, he, he can help any power play out.

Starting point is 00:33:29 Maybe the defensive game is not where it once was, but I know he's had a big summer training and taking things very seriously. So hopefully he's able to go there and not like us and get pigeon tossed like we were when we went to St. Louis, but actually crack this lineup and, you know, making a million bucks. I think that's a bargoon for any team with a guy with that offensive ability. Yeah, and there still uh Van Riemsdyk is out there um Pacioretty

Starting point is 00:33:51 is out there Justin Schultz is out there Shattenkirk's out there so I'm sure you'll hear some news of some veterans maybe signing somewhat soon in terms of veteran bad news it was tough to see Torrey Krug is out for the season after ankle surgery. Now, I had a couple people reach out and ask me if it was similar to the ankle stuff I had. From the sounds of it, it isn't. I think it's completely different. I've read pre-arthritis. I don't know if G can look that up quick. I don't think that's what I had. I just tore every tendon and everything in both ankles different times. So I think that that's a little different than arthritis but i don't know exactly what he's dealing with he did say i think it's been six years he's been like feeling this it just sucks though you know st louis they go out they get

Starting point is 00:34:34 broberg they get holloway doug armstrong's looking to have a little bit of a bounce back and create a little buzz in st louis of having a winning team again. And you lose Torrey Krug, who's, you know, he's put his entire body on the line. He's an undersized guy. It was a project for him or probably, I guess, a long run for him to become an NHL player. And he's done it. And he's had some great seasons. Grinelli says here, the surgery is intended to address pre-arthritic changes in his ankle after non-surgical options failed. So that's what sucks about certain injuries and surgeries is that there's so many times the trainers or PT people tell you, listen, let's try this. We don't want to jump into surgery. So you spend two, three months giving it a go, not getting the surgery, and it doesn't work.

Starting point is 00:35:21 And then you get the surgery like I could have done this a while back. So that does suck for Torrey Krug. Let's hope that he's able to come back full health the following season but a bummer for the blues and a bummer for him great guy who's now going to be dealing with i'm guessing because it's the ankle and i have been through rehab with that a tough road to come back and be the same especially one who skates so well yeah yeah no doubt i don't think uh i don't think st lewis is going to make playoffs i don't know i'm sure they had aspirations too but i didn't see him there as a team uh probably i'm curious i'm sure the offer sheet goes to broberg regardless

Starting point is 00:35:55 of that situation but the fact that now he he's probably going to get more of those reps because krug's out is probably not a bad thing either you get to see what this guy's made of you get to put him in these situations where it's not like, like I said, it's not like they're expected to be a top five team in the league where he can have his learning mistakes playing 22 to 25 minutes a night if that's where you want him at coming over to St. Louis. So I guess some silver lining, but definitely a tough goal for Torrey Krug.

Starting point is 00:36:22 And you said an undersized defenseman who played a very heavy game for his entire career. I mean, I always, whenever I think of Torrey Krug, I think of that hit. Was it in game seven that he laid that hit? It wasn't game seven. Oh, was it? I think it was Robert Thomas too. Yeah, yeah.

Starting point is 00:36:37 And he ran down ice, no helmet on, and just buried him. That was awesome. The crowd was fucking going nuts. Definitely probably his career-defining moment. I mean, or at least clip. That was legendary. Yeah crowd was fucking going nuts. Definitely probably his career-defining moment, or at least clip. That was legendary. Yeah, you got Bobby Orr through the air.

Starting point is 00:36:50 That would be the photo that he probably signs the most is that hit that he laid on Robert Thomas. Yeah. I remember when he came up, he signed out of Michigan State. I think he scored in the playoffs against Lundqvist, like rocket one-timer. And then just getting to know him a little bit, awesome dude. So thinking of him in what will be kind of a tough recovery.

Starting point is 00:37:08 You know, in more news, just kind of a heartbreaking day today. You know, we talked last episode about the Goudreau's passing. And Sunday was the wake. And Monday today was the funeral. Watching it online. As we said last week, there's no words. And Johnny's wife, Meredith, breaks the news that she's pregnant. She's nine weeks pregnant with their third child.

Starting point is 00:37:31 And it's like, you know, you didn't even you didn't think it could get any worse. And then you get that news. Just heartbreaking. You know, I saw Kevin Hayes and Sean Monaghan were two of the pallbearers for Johnny and just such a hard, horrible service to watch. But on the bright side, amazing turnout in Calgary and Columbus. They held vigils for Matthew and Johnny, and just the turnout and the support and love was incredible to see.

Starting point is 00:38:00 I'm sure his family getting to see that, there's there's there's no no words and we've we've been over that but just seeing that the love and the support from the fan bases that got to watch johnny goudreau play hawking was amazing so as we said last week our thoughts and prayers um continue to go out to that family and it's just it's it's one of the hardest hardest stories hardest things that that i could i could ever imagine that we'd talk about. So in terms of that, involved with that, Cole Caulfield. He's changed his number to 13. He gave a special Instagram post.

Starting point is 00:38:35 And we mentioned him as a small guy who is somebody who I'm sure looked up to Johnny Gaudreau and there was no doubt about it. And that's pretty cool to change your number to an idol of yours growing up in his tragic passing. A cool story. I think it's an exciting year for the Canadians as they continue to kind of grow and rebuild. Apparently, they sold 16,000 tickets. They have their rookie tournament or top prospects from their organization

Starting point is 00:39:01 playing each other at the Bell Centre. They got that place packed out, I think, coming up this weekend. So other at the Bell Center. They got that place packed out. Are they coming up this weekend? So you know the Canadiens fans. It's going to get a little louder there in Montreal. They've been patient. They've been lenient. But I think this is the year they kind of get over that curve, right?

Starting point is 00:39:21 A lot of anticipation with all these high draft picks and all this chatter. I think they think Slefkoski's going to take the next step. They got Hudson in there. They have all these young guys. They make a big signing, or sorry, trade in getting Patrick Laine over. So a lot of expectations for the Canadians going into the season. And you did such a good job last podcast talking about the Johnny stuff. And it's just like it was so hard to just talk about some of the fun stories

Starting point is 00:39:46 and get and dive into the impact that he's made on a lot of these smaller players. Like you listen to 32 Thoughts and you hear these constant stories roll out of just like how he touched so many people. Like I think it was Elliot who was talking about even like an Uber driver who came over for Uber Eats and just how how kind he was and he was going through a difficult time and just even that interaction so he's just a guy who touched so many people in so many different ways and uh it was just such a such a tragedy but just going back to last week i thought you did such a great job in talking about it and and summarizing

Starting point is 00:40:19 how much he meant and and you and you also touched on it just a few minutes ago just the um the the outpouring of support from hockey fans whether it was in columbus whether it was in calgary and just even all all over the league and i'm sure it meant a lot to the family despite what they're going through right now and then for that news to come out today that that she's ready to have her third third kid on the way just another another heartbreaking uh part of of of this this just wild story that's just crippled the hockey community yeah it was uh we ended the show murray and you know it's so hard to get through that i appreciate that biz and like you know the show ends and biz and i are just sitting there bawling it's like there's this it was just so

Starting point is 00:41:02 difficult to talk about and you couldn't believe you were talking about it actually um i believe his wife meredith's sister did an instagram post where she was just remembering johnny what was cool she said like him as the hockey player wasn't even close to what i think of like as as who he was she was saying i think in the post like when meredith would like walk in somewhere he was or like a restaurant a bar he'd be like yelling oh my god there's a supermodel in here like just i think he just from the story it's just a goofball a goofball and that's what kevin said he he cared more about laying down a sack bunt in a in a men's league softball game than like scoring a big goal in the nhl so that's what uh we'll live on forever is the stories of him even off the ice. So rest in peace to those guys.

Starting point is 00:41:49 We get to always, always remember them. And a nice gesture by Cole Caulfield too to switch his number and pay homage to Johnny as well. So really looking forward to seeing him shine this season. And thanks for bringing that up, Whit. Like I said, man, you are so good at talking in those situations where like there's there's just so much heartbreak but you always seem to find the word so incredible job buddy and we lean on you for that oh well well thank you thank you um so otherwise actually in terms of a small player who's made a enormous

Starting point is 00:42:22 impact ever since he came into the nhl br Brad Marchand, breaks the news that he had three different surgeries this offseason. And the fact that it sounds like he'll be ready for training camp is incredible. First off, playing through that many different injuries, you played through one injury, Murr, you tried playing with a separated shoulder with the brace on for that season after Igor dummied you. And I played with a separated shoulder with the brace on for that season after Eager dummied you.

Starting point is 00:42:45 And I played with a bad wrist. I was able to get cortisone to help, got surgery after. I mean, Marchand was dealing with three different things. And he had a great playoff. I mean, you remember that first round against the Leafs. He was playing unreal hockey. And just to find out that after, and he didn't even really mention in that postseason news press conference when you do your exit meetings what he was going through. But three different surgeries.

Starting point is 00:43:09 Gee, quickly if you could look up the three he had. But, Biz, you do wonder at his age, coming off that many different surgeries, if it'll affect him this season. Oh, thank you, G. It was elbow surgery, groin surgery, and abdominal surgery. Do you think that makes it that much more difficult to get going as the season begins no i i think it goes back to the lifestyle comment that we talked about at the beginning of the podcast where this guy is i mean as you get older obviously the the body slows down a little bit but he's dialed into his

Starting point is 00:43:40 training i think that he probably has major aspirations to play in this four nations. So I'm sure he's doing everything he can as far as treatment, as far as training. And I think he does spend a lot of his time in the summer training with Crosby as well, or at least hanging out and skating with him. So if you're going to be up to that standard, I would imagine that he's going to come back and still be a very impactful player and um for brad marshall i see him still being a top tier player for the next three four years minimum and i've said that before i think he's a hall of famer i don't think many people would argue with me i think he's been one of the most consistent wingers in the game over the past 10 years um and i think any gm especially at the tag that he's making as far as a cap hit would take him at the drop of a hat

Starting point is 00:44:25 he is a fucking gamer and you usually find and and this isn't a knock on some players is you know after playoffs they find a way to to leak that out right after it's like not as an excuse but just kind of hey lay off a little bit yeah yeah like lay off me hey there's other guys to pick on this room deflect the blame a little bit but the fact that that doesn't come out until now it just speaks volumes as the guy he is and the leader he is and uh i'm really excited to see what he's got this season in store and i would imagine we see the the prime brad marchand given the fact that they're having that four nations and he's going to be one he's going to want to be on crosby's wing can you imagine

Starting point is 00:45:04 the amount of treatment he was doing in those playoff games? Like before the game with three different injuries, then after every game, like, Holy cow. What a Michelin man with all the heat packs. He's getting to the rink at one 30 right after pregame mail. He's like,

Starting point is 00:45:18 I gotta go to the rink now. I got an hour on each body part. Biz, when you say some players might be leaking things out, not as an excuse, but as an excuse, would you classify me as one time after a real rough outing on the Penguins mentioning to a reporter, yeah, I slept really bad on my neck last night,

Starting point is 00:45:37 and the guy's like, what? I was like, yeah, I got an awful night's sleep. He was like, okay, let me write that down in the notes. Whitney minus four forgot neck pillow on the road. Yeah, that's a good idea. No, like AirPods died on the way to rink. Like, what am I supposed to do? How am I supposed to play good?

Starting point is 00:45:54 How am I supposed to get fired up? I don't even think AirPods existed then. What else did we have here? I had something else. We're going to get to the previous. Also, we do have Jacob Markstrom joining us, which is awesome. I got to play with him in San Antonio in the AHL. Great guy. He's now the New Jersey Devils goalie after a trade this offseason. He's going to come on after we

Starting point is 00:46:15 do the Devils or before we do the Devils. We'll drop that interview. Oh, here we go. Thank you, G, for reminding. So two big retirement announcements. One personally for me, a lot to say, I would think, on this guy. But Mark Stahl, who had an amazing career with the New York Rangers, the Detroit Red Wings, the Florida Panthers. I think he was on the Flyers for a minute, correct if I'm wrong there. He called it a career. And so did Alex Goligosky. And both these guys are awesome players.

Starting point is 00:46:41 And so did Alex Goligosky. And both these guys are awesome players. In their prime, I mean, two guys who, different players, no doubt, but so reliable for these teams that they played on. I know Keith Yandel put an Instagram out, like, talking about Mark Stahl or kind of honoring him and his announcement. And I got to meet him one time. We played golf together with Jens. And just, like, a good dude,, like kind of goofy, funny bastard.

Starting point is 00:47:08 And always showed up. I mean, how many shots did that guy block? Great first pass. Just like drafted high where you'd usually see maybe an offensive defenseman. And he might have been in junior, but was able to kind of turn his game into like a true shutdown guy who played big time minutes on good teams that's the biggest thing like are you on good teams are you making an impact on a bottom 10 team in the league are you making an impact on a team that's trying to win a stanley cup and those years in the rangers man there were not many people that would be able to beat him

Starting point is 00:47:39 one-on-one there were not many people that were able to win a battle in front of the net against him and it just goes to that family. I mean, Eric, Jordan, Mark, I know there's another brother, but like Biz has talked about the sperm being sold by the old man, Henry Stahl. He produced incredible hockey players. Mark is no different.

Starting point is 00:47:58 And what he did on a consistent basis was so impressive to me all those years. Yeah, they sell it at a fruit stand there in thunder bay they got like the corn on the cob they got the that's their farm all the vegetables and then you can you can get the old man sperm and a turkey baster right there right on the spot um great break that i was i'll shift my focus to goligoski because i got to play with him well so so did you in pittsburgh i came in smooth skating defenseman had that offensive flair and you know anytime you

Starting point is 00:48:25 talk about somebody who has longevity at a certain point they have to adapt their game and I was fortunate to get the call games that when he was playing with the Coyotes and just like like really proud of the guy like transitioning his game from that offensive flair where he was always um competent in his own end but by the the end, he was pretty defensive, just makes the simple play, really playing in position, and even sacrificing his body as maybe, I wouldn't say a short guy, but a smaller guy, pretty frail, and played a heavy game beyond his size. You want to talk about a great teammate, man, just a classy kid from Minnesota

Starting point is 00:49:02 who got to live out his dream in the national hockey league and uh it was a pleasure to play with him and i'm so happy that he got a kind of got to go out on his own terms i mean i mean how many how many games that goligosky finished with they probably both guys finished with over a thousand i'm assuming he played uh 1078 regular season 47 in the playoffs and yeah i mean he came into he came into Pittsburgh out of the University of Minnesota. And I think that was one of several reasons that I was traded from Pittsburgh. They're like, oh, this guy's faster.

Starting point is 00:49:33 And would you say that I don't think that their expectations for coming in to make an impact as soon as he did were where they were at. And then all of a sudden he came and it felt like his game transitioned perfectly at the pro level. And no offense, Whit,

Starting point is 00:49:48 that's probably why you got pigeon tossed. Yeah. I don't know. I mean, he was a part, I think he was the deal when he went to Dallas, that was for James Neal, if I'm not mistaken. So obviously they had to give up a good asset to get a big time winger in return

Starting point is 00:50:03 and trying to help out Sid and Gino. So Dallas, he played great hockey. Yeah, he was good everywhere. And you're right, Biz. He did end up turning into like a kind of a PK guy and a little bit more defensive, which is hard to do. It's a lot harder. We've said it a million times in this pod. Switching your game at certain levels is easier said than done.

Starting point is 00:50:21 But I just remember we lived together his first year, the year I ended up getting traded. And we would just have some ambient NHL. What season was that? NHL 09 on EA Sport. NHL 08 games and battle. And then we'd wake up. We didn't even really remember. I'm like, oh, I won.

Starting point is 00:50:40 I won that last game. So Goose is an awesome dude. Very down to earth. Like most Minnesota guys, just pretty chill and fun to hang out with. So congrats on both those guys' careers to do it. And also, I had it pulled up right here. Mark Stahl played 1,136 regular season games. He played 128 playoff games.

Starting point is 00:50:59 Oh, my God. That is like sick. Him and Girardi, they would just sacrifice their bodies game in and game out. I mean, you kind of had to with torts, but just a couple warriors that deserve their flowers. And they're definitely getting the silver sticks if they haven't gotten them already. Sounds like that's where the bad neck came from. With the ambient NHL games, that could have been the problem. Yeah.

Starting point is 00:51:21 I fell asleep while celebrating a goal by myself because I juiced up my stats. And then all of a sudden, I was minus four against the Devils the next night. When your chin's tucked into your chest for most of the night, you're probably going to wake up with a sore neck. It's like how I see the kids fall asleep in the car. They're like this for two hours on a drive down the Cape. I'm like, oh, how's your neck going to be? Wyatt pops right up. He's buzzing around.

Starting point is 00:51:45 I did start coaching might hockey for Ryder. First two games this weekend, lost both. Second game, get this one, Biz. So we lost like 7-2 the first game, kind of trounced. Second game, we're down 4-3. I get the goalie. I pull the goalie, minute 40. Walker, Walker, Walker Has hashek i call this kid

Starting point is 00:52:06 walker come on he buzzes up the bench we get our best skater out there and the ref blows the whistle i'm like whoa he's like oh shit sorry i didn't see you pulled the goalie we were right about to tuck in the time no yeah i was like he was like 80 years old i'm like oh so obviously you belittled them you chased him into the referee's room. No, no, I was actually like, wow, I can see how a might hockey coach could lose his mind. I said, it's okay, Larry. It's okay, buddy. No worries.

Starting point is 00:52:35 Don't worry. We're just looking for a win to start the season off. So it was a little frustrating, but it's pretty fun. I mean, these kids, you try to teach them little things and and you run into a team with three kids who can skate well, and the ice gets tilted. The ice gets tilted quick. So it's a good time, though. You should take the Little League World Series approach.

Starting point is 00:52:58 You guys should sign a ringer. Bring in a 12-year-old. Get the birth certificate changed up. Oh, like Danny Almonte for Platinum B, B-team, might hockey. I'd love that. Yeah, I get like a Russian. He's 13.

Starting point is 00:53:11 He's got acne. Before we move on to the previews. Hey, actually, before we get to the previews, I have a new white whale interview. Who? Squanto. I would love to get Squanto on our fans love these stories imagine what do you just when you're in the car do you just ask him shit like or does he like do you ever just

Starting point is 00:53:36 ask him questions it's the hero's response yeah sometimes like i said how was school today he started his second year of preschool test and how was school he said good i didn't pull anyone's hair i'm like yeah okay that that is that's solid but it's like i was maybe looking to see like how your friends are or whatever but um he's he's out of his mind dude he's like he's a crazy crazy kid that keeps us on our toes we got him to wear a college shirt which was incredible actually like he so he switches his outfit i'm i'm not he's 15 times a day and it's only jerseys it's t-shirt like the other night he woke up on the car ride home and like wakes up he's like i need blackhawks jersey blackhawks jersey he has a blackhawks bedard t-shirt jersey but then he got upstairs and saw it but then he saw his cincinnati the red you know the reds jersey and then he grabbed that instead and then it's like but he leaves all the drawers

Starting point is 00:54:29 open so it's a bunk bed and he's on the bottom and then the three drawers pull out and they're it's just shirts it's just jerseys he's got an unreal benny the jet sandlot jersey like button up baseball jersey is phenomenal but i told him put the shirts away shut the drawers put the shirts away shut the drawers i told him 500 times yesterday well sure as shit i hear bang and i go in rider is late he could have fucking killed himself he left the shirts on the ground why i did and the drawers open and rider was running through the room slipped on a shirt and then went down like orbital bone off the drawer that's pulled out. And then Wyatt's like, what did I do?

Starting point is 00:55:09 I'm like, you didn't put away the jerseys or shut the drawer. So it's a lot of like frustration, but a lot of love too. So he's an animal. We love him. And maybe we can get him on someday. Crazy list that we've been working on.

Starting point is 00:55:23 It's very cute at this age. I would like to hopefully get rid of that by adulthood. But we'll figure out a time for him to come on, Biz. I promise you that. Okay. And with that... It's him and then Brett Hall is my number two now. We were going to get Hall, I think, before that movie.

Starting point is 00:55:39 And then something came up because J.R. Roenick reached out. He was like, do you want Hall on? I'm like, yeah, sure. I would also like to do him in person. You want to do every big interview in person. It's just so hard with all of our schedules and these people's schedules who we're trying to interview. But Metro Division Preview.

Starting point is 00:55:55 Let's go, baby. Guys. Here we go. Guys, before we continue, I am here to talk to you about BetterHelp. And kids are always learning and growing. But as adults, sometimes we lose that curiosity. What's something you'd like to learn? Gardening, a new language, or maybe how to finally beat your best friend in bowling or golf. Therapy can help you reconnect with your sense of wonder because your back-to-school error can come at any age. And I know I've mentioned this before, but I have talked

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Starting point is 00:57:34 BetterHelp is a way to feel better about yourself and the life that you're living. So rediscover your curiosity with BetterHelp. Visit betterhelp.com slash chicklets today to get 10% off your first month. That's betterhelp, H-E-L-help.com slash chicklets today to get 10% off your first month. That's betterhelp, H-E-L-P.com slash chicklets. It's an interesting division to me, and we can get into all these different teams, but I find that there are many boring teams in this division, okay? There are teams that get me fired up. There are teams that get me excited around the league, And then there's teams that if they're on TV, I don't really want to watch. There's a couple that come into this division. Big changes this year in this division. Last year, the New York Rangers took down the division title after the regular season. The two years prior was the

Starting point is 00:58:19 Carolina Hurricanes. That's where we're going to start. I see a lot of odds on DraftKings, and I see that the Carolina Hurricanes, I believe, are still favored to win the division, and I don't get it. I do not get it. We could start off with the departures, okay? This is where I have a big-time problem. There's a lot of them. And a big worry for Hurricanes fans.

Starting point is 00:58:41 They lost Jake Gensel, Brady Shea, Brett Pesci, Taro Taravainen, Evgeny Kuznetsov, Stefan Nosen, and Jesper Fast in brutal news will miss the entire season after having neck surgery. Okay. So they added in Sean Walker. I like this defenseman. He looked great with Colorado, smooth skating defenseman, Shane Goss, despair, who almost dragged the Red Wings into the playoffs last year Jack Roslovich who finished the season with the Rangers had a tough playoff I would say William Carrier a nice third fourth line player and Tyson Jost which that's kind of a question mark so Biz I'll start with you here what do you think about the Hurricanes moving forward and and how they look this year um so I think if you're a fan, you're probably maybe, you're not as optimistic about this season

Starting point is 00:59:28 as you were coming into last year, especially at the fact that fans and organization knew they had that bullet where if they had a successful team during the regular season, they could go out and make that big impactful trade, in which they did. I don't think the additions outweigh the losses, although I think that this is a team that has always built from structure

Starting point is 00:59:48 and the net out. Anderson, who still has a little bit to prove, he's a very competent goalie. I think he's going to come back bigger, better, and stronger. Wasn't crazy about his performance against the Rangers last year in playoffs. It came down to letting in those squeakers.

Starting point is 01:00:05 But I think that overall, performance against the Rangers last year in playoffs. Like it came down to letting in those squeakers. Um, but I think that their overall, their six D are, are very competent. Let's not forget Goss's spare a few years ago, got traded there at the deadline and he slid right in and made a great impact there. He's very mobile puck moving,

Starting point is 01:00:19 helps out bring that offensive flair. I'm not sure if they're going to have him on PP1 or PP2. And then you mentioned Sean Walker, who's an awesome defenseman. So from a defensive standpoint, I think that they're probably coming in the same. People might say it's a little bit of a downgrade losing Shea and Pesci,

Starting point is 01:00:37 but I think that their D are solid. I like their goaltending. I think up front is where you're going to see the most loss as far as an impact. Now, I think up front is where you're going to see the most loss as far as an impact. Now, I think that with the loss of Gensel, who was a short-term guy, we knew that he was probably more than likely not going to resign there.

Starting point is 01:00:54 See, I think they traded thinking that he would resign there. Okay, maybe they did, but he always has the option. Let's go with that. I think that Tara vinen has that offensive flair that they're really gonna miss and a guy that maybe wasn't talked about enough enough in his time there uh but this all falls back on natures right this is a guy who was pretty vocal about maybe not being put in the opportunities that he wanted to and maybe wanted a little bit more money and order i wanted to trade in order to go somewhere where he could prove it.

Starting point is 01:01:27 Well, it seems like with the departures up front and he's on this bridge deal where he's going to be able to step in, get those reps. And it's kind of like a, all right, man, it's time to prove it.

Starting point is 01:01:38 So I think for, I do like the other, uh, the other guys that they brought in up front, these guys seem like other worker bees, like the Carrier pickup, a guy who's a Stanley Cup champion. He's going to help out with the depth situation. I don't mind Rossovic.

Starting point is 01:01:54 I think he's usually a good, probably third-line center. I think that questions are probably going to be in that second-line center role. I think as of right now, they have Cockney Emmy. That's just, that does not scream a competent second line center to me. That's maybe a guy who can fill in for five games and survive. So if Ross of it can come in and, and, and, you know, maybe take another step, maybe he's the guy who ends up in that second line center role. But I think that most fans of the Carolina Hurricanes would agree with me that they don't feel as confident in this

Starting point is 01:02:31 forward group as they would have last year coming into the season. And the fact that they're listed to win the division, that does surprise me. But for a team that's going to outshoot teams two to one because they're going to suffocate them and they're going to play that style, that's going to out shoot teams two to one, cause they're going to suffocate them. And they're going to play that style. That's a great regular season style of hockey. I could see maybe why the books have them winning the division. So, uh, this is a playoff team. I don't think any of us are going to argue that, but once again, I think it's going to come back to, uh, do they have the game breakers it takes to go all the way to the dance? And I think the answer is no. So let's see what they have up their sleeve. And this is guys voted NHL's sexiest GM,

Starting point is 01:03:10 Eric Tulsky's first full year as general manager of the Carolina. Let's see what magic he can create. So Merles, correct me if I'm wrong. Are they the favorite? At one point they were. Maybe they're not anymore. No, they're all three are the same.

Starting point is 01:03:27 Carolina Rangers and the Devils are all plus 240 to win the division. They all happen to be plus 1300 to win the cup. So nobody really knows. Nobody wants to pick between those three teams. But I mean, we've seen this team. They just don't get it done. They have the great home ice, but they just don't get it done in the playoffs. One guy I got my eye on, I should have had him on this list, is Bradley Nadeau.

Starting point is 01:03:50 He's the kid from Maine. He was a freshman last year, jumped on the scene. I don't know if he'll make the team right out of camp, but if he does, that's a nice rookie, like another guy that can fill in, get some offense that they've lost with the terrifying, like you guys talked about. There's another kid there, Blake, a college kid i think jackson blake at north i saw both of them play yeah who knows maybe one of those jump in and can be that second line center because i like i like you guys said kokanemi he's a third line center on a cup winning team so that that blake kid is is that the old blake who played for the Islanders in Maple Leaf Sun?

Starting point is 01:04:25 Okay. Yeah. So I did read they have a pretty strong prospect pool and potentially three forwards that could come in and maybe squeeze in and all of a sudden they have great rookie years. I think a lot of teams are kind of – they hype up their prospects quite a bit. They also have a defenseman prospect who's supposed to be pretty good who could hop in

Starting point is 01:04:45 as well. But as we said, that's not really where they need the help. It seems like upfront. So maybe one of these young guys can really come in and have a big rookie year with. So I watched all three of the guys I've heard mentioned the most in terms of rookies coming in. Nadeau, Gamebreaker, Murr, your boy Benny Barr coached him. His shot is out of this world. He's a great skater. He can get in the dough. Game breaker, Murr, your boy, Benny Barr, coach him. His shot is out of this world.

Starting point is 01:05:06 He's a great skater. He can get in the mix. He can release a great Jackson Blake, probably even a better skater. Smaller, smaller, but crazy. Also skill and IQ up front. Who knows what they'll end up doing if they are on the team. But Scott Morrow is the defenseman. He played at UMass.

Starting point is 01:05:23 Nice player. And I could see him. He hopped right in after the season. I think he played two games. Can move, has vision. It looked like he played around 30 minutes for UMass per game. So that's a guy who could make an impact. I don't see him really listed right now as one of their top six D. What I'm looking at has Slavin, Burns, Orlov, Sean Walker, Gossespierre, and Jalen Chatfield. That's a nice back end, man.

Starting point is 01:05:48 Yeah. But my thing with this team is we talked specifically before last year, like this is their year. And then for the fans, they finally went out and made a big move. And even though Gensel didn't resign, that's still the right play. They made the right decision. They went out and gave a team that had aspirations and a legit ability to win the Stanley Cup. They gave him a better chance.

Starting point is 01:06:10 Now he's gone, but that's still the right decision in my mind. You went for it. You tried what you could. You hoped he'd resign, and he didn't. Looking at this team now, if I'm a Hurricanes fan, I'm not disgusted, but I'm definitely a little disappointed. Like, God, those teams we've had the past three years, we couldn't not only could we not win the cup, we couldn't even get to the cup final.

Starting point is 01:06:32 And now the roster, it just doesn't look nearly as strong to me. And like, I even look at Stefan Nozan and he goes to Jersey. We'll get to Jersey and how good they look, but they lost so much depth. And I think one of their biggest things with depth and the ability to come at you in waves. And yeah, you talk about the second line center, like Coctin, the Emmys listed. Merle, you said he's a third line center

Starting point is 01:06:56 on a cup winning team. I don't even know if he's that. I really don't. I think right now, if you're going between him or Jack Drury as the second line center, it's Jack Drury. He's gotten better each season. He's gotten bigger minutes the past two years, and he's looked like he's continued to improve as a player where that offer sheet to Cockney and Emmy will never really make sense. I don't really understand it. He's going to have to have

Starting point is 01:07:18 a good year. You still have Ajo. You still have Jarvis. You still got some great players. No doubt it's a playoff team, but in my mind, this is the third best team in this division now. And yes, Anderson's a good goalie. Is he going to be able to be healthy? He's never been able to be healthy, right? So I don't know what's going to happen. I think there's obviously expectations there. But you're lying if you say the expectations are where they were the past three seasons

Starting point is 01:07:43 with the Carolina Hurricanes. So, all right, we have the New York Islanders next. You're lying if you say the expectations are where they were the past three seasons with the Carolina Hurricanes. So, all right. We have the New York Islanders next. And we have a very special guest. We got guests for certain teams that we're bringing in in this preview. And that is our man, Frankie Borelli, the diehard Islanders fan. There he is, ready to rock and roll. Frankie, what are your thoughts, dude?

Starting point is 01:08:01 Another kind of underwhelming offseason for the Islanders, but had a great finish with Patrick Waugh to get into the playoffs. They were able to get a win in the first round. They got one game. They got one game. The Capitals couldn't win a game. What do you think, going into this season, can Sorokin fix what was wrong last year?

Starting point is 01:08:18 Are you in the bathroom right now, Frankie? No, I'm in the airport. I'm holding up my phone like an absolute lunatic. It's about to get crazy whenever I talk Islanders. i might get taken out of here in handcuffs but first of all thanks for having me second of all i think lou is getting snubbed on the second gm i think you got to put him in there okay you gotta have a shot this is ageism at this point now boys like that guy's a good looking man for being ed whatever he is he's got in the grave one i heard he runs every day like he goes on a jog like merles i don't think he's got in the grave one but he's still running our team i heard he runs every day like

Starting point is 01:08:46 he goes on a jog like merles i don't think he's doing much walking during his jogs but i heard he runs guys the more i've gotten to like meet a lot of these guys on the team they love lou like lou is such a mythical creature to them like they love the way that he operates and like he'll be walking around he's just that he's got that aura right like i mean for me when i was the office back in the old office and dave would walk from like his office to somewhere else like you just like we're always sitting up tight and making sure you're doing the right thing i think yeah you're scared of them they're scared of them that's just like that's called fear it's yeah it's fear it's accountability but um listen the alabas didn't make many moves this year what they did do is they brought in new coaching. Patrick Wiley, you mentioned it.

Starting point is 01:09:25 They went 20-12 with Patrick Wiley, made a great run for the playoffs. They get into the playoffs. They play the Hurricanes for what feels like the 30th time in my lifetime. It's unbelievable how many times we're playing this Carolina Hurricanes team. But Patrick Wiley has a full summer to go through what he wants to do going into this season. They're bringing in a new coach for defense. Tommy Alba leans now behind the bench for the Islanders defense and for Palpatine killing, which was atrocious last year. Their PK like used to be, that used to be our, that was our thing. We would shut down. You were never getting to Sorokin on the power play.

Starting point is 01:09:59 We were always blocking shots. And then all of a sudden it was bottom of the league power play, always bottom of the league. These are things we have to improve on. I've been saying this since I was born. Give me a good power play. They go out and they get Anthony DuPleur. Is that the craziest pickup of all time? No, but does he have a lot of pop? Does he have a lot of skill?

Starting point is 01:10:15 You put him on the line with Matt Barzell and Bo Horvat. Now your second line is Andrews Lee, Brock Nelson, Kyle Palmieri. I mean, you're talking about guys that are scoring 30 goals a year. Barzell put up 80 last year. Dobson on the blue line put up 70 last year. We've got some skill on the island. I don't like that everyone kind of glosses over the amount of skill that we have right now. Dobson is the premier young defenseman in this league. I think he's going to take even further stride. Pelican Pulak had an off year last year. Going into this year, I feel even better about them. I don't know. It all comes down to sirocco it all comes down to special teams like it has my whole entire life

Starting point is 01:10:47 this is islanders hockey bear down get greasy block shots and let's just grind out wins it's never going to be pretty was it pretty when my dad was making pizzas when he was 13 years old the guy dropped out of high school it's never been pretty on the island it's never been pretty so so looking at me now so so obviously picking up duclair is huge because i want to say over the past few years people have been concerned about their speed they just seem like an aging slower team so obviously that's a huge pickup for them but does that speed concern you at all moving forward you did mention barzell and duclair being those guys but aside from that you guys don't move quickly up the ice.

Starting point is 01:11:25 No, they don't, but they have. So we don't know what's happening with Matt Martin and Cal Clutterbuck yet. You're assuming that those roles are going to get a little bit quicker. They haven't signed anything yet. I'm not sure if they're coming back. If they are,

Starting point is 01:11:35 it's probably, probably going to be on team friendly deals. Are they going to be in the lineup every year? I'm not sure. You have guys like Kyle McLean who can actually move. And his dad is the power play coach for the team. He's got a lot of juice going into this year. He had a great end of the season last year. I actually like this kid a lot.

Starting point is 01:11:51 You've got Pierre Engvall who's got legs. You have him for seven years. I mean, Lou's signing these guys the lifetime contract. But you also can't recreate that kind of speed and that kind of length. So maybe this guy figures something out. I don't mind having a guy for seven years to figure something out. His term is a little crazy. It's three and a half million, whatever it is.

Starting point is 01:12:09 He needs to start putting the puck in the net more, but I love his size. I love his speed. So yeah, I mean, in cases you think this is always burning it on the fourth line, they do have some speed going into this year. I do think that with Patrick Waugh, you're going to see a new offense. You saw it towards the end of the year last year. They were running gum under him. They really were.

Starting point is 01:12:26 As much as the Islanders could be, it was a complete change. A complete change. I kind of look at it, boys, like the Vancouver situation when Talk was able to come in at the end of the year two years ago, kind of see what was wrong, maybe some characteristic differences, maybe guys he does and doesn't like, have the offseason in order to adjust and make these changes. One other issue last year was the amount of

Starting point is 01:12:49 games where they were in the lead and that they gave up, specifically the third period. You talked about the penalty kill. To me, that was the other glaring obvious issue. Even when Patrick Waugh took over, it was still a problem. We saw that in playoffs with the game that they were up three, nothing.

Starting point is 01:13:07 And then they fucking give up three in like two minutes. It's like, dude, I remember going through my, like going through the stats one night and looking at at one point in this, like towards the end of the season, I was screaming on buddies. We could have won the division. If we would have held on to games that they were leading with five minutes left. know what i mean it's not even like you're losing in the second period you're talking the last couple of shifts are around your boys so i'm very excited i'm very you know it's a clean slate this is the greatest time to be an understand you know so it's it's zero and zero

Starting point is 01:13:38 we're we're living we're at the top of the division we have everything in front of us nothing's happened yet no stress my blood pressure it's still good look at me i'm i'm purple right now i got my heart check i got good blood pressure i got real high cholesterol we gotta figure that out no more red steaks i gotta figure something else out but i'm very excited going to the season i really am i you know it's a clean slate so yes they need to stop blowing leads but they also they have a whole new look i don't think patrick wild's to let that happen this month. Frankie, Army just came in on our little

Starting point is 01:14:07 Chicklets private chat, and I started laughing because I agree with them. He said, Frankie Borelli is the most exciting thing about the Islanders. I think your reactions and your kind of watching the games and how you feel and how passionate you are

Starting point is 01:14:23 is exciting, whereas I look at the team, vanilla and blah. I'm not saying that they won't take the playoffs. It's just kind of like, where are they at? And the problem being that in like three years, I think they could be really fucked. So it's like, all right, well, we don't really have many prospects. We also don't have a team that can win the Stanley Cup. But you never know, right? You get in the playoffs the playoffs i just wonder can sorokin figure it out now luckily you have varlamov so maybe the top tandem in the league and varlamov really picked up everything

Starting point is 01:14:54 last year but what what was sorokin's problem i'll have you answer that before you get on a flight he was in i think he was intimidated by patrick watt felt like they were abutting heads a little bit it's got to be a different feeling right like all you go from lane lambert and also we lost our I think he was intimidated by Patrick Watt. Felt like they were abutting heads a little bit. Got to be a different feeling, right? Like all of a sudden you go from Lane Lambert. And also we lost our goalie coach, Mitch Korn, who is like the goalie whisperer. He came in years ago with Barry Trotz. He's now in Nashville with Barry Trotz.

Starting point is 01:15:18 Barry took him from us. I don't know if that was a mutual separation because you could tell there was a drop off in goaltending this year. So they have a new, they have a whole new outlook on goaltending. I believe the new guys either coached or was with Sorokin back in Russia. He has some affiliation with Sorokin and Barlamov. So I think they have good vibes going for this year. I am hearing some rumbling. I know Friedman tweeted out or said on his podcast that there's some issue with Sorokin. Maybe he's back or something's happening.

Starting point is 01:15:44 Like maybe that he may have tweaked something and no one really knows. I don't even know what that meant. I hadn't heard anything about an injury, so hopefully that's not something that's serious. Like you said, we've got Varley. I think the major difference between two years ago and last year was the shots on net. It was

Starting point is 01:15:59 night and day, the amount of shots they let up compared to what they did two years ago. I think the defensive schemes need to change. I think they need to tighten everything up, but you're never going to get me saying I'm worried about this team. I'm ready to run through a wall for this team. I cannot wait for opening night. We're playing Utah. We're going to absolutely

Starting point is 01:16:15 destroy that team. You know who the hell they are yet. It's going to be great. What an airport performance that is by Frankie. Sorry, Merle. I just wanted to ask you about the Russian guy they're taking a flyer on, Maxim Tsitsikov. Yeah, have you heard anything on the streets down in Long Island about him? 31 goals in the KHL last year is really impressive.

Starting point is 01:16:36 I don't know much about the Russian guys. I really don't keep tabs on it. When I get a new guy, I try and pronounce his name when I'm streaming. I'm trying to tweet. It's a nightmare for my all-cap tweets. But I'm hoping that he's good. We just need more pop. We've always needed more pop.

Starting point is 01:16:49 My whole life, I've needed more pop. And hopefully, he can bring something. So, listen, yeah, I just think that the guys are really putting in the work. They're tired of being like the third and fourth team talked about in their Metropolitan. I think they played together for so long. These guys are so tight and i think that's just going to be another just grind it out get to the playoffs and see what you can do once you get there kind of seizing which i'm what do you make of lou

Starting point is 01:17:13 forcing the guys to to not only trim up their beards but shave their bushes like do you think there's a certain line that's crossed when you're telling a guy that he can't have a bush i mean kyle palmieri that the nightmare he has to deal with is i mean that guy grows his hair back after he sits on the ice like each night you can see it growing like a chia pet it's crane wolf yeah it's insane but here's the thing the guys all do it without lou even saying anything that's what i've heard is like duclair takes that off his head without even a text message you know what what I mean? Like, Oh really? That wasn't Lou calling that in.

Starting point is 01:17:47 I don't know that he specifically is like, you got it. Like, I think they all just know it's one of those things. Like you go on the Islanders and to respect thing, like this is Lou's rule. You're going in on, on right terms.

Starting point is 01:17:57 I could be wrong on that, but that's what I've heard. And it's like, guys just do it. All right. All right. I mean, this is incredible airport breakdown,

Starting point is 01:18:03 all that traffic going on, buddy. Like I might miss my flight. We're going out to Dallas. I might miss this flight, but it is what it is. it all right all right i mean this is incredible airport breakdown all that traffic going on buddy like i might miss my flight we're going out to dallas i might miss this flight but it is what it is it was way off the auntie annie's with that high cholesterol we don't need you crushing those sugar pretzels 25 we got to get it on to 200 crazy all right we'll have a safe flight and we appreciate it a little inside scoop there on sorokin got a little back injury he said elliot said something. I had his over-under wins.

Starting point is 01:18:29 He's at 28 and a half here. So I might lean on that under then. If he's not going to be 100%. This is one of the teams that I'm just like, if the Islanders are on, I'm just like, I mean, is there a new Netflix show on? I'm not trying to be mean. I love watching Barzell and Horvat. Awesome season last year.

Starting point is 01:18:49 Brock Nelson, great centerman, just can skate for days. Noah Dobson, a ton of credit goes to him. Has a cannon from the point. 70 points is fucking insane as a defenseman. He's young, too. I don't have him in the playoffs. I think I'm like 51-49,, like that they're not getting in. Like if they get in, I won't be surprised. It's more like I don't know what to expect from this team.

Starting point is 01:19:14 Biz, you did bring up Patrick. Why? I think he was like chirping Sorokin in the media, too. Like we need better goaltending. So, yeah, maybe that is difficult. All of a sudden you have this Hall of Fame, one of the greatest the greatest goalies hall of famer greatest goalies ever as your coach and you're kind of gripping you know you're tying the tights a little tying the pads a little too tight i don't know what to say but if he's if he's injured that's bad news because a lot of times including me a lot of people said like sorokin if he's not right with shisterk and he might be better than him and then last year happened. Yeah, but I also agree with Frankie

Starting point is 01:19:48 in the sense of the shot quality and that they were giving up. Their penalty kill was brutal. The fact that they were giving up these late game leads. Boys, after the Bobby Holik interview and then after hearing Frankie, I'm kind of gaining a little bit of a soft spot for the Islanders.

Starting point is 01:20:02 I hate to say that. I think that they're going to make playoffs. What did Holiq have to do with the Islanders? Just talking about Lou and how he loved them. I'm kind of starting to love Lou too. I know I've been very critical of him in the past and how controlling he is, but now that I have a little bit more discipline in my life

Starting point is 01:20:19 that I'm training twice a day, I kind of need that structure in my life. So I got the Islanders making playoffs. Same with Carolina. I got the Islanders, the first two teams. I think things are looking up, and I'm excited to see a little bit more offensive pop and a little bit more of exciting play coming out of Long Island.

Starting point is 01:20:39 All right. What about you, Murr? You got them in? Last week when I did start doing my prep work for this, I have them printed in as wild card. But then today when I started looking at the Atlantic division teams, there's so many teams from over there that I want to get in and want to root for this year.

Starting point is 01:20:54 So somebody's got to go and it's my childhood team. The New York Islanders. They're not in the playoffs this year. Somebody, somebody's out. You guys all have them out. Fuck me. I have them out.

Starting point is 01:21:06 But like, if they get in, I won't be surprised. I know I'm totally, totally like wishy-washy here. It's just the lack of excitement when they're on television is telling me they're not going to get in. But sometimes that's a good thing. But if they can fix up that D zone and get their special teams even average and Soroka comes back, fuck, they could be third place in the division again. Who knows? Just like last year.

Starting point is 01:21:29 So we'll see what happens in Long Island. It's an exciting time for their fans. As Frankie said, they're top of the division right now before the season begins. And after them, we are going to kick it over to the state of Pennsylvania and where all three of us got our chance to first be drafted and be a member of an NHL club, the Pittsburgh Penguins, and a wild, crazy year in Pittsburgh. Look at that.

Starting point is 01:21:53 Murr's got the mini sticks out for his daughter and his son, the Pittsburgh Penguins, and we're bringing on Colby Armstrong, the Kyle Dubas apologist. We got both Game Notes people with us right now. What is going on in Pittsburgh? Army, quickly, before we go to you, we could talk about the departures. Obviously, they lost Gensel midway through the year.

Starting point is 01:22:14 Ty Smith's gone. Riley Smith's gone. Chad Rubito's gone. Brandon Yeager, the prospect, was traded for Rucker McGrody. The rest of these guys, besides Jeff Carter and P.O. Joseph, I really don't know much about, or I'm not even going to name them. They added in. Bunting came in last year. Kevin

Starting point is 01:22:30 Hayes is there. Cody Glass is there. Rucker McGrory. Cruz Lucius is a prospect, I guess. Billy Knovenin. I don't even know all these people. They're reaching. They're reaching now. The vanilla lattes. Matt Grislook, nice defenseman that can move.

Starting point is 01:22:45 Blake Lozado, we're from LA. I like him. Anthony Bolivier is there. Sebastian Ajo on D, the other Sebastian Ajo, the Swedish one. And Witt, let's not forget, I think if Kobe joined the team, their average age would actually go down because they're right now the oldest team in the National Hockey League going out there with walkers during warm-ups.

Starting point is 01:23:04 Army, the vanilla lattes. What out there with walkers during warmups. Army, the vanilla lattes. What is happening with the Pittsburgh Penguins and what's your prediction on what's going to happen this season? Well, boys, good to be here. I'm already back on the grind. I am in Vegas at NHL Media Day which kicks off as they watch this today. All the stars will be

Starting point is 01:23:19 coming in. I'll be moving and shaking with all the big boys in the league. Getting some scoops, rubbing elbows. And actually last year when i was here was i was in the hornet's nest boys i was in this very place in the exact same setup gonna probably do some of the exact same things when you guys blew the arena apart all the reporters oh my god when busy started going after the babs thing and i was there that morning the time change the the the pod dropped and all hell broke loose in the arena it was insane so i'm hoping to have a more calm a more calm feeling uh while getting back in the saddle and getting things going after a summer that i felt was rather short but but nonetheless, we're ready to go. And what are the Pens going to look like?

Starting point is 01:24:06 I don't know. We got so many new guys in this lineup. Like, you went over it. Like, you know, my big things that I look at, the big talking points of the Penguins. One, let's just, the Crosby extension. When's that going to happen? I think that's a thing that will happen. I don't know if there's a rush for it, but I do think that that's a contract and extension

Starting point is 01:24:27 that'll get done with Crosby. You're in trouble when the fucking first topic is Crosby's extension over anything else over this team. I think that's the big story. The next story is, what are they going to have to improve at for next season to even be better? I think it's fair to say that their power play

Starting point is 01:24:44 completely mangled their season. You think that's fair to say mangled their season i think it's really fair to say todd reardon actually lost his job because of that he ran the power play he's gone david quinn now replacing him sully's good buddy best buddy they sound alike um we'll we'll come in and they'll try to sort that out there's like in the analytics community I'm sure you guys have heard the saying, that's not sustainable. There's no way they could sustain that. I don't think you can run that power play that landed at

Starting point is 01:25:13 30th in the division. In the league. 30th in the league. Any worse with the players you have out there. That had four Hall of Famers on it. Yes. Four hall of famers on that power. It was unbelievable to watch. Not only that,

Starting point is 01:25:29 they tied Montreal for the most shorthanded goals given up in the NHL also with 12. So it was a disaster all around. Talk about giving up leads. I mean, giving up leads, not being able to score a power play goal at the right time in the game, giving up leads and blowing games.

Starting point is 01:25:44 They did it a ton. There's a few things. Some guys obviously have to step up. Sid, not being able to score a power play goal at the right time in the game, giving up leads and blowing games. They did it a ton. There's a few things. Some guys obviously have to step up. Sid not being one of them. He improved on 93 points, 94 points last season. He probably would have had 50 goals if the Gensel trade didn't happen. And if that power play was kicking, he would have been over a hundred points for sure. Had that happened as well. I think Gino's got more. i think he's got a bounce back to give i think rust has some more pop to give raquel had a massive down year he was a shell of himself he was in like 25 game droughts and just couldn't keep things going hoping he can rebound the bunting carlson move the carlson move didn't quite work out with the power play it seemed

Starting point is 01:26:22 like it was um not as comfortable maybe in trying to get used to everybody. Can those two guys now be a little bit more comfortable and improve that? Goaltending, Jari up and down. He had some good runs. That is a huge one. That's something that I think everyone's waiting

Starting point is 01:26:39 for him to kind of rise to the occasion and kind of take the reins. Nedeljkovic had like better numbers than him i think better win loss record than him um and so that's that's a a main point that i look at with them as well they got into a a swagger they got into a they were a different team the last 10 15 games i don't know what happened to them they started looking had a lot to do with that i like this i like the sandpaper he added to the lineup it felt like he had some good chemistry they needed a guy net front shaking things up yeah like did crosby lead their team in fighting majors last year

Starting point is 01:27:14 every time there was a scrum it was like him leading the way boys chicklet chicklet's cup last year in buffalo went to the game i called that game preseason game i think it was like my first preseason game i called crosby dropped the mitts for the game. I called that game preseason game. I think it was like my first preseason game. I called Crosby dropped the mitts for the boys. He got to fight the preseason. So yes, I think, I think that is a big reason biz. I think his sandpaper, that's why I'm excited about the trade for, to get Rucker McGrody. He's a year older than Jaeger that they traded. He has a little bit more of that dimension to his game of like a 200 foot hockey player type guy. And I think he can bring that in the lineup. Where is he going to play?

Starting point is 01:27:48 We're on the right side. I look at their lineup with the guys that brought in Lillis Crosby, Malkin, Hayes, Eller, Achari, Glass. Those are all,

Starting point is 01:27:57 I think centermen. I know some of them are versatile and can play wing. I've seen Achari play wing. I know Hayes has played wing. He'd rather play center. I believe I've heard him say that before. But a situation where they're going to have some moving parts and where's it all going to fit and who's going to play with who's going to be with Crosby and Russ on the first line. You know, who's going to be with Bunting and Malkin on that other wing?

Starting point is 01:28:17 Where's everyone going to slot? And the one thing I think they're excited about in Pittsburgh, at least management, that their bottom two lines, the third and fourth lines, are like two third lines. So they have a lot more depth there. I like that Drew O'Connor. And Drew O'Connor had a career year last year and exploded on the scene. What's he going to be able to do coming into this year where he actually popped?

Starting point is 01:28:39 I thought he would be like a grinder type guy. He was a player. He really stepped up and made something happen you're right with here's the scariest thing for me on this team last year they don't get in the playoffs and yes they gave it they're all at the end that run they went on was impressive but the special teams and the goaltending Crosby, Malkin, Letang, and Carlson didn't miss a fucking game. They didn't miss a game, Biz. And they still didn't get in.

Starting point is 01:29:09 Would all of you guys have thought that? No, and I would have guessed that the power play would have been incredible. Now, I do think, and this is not a former player looking to chirp coaches, power play is coaching. A lot of it has to do with coaching,

Starting point is 01:29:26 the system you decide to run, being on guys calling great players out that's what needs to happen on good power plays edmonton i'm not trying to bring up edmonton edmonton has accountability from the coaching staff and the players and you're not just going to tiptoe around guys because they're future hall of famers you're going to be telling them this isn't good enough on what we're trying to do up a man. And you have all those guys. There's like too many cooks in the kitchen when you're on the man advantage and you need to figure out a way.

Starting point is 01:29:52 Letang and Carlson cannot be on the power play together. You got to pick one of them. In my mind, it's Carlson. Does Letang then get pissed off? I don't know. I don't know how that's working out. But the fact that those four players didn't miss a game and they didn't get in, the odds of those guys being able to stay healthy are verydle. And also I felt like Letang's offensive game had maybe like rescinded a little bit.

Starting point is 01:30:28 So it seemed like the perfect one too at that point. And in production wise, I mean, Letang was like just a few points shy of Carlson. One point. One point shy of Carlson. I know they started with both of them. Then they went to Carlson strictly.

Starting point is 01:30:42 I think it was left to sit a little long when it was really struggling, when you could have really shook it up or done something different, maybe a little earlier. I know power plays and special teams are finicky. Whit, you're primarily more of the NHL special teams power play guy, but I know you can get cold. Oh, oh, oh. Oh.

Starting point is 01:31:03 We got a visitor. We got what? Oh We got Watt. Oh, that's Ryder. What up? What up? What do you say? What up? What a beauty.

Starting point is 01:31:12 But I know power plays can be finicky, right? You can run cold, and why? Exactly. Why do you run cold? I don't know. They didn't have anything. They didn't have anything. They didn't have anything.

Starting point is 01:31:21 Then they went to a LeTang. Then they took Gino off. Then they moved this guy here. And there was long gaps of it just sitting idle in those spots They didn't have anything. They didn't have anything. Then they went to a LeTang. Then they took Gino off. Then they moved this guy here. And there was long gaps of it just sitting idle in those spots before like a little shakeup did happen. But for whatever reason, it was all year long. Like they would score a power play goal. And then you're like, okay, maybe they can run some games together here.

Starting point is 01:31:37 It never really set in. It never really took off. So the recipe there, I mean, that is single-handedly the reason when you look at points when they were down to the wire remember that merles we had a game notes episode and we were like oh my gosh the night before we were going to do game notes they could have had like a four gamer where every team was like it was like that play-in they should have just done it all in the same night remember we're saying that like it would have been a mega bowl like biz called it the

Starting point is 01:32:02 mega bowl or something. Now there, I forget what the number is, but there was a stretch where they didn't score on like 50 straight power plays. So that was kind of the stretch of the season, which I think that we were trying to do the numbers where it probably cost them about seven to 10 points in the standings. If they would have even just capitalized that like a, like a 15 to 20% rate,

Starting point is 01:32:23 which they should be given the fact that they have four hall of famers you touched on the the the two bottom lines kind of being two third lines i felt like they lack speed and no disrespect to jeff carter who had an unbelievable career and a great send-off by the organization but i feel like he kind of like regressed in speed so they didn't really have that pop and didn't have that energy provided by those bottom lines they had no speed no nothing like they looked even boring that more boring the the fucking islanders yeah well let's let's look at let's look at bunting you talked about his game o'connor what he could do now maybe and and after a career year kind of take a step blake lazotte not a big guy that they picked up. This guy's a pistol out there.

Starting point is 01:33:05 He's all over the place. If you see him play, like this guy's a buzzsaw. So he'll bring some of that. I think Achari Glass, where do these other guys fit in, right? And what can they do? There's skill there. There's a little bit of speed

Starting point is 01:33:16 and there's a little bit of sandpaper with Achari's game. The guy's a human. He's like a, he's a possum. He's a possum in the pantry, as I call them when I'm broadcasting the games. But yeah, there's like a, he's a possum. He's a possum in the pantry as I call them, uh, when I'm broadcasting the games. But, um, yeah, there's, they have to, they had to upgrade and look at things. And I think too, um, you know, going to Dubas's thing here with managing the situation, managing the older players, managing the contracts, the sit extension. And also at the same time, when you look at Letang, Malkin re-upping the year before or a couple of years before, and then Gensel's contract lingering there, like what's going to happen? At the expense of Malkin and Letang, who are lifetime penguins in the same class as Crosby, of course, being there, something had to get done where you had to pull back and get some

Starting point is 01:34:05 something. Their cupboards have been bare for a long time. Like they have just been gas and first rounders to go for it every year. They're giving up those, you know, trading a pick for a guy. And that's just the way that business was done in Pittsburgh. So I think,

Starting point is 01:34:18 I think he had to make a decision on yes, trying to salvage and Riley Smith didn't work out. And some of these guys that, you know, off the top that Whit talked about, they needed a little bit more. Can these guys come in and settle in and get comfortable enough to provide something different and some kind of different pop for this team? And at the same time, you know, they were able to, you know, pick up a Rucker McGordy who I think will play on this lineup this upcoming season.

Starting point is 01:34:46 I do like him. I like the way he plays. I like his game. I like everything I see about him. How's that dude with his Kool-Aid taste? Bone-crushing hit at the World Juniors. Didn't he pop a Swede pretty good there, Merles? Yeah.

Starting point is 01:34:57 No offense. You love that. Absolutely. He likes it. No one I love that you haven't talked about is Cody glass. Number six, overall pick. Like the talent is there.

Starting point is 01:35:09 He in Vegas, he never got a shot because of nobody there. And then the injuries, he's the guy I put, I put him on Crosby's line. Here's your last chance. Go and play with him. It's kind of last chance saloon.

Starting point is 01:35:20 Yeah. Right. But give him, give him a chance with Crosby and see what happens. He looked pretty good in Nashville, didn't he? I feel like he kind of started taking that. He popped. He started to pop and injuries got in the way again.

Starting point is 01:35:34 Something needs to go right for him. He's a high pick. What was he picked? Fifth overall? Sixth. Sixth overall? It was 2017. We're coming up on eight years, right? It's shit or get off the pot time and injuries are enormous part of that um i think crosby is such an incredible storyline i know you let it off with the extension it is true going into his 20th nhl season has played all 82 the

Starting point is 01:35:58 past two years 93 and 94 points i think 12th in the league in scoring last year. It's incredible to see what he's doing. Now, if December and January comes along and it's like they're struggling, they're out of the playoffs, I've been told by numerous people that he will never sign anywhere else and he'll never go anywhere else. I would beg him, please, please go somewhere else. Let us watch you compete for a Stanley Cup. Let us see you in the playoffs, sending yourself off in this Hall of Fame, top Mount Rushmore type career in the National Hockey League. But it sounds like no matter what, that will not be happening. You got to give credit to him as a loyal guy and wanting to be with one team his entire career and looking

Starting point is 01:36:41 to get that fourth Stanley Cup. It's just there's just not enough there. I don't I don't have them in the playoffs. I think yes, if if Jari plays amazing and they get the power play figured out, they can get in too many question marks too slow of a team in the current NHL style of play and how quick teams are and getting on pucks and for checking. I don't see it in Pittsburgh and I and I think they're going to be in the outside looking in again. I think what Witt's trying to say, RME, is when do you think Crosby's getting traded to the Avalanche?

Starting point is 01:37:14 They can't afford him, can they? They can't afford that. Are they going to extend him there? Or will he go and come back? I think he's a lifelong pen. That's just one of those things. And I think it's a thing that'll get done it's not a rush what I saw last year and I know the team

Starting point is 01:37:30 is going to be different the identity they had last year if they can find that and get the special teams going and Jari I think they got a chance just because of what you guys have reviewed already the Islanders you know Carolina these teams I think it's Carolina the Rangers and the devils

Starting point is 01:37:47 and then what and then what do we have in this division i got five from the atlantic getting in that's why five oh yeah oh we'll save that for later so that's where i think they have a chance to kind of sniff in there if they're going to get in in and around those teams in and around where they almost snuck in this past year um with improvements in certain areas which i think they're due like some of these players it's shit or get off the pot time as you guys said uh improved power play hopefully um to what we've seen in pittsburgh for the last like 40 years of what their power play always is um and i think that they could give themselves a chance to sneak it in. So Pittsburgh has made me look stupid the last two years.

Starting point is 01:38:28 I do not have them making playoffs. I just had two quick ones for you, Army. What's the second and third pairing on the back end looking like, aside from Letang and Carlson? And my follow-up was there's some games I'd watched last year

Starting point is 01:38:44 where Carlson would make these incredible offensive plays, but it seemed like for every unreal offensive play he'd make, there was a little bit of liability defensively. And maybe like, I don't know, that's Carlson. I know, but the, but the, the, the, the lack of effort being shown, despite him still getting big minutes minutes does that like affect the rest of the team in a negative way like it's almost like okay like what i know he's a future hall of famer but this guy can kind of just play like riverboat gambling all game long it's kind of just it seems like a contrast in the way like crosby would want them playing versus how kind of carlson is so is there a bit of a is that that, does that trickle down? Like Letang gets shit on for being not great defensively. I feel like people do. He plays hard minutes.

Starting point is 01:39:31 Like he plays hard and he battles and he's there. I wasn't talking Letang. No, I know. But Carlson on the flip side is like you said, a little bit of a riverboat gambler. There's no question. Like there's times when I'm watching and, and you know when a team is starting to transition the puck and he ain't,

Starting point is 01:39:47 he ain't going back, like he's got a beat on this pass and he's going to step in and pick it off like ice in his vein shit. And I'm like, sometimes it works and it looks awesome. And then sometimes it doesn't work. It's like, Oh,

Starting point is 01:39:57 here we go. What's going on here? Yeah. Yeah. And I, you guys, when you get with them, I mean,

Starting point is 01:40:03 some of the plays, like you said, he make you like, he has that, he has that, he has that internal clock where he, he somehow has an extra second more than everyone with the puck where he can hang onto it and thread the needle. His playmaking is huge.

Starting point is 01:40:13 I'd like to see him shoot more, too many shot passes. And I know like we see that more and more in hockey, but not enough, like just ripping pucks through and snapping pucks through too much. That's the too many cooks in a kitchen. It's like you don't want to shoot because Gino's looking at you.

Starting point is 01:40:28 Sid's possibly looking at you. There needs to be like one dominant person on a power play. Those are the best power plays. It has to be Carlson. Who's getting the gag ball? Who's going to be the dominatrix? It's got to be Carlson. Yeah, it's got to be Carlson.

Starting point is 01:40:44 And then if you're running a power play and he's your guy, it's got to be him. And he's got to have that mentality that he's running it, that he's blasting pucks through, that he's making those things happen. So something for them and David Quinn, who's new on the block, to come in and figure out a couple more things

Starting point is 01:40:56 before we move on. Some milestones on the horizon as we talk about veteran all-star Hall of Fame players. Evgeny Malkin, two goals away from 500, gentlemen. Stay tuned for that. That could happen in the first two shifts of his game. You know Gino anytime. Sid, eight goals away from number 600.

Starting point is 01:41:14 46 assists away, 10th all-time to pass. Gordie Howe coming up this season. Wow. And 46 points from 10th all-time to pass. Joe Sackick, he's creeping in and passing names of guys that I have sticks named. Their names are on sticks and patterns. And he will be the first player, if he can do this, to record 20 point per game seasons.

Starting point is 01:41:39 He tied Gretzky last year at 19. He'll do it this year. It'll be his 20th season with a point a game. That's my my former line mate i got a question though for you about crosby will he or will he not be the first current nhler to appear on game notes this season which leads into that the game notes will be back this season every friday me and arm will be coming with you with all the hockey, the picks, everything. But can we get Crosby

Starting point is 01:42:08 on this year? That'd be a big get. I'm going to go back to my old roommate days with him, Merle, and I used to bully him around. He was just a little pup. I used to bully him. Give me that remote, you little mutt. That's why you sent your ass to Atlanta. Yeah, I know. After a few years, he got sick of it.

Starting point is 01:42:24 But I'm going to have to go back to my old ways merle i'm gonna throw him in a cross-faced chicken wing on the plane one night i'm gonna wrestle him and i'm gonna i'm gonna submit him he's got gray hairs now you know how you lure him in you do it with a big big mac and a large fry for me all like the old days just to crush him in a little bathroom lock the door from the the outside, and got him on the pot. You need to ask him. And the game after you ask him, he's going to pop off for like two and one. And then he's like, oh, he asked me. Or then he might just make you ask him before every game.

Starting point is 01:42:54 Yeah. We got to get him. And if we get him on, the biggest thing, and you guys know this, he has to have a good game the next game. Because then we'll get him again. Your careers are riding on it. He'll never talk to you again if he has a bad one. Can we afford to pay Crosby to be a coach?

Starting point is 01:43:11 Game notes would be presented by McDonald's if he had a big game, a big pop-off game. This could be huge for us. Listen, boys, we've been deep-throating the Penguins long enough for a team who's not going to make playoffs. Army, we want to keep you on for uh the other team in pennsylvania good the interstate rivalry and and one in which your brother works for he's still doing player development down uh in lehigh director of player development so all

Starting point is 01:43:36 prospects yes everyone in lehigh all their draft picks all their guys uh him and uh nick schultz there um are a part of that team they got a few other guys all over the place but uh he's busy with that and they do a lot of work this summer i know he was busy busy this summer working with guys talking to guys getting things going um you know i'm excited i'm happy for him landing there he's a little worker bee and and he's he'll get after these guys and make sure certain guys are players. So I'm pretty pumped about him. But a team, no playoffs the last four years. They kind of surprised everyone last year, I think,

Starting point is 01:44:12 with this in-your-face style of play that Torts had them rolling with, with a lineup that was, I would say, probably underwhelming going into the season. But right to the last drop, they fell off at the end, and there was some questionable things that were brought up, the benching of their captain and the sitting out of this and a few moves here and there. But for the most part, even though they traded guys at the deadline too,

Starting point is 01:44:34 they hung in there right to the very end. Sam Erson and Nett took a big step. They brought in that massive Russian tendie. What was his name? Fedotov? Ivan Fedotov. Yeah, it's a Russian invasion between him and Mitchkov this year. He was on a battleship in Siberia for a year. Yep.

Starting point is 01:44:50 Yeah, he was. And they brought him in. And so he's going to have to get settled. I don't think he was very good at the end there. Erson kind of fell off. Maybe the load was too big. I talked to Danny Breer a little while ago about that, what he expects from his team.

Starting point is 01:45:02 And I asked him specifically, Biz, what you just mentioned with Mitchkov and him coming in. Didn know he they were going to get him no one knew all of a sudden he wants to go nhl he wants to sign 19 years old he's coming over i asked him like what what do you expect he's like i don't know i don't know like how he's going to be i like he's good like can he be the goal scorer though like we're going to have to see how he establishes himself without putting too much pressure on him to be this like savior of our team and guy. But like, you know, he's, I think he's expected obviously to be like a goal scoring powerhouse

Starting point is 01:45:33 for them and a difference maker. So at 19 years old, I'm hoping for the same impact that Kaprizov had when he came over. This is where I have a problem. I have a, and I have a problem. And I'm with you, Biz, and I have crazy excitement to watch this kid. Now, granted, Kaprizov was a little bit older, but if you look at his numbers in the KHL compared to Michkov's before he came,

Starting point is 01:45:56 it's different. It's way different. And Kaprizov had, I think, a couple 40-point seasons. Then he popped off for a couple high 60-point seasons in the KHL, came over, and even that first year, he was great, but it wasn't 80, 90 points. And then he's completely taken off.

Starting point is 01:46:12 Yes, he was older, but I think the expectations and the thought of him coming over and doing what Kaprizov did is not necessarily fair to this kid. I think he's going to be a game-breaker, and I think there's going to be moments where he's awesome. But I think Flyers fans are expecting a true savior, somebody to come in and get 30, 40 goals. And I don't know if that's realistic.

Starting point is 01:46:33 It could happen, but the pedigrees coming over from the KHL are different with both those guys, obviously dependent on age. I think it's an exciting year for the Flyers, though, because last year they hung around with horrible expectations. I think I picked them to finish dead last, if not right there. And they were in an Army U match, and they didn't get any goaltending. I know Urson had moments, but overall it was very weak from both guys. And now they got Michkov coming over.

Starting point is 01:47:02 They have the Konechny extension, which is a big number, but they had to bring him back. He's a grinder. He's a worker. He's a Philly-type player. Forrester, he had a nice pop-off season. Morgan Frost had moments. My one big question is when you see this team being able to take another big step,

Starting point is 01:47:18 which I think they can, is when does the Tortorella effect start to drive guys crazy? We've talked about this at every spot he's ever been in. At some point, it's like, oh, my God, I can't handle this anymore. I don't know if that'll happen. They're young enough. That's my hot take for the Flyers this year. I think he's going to come with a very calm, cool, collected vibe this year. Because last year, it was out of control by the end.

Starting point is 01:47:39 It was out of control. It was every week. It was somebody. I mean, and that was the one question I had for you, army is that couturier he got he gets named captain and then all of a sudden healthy scratch and torts is calling him out and there's all like the agents confused as to what's going on like that seemed to really especially towards the end of the season completely changed the morale compared to the prior whatever, 50, 60 games. Yeah, and I think the one thing that they've put a lot into

Starting point is 01:48:09 is obviously a plan of, you know, they traded away a lot of, like you mentioned, Walker. We've seen guys, you know, come and go a little bit and shedding off some kind of older guys to give opportunities to the Foresters. We've seen Tippett explode this year. He got a nice extension, didn't he? He's pretty good player.

Starting point is 01:48:28 He's awesome. Forrester, Tippett, Brink, you got Cates, you got some of these younger guys through the lineup on the wing. Farabee, another guy that can get like a little more opportunity,

Starting point is 01:48:38 but I think they're trying to build like a certain kind of team standard. And I think that's what we saw this year. And I think that was important at Torts. So like, you know, you got a guy, Couturier, he missed a few years. Yes, veteran. Yes, very good. Yes, has big responsibilities of producing one

Starting point is 01:48:55 and being, you know, a 200 foot shutdown guy as well against top players. But if the standard isn't there, like no one's allowed to do that. And yes, I think it can wear on you, to your point. I think that does happen. But I also think that when you've got a young team like that, you've got to keep it locked down.

Starting point is 01:49:16 You can't let this slide. And when I was talking to Briere, he said, the one thing we haven't done, really, is we haven't wavered on anything. The plan hasn't changed for us and they're going to just continue to do that they mark stall retired congratulations mark stall he was a big part of helping out guys um in that lineup like like drysdale who came over who they're um hoping can stay healthy who's got healthy this summer uh apparently he's had a great summer and on the ice and they're hoping for big things from him.

Starting point is 01:49:47 And Mark Stahl was like a huge guy and like bringing guys, those young guys along. Now EJ is going to be that guy, right? They go in and got him. He's going to be kind of that veteran guy that helps some of their young guys. So they're, they're in the kind of transition of building Eric Johnson, the Condor. He'll be there as their veteran guy now. So look,

Starting point is 01:50:02 you got to make them playoffs. I don't think there, no no i don't think there's anything like super special i think there's opportunity for some of these young guys to pop like i asked like i asked briere too like what are you most looking forward to seeing from your team this year he said i want to see some of these wingers the guys we mentioned the foresters the tippets the mitch coves the farabee some of these guys down in their lineup the wingers the guys we mentioned the foresters the tippets the mitchcovs the farabee some of these guys down in their lineup the wingers i want to see what steps that they can take or where they can elevate for their team that kid bobby brink dude yeah i don't know who sent to the minors at one point that's like i look at like frost i look at brink i look at forest drysdale i look at

Starting point is 01:50:39 drysdale and the like if these guys can make that next step the problem is it's very uncommon to see a bunch of young guys all make big steps in the same season right if it could ever happen they could get in I don't have them getting in but I think it's an exciting season for the Flyers like it's kind of quickly changed to where they need to rebuild and I know I said last year it kind of fucked them it almost hurt them that they were were so good all year and then not getting in. Because if they'd been real bad all year, you get another high pick. But they got prospects and Michkov excitement.

Starting point is 01:51:11 I think Flyers fans are fired up for the first time in a long time. Yeah. I don't have them making props. One last name, too. Lawton. They couldn't get what they wanted at the deadline for him. And I think it was smart of them to keep him. I think he's a good culture guy.

Starting point is 01:51:27 So I think it's going to be much like last year. I think they're going to compete really hard. I think they're going to be drafting around the 10th spot. And, and that's all I got. Yeah. It's like a culture thing for them, right? They have to go take a step.

Starting point is 01:51:37 Is it going to be good enough to get them in? I don't think it matters, but I think it's important to them to stick to their, stick to what they have, keep that culture, that hard work. Cause man, when you played the flyers you you knew it and uh they were hard to play against all year give them army or uh merles do you have anything yeah i'm i'm no playoffs with them i am on mitch kov i think he's gonna get a do a great over under 23 and a half goals i'm all over that he's gonna get all the opportunities on that side,

Starting point is 01:52:06 on the power play, play with connecting on that power play. And part of that is he will get two Michigan goals this year. So you can put that somewhere too. This is the kid that's been doing it his whole life. I watched him when he was like 16, started doing them all the time. Well,

Starting point is 01:52:21 I got a Billy guarantee that in the first 10 games, he gets benched in the first period by 12. I'll guarantee it. Hey, and just like on the other Pennsylvania team that we just talked about, my Penguins, they were horrible on the power play. 12.2% dead last in the NHL.

Starting point is 01:52:40 Fourth on the PK and led the league in shorthanded goals for with 16. All right. So a few improvements here and there. They were right there at the end. You never know. Well, Army, we thank you for.

Starting point is 01:52:53 Yeah, game notes. A little game note shout out. We thank you guys for coming on, or you specifically, Army, and breaking down the Battle of Pennsylvania. I think it's about time we sent it off to our interview, boys. breaking down the battle of Pennsylvania.

Starting point is 01:53:04 I think it's about time we sent it off to our interview boys. New New Jersey devil, Jacob Markstrom. Enjoy. All right, guys, before we go any further, I got to talk to you about our good friends over at draft King sports book, TD,

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Starting point is 01:54:57 Additional NFL Plus Premium terms at nfl.com slash terms. We are now pleased to be joined by a very special guest, former teammate of mine on the San Antonio Rampage, 2022 Vesna Trophy finalist, and the new star goalie for the New Jersey Devils, Sweden's own Jacob Markstrom. Marky, thanks so much for joining the guys.

Starting point is 01:55:22 We appreciate it. Well, thanks for having me. What an introduction from an old teammate and gambling partner. It's always a pleasure. Gambling partner on the golf course? I don't know anything in San Antonio. This is a long time ago. We had cards.

Starting point is 01:55:40 Yeah. Not hockey, though. No. No. No hockey. It was cards. It was golf. It was like birds in the bush at team meals. It was nonstop biz. You know how it is. And Mark, he was always down for the action.

Starting point is 01:55:52 Yeah. How have you been, buddy? How's the summer? I mean, obviously like a big move for you and your family. And it's crazy. We haven't seen each other in so long. You're married now. I think your son is, is he one or two? Yeah. One and a half so yeah what did everyone think of the trade yeah the trade obviously it's uh you know a lot of speculation last year and a lot of a lot of talk in the uh you know especially on the media side and uh you know going back and forth and it's uh i just try to try to focus on what i can focus on

Starting point is 01:56:23 and play hockey and then uh you, this summer I got the phone call and, you know, being traded to Jersey and then, you know, seeing what Fitzy has done with the team and, you know, the additions he has made, you know, after me and before me, it's, you know, I think we got a good squad. So it was exciting to start a new chapter and uh you know i i feel like yeah i feel like we we can be be a really good hockey team marky

Starting point is 01:56:51 we're like were you a little bit frustrated on the way things played out when you were in calgary like i don't know what the backstory is i know that you said like once the season you kind of just want to focus on the team that you're on and you didn't want to want to really want to hear any about the noise about the potential trade and then something did pop up it didn't end up working out and you were pretty vocal towards the end of the year about that entire situation going down right yeah i mean it kind of come to a point where you know one guy says one thing and then you know the other guy says another thing and it was just very different messaging from uh from people that uh you know it was it was frustrating when you're kind of set

Starting point is 01:57:32 your mind on one thing and then you know it goes the other way but it's uh yeah it was it was obviously you know very you know not the greatest timing with that we had a kipper night but you know i didn't do media for, I think, to they kept me away from the microphones and all that. And then, you know, we did media from the Kipper and, you know, a reporter asked the question and, you know, I'm an emotional guy and I wear my heart on my sleeve and, you know, I wish it was a different night. But, you know, I didn't talk to the media much after that either.

Starting point is 01:58:06 They put me in the box after that. But I think everything worked out great. I got nothing but love and respect for the Flames fan, the city of Calgary, and all my teammates there. The organization too, and the people up top. I got a lot of respect for them. That's how I'm going to uh you know that's uh that's how i'm gonna leave it and you know that's how it's gonna be when we played together marky like you you were younger and i think that year you kind of planned on being in florida then they

Starting point is 01:58:35 signed tim thomas but you could see like your potential and like oh my god like this kid could be a star he's so big he's He's athletic. And then traded to Vancouver. Is that really where you kind of felt more comfortable? Is that where your game rounded into shape? What ended up changing for you to become like, there's all this potential. This kid can be so good to like, now he is this good. I was always wondering,

Starting point is 01:58:58 because we haven't seen each other in such a long time, that things did change and you became a complete goalie. Yeah, I think there's a lot of people to thank, other in such a long time that things did change and you became a complete goalie yeah i think you know there's a lot of people to thank but i think the trade was the best best thing that ever happened to me because of you know obviously uh you know where where i was at and like you said too it was always potential and you know you're going to be in florida so then you kind of get comfortable and you're waiting for it to happen and then then, you know, I get traded to Vancouver. I got, you know, next to start the next year, I got put on waivers, you know, pretty much day two of training camp.

Starting point is 01:59:33 Like the first cut I was, I was out. So I was, uh, nobody picked me up. So I was like, so nobody wants me for free. So this is, you know, eye opener here. This is, this is not good so then uh you know obviously we had a great year in in utica went to the to the calder final where uh you know somebody in this group should have a championship reign and it's not me yeah he was the difference maker for sure in that series i always i always tell them no no points but i i tell you what man i helped them i helped i was

Starting point is 02:00:08 one of the core members yeah but then you know obviously coming back to vancouver the next year and uh you know henrik and daniel sedin and alex edler and you know later on louis erickson came and they're kind of just you know i just followed them around whatever they did you know get to the rink early prepare workout you know work hard on the ice and then uh you know after that i kind of felt like okay this is what it takes to to stay and be good in this league it's it's a lot of work so you know i got them to to thank for for a lot of my success do you think that um maybe the early struggles like your frustrations because you're such a fiery guy was it playing against you a little bit to the point where you ended up in utica you were kind of not forced but you ended up being the starter there where you had to play

Starting point is 02:00:56 most games every night right so that's where you really learn the mentality of being in that and and controlling it yourself yeah i think it's so uh like when you come from europe it's such a big yeah big change and you know for goalies you know different ranks it's smaller there's more people in front of the net and and all this like all nice stuff and then when you come in as a you know promising prospect and you're you know you're a popular player in your swedish team and you're young and you're a superstar and all this thing they feed you in the in the newspaper and then you come over and you're like nobody gives a damn who you are you gotta earn it and you're like oh shit like so i'm on everything i've done i've been great for three years in the pros in sweden and they're like looking at you thinking what do you

Starting point is 02:01:39 think what are you doing sit in front of the bus kid. I think it's interesting how you mentioned the waivers aspect because yeah, like Florida, you're up and down and I'll be there at some point. Van, when you were put on waivers so quick, did the GM at the time tell you anything? Because that had to be shocking. A lot of times you'd make it till the end of camp and you might have to go on waivers. But for it to happen right away, not only was it eye-opening for you, but was there a message given to you of like disappointment or they're not happy of where you were at at that time no so i think like coming into camp they ask you know what do you want to compete they just signed ryan miller big you know superstar goalie and and it was myself and

Starting point is 02:02:21 eddie lack and i was like i just want to compete. Do I have a chance? Can I outplay? If I outplay Eddie or play better than him. And then I played half a game in San Jose. Played unbelievable. Saw great shape. Had a great summer. And then Jim Benning just told me, we're going to send you down. You're too good.

Starting point is 02:02:42 We'll keep you right now. So it's like, how am I too good if we keep you right now so it's like how am i too good for for the nhl excuse me isn't that the way it's supposed to work here what the hell is going on so but yeah obviously you know eddie lack had a great training camp and a great season and you know he was he was really good in vancouver and uh you know obviously uh you know a great career but uh i think yeah you know that really and then you get put on waivers and you think somebody's gonna pick you up for free but that didn't happen so that's that's a big eye-opener you're like i'm not as good as i think i am was was there still a challenge

Starting point is 02:03:14 at that time given your size like i know like usually goalies don't really come into their prime until they're around 28 but you're what like six five was it hard still getting used to your body as you like first reached the pro ranks in north america i think it i was i was more uh you know i was struggling more with having a like a base or or uh you know a system to fall back on when i didn't feel my best i had like no system mine was just compete and try to stop the puck however i would stop it and then you know i've worked with some great goalie coaches that have you know taught me a lot to kind of when you're not feeling at your best you still need to have you still need to have you know a foundation in

Starting point is 02:03:55 your game to fall back on and you know once you're realizing that and working on small details it really helps what what does that mean like a system as far as a goaltender is concerned are you talking about like the team structure or you're saying goalies almost have their own yeah i think their own like ian clark is you know unbelievable goalie coach who just stepped took a step back there in vancouver but you know he he really really pushed me to you know first time we met we sat down in sweden at a restaurant and he you know told me for two hours what a shit goalie i am and then really went back to vancouver and i went home and i was like who does this guy think he is i'm gonna fuck oh can i swear here oh you

Starting point is 02:04:38 could say whatever you want i'm gonna fucking show him and then like everything he said felt you know good he was like what's your plan when a guy comes down here? Or when do you go into reverse? When do you stand up? How do you deal with traffic? What's your plan? And I never had a plan of anything. Just stop the puck.

Starting point is 02:04:56 But then once you get the plan down and kind of have patterns to follow, the game gets so much slower. Because if a guy is there, I know what I'm going to do. And if a guy is up top i know where i'm gonna do so so that really really helped do you think ian clark is like some other coaches that we've all had and like i'm almost gonna call him out i hope i piss him off i hope he goes back and says fuck him i'm gonna like do you think it was one of those things where it was not just like hey there's what's wrong with your technique but mentally i want to get you going a little bit more oh i yeah i think so i mean he's he's a really tough goalie coach like we we skated a lot and you know on after a bad game he'll he was like mark you were going on an hour before and then we'll skate it around the ring for one hour and he just

Starting point is 02:05:42 it's like what do you want You want to be a starter? You want to be an NHL goalie? You want this? And then he really like pushed you mentally too. And which I responded really well on. And that's exactly what I needed at the time. Correct me if I'm wrong. Now, from my sense is that most goalie coach in the NHL and goalie relationships is different. It was kind of always buddy-buddy I thought on a lot of teams, right? Yeah, I mean, it's still like me and Clarkie still has a great relationship and it started off as, you know,

Starting point is 02:06:13 he tried to push me because I think he felt like he could push me that way and I'm sure he's different towards, you know, every goal he's had. You know, I'm not, you know, Bob. He was with Bob in Columbus not you know bob he was with bob in columbus and you know he dealt with him different and demko he deals with him different than than he dealt with me and uh but uh but i think he's a really good uh you know people person

Starting point is 02:06:35 and and one thing with that with the en2 is he he's he's having your back you know it's when it comes out and then when you sit in his office he might tear you a new one but that's uh you know that means a lot when somebody has your back um since we're on the topic of mentors and people who helped you develop i looked at some of the list of the guys you've played with goaltenders uh thomas vocoon it was very brief you weren't there long uh jose theodore uh luongo miller like some Hall of Famers in there. What were your experiences with them? And what one in particular probably helped you the most evolve as a goaltender?

Starting point is 02:07:12 Yeah, I got traded. Really good list, but I got traded for Luongo, so I never played with him. Oh, fuck. My apologies. Okay, you had it the same year. Sorry, my bad. Not a bad guy to get traded for. Yeah, pretty good.

Starting point is 02:07:22 No, not one for one, though. I wish. a bad guy to get traded for yeah pretty good no not one for one though i wish i think i think vancouver at the um florida florida have to send a few other other pieces but what i mean what was it like first of all theodore you were early days in florida and then miller i mean you know he's gonna go down as you know hall of hall of famer one of the best American goalies if not the best American goalie of all time yeah I know well I I always when I think about the Theo is you know obviously he's coming into the you know training camp area or rinking coral springs and you know cut off sleeves and Harley Davidson and a banana and like I was like okay he's a rock star and i was

Starting point is 02:08:06 like yeah this is this is a guy right here this is he's living and then you know i obviously sat quiet next to him and he didn't say a word and then after a few days he played in washington before so he came he was uh he was telling me, I heard you know Nicholas Baxstrom. And I said, yeah, from the same town. He said, you're a good guy. That's the only reason I'm talking to you. I was like, okay, thank you. Then after that, he took me out for dinners

Starting point is 02:08:35 and he was a great teammate to me. I've often said, like when asked about you, you're kind of the most normal goalie I've ever met. Like just like a total guy's guy where a lot of goalies get so quiet or they're a little introverted. Like you're just one of the fellows. And I didn't know if that ever affected you with your maybe goaltending partner, because it's such a weird thing. It's a team, but you're so competitive with one another. Have you ever looked at it? Whereas like he's trying to take my job or is it all like, hey, he's one of my teammates.

Starting point is 02:09:07 He's going to be my guy. Like, is that how you've always approached it? Yeah, I think I've been really lucky. I think every partner I had a great relationship with and I hope obviously they say the same about me. But yeah, I mean, for you know my mentality is that it's you know if somebody else is starting over me it's you know it's the coach of this the coach i'm mad at i'm not mad at the the other guy like he doesn't make decisions and you know and as

Starting point is 02:09:38 goalie partner in tandem you got to push each other and of course i want to play as much as i can but also like when i'm not playing you got to support the team and you gotta you got to push each other and of course i want to play as much as i can but also like when i'm not playing you got to support the team and you gotta you gotta be there for the other guy to help him because you want the team to to win um i was gonna ask you about henrik lundqvist was he one of the guys that you looked up to when you were coming up in the ranks in sweden and also you went you were talking about the your the systems as a goalie and what do you revert back to he's been pretty critical of the over usage of reverse vh what are your thoughts on that too yeah i mean we um we actually uh i'm gonna spend some time with him this summer so i uh you know we touched on that a little bit and you know obviously i think you know i don't think anyone would ever play the game like like he played

Starting point is 02:10:23 the game it was uh you know unbelievable he was you know competitive through the core and you know his system was perfect for him and I don't think it's going to be perfect for for many other goalies but you know uh I think you know I'm one of those guys who uses reverse a lot and uh you know sometimes you get beat up top and you know it looks bad and I could agree could agree with some parts of what he's talking about, but at the same time, you're going to look back at this interview and me getting dinged four times this season. Me agreeing on it. But yeah, it's different for sure.

Starting point is 02:11:01 If Panarin goes bar down from the goal line corner this year to get to, it's like, I might have to play that one again, man. Yeah, run it back, G. Run it back. Hank, text me and say, you told me you weren't doing this this year. Was he trying to talk you off of it a little bit? But you're in a little bit of a different of a situation because of your size, though. So your size, like your shoulder would be hitting the crossbar almost yeah you got to get you got to

Starting point is 02:11:28 get your head down there too on that you know bad angles and you know obviously now players are are so good and they watch a lot of tape and they you know study goalies and what they do and you know guys shoot from behind behind the goal line and hit you like aim at your ear to bounce it in and like come on guys just please shoot the puck normally yeah fuck those forwards the new guys yeah yeah um you you did mention uh um playing in sweden growing up so you're from uh gavle is that you say gavle under a hundred thousand people but uh you came up there you started as a goaltender at a pretty young age and they were fortunate enough to play for the local team,

Starting point is 02:12:06 which is called Brynäs? Brynäs? Yeah, Brynäs. Brynäs, sorry, fuck my accent, it's killing you. And you came up through the junior ranks there and then went right off to the Swedish league. So that's a pretty, that's a nice situation. You get to play in your hometown and develop through the ranks there.

Starting point is 02:12:21 Yeah, no, it was awesome. They were really bad that one year, and I just turned 18, through the ranks there yeah no it was awesome like my uh that was like they were they were really bad at one year and i was i just turned 18 and they had goalie problems and they went down to the relegation series so so then they called me up to play in the relegation series and i played you know nine out of or eight out of nine nine games or something like that and uh you know we ended up staying in the top league and for me like as an 18 year old like playing with legends like i grew up watching like it was the best time of my life and uh you know seeing interviews now it's like it was the most stressful

Starting point is 02:12:56 for those old guys to be relegated in like a classic swedish team that never been relegated before so for me i had the best time and you know for them it was really stressful but after that it was you know it was a great start on my professional career had my first shutout against Ed Balfour really no shit he was playing over there yeah yeah second league is Sweden so the top team in second league we played them on a elimination game pretty much whoever won uh would go go stay up and whoever loses was out to the back to the second league and beat them at two nothing loser goes home match against eddie belfort and you get the w

Starting point is 02:13:36 yeah so that's probably what you're talking about about coming over and people not knowing you because like for people listening who don't know i i believe it's maybe the bottom three from the elite league and the top three from the second league you play and like the top the best three teams go to the elite team you either stay or you move up so for you to come in keep the team in the elite team in the elite level yeah you must have been almost like a god where it's like oh my god this young superstar is coming in and saving us and that's probably where it was like this is coming a little easy for me and i get over to north america it's just not what it was back home right yeah no absolutely like i like i had so much much success early like i was still living with my parents at the house and uh you know it was i

Starting point is 02:14:21 was driving a honda civic and thinking i was the coolest guy ever. I was making like two grand a month thinking I was the richest. Like, I was so rich. And I was making like 20k a year. And I thought I had it all figured out. But yeah, no, for sure. So I think everything came really easy in Sweden and quick. Like, you didn't have time to think and reflect about it. really easy in Sweden and quick like you didn't have time to think and reflect about it and and you know every time I had an opportunity to you know play in the national team or the three

Starting point is 02:14:50 crowns like everything went well so like it went it went easy and uh you know it was first when I came to North America you really had to grind for it and and growing up I mean you were actually uh always telling me like your love for soccer like you you taught me about Ibrahimovic, your guy. The famous soccer player from Sweden. But you were a really good goalie in soccer as well, right? Yeah, that was like before high school. You kind of like in Sweden, you can choose a little later if you want to play. Well, I don't know how it is now but yeah when i was

Starting point is 02:15:25 younger so i i was 15 and i didn't know if i was gonna play play hockey or or uh soccer so it was uh yeah that was a tough decision but you know my dad and my brother played soccer so then i figured i could i could venture into hockey i had no idea who that ibrahimovic was i wasn't a big soccer guy and i was uh this is going back to Vancouver I think it was during the last World Cup Or two World Cups ago And I was In a Starbucks and I went up and I was like

Starting point is 02:15:54 Hey man, you know where the pisser is? Just up to a couple guys And one of them was Ibrahimovic I've never seen someone look at me Like I was a bigger peasant in my life He didn't even open his mouth to answer He just looked at me like I was a loser and just turned back to his buddies so i was like oh okay you're talking to somebody somebody's like you know who that is and i'm like no they're like ibrahimovic i was like oh okay that's it that's all i got you want to buy an abercrombie shirt

Starting point is 02:16:17 it's in my trunk hey uh yeah we we often talk about like how good the development is in sweden too and and how they have these programs where they pass down equipment and they really make hockey accessible for the next generation. Was that the case for you? Was it easy to get good education and get ice time and develop? obviously i mean growing up it was all like out it was like two or three teams that had like uh indoor rinks other than that it was like outdoor uh outdoor skates uh but uh it was uh you know every every team had two goalie gear to say like two setups of everything so like if you were a goalie just everything was uh provided by the team so it didn't cost really. You had to buy skates. That's about it. So it was great. I think hockey is so expensive, especially nowadays, that it's not for everyone to play because they can't afford it and the parents can't afford it.

Starting point is 02:17:18 But I think in Sweden, they've done a really good job to make sure that everybody that really wants to play can play. You said your dad and brother played soccer, but was it still your dad that like, hey, give this a shot? And then in that, was it goalie right away? You must have played out at the beginning a little bit. Yeah, I always say I was unbelievable as a player, but I don't know. Every goalie says that. I was, but you you know the real story was that i like i didn't like i was skinny but i didn't i wasn't as tall as i am now and i think i had like i was you know short if you compare to me now but i think i i had early i had like size 12 feet so like as a

Starting point is 02:18:01 player my feet look humongous i saw a picture of myself i was like i gotta hide those feet under the goalie pad clown shoes that's why that's why that's unbelievable actually going back to the fact that you said that you lived at home i i reached out to steven dixon a good buddy of mine who i we played in wilkes-barre with wit and yeah he was playing on that same team as you and i said you got any good funny memories? And he's like, he goes, not really other than the fact that he always used to ask me for my apartment key because I had a place

Starting point is 02:18:31 downtown and I would get home and he'd have all of his buddies over. There'd be a party going on at Dixon's apartment because he didn't want to bring them to your parents' house. No, I could never do that. So that was perfect. He didn't really know anyone. So I was like, you want to become best friends? Give your key you bullied him in the fight oh it's unbelievable the rookie goalie just bullied i saved the fucking team give me your house key bitch yeah yeah

Starting point is 02:18:56 oh that's awesome yeah what a guy he was what a legend when when your draft year came around i mean you're pretty high pick like Did you go to the draft? Did you know what was going on? Sometimes I feel like, obviously, the very older European players, they didn't even really care or know, but you had to be pretty up to date in terms of where you're going to get picked and your excitement leading up to the draft. I think it was 2008? Yeah, for sure.

Starting point is 02:19:22 The draft was in ottawa and i think before the under 18 uh tournament i think i was ranked like 16 or 17 and i was like we're all like whole family we're going so it's going to be a great experience and i think we got to ottawa and like detroit scout they picked 30th because i think they won the cup the year before and then so i was uh they were like you're not gonna be there for us but if if if you are we'll pick you so i was like okay good so i'm at least gonna be like that would be sick like i hope i get to detroit because with all the suites and all the the history there and then uh and then uh you know went to didn't get picked and it was like whatever whatever, 10, 12 trades.

Starting point is 02:20:05 It took like six, seven hours, just the first round. So I was sitting there in my suit, just like another name, another name, a trade, another name. And then, you know, Detroit go to pick and they went goaltender in the microphone. And I like almost stood up and like from US League, Thomas McCollum. And I just sat down real quick. Then I had to go home to the hotel. Fire alarm goes off at 3 a.m. So I'm standing outside at 3.30 in Ottawa,

Starting point is 02:20:34 and I was like, what are we doing here? Why the fuck are we here? And then I got picked right away the next day for the second round by Florida, so that was good. But yeah, not a great experience the first day um speaking of florida going back to san antonio one of the funnier stories ever told in the podcast by ryan whitney was about you on the sleeper bus now i'm going to hand over the keys to you no pun intended what ended up happening after this long road trip and i think it was what's your recollection of that so this so my recollection is we're getting on this sleeper bus late at night from san antone i don't know if it was after a game and then it was after a game and we were playing oklahoma

Starting point is 02:21:15 city the next night yeah and so i get up on that it's like three levels and i it was two beds where you put your backs but there was a curtain there on two of the bunks so like i picked one with the curtains and then i fall asleep really easily like everywhere or anywhere so i just fall asleep right away and then like i wake up the bus is standing still so i'm i'm thinking we're there and then like my phone is ringing in my pocket so like i answer and it's the head coach chuck weber and he's like yelling at me he's like where are you like the game starts we're going for a walk or activation the game starts in two and a half hours i was like i'm on the bus where are you he's like the bus was here three hours ago four hours ago and then i look out i'm

Starting point is 02:22:02 at a greyhound bus parking lot and look on the map in the middle of nowhere, like 40 minutes from Oklahoma City. So then I like, first I try to figure out how to open the bus because it was locked. So then I get out there and it's Sunday. So the office is closed. So like I go bang on there and then go back on the bus. The fences are all locked and it's like barbed wire so i go on the bus again grab my blanket in my like san antonio tracksuit throw it over the barbed wire and then climb over call like a taxi and sit on a rock like outside the fence waiting

Starting point is 02:22:40 and there's like two mc people like full speed coming at me and i'm like watching sons of energy at the time like i was like this is it like this is jack steller pulling up and they pull up to me look at me and then you turn it away and then taxi comes i get to the game and i got a few guys like elander and prv was on oklahoma they were like, did you just show up? And I was like, yeah. So that's, yeah, that's the story from my head. I remember Biz, he's like, I woke up and I saw 2,000 Greyhound buses around me. Did you play that night? Yeah.

Starting point is 02:23:19 Yeah. You played good too. You played good? With us, like a shootout or something, but it was a good game but it's i felt like i just like early early in my career i just happened to like end up in these hilarious situations where it's like what's going on oh i couldn't even imagine your anxiety the minute that you kind of came to and figured out where the hell you were that would have been fucking nuts

Starting point is 02:23:43 yeah yeah and i was like thanks thanks for waking me up guys yeah he was tripping on you oh for sure you got to check all the bunks you said you found yourself in in more compromising situations any other silly ones like that i mean we got uh me and tyler plon who was my goalie partner my first year he was uh so our first all-star break we uh we uh he was going to vegas and he was like you want to come with me because i didn't have friends or family there so i was like sure i'll go so from upstate new york to to vegas uh took the flight we were there for like had no money first of all so we lived at like a hostel and like we're there for like two three days and then uh storm so we got stuck in vegas so we missed our flights and they're all canceled so we missed the day of

Starting point is 02:24:31 practice and then the next day we had to take the red ice so we got like late to practice number two and then we had the game the next day against the marlies and i'm playing like coach didn't want put neither of us in the net. He's like, somebody's got to play. So Mark, you're playing. And then I have a nap and I overslept my nap. I showed up at the rink at 6 o'clock for a 7 o'clock game and then

Starting point is 02:24:55 blew up my knee that game. Done for the year. No. Oh my god. It's not funny, but it's like No, it is funny now when everything worked out but like i had so many meetings with the florida management and my agent and you know everyone that was sad that was bad oh that's tough you end up at the awards for the vesna trophy and you're like thank god thank god it all worked out it was close it didn't it was close

Starting point is 02:25:26 it was close to you being back in sweden oh yeah big time so um the year where you finally established yourself as a start in the nhl in vancouver um was travis green the head coach then yeah yeah and so was it the connection that you kind of grew with him in utica the year that you guys went to the finals? Was that a big piece to you restoring confidence and finally maybe feeling that trust from a head coach where you're my guy? Yeah, I think that helped for sure because we were really successful in Utica. And, you know, the way his coaching is, he's our coach and he pushes you. And, you know, I really like that.

Starting point is 02:26:02 is he's our coach and he pushes you. And, you know, I really like that. And I think that's one thing that, you know, worked out with both of us that we were, you know, both just wanted to win. And, you know, and then, you know, I had Dan Cloutier as a goalie coach. And then, you know, obviously Ian Clark came in to really take me to the next level.

Starting point is 02:26:27 I remember Colby Armstrong and myself with Jeff Merrick, we did this Facebook live show for the World Cup. And it's when you were playing, I think you played against Russia and you guys won two to one. I was like, holy shit. That probably meant a lot to you in terms of like, I'm now at the highest stage in this game like shutting down one of the best teams in this tournament was that a big confidence booster as well i mean yeah for sure i think uh you know being there like hank got sick right before for the game and then i think that's you know the first time the swedish newspapers like you gotta let marky play and i was like no like are you kidding me we got hank on the team like what are you guys writing about stop writing you might piss him off like what are you guys doing so like it was bad at me yeah don't like i didn't say anything but no it was obviously good and you know it was a big confidence boost

Starting point is 02:27:19 to just be on the team and then to be able to play and also win a game for Sweden. And at that stage, it gives you a ton of confidence and something it's easy to build off when you look back, especially from that season and forward. Even with the move and all the craziness of this summer, have you kind of sat back and thought about the four nations face off this year and the Olympics next year? It's probably exciting knowing like it's another best on best tournament. You're like an elite level goalie, Sweden's goalie. Like, has that excited you at all?

Starting point is 02:27:55 Yeah, obviously that's, you know, it's a dream, first of all, to play in the Olympics. And then, but the four nation is, you know, it's top of the list to be part of the best of the best hockey. I think everybody that's in the league want to represent their country and play in a tournament like that. It could all obviously be more teams in the Four Nations tournament, but for Olympics, it's going to be great when you get more of the top players around the league to play against each other. Marky, I got a question for you. And I'm not trying to piss you off in terms of the Swedish-Finnish rivalry,

Starting point is 02:28:34 but it seems like Finland kind of produces maybe more goalies. I don't know if that's something that's commonly thought of or maybe disagreed with in Sweden, but do you notice that? Do you think there's anything different in the development of the goalies there as opposed to Sweden yeah I don't know I think it kind of comes in waves I feel like I think you know obviously Canada was such a dominated factor for a long time Canada and US and then you know the Finns with Nittimaki and Kiprasov and you know I don't want to miss anyone but you know a ton of

Starting point is 02:29:06 Finnish goalies came and then you know Blomqvist came and you know a few goalies you know myself included about like 10 years later entered entered the league and then now you know then the Russians came where you know you got Sorokin, Shosturkin, Vasilevsky and and then now it's uh you know the fans are the fans are coming back so I think it it kind of shifts uh you know throughout uh throughout history and throughout time it kind of comes in waves and which is a weird thing because you would think you know the program would would stay the same but yeah it's uh it's a weird thing but it really comes you can can almost look at when some you know if a lundqvist really successful goalie a lot of kids want to play goalie and then you know

Starting point is 02:29:50 after a few years i think sweden is gonna have a ton of good goalies coming up now you know for a second year in the league you got gustavson who's who's playing amazing for for minnesota the other year and you know has a really bright future. And I think in the upcoming draft year, we got a few really good ones. Canada needs a bit of a wave. They've been lacking a little bit in the goalie department. Not the shit on Canada,

Starting point is 02:30:17 but would you say that's an accurate statement? Yeah, I mean, no, for sure. I think they've been the stuff you look at. The last two years ago Aiden Hill won the Stanley Cup with Vegas and you know Bennington won so there's you know goalies Canadian goalies that won Stanley Cup champion and has been successful in in their careers so it's but you know it's not like uh you know the Kerry Price who you know nominated to the Vesna finalists for 15 years in a row like that but it's hard to come by speaking of fiery temper i was just going to ask him about the

Starting point is 02:30:50 scraps have you been in the on any on ice scraps as a goalie uh i won binghamton oh against your old rink uh yeah it was manino goalie how'd you'd you do? Yeah, I did really good. I think I threw one punch, hit the top of the head, and hurt my hand. I said, what am I doing? But I skated up. I skated all the way over. It was like a full scrum. I throw my helmet and gloves off, and then I'm going to try to juke the ref, and I almost offensive smoke him.

Starting point is 02:31:24 I almost fell because he wasn't going. He didn't want to catch me, and I almost juke or offensive hit the ref. Then we square off, and he's like, take it easy, man. I got kids. I was like, come on. Don't tell me this.

Starting point is 02:31:38 That's what the other goalie said to you before you started throwing? Yeah. You're robbing him at knife point. Yeah. That was my only fight. throwing yeah like you're robbing him at like knife point yeah but uh yeah so that was pretty much that was my only fight and then you know we were up in the game lost the game so i got yelled at and and all that stuff so but but i think uh yeah we'll see what happened it's not a top of my list right now to get in a another goalie fight that'd be a way to get the fans going at prudential

Starting point is 02:32:03 center first game back our first game with the team, just drop the mitts. Yeah, he goes rempy. He should go rempy. Yeah. That's how you send a message. I think we got guys on the team that's here for that. Yeah, you got plenty of guys.

Starting point is 02:32:15 Plenty of guys now. But we talk about younger guys and how much more they're spending time on the ice in the summer now. Are you on the ice a lot? I guess you need people to shoot on you, or maybe it's just ankle work, but are you skating often in July, or is it more just off ice? Well, actually, we try to do once a week

Starting point is 02:32:37 where we just get off the cobweb to put the skates on and skate around. And, you know, me and a few other goalies that live in my hometown. And we have a goalie coach just doing some drills and a couple of shots. But it's nothing serious. But it feels a lot better than being off the ice for, you know, three months and then, you know, practice every Monday to Friday. So it's, but it's like in my hometown, there's no ice available in summer. So you've got to drive like hour and a half to get ice.

Starting point is 02:33:08 So that doesn't help. No. Uh, Lindy rough called you. Have you talked to the, uh, sorry, Jesus Christ,

Starting point is 02:33:15 Lindy rough. What the fuck am I talking about? He's the coach there. Have you talked to the devil's coach? He probably did saying I'd still have my fucking job there. If you were around, Lindy rough called me and said, well, talk to the devil's coaching staff. He probably did, saying I'd still have my fucking job there if you were around. Linderoff called me and said,

Starting point is 02:33:30 we'll see you in Prague and have a beer together. Yeah, you could have saved my job. Yeah, no. Sheldon Keith called you, I bet. Yeah, I talked to him on the phone and I saw him at the rink the other day. So we talked just briefly and obviously me, like all the other guys that I met, is really excited to get this season going.

Starting point is 02:33:49 And everyone in the rink, the staff and everyone has been great so far helping out with the move. And the hockey part is I can't wait for October and start playing some games. I saw that the Devils posted a video of your wife and your son going through the arena. Your son's name's Clark. What's the backstory to the name? Is that a famous Swedish name or something? Like after Clark Kent, maybe Superman?

Starting point is 02:34:16 What's the backstory? His name is Clark Marley, actually. So Clark is from the Stockholmholm syndrome the bank robber the most famous bank robber sweden was named clark so we watched the show came out with one of the scarscored brothers that we actually like end up sitting next to the guy who plays clark the bank robber so one of the scarscd brother was right next to us on a plane and you know baby clark is i was like that's baby clark right there no way that's unbelievable and then yeah marley is uh you know it's a nice twist we clark was just something we would call him in the stomach and then when he came out we were it would probably be like marley but then you know he was

Starting point is 02:35:02 always a clark so it was tough to get rid of it. So I got double name. Oh, that's really cool. And then Marley, is there any significance? Bob Marley? Yeah, I'll take Bob. Okay. You got a bank robber and a reggaeton. A bank robber and a Jamaican. Well, Marky, dude, we appreciate this, man. I'm very happy

Starting point is 02:35:19 since, I mean, we played together 11 years ago, and you've gone on to be such a great goalie, great guy. So thanks for coming on and joining the show. We do have Pasha here. And if you don't know about Pasha, he is a diehard Devils fan. He's a lunatic. We actually have to put a disclaimer on before he comes on the show to remind everyone how deranged of a Devils fan he is.

Starting point is 02:35:45 But we were going to bring him on. He had a couple questions for you. Yeah, absolutely. Warning. The following statements are about to be made by a deranged Devils fan. The views expressed are his and his only. Take everything you hear with a grain of salt because, remember, he is a deranged Devils fan. What's up, Marky?

Starting point is 02:36:00 How you doing, man? How's it going? It's going good, buddy. It's going good. I actually just got back from your neck of the woods. I was running around Stockholm with your boy, Victor Erickson, for a few nights. Oh, yeah. What a treat, eh?

Starting point is 02:36:10 It's a good night then. Late night. Late night. What a town. Yeah, late nights. He knows how to be a good host. Yeah. But yeah, a couple of questions for you.

Starting point is 02:36:18 So you're obviously coming into a new system, new coach, playing behind a completely new decor. Just wondering, how much do you communicate to that decor especially since two of the guys are you know luke hughes and nemeth's young 20 year olds like how much do you communicate the details that you prefer you know block a shot versus let them see it or how to play a two-on-one or do you kind of just let the coach handle that and adjust to that yeah i think it's i mean obviously the goalie and the d you gotta you know you gotta work together work together as a unit.

Starting point is 02:36:45 And it really helps. And, you know, to be a successful team, you got to have that, you know, chemistry with the D and the goalie and, you know, everything from touches. But, you know, obviously coming in new here, it's going to be new for them and new for me. But I think it goes pretty quick. You read off each other and then, you know, I'll ask Luke what he wants and then I just get in line and do what he wants. Love that. Love that. So you played with Quinn Hughes in Vancouver. Was there any sort of off-fights habits or traits that he had that you liked that you hope he passed on to his younger brothers, whether it's, you know, cooking or DJing the room, anything that you're hoping he passed on to his younger bros no i mean just the way he plays the game it's unbelievable i think quinn cares himself like a true professional from day one and uh you know got the captaincy in vancouver and the canadian market as a young d-man and you know the the year he put up this year is is just you know out of this world so

Starting point is 02:37:39 you know luke got a you know, he got a great older brother. And, you know, I think that he can grow into that, if not better. Yeah, let's hope so. Is there anything you hope that he didn't pass on to his younger bros? Any bad off-ice habits? No, I don't think he has any, actually. He's pretty dialed in. He is pretty dialed in.

Starting point is 02:38:00 So it's all good stuff. And, you know, when I met Jack and you know when i met when i met uh jack and luke and quince uh when i met their dad at the all-star game in in san luis he said when jack just came up he said uh wait for luke he's the best one out of them so yeah so obviously playing the uh in the what's up roommate we're in a hotel in Santa Barbara right now Pasha's got to pay for play over yeah Jesus just blew the cover a little fluffer so playing the west obviously you haven't faced a lot of these guys that often but from your limited experience

Starting point is 02:38:38 from them like who do you think has the most deceptive release on the team like who's going to be torturing the most in practice I don't know i'm kind of waiting right now like jasper bragg came in here he's he's really the swedish bias i knew that was coming yeah but he uh you know the the still waiting for the hughes brother and a few other guys to come in but uh you know right now i'm doing most uh just goalie work and uh uh giving the guys a few days to prepare for before i get in the net or prepare myself before i get peppered with shots so i'm uh you know i'm i gotta take care of the body now i'm not that young so i gotta i gotta save it it's still early earlier you had mentioned how the shooters nowadays are so crafty and shooting from behind the net and stuff so as you know jack hughes is

Starting point is 02:39:21 one of the best in the league at that so you you've got to keep your head up in practice. He might be ringing a few off your noggin. Oh, here we go. Yeah, we'll see about that. I'll do the two-hand full chop here, but... Exactly. Tomahawk throw with the stick, but no, practice. I always tell the guys that I'm wearing a helmet in practice, so if you're trying to get better and trying to shoot to score,

Starting point is 02:39:44 that's fine, and then it all depends all depends obviously the age of whoever shoots it if it's an older guy that's fine if it's younger yeah awesome i'll leave you with one last question um what do you plan on doing in sweden with your day with the cup i am i just built the house and we're doing a plateau on the dock. So nice. I got a new house and a new boat that's perfect to live for an event like that. It's a great question. Are you still... Biz, this guy can smash a golf ball. Oh, can he? Oh, dude, me and him, we used to just go play. Remember that quarry course in San Antonio? Amazing.

Starting point is 02:40:23 You still play a lot in off seasons no no really no yeah i maybe play like three or four times you got you got married and a kid married and a kid priorities tennis is still a paddle tennis takes like an hour and a half and golf takes six hours if you play the whole 19. Agreed. Exactly. It's too much of a time investment. Well, Marky, we can't thank you enough for hopping on.

Starting point is 02:40:52 Obviously, expectations are high in New Jersey. Great young team. All they needed was a goaltender. Insert yourself, and you guys got a lot to look forward to with that young group. So best of luck this year. We'd love to get you back on, especially if you win that Stanley Cup, like jock sniffer pasha says over here yeah yeah thanks for having me guys and always a pleasure good to see you and good to talk to you

Starting point is 02:41:13 again and uh you know i appreciate the support i'll uh i uh i keep an eye on you guys make sure you guys behave and best take care of the the panel there and hank especially i will and you know what actually marky i gotta ask you one more because we'd be remiss if we didn't um obviously a terrible tragedy with the goudreau brothers uh you got to play with johnny an incredible soul uh just any any story that pops out to you about getting to play with him and just how unbelievable of a guy he was and a teammate yeah it's like it's still like i'm getting goosebumps now just you know thinking about his name and it's it's it's so hard like i told my wife too like you want to call him and like hey i heard what happened are you okay like that's you want to call them and like talk to him to make

Starting point is 02:42:01 make sure it's fine and not not him being being here anymore is it's it's really tough to grasp and and you know he's it still hasn't i don't think it kicked in for me yet so it's uh yeah it's it's really tough you like you just want to call him and tell me okay because you know stuff like this only happens on you know tv shows or you just you see it on the news but it's never you know a teammate and a guy and a father and a husband and uh you know amazing person that that you've been close to and play with and share the locker room for for a long time so it's uh yeah it's uh you know i feel for the for the families and what they're going through now i cannot imagine but you know johnny was you know, I feel for the families and what they're going through now.

Starting point is 02:42:45 I cannot imagine. But, you know, Johnny was, you know, he was quiet in the room and, you know, did everything right on the ice. And he was an amazing person, an amazing player. And, you know, I can only imagine that, you know, Matthew was the same way. So, you know, all the love that they're getting, and I hope the family can, you know, take in a little bit in these hard times that all the support and love they're getting from fans from every team and, you know,

Starting point is 02:43:15 people around the world, literally. All right. Thank you so much, Marky, for that. Thanks, Marky. Thanks, guys. What up, guys? Before we go any further, we need to talk about Jackpocket. We're very excited to introduce our new sponsor, Jackpocket, America's number one lottery app. Jackpocket makes it easier than ever to order national and state lottery tickets right on

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Starting point is 02:44:43 And look who we got with us. Pasha, put up the warning, folks. Put up the special warning. This sicko's here. And as much as it pains me to say, I am more excited to watch the New Jersey Devils play hockey this year than I've ever been in my life. Besides the Edmonton Oilers, I think this is going to be must-viewing TV quickly before we go to Pasha. they got rid of Lindy Ruff. They brought in Sheldon Keefe. They brought in Markstrom, Paul Carter from Vegas, Brendan Dillon, Brett Pesci on the back end,

Starting point is 02:45:12 Stefan Nosen from Carolina, Thomas Tatar, and this team, after finishing seventh in the division with an injury-riddled, horrible campaign, looks to bounce back, and I think we got a special season coming at the prudential building pasha what do you got buddy whoa roll the disclaimer warning the following statements are about to be made by a deranged devils fan the views expressed are his and his only take everything you hear with a grain of salt because remember he is a deranged devils fan what's up

Starting point is 02:45:40 fellas thanks for having me i'm excited to be here and talk devils and like you said what i haven't been this excited for a Devil season in a long time. This is, you know, before we even get into the additions and all that, I think the biggest addition this team is going to see is just getting healthy bodies back. You know, they were without their number one D-man Hamilton all year. Jack missed a month and a half.

Starting point is 02:45:59 And then even when he was there, he wasn't healthy. Timo missed a month. He sure missed a month. So I think just getting those guys alone, let alone what they added on top, is going to take this team to great, great places. My thing with this team is that I love the roster. I think the fact that you now have Dylan and you now have Pesci, these defensively responsible, penalty-killing, tougher players. Hamilton coming back feels like a new signing because of how good he is on the power play. Luke Hughes was dominant for a lot of the season offensively.

Starting point is 02:46:30 It's Sheldon Keefe, and I know that sounds like crazy, but I think this guy is going to be so relieved to not only have this amazing roster, and yes, Toronto's a great roster. They have crazy skill, but the difference in pressure and the difference in media and the difference in all of the side. You meant Frank the Tank? Oh.

Starting point is 02:46:50 That guy alone is worse than the whole fucking, the whole city of Toronto. I didn't think of the tank. You're right. I did not think of the tank, but I just think Keefe getting to coach a roster like this who is built way better than the Leafs, top to bottom. it's a deeper

Starting point is 02:47:06 better team without the pressure and the market of Toronto I think he's going to do an outstanding job and I think if Jack Hughes is able to stay healthy you're looking at a possible MVP so on the back end my thought is though like are we are we even going to see Nemec like are they even going to will he be will he be playing really limited minutes? Because he doesn't really need to be there this quick with who they brought in. I think you're going to see a lot of Nemecs, yeah. Really?

Starting point is 02:47:33 Yeah, I think he's going to be chewing about 20 minutes a night. I'm curious how they're going to play it. I know late in the games, if they're down, I think that Keefe will put Hughes and Nemecs together. But I think they're going to kind of go for the more stable partner, play Nemecs second pairing maybe. But I've mentioned this to you. I don't know if it was on the air or off the air,

Starting point is 02:47:51 but I don't look at it as huge as their number one prospect than Nemitz. I think it's a double-headed monster. I think they're both equally as important for this team today and in the future. That kid came in and looked like a 10-year vet. I was very, very impressed. Doesn't have the offensive flash that Hughes has, but in terms of just all-around game, looked rock solid. So I think the sky's the limit for him back there. I actually think they look deeper on the

Starting point is 02:48:12 back end than they do up front, and that's saying a lot because their top nine forwards, especially one healthy, given the fact that Palat seemed to have an off year, I think we're going to see way more from Timo Meier. I think that the excuses have ran out. We need to see the Timo Meier that we saw in San Jose show up this year as that big body forward, winning battles below

Starting point is 02:48:34 the goal line. Why the fuck are you shaking your head like that? He kind of did. That's the thing. Call it excuses all you want. Lindy had him buried third line on the off wing, no power play one and he was playing with a double ACL injury. You look at what happened when the new coach, Travis Green, came the off wing, no power play one and he was playing with like a double ACL injury. You look at what happened when the new coach, Travis Green, came in, put him on power play one and he was

Starting point is 02:48:49 healthy. He had 19 goals in the last 27 games of the year. He was back to be, I think only Kaprizov and someone else had more goals. So he was back to being the Timo that we saw in San Jose. Fresh start, new coach. If he continues that pace, he's going to shut a lot of haters up. And what about

Starting point is 02:49:06 do you agree with me that you think that they look almost deeper on the back end than they do up front at this point? Yeah, I agree. I think that I think they still need sort of one score which they can address at the deadline. That's why I don't love the move to give up on Holtz, especially now that

Starting point is 02:49:21 Lindy's gone. Lindy and Holtz just didn't see eye to eye. I would have liked to see Holtz get a crack under a new coach because that's exactly what's kind of missing in their top nine as a sniper to fully fill that role last year. So don't love that move. But I agree.

Starting point is 02:49:34 I think their decor, especially on the right side, is one of the best in the league. And right side specifically, maybe the best in the league. My question is, with all the excitement about this season, one thing that's lingering

Starting point is 02:49:47 is Dawson Mercer and his contract. And this is the guy who's never missed a game. I mean, like, back-to-back-to-back 82-game seasons. Took a dip, obviously,

Starting point is 02:49:55 last year, as everyone did, without line mates, without health, and all the issues that the team dealt with. But what do you think is going to happen?

Starting point is 02:50:03 Like, is this a bridge deal? It seems like it has to be with the money that's tied up. But what will he sign for? Will he sign in time? What are you hearing? Yeah. I mean, listen, I don't know the guy, but I really can't see him being a holdout type of guy.

Starting point is 02:50:17 He's a good old new fee Canadian team first guy. I think he'll sign for about four years, maybe four times three something. Sorry, four million three years type of bridge deal. Like you said, they can't afford to give him anything higher with their cap situation. And like you said, he's got a lot to prove. He's shown flashes of brilliance early in his career. And then last year, you would like to see a lot, lot more than he had to give, but I think he's a really versatile player and a player that's kind of a playoff type player. He's really hungry around the net,

Starting point is 02:50:45 really good at winning net front battles. So I still have a lot of faith in him. I think he's going to be good. And, you know, what I like to kind of buy low and sign him on a long-term deal right now, I would, but they don't really have the cap space to kind of do that. So, you know, we'll see what happens, but I think he's there day one, game one. On a scale from one to 10, 10 being the throat goat, how hard are you going to gargle jack hughes's uh nutsack this year you know i think his play is gonna is gonna speak for itself you know i don't think there's any gargling needed i think he's he's got that shoulder surgery now that was kind of a lingering thing you know now and then another shoulder injury kind of resisting

Starting point is 02:51:21 getting surgery but now that he's come in with that bionic shoulder, I think he's going to cruise to 100 points. He's going to be a heart finalist. I think he's going to do all the talking, and I'm just going to be sitting in the background smirking, and once in a while, send a little tweet in that group chat just to rattle wit. As we're on that subject, the 100-point bet, is this the final season of it?

Starting point is 02:51:41 Yes, this is the final season. This is the third and final year. Yep. Is there a bio offer? I said I'd give this guy 2,500 last year when Hughes came out of the gates as the MVP favorite through the first 15 games, whatever it was. And he's such a dickhead. He wouldn't take it. So I'm not rooting for him to get 100 points. I actually love watching probably top five most enjoyable player to watch.

Starting point is 02:52:05 It's so easy for him. He glides. His vision. Everything you need in a superstar besides the ability to stay healthy. But it seems as though he's good to go. And it seems like the one injury that kept coming up was the shoulder. And it's now been fixed. So if he can get off to a start like he did last year.

Starting point is 02:52:21 And Bratt was awesome. No complaints out of all the people who had off years brat was awesome it is a smaller team i think that's why biz mentions meyer needs to be that horse he needs to be that guy that's down low dominating because it is a lot of kind of playing on the outside which they're able to do because of the skill power play is going to be enormous i i see no reason they couldn't be a top five power play in the league and the good thing is while bringing in mark Markstrom, you still have Jake Allen. This is a two-headed monster, and they have not had goaltending in so long.

Starting point is 02:52:53 Talk about a GM, too, being criticized for not addressing goaltending. And then with those two moves, Fitzy's done everything he can. He's fucking done a tremendous job about addressing any type of issue that they needed to address i agree i think he's he's checked every box uh like i said if i had to say one more need you know a top six top nine scoring guy that can finish but you know they can get that at the deadline um and if there is one knock on the team like you said what it is speed or sorry it is size but i mean when colorado won the cup the other year they were the smallest team in the league. The size help,

Starting point is 02:53:26 yes, but I wouldn't necessarily say that's going to hold them back from a Cup. If you're speedy and you're hounding pucks, well, size, yeah, if you're looking at daily face-off in the current roster they have, but they do have Curtis

Starting point is 02:53:41 McDermott, if they are getting pushed around, that they can insert in the lineup. I don't want to say he's a liability, but he'll play limited minutes. Uh, there are other rumblings about them potentially signing Milan, Milan Lucic. Well,

Starting point is 02:53:54 how do you feel about that? Bringing him in, in order to bring a little bit of toughness, protect those small forwards. Uh, yeah, I think we were on a call when we saw Stoff's report that he did sign a PTO with the devils. And right away I said, I don't like it. Lucic is a hell of a player, forwards uh yeah i think we were on a call when we saw stoff's report that he did sign a pto with

Starting point is 02:54:05 the devils and right away i i said i don't like it lucic is a hell of a player but his time has come and gone and he doesn't fit in on a team that's this fast so they traded holtz for that paul cotter who admittedly i don't know a lot about but he seems like the kind of guy who's a really big body but that can also skate and has a decent set of hands so i think cotter's gonna you know contribute in that way um but yeah on no lucci ain't the answer he's not the answer so you're happy with this cotter uh like i said i i don't love the trade and just i would have loved to see holtz get a fresh start under a new coach but in terms of stylistically i do think cotter can be a much needed addition and then witt's

Starting point is 02:54:40 brought it up 100 times adding stephan nason you know he started his career in Jersey and just kind of getting that net front presence, getting the gritty goals, which the Devils kind of really missed last year. So I think those guys add some good muscle, but, you know, muscle that can play. Whereas Lucic now, with all due respect, you just can't really keep up in today's NHL. Biz, do you think having McDermott there is enough to have this team not get pushed around?

Starting point is 02:55:03 Because if there's one thing, okay, all right. Because he because he's you know he's willing and as tough as anyone so i guess you're just looking at playing against the devils you're like we got to beat the shit out of this team it just it just helps when you have a guy who's able to even play you know 12 to 15 minutes a night who can handle that role um it's difficult because a lot of teams, speaking from experience, when you're a little bit one-dimensional at that NHL level like McDermott is where he's being inserted for that toughness and he's probably going to play five minutes,

Starting point is 02:55:36 it just makes it a little bit more difficult. But like you said, if you're happy enough with that Cotter and from a modern-day standpoint have enough pushback, then I if you're happy enough with that Cotter and from a modern-day standpoint have enough pushback, then I think you're good. And from a regular season standpoint, you need a guy like McDermott in the lineup, probably 15, 20 games.

Starting point is 02:55:54 It just so happens, though, that that division in general, I mean, you got Rempe across the way, and there's a few other guys. So it's definitely much needed. I think that having Lucha round two wouldn't hurt, but Pasha spoke his piece. I have this team winning the division. I have them obviously making playoffs,

Starting point is 02:56:13 and I think that we're going to see a totally different team, and I can't wait to watch them because I agree with you, Witt. I think this is going to be one of the most, if not the most exciting teams in the league to watch this year. I have them winning the division as well. I think Rangers, Devils, they're always great games to watch. This year, it's going to be outstanding. I have the Rangers finishing second,

Starting point is 02:56:31 and it's going to be some incredible battles. Murr, what do you got before we kick off this pigeon? And the fact we have to talk this nice about the Devils makes me sick. Like, you know, I don't want to do this. I hate this guy, but I do like this team a lot yeah first first in the division don't forget about brandon dylan on the back end too some muscles some size six four so he's out there laying the body he plays a pretty pretty tough style most nights so i got to mention uh sorry sorry to cut you off morales thomas tatar bringing him back

Starting point is 02:57:03 i know you guys love it when I go under the hood, but two seasons ago, when him and Heischer were playing together all year, their course he expected goals for, whatever it was, top 10 in the league. So they have a lot of chemistry. He's a sneaky little kind of re-add from a couple years ago.

Starting point is 02:57:18 So if he could do what he did two years ago, he's a huge part of that team. Last year, I mean, Seattle wasn't great, but we'll see. We'll see. Pasha, get part of that. Last year was, I mean, Seattle was a great, but he struggled. We'll see. We'll see. Pasha, get out of here. Get out of here.

Starting point is 02:57:28 And you still owe us a pierced eyebrow as Grinnelly mentions in the chat. So thanks for having me. And Sheldon Keefe, Jack Adams, finalist, Timo Meyer. Get out of here. Leave.

Starting point is 02:57:36 Knock him off. Gee, I like that call. Sheldon Keefe for the Jack Adams. Oh, I don't mind that one. And I do think it's going to be such a relief for that guy being out of the fishbowl and still with a

Starting point is 02:57:47 wagon of a team. Awesome hire by Fitzy. And we're going across the Hudson. And we're going to last year's division champs, the New York Rangers. Guys, I think it's a weird year in New York. I think one question, Mark, is that Shusterkin could have signed him an extension this summer, similar to how

Starting point is 02:58:03 Leon just signed. That didn't happen. Obviously, he's going to want an enormous amount of money, but he is that Shusterkin could have signed him an extension this summer, similar to how Leon just signed. That didn't happen. Obviously, he's going to want an enormous amount of money, but he is that good where you got to pay him whatever he wants. The departures, we got Barkley. Goudreau is claimed off waivers by San Jose. Eric Gustafson lost a free agency. Apparently, Zach Jones could fill his role. Sam Carrick is gone, along with Wenberg and Roslovich.

Starting point is 02:58:26 They were rentals additions. Pretty much just Riley Smith. Pittsburgh came over from Pittsburgh off here. I thought he'd do well in Pittsburgh after the Stanley Cup winning season in Vegas. The Rangers are still a great team, guys. For some reason, I just

Starting point is 02:58:41 don't think they can win the Stanley Cup. It's like the same reason I thought last year Carolina couldn't. One of those is, and I hate to be hard on Zbigniew, but in the playoffs, it seems like at the biggest moments, he kind of just disappears. Great regular season player, but it's an awesome roster. What I'm most excited about, I'll give you guys your most excited maybe thing for the Rangers, is the next step Lafreniere can make.

Starting point is 02:59:10 I mean, he had a big jump up. I think the past three seasons he had all three seasons he had more points than the year prior and then in the playoffs the Rangers best player he looks so good he looks ready to become maybe a 30 40 goal guy an 80 possibly 90 point player Panarin coming off 120 point season biz what are you looking forward to most with the Rangers? Yeah, I would say that their fan base is probably extremely underwhelmed at their free agency. Um, and then obviously the topic of conversation, what ends up happening with Truba,

Starting point is 02:59:35 that's a lot of money on the books for a guy that it seems like they no longer want there. That's going to be very tricky in, in managing that situation. But like for drury like i don't like from the outside looking in like sometimes it's like oh you didn't get the job done all of a sudden you turn over five guys out five new guys in and let's like you know let's let's try to see if that works where sometimes you know patience can be a virtue so let's see

Starting point is 03:00:01 if this aging core group now the window obviously from year to year is closing right and they're relying heavily on goaltending so let's see how the season gets going and let's see with this patience that they've provided even not even from not making moves in the offseason other than bringing in riley smith like can capo caco take can he can he step up can he do can these guys all of a sudden become also impact players much like Lafreniere did last year? Like you need to see that type of growth in these guys who are in the bottom six, who are younger players

Starting point is 03:00:34 that they've drafted in this organization and who they've given ample amount of time in order to figure out their game. So it goes back to me for the Rangers, this patience and to see how they're going to manage all these situations moving forward. Are they a playoff team? Absolutely. They're going to make the playoffs, but I don't see them winning a Stanley cup with this current roster, especially from what I saw last year from these other guys who are going to have to contribute. Like you

Starting point is 03:00:59 just talked about Barkley Goudreau and them getting rid of him off waivers. Like he was one of the better guys in playoffs like he was if you look through their forward group he was probably one of the probably probably top six most impactful forwards that they had scored some big goals I want to see finish playoffs with five or six goals

Starting point is 03:01:17 so still really like their back end goaltending's great great top six just very much on your program if this is not a Stanley Cup winning team. And I misspoke. I was reading my notes. They brought Sam Carrick in.

Starting point is 03:01:32 He finished the season with Edmonton. I do like that. If he's going to be fourth line center and Rempe's on the wing, Carrick will chuck him as well. Hard-nosed player, but I misspoke saying he was a departure. He was actually an addition.

Starting point is 03:01:43 Riley Smith is a question mark. Like I just mentioned, I thought he'd be great in Pittsburgh. Let's see what he could do. As you mentioned, Biz, the daily face-off line combinations, they have him up at first line right wing with Benajad. Do you know what I'm saying about Mika Merles?

Starting point is 03:02:00 Like, in regular season, he goes real hot. He can run a little cold. He's streaky. And then in the playoffs, Rangers fans are like, where is he? This is your first line guy. I would say outside of power play, he seems to get exposed a little bit come playoff time. I don't think that the boots are there.

Starting point is 03:02:18 His lack of speed bursts and what he provides from an overall 200-foot game, I just don't think it's where it needs to be if if you're looking to win a stanley cop that's no knock on this guy how many times has he scored 35 40 goals like in a season like he is a he's an automatic 30 goal guy every year he's gotten um that's the thing is like in the regular season you're playing a different team each night so you get those power play looks where you get into a 6-7 game series where that penalty kill is really dialed in, knows exactly your tendencies, and he seems to get shut down a little more in the playoffs.

Starting point is 03:02:55 It also gets a lot tougher to score goals, and he's not the most sandpaper type of player. He likes to play on the perimeter. He likes to score from the outside. Now, here's the thing. I think fans of Mikko would probably be chirping us right now. He had 16 points in 16 games in the playoffs, and that to me is the perfect example of you cannot just look at the stat sheet.

Starting point is 03:03:18 He had three goals in 16 games, but the energy, and as Biz mentions, getting in the zone quickly. I mean, you remember the turnover he had and it's just one thing where like, this is a guy in biz. He's got 30 goals, three times. He had 30 once he had 39,

Starting point is 03:03:35 he had 40 once he's had a 29. So he had a 26 goals, 72 points last year. But like, then you look at Trochek who was awesome. Awesome season last year. But then you look at Trocek, who was awesome. Awesome season last year. Kreider is the consistent factor of like, this guy is going to be an absolute dog

Starting point is 03:03:52 getting the puck back in the offensive zone. He's in front of the net. He's got that jam. So this is still, no doubt, a playoff team. And no doubt, a team that come under the deadline, they'll be looking to make additions and there'll be discussions. Can the Rangers win the cup?

Starting point is 03:04:06 With Shusterkin playing the way that he has, they could win the Stanley Cup, right? That is not a crazy thought. When you have a goalie that is that good, it just seems like there's always a team that's a little deeper, a little quicker, and I don't know if the Rangers can do it, but I have them in the playoffs. I think it's another fun year at Madison Square Garden.

Starting point is 03:04:24 It's just, can they continue to build these young guys' games? Is Kako really a lost cause? It was a second overall pick. And then Hedl. Hedl, the scary part of him is the concussions. We saw him almost get rushed back. I thought, can he pop off this season? That's what they'll need to happen to see them. But I do love the D as you mentioned, Biz. I love Keandre Miller. Adam Fox was injured in the playoffs. He'll probably come back with a monster season. So a great team and similar to Carolina in my mind.

Starting point is 03:04:54 I got them probably being second in the division. But I have one question for you, Biz. I was on the DraftKings Sportsbook all week looking at stuff. Rempe over under two and a half goals this year. What are you taking? That's what it is? I think that Rempe is going to get four goals this year. I got him going over what you just said.

Starting point is 03:05:16 I love the over there. Yeah, I think he's going to see. I think they're going to play him a little bit more as well. I think that he's been working hard this summer, not only developing more fighting skills, but he's not a bad skater like maybe like turning and in tight in in small areas sometimes it gets a little but when he gets those first few steps going and he gains speed he can fucking move out there so i would imagine he i think that he actually moved to connecticut and he's training with crider and a few other guys so i think that he actually moved to Connecticut, and he's training with Kreider and a few other guys.

Starting point is 03:05:46 So I think that that's going to be a big impact on him, and I'm excited to see the rise of him. And, man, it's like a Jeremy Lin type situation. He's a household name now in New York. He probably can't go anywhere. So this will be an interesting season, and I won't be hating on the Rangers as much as I have in the past unless their obnoxious fan base starts barking again. All well we're moving on then to Washington in one of the

Starting point is 03:06:09 craziest seasons I can ever remember I believe finished close to minus 40 in goals differential you got to give Brian McClellan some credit in kind of revamping a roster over the summer and doing a hell of a job of just changing the dynamic of this team, mainly on defense. So last year it was shocking and lingering pretty much carried them into the playoffs. They were swept. It was domination for the Rangers over the Capitals. But Kemper was traded to traded away.

Starting point is 03:06:38 Nick Jensen was traded for Jacob Chikrin, which a lot of people kind of a head scratching move. Chikrin's eight years younger than him, a better player. And Chikrin had fetched, I believe, a first and two second rounders when he was traded to Ottawa. And then they end up trading him one for one for Nick Jensen, who's 34 years old. So a weird move there, a move that could help out the Capitals a ton. They also brought in Matt Roy, who's a hell of a defensive defenseman from the LA Kings. Mangia Pani from Calgary, who's always around the puck, good in front of the net.

Starting point is 03:07:13 Logan Thompson comes over from Vegas. Brandon Duhame, who was with Minnesota and Colorado, a hard motherfucker to play against. He's nails. And then Taylor Radish comes over. Pierre-Luc Dubois being the final one on'll bet i forget pld and i i think that this is one of the craziest scenarios like we'll see this season is the storyline of his career and where it's gonna go because you talk last chance saloon and what's gonna happen like. Like, dude, this guy got to L.A. and he signed the huge ticket and he didn't want to be in Columbus and he didn't want to be in Winnipeg.

Starting point is 03:07:51 And then he goes to L.A. and maybe the most chirped player in the league by pundits and fans alike last season because the effort level was so crazy that apparently Biz texted the group chat that Rob Blake was out on the ice this was the craziest fucking thing that i read now i read it on twitter i hadn't gotten to that part in 32 thoughts to see if elliot actually said it i talked last year about before mcclellan got fired

Starting point is 03:08:17 there were many times that he called in pld to kind of show him clips and say a like this is where we need you to dig in a little bit more and compete. And let's talk about when LA won their cups, like they would grind teams down. Like that's, that's the type of game that they embody. And, you know, after the first meeting of a call and how with them and thought that he broke through with them because apparently PLD is a great guy and he was very responsive in the interview. And then it go right back to the same type of behavior where, you know, reaching for pox, you know, maybe being a little too straight legged, not digging stick, and went on the ice and talked to PLD and was showing him physical examples of what he had to do in order to compete. A guy that you just signed to this monster contract. If that doesn't reek of a GM trying to save his own bacon after giving a guy that's got no effort level.

Starting point is 03:09:27 I don't know what is. So like you said, this is the biggest head scratcher question mark coming into the season for the Washington Capitals. Can all of a sudden PLD kind of play up to what the contract he's been given? We've seen examples of it in Columbus with, I think the people label it the shift where he gets on the ice, he goes straight-legged, like his remote control broke in a video game, and then takes a few strides, and then he gets off the ice. And then there were, although when he was in Winnipeg, I felt like he dug in a little bit more.

Starting point is 03:10:00 He was pretty solid. He competed, and he had flashes of brilliance, enough to earn him that contract that he ended up getting in la but then here we are he ends up getting moved over they get off of darcy kemper now was roy also part of that deal did he did they get to take over roy because they were taken on no they signed him okay they signed okay all right there you go sorry so i was a little confused there but ultimately this guy you guy, you said, last chance to loon. We're going to have to see a different PLD,

Starting point is 03:10:30 or he's just going to be all over Twitter getting reamed. I know. And I actually think, I can't give up on this guy. The way I've just flicked Kako as a hockey fan to the side, because of the times you've seen Dubois be physically engaged, because the times I've seen him play like mean and tough and big and he's got hands. It's like I can't give up on him. And I think that maybe looking in the mirror and maybe this summer being like, holy shit, like I am being talked about and laughed at. And this is a this is a guy who you would think

Starting point is 03:11:05 is like proud enough to say i'm gonna shut everyone up and also like this could be it there's really like and forget the money the guy's got plenty of money he's gonna be rich beyond his wildest dreams the rest of his life but what do you have inside to maybe make you make a decision i'm fucking done with this. Right. That is the big question. And I think people who disagree with me would be like, well, everyone said it all year in L.A. and nothing changed. But maybe that trade and realizing like there was discussion of him being bought out after one year of an eight year deal. Like, does this guy have it inside to say enough of this shit? I am going to be on the war path this year.

Starting point is 03:11:45 I'm going to play with Ovechkin. I'm going to help this guy break Wayne Gretzky's record. And I'm going to be able to say that I am not the joke that people have called me. And that sounds harsh, but that's the truth. That is the truth. When you are that big and strong and you play a certain way, the way he has, it's like, what else are people going to say besides this guy doesn't care? I think he's going to have a good season. I think Washington's going to be a good team.

Starting point is 03:12:09 I know I said three teams. I have only three in the Metro making the playoffs. This is the one, I know Islanders, I was right there. This is the scariest one for me that I don't have getting in because they have revamped everything. Logan Thompson, how can he play, right? And Lindgren's still there as well. I think the D is going to be really good. Obviously, you wonder, like, Chikrin, can he go in and have that cannon from the point? Will he even be running the power play

Starting point is 03:12:35 because they still got Carlson there? And then the Ovi story. Do you think, Merles, Ovi can do it this season? Because at the beginning of last year, it looked like he might not make it to play enough games to do it this season because at the beginning of last year, it looked like he might not make it to play enough games to do it. PLD under over 30 primary assists on Ovechkin goals this year.

Starting point is 03:12:51 So Ovi has, what, 853 goals right now. He needs 42 more to break the record this year. He can't do that this year, right? Or tie the record. No, 41 to tie, I thought. His over-under is at 29.5 on the season. So if it's over under at 29 and a half on the season. So if he got over 30, that's a good season, they're saying. But you

Starting point is 03:13:09 saw him at the end there. At the end, he was popping him in like the old days. So I would say no, he's not going to do it this year, but he's going to get over 30 goals. It's Ovi. I think now would be a fun time since we're aligning ourselves

Starting point is 03:13:25 with the 25th anniversary of the NHL Alumni Association we're gonna be actually as a podcast donating a thousand dollars to the NHL alumni every time Ovechkin gets a goal this year so I actually have him getting 44 and I think he is gonna break the all do you mean I love it this I love it.

Starting point is 03:13:45 This could be the take. Like, when Ovi gets 17, it's like the biz take of the year. The Bruins missing the playoffs and becoming the greatest regular season team ever. 44 is the number that he's going to get this year, and he's going to break the record. I think that we just went from the Rangers being the most disappointed offseason for a potential cup-winning team, I guess. The Washington Capitals, probably the biggest surprise

Starting point is 03:14:09 with all the additions and surrounding Ovi with a better team in order to chase this record down. I think that means a lot to the organization. And Leonis, is that how you say his name, the owner? Leonis? Yeah, Ted Leonis. I think that this is going to be a huge year in Washington. I don't have them making playoffs,

Starting point is 03:14:27 but I love everything they did as far as moves and making them an even better year. Carberry, he had the magic last year and really got all those guys to buy in as well. We can't forget him. But all in all, man, it's a very tight division, but I don't have them making playoffs. Murr? Yeah, it's a very tight division, but I don't have them making playoffs. Murr?

Starting point is 03:14:45 Yeah, it's the Capitals' 50th season, so they're having a bunch of stuff for that. They'll probably have some special jerseys and whatnot, but you won't see those jerseys or anything like that in the playoffs. I don't know how they did it last year, but the coach is great. That Carberry gets all those guys playing every night, but another funny stat about them, I think they're the only team with they got goalies, both the wrong hands, right?

Starting point is 03:15:11 Silly side. Yeah. So you think that messes with the guys at all? Like in practice, like you're always shooting on a weird goalie like that. That's possible possibility. But I I'm just more interested to see like they could end up like being top three in the division I know it's but if they I know what if Ovi gets 44 fucking goals I would say it's for sure because

Starting point is 03:15:32 that means the power play will be top notch I wonder if Rasmus Sandin can bounce back from a little bit of an offseason that's a guy in Toronto at times who looked like he was great skater could do a lot but a good offseason all three of us having a miss, which means they probably end up getting in considering they got in last year somehow. What was the thing? Oh, Biz, I love how you mentioned we are donating every OV goal. And I think after our interview with Glenn Healy,

Starting point is 03:15:57 Biz and I talked about how lucky and blessed we are post-playing career to do what we do, stay in the game. And a lot of guys who did play are hurting and and are in a tough spot in life so if in any which way we can help if ovi gets 44 that's 44 grand that hopefully goes to some alumni that that need a little bit of help so that's that's an awesome idea that biz came up with i love that we're doing that actually jeff came up with it the the man behind the scenes my buddy je Jeff Jacobson. He's the best. The puppet master.

Starting point is 03:16:26 Yeah, exactly. He just pulls me and biz his head and we're just like, yes, yes, yes. He actually controls my talking. This is actually all his thoughts. My sound comes out. But like you said, they've done so much work to help former players. And I think that after Healy came on the second time when we interviewed him at the NHL All-Star Game in Toronto this year, I think they said they had like 30, 40 former players reach out for help.

Starting point is 03:16:51 And sometimes it's maybe guys are a little bit embarrassed or a little reluctant in order to be a little bit vulnerable and reach out for that type of help. So if you are a former player to any regard, reach out to them. help so if you are a former player um to any regard reach out to them and and they have they have so many resources and growing resources there to help uh for whether you're dealing with addiction or whatever it may be like it doesn't even want to help a lot as well which is great heels mention how much he matters to this entire thing and i love what you're saying if you're listening right now and you played this in the nhl you call glenn hill he'll talk to you and and there'll be help on the way like no doubt awesome guys before we continue i need to talk to you about body armor the best water i've ever tasted in my life right here i have a one liter bottle that i get sent and i crush constantly it tastes incredible they got the wide mouth

Starting point is 03:17:44 it's all I drink. I'm begging for more when I run out, and it's the best in the business. And shout out Body Armor for sponsoring the Chicklets Cup. They're coming back at it again. We appreciate them so much. Chicklets Cup is incredible. Obviously, a lot of beers drank, a lot of Pink Whitney drank, and everyone's hammering Body Armor the entire time.

Starting point is 03:18:02 You're running around the rink. You're rollerblading around the rink. You see people get these wide mouths and crush them in between Body Armor the entire time. You're running around the rink. You're rollerblading around the rink. You see people get these wide mouths and crush them in between shifts after the game. Body Armor tastes amazing, easy to drink, and honest to God, it is the best water I've ever tasted. Body Armor Sport Water is alkaline water that provides real hydration with electrolytes for taste.

Starting point is 03:18:21 Having the electrolytes is enormous. Ask Biz. He's the health nut. Electrolytes matter. Everybody is always drinking it around the office. The sports drink, the zero sugar, and even the flash IV after a long weekend, we can't get enough body armor. The sport water, in my opinion, is the best water on the market. So head on over to your local 7-Eleven and get your body armor Sports Water today. So that leaves us with the last team that we're going over in Columbus. And it's just crazy what this team's gone through.

Starting point is 03:18:56 And they've dealt with tragedy before. And that's what's so hard to think about, the Blue Jackets and their fan base. And I mentioned this offseason or at the end of last year, an incredible fan base. I mean, a loud arena, an awesome arena district, people that are just begging for a winner. And I don't think they're going to be there quite yet. I do think it's an exciting time, they have Juracek on D. They have Fantilli. What's he going to do his second year? Can Brindley come in and make a big step? They signed Sillinger. It's just about the rebuild right now in Columbus. And not only is it the rebuild, but it's moving on without their best player and everyone's favorite teammate in Johnny Goudreau. So it's just such a

Starting point is 03:19:36 tough time to talk about this team and X's and O's and roster spots when what they're going through is just so much bigger than what we're chatting about right now. I don't know where you see their future going morals as a team and, and what you think about this season and maybe some excitement with some prospects. Yeah. I like the ad of the coach Dean Evison from Minnesota. He was,

Starting point is 03:19:58 he was great up there. He's intense. He'll have that team no matter, you know, obviously it's not a very skilled lineup, but he'll have them playing hard every night and they'll be in they'll be in a lot more games than we think of of course i got him out of the playoffs this year but they're going to be tough to go against each night just because of him as the coach i couldn't agree more that's

Starting point is 03:20:18 what i was going to bring up is dean evanson coming in and and helping out with a lot of these younger players as well as like some of the veterans that they have around in, in, in Jenner. Um, uh, is it the Branson? Am I saying his name?

Starting point is 03:20:30 Right. Yeah. Branson, the big fucker. And, uh, and, and Wierenski too,

Starting point is 03:20:34 who ended up speaking as well, uh, regarding the Johnny Goudreau stuff. So they just, they, they're looking up, they got a great fan base and, you know,

Starting point is 03:20:43 I, I don't think they're going to make playoffs, but they're, they're. Another guy in front office, Don Waddell, who did a great job with Carolina, he's now there too. He's going to be the puppet master. He's going to be probably but currently kind of dealing with the with with with this tragedy of the loss of johnny so it's kind of hard guys it's hard to break down the team when you got everything that's going on right now and uh you know we just hope that they get i hope it's much like the philadelphia flyers this year with them where they're fighting all the way to the end and they keep the fan base engaged because that's exactly what they deserve right now and and hopefully they they can kind of like grow and build this team together around the heartbreak

Starting point is 03:21:30 they're all going through and that can carry them to having a better season than people think. Some other players worth mentioning is this Denton Matejchuk, 12th overall in 2022. Last year in Moose Jaw, 75 points defenseman in 52 games. He had 30 points in 20 games in the Western Hockey League.

Starting point is 03:21:48 And then he hopped into the Cleveland Monsters lineup in the playoffs in four games, had three assists. So that's a future star defenseman possibility. And then also, you look at this Kirill Marchenko. I don't know if you've seen it, but he's a monster Russian guy.

Starting point is 03:22:04 23 goals last year. He could score. He could skate. So there is excitement. And I actually think when we're talking season preview three years from now, Columbus could be a team that we're talking about winning this division and possibly being a Stanley Cup contender. And I mentioned Fantilli.

Starting point is 03:22:21 Second year, you're that much more comfortable. You know the league a little bit better. And he battled injury and, you know, obviously missed time. So it's an exciting time for Blue Jackets fans with the prospects in the system. It's just going to be a long road probably to get there. And then as we kind of wrap up this show, I know it's been a long show. These previews were a little bit long-winded, but there's a lot to talk about with every team. The last story is the Professional Women's Hockey League. Remember, we talked to Sarah Nurse, and we were kind of chirping her a little bit for

Starting point is 03:22:53 the teams not having nicknames yet. And she mentioned they didn't want to rush into it. They did release the names, the Toronto Scepters, the Montreal Victoire, the Ottawa Charge, the Montreal Victoire the Ottawa Charge the Minnesota Frost the Boston Fleet and the New York Sirens so I don't know the Scepters won a little

Starting point is 03:23:14 odd considering I didn't even really know how to say it when I saw how it was spelled the Victoire biz had to tell me how to say that so a little interesting for the two Canadian teams that well three sorry Ottawa Charge I do like the Minnesota Frost I like the Frost to tell me how to say that. So a little interesting for the two Canadian teams that, well, three, sorry, Ottawa Charge. I do like the Minnesota Frost.

Starting point is 03:23:28 I like the Frost. I saw an original report. It was the Boston Wicked. I almost threw up. I'm glad they went with the Boston Fleet. I was not a big fan of the- They should have went

Starting point is 03:23:37 with the Boston Clam Chatters. I don't know if the Clam works well of the Women's Hockey League, but the Boston Fleet I like and the New York sirens. I think that one's pretty good. So that is actually, I think the best name is the Montreal of the twirls.

Starting point is 03:23:53 The big twirls. Like if you, if you say it properly, it just, you know, means winning and it's got a nice little ring to it. And if you say it with the French accent, it's a,

Starting point is 03:24:02 it's kind of sexy. Have you guys seen the Ottawa Charges logo yet? No. Put it up on the screen if you can. They might have a nice C&D request from the Calgary Flames. It's essentially the exact same thing. It's a C with the flame coming off the back.

Starting point is 03:24:16 They're going to have to go to the drawing board again. You think they get C&D'd by the Flames? They might. I mean, the whole internet was bagging on it. I mean, I like the name, but I think the logo, they got to might it's i mean the whole internet was bagging on it i mean i like the name but i think the logo they got to redo it i like the charge i don't really get why the charge would have flames on it that's kind of confusing i would think the charge would be like maybe an animal that like charges you or am i reaching on that one as well yeah you are um i like the clams is Remember the Fleet Center?

Starting point is 03:24:46 Is that still a bank over there in Boston? The Fleet? I don't think so. TD Garden bought all that or whatever. I don't know. TD. I'm a little tired. That was a long-ass breakdown of this division.

Starting point is 03:24:59 Long breakdown. Long breakdown. We'll try to reel it in for the other three divisions. Biz, G, do you know what division we're rocking next week? We got the Pacific. So we get to talk Oilers. Awesome. I'm sure people love to know that next week there'll be some Oilers discussion, and we'll be dropping an awesome interview we did with the Pacific division.

Starting point is 03:25:19 The GM of the Anaheim Ducks, Pat Verbeek, will be next week along with the eight teams in the Pacific. Thank you so much for listening. An amazing time seeing Merle's again, seeing Army. Game Notes is going to be back to you when the season begins on Fridays. Biz, awesome job with Bedard, even though he kicked your ass. We love you all. We'll see you next Tuesday.

Starting point is 03:25:39 Peace. We'll be right back. 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 I said she needs a detox to cleanse her mind Another week rolls in We're on the road again Thought I was safe and sound In my minivan

Starting point is 03:26:36 But I said something That crossed her line Oh and I know she felt it So I said something that crossed her line And I know she felt it So I said she could have a free one on the chin She went below the bell, shit She had me with a cheap shot, a cheap shot She had me with a cheap shot, a cheap shot I think we need a deep talk Even so, I'm tired Outro Music

Spittin Chiclets - Spittin’ Chiclets Episode 522: Featuring Jacob Markström

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