Spittin Chiclets - Spittin’ Chiclets Episode 536: Featuring Rob Gronkowski, Matt Duchene & Yands

Episode Date: December 17, 2024

On Episode 536 of Spittin’ Chiclets, the guys are joined by Dallas Stars Centre Matt Duchene who opens up about the mental health side of hockey, being traded from Nashville, and his work with charity groups helping to fight cancer. Later on, 4x Super Bowl winner and all time NFL tight end Rob Gronkowski joins the show to talk about his insane time playing college ball at the University of Arizona and growing up playing hockey. Yands gets called out by Greg Cronin, Biz’s brawl aired for the internet to see, and Whit made an all-time coaching mistake for his sons team. This is an episode you won’t want to miss. 00:00:00 - START 00:00:25 - Chiclets Updates 00:38:42 - Greg Cronin vs. Keith Yandle Story 00:44:24 - Oilers Leafs Talk 01:02:14 - Sabres In Trouble 01:20:40 - Matt Duchene Interview 02:14:22 - Around the League 02:33:34 - Rob Gronkowski Interview 03:24:43 - Quick Hits Support the Show: PINK WHITNEY: Take Your Shot with Pink Whitney GAMETIME: Download the Gametime app today and use code CHICLETS to easily score great deals with the new Gametime Picks! JACKPOCKET: New customers, get your first ticket FREE using code: “PUCK” ($2) https://jackpocket.onelink.me/sY17/CHICLETS GAMBLING PROBLEM? CALL 1-800-GAMBLER, NY Call 877-8-HOPENY or text HOPENY. 18 or older (19+ in Nebraska, 21+ in Arizona). Void where prohibited. Promo code required for $2 non-withdrawable credit. Prize amount may differ at time of drawing. Terms jackpocket.com/tos/free-ticket-promo/ LABATT BLUE: Find Labatt Blue Light at labattusa.com/finder PETER MILLAR: Head over to https://www.petermillar.com/CHICLETS to check out the Holdridge family as well as the rest of Peter Millar’s sweater lineupYou can find every episode of this show on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or YouTube. Prime Members can listen ad-free on Amazon Music. For more, visit barstool.link/schiclets

Hey, Spittin' Chicklets listeners, you can find every episode on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or YouTube. Prime members can listen ad-free on Amazon Music. Me and Ryan have been officially welcomed to the jungle that is Boston Sports. Our white whale, Sidney Crosby. Shave his head! Shave his head! Shave his head! Ryan Whitney, Paul Bissonnette, R.A., Mike Grinnelli, Spittin' Chicklets! What is up, folks? Welcome back to Spittin' Chicklets, episode 536. Very, very special show ahead. We have so much to catch up on, so much to talk about.

Yans is back, baby. Yans is back. The people love him. The people need to hear from him. And we got some very crazy news coming in right before we started recording. But before we get to both guys, including Paul Bishnasty-Bissonnette, who went crazy viral this week, describing his brawl where he fought six people and came out looking better than they did, we got to talk about Pink Whitney.

And that is what it's all about. This show is presented by Pink Whitneyney new amsterdam's own pink whitney the big bottle the little bottles the medium bottles summer fall spring doesn't matter winter right now look at that sick shirt business wearing shot for a cure shout out the breasties shout out spit and chicklets and shout out pink whitney go get a drink right now take your shot with pink whitney and whoever won that contest to nashville is gonna have a time and a half down on Broadway having a grand old time. Go, dogs. I know that's a big old bottle.

Us dogs, we got to buy. Tennessee has to be playing against Ohio State. I don't even know who they're playing. But what is going on, guys? Keithy, Biz, how you doing, boys? I'm doing great. I had a bunch of my Canadian buddies in town this weekend. So we were kind

of running amok went to that global ambassador and then this uh this new place called elefante and then they had this bar bambino um they were playing um like 75 volume you know me i don't want it too loud in there and all disco it was a beautiful little room it's called bar bambino i had a blast we ended up going back to back nights little disco i was home by like 12 30 12 45 it's the new way of partying disco really it's making you talking disco like like like the 80s yeah yeah yeah but like they kind of remix it and make them like they segue them segue them into other tunes. And there's a, you know,

a few modern, like maybe a couple of Madonna tracks throughout the night and her heyday, not the new shit. What's very funny is, and I'm wondering where people go on this Keith, you don't know exactly what I'm talking about. Biz is a guy that when he's out and maybe this is more common than I think, but he's like kind of always moving with the music as he's out.

Like I don't have moves, I don't have rhythm but like you'll be standing there talking and like even talking to me you're just i'm like dude can you stop dancing right now this is awkward as shit but you're so you were just the whole night just shaking just grooving oh yeah this was like a full-fledged disco it was awesome it was unreal being back in the mix so my buddies were here we had a little bit of fun did it sober so i'm not waking up feeling like shit could still get my hikes in and like overall dinner dinners.

And then like out to about 1230, that's my speed. And like I said, man, some of these bars and restaurants, they crank the tunes. So you got a headache by the time you leave trying to dial in conversation. You could have a conversation, this club, the music was disco and it was uplifting. It's not like some of this bullshit rap that yans listens to just a classy establishment and a place that i would

look to throw my 40th birthday party which i'm having and i hope you guys are there so houston's and then elephant i just saw that the empty netters boys the powers brothers they were they were recently talking about how the volume at bars is out of control. Like that it's just gotten way too loud. Too loud. Too loud. We don't need it that loud. We just need like 75%.

You got to still be able to have a conversation. Absolutely. No. Yeah. I don't think I would bring. I think I'm going to have probably about 80 to 100 people for my 40th birthday party coming up in March yeah I'm gonna have a bunch of my friends from Vancouver coming and I align with Jackie the alien yeah you met Jackie the alien we're around the same time so I'm gonna say everybody come down stay at hotels get airbnbs and I'll throw like the the party at my place and

then go over after to to like something like that bar Bambino. And on the Friday, Jens, how many times have you been to Buffalo Chip? A bunch. It's the best. It's the best. So you go, it's in Cave Creek. It's like a rodeo out of a movie. So Scottsdale, Old Town, that's where all the nonsense is, right? Well, if you go 35 minutes to Cave Creek,

they have this like small little town with biker bars and they have like a small time small time rodeo i want to say they throw the rodeo on fridays and sundays so you go there at 7 30 and they start the show they got an mc you got the kids riding the the sheep like you could sign up your kid and you could put a helmet on and go ride a sheep if you if you wanted to fucking ride the bull they put a hockey helmet on you just got to sign a waiver like they got locals out there we remember we had a halloween party there a couple times biz yeah you're telling me any person can hop on the bull like oh yeah oh yeah do it these bulls are like me they got the low t they're not like fucking bodacious like kicking up to to like, I mean, have you ever seen?

Fool Manchu. Hey, if you've never seen the documentary, if you've never seen the documentary of bodacious, go on YouTube and watch it. It's crazy. This guy like retired some of the best bull riders where he was just, but these are like, these are ones that might be kicking like, you know, six inches. They were at the disco the night before. so they're just like you at the bar just chill low t-ball low t-ball fish says in the chat that little kids on riding a sheep you're like it's a dude good job dude in a cow a. It's Laine. He's got the udders.

It's Laine in Montreal's locker room. Oh, yeah. That's sort of an inside joke. Those are the pants he wore to his first day there. I don't know. We actually interviewed Patrick Laine today. It was a blast talking to him. Very interesting cat. Today's episode, we're dropping Matt Duchesne, which is an incredible interview.

Unbelievable. Incredible. The stuff that this kid's gone through and is very open talking about to us. Very special. And Rob Gronkowski. Gronk. One of the biggest legends in the history of the NFL. Fish is saying that when little kids ride the sheep, it's called mutton busting.

Awkward name with kids. Mutton busting. Don't really get that. Can't imagine I'd ever. Wyatt could probably take one of those things down though he'd try to eat the sheep it's like hold on there oh my god i would bust their mutton can you please hey i'll pay for the nanny if you bring them and we're getting wyatt on one of these fucking sheep i'll pay for the nanny like how about you send me a jet so i don't have to sit

in a plane with these kids pay for the n nanny. Thanks, dude. Get my 25 bucks an hour covered. What a guy. What an awesome guy. Keith, how was your weekend? Just lacrosse with the girls? Or were you hanging at home? Wait, before we get there, are you guys coming to my fucking birthday or not?

Well, I would love to. Now, when you say March, and this kind of leads into what I did this weekend, that's like playoff time for the for the might for the might hockey team and i'm a coach so if it happens to fall when we got playoffs i can't be ditching my squad yeah i can't be ditching my squad but you know if if i do not have something that i have to be at i will be at your 40th birthday party i'll be one of the 173 people at biz's party and then maybe i can hang out with jack the alien. Well, no.

Hey, listen. It's actually just a meet and greet. He's going to be sitting there signing stuff for people. He's charging. He's charging you. I'll pay for your nanny, but you owe me 50 bucks for me to sign this pink Whitney hat. He's like,

I paid for your nanny, but you're still in the hole? Sorry about that, man. This party's got to pay for it. It's not going to pay for itself. That is so good. Well, okay, because listen, I got all my Vancouver friends and then all the locals.

We got Donor here, Ray Whitney, the Pyatt's. There's a lot of people here who I'd invite. And then, of course, you guys, if you could fucking make it, if you're not knee-deep like Gordon Bombay over here, can't miss a fucking game gets me to go by saying I got I got golf set up it's mini golf my thanks dude flew

out here to just put around like the barstool tournament we did that all right so going to the end you had lacrosse tournaments this weekend for the girl no yeah my Friday night went out with a couple buddies went to Takato that we went to and then it's unreal. And then my buddy's cousin is a newly single guy, so he wanted to go and run around.

So we went to like 37 bars in like an hour and 20 minutes. It was the absolute worst. Like, you know, when someone just wants to keep going different places. So that kind of, it was fun, obviously fun to see them. And then Saturday night was the boat parade. went over to a friend's house here uh he threw an unbelievable party great spread had a band going and then you just sit in his backyard and watch the boats go by with all the lights on it was so great weekend for me and uh had a lacrosse tournament in between there um the jingle brawl it was called me this team won it uh so it was fun good weekend i was up uh

i had my first experience i want to ask yans uh quickly though like they're playing the cross um pretty physical sport like are these girls ever getting catty like they throwing elbows any hair pulling or like any intense scraps? Like what's going on? Yeah. So last, last weekend we had nationals and there was a team from Canada that was down here just outside. I think they were just outside of Ontario and this is girls lacrosse. Right. But in, I I'm watching like the first two minutes of the game, I'm like, these girls,

the Canadian girls were nasty and they were playing so hard. So I went over to one of the dads. I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, do they play like full contact up there? Like the girl, like the guys do down here. And he said,

yeah, they all play box lacrosse. So they were like just finishing their box lacrosse season. So they haven't like turned it off yet. They got black eyes. Yeah. But my, my older daughter,

she's like, she, she's not afraid of the, the contact on unlike me. So she loved it. And she was like, I want to play box lacrosse now. So that'll be our next thing. Box lacrosse.

I mean, people talk about hockey fighting, but box lacrosse, the fights are that in sneakers or in shoes. So it's like buckets off, square off, straight up brawl fight, Irish traveler style. I guess that to change from that to regular women's lacrosse is probably really difficult too. Oh, it's medieval times dinner and tournament, man. You're getting baseball swung on the elbow pad like every single second you have the ball. I've never really wanted to play lacrosse. Scituate didn't have it growing up.

I believe in the past 15 years, it's become a solid program. But I was always a baseball guy. Keith switched to lacrosse, had a legendary moment where I believe he stuck his stick into a guy's chest in the state tournament. Were you suspended? Oh, nice. Yeah, well, I ended up leaving public school, so I didn't have to serve my suspension. So that was...

Yeah, it was like Braveheart style, spearing the guy in the heart with his with his uh with his stick so an aggressive sport you got kicked out of a school system like where'd you go to leave where'd you go catholic no i i was going to cushing the next year so i left public school to go to Cushing, a fine academic establishment. It's like, how did you get in? I was really good at hockey. And then I made up a story about a coach yelling at me when I didn't commit to his school. But we'll get to that in a second. So let me explain my weekend very quick, Biz.

So it was Riders' first travel hockey tournament, right? So very excited for the kids and the families and in talking to brian yandall all these years who's he's been through this um probably about 12 to 13 years now with his oldest brian then colin and now liam i believe it's what's liam 12 or 13 but you don't realize and you don't remember what it's like as you get older and all of a sudden you get back and you see the kids in the mini hockey and the dressing room and being together in the hotel. And you really forgot and you didn't realize when you're younger, the parents, the parents rip it up. It's like spring break for the parents. There's no driving.

There's nothing to worry about. You're just getting after it and you're having a blast. We have an amazing group of parents on this team. It's like an awesome situation where everyone's good people. You know, the team's like getting better and better. We sit sixth place in the standings right now for the 2017 platinum level, the Boston Junior Dogs. So it's a blast.

So we're going up there and we find out beforehand our schedule. And it's kind of a mishmash of teams and age groups a little bit. So our first game happens to be against my nephew, Ryder's cousin, Cooper. So that's awesome. Now they're 2016 birth years. They have, I think, three or four 2017s, but overall the team's older. Say there's 12 to 14 kids on every team. So first game of the tournament, it's like, all right, these kids are older. We're not exactly an elite team by any means, but like I said, great group of kids. So we get thumped, thumped. It's also the first time we've ever had the big nets, right? So really hard for our goalie. I mentioned our goalie, Walker Hashek, the kid's the man, just always smiling, but he's got the big

nets. Well, we're getting absolutely trounced. The other team's really solid, Cooper's team. that well we're getting absolutely trounced the other team's really solid cooper's team and the ref i see this ref this ref this father-son combo goon squad and and i'm now realizing like i know that there's a shortage of referees and you gotta be respectful dude i was counting to 10 multiple times on the bench with these two guys the dad is going over in the middle of the game like talking to our goalie like trying to like cheer him up a little. He came to the bench like your goalie's really upset. The head coach of my team, Chris, he's like wouldn't you be? We're down 10-0

or whatever it is. Like what are you talking about? Stop talking to our goalie, buddy. He's like trying to fire him up. He's like doing little like goalie symbols. Like buddy, get away from our goalie. It's our first ever tournament game. So we got waxed. Kids were kind of disappointed. We come back the next morning. This is Friday night. Come back the next morning. Get a big win. Now we played against a team who's kind of a level below us. They had

one kid, nasty number 88, cutting back and forth. I'm like, if we can stop him, we got a chance. We ended up kind of blowing them out. All right. We're one and one. And we got a game this afternoon. This team was the Valley Junior Warriors. Okay. And if we win, we're in. We're into-1. And we got a game this afternoon. This team was the Valley Junior Warriors, okay? And if we win, we're in. We're into the semis Sunday morning. If we lose or tie, we're done. And this team's moving on. So we're playing them, right?

Because this team's 1-1 as well. Or 1-0-1. Buddy, I made the biggest mistake. I made my first ever coaching fumble. Oh, no. Disgrace. Fire me right now. Did I tell you I have a buddy, Brendan Timmons, who's coaching

a team whose son's on the team who told him if this was the NHL, you'd be fired by now, dad. Come on. That's beautiful. So just make sure you're good. He says he played for the Valley Junior Warriors. So he was probably the same size at 10 when

that is he is now because those North Shore kids got the Warriors. He was probably the same size at 10 that he is now because those North Shore kids stop at 11. He can prove it. We went to Nationals, baby. We were a wagon. Yeah, he never scored a goal, but he brought everyone North Shore beef sandwiches to eat, so he was the most valuable player in that time. Is that the Lindros helmet? Oh, yeah.

Are you kidding me? Your game's like Lindros, dude. It really is. Whit, bring us through your your fuck up and and did it cost you guys making the semis it cost us everything it cost us everything no so leading up i've seen this like you know you're all playing in the same rink we're in waterville valley new hampshire six spot there's like five hotels that are walking distance the rinks awesome old school rink it used Plymouth State's arena before they built their own on campus, I guess. But awesome setup. So you're seeing all the teams play before or after you. And my nephew was playing against

this team after our game, so I was watching his games. I don't know right now. Now, we've talked a lot about puberty, girls, what can change from dominant players until you're 18 and it really matters. I think I saw the best 2017 born hockey player on the planet right now. And I'm seeing this kid out there. He's a lefty skating up and down the ice like McDavid, head up, crossing over, cutting back on guys, drop passes, giving people tap-ins. I'm like, okay, we're in one with this kid. This kid's going to be a problem. Going to be a problem.

But we just got to somehow shut him down. Now, we have a kid on our team, great little skater, and it was kind of like his dad beforehand. He's like, hey, watch 17. You got to watch for 17. Kind of like a buildup to like we just got – if we could shut this kid down, we'll move on. Buddy, we came out of the gate so hot.

We're passing the puck around. Now, I'm at the point where I'm going to start really snapping if we don't pass the puck. I'm like, the puck moves faster than any of you skate. Just trying to enforce. Guys, if you see someone open, pass it. Buddy, we were snapping around like the 97 Red Wings. We go up 6-2. 6-2.

There's nine minutes and 30 seconds left. And this kid has one of their two two goals and I think he had the assist on the other but we're keeping him at bay right like somehow the back checking was great I felt so proud I felt so happy and then I hear the kids I hear the kids like 10 minutes ago we're gonna win I'm like

I'm like oh my god and the same time when we're losing 6-2 they're like we're gonna lose I'm like god damn it shift by shift now I'm not yelling this but in my head as I'm trying not to scream at the ref I'm also trying not to yell at the same time, when we're losing 6-2, they're like, we're going to lose. I'm like, God damn it. Shift by shift. Now, I'm not yelling this, but in my head, as I'm trying not to scream at the ref, I'm also trying not to yell at the kids. All of a sudden, number 17 comes alive. End to end. 6-3.

End to end. 6-4. No. Dangles in the corner. Video game mode. 6-5. I'm like, oh, fuck. Oh, fuck.

And I knew when he made it 6 three i'm like there's a lot of time left and there's a lot of time left all right it's six five there's about 45 seconds stuff one of our guys gets a breakaway he's buzzing down goalie makes a great save puck goes into the corner some d-man from the valley junior warriors just buries him huge hit not allowed to hit i'm like penalty well at the, our kid, these kids are seven years old, kind of takes a swing at him. All right, matching penalties, no big deal, right? This goon ref comes over.

This goon ref. Now, mind you, before this, the son of the goon, they're both goons, nice people, but goon ref. The son comes over and he's like, hey, my dad told me your goalie got an assist. I'm like, yeah, yeah. I think he gave it to the kid who went end to end. He's like, that's so cool. The play's going assist. I'm like, yeah, yeah. I think he gave it to the kid who went end-to-end. He's like, that's so cool.

The play's going on. I'm like, buddy, watch the game. I don't care. I don't care. So the ref comes over. Shorthanded. You guys are shorthanded. I'm like, whoa, whoa, whoa, what?

Matching penalties. Hit by them. Punch back by us. Retaliation. No. Your guy punched and then hit him over the head with the stick. I'm like, oh, my God,'m, I'm like, Oh my God. Oh my God.

Oh my God. We got another assistant. He's kind of snapping on him. I'm like, Oh boy, the guy's wife's texting him. Calm down, calm down,

calm down. Very funny, but we're down shorthanded. I'm like, Oh no, 45 here left. I'm in my head. I'm thinking,

okay, we got to send it. I'll send a kid out and just shadow 17. Just literally stick to him. Don't let anything near him. Don't let the puck near him. But then I'm like, this is seven-year-old hockey. That's kind of ridiculous.

You can't be doing that. Just look so foolish. And then how does the kid feel? It's to cover him. What are we talking about here, Wick? Get out of your own brain. So I decided not to say anything. What happened?

Number 17, roof swan, bar down. We tie the game. It felt like a loss. Tournament over. Just an absolutely pathetic coaching performance by your boy. But at the same time- So the game ended a tie, which didn't get you into the- No, done.

My buddy's kids on Witt's team, and apparently when the kid scored 17, he skated by Witt and goes, should have had someone covering me, buddy. No, he didn't. No, he didn't. Grab it as dick. Grab it as dick.

Fuck you, bitch. They are seven, Bez. They are seven. They are seven. Fuck you, vodka vodka boy should have had someone covering me so you know what i was i was so up and then like rider after like what time's the game through i'm like we're not playing bud like everyone else is crying he's like what i'm like no that was basically a loss by time and he's like oh can we go to we go to the arcade? I'm like, all right, he's over it. He's over it.

So did you have the goon refs the first game and the third game? We had them every game. We had them every single game. Father-son combo. The kid, his hair was down to his ass. And Keith's brother-in-law, Bobby Noonan, he's calling him Axl Rose. He's like, look at Axl Rose out there. Guy can't even make a call because his son trips on the elite team for the time.

So everyone's dealing with these refs. Everyone's dealing with these refs. And it's like, oh, my God, now you realize. And you got to respect him. And I never really said anything besides get away and stop talking to me while my goalie's assisting, drinking your body armor in my face. But it was a great, great um it it was it was brutal to end but i think at the same time like you make the semis it was like nine in the morning finals are like 4 p.m so i would i

got home at 11 right and i was just chilling had a great day so it was it was a great time though it's really cool it's making me love hockey so much. We talked to Shane a little bit about this with his kids getting in hockey in this interview, but I'm so in love with hockey and coaching, and you see kids every month, every two months, do something in a game that they couldn't do before. It's addicting to see the improvement and how much the kids love the game.

So I fumbled, not shadowing the Cby of uh 2017 birth years but i think you did the right thing by not doing it i know it's like you played in the nhl but dad's kid would the the kid's dad would have been like is this guy serious like this is a if you're not telling what are we doing if you're not telling them that the boston stranglers are in trouble that's why i didn't bring you back oh yeah you're comparing seven back seven year olds to you mutants do you think nose face killer won't go out and just slash somebody in the neck if we tell them to i'll have that killer instinct for the chicken can i ask you this what what time are you guys staying awake till in the in the hallway that's where our parents used to drink and yeah so the first night um brie had taken Wyatt to Polar Express, which is this train ride where you see Santa, like the movie and the book.

And so I had the baby. The baby didn't go to sleep, buddy. He didn't go to sleep. I put him down at 7. He cried till 9. I was texting Brie. I was so angry. And then she's like, stop making me feel bad.

I said, I apologize, baby. I apologize because I know you're going to be up with him all night. And then the next night, we had a great dinner. All the families went out to dinner. It was an absolute blast. Got back to the hotel at 10.30. I was pretty banged up. I was dummying IPAs.

There was some Pink Whitney involved and then some wine. And I got back to the room, and, like, Connor was feeling a little messed up, so I just laid down and fell asleep. But the dads in the room next door, they went till 2.30, these animals. Oh, God. That's, like, my old man. My old man and the boys, like, all the fathers. Oh, God door, they went till 2.30, these animals. Oh, God. That's like my old man.

My old man and the boys, like all the fathers. Oh, God. They used to send it. They used to bring the cookout stuff. I actually woke up and Bree's like, you didn't go down to the room. I was like, I know. I laid down all of a sudden. She's like, that's kind of embarrassing.

Wellen were a different breed. We had a couple of dads on the team who smoked and they would share a room and they would have to, they would have to the room and the kids had to sleep in the room. You go in the room. I couldn't even see you if I was sitting in the other corner. Like, it's just like, we just had, we had a drink in their old V or, Oh God, just a special breed.

Those dads were now you're now you wonder why they were yelling at the refs. They were just taking out their hangover anger on them. And this is an open container state or area like Fort Lauderdale in Florida. So I'm walking into the rink for like the 8.30 game and see a guy crack a tall boy game on here. These refs are in one. I would pay to see a photo of the Goon Squad, the father-son combo.

Oh, my God. So it was a great time. Did you see Witt's post when he posted it on Instagram? It was like him packing up the car, ready to go as a family selfie. It looked like he got traded from Pittsburgh to Anaheim and had to drive cross-country instead of going for a weekend trip. Commodore goes, are you driving to Vancouver? I go, Brie, what is all this stuff? We had the skis, went skiing one day.

Oh, shit, I love that. Well, that case. Yeah, exactly. But it was a blast. It was a blast. But moving on from my coaching mishap. Keith, have you been into surviving Barstool at all? Dude, I thought I texted you guys.

Maybe I texted Big Cat. Like I watch a shit ton of reality TV and the production that has been put into this, the storylines that like it deserves an Emmy or it deserves some award. They do such a great job of tying everything in. And I'm sure you guys filming it, like I'm sure there's a lot of dead time

and a lot of stuff, but just like the way that they're you know putting the one interview of you know whether it's you or biz and then just tying it into i think they've just done such an amazing job and at the uh the u-fall starting on last one just hitting guys in the head and then biz beating everybody up dude i was i would imagine most people listening know exactly what we're talking about. We did a surviving barstool reality show for like first class production, like the events and the puzzles they would set up and how much detail and time attention they went into it. And the last episode was a jousting match.

I never thought it was going to get like gladiator style where there's like Taylor Luan, who was like an NFL. Was he a pro bowl lineman? Yeah. Like he's six, seven Clemmer. Who's a buck 30 at the office.

Clemmer beat him. Wow. But, but it was just chaos from the beginning when I'll hand it over to you, but you ended up false starting knowing that you, your team was going to lose and you ended up suckering who Min chaos from the beginning. I'll hand it over to you. But you ended up false starting knowing that your team was going to lose. And you ended up suckering who? Minahan in the face? Yeah, I suckered Minahan first.

Then I suckered Luan again early. And then against Will Compton, I waited. Although apparently, I looked at the video after getting a bunch of tweets. He kind of false started on me. Will kind of got me a little early. but it was just a tough look for myself like it was the exact embodiment of me versus you as a hockey player bids like you went no headgear you stood in there smash people's head in you gave poor francis a goddamn concussion the guys had like three concussions oh my god that blog was so funny francis is the best writer at Barstool, I think.

But he kind of described the entire thing. He said that Bits looked like Miss Peach's dad. Stepfather. Yeah, he did. But he looks like a pit bull over there, just foaming at the mouth. I think Francis is one of the funniest person I've ever hung around. Oh, he's so funny. He's an intelligent, too.

He's an incredible writer. But they left out an edit, Keith, where Portnoy comes up to me after my second fall start, and he's like, is this a bit? Like, are you joking right now? I'm like, no. He's like, just hit Will early. Just fuck it. You've already done it.

We're losing. And I was like, no, no, no. I got to be a man. Neck cracked. I had to see the Cairo that night they brought a Cairo to the office for me neck cracked went down done so biz looked like the animal that he is in that video uh but episode six premieres tonight for anyone listening right now and then there's going to be a break after six seven and eight this week and then all hell breaks loose

that's all I'll say I'm not going to give anything else away. Biz, the fight video was released. You saw it last week before we, and we will get to hockey, folks, but we have an easy time catching up right now. So we'll get to hockey. But Biz, you saw all the footage. You went through it for us, and then you went on the McAfee show and kind of dissected it. If you want to do that a little bit right now. Yeah, if you guys want to pull it up. I don't need to go like yeah crazy in depth but so this at this point here like it's kind of hard because maybe the people listening don't know

what's going on right now on this video but i would just say that 95 of what i recollected before seeing all the footage i think played out um the the first image you see me going over at that point these guys have been already fucking around them for like 45 seconds a minute so they kind of start the clip when i end up walking over the first time so you don't really see the assistant manager get like yelled in his face and the other guy getting backed out to kick him out of the restaurant so it ends up playing out and one thing too is that the the you see us go out of frame in the restaurant and then there's a gap in time till we end up coming out the door we're still fighting in that gap where you can't really see on the original camera to the door like we're going right now buddy yeah this guy's like a real

gentleman that seems that seems to be a lot of the consensus is nobody ended up hopping in and the frustration that most people when they've came up they've said something to and i mean you see it going to the parking lot and why i kind of kept backing up like there was nine originally and i'm just like uh i can't get caught with one of these guys because if i go down there's like a pack of hyenas there's nobody that seems to be coming out to my aid till about halfway through. And I ended up going down here. I thought it was in the original rock pile that I got taken down, but about right behind here to there,

you could kind of see the rock pile before that, where I ended up going down and they got me a little bit more. And this is when they kind of round the corner to the CVS. And the only thing that sucks is you can't see, cause that tree's in the way of me knocking that guy out. But then that's when four of them sprint at me and they're pissed off because i just got their buddy and they take me down and i think that uh yeah i guess it's a little disturbing watching yourself get fucked in the in the head but at the end of the day the entire time i kept telling myself is if they get you down you got to get up there's no like staying down

keep moving your head and live to fight another day and at that point it's like fuck i can't keep going on one v even four let's just cut your losses and uh you got the one in the restaurant you got the one uh william carroll by the dumpster and hopefully i'll get to see danny bradley uh down the road and the kid in the red who's facing the worst of the charges, that's Sean Daly. He's the one who kicked me in the head. That one he missed with, he would have hit the fucking moon. I mean, Jesus.

That looks like Adam Vinatieri 2004. Yeah. So I hope that he ends up getting some jail time. But yeah, he was kicking to get me good. And that's why after the the 911 call i was so gassed um i think i i got in direct contact in the head about three times where you're kind of going black and then you're resetting but at least you're not blacking and you're out because if i was out these guys are like i might be on a fucking breathing tube

right now i just want to quickly say like the people at raven golf club who called it in they were on the lookout for what they described these guys as they missed them at raven so then these guys went to the next spot we've gotten a couple messages to that shea stevens where they'd been to even a couple places before they ended up to houston's same type of idea somebody mentioned ruth chris so when this got called in at houston's the cops were there in the three minutes by the time i got to the cvs and the guys who did get away because of the people at the the where the cops like i don't know what the office is or wherever they do the cam they were able to follow these guys how far they got like a mile and a half away

and then that's when you see them pick up that sean daly where he probably thought he was out scott free oh yeah they come around the corner so the the the communication between the people on the cams the street cams that caught them boot fucking me to communicate to the cops to end up booking these guys that's the goal like i'm hoping the legal system takes care of these guys, but I don't know if these guys seem to keep going from city to city, changing their names, changing their addresses. They go back to scamming people. We've received messages that even in the town where they're around in Fort Worth, they'll go to establishments. And next thing you know, there's 15 of them. They're ripping the flat screens off the walls. They're just terror, terrorizing small businesses. If this would have been a group of gentlemen where the next day

they would have said if they would have reached out and been like this was completely out of character we got blackout drunk we ended up fucking gang beating and kicking this guy i'd probably say cover my hospital bills which are 35 grand with the ride and everything because they got to do a ct scan to check if your brain's bleeding when you get ko'd like that like they got me good like they got their lickings in you know i wasn't i mean i wasn't on my knees like a little you know i wasn't on my knees like william carroll was you know they tackled me to the ground and got their licking in but not like william carroll got but i would have been okay saying poor judgment,

learn from this. They're showing remorse, but this is a fucking weekly occurrence for this guys. These guys, this is the first time they've ever actually probably had to, had to been accountable. What are you, why are you laughing?

Woody? I'm laughing because like you, you, you, you come off looking so great in this. You're helping people who, who need help. You're, you're taking on all these guys. You're helping people who need help. You're taking on all these guys.

You're being a true legend throughout all of it. And then what comes up from the video? They got these guys describing you as Dwayne the Rock Johnson, a Hispanic Dwayne the Rock Johnson, not a lick of body fat on him, just incredible clips that come out from basically, like I mentioned Keith, William Wallace style stabbing someone with a lacrosse stick. It was like they were fighting William Wallace. on him just incredible clips that come out from basically like i mentioned keith william wallace style stabbing someone with a lacrosse stick it was like they were fighting william wallace like

after if they hadn't been arrested they would have been like who the fuck was that guy so incredible for you came out just looking looking beautiful who would you say the main aggressor was in this whole situation like i'm trying to figure out because i know you mentioned some dude with tattoos that guy with the fucking hat i don't know who's the aggressor inside i would be i would be a liar if i told you okay i don't let you know that whenever you see this guy if you see this guy and me fighting in a parking lot you'd say he's gonna beat the fuck out of him he's got not a lick of fat on him he's fucking sure at least he got a giant tattoo he's built like the way the rock johnson my uncle's his 50 year old uncle.

I was worried about the 30 year old mutants who were fucking probably doing key bumps all day at fucking Raven golf club who had the wires cross at Houston's. Cause they couldn't grab another fucking cocktail. The same guy in the lime green who just suckered a guy an hour and a half earlier because he couldn't get a cocktail like best comment i saw raul bissonette you know what's crazy is when i was playing minor hockey going back to minor hockey i was playing with a single a with a ryan smutnicki that was one of my buddies and he picked up one of the programs and it said raul bissonette so he calls

me raul to this day like that's a so it brought back a little bit of nostalgia and i had a little fun on mcafee show basically you smell what they rock so funny but um i just like i said i i hospital bills paid for and me getting a scrap against this Danny Bradley. That's all I want. I just want to want, let's make an example of them and fuck embarrass them publicly. Fuck them. I just, this is a, the fact that they're doing this in their own community, fucking up small businesses. And we, and, and originally I didn't really want to like, like Dave, you know, barstool, like let like let's you know let's throw t-shirts about this hey he's an entrepreneur he does a lot of amazing things for you know small businesses with the

proceeds so i reached out to him and i said well you put out the um take some give more shirts like the boxing clubs ones that he did so we're going to donate uh majority of the proceeds if not all the proceeds to either um the late nicardo foundation that helps uh the kachinas in arizona like small hockey um grassroots type stuff and the matt shot foundation who was another guy who'd passed away and he's got a foundation now because he was so involved with the community and given back because hockey brought him so much joy where he helped with a lot of the grassroots not only the kachina side but but really any like youth players looking to grow up playing hockey in arizona so um i think that he also um dave talked about maybe giving it to like wounded um officers as well because i don't think

you can donate money right to the police force i don't know if there's like a law there but plenty of thanks goes out to those guys who helped out and that's pretty much all you guys wanted to talk about regarding it right like was there any other i just have one thing to say about it i remember wit texted me the day that it happened and then i facetimed you and you know obviously it's in your head that something's scary and then but seeing the video is a million times worse like you know you just worried i'm obviously glad everything's okay but the craziest thing i i got the video sent to me was the guy who was holding the door went in and finished biz's meal i was gonna say traditional salad that night i was gonna say i actually saw a video that like wasn't even released where that same guy talking about you looking like duane johnson he said the

big problem was he had this fucking tattoo of a rotted out pumpkin, and that really pissed us off. It's not even November. Somebody wrote like he made too many changes on his order, so they just started swinging. It was the waitress's husband. She had had enough can i get the chicken parm but uh just have it be veal instead like what oh my god but thank you a

also another thing you know i love i uh yan's always churs me about my thank yous all the local tv reporters who help dig up all the shit too and obviously Shea Stevens who's done like an insane amount of investigative work I might have to hire them to my staff for the civil suit if Danny Bradley's not willing to meet me in a fucking ring somewhere well just invite him to your 40th birthday party and you pay for his nanny

for his kids so Keith we love having you on the show it's so fun but welcome to the mud buddy welcome to the mud and by that i mean we have greg cronin head coach of the anaheim ducks he's now saying that this is not true of him snapping on you after you decided to not attend northeastern so i actually i had uh i got a phone call from our good friend, Bonzo Byrne, the other day. And he was with my mom.

And they were on speakerphone. And my mom was like, you told the story wrong. And I was like, what? I'm like, there's no way. I remember the story like it was yesterday. She's like, no, no, no. You weren't on the phone with him. He showed up to the house. it was yesterday she's like no no no you weren't on the phone with him he showed up to the house it was in person and i i was outside with him and then finally my mom

was like listening through the windows and finally she went out there and was like hey no yeah yeah and wow and then which is even crazier thinks that uh he didn't know the guy didn't what was he saying while she said that well what brendan walsh was the assistant didn't know the guy didn't. What was he saying? Walsh, he said that, well, Brendan Walsh was the assistant coach at Northeastern at the time, and he thinks it's not true. He says, now this is the quote from Greg Coney. He says, I never recruited him.

I don't remember ever recruiting him. I never recall doing that. I would never verbally berate anybody on a phone call on a recruiting thing. Never heard of it. I remember it might have been my first year at Northeastern. I think that Brendan Walsh was my recruiter and I think he took them out on a recruiting visit, but I would never verbally berate a player for not going to school. That's his decision. We present what Northeastern is and whether it's him or anybody. So what's interesting about this is two things. One, we have a track record of being called out on this podcast.

I don't think there's been one time when any of us have made anything up when it comes to things like this. We fuck around and make things up, and it's pretty obvious when we're joking. But when it goes back to Babcock, when it goes back to all these other things, we're not making things up. So Keith's being accused of that. And in the meantime, I get a DM from somebody. Also, no wonder why he didn't he didn't know who i was his record his first year was three wins 24 losses and seven ties so maybe he should

have known who maybe the best defenseman in the state was in the the amount of text that i got after it came out like of guys who went to northeastern and played like it's at the end of the day why would i ever make this up like obviously i 100 believe you i just wanted to hear what like walshie and their explanation was as to like maybe why you would lie about that now the fact that your mom's correcting you obviously it's vivid in her memory um wit why don't you vaguely tell the story about what's going on in your dms and then not use a name and maybe the one part of the story kind of gives it away who it is and i'm dying so he said so he sent sent me the clip on instagram of you telling the story and he goes ryan same thing

happened to my brother and i we did rocks paper sciss scissors to see who had to call him to tell him that we committed to another school. My brother had to call him. Cronin lost his mind on him. I love that. I think maybe the big deal selects need Cronin to shake us up a little bit. Well, she just texted me. He said, Cronin says I never went to his house.

So it's like, it's crazy. It's crazy. But I mean, he knew the area where I live. He knew around where I lived. Let's hire Chase Stevens to get to the bottom of this. No, I got to the bottom. It happened to me. I got to the bottom.

Yes. So we have a he said, she said. But as we mentioned, we're not making things up on this show. And why would Keith make this up? That would be a pretty ridiculous thing to just create in your mind out of thin air. So Danny Bradley and me, Ruff and Rowdy, you and Cronin. We'll do a doubleheader. Whit, you got any enemies?

The ref. Yeah, number 17 on the valley junior warriors i'll fight a seven-year-old i'll still false start fudge kid fudge kid from nantucket actually that little motherfucker he probably owns a fucking hedge fund now you got fudge kid and this other little kid handicap match two on one let's go let's do that you guys got the undercard uh yes i'm sorry that that happened you and like it's bullshit that he's denying it he's questioning your your character and i don't know i don't know where it goes from here but no i mean i don't even know i don't even know why we were talking about that like i i was just saying what happened to me it wasn't i wasn't how is this getting, he's not in trouble or anything.

Like, it's like, I was just telling a story of what happened to me when being recruited. And yeah, I mean, I literally could care less. And yeah, whatever. It's not a big deal. 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.

Anaheim made a big trade. We'll kind of get to that in a little bit. Cam Fowler moved over to the St. Louis Blues. But for now, I kind of want to get up something that I'd love to talk about. And Biz, I would love an apology from you. I think you owe me one. Because the Edmonton Oilers are running over the entire league right now. Not the Leafs. They're are running over the entire league right now they look as

good as they look as good as they look as good as they've ever looked they've won five in a row they just drum the lightning they just drum the wild they just drum the uh vegas golden knights i believe they've outscored those teams 15 to 5 so it's just been something where everything started off slow in Edmonton. Skinner was struggling. McDavid was injured. Bouchard had a very tough beginning to the year. Nurse wasn't great in October. Now it has all come together. It's a powerhouse. It's a team that I knew, I knew would struggle off the bat. You go to game seven, you lose. You just want to get back to the playoffs. It's such a long road. You got to find your game. You got to find what makes you a good team. They have found it. Skinner is incredible right now. I think that Bouchard and Hyman, maybe after not making team Canada,

it's a little bit of like, fuck you. I'm going to go out and show them that they made a mistake. And also like the weight of trying to make the team is off their shoulders. Leon is at a different level. First player in the league to get to 20 goals this season. McDavid is now shooting up the leaderboard for points in the league right now. I think he'll end up leading the league. McKinnon's going to be very hard to catch, but he's tied for eighth now.

It's just been an unreal run. And the biggest, one of the biggest reasons about it is Darnell Nurse. And I want to bring him up because of how hard I've been on him and how hard Oilers Nation's been on him. Not the website. Great website.

If you're an Oilers fan, check out Oilers Nation. They do an awesome job covering that team. But it's more about this guy has really, truly figured out how he needs to play to be like, I'm not going to say a dominant player, but a very, very effective top four D-man. He skates like the wind. The issue before was like kind of awareness in the D- four demon. He skates like the wind. The issue before was

kind of awareness in the D zone and then decision-making with the puck. It seems like everything has been kept so simple in his game now where he's just holding onto the puck a little bit longer. He's not trying to force it through the middle. Defensively, he's got his head on a swivel. He's playing big minutes. He's playing very, very good hockey. And when you have him making that much money, I understand everyone wants stats. He's playing very, very good hockey. And when you have him making that much money, I understand everyone wants stats. He's got 15 points in 27 games. But it's more about when you're out there, man, with your skating ability and how mean and strong and tough that guy is, just being a shutdown, solid pain in the ass to play against. He's been phenomenal.

Connor Brown's found his game. I have, I think they have 21 goals from their bottom six forwards right now. Corey Perry's got six. Connor Brown's got five, which is more than last year. And you saw him in the playoffs kind of come alive and just be a difference maker on the PK. He's been doing that. Nugent Hopkins is heating up.

And like I said, Skinner's been awesome. So everything is tracking exactly where we need it to be in Edmonton. And you could talk about your Leafs, but I do want an apology because I think you said things like they're cooked. They're done. They won't even make the playoffs. It was very, very nasty stuff.

It was nasty stuff. Wow. It was mean. It's not very nice, Paul. You know what? I'm sorry that I'm sorry. I hurt your feelings. Wow.

What I did say in the group. Oh, wait. What I did say in the group chat. By the way, I love Edmonton. I want to go back to Edmonton. I think I predicted them versus the Leafs Stanley Cup final. That would be incredible. Incredible for hockey.

Matthews and McJesus in the finals. Come on. But I said in the group chat recently is I think that if them and LA met again, I think that LA could take them down this time. And you're like, oh, you've said that in the past. You've said that in the past you've said that in the past like la looks dangerous merle said this isn't even a playoff team and i said that if they met them that they could be in jeopardy everything you just said is bang on though i'm happy for nurse i don't think him playing the way he's played over the last like six weeks maybe a month is an anchor as far as his contract is concerned

bouchard look horrendous off the start. And I think my criticism was that they got older and they got slower, but maybe they got smarter. They're finally trying to figure things out as a team. Obviously the two headed monsters clicking on all cylinders. Hyman agreed. He's probably gripping a stick a little too tight expectations coming off of last year.

Everything about this team is saying conference finals or finals again right now and that will obviously come with one more move that they have to make to improve their roster do you agree with that no doubt they need they need to get a solid defenseman they need to get a solid defense and the issue right now is they can't go do it yet because they need to find out when Kane will be back. And Kane hasn't even played. Arvidsson's out right now. But if Kane's going to come back before playoffs, they're not like they have to figure out cap wise because they won't be able to grab somebody now if he's coming back, say, a month before the playoffs.

So there is issues in figuring out his timeline before they make a trade. But something will be done. figuring out his timeline before they make a trade, but something will be done. There's going to be options out there as teams kind of really tank, and they're looking to move UFAs or maybe even guys with a little term on their deal, but there's moves to be made. I agree with you on that, but talking just quickly about Leon,

when he goes like this, dude, when he gets his feet moving in the offensive zone, the way he protects the puck against Minnesota, look at his assist to Connor Brown. He's flying around the zone. He's holding it off from Johansson, just dummying the guy and then feeds this. I think he's the best passer on his backhand in the NHL. And it probably helps that the blade of his stick,

the left winger in bubble hockey, I know. But he's just so, when he's moving his feet and going like this, I think it's McKinnon, McDavid, Matthews, and Dreisaitl. And so I'm just so excited seeing them play. And it's Monday as we record. So as you're listening tomorrow, they got Florida. They got a rematch. They got a rematch. It's last night for you people listening on Tuesday morning.

But I can't wait to check this one out. And there's going to be some anger in that game. No doubt. I still think it's Vegas at the top Edmonton at the top Dallas at the top. I think that with the trade Colorado and them getting healthy and maybe potentially making a move to, and then probably Winnipeg as the top five threats, I would trust Edmonton for you.

Huh? Uh, listen, I think they're having a great regular season i think the teams i just mentioned most people would have them trust them in a playoff round uh ahead of minnesota and minnesota has this like playoff curse where it's just like they can never get over the hump right am i crazy every sport so i i just can't trust them until i and and we're going to mention them in later on the podcast but what'd you say the minnesota links won it i'm pretty sure they broke like the minnesota curse or whatever it was thank you thank you for correcting

us keith um but uh fan i think it goes without saying we're going to talk about him later in the podcast karil caprizov i eight goals in his last eight games everything he's touching is is is an unbelievable pass or it's going that goal he scored spinorama the other night on that bad angle where he went roof daddy upstairs everything he's touching right now is turning to gold and probably would you say front runner for the for the mvp heart right now? McKinnon's kind of taken over. Him and Rontanen had that five-point game the other night. Yeah, but I think the way he carries Minnesota and the fact McKinnon has Rontanen and Dreisaitl has McDavid

and Marner has Matthews, it's like he kind of does it on his own. And that is one thing about Minnesota that I'll say, that you need two horses. It's like you need that second guy, that second superstar. So for him to do this without another superstar as a center or on the team,

it is wild to see. So fun. My buddy Miser in Minnesota is like I'm obsessed with watching him play. The entire city's in love with the guy. The owners already come out and said, literally tell us what you want. We're the only team that can give you eight years. We're going to give you anything you want.

You don't want to hear that if you're the agent, eh? You're like, oh, fuck. Yeah, he should fire the agent. That's too easy to negotiate. Motherfucker, there goes my percent. I mean, Ovi did it. Ovi did it. When he went in and did his huge 100

million dollar deal all by himself i cannot wait till ovi gets back the washington capitals are incredible but but fizz but biz before we get to the leafs and yeah we're starting off with lawyers leaves these are our teams we we haven't been aggressive about all this year we've been snapping around the love to everyone sometimes i read those comments like are you out of your fucking mind like i bet you we spent 10 minutes on the Leafs in the last four podcasts, if that, but you want me to get to him now? Or what do you want to talk about first?

I want to talk to him now, but before we talk to him, I want to remind everyone. So many people have come up to me. There was actually a, one of the wives on Ryder's team. She said, Hey,

I don't really know much about chiclets, but like, I love the sandbaggers, the sandbaggers, very, very funny content. We really enjoy watching those.'t really know much about chiclets, but I love the sandbaggers. The sandbaggers, very, very funny content. We really enjoy watching those. Thank you so much.

And we have a special one Thursday at noon. We're going to talk about the Leafs. We got two awesome former Leafs, Darcy Tucker and Steve Stumpy Thomas. It was an amazing match at Panther National. Justin Thomas and Jack Nicklaus' new course in, I believe, Jupiter. Hope Sound. Hope Sound. I hope everyone checks it out. It's Thursday at noon on our YouTube channel

that I think Biz now has close to 370,000 followers. It's getting there. It's in. Subscribe to it. You're going to get the instant notifications when we drop that Leaf sandbagger with Stumpy and Darcy darcy tucker um now that they're gaining popularity too we're having really nice courses reach out and kind of you know

a la carte hey or come use our facilities that panther national wasn't it a skier a former skier who is a now player agent and we do get a special cameo from a multiple stanley cup winner oh my god i forgot about that and con smite winner we're going to leave that as a surprise so watch that thursday and i think we're dropping that at noon on the spit and chiclets so subscribe to it watch it it's an iconic sandbagger and the course they have the dunes and sometimes because it's florida like the wind and erosion can happen they put these like metal things in them to keep the like the what do you call that with like the elevation like the form of the course like the the correct yeah yeah i

didn't know that fucking going correct didn't we talk to the guy like you're killing me here no no i'm sorry i i i chatted with him quick but you were talking to him longer so he must have mentioned that they that they put something in the dunes to make sure that they won't be ruined by a possible hurricane. The crazy part about it was that that what was the brutal hurricane that ripped through Florida, Keith, recently? George? Ian? Elizabeth? Either.

Irish travel. Hurricane Irish travel. It's in Palm Beach. I know it was a girl's garden. Garden. So what happened was I guess it was ripping right at garden. Garden is too. Helene, Helene. So what happened was, I guess it was ripping right at the course, like tornadoes, even mini tornadoes.

And right before it hit it, it just took a left. But in the process, it knocked down a Publix that was about to open like a week later. They had to restart the entire construction project. So the course was very lucky. But yeah, the owner is a former Swiss Olympic skier.

And he decided to put all this money in and they built an incredible track so check that out and i think because they how they build the ski hills he knew how to reinforce it so it takes its shape and the erosion doesn't affect it where i was like you think they build ski hills you think they don't those are just how god built them no in some cases they i think that for whatever reason that helped them like know how to do it like where they kind of like you guys are fucking brutal that's how he made all of his money he built all these uh ski mountains the guy walked on the water on the seventh hole to fix the dune on eight. What's the fucking sandbagger for Christ's sake? God damn it.

Tell us what you love about the Leafs. Tell us what you love about the Leafs. Buddy, other than starting out 500, like 10 to 12 games in, they lost Matthews. They've been playing great. They're fucking tied for the lead in their division. What is there to hate? The core four are fucking playing out of their minds right now martin is going to get you think kaprizov's going to get 14 sheets what what's martin going to get he's playing out of his mind and when matthews is away he elevated his play even when matthews was gone

they had the second best power play in the league and then the other night um it was against buffalo they put like taveras for what he's doing at his age where a lot of people were you don't want to talk about darnell's taking some shrapnel based on what he's making i feel like jt that's been the topic of conversation the last two three years where man this first little stretch here man and even going back to last year's playoffs i thought he was one of the more consistent players snapping back draws he was you know providing offense i think he's been fucking tremendous i was actually surprised he was not even a consideration for the the four nations i thought he would have been a perfect guy to add as like a depth guy um and then the other night they put

the three-headed monster together marner matthews and um um and Nylander and Nylander's been fucking unbelievable too so as far as a core four perspective as far as uh depth and other guys contributing I mean you got fucking patch ready running guys so it goes back to coaching and the buy-in and you'd be lying even all you Leafs fucking haters you losers online who every time I tweet out our year you're fucking shitting all over me if you can't tell me you're watching this team and it doesn't feel different you're out of your fucking mind and and all of a sudden now we not only have Stolarz who's proven himself a bigger enough sample size where it's like oh fuck this guy this guy can fucking play you got wool as a backup who could fucking go in there.

You don't have to burn him out. So you got goaltending, the back ends looking good. The core four is activated and buzzing on all cylinders, like a goddamn fucking machine right now. And I think we're just like Edmonton, one, one big move away, one huge move away from, from being a big difference maker. And I think that right now the only, the only team I could still say is better than us in the East who I would

have a hard time going up against is Florida. I think if we get Boston, we're going to fucking work them. I think we'll work Boston. Even though I woke them up, I tweeted out, they were dead and I've completely revived them and brad marshall since i was ripping them on national television five goals in his last five games so

all you boston fans reaching out to me with all your hate messages you should be kissing my fucking ass i should be getting a fucking paycheck from the boston bruins for the fucking background work that this podcast has done from keeping your gm and president accountable to to waking up your fucking power play that was dreadful 31st in the league before i talked about your team on tnt where's my lighter i fucking lit a fire underneath brad marshall's ass ladies and gentlemen so going back to the leafs no concerns even at its worst so far this year we were 500 after 12 games everybody knew it was going to take a little bit of time to to figure things out with berube but he's hitting all the right buttons boys so i know you had a great breakdown on your edmonton boys but i think

that toronto would thump them in a seven game series the only chance you got is fucking mc jesus and dry sidle fucking firing like they've never. They'd be shooting Roman candles out of their assholes. That's how good they'd have to play to take down the Leafs right now. Yeah, it's crazy to think that the guy who broke the all-time scoring record in the playoffs would have a tough time. Or what did McDavid break? A cyst? What was the record he broke of Gretzky's last year?

Points or a cyst? It'd be crazy to think that he could light it up against the Leafs. Who could ever see that coming um but but not like ranting and like leafs are stuck with marner because his his uh his no move or no trade or whatever he's got kicked in so you have this this asset where he's got them by the balls you couldn't have started the season any more perfect if you're mitch marner because we keep we posted the rotten and clit all the abs fans in the world were like shut the fuck up he ain't going anywhere they're gonna figure it out marner is probably easily the biggest free agent he's

gonna i would say right now with knowing where the cap's gonna go and then being vocal about how much it's gonna be jumping every year i bet you marner's probably looking at 13-3 hometown discount well in fairness the way that this podcast has been hard on darnell nurse pretty hard on marner in the playoffs i think it's because you see him play like he is right now he is unreal to watch play right now like that's my only discrepancy that's my only discrepancy it's like oh like he played solid you can't blame the the loss on him it's like just give me that fucking marner in playoffs and if we lose i don't care if he's making 15 like yeah but i don't see that guy in playoffs i don't see the game breaker game oh it's you show me two clips of him setting up plays in each game in a seven round series no like i want this marner in playoffs and i'll fucking write the check with my ambassador jacket on i'll get

i'll pay for his fucking nanny for the whole season for life i'll be the fucking nanny the manny i'll put the moobs on I'll fucking breastfeed his kid if he wants. Give me regular season Marner and give him 15 sheets. I'll wash his fucking cars. All right? They had a great comeback on Sunday. They were down three to one. They ended up winning five to three, but maybe the comeback.

Well, that was against the fucking Sabres. Oh, my God. Buffalo Sabres. Oh, my God. Buffalo Sabres. Put that back there. Put that inflatable palm tree. Are we getting into Sabres talk now? We're getting into Sabres talk. We're getting into the fact that the fans are bringing inflatable palm trees,

then being told they're not allowed to bring them. People are calling for Kevin Adams. People are calling for Pagula to sell the team lindy ruff who has coached the fourth most games in the history of the national hockey league after playing 12 years said this is as lost as he's ever been i'm paraphrasing he said this is this is as confused and as as as stumped as i've ever been and i don't know what to do and when you hear that from a from a coach who'd been there before that got hired back this summer as the team's lost 10 in a row which is now the third coach that kevin adams has employed with a 10 or more games losing streak oh no it's just at some point point. And you know what I thought of?

You know what I thought of? I don't know if you guys remember, but do you remember it was five years ago when a fan called in to look up the name of the show. He called in and it went crazy viral. A fan just disgusted. Just remember, this is five

years ago. They haven't made the playoffs in 13. This is five years ago. And tell me the playoffs in 13 this is five years ago and tell me that this voicemail couldn't tell me this guy tell me this call couldn't have been today before we get to playing the audio like i think like army had a bit of a rant on the way they should handle things and how overall they need to like toughen up and they just like need an organizational cleanse where it's like you have to get to a level of desperation and just say fuck it and set the standard where we're not going to be fucking poopy pants around here anymore we're not playing this fucking east west coast like fluff hockey i watched that game the other

night on tnt i called it the toilet bowl they't, it was the last game of their five game homestand in which the first game they lost the Colorado being up for nothing. They lost five, four and regulation. Okay. They ended up, I want to say there's two games in the next three where they got a point out of it, but they still hadn't won on the five game homestand so the last game is on tnt nationally covered they're going through all this bullshit and they're playing the new york rangers who are struggling lindy ruff gives them the morning off no pre-game skate go store your energy you know how many fucking hits they had in the first period they read we start making our way over from the back to the to the studio where we record at the two-minute mark. At that point, they had two. I couldn't even have told you when they happened or who rubbed out who or they gave it credit. They ended up giving them credit for four.

There is no sense of urgency. They don't fucking play hard. They don't get on the forecheck. They don't apply any type of pressure. They try a line rush. Even if it's not a high percentage play they get it turn it over it's going back the other way the way that they fucking play is so uninspiring the only guy who plays with jam from night in night out is and when he can muck up in

front of the night is is Benson he's fucking five foot fucking nine like there's no what's that you love Benson but because when I watched their games the only time like so at the beginning of that second period I said to them we were going to talk about it we never got to it at the intermission because I read out the stats of like what we were dealing with here and they took a they took a pedal or they got a power play to start off the game not one shot on that power play so they're not ready to go or they got a power play to start off the game. Not one shot on that power play, so they're not ready to go. Then they take a bad penalty. Eight times 8.8, boy. Owen Power gets it on his stick, doesn't use the glass,

doesn't get the clear, booms a Benajad in the back of the net. It's just like, fuck you. He got benched. So, like, not fuck you to him i'm saying like from an effort standpoint and then to hear that they had a meeting and the players are saying the solution is inside this locker room and i'm not going to be that critical of hiring lindy ruff like i get the nostalgia and being out of the playoffs that long and seeing if maybe a little bit more old school um rough coach can get through to this core group to maybe have them buy in and play a little bit harder and more old school you're not even getting that I have all the respect in

the world that this guy's coached 18 over right to 1800 games now but I also don't think that he was the hire to try to get through to these guys. So if you think the solution is inside that locker room, I say play out the rest of the year, but don't fucking tell me that's the answer when you're, you're at the last game of your hold stand that you haven't won and you come out and you lay fucking not one memorable body check. It was like a 20 minute. It was like the hits I got credit for.

All right. So I got a question for you. If you're the GM or owner of the team, what are you start because i feel like a lot of guys especially like you that played hard fought hit guys like you guys are always the guys that are like they need to be harder they need to be harder to play against the league i see changing a little bit more obviously you still have to have those you know that those guys that play hard like the florida has they have a great mixture of kind of everything if you're the gm or the coach what's your what's your first move to do are you getting rid of some skill guys bringing in some tougher guys

now i think that they're now i think their mentality is because they're getting shredded for moving on from reinhardt reinhardt's a top 20 player in the fucking league you had media members going going after him about his work ethic on back checks and and the lack of help they supplied around they had ryan o'reilly okay i understand that trade provided them tage thompson great but you still haven't made fucking playoffs um you had jack eichel which if the owner wants to get he's probably just as much to blame where you had your cornerstone piece where he was, whatever reason, didn't want him getting his own procedure. So they, yeah, they should have all met in that room and all took accountability for where things are because they've all dug that pile.

So now they don't want to make a brash decision right now. So I say, I agree with them. You made your own mess. All you get out of it this group of guys if you can make one little move find sure if they think that that's the appropriate thing but where who do you move off of you got own power who who you got bo byram and that samuelson as young young defenseman you're not moving on from doleen and you're not moving on from tage thompson i say that those are the only secure guys, Darlene and Tage Thompson.

Cousins? I don't want to trade Cousins. I don't want to trade Cousins. I know he hasn't kept going. He'll be a superstar somewhere else. I keep hearing that about Jack Quinn. I think that's the fear. Jack Quinn was scratched the last five games.

Then he had two against the Leafs Sunday. But he at least has some offensive ability. Before we get to the voicemail, I will say this. I don't know how Sabres fans are handling the fact that right before we started recording, it was reported by Frank Zeravalli that Pagula went and met the team in Montreal. And he said that the solution is within the room. And he professed his faith in GM Kevin Adams and coach Lindy Ruff and apparently told the players to not expect a big trade.

So fans like Dwayne are probably losing their mind right now. So let's hear from him five years ago, basically to the day. I'll try and organize my thoughts as best I can. five years ago, basically to the day. I'll try and organize my thoughts as best I can. I'm just, you know, I've, you know, I've, the 24 years they've been in that arena, I think in some form of capacity, I've been a season ticket holder for about 15 of those years.

You know, I started my first hockey card with Brad May. My first jersey was Pat LaFontaine. I idolized Dominic Hasek. I played goalie because of Dominic Hasek. I played goalie because of Dominic Hasek. I work for Hasek Foundation now as a coach. My life

in hockey has been started because of Sabres hockey. I went to the finals games as a kid with my dad. I watched Jeff Sanderson score with one arm around Ed Belfort. I have so many great moments to talk about with this hockey team.

I'm surprised the organization remembered to wish Dominic Kasich a happy birthday today. I'll put it that way. It's so mind-boggling how we've fallen this far. I was cautiously optimistic coming into this season because I wasn't fully

expecting playoffs, but I was happy with the way the season started because the competitiveness was there. Last year was misery 100% after the 10-game streak. It was absolute misery because the competitiveness and the passion was not there. And it's been there.

And then they go out and lay an egg last night in front of me. Of course, I was at the game. First time I went to a game with my sister, by the way. And she had to sit there through that. And it's just mind-blowing. Like, I don't need a Jerry Jones type of owner. Like, I need an owner who's going to answer the fans when they misspell names on jerseys and have Chinese knockoffs on alumni?

Like, what is going on? Like, what are we doing? Like, I don't understand it, man. Like, Bulldog, you've lived through this. You've seen it. Like, have you ever been, like, have they ever sucked a passion out of you like they have me? I've dedicated my life to hockey because of this team. Like, I can't do it anymore, man.

Like, I'm seriously, for the first time, considering just not being able to even take it of this team. Like, I can't do it anymore, man. Like, I'm seriously for the first time considering just not being a team to take it over this year. Like, even when the team was terrible, Ted Black would come on the station and talk to fans and address concerns. I don't need the damn camera in front

of Terry Pagola every single day, but address our concerns. Be there when you screw up. Answer for the mistakes. Be accountable. You know, like, Pelloff on Tain being forced out of the organization, you know, five years ago, how long it was.

Like, I don't need an explanation, but it's just been mediocrity. It's almost worse than the Bills drought. Like, and you know what? I don't know what people's opinions of the man were with Russ Brandon, but if Russ Brandon was running the team still, I highly doubt he would have allowed Chinese knockoff jerseys to be worn by Danny Garrett at Turkey Drive. I would have doubted on the ice.

Goat head, missing deadline. Like, what the hell is going on? Like, what is it? Like, I didn't need playoffs this year. I wanted it, but I didn't need it. But when you screw up for the fans as much as this team has over the last, like, five years, and just don't hold yourself accountable, go hide in your house in Florida. Like, what is this?

Get in front of the camera and at least make us feel that we matter. That we matter to you. Like, I'm sick of it, Bulldog. I'm sick of it. I'm sorry. I'll hang up and listen. I'm sorry. He held it together for a minute.

I know. I know. And then he got, it was like your dad talking to you about something bad you did. And, like, he just starts thinking and thinking and thinking. But him starting off, I'm surprised they remembered to wish Dominic Ashley a happy birthday today. That was what really got him. And let me quickly read the Sabres roster when he made that phone call. phone call Eichel Reinhardt Victor Olofsson Rasmus Dalyin Rasmus Ristelainen Marcus Johansson Jeff Skinner Jimmy Veazey Kyle Ocposo Zegmus Gergensens we got Brandon Montour we got Jake

McCabe we got Evan Rodriguez we got Casey Middlestad it's like oh my god wow there's some guys there goal guard this was five years ago and their goalie leonard was linus omark oh oh yeah they moved on they signed him to an unreal bargain deal and then dealt him that like that team played bad in front of duane's sister yeah now that's disgusting it's absolutely disgusting there was another name i forgot they moved off from there's another top d man in the league at least from the offensive side i mean you saw him play in florida he's the total package to me it's like he mentioned like i don't even care if we make playoffs watching that uninspired hockey that i watched the other night in the first period is like you have no respect for the jersey that

you're pulling over your body if you just have lost four of those games on the homestand already, and that's game five, and you get the morning skate off, and you come out, and you rub a few guys out in the first period. Come on. It's because they're knockoff jerseys. It's because they're Chinese fake jerseys. I don't know if it was that season, but they spelled Huck Bosso's name wrong. I believe Rob Niedermeyer played three games at one point for the Sabres

with his name spelled incorrectly. So just a very sad state of affairs. We'll move on from trash and Buffalo, but I feel bad. I feel bad for those fans, and thank God the Bills are this good. Amazing win against the Lions, 48-42 on Sunday. Before we get to Matt Duchesne. The Ants had had something to say what do you want to say i was i mean obviously biz like when we were in phoenix we didn't even have an owner like the league was running us then i went to new york have a great owner there and then a florida great owner like are there some owners that are

just like all right i'm gonna have my gm run it like they'll take care of it i just gotta pay the bills and pay these guys like or does is duane right there's the owner they're having a say in what's going on i i don't know but it's the nhl and like like you're saying like could they be could the players be getting treated better and and and you know nicer hotels and things a little bit easier in buffalo i don't know what their situation's like i was in phoenix i knew nothing else and i was just happy to be there every day like the fact that we were put on a private charter it could have been a fucking a piece a wallet on my plate i would have chewed through it if that was the stake the state cut kind of thing you know what i'm saying like i

didn't give a fuck if we were staying at the motel eight like i was in the east coast hockey league i wouldn't have cared so i don't know what the state of affairs are like there but how about like maybe show some grit and then we can upgrade the hotel or or the food on the plane like make playoffs i'm guessing pagula had something to do with lindy ruff being hired because him having been there before, he had to have had say in that, right? I mean, after all the coaches they've been through. But I'll finish with this, and that's that four teams in the last 24 years

have made the playoffs having a 10-game losing streak that season. No shit. It doesn't look good. It doesn't look good for Buffalo this year. But Dallas, apparently going around the insider group and the news is that they're really big game hunting with Sagan being on LTIR and his hip issue.

And I just didn't know if you guys had any ideas for somebody they could trade for, not to put you guys on the spot. I'll give one. If you guys want me to give one that, that I've seen online, but also it makes a lot of sense is, you guys on the spot. I'll give one if you guys want me to give one that I've seen online, but also it makes a lot of sense is Michael Granlund, who has been unbelievable in San Jose. He's been

just ripping it up there. He ripped it up last year too when San Jose didn't even have Celebrini, Will Smith, and they have some excitement around them this year, but he's UFA. So you know San Jose is going to be looking for a nice big return there. And the other guy I would say is a possibility is if Anaheim does decide to move Trevor Zegers, I feel like with his offensive skill, a guy like Peter DeBoer could really get him playing defensively and playing into their system. So if they're looking for a real impact player, that's another guy. Maybe Dallas takes a run at him and tries to fill a hole with sagan gone i don't mind that risk and like you talk about maybe the situation going on with his head coach and how much they butt heads and i i feel like pete deborah is a big time

players coach and can put the push the right buttons i'd like to see zegras try to get a chance somewhere else and with that bridge deal he signed he's not making too much money uh who was quickly the first name you mentioned again the grandlin that would be he signed, he's not making too much money. Who was quickly the first name you mentioned again? The Granlin? That would be unreal. She's saying Brock Nelson, possibly. I don't know. Really?

Benson. Did you guys see Malkin's name come up? Gino? Yeah. It was on Twitter. I'm just saying, did you see that i think it got sent to the group chat when they said that big game hunting malcolm wasn't when it was one of the guys that they were seeking so um but i think it's wiser to make a trade earlier to get save

guys some some energy allow them to adapt throughout the course of more of the year you get more value out of it you're not overpaying because you're going against other teams i say get it and address it now given the fact that i don't think that i think it'd be a miracle if segan ended up returning before playoffs yeah for me it's in this guy had a big big night the other night four goal game scott lawton i think he's gonna be a guy he can play up and down the line he's if he if you tell him he's like a he's like a German shepherd you just got to tell him what to do and he does it you'd be like you're a fourth liner go run through the wall he'll do that you tell him to be on the first line and that suit guys he'll do that so I think he'll be a big name but honestly I think he's a

perfect fit in Philly too I think he loves torts and loves being there so i don't know if they'll trade him but if i was a gm around this time i'd be going for him his name came up last year and i don't think the value was ever there and then uh buchnevich was another name last year that was popping up and then st louis eventually said like no like if we're not getting what we feel like the value is in the player yeah like those would be two two big big names for sure lot you said lot is a beauty too right wow lot lot makes three million a year yeah that's a nice deal wow i didn't realize i thought he made like four four and a half and he's got one more year so you'd get a little term right now i don't know if that's like as big as dallas is. But yeah, dude, that guy's nice. And he's a hell of a guy.

After meeting him at Hazy's wedding. Fuck, he cracked me up. With that, I think we could send it to Dallas star forward Matt Duchesne. And I recommend everyone checking this interview out. Very honest in kind of his assessment of his career and where he's at and his buyout from Nashville. Crazy story about that that he really goes in-depth with. So right now, we'll send it over to Matt Duchesne. What up, guys?

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Right now, check out the Holdridge family, as well as the rest of the awesome sweater lineup that Peter Millard has. We are now pleased to be joined, second time on the show years ago, Biz, during I think the Blues Bruins Stanley Cup Final. We had this guy for the first time what a run he's been on since welcome to the show matt duchesne how you doing buddy good how about you guys doing phenomenal doing phenomenal what a start for yourself personally this season the team's playing solid how you feeling how's everything going and and

unfortunately you lost your line mate sagan so that's kind of shitty news. But how you been? Oh, good, man. Yeah, it's been... Obviously, last year playing here in Dallas was a great experience. And obviously, we were close. Getting to the finals kind of ran out of gas after basically playing three conference finals back to back to back. So yeah, it was a no-brainer to come back. And obviously, Marsh, Sagan, and I have had some really good chemistry. And that was a line that I wasiner to come back and obviously marsh seggy and i have had some

really good chemistry and that was a line that i was excited to get back playing with and um obviously losing seggy now is is tough but we got you know if we got logan stanko and plugged in there so it's kind of a embarrassment of riches at times around here which is nice and uh he's a great player and um you know i think you know we talk we talk about him mush and i do about you know how awesome it would be to help him win you know rookie of think, you know, we talk about him, Mush and I do, about, you know, how awesome it would be to help him win, you know, Rookie of the Year this year or be in the mix for that. And he's got all the tools to do that. So that's kind of our little goal for our line

as it sits right now. Well, Witt brought up the chemistry. And even going back to last year, it felt like throughout the course of the whole season, you guys had two first lines based on production. And when we got to talk to you on TNT you were so complimentary of the the coaching staff and how comfortable you felt in Dallas especially after you've gone through what you went through being bought out with Nashville so what was it that brought you to Dallas and why you're so close to this coaching

staff and and what their message is yeah I think obviously I was pretty shocked at the buyout news a couple of years ago. I didn't really expect that to happen. And, you know, I didn't really ever take it as an indictment on my game. It was more, hey, there's a guy coming in, wants to do his own thing, wants to kind of, you know, blow it up, start from scratch.

I mean, there were so many other really great players that were kind of cast out of there and guys having big years right now, even they're still great players. So I was just kind of a casualty of that. And, but took a big, took a big toll on,

on me and my family. And cause Nashville is kind of home for us and a place that we see ourselves living, you know, when we, when I retire and, and then yeah, Dallas was the first team that reached out and they were,

you know, the kind of the first team that reached out and they were you know kind of the first team on my mind um so that was a really good fit i had experience with jim nill with hockey canada with pete deborah steve spot misha donskov all hockey canada guys and guys that i knew well and that i you know they you know they believed in me and wanted to have me here and um they've just the best part of playing for them is they just want me to be myself and go do what I do. And when I get away from it, they remind me of,

hey, this is what you do and we want you to play, you know, an offensive creative game. And then, you know, there's obviously the non-negotiables that every coach has. And Pete's are easy to do and easy to play

and it makes our team better. And, you know, when you get to this age, you crave a Stanley Cup and the chance so much that you're willing to do, you know, I was always willing to do what I could, but you don't understand the importance of it when you're younger, the little things.

And I think as you get older, you start to understand like, Oh, that's why we do this, you know? And it, it, it's easier to,

to really implement it to your game and, and it becomes kind of the foundation. So I find Pete is just such a crystal clear coach that way where it's like hey do these three or four things make sure you do them and then after that you just go to do you and be you and and then you know it makes it pretty easy to go play and then you're playing with great players so it's been uh it's been great touchy you touched on uh mush a little bit mason marchman and he came here in florida i think he might have been on a pto and i remember the coaches asking what you thought of him and he i just described

he just always got in the way like he's big he's lanky and like to compliment for you because you know you put people in the spin cycle he can get in on the forecheck like you talk about you two just having that good chemistry together and obviously different types of game, but just complement each other so well. Yeah, I was blown away by his talent level when I got here last year. I remember doing the three on, you know, you play like cross-ice three on three, like at the start, you know, optional skates and stuff.

And I just couldn't believe his talent. He stole the puck off me like three or four times, intercepted it another three or four times. I'm like, guy is like sneaky good stick ability like probably underrated and um he he was yeah I mean right away um and then Seggy too like I mean Seggy kind of got forgotten about a little bit and probably shouldn't have for being an elite player and and um in terms of goal scoring and everything like that and and people kind of thought you know i'd moved on i guess in terms of thinking of him as still an elite talent and goal scorer and then all of a sudden it's like boom he you know he's lighting it up again and

and he looked i could see it last year when i got here i'm like geez like this guy can still score he can still skate he can still do all this uh people are sleeping on him a bit so uh we kind of got together as a line and a kind of a we're kind of all in the same situation right like i'm coming off the most traumatic thing i've been through mush lost his dad um you know was at an up and down year the year before and seggy you know it was in that position i just spoke of and it's like hey boys like i there's no reason we can't be know, one of the best lines on this team or maybe even in the league. And, and we've got a bit of everything and we just got to believe, and we just got to

work together and talk about it and work. And it's, it was such a easy, you know, kind of, it was just an easy thing. It took us probably five, six games to get going. And all of a sudden we just started rolling and it was like, wow, this is really fun. And it was, it was, uh, you're, you're just so excited to go to the rink every day to play together. I mean, that's, and we still felt that way, you know, up until say you're getting hurt here. So, you know, we'll get him back hopefully for playoffs.

Hopefully he can, he can be at the quicker end of his timeline. But like I said to you, then you get Stank that steps in on our line and it's like, damn, this is great. I got to go back to the Nashville situation in the buyout because you mentioned like a traumatic thing for you in your career like a proud athlete you just hit a thousand games last year and the year before the buyout you you had had your career high and goals and points to kind of take me through when you

first get the call is that from your agent is that from nashville brass like you got to be talking to your wife it just how hard was it to deal with it? Or was it easy after a couple of days to be like, all right, fuck them. I'm going to prove them wrong type thing. You know what? I went through a really interesting calendar year. So I finished working out. It was 11.25. My wife came up. I just got out of the shower I was literally like drying my hair off and she came up crying and said my agent texted me and you know what what was going on so I like honestly the emotions that felt like I've never had anyone close to me pass away but that was like the feeling right away I was just devastated and I mean i was committed to i would

i would never have left nashville i was i was gonna stick it out maybe the only thing i could see was maybe at the end of my career if i you know we weren't in a position to have a chance to win and i had a chance to go somewhere for one last crack that would have been the only way i was gonna leave um i was in it i was committing to i'd been asked like hey we're gonna go a different direction and we need you to buy into this and i said yeah hell yeah i'm in um whatever we need to do and so i was blindsided like because then you know 35 minutes later i'm i'm on waivers for bio and i'm like what is happening um and even at the deadline that year before we trade everybody i was almost at a point per game um i was having a decent year

um especially with all the ups and downs we've gone through so i i never thought of it as like i said indictment on my my playing ability and i never kind of doubted that but you do at the same time right because you're just like man like i just got literally paid to go away and yeah you know it killed me um i called them i begged them not to do it like literally in tears um oh shit and yeah and they said okay we've heard you we'll talk about it till five and then said they let me know i read it on twitter before i got the call which sucked the business yeah you know what we're peace to meet at the end of the day and yeah that was really you know i it's well documented kind of you know i asked for i asked out of colorado when i got out

of there it was you know we were in a tough spot they you know then they draft kale mccarr and things switch around pretty quick um you know i was happy for those guys that i kind of went through those tough times with there that they they the success especially my buddy Atlantis Gog who's still grinding to get back I hope he I hope he does but um then I go to Ottawa um you know which was a team that I was looking at as a as a as a team that you know had a chance and then you know I go to Columbus have a have a little run there and then I got a chance to choose to go to Nashville so I kind of had control of my career up until this, right? And this was the team that I actually uprooted

everything and decided that I wanted to go play for. And it was the hockey part of it. First, I believed in the group we had, and we had an unbelievable locker room, uh, in there.

I have some of the best, actually replay them tomorrow. I'm going to dinner with four or five of the guys that are still there. And, uh, they might try to get you back the way things are going. They're like, shit.

Well, since we're still paying you, you might as well come back. So yeah, it was such a, like you said, it's a business, man. You just never know. And you get a little bit older. And that's one thing I've learned too is you hit 30. And I've said it numerous times because i think i said it on the air with you guys the other day it's like people look at you like you're supposed to be dying like you're a dying animal when you hit

30 it's like oh he's gonna get worse and i've looked always looked at it like hey our physical prime is still 33 but then like you should be some smarter you should be stronger you're bigger you know a little more corner you know as you get older yeah exactly i got three kids so hopefully that's uh coming soon but um yeah like you should be you should be able to get better into your into your 30s there's no reason to right so that's kind of the approach i've taken i've always believed the best my best season is going to be the next one and whether that happens or not you never know but and then you know what was crazy about the whole thing from nashville was so i literally i go it's 11 25 i find out i'm not a predator anymore at five o'clock i'm now talking to the dallas stars and some other teams the next

day i wake up i've got to figure out what i'm going to do. At 1 o'clock PM, I had no idea. I had to narrow down to two teams and Dallas being obviously one of them. And I had no idea what I was going to do. I'm talking about maybe flying in to go see the cities because I haven't eaten in two days. I'm an absolute mess. I've cried more than I have in my whole life. I'm not a crier. I could be emotional, but I'm not a crier. And I cried my eyes out. I actually got a call from another team. It was the owner that called me. And I literally just started crying on the phone with them.

And I'm like, I'm so sorry. Like, I am so, I am a mess right now. And, you know, it was nuts. I mean, my son heard me say out loud, I'm not a predator anymore. And he started crying. So then I start crying. It was just a freaking mess. And it was it was nuts I mean my son heard me say out loud I'm not a predator anymore and he started crying so then I start crying it was just a freaking mess and uh it was so tough so at one o'clock I had no idea what I was gonna do and then at 3 p.m I'm like boom light bulb goes off I am going to Dallas and so I called them I and the funny part was is I didn't even know what my

contract was I knew it was a one year cause we were going to just try it out. See how it goes. I didn't even know what I signed for. I was like, it was done. It was, I did an interview with TSN. Everything was done.

And then I text my agent. I go, by the way, what did I sign for? I had no idea. I had no clue. Uh, I didn't care.

I was just excited. So then that was on like a Friday or whatever. On the Tuesday, my family and I flew down, uh, to Dallas. The owner sent his plane up to Muskoka to grab us, which was amazing. We came down, they put us up. We found a house. We looked at 14 houses in like two days. It was like 15 hours of looking. Bought the house. Then I go home. Then it's like I'm skating that week training everything so i never got a chance to like digest it so then last year i had had the biggest week of my season i think i had like

seven points like three games we had our mom's trip we went to nashville we went nine two we had we all had big nights everyone had a great time i did like interview after the game with my mom on the bench it was just awesome the next game we go play uh edmonton and we lost in overtime and i took a puck off the foot and i missed the next game because i was in so much pain and i think it there might have been a fracture in there but we didn't pick it up for a while i couldn't walk i was in a crazy amount of pain and i went into full grieving mode from the summer for like the rest of the season the rest of the season and i if you go look at from that point on i i couldn't we lost saggy too at that point so our line got

disrupted and i remember laying in my hotel room in new york so we played boston i missed the game went to new york i'm laying in my hotel room and i'm like what's wrong with me i feel like i'm gonna like break down here like what is going on And I guess I talked about two weeks later, I talked to like, we all, a lot of us work with sports sex. I talked to her, I told her what was going on. I said, I don't know what's wrong with me. Like, I I'm like, I feel like I'm depressed. Like, she's like, well, do you have an injury right now? I was like, yeah, I have this one thing. She's like, well, this like textbook, like grief, you never got a chance to deal with what happened to you in the summer. So now it's all coming out. So I lost kind of my game there, even into the playoffs.

And in the playoffs, like that first series against Vegas, like you couldn't even, it felt like you were stuck in a phone booth trying to make a play. Cause there was, it was, it was like football on ice. It was like the hardest hockey I've ever played. And I just remember it being like, I'm not feeling it offensively. I don't have my, my vibe, my juice. So I just got to find a way to be effective here. And that playoff run stressed the hell out of me. And, uh, cause I wanted to win so damn bad and I wasn't feeling it. And so it's just, it was, it's been a wild, I know it's a long story, but I thought it was worth telling because grief isn't, I've never been through, like I said, I've never

grieved anything in my life and grief isn't apparently in the psychology world. It's not linear. It comes and goes at different times. And I've talked to different people at different times. And I remember sitting down with our assistant coach, Nisha Donskov, who's become a close friend and a kind of a mentor of mine, a guy I've really bounced things off of. And before game six against Colorado, when we won in overtime, I had had an absolute breakdown with him bawling my eyes out watching video with him he was showing me good stuff i just hated the way i was playing so much and i couldn't get over that hump

and i felt like i was doing a lot of really good things kind of the two-way game and i was blocking a shitload of shots and hitting guys and you know doing the right things making plays but I didn't have that like last 20% that I normally have so I remember sitting down with him and just breaking down I was like I can't I can't shake this feeling of what I'm going through and he lost his dad a couple years ago and he shared with me his experience and although I didn't experience anything like that someone dying the emotions and the feelings I was feeling were the same. And then, you know, I went out that next night and it was like, I just needed a good cry. I played a really, really good game, scored in double OT, you know, it was my bet, probably my best game of the playoffs. And I played the way that I felt like I could play. And then, um, you

know, it's, it's just, it was a wild ride And it's crazy how that moment goes back to June 30th, the year before, almost a full year. And that, those emotions come in, right? So anyway, I thought it was worth telling that story. No, Dutchie, don't feel like, like we appreciate, yeah, we appreciate your vulnerability. This is why we do the podcast. And like, if you say anything else on this interview,

I think a lot of people are going to take that away. And probably a lot of players, even a lot younger than you are going to take away from that and maybe understand it more now to go a little deeper. Like, did you stick with that same psychologist and did they help you work through that and understand all these things? And like, do you have like exercises you have to take home? Like, how did you end up breaking through? Um, I've worked with her for a while now. She's just been a godsend for me and um she she just helped me through it i had to i had to stay on it and i i kind of knew it wasn't something i was going to be able to shake while i was still playing hockey i needed to get away in the summer

and that's when i started to kind of i i just it needed to flush its way through my system um and I finally got there I don't there wasn't an aha moment it was just I think once I knew I was coming back to Dallas and committed to that I was able to kind of turn the page and move forward and then I started to look ahead I started to set new goals um and I started to just I think the the experience of going through that playoff run being able to help the team win and still not having my best it was kind of an empowering experience and it it made me motivated to be like okay the next time i get that chance i'm not going to be going through what i just went through i'm going to be better and that was my motivation every day i stepped in the gym and yeah i think just coming into the

season i think it was it felt like it didn't feel like a new season it felt like part two it felt like the continuation of last year and i think it just really springboarded me mentally and um you know you go through that and it's really tough at the time but then you get through it you're like man i can handle anything so that's kind of been the experience last year fucking rights man it's amazing that yeah it's amazing to hear how raw that is and we kind of talked on this show before about like the the the idea of being a pro athlete and then like not thinking of that and as a young kid like you're a phenom you're a top three pick it was kind of almost the first like true really hard moment of your of your career as a hockey player so to hear you talk about it is amazing.

And congrats on everything this season. I guess that kind of answers my question. Did you think about going anywhere else this summer? That's a no based on, on how that sounded, but quickly, what was the, what was the other team that you were maybe close to signing with two years

ago, other than Dallas? I'm not going to say. I wouldn't say it rhyme with, I'm not going to say, yeah, no, I'm not going to say. Okay, fair enough. What does it rhyme with? I'm not going to say. Yeah, no. I'm not going to say.

I'm not going to put myself out there for that. Minnesota? No, it was not them. But no, I'm going to keep that one. Good for you. I'm going to be honest with you about a lot of things.

I'm going to keep that one quiet. No worries at all. I can imagine Jamie Benn coming up and being like, oh yeah, go so Florida, eh? Want to go to Florida? You don't like it, sir? Yeah, exactly.

I'm sure some people have asked, does the connection and the fact that you like the country music and you play, did that feel like part of the fit? Did that bear any weight in your decision making? And no state tax? Yeah, probably more the state tax than the music. Man, I, with my three kids, this house is so loud that if I even grab my guitar, my wife goes, no, go put that back. Like that's just more noise. Um, but, uh, I, you know what? I love the,

I love the Southern culture. I think it's, you know, it reminds me of how I grew up back home, like really rural community, Canada. Um, you know, I'm a Christian, so there's a lot of Christian values here. Um, you know, you can send your kids somewhere where they get that school. Um, it just feels like home. I, my wife's from Denver and she's felt the same. I mean, the, when we moved here last year, um, we're, and we were so in love with Tennessee and Nashville, we moved here and she looked at me about two weeks in and goes, I thought this could be a lot harder. And I said, me too, because we just, it felt so comfortable. It felt like we moved to a little bit more urban part of Nashville than we were living in.

And we've made friends that my kids go to school with. My son's playing hockey here and the minor hockey is amazing. The other kids' sports are incredible we're close to everything yeah it's just you know it we took a we took a chance and the biggest reason we wanted to do this was i i just the people involved in the organization jim nill pete deborah steve spot misha donskob like i mentioned they were a a a comfort zone for me because i had had success with them i'd won with them, a team Canada, um, and their OHL guys,

you know, there was that, um, that connection. And just speaking on the phone with them, I could just tell their belief in my game and what I could do. And I knew I was going to get an opportunity and I knew they were going to give me time.

Like I knew if I struggled the first half of the year, it wasn't going to matter because they were going to give me the time to, to get comfortable. And it just felt like the right situation all around. And I knew this team was close to winning and we had a chance last year. And, you know, I think we're right there right now. We're going through some growing pains a little bit.

And sometimes you got to go through some stuff to go forward. I mean, we're still in a great spot, but I think we got another gear. And I want to help this this team get over that hump i've become attached to it and um i felt like there's no way i could leave it uh going into last summer i have too much i felt like there was way too much unfinished business dutchie being in the you know the mecca obviously nashville and dallas of country music if you could collab with

one guy or girl who would it be to do a song with or go on stage with obviously we've seen you up there on stage with some groups but uh if you could do one song with one guy who would it be i think i mean easy one to pick out would be morgan wallen because i haven't done something with him i've had a couple other guys i've got up with the other guy too is post malone i mean it's been awesome it's been awesome having him come over to the countryside and he grew up here in Dallas. So I think that'd be really cool. Um, he comes here in May. So hopefully we're in between playoff rounds so we can get out to his, his show. But we actually just met him in Salt Lake. He was at the game. I went, he started banging the drum or whatever during the game. And I, right after I went up to our PR guys, I'm like, Hey, get posty in here. Let's go. Our wind song. I kind of picked our wind song this year. Uh, it was pour me a drink and, uh, by him and Blake Shelton. And I'm like, let's get him to come in and sing it live for us. Like, obviously he didn't do that, but we, he came in and we met him and, uh, he was great. And, um, obviously it's cool to have a guy from Dallas kind of take country music world by storm here. And, um, everyone's just any of my buddies that are in

the business i've talked to about that album they're they're blown away and well you know it's like you know if you're talking to a fellow hockey player who's blown away by another guy you're like okay that's the real deal right so that's kind of that vibe uh that he's given everybody in that industry right now my buddy uh my buddy chandler he's actually in post these bands so maybe i'll uh give him a shout and he can... There you go. That would be awesome, man. You've spent the next...

Check out his theme song? Yeah, maybe. No, we got 10k. I want to invest in Post Malone. You can invest in 10k. Shut the fuck up. You rat fuck. I'm just kidding.

I love it. I love it. I know. Who are the other guys that you've collabed with? Oh, I've played on stage. So Thomas Rhett a couple of times. he's a really good friend of mine. Actually, I just saw their whole crew. They were in Vegas.

They had a show the same night we played there. So he had, he had a party after, and I went over there. I was at the Fontainebleau. So I went over there after the game. I've gotten up with Dierks. Garth Brooks had me soundchecked with his band which is unreal he gave me like his headset and his guitar and everything and i played uh friends in low place with his band i was basically him for it just a way worse version uh jake olin i've gone up with him yeah

it's been fun like this year we we did a welcome kind of welcome to the season party we did it at um like we do a team retreat sorry at the start the start of the year. And we went to Troubadour, which is my golf course out in Nashville. And, um, I took the, took all the boys there and we had Russell Dickerson come and play. Uh, he's a good friend of mine. He came and played a acoustic set for us after we played golf. So he just sat down, grabbed a guitar and like some of the boys were like, geez, this is crazy. Like, you know, he could charge 30, 40 K for this right now.

And he just came, showed up and was a beauty about it. So he, uh, he's such a good dude. And, um, so that was special. So yeah, it's been, it's funny. A lot of the guys I knew before I played in Nashville. And then once I got there, you got to cut, you get to kind of rub shoulders with them a bit more, but you know, ironically, I had such little time for it because of my family you know that just you're i'm right now in my point in my life i'm hockey hockey matt or or dad matt

so that's kind of where i'm at and obviously wouldn't trade it but uh the music part is on the on the back burner for now and maybe i'll pick it up a bit more when i'm retired i i never played when i had kids, but in talking to Keith and other guys, I'm sure it's the same where if you do have a tough night or a little bit of a tough stretch, it's probably just so much easier, right? You get home and you really even can't even think about it.

You have that kind of endless support from home that must help you mentally. And as a guy who cares so much and kind of can take it home maybe in years prior, has it just been so nice for you to be like dad matt like you say when things aren't going as you hoped yeah absolutely you can get you can get lost in that for sure um there is times where it piles on which isn't great um but i think i think i've gotten so much better at leaving the rink at the rink and i do you're

you got bang on i care i care too much and um you know uh going back to you know our that sports psychologist i work with i i kind of discovered four or five six years ago maybe now that i dealt with you know some anxiety i i'd start to issues that i started to build up through and you guys all played you know how it goes right you you have you're in the if you're in the wrong situation you have maybe a coach whose personality doesn't mesh with yours young um you can develop some ptsd type stuff where you know and as a skill guy you get when you get to that blue line you got to make a play and you can't do it because you're you know you're anxious you know that that was starting to really affect me and i had to tackle that and then, I would say I'm really able to leave things more

at the rank and leave things at what they are and come home and, and, and be the best, you know, the person I can be for, for my kids. And, um, you know, it's always a challenge, you know, there's when they have bad days and you're having a bad day, it's tough. I mean, if you have kids, I know you know exactly what I'm talking about. But no, just even sitting down and playing mini sticks with my son and watching, the one thing I've really taken from him, I think in the last year, is he loves hockey so much since he kind of fell in love with it last year when we got here. And that's why Dallas will always be a really special place for us

is it's kind of where he fell in love with the game and um watching him look at the game like I used to when I was a kid has put me back in those shoes and when I go to the rink every day I know there's more hockey behind me than ahead of me I still feel like I got a lot more in the tank and you know hopefully I can play until I'm ready to be done. But I, I just look at it through his eyes. I'm like, damn, I get to go to the rink tomorrow and, and play the game I love and, and, and do this. And, and, you know, I didn't look at it like that when I was in my twenties and it started to become like success was the ultimate, you know, that was the fun part was the success. Now I'm almost going back to the actual games, the fun part. And then it just bleeds into your every day and you're happier, you're playing better.

You know, and it's funny to really look at it through my son's eyes and remember how I used to feel. And it's like, you know, hearing a song you haven't heard for a long time and then it brings you back to a point in your life. It's a little bit like that. It's been really cool. It's crazy that we're interviewing today

because just last night, my son's first year might so i'm coaching the team and i was telling her like throughout my career in the end of my career i should say like i was pretty bitter you know not at anyone in particular like kind of myself and just how things gone when you when you dream of what will happen and then how it goes and getting into coaching it has i i have like found like a new love for the game again. It's wild to hear you say it because you see these kids. They're so innocent and they just love scoring a goal in practice or anything, like doing a drill correctly.

And to hear you say it is so funny just because last night I was saying the same thing. You forget about why you started playing it to begin with. You forget about how much you loved it as a kid. So to hear you say it as you're currently playing, that's even cooler because you can have that really like fall into line for your, for your own game. Yeah,

no, you're bang on. You know, it's funny. I said it being an old guy. Now I said the back of the bus and, uh, you know,

Jamie Benz right there. And he and I talked about it the other day and I felt like, you know, I kind of had this conversation with Wyatt Johnson. He was kind of going through a little bit of slump at the start of the year and he was you know he's a he's a pretty quiet introverted kid um so it's you think he and he always has a you know a grin on his face he's a really sweet kid and um you kind of forget you can forget that hey he's 21 or 22 whatever he is and that's when hockey's its hardest because you're

young you're expected to be hit unbelievable playoff last year you expect to take that next step and maybe you're spinning your tires a bit and um i sat down to talk to him and jamie asked me what i what i said to him and i just said like hey try and find the joy in the game try and find the joy at pregame skate like think about think about what you're doing, buddy. Like, your buddies are in college right now. They're in university and you're snapping around

the national. Like, you're going to dinner tonight at a steakhouse and then you get to wake up in the morning, have a coffee, put on a nice suit,

go to the rink, put your gear on, free sticks, everything. You know what I mean? Like, think about that. And I think

the best part was he scored that night and it felt better than if if I had scored because I was so happy for him to kind of get through that and uh I was so happy for him and when I said that to when I mentioned that to Jamie kind of what I told him he was like dude I feel the same as you right now like we're at that point where it's like we don't get to do this that much longer we don't have the runway ahead of us that we did you know when we he and i were teammates on the olympic team in 2014 we're just young bucks and it's harder then man because you're just like you're trying to achieve your goals and stuff and you get to the point where now i still have so much i want to achieve and i still believe my best years are ahead of me and I will I'll believe that till I hang them up but um I think that's the only way to approach it

but I'm just taking so much more joy in the little things and yeah it's easy to do and things are going well of course but that's the reminder that when they don't go the way you want them to you play a great game you know you lose your team loses you know you're not getting on the board as much as you'd like you just keep if you keep coming back to that and restarting that kind of mental part of it, I think it puts you in a good spot. Yeah. I think that right there too is why the, you know, we see the league going super young right now. And, you know, even when you came in the league, it was a lot of older guys, but I think that's one of the main reasons why the league always needs to have those good veterans around. Like you what 32 years old already played a thousand games been in huge situations and you know just passing on that knowledge to

young kids is amazing to hear i appreciate that i think it's our duty man i think it's easy to be the be really easy to be the vet that shits on the young guys when they make mistakes and aren't playing well i mean we've all played with those guys too right and those are the guys that i remember and i'm so grateful for every day that i you know even if they taught me one thing it's it's stuck with me and their kindness stuck with me right and um that's the guy i want to be for for the young guys who were some of those guys for you in colorado for me like i remember darcy tucker i remember uh jerome aginla uh danny briere um you know i lived with adam foot first couple years. He was pretty hard on me a lot of the time, but there was times, there's lots of stuff

I remember from him as well. But I remember, you know, my first year, Darcy Tucker. I mean, he was so great to me. I sat beside him in the room on the road. It was like always the same stalls. And I remember the coach throwing me on the fourth line and I wouldn't understand why. And I'd be all pissed and mad at the world. And'd be like buddy it's all right just go do your thing

you're all good you're 18 and like you but at that age you think it's the end of the world you're like yep shit man like I'm expected to come in and score and do this and do that and I might you know and you're all worried and then you go out and you play a good few first few shifts on your back of your normal line but you don't see it that way at that age right and the the that's the perspective i have now being through stuff like that and you know to to see a kid and a you know that's down on himself about not getting on the score sheet you know the beautiful thing is is like you know i think back in the day if you reacted like that you'd get looked at selfish and you get ripped apart and now we've all been through that situation and that's the last thing I look at it like, because I made that mistake several times where you have the pouty face after a game, you didn't play like you should have, but the team won and you got chirped by the older guy about it and you didn't really understand that you were even doing it and and now when i see it i don't think i think of it through my perspective and i go up and i'm like hey man

like you played great like you know you're doing a lot of good things just keep going if you focus on what you're doing every day you know the the numbers will come and and i love that you're pissed like i like that i want that i want them because I know they're happy we won. They're not upset we won. They just want to be great. They want to be the best they can be. And that's the way I was wired. That's the way a lot of the new generation is wired. But it was taboo when I was coming up

and at the beginning, and I had to learn, it took me a while to learn to put the face on. And I was, you know, also anxious about it and all that stuff. Like, man, like, you know, you go home and you're like, I'm not where I'm supposed to be.

I'm not where I'm supposed to be. I'm not doing what I'm supposed to do. And you feel like shit about it. You feel like you're letting everybody down. And you, so it comes from that kind of place. And it usually does come from that kind of place. We have, we don't play with a lot of, you guys know, there's not a lot of bad human beings in this league. There's not many. And even if a guy, you know, has some flaws, you're still like, man, he's a good guy. He's, he's, you know, doing the right things. He's, he's trying, many. And even if a guy, you know, has some flaws, you're still like, man, he's a good guy. He's, he's, you know, doing the right things. He's, he's trying, right. And I think with these young kids, they need the support in that situation. Cause I know I needed it. And when I

had a veteran that saw it for what it was and could really help me, um, like those guys I named, I mean, they, it was, oh, it was funny. It felt like every year i was going through uh some sort of really big struggle and trying to find my way i had one of those guys in the room and that was really special for me and i didn't have them long i only had tux for a year i had i had danny b for one year uh iggy i had for maybe two but they always were there when i was needed the most and and i will always be grateful to those guys. You're pretty open about your faith as well. I mean, you've mentioned it a couple of times, like you talked about talking to the sports

psychologist or psychologist in general, obviously leaning on your family during hard times. Like, like what is it that religion does for you? Like what? Yeah. Um, so one thing like religion is a word that I don't use very often because I think that's like a rule following thing right um and every religion can go that way for me my faith is just a relationship with God I try and I try and educate myself the last four or five years I've really dove into it more I always had I grew up that way I I brought up church going household.

We talked about faith all the time. I married a Christian girl. Her family was big into it growing up, still are. And that's the way we're raising our kids. And I definitely don't want to get on my soapbox and say, you know, you know,

be one of those people. But anybody that wants to talk about it, I'll gladly chat with them about it. I've had conversations with some of my teammates who have wants to talk about it i'll gladly chat with them about it i've had conversations with some of my teammates who have come to me about it i remember one of the biggest compliments i've ever gotten in my life was ryan mcdonough a couple years ago told me that i helped him take a bigger step in his faith and ryan mcdonough anyone that knows him is he's a perfect human being um closest thing to um i was always teasing him about i'm like man i can't even find a flaw with you and uh you're absolutely flawless you're a perfect person

on and off the ice and he and i played a year together and got really tight and finding out i helped him take a step there was the biggest comment i could ever gotten and and yeah i'm open about it because i i want to you know spread the word and and if anybody's on teetering, you know, if it's not for you, it's not for you. It's okay. I like, there's no judgment for me. And, um, and I don't believe there should be. And I think that's where religion goes wrong is when we start to judge and we don't love. And, um, for me, anybody who's on the fence about it, if I can help them anyway, get over

that hurdle, um, I'm always there for it. So I've seen guys do it. I've seen whether I was part of it or not. I saw Ryan Johansson, who's one of my best friends in the league. Obviously, he's not playing right now, but he really took a big step, found his wife,

and is living his best life right now. And so I just think I've seen guys kind of go through their journey and there's organization, there's Hockey Ministries International and PAO throw athletes outreach. There's different organizations that really help us as athletes go. And I just try to be someone that can kind of help, help somebody if they're, if they want to take that next step. And there's been a couple of guys here in Dallas that I've, I've really, you know, I think that have kind of latched onto that part of it and I've just tried to help.

And so I, yeah, I, again, I'm not trying to be on my soapbox or anything. No, not at all. That was an unbelievable breakdown. Yeah, no, I just think if you educate yourself on it, I think you can dive further into it because it's hard not to. That's been my journey and it gets me through a lot. I mean, I pray every morning. I wake up, it kind of sets me up for the day. And I've seen God do amazing works in my life. And I think me coming to Dallas has been one of

them. And the, uh, I felt his presence. It, this sounds, I mean, maybe a little abstract to a lot of people, but through the whole Nashville thing, it felt like he was saying this hurts like hell, but it's going to be quick. I promise. I kept hearing that in my head and it was so true. Um, going to be quick. I promise. I kept hearing that in my head and it was so true. Um, I didn't think I'd get over it and I it's there's, I still am not over it, but I'm way further than I ever thought I'd be. And it's, that's been a, that's been the foundation of it along with my family. Dutchie, I have a, I have another meeting here. I got to get going. These guys are going to take over, but I just wanted to thank you for your vulnerability and opening up. Like this is obviously not the typical conversation,

but I think it's going to mean a lot to a lot of people. And I couldn't be happier for your success and how you've landed on your feet in Dallas. And keep going, man. You guys got a wagon there. I appreciate it, buddy. Great seeing you. And yeah, glad you're all good from the little altercation too.

I saw the videos. That's fucking crazy, man. Peace. Hey, thanks to the AHL for preparing me. Yeah, there you go. I'm going to go grab a soggy sub now. See you, boys. There you go.

See you, dude. And he won't put money in the cup either. Shut the fuck up. Put in five, take 10. I put it in a 10-day deal. Hey, Dutchie, in talking about your faith, it's no surprise at all. And something we wanted to talk about or let you talk about is is your entire uh hockey tonk um foundation where i think you're you're helping out people who are going through cancer their families going through cancer and and having a

like a five-star experience at a dallas stars game can you bring us through like that that foundation and scenario and how you thought of it yeah so i did it in thanks for bringing it up i know i wanted to talk about on here we're launching it probably if it's one o'clock right now it's coming out right now but um and when i got to nashville they do the preds do a really good job with the community and i did a sweet program there called duchesne's hockey talk for obvious reasons and felt like it still fit here in dallas and um i basically basically the inspiration behind it was there was a little boy from my hometown that I got close with during my junior career and he had cancer. He fought it from like

five till 10 years old when he eventually passed. He passed in January of 2010. And it was my rookie year. I flew home for his funeral and he asked his parents to be buried in my jersey. And that just, I mean, it gives me chills every time I talk about it. And I just now being a dad and I mean, I just can't imagine what their family went through. I got, you know, tight with the family. I supported his brother through his minor hockey career. I got him hockey equipment his whole time coming up. And I just felt like it was the least I could do for a little boy who just deserved better in life and loved hockey.

And I just, but I saw the toll it took on the family and I wanted to create an experience where it's not just about the kid or the parent or whoever that in, in Nashville is geared toward the, the, the kid or the parent or whoever that in in Nashville was geared toward the the kid and the siblings and the little boy's name from Halliburton his name is Dawson Hamilton so I wanted to get that in there but um he um I wanted to really help his brother out I wanted to help his family and and I felt like when families are going through this kind of stuff a lot of people overlook the the family members.

Right. And, and I think we've all had people that have been touched by cancer. My, both my grandfathers had it and, you know, they caught it early. They got rid of it,

but I saw the toll it took. I mean, my dad was driving my grandpa to appointments. My, my aunts were taking my other grandpa, like my grant, like every, like it's,

it's, it's a lot on the families. And for me, I just feel like our first of all as a hockey player we're called to to to give back because we've been blessed second my my christian side you know part of being a christian is tithing and giving back and and for me i just think our most valuable thing on this earth is our time and if i can help give families the ability to forget about what's going on and just be normal

families that have, that are just focusing on having a great time, it's the least I can do. And I, I, we did that in Nashville. And, um, a lot of the time I'd actually have a country music artist sit in the suite with these families and, uh, make it even more special. And I, the people that did that, all the artists that did that i'm so grateful for and um we had other nights who was auctioned off people paid a bit of a premium for it and then that money went towards the foundation or the the people were helping out so here so it's the cancer support community of north texas is the name of the organization that we're we're doing the project with and basically they're there to support families going through this and and so we did our first uh event the other night the father had has been fighting and the kids

obviously i mean that's gotta be so hard right they'd one of the daughters was very young and you know you know it doesn't make sense to her right and the one son i think said to our foundation person hey we haven't had a night out like this in a long time where we could just you know enjoy something like this. And that was exactly the point of it. So I love that it came out that way. I just think like hockey should be able to give back at a grand scale.

It's a great platform. We all are blessed to make a lot of money doing this thing. And so at least we can do and we need to do it. Thank you so much for doing that and explaining it. And the way you have given back,

it's very honorable, man. Like, like you said, like even if it's just three hours where their, their minds are just away from what they're going through, it's good on you. Good on you. It's, it's incredible. Yeah. You know what, again, I, it's the least I could do. I wish I could do more, you know, obviously got a lot of my plate with the career and the kids and the family and everything. But I, I, again,

I think it's our duty to do this stuff and guys are so great in our game at doing this it's not just me that ever a ton of guys are doing this stuff i just want to make sure that we get this out there so we can raise as much money as possible and and support a really good organization well we're not going to keep you for that much longer man i i just i kind of had one final question relating to the team and that's about pete deborah um the success he's had everywhere has been incredible like the game sevens his record in game sevens i i didn't know if there's something that you can kind of describe that that sets him apart from other coaches you've had because i've i've met him a couple times very like a great guy and then you could tell he's

intense on the bench but what what is your relationship like with him and what what's a little different about him from prior coaches that you've had? He's been awesome. I mean, I think what makes him special is he's just, there's no fluff. And when I say that, there's no waste. Our meetings are 10, 15, maybe at the longest. That's huge. It's the greatest hits of like because you know

how much video they watch right and we've all played for coaches that have 30 minute video meetings and you're like holy shit we don't need to watch five breakouts or five d-zone coverages like i and i understand why they do it because they're putting that much time into it they want to make sure that they're getting back i think i think pete has a really good perspective on he doesn't coach for himself. What makes him feel good, he coaches for what the team needs. And I think he has a really good perspective on that. Coaching, let's be serious, that's the hardest job in sports. I mean, they put in way worse hours than we ever do. I mean, they're there way before us, way after. They see their families a lot less. It's a tough job. And I think he's such a

professional. But he's great too, because if you're struggling, he'll pull you in and have just a man-to-man conversation. He won't carve you. He'll just be like, hey, I think you can do this, this, this a little bit better. And we believe in you. When I was going through that grieving stuff last year, he called me one day and said, Hey, I don't want you to spiral here. You're, you're okay, buddy. Like you're, you're good. It was like a telephone hug, like, and I needed it. Right.

And, um, he's really good at that. Spotter's really good at that. Our whole staff has got a really good balance. There's times he'll, he'll bark. Like Pete's got a, every now and then he's got like, he'll, he'll see something on the bench it sets him off and kind of kind of like goes at you a little bit but then he'll come to you the next day and be like hey like i remember there was a time last year this is a good story to describe who he is as a coach we our line had our f3 dove in a couple times they got odd man rushes and he like snapped on the bench on us and we we weren't doing the

right thing like we were we had we weren't doing the right thing. Like we were, we had bad reads. So then the rest of the game, our F3 was like standing almost at the red line. Right. We didn't want to dive in. So he calls us into a video meeting and he goes,

Hey, I don't want this. He's like, this is my fault. I, I, I gave it to you guys way too hard and freaked you guys. Like basically I,

but I don't want you guys standing. I, yeah. He's like, I don't. So then we were overly responsible and he's like, I't want this play hockey boys like hey i'm sorry this is my fault and we were laughing about it right and that's the best way that he that's the way he coaches so you know you know there's times he's gonna bark at you but he'll come and you'll know

whether it's fair or not and if it's not fair he'll come up to you every time and talk to you about it and it's part of being a coach you see something during the game he sets you off you're trying to manage a bunch of stuff i get it and you know he's been just such a pleasure to play for and the amount of laughs we have as a group together too is is uh you know is great he's he's just awesome to play for and he's got he's like a the perfect blend of like a coach and a player's coach if that makes sense yeah yeah it just goes to show you the uh obviously the games evolved the last 10 15 years but the coaches have as well like your first year you had joe sacco who i heard when he was the head coach he was a little hard on guys i've heard he's can change completely he's a great player's coach now

but even what you were saying going in and having a cry with your assistant coach like that would have never happened back then and it's i think it's a great thing for the league and for guys still playing that to have that support system because at the end of the day you're all on the same team right 100 and like we're human right like man like like you guys know i know you guys are a little bit removed from your careers now but you go to bed at night probably still identifying as a hockey player, right? I was a hockey player. Hockey was my life, still is my life. You guys are on a hockey podcast, what you're coaching, right? Um, like we identify with it. It's in our soul and our heart. It's personal, man. It's freaking personal. I don't care. Like, and that's when it gets hard when it becomes business. Cause it's

like, they don't want me. They don't like me think i'm no good like and you put that part of it so the coaches are starting to understand that side of it and i think with all the mental health stuff that's come out i think it's great for the game we don't need to be soft because there is that side of it too like you got to be a man and you got a man up and you gotta, you know, I, I, but sometimes you need that release of stuff. And I think I, I shocked Misha when I went in and, and I started, I just broke down. I didn't think I was going to break down. I didn't think I needed that. I just like absolutely had a, I just felt, I felt safe. I felt like I could do it. And I mean, look what it did the next night. You know, you kind of, after that you reach down and go, you know, you wipe your tear, you grab your nuts and you go okay i gotta go i gotta go play now right and there's both sides of that

right you can't and you can't be too far one way or the other and i think hockey's starting to find the right blend and a lot of teams have sports psychs and we need them man it's it's damn hard what we're doing out there and um you know we're paid to do it and we're paid well and you know it can't be you can't be airing it out in the media or anything like that. But again, we need that support system and hockey's going that way a bit more and it's great. Dutchie, the league and not only the league,

but the world needs more people like you looking to help others and being open and honest with how you're feeling and what you're going through. We cannot thank you enough with how good this has been and how kind of honest you've been with us and all the listeners, because no matter what, whether you're 15, 25,

40, you're going to go through tough times in life. And, and you've, you've, you've done that come out on the other side. So congrats on everything, man.

I'm really rooting for you and your, and your squad. And we appreciate you coming on, dude. And for anyone, uh, it's, it's hockey talk and we'll be able to get all this stuff out on social

media and, and try to help out in any way we can, but we appreciate you, man. Thanks guys. for anyone, it's hockey talk and we'll be able to get all the stuff out on social media and try to help out in any way we can. But we appreciate you, man. Thanks, guys. I really appreciate you helping me out with that. And yeah, I mean,

just quickly before I go, I think it's, like I said, I'm at the point in my career where it's my duty to help people because I've been through some tough stuff.

I've been through some great stuff. And if you can't give back, I, you know, I don't think you have things to perspective. So,

thank you for all you guys are doing too for hockey. I mean, my buddies were so pumped I was coming on here again and they listen to you guys every day and I think you guys

have really, you have really brought a lot of great things to our game and a lot of great interviews and gives me, gives a guy like me a chance to have a platform

like this to chat about stuff close to me. Right. So I don't have to talk about the goals for and the goals against and the for check and the power play and all that stuff. Right. So, um,

thanks to you guys. And, thanks for having me on. Appreciate it, man. Have a great one. Guys, before we continue,

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York, call 877-8-HOPE-NY or text HOPE-NY. 18 or older, 19 plus in Nebraska, 21 plus in Arizona, void where prohibited, promo code required for $2 non-withdrawable credit prize amount may differ at time of drawings terms jackpocket.com slash tos slash free dash ticket dash promo slash thank you so much to matthew shane uh honest conversation we really appreciate him coming on rooting for him amazing to hear what he went through and trying to deal with like being bought out from a place that you considered you'd be at the rest of your career so that was really cool and it was it was a blast getting to chat with him for that long um we mentioned the the trade oh actually before we get to that a couple more announcements for our live show in chicago uh barstool sports.com slash events there are a few tickets oh yeah we brought up Stapleton, all-time Chicklets guest as our first guest

that we were announcing for the live show. We have now locked up two NHL Hall of Famers, and that's Jeremy Roenick and Chris Chelios. So Stapleton, Chelios, and Roenick,

this night is setting up to be a very special one. BarstoolSports.com slash events. You'll have all four of us. G, myself, Biz, Yance. We'll have the Game Notes Boys, uh, G myself, biz Yance. We'll have the game notes,

boys, army and morals. And it'll just be an absolute time in Chicago. I know some people a little bit worried about, uh, um, like times and dates around the holidays. Um, there's a game,

a black Hawks game that night. So we're scheduling the live show so you could attend it. And then you could go to the black Hawks game afterwards. So make sure you end up snagging a ticket and for you listeners who won't be in chicago um the the two venues that we currently have available we're going to end up the same owner they said that we can have the audio from the recording inside so when we release that podcast following after that live show certain bits and pieces of the live show will be inserted in that podcast so

i don't think it's it's something we've ever done before so even if you aren't able to attend and you're not there but it'd be sick to get it sold out live experience and a couple hall of famers and maybe a couple other uh pop-ins from guys who are in town as well maybe we can get uh gary betman to come out maybe do an a body armor body read, and then send them on their way. I thought you were going to say a body shot. Or a Pink Whitney body shot. Maybe we'll get them to do a birdie bucket nip. So that's pretty much all I wanted to say on that.

It's going to be awesome. I cannot wait. Rowdy crowd. And we owe Chicago, considering our first live show ever, we had no audio. So how far we've come as a podcast, now we'll be able to have two Hall of Famers and then a Hall of Fame personality in Tim Stapleton. Anaheim moved on from Cam Flower. This was pretty much a done deal. Even going into the season, you knew they'd end up trading him.

He's been kind of in the rumor mill to being traded for a few years now. He finishes his career as a duck, as the all-time leading goal scorer, assist, and points for defensemen. Incredibly, he's nine games away from 1,000, which I think if he plays every game for the Blues leading up to the Winter Classic, that will be his 1,000th game, which is really cool. acquired him and a fourth rounder. They traded a prospect, Jeremy Bianca Batuca and a second round pick in the 2027 NHL draft. And it seems like some people were like, ah, St.

Louis is, he's a little old, but the quotes by army, uh, Doug Armstrong, GM of the St. Louis blues was more about, I'm not doing a rip it down rebuild. And I want to stay competitive as we retool,

which I used to be really against. Cause I was like, you got to get the first overall stud. You got to get a game breaker, but we've seen Buffalo and we've seen all those years in Edmonton before McDavid. And you've seen teams try to do this. And it's like,

it doesn't always work if you don't hit a home run and you got to get lucky with the lottery balls and everything. So I get what army's doing. And he brought up their first round pick from two years ago. And I believe two second round pick defensemen from last year that he thinks they'll be ready to play in 2026, 2027-ish. And by then, these older guys that they have, they have Ryan Suter. They have Justin Paul. Pareko's actually 31, but he plays a ton of minutes.

And unfortunately, Nick Letty's been injured. He's been out since October. I guess he traveled out west and everything, whatever the end, it's undisclosed, but it flared back up. And Torrey Krug's missing this season. So Army's looking to stay competitive and try to make a playoff push while also retooling with prospects and the draft. So I like it.

I like the move. I like it too. Yeah. Yeah so i like it i like the move i like it too yeah i like it too man and uh it just lines up he's actually going to play his 1000th game if everything goes according to plan at the winter classic that'll be a game no yeah it lines up that's did you guys already say that or am i crazy oh you already said it okay i was in my own head worrying about that. Honestly, no one's ever done that, right? That hasn't happened yet, right?

Someone playing their 1,000th game. No. Thanks for breaking the ice. No, we're saying no quickly, but is it definitely a no? It's got to be very, very, very unlikely that that's happened. What a game to get your 1,000th game in the National Hockey League. Unbelievable. Maybe we could sit down with him at the Gretzky house or Gretzky's happened. What a game to get your thousandth game in the National Hockey League. Unbelievable. Maybe we could sit down with him at the Gretzky house or Gretzky's basement.

Great golfer. He's an all-time American defenseman. I think he came in pretty young, too, maybe 18, 19 years old. He's played a long time, done an unbelievable job there. I remember one time I was looking at his curve during warm-ups or pregame skate or something. I'm like, Cam, can I get a stick? He gave me a stick. I ended up scoring that game. I remember one time I was looking at his curve during warm-ups or pregame skate or something. I'm like, Cam, can I get a stick? And he gave me a stick.

I ended up scoring that game. I had one of his sticks. And I used to use a new stick every game, like everyone. And I used that same stick for like six games because they couldn't send me anymore. So I had to wait for Easton to get it. So I just like, I wouldn't use it in practice. I'm like keeping it away from everything because it was a nice curve than yours it was pretty similar to mine his was like a little thicker and then and then i ended up like switching to his curve and using his curve did you still do that thing on the the butt end he used to he wouldn't tape it he would have like

a piece of rubber that you would take the the sticky stuff off of and you would slide down the shaft which you i think you were paying paying Rudy to do it at the time. Yeah, the trainers hated me for that. Oh, dude. Putting those things on for a day. Oh, the worst. Shout out to Rudy, the best. I think Elliot was the first to say

that apparently the Blues are looking to move on from Brandon Saad as well. I think $4.5 million cap hit ish right around there so we'll see if there's any takers for his game what a what a run he's had i know he's getting a little bit older probably not the same player he once was but we'll see we'll see if he ends up he ends up moving on um biz biz mentioned we wanted to talk about some teams that are a little bit on the rise just kind of keep an eye out for him and of all the shit talking we've done of the ottawa senators they've turned a little bit of a corner now biz i know you made a good point uh in talking just kind of keep an eye out for them. And of all the shit-talking we've done of the Ottawa Senators,

they've turned a little bit of a corner. Now, Biz, I know you made a good point in talking before the show. Like, let's see what they do the next five or ten games. But they are on a little hot streak right now, and it's all being led by former Vezina winner and new goalie this season, Linus Allmark, who right now in the last five games is 4-0-1 with a 1-1-8 goals against and a 9-62 save percentage, including a 32-save shutout against Carolina. So it's like if this core group, and I think it's very clear right now

if the Buffalo-Detroit-Ottawa triangle can one of these teams do something, like Ottawa seems to be miles ahead of those other two. If they can get things going, Batherson looks good. I love Claude Giroux. And if Allmark can play like this. And finally, I guess that a lot of times the rumors of Kachuk possibly being traded and they're always shot down. I always thought it was people trying to say that he would want to be traded

after seeing all the success of Matthew and moving on from Calgary and what's happened in Florida and the cup final appearances. But I guess there is like a small faction of senators fans at times who are like trade them. If you trade Brady Kachuk and he's not asking for a trade, you got to be one of the dumbest motherfuckers to ever be involved in this sport. He's a legit unicorn. Like he would be the last guy in the world I'd want to trade if I was the Ottawa senators senators and their fan base so i don't i don't i i can't see them ever doing that and the owner said the same thing the owner said there's never been discussion of it brady's never asked for it so all those rumors i see it i'm like this guy every team wants brady kachuk yeah i think every

time one of these three teams kind of blue balls us tickles our balls they end up disappointing us so i think that let's see what they do over the next five games. But based on everything they were doing offensively and maybe not getting a goaltending early on, numbers kind of showed us that this is the team that they are. So it would be awesome to see them in the mix and fighting for that wildcard spot second half of the season. I think their fans and organization deserve

it so fucking right so let's see what they can do another team on the rise too though with uh they they came out of the gate firing uh then took a bit of a shit but uh with the play of sergachev nick schmaltz getting on the board i feel like utah starting to claw their way back in it they're six two and two2 in their last 10 games. They're sitting in a good spot, and it seems like they got something special there. Like the fan base, and yeah, Sergeyev has 22 points in 30 games, 7 goals.

Dylan Gunther had that amazing start where he came out firing. He still has 29 points in 30 games, 13 goals. Clayton Keller, who's probably using some motivation from not making Team USA, stepping up his game. But, yeah, I feel bad for Coyotes fans, but it's a fun team to watch. You see, like, it seems like it's a very close-knit group, and they're finally, like, getting a little success, right? If they could ever get in the playoffs, even if they lost first round for that young core,

just to experience would be amazing. But I like watching them play. I really do. I think it would be a little easier for a team like that to get into the playoffs from the west than it would be in the east like ottawa or buffalo or those type of teams but uh yeah they definitely look fun and the the youth there that they have you can tell it's rubbing off on everyone with gunther clayton keller still a young buck too um really fun to watch. Their jerseys are great too. I love those.

Sergachev is just one of those guys too. He's still fairly young, but he's seen everything so far in the league. He's won a few cups. He's been a part of some amazing teams with Hall of Fame guys. So you know he's probably bringing a lot to that group and just kind of helping them out, helping them get to that next level. And if it's not this year, I could see the next couple of years,

then being a playoff contender every, every year, hopefully. So biz also in Vancouver, I think they're three and four or three, three in their last six. And just kind of playing a little bit of uninspired hockey. I don't know if you had an opinion on,

on talks quotes where he said, listen, we got four or five guys. He said it's my job to get those guys going. Yes. But three or four of them are kind of bringing the group down where they're not inspired. They don't have any mojo right now.

And, yeah, I just think that right now, like, Vancouver is one of the loudest cities with their fan base and kind of like the drama i obviously don't think that the pd jt taking the time off has helped like settle that down it's almost like i kind of got people riled up the noise right and then now like you know like you know it seems like sometimes like even talk is like oh like enough with like all the pd questions like let's you know you guys are smart hockey minds like you don't need to ask me every little detailed thing and then like obviously some stuff's private so it might be frustrating him it just feels like there's like yeah bad juju around

the team right now but that can quickly change as you know things did where maybe things were going for good for de brusque and all of a sudden you put him with PD and Sherwood and then boom, he fire, he gets, he goes on fire. So yeah, you don't really have much time in the West to take, take a 20 game segment where you're not good and not uninspired or where you're not inspired. So you could find yourself on the outside looking in. So they got to, they got to figure things out quick and kind of calm things down, but not so much an opinion that i want to like um overreact but i would say probably over the last three four weeks i'm sure they're just mentally drained based on everything that's been happening around the team no yeah i agree with that and i think that's

city too like when you have anything going off ice where where jt miller left and now he's back i think he has three points or four points in the two or three games he's been back so it's nice to see him going again but it's just so much and you walk in the locker room every day and there's 15 to 20 reporters and they're asking about every little thing and every aspect of the game and what's going on off the ice and I think it is exhausting and Canada is a different animal we've talked about that ad nauseum and this show, but Vancouver's even crazier. They've never won a cup, and there's just so much that goes into the fan base being so vocal. It's also great.

I've shit on that fan base, but they love the Canucks, and they also love to hate the Canucks when they're not playing well. It's just probably hard to deal with day in and day out. I'm not really worried about them, though. I think they get into the playoffs. i think demko's back now it's a it's gonna it's gonna figure itself out but it was interesting to see him say we're not like edmonton where we can just like be carried by two guys and if there's a night where five six guys aren't going you can still win we need

everyone going a little bit of a shot at his team and and kind of pumping edmonton's tires a little bit i took it as but more just saying like we cannot continue to play where we have too many passengers and he mentioned like this is the nhl like you need to be so fired up to play every single game and that is the hardest part about being an nhl player is 82 games and everyone's gonna have off nights but it's like you gotta have more where you're on than you're off or you're on the outside looking in come playoff time. So a weird time there. Since we've talked to Larry Brooks and Jacob Trouba was traded, the Rangers stink. They still stink. Maybe one of the most uninspiring games that I ever remember the Rangers playing against the Blues on Sunday. Just embarrassing.

And they made a little bit of a comeback, but I don't know what's going to happen there who knows what's going to happen now Capo Caco was scratched uh amid trade rumors I think Panarin was also out that game so a crazy time in in Rangerville and and I thought it would get I thought this would figure itself out but talking to certain Rangers fans it's like they look like they don't even care I saw Avery's clip of Kreider. It's kind of crazy to see some of this. Yeah, I thought things were going to change after the game in Boston. Or not in Boston, in Buffalo, excuse me. You know, sometimes teams have those pregame skates, and then they have the powwow afterward where everybody gets in a big circle.

Hey, boys, I know it's been not going so well, but, hey, we're a team here, and let's have a big effort, and let's get this positive juju going in the right direction well they beat buffalo but then they fucking leg that egg and then like you said avery's on instagram going through these videos where guys kind of like i mentioned about buff buffalo where they're not emotionally and physically invested well when you're a guy crider side and you're doing flybys, not exactly the tone you want to set when your team's kind of in a hole right now. So I'm also hearing rumblings that Sean Avery is going over to NYC to meet with James Dolan to talk about the state of the New York Rangers. There is a crazy element to James Dolan. That's a content dream.

Might get rid of Drury and hire Sean Avery as the next general manager of the New York Rangers. You gotta fire LaViolette before you get rid of Chris Drury. I mean Dolan's a bit of a wild card. I don't want to

Avery might be upset i'm even mentioning this but he said i'm going i'm flying to new york specifically to meet with dolan to talk about the state of the team dolan's probably following him on instagram and seeing the laser pointer or the fucking what do you that little laser stick he's got going he said that that catches the algorithm better so that's why he's doing it so obviously all of a sudden now it's on dolan's radar so he's a wild card he's a wild card dude avery does bleed blue and red too so i mean why not bring him in have him talk to the squad you know like even with the interview with larry brooks that he was on like what it means to be a ranger and you know the guy he the city loved him like he got his i remember when i played there guys used to be a ranger and you know the guy he the city loved him like he got his i remember when i played

there guys used to be like only people that got their names chanted are hank avery and zook like the three whoever you know so it's like they loved him there he know what it meant to to play there in a big city like that and and he played with you know at the end of the day going just doing anything to get some wins here i I kind of love the idea. I would love a Sean Avery press conference every few weeks. I picture Avery sitting in the meeting like Ben Affleck in Goodwill Hunting where he's like, retainer! What can you do for me now?

In a smaller suit, like a stylish smaller suit. What can you do for me now? Oh, the content of Sean Avery running the new york rangers holy shit i think i'm actually gonna i mean if he doesn't get hired as gm of the rangers i'm going to be heading over to la to do a road warriors part two with sean avery where i go take a jiu-jitsu class with him apparently if you're taking jiu-jitsu you have a better chance of going 1v6 so i want to be prepared for the next time i'm having my traditional salad when i get boot fucked in the head so i'll be doing a jiu-jitsu class with him if he's not hired by the rangers well speaking of former rangers um kevin shattenkirk he called

it a career boys and this kid this guy i should say was so good so smooth out there played at boston university his stud his whole life. What a career. I think he finished with 952 games right around there, won a Stanley Cup, and he decided to call it a career. And he texted us, actually, and I was just so happy. Or maybe you texted him with us on there, but so happy for him to be able to have the career he did.

And what a great guy. So I just wanted to shout him out. Yeah, I mean, he sent me the the larry david sampling video and that's how he got reacquainted so nice of him to be thinking about me uh during this uh you know difficult time of hanging up the blade so i would love to give him on given he probably had an incredible sense of humor in the locker room jens you play with him how many years in New York or did you guys not overlap no I never played with him just know him from you know being around he was good friends with like uh Jimmy Hayes so known him for a while then obviously his BU connections great guy like unbelievable player but one of the better guys off the ice too always happy like uh just a salt

of the earth guy like a guy that the NHl is just you know made for in uh yeah unbelievable career from from him can't wait to talk to him now that he's retired to get some stories from him you know he played in some unreal cities uh yeah fun guy and you see like his post online and then all the guys retweet are uh reposting it and and the nice words that guys had to say about it i'm sure it meant the world to him so unbelievable guy unbelievable career happy for him 91 playoff games to go with his 952 regular season games in this uh lightning stanley cup of 2019 2020 25 games played 13 points in that run to raise in the. So congratulations, Shadi. And speaking of retired

guys, this man we're about to go to is retired. He retired once and he came back. I don't think Shadi's doing that, but I think it's time boys for the legend Gronk himself. Let's go to him right now. Before we continue guys, I want to talk about game time. Game time is focused on togetherness this holiday season. And when you bring people together at live events, the experience is that much better. And it's the perfect gift. You know how much we love GameTime. Now with their brand new GameTime Picks features, they're making it even easier to get to a game. GameTime Picks filters out the fluff to show you only incredible deals on great seats

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Game time. today what time is it game time it's an honor right now to be joined by a very special guest this man needs no introduction but i'm still gonna do it four-time first team all nfl four-time super bowl champion hall of fame player hall of fame person off the field, Rob Gronkowski. Thanks for joining Spittin' Chicklers. Let's go. Hey, Ryan. Hey, Biz. What's up, guys? It's a pleasure, man.

I've been a fan of all three of you for quite some time now. And, you know, with that introduction right there, you forgot the most important part. Let me tell you, I was a hockey player all the way from ninth grade, baby. We were going to get to it. And I was a left winger and I was a fighter. So that should have been in the introduction, Bellies. So you just ran people over? Like just chip it in the corner and just run somebody over.

That was your game? That was exactly my game. I loved hockey, actually. That was actually my sport growing up. It actually kind of just got facilitated out of my life because when I got to high school, I was playing basketball. I was playing hockey. I was playing baseball and I was playing football and hockey and, uh, and basketball were at the same exact time. And I just had to give up one sport and I gave up hockey and, uh, I'm actually from Buffalo, New York. So

Buffalo has great hockey. Uh, I mean, I think Buffalo Watch is the most viewed, you know, city for the Stanley Cup every year, and the Buffalo Sabres haven't been to the playoffs in like whatever amount of years now. 13. But we still watch our hockey, and I love our hockey there, so I've been a Sabres fan growing up my whole life. But I just had to give it up because I just had too much going on

when I got to ninth grade. They need you behind the bench right now gronk yeah they need to toughen up they had rob ray growing up and i always loved rob ray because that was my name obviously rob as well but uh he was a fighter he would go out there and and touch the puck one time on the ice and just start brawling people and that's what I always looked up to when I was a kid. And I need to go back and be that enforcer. What's your hockey name, your alias? Isn't it Bob Bronkowski? Oh, all right.

Now we're talking. I like that right there. That was in our outline. Really? I never had a hockey alias name. So Bob Bronkowski, that sounds pretty good, though. I'm going to start using that. It was Bob Bronkowski from Blackie.

That's what it was. Oh, okay. All right. Well, I messed up the name. Shocker. Shocker. Everywhere I heard, when you were in Boston, you were always hanging out with the hockey guys. When you were in Tampa, you were hanging out with the hockey guys.

Do you resonate as a hockey guy, even though you're a Hall of Fame football player? It's just in your blood, huh? Yeah, it's definitely in my blood huh yeah it's definitely in my blood i mean my whole entire family we played hockey growing up that was the first sport you start playing when you're in buffalo as well when you're when you're two years old they put the skates on you and you're going out to the rink and you're skating around also the pond hockey with all your boys when uh when the ice when the pond freezes over and everyone gets together in the backyard. So like it was in my blood, no doubt about that. And I loved, you know, being in the locker room of a hockey team.

Like that's where I resonate. You know, the hockey locker room fits me perfectly. A lot of good stories just growing up as a kid, just being with my friends and my boys. All my boys, I played on the team that was one, you know, I played upper level in hockey. So everyone was always older than me, but those were always my best friends. And they're still my friends to this day. And we talk about all our hockey memories as well, but, and the hockey stories that we have, you know, that we have from the locker room. So those were, those were the days. And I resonate perfectly in

a hockey locker room. When you got to high school, you mentioned playing all the sports had to stop hockey for basketball. But at that time, was it already like this guy's got the potential to be a superstar football player? Or could it have been like people thought at the time he'd be a stud basketball player? When did you know, all right, football is it for me? All right. Well, I knew football was it for me was my sophomore year in high school. And going into my freshman year in high school, I always knew that, like, football was going to be my sport, but it really designated, you know,

that I was going to be playing football when I became a sophomore and I started playing on varsity. And I just absolutely started dominating on varsity as well as a defensive end, tight end, and just going out there and just balling and making catches all over to play sats and no one be able to stop me also my ideal size i knew that i was a football player also my athleticism yeah i was great at hockey yeah i was good at basketball yeah i was good at baseball but i played all those sports like i was a football player like i'm on the basketball court i'm playing as a center down there, just fricking leveling people left and right. Like

I'm a hockey player as well. That's why I was so good at hockey as well. Cause I, I love that contact, man. That's what it was all about growing up as a kid. My brothers beat the crap out of me 24 seven, but I'll go right back at them again and just get absolutely demolished by them and not give a shit. They give me all those Charlielie horses to my legs and i just couldn't feel the pain anymore since my childhood i just absolutely got destroyed and i just got numb to it all but football was my sport due to my size my athleticism and just my mental stage as well i knew i was actually knew i was going to go pro since my sophomore year in high school and And everyone said, if you don't go proud, no one's going pro that.

So it was cool. Yep. No shit. Kind of a can't miss prospect. And I love that a little bit, you know, Buffalo is not really known for football. It's known for its hockey more.

Actually, my, I went to Williams Williamsville North and Buffalo, and we were state champions. Oh, while I was there as well. So all my friends are state champions and they still rub that in my face that I didn't win shit when I was playing football there you know in high school but it's all good we got we had like 50 people a game come to our

games in high school so football is really not well known there so ignoring you were set for the pros at probably a younger age for football like how intense are these off-season workouts and lifts and like what are you putting yourself through because i mean i know as hockey guys we did a lot of that shit but that's probably a different level of putting weight on and being fit to like make that jump like at what age we talking about well just like when you were like 15 16 knowing you were probably going to go to college eventually and like it's such a it's such a like you got to bulk up right like you're going against men at that age 100 but i didn't really focus on one sport around that age when i was in high

school because like i said i played all three sports you know i played the football i went into basketball i went into baseball for all four years and right after football season i didn't really care about football season anymore it was all about basketball but the thing is i'm a big advocate of playing all different types of sports because you learn the background of different cultures because all different sports have different backgrounds with the people that are involved with the guys that are involved. And on top of it, there's so much, you know, so many different skill sets that transfer to the other sports as well. So like basketball, you can box out a guy and then you go out on the football field, you box out the defender a little bit because I, you know, big and i'm not gonna be faster than a guy but if i can use my body and i can

learn that in basketball and then time or whoever just throws me the ball i just i just make the catch because i'm using my body to get open so it all translates the problem was is that after my sophomore year like i said i knew i was gonna i was gonna be a football player so i did start doing that heavy lifting and i'm not a big believer in that anymore. If I could go back, I would have trained totally different than how I trained, man. I feel like I could probably still be playing if I started that training, you know, at a younger age, because it was all about how heavy of weights you can lift and just toss it up. And that's all that matters. And then my baseball game started fading because I was getting too jacked and too stiff. And that's not good.

If you want to be an athlete, you can't get stiff. And that's all I care about was getting jacked. So I batted 440 my freshman year in varsity and I was all everything in baseball. And my junior year came and I batted 240, bro. Like, how do you decline that bad? That's because I got too jacked because i was worried about football we've talked before like cleaning and all these lifts that we all did like growing up that they don't do anymore but then later on you had like some back injuries

probably related to all that weight at a younger age right 100 man that's that's spot on and uh my back injuries actually started when i was in high school. I went up for a dunk and the guy behind me took out my legs and I landed on my back. And that's when my back problems started happening actually. But they really started, you know, really, it really started bothering me when I was in college and we were just putting up so much on the cleans, three 15 squatting on a daily basis. And my back was going out on me. And when you, when you're your taller guy you know i mean like your your frame is is different like you're kind of more vulnerable to back injuries and popping the disc and i you know i don't want to blame it all on that because

my lifestyle in college was absolute horrendous as well for an athlete and for recovery but just overall everything i would say one of the key contributors to the back problems and if i try to do that as well again is lip very heavy it starts giving me those aches and pains and that inflammation starts coming back so i would have definitely redone my training growing up if i if i could go back that's one thing i would have changed any particular discs bother you now like maybe l5s1 just throwing it out there oh wow you know you know your back bro you know your back that's the one that i keep fucking up from all the back squatting yeah so i've had three back surgeries l2 l3 l3 l4 and i think l5 s1 i oh jesus L5, S1. Oh, Jesus. That's busy. No, no. L5, S1 is herniated.

I never had surgery on that one. I had surgery on L2, L3 twice and L3, L4 once. L5, S1 is popped. All four in a row from L2 to S1 are herniated. But it's all good, man. As long as you stay up on that rehab, man, and work on that core and do all the right things, you can actually pop that disc back in the place and if i stay on top of it then i'm cool but if i start partying i start lifting

and i don't do anything right for about two three weeks man i start feeling those aches and that's why yeah and then it starts barking you're right and bro that that shit sucks man having back pains the worst the worst were there any schools uh that were that you were had offers to go maybe play multiple sports or after your 200 average drop off it kind of went off the table i kind of went off the table i mean a couple schools were looking at me for basketball as well and uh i mean i kind of talked to the university of buffalo like they were like oh you can do both because it was right there, but it was Mac football. And like, I wanted to go somewhere a little bit bigger and like, you can do both at the

University of Buffalo. But like, it was just quick talk. It wasn't anything serious. But other than that, man, everyone knew I was a football player. It was obvious by the way that I played the other sports. Yeah, I was good at it and excelling at it in high school. But, you know, there was a limit to how far I was going to go in those other sports yeah I was good at it and excelling at it in high school but you know there was a limit to how far I was going to go in those other sports as well because you could just tell I was a football player and I loved it and I was all in on football too and that's all I cared about

you know I cared about the other sports because they're fun playing high school but I only cared about getting to the next level with football so so take me you know young Gronk gets out to Arizona just the weather the women this the culture out there I mean was there any ever a time a coach had to be like hey Gronk you gotta bear down on the field in the class you're just enjoying college to the max or was it like when you went there you were focused I'm getting to the NFL this is my way to get there 100% like what you just said at the end and that kind of transfers over to the New England Patriots as well with coach Belichick.

And I actually just got asked that question on the Dan Patrick show. He's like, Hey, how did you get away with everything that you did? And I, and this is how, and this kind of go back to college too, because I never got hounded by my coaches.

You know, every once in a while they would throw a remark. If they see me, you know, start declining a little bit, or if I'm starting to get a little bit too out of control back in the heyday. But like the thing was, I was a consistent football player. I showed up. I never missed

a weight room session. I never missed a film room session. I never missed a practice. And every time I showed up too, I was balling. So if you're balling, coaches don't care what you're doing out there on the football field, out there, you know, off the football field. As long as you're showing up, you're making the plays, you're blocking, you're making touchdowns, catches, whatever it is. They don't care that. And that's what I was doing. And that's why it worked out for me, baby.

It's just like hockey players. That's the hockey mentality. Coach don't care. I can tell you that if you're showing up, you're scoring, you're checking, you're playing deep. It don't matter. He don't care. And plus he's probably partying with you in the, in the NHL.

I know how you guys roll. Playing playing guilty it was all about playing guilty but we we heard a story i don't know if it's true or false that apparently you hosted a recruit and all of a sudden you guys are getting like chased by a helicopter or something and there was no more gronk host recruits is this true or is this a false internet story no no that's a true internet story because i actually told that um on my podcast as, which we just started actually two months ago. We just released our first episode. Julia and I, we host a podcast, Dudes on Dudes. We just talk about some former, current, and legend NFL players.

And then we just, you know, go into our little own stories too and have a twist like that. And that came up as well because we did a college football player. then we talked about some college stories on dudes on dudes and that was one of them he asked me if i ever hosted anyone was arizona and i told the story of me hosting just one person and i never hosted anyone after that and literally we were at a party i'm not going to get too much into details but parties get broken up like crazy at the university of tucson it was all about house party but every party that got broken up there's a helicopter always above and if you ask anyone at university of arizona they know that experience of a party getting broken up and then for some reason we left the party and this helicopter just started following us and then from there we just

it just it just turned into a game of just getting away from the helicopter. And that's all I got for you. Did the kid commit? Did he commit there? No, he didn't commit yet. He went to our rival, the Arizona State Sun Devils. So shame on him. Shame on him.

Fuck that guy. What made you decide University of Arizona? And then also, we got to talk about this bowl game you're getting behind. And we want to get your thoughts on the whole new college system and all that and nil but but first off what made you decide to go to arizona yeah so my dad he's in the fitness industry for 30 plus years he has a friend that he met on a work trip that does the same exact thing as him but in the state of arizona and they became like best friends like 30 plus years ago or whatever and then we were coming up getting recruited and that friend of his was a big alumni and played ball at the university of Arizona.

So we were just trying to get recruited. And he, since it was my dad's like really good friend, best friend, basically. And in the same industry, he kept telling my dad, Hey,

your son's got to come to university of Arizona because this guy lives and dies for university of Arizona football. He has a tattoo and everything. So he wasn't going to let one of his buddies who has kids that can play in the college level go somewhere else. So that's how I got there was because of my dad's buddy or else I would have never, ever went out to the university of Arizona. So we took a recruiting trip out there and I just fell in love with the place from the very beginning. And that's how I knew I was going to go out there. And that's how I was, became a fan of yours. Cause you were playing for the Phoenix coyotes, baby. And I kept about you. And I always like, oh man, we have that relationship.

Even though we never even met before, I kind of always felt like we had that bond because we both lived in the state of Arizona. We know how pressured it is. I know you love the Sabres, but we got to get an ownership group together and bring it back to the desert. I know JJ Watts, Tryon, Larry Fitzgerald, Shane Doan, but he's with the Leafs now. Yans will get in the mix. Witt will get in the mix.

You think you would be interested in that? I'm 100% down. And actually, I was supposed to get a piece of the Las Vegas Knights when they got there. And then the deal, I just was so busy. And then the deal didn't fall through. And I pulled out. And I'm such an idiot for it. That's one deal I'm slapping myself in the face for.

I should have went all in with that one because I bet they're killing it right now compared to where they started with Las Vegas Knights. But yeah, speaking of that, I'm all in, man. I'm the ownership. I love hockey. NHL playoffs, I believe, are the best playoffs out there. I mean, you guys just amp it up to a whole other level. You guys cruise in the regular season.

Understandable. But when you get to the playoffs, it's must-watch TV, and I follow NHL playoffs like no other. So I'm interested if you guys go that direction. Okay, I'll message a few of my billionaire buddies, and then we'll just all get in here. Hey, I need some billionaire friends. Biz mentioned the NIL stuff. It's wild to see basketball and football

kind of come into this new age where kids are getting banked coming out of high school. Like, at the time when you were playing, was that a discussion between guys? Like, we should be getting paid. All these fans in the stands are jerseys being bought. Or were you not even really thinking about it then? And how much do you think you'd be getting now? I mean, we weren't thinking about it then.

I mean, because it's never been a case. I mean, everyone before us, you know, never got paid. I feel like I started a couple, like, you know, the Johnny Manziel era. I feel like when it started, like the, you know, Tim Tebow kind of introduced it. You know, that's when I was in college as well, when Tim Tebow was, and you just saw how much money he was bringing to the table, but it really got introduced. Like players should be getting paid is because Johnny Manziel, everything that he was going through. So these guys actually should probably be, you know, tipping him off a little bit. These, these college players, because he, I feel like

that era right there started. So I was a little bit before that. And I think it's a, it's a mess in a way, but it's also great for these players and it's totally understandable. They are bringing that much money in for the university, but at the same time, you know, I think it needs to be cleaned up a little bit more and it's going to get cleaned up in more in the future. And it's not really NIL. It's not name image likeness no more. I'm named image likeness. Now I'm on commercials. I understand that game to the mass.

I'm probably the number one of the top players in name image like us, you know, since my career ended in the NFL. But these guys are just getting paid by the boosters now. So it's just how much whoever can pay you at the university, you know, how much they can give you. And that's what it's truly all about. When you're at Arizona playing great, all of a sudden, dude, like, fuck, I can't play my junior year. Like, how all of a sudden, dude, like, fuck, I can't play my junior year.

Like, how much of a panic was that? You still were drafted 42nd overall, which is high. But, like, was there a lot of worry for you? Like, what's going to happen? I don't know if my back can handle this. Or were you like, I'm going to get healthy. I'm still getting drafted. And it doesn't seem like you're much of a worrier.

Exactly, man. That's a great point, man. I wasn't really worried about where I was, you know, if I was going to get drafted or not. Like, like I said, my ultimate goal was to get to the NFL. And like, that was my dream. You know, everyone was cheering me on since my, you know, childhood, since we all knew like that was my ultimate goal that I fit the mold perfectly. I always played up a level. So like, I just wanted to get to the NFL. I wanted to get to the NFL as soon as possible and it absolutely sucked that I got hurt my junior year because my brother was a

senior that year at Arizona too they had a great year we had a great team we went to the holiday bowl one of the best bowls you can possibly go to especially for the University of Arizona in like 15 years we had Nick Foles at the quarterback position. We had so much chemistry as well in the spring game. And then that's when I blew out my back, bro. And I'm telling you, blowing out my back sucked. I was miserable that whole year. But then the year ended. I rehabbed and all that stuff.

And I declared for the NFL draft still, which is rare, man. No one barely plays freshman, sophomore year and don't even play junior year and declare for the draft but i always knew where my heart was it sucked i didn't play if i could go back i would love to play my junior year i believe we could have possibly went to the rolls bowl because i was about to be dominant as well uh i really was i was really feeling it but my back blew out and uh you know i declared still because i knew i wanted to get to the nfl and i knew i was still going to be successful because i was going to do whatever it took to get back on

the field so you almost didn't even care where you got drafted because i know a lot of these guys like i got to get drafted in the first round because you guys have that money situation so for you it's just like i need to get drafted and i'm anywhere and i'll go play improve myself well i got i well i had a pretty good pretty good tape my freshman and sophomore year for being an 18- and 19-year-old kid just going out there. I had 16 touchdowns in 16 games at the University of Arizona, which is unheard of to have one touchdown a game, especially in college and especially only at 18 and 19 years old.

So I had two more years left. I was about to dominate. I'm telling you, dominate going into my junior year, especially with my brother at the fullback position it was going to be the best year ever nick foals our quarterback you guys all know big dick nick yeah big dick nick i was the first one to experience it i knew that nickname before anyone else and it's not just he has the big dick he takes the biggest dumps of all time too that's a secret that no one knows about he loses about five pounds a dump so his cock must hold it all or something then just unleash it up yeah that has to be the case but uh yeah ma'am i don't even know what we're talking about now after freaking bringing up that freaking scenario i do that all the time don't even worry

about it okay so i want to ask you about this bull game that you're hosting yeah and also you talked about uh like whoopsie daisy should have invested in the golden knights i'm interested to hear like the craziest offers you've gotten for brand deals ones that maybe you've taken and have gone crazy where you're like oh my god and maybe ones like that that you missed out on but first what's this bull game you're hosting in la yeah so it's the art of sport la bull hosted by yours truly right here, Rob Gronkowski. And I got involved in it last year. I signed a multi-year deal with them and Jimmy Kimmel actually hosted it before. And it's the first bowl game where they actually had, you know, like a celebrity or well-known person host the game and then job. Then Jimmy Kimmel's deal ended. And then they came to me and asked me, Hey,

you know, you're a football player and it's a full circle moment as well because I played in this bowl game my sophomore year as well but it was in Vegas at the time and uh it's the same conference matchup and it was the first bowl game that the University of Arizona went to in 10 years my brother actually had a touchdown up the middle and then it moved to LA, but it's the same game, same, same conference matchups, like I said. And then they came to me, Hey, you got, you want to host this bowl game? And I was like, you know, that's pretty cool. I played in it. You know, I get to continue, you know, you know, building up my family name, the brand and all that. And it's in the college football world. I get to bring friends to the game. I get to, you know, just have a good time. Now bring the energy to the teams, to the stadium. And we had a blast last year.

I sang the national anthem. I raised the Boise State mascot, which was a dog. And speaking about a dog, I got my dog. Oh, man, what a cutie. So I'm just excited for this year, man. The game's December 18th, 6 p.m. Wednesday night. It's the UNLV Rebels, which they're ranked this year. They just lost to Boise State, who are going to the playoffs

in the Mountain West Conference, and they're facing the California Golden Bears. The California Golden Bears, I used to whoop on because they were in the Pac-10 when I was in the Pac-10 back in the day. Oh, yeah. That's a hell of a promo. Do you sing a better national anthem than Big Cat? Well, actually

last year, I went on PMT to, to promote the LA bowl game, the artist sport LA bowl game. And, uh, I actually asked big cat for some tips and he gave me some bullshit tips. I can tell you that, but I really like big cat singing a national anthem. I got to tip my hat to him because I did it with a chorus around me with four others, just so it sounded pretty decent. Big cat. He has the balls to do it by himself and he's done it a few times so I gotta I gotta give him credit you know he's not that good looking he always talks about it so he's gotta have a good voice he's gotta he's gotta have talent somewhere else and and to follow up

the crazy deals like crazy deals you've been offered and oh all right so all right here's one i never talked about love you buddy i haven't seen him in 10 days i got off the red i surprised him in the room he was dead asleep he went ham this morning but the craziest um craziest oh all right i actually when i was crazy man back in the day when i was uh i got two deals we're gonna talk about screw it i mean this is the this is the podcast we're hockey boys you know this is this is what you talk about in the locker room and this has two this is two deals that uh that this is freaking true hockey hockey room talk no but no doubt about this is that uh i got offered my nfl contract salary at 23 years old to do, uh, you know, adult, adult acting. If you know what I mean.

Uh, and I think it was like, uh, it was one of those websites. I think it was just straight up. Uh, I think it was sex.com offered me a scene then pay for my whole entire salary of the NFL that year, which was pretty crazy. I said, no, in a second, I was only, I was only 23 years old, so I thought it was pretty cool that I got offered that, which is outrageous. And then the other one is I got offered a massive amount, a huge deal, the biggest deal to do the first Bud Light commercial ever since that Bud Light accident. And I turned it down, though, because it was just too hot and too touchy at the moment. So I turned it down.

I just didn't want to go in that direction and get, you know, what was the premise of the commercial? It was, uh, it was basically, uh, Peyton Manning ended up taking it. And it was basically the one commercial that he did, but just a little bit of a different scenario with myself. It was the one where he was at the bar. I'm pretty sure he called up a couple people and then they started rocking out to some music. So it was along that promise, but it was just too

hot and touchy at the moment. I just didn't feel like dealing with that. They knew they needed a guy like you to get back on the right side. And then they went Shane Gillis and Dana White and all these people. You could have had that big cake. I could have had it, man. I, in like thinking about it now, I mean, when time passes, everything just, you know, gets swept under the table and that whole, whole dilemma slept under the table, but it's all right, man. I'm in the right direction. You can't, you can't hit a hit on them all.

So it's all good. I was always told or heard that you never spent any of your dough from your salary it was always the money you were making off the field which is so smart considering you hear about so many athletes going broke was that something that you did like on purpose like i'm gonna save all that salary i'm just gonna spend what i'm making in endorsements yeah 100 man my uh my agent drew rosenhouse he actually gave me an advance for marketing dollars. And then I started using that right from the beginning. I paid him back eventually when I made some money off the field. But that was just my, you know, my motto, just going into the league.

Cause I knew, you know, that might've not last long, you know, especially coming out with a back injury and being hurt. Uh, I signed like a four year second round pick four year, like $4.5 million deal. And I was literally like, yo, I just got through college with fricking $800 a month. Like this is going to be plenty. Like this will set me up for life. If I just put it away and just live, you know, properly and just live minimal, you know, renting an apartment, my rookie year, having a, having a roommate on the team as well, like $1,200 a month for rent and you get free food at the facility. I'm bringing the food home. So I never have to buy food. I'm bringing the utensils and plates home from the facility as

well. So I don't even have to buy plates. So I just saved it all up, man, just so I was set, you know, I wanted to just be set because I had the opportunity to be set from the beginning, even if my career wasn't long. And that's just what it's all about. I didn't want to worry about it. But it has taken off like no other now. So I've tapped in. I've been spending now.

But it definitely saved a lot, which is great. And I don't have to worry, man, for the rest of my life. I actually don't even have to work or promote this LA Bowl game if I don't want to. But it's good to stay busy. I can't just sit at home and not do anything bro is there someone that you look up to because i i think of you as like the modern day like shack like you kind of you're in all the commercials you're a big lovable figure like is there an athlete or an actor or someone that you looked up to that you kind of have taken some advice from to get to where you are now wow Wow. You actually hit that right in the money. Uh, I've, I love Michael Strahan, what he has done as well, uh, with his brand and just how, you know,

quick he is on the spot and just how awesome he is on TV with good morning America, all the way to being, you know, on the kickoff show on Fox. And, uh, he's one of my, um, what is the coworkers out there? And I just learned so much from him, especially the other guys as well, like Terry, Kurt, Howie Long, Jimmy Johnson. And they're just so great, and they're such professionals, and just the route that they went down. They're kind of the first ones to do it

in the television world. Biz, you're doing a similar path, but with hockey, obviously, you're still doing the hockey, correct? Yeah, well, maybe not after Marshawn put me in a casket for the last two broadcasts. I might be taking the rest of the year off. It's okay. It's good to take some time off.

And like you said, there's a figure two Shaq. I grew up watching Shaq. They said I was Shaq, you know, half a Shaq, you know, but as Gronk when I was in high school playing basketball and just the way that he has transformed into another, you know, but as Gronk when I was in high school playing basketball and just the way that he has transformed into another, you know, character since playing basketball, DJing. I mean, DJing's not in my forte, but just to watch him do it and then also being on the, on the, you know, NBA basketball pre-show as well and just doing all the commercials and just being lovable. Shaq and Michael Strahan were definitely two guys I looked up to

and how they did it after playing professionally. One of the funniest clips I've seen this year watching NFL was what Strahan did to you on NFL on Fox about the tight end Russo being activated for the Dallas Cowboys. Take us through that, what you must have been thinking in your mind. Yeah, they got me pretty good, man. So it's the 600s and it's the last segment of the day. And sometimes you don't have a 600 because it gets canceled out because the show went too long. So they're like, oh, 600s, we don't have that much time. And you don't know, like,

I don't know how television, I know how it works, but sometimes they're like, oh, we're going to cut some commercials. So we have a 600 because we're killing it or whatever so like 600 let's go so then we start and then uh they just start going off man about this tight end rich russo on the dallas cowboys and they're all in it together and oh he doesn't even he only has three fingers this guy's ball and all this he just came back from andrew from the ir and literally i'm sitting there like how do i not know who this player is and he's a baller he has three fingers only he's making plays for the dallas cowboys america's team and at the same time though i'm sitting i'm like i shouldn't be here first off i shouldn't be here if i don't even know who this tight end is it's my position as well

maybe an offensive lineman or wide receiver i don't know okay it's my position but the good thing is i can tell you this jake ferguson just started balling out for the for the dallas cowboys a couple weeks before at the tight end position and i love jake ferguson's game i'm like wow this guy can play so good thing i was following jake ferguson good thing he broke out on the scene because i started bringing it back to jake. And kind of my experience is with having two tight ends on the field. I'm like, Hey, I like that other guy though.

Jake Ferguson, but having two tight ends out on the field. Cause having two tight ends is the best. You can put, you can use that. And I kept just reverting back to Jake Ferguson. So thank you for falling out and having a breakout year, brother.

Hey, that's unreal. I just wanted to say like, you get to New England, and, like, it's just incredible to see what happened and your career and the team. But right when you got there, was it intimidating with Brady, with Belichick? Like, how did those guys approach you, like, right off the hop?

Were you kind of quiet, not really yourself walking to the locker room? Or did you walk in like you were just at Arizona, just ripping it up? Absolutely not. I did not walk in like were just at Arizona, just ripping it up? Absolutely not. I did not walk in like I was at Arizona, just ripping it up. You know, you're very shy at first, quiet, humble. You know, you got greatness around you. There's no doubt about that. I mean, I always had respect for, you know, the people that did it before me.

I mean, I have respect for everyone, you know. So, you know, just trying to learn every day, just as humble as you can possibly be. There's no doubt about that. And just trying to improve and gain the respect of these veteran players, gain the respect of the teammates there and the coaches. So I would say like, I really didn't break into myself until about, you know, a couple of games into the season. You know, you, you really can't be yourself.

You're kind of walking on eggshells because you don't want to mess up at all. You're so scared to mess up, you know, and, and that sucks being in that position that actually makes you a worse player when you're scared to mess up. And, uh, the playbook was difficult as well for me coming from college. It was very easy playbook. You know, I lined up basically in the same position every single play. This playbook, I'm all over the place. There's different audibles that play can be changed in the huddle.

It can be changed, you know, at the line of scrimmage. Two plays call at once and Tom can actually call a different play if he wanted to right on the spot. So it was very difficult for me. So I didn't really get to be myself until about halfway through my rookie year when everything started clicking. And then from there on out, you know, it was game on. Did you fall asleep in your draft meeting with the Patriots? Yeah, I had one of the worst draft meetings of all time.

It was actually my last meeting as well. And I was sick of that shit, bro. I was on like 17 flights in like 15 days, visiting 15 teams. I was like, yo, I'm over this shit. If a team wants to take me, take me. I feel like ass, you know, going all over the place. But New England was my last one. I was like, I'm going all out with him.

I don't give a shit no more. I'm just going to, I'm going to, I'm going to walk in. Like I'm at the university of Arizona walking into a party because I'm sick of putting on a show. Like, cause you, you, you gotta be humble. You can't, you know, you know, you can't freaking think you're the shit walking into these meetings. NFL means you never even played a dial. So I'm like, I'm going to be like that though. Going into New England.

Cause I'm over this freaking process. I first fall asleep on the table right in front of, uh, right in front of one of the highest members of the team you know but i needed a nap it wasn't like i was in a meeting or anything so then they bring me into the meeting room man it was a disaster bro i just started talking about my time in arizona how how i was like i mean i remember billy oh he's like you remember walking home from parties in college i was like absolutely not like you should join me too, coach. And he's like, well, let's draw up this play. All right, he draws up the play.

He raises it. Write the play on the board. I'm like, I don't even know the play that you drew. I have no clue. Like, that was too difficult for me. I was over the whole process. And they were like, and I was like, yo, but I don't draw up a play and throw me the ball.

I guarantee I'll catch it and make some yards. He's like, well, you can't even remember a play. How can I throw you a ball? I was like, you'll find a way to throw me the ball i guarantee i catch it and make some yards he's like well you can't even remember play how can i throw you a ball i was like you'll you'll find a way to throw me the ball like i was just beating myself like that i left and i was like yo this team either hates me and they crossed me off the board or they love me and they ended up they loved me man it worked out it's gonna be a better fit that is unbelievable yeah bill Belichick must have been like, what the fuck is wrong with this guy? I mean, Belichick didn't interview me at all. It was Billy O, Billy O'Brien, who's the head coach at Boston College right now, football team. And we had the greatest relationship, man.

I love that guy. Oh, that is all time. That is all time. I was going to invite our producer, who's a massive Patriots fan. He wanted to come on and ask a question i want to go back to the commitment so you officially commit to arizona and then you receive a call from some clemson fans can you kind of talk about the call you received from those clemson fans yeah well i went to clemson clemson i love that place they

recruited me heavenly they wanted me to go there and and have a package for me and start right away. And they believed in me. And I believe in that program as well. And great talent, I can tell you that. So I took an official visit there. I got bombed, bro. I was going into these visits ready to party. Like, really was.

Like, I was out of control, man, at that age. Like you guys were. I mean, you guys know. You guys know what's up. So I go there, have a great time or whatever. at that age, like, like you guys were, I mean, you guys know, you guys know what's up, but, uh, so I go there, have a great time or whatever. I mean, I think I lost like my wallet, my phone. It was just, I was a mess. And then I leave and then everyone's like, oh man, how can this kid not come here? You know? And I loved it there. I can't lie. Like, like it, it kind of was set up

that I should go there. But at the same time, I knew my heart was truly at the University of Arizona. Clemson would have definitely been my number one pick if Arizona wasn't there, but I commit to Arizona. I get a phone call two days later. I guess I gave out my number to some girls there or some cheerleaders. I can't recall, and I get a voicemail from them a call they leave a voicemail and they just told me how these like three girls on the voicemail just telling me how bad i fucked up picking the university of arizona and like i thought it was pretty cool and then i was kind of second you know you know debating my my commitment to arizona and i'm like damn what was i doing i didn't get no voicemail from arizona but I'm getting these voicemails from University of Clemson.

They knew what they were doing. They almost got me to switch my commitment to them. But it was pretty wild, man. As a 17-year-old kid, you know, I thought it was the coolest thing of all time. And you did live it up in Arizona, as everyone knows. And I did read an article before you came on here about uh clearing out your bank account to get a hot tub to your uh to your to your dorm room why don't you tell that story as well yeah we did so my oldest brother lived with me as well he was in the minor leagues playing baseball in the off season

he lived with us and my other brother chris he transferred from maryland uh to live uh to go to the university of arizona play ball with me there and uh we just thought it would be a great idea to get a hot tub because my dad bought us a house, but all our money that we made went right to him. So he bought us a house, but I think he made some money on us because we were paying him more than the mortgage. But we were like, hey, we got a couple thousand dollars in our bank account. If we combine it, we can grab a hot tub. And that's what we did. We went to the store, we got a couple thousand dollars in our bank account. If we combine it, we can grab a hot tub. And that's what we did.

We went to the store, bought a hot tub. My oldest brother kind of got them to knock down the price a little bit because we didn't have enough money to buy it by that full price. And they gave it to us, hooked it up. We literally had zero dollars in our bank account left. And we just lived it up, man. It was just one of the best investments. And then you know how it goes from there. Stories for days, man. You was just one of the best investments. And then, you know,

how it goes from there stories for days, man, you know, just hot tub parties every Saturday night. Croc, you had so many legendary games and moments in the NFL, but like one, I think most fans think of right away is in Indianapolis, Chuck and Sergio Brown out the club, like just take us through that story and kind of what you were thinking on on a block that never ended on a touchdown run you're right no it didn't end I mean it was the Colts they were our rivals I mean a lot of trash talking going on and Sergio Brown I mean he played for the Patriots he's saying draft class is me and we're cool man he was a good player man he did good for us but he went to the Colts and then all of a sudden he was yapping the whole game i'm like oh that's sergio being sergio but he just kept going the whole entire game and finally got under my skin man and i'm when you get under my skin it's game

on man it's like it's like dropping the gloves and you're going all out on the hockey on the ice and uh he didn't know what he was getting in for when he got under my skin and i was like i'm gonna take him down. Whenever I have a chance, I'm letting him go flying because he just kept talking and talking and talking, even though I was making plays. So it just ended up that play right on the goal line. He lined up across from me.

I said, bye-bye. I'm going to block your ass until I send you flying. And that's what happened, bro. Unreal. What do you think your best game looking back? Like we have a buddy keith and i are from boston huge patriots fans obviously he brought up like week 17 or week 15 against the steelers in 2017 best game i've ever seen play were it really i was gonna say that game

no shit yeah i remember it we were down there was like two minutes left in the game. I just caught a streak, man, like where I just felt unstoppable. And Tom went to me three times in a row. We literally, I had three, I think three or four catches, all three and four in a row on the two minute drill, all like 20 plus yards, just ridiculous routes. And we got it down to the two. I got it down to like a four yard line. Then the next play, we run the ball in, but I was so on fire. Four catches in a row for like, I don't know, 80 yards, something, whatever it was.

Next play, they had a D-tap lined up versus me. All pro, Cam Hayward, 330 pounds. I was so on fire and feeling good. I took him and threw him into the fricking pile. And, and, um, uh, Jordan, um, then I forgot our running back's name at the moment he ran right behind me for the touchdown i was all fired up so next play we gotta go for two-point conversion all right i line up out wide one i want absolutely shiver the guy freaking

catch it and he was talking shit too so i catch the two-point and i point at him like start making fun of him i was like oh shit i was about to keep pointing him I was like, we'll get a flag. So I stopped it. So it was like a half a second, which I didn't get a penalty though. But that was my best drive of my life, man. Gronk, I want to ask you, what was the greatest sporting event I've ever been to? The Super Bowl against the Falcons. I know you were sidelined, not playing.

But I was with, you know, Sean Thornton. And that dickhead wanted to leave at halftime. And I'm like, bro, we didn't fly to Houston to leave at halftime he's like let's just get out of here like we gotta go like let's go get a spot at a bar somewhere I'm like absolutely no chance but what was the whole I'm sure were you in the locker room were you a part of like what was said during and like what were you guys thinking on the sideline like is there a chance you can come back you know yeah uh no there's always chance, especially when you know you got Tom Brady at the quarterback position

who has led tremendous comebacks throughout his whole career. And also you got Coach Belichick, the mastermind behind everything. And it was unfortunate I didn't get to play in the game. I was actually having my best year that year, but then I got rocked up the middle and blew out my back again just from a hit and punctured my lung.

And it just put me out for a year because I had to get another back surgery, which sucked. But, you know, going back to the game, you're never out of it with those two. That's for sure. We had a resilient team. You know, basically just a pitcher that was set in the locker room.

You know, I was there. I was part of it. Just hearing everything was just, we got to take one play at a time. It's not like you can go out there and you could throw a TD pass and put up, you know, 14 points on just that play. It was one play at a time it's not like you can go out there and you could throw a td pass and and put up you know 14 points on just that play it was one play at a time and that's what coach belichick you know always preached as well and he stuck to his guns again hey one play at a time one drive

at a time one possession at a time and on defensive side of the ball we got to stop them every single time and then eventually that's what happened and we just kept getting the momentum building up more and more and then we took over and the thing is here's here's why we won that game as well because coach balchuk always preached throughout the whole year we got to be the better conditioned team so obviously after every practice every week we're conditioning we're running hills and i can tell you this the atlanta falcons defense they were getting you know piss ass tired man you could see it on the field andcons defense, they were getting, you know, piss ass tired, man. You could see it on the field. And that's why we were able to go down, drive the ball as easily as we were in the fourth

quarter and, and overtime as well. Cause we have the stamina that Atlanta Falcons defense did not. Wow. How, how sure, how sure were you on the sideline against the Seahawks that Russell Wilson was going to hand it to Marshawn Lynch and it was going to be over? I was 100% sure, man. Hell no. No one was 100% sure with that one.

Holy shit. I mean, you got to give credit to actually Dante Hightower. The play before, it was one-on-one. Beast mode was about to score, and Dante Hightower went into Beast Mode as well, and he tackled him one-on-one, which is a rare feature to do because you don't tackle Beast Mode one-on-one because he's that beastly. But Dante Hightower actually made the game-saving tackle, and then the next play, they decided to throw the ball, which, I mean, understandable, I mean, I guess,

because it's one of those plays where you're trying to get a yardage and that play's designed for that as well. But, I mean, as a fan and a guy playing against him at that moment, you definitely thought it was going to get handed off because there was time left as well. It was only second down. I mean, you had more downs as well. But Malcolm Butler made a great play.

But you got to give it to come coach balachuk that was coaching right there he went over that play with malcolm butler previously that week as well that just shows how good of coaching that that he has and how good of a coach that he is because he premeditated that play happening and put malcolm butler through that scenario beforehand Jesus Christ that's how crazy that is man that's how he's a fucking he's a genius I want to go back to your relationship with Tom I think everybody's kind of obsessed with you and Edelman that bromance um but like the discipline to be that great and probably be the best football player

of all time what was it just like spending time with him and and him obviously helping like helping you develop as a football player and get to where you got to yeah there's no doubt i want to have i want to be where i am right now with coach balachek and you know tom brady leading the way especially tom i mean he's the one who disciplined my ass man he was on my ass 24 7 especially my rookie my rookie year. He actually, you know, punished me more than Coach Belichick about going out and stuff. Yeah, he did. I mean, we had two different lifestyles, obviously. He was 33. He just got married.

He has kids. I'm 21 years old. I should still be in college. And, like, he would see me going out and shit and hear the stories. He'd be like, yo, don't fucking go out tonight, man. We got a big game this week, you know. He'd be be like he'd keep me on my toes of you know rethinking of what i'm about to do uh so i understand it now because he wanted me to be the best football player he was on my ass to stay after practice every single practice hey let's run a couple

extra routes let's get on the same page and you know he was up my ass when i ran the wrong route up my ass when i didn't run the route how he wanted me to and i was kind of getting pissed off with him bro i didn't really like him at first my rookie year because of that reason because he was you know he was such a motel and i understand it now man he saw greatness in me and he wanted me to be the best player and when you're that young you're 20 21 old, you don't truly understand that because, you know, yeah, football is cool, but you're always worried about the other stuff that's going on too.

And he kind of kept that perspective for me to stay great. He kept that projectory for me to stay on the right path. And I definitely, like I said, wouldn't be where I am. I wouldn't be the type of player that I am because he made and installed, he helped install that greatness on what it took to get there. And he showed it with his leadership. And he also showed it with doing it as well with me. Amazing.

Was it a no brainer for you that he went to Tampa? He gives you the call and you're like, I'm coming back. I got to do this again with him. Yeah. I mean, everything had a lineup and no doubt about that. I mean, it was either going to be playing down there with Tom. It wasn't going to be playing anywhere else. If he picked, I was like, yo, if you pick the right school, you know, the right team,

all that, everything lines up. It's a good situation for me. I still feel like I can play then 100%. Let's do it. And literally everything, you know, checked off, man. It was in Florida. My mom lived two hours away. You know, it was more of a laid back program, which was great.

They gave me my, you know, my days off when I needed just so I could recover for the game. You know, Tom was there. I didn't want to rebuild chemistry with another quarterback because like I said, he helped me get to where I am because of that chemistry that we built up and he showed me the way. So why go anywhere else? We had such a great relationship. And everything just fulled out to be perfect. So it was a no-brainer to go to the Bucs, you know,

once I had the chance to. All right, buddy. Hey, we appreciate it so much, dude. And congrats. And everyone, check out Dudes on Dudes, Gronk with Julian Edelman, new podcast. I'll be sure to check out that one. We appreciate it. Buddy, this

is incredible. I appreciate you guys, man. Thank you, brothers. Before we continue, I need to talk about Labatt Blue Light. Oh, the best beer in the game. And whether you're at a beer league or just watching some hockey with your squad, you cannot find a better beer

than a fresh Labatt Blue Light. Lots of things are better together. Hockey, food, golf, friends. But if you really want to take things to the next level, drink some Labatt Blue Light with your friends and live life to the power of we. I cannot stop thinking about how many Labatt Blue Lights these poor Sabres fans have drank this season.

Just watching their team lose and lose and crack open another Blue Light and crack open another Labatt Blue Light. Thankfully, the lovely city of Buffalo has Josh Allen and the Bills. Enjoy some Labatt Blue Lights together, Sabres fans. You deserve it after this losing streak. Remember, take a page out of the Labatt Blue Light book

and enjoy your beers together so you can live life to the power of we. Find Labatt at labattusa.com slash finder. That's L-A-B-A-T-T-U-S-A dot com slash finder. Thank you so much to Rob Gronkowski. He came in on fire. That was an awesome interview catching up with that legend of the NFL. And actually involved in the NFL NFL kind of crazy news his former coach Bill Belichick signed a five-year deal for 50 million dollars

to become the head coach at University of North Carolina where I guess part of the deal is his son will take over as head coach after he after he's done uh being the coach but Keith were you surprised by that like being a Pats fan I was just figuring next year he'd be coaching in the nfl yeah i always i figured it too especially there's so many teams that need coaches in in the nfl like even like the i think he started with the jets or the giants or someone like why not go back to a team like that bring it full circle but i did hear his dad coached at north carolina right so maybe it's kind of a legacy thing for him go back and does this close his options on on going to the NFL or does it is he kind of dangling this carrot to the NFL and then boom someone's gonna scoop him up and he's never gonna spend a day at North Carolina um so I don't

know it'd be interesting to see you got to imagine that north carolina is going to be good if he's going to be there right i can't imagine he's going to be an unreal recruiter but uh i'm sure he'd be amazing to play for especially at the college level i think that there'd be a lot of football players looking to go to the school of bill belichick to just like understand the pro game and um i think he would build a hell of a program. I think that he might have a hard time communicating and getting through to some of these younger athletes. So based on all this NIL bullshit, that he's probably like,

I'm trying to build a culture here. I don't give a fuck what you want to get paid. So that might hurt him. But I would say just based on who he is, enough players would want to go there and kind of have the same effect that the Deion Sanders situation had on, on Colorado.

Apparently you got a, like a four star elite quarterback to already commit there. He does date a 24 year old. So that's like kind of, he knows what do you guys make of him being his age and still wanting to like work that much? Are you kind of like, I know fucking enjoy your rest of your life.

Dude. Some people are lifers, man. they need yeah they need that in their life like they can never retire they can never stop working and i i think he ends up making them nasty like biz said i mean if you all a lot of these kids are going to college with you know they have no clue how difficult it is but their goal is to play in the NFL. Like, that's the guy. That's the guy. Yeah, Biz, Grinnelli's saying in the chat,

you're a content lifer. You're never retiring from the content game. You wouldn't be able to do it. You might take a month off, and boom, that engine starts churning again, and I'm going to have a 4,000-person birthday party. I'm going to make some content out of it. Mr. Beast, just fucking 10,000 people at my birthday just all scottsdale road everyone could just walk by a parade and then uh get the sampler at

houston's on the way by um you so you think at 55 i'm still going to be doing content. I just can't picture you not. The only other thing that you may end up doing is like being somehow in a front office for an NHL team. I could see it. I could see it. I don't know if he's frozen or his brain's stuck. No, I'm pondering what you're saying. I think he could too, but I think he'd be amazing at it.

I would always want to stay around the game of hockey. I kind of like, I'm proud of myself for being able to reinvent myself in a sense. I went from being a pro athlete to now doing what I'm doing now. I think that I would want a different challenge at a certain point. Maybe do like a rancher. I'd like to be a rancher. I have a bet with a member of the Spit and Chicklets podcast team that

Biz will be involved when the NHL inevitably comes back to Scottsdale. Biz will be involved. That would be cool. That would be actually real sick. Well, we talk about it in the Gronk interview. And he's on board. I got to get J.J. Watt in the mix. Larry Fitzgerald for sure.

Shane Doan would have to be involved. Maybe we reach out to Alice Cooper because he lives locally. I got to think of some other big wigs who actually have Doe. Maybe we can get Aaron Rodgers in the mix. Yance, you throw some dough in? Yeah.

Hey, he could have named Harry Knuckles. He could have named Harry Knuckles guy before he said you. Seriously, if he didn't see me raising my hand, I wasn't. Do we know anyone who's got any money? I've decided that when this is all said and done and this ride comes to an end, I want to be the assistant coach of a high school hockey team. That's it?

That's your goal? You can't even coach the seven-year-olds. What do you mean high school hockey? You think they're going to hold us against you, Ed? You're one and one. You got a worse record than Greg Kroeman. One, one, and one. One, one, and one, and in sixth place in league play.

Five, ten, and four, I think. So, yeah, the stats aren't exactly where I need them to be to get a high school assistant job, but I don't know. Biz, I've thought about that before. I would think I would eventually want to have kids with like a breeder and just like have a bunch of hockey players and then like be their coach kind of like you're doing.

Yeah. Like just get like a girl who's like 6'1", just a thoroughbred where are they gonna get their hockey skill from though you motherfucker oh guys uh i don't know if you remember here i don't know if you remember uh in toronto for the all-star game last year uh we had a great time at gretzky's Basement. And Gretzky's Basement is coming to Chicago December 31st, January

3rd, and January 4th. You can register to visit at Gretzky'sBasement.com after seeing it in Toronto. If you're in Chicago, awesome place to stop by. All of his old sticks, his jerseys, pictures, memorabilia. It's a great setup. They had an awesome idea of doing this and kind of going to marquee NHL

events moving forward. Cannot wait to swing by Gretzky's basement again i banned my mom from coming wayne was getting too handsy last year with her so i said she can't come this year do you guys remember that video yeah to be in that basement with wayne though the day i did it with way it was amazing like he was so excited to be in there to share his stuff. It was so cool. The fact that the boys are the ones that are running it too. Stuff like that in hockey, you don't see that often where you're getting an in-depth look of how he grew up as a kid. It's amazing stuff.

They got the old TVs in there. It's a throwback. It does feel like you're sitting in his basement, his parents' basement. So check that out, Gretzky'sBasement.com. And to finish it off, guys, Thursday, Sandbagger, noon, on our YouTube. Check that out, please, Darcy Tucker, Steve Thomas. And like I mentioned before, tickets still available, BarstoolSports.com, Tim Stapleton, Jeremy Roenick, Chris Chelios, and all the Chicklets boys.

And also, guys guys one final thing the pod will be dropping on monday next week so usually we're a tuesday morning drop it's going to be monday we're going to give the the team behind the scenes a little bit of time off for christmas before we head out to chicago so we're going to be recording on sunday pod will drop monday we love you all i love both you guys and I cannot wait to see you again. You guys anything final thoughts for you two? Go cats tonight. Fuck off. My final thought I guess would be that I figured out what I'm going to do after.

Forget the assistant coaching. I'm going to be the guy that builds the dunes like God did at Panther National. So that's what I'm going to do. I'm going to walk on water. I'm going to turn blood into wine. Is that what Jesus did? I don't know if that's correct. And I'm going to do. I'm going to walk on water. I'm going to turn blood into wine. Is that what Jesus did? I don't know if that's correct.

And I'm going to build dunes with metal things. That's amazing, Whit. That's very honorable of you. Thank you. Thank you, guys. Thank you, guys. Hey, listeners. And by the way, boys, I don't know if you knew,

but Cam Fowler, his 1,000th game, will be played at the Winter Classic. That's the in-depth analysis you get from Spittin' Chicklets. 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