Spittin Chiclets - Spittin’ Chiclets Episode 528: Featuring Rob Brown and Ryan Smith

Episode Date: October 22, 2024

On Episode 528 of Spittin’ Chiclets, the guys are joined by “Down Town” Rob Brown to talk about his unreal scoring ability in Junior, his playing days in Pittsburgh, and his relationship with different coaches around the league. But first, the NHL is witnessing history as Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin are both reaching new career milestones, as well as Ovechkin inches closer to the illusive Wayne Gretzky goal record. Around the League we’re starting to see teams like Winnipeg come out on top when no one gave them their flower in pre-season, and teams like Nashville seemingly implode after amazing off-season acquisitions. Later on, Utah HC and NBA Utah Jazz Owner Ryan Smith Joins the show to talk about how the deal was made for him to acquire the team, his unlikely rise into billionaire status, and the state of fans in Utah. Whit’s not hitting the panic button just yet on the Oilers, Biz got a suspicious DM, and it’s a great week for hockey because all 32 teams are playing this Tuesday; This is an episode you won’t want to miss. 00:00:00 - Start 00:14:18 - NHL Milestone moments 00:54:39 - Rob Brown Interview 01:55:36 - Winnipeg Jets 02:07:23 - Dallas Stars 02:11:35 - Colorado Avalanche 02:17:22 - Nashville Predators 02:30:32 - Ryan Smith, Utah HC Owner, Interview 03:24:44 - Around The League 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! 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. MUGSY: Head to https://mugsyjeans.com and enter your email your for 20% BACK on the only jeans and pants you will ever wear again SPORTCLIPS: Sport Clips. It’s a Game Changer. https://sportclips.com BODYARMOR: Head on over to your local 7-Eleven & get your BODYARMOR SportWater today!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 Bissonnette, R.A., Mike Grinnelli, Spittin' Chicklets! What is up, folks? Welcome to episode 528 of Spittin' Chicklets, presented to you by Pink Whitney, New Amsterdam's own Pink Whitney. And we got a sandbagger coming out very soon, folks, very soon.

And the Pink Whitney's always flowing in the sandbaggers. The birdie juice that brings in the birdie buckets. Grab those big old buckets of 20 nips, pour some ice in there and enjoy yourself, just like we do on the sandbaggers. And the sandbagger is Thursday at 11 a 11 a.m eastern i cannot wait till you see early drop i know a little early midday maybe a little early to drop some pink whitney shots but hey if you're in the mood it's five o'clock somewhere and that's the best part about pink

whitney and there's a little action with pink whitney right now pink whitney will be selecting one grand prize winner and sending them and a few of their friends on a trip to 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. 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. And Biz, what is going on buddy

grand prize normally it's all dudes in my instagram dms i see a couple girls thinking what do we got here hey can you rig this pink whitney contest so i'd go with my girlfriends to nashville so i got i got girls reaching out to me to try to get them to slide in as the winner of the pink whitney contest and i got girls saying wait that that to try to get them to slide in as the winner of the Pink Whitney contest. And I got girls saying, wait, that old guy's the Pink Whitney guy? So the lives we live are so different, buddy. You got girls reaching out to your DMs. I got Oilers fans asking me what the hell is going on in my DMs. So I think the week that we just had, though, was fantastic for this early in the season.

And this episode, this episode's jam-packed we interviewed our first owner the first owner to ever come on the pod that's ryan smith owner of the utah hockey club and the utah jazz incredible about 55 60 minutes of him giving us kind of his life story what his plans are for the team very very good guy to talk to and then rob brown who we interviewed back in the Stanley Cup finals, who was a sniper back in his day. Great storyteller. So we got two great interviews. Unreal storyteller.

And it was so evergreen that, you know, we had so many banked up. We're like, oh, we're going to drop this as a treat in the middle of the season. And, oh, man, just, I mean, getting to play with Mario Lemieux and bouncing around. And like you said, his delivery is incredible. And there's no wonder why he's doing uh uh media up north in Edmonton and just uh just a beauty and we can't thank him enough for his time and and Ryan Smith announcing that it's going to be called the Yeti on our

podcast like I mean that is just incredible isn't it with that big time I was figuring he was going to you know come on the show to make some huge announcement so yeti it is folks and when you listen to the interview you'll know that biz just basically bullied him into it so i think you could start ordering merch now if you want to and i i i think that ryan smith joining the show shows a lot here i mean next thing you know do we have jeremy jacobs coming on sitting here with us do we have right i are we an owner's podcast i think we could get jerry jones although he might bully us if we say the wrong thing did you see that clip that ended up going viral yeah he's like i'll get rid of you too ask people to get the ask the questions a little different than you just just a cutthroat owner but over the course of the

interview i i compared him to mark cuban because i think for the for the first time in a long time I asked the question to to people before the pod like who was like the first hockey owner who was like kind of out there and would do media hits and was basically the main face of the organization more so than any player was and people were saying the old owner of the LA Kings when when uh wayne ended up getting picked up i i i guess that's the only other comparison like hockey maybe ted leonis to a bit of a degree but a little bit definitely not to this extent and one that kind of attracts that younger audience as well so it's a cool thing for the league and like you said 45 minutes with him was a treat and learned a lot about him and what his plans are

for the Utah Hockey Club moving forward. Yeah, when he goes into how he built his wealth and Qualtrics, the company that's created all this wealth for him and his family, it's a wild story. I had read a little online, but the way he went in depth with it, I think people really enjoy it. And I've kind of long said that I think people really enjoy it and i've kind of long said that like i think to be a billionaire you're kind of a fucked up cat this guy seemed

pretty normal it's like gold it's like goaltending like how many then once in a while you meet like a normal goalie so there's a couple normal billionaires out there i guess r.a hated billionaires holy fuck that guy hates billionaires so i'm very very pumped for everyone to hear the two interviews we have and yeah and wit to go back to what you were saying though like first week it was kind of like utah was the headline hogs but we've got plenty of stories to talk about it's been a great start to the season and obviously led off by our boy sydney crosby i mean for him to get that ot winner the way that i taught him, the Sidney Crosby knee drop, well, it was originally the Biz Nasty knee drop. For him to do it in that regard and win that game when they hit those milestones, just incredible,

along with everything else going around the league. So I'll throw it over to you, buddy, unless you got any funny Squanto stories you want to kick us off with. No, not really. Although last night he did, he, in our shower, we got one of the, we got one of the we got one of the like the raindrop shower tops that's what i got my new crib you need that thing coming down directly on top of your head yeah and then there's also a piece that attaches to all the you know like the handle like you can oh yeah to get the cornhole to get the cornhole and the with the raindrop you can't get the cornhole it's got to leak down the crack but the you know yeah you take that thing off the slats out of there so it must have been 10 days

ago i came in the the bathroom and he he'll shower in our room and he's hanging he's so like you know the cord of the handheld like it's longer so you can kind of reach out he's hanging on it with his feet on the wall so full body weight and i was like hey hey hey like you'll pull that thing off the wall and you'll smash your head like not even like hey hey just mad at him like dude if that thing comes off the wall you could crack your head open sure as shit last night i just hear screaming screaming and i go upstairs run upstairs quick He is laying on the ground in the bathroom. Just like when Colm Acera kicked me in Montreal. Biggest hit I've ever took.

And I was just looking at the ceiling of the Bell Center. And he's like, oh, my neck. He's laying there screaming, crying. And I look. I'm like, are you okay? And I look. The whole thing's off the fucking wall, dude. The whole thing's off the wall.

He did it again. And he was alone. And he's like i hit my head one time and then i ran and hit it again when i fell on the slippery floor and i'm like why did i told you i'm like so mad at him but brie's standing there because she ran up hurting the screaming and she's not like mad at him she's just laughing but i had told him i had been there when he originally hung on the thing well sure, sure, should I go back into my office because I was watching the sandbagger? And she comes in and tells me that he said,

you're both rude, you're both rude. He also yelled fuck. He also yelled fuck when he was laying down. Like, not funny. And she's like, yeah. So I said, how am I rude? I wasn't even mad at you. Dad was mad at you.

Like, thanks for throwing me under the bus. And he's like, you're right. You're not rude. I'm even mad at you dad was mad at you like thanks for throwing me under the bus and he's like you're right you're not rude i'm not mad at you dad's rude dad's a rude rude man so he likes to call you rude a lot yeah rude it's so it's like buddy what have you watched clueless with alicia silverstone back in 1997 so it's been it's been an interesting weekend a long weekend when you have no sports, so Riders sports yesterday, they were over at 1.30. Dude, you almost rather have them end at 6 because, like, it was beautiful outside playing, but you're like, from 2 to 7 with kids, it might as well be a year.

I'm telling you. I looked at the clock. It was 3 o'clock, and I was like, all right, we're playing outside. I was like, it's got to be 4.30 by now. It was 3.20. I looked at the clock. It was 3 o'clock, and I was like, all right, we're playing outside, playing outside. I was like, it's got to be 4.30 by now. It was 3.20. It had been 20 minutes. So it was still a wonderful weekend. You ever just slip them a gummy or something, just knock them out?

Yeah, that's what you do, Biz. You meditate when they're crying, and you give them weed when they're upset. That's exactly why you're going to make a special meal. Give them 100 milligram edible indica, just night, night, sleep for a few days so you can get some stuff done. Why don't I just put them in the Nashville Pink Whitney sweepstakes while we're at it? He wakes up, you got brand new tile on the shower,

you got a whole new nozzle. I mean, I just don't know where you draw the line between punishing them and also trying to hold back laughter in the antics that come up from a day-to-day basis. So it must be hard to draw the line in between both where, once again, you don't want to be rude, but you're trying to establish some form of structure. No, sometimes you want to be rude.

Sometimes you do want to be rude. Sometimes you got to be rude. Do you have to, like, let's say you're boiling and you said he said the word fuck. Is that something that, like, when you're really angry might slip out? Or does he hear you say it like no yeah he's obviously you're right that's that's something where it's like hey take a look

in the mirror where he's obviously heard that in the house so that's why it's like oh my god like that's not funny but that one's on me now he's never said this at school or anything as far as i know yet but i am putting together a compilation where every day he's coming up yeah where's my Leafs jersey where's my Leafs jersey and then where's my Leafs jersey Biz said I'd have my Leafs jersey and so I'm just I'm videoing it because I know when he's coming what he's going to ask so I'm videoing it and then I'll make the video of us giving him the Squanto Leafs jersey on his birthday and then I'll get make a video of all the asks and ask and ask and then when he gets the actual gift he'll probably say fuck you when i was at your house a few weeks back i told him i pinky swore him that he would have the jersey the next day after he went up and said goalies go to

your face has he said biz is a lying piece of shit at this point no i actually had your back i'm like no no no no biz had your jersey but he wouldn't come to the BU game. Remember he said it's too loud? Right. Which is true. What are you talking about it's too loud? It's not even. I have sensitive hearing at my age where I think I need to start wearing earplugs out in public.

Oh, this reminds me. If I go to a restaurant wit and it's too loud, halfway through the dinner, like I have no energy left and I have a bit of a headache. Like, I don't know if that's, I should get that checked out. Are you not getting sensitive hearing as your age goes on? My hearing's getting worse, but I don't think it's necessarily becoming more sensitive. But your headphones thing really cracks me up because for everyone listening, Biz had told me this where he's like, dude, the loud noise is really kind of bugging me lately. And I've been putting in my AirPods and then just using how using how the like when you put them in they basically turn on

right like it turned on the silencer mode yeah the silencer mode so i'm like oh okay like i guess like if you're sitting eating at a restaurant at the bar you pull them in here we go buddy here we go everyone listening we're in my car It's one-on-one. I got the music, volume seven. This Noah Kahan concert that was live at Fenway Parks on Spotify, it's unreal. I had the option to go. I didn't know who it was. My dad said, you want to go?

About eight months prior, I said, no, I never even heard of this guy. I don't want to go to his concert. He's the new Ed Sheeran. He's amazing. So I had this on volume seven. I remember because I always set it to volume seven or nine, kind of an odds number guy. And Biz has his AirPods in.

So I was like, oh, maybe he's listening to something with me in the car as I'm driving to his hotel. Thanks a lot, partner. And I'd say, hey, Biz. And he'd take one out and he'd listen to what I said and he'd answer me and he'd put it back in. I'm like, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. You told me about the headphone usage. I didn't think in a car alone with me, you'd have a man.

Like I felt like the most annoying Uber driver in the world. I could just picture G and all these guys laughing behind the scenes right now at my antics. I don't know what to tell you, man. At that point in the day, it'd been a long day. So like most of the time I can hear what someone's saying, even in the day i respect that it's been a long day so like most of the time i can hear what someone's saying even though i have them in it's kind of like how some people wear uh earplugs at nightclubs where it's it's almost easier to hear what the person's saying

especially if they're talking pretty close to your ear but i don't know man fucking maybe it's all the cte and getting my head punched in all those years where all of a sudden i just notice it more now where literally halfway through a meal if it's a noisy enough restaurant i feel drained i feel like i just did like the mohab 240 like i just ran 240 miles and i'm just absolutely gassed and i need to go take a nap because of the noise i don't know that's it's obviously something i'm concerned about i don't know if i'm just like benjamin you just made you just made it sound like a nice dinner in nyc with a bunch of friends like like like it's going to nom in 1968 this guy this guy needs therapy from a dinner with friends because there's some sick music

that he probably invested in the band that's just bugging him driving him crazy i'm gonna start wearing oh i see why walking right now in front of my house. He's throwing a tantrum. He's throwing a tantrum. He slammed a car down. What's he pissed about? God bless her. I don't know.

Who knows? Maybe could we get an update at the end of the pod? I mean, we got to obviously hop into hockey here, but I think I'm going to start wearing earmuffs. I'll just wear like fancy. Maybe we'll make some spit and chic wearing earmuffs. I'll just wear like fancy. Maybe like we'll make some chick, spit and chicklets earmuffs that I can do. Remind me of Warren from something about,

I'll put a, I'll put a, I'll put a dog cone around my, Oh my God. Have you seen my baseball? Well, I guess with all that, I think we should probably hop in a hockey right about now eh oh um what a what a

night and i know this goes back to kind of the beginning of the week but i we we we got to go over the legends in the game continuing to do legendary stuff and and off the top right away it's crosby malkin it's ovechkin. And what these guys have accomplished, what we've gotten to witness for 20 years now from these three, and in particular in Pittsburgh, in an amazing come-from-behind win against the Buffalo Sabres, and we'll get into the Penguins in a minute here, but more about Malkin getting his 500th goal, coming out of the gates like a rocket ship this season,

and Crosby assisting on the 500th, followed by Crosby getting the OT winner. And then Malkin mentions after when Sid scored his 500th, Geno assisted on it. It's just been incredible. And I want you to go into what you thought that night before we get into the Penguins team a little bit, but what you thought just seeing all that go down.

Well, just like Malkin looks like he did when he was dominating again finally the first game against the Rangers he didn't look like himself but I'm just like I'm fired up that we got Malkin back and especially the way that he scored the goal too like I could just picture army saying give and go give and go and the way that he moved it down below the goal line to Sid and then he just attacks the net and then in in Malkin fashion, after the original stop, the fact that he ends up scoring it while he's on his ass, just a beautiful, stunning goal that will be remembered forever.

And just how important it is to him, you know, being a Russian player coming over from Magnitodorsk, a pretty small town in Russia, being able to accomplish everything he has in the National Hockey League based on the expectations coming in so I was just like just I said I was grateful like I thanked him on behalf of the fans because I am a fan of the game at what these guys have been able to accomplish and the memories that they provided Pittsburgh Penguins fans throughout all these years in doing what

they've done so it uh I was just fired up to get to see it and to be a part of the broadcast in which both players hit the milestone on the same game. I just thought it was, it was so fitting and you know, it's, it's remarkable the longevity that these players have been able to, to have in the game. And,

you know, I know Malkin had been dealing with injuries the last couple of years, like coming off of a pretty bad knee injury the year prior, maybe not being himself last season. If they have any chance of doing anything as far as Stanley Cup hopes, these two guys have to be playing at the top of their game. I don't think we ever questioned what Sid would bring. I think that maybe some people questioned whether Malkin would have that left in the tank. And I think it goes back to even some of the comments Sid had after the game. And I said, what do you admire about each other and being teammates for all these years? And Sid said, you know, just maybe when you think that Malkin

doesn't have another gear or more to give, he's able to dig deeper and give it. And I think we saw it to start the season off and the fact that at that point um after that game I want to say he had 11 points registered and he led the league in scoring and I think that was the last time the last time after five games to start the year that Malkin has led the league in scoring was going back to the to the last time he won the Art Ross if I'm not mistaken I I was so impressed with that question you asked. You're lucky enough to get them both together. And you said, like, what's the best thing about Sid, Gino,

and vice versa? And it was cool to hear them kind of answer that. And on Crosby getting 1,600 points, like, and Ovechkin getting 700 goals, 700 assists. We'll go into that with the cap. So Sidney Crosby became, I think, what, the 10th player all time to achieve that milestone? And the fifth fastest. The fifth fastest.

And it was the fewest games played to 1,600 points. Wayne Gretzky, 667. That's a joke. I heard the Game Notes boys just laughing about that. Mario Lemieux, 812. Marcel Dion, 1,164. Jarmer Jaeger, 1,274. And then Crosby, 1,277 games to 1,600 points.

And I sat around and I was watching the game. First off, Buffalo. Oh, my God. But all the expectations and all of the discussion about Crosby. And you knew about him. Most Canadians knew about him way before America just because of how he was a prodigy and coming up 12, 13.

He goes to Shattuck. He goes to Rimouski, and he gets drafted, and then it's like, what's he going to do? What's he going to do? Is he going to be the next one, the Sid the Kid? And somehow, he has completely obliterated the expectations, which is nuts. He had expectations that everyone's like,

I don't know, man, there's no way this guy's that, is he that good? He's not that big. All the expectations that looked ridiculous to people said, you can't put these on a young kid coming into the league. He's made those look minor league levels.

And he's just continuing to do it with such class. And it's amazing to see. We're talking about those guys. You heard the games played for Gretzky and Lemieux. It was a different game. Marcel Dion, way different game. Jager had some years

where the clutching and grabbing and holding was even worse than now. So that's much respect. But Crosby's done this. It's not been that easy to get points since he came in the NHL. I'd say in the last five years, six years, it started to become a little bit easier. But he's just, it's wild to see.

Like you're saying, even post-lockout, I know the rules had changed to grow the game, like way less clutching and grabbing, like the obstruction interference on the 4-check. It just got really like silly and out of hand so but even regardless even when they came back in 05 which i believe was his first season 0506 like right after that lockout like the league was still very hard and physical to play in like guys were all over him non-stop and it you know it was a and the power plays as

as much as they were they weren't as much as nowadays so he still kind of had the taste of that older era that is transforming to what the game is now over the course of the 20 years so the fact that he came in and lived up to those expectations you're talking about and i think that a lot of people even with like the one knock on him was like oh he's soft and and um you know he's too small but he through all that even the the physical play that he had to deal with early on and all that attention he still lived up to those expectations that you're talking about after the lockout ended when when he came into the league there was a year rick nash won the rocket richard with like 40 goals or something like look that up gee it's like 41 goals or something like now you're there was a year Rick Nash won the rocket Richard with like 40 goals or something like, look that up.

Gee, it's like 41 goals or something. Like now you're, there was, there was a time of like this, just error where the scoring was. It was also then rarely were four forwards used on the power play. Thank God for me.

Cause I could be pumping gas possibly being that second defenseman on that penguins power play basically got me everything I have in life. Thanks Sid. Officially in life. Thanks, Sid. Officially, once again. Which is crazy to think also that back. How is it just recent enough where you're like, let's go four forwards on the power play? That seems a little no-brainer-ish, but nobody really did it. Nobody really did it.

And the Penguins, on the other hand, Biz, while some excitement and the bottom six looking better and Sid and Gino off to a big start, their goaltending is a disaster. Oh, here it is, Chief. Nash, Aginla, and Kovalchuk had 41 goals that year. So nice season for the NHL and the leading goal scorer is 41. But the Penguins,

Tristan Jari wasn't even in the lineup last game, Biz. He was a healthy scratch as a goalie. His numbers are horrible. Mike Sullivan's made it clear we're going with whoever gives us the best chance to win. The defense has issues. The power play looks better this year, but it's back to just other problems in other directions. And I don't know what you saw watching them. Yeah, I guess so.

So I watched them the first game of the season and then I've watched two games since. And we'll go back to more Malkin and Crosby stuff. And like the fact that they're providing what they're providing now and Sid did what he did last year and they didn't make playoffs. I just look at like Letang and Carlson

and mind you guys, like this is probably the worst part of the job is being like critical of guys. You know, these guys are going to be hall of famers I would assume both of them they're both handsome as shit they both have unbelievable salad uh bring an offensive dynamic to the game or at least in the past that has been essentially second to none especially Carlson I want to say Carlson has two Norris trophies but I just look at the way that those two in particular are playing defensively and maybe the the you know what they're opening up as far as defensive play based on on how they play the game and I think that unless they consider

making fundamental changes to the way that they approach the game and the way that they like to you know what's i want to call it riverboat gambling but they kind of just uh they kind of just play out there dude like not grinding not not grinding and and i'm not talking about being on the goal for a minus where a you're out there and there's a little bit of a breakdown and maybe it's not even your fault like we're talking about like single-handedly costing them their team goals like the game against buffalo like i want to say like letang was responsible for two if not three breakaways against um the goal i think that tied the game i think that at one point they were up uh i think they were up four three and the tying goal i think it was Paterka like all the tang has to do is skate back and

go stick on puck but he takes kind of a weird angle and doesn't go stick on puck and then Paterka gets that off-angled shot on net that ends up going in now you could blame goaltending just as much as the defense but I think overall from watching if you have been a Pittsburgh Penguin fan or a fan of the game and you've watched Pittsburgh penguins hockey I think that you would probably agree with me in a sense of saying like the bottom six last year was vanilla they were brutal they didn't provide any energy uh rarely did they provide a spark or even any type of secondary scoring I feel like with Achari being finally settled in I mean Hazy's got three goals for fuck's sakes and I think that they are providing that energy along with the power play i think right now is 15th in the league it looks a lot better than at least it did at the beginning of last season if not overall that where it

finished 30th that to me is the one fundamental problem now i don't know as a head coach or as a leader like crosby or like malkin and maybe they think hey these guys are just going through a tough spurt to start the season and maybe that's what it is but I think that we've maybe seen enough of a sample size where I think the conversation has to be had where it's like these two guys if they just simplify their game and they stay inside the dots they worry about winning their battles advancing the puck like we're talking like if you watch all the goals that they're on the ice for we're talking about very simple plays that could have been made to prevent these goals whether it's a

little playoff of a breakout and wait i'll throw it over to you i've been long-winded about this have you watched have you seen these these parts of these games that i'm talking about yeah and i went through and i watched uh sunday's game against winnipeg which you know they gave up another six burger they gave up another six and on the third goal for winnipeg there's like a 50 50 puck on the wall like d-man stepping down wingers trying to get it out on Pittsburgh and Tanger just like takes off right well the puck stays in all of a sudden it ends up in front of the net boom goal and he kind of like got on the wrong side of the puck like cheating for a little offense and what's crazy is he comes back and it looks so nonchalant and here's where I'll not defend him, but I remember when I was playing and on video of me in my mind,

like so sure of myself that I was giving it my all and that I was desperate to come back. And then you see it on the film and you're like, holy shit, like that did not look like what it felt like to me. And I've always looked back on my career and thought like, God, I was never desperate enough. I'm talking about trying to save a goal. I'm talking about like laying your body on the line. Like I thought I was, but I wasn't. And LeTang's done that at many times in his career to win two Stanley Cups. And granted, he wasn't even playing the one year, but he's done that. But right now it's like, you got to see him come back on this third goal, dude. It's crazy. He's like, it's like he does it. He's just standing there and boom, it's in the net. And I wrote down on the fourth goal, Lowry's right in front of the net. LeTang's standing there. LeTang does have a guy, but there is not one person on Lowry. He's in the crease.

Boom, another one. Then the fifth goal, dude. Carlson has the puck in the offensive zone. He's walking the blue line. He throws a backhand through the zone, a complete pizza, right? They pick it off. Somehow, Peterson, the defenseman, ends up getting it back in the neutral zone. He fires another pizza right up the middle of the neutral zone, four on two the other way, goal. It was like, oh my God, I just watched three goals that the Penguins directly just gave to them. And what you're saying is it's little things. So the power plays better and Malkin looks good. Lars Eller's got four goals. They

have pieces that weren't there last year, but then the goaltending also. This Yoel Blomquist might end up being the answer. He was a 2020 draft pick. He's big and it sounds like he's got a very promising future, but it goes back to like dubas trading for carlson and then jari signs that deal and it's just they're so they're such a weird team because it's like they're not even close to the cup are they and they're not even close to like really really tanking and being bad it's just like no man's land where nobody wants to be yeah and like i said man the both of those guys have more skill in their pinky toe than i ever did at the highlights of my career so but it's just like

like right now it's been what five six games for them where we've i've personally seen enough where if they have any chance of making the postseason those are the things that need to be addressed and if the other D man and, and, and, and, uh, Pedersen or Peterson, however you pronounce his last name, I don't think he's been that good either. It just seems like Carlson Latang are the two guys that you look up to back there. Those are the future hall of famers, the guys who have won the hardware. So if they're kind of setting the precedent and not really sure what's being said by coaches and, or the other leaders as to like yo

we need you actually playing defense and digging in a little bit here because if we get behind the eight ball early we're the type of team that's going to be trying to grind to to get a wild card spot later in the season and these are the points that are going to end up coming back to to kick us in the ass and i also don't't want this conversation to overshadow or over-highlight the fact that Sidney Crosby accomplished the 1,600 points, becomes the 10th overall player to do it, the fifth fastest. Like, I know it's recency bias,

but it's hard to take off these founding fathers who paved the way for the National Hockey League and also these other players that had stats coming out way for the national hockey league and also these other players that had stats coming out their yin yangs and they also had the longevity and and had kind of done things that we'd never seen before like bobby or but you strongly have to consider if crosby continues this for another two seasons and he gets to that 1800 point mark with missing the time that he's missed over the part of his career when he was dealing with those concussions

where we thought he might not have even ever come back and play again, you have to consider him a Mount Rushmore guy. You have to consider Malkin to be potentially the great, between him and Ovi, the greatest Russian players to ever play the game. Like, are we talking about this right now? Would you say that Malkin and Ovi, the greatest Russian players to ever play the game? Are we talking about this right now? Would you say that Malkin and Ovechkin are the two of the best three Russian players

to ever play the game? The fact that Malkin got left off the top 100 player list is even more mind-boggling now. Oh, going back to that list. Like, sometimes they do it for conversation reasons like we're having right now, but we're talking about two of the three greatest Russians of all time. Yeah. I couldn't agree more with you. And that kind of leads to Ovi in Washington and something might be brewing there.

They had a great off season. Oh, and quickly, we'll get into them later. After the, after one of the interviews, we have the jets marked down. I was wrong again. I was wrong, wrong again. I was wrong again. So Winnipeg fans, stay tuned. We will talk about your wagon of a team. The last remaining unbeaten team.

The regular season champions. Right, yeah. Are they regular season? Are they? They should get the banner. They break through. But they look awesome. Before we go any further, I want to talk to the guests about body armor uh guys i'm

huge on hydration i usually crush probably two gallons of water a day and they send this body armor to my house it is incredible um i drink the one with alkaline um it provides real hydration with electrolytes for taste um like i said it's it's all it's awesome for road trips i bring it on the road it's got got the wide mouth nozzle. Witt's always talking about that. Even when you're done with the water, you can eat sunflower seeds. It's easy to spit in it. But more importantly, guys, the water is great.

They also have the zero sugar if you want a little bit more taste in your water. And the flash IVs, like after a long weekend, you know, if the helmet's feeling a little tight, it can't hurt. And we can't get enough body armor. The sport water, in my opinion, is the best water on the market. You can actually head over to your local 7-Eleven and get your body armor sport water today. It's at every gas station. I just did the full drive from Vancouver to Arizona, and I was crushing these the whole way. And these Alex Morgan ones are pretty cool i don't

know she i think she just retired didn't she congratulations to alex morgan and uh yeah pick up your body armor uh water today but over to washington i i think that the summer they had and bringing chikrin in and making making a decision like, we're not going to ride this out as the Ovechkin goal chase few years. We're going to like try to make this team good, quick on the fly. We're going to try to rebuild quickly and at least give ourselves another chance. The fact they made the playoffs last year was a joke. I don't think anyone gave them a chance against the Rangers. They didn't win a game.

It was, it was, they are who we thought they were. They are a way better team this year. They look really good out of the Rangers. They didn't win a game. It was, they are who we thought they were. They are a way better team this year. They look really good out of the gate. Tom Wilson now is being discussed as a member of the Four Nations team for Team Canada, which I totally get. Let's go! I mean, put some of those

fucking sizzly D-men right through the end wall back there. That's what I'm saying. Yeah, I don't need to see that as an American. He'll get suspended possibly though kobe armstrong said it this is tom wilson's team now boys this is tom wilson's team so dylan strome's been off to a great start and they have this first line of strome ovechkin and this i think it's alexi prot. I don't know if I'm saying his name correctly. He's enormous. 6'6", Belarusian.

He's only 23 years old. He's got three points in four games. He was a third-round pick in 2019, but he's 6'6". It says 225. He's got to be 240. He's a monster. And it seems like even last year, if you remember the video of Spencer Carberry in the room,

I believe they might have been celebrating Carlson's thousandth game. It was a milestone night. And you saw the way he talked to the team. And he just kind of he had that vibe, that aura around him of a leader and somebody who like the team respected and the team listened to. And it seems like now with what they did over the summer, they're in a good spot to not only get in the playoffs possibly again, but actually maybe make a little noise. Ovi's got one goal so far. He's 41 away from tying. I don't know if it's tying or beating

Gretzky. Can you look that up, G? But it just seems different. Whereas last year they got in the playoffs with one of the worst goal differentials to ever do it. And now it's like, all right, this team has improved so much on D and i think you've seen chicken enough to know that he would have helped the way he has so far that they seem a little bit more real this go around even though it's early and and and no you're you're bang on whit and like obviously right now the focus of this team is the ovechkin goal chase like this is gonna i i think this is gonna be world news the fact that anybody could sniff wayne gretzky's record is crazy and it's eventually gonna be broken um I also think with where we saw with Backstrom and his hip surgery and where he was

going along with TJ Oshie and his concussions I thought by now they would have torn it all down and started the rebuild process but you got to tip your cap and I think that Ovechkin and what he's done for that organization in the game of hockey he deserved to be surrounded by a quality team as he makes this chase um he started out slow last year obviously not out to a typical Ovechkin start this year either he definitely has slowed down but I love the offseason moves that they made like you look at Chikrin in the back end like like offense was something they didn't really have last year and goal support he's played power play wherever he's went he's got a a lethal

shot so he could be a guy used in that position he moves up and down the ice well he had a great summer training so you knew he was going to bring in, you know, a little bit of spunk to that back end and give a nice secondary scoring approach to Carlson back there. And also he's been shipped around a little bit. Like he's in a prove it year. It's a contract year for him. So you might as well bring in that new blood like that.

And then they go get more goal support and Manji Apani, a guy who can play both ends of the ice. I think he scored 29 the year with Calgary where he had a big year. And then, you know, some people question the Dubois move, but, you know, they get to move on from Kemper given the fact that things didn't really work out there. He had three years left on his deal at 5 million a pop where, yeah, they got Dubois for a little bit longer and a little bit more money, but maybe there is game there. Maybe there

is a resurgence in what he can bring. And we see more of what he had in some of the Columbus days and also some of the Winnipeg days where, you know, he was an unbelievable two-way center and he did bring a physical and more hungry approach. So I like this team. I thought that they looked better on paper coming into the season. I still don't have them making playoffs, but they're off to a three-in-one start, and they can surprise a lot of people. And if Ovechkin all of a sudden gets hot with Dylan Strom up there, he's a giver. He's a puck distributor.

He wants to find Ovi. That's the way that he likes to play, and already seven points in his first four games. So I like a lot of things about this washington team and obviously there's a lot of excitement and a lot of media coverage and a lot of cameras around that they're living up to right now based on the fact that ovechkin's chasing this record so it kind of also speaks with to you talk about these legends like like when ovi and sid came in what they did for the game and the way that they carried along with Malkin but also the Russians and what other Russians around the league are doing right now and it's kind of I brought it up on the TNT call how I'm like man it should be the five nations

tournament like Russia should have a team in there and Liam McHugh's like uh you realize why they're not in the in the the tournament it has nothing to do with the doping it's the fact why they're not in the tournament. It has nothing to do with the doping. It's the fact that they're at war. And I understand that, but I just feel like hockey doesn't have that same luster when the Russians are not involved, especially at the way that the old guys are still playing, the way that the current superstars are,

like the Kaprizovs uh the artemi panerans uh the the vasilevskys and also the next wave and the guys like michkov like i i don't know how you feel about it but when you got panarin starting the way that he started he's world-class top of league scoring every year malcolm was leading the league and scoring up until like the last day or two like i feel like russia in the mix at these world tournaments, especially when IIHF isn't involved, is something that hockey needs. No?

Yeah. It's not the same without them in the tournament. I'm not getting political, but they should be in it. It's like people get pissed off either way, but if you're having a best on best tournament with, with the hockey players around this planet, you need Russia involved going back to Ovi. He's the sixth player to ever get 700 goals and 700 assists.

That is so wild. What is your guess on, um, on, on how many of those assists, a percentage of those assists are, are rebound, like shot, and the guy buries the rebound?

I would probably say. I don't have the answer, but it's got to be like 40, 30 to 40%. Yeah, I was going to say three-eighths of them. But I will say, will say really digging deep here on my pie chart. That was the one fraction he learned at Davenport University. I think I've heard him say three-eighths before.

I'm at dinner. Even if he takes the shot and misses the net, it rims around to backstrom on the half ball who feeds somebody in the middle he still gets the goalie in the collarbone the goalie's dead in the corner and the guy's just tapping it in i think that his his playmaking abilities were overshadowed by his goal scoring i think that he's got underrated vision and playmaking abilities obviously you're like oh thanks fucking crime dog mcgruff over here he's got underrated vision and playmaking abilities obviously you're like oh thanks fucking crime dog mcgruff over here he's got 700 apples but it was overshadowed by his goal

scoring and some of the plays that he's made especially as his career has progressed uh maybe i would yeah i would say three eights that's what i'm going with we'll go we'll go i can't wait for a text from mike kelly that i was bang on about three yeah I can't wait to see you try to like add three three eighths plus one fourth. I got a meditate brain explode. I got a fucking you have to put his headphones in folks. I need the headphones in for that one. Also another thing that was pretty

cool is one more thing. I was just going to say with like do you think when when when he retires you know how they did the 99 behind the nets for Wayne. Yeah. Do you think that they'll when he retires you know how they did the 99 behind the nets for wayne yeah do you think that they'll maybe retire eight league wide and then also put his eight where he did most of his damage at the top of the circle on the offside one-timer i don't know like you'd have to retire 87 if you're retiring eight that's a that's a no i thought that was a no-brainer i

would fuck fuck a statue outside the Penguins rink. I was going to put one up my new crib. I don't know if they do that. You should put one on your front lawn, for fuck's sakes. I should build a house that's shaped as an 8 and a 7, and then you can build a 3-8 house, and then we'll be able to take pictures of our memories in hockey and what they did for our families moving forward.

But how about this stat too? Because another guy, you mentioned John Carlson, but this is wild. Craig Laughlin tweeted this out on Sunday. Hey, Caps fans, a symmetrical stat of the night. John Carlson, he has 506 games on the road, 506 games at home. He's got 263 assists on the road, 263 assists at home, and he's got 1,180 shots on the road

and 1,180 shots at home. That is one of the most mind-numbing... Now I really got a headache. ...weirdest, most insane stats I've ever heard. And I think it's pretty obvious to everyone. It's a lot easier to play at home. You have your house. You have your normal locker room.

You got all the people you're seeing that work for the team that aren't on the road. It's just much more easy. There's an easy feeling when you go to the rink, your home arena. You go on the road, you're dealing with all these different things. You got travel.

You got maybe a pregame meal. Not if you ask Milbury. You didn't have a pre-game meal you liked and this guy has been so consistent to have the same numbers in so many different ways on the road as he has at home what a player he's been i remember when he came in he's in the ahl right away he was insane dominating games and he just you could tell right away this guy was going to be a freak he scored the winning goal in the world Juniors to beat Canada in Saskatoon's second army. And from every step along the way, Stanley Cup champ,

he's just an all-time great Washington Capitals defenseman. And I thought that stat was out of control. To the Russians you chatted about. One more thing before we keep going. I always like when you tell the story about, just like we said, Ovechkin's goal scoring kind of overshadowed his playmaking ability i think sid's playmaking ability might have overshadowed his goal scoring ability and i think early in his career like obviously this guy continued to evolve and work on his game

like relentlessly we i always use the the saying like all these guys have put every every fiber of their being into becoming the best hockey player they could be and early on like maybe he had that pass first mentality because he was such a giver and based on that you ended up making that bet with talbot and i'll hand it over where you talk about him developing his goal scoring ability. Yeah, all time fuck up by me. And there's been thousands of them. But he had the two piece stick then too. He had all the different blades he'd have to get sent.

He'd be chucking them in the trash. And he just was such a sick passer. I was like, he'll never get 50. And he's done it one time right after he found out I made the bet. So I think that that pretty much speaks to that was probably like his. He's like, all right, Whitney says they can't get 50. That fucking plug who's been in Anaheim, Edmonton, Florida, Russia and Sweden since I dished him the puck. Yeah, I'll grab 50 that pigeon. So he's just it's incredible.

And Ovechkin, the way that he has played, I had to have said to people 15 years ago, how long is this guy going to survive? He's killing people. He plays so physical. I don't know how long he's going to be able to play. Well, he has 700 and 700 now, and he's going to become the greatest goal scorer in the history of the game.

So, but with the other Russians you brought up, and the best on best, Malkin 11 points in seven games. Ovi's got four points in four games. Kucherov came out buzzing again. He's got six goals, nine points in four games. Kaprizov's got eight points in five games. Barbashev playing with Eichel, eight points in six games. He looks sick.

Vasilevsky, three wins, 2.52 goals against. And Igor, oh my God, did Igor embarrass your Leafs on Saturday night in Toronto? He was outstanding. Come on now. He was outstanding. Outstanding. You got to tip your cap sometimes. Pay him 13.

I think you got to pay him 13 at this point. I mean, Sorokin, too, who last year it was a big struggle. Varlamov takes the job. Patrick Wallace, some things to say. Sorokin then starts the year with a possible back injury. Confusing news coming out of Long Island. He's got a 953 save percentage and a 1.4A goals against. Only two games played, but if Sorokin gets back to that Vezna Sorokin,

that could be actually what gets the Islanders into the playoffs. He's been in net. He's looked great. And final thing on the Capitals, I know we're hopping all over the place in this division, but the Caps end up beating Dallas and Jersey back-to-back. That's two big-time wins. Dallas looked so good earlier in the year and so far this year.

And New Jersey's one of the top teams in the league. So it's been amazing. And the Russian thing, I would have to think that they're in the Olympics. Like, if you're going to do the four nations, whatever, it makes sense. Okay, so that's the reason I put it in the outline, because I get all the things going on overseas, and that's a very serious topic.

You know, some of the blood doping and the cheating is part of the reason, I think, that they were. Was that part of the reason or the reason that they were banned from the Olympics at one point or, you know, maybe it switched over. But there's been some reasons to keep them out, obviously. But between Ovi and Malkin, it would probably be their last opportunity to play at the Olympics representing Russia. And to not be able to see that best on best,

I really think that that just, it wouldn't have that same feel. And to keep snapping around to the rest of them, like say what you want about Panarin when the going gets tough, come deeper in playoffs. Like I know his points per game are pretty solid and maybe some people weren't impressed with the way that he showed up against Florida when the going got tough, but there's a reason why their power play was third overall last year. There's a, there's this guy who got what, 120 points last year. He continues to crack the code make unbelievable plays night in night out he can score he can dish he's so fun to watch i mean kucherov talking about cracking the code

was he got seven goals already you have to start talking about the fact that that might be the best deal in the nhl you he he's a one-man fucking power play out there. The way he's able to pull the puck off the half wall, the way he's able to create, he's a fucking assassin out there, man. Year in, year out, what he's doing. He'll be in the MVP conversation again. He's only making,

I think he's making under 10 million, isn't he? Isn't he making nine and a half? That's fucking crazy. You got Kaprizov doing what he's making under 10 million, isn't he? Isn't he making nine and a half? Like, that's fucking crazy. You got Kaprizov doing what he's doing in Minnesota. I would consider maybe last year off to a slow start. We talked to Billy G about the fact that he was getting hooked, held, and grabbed and wasn't getting the calls. Well, that doesn't seem to be affecting him early on.

I just think overall, it's just great to see. Like, Vazzy looks like himself again, especially in the early going. Like, I just think that the's just great to see like Vazzy looks like himself again especially in the early going like I just think that they the Russians have a presence right now to start the season off and it it had to be mentioned along with the fact that I hope that they figure things out and and Russia's be going to be able to be represented at the Olympics because I think it would be a shame if we don't get to see Ovi and Malkin play on an international competition against the best of Canada and that US has to offer. Especially with this, also this young crop. But man, like, Michkov is the talk of Philly right now.

That's all anybody wants to talk about. He's like the great white hope, so to speak. He's fucking, he's bigger than Rocky. I love you chirping on Twitter that, like, I'm dogging his skating when you agreed with me. Also, the clip you show is him not even skating. It was a good goal. I don't understand how the goal was allowed considering earlier in the night in Tampa, there was a goal by Ace Amon, I believe. That was the exact same thing, but I'm not even going to get into that.

But you talking about Mishkov and me saying he's a bad skater as he scores a goal standing on the goal line, interesting troll by you, but I'll accept it. I will accept it. I'm just trying to direct all the online hate towards you. I don't care. Bring all the Philly hate. I hate Philly.

I don't want two teams to do good, Toronto and Philly. And I love Jonesy, which makes it sucks because I love Jonesy. There's two teams. There's two teams to do good. Toronto and Philly. And I love Jonesy, which makes it... It sucks because I love Jonesy. There's two teams. And Brierre. There's two teams. I love Brierre, too. There's two teams I don't want to win, ever. Philly and Toronto, okay? So I don't care if these fans come at me. Big deal.

Michkov could be a great player. All I'm saying is when you watch him skate, it is not similar to elite-level skaters flying up the ice. He may be a 90-point guy for the next 15 years. I'm saying he when you watch him skate, it is not similar to elite level skaters flying up the ice. He may be a 90 point guy for the next 15 years. I'm saying he's got a little bit of a choppy stride. Relax, Philly. Sounds like and seems like you have a very special player on your hands, but I don't like you and I've never liked you. Philly trash to the day I die. Quickly back to the Rangers. I want to ask one thing. And Philly stinks this year. What? I want to ask you one thing.

I want to make a bet, and it has to do with Michkov overall points. Maybe goals assist, we could figure it out. But if he ends up hitting the over, we have to get torts to get the bag ski at you. That would be an unbelievable side bet where maybe it's a team bet. Maybe if they're able to squeak in a wild card and make

playoffs, which I think there's a better chance of a snowball lasting in hell at this point given the fact that they have no center iceman. They don't have a first line center. They don't got a second line center. Maybe they got a third line center. They're on an island right now, but if they make the playoffs, we should

get to see Torts bag skate you for an hour with those weak ass ankles based on everything you just said about the city of philadelphia fans are gonna make me hate michkov because i just said he's a little choppy of a skater and now they're like he could score a goal on a wraparound and like what do you say about that now okay he's got okay now he's at the top of the crease he deflects it in oh. Oh, yeah. How about that stride? Quickly, Rangers, though, and Panarin. I think Panarin. So Panarin's in the sixth of a seven-year contract.

He signed with the Rangers. 11.6 is his AAV. It might be one of the all-time best free agent signings. What he's done since he's been there every single year. And Rangers haters like Pasha on this thing. Well, it used to be Hyman, but he's got no points now, so it can't be him. I'm not worried about the Oilers. Don't try to get my head right. No, I'm not.

I'm not at all. Don't try to change the subject. Let me fucking talk. Panarin is a freak. He's a freak of nature. He's so fun to watch. And every single year now, you know, 90 to 105 points. Panarin is a freak. He's a freak of nature. He's so fun to watch. And every single year now, you know, 90 to 105 points.

Lock it up. Artemi Panarin, superstar, amazing contract. Kucherov's 9.5 AAV. You're right. You're right. That was not, that was, he was already there. So I'm looking at Panarin the way people say Zane O'Chara is one of the best UFA signings of all time. He'd come from a different club. I'm sorry for interrupting you and

trolling you there. Don't try to dog the Oilers. I have to be a little self aware. Sometimes I get a little excited and I cut in a little too much. My apologies. That's okay. So do I. So do I. And before we send it over to Rob Brown, great interview. I do want to talk about the pregame ceremony that Columbus

had before they played the Florida Panthers this past week and honoring Johnny and Matthew Goudreau. What an incredible night to see Florida get off the bus with the Purple Gatorade and the Skittles as Matthew Goudreau had mentioned that that's what Johnny loved. I think he had

written the team to do that. That opening puck drop, and it turns out it's Sam Bennett on the right wing for Florida, and the left wing was left empty for 13 seconds to honor Johnny. And then Monahan scores that goal and points it at the Johnny Goudreau banner. And it was like, I actually, leading up to the night, NHL Network, which had that game on their channel, had been showing commercials

for the game and what would be a memorable ceremony prior to the puck drop. And it was hard even like watching the commercial. You still just can't believe he's not there. And then the way Columbus pulled that off and Florida being there and Sam Bennett having been so close with him in Calgary. I don't know what you thought, but I think it was an incredible way for Columbus to start their home season and honor the Goudreau family. Yeah, and just like Meredith, she's a rock star, man.

You could tell how much the video tributes mean to her to reflect on her husband. It's been such a brutal situation but I think that the hockey community has really you know really galvanized and and and helped make it easier if that's even you know even possible based on their situation and just an an unbelievable send off for for Johnny and it doesn't end now like he's his legacy is going to live on and everything that he contributed to the hockey community and everything off the ice as well.

And just, you know, obviously hard to relive it, but just an exceptional job by the Columbus Blue Jackets and Florida Panthers to put all that night together. And there's not a lot of dry eyes in the building,

but just an incredible tribute. Yeah, and just seeing Monaghan get that goal, that was so fitting, so fitting. So with that, we're going to send this over to Rob Brown. I hope you guys enjoy this one. It's awesome. Throwback player, throwback interview.

Did some amazing things in the league, and we interviewed him a long time ago, but it's all still good and makes total. What's the saying, Biz? Evergreen, evergreen. So enjoy Rob Brown right now. Whit, before we go any further, I need to talk to these guys about DraftKings,

the quest for the Stanley Cup. It all starts now. The pucks dropping on the 24-25 season. Get in on all the action at DraftKings Sportsbook, an official sports betting partner of the National Hockey League. It's super easy for first-timers to get started. Try betting on something simple like picking a team to win. Go to DraftKings Sportsbook app, select your team, and place your first bet.

And if you're new to DraftKings, listen up. New customer bet $5 to get $200 in bonus bets instantly. Download the DraftKings Sportsbook app now and use code CHICKLETS. That's code CHICKLETS for new customers to get $200 in bonus bets when you bet just five bucks. Only on DraftKings. Folks, the crown is yours. Gambling problem? Call 1-800-GAMBLER. In New York, call 877-8-HOPEN-Y or text HOPEN-Y 467-369. In Connecticut,

help is available for problem gambling. Call 888-789-7777 or visit ccpg.org. Please play responsibly. On behalf of Boot Hill Casino and Resort in Kansas, 21 and over. Agent eligibility varies by jurisdiction. Void in Ontario.

Bonus bets expire 168 hours after issuance. For additional terms and responsible gaming resources, see dkng.co slash ice. All right, it's time for our next guest. His right wing was taken by Pittsburgh on the fourth round of the 1986 NHL draft before setting WHL records for assists and points in a season. He then made the team as a 19-year-old that was the starting right wing of the

NHL All-Star Game in his second year in the league. He made stops in Hartford, Chicago, Dallas, and LA before returning to Pittsburgh. Totaled 597 regular season and playoff games. It's a pleasure to welcome to the Spittin' Chickens podcast, downtown Rob Brown. How's a pleasure to welcome to the Spittin' Chickens podcast, downtown Rob Brown.

How's it going? Oh, what an intro. We're in Edmonton and R.A.'s buzzer mode. Oh, yeah. I enjoyed that one. That was pretty good. I mean, almost like I wrote it for you. I saw you hand them something.

We got a job. Oh, I'm up to the show, brother. Well, thank you very much. It's nice to be. It's funny. I've never, ever seen a podcast in my life. I don't know how to do it. And I was driving to the show, brother. Well, thank you very much. It's nice to be. It's funny. I've never, ever seen a podcast in my life. I don't know how to do it. And I was driving to the lake one year, and my buddy said, well, just listen to the podcast.

You got an eight-hour drive. And I'm like, I don't know how to get on. So he sent me a link, and it was you guys doing Charles Barkley. Oh, yeah. He became my favorite athlete afterwards. I'm like, oh, my God, that guy is cool. But that was like my introduction to podcasts. So it was pretty cool. He legend he was on the other night i think game two and he just dropped a quick f-ball the ball he dropped it's off the rails here he's like i don't have a job next year i was trying to hire him but that's funny that was the intro considering this was all

hockey and then biz has been lucky enough to work with so many people he brought him on and we've been able to have some non-hockey players on that people have enjoyed. So for your intro being Barkley, that's great. So how defensive were you originally, an Ontario guy? I'm an Ontario guy. My father got a job out here, I think, in 1881, and we've been here since. And when I retired, we have twins, and my little girl has autism. So my wife said, we've got to go somewhere near family, move back home.

And I've been here, like retired now for about 20 years. And it's been awesome. Outside of the weather, it's been a great place to bring up the kids. Are you still involved in the game in any capacity? I am, I'm on the ice. I teach at three different sports academies. So I'm on the ice 10 times a week.

We have around hockey schools, just did a street hockey tournament. If you come to our hockey schools, did a street hockey tournament uh if you come to our hockey schools i don't teach back checking i don't teach powers game two things that i absolutely hate it uh but no it's fun i'm always involved with hockey i've been doing the others now for 18 years you teach the selling because i was watching your time before i came in just to see where you're scoring your goals from and man you used to love that windmill is that where mcdavid got it from well yeah he would have to use it a lot more his shoulder gets sore i did it i continue to do it and i think it was in st

louis when you're eight right at the end of the year and i did want to score it a big goal and then right afterwards paul mclean scored a big goal too and he skated by my bench our bench and did the same thing back and okay that's it i'm not doing this i don't want you to retire and after hextall chased you down when you started it. It's fine. When Hextall chased me, I got... Was that playoffs? It was a playoff game. What a clip that is.

Well, it's funny because I scored the eighth and ninth goal in that game. Playoff game. I scored to make it 8-2 and 9-2. The eighth goal turned out to be the game-winning goal in a playoff game. They ended up making it. I think it was 10-7 with an empty net goal. Oh, my God. But it's funny.

After the ninth goal, everyone always asks me, why do you celebrate it i'm like i didn't even celebrate i don't know why he chased me then last year a buddy sent me the eighth goal and i celebrated like i'd won the stanley cup he remembered he said okay if he scores again i'm gonna kill him but i remember dan quinn coming to the celebrate with me and i could see over his shoulder hextall so stick over so i'm like i can't beat many people in a race, and I barely beat the goalie, but there's no way he was going to get to me. Then there was a documentary or something done on it, and Rick Talkett was being interviewed, and he said, on the way over on the bus, Hextall said,

if Brown scores on me tonight, I'm going to kill him. And he was close. I think he won a Tomahawk child here, right? That was not going to be a fake. No. That was coming right at your ear. Well, he challenged me to fight two or three times earlier in the season and I'm like okay a you're gonna beat me up there's I mean I know you're gonna beat me up which is embarrassing you're

losing to a goalie or b if I get lucky then the other five guys on the ice are gonna beat me up so this is a lose-lose situation so I stayed as far away as I could I'm not trying to chirp you I was probably an instant when you were scoring all that well that's why I had to check out your highlight team were you kind of like a hyman infant when you were scoring all that. That's why I had to check out your highlight team. Were you kind of like a Hyman type where you were just going to the net front? And why was he trying to kill you and had this vendetta? Were you one of those guys who was always in the net front, being a pain in the ass?

I was always in front because I couldn't score from distance. So I always scored most of my goals from in front, but I was mouthy. And when I scored, I celebrated. Yeah, I made sure everyone knew that I scored on the other team and I was in his face a lot. Everything that I got in my career, I deserve. Like the mouth, I mean, getting beat up. I got knocked out in Hockey Night in Canada.

The down goes brown. Oh, yeah. Down goes brown. I know, the guy became famous and gets a website. Like seriously, the Pittsburgh Penguins announcer said that 10 times a game because they have to turn a little skater. So it's all the same. Brown falls down again and again.

And then Hartnell took it over. Hartnell down. But it's funny, though. The one that I got knocked out, I played for Sutter and I wasn't a Sutter player. So this game, I'm going to try and get more ice time. So I ran Wendell Clark. I don't think he noticed. A guy hit him and bounced off yeah i'm like okay he probably looked back what was that but then a big kerfuffle started in front of the leafs bench and everyone is pairing off and pushing

and grabbing and i could hear pat burns was the coach and he's screaming get brown get brown and i'm looking i'm like who's coming who's coming yeah i'm like go get get chileos get chileos and all of a sudden everyone had paired off and the only guy left was sylvan lefebvre I'm like, who's coming? I'm like, go, get Chalios, get Chalios. And all of a sudden, everyone had paired off, and the only guy left was Sylvain Lefebvre. And I don't think he was considered an NHL tough guy, but he was way tougher than me. And he's like 6'3", and he skated out to center and challenged me at Center Ice Maple Leaf Gardens Saturday night.

I'm like, you've got to be kidding. So I skated out there, and he started taking his helmet off. I'm like, I hate taking my helmet off. No, no, no, no, no, no. Because I know how this is going to go. I'm going to get knocked out. I don't want to get knocked out twice, once from the punch and once from the ice. So we fought and I was throwing as well as he was, except his fists were six inches longer than mine.

And I swear, I swear that I bounced right back up. My father said I was down for half an hour, but I think I bounced up. But afterwards, I go off the ice and I'm sitting in the dressing room and in the old maple leaf gardens there's a little tv and i'm watching the fight michelle gulay gugu was in there he was not playing that night and i'm like gugu it looks like he got me in the jaw and he goes well brownie that's where all the blood's coming out of so probably yes so now i had to skate back across the ice to get stitches and a whole maple leaf garden just going crazy because they're and it goes they know where I'm going.

Blood all over me. So yeah. So some guy became famous because I got knocked out at center ice. You got a couple of viral clips before that was even a thing. Yeah, yeah. So anyone that's ever come to my hockey school, I've had almost 200 bowls in my NHL career. No one knows that. They know that I got knocked out and I got chased by a bull.

Hey, I got my head ripped off my body by Jackman in Calgary. And then I knocked over my goalie skating for a puck on an icing. So I'm basically right with you. I played the NHL. I swear to God, it wasn't all bad. And don't sell yourself short. We all know you had 49 goals for the Penguins, which I want to go back to the start of that. You were drafted in the fourth round, which I guess today would be the third round. But it's still crazy because you had 173 points and 171 pins. It's like, what happened? How are you not a first rounder with those stat lines?

Well, if you ever saw me skate, you'd know why. They were figuring it. Even back then, too. I was about like, there was, like, Brad Marsh was in the league and he was never a great skater. I'm sure he could beat unit race. So they knew at some point skating would catch up to me. But it's funny, my first ever training camp in Pittsburgh.

Back then, we didn't have social media. We didn't have all of the TSN sports, all these things. So you really didn't know a whole lot about people. But we practiced at a high school. And we would get dressed in the auditorium. And we'd walk across the grass to go to the rink. And I'm walking beside Mario Lemieux. And I'm like, hey, this is the superstar.

I know that much about him. And we're walking, full equipment, gloves, helmets, everything everything all we're doing is carrying our sticks and our skates and as we're walking down this grass mario pulls out a cigarette and starts smoking a cigarette on the way to the first day of training camp and i'm like i gotta start smoking because seriously that's what it takes that's that's what made it so cool right this is the nhl. They smoke all the way to the top. None of these guys have smoked before. No one's on your show today. Just trying to impress Mario. But see, then the next year I went back to training camp. We had a coach named Pierre Kramer, a French guy.

And at the end of training camp, he calls me into this little room at the high school. He goes, Robbie, we like a lot you do. We think you're good. We have you six center, six, seven center. We send you Muskegon. You go Muskegon for two or three years maybe two or three years you come up play for pittsburgh i'm like uh coach i i can't go to the minors what you're too good you're too good to go to the minors i'm like no no no i'm not i'm

not old enough you have to send me the junior that's not true no i can't oh i gotta go to junior he goes you stay here he walks over gets on the phone and he talks for about a minute and a half in french and he comes back robbie welcome to the penguins you make the team i'm like no way i'm pretty excited you really wanted me badly pierre i just went from three years to the minors to the nhl that was pretty quick good phone call i know we talked to that's still the same rule where the kids like you can't be 19 if you're a junior player you're gonna go back to junior okay so that helped you out a ton it certainly did and was that the year that you got 49? No, I scored 24 in my rookie season.

I got sent to Russia for the World Juniors. Went and played in the World Juniors, came back. And then the next year, I had my big year. But it was funny, Pierre Kramer, same coach, second last game of the season. We needed to win the last two games to make the playoffs. We needed four points. Second last game in washington and

it's in overtime it's a tie game and all of a sudden dave hunter turns to the coach said pierre are we going to pull our goalie why we pull the goalie we tied that doesn't make sense and i turn oh no we need to win pierre like if we don't win we don't make the bet that's not true so there's dave hunter and i bargain with the guy arguing with the head coach and he the head coach turns the assistant it says something the assistant upstairs yeah we need to wait okay time out time out we pulled goalie we pulled goalie that's yeah so we ended up and then he calls a timeout and mario comes over and for the entire 30 seconds he spoke french to mario and i swear i swear to god that he was saying okay mario do not pass to any of the english guys take the puck you go by yourself and you score a goal don't let

these guys touch the puck i'm obsessed with this coach i get them on the phone i've heard of him yeah no exactly he was a one-year coach pierre creamer for the pittsburgh penguins all right so right away were you put on mario's line like how did that work the first two games of the season my first year uh i was a healthy scratch i was just sitting there and then bob airy who ended up being a long time mario line mate uh broke something in his wrist. And I remember we had just come back from a road game and we're driving the bus back to the hotel.

And I think it was the assistant coach, the assistant GM said, you're playing tomorrow and you're playing on Mario's line. So I had 24 hours to think about it. I'm like, oh my God. First game, first two shots I scored. And I'm like, this NHL thing this is so crazy I'm buying Tuxedo for all of our games give me another cigarette give me a pop

buying a boat not with my first NHL contract I wasn't that's crazy did Mario say anything to you like was there a joke I would have been 19 he would have been I think he's 3 or 4 years I think he's 23 So he was just

Getting into Where he was a superstar So my second year In the league When I scored 49 goals He had 199 points That was his biggest year And he was

He was all world It was fun to watch him Like in practice Like there'd be days Where he'd put the backup goalie And he'd put 10 pucks Right on the face off dot In the circle

And he'd take 10 wrist shots And he'd score 8 out of 10 Every time taking wrist shots And used to go to frankie peter angela said quit sucking up like come on he goes i have no idea i think he's going over my glove and he goes through my legs i think he's going low and he goes high he goes it was unbelievable he just he just casually take 10 wrist shots he'd score 8 out of 10 then he just skied off the edge that's one thing during training camp i noticed where he it didn't look like he was shooting hard but the way it was come up his stick i mean how the fuck did he score that kind of like solani solani i always said kind of had a muffin but it was just the placement of it oh it was perfect and the goalie like he would place it in the goal he'd have no idea the goal

he's thinking one way and then all of a sudden they go another way it's scary the other day um i was at home nhl network had, what's the cool Oilers doc, boys on the bus from. So they were just following around. It's awesome. Anyone's never seen it, but they show practice it. No helmets on, no shoulder pads. Was that the same then?

In Pittsburgh, yeah. We wear track suits. We wear for the morning skates. It was always track suits and no shoulder pads ever, no helmets. And it wasn't, I actually played in Pittsburgh and left, came back, I think five, six years later, and they had a new coach, Kevin Constantine, and that would have been in 98-ish, somewhere around there.

It was Rose's coach in Korea. Yeah, and that's when they eventually said, okay, we're playing for real. So he told the team, he said, we're all practicing for real. You're off to wear your helmets and gloves, or helmets and shoulder pads. And I think the very first day of training camp, we're on the ice and we're all skating around and we're all waiting to see what Yarmir day of training camp, we're on the ice. And we're all skating around.

And we're all waiting to see what Yarmir does. Because Yarmir was his own man. So we're all skating. And so it's about a 15-step walk from our practice room to the ice. And we're waiting 30 minutes late coming into practice. All of a sudden, Yarmir comes on, no helmet. No helmet. So the coach immediately goes over, Yarmir, you got to go put a helmet on. He leaves.

Another 15 minutes, he's gone. He comes back out. And Yarmir had a Jofa with a shield. He had his helmet on backwards. So the shield was in the back. And that's how he came on. He said, all right, folks. This is introduction to the new coach.

Oh, my. It's like, who's announcing his authority more than Yarmir? Oh, yes. Oh, wow. That's incredible. So you said that first year you started with Mario, then you were kind of on and off his line, maybe when Bobby Urie came back.

When you eventually ended up on his line that next year, how did you guys communicate as line mates? Was he a guy who was very vocal? What was he, just go here? And how was it? More or less, yeah, very quiet. Just keep your stick on the ice. Just keep your stick on the ice.

And the thing- I'll hit it. Yeah, he'll hit it, and he did. And he did. And you couldn't give him a bad ice. I'll hit it. Yeah, he'll hit it, and he did. And he did. And you couldn't give him a bad pass. I don't remember much of it because I'm old now. Oh, Benz gave him a bad pass in training camp. I'll tell you that.

This whole bubble, you know the bubble where you play video games, it's just like automatically goes on a stick. I was nowhere near that. So if Coach had to blow down the drill, I had to restart it, and that was pretty much the writing on the wall. You were on the same line as Mario? No, we were doing my first ever training camp, but i was defensive at the time we were doing that drill where you go behind the net as a d you give the left wing right wing the easiest drill of all

time easiest drill camera on the net i'm smiling head up i got mario he stopped about 15 feet past his dick just like he just was like looked at the coach and i go he, ah. So they restarted the drill. But going back to that, though, it was that easy. It was. I remember he'd throw him breakaway passes and he could put it up by his hip and he would just knock it out of the air and would never lose stride. To me, he was the greatest that ever played. I mean, he and Gretzky are right there.

Gretzky made others better. Mario didn't need anyone. Obviously, I was there for a while. He didn't really need anyone. But he was that good and best breakaway player in the history of the NHL. He never't need anyone. Obviously, I was there for a while. He didn't really need anyone, but he was that good and best breakaway player in the history of the NHL. He never missed a game. That little forehand fake backhand. Never missed.

He only had like three moves, but he would just say, okay, the goalie's doing this. And he never looked like he was moving. That was just, he just, but no one ever caught him. And to me, he was actually better in practice because he would just do things that you wouldn't do in a hockey game. But he was a special player.

So you're already struggling with back stuff then? I think it was my third year that I was there. He was going for Gretzky's record for consecutive games with a point. Okay. I had Gretzky's record 51 games, which is unbelievable. But I think Mario got into the 40s. From about 35 on, Mario couldn't do up his own skates. The trainer was doing his skates up

and then undoing his skates between periods and stuff because he couldn't bend over. And he just kept playing through all of this and kept getting points. And it was a game in Buffalo. Halfway through the second period, he just stood up and skated off the ice. The pain was so bad.

Wow. That's how good he was, even with all the pain that he had. My dad says it was from carrying me all the pain that he had yeah my my dad says it was from carrying me all those years that he heard actually you brought up your dad uh right before we started he said he got a job at edmonton in 80 81 and it turned out he's the winningest gm in the history of the chl yeah for the canadian minor canadian hockey league so the western hockey he was in cameloops for i think 10, 10 years. They won three Memorial Cups. So he got you into hockey, obviously. I was your guy.

He was the guy I talked to, yeah. When things were going sideways, I would call my father. If he'd be in the stands, I could find him up in the stands at any game. It was funny. He had three coaches in Kamloops. They were Don Hay, coach in the NHL, Tom Rennie, coach in the NHL, Ken Hitchcock, coach in the NHL. So a good eye for seeing or good eye for

talent of players as well as coaches it was funny though when i i lived with my father in in junior and he was the gm and i used to hitch was the coach i used to get once a week it kicked out of practice i had hitch was just tired of me and hitch kicked me out of practice brought done you're done go so i would get undressed shower i walk up the street my best friend on the team was mark recce and rex is from camels was mom and dad lived up the street so i get kicked out of practice walked up the street i'd walk into mrs recce's house and mrs recce would look at her watch goes oh hitch kicked you out of practice again today i'm like yeah she goes would you like a grilled cheese sandwich yes i would so i go watch tv and eat my grilled cheese

sandwich an hour later rex it goes i keep telling hitch it's not bothering you he want you want to get kicked out of production. So then about later that year, there was a practice, and Hitch was mad at us, and he started bag skating us. And finally, it had enough. I said, F you, Hitch. And all of a sudden, he blows the whistle. And he looks at me and goes, what did you say?

And now I'm the captain. I'm like, no, Hitch, I said, F you. So he started skiing. Hitch was a big man and junior. And I was up against the boards. And he just came, and he kind of bellied me into the boards. And you know the roadrunner in the Wile E. Coyote one? Someone hits the Wile E. Coyote, he gets really skinny, just slides down the board. Well, that was me. So he kicked me, not just off. He goes, that's it, you're done. You're across the street to the Candles Blazers head office. My dad's on the phone. And he's on the phone. He looks at his watch. He's like, so he hangs up.

He goes, what'd you do now? I go, I told Hitch to staff off. He goes, okay. But dad, this time I'm not just kicked. I'm kicked off the team. He puts his head down, puts his jacket. Let's go back. So he goes over.

Hitch, come here. You can't kick Rob off the team. Why? Well, two reasons, Hitch. One, he's my son and I'm the boss. It doesn't look good if you kick the boss's son off the team. And two, I mean, he's the best player in the league. We can't really kick the best player in the league because that's the year I had

200 points in junior. It's like, well, I'm sick of him. So they ended up giving me a toothbrush and had to clean all of the chairs in the old Memorial Arena. That was the punishment? Yeah. So I'm up there with a little toothbrush. Rex thought that was funny because I wasn't having grilled cheese at his mom's house. I wonder if that's why

Hitch ended up loving it because we always talk to guys. They would have FU matches with him and he seemed to kind of get excited by it. I wonder if that was why. He loved challenging you. He loved, in practice, he would always have the third, fourth line and the bottom four defensemen competing against the

stars and he would always side with he wanted the low guys yeah he wanted that competition and uh he was loud he would yell he's my favorite coach by far uh he made me the best player i've ever been like my best years have been under hitch but there's there are people that like they you can still hear it scream oh it's the pitch of his voice. I was there for PTO and I was sick of it. I couldn't walk. I was like, fuck! When you played for him, did you suspect he'd have a long NHL career as a coach? He was the smartest hockey man I've ever met.

And not even close. At that point in junior, his weight was an issue because he was a big, big man. But I knew that if he ever got a chance, he knew the game. And he was very very good so i i enjoyed all the moments that i had with him but i mean i i do a lot of hot shows i can do hours of oh stories about hitch we're here that's why we're here we're doing a trilogy version but i in that

short time we were with him like his ability to simplify the video and breaking it down there was things in that training camp that like i took away learning so much in like the three weeks that I'd spent with him. Just like even like talking about like little subtle details on the forecheck. So he, he like, I think he started out as a video guy, didn't he? No, no, he was, he, there was a, so in Edmonton,

there's two cities right around Edmonton. St. Albert is one and Sherwood Park's the other. He lived in Sherwood Park. He coached, they were called the chain gang. It was a midget, or again, I guess it U18, AAA team, and he was there forever. And he was legendary. Their teams every year won the Alberta Championship. Every year they went on to win the Western Canadians.

Everyone knew his A, because he was a big man, but also B, because his teams were so good. From there he went to Kamloops and had a ton of success in Kamloops. His knowledge of the game was just stupid. It's pretty cool for a guy. Cause I don't think he played. He didn't. He,

he went to one of the Michigan colleges on a golf scholarship. Really? And he was a golfer and he's a great golfer. When he got bigger, he wasn't as good at swinging a club. But if you went, if he was on a green, he'd,

he'd make any pot, like it'd be a 35 foot pot and he'd drain it. So he was really good that way. But he used to work. He was, I believe it was at United Cycle here in town. It was a sports store. He would work down in the basement.

It was state sharpening and stuff. And became a legend. And I mean, he's a hockey hall of famer. Yeah. But he, yeah. It's pretty cool winning at every level too. Like he worked kind of like Coop. Yeah.

That is very similar. He wasn't a player either, or at least to Sunderland. I think he played more lacrosse, Coop, anyway. But I guess sometimes we start from the beginning. So obviously, born in Ontario, moved to Edmonton, and then were you drafted to Kamloops? It was a different name at the time, too, right?

When you first got there? It was the Kamloops Oilers. Actually, the Edmonton Oilers owned the Kamloops Blazers. And it was funny. That year, my first year, we won the Western Hockey League Championship. And in the week between winning, beating Regina, and going to the Memorial Cup, the Oilers sold us. So we got actually sold. We had no idea whether we would be back in Camelot the next year.

They're trying to find out who's going to buy us. But it was a way to win. No, seriously, this is kind of big here. You'd have got some more money if you'd won the Memorial Cup too. So, yeah, I was drafted. seriously, this is kind of big here. You'd have got some more money if you'd won the Memorial Cup too. So yeah, so I was drafted. There was a draft. It used to be there was never a draft in the Western Hockey League. You would just list players.

You're like, oh, I like this guy. I'm going to go put him on our list. But one year they had a draft, and I was the first pick of the second round, and not one player in the first round ever played in the Western Hockey League. And then I ended up having a pretty good career in the Western Hockey League. So I went to Camelot and lived there for for four years and it was awesome. It was fun. And the way you described the relationship with your father is you would just kind of go back and forth about how to get better as a player. Like that was a lot of where your advice was coming from.

When it comes to hockey, it was my father and Hitch were the two biggest influences of hockey. And I got to say, and my mom was my biggest influence in life because mom's going to watch this and she'll be pissed if I just talk about that. But yes, mom was my biggest influence in life. But yeah, my father and Hitch were the guys that if things were going, I remember calling my father once in the minors.

I'm like, I'm in the minors. I just had some success in the NHL. Things were good. I'm like, I don't know if I want to play in Kalamazoo the rest of my life. And it happens quick too. Yeah, so they go. I'm in the minors.

Like what the hell happened here? I was on Mario's wing last week and now I'm playing with Chris Tansel, who was a really good minor league guy, but why? And then I just, I said that, I don't know if I want to keep going.

He said, well, here's the thing. If you want, if you're done, be done. But don't let someone tell you you're not good enough. And he says, you have your choice. You can quit playing hockey or you can be the best player in the world

that's not in the NHL. Force them to get you back there. So that that's when i and i had some really good years in the minors just eventually i got another shot the nhl level at pittsburgh and played three more years although at that level they decided they wanted me to be a checker which is kind of funny because i didn't you didn't go in the d zone yeah i met my goalie for the first time in my career i always ask guys maybe from the older era like about that change was it like an off-ice thing too as far as training or was it more just mental attitude of what you were doing at the rink um it was off ice i i i nowadays like these guys take one week off and then they start training

again i usually started training about a week or two before training camp just uh okay i gotta drop about 10 pounds so i get into shape for training camp but that's what we had like a month-long training camp where i mean mario the first time he put on skates was the very first day of training camp and no kids laugh was like that a little bit so that's just the older generation so i i wasn't if i went back and did it all again i probably would have had a personal trainer i had one here norm lacombe but he would never admit that he trained me it's like i don't want that man that is not going that's not on the brochure that i'm sending out to bill nhl player rob brown so yeah and i think that was the biggest and my skating eventually caught up to me i could always get

by because i was smarter than the guy i played against but eventually those guys got smart and could skate then i was like oh no that guy's smart and he's way faster than me so it's funny you brought up solani i remember when i went back to p as a third line checker and I was playing it was Correa Solani and Ruchin were a line and I was lined up against Timu Solani I swear to god that was the tiredest he's ever been because the entire night I had the back of his sweater and I would just hang on he's going full speed out I've never skated so fast because I'm just hanging on like oh this is awesome your water this is awesome like his shirt stretched out like this and that's back then you were allowed to do that so but yeah it was it was different coming back as a checker but it was it was fun it just it was easier was it part of um

like for me i look back and and i had some injuries but more so than anything i think i was just so comfortable and thought i'll be here forever and i don't know is that kind of the same for you where you you you lose a little bit of that fire that got you there because like I was like I'm in the NHL I'm getting points Sidney Crosby and all of a sudden it just it changes quick it does it I think you don't have it's an expectation instead of an appreciation I don't a hundred percent so yeah so I expected to be in the NHL every time I went to a training camp well I'm going to be here I'm going to get my house and this and I didn't appreciate it as much so I expected to be in the NHL. Every time I went to a training camp, well, I'm going to be here. I'm going to get my house. And I didn't appreciate it as much.

So when I came back at the end of my career, I appreciated it. I'm going to practice early. I'm staying here a little bit later. I'm going to, no, I'm not going to have the nachos and wings at lunch today. I just, I started appreciating the fact that I'd get an opportunity again. Yeah. So I did appreciate it a lot more. Now you can see players now in the National the national hockey the guys that appreciate it and the guys that expect it you can tell the difference yeah you can right i would go back to earlier in pittsburgh i've been started off great for you

the all-star game start host i gave me second year but then you get traded for scott young was that kind of like a earth-shaking moment did it catch you off guard take us through that trade first trade it didn't uh we got badger bob johnson became the coach in Hittsburg. And he liked fast teams. And I was anything but fast. So we had a talk. And I was playing third line minutes. I said, we're probably going to make a trade. And I said, good. It'll work out for both people.

And I got traded to the Hartford Whalers for Scott Young, which was kind of cool. I moved into his house right away. So I was like, hey, I got your house to go. In the first game in Hartford, I played with Ronnie Francis and Paddy Verbeek. And we can see how our careers have gone. They both are general managers

in the National Hockey League. And I'm here with you guys right now. But we won one-nothing. I got the only goal. I'm like, okay, this is going to be easy again. I'll play with Franchise. Ah, exactly.

And I mean, he's one of the best players I've ever played with, Ronnie Francis. But I, so it was, it was weird. And I went from a hockey-mad market in Pittsburgh, and I got off the plane in Hartford when I got traded,

and there was two reporters, and they both had a sign that said Ron Brown on it, R-O-N Brown. And I go, okay, so I walk up. Yeah, I think you're probably waiting for me. You go, what's your name? I go, my name's Rob Brown. No, we're waiting for Ron Brown. Okay, so I walk down, I'm getting my luggage, I got my hockey bag, me uh you go what's your name i go my name's rob brown no we're waiting for ron brown okay so i

walked down i'm getting my luggage i got my hockey bag and i'm walking out and they come running after you i'm like yeah you don't even know who my name is here this is and then we tough luck it was well the first one of the first nights we went out there's a long line up at a bar and there was about 12 of us whalers and kevin denine was on the team he was the captain and i mean great nhl player there's a long line to get in this bar, and Guido was his nickname. He's like, I'm going to go up to the front and get us all in. So we walk up behind, and he goes up and talks to the bouncer. Now it's just, yeah, as soon

as the other 57 people get in, he's going to get us in right away. I'm like, okay, this is not Pittsburgh. Oh, that's the worst. Yes. It's funny. Driving through Hartford now when I do it, I'm like, how is there an NHL team here? But it did seem like when they had good teams, it was pretty decent, right? They were pretty good. The Bruins was solid.

Yeah, they had some good playoffs, right? The problem with the Boston series, we played Boston in the playoffs once, and if it sat 16,000, 12,000 were Bruin fans. There would be fights in the stands, and it'd be the Whaler jerseys that'd be rolling down because they're the ones getting beat up. Boston

would score, the place would go nuts, and it's really demoralizing in your home rink when the opposition team scores and the place goes erupts i got to experience that a little bit in arizona the first couple years of like black hawks red wings and then obviously the tide turn when we got had success um so you mentioned ron francis but patty verbeek's kind of a guy we won't talk a ton about or at least from his playing days, over 1400 games, over a thousand points, but he was a piece of shit out there. Oh, he was a ball of hate. Like, what was it like playing with him?

What a nickname. Yes. A ball of hate. That's your nickname. Yes. Yeah. And like, look at his PIMS for a small guy. It's like most years he was getting like, you

know, high, uh, like close to 200, probably what, seven, eight times. Well, he, he, he played the way he plays like close to 200 probably what seven eight times well he he played the way he plays like brad mershad like you you just hated him if you were on any other team you hated him but when he was on you he was skilled he could score but he was just tenacious and dirty and in your face and intense and it was intense not just in games he was just an intense individual so uh it was fun playing with him because everyone wanted to kill him so it's like i'm like carp blosch out here tonight no one's coming after me tonight but uh i learned a lot with playing with him and ronnie

francis and their work ethic was fantastic ronnie francis one of my favorite players ever to play with just and one of the nicest people i've ever been around so i'm glad they both had success but i got a pretty cool picture in my basement at the bar. It's a picture of me, Ronnie and Patty celebrating a goal. So it's kind of neat, but he was a ball of hate and he earned that nickname. Honestly, quickly back to this Pittsburgh, that one year, 115 points, 49 goals. Like how many different examples can you remember of one more goal to get the 50? you know it's like oh just give me one more to have the 50 on well it's funny I think at that point if I would have scored 50th I would have been the second youngest player ever to do it no way in that season I missed 12 games that

year because I'd separated my shoulder I tried throwing a body check and hit new and knife and that that's when I realized I shouldn't be checking on people but uh two things one i had a goal disallowed it was a shot in philadelphia hit hexdahl hit me in the the belly chest and bounced in and denny morel was the referee and he waved it off saying that i push it in with my stomach and i'm like hey seriously so that would have been no replay and then the other one though was last game of the season we played in philadelphia and i needed two. I hit a post in the first. I scored in the second. The game went into overtime.

And Philadelphia and Pittsburgh, we were in the playoffs, and we couldn't move up or down in the standings. Philadelphia, if they got an extra point, could move up in the standings. They were in the playoffs, but they could actually move up. So in overtime, face-off in our own zone, Philadelphia pulled their goalie. And I'm on the ice, and I'm like, I'm getting 50.

Mario's going to go through the whole team and hit me for a backdoor wide open empty net. And all of a sudden, Dan Quinn comes off her bed. He's looking at me like, I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm like, you're not hitting. He pulled. Gino Briovco was the coach.

He pulls me off. And I remember Mario came by the bench and goes, he's got 49. It's a team game. It's a team game. Dan Quinn goes, I'll try to get off. I'll try to get off. Mario went through the whole team goes he's got 49 it's a team game it's a team game Dan Quinn goes I'll try to get off I'll try to get off Mario went through the whole team

like he was going did Dan Quinn no no he did he scored it himself I would have honestly left this room I would have left the room

oh my god but I'm like oh so yeah so that's how close I was to 51 but I mean years of therapy I'm almost over

I'll rewatch the podcast and I'll be back I'll have to call my therapist up again. It was that same fucking coach? Was that the same coach? No, this is a different guy. Okay, because I'm going to say that guy. This is a different guy.

If it was Pierre Kramer again, there would have been, yeah. That guy hated your guts. I got to ask, the origin of the nickname, Downtown Rob Rowan, where did that originate? Where did it come from? You like going downtown?

I wipe my watches podcast, so I don't know why. No, it just, it was in Pittsburgh. It's funny, in Pittsburgh, I was Robbie. And I go back now, I'm still Robbie. Like, they introduced me. If I do an Oilers game, it's Robbie Brown. And the only people in the world have ever called me that, people in Pittsburgh. But they did a lot of endorsement- type things and make t-shirts.

And it was always this one, Downtown Robbie Brown. The rhyme. Yeah. So that was it. They did a thing in Hockey News once where they showed the windmill, don't go near Downtown Robbie Brown when he scores. You might get knocked out. But then I got interviewed once for the Hockey News.

And they asked, you know, is it tough playing with a superstar? I said, I think it is, but Mario's getting used to it. Until you got to happen. I'm sorry, we're looking for downtown Ron Brown. Ron Brown. Is Ron Brown on this plane? I know. That was too good. That was too good. So then from there, you end up in Chicago. Your first emotion came

there. Was that really tough to take or did you kind of take, all right, whatever. You said best player about the NHL. Yeah, well, I was playing for Keenan and Sutter were the two coaches and Paul Baxter was the assistant coach and I did not play the style they wanted to. My first year there, it was up and down. We went to the Stanley Cup finals, which was

cool. But then it was the following year, Keenan left. I don't even know if he went upstairs or just moved out and Daryl Sutter took over and I was not a Daryl Sutter player. It's far away from a Daryl Sutter player. It's far away from a Daryl Sutter player. It's funny, I always thought he hated my guts and I think he did around the rink, but I'll see him at the press box

and he'll come up and give me a hug and he's like, how's Holly? And he can remember my wife's name and I'm like, you hated me. Nothing personal. I just didn't like the way you played. But yeah, so getting sent to the minors the first time was hard.

That was like a wake-up call and it was indianapolis and it was this we lived in these little motel type of rooms and it was funny i got sent from daryl sutter and duane sutter was a coach down there so i now like coach up there hey for the coach down here but it was called their dad conference calls on this guy oh but we had curfew and was at this point, I was in my mid-20s and we had curfew. And it would be like on a non-game night. And curfew is like 9 o'clock or 9.30. So Brad Lauer, who's been around a long time,

an assistant coach, I think might be in Winnipeg. But we would both get the phone call from Dwayne Sutter and all of a sudden there'd be a knock on my back door. Let's go out the back door. It's like, I'm not staying in for curfew. So we did have fun in Indianapolis. So did you have to, at that point, would you have to go through waivers

to go down to the minors? The first time I did, I went down on a, whatever, it was a two-week conditioning. Then the second time, I had to go through waivers. That's deflating. That was when, okay,

it's one thing that the Chicago Blackhawks don't want me nobody nobody wants me so that that part was really hard then I had a stretch I think at that point of four or five years in the minors and I was I thought that's what I was going to finish the rest of my career down there it is awesome looking at because I'm not at all trying to make this about me but I think we have some similarities we were in Pittsburgh got traded then traded quick again and I kind of that was it for me but for you it was three seasons in the minors and boom you get back to the nhl it's pretty cool to be able to look at it like i think i might be done in this

league you are fucking ripping it up too we're talking 143 points lighting up all three years over 100 points yeah it was you had fun in the mines in chicago in the minors for the chicago walls they had an owner that was- Great place to play. Unbelievable. We flew everywhere. We didn't bus anywhere. We flew everywhere.

We were treated like gold there. It was awesome. We stayed in nice hotels. I was content. My kids were born in Chicago. I think this is where I'm probably going to finish my career. And then I got a call from the Penguins as a tryout, a PTO. So I went to Pittsburgh with no expectations.

And I got there and I still knew all the traders, but I was, a PTO. So I went to Pittsburgh with no expectations. And I got there and I still knew all the trainers, but I was on a PTO. They had me like in a closet with these five other kids that were like 18 who were at their first ever training camp. And there's me. Life comes at you fast. Yeah, I'm like, all right, I'm sitting there. Okay, this is.

And I went out and I had a really good training camp. And Kevin Constantine was a new coach. And he gave me a chance. And I remember i'd be in an interview and they asked you know what do you think you bring here i said well i don't think i'm here for my defense and then the next day kevin costi calls me so we want you as a third line checking player i'm like have you seen my videos have you watched me play i've been in that locker room there wasn't even any hooks on no or anything no it's like oh my god okay yeah and i

heard where i'm going i earned three more years in the hl and to me that have all the things I did in the NHL, that's probably what I'm proudest of. And what's cool is that the only year you played all 82. Yeah. So that's just an amazing comeback story. Would it have been the case where if you didn't make the team, you were able to go back to the Wolves? Yes, we had. So I was going to go back to Chicago. So relaxed in your mind maybe a little bit.

Like, I'm here with nothing to lose. Yeah. So I went out and just, there was no pressure yeah there's no pressure i'd lived my dream of playing in the nhl and had a really nice setup in the minors my wife i think i think we're just engaged at that point so she was living in chicago she didn't come for my first year in pittsburgh because we didn't expect to be there so she had a job in chicago she's living in chicago and then she came the next two years but yeah just going there and just earning that opportunity and getting it done. And the fans must have loved you from your time before.

There's still a lot of people who remember it. It's funny. My first, it's funny. I had gotten rid of my windmill. But then the first goal I scored, I'm pretty sure it was an overtime goal. And Darius Kasper, I had asked Kasper, he's like, you got to do the windmill. You got to do the windmill. I'm like, I'm not doing it.

You got to. And I came out and it was the first start of the game. I came out and Darius Kasper stood at the rate where you come off the ice. He's like, do it. So I went out on the ice, did my windmill. As I got the start, I came off. Oh, were they going bananas? It was pretty cool.

The place went. It all popped. It was fun. So two things about that second stint. So you got to play with Jager as a rookie. Yes. And then back. No, Jager's rookie is my first stint that was

no okay so you play with him as a rookie oh yeah if you got back he's still there so just the contrast of this guy as a rookie to where he reached now then Stanley Cup stardom all-star games well Yeggs it's funny they talk about the maturity of Yeggs and I think there was at the end of it as his career went on but when I went there I my first part of the career we've we always flew commercial so like middle seats like you're on the penguins you'd be stuck between two dudes or you'd be I'd be holding a family I'd be holding a kid on the plane yeah it's like all right I'm here I may as well help you my second year though we had uh charters and we have a in Pittsburgh, this is before 9-11, so you would just drive up right to the plane, hop on the plane

so that the plane leaves at 3 o'clock. It'd be 20 after 3. The whole team sitting on the plane. Here comes Jarmer pulling in 20 minutes after you're supposed to leave. It's Porsche. He'd get out slowly. Then he would check himself. He'd open up his trunk. He'd pull out his stuff. Oh, got something

in my car. Go back in. And we're all sitting on the plane like seriously like i'd be sweating if i'm 15 minutes early and he'd walk on hey how you doing so yags was uh i he hadn't hit that part where he now is the dedication of getting the key and working out after practice by himself and stuff like that it's just so easy to him. He was so good. And he was one of those guys that when you played with him, if you got on the ice, it's, okay, I'm going to have two guys on me. Don't help me. Because if two guys are on me, that means you're open.

And he literally, he would, he's like, Leon is now where Leon wants to absorb the punishment so then he can make the play. That's what Jager was like. But Jags, it was funny in Pittsburgh, I was on that part of my career, I was on the second power play unit. And the guy that I took off was Jager. You didn't play make the play. That's what Jager was like. But Jags, it was funny. In Pittsburgh, I was on that part of my career. I was on the second power play unit. And the guy that I took off was Jaromir.

You didn't play any power play. So I was just like him being on the second unit in Edmonton. Okay, you got Connor. You got Leon. Okay, coach, thanks. But I had Jaromir. But Jaromir would get emotional sometimes. And there would be the coach would get mad at him.

And I'd be a power play coming up. I'd go, Jags, coach was yelling at you, and you were on the ice. What? Oh, he should have heard. He was telling you to hurry up. Yags would look back. He'd take his gloves off, put them there, put a stick. Coach, Yags, you know, it's a power play.

Just look at the coach. Okay, Brown, you go. All right. I'll go after the boys. You motherfucker. You motherfucker. That's actually perfect. Yags, the guy was talking mad shit about you.

It was horrible. I can't believe the talking mad shit about you. It was horrible. I can't believe the things he said about you. I want to go, the summer of 93, you sang with Dallas, but that ended up leading to quite a reunion for you in Kalamazoo, huh? It did. Well, it's funny. I went to Dallas, and actually, I thought I had a pretty good training camp. And right at the end of training camp, Bob Ganey called me in,

and I sat there, and he said, okay, yeah, we like what you did, but we're wanting to start in Kalamazoo. I see you later. And I walked out of the office and I'm like, where's Kalamazoo? And they didn't give me a plane ticket because I had driven to camp because I thought I was going to play in Dallas. And I get in my car and this was back before GPS and smartphones. I actually had to stop at a gas station and buy a map to find out where Kalamazoo was on the thing. And I started driving. I'm like, yeah, I had to call my wife from a payphone. Yeah,

I'm on my way to Kalamazoo, Michigan. Where's that? I don't know, but I'm on my way there right now. So I went and Hitch was the coach in the minors and I had a really, really good year. It was a ton of fun. It was a college town in Western Michigan was the college there. Had fun. My line mates were this chris tansell and derrick smith used to play for the philadelphia flyers and it was it was fun there were 21 guys on the team uh there was one wife and the other 20 guys every day going out for lunches going to the college camp it was that's why we love playing together the blinders two wives on the team and just the guys all day poker going out to eat lunch turns into dinner

you're like oh my god this is better than the hl bugsy moon's old man's philosophy no no girlfriends are married guys we're drafted yeah um okay so there was uh i was gonna ask about the ihl but the other thing about the penguins in your second stint that i thought was pretty cool is that uh her brooks ended up being your coach right and? And I remember when I was drafted, they went there for like a meal and I sat with him. I don't think I knew the impact that he'd had on hockey in the United States and on a lot of people's careers. What was it like playing for him? He was fun.

Again, he was a coach who didn't care for me as much as other coaches. So he came in partway through the year and it was funny. We had a guy named Kip miller on our team who was a really good american object player incredibly skilled and i we were in before uh practice we're in the dressing room in her brooks he's talking to you while he's designing the drill but if you look it was like it's like a four-year-old writing on the boards because you're looking up like i have no idea what he's doing and we go out on the ice and kip miller skates by me goes after seeing Herb Brooks explain that,

it was a fucking miracle on ice. He's talking to the wall and you guys are all behind him. You're looking up like, I don't understand. Was he more of doing the coaching style where you can be kind of harder on guys and sometimes it doesn't work in the NHL? Or was it more, he adapted? He adapted.

He was more motivational. As opposed to x's and o's he was more motivational where he would have the big speeches he'd go out there uh that way i mean i played in my career i played for ken hitchcock hall of famer mike keenan daryl sutter uh herb brooks badger bob johnson ivan alinka who was i played for a check coach he's i think the first and we had when Pittsburgh brought him over we had like nine Czech guys in the dressing room they all spoke Czech again I was on a team I think we only had three Canadian kids or three or four Canadian North American kids it was like it was all European players the one year in Pittsburgh and we it was the best was after practice we'd have these games of three on three or four and four the Russians had a team the Czechs did the Swedes did the Canadians and the Canadian, the Canadians. And the Canadians, we were all the fourth-line

players, so we were spearing guys. Oh, well, Kovalev would come down, he would beat all four of us, go in on a breakaway, and instead of going on the breakaway, he'd go behind the net, come out to center again, just so he could go through us all again. It was embarrassing. He's actually one of the most fascinating players to me. I remember talking to Pat Eves, who played a while in the NHL,

whose dad, Mike, was in Pittsburgh. And he said he'd go out on the ice after in practice, and there'd be three kids, like 12-year-olds. And Kovalev is just holding it. NHL guys coming over. He couldn't get it from them. Strong as an ox. Like one of them has to be one of the most skilled players you ever saw. Well, Yarmulke Iger said he was the most skilled players ever played with.

And it's true. And he was just an incredible person. There was one year we played Washington in in the playoffs and we beat them out. We had about a seven days break. So the team gave us four days off. So Robert Lang comes down and goes, Brownie, do you want to, do you want to go golfing for a couple of days? Sure. Now we're going to go down to South Carolina. I got a place down there.

So I'm like, oh, cool. That'd be awesome. Meet us at the airport tomorrow. So, okay, let's go. So I go to the airport and I get on the plane with little four seater and it it's me, Kobe, and Robert Lang. And all of a sudden they're starting things up and I'm like, where's the pilot? Oh no, Kobe just got his license. He's going to fly us down there. I'm like, no, no, this is the guy I've seen Kobe fall asleep between periods in his stall. I don't want him flying the plane. Then in the playoffs that year, we weren't supposed to, we're not

allowed to go golfinging but we went golfing and kobe hit his ball in the other fairway and as he's walking out to hit a get his ball he gets hit someone off to the tee hits him in the ribs and he goes down and we're like oh my god oh my god so next day of training or in the trainer's room we call the trainer into this thing uh kobe goes yeah i got hurt and you can see the imprint of his ball on his side. I got butt-ended in practice. He's like, well, it's a title list. Can you still tell the coach? Another year we were in playoffs.

It wasn't in Pittsburgh. I played for the Blackhawks. We played Detroit in the first round. And I played, it was Keenan and Sutter were the coaches. And they were hard coaches. In between games, we had Stephon Matau, Jimmy Waimmy wait dan vince a lot and then a couple other guys but the french guys said would you want to come golfing tomorrow i'm like sure so i go to the golf course there's eight of us golfing four or four blackhawks and four detroit red wings and

we mixed up the teams so i had so there's two blackhawks and two red wings in each that's kind of nice a little bit more juice and i'm like i hope this doesn't get at all small look hatred back in the day of the playoffs. Nice birdie. You know what, I'll give you that. Good for good, young man. You touched on it a little bit with your Chicago owner that bookmarked the second stint in Pittsburgh.

You got to clear the waves here. I always heard rumors that you actually took a pay cut for those four years in Pittsburgh compared to what you used to make in the Wolves. Were you making bank with the Wolves? I did well. He was good to me. Well, you had 150 points.

I didn't take a pay cut, but I did. The Penguins, they were giving me a two-way to go back to Pittsburgh the first year there. And we said, you know, you're going to have to make the bottom more because this is what I would make in Chicago. And they were fine. They bumped it up because they said, we have you here anyway.

So I did make, we, our owner in Chicago was incredible. Like incredible. He used to, he was next door neighbors to Michael Jordan. He had one of those rooms where you pull a book out in his bookcase and the whole wall would just burn. Batman style. Yeah, it was, Don Levin was his name and he and his family were incredible.

I think they had a couple of guys there when they beat us in the Calder Cup final who were making basically he would just pay them league minimum at the time. Wherever the NHL's league minimum was, he would just match it. Did you guys have any Calder Cup runs? Yeah, we won the Calder Cup. Oh, no shit. So when the IHL folded, we were in the finals the last year of the IHL, and we lost in the finals to Orlando.

And then the next year we went to the American Hockey League. And the first year of the American Hockey League, we won it. We beat, I think in the finals it was Bridgeport, Rafi Torres and Rick DiPietro. Yes, we beat them in the finals. That's what I got to ask. I got to cut in there because this is a rumor that went on for years

in the IHL. Chicago, is it true the owner came in with a brick of $400,000, put it in front of the room, and said, you win tonight, you guys split the cash? Hey, listen. So if you don't want to answer that, Andre DeVoe, who played for them when they won it against

us, he came in, same thing. He goes, if you guys win a million bucks, and then the league found out about it, and they nixed it, and they would not allow him to pay the players individually. Is he still the owner there? I think Donnie LeVay is still there. He's still there, yeah. You want to go back and play?

They don't have an NHL affiliate, which I think he wants, right? He's independent. I've been with both. When we had an affiliate, then we didn't. But it's funny. Atlanta was the affiliate in Chicago when when i was there right my last year and they the whole team was affiliate except for four of us and they said okay you got to go to atlanta's training camp i don't want to go to an nhl training camp i'm playing for the wolves but they said so they made me go to training camp and it was awesome

though because said okay i'll go do their scrimmage and stuff but i'm not doing their workouts i'm not doing their their all their testing. I'm not here. I don't want to do that. Right. So after we, we do our skate, four of us would get out of our stuff and all these guys are going into the

workout room. We'd put on our golfing. And of course, and at that point we became Atlanta thrashers because yeah, we're at the Atlanta thrashers. We get on your golf course today. Sure. We'll take care.

We come back from golfing sunburns. All the guys are having naps because they were so tired from training camp um once again still probably too young to understand it all but the ihl ahl like was it did both leagues exist how is that they're both at the same time the ihl was a lot of ex-nhl players and we had when i first went san San Francisco was in the league. Long Beach, San Diego. Good city. LA, Phoenix, Vegas, Chicago, Detroit. And it was awesome. We flew everywhere.

I mean, Rod Langway, famous. Yeah. Head of all the famous. Yeah, he played in San Francisco. On our team, we had Brian Noonan was on my team. Colin Murray played on my team. Were the salaries bigger in the IHL? Salaries were much bigger.

Because at that point, we were all independent. So much bigger salaries. We flew everywhere, stayed in nice hotels. And it was... How were the crowds? Crowds were awesome. There was a stretch in Chicago, and it's funny, because Strutty, who you'll have on this week

and who you know quite well, he was playing for the Blackhawks. And when he was playing for the Blackhawks, we had more fans at the Wolves games. We were withdrawing. That's when the Hawks were bad. They were really bad. That's when Adrian O'Coin was captain, or at least close to that time.

Well, yeah, they were nothing. He said that he'd see his kids acting up across the rink, and he'd yell at them from the bench. Hey, good bugger, your kid. Good bugger, your brother. Sit the fuck down. Well, I got one year, Mark Brekke was in Montreal, and they came and played against the Blackhawks,

and he got me two seats to the game, and it ended up being a 1-0 hockey game. It was the most boring game I've ever seen in my life, but it was halfway through the second period, and I'm like, I want to go, but I'm sitting across from him, and there's no one here. He can see when I get up and leave, and he just bought me these tickets,

so I toughed it out and watched the whole game, and I was like, oh. So going to all those cities, I mean, San Francisco, it must have been a good time. It was awesome because we'd all at that point achieved our dream. We'd all played in the NHL. Yeah. There was, a lot of us, there was no, I mean, in the minors,

in the American Hockey League, those guys, there's still a goal to get to the NHL. So it's, their focus is all on, but for us, it's like, okay, if you're not dressed, okay, bathtub has to be full of ice and beer for the party afterwards. You got to find out which bar is the cool bar to go to. And you're staying in just all great cities. So the IHL was a lot of fun.

Do you think, like, because your last year, over a point per game, point per game playoffs, so you could have kept playing, probably making good dough, but you just had an offer. Two things. A, we had just had kids, and we had twins. And being on, you know, it's like being on the road. There's stretches you're gone for a week, 10 days.

And our little girl we found had autism. So I'd get home from a road trip, and my wife would have two black eyes. Like, she was so exhausted. And then I just, playing in, at that point, it was the American Hockey League, and playing in, you know, Fort Wayne on a Tuesday night in front of 1400 fans and I'm like I'm away from my kids I knew I was

done and it was just I gotta go. You've done it for a long time and yeah that was a year too we had the kids we were playing in Kansas City once and I got elbowed bad like real bad and I came back to the bench and Chris Drury's brother Ted was on my team and he's my line mate and I got elbowed bad, like real bad. And I came back to the bench and Chris Drury's brother, Ted, was on my team.

And he's my line mate. And I'm on the bench and he knew something was wrong. My eyes were going weird. And he's looking at me, he goes, bro, how you feeling? Good. What team do you play for? Chicago.

Then he goes, where do you live by? What famous landmark in Chicago do you live by? And I couldn't think of him. I lived right beside Wrigley Field, like literally a hundred yards from Wrigley Field. And he goes to the trainer, Casey, he goes, Brownie's no good. And I couldn't think of him. I lived right beside Wrigley Field, like literally 100 yards from Wrigley Field. And he goes to the trainer, Casey goes, Brownie's no good. And I was, I knew who hit me. And I'm like,

so I jumped on the ice and skated across the ice and jumped, cross-checked this guy. I got a five-minute and got kicked out anyways. But I was done. Come leave and I'm going to get in. But when the dresser and the doctor came in and started giving me a concussion thing and he's like, okay, what's your kids' names? I don't have kids. No kids no way the trainer's like yeah

you got two kids ben and annie they i don't know he goes yeah they're right now they're in the they're in the hospital our kids work early and they're in the in the neq and all that and i'm like and all of a sudden the doctor's like no we can't play wow so the case the trainer goes you go sit in your stall so i had a cell phone at that point and i called my wife and i'm like crying we got kids in there in the hospital what's wrong with i called my wife and i'm like crying we got kids in there in the hospital what's wrong with them and my wife like she's at home she's been home for a week with these kids that are in the hospital she's like hold on one second yeah she calls their trainer on the bench get the phone out of my bloody husband's hand right now i got

enough problems with the two kids i don't need to be babysitting i was crying i got us being crying on the phone so case comes in because give me. You're going to go sit in this room right now and just stay there. So at that point, I'm like, yeah, I'm done. Had you thought at all about what am I going to do after, right? It's a little bit of a panic sometimes. And did you figure it out slowly or did you hop right into something? It's funny. I came home the first year.

I told my wife, I just want to stay home with the kids. I've been traveling. So we moved back home. I had twins that were two at the time. And I just was just daddy daycare. And it was fun. But all of a sudden, you're like, all I'm doing is talking baby talk. And I was like, I need an adult.

I need a job. And I just started saying yes to everything. You want to do a hockey academy? Sure. Do you want to go on the radio? Sure. Do you want to do public speaking? Sure.

And I just found, and I ended up liking all of them. I still do all of those now. So I just found, I'm 56 years old all of them. I still do all of those now. So it's, I just found I've, I'm 56 years old. I've never had a job in my life. It wasn't involved with hockey. I never had a, a newspaper route.

I've never had anything. Everything in my entire life has been for the game of hockey. It's been good to me. It's like all the way down. Yeah. So you do the right now on, is it six 30 chat? Six 30 chat is the others radio.

So you do post game pre-game or do you do the how does it work for that i go on early and we do a pre-game show and we talk about the game and then i'm on between periods okay talk about the game then we do post game and then we do a call-in show after it's where for right now is awesome but there was a long stretch with you when i was here yeah where you're like like, what is wrong with Whitney? I thought we were getting Ray Whitney. I didn't know it was Ryan. I don't want to wrap up. So when you mentioned Brian Nunez, it reminded me of one of your teams.

I kept tabs on him 30 years ago. The Phoenix Roadrunners. My pal, Big Jim Vesey was on that squad. It was last year in the league, I think. Oh, well, Jim Vesey. Yeah, so Jim Vesey, who was one of the nicest people in the world. One of my favorite guys I've ever played with. Big Daddy.

But there was a game that we had a guy named Keith Redman, who was a tough guy. He was a first-rounder of the LA Kings, but he was big. He was tough. And Rob Laird, I believe, was the name of the coach. In the game, Keith Redman didn't get a shift. He sat him out the entire game. So with about a minute and a half to go in the game, we got a two-minute man on the ice penalty,

and he sends Keith Redman to go serve it. Keith Redman was not happy. So as we're coming off the ice, there was a long walk from the rink into the dressing room. You go through the whole Zamboni area. The fans are overlooking, but it's a long walk. Keith Redman says something to the coach. The coach says something back,

and they start screaming at each other. And also we hear, get out of here. We go out there, and they're having a fist fight. Redman is on skates, and he's a big man, and Rob Blair was a little out there and they're having a fist fight the coaching Redmond is on skates and he's a big man and Rob Blair was a little guy and they're throwing them and Jimmy Vesey got in between them

and broke it up and ruined his shoulder and I don't think he ever played another game in that fight now you can ask Jimmy Vesey when you talk to him but I'm pretty sure

that was when he ruined his shoulder and never played again just threw it out on accident while trying to break up the fight holy fuck I'm not trying to I think he might have

re-aggravated because he finally because we were all in Boston. He never really gave him a good opportunity to make the team. He wasn't the best skater, but he had unreal hands. And it was like, the Bruins finally got him. I want to say it was the second or third game, he got a buddy pass and he got tuned up. I want to say it might have been Steve

Finn on Quebec and that's when he originally fucked up. And eventually in that fight, breaking up the coach and the player. And at that point, I'm like, oh my God. But then I got sent down to the minors that are what I was in Phoenix. I remember my girlfriend at the time, but my wife, Holly was coming down and I said, okay, I'll find out about the wise room and I'll get you tickets. You go to the wise room when you come in, put your jacket and everything.

So I go to her, Chopper was her captain. I would chop her out. Where's the wise room? My wife's coming down. I want her to be able to go to it. Yeah, we don't have a Wysroom. I'm like, what do you mean we don't have a Wysroom? Why don't we have a Wysroom? Well, last year, one of

the goalies got called up to LA and he was the backup. And then the two wives got into an argument in the Wysroom that turned into a fist fight and things got broken. So the ownership took away the Wysroom because two wives got into a fight. You're going to have all their own green rooms.

That's why it has their own green room. Drama. The drama of the ring. I love it. We can't thank you enough. This is great. It's a really cool story, your career, and it's cool that you've made so many good things happen in Edmonton living back here, so thank you very much. Thanks very much.

If you were a video game guy, too, I met you back in the day. I was really good on the video game. Yeah, I know. The people that say I'm like, I'm way better in the video than I was. I think it was like Sega Genesis. Sega Genesis.

Yeah, Sega Genesis. Nintendo 91, 94. You were those automatic goal guys? Oh, yeah, he was. That's kind of cool. I was way faster on the video game than I was in life. That must be the coolest thing that you could associate with, right? The video game being that good on uh that is neat but the one of the

coolest things that's ever happened for me hockey wise is uh when i have a son who's an actor in vancouver now but he was a big sport fan and and was big into hockey and track and all that but one time he was in a hockey card so we went went to Walmart and bought the big packages of hockey cards. And as we're driving home, he's going through his cards and he got my card. So the time that my son got my hockey card was really, really cool moment. I told him, don't eat the gum. He didn't believe you in the NHL. He had to see the card.

So that was, that was a cool moment in my life. That's amazing. All right. Thanks again, brother. Thank you. All right. Thanks again, brother. Thank you. Guys, before we go any further, I'm here to talk to you about game time.

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Download the Game Time app today. What time is it? It's game time! Thank you very much to Rob Brown. That was great sitting down with that guy and just hearing some of the old school stories back in the day. And a couple amazing years for that guy.

We appreciate him sitting down with us. But now it's time to talk about the Central Division. And Biz, we said it, this Winnipeg Jet team, and the fact that I went on and said basically verbatim what I said last year before the season when Army was the one like, no, no, no, boys. This team's legit. I'm made to look a fool again.

5-0. Connor Hellebuck's 4-0 with a 1-2-5 goals against and a 9-52 save percentage. What have you seen from them? What do you like? Is there anything that stands out right away when you've seen this team dominate off the start well i think they're they're the only undefeated team currently as we record this podcast and buddy i i thought they were going to be mental midgets after the way that the last offseason went and getting drummed by the colorado avalanche especially after that uh post-season press conference they had like the fact that

hellebuck started this good, it just speaks to, I guess, his mental strength coming in and letting last year be last year and, hey, new slate. I think it starts with just that forward group, man. They're lethal. I don't think we ever question their top nine and what their top nine could do. And when I say that, I think you could start with even the third line

and probably one of the best if not the best third lines in the league with Appleton um Lowry and Nino Niederreiter like what a what a trade that ended up being for them and the way that they're able to work together big bodies the way that they cycle the puck uh I think against your Oilers they ended up all collectively having like seven points combined so uh I mean and then you could talk about the Kyle Connors the Shifleys and the way that they're able to move up and down the ice and and find holes and fucking snipe bro it's like they could put the puck in the back of the net and when they're getting hella buck kicking the way that they're kicking I mean

it's just it's pretty to watch another thing too is I think when they play at home, a lot of teams go there. It could be a little bit cold, dreary. They don't want to play there, dude. I don't want to play there. Let's just get this one over with and move on. And I think that plays to a big advantage. And I think the crowds have been decent early on in the season, which seemed to be a little bit of a problem last year,

where they're getting that local support, and they're off to just an unreal start like i don't know what might help much much else to say like they're shoving it right up our hoop no scent no spit no lube sandpaper finish right now i think that mark shifley doesn't get the respect he deserves and we've said this before but i mean this guy is a beast he's a big dude he plays hard goes to. I wrote down here, he's got 802 games, which is wild. It seems like, I guess that shows how old we're getting. He's got 725 points, 42 playoff games. He's got 38 points and he just does it the right way. We've talked a lot about, he's one of the guys that works with Adam Oates. It's probably made a big difference for him

in terms of his skill and where he needs to be on the ice. And I think his effort level and how hard he goes just adds to how difficult he is to play against. Because it's not just the ability to set someone up or score one that's dirty in a tough area in front of the net. He's smart enough and skates well enough that he's able to play great defensively and really lead that team. And Kyle Conner, it's kind of the same thing. I think being in Winnipeg creates maybe a lack of narrative about your game because it's just middle of nowhere. They love hockey, but people don't talk about the Jets a lot. I mean, will they even have one TNT game this year?

I'd be surprised if they do. I don't know if every team gets one, but it's just it's a deep team. So like they have depth scoring where now you look the third line. I'd say you said one of the best probably is the best third line in the league. The trade of Dubois to L.A. is just like one of the best trades we've seen in a long time because how good Velarde is. Velarde is playing unbelievable. They've added so much without spending any money, it seems. I saw a meme of Winnipeg Jets spent $6 million this offseason, whatever it was, $6, $7 million, 5-0. Nashville Predators spend about $130 million 0-5 or 0-4,

whatever their record is. They have done an amazing job at doing it as a team. Kyle Conner and Shifley, obviously, they're high level, but it's not just two players there. And Hellebuck is just phenomenal in the regular season. Last year's playoffs, did I think maybe that would rattle them in the regular season? Maybe a little bit, but looking now, it's probably stupid.

I just felt that postseason press conference, it was just like, oh. It made you question, like, because the year before, or I think it was the year prior when Maurice left, and then you kind of, you have such a great regular season,

and then you get drummed and fizzled out in playoffs, and I think that Hellebuck was talking about maybe lack of adjustments, and it just, it seemed ugly, and I didn't think they would be able to come in this year and repeat what they did last year you know they lost Dylan you know they lost a couple like like a couple character guys couple foundational pieces where I was even going to talk about Neil Pionk and probably the he doesn't get enough credit right you all you hear about is Morrissey on the back end and how he's able to play that 200-foot game. He's good on the offensive blue line.

He jumps in the rush. He's great defensively. I think that that was even a great trade for them when they ended up moving off Trouba and they got him back in return. So from a managerial perspective, there was never any questioning the moves that they make and how they're able to squeeze.

I think the saying in Canada is they squeeze a nickel so tight to make the beaver shit, right? They're able to make every penny work for that organization. And it's a testament to how they've came out of the gate and really left last year behind. And I think that speaks volume to not only management, but also leadership in that locker room. So very impressive to see another guy.

We didn't know what he was going to play like was uh cole perfetti right his deal didn't get done till later in the summer he signs that bridge deal and he's off to a decent start too so i think it all goes back to the way that they've really made made a really good round uh top nine and where there's no real focus on one player individual where everybody has their role and is able to contribute so it's been fun to watch and uh they got goals by the boatload and they're getting saves in net so congratulations to the jets um another team that we disrespect that just continues to shove it up our hoop and you you brought up pionk i was actually looking

at it because he was he was part of that Trouba trade, but it was a first-round pick and Pionk. Dude, he hasn't missed a game in the last two years. This is his sixth season as a Jet. He's got 177 points, I think I wrote down, since he got there. This is a consistent 30 to 40-point D-man who plays good minutes. And Colin Miller's been good there. They lose Brendan Dillon, but this Dillon Sandberg looks awesome.

Big monster on the back end. So shout out to the Jets. I mean, we'll see what happens. Like, do they end up getting in the playoffs again? It looks certainly like they will based on the start. But like, can they maybe just play a little bit better in the first round? I don't know. And also maybe a little bit surprising given

the fact that i thought that the central was going to be one of the most competitive not if not the most competitive division and it's kind of i think it's the one that's definitely going to get the most attention this podcast basically based on all the swings it's the good the bad the uglier basically yeah um so shout out winnipeg and what they've been doing because it's cool to see. They also had a clip of the entire crowd chanting, where is Rutger when they played the Penguins Sunday. McGrody had been sent down to the AHL by the Penguins, but that's pretty sick just to see this fan base. You want to get traded from here?

Even though I don't think personally it was that he didn't want to play on Winnipeg. I think that he just wanted to be signed. Well, that's not fun for the narrative. We always put salt and pepper on our steaks here. Either way, he requested a trade so the fans can always say. A little Montreal steak spice on our stories. We're going to torture this guy. No, I think verbatim he said, fuck Winnipeg, I ain't going there.

That Philly trash when Carter Gauthier comes to town. He goes, I ain't living in a place where they have the worst Fairmont in the world. That's what they said. But you said it's good water. What did you mean by that? No, I think Jans was trolling me because when I've told the story is we check into the hotel. And this is when I first got Instagram. And they had one of these mini Fiji waters.

By the way, we don't drink Fiji here. We drink Body Armor. Shout out to our sponsor, Body Armor. And it's reasonably priced, unlike Fiji. So they had the little Fiji, and it was like eight bucks. And I took a photo of it, and I posted it on my Instagram. I said, like, fuck off, Fairmont. And went to sleep, went to pregame skate the next day,

having a jolly old time. You know, hey, biz, you ain't playing tonight. Obviously, I was a healthy scratch. Tip was in a great mood. Tapped me on the shin pad. Hey, get a little skate with Jimmy Playfair. No problem. How it always went.

And, you know, start my bag skate. Everything's going great. And all of a sudden, Tippett blows the whistle and calls Playfair over at the coach's door. And he skates over, and then Jimmy Playfair comes back, and his tone had completely changed. And normally my bag skates lasted about 20, maybe 25 minutes. Well, 45 minutes go by on my bag skate, and after he taps me on the shin pads.

And mind you, when he came back, there was no tummy sticks. There was no chumming it up like he normally did he goes hey tip wants to see you i'm like oh god what the what the fuck have i done have i been talking about banging a a porn star on on the local news again like what have i what have i done this time to piss the organization off well i go down to the coach's room and he's pacing and the minute i walk in the room he points at his laptop he goes what the fuck is that and it's the picture of the mini fiji bottle for eight bucks then me saying fuck off fairmont it wasn't even on twitter so i'm like oh sorry tip he's like

they're threatening to kick us out of the hotel on the day of a game you're not even fucking playing your healthy scratch what the fuck is going we're gonna send you down so i had to walk back to the fairmont with my tail between my legs and apologize meanwhile they provide you with free water when you walk in when you get there the fruits and vegetables or you know the the granola bars so yans was like obviously yans and donor were just like had their fucking their laughs and inside their sweaters before the game just laughing at the fact that i almost got the team kicked out the night before so i think i've told that story before but when yans texted that to our group chat that was a troll job of of the water comment ultimate troll job ultimate troll job he loved

that fairmont is horrible though horrible fairmont you gotta be the worst fairmont we went back there when i was doing uh the radio broadcast and the the elevator had busted so we had to i had to walk up 16 flights of stairs with my luggage and then back down but they were amazing people in winnipeg like i don't want to shit on the fairmont i think they did a little bit of a remodel and then also you get the mall underneath where you can walk from place to place so you don't have to go in the cold. So shout out to Fairmont. My apologies.

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The Dallas Stars doing what everyone expected them to do. They come out flying this season. Now, they did take down my Oilers on Saturday, I believe that game was. And the Oilers dominated them through two periods, Biz. Dominated. But Dallas ends up pulling it out. Duchesne gets two. And the big news, though, the big news being they got another young star locked up long term.

And that's Jake Ottinger, former Boston University goalie, signed in eight times, 825. Swayman set the bar. He set the bar, although the Islanders say that Sorokin set the bar. It's the exact same deal he has. Now, here's the difference. In Texas, business favorite thing, no state tax. Ottinger makes $412,000 more every season than what Swayman will be making in Boston. So I think we had talked actually a couple episodes about Ottinger's deal, and we both agreed it would be more than Swayman based on what he's accomplished compared to Jeremy Swayman throughout this part of his career.

But I guess what you get from being in a no state tax, you don't even need that much more. It's the same reason that they're able to get Braden Point and Kucherov and Tampa at those numbers that they were at. Incredible deal. I think that, you know know his sample size was a little bit larger i think he'd played over 200 games or at least close to 200 games uh um when signed i think he's actually over 200 so uh well learned and exactly what i thought about when when

he signed it it's it seems as if those swayman kind of set that bar and and reset the goalie market but uh it's nice to see him probably leave a little bit on the table based on that state tax thing and the fact that man they got a they got a good window here the next three four years i think basically with jason robertson hayes can then uh um is it is it harvey on the back end thomas Harvey or Harley? Harley. Harley. Stan Colvin. They got tons of prospects coming up. They have the veteran presence.

They got the speed. They got the skill. They got it all. So great to see him accomplish that. And regarding the team, I mean, this is not a surprise to nobody. They're a wagon. I think that them and Vegas are the two best teams overall in the west in my opinion and that's a reason that the edmonton oilers aren't going to get past the second round this year so uh credit to the dallas stars and everything they've built

i think that dallas just is doing like i said before exactly what we thought based on their season last year and then this this group that's back there, they've been together what seems like so long. Obviously, Stankhoven was just there halfway through last year, but they have the younger guys. They have the older guys. They have a stud in net. They have a really good coach.

And it's like, I think this is what we're going to see all year from Dallas. They were able to win that division last year. It seemed pretty easy for them. I don't see that not happening again right like this team is just so deep at every position and they're able to have like even moments when they're not playing great couple guys aren't going they have enough in their roster to pick them up and carry them like a lot of teams in this league if their top guys aren't playing they're fucked and this team it's not that way because they have so many different guys that can pick up the pace and then ottinger

just looks exactly as he has in the past so i i'm not i'm not surprised to see it but edmonton did edmonton dominated the first two periods i know i sound pathetic but they did sorry um i've i said it when we were doing our season previews as well. Like last year, based on the stats, they had two first lines, the way that the second line was producing. Duchesne off to another hot start. So it seems like it's going to continue as such. I believe the term we use for the teams like this are wagon. They're a wagon.

Yeah, they are. They're a wagon. They're a wagon. They're a wagon. And it kind of leads into like with them being a wagon, Winnipe They're a wagon. They're going to be there. They're a wagon. They're a wagon. And it kind of leads into like with them being a wagon, Winnipeg being a wagon, there are some questionable things happening with some certain teams in this division.

And one of them is Colorado. Probably panic time in net. Kapo Kokkinen has now started skating with the team. This Georgiev, it's like he forgot how to play goalie, Baze. And there's some bright spots on the team, but they cannot be covered up by what's happening in net, and I don't know where they go from here. I guess having Kakanen there,

maybe he ends up helping them out. But Colorado, without N Nachushkin without Landis Skog even with McKinnon Makar and what Ross Colton's done and Rantanen it's like I don't know if you can't keep the puck out of your net what are you gonna do luckily they got San Jose Sunday so at least that's an easy two points but what have you seen to make you maybe worry more or not not hit the panic button yet okay so, so when we started constructing the outline, that was before they played Anaheim and San Jose. So they banged out back-to-back wins.

So it's not as though it's panic mode yet. Gorgiev was obviously not good early on. They did play the game, and I'm drawing a blank here. It was on our broadcast, for crying out loud. Let me look it up. Vegas, right? Was it Vegas? Yeah, Vegas smacked them on TNT, I thought.

Like 8-4 or something? Yeah, it was 8-4. It was against Vegas. And that was on – no, it was the following week. We had them back-to-back broadcast. Let me look it up quickly. But you can't blame him for for some it was boston they had boston at home and three of the goals were like backdoor tap-ins and or one was a high tip in the slot so i don't think their d have

necessarily played that great there was even a point where kyle mccarr played one of his worst games as a professional hockey player where after the game he said i think our team would have been better off without me in the lineup tonight so those words coming out of kale mccarr a generational defenseman out of his mouth was surprising but loved the brute honesty and the ownership by him and obviously he's going to bounce back and have an incredible game after he has those words. But just like DeHaan was losing his guy backdoor. So as much as you want to point the blame on Gorgiev, it's kind of like when we talked about Pittsburgh where I think it could be snapped around evenly enough between the decor, between goaltending and the fact that they're not very healthy right now so it just seemed like uh the world was falling down and the sky was falling on top of him even bednar who's normally a very even keel with his comments he was looked flustered and and just gassed and just like man like i don't know we were brutal tonight i thought we were going to have a response and we didn't and and like i said it felt like the world was

falling so now they bang out back-to-back wins, and they put up 50 shots against Anaheim as well. That game went to overtime. So I don't think it's panic zone yet, but they are going to have to lock things down defensively, and they're not going to be able to outscore their problems until these players come back in the lineup. They lost Drew Wren, who was a big help to that first line. They're really missing Lekkonen, who's a puck hog.

He's an in-your-face type of player who adds depth to that first line they're really missing leckanen who's a puck hog he's an in-your-face type of player who adds depth to that second line nachushkin i mean we could fucking talk about him till our heads fall off with what i guess he's skating he's bro the guy had nine goals in eight playoff games last year and he was fucking he was a hoover vacuum like imagine what he's doing when he's fucking sober for that fucking team i mean it's you know he's a remarkable player that they need right now and when those guys do come back yeah and hopefully maybe landis cog then maybe we could talk about them playing with pace and outscoring their problems but until then they got to find a way to lock things down especially

as the competition they're going to start playing is going to be better than they have faced off in the last two games. I do want to shout out Ross Colton, who's been awesome there. And Merles was mentioning on the group chat, he's taken Leckanen's spot on that top line. So Merles was hammering the over Leckanen shots bet every game. And right now, Ross Colton is the guy that's kind of just living with Rontanen and McKinnon. He's got six goals in six games. He's always been a really good skater and in your face. He's actually similar to Arturi Lekkonen. He's like the West Coast Cotter, Pasha's Cotter.

We got Cotter and Colton lighting the lamp. Depth players figuring it out. I'm with you that it's not time to panic yet because of how many guys are out, right? And you're just stretched so thin right now depth-wise. But I do think, like, you got to get some answers maybe. And obviously, Bettman's got to allow Nachushkin to play again. And Landeskog's working his bag off to try to get back. But McFarlane and, like, the staff there, they probably need to know at some point.

Like, you got to be able to, like, figure out your roster, figure out moves. And the longer it goes on, now, yes, they've won two in a row but it's anaheim san jose so it's like if they start losing again playing some deeper better teams you're going to need to get answers on these injury questions because that's just it can it can kill a whole season it doesn't matter how early it happens and also like how hard can you ride your top horses to just get into a playoff spot and then all of a sudden you're getting in the first round in the west and those guys are going to be gas i know they were able to pull it off last year they also had i think a little bit better of a team heading

in along with some of those guys healthy so i think things will turn around there as things uh as the health progresses so uh and they're going to lock things up a little bit more defensively. They won't be giving up all those high-danger chances in the slot area and help out Gorgiev a little bit. But it went from the good, the bad wit, to the flat-out ugly. If you think Avs fans are panicking, why don't you just go find a Predators fan and give them a big old bear hug and just tell them,

just tell them it'll be okay. But will it be okay? Not since I think 1994 or 95 has a team who started 0-5 made the playoffs. We're talking 30 years. And this team who spent all this money, had all this promise, had you and I raving about them and their ability.

Redemption tour. The redemption tour was going to overtake the FU two tour. No, because it's turned into disaster in Nashville. They haven't won a game. I, I, I never saw this coming.

And I think if, if you, if you were to be inside the room right now, I think that they got to just be shocked because you lose one. All right. Sorry. You lose two. You lose three. We got to get this next one. You lose the fourth. You lose the fifth. And then it's like finger pointing starts. And that's up to the leadership and up to the team to really stick together. But it just becomes awkward in a room with so many new faces and guys who weren't there last year when they had a

successful season and kind of came back from the dead after the U2 cancellation and had all these amazing vibes around their room. Now guys who weren't even there are there. They haven't won a game. Guys are not playing great. Stamko's got his first goal,

I believe, in the fourth game, Biz. Is that correct? But I don't know what's going on here. I actually talked to Hal Gillillibolt coming on he's like can i come on after we win a game which i totally i totally understand because at some point they'll be able to break through but it's like you can play yourself out of this thing early on when it's this bad and i don't think anyone saw it coming i actually know no one saw this coming um the two guys i wanted to bring up,

and sometimes when you bring in new guys, it's hard for them to get acclimated, like new power play look, a lot of delegation, especially when you have legends like Marcia So and Stamkos all of a sudden in the power play. It's like, no, you shoot it. No, you shoot it. So they're still getting situated in that regard.

But if you go back to last year and even the year before, I think they're notoriously slow starters where they have these big pushes towards the end of the season and sometimes with older players you find that you know it maybe takes them a couple more weeks to get into things and into the groove of things as maybe the pace of play slows down a little bit but I that this key for Sherwood who's's fitting great in Vancouver so far, maybe he doesn't jump out on the score sheet as much as those other guys we just mentioned, like the Marchessos and the Stamkos,

but the way that he plays and he fucking finishes, I think he's leading the league in hits right now and really challenges for those top-line minutes too. So I just felt like he was a good agitator to have around to spark the team. And I think that they're missing a guy like that and I also look at the back end man like Ryan McDonough not enough can be said about this guy and what he's able to provide from a defensive

standpoint I would consider maybe an eastern conference poor man's at home maybe not as nasty as at home maybe not as much of an offensive upside with the with the big shot but he's able to move the puck well he stays in position he'll block shots he'll help kill penalties and he's a guy who's going to play critical minutes especially against top lines and you saw Tampa relying on for all those years and then you saw Nashville do the same and what he provided and when you take two guys like that out of the lineup man like I know it's only two players but it can really hinder things until they get acclimated and used to their new uh you know their their new personnel so I just felt that those two guys out of the lineup has has obviously

hurt them I think with Brunette being a great young coach and one to not really hit the panic button and get too hard on guys, I think that they will turn things around. But you mentioned the stat, man, 94-95, the last time a team who started 0-5, that's the last time a team who started like that has made the playoffs.

It's hard, man. With all these other teams cloned for positioning, they got to figure things out and figure things out quick and get those guys that they signed to those big contracts figured out. I don't think that Barry Trotz saw through five games Saros having the same amount of points as Stamkos and Gustav Nyquist. So kind of incredible to see the slow starts. We actually talked about,

could Nyquist repeat what he did last year? I think the least of your worries on that team is Philippe Forsberg and Roman Yossi. Yossi hasn't scored yet, but even having said all this, I do think this team figures it out at some point and is able to go on a little bit of a run. They're better than they were last year, and what they did last year was insane to see that run and i i just don't

see them being done yet i i think they're able to figure things out get in a groove it's just at this point it's like we just need that first win we need to play music in the locker room after the game we need to have like a good attitude and and feeling at the practice the next day it's like we need to just change this up immediately. And yeah, you do bring up how quickly you can fall behind and out of this race. I know it's crazy with 82 games, but we'll see what happens. Well, what's the stat, right?

Oftentimes, the teams that are in playoff positions come American Thanksgiving, are the ones who end up making playoffs. So we're not that far away here. I mean, how many more weeks till American Thanksgiving? We got over four weeks. So it's November 28th this year. So it's actually a later Thanksgiving.

Shout out Ryder Whitney's birthday on Thanksgiving. Great day to have a birthday. All your family's there. You get presents and the turkey and the stuffing and the mashed potatoes, even though we'll be making them chicken nuggets and an ice cream cake but that's fine by me um on the bright side what i get for my birthday it's like oh we repaired the shower hose so that's all you're getting or did you say oh i took i took a stick out of squanto's hand as he was going to two-hand you in the side of the head. So like happy birthday, bud. I love you. But on the bright side for Nashville, Army talked about this on game notes this week. Oh, by the way,

Army, they're also calling Army on game notes like crazy hockey dad. There is there is a son of Matthew Murley now, and Matthew Murley will be an insane hockey dad. So Merles is throwing around the crazy hockey dad as Ted's just so little but Merles Merles's dad was driving him four hours round trip to practice like Zeev Booyam's mom. So Merles will be in the mix as a crazy hockey dad. I got to respect

who you think ultimately will end up as the crazier hockey father. Obviously Kobe's out in the lead with with what's transpired early in the season and bringing this kid to the academy who do you think will reign merles oh fuck i don't know that's a tough world he's betting the over and shots for his kid you know you know who'll be a psychopath if they have a son his pasha will be a fucking nightmare hockey dad he'll be like he'll be making the kids shoot pucks. He'll be whipping them around if he doesn't hit the crossbar on command.

Pasha's got that psychotic hockey in his mind. And if you don't get drafted by the devils, you're dead to me. I actually think that Pasha is easily taking the cake for most hated member of the Spit and Chicklets crew. Anytime we post a clip with his face in it, there's a hundred comments of like, never let this guy speak again. Take away his mic. He's the reason I stopped listening to the podcast. Although they listen to the podcast. Yeah.

And Pasha, I think it's a great thing when you're universally hated like that. I mean, some people want to be universally loved when you're universally hated like that i mean some people want to be universally loved but being universally hated they are talking about you nonetheless but i got i got sidetracked because army was the one who brought up after playing with him luke shen getting to a thousand games um pretty cool and tyler myers and they both played together for the colonna rockets uh in junior and lived there in the summer. Oh, they do? They live in Kelowna?

Yep. Oh, I'd love to go out there. But Luke Shen, I mean, that guy, he was looking at not being in the NHL anymore. And things were, as the speed of the game picked up and he was slowing down a little bit. And buddy, he has done a hell of a job not only staying in the league but being a big part of a lot of teams and being able to reach a thousand games i think he also used adam oats the way we talked about shifley he pays adam oats and since then his games improved his hockey iqs probably improved and he's always been that big bastard that'll block shots he'll fight, he's tough in front.

Somebody that a lot of teams could use defensively. So shout out to Luke Shen. I love seeing these older guys reach that amazing milestone. Some people might be like, oh, what did he use Adam Oates for? Because a lot of the skill players are, like the Kucherovs or the Stamkos, and they watch tape and then they figure out how to expose oppositions, which pockets of the ice to hit, which stick lanes or passing lanes will open up on a power play based on the way that it's transpiring.

But for him, it was about his touches and when he was going back for pucks and just even giving as easy as passing it over to your D partner behind the net and how clean and concise and perfect you can make it every time. So through repetition, he was just working on all the way, all the times he would find himself touching the pocket over the course of a game. He would just go over and over and over where it became second nature and he just sharpened his tools. And, you know, like you said, there was a point in time where I think he was on a PTO and he was making league minimum to where not only does he provide leadership roles on Nashville Predators or wherever he ends up. And I think at the time when he ended up getting the resurging, it was when he was in Vancouver.

But his play is speaking for itself now, along with the physicality that he brings. for itself now along with the physicality that he brings so it's cool to see guys like you know when they might be on the way out put in the work and and sharpen their tools and end up resurging their career and not only extending the amount they play but the amount that they're putting in their bank account as well so it's a credit to him it's a credit to tyler myers who also probably dealt with a little bit of online and verbal abuse based on where his play had dipped off to. And both guys hitting that mark is a huge milestone and a credit to their resilience as players as well. Well said, Biz. In fact, in 2019-2020, he played six games in the AHL and then he won the Stanley Cup with Tampa that year and the year after. So a really cool story.

Congrats to both those guys. Those big defensemen boys. Fuck, they're- The big old bottle. They're big old righties too. Ain't easy to find those studs out there. So shout out them. Staying in the central, an amazing clip of Josh Doan fighting Radko Gudis.

Eight years after Radko Gudis buried Shane Doan Josh's father with a cheap shot I mean a wild like that's I mean I'm gonna get payback from my dad I'm gonna get to the NHL and fight the guy who cheap shotted you like a wild story you don't get to see that often and Utah I got to see the third period uh against the Bruins Saturday night when I got home and I think they are one of the most fun teams to watch I don't know if like I'm just being like biased because they're new because I like their uniforms because Dylan Gunther really gets me going that sounds odd or you're glazing their owner yeah or we're about to bring their owner in for an interview but Josh, sticking up for the old man,

sticking up for Shane and fighting Radko Gudis. Well, I mean, the apple doesn't fall far from the tree. And shout out to Josh Doan. He didn't even hesitate. And there's a backstory. He actually had Gudis' photo in his stall all of the years coming up after that cheap shot to his old man. He said, the minute I get to the National League,

I'm going to punch that motherfucker's face in if he's even still playing and sure enough no hesitation the minute that he saw him he was salivating to drop the mitts and try to bury radko gudas chubaka i was were you not surprised that he like there was no hesitation that you're you're right it like you're making funny jokes but it's like no like i'm gonna get to the nhl i'm gonna play that guy and i'm gonna fight his face immediately like it's just whereas like squanto will like meet pavelski and like high five him someday for punching my head and it's like where's the love here where's the love squanto josh is protecting his dad You're laughing at my bloody nose.

Did Pavelski get you? We fought in the playoffs. I thought it was a decent fight, but he caught me with one and I was leaking everywhere. Pavelski beat you up. You're pathetic. Oh, settle down. You're pathetic. Fuck you. You got like six

inches on the guy. Just hold him up there. I thought I won three-eighths of the fight. And with that said, I think it's probably time to send it on over to Ryan Smith. And like you said, one of the most exciting teams in the league to watch. Getting them, it sucks for Coyotes fans, but inheriting that team at the perfect time because I think that the growth is going to be incredible and they're going to be fun to watch for years to come. And what a landing place for them to get to with an incredible owner and a fascinating guy.

And we can't wait for you guys to hear his story. Before we continue, guys, I need to talk to you about Muggsy. Muggsy makes damn comfortable clothing for guys everywhere. Muggsy started by reinventing the jeans game in 2015, and now they make the best jeans, chinos, tops, and joggers ever. Mugsy works exclusively with some of the best designers and manufacturers around the world to deliver the finest quality fabrics directly to your door. Their entire goal is making guys more comfortable at work, at the bar,

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How's it going? What a start for the club. Not much buyer's remorse, eh? Ah, well, still early. No, we're excited. I think everything's gone as good or better than we hope. But I don't know. We haven't spent much time thinking about it.

It's been such a hard lift and a heavy lift for the organization over the last six months that it's just kind of all a blur. Did you have the expectations that opening night brought? Because we saw the concert out front. We saw the quick goals. We saw the crowd. And then even the Bruins game this past week. It seems like you guys were dialed into that this fan base would be rabid right from the start.

I had expectation or at least hope on what Utah would bring. I'm a big proponent of Utah. I've seen it rise to the occasion on different things we've done. Also, I think we're a very proud state. People love to see Utah on the sweater. They love to see that and they come out. I think if we go back to after we flew to Phoenix and told the guys you're all traded to utah and and then like rolled

up and everyone showed up that like gave us some fuel of like the art of the possible and then for opening night like i think we just stood back and say hey we're gonna do this one we get we get to do this one this is a once in a lifetime moment and you know i used to say that to my wife i'd be like hey this is once in a lifetime and she doesn't go for that anymore but like this was truly once in a lifetime and so from the concert shutting down the road the people espn like everyone out there i think i think we kind of, we met. Everyone met in the middle and got that point that this is once in a lifetime. And then my biggest fear was like, we have such an amazing pregame.

I got down to the ice and I was like, oh no, we got to play a game. And the place was popping. The barn was packed like i was like all right i hope our guys are like too tight or freezing up or i mean i can't imagine because like during the anthem they're like hitting each other with their sticks like look around bro it, it was a little Hoosiers type moment. And, um, when that first goal went in, I was like, you could just feel like everything let off.

It seemed to kind of live up to every expectation and more. Was there like one memory that stuck out from the night? I'm sure there was so many. I mean, you had Gary Bettman sitting on the glass for crying out loud. I don't think Gary Bettman sitting on the glass for crying out loud. I don't think Gary Bettman sitting on the glass many games in the NHL. I didn't know that. I'm like,

I mean, first of all, like me, I'm like a I'm like a 20 handicap going into hockey. Like, let's just throw it out there. Right. And I'm learning quick. I think I'm down to about 15 now and by halfway through this season, we're going to be single digit, right? You've been brushing up on your lingo. Oh, yeah.

It's a whole new world. Especially not knowing that Gary doesn't sit on the glass. It wasn't until halfway through when I was like, hey, when was the last time you sat on the glass like this? He's like, yeah, we don't. We don't do that. He's like, especially for playoffs. I'd never be up here for playoffs,

but since it's opening night and down here, we'll do that. And, and then like, we were just watching together and hearing him like, just talk through it all. And then when that first goal went in, he turned to me and said, you do not know how big that was. Right. And I was like, that's, that's a pretty cool moment. That goal, that goal was by far the best moment because it gives me chills when I go back and just watch it. What happened

and the people and that moment. Because I think if it goes the other way, it's going to be hard to pull that back. And Dylan Gunther gets the first goal who you guys recently locked up. He looks like he's going to be a stud. That kind of leads into what I was wondering about Utah Hockey Club. And that is you had kind of made it clear that you wanted to have a franchise and you didn't want to take necessarily a franchise from somewhere. But how did you end up finally coming to terms with or being like, this is cool, actually. It's not the Arizona Coyotes. We're a new team. This is the first game of our franchise. But I didn't start from scratch the way Vegas and Seattle had.

Like, was that hard for you? Or were you okay with it once you saw what Arizona had in prospects? And I know you're not maybe up to the hockey, but how did you end up deciding that this would be fine for you and that you would make this way work? From a franchise, a new franchise perspective, if you're going through expansion drafts and everything else, like no one's done it as well as hockey has.

I mean, for what Seattle and Vegas were able to do to come in. So we had looked at that. through expansion drafts and everything else, like no one's done it as well as hockey has. I mean, for what Seattle and Vegas were able to do to come in. So we had looked at that. I mean, when we were coming in at like January and meeting with the NHL, we were like, hey, like you do this better than everyone else. So we had comfort. It wasn't until like April where Beth been called and said, would you be ready to go in the fall and it was like

it look I've learned on these things like I'll never forget when the jazz deal came about we were IPO our company we had announced we're IPO we were going there in July that's like a huge moment for a company so much work it's like a six month

head start and then the jazz deal happens at the exact same time on the exact same timeline you can't blink you've just got to say yes we're gonna figure it out yeah and when arizona came like you're sitting there going okay do we wait do we wait for the unknown or like is there an ability to do something unique? And it's never really been done in sports where, you know, we're creating, you know, an entirely new entity. There's really no history. It's like a hybrid expansion slash you're not starting from scratch.

But the team's so young that you've got a bunch of kids like dylan and donor that like are coming up at the same time so they hadn't been with us a full year plus you've got a bunch of draft picks and a whole stable of kids that are like coming up and also i think for us it was a little bit about the story of if if the place was packed every night like that would be a totally different feeling for these guys and I think it all just it's supposed to happen I don't know what else to say like for something this crazy to happen like you just got to look it up going all right this was the was the plan. I said at the time, like you were better off,

I think, like, especially with the prospects and like how that team was going, it was more of the situation they were in, but to have like what they had already started building there, I think it was a win because all you see right away off the beginning of this season, what they had and it wouldn't have been the same.

And I think owners are probably learning based on Vegas and Seattle, like on a second here like we can't make them this good right away but they had no say over who you already had and they also partly had an identity with their coach and they all trusted in him they'd all played together and they were all like you said coming up at the right time with and we were watching that towards the end like the end of the season the last couple games and you know it felt like even like knowing that it could be a possibility with like two weeks to go i think they went on the road and like beat two teams that they had no business beating at that time given the uncertainty they had going on which was kind of crazy i mean it was leaking out everywhere

that they they didn't know if they were going to play or this or that. And they kind of just rallied together. And that gave us a lot of confidence that like, that's a group that knows what's up. Forget sitting on the glass. He could have had Gary riding the Zambonis. You got us out of a college rink. He's got the Zamboni or the mascot costume on just really doing it all. So you mentioned that you were already talking with, with Gary in the league January. So at that point, you'd already made

up your mind that you wanted an NHL team. You said that they called in April and basically what they kind of gave you an ultimatum saying like, Hey, can you take this? Would you be able to take this team? How long of a period did you have to make that decision where you basically have to fork over 1.2 billion dollars like that's a that's if you're only getting a couple weeks to make that type of decision for that much money that's a that's a hard decision to make no it was definitely a bet like it was a bet like it's i mean you don't want to say it's gambling but like we bet like we were full-on like okay we're either gonna and it was kind of packaged together where it was a little bit like we're gonna try to figure one or the other

out you got to be okay with that either either scenario i don't think anyone knew until the last two days on what it would be and and if you would have told me and at the beginning of april that we would have had a team and I would have been on a plane. I mean, we literally got on the plane. We found it. We got the phone call the 17th in the evening. We jumped on the plane that evening or no, actually early the next morning and flew down to Arizona. And we met in like the Marriott conference room where all these people had officially kind of

heard the news and it had been told and they had talked to the PA and everyone else. And we go into a room and it's like, everyone's sitting down. It's like Ash and I, hey, we're walking in and it's a little bit like, they don't know what to expect. We don't know what to expect. There's no play to expect there's no playbook there's no playbook and i mean i've been through some gnarly stuff in 20 years of business there's nothing like that because you know a lot of these guys that bought homes they're there and so it was a little bit like hey guys guys, like, this is who we are. You just got to trust us.

I just had one quick follow-up, like who put the bug in your, bug in your about hockey? Like I, I know I read up that you were playing roller hockey a little bit while you were growing your, your tech company. Like what made you fall in love with the game?

And then I'll ultimately decide to want to bring hockey to Utah. I mean, Utah has a pretty rich history in hockey. If you talk about like, if you go back and you see like the golden Eagles or the Grizzlies, like I think Ray, Ray Whitney and some of these other guys that all played there. And like,

I, I actually played roller hockey a little bit. Um, and I always thought it was fun. It was super fun. And, but I don't, we hadn't seen hockey here in a large scale in a long time. The one thing that Utah does have, though, we're the youngest demographic.

And watching the Jazz, we have 70,000 kids that play junior Jazz basketball, which is crazy if you think about it. Like we ordered 70,000 little jerseys for kids this year. And so the youth movement is something that's envious of everyone in sports because everyone knows whether it's at Cooperstown for baseball or these little areas that you can, you can grow the youth movement. And, you know, I spend summer, that's where I met you Biz, like up with a bunch of hockey

guys. And I was like, whoa, these are, these are amazing dudes. Like they're just normal dudes. Like this culture would fit really well in Utah. And that got me comfortable, like hanging out, playing golf with, with like nonstop hockey. I was like, wait,

this, this would work in Utah, this fabric, the, like the team aspect and learning about it. Like, this is what we're about. And that got us at least comfortable.

And then, and then everything else, like kind of followed men, like, but it was a blur it was a little bit of a blur and i think there was just a lot of hope that the fans and the community would meet halfway and then when we came out like it caught us by surprise a little bit like how much of a grassroots movement there was how much like pent-up demand there was and also how different of a demographic it was than what we were dealing with with hoops that's awesome so it was partly that and partly the fact

that wayne and ray whitney and kelly chase tyson nash were getting in your ear uh at gosser we've talked about gosser many a times on here that's where you spend your time in the summer to kind of lay low and recharge and there's tons of awesome guys there so that's cool that's cool you spend your time in the summer to kind of lay low and recharge and there's tons of awesome guys there so that's cool that's cool they got in your ear and basically pulled you into buying a hockey team yeah i don't know that they they like man it was a discussion i remember talking with with wayne a long time ago and like to have the greatest ever be like so supportive at every level and and ray kelly and all the guys like being able to be there and then like having them be so supportive,

but also them knowing I, I was definitely a 20 handicap at hockey. It's always fun though, like teaching people about the game, especially if they're interested in it. And then you're obviously at another level of owning a team, but guys enjoy doing that. But I kind of wanted to go to you personally a little bit and how you started Qualtrics. I believe with your dad, Scott,

and your brother, Jared, and you leaving BYU to begin that entire company and business. What is Qualtrics first off, if you can explain to people and give me the story on how this came about. And I can't even believe like you must sit back and look where you're at now and not even in your wildest dreams have seen this as a possibility at the beginning yeah i'm not your your conventional like story for tech and i mean i think one of the beauty about this country at least in the u.s that we live in like there's a lot of folks who have kind of had this American dream set up. And you know, I wasn't like, as a kid, I dropped out of high school. Like I didn't go to like the last two years of my high school. And then, um, was just not, my parents split up when I was like,

right in that 14, 15 range. And like all the kids kind of, I have four brothers and a sister. 15 range and like all the kids kind of, I have four brothers and a sister. We all kind of just went down our own path. And, you know, I, I ended up going over to Seoul, Korea as a 17 year old to teach English. So I'm over by myself teaching English for a year at 17. And then I was just like, life, life can't go like this, right? Like this sucks. And then I, I ended up finding and meeting at the subway, like four guys from Utah. And, um, they were like happy and like, weren't in the same

spot I was. And like, I was like, whoa, I want to be like these guys. And I actually ended up turning my life around. I ended up actually going on a two-year LDS mission to Mexico City. So I went from Seoul, Korea, 17 to 19 years old, lived for two years in Mexico City, learned fluent Spanish, and realized on my mission that I was actually somewhat smart. I had good ideas and I knew how to work and I could actually study, which was totally contrary to what I believed about myself. And so when I came back, I wanted to go to school, but I had a horrible GPA and everything. And I ended up working my way into Brigham Young University and BYU and getting into the business school there. I got a call when I was 21 that my dad had stage four cancer in his throat.

like when I was 21, then my dad had stage four cancer in his throat. And I kind of just said, well, if you only got a little bit of time to live, I'm just going to drop everything and go hang out with you. Like, I don't care. Like, so I just delayed school and went and just kind of sat with my dad while he was going through his treatments and everything else. And he was always working on stuff. He was like a diehard academic scientist guy, but like in the highest, highest level, like PhD researchers and like I'm down here. And we decided that he had this little idea around the internet that he was working on where he would basically create the ability to go gather feedback on the internet instead of phones or in person. And he would develop a system that would tabulate all the results in real time and spit you out these beautiful charts and graphs. And at the time, that was crazy. And so he couldn't speak because of his cancer and his chemo. And so we just worked together. And so instead of

fixing up an old Chevy or a Jeep or a Bronco, we built a tech company and he didn't have any money and I didn't have any money. And so I said, well, let's do this. I said, I think I can go out and market this. I think I can go out and sell this. And we decided that we were going to do that, but we just split everything. And so fortunately, what was crazy is he ends up recovering from cancer. And we end up building this thing and we never took outside capital for 10 years. So we built it like the hardest way possible. Wow. No extra money.

So if we wanted to make money, we had to create a good business model that created cash. And we ended up, no corporation believed in us. No one wanted to do it, but every academic institution thought it was revolutionary. And so we ended up signing up every university that we could find. So we ended up with like 2000 universities where I would literally go to Columbia university and I would go to Wharton and Harvard. And I would personally go sell these faculty members. And that's, that was my job. Well, what happened was they ended up like sharing it with their students and then their students thought it was really cool. And no venture capitalists would bet on this model because academics have no money and they spend all day in your product.

It's just bad. It's a bad business. And then the students ended up taking with them out to like, I remember our first student went to Heineken and then like called us and said, hey, I want to buy a corporate license. And then they went to like Travelocity and Sabre. And like the next thing we know, our corporations started to grow and grow and grow. And in 2011, I rolled in with a friend of mine to Silicon Valley and we ended up raising venture capital from the first, the largest two companies, Sequoia and Excel. Our just two companies, Sequoia and Accel. And then we ended up on a 10-year journey with now over almost 25,000, 30,000 brands that use us. If you fly on any airline.

And the concept is really what brands are trying to do is they sit there and they believe they're providing this experience to their customers and their employees. providing this experience to their customers and their employees. So a CEO says, hey, my experience that we're giving as a brand is awesome for the customer and awesome for the employee. However, the customer, like 80% of the time, believes that their experience is bad. And the employees believe the experience is bad. And so we're training companies to be putting listening posts and feedback everywhere so that that gap, we call the experience gap, is closed. Where if a company believes they're providing good experience, they are providing a good experience.

And so if you fly on Delta anywhere or whatever else it is, like you'll see a Qualtrics survey or you stay at a hotel and what they're trying to do is say, Hey, are we good? Are we bad? Like you tell us, and then we analyze it, spit it out.

And if something's wrong, we, we route it. And so it's really this idea of providing amazing experience because no brand ever comes out and says, Hey, you know what we're going to do? We're going to provide a crappy experience for everyone.

And reality is, though, those brands exist everywhere. Yeah, those brands exist everywhere. And so, like, you can't make it up. And we sold the company three days before we were going public, which is something else you can't make up in 2018. And then we sold it to SAP, the largest software company in Europe. And then we operated for about a year and a half within SAP. And then they came and said,

well, what do you guys want to do? And we ended up taking a public out of SAP. And then we actually took it private a year ago with Silver Lake and Silver Lake owns, you know, part of fanatics and UFC and Endeavor and Dell Computer. Like, they've been a great group to work with, and it's pretty cool.

So the story is not believable. We did everything the wrong way, and it's just worked out. And then to be able to say in 2018, hey, you know what? The only thing that really intrigued me outside of tech was sports and then to have first the jazz which was the team that i grew up like sneaking into the arena as a kid and like trying to scout tickets to like get in during the last dance and to now having hockey. You can't make this stuff up, man. Crazy.

I don't begin to think this is me or something's in the cards because in three and a half years, you don't acquire or be a part of it. And so this is why I'm such a proponent of Utah because if you actually think about it,

all of this happened in Utah. And there's just something special here about the opportunity and the way people rally together and cheer for each other. And like, I've kind of dedicated the next phase of my life to go and try to create an amazing experience

for everyone in Utah. Ryan, to go back to the beginning of the journey, like you said, being a missionary, it kind of, you realize like how intelligent you were and you had great ideas. Like what else about life did it teach you? Like, was that a monumental few years you spent as a missionary? Yeah. I don't, I don't think, I mean, I don't know that everyone has a like, I don't, I don't think, I mean, I don't know that everyone has a, like, Hey, I'm a, I'm a smart kid. Like I actually have good ideas, but I had just come from such a messed up situation where I was almost, I thought, and I truly believe that I wasn't smart and I didn't have ideas. Um, smart and I didn't have ideas. Um, I think as a missionary, if you think about like landing in Mexico city and you get paired to, to, you're always with someone else. So you get paired

with someone else. And the first person I got paired with was from like literally the hills of Mexico and didn't speak one ounce of English. Like not even yes, no. And like you get dropped together and it's like, all right, well, what's our mission? Our mission is we're supposed to go help people and help families and do service. And I'm in the middle of nowhere

outside of Mexico City. And you learn how to work. You learn how to set goals. You learn how to be self-motivated. And you also learn how to work. You learn how to set goals. You learn how to be self-motivated. And you also learn how to, in a way, make it not about yourself. So you're completely locked in for two years on something that's not about you. And I also found out that it was the happiest time of my life. By far the happiest time, where if you almost look at it from the outside, you'd say, oh, that's gotta be. And it's like, no, that was awesome. This last week I was out playing golf

and the starter at the golf course, I was like, where are you from? He's like, I'm from Mexico city. And I was like, where? And he's like, he's explaining where. And I was like where and he's like he's explaining where and i was like bro i'd live there for 16 months right by your house and like this is like 20 years later and i'm like 25 years i was like that's so freaking cool like like you're my brother that's awesome that's an unreal story what's also cool about the beginning of oftrics is I bet your dad going through that fight against stroke cancer, like him having his mind off it, starting that company with you had to have something to do with him beating it. And like being able to just get his mind off of the battle he's in and then to see what it's turned into. Like just an incredible story that I didn't know. I'm glad we asked you about it. My other question would be kind of, and Biz had brought this up to me before, so I think he deserves credit, is now that you're't know. I'm glad we asked you about it. My other question would be kind of,

and Biz had brought this up to me before, so I think he deserves credit, is now that you're in both and it's been quick in the NHL, what have you seen in the NBA that you're like, this works, this is unbelievable, like this is something maybe the NHL needs?

Because the NBA has just done this insane job of just generating revenue and making the game so global. So I didn't know how up close and personal you are. If you've seen anything, the NHL could possibly bring over, even though the sports are sales is probably a quick answer. Well,

that surprised a lot of us. I think there was something interesting that Adam Silver said to me when we went into the NBA, he said, we don't want you to check who you are and what you've learned at the door. We actually need that, especially being the youngest ownership group that we are. We need that in our sport. And that was so helpful. He has no idea how helpful that was because when you take over, the first

thing people ask you is when you're younger is like, what type of governor owner are you going to be? And it was always perplexing. Like my first 20 interviews were to that, like, what do you mean? Whether like, are you going to be like Mark Cuban? Are you going to be like E. Ballmer? Are you going to do all these things? And it's like, well, so first of all, I'm Ryan. I've been a leader in some capacity for 20 years. Like we're not going to be someone, none of us are going to be someone that we're not. And so for him to give us the ability to say, hey, we actually don't need that. We want that. We want you to come in we actually don't need that. We want that. We want you to come in.

We want you to speak. We want you to be helpful. And so that was one kind of anecdote. And then it was like, okay, coming into hockey, I believe hockey is where the NBA was 10 years ago from all the things you said. This is why we're so bullish on it. The world is going towards live events. Like everything.

Look at Keith Swift. Look at every F1. Look at how all of this is happening. And you all know, I don't need to explain. And we're going through this where we're almost educating everyone. Every single person that's come to a hockey game, no joke has told 50 people. In person, it's nuts. It's a different experience.

Hockey is probably the most of all the four majors where it's visible difference between watching on television and going to a live. So I think the first thing that we're learning is obviously the media side and in some of these things we we can turn up um so we we we put hockey equal with our jazz app and then we created scg plus where you log in and you can just toggle back we have 26 games going on at the same time and i'm getting blown up like hey I want the dual screen like this is like I was like wow these are good problems to have right then the second piece of it is also what can the NBA learn from hockey one of the things that we're doing is we're truly making it

one family there will never be a I believe an organization or there's not in sports where we coexist the way that we coexist as one family. And if you think about the experience we're trying to provide, we've got a three or four year head start on the NBA where we want people when they come to Utah that everything else off of the ice is incredible. Like they don't have to worry about anything. We want their best years of playing here. And the reason why is because they're so freaking locked in. And we've already seen this in hoops that when people come to Utah, they're mentally in a good spot, they're healthy, and they're locked in. And so how do we go and articulate and create that experience?

This is a business we come from. And so we look at it from the player experience, the coaching experience, the family experience, the moving experience. We take a look at all these experiences and say, hey, what does it mean to be the best moving experience in the NHL? So someone moves here. What does that mean? How do we make that possible? Or the

best family experience for a player's family? And so like last night, they had like family skate night at the Delta Center and everyone was out there. Maybe you saw on Insta where you had a bunch of kids going at it. And like, it was so much fun. And we're trying to do that for both organizations and then do multiple events with everyone together.

That's awesome. With our hoops guys. And so I know we're playing tomorrow night. Like, we've got all of our hoops guys and so um i know open or we're playing tomorrow night like we've got all of our hoops guys going and then all the hockey guys are going um for opening night of basketball on wednesday that's awesome and so like they need to feel that camaraderie um some of the group things in hockey where, you know, I'll never forget. We built this incredible suite underneath the arena, which is kind of a lounge, a club, everything where every night, like we all go, we host.

And then when we leave the hockey, the hockey or the basketball guys can go and kind of have a spot, spot to hang, spot to chill, spot with their guests and their friends. It's, it's really unique. I remember walking in once and Gary's like, this isn't going to work. And I was like, well, what do you mean? There's nothing like this in sports.

Like, what do you mean this isn't going to work? He's like, no, in hockey, we put the tables together because we eat together. And I was like, oh, and I think Will on the jazz side has tried to do that a little bit on the road with the players and incorporate that so that, you know, it's not like this twice a year we have a player's dinner. And I think we can learn a lot on the NBA side from hockey about really making a little more collegiate right i just kind of you mentioned mark cuban and before you hopped on and we were talking about what the nhl could could gain from the nba experience and and growing the league and i i kind of compared you to hockey's version of mark cuban now but for all like obviously the right reasons the way that you care about the team and how personable you are

um obviously you're you're not shy to spend and make that experience for everyone. Unbelievable. But also like really the first hockey owner in a very long time, if not the first to kind of be the, at least the face of the organization for now, maybe that's not the way that you want it, but you've been very upfront about saying we want the loudest crowd in the NHL. So how do you feel about like people may be comparing you to Mark Cuban and, and, and, and I know that you want to be yourself and you have your own story, but he was kind of the first NBA owner that was getting fined for talking about officials and really putting himself out there where, you know,

he was a known owner. Yeah. I think I don't know how to operate without going kind of have this principle all in. I actually think that the way I operate, you've got to be on the front line. You've got to be managing down to an inch. You know, I'll never forget UFC. I'll never forget sitting there at UFC once and literally like watching Data White go around the first three rows

and like place name tags of who's sitting where and curating the entire experience. where and curating the entire experience. Oftentimes when an organization gets to a point, you believe that you need to like delegate everything. And I think what makes organizations special is if you can continue to operate into the details. And there's a huge difference between being into the details and being too much and too controlling. So you're not letting the people below you do the job or the people that you brought

in. Like in basketball, we brought in Danny eight, you know, 18 years running the Celtics, 26 years in Boston, 10 NBA finals played with probably 11 first ballot hall of famers and won three championships. Like you don't bring Danny Ainge in to not let Danny Ainge do his job. played with probably 11 first ballot hall of famers and won three championships like you don't bring danny ange in to not let danny do his job however i want to be in every detail so that i know what's going on so when he does ask me a question i'm up to speed and it's the very same as hockey and so i don't want to be out there and have everything depend on me. I mean,

Chris Armstrong is doing an absolutely incredible job. I think he's one of the brightest future executives in sports. He comes from a long relationship that I have with him and we're brothers in this and he's working great with Bill and I don't need to be on that level however I need to understand everything that Chris is going through so that I can be of support to him and bet on him and when when you're not and you're in our our situation you end up making really bad decisions because, for example, it gets loud out there from the fan base. You're not winning or this or that. And you make a rash decision with personnel and stuff like that. And if you're in the details, you know what's going on. You know everything behind the scenes. And so I'm extremely hands-on.

And I think my partners and investors probably appreciate that because they know that every detail is being covered. We're really just working as a team. And I'm not asking anyone on the team to do one thing that I'm not willing to do. And I think that goes a long way. I don't, these organizations aren't big enough that you create some massive hierarchy where you walk in as like, Hey, no, I want everyone when we walk in to just look at us, Ash and I, and our group is a team member. Yeah.

Part of the team. You want to be dabbing up the parking lot attendant and you know, a hundred percent. Yeah. Yeah. I want that hockey vibe. you want to be dabbing up the parking lot attendant and you know 100 yeah yeah that's awesome hockey vibe like what i love about hockey is that like it's not i it's we and it's and i and i think that that's the culture we're trying to create i think the guys feel that a little bit i i think i think that's so cool to hear and and obviously this came together so

quick so the delta center is this built for basketball arena we talked to spicy tuna liam o'brien before the year he mentioned what's being built the practice facility and how incredible that's going to be what are the plans um for the delta center i've read a couple different things in terms of like in the summer doing some some changes to the building but what are the plans to make it a little better for hockey over the course of the next few years? Yeah, we have a two and a half to three year kind of renovation timeframe. Obviously the rinks a lot larger than a basketball court. And one of the challenges and blessings that we have in Utah is that Delta center is the steepest arena in the nba by far the sides really won't change it's just um how do we configure the back so that right now if you're in the upper bowl and you're two rows back you can't see over into our own goal so you're only i mean you're not quite actually dealt with

the same problem ryan in phoenix when they first got there and they went to the NBA rink where you couldn't see the nearest end zone too. And the Islanders when they were where the Brooklyn plays, Biz. So we're doing something that's unique in sports is we're saying, hey, how do we make the change? Because typically what they'll do is they'll just widen the bowl. So if it's perfect as hockey as is, they'll try to bring it in for basketball. And then it's a bad basketball experience. And so what we're trying to do is say, hey, we don't want to give up the amazing basketball experience, which we think is the loudest in the NBA to play in. Like, how do we do both?

How do we use even technology, newer technology where kind of everything, just you press a button, it kind of goes, and then comes back while keeping as much the same. And so we've got some unique plans. You know, ideally, as soon as the seasons are over, there's going to be a crane sitting on the middle of that floor and it's not going to move until the season starts because we're going to start with one side, then we'll add about three or 4,000 more, and then the next side, and then we'll do the finishing.

Um, it's pretty, it's pretty cool. We'll, we'll reveal everything once it's totally finalized. Um, you know, we're learning a lot from what Palmer's doing in,

um, LA. That's a pretty cool, like with that fan wall that goes all the way up in, in a, in a bunch of other and a bunch of other stuff so and then really kind of opening up that experience like we saw opening night with the concert and everything out onto the plaza and creating much more of a plaza kind of re reimagining a little bit of downtown and just investing in, in that area,

put a new hotel and a couple of things down there and working with the convention center. So it's really a city and a state and a County effort. Um, but you know, it's going to be, it's going to be popping a lot of nights a year. I mean,

I think we're, we're going to have 200 nights a year where something's rolling. Do you have a favorite, like a favorite player on the team yet? Like, I mean obviously been around a while he's the captain now but do you have a soft spot for one of the guys or maybe a player that your kids gravitate towards because i saw you had two boys and they're probably going to start playing hockey soon i hope they do uh they're a little it feels like they're a little late but we're gonna hey ed jovanovsky never played hockey i believe till 11 years old and he became the first overall pick seven years later yeah i think look i mean

i've spent more time with gals probably than anyone just because it's easy because we're like hey bro let's go golf and like that's kind of like he flew out and like we did that nasty too oh he's a stud golfer and so is Schmaltzy. Like they both are great sticks and that always makes spending time a lot easier because you're like five hours with someone and

you know, to see him being named captain was super cool. Like, especially like in the way that they lead and what captaincy means in the the nhl is also pretty awesome like because it's not it's not easy the roles and responsibilities and like heavy lifting and especially in a new spot where you know if they all want to go to a game together

or something it's like okay i'm gonna order the sprinter vans, me to my place, like true leadership. Like, it's not like, Hey, say something in the locker room every once in a while. Like that's, that's not what captaincy means. And like, I think it's pretty, it's pretty cool how, how that's happened. But you know, I'm trying to get to know everyone. I mean, we've got seven, you know, we, we, we, we have five new guys guys we had two guys that came up i mean my first sit down with someone was obviously dylan when you know he was driving up to drive home and

just jumped in a car put some books on tape or whatever and like started driving up and we sat down we had dinner and like you know me and armstrong and it was like hey he's a big priority for us and to get guns gunner tied up and like locked in for and armstrong and it was like hey he's a big priority for us and to get guns gunner tied up and like locked in for the next eight nine years like that's pretty i know you just spent 1.2 billion but we're gonna need another 60 that's good how do those conversations go like that let me check my drawer yeah let's just yeah let me check my osray it's just assumed like at this point it's assumed nowadays when jerseys and new jerseys come out it seems like people love to hate things but your jersey and color scheme has kind of popped off where they look phenomenal the whole both sides are great

to home and away how did you guys come about like picking those colors and and moving forward i mean the the announcement will come about the nickname it and moving forward? I mean, the announcement will come about the nickname. It's got to be pretty cool to see all the love for the New Jerseys. I think look, we've learned a lot with the Jazz. It was great to be able to start from fresh.

I'll just say that. And then kind of have the league work with us quickly and the brands fanatics done amazing job of of doing this because you think about it we probably didn't get around to this until you know May and June because there was other things there was bigger bigger rocks we had to tackle and um you know know, Armstrong, Chris Armstrong, in the level of detail that he's had to go into, and we hired Doubleday and Cartwright.

They've been awesome. I mean, they've just been a partner throughout this whole time saying, hey, we're going to get this right. And really what we said is, hey, we're not going to know the name. We're not going to know all this. That's not going to happen until next year anyways. We don't want to take away from the player experience this year. Like, we truly want this to be about this team and the players and not,

and just truly enjoy that as opposed to be worried about us dropping a bomb in November about the name or something like that, because that's not what, it's not going to change anything. We're not going to be able to go until next year anyways. And so let's enjoy the Utah Hockey Club and the team, and there's something powerful with it. And the color scheme, if you actually think about the new Jazz jersey, there's a little bit of overlap in that baby blue and the black.

I will tell you one thing. and that baby blue and the black. I will tell you one thing. I can't believe how many people are wearing those colors. Even if they're not wearing branded material or branded swag, like women are wearing that blue to the game from their closet. And I'm like, this is it. Like, this is it.

When you don't have the gear yet, you're still rocking it. That's cool. And I haven't seen that as much since I've been in the NBA as a way that is. And so I think they landed on something. It actually matches Utah. It seems like a wonderful place to live. And also, I guess, with Utah on the front to pay homage to a place that's brought you so much happiness as well. And you talked about that community and it's kind of like an undercover state. It's growing like crazy from my understanding, even from a lot of like the tech

people going there. I mean, Silicon Valley is very expensive and it's a cheaper alternative that's beautiful and not oversaturated. Yeah. It's the fastest growing state with the youngest demographic, number one for business and lowest unemployment. And if you're someone who wants to increase your socioeconomical pat, uh, kind of position, it's number one for upward mobility. So if you come to Utah,

you have the best chance in the United States at increasing, um, where you sit from a, from an economic standpoint. I guess I'll have to buy a place. Yeah. And that's what we're betting on, right? And so there's a lot of tailwinds going.

I think having a number two or number three tech ecosystem in the country has really helped that. And I think it's easy to do business. And so that's what we're betting on. So we got a lot to do. A lot has come, but I think like, if you would have told me that we would have had the, the month that we've had so far, I would have been like, this is crazy. Um, I know you probably won't answer it, but I'm just going to say, I think it should be

the Yeti. Like, I think that's a, I love the Yeti. Yeah. If you look at the mascot, like the, and how fun you can make it and it's like lovable and fluffy yet ferocious. I think Yeti is the play. Another random question. What was the worst purchase of your life?

Considering you, you know, you obviously sold that company for what you did. Like obviously you've made some great investments, but what was the worst purchase of your life? Oh, geez. I don't know the desktop he has that isn't working right now yeah i mean i don't like to buy a lot of things like like i just don't just just teams and shoes yeah yeah shoes and teams but i think i'm not a big like i'm not a big car guy um it's got to be a golf club membership somewhere that i never used definitely uh but i'm much more of an experience like i like to go places and do stuff and do fun

things and i'm sure i made some stupid ones i remember i remember the first time we we raised venture capital we we got a little bit of a windfall and I went up to the mall and bought a to me luggage roller that I still have. And I was like, really? I look back and I was like, really? That's what you did.

I remember like, I put it back like three times. Like, are we really? And I was like, I bought something so I could work more. Like, so I could be gone more.

Like, I'm like me and my wife up there. Should we do it it was like 345 dollars and i was like you just are we doing this you literally made it back in interest thinking about the decision but i look i got five kids and we're in it they're 8 through 16 and like we're just trying to deal with the same stuff everyone deals with, with kids in high school and sports and growing up and trying to do the best you can while raising them in this crazy freaking environment that I couldn't imagine. Like what it's like and like growing up with in the NBA and in the NHL and no playbook, man. It's, it's a crazy world.

So you just do the best you can. And Ash is a, is amazing, total rock the best you can and ash is a is amazing total rock star and like supporting and doing her own thing so it's it's it's fun it's an incredible story and and like your personal story and then this new team coming from somewhere that was just really hurting with the whole situation so congrats to you man on everything in your life and we appreciate you coming on well we've been super lucky. I've got incredible partners who aren't from Utah, who we grew up with in tech.

I mean, Ryan Sweeney, who wrote the first check for us in Utah. We sold the company. He's like, what are we going to do now? We're not together anymore. We sold the company. And it was like, oh, I want to do sports. And he's like, all right. And then Mike Cannon Brooks in Australia and D Wade.

And like, it's like, it's like you get to do it with people you love and like you want to be a partner with. And like, you know, those guys at Excel Partners believed in us the whole time. And now we're going to go have fun together. And it's, it's pretty cool. Well, it's an amazing story.

And we can't thank you enough for your time. And I'm going to try to get up there and get to see a game live. So I'll hit you up. Let's go. Yeah. and it's pretty cool. Well, it's an amazing story, and we can't thank you enough for your time. All right, guys. I'm going to try to get up there and get to see a game live, so I'll hit you up. Let's go. Yeah. We'd love to enjoy the experience. Come set up from there, man.

We'll roll it out. Chicklets trip. Whatever you guys want. Chicklets trip. Let's go. Love it. All right. Love it.

Thank you, Ryan. Thank you so much, Ryan. All right. Before we go any further, I need to talk to these guys about sport clips the place that elliot fish should have gone to not get his bowl cut he he went to some random place we know it can be intimidating i don't know what he asked for but that could be intimidating for anybody not knowing what to ask for and wondering if your stylist can be able to deliver a great haircut. And there's good news. Sport Clips stylists have been specially trained in the nuances. Yes, all of the nuances

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Hopefully there's others. And a really cool story about how Qualtrics was created and what he's done with his life and being in South Korea and then Mexico. An awesome story and very easy to talk to, Biz. Like I mentioned, a normal billionaire. I guess there's one out there and what he's done and how invested he is,

not financially, but how invested he is with that city and that team and making them good. It's really cool and it's great for the league. So I love that. And also the fact that he said 70,000 kids signed up for intramural basketball or like the development program for basketball you got to think at a certain point the hockey numbers are going to be through the roof and just growing hockey in a in a new community and uh it's just

it's it's incredible to see and like you said his story is is remarkable uh we're grateful that he was able to share it with us and and I think that the league needed an owner who was was vocal and and and had a presence in the media and in a way to connect with the fans too I think that's important for the league and I wonder if you'll maybe even see more of it like who who would who would you say besides him and probably the most well-known owners like Leonis would probably be a name that comes up, but he's not as vocal and as out front of it as maybe Ryan Smith is. Is there anyone else that pops into your head when talking about it? I think that Vinny Viola in Florida, while being like a little private,

and I think what he's done with the Panthers and bringing in all of these West Point grads and like what he's built there is, is, is at least an amazing story, like not necessarily in the public, the way Ryan Smith has been, but somebody that comes to mind of like, wow,

this guy's completely changed the franchise. And agree. Like all the people that he's brought on board and like the sense of community and the work ethic and how they were able to turn that franchise around so quickly. That's a, that's a great point, Whip. But just great to see, and we can't thank him enough for his time,

and we hope you guys enjoyed that. And maybe we'll get more owners on in the future. I know that we've reached out to the commish, and we might be getting him on for an interview pretty soon. Mwahaha! Mwahaha! We went to the dark side we had to scrub every kim jung comment off of the internet what are you talking about yeah exactly what are you talking about it's like the it's like the men in

black light they give your brain see ya um i actually have a little bit tracking device on my ankle and like a zap call or anytime i say anything on the TNT broadcast, like Russia should be in the five nations. You're like, but you start. What about Ovi? Kucherov's an assassin. Sergeyev looks good. Speaking of assassins, I got the red dot on my forehead.

If I say it one more time, done. What else do we got in the back half here, witty boy? Well, going around the league quickly, we talked about the Atlantic Division, and we talked about Ottawa, Buffalo, and Detroit, and one of those teams. And all the fan bases, they're all thinking, we got to get in. We got to get in. I would say right now, Ottawa looks like a lot better than Detroit and Buffalo.

Buffalo is something else. I don't even want to talk about them. Detroit has issues. Detroit has basically a start that nobody wanted to see. And granted, they are only, I believe right now, two and three. So it's not a full-blown disaster. Trade everybody. What?

Trade them all. They have 14 goals for, 17 against. The news is, though. This is, I think reported by Larry Brooks that there's a chance that, that Newsy Lalonde at Derek Lalonde could at some point be let go. We had him on the pod. Awesome guy. Great person.

Fun to talk to, but it just seems like maybe it's, it's, it could be a need for a change there behind the bench. I don't know like how dialed in Larry Brooks is with Detroit, but he mentioned Joel Quenville possibly being an option. I don't know what's going to happen, but I know that Detroit needs a good start.

Detroit cannot be in the situation they were last year where they went on this run and they had a chance to get in and they just came up a little bit short, but it's like we need to see more. We need to see Detroit being in a playoff spot all season and improving from last year. And I don't know what you think about that team. I don't know where you think they're weak

or what you think about Newsy Lalonde possibly being let go at some point, but they're not where they wanted to be after five games. And it's early. Yeah, I mean, it's evident they need a cornerstone goalie. They haven't really, you know, they don't have that position figured out they have uh uh costa i believe his last name is he's a big goaltender about six six six seven came from the edmonton oil kings i don't know how he's playing in the minors and and maybe when the possibility when he will be ready um then they have the kid at Michigan State too.

Correct. So they have a few in the pipeline. They have prospects, but they need something now. I would say the fan base is probably getting a little bit impatient. I just don't think they should rush anything. I didn't have them making playoffs this year. I think that next year will really be when the pressure will be on to make that next step I think that one more year of leniency especially

at the fact that signing those two cornerstone players and Raymond Insider to those deals and getting them locked in at fairly reasonable numbers I think that that might have kind of loosened the collar so to, on the Iser plan. People might think I'm crazy based on that comment. I just think that the future does look bright and the pieces that they do have locked in. The other thing I was going to mention regarding this talk, I have no idea about the potential of moving on from Newsy Lalonde. I hope that doesn't happen.

He's a friend of the show. I'd like to see him get a little bit more leniency based on the personnel that they have. But I got a bizarre text, DM, excuse me, from Larry Brooks. I never communicate with Larry Brooks. I follow him. I love how he stirs it up. I love the antics that he's got in with torts. This is on Twitter? This is on Twitter. I get a DM out of nowhere from Larry Brooks going back to Thursday, October 10th. If you gave me five years,

I wouldn't be able to guess what this says. The last time he DM'd me was in 2021, October 23 23rd and it was ha ha ha ha that was it nothing else the rangers must have won a big game or something after you musta musta so i get on thursday october 10th larry brooks goes hey can we keep this between us question mark whoa whoa can we keep this between us i'm thinking oh Whoa, whoa. Can we keep this between us? So I'm thinking, oh God, this guy's about to break the biggest news going. Did Shuster can extend? Is he getting 13 million?

Have they traded Truba? What's happening in Ranger land? So I wrote this conversation, question mark. Yeah, of course I can keep it private. Yeah, sound. He he goes the moment has passed catch you later regards to your teammates that's it so i wrote question mark what's up larry you had to respond when did you respond after that that day right away bro i'm wondering what the fuck does he got i'm like what what's larry brooks gonna what's spicy take or or news is he gonna deliver me like is he going full

rumor boy on us and the moment he never replied i wrote back question mark what's up larry and he didn't message me back now i would love to get him on the podcast to hear what he has to say so even today after knowing i was going to mention this on the podcast, I go, Larry, what's up? What did you mess? I go, why did you message me that? So I'm waiting for a reply from Larry Brooks to spill the beans on what goosey or goosey with juicy gossip.

He's got for the boys here at spitting up on yourself podcast. So Larry, the offer is out there come on the pod you don't have to say what the secret was but we would love to just get you on and pick your brain about all the nonsense you've created throughout the years and we love you over here at spit and chiclets he's my he's my eastern bob stauffer now that might be a moment has passed is very funny though it's like buddy i had something for you like but you texted me seven seconds ago let's call on g here like g what do you think of that message like is it rude for me to have read that he didn't really spill any of the beans that

he was talking about this private conversation no absolutely not you didn't say anything wrong i think he was going to tell you that quenville's going to the Red Wings, but that's a story for another day. Why would he not keep that for himself? Because he wanted Biz to be the idiot to break it, and then maybe it doesn't come true. But he's like, I'm going to throw this shit at the wall, and Biz will catch it.

I am an idiot. He's right. He's like, I'll throw it to this moron. He'll tweet it out. Exactly. Or he probably just felt there's no way this moron can actually keep a secret which is true and that's why he was like i had second thoughts yeah this was a test that you just failed but it's funny oh no oh no larry come back larry come oh my god uh stay staying in

the atlantic um elliot freeman is reporting that sam that Sam Bennett is in talks with the Panthers about a new contract. I mean, a no-brainer. Absolute, like, assassin in the playoffs. The guy is a machine, and he constantly is just pissing people off while scoring big goals. Playoff Sam Bennett is a real thing. I think he's in the last year of a four-year deal. He was making four and a quarter. Maybe you could look.

Oh, I got it right here. That's a bargain. 4.425 he's been making. This is the fourth year of that deal. I don't know what his next contract could be. He is 28. What I would do if I was the Florida Panthers is I would give him term and I would just keep his AAV down because I think he's a perfect second line center and even

at the end of it all if he has to play third line imagine having that fucking guy breathing down your neck as a checking centerman he kind of already is that in that second line role where he's been at the menace and he could provide offense. I think that you could probably lock him in six times five and a half. I was going to say, give them eight years and, and get it done at,

at, at five and a half, six. If I'm him, I mean, I know he's older. He's probably what? 30 years old now.

No, he's only 28 wow okay i know i think that he's a guy where you can go to war with him and and even as if he slows down a little bit he's always going to be valuable because you can count on him in crunch situations like he is not scared of of anything he'll fucking he'll look you straight in the eyes doesn't matter who it is across the ice i think that's a cornerstone guy that you want setting the example for years to come i think you give him term and i think that you you try to keep the aav down and keep the band together as much as possible so i i don't see him leaving um no i just think like what what

that team's done what the the deal they were able to get forsling to sign on his extension the amount of money you save what we talked about with ottinger in the no state tax area that florida is he's off to a great start he's getting seven and for haggie can fucking score 35 40 goals i know that bennett provides other. I just don't see him getting in the seven range. I mean, he probably could have free. No, no. I'm pretty sure he could come free agency. Like imagine the Leafs getting a guy like that.

So that's the thing. Elliot did mention there'd be a lot of suitors for him. So it would be like, I want to Stanley Cup. I want to make as much as I can. Let's see where I can go and sign the biggest ticket possible. Or do I love playing here this much, which it seems like every single guy does. And I'll take a lit,

maybe a little bit less. I would say a Panther. I would give him eight a year and I'm not rather than signing somebody. And I won't say any names to like another 11 or 12 or $13 million contract. I think when it comes to playoff time, that is something that the leafs would need to address give me bennett the menace all day long in toronto so brad tree living reach out to bennett the menace agent cock block this deal that's about to go down

cock block the deal so two years ago 63 games 40 points last year 69 games 41 points 100 penalty minutes in the last two playoffs he's played 20 games had 15 points they lost in the final last year at 19 games 14 points they win the cup this year he's off to a his four seven points what his point per game come playoff time is better than it is in the regular season by a decent margin. I think it's by 0.2 of a point per game. The Florida Panthers, without Barkov and Kachuk for a little bit, it sounds like Barkov's skating won't be as long as they hoped,

and Kachuk was skating after being sick for a while. I think he'll be playing against the Wild in their next game. So Florida keeps chugging along. They are who we thought they were. And Sam Bennett, I would be surprised if he ends up not re-signing there based on what they've built and how much guys love it. We'll see what happens. There'd be a lot of teams who want him. Sticking in this division, the Bruins. The fourth line for the Boston Bruins, Biz. Grinelli says they're the best fourth line in hockey. They're now outscoring teams 9-0. Beecher, Kastelik, and Kepke, they've played 40 minutes of on-ice time together. They haven't been scored on. They look really good. But I would say the biggest news was Montgomery just snapping on Brad Marchand

on the bench on a goal by Utah that ended up getting called off because of offsides. But it was a turnover at the offensive blue line that pissed Montier enough, pissed him off enough to go after the captain. Yeah. I mean, I'd imagine they probably talked about it after the game and it's water under the bridge uh yeah you you don't often need to to snap on brad marchand um for for playing the right way

uh you know pizza at the blue line coach is pissed off get that puck deep set the example for the rest of the lines everybody else is doing it including the the rejuvenated marlo line because that was the name of the line the last great fourth line for the boston bruins which was gregory campbell sean thornton and dan pae and that's when they won their stanley cup and the reason they were called the marlo line was because they had the marlo jerseys in practice and i'm sure they liked the vino because of sean thornton right exactly is that why it all went down? So credit to them getting that fourth line going.

I mean, they could use the goal support right now. I don't think they're humming offensively as maybe much as they have been in the past. But a nice kick in the arse for the team, no doubt. So shout out to the stick taps, as they say, for the fourth line for the bees. Yeah, I want to shout out Philippe Gustafson, who scored the first goalie goal in wild history. And apparently, Flurry was encouraging him to do so during the timeout. They were up two goals in St. Louis.

I was watching the game live, and he buried this thing. Like, perfect shot, middle of the net, floated it over everyone, skates through the bench for the handshakes. An awesome, awesomeated over everyone, skates through the bench for the handshakes. An awesome, awesome image and video because you're wondering, yeah, it's a two-goal lead. You can get a little risky here. And he just buried the thing. And no shocker at all that Fleury's the one telling him to do it when he was at the bench for the timeout.

That's so good. When that story came out, of course, Fleurry had his mark on it so he couldn't he couldn't have been happier when he was going through the the handshake line you could just see all the white jibs on the bench going nuts hey like just like a moving mouth so shout out to gufson that's very cool and i didn't realize it was the first in their their organization's history so yeah i i really like this wild team and and i had a couple of responses to my tweet about liking what they're doing. They haven't really played anyone yet. They beat Columbus twice.

But it's just different than last year, it seems. You remember Dean Evanston lost his job, and then he loses his job. All of a sudden, John Hines comes in, and the PKs are all of a sudden great. They couldn't do anything to keep the puck out of their net. The goaltending was way better. Gustafson looked really good this year. They actually haven't trailed in 300 minutes of hockey so far. They have not trailed in regulation.

It's the fourth longest streak in NHL history to begin a season without trailing in a game. So I think Kaprizov's the biggest part of all this. He's such an incredible player to watch. He's so fun to get to see play. Spurgeon's out again. I hope that's not serious. Matt Bolt, I know. I know, dude.

You know what was more impressive than Gustafson's goal was Spurgeon's Halloween costume. The Ali G. What was it? Ali G. What was it? Ali G. And then his wife went as the Nova Gertz guy. There's the picture. G's got it.

She's got it up right now. Let me see. Hold on. I got to click back on. Oh, wow. It looks unreal. Old school Ali G was so funny. Oh, God.

When he was on the farm. Oh, there's some classics. Kind of like a newer age Tom Green, I guess, a little bit. Yeah, I like that. Just fucking with people. Yeah. The way that he's able to fuck with the people during the interviews is just remarkable how he's on his toes and and and how he's able to trick him i would say that

like yeah maybe a mix between tom green and uh who's the other one i'm thinking of oh god come on i don't know what like recently older i just drew a complete tom green my bum is on your lips or something like that yeah that, that's him. Yeah, Tom Green. Had him on the show when he was on like a donkey. I believe he was on a donkey. Oh, I guess this is a bad example. Did Ali G ever do skits? I was going to say like Dave Chappelle.

Dave Chappelle was more doing like skit comedy. What a horrible waste of time and a bad example by me. No, I don't hate it, buddy. You're thinking outside the box a little bit. Out in Edmonton, taking a ton of heat for the Oilers' start. I'm not worried. I am not worried at all. Right now, the goaltending is not good.

That is an issue, but it is not good at all. Gotta get that figured out. Zach Hyman with no points yet. That's shocking. The power play looks completely disjointed. I think everything will figure itself out. I mean, it cannot get worse than it did at the beginning of last year. We saw what happened. I think that the team, they were able to, that was a big win in Nashville. Nashville hadn't won yet. It was their first game on the road. They get a dub there. They figured things out. They played really good in Dallas, had a tough third period,

but I'm not worried about the Oilers. I'm not worried about Zach Hyman, and I'm not worried about the goaltending. I want to see this team get... You know what they need to do? What? I think McDavid needs to say, hey, boys, I got a party bus set up.

Let's go blow off some steam together. All together, having a night out. Maybe when they're in Vancouvercouver at the roxy if they're going back there soon maybe out in nashville i don't know what their road schedule is here coming up but it sounds like something a few pops can handle in a little team camaraderie what do you think whit i wouldn't hate it at all sometimes playing guilty as a group is exciting and fun and i mean tuesday night dude tuesday, we have the Edmonton Oilers against the Carolina Hurricanes.

Okay. That is a big test. Carolina's coming in. They've been playing pretty good. Let's see what happens after a little quick road trip. We're back home. Got to get things figured out. But I'm just going to say I am not worried at all.

Tuesday night is also the second annual. Is it? Gee, what is it called? Frozen Frenzy, which last year, or tonight I should say. Sorry, it's Tuesday. Last year, I didn't have a ton of expectations. It was awesome. It was unreal. It was Bucciarach, Kevin Weeks, I forget who else was involved.

Every team's playing in the league. All different start times. The games, they're flying around. else was involved. Every team's playing in the league. All different start times. The games, they're flying around. It was great. I remember saying on the show after, they got to do that a couple times next year. I don't know if they have plans for once more after tonight, but it's great.

You get to see everyone play, and you get to be on ESPN. All the highlights ripping. I cannot wait for that. Exciting time in hockey as the season begins, and we get to see the second frozen frenzy. I guess we can kind of finish this thing off. The ECHL has announced an expansion franchise for Greensboro

North Carolina to begin play in October 2025 as the 30th franchise in the league. The team owned by Zoyer Sports, which owns the Jacksonville and Savannah East Coast Hockey League franchises as well as the AHL. Charlotte Checkers. Greensboro has a long the league the team owned by zoyer sports which owns the jacksonville and savannah east coast hockey league franchises as well as the ahl charlotte checkers greensboro has a long hockey history from multiple iterations of the generals to serving as home as the canes during the raleigh

area construction so just growing hockey down south i love it i love that i love the way you're such a good reader well yeah i mean i i i did my fraction work um in like sixth grade and then i moved on to reading and i'm able to read pretty well i just marvel at the way you're able to do our ads and just like over the course of hosting a podcast be able to look down on your monitor and just like belt out whatever you were they don't jump out at you they don't look scrambled on there you never get jammed up no no no I think this has something to do with your ability to not get through a dinner if there's music

playing in the restaurant we might need to get this checked out just appetizers from now on I just leave after the appies I'll take the I'll take the main course to go please I'll eat in the car with my earbuds still on. Some brutal injuries. Sean Dursey, who looked phenomenal, started off the year.

He's out long-term. So is Anthony Duclair, and so is Kent Johnson. Had a great little start with Columbus. All of them seemed to be long. Months, we're talking. Sucks to see that. Nobody wants to see that, but had to update everyone on that. CCM brought back the tax design, Biz.

I don't know. I saw. They look awesome. I've been in touch with a guy at CCM. He's sending me a pair. No. Can I get a pair too? Yes.

Yes. You know what? I think next week will be the first time I record a podcast in my actual office at my home. The Wi-Fi wasn't working. But behind, I have artifacts and things that I've collected along the way. And CCM was nice enough to send me, not only when they did the last Olympics, they sent me a Team Canada pair of skates. But they also sent me the Willie O'Ree ones, like the diversity skates. So I have one of the skates um but they also sent me the willio re ones like the the yeah the the diversity skate so i have

one of the skates i kept the left of each one and i actually gave my buddy raffy he's got him in his memorabilia room he's got one of each too so it's cool they've sent me skates before and they're they're incredible i love what they do and hopefully i can get a pair of these new tacks because i would also like to start jumping on the ice a little bit maybe even if it's just a coach or maybe even go to like whether TNT wants to send me or whether we do it for chicklets like go and join like team practices and maybe get to do drills with guys and and jump in and get back on my blade so I would love to get a pair of the old school looking tacks uh because the nostalgia and just the way they look, they're incredible. Shout out to Calgary Flames. We're going

to maybe go into them. I don't mean to sound like a grumpy Oilers fan, but like amazing start. I don't think that Calgary's going to make the playoffs, but still happy for those fans. We talked to Brandon Pruss, so watch the Sandbagger Thursday. He played for Calgary. He has a great

again-less story in this Sandbagger. But Calgary starts 4-0-1. They have one loss, which was in overtime. I don't think this could continue. But even if it were to be like Philadelphia next year, last year, where they stay in the mix and then drop off at the end, pretty cool start for Calgary. Got to shout them out.

The fans would have been pissed. And we'll go more maybe into Elias Pedersen who did have an assist on, on Saturday, but he has one five on five goal since he signed his extension with Vancouver, including the playoffs. That is nightmare fuel stuff. He looks like lost and not interested.

11 million to talk. Oh, stuff to talk about for next week. We will, we will inform people. And we should, because we're not covering Calgary much this pod, if they continue this success by the time the next pod rolls around,

I feel like we should have our Battle of Alberta insider, Mike Commodore, come on. Or somebody to represent Calgary to highlight this amazing start when nobody thought that this was going to happen. Nobody thought they would be the best team in Albertaberta out of the gate other than myself of course okay yeah sure um thank you so much i want to promote the breast cancer awareness merch that we have barstool sports.com slash chicklets 100 of the net proceeds go to the breasties foundation biz is rocking the hoodie right there it's beautiful g well G gave me one as well.

Great, great merch there. And for an awesome cause, for an amazing cause, shout out to Breasties. And shout out all you listeners. Another week down in the NHL. We will be back with next week, Thursday, 11 a.m.

Sandbagger from London, Ontario at Red Tail Golf Club, an incredible place with Brandon Prust and Robbie Schrempf, former Memorial Cup champs with the London Knights. I watched it. I think it's one of the funniest ones we've done.

I laughed out loud multiple times. Shout out Pasha did an amazing job. So hopefully everyone enjoys that Thursday at 11. And I hope you enjoyed Rob Brown and Ryan Smith in this entire episode. We love you all. And one last thing. Thank you to the crew, the whole crew who filmed the sandbagger fishy all the boys logan obviously g helps out as

well and uh also stick taps to the game notes guy the guy game notes guys they had their first pod uh last week it's live on the youtube channel on fridays i believe it's at 11 a.m eastern time uh they got their own social media channels now, so you can go check them out at GameNotes on Instagram, GameNotes on Twitter. And they also had a little fun rivalry with a couple of the college coaches on, one of which who roasted me, Rand.

Gee, why don't you hop on and give it a... Rand Peckhold. Rand Peckhold and Benny Barr from Maine. Rand's at Quinnipiac. And then Maine swept their ass. They swept their ass at Alphond Arena. Maine's looking good again. So if you're a big college hockey fan advocate and you love the crazy hockey dad stories,

the Game Notes guys add a different element and they're off to a hot start. And it's great to have Army and Merles back on board. And we love those guys. And we got a great team we got a great great group of guys all right everyone once again episode 528 that's dunzo that's it we'll be back to you next week i hope you enjoy the sandbagger and thank you so much for listening I love you. I don't know any other way Even if I'm going to burn I don't know any other way

This feeling is so hard to burn I'll get you someday