Spittin Chiclets - Spittin’ Chiclets Episode 527: Featuring Mats Sundin

Episode Date: October 15, 2024

On Episode 527 of Spittin’ Chiclets, The Guys are joined by Legendary Toronto Maple Leaf, Mats Sundin, to talk about growing up playing in Sweden with his older brother, rising through the ranks of Swedish hockey, and his glorious years as a Leafs Captain. But first, the NHL is underway with the New Jersey Devils out on top, Utah HC surprising everyone with a spectacular start, and what is going on in Oil Nation? Whit is fired from coaching the Big Deal Selects, Biz is getting all lumbered up for the Leafs triple threat goalie situation, and Igor Shesterkin refused the largest goalie contract ever. This is an episode you won’t want to miss. 00:00:00 - START 00:10:24 - UTAH HC 00:27:01 - Igor Shesterkin Contract 00:46:22 - Maple Leafs 00:56:56 - Mats Sundin Interview 01:57:27 - Signings Around the League 02:08:51 - Edmonton Oilers 02:12:40 - Around the League 02:25:39 - More Oilers and Around the League Talk Support the Show: PINK WHITNEY: Take Your Shot with Pink Whitney Enter the sweepstake at https://pinkwhitney.com/nashville GAMETIME: Download the Gametime app today and use code CHICLETS to easily score great deals with the new Gametime Picks! SPORT CLIPS: Sport Clips. It’s a Game Changer. https://sportclips.com BODYARMOR: Head on over to your local 7-Eleven & get your BODYARMOR SportWater today! LABATT BLUE: Find Labatt Blue Light at labattusa.com/finder DRAFTKINGS: Download the DraftKings Sportsbook app NOW and use code CHICLETS.  GAMBLING PROBLEM? CALL 1-800-GAMBLER, [phone] or visit gamblinghelplinema.org (MA). Call 877-8-HOPENY/text HOPENY (467369) (NY). Please Gamble Responsibly. 888-789-7777/visit ccpg.org (CT), or visit www.mdgamblinghelp.org (MD). 21+ and present in most states. (18+ DC/KY/NH/WY). Void in ONT/OR/NH. Eligibility restrictions apply. On behalf of Boot Hill Casino & Resort (KS). 1 per new customer. Min. $5 deposit. Min. $5 bet. Max. $200 issued as non-withdrawable Bonus Bets that expire in 7 days (168 hours). Stake removed from payout. Terms: sportsbook.draftkings.com/promos. Ends 10/31/24 at 11:59 PM ET. Sponsored by DK.You can find every episode of this show on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or YouTube. Prime Members can listen ad-free on Amazon Music. For more, visit barstool.link/schiclets

Hey Spittin' Chicklets listeners, you can find every episode on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or YouTube. Prime members can listen ad-free on Amazon Music. Me and Ryan have been officially welcomed to the jungle that is Boston Sports. Our white whale, Sidney Crosby. Shave his head! Shave his head! Shave his head! Ryan Whitney, Paul Missonette, R.A., Mike Grinnelli, Spittin' Chicklets! What is up, folks? The Wit Dog here with Biz Nasty, Paul Biz Nasty, Biz Nasty. Yeah, I'm in Boston meeting up with some girls. I got some girls with Ryan. I knew it for a long time.

Shut up. Welcome to episode 527 of the spitting chiclets podcast we are live in boston we're on charles street in beacon hill a beautiful arbnb shout out g for finding this place phenomenal lighting we got the brick backstone but more importantly we got the pink whitney right in front of g and pasha this episode is presented to you by new amsterdam's own pink whitney we were at the boston university hockey game last night where i believe a ganas arena might be selling it already or will be what a shout out to me as a former alum of the school if they end up doing it but we got the nips we got the big you didn't make all american but you got the nips didn't make all american i know g's like you're not in the hall of fame i'm like buddy I'm not in anything.

Showed up Pink Whitney. We had a very, very special sandbagger the other day with Tuka Rask and Andrew Raycroft. The Pink Whitney was flowing. So we have two awesome sandbaggers in the books, and those are because of Pink Whitney in Amsterdam. Whit, real quick, I gotta jump in. We gotta remind everyone, Pink Whitney

is doing a big, big old contest where you can win a trip to Nashville, Tennessee. Pink Whitney will be selecting one grand prize winner and sending them and a few of their friends on a trip to Nashville, Tennessee. That's right. Busy Nashville, Tennessee for a weekend of Pink Whitney filled fun. Pink Whitney will also be selecting 11 contest winners that will receive limited edition Pink Whitney Western merch. And all they have to do is follow the prompts online. Sweepstakes and contests will be open now until December 15th. Go to pinkwhitney.com

slash Nashville to learn more. That's pinkwhitney.com slash Nashville to learn more. And boys, don't we love those big old Pink Whitney party buckets? The new buckets of nips where you just add ice and you're living free and you're living fine. And that's what we're all about on this show. And we are pumped because the NHL season is alive and well. It is ripping off the first three, four games. I'm talking to Ph about the devils and paul carter now he's talking about him winning the rock at richard i'm talking to biz about utah

and how they are great and they sucked when they were the arizona coyotes typical biz style the coyotes country man these guys are popping off the minute they leave and they can't even watch the games apparently we'll get into that one i guess ra was even on twitter about that even in ra's absence you know he's bringing out the blackouts on TV. Oh, yeah, 100%. That's his biggest thing in the world. No, that's why he's absent. He's got the picket line going outside of Gary's office.

That's where he's at right now, just like the four horsemen with the Patriots and still Presidente. Now, the foliage here. It's just the Brian foliage. You've taught me about crepestular rays, but this is the time in boston to be here as fall is hitting leaf peepers the the leaves are turning guys i know i've said it before but i might actually get a place here so that would be the 15th state i've said that about they're

like how much money does this guy have he owns places every trip they go on he just finds shitholes though it's like biz nice place uh it's in 600 square foot dump but your bed looks cool and even though it's on the ground um but i want to shout out quickly this interview we have coming is very special matt sundin matt sundin was we were lucky enough to get this leafs legend and and biz i know how excited you were when you found out we were interviewing him so it's pretty cool that we have this guy coming on and he's been doing a bunch of um bunch of media media tour with i believe his book's coming out yeah he was actually just on swedish tv today and merles knew we were interviewing him and he sent us a photo i'm like whoa what's he saying he's like i don't speak swedish so the other dumb question for me so

part for the course but uh like you said a leafs legend like ring of honor guy a hall of famer and just like carried himself with such class while doing it right and and he's one of those guys probably not talked about enough that that half clapper just so powerful uh much like yarmir yogger he would stick his ass out couldn't get it from him couldn't get it from him he was just an absolute horse and talking to guys that had played with him and including raycroft right because we had him on the golf course and just said like to one of those guys he's on the bike every day you know 25 minutes before practice just an absolute horse and uh a reason why he's in the rafters so uh uh i'm excited to read the book like there's a lot that i don't obviously know about him he's a little bit older

than us so a guy that i definitely want to pick his brain and uh and hear about how he got to where he got to and and a little bit more leafs talk later on but we won't bombard them too early as no home and away is the name of that book to october 22nd is when it comes out okay thank you g i love that g i love that g and hopefully after you hear the interview you look to order the book and check it out and i'm sure there's a lot more in that than we were able to get to. But we also got to talk about the Big Deal Select video is live. And apparently there is some anger towards me and my little smirk after you got. No, no, no.

Little smirk. Little. Okay. I wanted you guys to win. I really did. I think it's evident I wanted you to win. You know I want you guys to win. really did I think it's evident I wanted you to win you know I want you guys to win I love those guys great people but if you don't think when you couldn't get

to the finals again that I was going to be able to hold in somewhat of a little laughter and of course Pasha is right in my face with the camera and I'm just like they're not even in the finals again but then word word gets through the grapevine that they're like,

he's fucking laughing at us. So where do I stand with the guys right now? I mean, I even think some of you guys were laughing. I wasn't fucking laughing. You weren't even playing. I was more like perplexed afterward at the fact that we'd outshot them 40-10. I'll keep it brief because some people are like, oh, the big deal. So Xtalk, shut the fuck up.

It's like talking about the Leafs. We have to do it. So when I was driving back down from vancouver to arizona it just so happens that um terry ryan jr was dropping the puck in tri-city so yeah so i i caught wind of it i think i saw like a promotion for it as instagram so five days before i started the trip i reached out to him because all this talk with yans had happened and him creating a team and it's loser goes home so I'm like I need a face-to-face meeting with our player coach our Reggie Dunlop right so I'm gonna meet him in Tri-Cities along the route and kind of reroute a little bit to meet him thinking that he's gonna arrange a nice

meal for us to go have we can go have a sit down and have a serious conversation well like i get there and he's high on shrooms again oh my god i mean like i'm thinking at one point when is this guy gonna take a fucking knee i just want to have a normal conversation about the big deal selects and then he brings me to this bar that somebody recommended assuming that it was a good meal it was dog we ate dog food that night okay so not only did i have a shitty meal you can't taste it anyways but through all the shrooms and the conversation we did extract from it the fact that we're going to remove you as assistant oh i'm getting removed yeah that listen i'm getting removed you're done you're done i'm done you're done all right boston stranglers here i come and these are my closest you should be on our team hey you think you should be on our team i'll tell you one thing i haven't

won shit in my life besides the quebec peewee international tournament right now the cameras i'm looking at the cameras because i don't want to look at you look me in the eye you cut my ass you guys you guys haven't done what do you want to do? You're laughing in the lens after we get eliminated like some joke. You're all crippled besides you, and you're not even playing. So I knew there was some anger talking to you last night, but if I'm actually gassed, I'm on to the Stranglers, I'm on to Boston, and I'm on to Keith Yandel's team. And I think Brian Yandel's on the team.

Now, here's the issue. We don't have professional ball hockey players, but I think the guys we got and i think the guys you got that have never won shit in the chicklets cup they've won all these national international gold medals bring it on you're cutting me i know i ain't fired because i quit how about that how about that how about that some people haven't seen the video if you see the way that he looks in the lens it was like an awkward like like you're laughing because you're so nervous and you're just like these guys they lost again in the semi-finals what the hell's going on with this team but you know what that's fine that's fine and i've known these boston stranglers a lot

longer than i've known you so whatever good luck all right all right fine i did i was gonna wait till at the end of the podcast to break that news but you brought it up and the vlog now this podcast has begun ding ding ding motherfucker the vlog the vlog is out let the fucking fans decide because that's what we do fair look watch wit look in the lens and tell me if that's the type of guy you want on your bench going through the semi-finals and the grind of winning potentially a Chicklets Cup. He also gave a pretty heartfelt speech at the end there, though. It almost looked like Witt was about to cry.

He had so much emotion in him. I don't know. I'm trusting Terry Ryan Jr.'s ayahuasca trip in Tri-Cities and the fact that he came to that conclusion. And that's what we needed to change. Not our goaltenders who seem to let in the squeakers every time they get in a big game. We're going to roll with the same team. I think Terry Ryan's going to take a step back.

He's actually going to be the Reggie Dunlop and maybe play a little bit, like a few shifts here or there. But you're playing. I will probably- Because Keith's playing. Yeah. And still a question mark on whether Con Man is going to play depending on what kind of shape he shows up in.

That's all I'm going to say. All right, fine fine we'll move on from the chicklets cup but i'm officially cut from a team that i've never even really done anything bad to besides smirk after another semi-final loss fine fine this shirt i'm wearing quickly shout out this is our breast cancer awareness shirt i'm trying to change to a little different note right now check this out from the breasties g's talked about it a lot but you could buy this right now in support of breast cancer and he brought me one finally so i'm rocking this thing on to the nhl biz can't bury the lead there is a lot cannot bury the lead what is the lead the utah it's unreal the utah hockey club it's unreal and i took some flack i took some flack for picking them to make the playoffs i think somebody in this room was like what when

i said it was it you i picked them to make the playoffs maybe it was you i don't know maybe who else was merles who was on for the central division with us i think it would have been merles and army i think there was just maybe a little shock because everybody talked about maybe taking them, but maybe they were a little young and they weren't going to quite get there yet. And I think that people were surprised that you ponied up, you put your nutsack on the table. Finally, I was due to do that for once in my life. Putting your little beanies on the table. Here's the thing, guys.

That opener, that inaugural game for the Utah Hockey Club. And people are really split on them being called Utah Hockey Club and not having a nickname yet and actually liking it. I totally get it. I think that it was genius marketing because they're going to sell jerseys now and they're going to sell jerseys later, and we talked about this. But I do understand that people are like, why is it Utah Hockey Club? All I'm going to say now to everyone is watch the team play.

And this could be the ultimate just chicklets talks about a team with a nice start to the season and they lose 10 in a row I hope not no I hope not no but watching this team in Madison Square Garden on Saturday night the pizzazz the the flash the speed the top two lines Sergeyev can we talk about Sergeyev redemption tour now Tampa Tampa granted they had one game they looked phenomenal who knows how this the top two lines, Sergeyev. Can we talk about Sergeyev? Redemption tour. Now, Tampa, Tampa, granted they had one game. They looked phenomenal.

Who knows how this season plays out and missing him and how McDonald play. Sergeyev looks like we talked about, maybe there was injury worries and worries. I get a lot of shit for how I say that word. Sorry. That's how I say it. But worries, there's a lot of issues with maybe his injury,

like probably being debilitating and maybe he wouldn't be the same player again trying to maybe move off of him at the right time right bill belichick style like last season he went through that nasty the nasty leg break and and you know he ended up coming back a little bit too soon i would say he looked like he was lingering on it but it was playoffs too vinny trocek is another guy i think about in florida maybe they thought when he broke his leg they moved off of him where we ended up seeing his best hockey last year with the new york rangers right so agree with what you're saying i'll hand it back over sorry to i think he's i think he's looked phenomenal so smooth he's got three points in three games

this dylan gunther contract god the new tage thom. The eight times eight where it can go horrible and it can go fantastic. It looks, he's got five goals. He's got no assists. So he's leading the race for the Cy Young. I don't think it ever matters if he gets assists. Because after Conor Bedard and your gross grind and talking about his release and the OT winner against the Islanders, I'm talking a flick of the wrist rocket. And you've seen it already five times this season

he's got crazy chemistry out there with line mates he's got more speed than you think but this shot i think we're looking at like a top five goal scorer in the league and the fact that in six years he's going to be making eight million dollars still oh my god yeah oh my god utah and they opened this entire thing up i believe they broke a record for 120 000 in beer this is mormon country and i don't know like what do mormons drink no well here's the thing though it's become a bit of like a tech hub right because you know silicon valley has gotten too expensive where tax rates there aren't that crazy and it just seems to be where a lot of them are flocking right now.

So yes, there are a lot of Mormons, but there's also an influx of other people that are moving there with cheap state tax and just a beautiful place to live overall. Beautiful place. So listen, I get that the state rules and going to a bar, you can't order two shots back to back. I don't even know if you can order a shot there but they're clearly in ryan smith's message even before the game had started this is going to be the loudest building in in the or in the league and you're you're almost trying to brand it as such where maybe we have this very

chill town but where do we go to blow off steam the delta center the utah hockey come do shoeies out of your shoe with midgets in the crowd we don't which you're your midgets correct yeah those are my buddies those are my buddies that so they came back to life they didn't die no they didn't die if you you have to watch the behind the scenes chicklets video very funny little skit biz put together where the two midgets ended up drowning in a cold tub um and then you put up mini sticks for them at their grave site probably a little bit dark humor here but still that's chicklets cup and that's the big deal slacks not being able to win their own turn this will be my last pod okay i remember when you told me what you were doing and i saw it i was like i don't know this might be the end of chicklets now we'll be fine and you know what people have really liked it but the

midgets doing the shoes these guys know when to get in the mix oh yeah these guys know where to be to have a good time but this team man and yes it's early and yes there's so much hockey to be played but clayton keller he gets named captain he hasn't slowed down one but i think he has six points already three goals three assists ot winner on broadway backhand shelf it went in so fast nobody in the building knew it was a fucking goal and he's sitting there going bingo bingo we're off to the bar he knew he knew so you talk about all right you look at their lines right now and barrett hayden who you've talked about his release also buddy he's playing with schmaltz and keller and then mcbain with logan cooley who i've mentioned before as a pop-up player this season with dylan gunther how i mean how young is that top six it's crazy to look at like the skill and then the guys

coming up in their system it's an exciting time and there's there's a diehard arizona coyotes fan out there like i cannot believe this is happening we've talked more about utah this episode than i think we did in seven years of the actual hockey team in arizona it was all about the ownership oh yeah sorry you you talked a lot about oliver e-Larsen's 20-goal season one year. Thanks a lot. But I want to bring up Kerfoot because you got to go see two of the assists he's had so far this year. They tied up the game against the Islanders in the Islanders' home run, which, by the way, the Islanders blow another third. I'm going at it with fans saying it's a mental weakness that they have where they're giving up these third-period leads going back to last season,

going back to fucking last year's playoff. They're up 3-0 on the road to Carolina. They blow it. They're up in game one in the third period. Hey, we got Patty Waugh, first full season. We addressed all these issues in training camp. Blow another third fucking period lead. They scored 14 seconds or even 12 seconds after the uh uh after the

islanders had taken the lead yeah they made it four three and josh don't but watch the play kerfoot makes and i don't really know what noah dobson was doing he was kind of like he was out to lunch and this is an 80 point elite offensive defenseman i think defensively probably it's like like i was watching the game the announcers were like mentioning, I don't know if he's getting sat. He ended up coming out the next shift of OT, but they said usually he was out. Oh, when he got it turned over and in the back of his neck, because Gunther sniped top cheese. Well, that was, and that was after he was out there for the tying one.

But the announcers, like he's usually on the ice in OT with Barzal and Horvat. And he wasn't out there. He went out the next shift and Gunther buried. But you have to watch this assist by Kerfoot. He goes down. I think it was Romanov strips him, makes a beautiful backhand dish and Don't buries it. You forget about Don't on the third line.

He's what is he? 22. He's young. It's crazy. And then against the Rangers the other night, I don't know the score. I think it was third period. Kerfoot goes in and strips Keandre Miller,

unbelievable play, and then just rips it out front to, I wrote it down, to Keller. And Keller buries it there to tie it up or maybe take the lead. It's just, it's been the dream start for a new franchise. Very similar to the start by Vegas

when they came into the league. And it's like, oh my God, like is something brewing here? And they're so young. So I just love what we're seeing from a great jersey, too. I think the whites are some of the best in the league. And that was the one they were wearing on the road.

And I just, yeah, the top six has been on Fuego. We talked about the chemistry that Hayton, Keller, and Schmalz have developed last year. Hayton was drafted fifth overall. And I think that people didn't really know the book out on him. Maybe a little bit slow coming in. But I feel like he's caught up a little bit. Kind of has that skating stride like Eichel, where it looks like he's not moving fast, but he is. And it's that patience I talked about, where when he gets it in the slot area, it's almost like he's cocking back.

He's got it ready to fire. He'll look at the goalie and see what the goalie might bite on first, and then he's able to release it. So in my opinion, he has a patience that you can't teach. And I just like the cadence in which he plays at. And he's obviously had good chemistry with, I mean, I feel like Schmaltz and Keller share a brain out there, the way they're able to move in the offensive zone.

And listen, they're a little bit undersized. And yeah, maybe all the time they're a little bit undersized and yeah maybe all the time they're not necessarily going to the blue paint but they're able to expose the ice in areas in which they need to in order to get their opportunities and it's just looked masterful from the top six and we haven't even talked about loss and kraus you know six four six five 220 flying up and down the wing killing penalties a guy who's going to get you 20 and 20 every year. Maybe not like he doesn't have that switch or that quick whip. You'd love to see a little more anger at that size.

I'd like to see a little bit more Tom Wilson, a little bit more unpredictability. What a beauty he scored the other night against the Devils. But he doesn't take stupid penalties. He's very reliable. And as I said, a 20 and 20 guy, maybe the hopes is with the money that he's making, he can i said a 20 and 20 guy maybe the hopes is with the money that he's making he can get to 30 and 30 and with the offense this team has

16 goals for leading the league right now after three games it's been unreal and michelle's played great but he hasn't really found the score on the fourth line and and i think it was pk suban who sent the tweet out like let's not forget here they might be a little bit weak on the back end but they got a ton of cap space left they have a shit ton of draft picks the next two big three years the big russians they picked on d i believe i don't know their names tons of guys in the pipeline ready to go and if they want to make a a bold move with the money that they have remaining and send picks somewhere else they can do that if they go on this magical run like you said it kind of feels like that las vegas uh golden knights the first year and even going

back to when the kraken were expansion where it just really feels like they've built off this momentum of you know they got dealt a shit sandwich finding out as late as they did that they're gonna have to move they all of a sudden get this owner that comes and sees them down in arizona and says whatever the fuck you guys need i got you let's go to utah let's open up this thing in style and let's ride this momentum and that's exactly what they're doing under coach tourney so as a coyotes fan and and sympathizing for the people back there absolutely but the fact they've been able to make this smooth transition and come out with such fire and and draw attention to hockey in a new market i love everything about it and it's great to see and and one other thing i'll say i know we talked about sergachev uh

sergachev excuse me derzy yeah he's nice i like him too because he passed it to uh gunther on the ot winner against islanders and he's got a little that spice too like he's a piece of shit if you fucking go give him a stinky mitt he ain't just gonna take it he's gonna come right back off you and i i like that because it lets sergachev worry about playing and then if things get a little greasy dersey's not trying to stick his nose in there so love love what they're bringing right now and uh i mean what else can you say they had um mcbain fought uh i believe against the rangers kesserling i think fought uh so, they have... I know McBain's very willing. That's nice.

And I guess if you're talking about loss and Kraus and wishing maybe there was a little more anger, at some point, TJ Ginla's coming. And you know if you're the son of Jerome Ginla, you'll be willing to chuck it around. So it's just... I wanted to give them some flowers because it's really cool to see a new team in the league

and to see that opening night. I mean, the craziest thing out of all the goals they've scored and all the excitement at delta center and all this action is all these like people from utah dancing to shibuzi before the first game i think it's a bar song tipsy like very awkward but very fun too just like okay let's have all these guys just dancing to shibuzi like singing this bar song tipsy so awesome Now, we are recording this right now. It's on Sunday afternoon.

They have a tilt with the Devils tomorrow. So this lunatic behind me, the deranged Devils fan, I know he's like, why don't you shut the fuck up and talk about Paul Carter, please? We'll get to the Devils. We'll get to the Devils. Another team quickly, I just wanted to just shout out because questions coming into the year, I think difference of opinions vegas has looked phenomenal oh my god they pumped colorado's eyes shut eichel had four points i think he had two more points the next game he's got six points in two games

they look awesome and it's like hey no matter how many things change in vegas with that backhand what the hell was that shot four points two goals two, two goals, two assists. I think that Barbashev, the human cigarette machine, I think that's one of the best contracts in the NHL. Five times five, I believe. I think he's making just over five million, if not five on the nose. He can fucking put you through the end wall. He can four check like a madman.

I actually think he's a better passer than scorer, but all of a sudden, out of the gates, he's fucking sniping the little BBs out there. What do you got for me, James? Merle's had an interesting point on game notes. He picked Jack Eichel for Hart Trophy at 50-1 before the season started. Those odds, it's very, very difficult to not wager something. Yeah.

I mean, Eichel doesn't get the respect he deserves around the league. Do you agree? He, this guy, and granted. Four assists in that game, that opener, by the way, against the dog. The dog had a snipe on Saturday night. But they lost to Columbus, didn't they? Yeah. Columbus won that game.

Kent Johnson looks really good right off the hop for Columbus. I think Gorgiev. Gorgiev's got hooked in both of them. He's got hooked in both of them. They almost got as much goaltending issues as the Edmonton Oilers, but let's stay on topic. Let's not go to the oil jesus christ this is uh but this is groundhog day old nights look good they look real they look nice

so just want to shout them out because you're wondering oh what's going on there i don't think and the one barbershop thing is like you almost wondered like because last year was a little after after his playoff performance coming over from the blues when they won the cup i think it was a little disappointing last year to see his play overall, but maybe it was like a long long, I mean a short offseason after the Cup and now he's refreshed after that first round exit, he looks great

off the hop and I like that call by Merles, I mean Eichel could end up getting see what's the most points Eichel's ever had G, what's your guess? I think it was when he was in Buffalo 82 points in 77 games is his career high. Now, granted, he's never played 82 games. He had 68 points in 63 games last year, 66 points in 67 games the year before.

But maybe at one point, Eichel will be that 100-point guy. And I think maybe this is the year. So after one game, this is what we're doing. We're having hot takes. I think Ace mentioned on the broadcast, I think he's one of those guys like Sid some years, he could easily get 100 points, but he plays a pretty good 200-foot game, and I think that's what he's asked for by Butch Cassidy.

So it's really hard when you're not cheating on the offensive side of the game to put up 100 points unless your power play is insanely dynamic like it is in Edmonton or the colorados and the likes of that but i think if he's at a point of game playing the way that he's played and i was also going to mention one of his former line mates coming over on a bargoon car contract uh victor olufsen so i think he signed for a million bucks and he had two snipes in that first one and after the game on tnt i asked him i'm like does the team consult you at all and he goes yeah they called me about him in the summer and he was an awesome teammate

great guy to play with and i know that he didn't start out on eichel's line but definitely a a winger considering they got a lot of money in other areas can come over and have a big year on a bargain contract so they're putting a lot of their uh a lot of their hopes on some of these young guys like holtz him uh they got pat brisson's son there what's his first name here i forgot his first name uh brendan brendan brendan how do you say the other guy's name doradev dorafiev dorafiev dorafiev and that's like a 90 sure on that one um but dorafiev dorafiev i think maybe it's dorafiev okay way to go um but yeah excited to kind of see

what what Vegas does this year and you talk about Georgiev oh my god to get the hook in the first two games that's panic time um but going over to uh to Utah with all that cap space I think only five percent of their cap is in goaltenders right now I thought that Ingram's looked solid uh um as Vemelka had a bit of an off year last year but he's only making a million and a half and they have them locked in for this year but i mean who knows man if uh if the rangers can't figure things out maybe they go out so that's where you're going and i i think that's a great little segue because kevin weeks dropped the hammer oh he dropped the hammer and saying that he found out um sources told him that shisterkin turned down i don't think so no soup for you new

york style that there will be no eight years times 11 million dollar 88 million dollar contract the richest contract offered to a goalie in nhl history so right now carrie price owns that it's 10 and a half a year that was the aav so this is this is a discussion that i i'd love to have with you in terms of like shister can say he wants 12 to 12 and a half i i feel that there's more people like you can't play a goalie that much and pasha being one of them now granted it's the rangers so i'd love to know if it was the devils and how he'd truly feel. But this guy is that good. He's that proven. He is unreal at his position.

Now, we asked Raycroft and Tuca, and they said Vasilevsky's the number one goalie in the league for them. I don't know, man. The past couple years, it's just sturgeon. Last year, they had no business. Florida, do you remember how he played in the Easter Conference final? I just think that, what are you gonna do not sign him right and and so if he ends up now here's the thing panarin makes 11.6 i think it would be fair if you say hey you want to be the highest paid player elliot's talked a lot about on 32 thoughts and his discussion about this about he wants to

be the highest paid player he is he knows he's the best and most important player and like you said when when the chips are on the table eastern conference finals he's the he's their guy yes he's their guy so if you could ever get him at 11 7 and he says no to that or 11 8 that's when you start being like i don't know but my thing is like what are you gonna do what i think that you go up to 12 and a half for Igor Shostakhin. You think so? And the reason I say that is he's played 215 games. He has a 2.5 goals against average, maybe just below that, and a 9-2-1 save percentage.

So the reason Carey Price got that number when he did is Montreal said, how are we going to win a Stanley Cup? If this guy's not in the picture, there's no way we're winning a Stanley Cup and that's my opinion on Shusterkin if you take Shusterkin away from the Rangers they're not winning a Stanley Cup if somehow they moved on from a Panarin and got to spend that money and and maybe go get two different players I still think they could be a little bit more well-rounded and ride Shusterkin to the finals that's that that is my opinion he's proven it time and time again. Not many goalies who have had that much body of work can say that they've maintained those numbers. And to me, and another thing too,

is let's say this aging core for the Rangers gets a little bit older in two, three years. You're just trying to align. If he's making 12 and a half in four years and you're still getting this type of production or it may be even not as good just a little fraction a little bit less you still have an opportunity to win so you're not you're not even worried about what what you're paying him in four years because based on the way this cap's going to keep going up that's going to be fair market value for a guy who's going to play and i think over that course of time he's averaged 55 uh games played per season and i would say it'd be nice to probably see him in the 60 65 range if you're paying him that but ultimately the workload and what you want him for is that playoff run which he's playing every goddamn minute he's got to be dialed in for

that time and how many goalies can you say over the course of that period of time have been able to sustain that greatness? Every single playoff run they go on, he's top of his game. It's him and Vasilevsky. I don't even think it's close after that. I really don't. And this is a guy who said Sorokin was going to be better than Shosturkin. So I really don't have a clue what I'm talking about with goalies.

But I do know that what you said is true. The Rangers without him, they're not even like they're kind of a mid-team and I know that sounds harsh but that guy is that much of a difference maker where if he's gone like all right yeah go test free agency like oh imagine the Rangers next year without Igor Shostakhin I mean who knows you go out and you sign some goalie that pops off because you got a great defense in front of you but it's not him now Pasha I would love to get your opinion considering you're on the exact opposite of this now saying before we go to Pasha I would say if I'm the Rangers and one of the issues was is I guess his agent told the Rangers they said offer

something now before the season starts but once the season starts we're not negotiating which I think if they get to his number that's bullshit and they'll accept it if i were the rangers right before the season after the 11 uh or 8 times 11 was denied i would have offered 100 grand more per year than what panarin is making and i would have offered it now because i think that next summer you're looking at 12 to 12 and a half and why not just get it over with now? Cause you know, you have to sign him. And if you give him, if you give him the offer of 11 times seven or 11 times eight,

11.7, 11.8 times eight. And he says, no, then you're like, all right, now we really know where we stand. Do you know what I'm saying?

Like, bingo. So it's like, okay, now we can really start planning ahead. Because if Chris Drury said in his mind, like I'm not going to 12 or 12.2 or 12.5 i gotta start thinking ahead of this and this could make a lot more sense as to rangers fans were furious about the lack of of movement and the lack of uh action and

free agency clearly drew he was more worried about having cap space ready to offer their number one goaltender that's what that was his main concern coming into the season and kind of shocked they weren't able to get it done at eight times 11 but i understand everything that's just circling saying now what do you have to say about like why do you hate that playing a guy that much play the disclaimer play the disclaimer no no no we don't even need it because we're not talking devils no actually you know what listen you've heard me talking off shit about the rangers uh i'm not going to talk shit here. Shusterkin is elite. Without him, the Rangers would be an AHL team.

I think he's earned every penny. Pay the man 14. Hell, pay him 15. This man has earned every penny. Back up the Brinks truck. Give him 16. Pay Igor Shusterkin. Give him every last penny. Also, that being said, sometimes guys want to win then they

care more about the money now that igor's got the championship now that he's won he's got his regular season champion ring maybe he does want to go play in a smaller market now that he's won at all i like that i'm glad you brought it up that is a brutal banner who's getting fired for people who don't know there is a banner hung up in mad Square Garden right now that says New York Rangers 2023-2024 regular season champions. Now, tell me you haven't won a cup in 30 years. I don't get this banner and I would be 100% down with a president's trophy winners or president's trophy champions but to write regular season like that you can't put champion on regular season you can't do it president's trophy boom have it up there nice banner amazing regular season made to easter conference final

we're not being duped are we that's an actual banner that is real is that actually no that is confirmed that is real but would you expect anything else from mickey mouse franchise all right you're done you're done you cannot have a serious conversation with this guy you can't do it but the regular season it's just president's trophy fine i love it that's pretty cool to win a president's trophy but regular season champions they're the champions is not the word you can use there you can't use that word dolan called that one in probably imagine drury fought that tooth and nail use there. You can't use that word. You think Dolan called that one in? Probably. Imagine Drury fought that tooth and nail.

He's like, we can't put, Drury's a champion in everything he's ever done. Little League World Series, Stanley Cup, NCAA. You can't put regular season champions because the champions, the champions are the Florida Panthers. Did Drury captain BU to a national team? No, I believe he was a freshman. Oh, okay. here they were because i saw his banner jay pandolfo might have been the captain uh or jacques joubert i believe it was uh i saw that uh jury's banner our jersey was retired no so they don't retire um what was they have travis roy's number retired who

you know tragically was paralyzed and and passed away a couple years back and and they retired his jersey but that's the hobie baker so they have hobie baker um for it's drury it's uh matt gilroy it's maclet celebrini and jack eichel so those are the banners there okay cool um at again and and did you have a fun time at that game oh yeah yeah guys we went i went to my first ever bu game uh i'd been to asu games before uh this was great getting to sit with vc's old man who i didn't realize worked for the leafs oh he's awesome so i didn't want to bug him too much i wanted to make sure he was getting his scouting done and then chris bork was in there another former bu guy and uh i know we're getting a little sidetracked but before the game uh in college all the guys they start at the goal line and they announce the starters and they skate to

the blue line and chris bork grumpily explained that he never got to be called as a starter his whole first year or only year he played one year as it was happening and it's pretty cool like you know the band's pumping and he just leans over he was never got to do this once i'm like what and he was very good he played one year and turned pro and i and i'm like you know he goes nope was jack parker the coach david van der gulik and brad zancanaro and john the liberty started every game that year every game i was like they started every game all three good dudes i played with all of them and he's like i didn't get to do it one goddamn time he was still disgusted was he a superstitious coach uh yeah yes jack parker was a

very superstitious coach and jack parker the legendary jack parker i ran into him with grinelli and um he said what's going on what are these cameras or something like that i said oh it's for our show he goes what show is that i was like spitting chickles he's like he was just totally chirping me i fell for it and then uh he said i'd never been asked to come on that show he said you'd come on i never even thought he would and then he kind of started laughing so i'm on i'm on him now i'm so you we're still not sure whether he would actually come on based on the laugh leaving yes yeah i think he coached he must have coached 60 to 70 nhl players okay maybe that's a reach this is the famous coach where you had a tough first period and you came off and he called you in the

hallway and he grabbed you by the cage right is that what happened yeah he gave me the cage treatment in the runway behind um but he was just he was i mean he's a legend a legend one of the greatest coaches in college hockey history so i was pumped that you got to see bu it was awesome and they look awesome uh nice team that they have there so they beat union four to one pretty easy nice little start so i didn't realize lane realize Lane Hudson had two younger brothers. This Carter Hudson. No. So one of them's older.

So when Hudson's older, he's still there. He's a scoring winger. I don't believe he was drafted. Cole Hudson's younger. I forgot that. He's the freshman defenseman who looks. He looks. What'd you call him?

Carter Carter. That's okay. That's okay. It's a good job. You get this. You get the first letter, right? He he looked from i think the capitals took him maybe second round oh he was moving and shaking out he's sick he's sick and then there's another one i guess i guess there's like a 15 year old one so the hudson family the hudson the hughes

we got all these families coming up the kachuks just breeding them in all in a lab insane what did we want to chat about? We were just kind of wrapping up the Shusterkin chatter. About the Rangers. Not only is Shusterkin's contract a topic of discussion, but Frank Saravelli has mentioned the discussion with Alexis Lafreniere. This guy. His stock has raised in the last 12 months.

Holy shit. And it was the regular season last year, right around 60-ish points. Gee, maybe you could look that up quick and then the playoff was when oh my playoffs he was dominating and now off the beginning of this season it's like oh my god and the eight times eight's getting thrown around that is one where it's like oh man like gunther gunther has has not proven as much as lafreniere has i can never say his name correctly i'm sorry rangers fans you know i'm bad with names but he looks so good that i don't know if i'm taking eight by eight if i'm him 57 points 57 points last year

so jason gregor was mentioning that and he's and he kind of like prefaced it with like don't jump down my throat but like similarities to nathan mckinnon's start of his career yeah he'd never like he wasn't insane off the hop yes there was there was the the sports psychologist and just growing into a reason why he was only making just over six million was because he hadn't had that hot hot start right so you don't want to be the guy to sign that deal now and you learn from that experience where like you said like if if they're offering them eight eight and a half times eight i can understand where he's like no i want to play out this year now that i'm going to be in these first two lines getting power play reps yes they were third best power play in the league last year their puck movement that ain't changing no and even if he's not on the first unit the amount of

ice time that he's going to get and and the fact that he's he's clearly found his game in which he had in junior at this level like in that first game against pittsburgh when he does that backhand toe drag around i think it was peterson on the slide coming in the zone and his zips zips at low blocker like he is a guy that i could see getting to that 70, 80 point mark. And I would hope that they can lock him in for that fair deal. And the reason I say that is I respect the Rangers in a lot of cases right now. They're patient with their prospects. You're seeing it with Kapo Kako, although fans might not enjoy that patience. Hedl, they've given some of these guys a little bit of time to finally find their game, like Lafreniere.

And now it's finally arrived in year four. Is this four maybe year five i think this is his this might even be five now yeah i i i just think that like he's looked that much that different than the first two three years where i was kind of calling him out similar to how i did with slavkovsky when he ended up popping off like i guess if i'm like i don't know about this guy's first overall pick like that's the best thing that could happen to you but now even when pasha's telling me last night like that kid's so nasty it's like all right if he's saying it i know i'm on to something but that kind of led into what elliot was talking about something else on 32 thoughts where he was mentioning he talked to a manager now i don't know if that's a gm or who he's talking to with all his sources and that like the cba at some point's gonna end and if they could ever announce a new one at the

stanley cup final where he said gary betman always does his press conference right before game one there was like talk with elliot and whoever he was chatting with about like maybe ripping up what's left of this cba and going into the next one right away where the cap could just pop off so like would you say 105 million no i don't even know the exact like number would it be let's just make it up but it would definitely yeah say it's one so this year we're at 88 right and then they think next year would be 92 well what if next year or the year after it's like up to 100 already then i could understand like lafreniere and his agent or Shusterk and his agent being like hold on this thing's going up like we're in no rush with how good of players we know we are let's

see what this cap gets to who knows maybe it's over 92 maybe maybe we're just blowing smoke up everyone's ass right now but I get waiting when you're that confident in your game and I I really do think that that Lafreniere is going to get 80 to 80 to 90 points this year staying healthy like the way he skates and how skilled he is and the confidence that he now has when it's hard to have that confidence when you're not playing a ton of minutes and you're kind of questioning your game you're not getting power play time dude something clicks where your game changes and you know like i belong in this league and i don't just belong i'm actually an elite player and then it's the mental side we're, dude, every night I know I can get a couple points. And the Rangers, their team with Adam Fox running the PP, you already said it.

They're going to be good and they're going to score goals. Pretty crazy how things can change so quick in the National Hockey League. You go from winning the President's Trophy to now you question whether you're going to have your starting franchise goaltender and one of your best prospect forwards um you know on the books next season so it's uh it's interesting times in new york and i don't know where we were going to go from there there were a few other signings but we'll talk about those later some great stories as far as signings i was quickly going to mention on my play of the week so far uh what was dallas's first game can you look that up they beat somebody three nothing was it was it the islanders no that was their second game though they won their first

game as well was it nashville their first game was nashville they beat nashville four three pull up matthew duchesne's assist to mason marchman in that game it is a backhand saucer pass that he clears two sticks and it lands one it's not even that high it's just the defenders on him as he's on his backhand and he gets it he sauces it over his stick but then he realizes there's another defend defender in front of marchman and he gets it just to land over the second stick it is so gross it was my pass of the week and i marked it down in my notes because i i rewound it three times i was a rider i'm like look at that pass like when you can sauce it over one stick whatever no big deal unless you're biz any nhl can do that to get it

over two and land it flat unreal play unbelievable play so i had to shout that i think that we knew they were going to be good coming in going back to last year they had two first lines their second line was scoring at a rate that any first line in the league was so they're deep uh ottinger finished off with a shutout and that was against the islanders right so yes yeah that was in their second game and on just another contract that he's gonna need a deal wow and i guess like are you are you looking at swayman numbers my mind i think of ottinger and i think maybe a little bit more than Swayman. Oh, you think? Okay, okay.

So that's not crazy to think. No, not at all. Yeah, he's done more. Yes. He's done more. He's had some great runs in the playoffs. So we'll see what happens there. Before we go any further, I want to talk to you guys about game time.

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It's game time. I think next, Biz, we were going to this jersey that's next to you. Yeah. And that you, so. Shout out to Fanatics. So I mentioned how Wyatt all of a sudden likes the Leaf somehow. And then Biz and all the boys came over after the sandbagger. And now it's

like i don't know what's happened but this morning i woke up and it's go go go go and you have to be the bruin and i'll be the leash and i'm like oh my god and then biz shows up with a squanto number 16 jersey and i don't think this thing's going to be taken there's going to be ketchup all over that thing there's going to be syrup but when my son sees this jersey and biz how did you get you told him you ordered it the next day he had it shout out to fanatics they sent out both of them i i i have one that i'm just going to keep as a blankie in spirit of squanto so we have matching jerseys i've always said that i don't don't wear anybody else's name on my back. I have a blank one on currently.

So I just wanted to have the dual jerseys. And like I said, shout out to fanatics. And the reason that I put 16, I just think that Marner is going to play with the Squanto spirit this year. And you laugh all you want. He had no points.

The first two games, what happened game three after I posted it, he had a sick goal. He had a sick goal. Yeah. Listen to this one. You guys can go back and watch the goal that no nice scores. And that puts them ahead. two games what happened game three after i posted it he had a sick goal he had a sick goal yeah listen to this one you guys can go back and watch the goal that no nice scores and that puts them ahead i want to say two one marner could make a play up the middle a high-risk pass to to matthew streaking in he doesn't do it what did he do with he dumped it in fucking dumped it in like a

playoff style dump playoff style dump and ends up going right to nize off the end wall some people say lucky bounce he made the right play and he was rewarded he knew that they had the momentum and he didn't want to give it away by making a high risk play to the middle of the ice he gets the assist on that one and just as the game is getting a little bit close it's two one things are getting tight boom gets shot out of a cannon individual effort along the wall and goes low blocker on i think it's blowquist is that you say i believe i believe so which he got to start over jari and jari didn't look great in that first game no so it's like oh my god what's going on here six nothing shit kicking so marner one and one as the spirit of squanto is now in him and i think he's going to

carry that into the playoffs and we're going to see a whole different Leafs team. But in the goaltending aspect. Buddy, bring it to me. Okay. Bring it to me. You talked about wall. And I had a tweet that that song you sing, that stupid song led directly to that injury,

that lower body injury. Nobody knows what's going on. Who knows? And health's been an issue for this kid. What do you think because now now stolars isn't this is this is what i was going to say okay go ahead is that you're in panic mode because you're using losing your your number one goalie and joseph wall and he has had trouble staying healthy right even going back to last year's playoffs but they pick

up stolars in the offseason this guy has championship pedigree. He was Bobrovsky's backup in Florida. He knows what it takes to win. He's been a journeyman his entire career. He's at that perfect age for a net minder. And I think he's exactly where he needs to be in order to take that starting role and at least have the confidence to run with it because of that experience he's gained up until now. Everybody I've talked to loves him.

I know nothing about goaltending but he's six six he's a beast in the net and so far through the first two games that he's played he's looked unbelievable and you want to talk about leaf's depth in that how about this hildeby guy the hildebeest hildebeest six seven from sweden so maybe he's the guy maybe it's not wall so g like once again i don't follow the goalies that closely but he played for the Marlies a little bit the last two years. He was a name that got brought up a ton last year at the deadline is what G's telling me. Teams really wanted this guy based on his mechanics, his size.

He's like these new wave goaltenders. He was built in a lab with. So, not only do we have Joseph Wall, not only do we have Stolarz as a a 1a 1b situation i love saying that and then you got this guy that you can move up and down all season long because he's still on an entry-level contract the leafs have three goaltenders but when you got you everybody when you got three do you have one what do you mean we're talking about the rangers and how good this team is because the igor shusterkin. You need a legitimate starting goalie.

And this is coming from an Oilers fan who's questioning, is Stuart Skinner that? I understand the excitement of the Hilda Beast and Stolar. Then you got Wall who's injured. There are definitely question marks there. To try to win a Stanley Cup, if you're talking about we got three guys it's like do you have one i would rather have three really good goalies that you know that one of them can go on a run and has the mechanics to sustain that yeah you saw what wall does not get rattled you play off time he's in the zone he's got a great head on his shoulders stole ours that's why i mentioned

his age 30 years old journeyman he's got the cup the weights off his shoulders he's hey he's playing with the house's money now it's kind of like verhage man he kind of been been fuck he never even got to unpack his suitcases now all of a sudden he's a starter in toronto because wool goes down well he also doesn't have to brunt all of that pressure either because you got the hildebeest three fucking guys in net and like I said Hildebee entry-level contract he can go down there's no drama there and you can keep him starting games with the Marlies he could take the net and take the reins there so all right I know I know you got me a little there you should worry about your own goddamn goal I am issues I am so you should be worried about that entire team but I don't want to go into them quite yet. Cause I do want to mention how good Steven Lorenz looks for the Leafs so

far. And I saw a great on Twitter. He put up a yearbook picture. I think it was like eighth grade yearbook. Where will you be in 15 years? It said playing in the NHL. And then he put in parentheses for the Leafs. And now he's there.

Like what a cool story. Like the fact when you see things like that happen. And I mean, this guy won a Stanley cup with Florida and he was good there he stepped in he is a barubi type player and the fourth line there it looks good so like the leafs solid start now matthews hasn't scored i think i'm going to start by the way i bet him to score in the first game of the year against montreal because it feels like he always does since his four goal game to begin his career he had six shots on net i think two posts he didn't score i had a huge bet on it so kicking the dick there i'm kind of crying for myself right now but i'm gonna move forward and i'm gonna bet hat trick matthews

every game because you know that's what that's what these guys do like people say like oh until you get your first goal it's kind of a panic no no no for some people it is for mid-tier players if it's 10 games they don't have a goal they start panicking austin matthews one of these games he's gonna get a hat trick you heard it here first at least two the game he scores his first goal he'll get two and i'm gonna bet three so i just want to shout that out because he he's getting so many chances but the lorenz thing's cool in the fourth line that started off brutal last year has looked solid yeah and since we're on the leafs uh two other things I was going to mention.

I thought Max Domi's looked incredible. He's playing with so much confidence and patience. He's making plays. I think he's got three assists right now. He's actually leading their team in points because they have kind of spread it out throughout their lineup. And I just think he was born to be a Leaf going back to last year. Took him about 20 games to get his feet wet and then he really progressed in the back half and then you can't say enough about his playoffs he had to slide over to center

ice given the shit show that was going on he was snapping back draws i don't think he fucking lost one in the games that he was playing center uh he was scoring having assists he was one of their their top scorers come playoff time and then tanev just how much he brings to the defensive side of their game you can go and watch the tape the first few games but he's so good at at not overreacting to the play and kind of hanging back where there was a few backdoor plays that the other team made and all he did was he was just calm on the other side anticipating it had a stick in the lane stick on puck boom the play's dead and they're off going the other way so he i i've seen a bunch of tweets about it and the appreciation is like oh this is what a true shutdown uh defensive defenseman is supposed to look like and then the rest of the

guys on the team kind of get to go do what they do like morgan riley i think he's an unbelievable second third style defenseman i do think that oliver should maybe get a few power play reps to see if he can find chemistry maybe even on that top unit so they have a well rounded decor right now and they got goaltending and i love not only what they have in the top six but what they got as far as the mcmahons the robertsons all those other names down there the holmbergs and what they got cooking and the rents so credit to that gm uh tree living and their staff on everything they've done i love love you love the leafs love the leafs you love the love the leafs okay well aware on that one which i respect your

fandom and i respect that squanto jersey that my son has until i throw it in the trash and have to deal with the wrath of thank you. Thank you to Fanatics. What did I want to bring up next? Oh, speaking of goalies, we've chatted some goalies here. Jusso's on waivers for Detroit. I mean, kind of a crazy story. Had the starting job in St. Louis over Binnington, what, two years ago? Yeah, up until playoffs.

And I think it switched over in playoffs in the first round. And then I guess the other night, Army's telling me, I didn't see this game, but I guess he let in some horrible goals against Pittsburgh. They got whacked 6-3. They had a nice win, a 3-0 win against the Preds. So Detroit's 1-1. But I was shocked to see this. Like, whoa, what's going on there?

And that's a team that really needs goaltending. That's a team who would probably pay Shusterka. They're talking about don't want to pay anyone more than what Dylan Larkin makes. Dude, Detroit needs a goalie, and now he's on waivers. Now, I've seen reports that apparently this could be like a cap thing because they need to get a forward up with Christian Fisher possibly being injured. I don't know exactly what's going on, but I didn't know if you had any thoughts there besides just the fact that that's the goalie position and how fickle it can be and that's why when you talk about paying

guys like shusterkin it's like these guys are are mentally able to handle the starting position where you got a guy who had the season you know a career season and two years later he's on waivers so it's just really hard to find those guys in net that you can rely on and pay and you that's why you got to pay him the big buck so hopefully it just is a wire move we've went on to talk about guys like jordan martinook where this has happened and all of a sudden they're back up and that was their i don't want to say their wake-up call but a turning point for them and i mean you you wish everybody success right so this guy went from a starter to where he is now so let's hope he can get it back.

You're right, Biz. And I actually totally forgot about the legend himself, Matt Sundin. I was going to throw to him after we talked about your Toronto Maple Leafs, but I forgot. And how could I ever forget? So right now, let's go to Matt Sundin, the legend Hall of Famer. Whip, before we go any further, I got to talk to you guys about DraftKings. The quest for the Stanley Cup starts now.

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Void in Ontario. Bonus bets expire 168 hours after issuance. For additional terms and responsible gaming resources, see dkng.co slash ice. resources, see DKNG.co slash ice. It's an absolute honor now to be joined by a true legend of the game of hockey, a hockey hall of famer, an Olympic gold medalist, and the first European player ever selected first overall in the NHL entry draft. Matt Sundin, thank you so much for joining Spittin' Chicklets. Thanks for having me, guys. What a nice introduction, too. Yeah, I really practiced that one overnight.

Biz was begging me to allow him to do it, but I said, no, your Leafs jersey is enough here for this interview. No, I couldn't have done it. I'm too nervous. He's too nervous. I called Ty this afternoon to get a few questions for the pod, and I said, Ty, I'm a little nervous. He goes, just to remind Matt how nervous he was the first time he got to hang out with Mario Lemieux. remind Matt's how nervous he was the first time he got to hang out with Mario Lemieux he said that that was who you you wanted to emulate you had so much respect for him and you got to spend some time overseas with him and he said you were like a kid in a candy store

for sure what a player and and absolutely when I broke into the league just to get on the ice with Lemieux you know as a 19 year old coming over and Wayne Gretzky. And don't forget in Sweden, you know, back in those days in 89, 90, you know, we couldn't follow NHL very good over here. And you saw the, it was like playing against, you know, cartoon heroes that you watch and just hear it about Lemieux and Gretzky. And Mario was a... What a player.

He was the player I just enjoy watching most. So before YouTube and all the streaming that you can now have, how would you... Would you see random clips on Swedish TV once a month? How did you even see anything about these guys? You know? And I mean, back in those days, like Swedish TV like once a month or like how did you even see anything about these guys you know

and and um I mean back in those days it was like two TV two TV channels in Sweden there was like news clips like two or three days late about the NHL scores and they show some highlights from the Stanley Cup playoffs from the finals that was it but So the big stars in the National Hockey League, obviously the Lemieux, Gretzky, we only heard about and followed a little bit. And also the top Swedish players at the time, Mats Nasslund and Montreux was one of the stars in the league and one of the big Swedish stars, Håkan Lube eventually.

But there were some players, but not very many. So it was tough to follow the National Hockey League back in the days. And now Sweden is just the same as Canada, North America. All the kids, they follow the National Hockey League right from the get-go. We're going to dive, obviously, into your career right from the beginning. We usually go in chronological order from your childhood. But as of right now, since retirement, have you found a new passion outside of hockey like what are you doing mostly with your time now well i mean the biggest thing i got going is you know i got kids late so three year three years after i

retired i got we got our daughter she's turning 12 now and we have two boys one is turning 10 in a couple weeks and we have a little boy, he's seven. So that's what keeps me really busy. And the middle guy plays a little hockey, there's basketball, all kinds of different sports. Driving around the city here in Stockholm, chasing them around. And I've always been big on outdoors. So fishing, I go to Norway, we're fishing the outbacks of Sweden and some hunting too. So I do some of that in the fall.

So we're lucky enough that your book was released and you decided to write a book. And we already kind of pumped its tires prior to this interview. I was just wondering what made you want to do that? I mean, I guess just adding an author to your incredible resume sounded nice. Well, I think it was now or never, right? It was, you know, I'm 53 now. I still remember my childhood and what was going on and also my career. So I got a request for the last couple of years to do a book, and I thought it was time now.

The kids are old enough. I do have the time to for the next i mean we started last summer we spent 12 months with a great writer and hockey coach she's coaching her son in toronto amy stewart and she's followed my career uh herself so it was a great collaboration and a lot of work but but also a lot of fun. So it's just, and for my kids too, I figured they don't care about my career. They don't want to watch any old YouTube clips from some goals on TV. So I thought it was kind of nice to kind of wrap that up.

And hopefully the next few years, they're going to be able to read it and say, oh, our dad was actually a pretty good hockey player. Hey, it's funny you bring that so my oldest is seven and uh i've started saying like hey i got some highlights on youtube here and there and then like you pull up the picture of of when i played and when you played it like it ain't hd and they're just like what is this they must think it's the 1950s it's medieval times well that's how the game was played too when you were playing yeah it was it was different game i mean you you watched the league right now and but it's actually interesting to watch now the guys are become a little bit bigger again it's i think i feel

it's more physical again and there's some big boys out there but they can still fly around so but definitely uh with the clutch and grab era and all the stuff that was going on, it was a different game too. Matt, how did you start playing hockey as a child? Did your father do it? Was it in the family? Yeah. I grew up, both my mom, especially my mom, but also my dad.

My dad used to be a goalie. He's from a small town two hours northwest of Stockholm. And my mom and my dad, they are sports nut. My mom is 81 today and my dad is 79. They still watch all sports on TV, anything that goes on. They follow the National Hockey League. So I think just being around in that that environment growing up they let us i have two brothers one older brother he's four years

older than me and they let us just play any sports we wanted so hockey was always the one we enjoy the most but we play soccer you know bandy is a sport i don't know if you heard about that it's on a soccer pitch size field but it's on skates, actually. You play with kind of field hockey sticks. I know there's something in Canada as well. So we were into all kinds of sports, and, you know, they let us just play around. So it's kind of just from growing up.

Very similar, I think, to Canadian kids grew up in our era, but also how kids grew up today. So a lot of sports growing up very very similar i think to canadian and our kids grew up in in our era but also how kids grew up today so a lot of sports growing up i think the most interesting thing for us interviewing players is that some kids were always the best and then some kids were late bloomers and became very good at 15 16 even like you always were you always one of the biggest kids and sometimes that can almost hinder you when you're 10 and 11. I didn't know how it was for you growing up skill-wise. Yeah. So I was lucky.

I was chasing my older brother right from the get-go. And I'm sure the first few... And four years is a big age difference. But he was out playing on the lake. And when they went out skating at home, I always wanted to follow him around. He told my mom, please don't bring Matt. He can't even skate. But they let me, and so that gave me a very early start.

And I was a big talent right from the get-go. Both my two brothers played hockey in Sweden as much as I did, but I did have a special gift for hockey right from the get-go i wasn't that much bigger and i grew i was kind of laid into puberty and grew a lot from 16 to right up to 22 almost like i went from i know when i was drafted i was 188 centimeters maybe like six what is that six two and a half or six three and i kept growing and added like 20 almost 30 pounds the next three four years and ended up at six five and you know played at the end of my career 230 to 225 so i grew late did you always have a great work ethic

and maybe who were some of the other swed that you looked up to outside of your brother? Like people maybe playing for the national team and people maybe who had already broke into the NHL at that time? Yeah. Mats Nasslund was one guy that I was able to watch a lot. Kent Nilsson. You guys remember him? He had a- Yeah.

I played with his son. Very talented. Yeah. I played with his son. Very talented. Yeah. But then I had a, you know, I was a big talent. And when I got to Jurgarden, who was at the time the best team in Sweden, I was fortunate enough to come in to a great group when I was 18, just a year before I turned pro. great group when I was 18, just a year before I turned pro.

And I got to learn what it takes to be on a championship team, and the work ethic and the culture on that team was fantastic. So I was a great talent, and I learned when I was 18, 19, that if you've got to get to the highest level of hockey, you've got to match that with hard work and do all this stuff. That is important to become a great hockey player. So I had a lot of good mentors and good people around me, especially in my late teens. Which I'm sure helped with the transition,

because when you came from overseas, it was right into the NHL with the Quebec Nordiques, where you played early in your career. So your first year you come in, you felt like you were more ready because of that experience you were gaining. It was an easier transition. Yeah, but it was still a shock. One of my first games, playing on the big ice surface. And I remember one of the first exhibition games with Quebec.

I think we played Hartford or Buffalo. After four minutes, it was a bench-clearing brawl, and I'm like, what's going on? I'm looking around for the smallest guy on the other team. I'd never been in a fight on the ice, and you see all guys just bench-clearing. Everybody's out on the ice. And guys like Darren Kimball,

Tony Twist on our team, Wayne Van Door. It was just a, it was a crazy first year and still a huge transition year, you know, being 19. And I think the average age on that team, Joe Sackick, you know, average age was 21, think so very young group

you could tell the the future of of and little did people know it'd be in colorado but it was yeah it was the amazing core but quickly going back to before the draft i mean as i mentioned in the intro first european ever drafted first overall so even today like you'll hear a russian's name as a possible first overall and people like, I don't know. So I imagine then there had to be people that kind of question like, oh, a Swede's going to go first overall. Did you did you hear that noise? Did you even know that that was definitely going to be the case with Quebec taking you like take us through that draft in 89? Well, I think and especially with the book, that's one of the funniest thing. Amy Stewart was laughing

when we started the book right she was oh my god were you guys this naive you know in 89 in Sweden people didn't even know what the draft was like we didn't like there was no when I was 17 I remember playing a four-nation tournament in uh I think it was in Czech Republic or somewhere in Europe. And, you know, the scouts started to come there. And one of the first scouts that gave me a pin was Pat Quinn. And he came up to me and he said, hey, Matt, great game. You know, I think you're going to be a star in the National Hockey League one day. That was the first time I was thinking, wow, maybe I'm going to make it over there. That was the first time you was thinking wow maybe i'm gonna make it over there that was

the first time you really thought that just hearing it from him yes that's amazing yeah and and uh when i when i was drafted i had a few agents coming over i i went with an agent from boston we went to the draft in minnesota and it was uh shock for me. I had my dad there and a couple other fellows. But so the whole experience, and also in Sweden, it was like all of the news, they were explaining for the Swedish people what it meant being picked first overall and how the draft works and all that. So it was an eye-opening thing, not only for me and my family, but for people in Sweden too.

So that's when people in Sweden started to learn about the National Hockey League a little more too and what the draft meant. And nowadays, if you're picked first overall, I mean, boom, you're thrown into the fire. But you went back to Sweden for one final year. Was it your choice? Was the team like, listen, take another year over there? Or how did it come about that you didn't go right to quebec well i was actually supposed to

play one more year in sweden and uh but but uh the swedish team that i played on like i said thomas eric sutton used to play for the flyers defense men we had seven or eight guys that were in the national team for team sweden they won the championship the year before and we won that year when i was part of the team so um uh it was it was always planned to play one more year and and i when i look back at 19 and still growing so much i remember being you know lanky and and and still growing so much. I remember being, you know, lanky and, and, and still growing both in length and try to put some weights on. So for me, it was actually good to be one more year in Sweden and, and, uh, get adjusted to playing against adults and, and, and big men.

So pretty, uh, young team in Quebec, but you guys had Guy Lafleur on the roster, which, I mean, you talk about a French Canadian legend or Mario Lemieux, I mean, Guy Lafleur is, I mean, mean you talk about a French Canadian legend and Mario Lemieux I mean Guy Lafleur is I mean he's he's the one of the OGs like what was it like playing with him like was he still smoking cigarettes at the time or were more people smoking cigarettes in the locker room so therefore the ones who didn't have to leave the room like how does that all work I mean I come in the back I mean my first game I was probably at the ring three hours for the game and and just to set up you know coming into an NHL hockey dressing room where all the gears perfect place the sweaters the socks pants there's your name I come into the room and in the

locker room and there's there's my sweater number 13 it was like i got goosebumps and i walk around the locker room and every all the whole team is there except one gila flores his whole stall is gone his sweater's gone pants everything skates everything so i walk around the back room into the equipment room and there's when i come around the corner there's gila flores doing this he's got full gear on game jersey on. It's like more than two and a half hours before the game. Game jersey on, everything, skates on, taping a stick, and he looks over to me, and he looks at me like,

Matt, great to see you here in time. Preparation. If you want to be a great off the player, you have to prepare. I can tell right away you're going to have a career at all you know full gear out three hours before the game oh yeah and he was i think it was 39 39 20th season maybe turned 40 already oh my god why did he get dressed so early like that's that's it's not very comfortable being in your skates that long get skates laced up and everything and i don't know but but he always told me to math shoot the puck tabarnak shoot the puck don't pass it and then gila fleur had uh in quebec he played his last two games of his career home and home against the canad Oh my God. A Friday,

Saturday on Friday in Quebec city. He got a 15 minute standing ovation. Oh my God. We're standing. I mean, you guys know we're standing on the blue line on the backs. Our feet are killing us. You know,

he's skating by himself around the rink. And the next night, of course, in Montreal, they have to beat it. So it's a 17 minuteminute scull division in Montreal. He was trying to tell you you had to prepare by getting your gear on and be able to hang out for three hours before you do anything.

That's what he was actually telling you. That is incredible. Any other fun stories? I mean, those are two incredible ones, but God, what a guy. I think the first year was just uh uh the level of competition compared to europe you know how how you can tell the guys were competing for jobs and your intensity in the practice the demand from the coaches when you sign a national hockey league contract you know you think, wow, I'm going to make a lot of money.

I'm going to go over and have fun for a few years. And the responsibility of being picked number one, it comes with a lot of demands, responsibility, but also you've got to score goals. You've got to prove that you're worth being number one. So I think that was a big shock and adjustments and all the fights in back in those days it was crazy how was media how was media in quebec like would they get on

you and because of maybe the language barrier was it easy for you to just ignore if it ever came i think they were they were fine with us they we i in, it was a rebuilt year. We missed the playoffs, obviously. So they were pretty nice to us, I think, because it was a rebuilt year. But, you know, the games and coaches, I mean, still, you know, it's a professional hockey league. The demand is there on the players to perform. So it was a tough adjustment from playing, at the time, 40 games in Europe to come into a 80 game schedule,

the travel, the intensity of the games, playing the likes like Lemieux, Gretzky's tough. All teams are good. There's no easy night. So it was a huge adjustment and, and making sure you take care of yourself right away.

I know that Quebec played one more year in the nhl like after you were you were traded to toronto but when you were there were there even rumblings at that time that they would be moving and they'd be ending up in colorado was that kind of all went down that 94 95 season your first year in toronto i think it was the year after i i left and i got traded to Toronto, I think. So there was nothing going on there. But I hear right now they might get a new team up there. That would be great because it's a great hockey town and great fans. And the rivalry between the Canadians and the Quebec Nordiques were great.

They were great games. I think it was William Nylander when he got drafted to Toronto and it was in this new Amazon series that just came out. I guess he didn't realize how big it was and it was a little overwhelming for him. Was it the case for you? I'm sure you'd already played there on the road, but were you aware of the fandom there?

You almost feel like you're in New York City of Canada. Exactly. I keep telling everybody, what is it like to play for the Toronto Maple Leafs? It's really impossible to describe until you wear the jersey you have on there and go out for a game and just understand the fan base

and the love for the team, not only in Toronto, not only in Ontario, but you go into LA, half of the building is cheering for the team not only in toronto not only in ontario but you go into la half of the building is cheering for the maple leaves you're in tampa you're in florida same thing you go to calgary almost more league fans in the building anywhere we went in the league half of the building is cheering for the maple leaves so the the following, and you know, it's like the New York Yankees in baseball or in Europe, I try to explain for people, imagine, you know, Real Madrid or Barcelona in soccer. That's what

the Toronto Maple Leafs is an institution in Canada and in Ontario and in Toronto. And just to play for the Toronto Maple Leafs, it's like nothing else in hockey. We've chatted with players before who played for Pat Burns, and that's your coach in Toronto when you get there. And it was kind of made evident to us that he played no favorites. He was as hard on the best player as he was on the fourth liner. Do you remember getting there and him challenging you and maybe calling you out at different times?

Yeah. My first meeting with him, he was sitting in his office, and I come in, and I just got – it was in December when I got traded. I flew in for a press conference to meet coaches, and Cliff Fletcher obviously was the GM, and I come in the room, and he's sitting there. He's got the reading glasses on. I'll never forget it yet. He's got his little small office there, and he's sitting there he's got the you know the reading glasses on i'll never forget it yet it's you know um off a little small office that he got up hey matt how are you sit down

and he's he's you know asking me will you you mind playing the right wing or on the second line and i you know i said you know what i'll play anywhere i you know i'm i think it was 23 or 24 whatever and that's fine we're looking forward to the season he was excited and he asked me a couple questions then he he's drawn on the on the paper here just after watching me drew a little thing on the paper and he gave it to him i said what's it was this this is the this is the the the roadmap to the gym here at the Maple Leaf Gardens. You're going to want to be in there a lot this year. That was his way of communicating,

like you got to put on the weight if you want to be successful here. I actually hopped by by accident. You had had 115 points season, had four amazing years in Quebec, young first overall pick, and you were traded. What was the shock factor like for you? Did you see that coming, and did it make any sense now or then? Well, the way I understood it, it was my agent.

We talked. I think my contract was up. And I think Quebec got a new GM that came in. And obviously, we missed the playoffs the year before. We lost to Montreal, I think, the year before that and missed the playoffs, and he said, we're never going to get to where we want to be with Quebec. And then it was all, I never, you know,

you're so young at that age too, so I don't really know what's going on. My understanding was they couldn't get even close to an agreement, and then they were there i mean come back and i don't know where where toronto came in and that or my agent so but eventually it was a trade that summer was it hard for you to see them go off to colorado and then and then win the cup and have success like first year oh no like shit yeah it took them yeah it took them a couple years after i left but uh no not really i i think they you know uh i think i mean if you look back quebec city is a great

hockey town and i'm sure i don't think the guys obviously playing in colorado care if they won the cup in quebec or colorado obviously but you know not really there was great players on the team peter forspray obviously i know really well great player There was great players on that team. Peter Forspray, obviously, I know really well. Great player and a great human being. So I was glad to see many of the guys that I played with there win the Cup. Getting to Toronto, like Doug Gilmore's there and Dave Anderchuk's there. Like, who did you become close with right away? And as Biz mentioned, you know, prior to the interview or at the beginning,

like the room was apparently so close. Yeah, you guys had a good culture there that you'd established for a period of time. And those are, in my opinion, the glory years, right? I wasn't alive for the Stanley Cup. So that era of the Wendell Clarks, you, Gilmore, the Cujos, that's what I remember. Yeah.

Well, I think a guy that helped me a lot when i got there my first year was dave ellett i stayed with him coming to toronto and i understood after that was kind of hard because dave and uh wendell clark were really if not best friends they were really close and uh but they was great to me he took me under his wing my first year until I got my own apartment in Toronto. And obviously Dougie, fantastic leader and player. And he had that combination of such a hard-nosed, great hockey player, but also a very relaxed and great teammate off the side. So I think both the years with Joe Sackick, Doug Gilmore, and then I played with Wendell too.

It made a big impact on me. All three great leaders and great, not only great players, but great people off the ice. They influenced me a lot in the type of player and lead that I became after that. I agree, though. They were great years. We had some tough years. My first years were the Leafs.

But once moving to the arcana center we made it to the conference finals and and had some really strong runs after that i just i look at like toronto and and how crazy it is to play there and you can't hide and for you it must have been a little shocking and difficult at times especially once you were named captain where are you trying to find little hidden gems in the city to have dinner but you just realize at one point there's there's no hiding at all well it was a little bit different back in the days unfortunately like there was no social media and all that so yeah we had we had our spots we went for dinner and and um and lunch uh but i think and and i think that that's the same up until, and even more important today, I think one of the reasons why I was able to play in Toronto for 13 years and being the captain for 11 was that

I think once I left the rink, whether it was after practice or games, I had a really good off button. I I could, I didn't watch the news. I didn't read the papers. I just try to go leave the rink and knowing I was going to be there the next day for three hours or four hours or get on the road as another practice. And we really try to keep my mind away from hockey and away from the game. And, you know, even even though and you guys know how much media and the pressure of the media is on players and on the team but my 13 years in

Toronto I never had one fan come up to me and criticize me of my play and or how the team is doing like the love for the team and the fan base of toronto is unique and it's fantastic but it it comes with a lot of pressure but i mean uh it's a fantastic city to be a player and what's better than people caring about how the team is doing uh i would i wouldn't change that for anything you mentioned pat burns joking about the weight room like obviously at a certain point you he gained so much respect for you based on the time and effort you put in the player you became what what are some other uh stories of you guys and your time together and the and the player that he helped you become

yeah i think pat burris was important for me i think he he wanted to play me more center as well. So my game, when I broke in, high skill offense, scoring a lot of goals and being productive, but I played a little bit center, started in Quebec, but he really made me like a full-time. He played me on the wing a little bit with Dougie and on the power play, but those years, he helped me really become a better defensive player and a more complete player, better in both ends, play good defensively, being more supportive of the defense and understanding too that, listen, whether you get 40 goals or 50, if we don't win,

we're not going to do anything anyway. And, and so he helped me with that. And I think I became a more all around sentiment and better defensively under Pat Burns. You had three or four coaches in your first few years in Toronto and then Pat Quinn comes in and in your book, you know, you talk about the relationship you have with him and what did he, what did he mean to you? Like what made him such a special coach for you and that group

where you had those nice runs in the playoffs? Well, we had a special relationship, me and Pat Quinn. I think Pat had such a demeanor in the dressing room. His presence, it was automatically respect, right? He didn't have to say anything, just the way he, his manners and all that. And he was so respected by all the guys. He was a player's coach, protected his players. And at the same time, you know, we had, you know, we didn't see every day

or all the time, like the game, how we should be successful. We wanted the same goal, obviously, to go as far in the playoffs. So we had our moments, but at the end of the day, I have tremendous respect for Pat Quinn, and he helped me keep developing as a player. And just like Pat Burns, he demanded the most out of the top players to not only be productive, but also take care of defense.

And they both knew if you're going to go far in the playoffs, we have to play good defensively and not only be scoring a lot of goals. Who was a player, whether it was a defenseman or another centerman, that just kind of gave you fits that you'd play against? You're like, I know I'm in for a long night the way this guy plays. Did you have one guy that comes to mind over the course of your career? There's so many great ones. I think one of the toughest ones were, let's say, Sergey Fedorov,

such a complete player uh you know almost he was a great offensive player but he was almost better defensively right so he's one of the toughest ones i think that that comes to mind unbelievably strong on the puck great on face-offs read the eyes perfectly in the going offense but also on the defensive side. So I would say Sergio Federer was probably the toughest sentiment to play against that I played. I mean, Lemieux, the Gretzky's obviously, but Federer was hard to play against.

Obviously falling short on the Stanley Cup. I would imagine 2006 when you won the gold medal was probably your biggest achievement as a hockey player. Was that the pinnacle, would you say, of your career, bringing a gold medal back to Swedeneden i think i mean it's the only time uh team sweden has won a tournament when all countries have their best players represented so it never happened before i think in 84 sweden was in the finals canada cup you know and it hasn't hasn't happened since either so but you know I was 35

or just turned 36 I think oh six and when you're at that age it was kind of more of a relief almost it was not the joy you would feel when you're 25 or so winning a Olympic gold or a you know a big tournament so it was a relief and it was a perfect ending for my my my career in the national i mean in the for the national team i didn't play in the national team anymore and it was an unbelievable roster if you look at that team and the players that were on there sadine twins and forsberg and setterbergs andstrom. And Henrik Lundqvist was arguably, if not the best, he was the top three goal in the league at the time. So it was a great team.

And, you know, we missed out in Salt Lake City. And in Nagano, it was our last chance for me and Lidstrom as well to win a goal. I watched the highlights of that game this morning. And 2-2 going to the third opening faceoff. You snap it over to Forsberg. He comes in, gives it to you. You drop it to Lidstrom.

Maybe the three best Swedes ever to play. And it almost looked like it could have been a set play. Like, was it? Or was it just you saw Lidstrom and I'm going to put it in his wheelhouse? That's just vision, baby. That's vision. No. You know what happened?

I'm going to put it in his wheelhouse. That's just vision, baby. That's vision. No, you know what happened? Saku Koivu, who took the draw against, it was a four-on-four, and Saku Koivu broke his stick when he took the draw. And I yelled, as soon as he saw that, he went to the bench to get a new stick. I yelled at Peter, and he told me that after. He said, Matt, you yelled so fucking loud.

He jumped on the, he just flew down the wing. So we had a four-on-three there for a few seconds. So I knew Lindström was going to be open, and he came in an obviously perfect shot. So you're right. It was a magic moment, and they actually made a little documentary about just that goal over here in Sweden a couple of years ago, because it was special with Lidstrom scoring and me and Peter assisting. What was the celebration like?

Did you have to go right back to the NHL teams or were you guys able to go to Stockholm for a couple of days? I think you guys painted Henrik Lundqvist gold, didn't you? After the game, he had the full body paint on and gold celebrating with the medal. Yeah, but I think the final was on a, I think it was a Monday or so. I think we had a game in Toronto on Wednesday night. And Team Sweden said, you know,

City of Stockholm wants to come back. We can charter a plane, you know, the next morning on Monday morning, I think it was. And we flew back. I mean, Tuesday morning, we flew back. It was like, you know, they met us with the, you know, the, it was a huge celebration. They met us with the Swedish air force are up side our planes landing in Sweden. And there was, you know, 40,000 people down in a big square in Stockholm. We had a party that night.

I remember talking to, I think it was John Ferguson Jr. He was the GM at the time. I called him that day and I said, Matt, we have a game tomorrow. I was hoping he was going to say, you don't have to play the game tomorrow. I was like, but I think you have to play. You don't have to play a lot, but we need you out there because we were fighting for a playoff spot. So next morning, flew back to Toronto, landed in around 11 or noon, jet lagged, had a few drinks, too many, celebrating the gold, and then slept for, I think think four or five hours and then got on the

ice to play the game that was that was a hard game how are you how are you probably had one it was not pretty but i think i had an assist in a four three lost okay all right well since since we're on the swedish hockey topic uh björg salming and your friendship with him and what he met to swedish hockey and and really paving the way for for swedish players to come over to the nhl with the punishment that he took in those early days i mean you mentioned the fighting that was going on when you got over it was probably times two when he started his career over with the toronto maple leafs yeah and and boria guys i mean you guys know what an icon in Canada and in Toronto, but same in Sweden.

And when I became the captain or traded first to Toronto, I was actually in Borea Salmings Hockey School. It's in Kiruna. It's north of the Arctic Circle in the very north of Sweden. And that's when I realized I became a Toronto Maple Leafs. I was able to sit with Borey. He could tell me everything, what it meant playing for the Toronto Maple Leafs. And then a few years later, being asked to be the captain for the Maple Leafs, I called Borey right away and I said, Borey, what do you think?

Can I handle this? And he told me right away, he said, Mats, you have to accept. And I said, Bordy, what do you think? Can I handle this? And he told me right away, he said, Mats, you have to accept. And I said, why is that? He said, it's the biggest honor you can have as a hockey player to be the captain for the Toronto Maple Leafs. And he also told me that he regretted not accepting it. He was asked at least once, I think,

and he didn't want to, he didn't want that. He said extra pressure. He wasn't comfortable really with his english and he said he regretted that the rest of his career so it was an easy decision for me and he became a mentor for me for my years in toronto and a good friend he gave me a tips where to go fishing in northern sweden and i still go there same place 30 years later we go there every summer and and just the way it ended for bory with als and and the whole deal is such a terrible thing for a great human being and even a better person off the ice than he was on the ice yeah he kind of

just proved how how tough like swedish players are right like he he took a beating and then he was hard to play against himself too where i think there was a rep like oh you can get on these guys it was like not this guy and and now every swedish player is so difficult to play against i imagine his kind of memory and how he went about things is is how a lot of swedish kids and and players your age looked looked the game. Oh, for sure. And he, you know, I think he gave, just like you said, I'm sure a lot of general managers and teams in the NHL were like, Swedish players, can they really play this different style of hockey?

And you're right. I mean, Borja came over there, there you know toughest nails and and the stuff that he went through during his career made gave the rest of us an opportunity to come over there and play he really paved the way for all of us so when you became captain and after talking to him and realizing the honor it was like what about you changed within the locker room like obviously you're talking to the media way more which which can be kind of exhausting at times. But were you more vocal in the room or did you just kind of keep doing the same thing you've been doing and try to just be as responsible on the ice as you ever have been? to all the great leaders that I've seen played with, played against. Joe Sackick, Scott Niedermeyer, Wendell Clark, Doug Gilmore,

Niklas Lidström was the first Swedish captain to win a Stanley Cup as a captain. I mean, all of them, and I think being around Zach and Doug as well, I was the same way. They all lead by example. I think it's the only way to influence other people. You know how they say about kids, kids don't do what the adults say, they do what they do. I think it's the same with us. In a dressing room, if you watch your captain or your best player

or your highest player, the work ethic, if it's there, the hardest working guy, you're first in the gym, you stay on the ice, take more shots. How do you treat other people in the room? Not only players, trainers, the lady or the man down in the garage when you park your car all of that i think brings a culture in that all those guys and i try to do that my career and that sets an example i think that makes all the players around you want to follow you and great leaders make other players better around you right and i think all the guys i named and i'm sure most of the leaders around the league the captains that the win you need that culture in a group to be able to win championships you mentioned lidstrom would you guys joke in the locker room about how easy he

made it look he would play 28 minutes and he he'd just be so fluid he'd never make a mistake didn't say a word either i mean i don't i don't say a make a mistake. Didn't say a word either. I mean, I don't, I don't say a lot, but Nicholas doesn't say a word, but he has that demeanor about him. And, and I know Glenn, Ilya and a shell alumni always said, here he comes the perfect human being. Uh, what does he got eight Norris trophy and five Stanley cups and Olympic goals. And he just goes about his business hardest working guy

great shape and you guys don't know that but Niklas Lindström didn't really get the respect he deserved until he won that gold in 06 for Team Sweden he was always in the playoffs over in

the National Hockey League so he never got to play in the World Championships or any other tournaments, right? And I was very glad for him that when he scored that winning goal and he finally got the respect that he deserves in Sweden as well. This run in Toronto was incredible, and it was so long, but at one point it became obvious, or not obvious, but you moved on to Vancouver. And I just want to kind of hear your opinion on how it all went down,

how difficult it was to leave. Like, it was just crazy. All of a sudden, Matt Sundin's on the West Coast in a Canucks uniform. Like, how hard was that for you, even at the beginning, once you signed the deal? Well, the hardest was the last, you know, three months of that year with Toronto, I think. I mean, I understand. And reflecting back on it, it's all business. You guys know that too. But it was really hard because I had a really good year. I remember Cliff Fletcher came up to me when he came on again as a GM,

and he wanted to have a meeting with me in Carolina. And I said, sure. And I knew right away there's something going on. And I had my no trade clause. And he said, Matt, what do you think about going somewhere else to try to win a championship? And I said, well, you know, and at the time we're, I don't know, two, three, four points out of the playoffs there's 20 games left of the season so i said well you know cliff we still have a chance to get in

get in the playoffs here i i don't want to go now i want to stay here and play well you know but don't you want to win a championship i said well i do but i want to i want to win in toronto uh well you know we've been i've been there so long this is but I want to win in Toronto. I've been there so long. This is where I want to win the championship. And then with the whole in Toronto, obviously, it broke to the media, and it was a media circus there. But there's no wrong or fault there.

But it was hard those last few months. And once the season was over, I thought I was done playing. You know, JP Berry called me because I was unrestricted free agent first of July. He called me and said, Matt, I think we have a good – he said, we have a monster offer here from Vancouver. And I told him, JP, you know what? I don't think I'm going to play anymore.

And he goes, did you hear what I said? Are you crazy? And he just hung up the phone on me. But it was hard. The last two, three months, it was hard. But it's business at the time. It's all business at the end of the day, too. And I understand that part.

it's all business at the end of the day too. And I understand that part. Matt's one of the things that you go into in the book is that during some of the critical moments, uh, during your, your, your Leafs tenure, when you guys were deep on these playoff runs, as you were dealing with a lot of injury and having to play through that, like what were the ones in particular that stuck out that word, it was just like hindering you for being the best you could in those, in those important moments. Well, i think the playoffs or i mean i i missed parts too right but i had uh i think we played the islander series when we actually went to the conference finals too uh i i broke my hand i got a fracture in my hand there at one at. But, I mean, you guys know, all guys that goes deep into the playoffs and we played in the conference finals.

So you're playing at the end of May and, you know, guys are playing hurt and it's a physical game and guys are blocking shots and games get more physical. There's more intensity. There's less room out there. So I did play through some injuries. But at the same time, when I look back at our playoff runs, I think even some games when I miss games, but other than that,

I think we put it all out there in those runs we had and got the most out of the teams we had as well. Yeah, it was incredible. We're looking now like Hall of Fame 2012, first year eligibility. Describe the feeling when that call comes. Had you been thinking about it at all? I think it would be natural to say yes, but maybe not in your mind. What was it like?

Where were you when you got the phone call? Was it Lanny McDonald too who called you? It was emotional because I know it was a strong group that was illegible and you know if you haven't won a stanley cup you know you're you know there's a good chance you're gonna get passed over uh it was actually pat quinn that called me and uh my relationship with with pat was not perfect you know we had a lot of respect for each other, but we, I thought we saw it sometimes a different road to the championship over there.

But when he called me, it was very emotional. And he, and he said, uh, you know, Matt's it's Pat calling. Oh,

how are you? And I know it was that week. And he says, you know, I'm just calling, you know, you've been elected into the hall of fame and it was very emotional and i think also you know um after a long career you you you go

through much so much hardship and you you lose so many games and you haven't reached the you know the finals or winning the cup to to get that call was a very nice you used to be recognized in that way um was very special and and being paquin calling too was special knowing the years we had some great years together and a lot of respect for him the coolest part of that for me at least is that he was the guy that at 17 told you, hey, I think you're going to be a superstar in the NHL and he's calling you 30 years, 20 years later. That's amazing. Yeah, and it was pretty cool and pretty special.

Obviously, people are going to remember you as a Maple Leaf. What are your fondest memories of being a Maple Leaf when you reflected on it after you got that call? I mean, 500th goal probably stands out. I guess it was a hat trick and ot like just like what are what are your fondest memories and maybe the one that you could highlight looking back i mean i can still if i close my eyes i can still see myself driving down you know early may going on the rink 50 minute drive coming drive, coming down Avenue Road there or University

and coming into Bay Street, all the business people with their suits on, Maple Leaf jersey on top, game day in the playoffs. I mean, that gets my hair stand up still, just how the city got into the team and supported the team in the playoffs. And first win in the playoffs, all up Yonge Street, thousands and thousands of people. And you're like, hey, we got to win 15 more. Got to love their excitement though, eh? i i mean that's what i'm saying if you don't and so that's what i'm saying we got everything out of the teams we have we didn't reach all the

way but i think if you look at the the maple leaves today and once you get into that to the playoffs and you start to feel that support of the fans it's nothing beats that it's almost worth all the traffic is that yeah were you overwhelmed by the traffic there were you like what the fuck is going on here the cars aren't even moving on the road wow it was a lot of traffic when i when i played in in 09 i mean oh eight but today yeah i was over there a few weeks ago and it's you know it's crazy how fast the city is growing and uh and the traffic yeah did you have a did you have a favorite road city whether it was just playing there or a city that you always seem to light it up when you're in that building was was there a city that comes to mind? I always thought it was special to play in New York.

Yeah. MSG, Broadway, and all the big stars coming into the rink. You can see Muhammad Ali and Bono and Elvis Presley on the wall there on the pictures. And you come up to the ramp going up to the rink, and there's elephants. They had a circus there during the day before the game on a weekend and they just took all the plywood off the ice and the ice is terrible. But I thought that was a special arena to play with

and the games against Montreal. I think those two, they stand out as the most fun. Our buddy Matt Murley, he lives in Sonsval actually half the year. He played in Sweden and married a girl from Sweden. He said we had to ask you about the horse you own. Apparently, it's one of the best in Sweden right now. When did you get into that whole game? I thought you were going to get into it when we asked you about what you got going on post-career.

You're into the horses. Sorry. Yeah. I do. And I've been into the standard breads since, I mean, since I played, I probably own the horses. Not many, but we own three now, me and a couple of friends. Actually, Ulf Dahl and also former NHL players in on this horse.

But he's, I would say he's right now top five standard breads in Europe. Wow. And he, yeah, he has good he's he's six years old and in europe they compete when they're a little bit older than in the u.s you know hamiltonian is the big one in the u.s but so it's the only jumping is it the jumping or is it the running no no uh trotters do you know what that means no it sounds you know there's is it what joker's doing where he's sitting down on that thing and he's got his horses going?

No, there's a driver behind in a... What's the English word for it? Carriage. Like a buggy? Exactly. Buggy. You have a woodbine and mohawk. There's big racing there for that.

You guys got to know that. You know. They had it in Wilkes-Barre. No, I didn't make enough money to know what the horses do, Matt. Well, Ben's favorite road city was Vegas. They didn't even have a team when he was in the league. I was more of a penny slots guy than horses, buddy. I used to throw the diaper on just so I wouldn't lose my spot.

Matt's one other guy going back to the Olympic team. I was going to ask you about because you said lidstrom was very quiet what was forrestberg a little bit more yappy in the room like what was his demeanor because so many of even our young fans are just obsessed with them they watch the old highlights of him reverse hitting guys and trucking guys i feel like he was like reinvented the position almost i mean peter comes from uh okrasvik it's it's a little northern sweden so peter he would talk more than lidstrom but you know he had just like you're saying his style of play he was a competitor like not a big guy but you're right like he was competing on the ice and uh same thing He led by example.

He wanted to be the best player out there and he didn't mind going into traffic and he was crushing guys. So, I mean, you look at that Olympic team with him and we were on the same line and he played on the wing and then you have Sederberg and you have the Sedin twins and the defense, we had Cromwell and Lidstrom and all these guys. So, but Peter and a very special player in the hearts of Swedish hockey fans as well, just like in North America. Did you know when you were playing that when you did retire, you'd move back home and live in Sweden again?

Or did you ever think about staying in Toronto you know I could have stayed when I when I come Toronto every time I come back it feels like coming home same for my wife but both me and my wife were we're close to our our families and I'm my parents are older my wife's parents the same way so it was it was still we we figured out figure out anyway that you know we're gonna move back because we want to be closer to our our families at the time but both of us could have could have lived in canada every time i come back it feels like home and and with with the success of sweden swedes in the nhl now like we've often talked with with guys about how like say you play for moto or zergarden like you're playing for the team when you're eight years old and then you're dreaming of playing for the senior team is is that

the main reason that this country is producing so many incredible nhl players with with not that big of a population well When I was drafted and when I was a kid, it was completely different. I think if you would come over here now and watch minor hockey in Sweden, it's only, I think we have 80,000 registered

hockey players in the whole country. The country is about 11 million, smaller than Ontario. But we do have a good program still, development programs. But the kids are growing up today in Sweden. They're watching the National Hockey League. I mean, they watch the McDavids. They watch Austin Matthews.

They watch the Swedish stars. But now they dream about coming to the national hockey league more than going to the national team and playing playing in the swedish league so i would say it's very similar i mean with the internet and everything kids in canada and in the u.s anywhere in the world they they're all dreaming about playing in the national league uh matt so obviously thank you for your time the last few questions i had you i mean you mentioned austin matthews was more about the current state of the leafs like how much are you are you paying attention and i noticed that you were in toronto at the beginning of the season or even before it started excuse me did you have a chance to maybe bond with austin and pass on some of those uh

like some of that mentorship that you got to experience? You know, it was nice. Brad Treliving invited me to training camp. I was there with the team for, I think, five days or six days and got to travel with the team to an exhibition game against Montreal and watch them at home against Canadians. And it was really nice to get close to the group and get to hang a little bit with Craig Berube. Very impressed with management, the coaching staff now, and the group of players they have there. And it's a very special group.

And it goes right from goaltending with all three guys, even the Swedish kid. Oh, I love that you said that. The Hildebeest. I love that you said that. I've been drilling this guy on this podcast that's coming out. We've got three goalies in the pipeline now. You've got three Patrick Wads. So, the goaltending, the fans, I mean, the forward group,

and with Tavares and Nylander and Marner and Austin, obviously, you can tell just by being around the team that he's a natural leader, great person off the ice, and the stuff he does on the ice, not only scoring goals, but the way he plays in both ends of the ice. So I'm really looking forward to follow the Maple Leafs this year. I think it's going to be very exciting for Maple Leaf fans. Well, you pretty much just answered everything I was going to ask about the Toronto Maple Leafs.

Great assessment. The fact that you mentioned all three goalies, Matt, did G tell you that before the interview started? No. You just knew. They were sharing a brain. It was fun. just just the size of the team too you look at the roster and and it goes right from goaltending to defense and forward

and i don't know what you guys feel watching watching the game now but it looks like the game is more physical now again the last last couple years and how teams win the championship and and so i think the very excited to watch the leafs play this year yeah copycat league and you saw like florida on defense you saw what boston did in the offseason i thought they did a good job in matching that with with oliver who's developed a bit of a mean streak a former or a current suite obviously and then chris tana just like the defensive abilities that he has so appreciate your your comments on my leafs and giving me a little bit of extra hope mats uh one other thing we had to mention was uh glenn healy you played with him uh he's running

the nhl alumni association it's 25 years was he is uh chatty in the locker room as he is when he comes on our podcast you In all honesty, Glenn was great when he was with us because he kept the room loose. Him and Ty always got into it about japping away, but he kept... And in a place

like Toronto, you need that. You need to have a loose room. There's so much pressure from the outside and not only on your own performance, but from everything around. So you want to have a loose room. There's so much pressure from the outside and not only on your own performance, but from everything around. So you want to have a loose room. But I keep reminding Glenn Ely actually that I scored one hat trick at MSG in New York

and he was in net for that. And he claims it's not true, but I'm going to bring out the tape. Well, he's doing a hell of a job now with the alumni. He does. 25 years. He's done a fantastic job. It's great to see.

Well, we appreciate this so much. It's been an honor to talk to you, and what a career you had. Congratulations on all your success, and thanks for coming on the show. Congrats on the book, too. Thanks for having me, guys. Guys, before we go any further, I I got to talk to you about sport clips. We all know how intimidating it could be to get your haircut, knowing what to ask for, wondering if your stylist will be able to deliver a great haircut, but there's good news. Sport clip stylists have been specially trained in the nuances. Yes. The nuances of men's hair, taking

the worry out of getting your hair cut so whether you're looking to get a tight fade a slick back mullet like trevor zieger showing up to anaheim training camp i'm sure verbique was pleased about that one or you're just thinking about looking like getting the patrick mahomes you know the better quarterback cut sport clip stylists are here to do whatever you need to feel confident nothing and i mean nothing says confidence like a great haircut and nobody does great haircuts like sport clips it's a goddamn game changer thank you so much to matt sundin incredible career incredible person and check out his book check out his book when you can because that that guy was a complete

legend in the game of hockey um we got to go to some signings now biz lenis allmark gets traded by the bruins to the ottawa senators and before he does anything locks up a four-year deal at 8.25 aav and then he beat the defending champs Panthers three to one in the home opener for the Ottawa Senators so what did you think of this deal I thought it made sense yeah because of age and the fact that his counterpart who was doing the exact same thing as him set the standard and yeah I thought it was a really nice deal I was shocked they didn't at least see how he was in Ottawa that's why I think he was like give give me this deal right now. Oh yeah. Great job by the agent to pounce on it. Maybe after Swayman signed it,

he said, Hey, this is a number and we don't necessarily want a crazy term. Cause I want to say going back to the deal he signed in Buffalo, that was a four year deal as well. So they've the four year deals have treated them well, and that's a hell of an AAV and, and good for him.

Well-deserved well-earned a Vesna winner. And that's the standard. I sensed so much excitement AAV and good for him. Well-deserved, well-earned, a Vesna winner, and that's the standard. I sensed so much excitement from the Senators fans about him. I've seen tweets of him walking out on the ice, just how gigantic he is. And the fact that goaltending has been such an issue for them, that they have a Vesna winner, and then in the home opener, he plays that well and they beat Florida.

It's just for a fan base and a team that we have kind of shit on a little bit like good for them to have some excitement and to have now granted montreal took them down in the second game of the year montreal looks awesome cole caulfield's got four goals already but lenis allmark with a nice deal and that's pretty cool for the senators to know that he's locked up because you know you trade for a guy one year you know it's like what are we going to do here boom they now have their goal and i'll go back to last season i want to say it was a crazy amount like 17 times ottawa allowed a goal on the first shot of the game so they are they were probably just happy to get that first save that's all they really want the place went nuts um one

other thing that happened in that game though that they went at home was a barkov injury yeah which i mean if it's if it's Barkov, we got to talk about them guys. We should be telling you what he had for pregame meal. That's how good of a fucking player he is. He, uh, he breaks his twig when they have the net pulled, uh, for that extra attacker. And then he's on the back check to prevent the goal against, and he goes into the boards and I don't know, they said it's not a break. Uh, sometimes sprains can be worse. Yeah. So they haven't exactly said what it is but they said at least a couple weeks so we hope that guy who who is one of the best two-way centers in

the game right now if not the best two-way center gets back soon because that's a big loss along with kachuk to that florida panther team right now and once he saw it was stoots all that's when you should just be like all right you got it because that kid flies but barkov yeah seeing him go off with no weight it's kind of panic time and then Kachuk missed the game against the Sabres he was sick so they lost again so kind of a kind of a tough go there but hopefully Barkov's only out I don't know maybe a month that would be ideal the way it looked another goaltending signing the Kraken have signed Joey Decord to a five-year $25 million extension.

Probably one of the coolest stories that I've seen for a guy. After we interviewed, I gained so much respect for him and the way he's gone about his career. He was so personable, so easy to talk to, was at Arizona State, grinded it out in the minors, and then boom. It was all kind of after that outdoor game that you were at he played unbelievable got the shutout and now he gets some lifetime security money wise and you know i bet you you talked to him four years ago five years ago he didn't even know if he'd be still playing hockey i think the belief he has in himself and how he goes about things like he i'm

probably talking out of my ass but like there's just no way to know at his position if you have any security or any future in the NHL. And then he gets $25 million. So, so happy for him and that story. Yeah, I think to gain a better understanding, you'd have to go back and listen to the interview. But just seemed so grateful for the position that he was in despite all the adversity that he faced. And an incredible run. And as you said man security for him and his family for life and uh the other signing too is a very another heartwarming

story awesome and a a crazy bargoon for the florida panthers what eight years seven million carter verhage no state tax keep the goddamn change and it was cool because he uh he'd been chatting for a while with his agent and he's more like just let me know when you need to let me know and he gets word from his agent the morning of their home opener when they're raising the banner hey like we're good to go you're good to sign this oh what a what a 48 hours get your rings crazy home opener you guys win that the banner goes up you get to reflect on winning and then boom and eight times seven he was told go find go find uh bill zito and he finds him and he said he's like signing

a deal with like 30 minutes before warm-ups or whatever it was and uh sarah valley had a great tweet about him incredible journey for carter verhage drafted by the leafs traded to the islanders twice cut from AHL Bridgeport and sent to the East Coast Hockey League in Missouri. Never gave up. Cracks the Tampa Bay Lightning roster, wins the Stanley Cup with them, not qualified by Tampa who couldn't afford him. Lance Cross State with the Florida Panthers wins the Stanley Cup and a $56 million extension ahead of his 30 year old season. that's drive and belief and a lesson for a tongue and ton of young players and that's basically the whole thing with decord and verhege

that dude the odds they're so against you to become an nhl regular and nhl star but like this kid and his skill level and what he was able to go through because biz you'll say it best you get sent to the east coast hockey league you feel your life's over yeah i cried when i got sent to yeah and you feel i thought i was done that's why you laugh at g you throw a hissy fit too well he also probably had a couple girls and we wouldn't see anymore so i was pissed because i was a two-time echl all-star and hadn't been called up yet that's when you went to western for the week right yes we don't need to get into the frost week at western partied for a week at west i took out my resentment for the organization that's why biz was out of hockey whatever five years later and carter verhage he's a stanley cup champ with 56 million he didn't go to western to

party when he was sent to the coast but it's just cool because he knew his skill and he knew he just needed a shot and i understand like tampa they were so good they were were so deep at the time, but he got his shot with Florida. And that probably had a lot to do with him not even wanting at all to test free agency. Granted, they just won the cup and he's so close with everyone, but they gave him a shot and they gave him his chance to become a goal scoring top two line player. And this guy is so clutch. Carter versus Swaggy. If that's your nickname after like Stanley Cup run and playoff success,

he's just a slippery, clutch, unreal shot. That goal he scored against the Bruins in game seven to break the Grinnelli dreams of a Stanley Cup after their regular season

champions banner. The Rangers ended up stealing from them. Was so sick. It's just like he's been so money since he got to Florida. And yeah, I mean,

I think it's definitely a bargain, but it money since he got to florida and yeah i mean i i think it's definitely a bargain but it also is a great deal for him too like i mean what else what else does he look for he's 30 years old well hey go make another half a million dollars a year but you're not going to do this florida on an unbelievable team where you're going to keep winning with a great core group where he fits in like don't overthink this thing and he didn't and i guess it's just a good example like you said to the younger kids where is like in like don't overthink this thing and he didn't and i guess it's just a good example like you said to the younger kids where is like your journey doesn't stop if you do get to the coast yeah it's going to be a hell of a lot harder but if if you're good enough you'll find a

way you'll find a way if you're good enough but they will find you like buying bunting played in the coast a little bit was it alex burrows who'd been sent down and played a little bit in the coast so there are tons of examples of guys who have been in that place who have clawed out of the depths of hell pro hockey wise and and ended up making a lot of money so good for him and uh two two great stories right there with the court as well and i guess uh it kind of involves buffalo a little bit because buffalo got their first win against florida florida was without kachuk he was sick barkov's injured i don't think Bobrovsky played in that game Spencer Knight did Spencer Knight played in that game which you feel bad because of what Spencer Knight's been

through he got kind of lit up by the Sabres so really rooting for that kid right you know he's been through a lot and and you hope with with the pedigree and like where he was drafted you know you're looking at what was once thought to be a future star in the NHL. Let's hope he can find his way. But Buffalo needed that win. Biz was ready to just unload on Buffalo. The first three games, I think they had one goal, dude. One goal, yeah.

They had three goals, four in their first three games. It was three goals. Yeah. Overseas, I think they had two against the Devils. I was thinking one goal a game. Okay, that's what I messed up on. Yeah, and then they had one against the Kings in which fans, I guess, were okay. They were pleased with their effort.

They thought they got fucked by the ref on a call, but hey, man, if you're scoring a goal a game, I mean, it's going to be hard to win some fucking hockey games. Yeah, so Buffalo gets that win because if they lose that game, it's like, oh my God, like the Lindy Ruff era, 0-4. So at least they have something to build on, but definitely not like the greatest start if you're a Sabres fan, looking at them at 1-3.

Let's see what they can do continuing there. I think they have one game between now and Wednesday where we got them on the national broadcast. Oh, what did they have that night? They're playing Pittsburgh. So that's another team where they – Oh, God. Oh, it's it's like oh it's early in the season like oh you guys are overreacting it's like nah these are the wins that those two teams need

if they want to see any type of playoff success and they're both they're both scramming a little bit right now yes big time um nice goal by letang in toronto that was a shot we just saw that in the box at the bu game so another contract signed nils hoglander signs a three-year nine million dollar contract with the canucks so the mini cigarette machine this kind of a mini barbershop would you say i would say that hammers guys and i had no idea even though i'm watching the pacific so closely 24 goals last year but then in the playoffs was kind of in rick talk it's doghouse a little bit i think he was a health bomb once or twice yeah so they need

him still young right still a lot of learning a lot of more consistency he can bring to his game but a great bridge deal three years nine million bucks i think this is good is a guy who could be a 25 25 guy who you talked about his physicality i mean i go back to last year he lit up uh brendan tanev in in seattle not who doesn't get lit up too many guys bundling a turbo there out in seattle so i just think that if he's bringing all those elements at three million a year who where he can play in that top six role i think that is another bargain that way this year he's got a goal and assist in two games so that's a good little start for him and yeah he plays physically plays hard so a nice signing

there daniel sprung actually this is kind of crazy he scored in his canucks debut and has now done so with four franchises scored in his first game with the ducks the kraken the red wings and now the canucks the only other players to do so are marion gabarik and peter zezel gee amazing pulling that one that was canucks fan jeff jacobson i gotta give him that oh yeah i think that jeff had another one too where he uh winnipeg jets kyle connor has scored in seven consecutive season openers for the jets which ties an nhl record i don't know who the other guy is though but kyle connor always seven in a row seven in a row and he did so against your edmonton oil well yeah that can lead me into the oilers and this is wild wild stuff what's happening again two games i understand and as i mentioned we're recording right now sunday

they have a huge game with calgary tonight and calgary's looked awesome uh vladar started the first game i believe dustin wolf started the next game and calgary's coming out of the gates buzzing huberdo looks awesome he does huberdo looks really good another guy you have to root for in knowing that like i was traded from a team who won the stanley cup mid-season and i'm what one one thousandth of the player Jonathan Huberto was. But to see what he did in Florida, he breaks the record for assists by, I think, a winger the year before he gets traded. And then to see what Florida's going on and do and then how much he's kind of struggled. I'm rooting for him and rooting for, you know, the success that you've seen from him.

I mean, he, what was was it 60 points last year right around then he had so you want to hope to think that he could get back up to around 80 or 90 but he's he's come out of the gates real hot and so is calgary but in edmonton i don't know i don't know it's it's i i understand how hard it must be for these guys to be that close to the cup and then get back into the regular season and know you're so far away and i brought this up last year too because they've had so many playoff series in the last year i think they played nine series you're saying like playing a start of the season regular season game is like oh you're just like we're so far from getting back to where we want to get but

dude you saw last year i mean this turned into a disaster and they look out of sorts and i did you see uh pete blackburn's tweet no you know the the the guy looking past the tree like licking his chops like oh yeah he goes he wrote like connor mcdavid's high school coach seeing them start like this skinner skinner was skinner was sucking them in against Winnipeg. They looked a little better against Chicago. That Bedard goal was so gross. That was dark. That shot was unreal. But Chicago is like, I mean, the Oilers look horrible so far.

It's two games. I'm not worried. I could play D for the Oilers right now. You think so? If I played 12 minutes, I'd go unnoticed based on what I'm seeing right now. It does really suck not having broberg like seeing broberg carry the puck up ice get out of trouble in his own end in the playoffs last year like when he was inserted and to not have him back there is is a kick in the dick it

really is but they'll figure things out i mean dude you have skinner you have arvidsson there's changes like they're there it is hard to come back from losing the cup final and get ready and get right into the regular season you would have hoped they'd be one and one at least you would have hoped that there'd be more goal scoring but they're at they're at they went tonight everything's all right we're fine boys but cory perry was interviewed after the game i think specter was talking to him and perry, yeah, Spector wrote an article. Spector asked McDavid 20 questions about last year's run. And then Connor finally goes, Spector, I'm done answering questions about last season. I'm done.

How about, yeah. And then Simmons was asking Matthews about like how little NHL are paid compared to NFL or the NBA. He's like, Steve. He's just trying to get a quote about it. He's like, I just got a $ get a quote about he's like I just got a 15 million dollar transfer on on July 1 this summer I'm not bitching about money but if Steve Simmons and Speck started a podcast we might be out of business we better hope that those two never

get together imagine the Speck and Steve show but yeah rough start for Edmonton very rough start um we'll see what happens there big one you know i think i really think they're missing day harney the right side of their d is weak it is weak big vinnie day harney's even in the lineup for vancouver how about uh uh uh cody mccarr cody cc in san jose now you guys are missing all the actual you guys are missing all the d who are carrying the heavy lifting before we go any further i gotta talk to you guys about body armor and this episode of course is brought to you by body armor sport water the alkaline water that provides real hydration with electrolytes for taste and guys it's always talking about the

wide nozzle excuse me unbelievable on road trips for like spitting out sunflower seeds after you're done with the bottle. And of course, if you need the hose while driving, everybody is always drinking it around the office, the sport drink, the zero sugar, and even the flash IV. We can't get enough of Body Armor. The sport water, in my opinion,

is the best water on the market. Head over to your local 7-Eleven and get your Body Armor sport water in my opinion is the best water on the market head over to your local 7-eleven and get your body armor sport water today it's a game changer can we actually talk about uh when you bring up macar like george larocque tweeted does montreal have a new kale macar in lane hudson and i get so many things wrong but i told you fucking guys about this kid and i wasn't the only one right scouts have seen him one of the best players in college hockey this kid if it's not by thanksgiving it'll be by christmas he's running the first power play he's got three points in three games so you would say he's more like macar than than quinn hughes um no i think

george i think george larocque was like he was just mentioning like an elite offensive And Quinn Hughes? No, I think George LaRock was... I think George LaRock was... He was just mentioning an elite offensive defenseman. Well, I mean, Quinn Hughes won the Norris, so it's not like it's taking anything away from him. I just don't know if he'll ever... I wasn't comparing him to Kael McCarr. I like his skating cadence, but Kael McCarr is at a different level,

kind of like when Bobby Orr stepped in, like that good. And the way that he's able to close on defenders and even sometimes play somewhat of a physical game i just think that mccarr is in a league of his own i like the the comparison to quinn hughes more no i'm just talking about my calder trophy bet at what was he eight to one or seven to one like and he's what i was gonna say was matheson had around 70 points last year maybe 60 points. He can skate.

He's a nice NHL player. Lane Hudson will be running that power play by Thanksgiving. If it's not by Thanksgiving, it'll be Christmas because you watch this guy. Every shift he's out there, he might be a top 15 talent one-on-one in the NHL already. I'm telling you, watch people. Watch when people go out and play him at the blue line. It is a straight up Allen Iverson disaster zone.

You better go out to him slow and just watch his hips because he's dancing around. He's finding guys. It looked like the other night against Ottawa when they won. He could have had five assists. He had one. So Lane Hudson flying out of the gate. Just like Carter. And so are the Canadians, man.

Just like Carter. Who? Hudson. hudson flying out of the gates carter and so are the canadians man just like carter who hudson hey my brother carter hudson oh you mean call yeah bis that a boy that a boy um rookie news bu news i guess too macklin celebrini oh my god i don't even care it went off the fucking defender people were saying what a bad first goal i'm like dude i mean like it was a it was a sick try to even get it over i think it was ecklund he saw him streaking yeah and he and he has eyes in the back of his head because he proved it on the second goal that toffoli scored where he wasn't looking at him either he knew exactly where toffoli was going to be hanging out to the side of the net you know toffoli told him where he was going to be oh yeah i'm always in the slot and i'm ready to shoot boom and um so one and one to start things out and then horrible news after the game he's on the fucking island i know

apparently though like nothing too serious something with his hip i guess i heard it was uh i heard it was uh his spleen from drinking too much with jumbo joe celebrating that first game no jumbo had him in the hot tub for like four hours. Like, Joe, I got to go to sleep. Nah, bud. Depleted electrolytes. He fell asleep in the hot tub with Jumbo. Talking hockey with the boys. But he became the first number one overall pick to have a multiple point debut game since Matthews in 2016 when he had four goals.

And him and Will Smith's helmets were taken out of their stall. So they had to do the no helmet rookie lap. But if you saw the picture of will smith's hair in that rookie lap i mean maybe one of the best looking players in the league sometimes you got to shout guys out yeah they had to delay the game flood warnings and i imagine i saw the first game he played about 13 minutes with celebrini out maybe he gets to play a little bit more um sharks uh they got shut out by the ducks uh in the ducks first game of the year two nothing on saturday night but just seeing celebrini in the first period to have two points in the first period of your first nhl

game as an 18 year old like you're like holy shit sky's the limit i can't wait to watch this kid play so shitty news to see him on the ir but let's hope it's just quick and sometimes though doing that rookie lap by yourself you feel a little bit awkward it's just you need your boy to do it the fact that he got to do it with his boy in the future of the team and just going out there with that they were dishing one-timers to each other murrell's and army had a big problem with that they said they said it's too played out now and they said it's too played out they said the rookie laps too played out murrell said there used to be no pucks for the rookie lap so it was really awkward he said now it's like they're dishing each other one-timers.

Well, that's why Witt mentioned the fact they were sliding over one-timers to one another. I thought that was cool. Yeah, so they were good-looking young kids in the National League ripping one-timers, top cheese with no helmet on and warm-ups. Army's so WHL, no more rookie laps, just haze them. Yeah.

Just bring back hazing. Make them drink out of the toilet first. Just kidding. That's a bit of a boomer take by them. Yeah. Just bring back hazing. Make them drink out of the toilet first. Just kidding. That's a bit of a boomer take by them. Yeah, that's boomer. Game notes coming in hot to start the year. Game notes is boomer central. Morales is like 53.

He just looks 30. What did the group chat think of it? Was the group chat on their side about the rookie lap? Kind of. Or were they getting booed? No, kind of. Oh, that's because the fucking group chat loves them. Oh, anything they say. It's like a cult at this point oh yeah sings he leads the cult too so i i mean

we kind of went all over the league it was a great first week people who think oh we're over exaggerating no man getting a hot start is so important to some of these teams especially bubble team so for utah for their hot start um i don't know we we kind of covered uh yeah we're just hopping around, and I love being together in the same room when we record because I guess it's been a little over the map, but that's how we do things, and it was an awesome first week.

And also, I just got to mention a couple more quick ones. Kopitar had a hat trick in his first game of the season. Still got it. Oldest king to get a hattie since Luke Robitaille, so a sure- hall of fame player what a career he's had so to see him get three what a run cam talbot how about this one did you read this yet yeah he's one of the older goalies to get a shutout for a certain amount of teams or something comes the second goaltender in nhl history record a shutout for seven teams seven

i see if you told me to get i would have been like oh four like a shutout for seven teams. Seven? If you told me to get, I would have been like, oh, four? Like seven teams? Playing for seven teams is one thing. Shutout with seven. And the other pal, the other one to do it was our pal Sean Burke, your boy, Viz. Oh, yeah, Burke. So that's pretty cool right there. Oh, Tara Vinans looked good with Chicago.

He had four points against the Oilers on Saturday night. Oh, Tara Vinans looked good with Chicago. He had four points against the Oilers on Saturday night. And Phil Kessel has signed with the World Poker Tour as a brand ambassador. Phil said, I'm incredibly excited to work with WPT Global. I have been an avid poker player for over 20 years and a huge fan of the World Poker Tour. So kind of love that. You know, he couldn't get a PT. I'd love to see him and Phil Hellmuth go at it.

Just arguing at the table. Come on, Phil. You're slow playing it. Let's go here. Clock. Hurry the fuck up, Phil. Come on, Phil. What are you doing?

Phil on Phil crime. And I'll say this. Grinnelli had a little thing here. I'm not freaking out yet, but blank is in trouble. They're two and one, but the games i've watched the bruins look slow slow and average and i don't know now swayman didn't have training camp and they're two and one like i said but like kind of an awkward weird start to the bruins crazy bad Bad take. Bad take. Lindholm.

Oh, coming from the guy who last night told me they look slow as shit. No. Yeah. I think there's a lot to be happy about, though, with the Boston Bruins. What? Elias Lindholm. Lindholm looks good. He looks great. Lindholm looks very good.

Matt Patra, his first game in eight months. He looked incredible. Was he just scratched in the first game? He was hurt day to day. Okay. Okay. Zdorov looks great. The defense looks awesome. Zwayman's okay okay the defense looks awesome definitely looks engaged

what i will say is a little bit of an older team or at least their their better players are uh pasta maybe hasn't looked that great but good players they still make an impact when they're not looking their best uh he ends up getting the ot winner against la marshawn doesn't look like himself three injuries guys like it's gonna take him 15 20 games to get his feet back underneath him uh and yeah i mean that's a bigger back end i think from a structure standpoint sometimes early in the season the first 10 15 games all these young guys are flying around where it takes the older guys a little bit of time to not only get in shape and catch up but i think that the the bruins are going to be just fine i'm way more concerned about the islanders not only for how slow they look uh noah dobson defensively is

looking shaky people might say well if you have watched in the last couple years even though he's getting 80 points he's still shaky defensively but just that that the mental state of giving up these third period leads and and sitting back and hanging back on them, I picked them to make playoffs. I thought we were going to have a way more mentally strong Islanders. And after the first two games, I'm regretting my pick. Am I hitting the panic button early? Probably.

Let's see what they got moving forward. So as far as the panic button and who I would be worried for, that's probably the number one team that sticks out to me. Okay. All right. And, of course, Buffalo Sabres. Obviously, that win against Florida was a must win, and it was huge. You did so. No Barkov, no Kachuk, and a backup goalie.

Let's see what you got. The next 10 games are going to mean everything to the Buffalo Sabres and how this fucking season is going to go. I will say will say the devils do look very good i hate saying it and the fact that hughes hasn't really even popped off yet but they have paul cotter who has four goals already and they just have like a team with seamus casey who has two goals already it's like they don't even have hughes or um pesci playing yet and they're're 3-1, and they got Mark Sherman net. So the Devils are probably what we thought they were going to be this year, which is for real.

Hate to say it with Pasha here. Last thing I do want to say, Biz, is our thoughts are with everyone who's been affected by these hurricanes in the Carolinas and Florida because it's scary as shit to see what's happened. And two weeks apart from the first one Florida gets hit again all the damage in in the Carolinas and you saw Tampa Bay had to go uh up to Raleigh I think a week before the first game and Victor Hedman did an interview after the 4-1 win for the Lightning just saying they're just trying to bring some joy to the city

and how scary it is for all those people so for anyone who's been affected not only that with uh ownership for the lightning they flew up all the staff all the family members cats and dogs up to carolina so very classy then to get everybody out of there and as you said it's devastating what's going on um even the baseball stadium they'd set up beds for people to and the roof came off and then the roof comes off so uh just just nasty and a lot of people had to relocate and some of their lives are going to be flipped upside down and you know this is a hockey podcast and we talk about hockey but there's a lot a lot of things that are a lot more serious and and our condolences to everybody who's dealing with this tragedy right now well said biz and and we're thinking of everyone affected just want to

remind you guys we are recording sunday afternoon so if anything happens tonight or tomorrow that's of significant importance we will hop back on and make sure we cover those stories next what's up gang uh before we go any further i got to talk to you about labat blue and labat blue light uh i will be heading for an event actually for them uh mid-nmber. Can't wait to get to Buffalo. Hopefully by then they've turned things around. And guys, we all know lots of things are better together. Hockey, food, golf, sandbaggers specifically with the Bat Blue Light. I know that the one we did with Tuka Rask and Andrew Raycroft, yes, we got the goalie tandem.

They're going to be joining us. I think they might have had a baker's dozen there, Bob. just put it that way they were crushing these things they were enjoying it and i actually didn't know tuka was that spicy i don't know if it's because he had a few too many labatt blue lights but in a good way he was chirping uh he was playing mental warfare with the labatt blue lights in his system and we can't thank them enough for sponsoring it so folks take a page out of tukarass book uh labatt blue lights book and enjoy your beers together so you can live life to the power of we find the bat blue light at labattusa.com slash finder well well well it's now monday and a lot of stuff happened we said we might hop back on if there was some news breaking or newsworthy stories and nothing that crazy but besides my edmonton oilers looking

like a goddamn disaster and i guess uh you lose two games and they're both at home and yeah i don't know this doesn't look great now against calgary you get pumped for one you give up four straight goals third in the third three in the third period excuse me and you got question marks all over this team and yes it's early but at some point there has to be worry with Oilers fans and I believe it's kind of starting right now the start has been disgusting in a lot of different ways. I think that this is a fast team, but fast teams can play slow hockey. And right now they just look lethargic. And mainly what I say about having a fast team

and fast players still playing slow is puck movement. So McDavid, after this game last night, he talks about every pass is behind each other, in each other's feet. Guys aren't handling the good passes. The lines have been juggled about 15 different times. And I think that Knobloch was asked last night after the game, like, have you been able to find some sort of rhythm with your lines?

And he's like, based on how I juggled them in the third, no. Arvidsson hasn't looked great. He had a brutal offside, just like kind of a lazy offside that that negated a goal for the Oilers. They also had a brutal goalie interference call. We'll go into that in a little bit. But I don't know, Biz, do you see the worry that I have or do you think it's like it's so early? I mean, Philly comes to town now, you know, they're going to play hard, a team coach by torts. But Calgary starts three and oh, shout out them.

I mean, they've done a hell of a job. But Calgary starts 3-0. Shout out them. I mean, they've done a hell of a job. And actually, this Justin Kirkland story is amazing if you want to kind of go into his whole ordeal getting his first NHL goal. Well, I think already this part, we talked about a couple of the signings

like Decord and Verhage, having a non-traditional pass to the NHL. And this is a guy who played in the Western Hockey League. I believe he won a Western League title with the Kelowna Rockets. I think he played as an overager and bounced around the coast a while in the american hockey league drafted 10 years ago 10 years ago and has played uh eight years in the minors and finally has gotten his opportunity now

he'd played a couple games prior this was uh his 11th the third game for the flames was his 11th career game and he finally scores his first nhl goal so he was an awesome story coming out of camp and then obviously has continued it into the regular season and uh just uh you know the pursuit man never giving up and uh these are the types of stories that give those guys who are now playing in the coast a little bit of hope so a great start for a team that you know we consider to be probably a lottery team coming into this season so to add on to the story he also missed some time with a severe head injury he had a head trauma from a car accident so there you go i mean just an incredible story for him and and definitely a bright spot for the calgary flames and and you mentioned huberto earlier obviously not the type of production we're used

to seeing from him last year but a great start for him nonetheless and going back to your Oilers like I don't want to hit the panic button just yet for them but I would say this I would bet my life that the Toronto Maple Leafs go farther than the Edmonton Oilers I don't think there's a chance that Edmonton goes how much you want to bet I will bet anything that not only will Toronto there's no way that Edmonton's going to the finals again the way that the West is and the way that this has started and an unreal tweet from Bucha Grass, like he's got a lot of good ones. This summer, the Oilers signed six forwards over 30 and picked up three D men, the Coyotes, at some point let go. So I don't know, maybe we're just blinded by Dreisaitl and McDavid and what their power play does in the top six but i don't know man the west is even stronger this year and i think that there's a chance that

they actually regress i think in the last three years the oilers have played more playoff series than the leafs last like 30 so i i'm not too worried about this bet that we'll make and and i guess we can make it official whatever you want i'm i'm i'm down to do right now their best players are their worst players and and that's kind of like when you have guys making this much money they're this good you need them to get going which they will i i i don't i'm not i mean yes skinner's over 30 arvids is over 30 but they'll figure it out it's just gonna take time now the problem is usually pre-season you don't worry too much they weren't great in pre-season and now it's leaked in so there's some there's something going on there but i think i talked to people like professionals that i trust that you know watch them in pre-season

and they're like their back end's not very no they're not and i know that that everyone's kind of waiting until closer to the deadline where they'll get help on the right side but i it's hard to just sit there and wait until they make a trade to help out their decor right like we we talked about you know how much you miss certain guys and and obviously right now you're you're you're seeing broberg and the way he skates and you miss him but like you look at rasmus anderson who could end up being an enormous pickup for somebody they get a goal and two assists last night um sunday night excuse me, for the Flames.

One of them, he just kind of walks by McDavid like a little stick check turns the wrong way. So it's it's it's it's the leaders right now and the best players in the league that aren't playing up to par. So I think that this Philly game is going to be enormous. There needs to be desperation. That's what Knobloch said. I don't see any desperation. So it's ugly, but really cool story for calgary because when everyone counts you out it's a lot easier i think to go in similar to how philly did it last year where

they're in the playoff until the last 10 15 games who knows i don't i don't really see that out of calgary in the west but we've been surprised many times before uh no excuses play like a champion you wanted to talk about some of the disallowed goals and that kind of leaks into that battle of alberta i thought the cory perry one of the first three this season you mentioned a rent bay one and then one other one that in the ruins game real head scratchers i think a lot of fans online voicing their frustration where it's like hey are we going backwards here like why is this rule seem to be more complicated than ever even going back to even brett hall scoring while being in the crease now the one with cory perry if you see the overhead there is initial contact but there's a clear amount of time where vladar is able to get back up i think the argument and

what the refs in the league are saying is cory perry ends up having about half of his skate blade skate blade in the crease if you look at the overhead but it seems like vladar ends up having about half of his skate blade in the crease if you look at the overhead. But it seems like Vladar ends up getting set up in the blue paint where Corey Perry isn't already established. So we were talking about it on the TNT call and Liam brought up a good point. He's like, the assumption is that Vladar wants that space at the top of the crease to close down the angle. space at the top of the crease to close down the angle but if he did he didn't even go close enough to initiate contact where they're basically saying is cory perry established himself inside the crease therefore not allowing vladar to get out as far as possible therefore that's why they disallowed it but to me that just seems like a a cop out and very weak even as an anti-oiler right now

on this podcast it It just looks awful. It looks soft. And for hockey fans, they're like, how is that noble? Now, I guess by the letter of the law, like it is goaltender interference. Now I texted Elliot about it. And he said, the rule is this. If you were in the blue, it's on you.

Unless you were pushed or held in there, you go in there on your own and it won't count it looks awful but it's the way so i said all right well then why don't they go back to the old rule completely that people hated but at least then you know and there's not this indecision of every single time there's a reap but he said that i don't know so so if you want to go by that like the the way the league's looking at, where if you go in on your own, at any point, if the goaltender is struggling to get position, when you skate in there on your own, it'll be no goal.

Make it so that you just can't go in there at all, because right now you are allowed to be in there, so you can get in there. If you're barely in there and the goalie doesn't touch you, it'll be fine. And then if he somehow bumps into you on his own, which would be smart for the goalie to do, then it's going to be no goal. the confusion is what drives fans nuts so i think

that's where the confusion in this one is and that's why i mentioned what uh what liam said where like how you're basically assuming that vladar wanted that space but he didn't initiate contact or didn't even come in contact with cory perry therefore not really interfering with him making the save i know so so as a fan when you're watching like people are watching numerous nhl games every year every every night and and you get a review now golden interference and tell me what fan isn't watching like no clue which way this one's going that is a that is a problem for for a fan base and fans of this league to go to a, like offsides,

like the Arvidsson in Edmonton. Boom. That's an offside done deal. I get it. This goaltender interference one, when coaches, players, and fans alike have no idea what the call is going to be.

I kind of like it like that. No, buddy, that would, that, that is, that is brutal. That is brutal.

Yeah, exactly. When the Leafs get bounced in the first round again, you'll be whining and complaining about this rule and i i i think i hate the old rule the brett hall rule the goal shouldn't have counted against the same never go back okay but what's the difference now because at least then you know all right the replay his toes in the crease i hate the rule but boom every fan knows that one's coming back to not know if it's coming back or not and if it's coming back or not. And then have the league put it this way. You think the league wants to have to be releasing

statements in the middle of that Oilers Flames game explaining because they see online like people flipping out and now the gambling aspect and the over unders and everything's changed a lot where so much money's wagered and so many people are talking online about why is that goal called back? Why is this one allowed to stand? It's just become too confusing in my mind. And I think that if you can get fans to never be confused on calls, that's a win for the league. So I don't know where you go. At least with the old rule, though, you'd look at a replay and every fan would say that one's coming back. And I don't know where they go from here. The Rempe one was horrible, too, because when I tweeted last night, it was the worst one I've ever seen all these rangers fans texted me over the rempy one it's very similar

he kind of just like moves there and all of a sudden like the goal goes in and no goal so you know what wasn't horrible though what his acting in that new body armor commercial he did on oh i like that i like that i like when he was like just plugging the water into the coffee machine spraying it everywhere he crushes the fax machine darling right now yeah exactly he's living it up why not if you got this fame in new york city from being this monster that skates around looking to dummy anyone you never know how long it's going to last um a few other things obviously utah has came back down to earth first loss handed at the hands of the new jersey devils who are now in first place overall in the league so pasha will be very unbearable but we're not going to let him hop on the mic again this podcast but it is impressive that last year so many goaltending question marks and i'm like hey

marksman get that show no marksman's going this afternoon or tonight against carolina that was jake allen so it's like they've gone from a real issue in net to having two, one star goalie was one of Vezna and another, I mean, Jake Allen, I would look at as a top end backup and he's going out and getting a shutout. So we pumped Utah so much. You almost knew earlier in the pod from yesterday, you almost knew they'd lose this game, but the Devils look very good. Also emotionally, like they had the start to the season. They launch it off against Chicago at home.

I mean, your energy and your adrenaline's through the roof they start out on the eastern side end up getting huge wins in on long island and broadway at a certain point you knew it was going to have to come back down but uh another thing too guys like i don't know how big the bruins have to make their back end to not get their show ran by the florida panthers without kachuk and without barkov in the second game they're now owing to florida owns boston and granelli and i just made a bet i said i don't know about this bruins team and i said i i think that they uh they don't get out of the first round we bet 500 bucks he he's very confident that it's an older team so they're going to take a little while to get going and you know swayman will get better as the season goes along after missing camp but florida is a issue for them it has turned into

just like grinding them out but to not have barkov and kachuk and still get a win on the road and i believe the first game is in florida because they raised the banner so two and all against the bruins who are now two and two and and don't look great as I mentioned earlier in this show um who owns who more third period leads against the Islanders or the Florida Panthers against the Bruins or the playoffs versus the Leafs that not this year though okay okay fair enough another story that broke today which was really interesting you and I not an argument but a discussion about it was uh Peyton Krebs and and rasmus dalin going at it in sabers practice now i think sabers fans to just see the actual fight now i wouldn't say it was a huge fight but they're going at it and guys jumped in quick that's good i did not love what dalin did

and and that was a low hit it was a actually a beautiful hip check so let's describe the clip it's a low hit and then Darlene initiates by going after Krebs after he low hits him after he low hits him so people are a little confused saying like whoa like what what sparked this so apparently earlier in that same drill which was a battle drill uh Krebs got a stick up high stick Darlene my understanding from talking to some people is Darlene's got a bit of a quick wick, which is, you know, you need a little bit of spice in your game, which is a good thing. But people like, I think it was Carlo Koliakovo chimed in online. Who else?

Ryan Callahan. Ryan Callahan. So some very respected players are saying this is bullshit for a captain to go low on another player in practice. How did you feel about that wit like yeah obviously like thinking more about it i didn't like it after hearing that it was retaliation a high stick i guess i can understand it i do think that the buffalo sabers need a little bit of spice and some type of spark to get them out of this drought in order to get their game going early because if they start out 500 after you know 2025 games i

don't know if they're going to have enough juice to end up getting this team in the playoffs yeah so i have no problem with when teams are playing hard and it kind of all goes back to the bertuzzo um who did he fight uh that's sanford yeah yeah yeah zach sanford and it switched everything around and people talked about it in st louis that they end up coming back and winning the cup. And I get physicality and practice and competing. There's one thing to put a shoulder through a guy's chest in a battle drill and run them over and that's the game. But when you're going low on a hip check and all of a sudden, like a guy tears his knee, which he didn't. So it's kind of like an argument that I guess is a little ridiculous, but he could have gotten injured and

there is a big difference between running a guy it's similar in the NFL like I remember Gronkowski used to talk about like you're you're you're not allowed you're not allowed to hit guys in the head in the NFL where he's like I'd rather I'd rather you not be allowed to hit my knee right like if you're gonna run after me I concussions are scary I can recover from that I'm done for the year if you buckle my knee and just to go low like that in a practice it was just kind of weird to me. Concussions are scary. I can recover from that. I'm done for the year if you buckle my knee. And just to go low like that in a practice, it was just kind of weird to me. Now, I'm sure Darlene kind of snapped after getting high stick, but he could have maybe lit him up in the chest. And instead, he throws a beautiful hip check, which in a game, I see that awesome hit,

give him a bunch of stick taps. But to do it to a teammate is definitely odd. And I don't think on the right side of things. And then he was that pissed where he goes at him again. He goes at him right after he lays a low hit on him. So definitely odd. But I think the passion and practice for the Sabres is a good thing. Maybe it just stems from something else, not a low hit. Yeah, and obviously the goons online are going to, you're captain doing that in practice?

Are you kidding me? I just think quick wick, you get high stick, you're fired up. But I am a firm believer in your practice habits and that intensity carrying over to games. And from my understanding, it was a very difficult training camp and Lindy Ruff's trying to instill that into their culture. So let's see if that transfers over to games moving forward. They did have that big win we talked about against Florida.

No Barkov, no Kachuk spencer night net they got pittsburgh on prime time wednesday you got that game we got that game this is going to be a big game for both teams because pittsburgh's in that same boat where they got to get off to a hot start as well they're one and two and and you know another team that i think malkin has been quoted as saying even before the season started he said i gotta play smarter i gotta limit my turnovers and and and make adjustments to my game much like i think sid is done right he doesn't play the same way that he used to in the past where malkin has played as of more late more of a river river riverboat gambler is the word i'm trying to find yes um but uh so he he said it again after their

game uh where they lost game three so let's see if that transfers over for the penguins on that prime 10 game and you you you were telling us a story about when you got run over in practice for the coyotes yonkman fucking put me like he put me into a different planet i was coming through the middle like i shouldn't have been i should have fucking dumped it in and i actually i made a beautiful dish and like you said you hate when guys watch their pass i was watching my pass and next thing you know my lights went out and then i i came to like i think my bucket was halfway down the ice i collected myself the drill kept going and i think a couple guys including yans were like i thought you were gonna fight him like why don't you fight him i think maybe yans was pulling my chain a little bit to get me going but when i was being

asked or told this in line i still didn't know where the fuck i was the biggest hit i think i've ever received in my life was in practice it was in practice it was nolan yachman western leaguer six seven handsome bastard too really good at the bar uh great wingman uh for the time he was up anyway uh but i think if you asked him that might have been the biggest hit that he'd ever thrown in his life so thank god i'm still here after after suffering it uh but as far as other topics that was kind of the main stuff after we'd uh finished yeah there is one more um as g's done chicklets university and we were at a bu game and interviewed jay pandolfo while we're here in boston and copetar chicklets bump another three apples yeah is that seven seven that game right now ottawa versus la uh josh norris won in overtime eight seven ottawa jesus i don't did

all mark play no wow crazy crazy situation there but ottawa's going a little bit auto was going and and as i get back to college hockey uh quinnipiac head coach ran oh i love this ran back hold just kind of dominating you online yeah put you put you in a blender where apparently as as the jokes have been chirping throughout the years that quinnipiac's a very old team which i've always laughed at because i always thought of them as an old group apparently the year they won it they were just mid middle of the road in age uh for ncaa came at me with the facts stuffed me in a locker and that's our nightmare the facts on this form not knowing what we're talking about misinform and and you know professionals coming at us online with the actual facts of what we're supposed to be talking about so so apology to quinnipiac apology to quinnipiac their head coach and also I that's probably going

to be my team considering it's probably the only university I'd be able to graduate from no no no no no no I don't know it's cool I think it's pretty solid school it's pretty solid school like we're gonna stick to Davenport U for you beautiful girls though beautiful girls okay well that's another reason okay that's why you would to go on there that's a recruiting tip yes it is so uh you're welcome Quinnipiac and hey maybe I could join you guys for a practice to see if I could keep up with these young bodies hopefully somebody can Nolan Yonkman you in that practice um put me through the guillotine like skate through the middle of the ice and have all these players take runs at me Rand Packnall's an awesome dude though huge chiclets guy I love him i love him even more

for stuffing me in a locker like that's what we need and hopefully we can get him on again and he can he can stuff me in a locker when he's live on on chiclets in the year they won they were 30th the 30th youngest team out of 64 so he was right so he's half of the or the 34th oldest team would that be the same thing yes it would okay so middle of the pack as i said but you know what we were kind of talking like they were all 25 years old so the apology is very and i was laughing at the jokes i probably got the little league world series formula where they're changing their bursts they got danny almonte on their team oh my god if you don't remember danny almonte just a lefty like 16 year old just chucking 75 miles yeah it was pedro so um that about wraps it up uh a huge shout out to the nhl alumni association glenn healy the the awesome job that they're doing

we're gonna do a a feature on a former player once a month and they were kind enough to get us matt sundin who was awesome today and the fact that we'd already recorded and then i asked him about the current leafs and he comes at us with the three goaltenders not one not two three i i had a i had a maple leafs hard on raging hard on and broder you're the luckiest team in the league and uh we actually you know we record it's four o'clock on monday so we got penguins canadians should be a great one tonight um or last thing as you're listening islanders avalanche can that one of those teams is starting off winless through three and uh red wings rangers so i'm looking forward to the games tonight we'll be chatting about uh those i guess if they're memorable next week and we appreciate all you

guys listening love you all and thank you to the Alumni Association and Matt Sundin. What a legend. Biz? Game Notes Friday. Tune in. Game Notes Friday. Army and maybe. Have a great one, guys. Peace. Thank you. I don't know.