Spittin Chiclets - Spittin’ Chiclets Episode 532: Featuring Tuukka Rask, Louie Debrusk, and Matt Murley

Episode Date: November 19, 2024

On Episode 532 of Spittin’ Chiclets, The guys are joined by Matt Murley to talk about the upcoming 4 Nations Face-off. Later on, legendary goalie Tuukka Rask joins the show to talk about the state of goalie interference calls in the league, the upcoming sandbagger with Andrew Raycroft and his new simulcast. But first some iconic moments in the NHL are underway as Connor McDavid gets his 1000th point, Ovechkin continues to creep up on the goal record, and could we see Sidney Crosby on another team in the future? Shortly after, feared enforcer Louie Debrusk joins the show in a interview done back in Edmonton during last years cup finals to talk about growing up learning to fight, what it’s like having a son in the NHL, and how the game has changed for the better. A packed episode that you won’t want to miss. 00:00:00 - Chiclets Updates 00:30:36 - Around Sports 00:51:04 - McDavid 1000th Point 01:00:20 - Around the League 01:15:21 - 4 Nations Faceoff 01:31:00 - Tuukka Rask Interview 02:05:21 - Quick Hits around the League 02:45:15 - Louie Debrusk Interview 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 Zone Deals! YETI: Shop the YETI's Camino Carryall Tote Bag today https://www.yeti.com/bags/tote-bags/26010000301.html BODYARMOR: Get yours today at Walmart or a local grocery store near you! https://www.walmart.com/brand/bodyarmor/shop-all-bodyarmor/10009869You 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, and welcome to episode 532 of the Spittin' Chicklets podcast. We have a very, very special show right in store for you guys with Matt Murley joining the show.

We interviewed Louis DeBrus back at Edmonton. Tuukka Rask on to Talk Team Finland. Dumber. We could talk about McDavid. We could talk about the Devils buzz and the Hurricanes. But first, we got to talk about Pink Whitney, guys. Pink Whitney. You can see I have the hoodie on right now,

this beautiful Pink Whitney. You can see I have the hoodie on right now, this beautiful Pink Whitney hoodie. This fall and winter, Pink Whitney is the go-to shot for a new generation of drinkers. It's launching its first ever party bucket. The Birdie Buckets, as we called it. 20 50-milliliter Pink Whitney bottles. Those are the nips in fun, convenient bucket packaging. Just add ice, we talk about. The Pink Whitney 20-pack shot bucket

combines the excitement of shots with the convenience of a multi-pack format, making it the perfect accessory for a fall tailgate and game day. Pink Whitney will also be selecting one grand prize winner and sending them and a few of their friends on a trip to Nashville, Tennessee, honky-tonk,

for a weekend of Pink Whitney-filled fun. Pink Whitney will also be selecting 11 contest winners that will receive 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. Take your shot with Pink Whitney,

and take your shot with Paul Beersnasty, Miss Annette, and Matt Murley back from Sweden. What's going on, fellas? The big old bottle, Murr. The big old bottle. What's up, boys? Back home in Troy. You can see I got a little different background today over at my parents' house.

Found the old jersey hanging up. And maybe even G. G might be too young. But I found this trophy laying around. Oh, here we go. The hardware is coming out. Hockey night in Boston. Leading scorer right there.

So that's back from the glory days. Scoring champ. Is that your little shrine, Murr, behind you of all your trophies growing up? Yeah, these are more like the team trophies. We got the showdown in Motown, 1992. Winners here. That was a team. That's a sick name for a tournament.

It was called the showdown in Motown? Showdown in Motown. I think it was called the showdown in motown showdown in motown i think it was little caesars that hosted it but we beat in the championship we beat joe thornton and brian campbell they were on the southwest hawks they were like 60 and 0 in the spring summer whoa you're the same age as joe thornton yeah 79s he's a january 79 i'm a december 79 so he's almost a year older. You took down Jumbo Joe? Yeah. So in the round robin, they beat us 10 to 2.

And the parents are like, get these mini mites off the ice. It's me, Gionta, Conley, my buddy Cantanucci. We're little tiny guys. All of a sudden, we find him in the semifinals. We beat him 4 to 3. And then we went on and won the championship. Did you shadow Jumbo? Yeah. I was fourth line on that team. semi-finals we beat them four to three and then we went on and won the championship shadow jumbo i was fourth line on that team i was on the uncle sands we had a guy uh daniel kachuk you remember

him he played a little bit nhl overall pick back in the day yeah calgary so he he was a real superstar too when we were younger somehow my dad stole him from toronto and he would play on our summer team and uh he i think he scored all four goals for us that game. At that time was, was Thornton a phenom? Like was he talked about amongst all the players and stuff? Kind of like, like Sid was coming up McDavid.

He was, was he big too at that time? I was going to say, I think he was that size that he is now. Then like for me, at least I was like five, two looking up at him. Just coming out with the mini mites. He's got huge bush just fucking like full grown beard like he's got now

i remember the one guy uh i think it was like mike olivera he was an ohl guy he had like a tank top on in the parking lot and he had the armpit hair already and we're all like what oh no getting tattooed before the game hey i was I was actually talking to Brian Yandel about this, who has three kids. I think one's U18, U16, U14. That might be off a little bit, but he talks about now how they don't hit until so much later. I think you're 14 when you start hitting. He says it's a nightmare because if you do hitting at a younger age, which is what we all had growing up, if you did the travel AAA hockey, hockey was hitting from age seven or eight.

What happens is you kind of learn to take hits. And at that time, the kids are Gumby and the bigger kids aren't that much bigger. But you're introducing hitting now at 14 and there's 170 pound kids and 80 pound kids. he's like you should see the injuries and like it's just ridiculous that they've waited and pushed it back this long because it's way harder to learn as you're getting completely manhandled by a bunch of joe thornton with hairy armpits and and beards well he was more worried about feeding guys back door and the skill side of the game i would imagine he wasn't running around but but you don't think joe thornton was running around if he was but he was a mean prick on the ice he's probably had the puck on a stick the whole game.

No, true, true. Did we have Boucher Gross on who almost, he kind of like, I don't want to say contradicted that point, but because his kid came up, he said that the difference at that younger age where you could have the kid who was like 120 pounds as opposed to like 75 was even, could be even more catastrophic. So he actually didn't mind it being bumped back.

But I agree with you when you can't move as fast and you can't be basically like a human rocket running around with their just torpedoing kids where it's probably better to do it at that younger age. I know we had a contact school in the area where all the kids would sign up for that contact school. And then we would learn the fundamentals of it at a younger age. And I want to say back then it was Peewee minor in which we started contact, which was probably around 11 or 12 years old, 11 or 12. Yeah. So I, I tend to agree with you though. I think that backing it all up from this uh bubble tape mentality and protecting the kids it's actually maybe having the reverse effect so still a conversation that a lot of this minor these minor programs are having and i do see buchigrass and the other side of it where you may get kids that quit at a very young age because if

they're getting crushed at seven and eight they're're like, this isn't fun. It's intimidating. Just the other side of it is, it's really hard to get injured playing hockey when you're eight and nine years old. Like Brian Yandel is the one who said they're Gumby. Like they just hop up, they get buried. But I could see the side of where like, all right, hey, this monster kid that's bullying everyone on the playground,

then it's coming to the rink and smashing my head through the boards. I'm going to play soccer. But Brian Yandel had, before we get to Merle's travel escapades, because with two young kids that come from across the pond in Sweden into battle, Brian Yandel. And into a new house,

mind you, right? Did you guys just move into your new place? It's not built yet, I don't think. No, it's not built yet. He's at his parents' ranch still right now, but just this classic coaching move by Brian Yandel this weekend. So he's coaching the Terriers for his youngest son, Liam. Last year, they went to Quebec. They lost to mid-Fairfield. So at this age group, I believe they're 2011s. I don't know exactly, but they're the top two teams,

and they have been for about five years coming up, and they lost to mid-fairfield in the Quebec tournament. So it was a bummer, right? That's the big thing. It was the semifinals. So they play them this weekend. You know, you want to beat these guys. They ruined your season last year. They're up 2-0.

His goalie gets a penalty. The ref skates over. He's like, hey, you got to get someone in the box. He's like, for what? He's like, your goalie just mouthed off to me. And he's like, what? He screams down. There's video of this. Say the kid's name is Anthony. I don't know. He's like, for what? He's like, your goalie just mouthed off to me. And he's like, what? He screams down. There's video of this.

I remember, say the kid's name's Anthony. I don't know. He's like, Anthony, you take a penalty, get in the box. And the kid's like, what? And everyone's like, huh? He's like, get in the box. You're going to take a penalty. And you see this goalie.

I've never seen it before. Tail between his legs, skating. And then there's pictures. He's a giant too sitting in the penalty box 10 minutes conduct the goalie so they put the backup in did they end up i don't even know if it's allowed but because he was so loud the refs like all right he puts the backup in the kid made like five huge shaves the guy gets out of the box they put him back in they beat him for nothing come on he goes back in he goes it was my best coaching move of my career the video is like you want to take a penalty go sit in the box

the kid is just like hey hey that's how you teach these kids accountability fucking rights i know it was just a lesson at that age and win a hockey game but he did both congratulations maybe i'll throw the video on if he lets me on the YouTube because it makes it even funnier. And then the picture of this giant goalie. I've never seen a goalie in the box with all his equipment on. But, Merle, talk to us. Game Notes has been off to an unreal start. You guys have added some new wrinkles this year.

You're doing phenomenal. But we love having you on this show. How was the trip home? There's always some sort of disaster. I mean, it was a disaster. The one-year-old, he doesn't know to sit still. So it was just eight and a half hours of laps around the, I don't know, what do you call it? Loser laps.

The terminal? No, on the plane. Like the whole ride. He won't sit still. So I'm just going up and down and around. It's a mess. And then, so we're surviving. We get through this eight and a half hours.

I had to put on the ref stripes. A guy tries to jump the line from the back. You know, he's like two rows behind me, grabs his bag, and he starts trying to move ahead of me. I put the arm out. I'm like, no, no, no. Come on. Come on.

You mottled him right to his face? Yeah, right to his face. I'm like, stop. I'm like, I know exactly what you're doing. He's like, oh, I was just trying to get out of your way. I'm like, no, dude. I'm like, I've been here for eight and a half hours. I need to get these kids off this plane immediately.

I got a stroller. I got two suitcases, three backpacks. I'm like, you can wait your turn. And he just kept arguing with me, arguing with me. We almost went to blows. The wife had to settle me down. So you're basically saying as you exit the plane, you go row by row and that's your rule okay yeah i

i typically like even if i'm like roll me now like you know i don't not to not to humble brag here but i get to sit first class i don't like the pressure of people being on me so i'll actually let like four or five rows go and then i'll start making my way off because i have to wait for my luggage anyway mind you i'm not traveling with kids, right? So I do have that luxury of just having to have me stay patient for at least one thing in my life. But Biz, a question. I've been in the same situation where I'm not in a rush to get off when you're getting bags. But at the same time, I have one carry-on that's up top. And the seatbelt goes off.

And if I'm on the aisle, I stand up, grab it. Then I'll even sit back down in my seat. And then it's my turn to go. And go what are you wheeling the wheel in the way like so many of these people they're such in a rush to get off this fucking plane it's like just go i'm not okay i'm not going elbow to elbow with nobody i'll wait till three four rows go by and even some people from the non-first class i don't care have your way and then where there's a gap i grab my bag and then i get off but that must be traveling with kids like them or i couldn't even imagine yeah and then well and then because the other thing is we have to go through customs and there's

always a long line of customs so every person that skips ahead for us we're standing behind them now in customs too so it's like buddy i got two kids here just wait we actually had a guy so we had we had three seats out of the four in the middle. And I'm strategic with it. I take both aisles and one of the middle. Some guy picked the middle between us. He showed up and he saw the circus and he was nice enough. He moved to the back and sat in another row.

So we got all four seats to ourselves. It would have been nice to have a video go viral of Merle's having a Donnybrook on a flight to maybe take a little attention away from my breakfast order. But, I mean, you can't get it all, right? Well, before we get to that breakfast order, just because we're talking flights, I did have a little experience on the way home I wanted to get your guys' opinion on. So I was sitting. It was a jet blue flight. And I was first row when you walk on. Like, to your right, you walk on.

I was the aisle seat then there's a middle and there's a window there was a guy sitting at the window already he was chilling like on his iPad already and I'm not a big talker on flights I don't want to talk to you no offense to anyone it's like I just I I don't I'm not a huge conversation throughout the flight with people I don't know well this woman gets on and I could tell right away you know when like somebody gets on a plane and you're like please don't be sitting next to me please don't be sitting next to me it's just not weight related when you get ahead of that this is not weight related woman was in good she looked like a chatty kathy she she she didn't look just like a cat chatty katty she looked like a lunatic like

you know you see the googly eyes like this person's a little crazy please don't be sitting next to me sure shit she's like i'm right next to you like very loud kind of crazy when i heard her voice just as i knew and so she sits down and i have my headphones in and immediately starts talking so i take the left headphone out and i'm very cordial and very nice but i'm like all right she's also wrecked wrecked and i'm like so we finished you know just a quick conversation where she's talking about you know what she said to me actually no she tapped me on the shoulder because as they were doing the seat belt and the and the air coming down and and what you do if this thing's going down she's like hey you're not listening and i was like whoa whoa whoa whoa to the rules of a flight that you've been on but

she wasn't like she wasn't angry at me she was like more kind of jokingly but she was more like hey you're not listening like we could be in trouble you got to pay attention you're on the aisle but joking not rude and i was like yeah i was like honestly like i don't know i don't think what they're telling us up there is going to do much if this thing ends up going down and she's like don't you say that don't you say that oh my gosh and i'm like well no no and i'm but but friendly enough and then i put my headphone in and then two seconds later she gets me again so where are you from where are you from what are you doing in florida and i'm like you know very nice put it back in though

kind of the international sign of like nice convo it's over like me in your car on the way home to the hotel and she yeah you just do a one-on-one with a buddy. I guess that should really make me feel like shit as I'm saying this. So, and she's buckled, buckled, buckled. So then another one, can I buy you a drink? I'm like, no, no, I'm actually good. I don't drink. I don't drink. So whatever, headphone back in.

And the stewardess just looks at me because she's loud throughout all of this. And she's standing kind of behind like back where the where the flight attendant sit for the flight and she's like points at me like hey is she like buckled and i'm like yeah yeah yeah and then she's like can i give her a drink and i was like uh because i didn't want to be the one to say don't give her a drink and then like And then she sees me somehow, and I was like, kind of gay with her. I don't know. That's your call.

That's your call. Well, the woman, so lucky enough, the row next to me, there's nobody in the aisle. So I went over there right when we were like 10,000 feet. And then the woman comes over, the flight attendant, and asks, like, hey, do you... The woman asked for a drink, the crazy woman. She's like, no, sorry.

And she looked over at me oh no oh no did you tell her i can't have a drink i'm like no she said that yes the woman the woman in the middle she called me out she did you tell her i couldn't have a drink i was like no i didn't say anything and then the flight attendant's like no she had my back but i was like oh it was and you know what there's it's kind of a long story that that isn't that good but it just reminded me on the flight of what do you never know what you get yourself into and i was like the guy like i'm doing pink whitney ads at the start of the show and i'm cutting this woman off but i didn't want to cut her off i made it clear like no no that's not up to me. But Biz, back to you. And the breakfast order from hell, according to Donnie Does, the viral video of you ordering, I have my opinions on it,

but why don't you take us through what you thought and how many people agreed with you and disagreed with you online? I would probably say it was probably about 60-40, like 60% of people didn't agree with me. I probably went with the wrong breakfast i should have just went like a la carte to start instead of picking whatever the big bear bread but it was a diner that i'd never been to and you looked at it and the words were just jumping out at me and i'm like ah and i didn't know and then i kind of just panicked and then ended up making

about 16 changes on this order so i'm sure most of you have heard it but the one thing that like the night before he brought us to this like uh moody or mellow mushroom place for pizza and donnie eats dog food like i'll just straight up say that he doesn't it's yeah most people at barstool like they're they're pretty relaxed with their diet and the way that they pound food. And we went there. So I wasn't necessarily happy about the meals in this Pigeon Forge is a place we went. That's where we went the first night on this hiking excursion that I went with Donnie. And then the next day it was Gatlinburg.

And just like I was overwhelmed by the fact that it was hard to get a good meal. Like half the city is owned by Ripley's, believe it or not. There's 20 mini putts, laser tags, like a Trump store here. It was a ammo store here. Uh, we went to a micro wrestling, which is a micro as in midget wrestling, but you can't say midget. So it's micro wrestling. So like, this was just like, it was like a straight up carnival in both these cities.

But before we go on the hike, Donnie sent out a tweet like, hey, what are some recommendations? And about half of the messages were about all the pancake and breakfast places. So I'm thinking, great. Every time we go have breakfast, we're going to have the best breakfast that I've ever had. These places are known for their breakfast and pancake houses. So that's why when I went to this place and yes, I probably should have been aware of the situation when I walked in, like this is a diner and the coffee is going to be coffee. But I was hoping for a little bit of heads up where I say, how's the coffee? Maybe she goes, you know what? It's okay. I like the Americanos better.

I don't know. I don't know what type of information the waitress is going to provide. And then I asked for the freshly squeezed orange juice, which is a very common thing in Canada. And I'm not, not, yeah, not at little like IHOP shithole diners. Like that was one of the crazier.

That was the crazy question. But once again, I'm going in with the mentality. This place is known For their breakfast spots So maybe they have A variety of everything Just like they do At all these other Crazy shops around town

I mean they got 20 types of laser tags They got 20 different types Of fucking mini putts They can't have Two different types of OJs Like am I that Fucking crazy

That it's only Tropicana They're not grabbing Freshly squeezed OJ It's like you're at A breakfast place Where you can get A side of pancake With like a free ammo cart bro we're fucking in canada getting freshly squeezed orange juice like we're a state over from florida here like that's where they fucking

make the oranges like i thought hey like shipping ain't that crazy like maybe they would have them and hey i'll take the l on this for not knowing my, my environment. The rest of the order obviously went off the rails. Cause I was a little bit scrambled after getting my first three drinks. And then all of a sudden Donnie's in my kitchen. And I think that Donnie was a little bit, uh, he was a little bit wound up. Cause I went pretty hard at his pizza recommendation from the fucking moody mushroom for he, he said that they have incredible pizza and no disrespect to this pizza place. But if he would have said that they have incredible pizza and no disrespect to this pizza place but if he would have said that to dave portnoy and then brought him to this pizza place i don't think donnie would have a job at barstool anymore like i'm i'm dead serious because

it was not very good pizza it was that fucking bad so i think that the the the lack of nourishment from the night before really fucked me up in the morning. And considering we'd been to four or five other breakfast diners in that morning, and each of them was slammed and had a 20, 30-minute wait, we finally ended up at this one. And then the Big Bear breakfast just, it got me no spit, no lube, sandpaper finish. And I just want to say, I really appreciate appreciate chastity which was our waitress's name um at the diner she was very kind in in dealing with my high maintenance order it was delivered

appropriately and we the bill was i think it was 62 we just tipped 100 or we uh we we left 100 flat so we left about 40 bucks on a 60 tip sorry about being high maintenance and asking for freshly squeezed orange juice another issue that donnie had was the fact that I asked for my eggs over medium as opposed to over easy. Like, am I like, what fucking planet am I on? Is that,

is that that high maintenance to ask for over medium as opposed to over, uh, over easy? I think, no, I think that was fine, but yeah, you could tell right away in the clip. He was shaking his head as soon as the first word came out of your mouth.

The minute I asked about how's the coffee. Yeah, he was like. Well, you said, you know, do you have freshly squeezed OJ? She's like, no. And you're like, okay, I'll take a regular one. Because in Canada, yes, we do, but it's $4 more. Sure, no problem. I'd rather the freshly squeezed. A lot of people were like, biz, you're not at, but it's $4 more. Sure, no problem. I'd rather the freshly squeezed.

A lot of people were like, Biz, you're not at the Four Seasons in Atlanta anymore, buddy. That's my thought. That was my thought, is you got to know your surroundings. And you had just played laser tag, and now you're sweaty grabbing the Big Bear breakfast. Another one was the fact that sometimes when you go to those places, they have the shredded hash browns, right?

And they just flip them on each side a little little bit and then by the time you have them they're still cold in the middle and you almost in some cases have a little bit of frost so i asked for them to make them a little bit of crisp a little crispy on both sides so at least they cook through and they're a little crispy who the fuck doesn't like a little bit of crispy hash brown action no i i couldn't agree more and i think the sentiment was your order was good it was just like how you kind of went about it if you had just done like order my own things a la carte i don't think you get chirp maybe for the freshly squeezed oj and how's your coffee and i'll still get i'll get either no matter what if it's shitty or not the freshly squeezed but it's about knowing your surroundings. And it's kind of my biggest thing ended up being you're so polite that,

that it's, it's hard to kind of really chirp you like you're okay. You gave compliments to the chef. I believe maybe the first compliments to the chef at that place that's ever been, been said. And I hope it, I hope it got back to him.

I agree with you. That's where I have to take accountability about knowing my surroundings there. And, and also to the the 40 of people who are sorry 60 of people who are not on my side some of which have probably been servers so if you've ever dealt with people like me at the restaurants my apologies for being a pain in the ass i hope that the tip overcompensated for my uh my lack of awareness so uh from now on uh we're gonna have to pre-plan these uh these meals with donnie does like when i say he he's a savage when he eats we went for the before the hike and got some like canned goods and then we we got we got like a

little uh like a little fire thing so we could heat it up no he just opened the chunky stew and then drank it right from the can so this is the type oh yeah cold so this is what i'm dealing with so we got the extremes of my high maintenance ass and what i want to eat and as low maintenance low maintenance as you can imagine what donnie does mind you we did have about six scooby stacks in us at that point by the time we got to the top of the mountain which um but by the way we've kind of been long-winded about this meal that i ordered we're um myself and donnie along with cory from barstool we're kind of starting this new series out where we're going on these hiking adventures so that just ended up being the first um on the agenda we went to the smoky national park in tennessee we hiked laconte which is the highest peak in all of the Smokies and actually has the

widest variety of vegetation of all the national parks. Like given the humidity and just like the elevation and everything that's going on there, they have the vast variety of all these different trees. Like at one point I felt like I was in China. Like it looked like it was goddamn bamboo trees as we got close to the top. And on Monday, Wednesday, and Fridays, as you get to the top of La Conte, they have all these little shacks that have been built out and they run the supplies up through llamas.

So it just so happens we did it on a Friday. So we got to hang out with the llamas. So pretty cool. People are renting those shacks or people are, is it first come first serve yeah i would say you probably have to reserve them about a year out in advance like that's how often yeah like the national parks like they have a lot of these tags where you can in some cases they only want a certain amount of people hiking on on certain days so you have to

apply for your license and get your tags this one was just more like anybody could go do the trek but they only have about what, like 20, 30 of these cabins where you can rent them out in advance. So you would hike up the 11, I think to the top, it's about, you know,

it's about five and a half, six miles up of a climb. And then you would stay there overnight. You could eat there. And then the next day, you know, wake up slowly, cook some food, eat some breakfast, and then the next day you know wake up slowly cook some food

eat some breakfast and then make the trek back down so it was a really cool experience the video the video is going to be coming out uh soon and uh you know we're going to progressively do more and more and visit different national parks and even even maybe down the road do something like a k2 or a mount everest and i had no idea i don't know if i talked about it last podcast i didn't realize how expensive uh it is to climb mount everest it's cost you give me a stat about k2 people dying that are attempting it some someone messaged me saying that uh one in six people that try to reach either the top of everest or k2 don't survive so i'm not down with you maybe going to do that we don't need you going down on a hike to the top of the mountain

i'm not saying i'm going to do this in the next year i'm going to say this is going to be a progressive build to maybe eventually get there and in life you got to challenge yourself sometimes and you got to go out on these different journeys to to learn a lot about yourself and this was one of them i had a blast with those two guys especially doing uh doing some scooby snacks and i don't think there's i guess anything else uh we did see a bear that was cool okay we saw a bear and i i don't really have much else to say and it was just tough to the fact that that breakfast clip came out the day after you guys were just roasting me about all of my, what do you call them? My samples. You got crushed more for that.

And the amount of samples that you think to be acceptable, it's like the whole world disagrees with you on that. So here's where I want to defend myself, where I was trying to take the defensive stand on that one is, once again, I know being a high maintenance pain in the ass new ice cream place homemade ice cream I want to see what they got if I'm going to Dairy Queen I know I'm getting my dip cone I'd never been to this place it's a new environment it's kind of throwing me off I'm a man of routine so I was just trying to get the different flavors in order to order three different scoops of ice cream. So once again, my apologies. I'll know my surroundings. Can I at least do one sample per scoop? Three samples?

I think that is the max, but I'm not going to be all over you for that. Merle's doesn't even like that. Merle's is shaking. Merle's wrote a hate blog. One sample is the standard. One sample. And if you go to... I don't think any samples.

You live and die with it. Merle, I if you go to... I don't think any samples. Like, you live and die with it. Oh, I don't do samples. I don't do samples. Merle, you wrote a hate blog about me about the breakfast order. Do you have anything else to say? That might have been your most popular blog. Yeah, did you read to the bottom, though? No.

I said you're always respectful with them, you always pay the tab, and you always over-tip. Okay. So you're allowed to do it. Yeah. Oh. Well, I'll have to continue that yeah well i just loved how that compounded on that and at the same time i had just watched an episode of curb curb your enthusiasm where the same thing happened with the ice cream sample oh yeah so many people put your face on it for me

yeah the timing of it all was just phenomenal and and and you were worse off at the ice cream store but you know what biz these are the reasons we love you. You have very kind of weird little habits. And it makes you who you are. I love you guys, too. So Tuca's joining us this show. He's going to talk about Team Finland. We got Merles for Team Sweden. We'll get into Canada and U.S. next week.

But we have a very special video with Tuca Drop. And that's Thursday on the Spittin' Chicklets YouTube channel. Biz, I don't know what our subscribers are at, but we're climbing. And I think this sandbagger is going to help. It's Duke Arask, Andrew Raycroft at TPC Boston. So while we won't really get to talk to him about that today because we don't want to be spoilers, we'll get to talk to Finland about Team Finland with him. That's very exciting.

G was at Michigan State. G looked pretty cool. Did you enjoy that trip? Yeah, very cool. I actually got a signed basketball from Tom Izzo. Pretty sick. Legendary basketball coach. I actually got to do the tour with Red Savage,

who apparently he grew up with Biz playing knee hockey at the Doan's house doing Christmas with Biz. He said Biz is a big, big fan of the chocolate fondue fountain. He says he's got a funny story about sticking his face in the chocolate fondue fountain he says he's got a funny story about sticking his face in the chocolate fondue oh here we go well it's after he sampled the dark chocolate found fondue fountain so it was like five or six of them yes we also got the ice man in there isaac howard we got trey augustine in there so it's uh it's an awesome video that'll come out in december next week we have Michigan coming out, which is a,

which will be an awesome video as well. Wow. Okay. So you are, you're stacked and loaded right now on these videos. Holy shit. You go from dropping the army one to, to Michigan, then to Michigan state. Did you plan the back-to-back rivalry is I would assume Michigan and Michigan state are the biggest rivals in hockey or no. Yeah, they're up there. They're, they're huge. They're huge rivals. And they're very, very different videos because Michigan State just underdid a $25 million

renovation to their whole hockey facility. So it's very new. And then you have Michigan, who's at historic Yost Arena. We got to go to the big house. There's so many things that Michigan has to offer. There's so many things that Michigan State has to offer. Two very, very different schools and hockey facilities.

There'll be two really good videos. I would say it's a top-notch rivalry. I look at Michigan, Michigan State, BU, BC as the kings. And like, Biz, you and the puck. They all kind of go hand-in-hand in rivalries and people

who just battle. So, gee, looking forward to that. We have Merle's on here. We sometimes get a little into other sports at the start of the show. Just wanted to bring up Merle's Buffalo Bills. I had a tweet do some numbers that I said, if your team stinks

and you're not rooting for the Buffalo Bills, if your team's done and you know this is a waste of a season, right now we got nothing and you're not rooting for the Billsills. If your team's done and you know this is a waste of a season, right now we got nothing, and you're not rooting for the Bills, you're out of your mind. Now, totally get the side coming at me that the Lions are basically the same thing. They're both great teams. You could argue tortured fan bases.

I think the Bills are even a little more tortured because of the four Super Bowl trips, four losses in a row, where Lions fans are like, no, no, no. At least they went to the Super Bowl, those four in a row. The Bills are so fun to watch. They finally got by the Chiefs. Now, granted, it's a regular season game. Josh Allen's on this MVP run. And it's more about the atmosphere at Ralph Wilson Stadium or whatever it's called now

before they build their new giant billion dollar facility and getting the bills of Super Bowl. I'm all in, Murr. Thanks, buddy. I love it. I knew it. I told everybody. Everybody was scared. Like, oh, Diggs is gone.

And I forget the other guy's gone. I'm like, no, no, no. They're going to be better because now Allen doesn't have him chirping at him. Give me the ball. Give me the ball. He just plays his game and they're finally letting him run. You see that run that sealed the game? Let the big boy run.

Just let him play football. He's the best there is. It's awesome being a Bills fan right now. He is so fluid for being a big guy. He's not small either. What is he, 6'5", 6'6"? Like 2'50". Heavy.

By 2'35", 2'40". And he looks like a gazelle out there. He's sick. He's sick. He's got the great mentality, too. Like, he loves Buffalo. He's perfect for there. It's really something.

But, yeah, Detroit is... That game yesterday, we were sitting there watching. It's like, yeah, they're just going to keep scoring. You can't stop them. Oh. Sick. And I believe, I think they were up around 30 and went for it on fourth down

in the other teams. Dan Campbell, two awesome storylines. I would do anything for a Bills-Lyons Super Bowl. I was in Buffalo on Thursday for the Sabres game and it's all anybody was talking about because Taylor Swift was actually

in Toronto for three shows. they shut down the qew for her they don't even i don't even know if they did that for for trump or obama or whoever the u.s i don't think they even do it for the prime minister of canada taylor swift had the qew shut down the busiest highway in all of canada so she just took over toronto as they're calling it not toronto toronto and then all of Canada. So she just took over Tay-Ronto, as they're calling it. Not Toronto, Tay-Ronto. And then all of a sudden they had that Sunday game against the Chiefs in Buffalo. So everybody in Buffalo was amped up

and I couldn't be happier for that fan base. That was essentially their half Super Bowl of this season, getting to beat the Chiefs at home. Was Taylor there? I would assume she went down to the game, no? I didn't see her on TV during the game. Yeah, I didn't see her on TV during the game. Yeah, I didn't see her either. So I don't I'm not sure.

I think that it was interesting at the end of the game. The cameras caught Kelsey walking off the field clapping. It seemed like you could look at it like, hey, clapping like great game. You beat us. Good game. You got us tonight or it's clapping like, hey, hey, you got us in the regular season. You have an aim to do it when it matters. Way to go. Big win today.

Regular season champions. We'll see you again. That's probably what it was. It's just like our hockey teams we talk about. The Jets and Carolina. Great, you guys are winning every game now. But it doesn't matter. You got to do it when it counts.

No, it's very true. I think it would be dumb not to mention one of the stupidest sporting events ever put on. The Mike Tyson, Jake Paul fight just quickly. Like, I didn't even watch it. Like, you knew that was going to be a joke. A lot of people did. Congratulations to those guys on just creating that much promotion around a big nothing burger um nice little payday for mike tyson who's probably burnt through hundreds of

millions i would assume he walked away with at least 25 30 sheets in this one but boxing like this like what the why are people spending their their money do like going to this shit well this one was incredible because it wasn't a pay-per-view buy it was on netflix and what happens netflix breaks netflix isn't working now it was happening to me i was watching i fell asleep before the fight i did get to witness one of the greatest fights of all time and those were the two girls prior yeah incredible it was buffering and not working for that x'd it out restarted it and it was completely fine. But I'm guessing and have read their servers couldn't handle the amount of people were watching. So to be on Netflix was smart. They already had that many people that have had Netflix subscriptions that could just tune in and then you're seeing how many viewers you get. never expected anything i i guess i kind of thought if it was legit tyson could go in even at his age and hit him with an uppercut and like basically end him turned out to not even be the

case there's now reports these are all rumors and i don't know what's the fact that tyson was had had payday like uh round kind of marks he had to hit where his money went up depending on how long the fight went went past the fourth round my understanding is he made an extra five million dollars so you know then it's just gonna be sitting there and and uh some boxing analyst was saying that that jake paul um has worked very hard at boxing he's got better at boxing but he's not a good boxer this is just an analyst i know nothing and then like he calls calls out Canelo and it's mentioned that Canelo would seriously, seriously hurt him, which would be amazing because while I respect the Pauls immensely, they are true marketing geniuses. They have mastered how to make money. And they're these enormous content creators and but i'd love to i'd love to see

canelo just buckle jake paul is that bad of me i i don't know that's just my feeling i would i would fucking i would i would pay to watch that i'll put it that way but he won't do it my my assumption is he fights why would he if he's making this much dough i get it it's my assumption is at some point he's gonna fight mcgregor he's gonna box mcgregor and each of them will probably make like 150 200 200 million dollars um yeah at some point he's got to fight somebody legitimate though like that's the that's the frustrating part he's fighting all these washed up guys and it's just becoming a a sideshow so the the boxing world is in disarray right now but like you said true marketing geniuses and getting that many people. Now, I don't know if you saw the fact that Antonio Brown was live in attendance and on Twitter or maybe it was Instagram because of everything going on with Netflix.

He started an Instagram live and over 8 million people were watching his Instagram live because he was filming the Jumbotron, which was basically displaying everything that you would see on Netflix. So fucking genius move by him. I don't know how they didn't take it down at some point, but he was able to stream basically the whole fight on his phone for everybody at home if you caught it. go-kart of um the name antonio brown and and the sentence genius moved by him being linked together at any point since he's retired or maybe while playing you you just won i think it just fits all in this crazy week right i mean you're just yeah paul put it one big ball a hundred percent and biz i want to talk uh saturday night and the nh. I guess I'll go through my Saturday first. It was Wyatt's birthday, he turned four. My father-in-law, I've mentioned on this pod before, he has, I think, 12 of the 41 home games, maybe 16 of the 41 home games, right on the glass behind the net.

So the net, the Bruins shoot on twice. He's got two right on the glass and then the two directly behind it. You're not blocked out. So against the glass on the side, on the boards, it's probably brutal. You cannot see into the far corner. You could see everything here. It's my favorite place to sit because you see the size and the speed of the game. And Wyatt had a blast. Definitely, like, he ended up with the headphones on. He's got the sensory.

Like, it's loud. I get that. He's never been a big fan. What? I said grab me a pair of those. If anyone should be wearing them, it's me. if anyone should be wearing them, it's me. If anyone should be wearing them, it's me. No, I'm talking about to cover up how big my ears are.

But thanks, Murr. I need them in my household right now. My daughter and kid are going nuts. So, game is interesting because the Bruins have nothing. They are so lifeless. The crowd was dead quiet. There's chirping and discussion of Montgomery possibly losing his job. I'm like, this roster was built and there's no

offensive talent. Very, very little playmaking, offensive talent, the ability to cycle the puck, create chances down low. They don't have anything. Lindholm's chirping himself in the media well kind of all for nothing because at one point it's two to two Braden Shen skates by before a faceoff and kind of did the double take and he just starts laughing at me and I'm just laughing like what's up buddy he scores the OT winner directly

in front of us he scores a beauty snipe as he's coming down a little bit of a two on one in OT and then jumps into the glass back right into my face. Got a real kick out of that. And as we drive home, Wyatt's very, very sad and upset. And I'm like, what's wrong, buddy? He's like, it's my birthday. You never gave me the Leafs jersey. I said, bud, there might be one more gift at home. And I end up giving him the Squanto 16 Biss at jersey he goes nuts our friends had

already given him maple leaf socks he was the happiest kid in the world all his cousins were over it was an unreal day and what happens with biz on the call number 16 mitch barner scores the ot winner and the leafs win a big one against the oilers we're undefe. In the Squanto era. Hey, we couldn't have scripted this any better. It was crazy. Unbelievable. So he was all jazzed up when he got it. He lit up when he saw it. He was very, very fired up. He hasn't taken it off. Did he know? Yeah, yeah. He's like,

oh, Squanto, that's me. Squanto, why 16? I'm like, Miz wants some of your spirit into number 16 on the Leafs. And then he scores the OT. It was it was perfect it was an amazing now it wasn't perfect for me because the Oilers they're up one nothing they're up to one Evan Bouchard oh my god oh but Marner took over that game you were on the call at hockey night in Canada crazy hit by Ryan Reeves against Darnell Nurse take me through your night

so oh what I know I love I sat in for Kevin Bieksa, right? I think his kid had a hockey tournament, so I got to fill in. I love coming up two or three times a year. Great working with Ron McClain, legend. Elliot Friedman, Jen Botterill, and Luke Gazdik, who's been doing it more and more over the last couple years.

Like you said, great game. It was cool because we got to interview McDavid beforehand. He'd reached the 1,000-point milestone. Just incredible. His father was in attendance for that. So, yeah, we got to chat with him. And then, man, hockey night in Canada, Saturday night, Leafs at home against the Oilers, probably the two best Canadian teams.

I was so fired up. And unfortunately, probably the biggest topic was that reeves hit now i i can't wait to get your thoughts on it i i said what i said on the broadcast i elaborated a little bit more via a post yesterday we posted to my twitter uh even uh spit and chiclets instagrams like here's my thought on the hit like i don't think reeves is going into that hit with any ill intentions right he's trying to get the momentum back. At that point, Edmonton had just made it 2-1 on the power play. We all know when all the special teams are happening,

all of a sudden the fourth line sometimes gets out of flow. They get a little cold on the bench. So Berube wants to send them over the boards, get their legs back in it, and get all four lines rolling again halfway through the first period. So Darnell is rounding that net and i think as a four checker and a guy that a role that i've played before you're assuming when darnell rounds that net eventually his left shoulder is going to come around and he's going to basically be square to up ice to kind of scan the ice and make a play and even as he's coming around the net you would have thought he would have probably put his head up to see if anybody's coming breathing down his neck especially knowing

the fourth line and Revo are on the ice like you have to be expecting that these guys are going to be bringing a heavy forecheck that's their fucking main job so the one thing that I don't think a lot of people notice is the fact that Revo before he actually makes the hit he goes stick on stick with Darnell so he never really gets the puck ahead of him it's always behind him so as Revo goes to throw the hit the only shoulder that he can really get is Darnell Nurse's right shoulder well boys he completely misses it I don't know if he slightly gets distracted by the fact that maybe he thinks he can get the puck and he goes more towards the right side

and instead of clipping anything of his right shoulder he gets him right on the button now there's this big argument online about people like i had people coming at me uh from the edmonton side saying like oh you're victim blaming. Cause I'm saying that I think from hockey truists right now, what they want is they want a little bit more accountability on the puck carrying players and the, and the vulnerability that they're putting themselves in. Like, man, you, you, you have the puck in play. You're in the middle of the ice and you're coming up the ice, get your head up and know who's coming. But regardless of him putting himself in that situation, Revo still had the ability to go shoulder to shoulder.

He missed him. He got him with the head contact right on the button. Like I said, I don't think Revo was thinking, I'm going to hit this guy in the jaw when he first starts making his strides. He's thinking, I'm going to go separate this guy from the puck. We're going to get it back in the ozone, and we're going to get some fucking momentum back for our team but it just so happens he gets him on the button he gets ko'd he's fucking bleeding he's out for the count he

loses the game i thought that he should have at least gotten the gate for that game okay i figured considering he's got past experiences where he has been suspended for certain things that he was going to get games and the fact that Darnell Nurse didn't come back. I'm like, okay, for sure. He's getting games. I thought five was excessive. I did, but you ultimately have to pay the piper if you get the guy right on the button when he's vulnerable and his heads exposed like that. So five games it is. Don't think that Revo was malicious in his intent, but you got to pay the piper. and his head's exposed like that. So five games it is.

Don't think that Revo was malicious in his intent, but you got to pay the piper. But going towards Darnell, if you do that and you leave yourself susceptible by leaving your head exposed, not knowing guys are going to breathe down your neck, this could happen again. And I think that the conversation does need to be had to these players saying,

boys, keep yourselves more accountable. This new wave of player, all they're doing is these drills where they're coming around pylons and they're stick handling. And boys, this is a contact sport. You got to be fucking ready to get drilled. Keep your fucking head up and know that something's coming. That's what I got to say on it. It leads into my statement at the beginning of this season

that if you're watching the puck, now it's like, I don't really care. Like, you got to not... Now, this was different, and people came at me about my take, talking about the person getting hit being at fault as well. I don't think this was actually an example of watching your pass. He hadn't even passed the puck.

What happened was when he went to pick it up behind the net, his stick hit the board, so he fumbled it just briefly, picked it up, and did not get his head up. That is 1,000% proof. Watch the video. He just looked down. He didn't take a look. I agree with you. Why would Reeves go in and blatantly try to shoulder him in the head and get kicked out of the game, put his team down, forfeit all the salary, not be able to play three

to six games depending on the suspension? He doesn't mean to. He has to sit out now anyways because it happened, like you said. But you can't tell me that it's become normal in this game or will ever be okay in this game to round the net and not look up one time in probably what four strides three strides it depends sometimes defensemen think the team's making a change you think you got more time than you do but it's why and buddy i was a very very poor defensive player horrible horrible at times but i was good at keeping my head up kind of pumping my own tires and it was all my dad ever said to me when I was little. You have to have your head up. You have to play the game with your head up, but you can't play hockey without your head up. Now, of course,

you're going to get run over certain times, even if your head's always up. Guys are that big, fast and strong. They close on you that quick. But if you're just rounding the net right now in the NHL and you're staring down at the puck, it sucks and the guy deserves the suspension, but it is partly on you. Now, people probably won't like that. And I think the suspension had something to do with it was vicious looking. He's on the ice. There's blood everywhere. He's cut.

He leaves the game. I get the suspension and I'm not really surprised it was five games. But yeah, your point is true. Do you think five was heavy? I expected five. I was totally. If I saw seven, I would have thought what you're thinking about five. What did you have, Murr?

Well, Murr, before you go. I think five's totally fair, and I 100% agree. It's just the players have gotten used to not getting hit. So yeah, 90% of the players don't finish that hit on on nurse there and he gets away with his head being down he got caught by the wrong guy at the wrong time but it's a it's an epidemic or whatever you guys say a pandemic of that going on now and there was a tweet about guys cutting into the middle and creating all the offense and i and i brought it up and i was like you didn't do that when we played because Scott Stevens was playing defense.

So you never cut to the middle like that. And now players are doing that all the time. And eventually, somebody's going to start playing like that again, and they're all going to get flattened and knocked out like Army used to do to guys. Yeah, he was vicious because he would have... Vicious. When the player in the offensive zone would come behind the net,

he would drop from his defensive position as the winger on the weak side and just come blow guys up so that was the dennis bombi move too yeah what did you see where i think i think army actually was going for the head so just a western league rat just trying to knock people out you to sleep they had the grain he's like i'm gonna put you to sleep next shift and they had the grainy video from like the corner of these AHL barns. So you couldn't even see it looked like a fucking, it looked like an old school painting.

You couldn't even put it together where he made contact. But agreed with you though, Whit, it looked like he bobbled the puck too. It might not have been the stick on stick. So if he ends up coming around and around the net and his shoulder comes around, Revo's probably burying his shoulder into his chest area where at least if you make head contact then and get the chest you hit him square so at that point I don't think there's any any supplementary discipline if that's how you even say it one more thing I think the league takes into account there was no quick move there was no juke there was was no sidestep.

So for Reeves to get the head directly, it wasn't like something changed very quickly for him to get his head. He had a lot of time, and Darnell did not change his course of skating and his course of ice to make sure he went shoulder on shoulder. Do you know if a guy cuts back and it's very quick, or the suspension maybe not even would have happened had Darnell very quickly moved his head to get into it but it was just he wasn't moving

and you get him and you're getting five games now three to five games when you do that so it was just nice to be able to break

this one though down whip because I think that the conversation of the crowd of like oh eliminate headshots and then the hockey truists

who were like when the fuck was there no accountability from these guys just skating with their heads down and thinking nobody's going to hit them? There's a massive divide right now. And I feel like this hit was the epitome of that. And it obviously blew up online because it's Leaf Oilers

and everybody's watching in all of Canada. So just a good hockey topic. And maybe it's a center of discussion when they're talking about the new CBA, about maybe how they manipulate the rule or maybe start talking to the players about having more of that accountability. Well said, Biz. Edmonton Oilers, while losing a tough game, an incredible moment this past week. Connor McDavid, 1,000 points. The fourth quickest player in history to get 1,000 points. The fourth quickest player in history to get 1,000

points. It's been wild to see. To put McDavid's 1,000 points in 659 games into perspective, Biz. Austin Matthews, your guy, another generational talent. He, at times, we've talked about possibly breaking what will be Ovi's goal scoring record. Well, Austin Matthews would need 340 points in his next 84 games to match that pace that Connor McDavid is on. That's just over four points per game. It's just been wild to see how quickly this has happened. You could take away Gretzky's one-point games, two-point games, and three-point games, and he would still have 1,000 points.

He had 217 games with four plus points wow that's fucking remarkable holy shit well the the one that i had was from frank cerevelli and he said it's uh it's his favorite uh his favorite wayne gretzky stat which is mind-blowing trivia gretzky is the first and second fastest player to score 1000 points. He went zero to 1000 points in 424 games. And then from 1000 to 2000 in 433 games. So he was able to reach a thousand points quicker in both instances than McDavid was able to do it his first time.

But nonetheless, goaltenders have gotten better. Defenses have gotten better. reach a thousand points quicker in both instances than McDavid was able to do it his first time. But nonetheless, goaltenders have gotten better. Defenses have gotten better. It's just a totally different game. And I think that we could agree that they are on the same level and same playing field based on how the games advance and hitting that milestone in that short amount of time. He would have probably beaten Mike Bossie, who has 656 games that McDavid has battled injury. You think of his rookie year, but he's going to get 2000 points. You go back to the very beginning where I think Todd McClellan saw him at rookie camp after he's drafted. He went back home and he's like, I've never seen anything like this. Like it was it was so evident from the time he was 15 years old.

He comes into the league and he took over like nobody could have seen like you imagined it you pictured it and he's been what i've said the the most talented best hockey player i've ever seen yeah you talk about legacies unless you're mike tyson does not talk about legacies i don't know if you saw that interview with that girl he does not like the discussion of legacies but if you're talking legacies it's different without the stanley cups but actual skill and speed and how easy he makes the game look i've never seen anything like it he's going to continue doing this and to get to 1100 points he needs i think 97 or 99 more points this year like he'll do he'll do that i'd be shocked if he doesn't get another 99 points this year and finish the season with 1,100. And at his age and seeing what more he has to give,

it's just been such a sick thing to watch as a hockey fan. Love the Oilers, hate the Oilers. You can't not appreciate what you get to see. And fans who go to games for the first time, never having seen hockey at an Oilers game, saying, what's 97? Why is it so different? And that is a talent that you see once every 15, 20 years.

And I think with his dedication, there's no doubt he's going to be the second player ever to hit the 2,000-point mark. I mean, the guy's a freak off the ice. I mean, he's dialed in 12 months a year. And I just had a couple more here. McDavid has led the NHL in scoring, winning the Art Ross Trophy five times in his first eight seasons. Only Wayne Gretzky and Gordie Howe have won more scoring titles in their entire careers.

So there's that one for you. Looking back to the 2021 season, he recorded 105 points in that shortened season of 56 games. Mind you, it was canadian division during the pandemic uh and that was a 1.88 points per game average the highest single season mark since mario lemieux in 95 96 and 44 of his points have involved leon dry sidle so the fact that he's going to hit that 2000 mark after hearing the post-game interview when he hit the thousand points growing up with with the edmonton fan base and growing from a boy into a man there's kind of no doubt my mind now that he's going to resign there you might say you fucking bozo he was going

to do it anyway once dry sidle resigned dry sidle wouldn't have signed there not knowing that if he wasn't going to the fact that they're going to continue to play together, he will for sure hit that 2,000-point mark. And maybe Leon will. Is there a possibility that Leon gets to that point by the time he's done his career? Another eight years together? I think right now Leon is, is it 850? Let me check quickly.

But the interview afterwards, I'm glad you brought that up because it was definitely a different side of mcdavid yes in media he just never really seems that happy like he's somebody who's just goes about his business he's not up there laughing and giggling and there was some like serious emotion and he said like it almost i got like a little emotionally i don't think he's saying he was crying but he more more just took it in and was grateful for getting the chance to, he said, not only make the NHL, but then get a thousand points and do it with a good friend in Leon. And the fact Leon passed it over to him for his thousandth point. Darnell had the other assist.

And those three guys, I think, were they rookies together? If not one year after the other. And the only other player still here is Nugent Hopkins. He he's grown up and it just seemed like he was appreciating it it's also funny he said my dad flew in so it was happening tonight like i wasn't gonna make the trip not worth it for him so a great and leon said i i would have passed like i was not shooting that puck like the defenseman could have just covered mcdavid the goalie could have gone out i think leon was gonna try to feather it over to him and he scored on a one-timer goal so it was uh it was a cool moment for the league i think and then you see ovi doing what he's doing

and it's while being a different start to last year there's some awesome storylines forming oh for no doubt and uh you mentioned his father brian great dude uh and then his mom i think his mom was uh a little ill, so she didn't end up going, but might have gone to the game in Toronto. So sucks that they both couldn't be there. But I actually, before the Hockey Night in Canada, I got to talk to him, just asked about his support system.

And him and his dad, very close for the growth of his game. And after games, they would talk shop constantly in the car rides and stuff like that. So it would be so fun. I mean, I know what you got kids and, and Murr, your boy's going to be playing and we got army,

the crazy hockey dad, but to, to just be able, like after the games to get talked to, to get to talk hockey with your kid and how the game go, I'm sure it means a lot to Connor. And, and of course the Brian to see his kid doing what he's doing.

But going back to that post-game interview it felt like it finally felt like he could like maybe relax and and enjoy what he's been able to accomplish where he's always seems to just be focused on like his goals and not really like enjoying it for himself and I kind of I I tend to use the the words he protects his energy is the way that I would say it and we maybe haven't seen the personality that Connor has that he would have behind the scenes like you maybe saw on that Amazon series but I think that once he finally lifts Lord Stanley you're going to see him come out of his shell a lot more once these things that he has on his

mind that he wants to accomplish get accomplished so uh nonetheless an incredible feat uh an unreal ambassador for our game boys and uh like you said we had a lot of other amazing storylines going on in the league as well uh here's a stat for you outside of mcdavid's 18 of the last 24 games head-to-head in regular season the tor Toronto Maple Leafs have bested the Edmonton Oilers. So suck on that. We got the Squanto spirit. You're fucked. Leafs are going farther than the Oilers this year in playoffs. I'll just kiss Kelsey. Kiss my ass.

I'll get the Kelsey. Congrats on regular season wins. What are you in the last 24 playoff games? Like 9 and 15? Bud, we got the same amount of cups. Congrats. we got the same amount of cups. We got the same amount of cups as you. Congrats on your finals visits. Doesn't mean shit unless you bring the hardware.

No regular season championship banners. But if you're trying to say it's the same in like going farther year after year and making it past the first and second round a couple times, that does matter. It's about finding the right recipe. Okay does matter. It's about finding the right recipe. Okay, fair. And to wrap up the McDavid discussion and how many points

and how easy it is for him to rack up these points, I was mistaking my numbers. 2,000 points is Gretzky, 28-57. Nobody else has done that. I didn't even realize. Yager, 19-21 at second. Now, Sidney Crosby, I was thinking of this. Only four men have

1,800 points. Ron Francis is fifth all-time in scoring. He was at 1,798. Crosby, to get to 1,800, needs 185 more. I could see that. I could see that. To become the fifth player ever with

1,800 points, that's 1800 points that's another he's playing with mckinnon he'll fucking he'll get to 2000 um well we we talk about crosby and it kind of leads us into pittsburgh the pittsburgh penguins guys they're a joke uh are they they're a they're horrible they're they're only gonna get worse and is it time to tear it down? Like Murr, I don't know if you saw Kyle Dubas' comments. What's going on and what's going to happen? I tell you what, I would watch the game the other night against, was it San Jose? They end up blowing the three nothing lead. I'm like, this is it. It's all over. My brother's like, no, Crosby will take care of him. I watched that overtime. I think he played the last three minutes, scoring chances everywhere.

This guy's almost 40 years old. He gets to the bench before the shootout, and nobody opens the door for him. This guy just logged the puck for three minutes straight. He's got to come and reach over the bench and do the door himself. Sign me, Pittsburgh. Sign me. That would never happen on my watch. That cannot happen. Dude, all those plugs that are sitting there, open the door, move out of the way, Sign me That would never happen on my watch That cannot happen Like dude

All those plugs that are sitting there Open the door Move out of the way Like hand them the water and the towel Like what's going on there Give them a fucking Thai massage Take off your fucking skates And give them a Thai massage on the bench

You fucking plugs There's only a reason You're going to be sniffing a wild card spot And it's because of 87 god damn it When are they going to How They're They're not

sniffing any spot well i mean the only possibility they have is 87 that's all that's the only snow balls chance and hell they got and they just got rid of lara zeller and i know that dubas said that the only guy who's safe is crosby but boys i know i keep beating this drum you're telling me if this continues for the rest of this year and the rest of next year up into the deadline he at some point is not going to go want to play to potentially win one more Stanley Cup you're telling me Crosby is going to ride it out for three more years on that deal putting up with that nonsense and my also my understanding is is that Dubas was told that the Letang Malkin Crosby trio after the purchase of the

team and what they paid for it had to stay intact because they wanted people in the building well I watched the game the other night and it was pretty fucking boring in there there was a seats that weren't filled so that plan ain't working either so what the fuck are they gonna do with this team yeah i'm i was always like crosby will never leave but watching this year i'm really starting to doubt it so i i could

see him move on all the greats have moved on gretzky played in a few places bobby or even played played in a couple places you look at the the other sports, they've all done it. I'm starting to lean because that's ugly. He can't be out there like that, alone like that. I'll make you a promise, Whit. If by next year at the deadline, it's still going on like this, I'm going to be

picketing outside of Crosby's house for him to go to Colorado. They're going to need to fucking lock me up and put me in the state penitentiary. I will be harassing Sid to go play with his buddy Nate. I am not watching this anymore. He deserves better than this bullshit. Am I wrong?

That is the hockey fan in everyone right now. Get him out of there. No, no. He's still too good. We can't watch him be like this the next three years on this team. Everyone has said close to him

he'll never go anywhere. So that's been out. That's been made clear. Biz, I am with you. I also think there's something like to be said to kind of respect like this guy doesn't want to go anywhere and as mad as everyone gets and they wish they could force him. You could try to force him. You could try to force him.

There is a chance you would think as you're bringing up, if there end up being a bottom six team in the league this year and next year at March, there are a bottom six team again. He would finally be like, I just can't do this. I have too much left to give. That's the only chance is if he somehow switches his

mind up. But Merle says you bring up Gretzky and Orr and Messier. They're all playing for different teams. There are a few who haven't. You've got Sackick. You've got Eisenman. You've got Gordie Howe. Or no, Gordie Howe. What the fuck am I talking about? We're seeing the WHA for Christ's sake. Good talk. But there are guys who

haven't. Mario being one of them. And maybe he doesn't. And the thing is, like, okay, we don't want to watch you do it. You can win another cup. You're still so good. He's got three cups. He's got everything he's ever done.

He's got gold medals. There could be something where it's like, I started here. I'm finishing here. There's good times. There's bad times. But I'm a Pittsburgh Penguin for life. I agree with you. I don't want to watch it.

I don't. I beg him. But I could see it happening where he never does it. He never leaves. And everyone's been saying this. The one place, you say Colorado maybe, but I could see if somehow Montreal can turn it around and say they started competing. I could see him going there just to test the Canadian,

see what it's like to be in a Canadian market. And I think he grew up a huge Habs fan. Isn't his father a big Habs fan? I think so. So that's the one spot I could see him jump into if they can somehow turn it around, but that doesn't look like it's happening anytime soon. I can't believe he's able to handle it now. That's how frustrated he is and you got got you

got yeah like you watch carlson i mean i didn't bring up bouchard like you see some effort out there from certain penguins defense and you're like oh my god this is this is a gong show. And then you hear like, will Mike Sullivan be fired? I seems crazy. Like who's going to, who's going to coach the team. Who's a better coach. How quickly would he be hired? Teams would probably fire someone immediately.

If Mike Sullivan got fired to then try to hire him, there's going to have to be something that happens though, because you can't just continue to get blown out and play like this before something drastic goes down. And Laura Zeller, isn that crazy right biz that's not like that's a little move and and kind of you talk about like one domino falling and then maybe other we could kind of go one or two ways with this I think we could probably quickly jump into the the the the rumor mills on the coaches because there hasn't been a coach can yet this year and usually around this time every year,

one domino falls and then maybe a few others. And you just mentioned Sullivan's name coming up, where I don't know, from my understanding, I don't think he's saying much to Letang and Carlson, given their play. I don't know if it's a situation where, I don't want to use the word checked out, but just kind of like, hey man,

these are the moves that were made that were out of my control. This is what I have to work with. The only way that we are going to win or make playoffs, if these top players are playing at the top of their game. So I'm not going to stress myself out by fucking yelling and trying to change a, a Norris three, what three time Norris Wayne defenseman ways.

Like it's hard to teach an old dog new trick. So, and I also don't know if maybe his time in Pittsburgh is coming to an end, and he knows that, and he wants to look to a fresh start somewhere else. But Sullivan's name keeps coming up. You mentioned Monty's name keeps coming up. Like, obviously, we've been talking about that situation, but it's coming from other places as well.

I don't know about you guys. I've heard Lalonde's name come up a few times. I feel like there's another guy who really doesn't have much to work with outside that top D pairing and that top line where I think the game we had the other night, they'd scored 34 goals at that point, 17 of which had been done by the top line. So half of their offense is coming from their top line where the other 50%, they're just

not getting anyone else pulling the rope offensively um are there any other names that you've heard of because we talk keep talking about coach q being available and or potentially this coach carousel where if you're saying sully gets fired maybe he moves over to boston didn't he already coach in boston isn't he familiar with that area seems like the whatever message monty's getting but you're also saying look at the personnel they have to work with. No wonder they're not putting the puck in the back of the net. They're having the same issues as Detroit.

They got a few playmakers and the rest are just knuckle draggers up and down with no creativity. Is there any other names that you're hearing out there that might get changed? I don't know if it's out there as in terms of some insiders have heard

he could be fired, but I'm hearing early rumblings that Cronin is absolutely despised by the Ducks players. I'm hearing that too. And I think at times he's making life like living hell for these guys. Some of the young guys,

just old school way where I dealt with Michelle Terrian and everyone has dealt with a coach who is not your friend and is like 1980s giving it to you every single day. And it doesn't work like it used to. I think Greg Cronin's been around the game long enough where you talk about teaching an old dog new tricks is probably hard he's coached a certain way anaheim's not good and the guys are miserable let's just say that so but but pat for b could be somebody's like i don't give a fuck he seems a little old school himself figure it out my thing is if you're gonna stay stubborn and keeping that coach hired when i've heard the same thing with i don't i think that it's been kind of like a mutiny where a lot of the players in that locker room have tuned him out. And you're not going to get the best of these young players ability and the growth that you're hoping to see out of these prospects with this guy in the seat.

So by your evaluation of these players and maybe potentially moving on from them, you would have never known what the ceiling is for these players if the end game isn't going to be this coach anyway. So why stay stubborn in what your decision was to bring this guy in if none of the players are responding to him? Nobody likes his coaching methods. We all know that, listen, I'm not saying that it should all be players, coaches, and tummy sticks, and no accountability, and never getting yelled at, and sometimes having tough love. But when it's just constant tough love, tough love, and the players are tuning you out,

you might end up moving on from some of these guys and making a dumb decision based on a stubborn decision to keep the guy that's already in the seat. Also, I don't talk to any of these players from Anaheim. This isn't coming from their mouths. My understanding is a lot of them in their post-season meetings last year were like, this guy's not the answer. We need somebody different in this seat to teach us the pro game and not just screaming at us, but actually breaking down this video

to the point where I'm hearing that it's one of the most dysfunctional locker rooms in the National Hockey League based on the situation at hand. I'm not blaming Verbeek. I don't know Cronin. I've never been in a locker room with him. I'm just going based on what I've heard. So regarding all these coaches and a potential domino to fall, that is another name that came up.

Merle, what else do you got? Yeah, that's what I think somebody needs to get fired. Say Pittsburgh fires Sullivan boom Bruins fire money solving goes to Boston then the Ducks can fire Cronin the Ducks can bring money over he'd be great with all those young guys but yeah I think mine is Detroit I think that's the one that's going to drop first I feel bad I love that guy on good guy but they expect more from that team I think he's going to go. And I'm going to throw out a name that's going to probably shock you.

That's going to be in the running for that. It's Sergei Fedorov. Iserman's old teammate. He was coaching in the KHL for a long time. So I could see him getting a look at some point over here. Hey. Murr. Murr, have you gotten any like DMs about this? KHL?

Right to the NHL? It's Sergey Fedorov I know, but it's Iserman It's easily the biggest hire The Red Wings have had in what 20 years? 15? 20? It's like This next one can't be a fuck up

Because then the Iser plan is getting looked at But I mean That would be sick With the other coaches, something's got to drop But I mean, that'd be a perfect fit, but I, with the other coaches, something's got to drop, but I feel like they're all waiting because they want the other guy that

might go. Yeah. It's, it's, it's weird to, to see how many guys have been let go in the past few years. And, and right now with teams off to some serious slow starts and have nothing

happen yet. Um, you don't want to see guys lose their job. I don't care how much I hear a player hates a guy. Like, I don't want to see guys lose their job. I don't care how much I hear a player hates a guy. You're not coaching me. If you were coaching me, I might say, I hope you get fired. But we're just chatting, but it's going to happen.

The Bruins one's hilarious because they were supposed to be horrible. This roster, they lost everybody. They're supposed to be horrible. Monty made them good. So now all these lunatic Bruins fans think they have to win the Stanley Cup every game. He doesn't have the roster. Zdorov is, I don't know if he should play in the NHL anymore, and Monty's

getting blamed for that. So I don't know. Zdorov is getting the fan base in Boston. It's kind of like what kind of player is he? I think you see a big signing and the size of him, and you're thinking that you're maybe getting something that you might not. And I think that he just kind of seems to be just trying to do too much.

It's like a tale as old as time, like big defenseman buddy, just like yesterday he's carrying the puck out. They're killing a four on three. He's got the puck, and Coyle kind of takes three. He's got the puck and coil kind of takes off. Like if he gives it to him, I don't want to say a breakaway, but he's going to get a chance and he just holds on to it, holds on to it,

gets his pocket pick. They swing back in quick, like two on one. It's just little things where the whole team. And like I mentioned, Lindholm is saying like, I am not playing good. I am not doing anything on the ice right now.

Which one? The D man or the forward? This is Elias. Hampus Lindholm got hurt. He's out a couple weeks. But Elias, what is he, 7.7? That's looking at your top line center, and he's not producing points.

He's not holding the puck a lot. He's not getting a lot of shots. It's like those are two big free agent signings that aren't playing. He's also a hard guy to evaluate because he was playing with Matthew Kachuk and Johnny Goudreau for all those years, which are going to amplify your point production. He moves over to Vancouver last year, halfway through the year.

I would say that he played well the first few games, struggled a little bit. Then he was fairly solid come playoff time. The whole group was playing decent. They go to game seven against the Oilers, and then boom, he gets the big deal in Boston where I get sometimes it takes you a little bit of time to get acclimated, but I also think that

from a Johnny Goudreau and Matthew Kachuk point, they were helping drive that line offensively. So I don't really know what you got there with them. And like you said, now you're locked in. In Vancouver, it was 26 games. He had 12 points in the regular season. He had 10 and 13 playoff games. But the regular season production in Vancouver is similar,

like 9 points in 19 games right now at the Bruins. You wonder, is this going to be a 40 to 50 point guy? And we signed him to be a 70 point guy. That's a huge difference. Well, speaking of Elias Lindholm, we're starting to talk about the Four Nations journey, boys. And we got some news this week that there were two of the four teams that lobbied the NHL to have the rosters expand to 25 players, which is what you can do in international play in the Olympics and World Championships. From the 23, that is what the NHL is doing for this

tournament. They were rejected. You wonder about who the two teams were. I think everyone has a pretty good guess. Maybe naming some guys at the original press conference for the tournament that you regret doing now. Piz, is that kind of what you think this is all about?

Yeah. I mean, I think in order to garner buzz, each team had to announce six players. And just after hearing how teams wanted that expanded roster, it just kind of got me thinking a little bit. And listen, I don't want to beat a dead horse here. Carlson has obviously struggled at the start of this year. I think that in some cases, effort has stuck out and defensive play

and lack thereof of it. I think anybody with half a brain would say that based on the Swedish defensemen that are available to select for that roster, that he would probably find himself on the outside looking in if he hadn't already been announced to the team. Listen, maybe based on respect and what he's achieved for his nation

and with what he's brought the hockey world throughout the course of his career, maybe he would be like a healthy scratch on the roster. But I just got thinking like I would have assumed that it would have been Team Sweden and then also team Canada asking that because you look at another guy no disrespect to Brad Marchand what he's done right he he's been unbelievable he went through three surgeries in the offseason has not got off to the start that probably he was expecting and we knew that it would take him a little bit to get going but would you not agree that if maybe Canada and Sweden could have a redo, they would not have named those two players to their rosters given what else is out there and the impact that other players could make to be the top six named early on?

Like you're telling me that there couldn't be someone other than Brad Marchand for Team Canada that would be named as a guarantee? Canada that could would be named as a guarantee and would you have Brad Marchand on your team Canada roster based on what you've seen right now compared to other Canadians that have had hot starts I took it when I was saying I think we all know who the teams are I thought it was Sweden and Finland just based on the Euro way of doing things and I thought Carlson in Sweden I hadn't had a player in mind for Finland who sucked or hasn't played well that was named. But I guess that's a pretty good point that maybe Canada's looking. Now, I think Marchand, as

the year goes on, he's going to get better. But once you get around him with those players and the history that he has, he's not liability-wise as Carlson is right now. He's not playing that poorly. So possible scenario there for you that you are bringing up.

But I just figured it was the European team because that's what they're used to doing. The naming of Marchand, maybe you don't do it as the original six looking back now and you could still possibly pick him as the 13th forward. But it's not like I'm panicking if I'm Team Canada that he's going to be there. Fair enough enough but looking at each team and the six players they chose the the fact that two teams would reach out about expanding the roster that was just kind of my thinking was like

okay well they're probably probably hoping for two more players that they can add in case that these players you know don't pick it up and, and maybe aren't playing at that level where at least they have a free, a few free redos. And from Canada's sake too, like Hyman is playing nowhere near where he was last year. Now the argument is, is well, McDavid and him have such good chemistry and he knows where to go. And McDavid's the driver. You just need a guy to go to the net front for those tap-ins is he automatically on the roster and if you're able to get those two extras from 25 to 23 you might take him as that that kind of extra guy whereas maybe mcdavid's playing with someone early on the tournament it's not working out it's like we'll just get him back with his

regular line mate and the same goes for are you going to take adam lowry are you going to take a tom wilson like who are you taking on canada outside of those normal juggernaut players that might add a little bit of spice and add a different element to your bottom lines that could even maybe even get bumped up like like another thing is my understanding is mcdavid and uh or sorry mckinnon and crosby don't necessarily play well on a line together right in some cases there might be too too much delegation uh is crosby gonna play the wing is he comfortable playing the wing so there's so many question marks that canada have as far as how they're gonna pair their lines to which led me to believe they were the team that asked for the the 25 man

olympic roster so i know we were just spitballing there and that it was interesting to hear that two teams did that but with murs on on the call i'd like to get your thoughts on who you have for the swedish team and who your prediction is let me put on my swedish hat then to get going on this doesn't really fit my head but the three cronas great i actually like this team a lot in a tournament like this they're plus 370 to win the tournament third favorite so pretty pretty good long shot there but like did you guys talk about it forsberg mika and nylander were the three forwards that were named so i got them on there. I got Kempe, Pedersen and Raymond would be a nice looking second line. I have Jesper Barat, Pasha's guy with Erickson Eck, great third line

shutdown guy. And I got Lindholm on the right wing there. I feel like if he plays right wing, it's going to be better for him where he's playing center in Boston. It doesn't look like he's doing well there with that. Fourth line, I put Leo Carlson on the left wing. Young guy that you want for the future. Teams like Sweden, they think about the future down the line, the Olympics coming up and other years. So you hide him there in the fourth line left wing with wild Bill Carlson.

And I put Raquel on the right wing there. He still can score. He's still got some game in him. i got the extra forward as a backland out of calgary thousand games he just has he's kind of a swiss army knife as the tournament goes on different matchups you'll put them in different spots the fourth line playing like a fourth line and when you're building these teams of like creating some identity within the roster that hog lander running around killing people i I could see him on that team. I could see him playing a good fourth line role there.

Yeah. You move out Raquel and you put a guy like that in. I like that move. I compare him to a poor man's barbershop. He's built like a cigarette machine. Maybe not as high offensively talented. He did score 24 goals last year. He's great on the forecheck.

You know that he's good with a 200-foot game and a sense of back pressure and knowing responsibilities because he's out there playing with Tuckett. So I think that's a great add, Whit. I agree with you on that, especially as a third, fourth-line player. In a quick tournament where you've got so much energy every night, like you'd see him buzzing around playing solid, I don't know, eight to ten minutes.

Forward-wise as well, an original name, one of the six names, Mika. I don't know. Maybe that's why Sweden, they're like, hold on, we got two guys right now, and Mika's going to be a big part of this team. He doesn't look good. He does not look like, and you we got two guys right now. And Meek is going to be a big part of this team. He doesn't look good. He does not look like,

and you saw it in the playoffs. Like I, I don't know if his feet have never been the quickest and it's maybe a guy that biz talks. Well, it takes a little bit to get going. That's not like you look at Philippe Forsberg and then Meek is a manager right now.

That's two different planets of players. Philippe Forsberg is a stud. I, I, I cannot get enough of watching that guy play. And when you look at that roster and like him and then Mika, you're like, I don't know. There's more to be had for his game right now for the Rangers. And I think a lot of guys in the Rangers would say that. We're going back to the Carlson conversation.

Their back end is pretty deep. Like they got some unbelievable guys back there. Oliver Ekman-Larsen, who just played in this 1 in this thousandth game i think he's a shoe in uh forsling who's an incredible shutdown defender who also has offensive upside uh brodin or brodeen excuse me from minnesota um i would assume that broberg is going to be healthy by then and that's another young player you talked about like leo carlson having a guy like broberg coming in getting that experience where before he got hurt I would have said that he deserved to be on that roster uh Lindholm from Boston on that back end like how many other guys do you have ahead of Carlson yeah they got plenty of guys I got Forsling Brodine as the second pairing Hedman Carlson

obviously number one I got Eckholm and Anderson as the third pairing. You need a righty. Get the righty D. And then the interesting one, I didn't know what to do with Darlene. I feel like you need him on that team. He's a future guy for you. I watched him in Buffalo the other night. He's incredible. Was he looking sick in that game? Yeah.

He's their best player, hands down. So you put him out and you're going to have to scratch Carlson, I guess. On my roster, I would have to do that. But I have Carlson as my eighth to ninth defenseman based on the players available. We hadn't even mentioned Ekholm yet. I mean, we're talking about guys who could defend the Canadians and America. You need people playing defense.

Those teams. Let's say this. Let's say this, Biz. The five best defensemen on Sweden are Forsling. You need people playing defense. Those teams. Let's say this. Let's say this, Biz. The five best defensemen on Sweden are Forsling, Hedman, Dahlin, Ekholm, and that Rasmus Anderson, right? And then Brodine. You got to say Brodine. If you remember the Billy G conversation, he talked about how his footwork is able to, that's how they shut down McKinnon and McDavid.

He's the only guy that can play against them. That's six guys with one righty. That could be your six. Carlson isn't playing a lot. I don't know. I think that what you probably do in the round robin in the first game is he's in the lineup based on just respect and everything, and you see how he does. Maybe by then, boys, we see a completely different carlson maybe he's battling something we don't

know about but all we can go on is based on the hockey we've watched so far and you talked about the goal against carolina i could probably go back to 15 goals so far that the pittsburgh penguins have allowed this year and you could probably just point him out as being like, that's his guy or that's his mistake. And that's not the case for any of these other defensemen that you're mentioning on their roster. So they are locked and loaded. Who, who in net though,

Murr? Yeah, well, they're loaded there too. I got Markstrom, Gustafson and Olmark. So pick who you want out of that. And if you remember,

right now, you talked about, uh, when we talked to Luongo there he talked about those Olympic experiences where he wasn't the starter and then he got in there so in these small tournaments they might need all three of these guys but I think Markstrom the way he's been playing I think he starts right he'll be their number one that would be my assumption and I mean i know we've talked a little bit of ottawa the last couple pods all mark's been struggling man he let in another brutal one the other night they dominated philadelphia outshot them two to one they give up that two goal lead in the third period and i don't know if you the one i can't really blame him for the one where the original

shot was off the two-on-one bad pinch rebound boom almost like a pass off the pad style goal but the one in overtime for michkov was goal line goal and then yeah he started to turn it looked like he was gonna turn it around the games before that he i think he had to shut out one of the two games and then just lays an egg in that philly game jackal and hide and they go back to forsberg and net the next game and And that was my issue. I used the example on Hockey Night in Canada. So we had signed Mike Smith after Brzgalov took off. And I think he'd played in Tampa and Dallas before that and struggled and lost the starting

position. So we got him back. He was going to work with Schomburg. Tippett had had some familiarity with him in Dallas well we go into the shark tank first game of the season and he gets lit up like as everybody did in that first 10 minutes and Smitty being the good teammate so was like I don't deserve to play LaBarbera should get the net for game two and Sean Burke was like listen totally respect your your opinion and where you're coming from but we didn't sign you to become the backup or to share the net we signed you to become the starter and if you want to work through this and jump over this mental hurdle you have the opportunity

if you want that net so they had a good chat Smitty played that next game I want to say it was against the Nashville Predators. He played solid. Then we played, I think, in L.A. He played great. And then that was the season he went on to have an incredible run, was one of the best goalies in the league. I don't know if he was nominated top three in Vezina,

but we upset Chicago in the first round. We dominate Nashville. We end up losing in the Western Conference Finals. But if you're signing, if you trade for a guy like that, then you sign him and give him that 8.25 for four more years. Let him go work through that. Enough with this fucking back and forth, back and forth. They got to win games, though.

Work on it in practice. You got to win games. I know, but buddy, you're beyond that, and you're at the point in the season where you can do that so they i know they start forrestburg that next game against carolina and that's a tough one he had a great start to the game but then he lets in a fucking goal line goal just like like all mark did and i don't know if you watch that game and i mean we're gonna get to carolina later because they deserve a massive tire pump on what they've been doing. Best shot differential, like always, to start the season. They're 10 plus shots every game.

They're just dominating teams, out shooting them two to one. But in my opinion, you got to go back to Allmark after he gives up that softie against Philadelphia. He has to get over this mental hurdle. This team needs to figure it out they need the goaltending you've signed the guy you've guaranteed that he's your goalie of the future you fucking ride him and you let him work it out that's what i gotta say about that came up with one more idea for this swedish roster because we're trying to hide carlson or use him right

i might move him up to my fourth line right wing. Merles always talks about moving D up. Merles would say a nurse should be a forward. This is his move. Let's put him up there. Carlson, Carlson, Carlson. That's the fourth line. And then he drops back to D for the power play. That's the move.

He kind of plays as a midfielder anyway, so I actually don't mind him as a forward. I wonder if in the future we'll ever see a new system generated where there's a few defensemen who play like that, where it's a completely re-invented... Didn't Sweden have the torpedo that did that? Wasn't it like two guys flying and then there was a rover? They did have some weird system that that team would play.

Okay. Was that when they lost to... Who did they lose to? Belarus in 2010 and then Canada got to play Belarus in the, in the semifinals. I was just going to say, I usually chirp all these NHL people for the scheduling.

Phenomenal job, Sweden versus Finland. They're playing it at 1 PM. So that way everybody in Europe, there'll be six and seven o'clock for Sweden and Finland, the prime time for them. So I usually chirp about the schedule. Great job on the schedule.

I can't wait for this tournament. And we got to talk about the other Scandinavian team. Is Finland considered part of Scandinavia? OK, no, I apologize. Another team from Europe in Finland. And that's why we're bringing in Tuka Rask right now, the legend. Before we go any further, guys, need to talk to you about game time. Barstool Sports is so lucky to work with game time.

The Winter Classic is coming up at Wrigley Field on New Year's Eve. We cannot wait to get out there. Plus, right now, hockey fans can save on tickets with a game time exclusive 25% off when using zone deals with game time. This deal is only available until December 2nd to fire up the game time app

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There's nothing like seeing a Winter Classic live. Get 25% off with zone deals on GameTime. The official ticketing partner of Barstool Sports. What time is it? GameTime. GameTime.co. We're lucky now to be joined by a former Finnish national team goaltender biz, World Juniors, World Championship, Under-18, Olympic Games.

No World Championships, but it's okay. What? Two! No World Championships, Olympics, and World Cup, but it doesn't matter. Okay. Fair enough. You're always in the playoffs. You're always in the playoffs. Don't let facts get in the way of a good story. No, no, no. That's true. That's true. My bad. My bad. What's up, but it doesn't matter. Okay, fair enough. You're always in the playoffs. You're always in the playoffs.

Don't let facts get in the way of a good story. No, no, no. That's true. That's true. My bad. What's up, guys? Not much, dude. We're very excited for this Four Nations tournament. We wanted to go to a Finnish man, a guy who's represented his country and talk about Finland's team for this year's tournament.

You called the right guy. I barely... You know, I had to actually do some research on this fucking team. You don't do research. You don't do any research. I'm not using them today. I had to, what do you got?

I mean, they're looking pretty solid. They're, they're, they're very solid. And I guess like, we'd love to maybe hear if you have a little roster, if you have some ideas of maybe some sleeper picks of guys you could be on.

And then as of now, who are you going with as your goaltender yeah i think we start there too good like who would you start net based on who's playing the best and and usually finland has some pretty good net miners around the league yeah i don't think goaltending has ever been an issue for them in any single tournament ever i think it's not going to be an issue this year either. But, I mean, Saros has to be the guy. He's a solid superstar in the league. I mean, their team's kind of up and down, but he's their backbone. He's been their backbone for years now.

But after that, I think Kevin Lankinen from Vancouver has had a pretty decent start of the year. Ukopeka Lukonen from Buffalo, he's solid. I mean, they have some options, but I think Saru is a clear number one for sure. Would you say Ukopeka Lukonen is probably the number two? And probably going back to last year, halfway through the year, he was one of the better netminders in the league. Yeah, I mean, for sure. going back to last year, halfway through the year, he was one of the better netminders in the league. Yeah. I mean, for sure. He's definitely 1B or just a backup because

the problem is he stats, I haven't checked, but they're probably not top 5, top 10 because he plays a Buffalo. That's always the defense there has been pretty suspect, but he's a great goalie. If team plays defense, he's technically sound, big guy,

big competitor, so I think either him or Saras is going to give him a chance to win, but what my question mark, I think, for Team Finland would be is the defense. The right side of the defense, too. Right. I mean, after Hayes can end, who's going to carry the puck and make the

plays? I mean, they have the shutdown guys who are going to cross-check the shit out of the guys in front of the net, block the shots. But I don't know. I mean, that's probably the biggest question mark. Because then you look at the forwards, I think their centers could pretty much fit into any other team in the tournament. What do you got? Ajo, Barkov, Pence? What do you got? Ajo Barkov, Hintz. Forward, they're loaded. It's the defensive side where, like, Heskinen will play 30 minutes. He's that good. But you see roster, possible rosters, it's like they have Olimata playing with them. You got Joe Cahariu.

Like, there's guys. I like Esa Lindell. Like, he can move the puck. He can be really solid defensively. But, yeah, that could be a weakness for them where they're kind of getting. I mean, what's the kid who's in Utah now, Biz, that was in... Is it Vali Maki? Vali Maki.

Vali Maki. He's solid, but like you're saying, you're not looking at Team Sweden's defense. I know, but sometimes it could be a good thing, too, that kind of like the expectations are not that high. I think it's just a matter of the coaching staff. What type of hockey do they want to play?

You know, you have to kind of have the D core and the forwards be on the same page, right? You can't have like defense breaking the puck out, skating and dangling guys. You have to kind of be meat and potatoes, I think,

because you play with what you got. But hey, that's up to them to decide. I'm just an ambassador. Tuukka, when you were playing international competition for Finland, what was typically the system because i think when we talk about european players coming over it's usually finland and sweden mentioned as the most north american style of play where they're always responsible also on the defensive side of the puck and and kind of alluding to what you said where maybe a lot of these defense we're

talking about are not household names, but typically these Finnish players buy into a team structure. It's more about the team, more so the individual, especially when you look at Team Sweden and Team Finland. Yeah, that's true. I mean, I think that's always been the strength of Team Finland in any tournament. Obviously, times have changed now. Everybody plays in the NHL, playing a big role. So they're really adapting to the North American style of hockey. So that's not an issue.

I think you go back 10, 15, 20 years, you kind of had to modify your game plan and really change the style of coaching philosophy, I guess to say, when you're playing in North America. But fitness and European strength has always been team building and the team effort. I don't think that's going to change. We take playing for our country really seriously

and we take huge pride in that. So that's always there. And I think that's going to kind of carry them over whichever hurdles there might be kind of tactically. You have that heart and passion for your country, and that's going to kind of give you an extra boost to say. And Biz talks about playing defensive hockey while also being so talented. That is what I see with their forwards. Like Barkov, Ajo, you end up seeing Rontan.

And you don't even say him first. It's crazy. But so you see this high end talent. All three of those guys great on both sides of the puck. Then you look at like their depth lines where you brought up hints. He can skate like the wind. Like Lundell from Florida. He's so good offensively, but he's like a third line shutdown guy with the Panthers.

Tivo Teravainen., they are up front. There's no issues at all. Lekkonen, we were already talking about him earlier this episode. So I think the team ends up being, you know, defensively, can you block enough shots? Like, can Saro steal a tournament? I think he easily could. And so I don't think that while you look at the roster, and especially defensively, it being weaker than the other three teams,

it's like Finland could win. I could easily see Finland winning. It's based on like low scoring games and just a team that makes it so difficult to score against. Yeah, you get a hot goalie, he can steal you the turn. You know, it's like a playoff series, basically. But then, yeah, like you said, it's like you shut teams down down you kind of frustrate them because

you look at like us or can or whatever like they get so much talent that their issue could be like how can we build this team and have like a guy who's playing first line somewhere play fourth line in this tournament and like not get frustrated frustrated. Finland doesn't have that issue because their guys accept the roles always. They're very trustworthy team first guys to begin with. It's easier for them to just

listen. You're going to be fourth line center playing eight minutes, block a couple shots, kill penalties. Fine, I'll do that for the good benefit of the whole team and i think that's like i said that's always been the uh kind of like the advantage that the european and the finn's have since you're the goalie expert and they'll probably have to rely so much on goaltending in order to win this tournament is there like a certain style that

that finnish goalies typically play like are they more stand-up style? We always talk about this reverse VH stuff. Like, are they bought into that? Like, how did you learn and come up? And was everyone kind of trying to, goalie-wise, bred to play the same way? Well, when I was growing up, it was like the start of the butterfly trend.

But this is 30 years ago. You know, I think that goaltending has evolved so much since all these goalies are so athletic now that you can just tell them to do a thing and they'll learn it in 10 minutes. But I mean, you look at Soros, he's like

way below average with his size, but it doesn't really affect his numbers because he's so athletic and he's so quick. But I think for Team Finland, European goalies in general, it's always been what's benefited them has been the goaltending coaching ever since they started playing.

So you get that individual coaching, you start years five and six, seven years old. That plays a huge part in it. And then I think all of us, I can probably speak to all of us, like we've been playing different sports, so we're very athletic to begin with.

And then you've been taught to catch the puck, not just to block the puck. And look at Saros like that's one of the biggest reasons probably why he is so successful because he's so athletic even though he's not big he's quick and he catches the puck and he uses his hands

is that why we saw Peke Rene always even if it went to the blocker side like he would catch the puck he's an extreme example of that he had a Finnish baseball background I think so he would just use his glove hand

whichever way he could worked out pretty good is there like a famous Finnish goalie coach that has developed a lot of the goalies over there and helped make them into star NHL players yeah there have been, I think I want to say the most famous one probably is,

uh, UC Parkula, who's in Colorado now. He's been there maybe six, seven years. He was actually, he was my goalie coach in juniors. Uh,

then he went to Russia, uh, a bunch of the Finnish goalie coach actually went to Russia. I want to say three or four guys 15 years ago. And they, you know, now you see Vasilevsky, Vorlamov, Sorokin,

all these guys. If not all of them, at least a good bunch of them have been coached by a Finnish goalie coach in Russia and that kind of shows you that where the Finnish goaltending coaching is

and has been. As the goaltending landscape has changed and so rare do you see guys playing 65 games and they don't play back-to-backs, in a tournament like this, is it different where if you're the guy and they're running with you, you're fine? Could you see guys getting tired if you're playing five games?

Or is it more the momentum and just the excitement of representing your country where you'd be fine to run each game in this series. You've got to think these young guys are softer than puppy shit. The fact that they can't play 65 games, Tuca. I think it's all stat-based. It's like, I think the guys want to. Fuck the stats is right.

That is true. Yeah! Wayne Gretzky and Tuca Rask. Stats are for nerds. That is true. Unfortunately, that runs the show nowadays, but whatever. I think, you know, if I was

preparing for the tournament, I would look at it like a playoff series. You know, five games, six, seven games, whatever. You can grind that out. No problem. You better be able to. He's one of the few guys who are like an actual workhorse.

He'll play probably 60 plus games. So it's not a problem for him. And, you know, he's probably considered old now too, but the other guys, they're younger. And if you can't play five game tournament, I don't think you should play in the NHL. What is there else that we need to know about Team Finland? Like, is there else that we need to know about Team Finland? Is there a special tradition that maybe Team Finland does

before the start of the tournament, maybe to pay homage to the people who laid the foundation before him? Do you guys have a certain chant that's different than your national anthem? They play Metallica and drink. I was going to say, if I were to guess, I would say they have a little sauna night, have a couple of beers,

bring the team together, and then go for it. But there's nothing more than that. You know Fins? Yeah, Fins love it. They love it. They love hard rock, metal music, and boozing. The whole world is now talking about all this biohacking

and making sure you do enough sauna where you guys must be like looking at the rest of the world like we've been fucking doing this for a hundred years you dummies no shit I just did I have one in the back here I did five days last week and I was talking to my buddy I'm like the fact that this

is not blown up is mind blown because it's great sauna cold top sauna cold top it took North America way too long to figure it out, and there's still people who really chirp like the new age people over here that are doing hot tub, cold tub. They're like, all right, buddy, sick. You're going to live an extra seven weeks.

Vasilevsky becomes the fastest ever to 300 wins. Incredible career. Has dominated for so long in this league. I'm guessing you're not surprised at all to see him accomplish this feat faster than anyone else? Not one bit. In fact, I'd be surprised that it happened now. I thought

he would already have 300. The injury. Maybe his back and everything. Yeah, and then COVID seasons and stuff. Yeah, I mean, I would say he's probably best of and stuff yeah I mean yeah he's I would say he's probably the best of the best I mean there's other good goalies too

but he's been the guy there for who knows how many years now 10 plus years probably some do you remember seeing him for the first time and like you could like you know we talk about seeing McDavid or Crosby like can you see a goalie right on the ice and his movements and be like holy shit that's something special

especially if you're looking at a 20 year old first time i saw him they were they were playing in the final i think didn't they lose to uh chicago in the finals that's when he got kind of like got thrown in there and you know i mean he was young and obviously not ready for that moment yet but that a pretty decent experience when you just kind of like nothing to lose and you get to play the finals. But you could see how athletic and how big and how well moving he is already back then.

And then, you know, obviously we played in the same division. And he was one of those guys, like, I remember, like, you play against Canadians and Pricers in the net like you know if you land in more than two goals you're probably going to lose the game so that was kind of the case with Vasilevsky too and obviously he's like I said

he's been the front runner of the goalie of the year every single year he's been in the league the starting goaltender position can be such a mental grind was there anything you did throughout the course of your career um like having to play all those games to sharpen your your mental strength like you talk about the on ice stuff and like technique and this and that was there

anything that you specifically did to like get yourself to that Vesna elite level of goaltending I mean like you're eligible for the hall of Fame, I think, starting next year. And I think a lot of people would consider you to be a Hall of Fame goalie with the tracker record you had over a sustained amount of time. How do you get your mind to that level? I think for me, it was meditation and just relaxing. But that was just, I i want to say maybe last five

six seasons in my career i realized that like you're so amped up the whole you know you play 60 games plus playoff whatever like the whole season it just drains on you you know like and then the more you kind of try to amp yourself up for the games and kind of stay sharp, it actually it doesn't benefit you so I started practicing meditation before my naps and stuff like that

just to quiet my mind that helped probably that was like best seasons I played was during that time and you know, if there's anything I would tell a younger self, myself, it would be that. Start doing it earlier. But yeah, for me, it was just kind of like quiet the mind and meditate

and try to be as relaxed as possible and get some rest. Because you play 60 games for playoffs, your body and your mind are just on overload at all times. So it's not easy. Tuca, it is incredible. Third all-time, you are 921 save percentage for goaltending records. Fourth all-time or fifth all-time in goals against average at 2.28. So without putting you on the spot, have you thought at all,

like, wow, I am eligible for the Hall of Fame. Like, I wonder if I ever get in. Did you ever imagine it? Or do you not even really think about it? I don't really think about it. It's out of my, it's kind of like the athlete talking. You can't influence those things yourself,

so it doesn't matter. But that's why I retired. I didn't want my numbers to get any lower, so that's why I retired. Before I started getting lit up. Oh, I guess it's a bad time to ask you to join the Big Deal Selects. He's a strangler. He's a strangler.

Sorry to tell you now, Biz. No. Oh, fuck. Oh, one of the hot controversial topics so far this year has been the goaltender interference stuff. You're doing like a simulcast with Razor, and I don't know if you guys have had an opportunity on that to discuss it at all, what your thoughts on it are.

Are you a little bit confused by maybe the inconsistency? I've talked to other goalies like Luongo who said, no, each different one is case by case, and I think they've been doing a good job. So where do you sit on it? We've only done one of those things yet, said no each each different one is case by case and i think they've been doing a good job so where do you sit on it you know we've only done one of those things yet and there was no controversial calls in that game we're actually doing another one tonight so maybe maybe we can discuss it but i had so many so many situations when i was playing that i'm like what the f is going on

here because like i I get it. It's tough for whoever's like making those calls in the whatever war room you call it. If there's no former goalie who actually understands and knows how to look at those things, it's really hard to get it right. And like, there's a lot of times it's a thing, it's a little thing

that only you know or a person who played goalie knows that it actually affected the outcome of the play. It's not the ones that like you get bumped or shoved or whatever. Those are

pretty easy. You can recover from those but it's the ones like if your stick bangs your glove out of the way or somebody jams your pad, moves your stick, the little subtle plays that are tough to see. Those are the ones to make the calls on.

I don't know if it's changed. To be honest with you, I haven't seen too many plays this year that I could have a legit opinion on it but I remember from my playing days it was always kind of like it got to a point that it

was tough for coaches to challenge those plays because they had no idea what's going to happen and I don't know you might know better than I do if it's changed or not but the inconsistency was what I was worried about when I was playing. Well Connor Helleuck's father took to twitter um to bitch about one of them and i think he was right and also it came out that connor hellebuck a few years ago did like a powerpoint presentation and like sent it into the league i don't know if it ever hit gary's desk or whoever about probably

would just know, but to, to try to fix the problem or at least have some input. And you're saying they should have a goalie in the war room. I think it would be unbelievable television to get like a 500 goal score and a, and a, and a former Vesna hall of fame type goalie arguing about the goalie interference live on the broadcast to decide who,

who gets the goal and maybe get an arbitrator up there. That would be, that would be, there we go. We got a TV show. Sign me up.

Because if you just have a goalie biz, the goalie every time is no goal, no goal, no goal, no goal. They'll say no goal.

It's like the Saros' commercials. No goal. No, you actually don't even need a score biz. You don't need a 500 goal score. You need like Holmstrom. You need what, like Hornquist from, goal score, you need Holmstrom, you need Hornquist, you need one of those guys that was the guy causing it

and then they can bow Perry when he retires. Get him in there. Oh my god, yeah. I remember at least two goals, one was I think Yager scored, it was one of these milestone goals when he was in Florida. He parked his ass

in front of the net and when he was in Florida. He parked his ass in front of the net, and then he was freaking rubbing his ass, which is fine. But then he turned and put his stick between my legs, opened up the 5-hole. I couldn't move. Somebody shoots it in. Looks like an awful goal. I'm trying to yell at the ref, like, you can see that?

And he's like, no, no, no, that's a clear goal. Shit like that that happens is, like, annoying. So are you saying that some of the ones that I've complained about this year, you don't see much. It's very little. But what you're kind of saying is, even to somebody like me who never played goalie, or to somebody like me who doesn't know, it could have been that little thing that looked like nothing that really affected the goalie.

Absolutely. Absolutely. The more you have contact, it's easier to brace yourself or see. If it's that little, somebody nicks your glove at the moment of a shot,

you have a split second to react to the shot anyways. If your hand goes like this, you can a split second to react to the shot anyways. So if your hand goes like this, you can't bring it back up. Stuff like that. Yeah. My thought is that some of the ones this year, it seems something's happened, whether it's small or big, that I've been like, the goalie had plenty of time to reset there.

And so I never know, how much time do you need? Once you get nicked, is it one full second? And then it goes in it should be that's a good goal like you had enough time to reset everything that's in order to eliminate the gray area they should just make goalies open season even whether they're in the crease or not

you should be able to just run right them over there you go just fucking truck them kind of like lacrosse but open season in the crease yeah perfect well then as long as we can just start jamming blockers in your face, too. That's fine. That's a fair trade-off.

Hockey needs more of that anyways because you need some tough guys there who can beat you. Nowadays, people can do whatever they want. Nobody's like... Who's the guy you hated the most? Who's the most that you wanted to block or in the face during your playing days?

Not really. I mean, I blocker people in the face. So it's like, it's not like I didn't do that. But I don't think, you know, we had a pretty solid decor. So they had my back. I didn't have to really worry about that. You know, if Big Z's standing in there, I don't think people are fucking around too much.

So we had that going. No, there's always... I think it just kind of credits the goalie. If they start trying to get under your skin, it just means you're doing good because you're not letting goals in. So they're just trying to kind of steer away you from your game and kind of throw you off

a little bit. I try to stay cool. But then it's one of those when people are falling on you and like kind of, you know, unintentionally, but intentionally trying to kind of like fall on your knees and stuff. That's where I lost my mind. Yeah, with Big Z,

you had Robocop. So you weren't, you're not a fair guy to ask. Before we let you go, our friend Brian Yandel, his goalie, got a 10-minute misconduct recently this weekend

and he made him serve the penalty. Have you ever seen a goalie in the penalty box serving a penalty? Is that even allowed? I don't think it was, but it's just so classic that I was curious if you ever skated to the box and sat there. Well, you got to explain the situation. Is this a beer league game, or is this like an actual? No, no.

This is like U14, two of the top teams in the country and the goalie, the ref comes over 10 minute misconduct. You get somebody in the box like for what the goalie just mouthed off to me. Your goalie told me to go fuck off and he snapped and started screaming at the goal. He goes you're going to get a penalty. You serve it and

the ref let it happen and the goalie sat in there for 10 minutes and he had a shutout going correct. They were up 2-0? I think it's awesome. I can tell you that there are multiple times that I wish I could have gone to Benelux Box. Multiple times I tried to get kicked out of the game. But the referees just wouldn't allow that. But that's...

I wouldn't mind that being a rule. Is it only... Would it be only for, like, like 10 minute majors or whatever or like that's the thing. So I think it did end up being allowed because you weren't going to change on the fly when the penalty ended anyways with it being a 10. You got to wait for the whistle and

maybe now moving forward we see maybe maybe Yandel maybe change the game 10 minute of a score by goal. You're in the box. We call it the Yandel rule. I love it. Well, Tuka thank you You're in the box. We call it the Yandel rule. I love it. Well, Tuka, thank you so much. And Biz, Thursday, you can get more, Tuka. Thursday at

noon. This guy's a media sensation. Oh, yeah. We got to talk about your show, buddy. Yeah. We're going to have the topic before you let you go about we were talking about Rick Talkett and Brindamore. They were such good players and they're kind of on the cusp to get we were talking about Rick Talkett and Brenda Moore. They were such good players, and they're kind of on the cusp to get into the Hall of Fame

where all of a sudden now they have these second careers as coaches, and they're having so much success there. So why not add and combine categories in order to get players in the Hall of Fame? So you obviously won a Vesna. You had the career numbers that you did, and now you're going to be a media mogul with the show you got going. So why don't you describe what the simulcast is,

who you got going with and, and what you look to achieve in the back half of, uh, or the second career, uh, in the, in your hockey, hockey career.

I love it. Thanks for the setup. Yeah. So we started doing, uh, on obstructed views with Andrew Raycroft, who was a media sensation himself. He's doing a great job for Nessun actually.

And our good friend Patrice Bergeron. So what we do is once a month we take a Bruins home game. We watch it kind of like people probably have seen Manny cast on ESPN so we do the same kind of situation in the studio. We

break down plays and talk shit about our careers and whatever comes to mind. So, we did one episode a month ago and we're going to do another one tonight, actually,

against the Bruins, against Columbus Blue Jacket. It's fun. You know, I mean, I really haven't set any goals for myself. What I want to accomplish out of this media,

you know, tour, career, I'm starting, but it's been fun. And this is a good way to start because it's unscript. We can wear whatever we want. There's no student tie. There's no real script.

It's kind of a soft landing for this TV gig. We'll see where it takes. Is Patrice coming back out of retirement? You know what I heard? I don't know if Witt heard in Boston, but the radio station said last week the Monty's going to get fired and Bergie's going to be the coach. Oh, nice.

So that's where we're at. I think, yeah. So I told him that. It's like a chicklet's take. I mean, dude, are these people for real? Like, what the fuck? Well, we are those people. He started laughing. He's like, yeah. Can you tell Don Sweeney we said hello on behalf of Witt? Yeah, I sure

did. Just make sure he gets the word. Is it hard opening up Patrice Bergeron on TV because he always seemed very reserved and such a classy guy and with the state of the Bruins and how much they fucking stink and how they're a 500 team who has no offense.

Is it hard for you guys not to be too critical? Yes and no. Berge, he's a classy guy. It doesn't matter what he does. You know, he can sleep and be classy. That's just how he is. He's not going to chirp anybody or make anybody look bad anyways. But, you know, we're trying to give our honest opinion.

Like the first game we watched was against the Dallas Stars. I think they lost 6-2 or something. So, there's that. But what are you going to do? You're not going to roast every single player out there. We played, obviously, and recently, we played recently, so we still have a fresh memory of what

the game should look like. We give our honest opinion. I saw Pasta and McAvoy the other week. They know we're doing it. And I told them, listen, I'm not going to hold back. If I can see something, I'm going to chirp you. They're like, yeah, you should. But we're friends.

So I think it's more fun if it comes from us instead of Jack Edwards or not Jack Edwards anymore, but whoever whoever because we're friends you know so yeah I mean it's good and I think people like it they seem to like it the first time and we're looking to improve every month. I think it's funny at the fact that it's you and Razor who

he's media polished now right he's been doing for quite some time and you guys actually got dealt for each other I didn't know that until Witt mentioned it at the Sandbagger so that's got to be kind of a silly thing you must got dealt for each other. I didn't know that until Witt mentioned it at the Sandbagger. So that's got to be kind of a silly thing you must poke fun at each other about. Not really. We had an interview before the first

episode last month and that was one of the questions. I think people outside of us put more emphasis on that than we actually do. It's just funny how like we are doing this thing together now you know and you look back whatever 20 18 years ago when

the trade happened and how kind of we're you know the circle is kind of like closed on that we're ever linked yeah but but you know it's one of those things. You never know what life's life throws at you. And, you know, we're here now and, you know, we're good buddies and doing this thing together. So it's just,

uh, it's, it's fun and it's funny, but we don't, we don't talk about it. Biz, uh, thanks for the credit,

but I actually had forgotten that you were the one who brought it up on the sandbagger. And that is going to be Thursday at noon, spitting chicklets, YouTube. It's awesome. Awesome episode. We talk a great... A bunch of old hockey stories. So everyone tune in there for some more Tuca and Raycroft.

And last thing before we go, a buddy of mine skated with Tuca. I think they have a Friday skate or a Thursday skate. Was it last Friday? Yes. And Tuca plays out. Tuca plays out. I was told he got it in front of the net between the legs shelf with a big celebration after. And he said he can dangle.

Tuka has some mitts on him. To be honest with you, I've seen you play hockey. I don't think you could pull that move off. I blacked out for a second. Between the legs, like you used to skate, then shake and bake. Between the legs, top cheese. Hey, we got a little competition brewing on Thursday for the Sandbagger, 12 o'clock Eastern time.

Noon, people can watch that. Subscribe to the YouTube channel. And you guys go from being traded for each other to now being teammates on TV and in the Sandbagger to take on me and Witt after that releases I'll take you up on that buddy I'll go head to head mono e mono I'll be there

for Boston playing Menzies you better wear a full fucking cage brother I'm going to give you a fucking blocker sandwich don't you worry buddy see let the chirping begin before we continue I need to talk to you about Yeti. We are so lucky to be sponsored by Yeti. They sent me over three different cups. They got coolers,

they got cups, the big dog, the little fat wide one, the normal one, and the big old big daddy. one, the normal one, and the big old big daddy. All Oilers logos, beautiful, beautiful print, keeps the drink cold, keeps it warm, doesn't matter, whatever you want. And Yeti's got the Camino Carry All Tote Bag. It's durable. You can carry skates, gloves, jersey, helmet. It's not just a cooler. It's tough inside and out. it's made with waterproof and ultra durable material easy to clean use it for any dirty work and simply hose this thing off after the clean comes in three sizes 20 35 and 50 g you have some stuff you could show off to the youtube watchers correct oh yeah luckily for me i got all the bruins gear uh so they sent me all yeti

merch with all the yeti stuff with the Bruins logos on it. I also have this, the tote bag you talked about, which is so clutch. You got the nice skyline in Hoboken. I like to pack some beers, pack a little Pink Whitney in this Camino Yeti bag, bring it down to the water in Hoboken, look at the skyline. And it's all because of our great friends at Yeti. So you can yourself own one of these tote bags. Shop the Yeti's Camino Carryall tote bag today.

Thank you so much to Tuka Rask. Unbelievable person. Great guy. And once again, Thursday, November 21st at noon Eastern. Me and Biz try to get on the winning. Get back on the right side of the game. Yeah. The winning side against Tuca and Andrew Raycroft.

So we're on to the quick hits now. Pasha is going to be a nightmare this year, boys. Oh, my God. Because the New Jersey Devils are a wagon. Everyone saw this coming. I believe in our previews, we kind of ranted and raved about, first off, getting guys back healthy. Second off, getting a new coach.

A coach who I think did a really good job in Toronto. And they get Markstrom. And now it's like, even with Markstrom not playing his best, they got Jake Allen. Jack Hughes has kind of reached a different level where I don't know his last like six or seven games split, but they look phenomenal. They're fast. They whooped the Panthers two nights in a row or two games in a row. I think one day off in between. Both in Florida. What do you see Biz? What do you like? Well

those two games. The Gajevic. The scrapper. Oh my god. The fact that he went back. That fight with Dillon was crazy. That was insane. I think Boucher-Gross counted 66 punches thrown. 36 by Gajevic who had a jersey over his head majority of that fight. So, unreal job by him and Dillon. Then McDermott the next night, or two nights later when they ended up playing in that back-to-back. So, just awesome. Jesper Bratt, I think, is probably the one guy outside of Jack Hughes we have to talk about here. There's only two players in the league with more points than Jesper Brat

in the month of November. Do you know who those players are? I'm going to go with Kirill Kaprizov, and I'm going to go with Kael McCarr. Oh, Nathan McKinnon. You had it there, Murr. We had it there. Hey, we're a team, Murr.

We're a team. So just an incredible run by him right now. and after signing that big ticket a couple years ago i don't want to say last year was like an off year but i think the whole team had an off year and he's right back to his old ways so much speed out there and everything just seems to be clicking right now and i think you just have to go back to the start of the year jack hughes coming off those injuries he's finally looking like himself again. He's finally ready to win that bet for Pasha, the jock-sniffing Devils fan,

who I would imagine we have to bring on to talk about the fact that he got hosed on one of his bets. So roll the disclaimer. He didn't get hosed, though. Let's roll the disclaimer. Warning. The following statements are about to be made by a deranged Devils fan.

The views expressed are his and his only. take everything you hear with a grain of salt because remember he is a deranged devils fan and let's hear everything he has to say about all the underlying numbers for his new jersey devils uh yeah i i did get hosed with i did get hosed uh g fish and i went to that devils panthers game uh the game one of the little two-game series, and I threw a little parlay down. I went Hughes anytime scorer, Reinhardt anytime scorer, obviously because, you know, two best players in the league, with Devils money line.

And what do you know? Jesper Brat, with arguably the pass of the year, crossed backhand sauce to Jack, one-timer, early in the game. Second period, Sam gets his goal. Devils cruise to a win. So $100 paid $2,000. All was peachy and rosy in Placid Land. Flash forward to game two.

I'm like, you know what? That bet won the first time. Let's run it back. Run it back, baby. Any time score. Jack Hughes, Devils money line. And what do you know? Jack scores.

Bit of a greasy one. Puck was kind of in the crease. A lot of bodies. But you know what? They credit him. Perfect. Re was kind of in the crease a lot of bodies but you know what they credit him perfect reinhardt scores devil's cruise to a win another hundred paid two grand so i'm all happy and and merles called me out i made the mistake of sending in the group chat there was like five minutes left in the game devils were up a bunch of goals so like you know i'm like all right this bet's over i kind of come in i'm like hey what's better than winning this parlay winning this parlay twice and then what do you know 10 minutes later notification goal change to dawson mercer like barely skimmed off his shit i watched it 50

times you i don't know how you could tell that it hit mercer but yeah i i'm still hoping there's thousands of rangers fans listening to this right, celebrating the fact that you didn't get that two grand. Yes, they are. He already cashed out to his bank account. So he owes he owes them two grand. Now I'm on the run. Yep. I knew it was a greasy one.

So as soon as the cash hit my account, I hit withdraw. Try and get it out of there. But they clawed it back. My account balance was negative there for a few minutes but complete debacle but like you said the devils are on the other side of the spectrum not a debacle they're a wagon the devils have the deepest decor in the nhl if not top two top three their decor is a joke i mean your third pairing is brett pesci and luke hughes like give me a break and everyone's sleeping on Siegenthaler, Kovacic, because they're not big household names.

They are, I believe, top three in the whole league in under-the-hood defensive metrics. They have been absolute rocks. Name a team with a better D-Core than New Jersey. I'll wait. Vegas is there. Yeah, I'll say Vegas is the only one that I'll accept with no fear. Dallas is good.

Dallas is very good. I lost count. Fuck you. What are you laughing at, bitch? Carolina's is good. Carolina's D are nice. Yep, I agree. It's a short list.

Pasha, they look awesome. I'm not going to say I'm happy for you because I'm not, but they're a fun team to watch, too. You're seeing back and forth sick hockey. When I talk about the Bruins just slodging through the game with no creativity, it's the exact opposite with the Devils.

But I think Hughes has 22 points in 21 games, so not completely lighting up like he was to start last year. It's Mercer. It's Cotter. It's like guys... Nine goals, Mason. We talked about that sign.

From Carolina, they grabbed him and they grabbed Pesci. Now, Carolina's D is nice, but it's the depth guys that I think have the Devils looking this good. There will be nights Bratton Hughes win games for you, but if you're getting scoring from these other guys, and you'll always regret the

Paul Cotter take. You were disg always regret the Paul Cotter take. You were disgusted with the Paul Cotter Holtz trade, and it's looked to be as of right now, very early in a trade, especially with a young guy in Vegas, a win for you. Yeah, definitely. Paul Cotter's fitting like a glove, and I did say at the time of the trade,

I said, I don't think I've watched one second of Cotter, so I had no idea what to expect, but he has exceeded any and all expectations. Yeah, he's been great. Devils are a wagon. I mean, we've given Fitzy a few double barrels since the start of the season, but those off-season moves have paid massive dividends.

You've got to be happy with Dylan. Also providing a little... Like him fighting and going against guys like Gajevic, like that is so... It turned that game around. There you go. Devils had no life. They were getting completely dominated. That fight happens.vic. It turned that game around. There you go. Devils had no life. They were getting completely dominated.

That fight happens. The Devils turn the game around. Timo Meier scores. And it's little things like that that Dylan brings. Like, yeah, he's been amazing. So, Nason, and then you talked about Cotter. And Markstrom, maybe up until those Florida games, I think fans were maybe a little disappointed

about the quality starts that he'd had. But did he play in both of those games? No, Allen played the second one. But his one game was great, right? It was in Florida where he played? Yeah. So are you happy with where his game's trending? Definitely where it's trending, yeah.

I think going back to Under the Hood, my favorite place to look, I think before the Florida series, I think he was the fifth or sixth worst goalie and goals saved above below expected so definitely wanted more out of him out of the gate but definitely trending in the right direction as well there you go folks little double wrister for your new dream but there is there is actually one more thing i'd like to address if i may um i have to check to see if my twitter was broken because my mentions are divided mainly into two things. Scumbag fans, mainly Rangers fans, chirping me every time the Devils lose. They haven't been losing a lot, so that's quieted down.

But then the fans that every time JT Miller gets a secondary assist, I get a thousand mentions. Miller, Miller, Miller. This is a player who got benched last night, half of the game played 11 minutes uh when the devils came to town for weeks ago and rinsed them six nothing uh got taken off the power play if you don't count empty net goals he has zero goals in his last 10 games and listen i don't want to pile on miller my problem is with the canucks fans and hypocrisy they wanted to drive patterson out of town they were chirping him so hard when he struggled but now when miller's struggling there's no fans are still chanting

his name. There's no accountability. Pedersen's turned it around. So I don't like that double-edged sword where they're ready to drive Pedersen to the airport themselves. But now that Miller's been brutal. I think we've seen enough. Thanks so much for hopping on, Posh. You know what? I respect he comes on and he gives it, but we've had enough of him.

I do think Pedersen has kind of quickly turned a little bit of a corner. Yes, he has. And remember we talked about Elliott Freeman on 32 Thoughts mentioning that he kind of had heard there was a possibility of him really like reading comments and listening to outside noise. And then he said the

other night, no more social media. So it's obviously something's changed. His plays changed. Quickly, before we get to the next quick hit, Florida Panthers got worked by the devils at home twice they pounded the jets they were pissed off in that game took them down five nothing first time that they've first time marise beat uh winnipeg and that was their fifth attempt he had not beaten winnipeg since he left there he was oh and four and just going back to that uh uh toersen, I agree. Like, looks way more engaged. Like, he's been throwing those reverse hits again,

so being even more physically engaged. And Talkett ended up putting Sherwood, Kiefer Sherwood, on his line. This Kiefer Sherwood four-checks his dick off. He is like the Kunitz to the Crosby for Pedersen. He goes in there. He doesn't stop moving his feet he is relentless and he's able to go get the puck so Petey can play with it so I like that I

like that dynamic and another thing too is is this Sherwood like he was originally I want to say signed by the by Anaheim and he was playing in San Diego where he was like he was a first line player he didn't really forcheck and have all those intangibles because he hadn't yet added those to his bag where obviously he's figured out,

well, if I want to get to that next level, I got to do this type of shit. I'm not going to be the skill guy. But then yet again now, the fact that he's on a top line with Petey, it's not like it's uncharted territory for him. He knows what he needs to do in order to be successful on that line, but the puck won't go

to him to die. He could still make plays, but the fact that Petey has a guy like that in his line, and then you have another line to follow it up with Garland, who's also a Fort Checkin minion who's just like constantly relentless coming at you, who bugs the shit out of other players and other teams. So

the game the other night they had on hockey night in canada against chicago and i know it's chicago the second third period their four check took over and chicago had no fucking answer so i like that dynamic between sherwin and pd and i think it's going to help him get him going and uh love how he deleted social media if he's getting wrapped up in all the comments. Taylor Hall was actually a healthy scratch in that game. It's a tough time in Chicago, but Dard doesn't look great. I think you're lying if you say otherwise. He doesn't look bad, but he doesn't look like the world-beater super prospect.

We'll see what ends up happening there. Let's talk about it. Elliott's like, man, who does he have to play with? And I agree with that. I also think that players that were talked about like him, like the McDavid's, the Crosby's, the Matthew's and the list goes on at in their second year could probably drive their own line. I think what's happening now is you're seeing maybe the lack of speed, the lack of strength, the fact that he has to play center. Boy, since he's entered the league, he's the second worst person in the faceoff, Dot, in the whole entire league. I could see him being an amazing winger.

Barstool Chief was talking about it. Let him not worry about so much responsibility defensively on a bad team. At least, dude, you're going to run wild and create way more as a wing than a center on the Blackhawks. Because no matter how good you are, and yes, there are guys who can drive their own line. You're in your zone a ton. A ton. And if you're battling defensively, just trying to get out of the zone against these teams that are overrunning you with depth, then when you get your chances offensively, you don't have that same jump.

And I could see that. It makes sense to me. And it was pretty hard. I don't know if you saw when he coughed it up on the empty net goal in Vancouver, like on the bench after. Cameras on him. Yeah, cameras on him. He had to do after hours afterward with Scott Oak.

So that couldn't have felt good. But the problem is, though, if you look at their projected lines on daily face-off, I would say their best centerman would be a third-line center at best on any other team in the league. So it's like, well, who else are you going to put there if you put him on the wing

and who the fuck he's going to play with? I thought they did a better job this season of surrounding him with more talent and better veterans but they're going to have to look themselves in the mirror and go out there and try to find a centerman and other players to make him more surrounded or i don't know what the fucking answer is moving forward and if this continues based on what you've seen from him i would assume the expectation is he's going to be on the last year of his entry level deal as of july 1st right that's when that the opportunity to re-up him is this a guy you give the eight times nine eight times ten two if this continues the rest of the season oh He's getting minimum of that. Minimum.

He's definitely getting that. I understand. Minimum is. They have to. They have to. They have to. They don't have to, literally, but they have to. All right.

Well, there. One easy fix is you can keep him at center, but somebody else can take the draws. Well, that has happened a little bit. He doesn't have to take the draws. Second time this season, he'd went, he's went eight,

uh, Oh, and eight in the face off circle. He did. So the other night against Vancouver. So they were starting to throw guys in because Murr now, all of a sudden your first, your first line center can't take draws that you can't put your first line

out there. Cause you can't start them off in your own end. Cause he can't win draws. And then all of a sudden you're losing them in the ozone. So then you're going right back to play defense the other way. Like, what do you do? Yeah, that's what I was going to say. And like the average hockey fan probably doesn't understand how important faceoffs are.

When you're chasing the puck every time, you waste your whole shift chasing the puck and then you change. Even the neutral zone ones. Draws are so important. And it goes back to another point that elliot made like he uses like a 70 75 flex and he uses a long stick so you don't have much leverage going in on that dot and that goes back to he's a more of a shooting centerman and not as much of a puck distributor so that's why the conversation for the wing makes a little more sense and then going back to i think it was last year where adam oats adam oats is very open and opinionated on guys

stick lies and what they're using and and how it can benefit their game where he seems to think he's playing with too long of a stick and when you're playing the center ice position you have to be a little bit more low center of gravity to the ice to to play low and battle and and work through checks in order to get back up ice where if you're playing with a long stick you're a little bit more straight legged so you're not exactly having that leverage so there's a lot of things that are playing into the the conor bedard discussion but one thing that does have to happen and will he'll continue to wake up every day, go to the rink, work his fucking dick off and try to be that player that he wants to be because he's all in, all invested on being the best player in the world.

So it sucks. We don't want to see the stars of our game struggling like this, especially early on. But I just thought it was a good conversation to have on here considering we had it on Hockey Night in Canada too. Another guy that didn't come into the league blazing hot but he is now my guy number 29 cannon late dog is on fire on fire on pace for 125 assists or something ridiculous like that it's it's crazy he they're getting guys back too and him and mccarn ranting and they carried him. They just put the entire team on their back. They got through it. Now they've won four of the last

six. Nachushkin came back. He was minus three against the Capitals. The Capitals actually won. You got to give them a little bit of time. But just the fact Woods back, they're coming together and then they're having another ridiculous season from mckinnon like this is this is who he is the dog he's dominating it's like mcdavid mckinnon mckinnon mcdavid kucherov i know yes we're talking west western conference here and now to see colorado get guys back it's exciting for that fan base because they could go on a run. They're my favorite team to watch. McKinnon is just an animal. Rantan and anything that he

touches seems to go into the net right now. And the one guy you didn't talk about that's back is my guy Lekken. I was blowing him up on the fucking TNT broadcast. One of the best puck hounds in the league. You know what he got traded for, boys? Barron and a second rounder. Barron and a second rounder for Lekken and one of the best puck hounds in the league. You know what he got traded for, boys? I actually don't remember.

Barron and a second rounder. Barron and a second rounder for Leckanen over at the deadline the one year they won the Stanley Cup. Talking about a trade paying dividend. Makar easily the first, second, and third nomination right now for the Norris. Like, hands down the best defenseman on the planet. No one's even a close second.

We have to start having the conversation over the last year and a half that McKinnon is the best player in the world, right? Are we there? I think it's been quite evident that he's in the top three discussion. He's right. That's what I said.

McKinnon, McDavid, McDavid, McKinnon, Kucherov, those three, they do things that no others can do. I know Matthews at times with the goal scoring, but those three to me are just different level. Well, you know when you watch the Kentucky Derby and they got the horses neck and neck and one guy's passing the other? Like right now, over the last 18 months, you have to have McKinnon in the league.

I'm okay with everybody saying McDavid's the best player on the planet based on what we've seen so far over the course of his eight years and the thousand point mark, and he's the next Gretzky, but as far as top end level right now, McKinnon is the dog. Going back to the other night, you mentioned Ratnan, a weird thing that happened in that game. Did you guys see the game winner that was scored against the LA Kings? Ratnan ended up getting the hat trick, right? He scored the hat trick on the empty netter, but the

game was 2-2 late in the third. Lekanen was supposed to go on the ice, and there was a battle going on along the wall, and McKinnon's in the battle, and one of their players, the F3, goes to change, and Lekanen was supposed to be the guy hopping on the ice. Without Bednar saying a word, like he didn't tell them to do this leckanen goes rotten and you go

you go and to get him the third but no no well at that point it was the game winner and it was the second goal but i'm like leckanen's an unreal player he'd already scored in the game he's a machine on offense when playing with those type of players but just the fact that he was like no you go and and and i've never heard of that i've never heard of that unless the coach is like what was said to me every other time i was supposed to go out there hey biz you hold up if we're an offensive zone cycle right now to send a guy who would actually put the puck in the back of the net and as soon as rotten and came on the ice mckinnon saw him he pokes the puck out it goes right to him in that f3 position he walks around i think it was laferriere who was cheating a little bit

and the defenseman who was creeping into the battle and then boom scores the winner on uh i forget who uh it was uh kemper was in net and ridditch had to go in because he like pulled his groin at the very end of the game to the very end of the game. But so we interviewed Ratan at the end of the game. He goes, oh, I got to give a shout out to Lekanen for letting me take a shift there. And I'm like, whoa, whoa, whoa. Like, hasn't Bednar like told you to go? And he goes, no, he just like goes, go for me.

So I just I never fucking heard of that. I thought it was. I love that move, though. Get the horse out there. I've done that during Chicklets Cup because I'm so tired and hungover. So I'm like, you go. I wish I would have had the balls and I was going to say it, but I didn't want to stir it back up.

I go, do you think that was him extending an arm for his old man chirping you last year about being out of shape? But I didn't have the balls to say it on the broadcast. Very quick to think of that right then. That would have been funny. But I didn't have the balls to say it on the broadcast. Very quick to think of that right then. That would have been funny. But I didn't have the balls to say it. No, that's unlike you. That would have been a great... I'm disappointed in you. I know. Fuck this. I know, I know. I'm a loser.

Yeah, the... Merles, I'm with you. One of the most fun teams to watch. Shout out the Caps, right? They go in, they beat the Avs, and then they go to Vegas where apparently they had never won a regular season game. Now, they beat the abs and then they go to vegas where apparently they had never won a regular season game now they raised the cup in that building so who cares but they'd never beat him in the regular season in that building and ovi gets a hat trick finishes off

with an empty netter 29 to go for the record biz your dream of next season to to try to compete with big nfl games is done i may tick It's 29. I always thought it was 28. Did I read wrong? 29 more. 28 to tie it. Okay, 28 to tie it. My apologies. But, buddy, he, like, dude, he saved the goal as well.

Barbashev has a tap, and I think it was 3-2 Washington. Back checks, saves the goal, wide open net, gets three of his own one of them a six snipe I saw a hilarious meme on Twitter of of like two faces cut in the middle it's Backstrom's left side of his face and then and then Dylan Strom is the other side like he's just come in and been the man who dishes Ovi and finds him everywhere and Ovi back. He's tied for the lead league in goals, boys. He's 39. What the hell is going on? I don't even know if Backstrom had done this,

but Stromer had assisted on 10 consecutive goals by Ovi. Like, just remarkable that they go out there and find that guy to replace what Backstrom was able to do setting him up. And if you look to the first probably two three games maybe even four games of the season I was like oh god this might be one of

those ones that it takes like till the end of next year and him like crawling over the finish line to get it and then all of a sudden he had that one game where he popped off and right now it seems like he's running on pure adrenaline and the fact that the team is in it, they got the mojo.

They're not just in it. They're good. They're good, man. And they got this, is it McMichael? I always call him McMillan. McMichael, kind of like Laferriere out in LA. I think the organization really thought at the end of last year, he was turning the corner

and he was going to be the player that he is now. So to have some of these young guys playing the way that they're playing, mixed in with some of these veterans, like Carlson looks great. He was paired up with Chikrin. Chikrin looks awesome. All these moves they made in the offseason. Like, fucking rights, man. And if he does do it, I just hope he does it.

Game 82 against the Pittsburgh Penguins. So Crosby's there. Malkin, of course, his fellow countryman. And to solidify maybe winning the division would be just a nice icing on the cake. And otherwise, if it doesn't happen, 15 games in the next season. Okay. I got a little nugget slash trivia for you two guys. He scored on Samsonov or samsonov however you want

to pronounce his name it was his 177th goalie he scored on the record is 178 do you know who has that jogger jogger yep yeah it's gotta be jogger i mean the the ov thing is unreal but what's crazier to me is as we we talked about the sad state of the Pittsburgh Penguins, not too long ago, would you have said, oh man, Ovi and that chase is all the Capitals have. I definitely am on record of saying this is going to be pathetic. It's just going to be Ovi, goal chase, horrible team. And holy fuck, did they turn that around spencer carberry the post-game speeches dude this guy it just seems like this group we talk about the anaheim locker room in relationship with the coach now winning and losing changes everything but carberry and that team they look to be such a

tight unit that it's a cool story it really is um elliot brought it up on the bra we were i think it was like post game like you look at these teams you tear it all the way to the ground and now you start like now you start noticing okay there's a reason some of these teams they just retool as opposed to doing the full rebuild because when you strip it to the ground man sometimes it could take you eight to ten years to become any bit of relevant again. Edmonton Oilers. That's a prime example of Washington where a few years ago, knowing that Oshie was kind of going to be on the way out, Backstrom, Kuznetsov. I mean, Carlson's obviously getting a little bit older.

You would have thought that at a certain point they would have stripped it to the ground. But good on them for just sticking with it and retooling and and and being where they're at right now kind of same thing with nashville mind you they're seem to be heading in a different direction right now but the the retool as opposed to the rebuild is the is the new way before we continue i need to talk to you about body armor the best drink in the world as you can see mine's finished right here i crush these things all day long. The big bottle. Body Armor offers real hydration, real ingredients, packed with electrolytes, vitamins, and nothing artificial. Body Armor sports drink has great tasting flavors like strawberry banana and orange mango.

My favorite thing is the wide mouth bottle. The of this water it's perfect i'm lucky enough to get them delivered they go quick people come over they're snagging my body armor they're snagging my body armor you can get yours today at walmart or a local grocery store near you and this episode is brought to you by body armor sports drink so go to walmart go to your local grocery store and get your own body armor now. There was news out of the Hall of Fame this week and that was Lanny McDonald announced Jerome McGinley and Eddie Olchek were appointed to the Hockey Hall of Fame

selection committee. Edzo was on TNT and disgusted. He kind of roasted you a little bit, Biz. Gave you a little bit. The clown. I'm getting nominated as a clown thanks to Henrik Lundqvist. We got a new category, the clown, I'm getting nominated as a clown thanks to Henrik Lundqvist. We got a new category, the clown category.

The clown show. Yeah, you would be driven in with circus noise, and then you wouldn't even be able to speak. You'd just be able to be up there. People throw tomatoes at you and stuff, and then you're in the Hall of Fame. I would place a breakfast order as my induction speech, which would last 45 minutes. And that would be that.

They just bring in new ice cream samples nonstop and then everyone goes home. All right. Sweet night. Well, I mean, you talk about guys with the credibility to be nominated to even do that. I mean, obviously, Jerome McGinley with what he's done. And then Eddie Olchuk. I don't think anybody's watching more hockey than Eddie Olchuk. Right.

Especially over the course of the last few decades. So he's just been involved in so many different eras where you need these older guys to maybe understand the impacts that certain players made. Because there were certain years where like 80 points was the max, right? And maybe the way that certain centermen were playing defensively, although only getting 60, 65 points, they were the best to do it at that time and had a lot of hardware in order to back that up. So pretty cool for those guys to get the nod. And one of the conversations with that came up is like, and I think we mentioned it even during the Tuca interview, is like a guy like Rick Talkett, right? think we mentioned it even during the tuka interview is like a guy like rick talkett right um haven't produced as much as he he did as a player he fought in a very tough era did it all and won a stanley cup as a player retired as a player became an assistant coach a head coach

and assistant coach one two is an assistant and then now has a jack adams to back that up to where at what point do you take a guy's full body of work in the hockey world and induct them maybe on a few different categories not only as a player but also maybe a builder so I thought he had a very interesting reply in saying that I think that there should be a lot of consideration moving forward where a guy like Talkett and Brindamore get added as Hall of Fame members. If they're not going to be just as players, they should be based on everything they've done. Like Rob Brindamore has been a what?

A coach in the NHL for 10, 12 years, always winning records, has created an unbelievable culture in Carolina, probably hasn't won a Jack Adams because of the expectations coming in every year for their team and they always end up meeting them. But it was just a fascinating convo and something that probably should be evaluated moving forward

to get those guys in. It's almost like, why don't you just get in the Hall of Fame and that's it? Why does it have to be as a player or a builder? Because you could still let in builders, but you're just in the Hall of Fame, where it probably hurts guys that it's one or the other.'s like they don't look at it like coaching and playing but if you if you've done both things that well you could just get into the hall of fame like you're not in a category so i don't really understand why they need that because it could just be based on

like all right your playing career was right in the cusp probably not enough to ever get in but then you were that good at coaching that you're a Hall of Famer in the history of the NHL. Yeah. And a lot of times, like getting in as a player, sometimes now they're emphasizing a lot of the personal league awards. So, Brendan Moore did win a Selke. I want to say one Selke. He also did win a Jack Adams, Biz. Oh, he did?

Okay. He did. My apology. So, he's got a Jack Adams. He's got he did? Okay. He did. My apology. So he's got a Jack Adams. He's got a Selke. He's got a Stanley Cup. And he's done everything. Did he play 1,500 games?

Fuck, I got to look. He played. You got to think at a certain point, he should just be getting in as a player even. So that's pretty much just what I wanted to bring up. And what do we got so he's close to 1500 games like this is a guy who probably should be in as a player but um i just thought it should be brought up at the fact that i thought that him and talk it were two

of those guys where were good examples of what they've done on the coaching side and now with talking adding the jack adams to his trophy case is probably a guy from a collective body of work maybe not have having done played the amount of games that brendamore has and maybe not the amount of points but should be a guy who's considered based on both talk its career though yeah 452 goals uh 0.8 points per game 1184 points in4 points in 1,484 games. So yeah, not necessarily Hall of Fame numbers, but I understand your argument. But it leads us into another topic around this league is Brindamore and myself being a dummy and thinking that the Canes this year weren't going to be what they've been in the regular season the past few seasons.

And we look like fools. I look like a fool again. Martin Neches is on another level, 30 points now. The next guy on Carolina has 16 points. I mean, he sat down, Elliot talked about him sitting down with Brindamore and them going over what he expected, what Neches wanted, what Brindamore expected. And it's been exactly what, what net just thought and knew he could do. And that's him dominating. So like, you've seen the canes and they seem to find kind of diamonds in the rough, right? Like they, they got this Eric Robinson, right? I don't know if you've watched this kid play biz, but he has 12 points in 15 games. He's with Columbus for four years. Then he's over in

Buffalo last year and boom, they find him and he's playing on the second line. He's a big body. He could skate. It's a Brindamore style player on the four check, relentless on the puck. And he's just breaking out right now as it seems other guys have as well. Pasha talked about their D, how good it is. It is a worry that Anderson's injured. You don't know with his history if he'll be able to play, but the team itself has continued to just be on the exact same trajectory as they have the past few years. Yes, Merle's chirped their playoffs. We've all chirped their playoffs, but every regular season,

you got nothing against them. They just swarm you. They don't let you get anything going. They're unreal at home. They have a great crowd, and I thought it would slow down this season and it hasn't. Yeah, I guess we talk about the

league turning into a speed game and certain players are able to just generate so much power in their stride and that's just going into Saturday night. I think it was McKinnon who had the most speed bursts above 20 miles per hour,

or even like maybe 23 miles per hour. Timmy Stutzel, I want to say was second and Martin was third. So he's able to not only have those, but control the puck at that speed, right? That's the key is oftentimes it's like, ah, yeah, the guy's got speed, but his hands and brains don't match that. Well, it's not the case here. And he's having a breakout year after having conversations internally with the organization where maybe he felt like he wasn't getting those first-line touches and being able to be that guy. Well, he's been able with the ice time that he's gotten. You've talked about it in the past, maybe him butting heads with Brindabor

about the style of play and the defensive side of the puck and it seems like they've bridged the gap there and they found their guy and the fact that they got him still another year after this one on a pretty fair fair fair market value uh they're laughing with what they've done and as far as the rest of the team's considered uh just well coached well oiled machine uh they play with such pace. I did mention it earlier. They're leading the league in shot differential every game, as they do every year. They're plus 10, right?

Every game, they're out shooting teams 35, 25, 30 to 20. And when you're dominating and keeping the puck in the ozone that long, it's just going to rack up more wins in the win column. So goaltending, a little bit of an issue, but hopefully that can round out and they can eventually maybe get over the hump here at some point, but we definitely deserve that. They needed to,

they deserve to be mentioned and they're one of the hottest teams in the league, especially after starting out 500 after four games. Eighth in the power play sixth on the PK. Usually when you're top 10 and both, you're looking good. I think that when they bring in, like they brought in Carrier.

So they got this stall third line with Martin Nook and Carrier. And like stall hasn't really slowed down. Like he's just so big and he's not an 80 point guy, but he's, he's shutting other top players down. And like, it's, I don't know if this is a playoff team that could get over the hump. It seems like they never have enough. And last year it looked like they had more. But you got to respect how good they are every regular season. Even the kid Jackson Blake, who was at North Dakota last year,

he's playing on the fourth line with Jack Drury, Tyson Jost. But he's on the first power play. So guys play up and down the lineup. I feel like Brindamore's always been like that. Did you see the game that they lost in Utah where Drury went over to Carcone when he hit one of his teammates along the wall and Drury kind of asked him and Carcone didn't look at him

and as soon as Drury was like, okay, maybe he doesn't want one, Carcone dropped his gloves and just started fucking piss pumping him. Drury was losing his mind him what do you think he was losing his mind what do you think if you ask somebody and they're like they give you like the no by not looking and then bury you you think that's bullshit i think that's gutless i think you should square off if you actually want to go and some people might say well if you're asking

somebody you better keep your distance and be ready but he knew what he was doing yeah and then carcone's getting the crowd going after lifting his hands up like let's fucking go and then drew his face went from redder to redder it was redder to redder what is that stupid that sounds stupid oh no it's just funny it's true he went from red to more red he is a yeah he's got that he's got that pale complexion, so he was fucking... You know who has a red face right now from possibly being like... Stressed? Maybe up there for the heavyweight king?

Is this Olivier and Columbus, dude? I mean, first off, he's got five goals. He flies around. He'll go anyone. He fought Arbor Jack guy this flies around. He'll go anyone. He fought Arbor Jack. I this past weekend. He hit him with twice. He buckled him twice.

Jack. I stayed up like he took him, but they were like, oh my God, that connected. Oh, that also connected. And it seems like he's standing in there with anyone. He's producing offensively. He's running around and he's willing to go anyone. And right now, I think there's a lot of guys probably scared of him. But like I said on the broadcast,

you have to at least consider him top three, if not the heavyweight of the league. And people are going to say, whoa, whoa, whoa, you're all on Revo. And I love Revo, and I think that in a fight between those two guys, I would probably pick Revo going in. But right now, Olivier is the most active. He's willing to do it. Same with that Gajevic.

Like, I want, it goes back to the UFC. Some of these guys, like, they're like, oh, I want to be the top dog, but I don't want to get in the ring. It's like, no, bro. If you want to be considered a top dog, you better be going at least once every six, seven games. And Olivier has no problem obliging anybody who gives him the tap on the shin pads.

And the fact that he's effective in scoring some goals this year to start, good for him, man. That's an effective fighter, and he's a nail gun, and he's old school. He doesn't do the jersey jabs. He's fucking throwing bombs. So talk about entertaining, can play a little bit,

and has been active enough in my mind to right now be considered the top dog in the league. I'm going to go with that. He is the number one heavyweight in the National Hockey League. Is that fair? Yeah, that's what, like, you've kind of been bringing it up, and then you consistently see him willing to go anyone, doing

it as often as anyone, if not more, and buckling people. So two years ago, he had five goals in 66 games. Last year, he had five goals in 54 games. He's got five already in 17 games. Shout out to him, dude. Good for him. If not, right now, the most effective heavyweight

i want to see him go gajevich and i want to see him go mcdermott i want to see those fights on the and then when revo comes back from injury or excuse me from suspension i'd like to see him be a little bit more active i don't even know if he's had a scrap so far this year yet. He's definitely asked. He's asked other players or he's been asked? I'm saying he's definitely asked other players. Okay. That's just me.

I think why I asked him game one of the season, he didn't go and then one other time since, I think he's been asked by somebody else. I think it was Rempe asked him when they played against the Rangers early on of the season he didn't go him and then one other time since i think he's been asked by somebody else i think it was rempe asked him when they played against the rangers early on in the season and they didn't fight so i'd like to see a more active active heavyweight division which we had all these expectations coming into the season because we feel like it'd been revived maybe that was just me beating the drum and trying to get it revived and I'm the dummy with the expectations coming in. But Olivier... You were manifesting. You were manifesting this.

Hey, Gajevic, McDermott, Delorier, and Olivier are on board. The other guys need to wake the fuck up and let's go heavyweight division revived. Jack Guy's on board. Oh yeah, Jack Guy

as well. My apologies my apologies leading us right into Louis DeBrus we're talking brawlers right now we sat down with Louis DeBrus this was back in Edmonton during the cup finals awesome guy his son Jake's in Vancouver we chat about him this guy he's such a good person when he was working

media and I was on the Oilers it was one of those guys that come to you after practice you'd love sitting down and shooting the shit for 10 minutes. So long overdue, we had him on, but we're going to go to Louis DeBrusque right now. All right, time for our next guest. This left wing and tough customer was taken by the Rangers in the third round of the 1989 NHL draft. His rights were traded here to Edmonton,

where he spent the first six of his 11 NHL seasons before making stops in Tampa, Phoenix, and Chicago. It's a great pleasure to welcome to the Spittin' Chicklets podcast, Louie DeBrusque. Louie! Long time coming. Thanks for having me, guys. Pleasure's all mine.

All right, you've been buzzing with these intros this trip. He's been buzzing, eh? I was wondering, is he the first father-son combo? I know we didn't have the same time. We had your boy on a couple years ago. Oh, we had the Kachuk. We had those three all at the same time.

That's a triplet. That's your family. Gretzky's. Yeah, okay. We all had them at the same time. Anyways, it's great to have you on.

How's things going? Everything's going great. You know what? Taking in this playoffs and just watching this ride that the Orioles on, obviously being from Edmonton living here

covering the team. Florida, obviously, I know a lot about them with them dismantling my son's team two years in a row. So they're a good team. They're a real solid, good team. So I'm expecting a better series here. I know they're up 2-0,

but obviously I think that Edmonton is going to dig in and make this a series, and I hope they do. How frustrating and intense do you get? I mean, we've seen a few shots of you in the crowd. I got a shot to my guys, right? Our director and producers. They're like, don't come to me when I'm dropping F-bombs and mad and flexing.

That's not me all the time. Okay, maybe sometimes. You had the baby gap black shirt on. The guns were looking great. I had so many people. PJ Stock texted me and goes, hey, you've been working the guns or what? I'm like, hey. Yeah, just before the game, I do push-ups.

Just do curls. Before they pat you, you're doing the dips off the bench or what? I'm like, hey. Yeah, just before the game I do push-ups. Just do curls. Before they pat you, you're doing the dips off the bench. Yeah, I'm intense. I'm not going to lie, biz I am. It hasn't changed

since when I was, you know, when he was a little kid. When I watch my kid, I want their team to win. I want them to do well. I'm not going to lie about that. So even after games,

you're texting him stuff, hey, or even talking to him, hey, would have liked to see you do this a little bit more. You know, I've never been that way. Truthfully, like with him, I mean, he's got more skill in his left pinky than i ever had so

like honest to god i'm not gonna i'm not gonna tell him to shoot or pass in a play he's gonna figure that out himself for me and he'll tell you the same it's always been about work ethic it's always been about go out there leaving on the ice go out there and work hard play the right way and good things will happen right and i think you know i'm really proud him that way. I think that he's done that throughout his career, especially in a Boston uniform. I mean, if you don't play that way, you don't play. You just don't play on that team. They get rid of you.

So he's been there eight years in the organization, and rightfully so because he plays the right way to play for that team. And was he like five and six? You were still playing probably right around then? When they might really remember stuff and you just want to do what dad did? It's incredible, you know. And, you and you know Matthew and Brady obviously Brady was younger but Matthew is only a year younger than Jake and in Phoenix you talk with I think there's now we counted it up with Shane Doan's son playing this year it's five or six players off that team that one team that's wild the Coyotes that are now playing the NHL

amazing just incredible but they would they would battle each other in between but I think when That's wild. That I played with the Coyotes that are now playing the NHL. Amazing. Just incredible. But they would battle each other in between. But I think when you're around that world right from an early age, I really do believe that has an impact on it. It's like anything else. My dad was an electrician. I naturally picked up some of that just because he was an electrician. Helping him out.

Yeah, I'd watch him do stuff in the toolbox. I'd say, hey, what's this? And I'd pick it up. And, you know, I could fiddle with that. I still call them today just to make sure that I'm not electrocuting myself. And don't anybody do that on your own. Go get an electrician. But yeah, I think it's just natural for people that are around the world being in that dressing room. And it's funny because I remember when Jake asked for his first autograph, it was Jerome McGinley. Jerome McGinley was tearing up the league, right? Fighting

guys, scoring 50 goals, winning the Rocket Richard. And he was skating here in Edmonton. And so Jake came down for the Perry Pern three-on-three in the summertime. It still goes on today. Guys will come and skate in it. And he sees all these other kids

after get autographs from Jerome McGinley. And so we're driving home after the skate and he's like, hey, do you think Jerome would give me an autograph? And I kind of looked at him like, do you an autograph like yeah like you 100% get something you want him signed tomorrow when we go down to the rink just go up to him say mr gilmour can i get an autograph and oh man it was so funny because he just was you know he just so nervous but he never looked at the game that way right he kind of was around the world so he's seen all these guys around him that he wasn't he wasn't enamored but he's still a huge fan of players right he would always ride that hot player

or hot team you know Kopitar was one of his guys in 12 and 14 when LA was winning the cups and Patrick Kane was his guy when Chicago was winning like all kids we do it we jump on that band right but it was funny because my father-in-law who's no longer with us brought him to an exhibition game I was away from the team at that time and it was Calgary versus Edmonton and he says to me goes look at Jerome remembers me from me getting that autograph like that's just what goes through kids head right you're like are you serious but I love that I love that like how genuine that is for kids and um yeah he was no different I think the Kachuks would say they're the same way you know they're around it they this wasn't something that I think I've never talked to Keith about it.

We've talked a little bit. But I would suggest that those kids and any kids coming up through, especially with a father like Keith who was a big-time player, 50-goal score, 200-penalty minute guy, like, you know, they just expected to make it. You know, it wasn't like a – you know, I don't think Jake ever expected to make it, but in his heart of hearts, I think he thought he was going to. Well, it's like my dad did it.

I can do it. It just probably helps a little bit. It's natural. It's kind of natural. But yeah, you're in the world. That's kind of what you grew up seeing every day. It becomes natural. So an Ontario kid, like who was your guy growing up?

Were you in love with the game from a young age? I got to tell you, I was a complete opposite. I was an anomaly that way, which is weird. That's like Keith Yandall. Ed Jovanovsky, you know, started him and I started at 11 years 11 years old you know so i didn't start till late no shit yeah and just it was just uh mark forney who's now at west here actually it's funny good friend of mine he's relocated out here um to move out here years ago but we grew up together a small town called port elgin i was calling around a saturday morning you know that was when the old rotary phones i know kids wouldn't understand what

that is i know we went on our place yeah but uh the curly cord where is everybody everybody's playing hockey so i said to my dad i go hey you think i could play hockey kind of again looked at me he never played like uh yeah he never played he played rec you know he played goalie he loved the game loved sports and he said you want to play hockey because he knew that i hated skating because i guess i tried skating when i was five or six fell down a couple times and threw the skates away, so I'm never doing that again. And that's probably why I was never a great skater. But I started playing, and next thing you know,

I picked it up fast, because I think I was a little hungrier than the kids that had been in it for a while, and I had a lot of catching up to do. I really believed that. Like, I walked in there totally green, so there was no expectations for me. And I just kind of took off right away because I was big, strong. And you love the physical aspect of it.

Yeah, it clicked right away for me. So that was how I kind of came up. But yeah, it's interesting. It happened pretty fast for me. But Jake was the kid right from a year early age. He got a stick from a good family friend, one of those little Nerf sticks. And I used to have to like take it away from him. Like he would drag this thing around like Linus, you know,

on the penis with his blanket. You know, it was like he couldn't get this thing out of his hand. When did the fighting come in? Were you getting in scraps at school and stuff? Yeah, you know, no, I wasn't. I was pretty, I was a decent player. I was a centerman. And then right around that 15 years of age, I started to play up.

I started to get called up at 14 and 15 to the junior C team of Port Ogden for the Bears. And I was still, in my opinion, an offensive player. Hard worker, but an offensive player. I used to hit. I was a good hitter. And then, you know, we had a summer camp, and it was kind of a get-seen camp in Toronto.

It was like Turnaround of the Champions or something it was called. But they'd make teams from all the little suburbs and places. They'd bring them to Toronto and it was a real good opportunity for scouts to see. Because back then, unlike today, you could really fall through the cracks.

Oh yeah. You could be unseen. From a small town. You could be unseen. And I was, you know, town of Port Elgin at the time was 6,500 or something. But you just wouldn't get seen.

People weren't understanding there was good players all over the place. Nowadays, that doesn't happen as much. I think that nowadays you're going to get recognized and the word gets out because of so many different reasons.

But back then, it was kind of an opportunity for kids that maybe got overlooked or haven't been seen to get seen by different people. And the general manager for the Stratford Cullinans

was there. And he saw me. I fought a couple times. But during that summer, I had a coach that was like, you're. And he saw me. I fought a couple times. But during that summer, I had a coach that was like, you're going to need to fight. You're a big guy. Because of your size. Yeah, you're going to need to grab onto guys.

People are going to come and want to test you. It was the way the game was. Were you rattled to hear that? I was. The first time he told me, it was funny. Paul Mateer was his last name. It's eluding me, his first name, and I apologize. But he tried sending me out after a 20-year-old.

And I was like 15, I think. What? And I looked back at him like he had three heads. I'm like, not a chance, man. I'm not going out there. And he goes, okay. He was good about it. He goes, okay.

He goes, you're not ready for that, but you're going to have to do that. By the end of the game, I fought the 20-year-old. No shit. And I remember I did okay. I did okay in the fight. But the adrenaline rush you get you know when you freaking get into a scrap the adrenaline is just massive and i remember the whole ride home which was about i don't know 45 minutes an hour going home i was just bouncing off the walls i was just so fired up after right i was this is incredible and that rush i kind of liked it yeah it was like you know like it made you think i can i can do this

i think i yeah for me it was the first time i felt like i stepped in a locker room especially at that level where like my teammates were like fucking right yeah so that validation for my teammates and that adrenaline you're talking about was made me instantly hooked it was like a drug yeah instant validation though and it was and i noticed it from point forward. Everybody wants tough guys in their locker room. I'm a tough guy, and when I had another tough guy in the room with me or a couple of them, I loved it. It was like your pack just got stronger. It's like you've got a bunch of alphas in here that you're in trouble now.

I had a couple teams. The team in Tampa I played on, that was a tough team. And my line mates were Sandy McCarthy and Darcy Tucker. Oh, my God. Are you kidding me? I fought Sandy, I think, six times. I walked up to him and almost gave him a hug when he walked in there. I'm like, I'm so glad I don't have to fight you anymore because that guy owned me.

Like, it was just bad, right? But, yeah, so that's where I started training, hitting the heavy bag, watching hours and hours and hours of fight tapes on VHS. I remember, you know, that era was like the 70s, 80s. So, you know, you're talking the Broad Street Bullies. But all of those guys from that era are the guys that I cut my teeth on watching the Ben Wilsons, you know, Nystrom. You know, I just, I love the Bruins too.

They had a multitude of guys. Stan Jonathan, Wensink, you know, O'Reilly, the Tasmanian Devil. I mean, I couldn't believe how big he was when I first met him too. So you were studying that stuff? Oh yeah. I would study it. I'd put jerseys on heavy bags, like, you know the the heavy the what do you call them the yeah the dummies the dummies right i actually bought a dummy i actually bought one that you so the

punching bags that you could get um you could actually make it was in the form of a human that's when you know you're a meat that's when you know yeah that's what oh god jake sent me a wicked video of a kid he played with down in Providence his rookie year. Oh, what was his name? Really tough kid, too. Robbins? Bobby Robbins? No.

No. He never got any games up in the show, I don't think. But he was like – he was tough. And he sent Jake a funny video of him hitting this damn thing in the summertime. And I'm like, man, I pity the fool that drops the gloves with this guy first time because he's so revved up. But that's kind of the stuff you had to do because when you're going up against super heavyweights i mean you if you're not ready for it you're gonna you can you can be uh hurt pretty bad was tyler randell is that his name that's it oh yeah because i was i put yeah yeah he put he he hurt a couple guys that i put i mean that pull up his hoggy bb you look at him, and that's a tough dude. If you guys can ever find that video,

I'll try and get Jake to send it to you guys because it's like he is just beating this thing to a pulp. My last year in Manchester with the Monarchs, he was on the Providence Bruins, I believe. Yes, Jake played with him his rookie year, right? Yeah, he was a nail gun. Loved having him there, right?

That was a guy that you knew, like, if something happened, this guy was taking care of business. So when you were... Were you drafted by the London Knights? I was yeah again it was that era where I had no idea or no knowledge of whether or not I was going to be drafted right so for me it was funny because I started late like I said every every league that I played in was like the best league in the world I was like this is unbelievable because it was better than the one prior I just went junior C

to junior B drafted by the Knights to major junior was drafted to the new york rangers a year after london like it happened really fast probably too fast if i'm being honest but yeah yeah for sure i mean being 20 years old i was well 19 year old year i was the last cut from the rangers camp joey kosher had a hand injury but he was okay to start the season they had already told my coach back in london they were going to keep me up how many fights in camp that year like five and five or six that's back when the camps not the not the exhibition games dude I had two fights so get this Tony Granato so we're in Rye right we're in Rye the practice facility so I know this is the thing again I was pretty naive and oblivious to the league.

Rangers drafted me. I knew more about the Oilers, who everybody did back in the 80s and early 90s, than I did about the New York Rangers. And so I go into camp there, and I don't even know who Brian Leach is. I'm expecting a 6'5 defenseman that was the rookie of the year. Tony Granato was running up for rookie with 34 goals, I think, his rookie year. So I'm literally just, I have no knowledge of who anybody is. Leachie, a great dude, by the way.

One of the best guys in the game. But Tony Granato, he was a little shit out there on the ice, right? Like there's no question about it. And we've talked about this. But he dumps me off the face off my first shift. Boom, right on my back. You're fuming. So now I'm mad. But I get up and I'm like, who is this guy?

Like is this guy like a Ty Domi kind of tough guy? Because Ty was in the Rangers uniform too uniform too right so we played together there and I was like is this guy like a tough guy that I don't know about because we didn't have hockey db or hockeyfights.com to go and look at fights right so we didn't have that ability to see what guys did so I chastened guys I come back we're in the offensive zone I kind of cross check him in the corner he dumps me again i wasn't great on my skates to begin with i needed to work on that puts me on the ice again goes down the ice proceeds to score a goal when he's coming back around the boards i'm now just coming back into the zone and i go right after him now i'm fuming now i'm mad right so i just boom cross checking

me punches me once with the glove on i drop drop the glove. Boom. Down he goes. Okay? I'm thinking, whatever. This is what I do. No big deal. He's a stud. Ron Greshner, who's like 45 at that time, comes up to me and goes, what are you doing? I go, what do you mean, what am I doing? That guy just dumped me twice off the face-off, right?

I turn to go back to the bench, and all I hear is, get him, Joe. Joe Patterson jumped off the boards over the boards from the other bench and came in and I ended up fighting him too that was my first shift in the NHL I'm like welcome to the NHL I'm like send me back to junior right now just a different time right holy did you have to go like kosaradomi in camp no no we didn't fight in camp we we had oh god did we ever address some tough teams and exhibition games. But I'll tell you, the other team was tough too. Every team had five guys. Every team in exhibition at that time would have five, six, seven guys loaded up. And it was like, you know, you're going in there and you're getting ready to go. I remember the first exhibition game that I remember was against the Washington Capitals. And my first shift, I dropped the gloves with Alan May. Now we never ended up, we squared off forever, right? But then the linesman came in and broke us up, but there had

to be four or five fights that game, like just like within the first half of the game. But we had at that time, you know, Mark Janssens was a guy that was a really good player, but could fight. Ty Domi was in that lineup. Denny Vielle was in that lineup. Peter Friorenti was another one. We had Rudy Poschek, myself, like it was it was i'm telling you it was like you know joey wasn't even in the lineup then it was just it was it was a really it was a different time where there was typically a few guys that you had to be worried about but yeah it's amazing now how the game has changed and changed for the better i will say that i'm an old school guy i love to see a good tilt and i love to see physical hockey but the game's in a better place what did the

fighting do to you were you a guy where you knew you were going into a game knowing you might have a few dust-ups where it wouldn't affect you pre-game nap well i was personally a nervous wreck game days i had like cold sweats for like the whole afternoon before the game i used to get out of the ring three hours before the game just to get out of bed yeah just because you weren't taking a nap the sheets would be wet you know honest to god i'm not joking like i just now as as it went a nap. The sheets would be wet. You know, honest to God. I'm not joking. Like I just, now as it went on, it's funny. There would be different times where it wasn't as big of a deal for whatever reason. Where you felt like you were fighting better

or it wasn't even that. It's a real confidence thing, right? When you get into a groove, it's like anything else. You know how goal scorers will talk about how they have these just streaks, you know, like where goal scorers are streaky. When they're hot, they're hot. Like, I mean, everything's going in for them.

They can shoot from anywhere. It seems to find the back of the net. It's the same with tough guys. It's the same. And I found it was the same with me. If I was in the rhythm and fighting well, I was dangerous. It was like, you don't want to fight me right now because I feel really good. Other times, I felt like I couldn't fight my way out of a wet paper bag.

That's crazy. You know, it was like, oh, man, I'm really struggling right now. And so you're thinking about it a little bit much. As a profession, now you know I'm an analytical person. So I used to analyze everything probably a little bit too much. But, yeah, I would think about it. That was the hardest part for me, Biz. And I'm sure you say the same thing.

And I used to think that other guys didn't feel that. So I would think, like, Ty Domi is a guy that I thought would never feel that. This guy, I didn't think he was ever afraid or ever nervous. But it even got to him in the end of his career. You know, that was a guy, like those guys, eventually you're going to get to a point where you start to second guess. Well, it's the young bucks coming. Yeah.

And that's the thing. It's like they're younger and they're bigger and they want me because I'm the champ. So I get that. Yep. Was there any guys that were like you could never beat because of the styles or a guy that you always had your way with because it's just certain styles it's funny if i fought smaller guys i was strong and i was a technical fighter so i could always typically manhandle them i would be able to pick them apart because i could throw both hands like a guy like

vandenbosch for instance i mean i was really nervous i was nervous about that guy he's a great guy too right yeah i was nervous i was nervous about that guy for the whole time because he wanted to go toe-to-toe. He wanted to get inside track. Remember that fight with him and Kyle Frederick? He's had a few. I think he had one with Dennis Bombay. Oh my God.

The best fight I've ever seen. I was on the bench for that one. Was that one when he was Norfolk? I think Hershey Bears. Okay, they fought a bunch of times, right? Yeah. Face punching contest. But I knew he was, yeah, unbelievable.

It really was. And I honestly wasn't that kind of a fighter. I wasn't junior until Kelly Chase grabbed me. We were actually doing a hockey camp together in the summer before my first year junior. And he's the one that showed me how to tie up. You know, Kelly, for his size, was pound for pound. I mean, that guy could fight anybody. Yeah.

And he showed me how to tie up. He goes, hey, listen, big boy. He goes, you go in there and start going toe-to-toe with the proberts of the world tony twist you're gonna have a short career so i was like okay cool and that's how i thought i was a cowboy back then but i i started to learn that with my size and strength i could kind of pick guys apart a little bit if i got a good hold of them and twisted them around and put them where i wanted them the big guys though to answer your question the bigger, like the most vulnerable I ever was

was Zidane O'Chara. Oh, that's... I mean, like, it was ridiculous. That was the one where I was like, man, I might be over here. My life might end here.

And I know... What's my pension at? Yeah. All right, I think you can hang him up. And I know Milbury sent him out after. I fought Gino

earlier in the game. So Gino was with the Owls at that time. Oh, my God. And him and I had a history from... You know, and he was tough, bless his bless his soul he was a tough dude man he he was wiry and through and you know when i i'm sitting there at the face off and the game's over there's only like seven minutes left in the game or something all of a sudden i feel this bump and i look and i see this

giant beside me i've already fought today and i'm like and his gloves are off and he's standing with his gloves off and i'm like i didn't even know this guy fought i didn't even know that this is really early in his career right like i'm like i don't know i off. And he's standing there with his gloves off. And I'm like, I didn't even know this guy fought. I didn't even know that. This is really early in his career, right? Like, I'm like, I don't know. I didn't know this guy was a tough guy. And he grabbed me. And I've never been immobilized more by a guy in my life. Because I'm fairly strong.

He stretched me out. It was like McKay when he had McKay. It was unbelievable. That's what he was. And his dad was a Greco-Romanian wrestler, right? Like a coach. And he had that balance point. And as he got later in his career, he would have broke my face.

Like he had me in a position that at that time, and we talked on the dad's trip. That's the funniest part. When I went on the dad's trip, the first dad's trip, we were talking, the boys loved it. We were talking about our fight and they're looking going, Z played with Jake's dad. Against Jake's dad. Like, are you kidding me? How old is this guy, right? I actually always thought

he was he would give people like he he could have murdered him and he didn't i don't think he was a super mean person no no so and i think he was like nice in beating you up absolutely if he was mad though oh boy i mean i saw him like he was at ivana's or kochi that he he blew up kochi blew up when he was on Chicago. Ivanins, I think he put him down from his knee. Like he hit him with a right hand from his knee and put him down. It was like, you know, that's still to have that power in that position. Like he's just a freak of a specimen of a human being. He's running marathons every week it seems.

Yeah, it's nuts. I follow him on the gram too. He's just a machine, man. Who's that? No, Charles. I follow him on the Instagram. It's like, buddy, just go on a trip or something have a couple pops this guy's doing stages of the tour de france at six nine i guess he's got bikes all over the place he speaks about 11 languages now or whatever

i think it's five or six languages he speaks i think it's incredible two marathons in like a week or a week and a half or something crazy he did boston and then he left and got somewhere else individual and uh i'm so happy that my kid got to experience that for a bunch of years because or we could have something crazy. He did Boston and then he left somewhere else. A very unique individual. And I'm so happy that my kid got to experience that for a bunch of years because he was an amazing leader and just a guy that you had to respect him with how he did things. And looking at your career, so drafted by the Rangers and then ended up being traded to the Oilers before you played a game for New York.

And it was part of the Messier deal. So I'm assuming you got to say I got traded for Mess. I heard you guys have him on later on tonight. One of my greatest memories in all of hockey was we did a charity event up in Slave Lake and Mess came up there and I got to play on his team. We sat beside each other in the dressing room and I got a picture of us two together.

And I'm like, this is the first time I've ever had a picture with Mark Messier, the guy that I got traded for all those years ago. And I was oblivious. You know, at that time, you know how good a player is or with Mark Messier, the guy that I got traded for all those years ago. And I was oblivious. At that time, you know how good a player is and how much of a leader he is. He won five Stanley Cups in the Nevington, last one in 90. And then he won his sixth with the Rangers after that trade. But when I got traded, I was just a young guy, 20 years old, trying to make a team.

Truthfully, I didn't really understand how big that deal was until years later where the guy started chirping me like I was the last guy standing in the deal six years later. This is who we got for. You're one for one for Messier. Yeah. Those are big shoes to fill. I got to tell you. That's a really big shoes.

Better than the Hall one. Yeah. Or not. Yeah. Yeah. But you know what? Like, so it was pretty cool. But yeah, you know, it was coming into Evanston.

It was a fresh start for me. I was sad to leave the Rangers, though. You know, when you put time into a training camp like that, you guys know you're learning the team. You're learning the coaches. You're learning the training. You're comfortable. You know the guys a little. Yeah, you start to get comfortable in that environment.

And two years in a row, I was the last cut in training camp. And my last year, I went down to Binghamton and was down there for one day and got traded to Edmonton. Didn't even play a game for bingo. But I was excited to go to Edmonton because Glenn Sather called me right away. And Glenn was really good for me in my career. And he just said, listen, you're a big part of this deal. You're not just a throw in. Thank you. Yeah, whatever. Yeah. But he goes, you're coming right into Edmonton and you're going to play right away. So I was excited that I was going to play my first game. Yeah. I was like, hey, I'm going to get a game in the NHL. So it went from you being a player to them telling you you had to fight. And then all of a sudden, your last year junior, you had a pretty good year.

I think you had over 30 goals, over 60 points. And then you end up going to pro and more so the NHL level. Was it hard not being able to be that guy where you're touching the ice on a consistent basis? It was. It really was. And don't get me was. I, and you know, don't get me wrong. I did it.

And I, I kind of beat myself up a lot about it afterwards in my career for a while. It took me a while to kind of pat myself on the back and say, Hey, you survived a long time in the NHL fight and some really tough guys. But I always consider myself a fairly decent player when I was coming up. I know you played D and you,

and you could play for, which is an amazing skill. I find that fascinating, but I just, it was the negative part of the role that I don't think people understood. Like I talked about, you're having those nervous sweats before the game. You're going in there not knowing when it's going to happen. Like if you're training in the MMA now, and I'm a big fan of MMA and boxing, always have been the fight game.

These guys are training for months for that one fight. They know exactly when that fight is. It's coming up. You're training for that specific moment. Let's go. I could do that. Cause us, we had to do it on a nightly basis, but we didn't know when it was going to come. We didn't know if it was going to be tonight or tomorrow or a week down the road and who it was going to be. Right. But I, I, I, I did have, I did have a hard time with that.

Sometimes you started to question your worth on the team. I know that years later, and now I'm 53 years old, but years later when I was, is that my phone? Oh, yeah. Blowing up the podcast? That's all right. It's better than me. I think it's Char.

My bad, sorry. Char is going, hey, where have you been talking about me? I'm going to beat you up again. I'm going to ragdoll you again. The Edmonton Marathon. He's not much younger than me. It's beyond the bar. But, yeah, I think that when you go back to that, you just have to understand.

I remember years later when I started doing the TV in Edmonton. And even when I was doing the radio, I had a long talk with George LaRock one night when I was doing the Coyotes radio my first three years. I started to really try and not preach, but tell those guys, like, listen, I know you're only playing a couple minutes a night. Or Steve McIntyre, you know, he's a good friend of mine and i'm like hey like we would hunt together here in the around the city we're bull hunters and we'd be sitting

in the stand and i'd say listen like you're important to this team so and sometimes you can lose that when you're in a lineup and i think people forget that when you're when you're a healthy scratch as much as i was like i should have probably played around eight nine hundred games in my career i played 400 you, you know, like it's, and it took me 12 years to get 400, got the pension, but you know, it takes a while, but I think you sometimes lose that confidence

and you start to question your worth on the team. And it's really important not to do that. It's hard, but it's important. What I think would be tough is that because you were able, you were scoring a junior, it's almost like, all right, I'll do this at the beginning

and I'll work my way up to third liner. Then it doesn't happen. You're like, oh, this is who I am. That I imagine is like, fuck, like I'm never really going to get the chance to be maybe a third or second liner and be tough. And you know, early on, it actually kind of was happening that way for me.

Ted Green, you know, the late Ted Green, who I had a ton of respect for and was, you know, ex-Bruin too. I mean, he was, you know, terrible Ted, right? But the one thing Ted Green, for me, I had so much respect for him. I mean, when he wanted me to fight sometimes, he wanted to jump over the boards himself. So he would grab me by the back of the jersey

and literally throw me over the boards. He would just grab me and go, boom. He'd chuck me over the board to say, go play right wing. I'm a left winger. So I'd look up, I'd see Craig Berube over on the left side. I'm like, I guess I'm fighting. Here we go. I'm fighting Berube right now, right?

But I totally respected it. I was like, you know what? I'll go through a wall for this guy. Because if he could, Ted would have jumped over the boards and fought that guy. Right now. Like, no questions asked. At that time, he was 50. You know, when I first came to the league, 50, 52 or whatever he was.

He would have jumped over the boards and gone and fought that guy. As opposed to a coach who never fought, telling guys to fight. I always was kind of like, ah. I had a hard time with that. I'm not going to name names. I had a couple coaches like that, and it was tough for me. It was – So you didn't do this.

Yeah. It was a little more difficult for me. Guy that I really liked, though, was Jacques Demare, you know, in Tampa Bay. So I had played six years in Edmonton, went to Tampa, got hurt in training camp, went down to the minors, and I had Jeff Brubaker as a coach. You guys ever hear about Jeff Brubaker? No. Jeff Brubaker.

Is that like major league? Oh, no, no. He is a beauty, man. He's awesome. But he got me back to the NHL. This guy was like I played for the San Antonio Dragons in the IHL. And he had me on power play, penalty kill, five on five. Oh, you loved him.

He pulled me in there, but he was a big tough guy, right, back in the day. And he just said to me, he goes, listen, I want your name in the paper every day. I don't care how you get it there. I want your name in the paper every single day. So, like, my first game, and this is before I had this conversation with him, I go out there, I had a goal and and assist and then i think i had a fight and then at the end of the game i cross checked a guy in the face just in case the newspaper guy was sleeping i was agitated being down there in the first place but it was in the old ihl i love that league that league. But this guy was chirping me. And I

didn't know who he was. I'm looking at him. He kind of gave me the stick to my face like this. The McCracken? The McCracken. And I'm like, and I looked at him and I said, are you serious? Like, you just did that to me? So it was a face-off where I took the shot. I'm a left-winger on the inside. I took the one-time shot. He's coming out to go to his point and he's coming right at

me. And as I followed through, I went, wham! And I just caught him right in the face. I was playing for Chicago. I think Rob Brown was on that team, potentially, at that time, maybe. It was. But anyway, I get kicked out, and I'm thinking, oh, great job, Lou. Probably going to get suspended your first game, right? Nothing.

Not even a call from the league. Not even a call from the league. They don't even have a replay. Not a call from the league. No video evidence to be found. It just somehow vanished in that old rank and then brew came in and he was super excited i was like i thought he was gonna rain me right like i'm gonna get in trouble here for being undisciplined and stupid and he was

like that's what i'm talking about so i knew right away i was like oh my god this is gonna be crazy right but he was good for me and then that's how I got back up there, right? Back into the NHL. But that's, for me, just I wasn't used to being down there, but I played a lot. You kind of get that confidence back, and you get back into the mix. Oh, go ahead. No, I was actually, it was a little off topic. I don't mean to pry, but you mentioned you don't drink. Have you never drank?

Oh, yeah. No, I used to drink. And you just kind of realized? Kind of didn't suit me. Okay. I got myself in a lot of trouble. Okay. And it took me a long time to figure it out, to be honest.

Good for you, though. Are you scrapping and shit, like crazy stuff like that? Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. Yeah. I mean, I told you years ago I can't really come on the show and elaborate on a lot of those stories. No, no, of course not.

But, you know, like, yeah, no, it was something that I had to deal with and something that was, and it started when I was in Edmonton. That's where Glenn Sather was instrumental in that. That's huge. And I started, so when I was 20 years old, so 33 years ago was the first time that I tried to stop drinking. Okay. And it's pretty difficult when you're first starting to play in the NHL and you're trying to stop drinking, but it just didn't suit me. It just wasn't something that was good for me. Right. It just didn't, it was no different. And I know we use the analogy all the time, like a diabetic. It's just something that it's part of your life.

It's something that doesn't suit you. So you need to be diligent in not doing it. And it took me 20 years to figure it out, but I finally did figure it out. Only thing in the world. 13. Only thing in the world, the more you do, the worse you get at it. So it's like. You start to get pickled, right?

Yeah. That leads me to a question though, because you're around the team now, Oilers, all the time on the plane, on the road. What's the biggest difference you see from them to our era back in the day doing all that kind of stuff? Yeah, no, it is different. And I think they still have their fun. Don't get me wrong. And they should, right? They should have their fun.

They work really hard. You've got to let off some steam every once in a while. I love seeing it when it's with the group, with the guys. And I know that still happens. And that's awesome. Yeah, it's just I really think, number one, they can't go anywhere now without a thousand cameras, people that are going to talk.

So naturally just that in itself changes the way you go about doing things. And that's for the better, I would say. But I think that they're just so in tune with their conditioning now. They're so in tune with what they have to do. And the level of play now has gone up. I feel like in the last seven years around there,

five to seven years, it seems like every single season it gets faster and more intense earlier. And we're seeing it again this year. Look at the playoffs. I mean, they are tight, hard fought games.

So I just don't think that they have the opportunity to do it as much because it'll hurt them more. You'll be gone. It'll hurt them more. We could play hung. You could get... Yeah, we played yeah we play guilty right you know there's no question right but it was like not now no you can't do it you you will be you'll be noticed and you will be called

out and it's gonna it'll have an effect on you and it's probably a hard thing a hard kind of balance to have for guys you know because you want to go and have a good time but at the same time i think for the most part guys just understand it's just too hard of a game to do that if you're doing that to yourself um you you seem very like non-judgmental where you're saying it doesn't suit you right yeah um for for maybe the people who are listening and we talk about addiction all the time on here and for those of people who are listening who might uh have struggled with trying to stop what was it that helped you that finally nailed it down good question biz you know what obviously trial and error you know you that finally nailed it down? Good question, Biz. You know what? Obviously, trial and error.

You know, you go through it a few times and quite frankly, just really getting yourself in some deep water. And, you know, I got in some trouble when I was 40 in Vancouver and had to look my kids in the eye and understand that they were old enough to understand that, you know, what the hell is going on here? Yeah. And it was just a real eye opener for me. I've always had a great support staff. My wife, Cindy has been incredible. Um, I'm open with my kids. I I'm never a guy that's ever not going to talk about this. And I think that is really important. If you, you should never be ashamed of it. You should never be worried about what people think about it. So that's what I would say. I would say, listen, like, you know, if you have friends that you're willing to open up to and family members, you're willing to open

up to and be honest about it, do it. Because unless, until you do that, you're always going to have, you know, you're never really going to accept the fact that you have a problem. You have to own the fact that you have a problem and be very willing to talk about it. I heard a comment a little while ago that was ago that really stuck home with me. I watch podcasts and watch stuff. And it was someone that had been an addict for a long time. And when somebody would offer him a drink, and I did the same thing. I'd go into the bar at 20 years old.

I'd be drinking soda or whatever. They didn't have great non-alcoholic beer, which they do now. They're awesome, by the way. It's a great market. I love athlete ones. They're unbelievable. I just love growing a beer market. And I love the taste of a non-alcoholic beer.

Like when I'm eating wings or I'm having a steak, I like the taste of a beer. I drink them all the time. Two or three, they're great. Can't drink any more than that because after that, it's like no more. But what I would say is when someone would offer me a drink, I'd say, no, I'm trying to stop drinking. Right? And this gentleman said the same thing. I'm trying to stop doing whatever i'm doing

i don't do i'm trying not to do that until you get to a point where the answer is i don't drink that's my answer then it's leaving it open with the other answer yeah like i'm not going to say you which if you go hey would you like a beer i like i'm trying not to drink anymore that was my answer for the first like 10 15 years now it's like i don't drink yeah it's a big difference so that's very true take that for however you want to take it but that's that's that's that's 10, 15 years. Now it's like, I don't drink. Yeah. It's a big difference. That's very true. Take that for however you want to take it, but that's an amazing difference when you say, I'm not trying to drink anymore.

I don't drink anymore. No, I appreciate you opening it up. We fuck around a lot on the podcast. We like to sling the stories, but this type of stuff matters because I'm sure there's a lot of people listening. And honestly, it can get a hold of you, right? It can get a hold of you pretty quickly

and it can take a downward spiral fast. And the quicker you can get a hold of you, right? It can get a hold of you pretty quickly, and it can take a downward spiral fast. And the quicker you can get that in check is the better. And listen, there is a lot of people out there that will help you, and the more people you can have in your corner, the better. This might be a tough transition. The Phoenix days with J.R. Yeah. Hold on, Vince.

Before Phoenix, I got one question. Sorry, sorry. 98, 99. Las Vegas Thunder, Long Beach Ice. Oh, yeah. Springfield Falcons, Phoenix Coyotes. I don't know. Sorry, sorry. 98-99. Vegas Thunder, Long Beach Ice. Oh, yeah. Springfield Falcons, Phoenix Coyotes. I don't know. That's a wild season.

It's tripping. Yeah, sorry. Hey, they were getting them ready for JR in Kentucky. That was the training. The gauntlet they had to put them through. I will tell you, that was a rodeo, man. That was a rodeo year. So here's the thing.

I'll say this. So I... Those four cities. And then Springfield. You're like, what? No, I went to the... mean i will i will go into a little bit of a story here because it's like it kind of sums it up but perfect i've been six years in edmonton i go to tampa bay i get sent down i told you i go to brew he was wonderful for me he was awesome i really he got me back to the nhl fast and i never came back after i went up that year jock the mayor was what i was trying

to lead into with that. He was a guy that wasn't a physical guy, wasn't a guy that ever fought, but every time I dropped the gloves, every single time he would come down the bench and tap me on the shoulder and say, good job. And I'm telling you, that's all I needed. That was all I needed from a guy. As opposed to getting to the

bench and say a word, you're like. You know? And, you know, I remember Jamie Husgrove a couple undisciplined penalties one night. He probie and kosher in detroit jock did so he brings us in the office the next day and he's like i love you guys and he talked about the kosher probert days and i love you know in detroit and all this he goes you can't do that like you cannot do that i i you know that's the one thing for me if you're going to be undisciplined and take bad penalties you can't play for me so don't do that and we're like okay no problem perfect clear it up done we won't be undisciplined and stupid from that point on but um so we're talking about the

year that i played for four teams well so i go so so phil esposito who was my gm in tampa right four times that year he'd come out to me and said hey we're i had an optional deal i had an optional i had a two-way first year optional second year one-way money which is a big deal for people that don't know that right up and down if you're on a two-way they can yo yo i was up and down nine or ten times that year so i had worked my way into a one-way i get traded for craig janny to phoenix yeah i got traded for Messi and Janney. Think about that. Yeah. Are you kidding me?

But anyway, so I go to Phoenix, and now they pull that optional contract off the table and offer me a two-way. I didn't think they could do that. I thought I was an unrestricted free agent if they would have taken that off the table. I was misinformed, rightfully so. I don't want to go into those details of it.

And I thought, holy jeez, you know what? I got to fight arbitration for a contract here with Phoenix, who I don't know. I don't know anybody. Bobby Smith was the general manager. So I go in there, and they tell us after they've read the reports, the arbitrator, which I think arbitration is a joke, by the way. We'll get into that after. Jake almost went to arbitration. I told him, I said, you're not going. I said, if you do go to salary arbitration with the league, I said, have your agent go and represent you. You don't even want to listen to him. Don't even step foot in the room. Why would you? All you're doing is getting carved. They're not going to listen to you. Yeah. Right? We had these dossiers about, if this is for you, Biz this is a point where the the tough guy role is a designated role but it's an important role okay and you are a specialist in the league no different

than a backup goaltender no different than a defensive minded defenseman checking forward who's a great penalty killer you are a designated role at that time i had 20 fighting majors that year so i was top 10 in fighting majors so i I'm sitting there going, hey, like I had a great year. In my eyes, for what I do, that's an awesome year. I think it was 57 games or 54 games. I'm like, that's pretty good, right? They looked at it like it's not even a stat, like whatever. They looked at me as, oh, they were just looking at my ice time and this and that.

And I'm like, that ain't fair. That's as much as I'm going to go and that. And I'm like, that ain't fair. That's, that's as much as I'm going to go into that. So this arbitrator tells us that we're, we already know the contract we're going to give you. I'm like, how the hell could you know what contract you're going to give me when you haven't even heard me speak or battle my case in there. So my agent at the time, you know, didn't want me to go into the room, but I said, you know, the old Braveheart line, I had a suit on and everything in Toronto. I'm like, didn't get dressed up for nothing. You know, Braveheart, you know, the old Braveheart line. I had a suit on and everything in Toronto. I'm like, didn't get dressed up for nothing. You know Braveheart?

You know when the big guy says, hey, well, might as well go pick a fight. Right? Like I'm like, okay, let's go pick a fight. We didn't pick a fight. I ended up settling with Bobby, who I almost got into an altercation with in that negotiation. And, you know, I ended up being a really good relationship down the road. I will say that. But I went into that season.

Again, it was you know training camp knew it right away you're on a two-way we had jimmy cummins a bunch of tough guys there it was a strong team i get sent down so i go down to vegas playing for the lost the vegas thunder right in the international hockey league loved it down there i knew vegas was going to be a great city i knew it was going to be a great town and a great team i knew it because i played there before and i'm like this is going to be a great city. I knew it was going to be a great town and a great team. I knew it because I'd played there before. And I'm like, this is awesome. It's a great place to play.

They loved it then? I loved it then. It was awesome. But anyway, Bob Bourne was the coach down there, one of the nicest humans on earth. The old Islander? Yep. Yep. One of the nicest humans on earth.

And we had a gong show of a team, man. Like, you will look at that team. In Vegas. We were tough. We weren't good. But we were tough. So I get sent down there. And I'm fighting a lot.

Like I'm fighting, battling. I've got like 150 penalty minutes in 16 games or 20, whatever I got. I don't even know. And I'm just trying to get myself back to the NHL. And Bob Strum was the general manager. So he comes in after two periods against the Houston Arrows who ended up winning the, what was the Turner Cup? Turner Cup.

Turner Cup that year in the IHL. And he starts tearing a strip off the whole team. And he stands in front of me and absolutely lambastes me. Now, this was not a great thing for me to do. But I snapped. You were fuming. I snapped. Because I was already pissed off that I was there in the first place.

I was already pissed off that I'm in the IHL and have no idea what's going to happen and i freaked out chased him down the hallway no shit ripped an assistant captain off my jersey and chucked it at him like i was you guys holding you back oh yeah like brad miller was on the team uh dean yoon was on the team they held me back and said don't do it right i apologized to strummer and i've talked to him many times since he was just trying to get a rise out of the team. So go after the big guy. And if you go after the big guy, you can go after anybody, right? And I was like, you just had to give me a heads up. You caught me at a bad time here. Like I'm kind of already stressed out as it is. I'm just trying to do my job. Long story longer, I ended up getting sent to Springfield after that. They pulled their

affiliation with Las Vegas. I get sent to Springfield for, I think, four or five games. Then I go to Long Beach and play for the Ice Dogs. Great team. John Van Box... What's your wife saying? John Van Box... No, I mean, she's young with two little... We're young with two little kids. I mean, Dragner, she's a trooper. You know how... She was awesome.

She's the best. But I'm just trying to manage. And eventually, I end up getting back up to Phoenix at the end of the year. But I remember for John, John Von Boxman was the GM and coach in Long Beach. Loved it there. Great organization. He was awesome for me. And so I got called up nine different times. And like six of those times, one was like Christmas Eve. And like I'm standing on the ramp in Los Angeles, the old forum in LA, waiting for the taxi to come and take me back to the airport to fly back to Vegas as the team's taken off on the bus.

I get called up and I wouldn't play. It was like a provisional. It was almost like, come up just in case this guy can't play. And five times it happened, I didn't play. And I finally snapped and almost fought Bobby Smith again for a second time and said, hey, I don't want this. Stop bringing me up. I'm now eight years in the league here. Like bring up a young guy. That'll be happy to be yo-yoed all over the place. I got two young kids. I'll play my year out in Long

Beach. I love it. They're a great team. We had a really good team too. And I'll just take my chances in free agency next year. I don't, I don't need this trade me for a bag of pucks. So they called me up and Taylor Burke Jr. who is the owner's son who is an assistant general manager called me up a couple weeks later said we want to bring you up to to Phoenix and I was like not coming yeah I seriously I said I'm not going and he goes what do you mean I said I told you I said trade me I said I don't want to I'm not coming up anymore I'm not doing this anymore and uh oh it was so funny um I John Van Boxner finds us out he says come down to the rink because i live the block and a half from the rink down in long and in long island long beach so i go in

there and he goes you gotta go i go why do i have to go i can just pretend like i got a knee injury here i'll miss a couple days practice and i'll play on friday no big deal he goes louis he goes this is not personal this is just the way this is like it's just business right up and down so it doesn't feel like business when you're involved when you're the meat that's getting around throwing around but anyway so he convinces me to go i get sent down again i have a big meeting with uh jim schoenfeld who's the coach they're like afraid to send him down so and i said that's it i'm definitely not going back now right and uh i came back down playing cards at the back of the bus, and I feel terrible. I can't remember his name.

He got into the coaching too. Old, drizzled veteran guy that had been kind of a journeyman, defenseman, Purvis. I said, well, I'm done in Phoenix. I guarantee you there's no way after what I said that I'm going to get called back up again. And he goes, I don't know about that. Let's just see what happens right he was he just

kind of said sometimes you got to put your you got to make a stand and let him know you want some I was called up two weeks later never came back signed a two-year deal with Phoenix that I negotiated myself with Bobby Smith well the best part of that is biz he played you played six playoff games two goals yeah that year yeah you know so you never it's a crazy journey you don't know right like it's like what's going happen. And everybody has that story of a different journey. Some guys, yeah. You know, two year, one way to yep. Two year, one way. So I, I had gotten rid of my agent after what happened with the arbitration thing. And I didn't have a representation at the time. And Bobby Smith came down and said, Hey, listen, I want to talk to you after the practice today

about, I thought he was sending me down. He goes, no, I'm not sending you down. Don't worry. He goes, come up and talk to me after I want to talk to you about maybe extending you. And I was like, whoa, seriously? Like that turned 180 pretty fast. I've tried fighting you twice. That turned 180 pretty fast. And we ended up having a great relationship.

You know, and it was just weird. It's like you got to fight for yourself at the same time. I probably would recommend nobody to go after their general manager and chase him down the hallway like i did because that can look pretty bad berkey might have loved it but not many others berkey might have just thrown a right hand at this time in your career because you've become such a great analyst like you're awesome at what you do post playing career did you have any idea that that this would be part of post playing no really that was kind of the start of it though in arizona wasn yeah. The people that you got to meet there. You worked with Bob Heat House.

Yeah, he was a great man, eh? Salt of the earth. Think of how many people. One of my favorite humans on the planet. I texted him today. I'm hoping he gets, obviously, a job with the new Utah team. I do, too. I talked to Smith.

I said, hey, this guy, he's helped nurture so many guys. Tyson Nash, him, myself. You started on radio? Sorry, I couldn't have had a better partner you know obviously you've worked with him I mean that has zero ego like he's just such a man he's the best unbelievable whereas if you talk over some guys they might be like this guy encouraged me yeah he was encouraging me to get in there he encouraged me to do more he encouraged me to do interviews you have because sometimes the deck players you know you come out and you're like

I don't want to go in the opposing yeah you're a clown a little bit i'm not going to walk in the room and talk to guys that you know i've been battling for the last freaking 10 years loved it once i started going in the rooms and talking to the guys i mean we're all the same you know we all know like it's it was it was it was a real eye-opener for me and that's kind of how i got my start out of the blue though like how you say i was back here in edmonton i had a bunch of different things i was getting involved I was actually going through the fire department I got gotten through the aptitude believe it or not and I was on to the physical and uh I just had lunch actually or a coffee with Chris Joseph who's on the the fire department here

in Edmonton and we were talking about that and laughing about it because he post career got into the fire department is still working which is great but i um you know for me i just wanted to try a bunch of different things didn't really know what i was going to do thought about coaching a little bit i had done a little bit with trent yanni down in norfolk my last full year and i really liked that interaction uh with the players on the bench and just helping young guys trying to figure it out but i was doing a few different things got a call from uh rich nairn who is the director of public relations for the Coyotes at that time.

He goes, hey, what are you doing? I go, you got mail for me, don't you? Because you know how when you drink, when you're a suitcase, mail kind of has to catch you. You got bills. And he goes, no, actually, we're breaking up our broadcast.

We want to have a designated radio feed. And that's how I ended up going down doing an interview and a dress rehearsal with Heater. And that was that was the start same guy who gave me my first job at a plan rich naren how did you end up like because you're from ontario but now you're an edmonton guy jake was jake was born how did you end up deciding this would be your home base um my wife okay yeah okay so i came here in 91 and i uh i i just i would hang around here in the summer times because a few of the guys in the team, the older guys, had places here and families and they would stay here in the summer time. A lot of guys actually stay here.

Summer's amazing here. People stay here after seasons and hang out here. And obviously with kids, your schedule changes because of school and all that. It revolves around them. But I met my wife here in, I believe, my fourth year. Third or fourth year we started dating. And yeah, you know what? The rest is history.

I became a converted Westerner being from Ontario. Go ahead. No, no. All right. Go ahead. I went with that Phoenix squad. I mean, yeah, Jayock, Chuck, Talkett. And, like, Dallas Drake, that's a guy who, I mean, he doesn't hear his name a lot.

But he's a funny bastard. I just brought him up the other day when I was watching the Florida Panthers because Carter Verhage reminds me of Dallas Drake. Okay. You look at Carter Verhage out of his gear and you're like, that's a surfer. There's no chance that guy can score 40 goals in the NHL. He's got calves the size of this Mike Poler. Like wits.

Wit calves. It's unbelievable, though. That guy is just Johnny on the spot. He is clutch, isn't he? Yeah. And Dallas Drake was that guy. One of my most liked humans on the planet. He, for a guy that was a buck 75, buck 80 sopping wet, would crush guys.

Yeah, he threw big hits. He would crush guys with hits. It was unbelievable. But so happy to see him win a Stanley Cup at the end of his career, too. He was a big bass fisherman, too. So I used to borrow his ranger bass boat all the time and go fishing. So that's why I liked him, too. What was JR like in that room?

You know what, JR? You know what's funny? I know St is styles and um jr was was amazing to me you know i my wife and i have nothing but great things to say about jr and he's he's a he's an enigma he's just uh you know this guy's high on life and just you know he's wild and crazy and i understand like you know he had some things that went on but that guy's a super likable human being like he is and for me he uh we used to always joke that guy loved the limelight right he loved that we so we played against the St. Louis Blues my first year in Phoenix when I got called back up at the end of that first year that year where I was on four teams we played St. Louis and they had a powerhouse team Pronger and McInnis on the back end were playing 35-38 minutes and they just had a really solid team right and we went seven games that's where i scored the two goals knuckle puck

on grant fear got them pulled twice in one game wow it's scored on by deborah yeah so jim schoenfeld came in with the psychologist they pulled them off and in the room you okay so jim schoenfeld came in like after game two and said listen mckginnis and pronger are just getting out of the zone way too easy so we had a meeting and said from now on and mcginnis put out like five six guys in that series by breaking their toes and feet it was unbelievable five different guys had to leave the series because of his slap shot but anyway so we're like so he says listen we need to be a little payback here no more dumping the puck in everything shot on grant fuhrer so he says, listen, we need to be a little payback here. No more dumping the puck in. Everything shot on Grant Fuhrer. So he's going to have to stop it, deflect it somewhere.

It's going to give us a couple more seconds to get a hit on McGinnis or Pronger. Didn't work, by the way, but a little bit. But because they're still that good, they still figured out a way. But that's how I scored on Grant Fuhrer. It was not like I was, the first one was a pretty decent goal. It was a slapper. Noonan dropped to me. I just cranked it and it found its way in the net. But that one was,

I'm coming over the red line, take the slap shot on net. It literally knuckle pucked and dropped three feet and got by him. And that's how it went. And I was on the bench, I was at the standing, getting into the bench when it went on the net. But that was just good, good coaching pickup by Schoenfeld. So, you know, that's kind of the way, right? But that's, that's, I don't even know where we were going with that, the of that conversation but kind of that's what we do here we get off the rails i love guests where we just put a quarter in them they go it's awesome but yeah that uh that team was uh jr is who we were talking about oh yeah and i just so for game played the first six games of that series then game seven jr that was the year that he had his

jaw broken by hatcher yeah and his wrist broken by Madvichuk in the same shift. So, and I'm telling you, like I was standing on the bench and Gord Ross was the medical trainer at that time. And J.R. came to the bench and I was by that time down by the backup goalie. And on the bench. And he, I could see the separation in could see the separation yeah you could see his teeth i remember literally separated in the bottom of his his jaw was wide open kind of like that predator remember predator movies where the predator thing used to open up and the jaw would

open up that was what jr's jaw looked like he goes out and plays the first minute and a half on the five on three and then leaves the game and was gone for till he till he came back for game seven of that round one and we were joking this is this is typical jr and i love the guy i do i love him we were like we should like lower him down from the rafters you know because like because he would do it you know like the guy from nashville the the predator yeah yeah he was coming down from the rafters we're like we, we should lower J.R. down. The crowd would go nuts. It's at home. He's got the white face paint like Sting.

He just got fired up. The bigger the moment, you wanted to have that guy on the ice because he wanted to be there and he wanted to be the guy. And those are the guys that were the clutch players in playoffs. Claude Lemieux was on that team. Not that year. It was the year after. And when that guy was on the ice in the clutch,

that's who you wanted because he was going to put the puck in there, right? We had JR on and he was talking about that OT winner he scored against Toronto. And he's like, oh yeah. He goes, I live for the moment. He goes, I was in there between periods and I was envisioning it. I was drawing it up in my head. I'm going to go upstairs on him.

So he ended up pulling it off. We had Matthew Kachuk and Matthew, sorry, Keith Kachuk. I've said that on the air too. I've called Matthew Keith and, you know. Juggle them up. Yeah, it's like Brady, Matthew. Like the Kachuk boys, right? But we had Keith on the team.

And Keith was a fantastic player and kind of old school throwback. He cross-chucked me in the face one night so hard that I thought it was going to be like permanently have a mark of the shaft of the stick on my face. But him and Jer were both real strong personalities and people always, you know, question that relationship. I know when I was there, but they, they, they push each other to be really, really good. But, uh, the funny rule coming on board when I first got to Phoenix, Dallas Drake, another Dally Drake story.

So we're sitting there and we're sitting there playing past the ace on the bus going from the hotel to the airport or something. And Dally goes, hey, have you heard the rules here yet? I'm like, nope. He goes, rule number one. Hey, Walt, what's that rule number one? Get Walt the puck. That's Keith Kachuk.

Rule number two, don't forget rule number one. There's only one out there. And then you had Talk in the mix too what a team what a great guy i saw him on with you guys the other day i love that guy he's he's uh he's doing a great job uh real nice run this year with vancouver obviously talk about if a coach asked you to like maybe fight somebody that's they're like okay the guy i've always said this about talk that he can relate to everybody scored 50 goals played with vamu play with gretzky and this guy has rubbed shoulders with the best guys in the game but the other thing about talk is he used to hang out with him all the time he's the best one of my best friends i love that guy we've said that about 16 guys this pod but he's the best yeah no honestly there's a

lot of best but isn't that great that's what it's all about right like and you know why those guys stick around for a long time and why they're in the mix because they are those types of people right that's the truth it's a small world this hockey world when you were on the team with phoenix And you know why those guys stick around for a long time and why they're in the mix? Because they are those types of people, right? That's the truth. It's a small world, this hockey world. When you were on the team with Phoenix, you guys were at the old barn downtown, right? Yeah, yeah. America West. You guys were like the hottest ticket in town.

So if anybody knows about hockey surviving in the desert and being able to flourish, it's you, right? You saw it. You guys would pack the house even though they had the tough spots in the upper deck. So what would you think about the hockey returning and how sad were you to see it go i was really sad actually phoenix was very instrumental in my career in two ways as a player and as a broadcaster so and i and i ended up doing the last game in there i ended up doing the last game with oilerwood in town for that last game of the season oh that's right so it just kind of worked out that

way that i'm telecasting that game right doing the game for for sports net and i uh i'll tell you what it was an emotional night biz it was an emotional night seeing stan wilson crying on the bench hugging guys and high-fiving guys a guy that came over from winnipeg and was there right from day one todd walsh gave that amazing he's the amazing yeah just an incredible address and address and just really put it into real perspective. Walsh, you're one of the best in the business. Seeing my buddy, Bob Heat House, you know, knowing that there's questions there whether or not he's going to have it. I mean, these are people that were really instrumental and good friends of mine. To see them in that disarray was very difficult.

And I'll tell you, it was a hard broadcast. It was a hard one for me because as much I didn't care about the win or loss or what was going on in the game. It was that thought of this is the last game here. Are they going to come back? Now, I know they're talking about that. Yes, I believe hockey can survive there. I think they could certainly get the excitement back up doing it the right way. That arena's got to be in the right spot, number one, location-wise.

It's got to be all in, all hands on deck, making it a good organization and go forward. And if that happens, then awesome. I hope that it, I hope that, you know what? I hope that it succeeds because it's an awesome place. I love Arizona. I know you still live there and I, I've lived there off and on.

I lived there off and on for what, eight years? And I loved it down there. It was an amazing place. It's funny you mention Brian Noonan because we had to do Rob Brown earlier. He was an old team. It is him too. Yeah, Noonan. But I want to bring up your son, Jake.

I mean, one of the most hot woman clips I think the last few years when he got his first goal in Boston. Yeah, yeah. A very emotional moment for you. Let's talk about that for a second. Yeah, you know what? It was just – it's pretty incredible, right? Because Jake was a little bit of a late bloomer, right?

Was he? Yeah, he was the smallest kid in his team i think for four or five years in a row sometimes not on the a team oh no he was he never made that that that travel team his first year always had to make it the second um yeah so it's for him to see him grow his first year of junior after mark lamb was his head coach and general manager and swift current was fantastic and um really pushed him to be that kind of a player and in his second year scored 42 goals on his draft to where he was but it was a real fast descent you know for him to in the improvement game and uh you saw the work that was going into it yeah you know like and he but he was always you know for me i mean he was always a real smart player always a guy that you know was tough and could take a beating because he was small right he was always, for me, I mean, he was always a real smart player, always a guy that was tough and could take a beating because he was small. He was always taking guys, taking runs.

I actually had to tell him to stop hitting. This year is the first year he had over 100 hits in the league because I'm telling you he's got to hit now a little bit more. He told me not to. But I did. I told him not to hit because every time he'd go run a guy, he was running right into an elbow. I'm not kidding you guys.

When I say he was small, I mean really small. Really? So I'll tell you exactly how small he was. When he was drafted by the Swift Current Broncos, we had 5'2", 125 pounds on the sheet. At what, 14? That was my wife. My wife fudged the numbers.

He was actually 4'11", 119. At 14? Holy shit. Which is, why the fuck are they drafting those kids so young? I don't like it either. It's so stupid. Well, it's a year earlier. It's summer. I don't like it. I don't like it either. It's so stupid. Well, it's a year earlier. It's summer.

I don't like it. I don't like it at all. You have no idea what you have as a player at 14. Yeah, you know the guys that are good at that time, but how often do guys exceed that and go further, right? At 18 sometimes it's hard, let alone that young. Yeah. But you know what?

So he was a late bloomer. So for me, we had to kind of watch that journey go. And just to watch him, you know what I played his first year down in Providence, you know, battled through that, went into camp, made the team that year. And for us to all be there was remarkable. You know, for them to have us in there, because that wasn't a big thing, right?

Like my parents, like I never knew if I was in the lineup or not. So it was like having them come down. My very first game in Detroit, my very first game in Detroit early in my first year, I got a did not play. I did not get registered for a game because back then if you didn't get a shift and that happened to me three, four times in my career. Oh my God. I think that's still, is that still? No, no, no. As long as you're on the game sheet now you get a game, which is the

right way to go by the way. But if you didn't get a shift, you did not get a game credited. How do you not get one shift you did not get a game credited how do you not get one shift i always look at it what the fuck is that you know what now that i think about it though i'm kind of happy because i was looking over there and it was bob probert and joey yeah i'm like this is gonna be this joey wasn't there anymore joy wasn't there but bob was there this is gonna be bad if you want one goal games back then i might not want my yeah i don't want that shift hey now that, maybe the coach was protecting you. Yeah, I don't want to see.

That was Teddy too. I do not want to see. I do not want my parents to see me get beat up that bad by Bob Prober. But back to Jake there, I'm guessing you'd say it probably helped him being smaller and not making teams and the adversity. I think a lot of times kids don't have much adversity, and then it's harder at 20 years old where he had dealt with stuff. Yep, no question.

He's persevered. He had to really buckle down. And you know what? I remember the one thing that really hit home. He came back. He got cut from a team and he was pretty upset. He had a good camp, but he just was like, you know, the coach told me that I was just too small.

And he goes, can't do anything about it. It's the one thing I can't do anything about. It's the one thing I have no, like no control of. Right. And I'm like, and then people look at me, I'm a big guy and they're like,

he's going to be. And I'm, but Mark Lamb was the guy. So he called me up and chopper was chopper was his nickname. I play with him. My rookie year, we're really good friends. And he,

um, he, he said to me, he goes, he was a small guy himself. He was a defenseman like you in junior, great offensive defenseman played forward in the NHL and defense. But he said, you know, I don't care how big he is. Does he compete? Can he play? And now the league's gotten to that. Listen, everybody loves size if it

competes and plays well, but I'll take the little honey badger over the big guy if he's not going to play hard. And that was kind of the mentality for Jake. Marty St. Louis was always a guy that I told him to watch. Like this guy just, you know, he buzzes around and he's just tenacious and he goes. Listen, he grew and he sprouted and he developed, but being there for that game was awesome. Yeah, he's a great kid. Great person. It was awesome to see that. And for him to

score, too, it was just like, because I don't give him any opportunities to see him play live. So when I do, I hate it because I know I put more pressure on him. I'm putting more pressure on him every time I'm in the building because I'm like, he knows I hate it because I know I put more pressure on him. I'm putting more pressure on him every time I'm in the building because I'm like, he knows I'm here. And I just always tell him, listen, don't. Like, I just, just go play. Like, if you score, great.

But I'm just, you don't have to score. Well, the interview you had with him before the game, that was one of the coolest moments. And for you, like, battling throughout your career, like, imagine years before knowing I'll be interviewing my son, me doing a game and him playing in it. It's wild. What did you say to him? Something about push-ups. So when he was younger, he used to build these little coupons. He would give me coupons for birthdays or Father's Day, and it would be like, one free clean my room.

So if I'd hand him the coupon, I was like, hey, go clean your room. And you can't argue. If I give you a coupon that you've made, you to go do this right so then i we kept them my wife keeps everything so she had these coupons and she's had them stuffed away and she brought them out and i'm like you know i'm gonna get them with one of these so i only wish i would have picked the hat trick one but so i think it was like goal and an assist or 30 push-ups, right? So I handed it to him in that interview and said, hey, listen, you remember these?

I guess you didn't think I was going to be doing it in the NHL, but here it is. I'll save these. I looked all over this thing. There's no expiry date. So I can cash this coupon in. And then he goes out there and scores a goal and has an assist. I'm just like, are you kidding me, Greg?

He was in a little bit of a slump too. Did he do the push-ups pregame? He didn't have to be scored and an assist, right? So if push-ups pregame? He didn't do any push-ups. He didn't have to be scored. So if he wouldn't have, he would have had to do push-ups. And he joked and said, I don't know if I can do

30 push-ups. Well, he got in touch with us before we were interviewing you. We were just chatting how you're back playing golf. You played when you were younger and gave it up. And he said,

you got to ask him. He's got a little rage on the golf course. He gets a little angry. I knew it. I knew he was going to have something there because I texted him. I said, what dirt did you give him? He said, he rages.

I am a little intense on the golf course. I'm not going to lie. And it has nothing to do with it. Glad we didn't get you for a bagger this week. It has nothing to do for anybody. It's just me. I've never broke 80 in my life. I know it's crazy, right?

And I've been really close a few times. Like I'm starting to- Boogie on 18. I'm starting to threaten it almost every time with. I'm starting to, you know, threaten it almost every time with the exception of an eight, seven, six, and a four on my last four holes last round that dummied my chances. No.

Yeah. Those were your last four holes? Those were my last four holes. Oh, so you were even probably. Triple boge on a four, triple boge on a five. I stuck a par three to within five feet, three putted for the four. so it's in your head now yeah

now it's in my head so now it's like i never really could execute i gotta learn to execute well this has been amazing i'm texting with donor actually right now and he's like uh um he goes uh he won't say a negative word about anybody what a guy yeah that's right yeah that's a good human right there yeah that we had him on the air that night in the last game and that was that was emotional too because that if anybody has you know been the face of hockey in arizona in phoenix it's shane don't right so it was really nice of him to come on our telecast and give us some time and i know he had his son playing on the ice and i know what that's like and i told him i don't want to break up that time. But awesome person.

And just, yeah, one of my guys, he was a beauty. That's for sure. Whit said you kind of look like him in one of your photos. Yeah, a couple of these pictures. I have to agree. Right there. Let's see that. A couple of delfs cruising around.

This picture, you look like a complete killer. And that was a shaved head. So I went down to a number one, right? When Jake was born, that was the haircut I had. was like 96 right that was animals loved it i love my hair like that right my wife hated it she's like don't ever do that again don't ever do that again i'm like you look too crazy but as soon as i start blowing the feathers worse it's going right down to number one again right i might need to do that i think we're gonna have to do this again and again and again boys you got stories for days Louis, but we thank you for coming on,

sharing most of them, and also sharing about your sobriety. I think that's huge for our fan base, and we appreciate you. All good. Thanks, guys. Thanks, Louis. You look great for 53, by the way. Hey, thank you. You're older than me.

I feel like an old man next door. Here on Spittin' Chicklets, we talk a lot about hockey including the best ways to enjoy game day that is right if you need help getting those game day essentials you got to have discover in your back pocket discover is accepted by 99 of places that take credit card nationwide so when it's time for wings and drinks you're pretty much covered. Yeah, you don't want to be the guy scrambling for cash like wit when the round's on you. And remember, y'all, Discover is accepted by 99% of places.

But attempting to start a wave at a critical point in the game is not. It pays to discover. Percentage based on the February 2024 Nielsen Report. And don't miss the puck drop for the Discover NHL Winter Classic on New Year's Eve. Thank you so much to Louis DeBrusque. Thank you to all of you who

listened. The tickets for our live show December 29th in Chicago leading up to the outdoor game, the Winter Classic at Wrigley Field. They're on sale now. There's still tickets. Barstoolsports.com slash events. Sunday, December 29th. No Bears game.

The Hawks play after. Get some tickets. Come and join us. Some very special guests involved. We're going to have a blast. You can get that at BarstoolSports.com slash events. And Thursday.

Biz, we gained 1,000 on our YouTube channel. We're at 357. We had 1,000 last week. So that's nice to see. If you can subscribe to that, it helps us immensely make more content. This sandbag is very special. Thursday noon, subscribe to the YouTube, go to the YouTube, watch us, try to get back on the right side of things. And thank you to all our guests today. Merle's, Tuca, Louis DeBrusque,

awesome show. Biz, next week we got USA Canada rosters. We can have some big time discussion there. Maybe the arm dog comes on. You know, his opinion. Love that. Love that. A lot going on, Chicklets Nation. You mentioned it. Subscribe to the YouTube. A lot of those subscribers were dialing into the Chicklets U

in which G said we have a few more big ones coming out. Michigan, Michigan State. Last week we dropped the dropped the NHL alumni merchandise with all the fun little cartoon images. All proceeds going to the Alumni Association. Ovi's going to cost us 50 fucking grand this year donating to the Alumni Association the way that he's scoring goals. We've said it.

Every goal that he scores, $1,000 towards the alumni. And then wherever he's at, at the point of the Winter Classic, we will be giving a check to the Alumni Association at that live show you just mentioned. We haven't announced who the guests will be yet, but we have a few special ones that we will trickle out before the show and kind of get the hype started. But so far, so good on numbers of tickets sold to that live show. And if you haven't picked up your ticket.

Do so now. And great pod. Everybody was buzzing. Pasha was being a dickhead as usual. Stroking off his New Jersey Devils. So really everybody in the family in the mix. And that's pretty much all we got for this one. Be kind to your servers.

Be kind to your servers. Don't be high maintenance we love you all have a great week I don't know any other way. This feeling is so hard to break. I don't know any other way. Even if I could go away. I don't know any other way. This feeling is so hard to break. I'll get you someday.