Spittin Chiclets - Spittin’ Chiclets Episode 538: Featuring Taylor Hall and Cam Fowler

Episode Date: January 2, 2025

On Episode 538 of Spittin’ Chiclets, the boys are joined by Chicago Blackhawks Winger Taylor Hall live in Chicago to talk about mentoring Connor Bedard, his time in Boston, and the overall state of the league, but first the guys recap their unreal trip during the Winter Classic and all the debauchery that went on. The live-Show went off without a hitch with a star studded cast of NHL Alumni like Chris Chelios, Jeremy Roenick and a surprise visit from the great one himself, Wayne Gretzky. Cam Fowler joined us at the Gretzky’s basement pop-up Shop to talk about his feelings leaving Anaheim, de-committing from playing in the NCAA, and what the rookies got up too for their rookie party. A new coach in Detroit, Ovechkin is back chasing the goal record, and Biz has a new city he wants to buy a house in… This is an episode you won’t want to miss. 00;00;25 - Winter Classic Recap 00:41:33 - Taylor Hall Interview 01:23:35 - Toews Comeback? 01:28:41 - Red Wings Coach 01:38:23 - Around The League 01:52:21 - Cam Fowler Interview 02:36:17 - Quick Hits 02:51:33 - ETC. PINK WHITNEY: Take Your Shot with Pink Whitney SPORTCLIPS: So, grab your phone, download the app, and always know where you stand.  Sport Clips. It’s a Game Changer. ROMAN: Compounded drugs are permitted to be prescribed under federal law but are not FDA-approved. For full safety information, go to ro.co/safetyinfo. DRAFTKINGS: Download the DraftKings Sportsbook app and use code CHICLETS.  GAMBLING PROBLEM? CALL 1-800-GAMBLER, [phone] or visit gamblinghelplinema.org (MA). Call 877-8-HOPENY/text HOPENY (467369) (NY). Please Gamble Responsibly. 888-789-7777/visit ccpg.org (CT), or visit www.mdgamblinghelp.org (MD). 21+ and present in most states. (18+ DC/KY/NH/WY). Void in ONT/OR/NH. Eligibility restrictions apply. On behalf of Boot Hill Casino & Resort (KS). 1 per new customer. Min. $5 deposit. Min. $5 bet. Max. $150 issued as non-withdrawable Bonus Bets if your bet wins. Bonus Bets expire in 7 days (168 hours). Stake removed from payout. Terms: dkng.co/dk-offer-terms. Ends 1/5/25 at 11:59 PM ET. Sponsored by DK.You can find every episode of this show on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or YouTube. Prime Members can listen ad-free on Amazon Music. For more, visit barstool.link/schiclets

Hey, Spittin' Chicklets listeners, you can find every episode on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or YouTube. Prime members can listen ad-free on Amazon Music. Me and Ryan have been officially welcomed to the jungle that is Boston Sports. Our white whale, Sidney Crosby. Shave his head! Shave his head! Shave his head! Ryan Whitney, Paul Bissonnette, R.A., Mike Grinnelli, Spittin' Chicklets! What is up, folks? Welcome to episode 538 of the Spittin' Chicklets podcast, presented by Pink Whitney! What an amazing week we had in Chicago.

Outdoor winter classic for the ages. And Pink Whitney was a big part of it, boys. We had our meet and greet at Sluggers and the Pink Whitney was flowing. People were asking me, did you bring the big bottles? Did you bring the 1.75s? I said, no, I'm sorry, but I have 500 shots to give away. Yes, 50 shots on a tray. I gave away 10 trays that adds up

to 500 what a guy and boys were the people ready to drink it they were loving it and they were saying the whole time this is the perfect drink before the cold nasty weather we're about to go outside and deal with but give me that pink whitney oh when it hits your lips so shout out pink whitney shout out this podcast and shout out the boys for crushing another winter classic what is going on holy fuck witty high step by you well i must say that merle's kind of started this new thing for the boys that i i love i'm obsessed with it it's such a minor thing but he just now sends the group chat when everyone needs a little pick me up thunderstruck

that's probably a tough guitar right there but when we play it now mers just played it for me before we started i'm flying around i'm buzzing what a song it's crazy because lately i've been bumping a lot of acdc hell's bells in the car gets me going through the like the like the slow intro but the thunderstruck man like when you were kid, lacing them up like 13, 14, we'd be in the hallway with the Welland Tigers. We're white. We're black. We're dynamite.

No, you guys ever do that? Yeah, your mom is part black and your dad's white, so that works perfectly for you. Murr, you said you played it with the Bantams riding around the parking lot. Yeah, when I was coaching the Rochester, I'd put it on there and I'd be ripping around the parking lot and it's COVID. So the other teams

are stuck sitting outside waiting to go in and it was just intimidating them. We have two big SUVs ripping around the lot. It was nuts. We go in and trash these teams. I love it. I love it. Well, Biz, actually, Yans is here as well. Yans, what'd you think of coming on the trip and

being a part of the squad now? What was your kind of thoughts on Chicago? It was great. I feel like a bag of shit right now. I have to hang in with Merles for three days, but I need Thunderstruck every morning for the next couple days to get back to even

here soon. But yeah, Unreal Trip, obviously you guys do it right. First class, everything. I want to thank... No, no, this is business. here soon but yeah unreal trip obviously you guys do it right uh first class everything you know for i want to thank um no no this is business okay okay this is the thank you no no no i want to hear the thank yous i want to hear the thank yous i was just getting julia uh from pink whitney uh megan of discovery uh zones i i can't wait the The only reason I'm excited to be here with you guys is to hear how many thank yous you give out today, Biz. This is his number one episode for thank yous.

Usually it's around 53 to 54. So, Biz, I don't know if you want to start it now or see it later. Well, I would say we got to first start off by thanking the entire league and the people who work for the league for throwing on an incredible event. I love coming to these Winter Classics. And the fact that I'd never been to Fenway and never been to Wrigley, and the first two things that brought me

to both those iconic venues is hockey. Just remarkable. And I think we have to shout out the fans. Not the ideal weather to show up to one of these outdoor games, given how cold it was and it was raining. But these fans come out in droves and they fucking are loud.

They stayed majority of the game although the blackhawks stunk the joint out got booed off their own ice regardless the fans the league incredible job going back to merles making you feel like a bag of shit though yans him and the powers guys the guys who do um what's the name of their podcast empty netters unreal guys absolute man missiles. They give out these business cards, and there's a saying that you guys have on the road, and what's the saying?

Tonight is the night, because one of the first trips where we'd run into these guys, I'm like, no, no, like, tonight, we're not going out tonight. It's not the night. We've got to pack it in easy. You've got to save it, because we're older. Yeah, I'm really old, and we've got to record tomorrow, and somehow, like, the Pink Whitney started flowing, I'm going to pack it in easy. You've got to save it because we're older. Yeah, I'm really old, and we've got to record tomorrow.

And somehow the Pink Whitney started flowing, and we ended up out all night. And one of them said it like, I guess last night was the night. Well, then you flip the back of the card over, and it says, actually, tonight is the night. It's a funny running joke. And last night was not the night, though. I took last night off. So every time that one of the guys in the group is like,

ah, let's take tonight off and save it for tomorrow, they'll follow up with, nah, nah, nah, tonight's the night, though. I took last night off. So every time that one of the guys in the group is like, ah, let's take tonight off and save it for tomorrow, they'll follow up with, nah, nah, nah, tonight's the night. And that's how you get roped into these three, four-day benders, Yan. So welcome to the whack pack. Yeah, and then I'm on the plane coming back, and I'm like, oh, my God, I just can't wait to get to bed tonight. And then I look at my phone, and in the calendar is new year's eve party black tie event i'm like oh my god i had to get home and get ready and go to a black tie event oh my god

oh that's nightmare fuel right that's why you have sunglasses on and look like you're in the witness protection program yeah exactly i got to just enjoy the U.S. kicking the shit out of Canada in Ottawa on New Year's Eve. Just a gift to get to sit and watch that. What a pathetic, undisciplined performance by Canada. We can get into that later. The Trip Boys, huge success. Had a blast. I love Chicago. And every time I go there, the people say, hey, that clip you made, that clip you made. Like 10 years ago, I went on Barstool Chicago, talked about the city, and sometimes it occasionally makes the rounds on Instagram or TikTok of me just talking about it. It hasn't changed. I love the place. It's got everything you want. Great food, awesome. We had one day that was

beautiful. The day before the Winter Classic was the perfect winter day. I wish the game had been on that day, but I think that our live show, we got to talk about that. Shout out all the people who came out and what a surprise they got. Because we do have some thank yous. We had Chelio show up. We had Roenick show up.

We had Tim Stapleton show up talking about the Russian gas. We had Glenn Healy come. But 99, the man, the myth, the legend himself, he showed up. And Biz, how about the crowd? Loud crowds at our live show when he spoke and showed up. You could hear a pin drop. You could hear a pin drop, the respect they were showing for him. And it was funny seeing the fans in the front rows' reactions to when he walked out.

It's like they saw Jesus Christ. And it was great with Jans because he ended up showing maybe up a little bit earlier than expected. So we just brought Jans out, and Jans was like, I'm not sitting here talking with the great one waiting on deck. So Jans was like, bring out my buddy. And then he walked out and got the unreal pop. And what a treat for all those fans who showed up. And going back to Glenn Healy, like he really helped solidify

getting Chris Chelios and Jeremy Roenick to come over because we're trying to do more in collaboration with the alumni and bring more awareness to it. So I thought it was awesome just to get all those guys, especially in a city like Chicago where Chelios and Roenick made such an impact. And how about the gifts that I've been showered with by the Gretzky family? Buddy. How about this bomber, which I have never asked Wayne Gretzky for an autograph.

And when I saw him at the House of Blues the next night, when Chelios, Roenick, and all those guys were throwing that charity event for the alumni, he ended up grabbing the Sharpie and just signing my jacket underneath the 99. So they gave me this unbelievable bomber from Gretzky's basement, all that merch stuff they do with Ty, Trevor, and Tristan. So he signed it. I've never asked him for an autograph, but he did it willingly. And then he gifted me on stage a stick.

So you were right when I asked him. I said, you used in your last season playing with the Rangers, the ultralight two-piece. But I guess because he'd bought in Hespeler, his last game in Canada, which was in Ottawa, he ended up using like eight or nine sticks,

he said, throughout the course of the game. Eight sticks. and he gave me the last stick he used in that game i am going to hang it above where i record back home because i have that i'll have that one now i don't think i'm going to get that sign and leave it authentic but i also now have the the gretzky aluminum the exact same one that i got when i was a kid so I'll put those pictures up and that'll be my backdrop from now on. So I can't thank Wayne enough for not only showing up, but shower me with gifts from him and his family. Like I love the Gretzky's they've done so much for us and it's yeah, I'm, I'm over the moon. So that's only one, one. Thank you.

We still got a lot to get to. By hang up, you mean sell it. Like that thing's going to be on eBay and listed at $30,000, and then you're just going to buy a couple new plants for your new backyard when you sell the Gretzky's. I'm going to have my own Gretzky's basement in my office with my backdrop with those two twigs, so no. Actually, Gretzky's basement we should bring up.

First year it popped off was last year, Toronto All-Star Game, and it was awesome. I didn't really know what to expect. It was perfect, though. You get to see all this old memorabilia, pictures. It's great. We've described it before, but it wasn't like a crack house in Toronto like the house.

I was like, what the fuck? I kind of liked it. It made a little bit more offensive. I know you did because you lived in one in Scottsdale for 10 years in the NHL, so I get that. Shout out to the pillar. I used to go across the street to sushi brokers to grab rolls of toilet paper to bring back at my crack den when I would run out of toilet paper.

I'd be twooping from the bathroom at sushi brokers across the street. But go back to the Gretzky's basement. Well, the house they have now, and I want to bring it up because you're listening to this on January 2nd. It's still open for the 3rd, 4th, and and maybe even the fifth because I think a bunch of big 10 hockey teams Notre Dame Michigan State a few others are coming to play at the arena at Wrigley or at the arena at Wrigley wake up with the field look the ice at Wrigley so if you're in Chicago head on over you could sign up online you get to see so much and the merch there's they've even upped the

merch I got a t-shirt that's sick like a little kid with the 99 it's awesome uh we got hats we got and you can't get the jacket i believe they only made like maybe 50 of those jackets biz they're selling big bucks those things are sick so good for you getting one sign well i actually trying to wait a little price bill food on it today when i I put it on, I ended up snapping all those draws back on Bedard. So even just the aura of Wayne Gretzky's jacket and Gretzky's basement helped me overcome one of the greatest prodigies that hockey's ever seen. So thank you to the great one in the family for giving me that extra juice going biz versus Bedard. And before we get into biz versus Bedard, I do have to bring up like another experience with you at a restaurant biz unbelievable like it's just wild to see what do you mean i was good this trip this you you were good you were good you just had your moments it's like uh it's like a player

going through a slump and you see him coming out of it he's making some plays and then boom pete's up the middle it's like fuck this guy just can't figure it out for a full 60 minutes so we get to we get we get to the restaurant and biz is fuming that like he threw out like pretending to joke hey boys like your family style share it all up and we're just like no he's like i was just kidding he's like shit like you knew he wasn't kidding and so the the waiter had come to us a few times ready to order ready to order no. Give us a couple more minutes. Finally, he comes back and everyone's ready to order. He goes to Biz first.

And he says, hey, go ahead, sir. Biz. I haven't even looked. I haven't even looked. So Jeff's like, all right, go to Mikey Grinelli. Right to Biz's right. And then swoop all the way around. And Biz, you can go last.

It gets all the way back around to Biz. Everyone's got their orders. He goes like this. Oh, I haven't even looked. Because the minute the guy went to his right, he got back around to this. Everyone's got their orders. He goes like this. Oh, I didn't even look. Cause the minute the guy went to his right, he got back on his phone and we went through the same thing again when it got back to him. And then when he finally looks at the menu in a panic,

he goes, I wrote it down. Can I have the fattening pasta? I wrote it down. And the whole table, I said, what the hell is for Teddy pasta? Gretzky told us to go to this restaurant.

They must have this new pasta. And I'm looking at the menu and I go, this one. He goes, yeah. I go, that says fettuccine. The fattetti. I don't even know how you get. I wrote F-A-H-T-E-T-T-Y to like try to remember how you pronounce fettuccine. So incredible, incredible incredible like example

of his ordering and just not and then and then he got two meals he got two meals and they were like two of the same things myself keith to my left merles to his left timmy stapleton this was bullshit chicken parm this was bullshit this was bullshit there's five guys in a row that got the chicken parm train you But you weren't listening. You were on your phone. You were on Raya. Swipe it. What a city.

Rockets in Chicago. That's one thing you need to add to that disclaimer about Chicago is the women here. I might have to move here to meet my future wife. The city is just a little whack pad. I got gotta tell the story at gibson wait okay but listen i you should have nudged me and said jump on the chicken palm train that's a fucking bull why are you laughing bro that's a bullshit move if you were i can admit i can admit like hey all four of us got the palm done dude and we got the vodka sauce on the

pasta when you when you see a teammate struggling like that especially in the ordering department you gotta fucking you gotta lift me up bro you gotta lift me up but when when wayne gretzky tells you to go to a restaurant and it's the best italian he's ever had you better bet your fucking ass you're getting a chicken parm as long as your arm and the guy next to you is getting a chicken parm as long as your arm and the guy next to him is getting it too not the fucking as long as my forsy he went with like the veal bolognese on the fattetti i was like what is that order and he's like but watch this and then another like short rib order came over this is for the table to share as he inhaled the entire thing we were

at gibson's the night before that. Some great team dinners. Great team dinners. Shout out to Vinny Laverde. Oh, this was crazy. Okay, so Dale ended up inviting a few extra people. So my buddy Vinny Laverde, the captain of our Calder Cup team, couldn't even end up sitting down at the main table. He had to sit in the bar with another guy that Dale had invited.

So he gets pigeon tossed after setting up the whole meal at gibson's for us so to my former captain and an absolute legend of the american hockey league vinny i am sorry for the way that this played out go ahead with great guy so we're at gibson's and um as this all went down like we couldn't get a reservation till i think nine and we ended up getting there at eight like thinking maybe we'd be able to sit down a little bit sooner. And Baz is hungry. And when this dude's hungry, the world fucking stopped. Talk to him about anything.

Don't bring up any subject. I need food. And so Baz goes in and somehow gets them to give us a big, huge table in the bar. So then the waitress is like, hey, what do you guys want to drink? I'll bring over the men. And he's like, no, well, we just want app want appies we're sitting here we're waiting until our table's ready but i need food i need food so i didn't say like that to her no no no to me you did but to the waitress you were very polite as always thank you and there was a very attractive woman i'm gonna

guess 10 to 15 yards away the table and i noticed like she's continually looking over at biz like looking over looking over looking over I'm like Jesus Christ and sure shit biz gets his happy like scarf sat down then goes to the table and as he's walking by and now biz like very you know women love you women love you but I think the

Irish travelers things taking it to another level and he's walking by and I'm watching the whole small hired these irish travelers and he's paying them with the gretzky hespler that my raya profiles the surveillance so as we walk by the girl boom grabs him as he's walking by i was like jesus i'm watching the whole thing he just kind of you were a little surprised and shocked as well and she rips you in and then then you're talking, you're talking and I see, she takes down my number. I gotta go eat, baby. I gotta go eat, baby. I'm hungry. I'm hungry. He's even

telling this new woman he's just meeting how hungry he is. And she turns around and to the table as Biz leaves. And I'm just looking at her, reading her lips. She goes, he's fucking hot. I'm like, what the fuck? Fuck this guy. Everywhere we go. Fuck this guy. And not only does that happen he goes oh boys look

at this about 30 minutes later and he gets a text because he'd given her his number and it's like it's so amazing to meet you paul let's just get out of here soon private i don't need anyone to see us i just need to spend time with you i was like what planet are we living on now if you saw this guy running around wheeling west virginia not being able to make a tape to tape pass squatting jump squatting over cars making people call him biz nasty would you ever believe women be grabbing them at gibson's dragging them home so good for you but it's very happy she said are you dwayne the rock johnson i said you're goddamn right you said c yeah i mean great trip we we didn't talk about it before that dinner we were

at the draft king sports book here yeah betting those games and it was just an amazing time sitting up top there with those giant screens yeah i've never been there go check that out and then such a fun night speaking of draft kings the busy bets hit the last one of the year how about that one thank god of that assist that Bedard got in the third period for not losing that one for us. But that place, just to go sit down, if you've got an afternoon with all these games on, with all the bowl games and stuff,

grabbing 12 buddies going to get a table there, they've got a million TVs, you can gamble, it's a fun environment, it's clean. So shout out to them for not only hosting us, but what a setup in wrigleyville so into the winter classic the day before was really cool the good weather day i mentioned we got to go over to the field and biz giving you credit you look pretty good on your wheels against badart like you weren't going to win the skating the kind of back and forth i think

i would have if they wouldn't have like i didn't think that was a false start on the first one nobody's going to see that footage. I thought I was high-stepping right out of the gate, right on the toes, just like my power skater Nancy Grill taught me back in Welland, Ontario, with the edge work. Why are you laughing, bro? I just, I, it is, no. I had people.

Can I thank you in the mix? January 1st. No, thank you. I saw 100 tweets of people thinking it was Kale McCarr. They're like, what's he doing at the Winter Classic? I thought Colorado wasn't playing in that this year. I thought they were done after the Lake Tahoe experience. But you were snapping back the draws on him. And you kind of got screwed.

I think you won that. And then they end up saying you false started a draw, too. But very impressed, Biz. For a guy who hasn't skated, your crossovers are horrible. It's like short, choppy, and your knees are straight. But everything else, like, you looked you look good dude you look very good i think that was the problem as we've talked about before as my career progressed like i wasn't doing a lot of mobility and flexibility so my hips are so tight so when it comes to the crossover stuff it's just like i'm not really generating any power but i kind of

look like mcdavid because they're fast like they're quick they're quick and fast you know how he really turns them over but I think he's probably doing a different skate sharpening than I am or something. That's probably why he gained so much speed. Yeah, that's what it is. It's just the hollow. The profiling on the edge. I was just waiting for his ACL to blow out and take out

Conor Bedard and ruin the winter classic. It did, but I had the girl from Gibson's come over and rub it out. There was a girl working for the Blackhawks, I believe, watching the whole thing, and she was in panic mode, dude. Her heart rate must have been 180 watching this, because your

skates are flying up near his fucking neck and stuff. I was like, oh, Jesus, man. Biz is going to knock out the league face of the franchise. But the best part... I did catch a rut the one time, and my stick came up quick and I must have missed him by about three inches. Could you imagine getting a call from Gary Bettman

being like, you've just taken out our poster child for this whole winter classic with a flick of your wrist, you fucking dummy. It would have made you even bigger. Bigger star. How about Chicago's breakaways in the practice? Oh, my God, you guys. So, yeah, that's the same day because there was another moment

the day before the game that I wanted to talk about. So, Chicago is so bad. I mean, this team is legit horrible. Horrible. They're getting blown out every game. So, the end of practice, fun practice. You're outdoors. It's beautiful out.

All right, we're going to line five pucks up on one blue line, five pucks up on another blue line. They were split into white and red practice jerseys and reds at one end. You go down, you get the puck, you go on a breakaway. If you miss, you got to get the puck. You got to bring it back to the blue line. The game's not over until all five pucks are scored. Buddy, we were there 35 minutes they've been one goal they had nine pucks left and guys are looking around like this is not every media of the nhl is like jesus christ like at one point

you're like morassic let them score like let these guys score this is pathetic this is crushing their confidence i mean i looked over at one point and the faces on these poor guys, they, that's when I said, Merle's I'm betting everything I own on the blues tomorrow. Everything I own. Pathetic, pathetic.

And I feel bad for Chicago. Maybe there's better days to come. Apparently like the GM went in after the game and was giving it to the team. It's like, I don't know, man. You sent the text to the group chat, so you had heard that?

Yes, I heard that. I heard that the GM wasn't thrilled with the effort in front of the Chicago people. Yeah, so I would imagine then he came in, and then that's probably why you saw the quotes that you saw. Not to say you wouldn't have seen quotes similar, but it seems like when Halsey got interviewed, I think Foligno got interviewed, and Bedard, they were basically like like what was the term that bedard used he's like we got dog walked is that what he said we laid an egg or something we laid an egg we got dog walked like

all the verbiage to basically say you got bent over and booed off the ice in your your quote unquote home barn like come on man especially after everything that's been happened leading up to this with like how brutal they've been like you go back to maybe the taylor hall healthy scratch and just all the i guess drama surrounding the team in the sense of there wasn't maybe as much buzz as i would have anticipated coming into this winter classic because people from a hockey standpoint here might be a little bit checked out like The games aren't even on television here right now, from my understanding. Hawks fans, at the meet and greet at Sluggers, they were disgusted.

Disgusted with what's going on. I asked all the Hawks fans at Die Hard, what's your thoughts? What's your feelings? And just, I swear to God, not one of them had anything good to say. They were like, this is just a nightmare. I can't believe.

We thought there'd be a little bit of a step forward this year. So I said, well, there's some very special prospects coming up this year and this McKenna kid, holy shit for 2026. But yeah, it's ugly. It's very ugly. Now, probably coolest moment of the game. And I thought it was Foligno asking Braden Shen, but it was the other way around. That's what an animal Shen is, is those two guys squaring off. And then after Darren Pang was talking to Braden Shen about it, and he's like, you know, was that Foligno who asked you, team's down? He's like, no, I just kind of wanted a fight at Wrigley Field, center ice, something they'd never be able to take away from me.

And Foligno was furious. He's tough as shit too. He kind of gave him a little bit of a beating, but it ended up being like a great moment in an otherwise kind of brutal game. Like you just see these two guys, two captains, just toe to toe center ice, but Shen being the one that wants it when they're up five, one, that shows he's definitely a Western league crazy boy. Well, you know why he did it partly too,

is I guess the night before Wayne was talking to him and said, he picks the MVP for the game and that the MVP gets a car. So they like were joking out or joking around and Shunner's like, well, I'm going to get in a scrap and like score a goal and you're going to have to give it to me. So, and then after the second period, after he'd gotten into scrap, he texted Wayne going, do I

get the car? And Wayne in the post game mentioned that he's like, he never even told him the truth. He completely bit for the gag. Oh, there was no car. There was no car. There was no car. It was just the Coco Cup trophy, which Cam Fowler ended up winning, which I think like maybe aside from Braden Shen was probably maybe the top story

and the fact that this guy playing in his 1,000th game after this whirlwind of the last two weeks. I mean, I think he was like, what, seven or eight games away from it when he'd been traded. Plays, what, 992 or 993 with Anaheim Ducks, like historic duck. All the Ducks guys on the way to the game on the same night, like there was a picture of Troy Terry.

They were all celebrating his 1,000th game as well to pay homage to a guy who did so much for their organization. But the fact that he steps up and scores two big goals for them, like what a moment for that guy and well-deserved. And he's actually going to be dropping on this pod i'd never had the chance to talk to him but just seems like the classiest nicest best teammate you could ask for did you guys know anything about him before we talked to him not really no i i had he played in um the fallon cup which i talk about a lot wallston's member guest with kyle palm earlier one year but i had just said hello great guy keith said it best great laugh on him like he starts laughing makes me laugh and i think he was giving us some fake laughs which is always nice if you ever want to be on

the show fake laugh i'll love you forever um but that was great we interviewed brian noonan he was pretty good at that too he might go he gave us a lot of fake laughs he might he might go down as my favorite chicklets guest of all time, Brian Noonan, who we got a chance to interview at Gretzky's basement. You guys chuckle. I honestly think this guy was fucking with us the whole time. We got to go back to Cam Fowler, but just remember, folks, Brian Noonan who's coming, greatest Chicklets interview of all time.

Yeah, Cam Fowler with that first goal. A little bit later than Army's goal, so Army is still the king of the winter classic. But my favorite part of the whole night was after the game, you see Fowler in the locker room. He's crushing a beer. Everybody's just celebrating. I can imagine the difference of those two locker rooms. One is rock bottom, and that other one is just laughing.

Monty's in there giggling, laughing, getting all the boys going, and it's just great vibes for the blues right now boys do you get the feeling that the blues if they sneak in with a wild card they could be a dark horse team i'm starting to to to get feelings i got like the butterflies in my stomach for this team like the fact that they make the the fowler move i think that their back end has wiley veterans broberg's a young guy who adds that great two-way puck-moving defenseman. Binnington, you know when you're playing for keeps, the fucking snowman's going to show up.

The guy's got ice in his veins. He's going to be going off to four nations. I think one of the issues has been goal scoring, but I think that they could find a way, especially later in the season where things get a little bit rougher and it's harder to score goals, like that Jake Neighbors has no problem going to the blue paint he's a complete throwback we talked about shenner kairu thomas is healthy after getting injured at the start of the year who else are you impressed

by buchnevich well yeah you left him out you left out my guy and it really hurts it's it's like a gut punch but holloway he's got 14 goals now boys he's a fucking spark he's got 14 goals and everyone saw it in the playoffs for edmonton and i understand edmonton's looking great but god that offer sheet doug armstrong knew what he was doing i think he saw enough with his speed some of those skill goals he had in the playoffs like this guy's on pace for 4 30 goals now and he's he's not making anything so it's like that's an addition that army like knew knew i this guy's he's young he could skate and he's looked awesome i asked brayden shen we got a chance to talk to him before the game i said i don't know what your guys expectations

were in the locker room exactly coming in but like how do you feel about this group and he went he alluded to the cam fowler trade and then bringing those guys over where he's like army's giving us a chance to win man like we we talk about like for chicago for instance it's a prime example why i think maybe more teams moving forward aren't going to strip it to the bottom and unload everything because you let a guy like haggle go congratulations on getting two picks but look at the way that he's turned out in tampa he was their best player when chicago got rid of him so you look at this retool element and the way they've been able to do it, like even going back to last year for St. Louis, like Bucinavich was on the table, but they never got an offer. They didn't just accept like, oh, okay, this is a solid offer. Let's get rid of them. They realized they had a good piece and

they kept them. And now, cause they kept them, they can continue to build off of that. So asset management and those offer sheets, I'm telling you, I think that that was a rookie, rookie mistake by the Edmonton Oilers letting those two guys walk. I think that that's the reason they're going to get beat by the LA Kings in the first round this year. And by the way, they lost the other night in overtime to them. Keep the fucking change.

And Merles has them labeled as fraught. I just think they're not going to beat the oilers or they're not going to beat vegas in the playoffs so if you don't get out of the first round you're a fraud mark my words if la kings with a healthy drew doughty they play edmonton the first round la will beat them i know i've said it four years in a row the fourth year in a row but i know it's the fourth year in a row it went. I know it's the fourth year in a row. It went from seven games to six games to five games, but this will go back the other way. It went to four. They beat them in four?

No, he's saying that's what happened this year. LA is going to beat Edmonton in four. Thank you. Fuck you, Keith. Another thing the day before the game, because Merle's brought up Monty. Gee, and I was waiting for this. I knew this would happen. He saw me, and I was waiting for this. I knew this would happen.

No, he saw him. He saw G and I knew it. And right away he's like, you motherfucker. No. Yeah. So we were standing there and I saw Merle's wit, Yann's talking to him. And I looked at memes.

I'm like, no. Do I say something? Do I walk over? He's like, you gotta. So I took one step towards them. And he's like you gotta so i took one step towards them he's like you motherfucker that this is the guy that was calling for my job and boss and comes over like throws me in a headlock he's like you motherfucker you were calling for my job and boss he's the best and i'm like i'm so sorry he could tell he put me on my toes and i'm like i'm so sorry i didn't i didn't

mean to and he's like buddy I don't give a shit you got a job to do I'm just fucking with you I don't care and then he's walking away too and I'm like coach we we miss you in Boston and he's like no you fucking don't and I'm like yeah fuck you right he um I think I heard it from Merles or maybe it was it was Yanzu told me he did mention something to you about like one element of the story you told was wrong where it wasn't a rift between him and Sacco at all well no that's not what I said and I think that was kind of taken out of context all I said was in the call in the summer when they promoted him from assistant coach to associate head coach that that there was a conversation that was like hey Monty's contract

might not get done we're nowhere close with Monty so if that contract might not get done. We're nowhere close with Monty. So if that contract does not get done, you'll be our next guy. People took that as, oh, Monty's the guy. Monty's on the hot seat. Sacco's the next guy. That's not what I'm saying. And his guy's kind of like mowing his grass, essentially, behind his back, knowing that he's going to take his buddy.

And he did say that. He's like, you kind of put Sacco in a tough spot there. And I'm like, well, not really because I think that was a conversation that the Jacobs and Sacco had that was taken out of context out of what I said. So all I was saying in the end was that Monty was nowhere close

with his contract with the Bruins, which I proved to be right about once again. And he wanted to make sure he's like Sacco was the most loyal guy. That's what he was saying. He's like, he's the most loyal guy. He wasn't trying to go behind. He really is. He's awesome.

And then that whole staff at that same time, that whole blue staff was around Otter and all these guys. They got a great staff. Oh, what? Who? Who's? Otter. Like Otter shows up. He's got his beard.

What did you say to him, Keith? It was the brightest blue you could ever imagine. From his neck to his big toe. Blue. It was ridiculous, Coach. And Monty Shades of Blue. They looked like they were an extermination team

going into an office building to just smoke out some termites. Thisroaches. Unbelievable. Monty looked like the girl who blows up as the blueberry in Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory, but she doesn't listen to Willy. It was so good.

It was so good. I know we mentioned all the moves that Armstrong had made. I mean, that's kind of, in my opinion, the biggest one. Monty is just such a motivator, and you've seen these clips of the way he addresses the team, like Monty is just such a motivator and you've seen these clips of the way he addresses the team and you saw it too in Boston and the way he's able to have that quick impact it seems like all the guys are bought in and they're drinking his tea right now it starts right at the top here he talked about with Army and then Alex Dean was down there with

us he's mucking around and that's a guy that just has the ultimate respect of the whole hockey world. Mr. Monarch. Players, everybody. So it's just a great organization to see right now. Yeah, St. Louis, three points out of the second wildcard spot. Pretty cool to see. They're going. They're buzzing around.

It's awesome. Last thing I kind of forgot to mention from the live show, I brought up Glenn Healy, who helps us get so many guests. He's such a great guy, important to us. We were able to present him with a check for $25,000 that we've raised or donated to the Alumni Association, and hopefully that continues to grow. We're able to do that more than just one time, but I think he was appreciative, and he talked a lot about what it means to be able to be an alumni and to

look out for your fellow teammates and players that you went through the same things with. and because of that was it the next night we went to the event at the house of blues biz that was awesome now all of us knew chelly chelios was throwing on something and they came over to support us so we went over to support them it was great we ended up on stage i think there was about 50 players there got a picture in front of the cup i touched the cup for the first time well i touched it when i was like 10 years old. That was a big mistake. But we were able to like get with all the guys. Jon Hamm was up there. He was laughing it up.

He was like a WWE heel. He had a couple cocktails in him and was like trolling all the Blackhawks fan. But I think it just goes back to getting Glenn Healy on and us as younger guys becoming a little bit maybe more aware of what like former players are going through and what these guys actually do for the alumni like right currently right now i'm wearing a kelly chase jersey as well he's you know battling through cancer and like he's an absolute legend and these guys do so much for their fellow brothers and and the brotherhood of hockey so we want to bring more awareness to the nhL alumni. And I think in just talking to Heels and Chelios and JR and Wayne especially, like Wayne's so involved with the alumni

because he wants to help out as well. I think the goal is with where the state of the game is at right now and what these franchise values are at, and it goes back to the Glenn Healy interview, I think they're trying to basically create like a fund or get like all these past players, health insurance, and just like a,

a little bit of it. I cornered, I cornered Healy in the, in the basement of that theater. When you guys were up there on stage trying to get the, all the alumni, some health insurance and stapled. And he just thought it was hilarious.

He's like, I hear Merle's talk about all the time in a pod. I didn't think he was serious. I think there's conversations in the work right now with like the NHLPA and the fact that there's, there's rumblings that they're going to settle and get a new CBA figured out because everything is just so healthy and actually ink it a little bit sooner than the time that it expires. and the owners and the PA were able to set up some type of fund in order to help these past players who have paved the way for these new guys and new wave to make $14, $15, $18 million as these years are coming up. I think that that would really solidify Gary Bettman's legacy

as a commissioner to get the league to where it's at, but also then pay homage and give back. Like I said, Glenn Healy and all these former players have really led by example, like Wayne and Chelly, in order to set it up so those guys would be potentially possible to get that. So I hope it happens, guys. The state of the league is amazing,

and I just wanted to shed some light on that and also shed some light to Kelly Chase, who's battling for his life right now. And he's done so much for past players. So he deserves all the love and, and, and praise for that as well. Yeah,

no doubt. Uh, well said by you. Um, and I know things haven't gone great for the Hawks, but Taylor hall, longtime friend of mine, and he was nice enough to come and sit down with us.

So we got Taylor hall and cam Fowler this episode. He came over to the barstool office, sat down with him, sat down with Pat Maroon, sat down with Cam Fowler. So I think right now it's time to throw it over to Hall. Before we send it over to him, should we not talk about maybe where we think the next Winter Classic should be? Like, I'm just looking about what's happened with the state of the game and kind of like what the last conversation was

about how the league is growing. Sidney Crosby and Ovi have kind of taken the torch and ran with it the last 20 years they've brought so many new fans and created so many great memories why not do a winter classic in pittsburgh or washington next year with those two guys headlining it where we the tnt broadcast habits so wayne's going to be there anyway get mario lemieux in the mix ovi at that point would have probably already set the goal record crosby by the way he just passed mario lemieux as the all-time assist leader in pittsburgh penguins history guys so the the fact that these guys have carried the torch and lived up to every expectation would that not be

the ultimate winter classic for next year? I agree. But apparently through the rumor mill, I'm hearing it's Florida. It's going to be in Florida. So I'm with you, buddy. There needs to be one more. I mean, who knows how long this is going to go? And I think it would be in D.C. because I feel like Pittsburgh's had had a bunch of them.

But I am 100 percent on board with that. But everything i'm hearing is florida boston so i don't know what that would that be stadium series wicks i was here in florida would be stadium series in miami oh maybe yeah with the retractable roof there was a lot of rumors going around i heard tampa i heard fort lauderdale i heard orlando i heard all sorts of rumors this week biz i'm with you though and speaking of crosby um passing lemieux is the all-time assist leader for the pittsburgh penguins if sid continues to go on and on and do what he's doing which is just not slowing down he will end up holding the record

of the most assists for one franchise do you know who currently holds that record uh probably still wayne with edmonton nope d visorman nope wow eastern conference or western eastern raymond james bork raymond james bork for the boston bruins so i think sid at one point will end up breaking that record and just what he's done and the fact that when he came into the league mario said i remember he he's going to break all my records. And everyone's like, well, no, he's not. You're just being a really nice guy that owns and still plays for the team. And he's also living with you. And he's actually doing it.

Like, it seemed like a throwaway comment just to really pump up this prodigy that's coming into the system. No, he's actually gone on to straight up do what Mario said he would do. So just incredible to see that. And the Pens are humming along. The Pens are humming along. Biz, what do you got before Halsey? Did you see Sid's dad getting emotional in the crowd? Yeah, that was awesome.

You don't really see him get interviewed or talk much. He kind of hangs out behind the scenes. You know, he's not this crazy hockey dad. He's just a hockey dad who loves his son and supports him through and through and i just thought it was a very special moment uh and you could just tell how much how happy he is that his son has been able to live out his dream the way that he's done it and just supported his kid the way that you should so um i just wanted to shed light on on sydney crosby and everything he's done for our game because he's an absolute fucking g yeah and i think probably his dad like three

cups olympics everything that we've talked about but you realize at some point like it's it's it's coming to an end and and you're watching this this kid you've watched it he was four years old dominate every single time he's on the ice and then these records come and these championships come but there's definitely moments of reflection i think for players it's when you retire but for parents near the end of a players and their son's career it definitely probably hits them in in different ways right and so to see like troy was always around he was always at practice so friendly nice guy and just to see what his son has done like he's lived up to everything and there's definitely got to be moments for him like holy shit like what's actually happened is beyond my wildest imagination.

So amazing for Crosby. Amazing for the pens. Yeah. And one other thing too, we didn't mention the TNT broadcast. We got to get Bill Murray on. I don't know if you guys ended up seeing, I didn't see it.

I was flying. What was he like? Oh, buddy. It was like Robin Williams. Like, like the jokes were coming in. Like it would take like 10 minutes to land in my brain.

Like him and him, Wayne and Chelly were just snapping it around. So it was just surreal. And then the next segment, John Ham's on there. So just a star studded, uh, our, uh, preview show to the winter classic. And, uh, I, I had a blast and just a surreal moment for me getting to meet Bill Murray. Cause I mean, you got, you got, you, I mean, Caddyshack's probably one of the best sports movies of all time. What's the other one?

What about Bob? What about Bob is awesome. That's one of the most undercover films of all time, too. So that was pretty sick. So Biz dominated Bedard in a matchup, and that's a former first overall pick just a couple years ago. And we had another one on, Taylor Hall, who went into what's going on this year in Chicago and how he's talked to Bedard about dealing with being first overall pick just a couple years ago, and we had another one on, Taylor Hall, who went into what's going on this year in Chicago

and how he's talked to Bedard about dealing with being first overall, so I think it's a good time to throw over to him now. Guys, time to talk about DraftKings. Before we go any further, I want to talk to you about it being the most wonderful time of the year for getting in on all the hoops, the football, and the hockey action at DraftKings Sportsbook. In the season of giving, we're being gifted college football and basketball,

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pleasure to be joined by a good friend of mine right now. We're in Chicago. Winter Classic coming up. My old roommate, Taylor Hall. What's going on, Halsey? What's up, boys? Thanks for having me. Oh, thanks for swinging by. When was the last time we had Halsey on? This is probably his third or fourth time I'd say gee you'd know better but I'm gonna say it's been a while you were on the Bruins when you're on last okay so he'd already

won his MVP he'd already won the MVP MVP award 867 games now buddy 2018 so it's been just he hasn't been on since 2018 holy shit we're coming up on seven years Ozzy we just said 867 games you're now older than I was when we met and I was old balls to you when we met so do you realize now how quickly this is gone yeah but you know I think you probably felt that you didn't feel that old at the time like now I do I don't feel that old until like we come back from a road trip like last night and I have to put on the shinies and and play like I felt pretty old this morning but no like talking to the guys and being around the team I don't feel old at all but um looking back at you know

how old you were and just being around all you guys um now I'm older than than than you guys were it's different but i'm still having a blast what's what's hard is or not hard but you you probably could tell guys like hey enjoy it it goes by so quick like it's been this long for me and and if i'd said that to you you'd be like all right buddy whatever and it but you just want to be able to tell kids like just enjoy every day but it's so hard to listen when you're that young for some of the young guys on the hawks with you it is it's different like i remember all you guys saying this is going to go quickly you know and then it's like bam i can't believe like five years or seven years since i've been on this podcast i know that's crazy just it really does fly and i'm at the point now where i'm like pretty grateful and I you know I look back on

a lot of really good times and I'm just enjoying my last few years here and trying to make make the best of it have as much fun as I can and you know hopefully my son can see me play and understand what's going on it's there's a lot more to it and uh you know I have a lot more gratitude and perspective and maybe it's because you guys were always saying that to me back back in the day yeah it's got to be special too like when you were a young kid first overall coming into the league and then now like you just said you have a son i'm sure he's coming to the rink seeing the guys like just i couldn't imagine that uh you know i had daughters so they weren't really interested but it just must be amazing to come to the rink and how the guys treat your kid and stuff must be fun to see yeah it's it's awesome it's one big family right and um that's the that's the thing that's special

when you when you can play and have your family experience it you know the winter classic coming up my my wife's family my mom's coming in all that stuff it's like yeah we want to win the game we want to play well but there's a lot more that comes with it and just trying to enjoy that as much as I can. Is this your first one? No, I played that one at Fenway in Austin. Oh, a comeback win. Yeah, so Fenway and Wrigley, the two pretty awesome winter classics.

Yeah, when Pasha was in the middle of the outfield. Legit. He snuck onto the outfield. He was like over on the green monster, like right in New Jersey Devils in the back of the wall. And all of a sudden we got our passes taken away. Oh, he's a big Devils fan, right? Yeah, he's insane. He's insane. Big in New Jersey devils in the back of the wall. Like, and all of a sudden we got, Oh, he's a big devil's fan,

right? Yeah. He's insane. He's insane. Jock's in the, from the world. Did I remember he was pumping the devil's tires a couple of years ago and you're, and you're just like,

no, I don't want to hear about it. We're still doing that. And they're like, unbelievable. I don't want to hear it. You've ruined the devils for me. I feel like you guys had a pretty,

like a, like a veteran group in Boston. Like, how has it been for you, like coming over and maybe having to take on more of like a, like a mentor role? I would imagine that one of the reasons they got you, you were first overall, but Dard and kind of just helping mold him into a, to an NHL player. Yeah. You know, there's, there's not many people that have been through, you know, what he's been, what he's going through. And I'm one of them, honestly.

And, and I played in Edmonton, which was a different market than Chicago, but it's a, you know, hockey craze and there's a spotlight on you. So, um,

I know a little bit what he's going through and, and we, we chat about it and we, we talk about everything. He loves football. He loves sports. He's a sports nut and, you know,

he loves hockey and he loves working out and all that stuff. So there he's a sports nut and you know he loves hockey and he loves working out and all that stuff so there's just different things that you know we talk about and i try and mentor him and to go back to your point about the bruins like those guys were such good leaders and they did it in a way that i hadn't really experienced before like it wasn't like hardo like yelling at you that it was like be yourself be like the best version of yourself and and we're going to support you in in doing that and and everyone does that we're going to be the best team possible so that's kind of my philosophy and and i learned a lot from those guys it was amazing to uh to play with them and not just play with them but also like have beers

with them and see them away from the rink, see them with their families. It was really cool. I remember right when I met you, you could tell how passionate you were about the game. At that age, you'd take things home, and after a bad game, you'd be so down on yourself. You probably realize now that it's wasted energy, but when you see Bedard, I'm sure he's similar.

It seems like he's so intense. Have you been able to tell him a little bit, like, seems like he's so intense that have you have you been able to tell him a little bit like dude it's it's so hard it's easier said than done but just try to like forget the bad games and and move on to the next one marathon aspect yeah like the yeah it's so long yeah we've had little conversations about that and i also just try and like if i have a bad game like there is that tendency for me to want to go back to that and, and really be pissed off. You would get so mad, dude. Oh yeah.

So yeah, I still have that part in me. So I can't be like that around these guys, right? Like you gotta just be a pro and you gotta come back the next day and do your, I think that's the biggest thing. Um, but yeah, it's hard cause there's, you gotta understand like where he's coming from and the shoes that he's in. There's so much pressure on him. Everyone has a TV in their freaking pockets now, and they can see what he's doing every night. So there is that.

You have to understand he wants to be the best, but I think he'll learn as he goes on developing other interests. Just getting away from hockey when he's away from the rink is huge. You think it's harder for a kid nowadays? Because when you came up you had all that hype about you but there was no social yeah the social media isn't what it is now you think it's harder for those kids because i would imagine it's hard for them to not see it right like they're look yeah like i was lucky i didn't look at anything but i as my career went on it seemed more and more that the kids were looking at fucking everything so yeah i mean when i played in the ohl you could barely see highlights of

your own game and now like you can watch your kids games on live barn and like every replays on youtube right away like he watches his regina pats buddies like every night. Like he knows how they're playing. And like, so it's just, there's so much information. And I think it's important that these, not only that, but I'd like to hear you guys' thoughts. But with the Instagram reels and TikTok, it's like, you got to be motivated. You got to be disciplined. This diet, I feel this way when I have this diet. Like we have this one guy on our team

and we all love him but he's 21 and he wears a whoop like jesus christ i slept 89 last night gotta get that extra 11 this afternoon they were an old sponsor are they still a sponsor okay i'll say this about the whoops i wore one because they were the sponsor for a while and i'd wake up and i'd feel horrible and it'd say i slept perfect and then i'd feel great and it said i slept awful i'm like i can't be doing this anymore it's making me feel worse than i do because i'm seeing the number i know and just save that till you're like 32 and you really need to like get a an edge like you think you think the over information is fucking with the younger generation a little bit.

I just think that it's okay to like make mistakes and have fun and like play around with stuff and like get away from it, get away from the game. Like I'm saying this now cause I've had experience and I know what it, uh, I've been in those shoes, but yeah, there's just so much available to them now.

It's, it's kind of, it's, it's a lot a lot it's it's also turned into where you're talking about the instagram reels with like the skill stuff and we talk a lot on the show about i don't know if you've noticed like hockey iq it's like it's just like dipping a little bit where the skill's going up and like sometimes you're like oh my god that kid can do everything with the puck but then like to make a decision at a at a high pace is like not as easy and i think instagram and all that stuff does have a lot to do it personal skill coaches like did you have one of those growing up

no it's just you were fucking around on the ice the candle and trying things i know and then you see all this stuff and you're like i gotta be doing that yeah like if they're doing that what i'm i'm sitting at home you know i. So, yeah, I never had skills coaches until now. Yeah, I just think like, I don't know if it's TikTok hockey out there, but I see the leading scorers of the league every year now and it's like the same guys. No one really like gets up. It's like the, it's Cooch, it's cooch it's nate it's leon it's connor it's like

you know you got jack hughes up there and he's a great player but it's like the same guys every year and i i thought the league would get younger and younger and younger but it seems like it's kind of getting older a bit right now that's a good point it's been for for four or five years now the same five to six guys yeah and at some point when that switches it will be weird like who the next generation is i mean i i guess like with you in chicago like it's it's been a struggle to start the year for the team so is it is it on you and on the older guys to stay positive every day that's what you're talking about not bringing it into the room when you say you have a bad game i thought you even like the the comments after you got health bombed like you

were pretty like like i want to say laissez-faire but you were like yeah it's definitely a low point for me yeah that fucking sucked the health bomb thing it's the worst feeling in the world is that your first i was trying to get the 60 in a row my first yeah and i i didn't agree with it and um there was just no communication. You didn't even tell you, right? Well, there was just like, hey, you know, we're expecting more from you. Like nothing. It was just like, hey, you're not playing.

I was like, okay. And anyways, we, but maybe that's the kick in the butt I needed. Listen, I had a whole year off last year. And like, sometimes you come into the year and you're fully healthy but like you're you're still not battle tested feel like i am now and feel like i've been playing you know really well since the our new coach came in and and all that so i'm happy with where i'm at to go to your point like as veteran guys it's important for us to be positive, but at the same time, games like last night in Buffalo, we were down 4-0 to start the game.

They did have the Goat Head jerseys. Paulsy, I tweeted. To your defense. What did you tweet? I tweeted, the Blackhawks just played the worst period of hockey in the NHL I've ever seen, and I played on the 2010 Edmonton Oilers, which I think you were on as well. But you also flew in day of the game.

Yeah, we flew in the day. It was just really bad. That's a game where you're saying, hey, if we play hard and we lose 4-2 with an empty netter, it's like we're... Yeah, we didn't even fucking... We didn't give ourselves a chance, right?

So that's the standard, right? We're not... I don't know if we're like a playoff team, you know, with, with the, with our roster, but we got to be a team that competes and plays hard.

And, and at times we have, and when we do, like we go into Minnesota, we lose four, three, they score an empty net goal. We,

we played hard. Yeah. That's going to happen. They're, they're looking to win, you know, their division, all that stuff.

So that's where we're, we're looking to go. And I think that's, that's really imperative at the start of a rebuild like this is to kind of instill that in your guys and your younger guys the ethic and just a little bit of a standard so that's that's where i see my role in in this and and i i'm having a lot of fun being that mentor guy and in this stage yeah what's the new coach like? I mean, obviously, like, there's big different messages coming, but was he like, offensively, we can try more, things like that? Or did he have any sort of exact game plan?

Yeah, so he's got an interesting career path. Like, he started out as a, like a skills coach development, and then he worked with Rockford as their development coach, then got an assistant coach in Rockford job under Derek King, who's our assistant. So now he's the head and King is the assistant.

So he's, and he coached in Sweden. He coached Pasta and Nylander. Just skill coach, right? I don't know if he was skill or if he coached them actually at like a team. Okay. But so he's kind of seen like, and, and I think that it's important for, uh, um, coaches nowadays to kind of like coach kids to understand that generation a bit. Yeah.

How to communicate to them. If you're like a really old and there's nothing wrong with the older generation, but you need to connect with them. You kind of need to understand these kids because they're much different than, than even we were, you know? Yeah. So you, so you notice it in the locker room

where like, even the way that like the things that they joke about, like from when you came in the league and just the way that they carry themselves, like, I don't want to use the word nerdier, but they did just like so much more reserved, I guess. They're in some ways they carry themselves. Like, I don't want to use the word nerdier, but they did just like so much more reserved, I guess. They're in some ways they're smarter.

Like they're so quick, like, and they have slang for, you know, everything. And, and I, I don't think they're nerdier and they're, there's definitely like a difference in like, uh, like going out and approach to the game, drinking, like, uh, it's not like a drinking in like uh like going out and approach to the game drinking like it's not like a drinking generation like but they like to have fun they like to joke like it's just i it's probably the same thing that older guys said about us when we were younger like i guarantee i guarantee

they're like these guys they're so dumb, blah. And look at you guys now. Like, we're doing okay. Yeah, yeah. Still dumb, but we're doing okay. I don't know. I do think, though, yeah, we thought we were, like, ripping it up. And, like, the older John LeClair, Mark Rackers were like, these pussies. You should have seen us in the 80s.

Yeah, no doubt. It's just different now. No doubt. Who's your, because I remember going to dinner with you and whit and uh ebbs and edmonton you guys had a great crew but who's who's your crew here in chicago going out on the road we uh i usually go with jonesy uh fliggy patty's been to a couple um jason dickinson um we've had a crazy road schedule to start the year. So there's been,

there's been a lot of dinners. We had rookie, we had our rookie dinner in New York a couple of weeks ago, which was great. It was a Tuesday. They have to get up and tell a joke? They,

uh, so Fliggy makes them go on like this huge, um, like scavenger, scavenger hunt. And they had to do it around Times Square. So there, and they had to take videos of everything. Nothing bad just like is it like a team building thing just the

rookies had to go do it for oh that's the rookie dinner take a picture with spider-man or something yeah they had to like challenge someone to a sprint in time square take a shit in the middle of time square homeless guy i don't know about that but yeah that's fun i i think that the team though there is going to be a bright future because i see the nazar kid frank nazar i think um that defenseman korchinski i think he's is he in the minors right now no he's up yeah he's super skilled yeah so there's definitely prospects there like at some point this team will will figure it out it's just about getting on the right path. Yeah. I think we actually have, which is really good,

we have a lot of D-men. We have Lev Shunov in the AHL right now. Oh, yeah. Has he got a chance yet? Pardon? Has he been called up yet or anything? No, I think they're just letting him season. And he just got drafted and he played one year at college. Yeah.

And Nolan Allen's a young kid who's like a beast defensively vlasic that kid's good he's really good man trust me and like he they signed him to a nice ticket like he's the dart was raving about him this so i saw a tweet that said he they they played him like they signed him to a deal for like a number four d man and since he signed he's been playing 25 minutes a night. Dude, he's really good. Like when this team becomes the team,

it's going to be, he's going to be a huge, huge part of it. Cause he can do everything. So there, that's what I'm saying. Like they're building it from the back out. And I think that's a really good way to do it.

He played at BU, I think. Yeah, BU. Yeah. Yeah. That's what they did when they went on. They had Seabrook

Keith John Olsen Bufflin Oduya Johnny Oduya Like they built from the back end And then you had a couple Home runs with Kane

Taves And I think that's where Teams go wrong Is in the rebuilds They you know Have all these forwards But these guys Like you need to build

From the back out I think Who's a team that you've Played against this year You're like fuck Like this team This, I think. Who's a team that you've played against this year? You're like, fuck, this team brings it. That was a hard night. Besides Buffalo the day after Christmas. The Sabres are a buzzsaw.

I don't know. If you've noticed one team that you're like, oh, dude, that team's going to be right there. It's funny. We played Florida at home, and they beat us 3-2. No, I think we won. You beat them. I remember that game.

But they play such a playoff style like they don't they don't waver at all throughout the regular season i was so impressed with them like you'd think that they're coming into us we were we've been struggling and they would you know try and make plays all night they just like no dumped it in they four check they played so gritty and hard and that's why that's why they don't have to change their game when they get to the playoffs. Yeah. We were chatting last night.

Would love your opinion, because we have no idea that scoring's down this year. And enough where when we're betting on games, like the over-under is always six and a half last year. Now all the games are five and a half. Can you think of anything in particular? Another thing that was weird too is goalie save percentage was down too. There's not as much shots.

Yeah. So is it just teams kind of like playing better defensive hockey? Yeah, and like we always say it's a copycat league. So do you think that people saw the success that Florida maybe had and how they can shut things down and play more physical and limit shots? Like do you think that maybe everybody tries to mimic that or what do you think the reason is for it there's been a few changes in how teams are playing their d zone now um like a lot of box plus one so like teams always have their d-man in like a d-man in front yeah and a lot of teams have gone to a man-on-man but

there's like handoffs that can happen in certain areas like a hybrid almost yeah it's like it's not straight man-on-man where like a forward will be following a guy around all over the ice it'll be like handoffs so boston had a pretty unique d zone system where their center would have to go like board to board and they would always have a d man in front. So I think teams are kind of copying that and shots are down, but like you said, save percentage is, is, um, is down too. So I don't know. And PKs, uh, penalty kills. Oh, they're getting ripped apart.

I think that right now, like if you look back at the history of the NHL, if it stands, there's three of the worst penalty kills of all time happening right now. Really? Detroit right now, uh, the NHL, if it stands, there's three of the worst penalty kills of all time happening right now. Really? Detroit right now, the Islanders, and then there's one other team that are in the 60%.

Wow. And I mean, we're talking about close to 40 games into the season here. Yeah. And like, you think that the Islanders and like the way that they play and how, you know, defensive minded, quote unquote, maybe not the way things that were supposed to go for them.

But yeah, I was just going to transfer it over to maybe like more happier times. Obviously this is a rebuild. You're not winning as much, but we haven't had you on since your time in Boston. And I think you went all the way to the Stanley Cup finals, game seven, or no, you were not on that team. Okay.

That was in the notes. Sorry. Against Florida. Sorry about, yeah. Just your time with Boston and how much you enjoy that, Halsey. How was Ray Borg? How many sick passes did Adam Holmes give you? You were there, right?

I'm sorry, man. I was the old guy. Were you there when Cam Healy blew his name? It's just fun. He was on the greatest team ever. It's fun laughing about it. Oh, that's right. That's what happened.

The one thing i remember about that series and i'll never forget is marshawn breakaway game five to end the series it was like and and everyone thinks he's gonna bury that goal oh god yeah that was that was tough man um i really think that we win a stanley cup if we get through Florida there. And I don't know, just the way things, that's hockey sometimes. And we played really well in game five. I think we outshot them 40 to 20 or something like that. And they sneak out a win in overtime. Our goalie, Olmark, who's a really good puck handler,

kind of muffs it. And just the way it goes sometimes and then it's just like when connor said last year like well we drag them back to edmonton like we got to go all the way to florida we got to play there like it's actually a pretty good playoff atmosphere down there now like when you go play the panthers so game six was crazy too wasn't it it was like seven six or six five or something like you know and uh and then game seven is is so anything it's that was really hard and i think as as i get older that'll be harder and harder because we had we won 65 games we got that regular season must have

been so fun it was insane it was nuts, I was like, at some point they're going to slow down. He never did. And the craziest thing about that year was that every back to back you guys won. You win the back end of the back to back. I'm like, how is this team doing this? We had so much depth and like we didn't have a ton of injuries. Like I got injured a bit, but because no one had to play a lot of minutes. And we were up in

games all the time. We weren't like grinding out these games on the road and like Columbus or something like everything was pretty easy. So that's why it would have been nice to get through that first round and play Toronto. That would have been so fun. Two stud goalies too.

Yeah. I was just going to, is that the first time in your career where you maybe feel like you didn't have to be the guy? Yeah know you were in new jersey obviously carrying a big load where it felt like you went there you signed a a pretty team-friendly deal based on what you accomplished i know there was a bunch of rumors that you turned down some massive contract i think we were the ones spreading that uh in new jersey uh but you go there you signed a nice team-friendly deal and like all of a sudden you have all these different guys to snap around with.

Yeah, that was, that was really fun. And I just felt like I was at a stage in my career where I should prioritize winning. And I also wanted to go be around a culture like that. And I think that that was going to serve me well throughout the rest of my career. But just, you know, in general, um, I wanted to go somewhere where I could just be one of the guys and kind of learn and have that, that winning experience that I wish I had earlier in my career. So I'm very thankful for, for everything the Bruins did for me. I love playing there and I love that city. Like there's something about

you Boston guys and just the culture and like your sense of humor, everything. It's, it's a great sports town. So we're watching the world juniors now it's around Christmas time. And you were on that. Was it this Saskatoon game that it was unreal team, unreal gold medal game that Carlson scored. Yeah. Yeah.

Who from that team besides like you and EBS, who else was on that team? That's playing. Kadri. Um, I think Jake Allen was our goalie. Petrangelo. You lit it up that tournament too.

Was that before or after you got drafted? It was my draft year. Yeah, I had a good tournament. It was fun. Playing in Canada, World Juniors, that's the best. I can't believe they lost yesterday. They lost to Latvia. Jesus Christ.

Everybody's been crazy online. We're done. Jesus. Latvia. Everyone's like the 51st state lost armstrong was given a state of the union on hockey canada earlier today oh my god well if if gretzky's uh uh prime minister he'll turn that around that one's been floating around too he'll be buzzing trump and trump kicked up some dust no not the smoke i wanted he asked him before he tweeted that i'm like trump didn't ask him shit there's no way yeah yeah um uh bergeron you got to see his last

game obviously not the way like what was it just like playing with him and hanging out and like just like the ultimate team guy unreal player he's he's like perfect yeah he's always dressed well he's got his hair done like and he never like messes up anything he says everything he's he's so nice to everyone but also like you know firm when he has to be as a leader in the room that's what i'm saying like being around him Marshy Kretsch You know even McAvoy Younger guy Carlo Pasta like So much fun you know that we had

Away from the rink but also when it was time To get serious and you know there were no Better pros than them so But yeah Bergie I'm sure Bergie Will be a GM or something Oh he's in a content game now what he was Working with he does a show I think They're doing four or five in this year with him I'm sure Bergie will be a GM or something. Oh, he's in a content game now. What he was working with. He does a show.

I think they're doing four or five in this year with him, Chuka Rask. Where they're watching the games? Yes. Yeah. I saw him doing that. I was kind of surprised. He was great on the shot.

No, I know. He'd be so, he's good at whatever he wants to do. I just, I didn't think that that was the way he was going to go initially. I know, neither did I, but I think he's probably just figuring it out right now. I guarantee he's going to be in management here yeah yeah i would guess yeah did you guys know it was his last season like going into that even playoff series is it spoken about at all like hey let's

fucking do this for bergie or is it just kind of yeah i never heard anyone say but i think we all knew that kretsch was done after the year k crutch would always say i'm done after this year really yeah yeah he's one of those guys like after a tough game man i'm done after this year yeah but uh i think i think we all knew then that's what that's why it's so hard you know to look back and and know that we didn't get the job done how fun was it to go out and have some beers with pasta though? We've done a golf match with him, dude. That guy. Julia. Never had a bad day. Buddy, golfing with.

Well, we golf with him. All right. We golf with him the day of the skills comp in Florida. He was gooned up. I don't think he knew it was the day of the skills comp. I think he thought it was the next day. Really? Him and Fiala.

So the morning and then he had to go to the skills comp? All day. And one of them, I think you're right. One of them's like, I can't believe we have skills competition tomorrow. And the other Fiala's like, it's tonight. We have to go to the rink after this. He had to get an IV before they went over. We had 10 shots of Pink Whitney on the front nine.

Dude, pasta's the most fun to have beers with. Him and Jack Eichel. Jack's also my favorite to go have beers with, but pasta. Yeah. Never a bad day. Makes you feel like, you know,

you're the man when you talk to him, it's just one of those guys that, you know, he's a special individual and, and you know, me, uh, Smitty and Fliggy,

we played with them there and, and we, we talked about pasta all the time. Just, just a legendary guy. And, um and he's such a sick player, too. He doesn't even have to try. It's so effortless, what he can do and how he can shoot the puck. He takes like 10 one-timers a year in practice,

and then in the game, he just like, bing, rockets. Yeah, I feel like it's so natural to him because he definitely works hard but it's just like this skill level he has it's so easy so talented so when you look back at our time in Edmonton holy shit remember some of the guys

remember Hordeshock he was one of my roommates remember he tried to sell us things he was always selling Remember Hortishuck? He was one of my roommates, yeah. Remember he tried to sell us things and do different deals? He was always selling. So he's a, what are they called in- Thunderbird. He's a Thunderbird.

Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. Horty. Horty. Yeah, he does a lot of rentals down there. I think he owns like 15 condos where he just like fix them up himself. He was trying to sell me a pj last time i talked to shocker yeah i'm all i'm all good he's like i got a car too if you want to drive

he's got 10 000 miles on it's brand new he just rolled back the odometers remember how mad steve mcintyre was at me what did you remember when i wanted you dead i was like yelling at him to stop singing remember he was singing at where did we get the burgers after a deluxe burger deluxe burger and we had the party there and he was singing i'm like shut up mac and then he fucking lost his mind on me and then i went down to the minors he's trying to murder me i was changing out he'd get on the ice and sprint to the bench i was like i thought we were joking around, buddy. That guy hated my guts. That guy, he had a mean streak. Oh, yeah. Remember him fighting Derek Bugaard three times

at Madison Square Garden? It was crazy. I was like... Remember he knocked out Ibanez? Yeah, my first game. Yes. My first NHL game. You could hear it. Yeah, that was... Ibanez was a scary dude. Oh, like the pop? Like when you want you handshake somebody?

I still think Eberle's goal is the best first goal in maybe NHL history. It was sick, man. That was so nasty. We won that night. I was like, we're going to make the playoffs. We won 4-0. They were a playoff team that year, too. Yeah, they were.

Yeah. They were. That was a fun time in Edmonton. Even though we were horrible, man. I look back, and I had a lot of fun Being around you guys Remember how miserable Hammer was Did you guys make playoffs one year when you guys were together

God no Not even close I'm talking out of the playoffs in Christmas Didn't you guys hang out at the mall and shit Like you used to go to the big mall We'd go shoot guns at the mall Remember we had our year end party We rented out the water park at west evanson mall how fun was that we just had races down the slides for like six hours yeah we'd go like

get an ak-47 and you'd be in the mall give me the pistol. Let's go to the water park now. Let's go to Elbow. All you guys were single that would hang out? Yeah. Why didn't you get a truck with your name embroidered in the headrest? Because I was a pigeon, but I'll never forget. Everly and Halsey get back. They got trucks with number 14 and 4 in the headrest.

Oilers logos. Colors. Jesus Christ,rest, Oilers logos. Colors, too. Jesus Christ, guys. Oilers colors. Dude, they had us sign the glove box, and they auctioned those cars off. Oh, they did? Yeah, that was the whole point. So it's not like we asked.

There's trash in there. It's not like we asked for that, dude. It was for Horda, Chuck. Trying to make a buck. Yeah. Horda bought it and then resold it so what's up in the summer now like where are you where's your home base have you built a house or yeah i bought a place up in muskoka so i that's great yeah on the lake from ontario yeah yeah there's there's quite a few of us up there we can actually have a skate now yeah that's what i in brace bridge and they built a new rink there so it's, there's quite a few of us up there. We can actually have a skate now. Yeah. That's what I got.

In Bracebridge and they built a new rink there. So it's actually sick. I put a gym in and I have a sport court and all the. So you just train on your own when you got your, your program? I train on my own. I have my own program that someone gives me, Andy O'Brien, Nate and Sid's guy.

And then, yeah, a couple of times I actually C-dude over to Bo Horvat's place and then he lives five minutes from the rink. So I just go with him. So it's kind of fun. Who are the guys doing the skate? I imagine Marner's there. Is JT there?

JT's there. Marner's up a little bit, but he didn't skate with us much. Matthew's came and skated with us a couple of times. Sam Dunne. Henrik, Montour, Kevin Ball, the McLeod much matthews came and skated with us a couple times um henry come on tour um kevin ball um the mcleod kid from buffalo it's a good skate oh shit yeah it's more than enough but muskoka's

great man it's we went in the winter um we we did a pawn jockey turn gravenhurst gravenhurst is that yeah i'm 20 minutes from gravenhurst And it was sick And then all the people Up there That were hanging Like you gotta come In the summer Like it's But even in the winter It was awesome

We had the Boston pizza On the pond Oh yeah yeah yeah Remember that Yeah What do you do there Other than just hang out On the lake

Like do you go There's like one Akita Bala or something What's the name of the bar there It's like a concert venue More than a bar Okay So you go watch shows there

And then Port Carling's Like the Kind of the town In the middle of Muskoka there it's like a concert venue more than a bar okay so you go watch shows there um and then port carling's like the kind of the town in the middle of muskoka and they have some bars and restaurants and but you don't like you go to lunch here and there but mostly you just hang out at your place and there's enough to do that's where you're at now there's enough to do yeah just chill and have the family up so stetson hall halls 15 months like what is are we are we gonna start trying again here soon like do you know how many kids you want to have yeah i don't know like two or three or three yeah yeah we're gonna be trying here soon and yeah man i i don't want to be like 45 still having like a kid you know oh god yeah i haven't even started

my wife's like let's have some more. I'm like, I'm 42 in a month. I'm going to be, literally, people are going to think I'm the grandfather at high school graduation. Yeah. Like, oh, that's nice to see your grandson graduate. That's my son. Oh, man. You got three now, and you want to have more?

I'm done. You're done? I'm done. I'm just going to do a secret get snipped. That's what I, yeah. That's the play. Yeah, she's like, what's happening yeah yeah i think we'd love to have three and hopefully a girl at some point and kind of have both and try and play as long as i can play as long as you can right yeah so you'll

be a guy that they gotta just you just gotta get no contract like pat like patty just i don't think i'm gonna run out there no pat Patty can move pretty good, man. Yeah, right. Your nose is going to be as big as mine. You keep lying like that. Once he gets going, he's moving. It's just those first few steps. Yeah, yeah.

Before the game last night, he's like, I'm hoping to get over 22 miles an hour tonight, boys. Yeah, they track all that shit. Yeah, they track everything now. It's not even's it's not even it's not fair i used to take that little chip out of my jersey it's in the jersey yeah it's in the jersey yeah who was telling me that they uh they just mess or i think it's caprice off would go put his in like uh someone else's on his team like

just to make them look move just to make him look good just to make him look that's unreal um not to put you on the spot here but who's a guy in the league right now um not not a superstar that we're talking about that you're like fuck this guy's nasty like maybe a name that like some people wouldn't know that you've played against but like jesus this guy's got game. Come back to that. I'll think about it. Because we always used to talk. You loved watching hockey.

You'd watch so much. Do you still watch games on the nights off? I've kind of stopped watching as much. There's so much going on. And I think I overdid it back in the day. Watched too much hockey and took it home with me too much. So I'll watch a period here and there. If I see on my phone that a good game, you know, a good game's maybe going into overtime or something like that,

I'll turn it on. We're at the rink all the time and like NHL networks on the TVs all day long. Like just to think about a player that Nate, Nate chess looks unbelievable down in Carolina. We haven't played him this year, but we interviewed fly, man. We interviewed him a couple weeks ago. Good guy, too. Yeah, he flies. He can fly.

He's big, too. Big kid, too. He was telling us he grew. Remember he said he grew like seven or eight inches in one summer or something. Really? Yeah, and kind of just took off. Yeah, the game's in a great spot. I love watching the game.

I know what you're saying, though. When you're playing, dude, it's like, oh, my God. Like, I got to shut my brain off right now. You know, we played Calgary the other day, and that Connor Zeri, he had the puck, like, the whole game. I don't know if you've ever watched him play. Is that the kid who lit up the AHL the past couple years? No, that's their goalie.

Like, I think he was AHL Player of the Year. But he's been up, I think he was up majority of last year. He's taken on a set. I think when he first broke in, he was on the wing, but he's been playing center and getting used to that position. Probably nice that they got Kadri there too. But he's, yeah, he's really developing. And he's a gamer too.

He doesn't shy away from the physical play. He was a good player. Very shifty. Yeah. Very shifty. Yeah, that's one guy. And that Kaprizov, man. Paul. He's insane. Dude, soff man paul he's he's insane

dude so not like he's obviously amazing but his details like of his game like if you watch him like he's boxing like he's getting skin he's getting skin for his d-man when they're going back for pucks like he's doing all the stuff that like like he's you're saying like a little bit of an interference give his d-man yeah like yeah he's doing every like stuff that like he's a. You're saying like a little bit of an interference, give his D-man that split second. Yeah, he's doing everything perfect on the ice. Like literally, I didn't see him mess up a play. Yeah, he is so fun to watch too.

He's unbelievable. So you're 30, you just turned 33. Yeah. And hopefully you play four or five more years. Like have you thought after like would you ever want to coach? You probably made too much money to do that. GMm like you ever thought about it or something where it's like i'm playing right now i'm not even considering anything i don't know what i want to do and people are like oh you should like really think about it i'm like no i'm those people are full of shit i'm

like well that's the whole point like i don't know like i'm not just gonna say i'm gonna do something because i like there's a lot of time and like my kid gets older and he gets into hockey and maybe I just want to be a hockey dad or, you know, like you guys have dream jobs. It seems like, I don't know if I want to work in hockey or not. Like, yeah, I don't know. I know. I just really want to take it year by year and see how I'm feeling and see how I'm doing. And maybe I just want to be like a hockey dad that plays a ton of golf and sounds really nice i don't know even like coaching your kids and shit like that like giving back to the game like you're one of those guys that

you know the hockey needs you like you're a type of like you've been coaching your kids how much that will mean to them and the other kids on the team yeah it'll be i think that could be even a thing where you could fall in love with that and just loving it but the game needs you in some sort just helping out at some yeah yeah for sure and i don't think you need to like go right into hockey after you play like if you're a good hockey guy and you've made friends in the game and you're smart like you can take three four or five years away from hockey. And I think you're crazy if you retire and don't take a year to do nothing. I think you should. That's my, you know, I think it's great. Like you've been doing this for so long.

Why not just go like travel, travel, golf, like gain a bunch of weight. Yeah. I know. Just eat shit. Watch football. Yeah. Like this is nice, man. Yeah.

I'm a normal human now. Yeah. I kind of had that last year. Actually, I had, just eat shit, watch football. Yeah. You're like, this is nice, man. Yeah. I'm a normal human now. Yeah, I kind of had that last year, actually. I had to rehab. What happened last year? I did my ACL. Oh, yeah. Yeah, so I had to rehab, but I got like a year off hockey. So mentally, that was kind of nice.

A little reset for you? Yeah, hopefully reset for the last part of my career here. Well, you look great, buddy. We appreciate you coming by. I'm very thankful we get to know each other and play together. I had a great time. Congrats on all your success, man. It's really cool to see, so we appreciate it.

Thanks, boys. Thanks, Halsey. You're the best. Guys, before we go any further, I need to talk to you about Sport Clips and how to look good and how to get a haircut that you're proud of and you're happy to show off. And all of a sudden compliments are coming left and right from men and women. How does your hair look so good?

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Sport Clips, it's a game changer. Thank you so much to Taylor Hall. Awesome guy. Crazy how he talked about how quick it's gone for him, right? And seeing and appreciating things now that he didn't earlier on. So the hawks could turn it around i don't know what's going to go on there but another hawk made the news a little bit randomly i kind of saw it on twitter um maybe on december 30th the day before and in that jonathan taves is not kind of uh dismissing the idea of somehow some way making a comeback maybe no fucking way I saw this quote and we didn't

even know if it was like real or not but I figured it was because I saw Chris Versteeg had reposted it on Instagram and it was just a message from Taves like I don't know what's going to happen but I'm not going to I have the quote right here actually it was from an interview with GQ

there's a part of me that doesn't really feel like my career is over yet and who knows what this next part of the journey will look like as far as getting back on the ice and trying to make a return to the NHL there's never any guarantees in life but I'm going to give it my best shot and he said that in an interview with GQ I'm going to text him as soon as we're done recording

imagine getting to document his comeback I thought you were going to say I'll train you because did you see me with bedard that's what he's saying did you see me on the ice with bedsy i'm still pretty good i think dude biz i remember mentioning to you um because i knew you you knew taves a little bit and i said uh what what are the chances like he could come on chicago you're like i've talked to him he's not not not ready yet not i think he's not ready because he's like he just said his story's not finished i think he's not done his fucking hockey career imagine imagine he comes back and resurrects the chicago blackhawks oh no it wouldn't be there it wouldn't

be there it wouldn't be there no you wouldn't no no no no, you wouldn't. No? No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. He's got to move on. He's got to get on the ice, which I assume he's probably going to start doing. And his post last month, he went to India and let everyone know what he's doing for his body and his mind and all the health issues he's had. And hopefully he's feeling better. I believe he wrote he is. And he's just on the path to becoming healthier and happier. And now maybe get on the ice, start skating over the summer.

You're on the ice. And it would maybe be something where he gets a PTO somewhere. A PTO to a contender, Merle? Is that what you're kind of saying? You know where he goes and just makes everybody so upset because they add him at the very end for no money? Vegas, baby. Vegas. This year he adds to play Vegas?

Yeah, why not? Throw him on there. They always add everybody at the end. Wow. If he went to Vegas, dude. I was more thinking going to Edmonton next year, playing with McDavid and Leon. That's just where my mind wanders.

I think Utah would be the perfect place for him. Utah? Yeah, I do. What the fuck, G? Why Utah? Because I don't think there's a lot of distractions in Utahah it's a nice peaceful what do you mean have you not seen the fucking housewives of salt lake city what do you mean you watch that show is incredible dude the shit that they do it's fuck it's insane okay so i'm hearing that it's the craziest house

wives what makes it the craziest housewives? Because obviously they're supposed to be Mormon, right? You'd think. And I know nothing about the Mormon religion, but you'd think it's like. It's a gangbang. It's a big ass. They are getting after. They don't drink or anything.

Their big thing is drinking soda. They get drunk off of drinking soda. But then they just sleep with everyone. It's insane. Guess I'm moving to Utah. Get a place in Utah. Get a place. Little fuck compound. I've actually seen

start a cult. So Biz, you kind of first introduced me to soaking because I think you wanted to name Utah the soakers or maybe that was Merle's and Army. That was a game notes chat game notes chat well now I didn't know about shakers that go with the Soakers so apparently

your horn goes in and then you can't move around but then they get people to come shake the bed really hard so that is like the movement or somewhat replacement for penetration so like I believe they call them loopholes they call them loopholes. They're sexual loopholes. Jaw-free?

They're sexual jaw-free loopholes where technically it's just sitting there soaking where the other people are creating the motion so technically you're not the one having sex. That's kind of like mentally fucked up, isn't it? Like just pound. You think?

Just pound. I don't know if this is the spot for T pound. I don't know if this is the spot for Taves. I don't know if this is the spot for Jonathan Taves, guys. That's how we got there. Oh, fuck. I would like to see him with the Toronto Maple Leafs. Oh, no way. No way.

We almost made it the whole podcast without the Toronto Maple Leafs. Where would you? Okay, you said Vegas. Where would you want to see him yans i i think uh i think vegas would probably be the the thing that i could see most likely happening uh i'd like to see him probably yeah toronto let's go toronto fucking right it's fucking right it's you guys take a hike boys take an absolute hike well another original six team because Taves with the Hawks, Bedard, is the Detroit Red Wings, guys. And poor Mimsy, his squad, the Wings, things have not improved. They've actually gotten worse.

And last year, we saw this incredible run, those games against Montreal. One point, they missed the playoffs by. And you're thinking, all right, next year, they're coming. It's the Atlantic Division, Viagra Triangle, Buffalo auto with Detroit. Somebody's doing something. Maybe two of them are doing something and the wings have gotten off to a disastrous start. And because of that, Derek Lalonde is fired in Detroit news. He's gone feel bad for him. One of those kind of, I don't know. It seemed like, uh, the energy and then the excitement and the team, it was just flat. Like similar to how the Rangers look where it's just like,

oh, we're getting nothing here. And my thing about Detroit, you can go into this in a sec, but I love Raymond. I think you can win a Stanley Cup with Raymond. I love Larkin. I think you can get a cup with him. I love Sider and Edvinson. I think in the next few years, you're going to see true studs.

This Axel Sandin Pelica is going to probably be the guy who's running the power play in Detroit when they become good again. So that right there is three really solid D. It's two great forwards. They don't have a superstar yet. They don't have. They have Raymond and Larkin are right here, but there's a level of player in this league up here. And because of that, because of them not having that, that is what's really holding

them back. I was arguing with a Wings fan at Sluggers, actually, who was just randomly living in Chicago and going to the game. He's like, I don't know, man. No, I said, buddy, show me all these cup champs. Show me Tampa with Kucherov and Point and Stammer. Show me Edmonton getting to the finals, Leon and McDavid.

Show me Vegas with Eichel. Like, what was the last Stanley Cup team to win a cup that didn't have a true superstar? St. Louis, 2019. Yeah. I mean, I would call Petro, like, the way that he played. O'Reilly played like a superstar that run,

but I would say they didn't have, like, a legit guy. Okay. Fairness. Okay. But they had, they had, they had like seven Raymond and Lark.

Yes. Yes. Right. Like, okay. So if you have, if you have a bunch of those guys that are like top, just,

just beneath the top tier of the NHL, but Detroit just, it's not the depth and it's going to take, it's going to take a long time. And I think Iserman the entire time is realized and take, it's going to take a long time. And I think Eisenman the entire time is realized and understood. It's going to take a long time and biz. He didn't really want to do the strip it down, tear it down,

be truly horrible. But now it's like the wings fans are like, Oh, I don't know about the eyes. I don't feel like he got snippy during that press conference. He was more like, like, Hey man,

if you got a better idea, well, I'll add you to the roundtable and you can have an opinion kind of thing because he doesn't want to rush things. I would commend on the fact that they don't have any bad contracts. He's not rushing the situation. To me, that's the biggest thing, right? You have those four or five guys. By the time two, three years rolls around,

if he's able to get this to somewhat of a contender, you have the highest guy being paid. What's Larkin making? Nine? Maybe a little bit below nine? I think nine, two, five maybe. That's going to feel like six million the way that the cap's going to be jumping up.

So I can understand the frustration on Detroit's fan side, but the way that he hasn't rushed this thing, I would say give them two more years. And if they haven't made playoffs, then maybe consider calling it a hot seat. But for now it's just, you know, you got to wait to get a few drafts in and see if some of these prospects end

up turning into players. And it seems like going back to like, even like 15 years ago, the way that the Detroit Red Wings handled things, they like to send guys and season them in the minors. Like they want these guys to learn the pro game. All we've been hearing about recently is how rushed these guys are coming in. And yeah,

they have some good skillset, but by the time game 30 rolls around and that maybe speed that they came into training camp with has dropped off a little bit, all of a sudden the lack of hockey sense is really being kind of, how do I say it, like being exposed. Yeah, and when you say two or three years, that would be perfect because we've talked about Cosa or Casa, the young goalie. The big goalie.

But their other one is Trey Augustine, who's the U.S. goalie at World Juniors. He wins everything. He's at Michigan State now. They're the number one team in the country. So that absolute stud is coming down the the down the pipeline too love that yeah love that um yeah detroit it'll be nine years without the playoffs this year they're not making it this year i mean what so buffalo's what it's going to be 14 years that's not that far off from from one of the worst droughts uh in pro sports so i i get the red wings fans

frustration and i actually remember last year as they turned it on me saying like the league's better when the wings are good and that's all i knew growing up that's all any of us knew is the wings being right in the mix every single year i i want them back in the fans want them back in the league wants them back in for revenue and it's kind of coming to the point where, God, yeah, next year it would be 10 years, man, without the Detroit Red Wings playing for a Stanley Cup. Shocking to see. But we'll see what happens. I feel bad for Newsy.

Great guy when he came on the show. He was very complimentary after. I think most coaches are. But he was talking a lot about their young guns and what he sees in the future. What do you got, Jan? Do you think he's one of those guys? their young guns and what he sees in the future. What do you got, Jan? Do you think he's one of those guys, and I think this all the time in the

NFL when these defensive coordinators or offensive coordinators, when they get a head coaching job, they're not, not to say they're not as good, but they're, they just don't have the, they don't have the, what's that? They don't have the head coach vibe, Keith?

Yeah, like, and I heard he's, and I heard he was an amazing head coach too, but I heard as an assistant he was unbelievable, like really dialed in, like good with the game. You think some guys are just fit, and no one's ever going to say no to a head coaching job, right, if you're offered it. But do you think he's a guy that's almost fit better to be an assistant?

You guys know more than I do. Yeah, like a specialist, like when he can just focus on the d and the penalty killing or something instead of having to worry about managing all the coaches i mean you saw with that st louis there was nine guys out there for the coaches picture yeah the only the only like thing i saw online was uh when um uh i'm drawing a blank on the new coach mcclellan mcclellan like he had his first practice and it was over an hour and it was the longest practice they'd had all season now mind you normally over the course of the 82 game season

like a lot of teams are only skating for like 40 45 minutes keep it high tempo and off the ice but when you have like a younger team who hasn't made playoffs like i feel like you should be having a couple hour 15 minute practices where you're digging in your battle drilling like the whole rest in the rest is a weapon i get it but i mean the calder cup championship team i was on like we were fucking working our dicks off every fucking practice and like i mean even when you were in pittsburgh wit like crosby and malkin and those guys like they were pushing the pace. Yeah. You had your flow practices and your 40, 45 minutes and get off.

But you also had ones where you were fucking, everything was below the dots and it was like battle your dicks off. Like the way it's actually going to be in a hockey game. Yeah. And you can speak to it too. Yeah, it is. I think it's changed so much now.

Like you'd be shocked that like if a practice goes over 30 minutes nowadays, it's really a rarity yeah it's it's caught down way way less than when we were playing um yeah i think for sure that you need you need some i mean rest is a weapon but what are they resting for like that's what i'm saying that's what i'm saying you're not even a fuck it's gonna be 82 and then you're done you might as well teach these guys summer what's that rest for the summer yeah like when you're good that's when you get the 20 minute practice correct Colorado you get 20

minute practice so and that's not the chirp chirp newsy I don't know what the philosophy was if it was like the rest of the weapon mentality but I'll tell you this if I was in that coaching seat I'd be having fucking battle drills every day like this is how you and it's almost getting guys so pissed off that they're

just like i can't wait to play fuck this like these fucking practices but it's like and i won't even change something i'm not trying to be a sutter and be like a like a hardcore dick about it to like almost turn the guys against you to galvanize if they had a problem with them they can come in the coach's room and say like hey man like we're you know we're practicing a little too hard i'd say shut the fuck up. I'd say, fucking win some fucking hockey games and we'll have some 20, 30-minute practices. And then he can say, which he got his 600th win last night,

he can say, hey, listen, you want to win 600 fucking games? We're going to practice hard. So congrats to him on that too. Yeah, Todd McClellan. Actually, when I was on Pittsburgh and we lost the cup final, so I believe 08, he was the assistant for Babs. And that was the point in his career where it was like, this is the next guy. Right.

This is the next guy. And it was San Jose, I believe, went from there, had a lot of really good teams there. He was in Edmonton, got them going into the playoffs. So Todd McClellan's a guy who's been around a long time. And I think L.A., like it was more the complaint of the system they were playing probably him realizing to have any success with that roster they had to play so defensive but that's a guy that Eichmann's known from his other time in Detroit and all comes full circle and now he's head coach of the wings yeah I think that there was a tweet or something about the the

playoff droughts that McClellan has ended for their organizations when he stepped in as head coach. And, I mean, it was only a couple years ago. I think it was you talking about how he was the frontrunner for the Jack Adams, and then they ended up losing, like, 10 in a row with the Kings, and then he was the first guy fired. Like, he went from being the frontrunner for Jack Adams to not having a job. He got murrled.

He got murrled. I didn't bet it. I didn't bet that one. But I talked about it enough. On the opposite spectrum of the NHL right now, there's some teams lighting it up. Merle's squad is unreal. The Vegas Golden Knights are doing something right now that they're making look easy, but it's very difficult, and that is just running over teams and coming in depth, and they look exactly like the Vegas team who won the cup two years ago, and they look exactly like the vegas team who won the

cup two years ago and they're firing on all cylinders merles what have you seen biggest biggest factor in this dominance and maybe one thing that you could be worried about when you're looking at one of the best teams if not the best team in the league right now yeah so i got them at 18 to 1 to win the cup and right now right now on draft kings they're down to 12 to 1 so i'm happy with that they just look bigger stronger than all these other teams when i'm watching they're healthy i was in an argument with somebody at sluggers last night about it they're like yeah but they lost in the first round of dallas i'm like yeah but they were all injured they were all out of shape because they all went on that ltir for the last month of the season hurdle couldn't even get around the ice because he was so tired by the end of that series.

So if they can stay healthy and in shape like they are now, they're going. Eichel, Hurdle, Carlson, and then when Roy or Colasar on those fourth line centers, there's nobody I want more. I love them. I would imagine probably one more like

a top six winger. That's probably what they're looking for at the deadline i feel like they've solidified their back end like i i like you feel like they trust their goaltending i know aiden hill's like been there done that and won it do you think that they need a little bit of help in the goaltending front maybe like a third valve like when they had quickie yeah sometimes when the hill like he gets me nervous he he looks like he's on rollerblades sometimes in the games he gets out of the net he's sliding around but like you said he's already won it but he just has to make the easy saves because that fedor petro hannifin hey like these guys are just

they don't give up anything it's easy to watch them it's easy to bet on them because they play such a solid game it's it's i love them this team. You would have to imagine they're eyeing one more winger for that Stanley Cup run. Yeah, Tabes. I mean, we talked about that. Is there any other names that come to mind of guys coming up on deals where you think that they could add in order to put themselves over the edge? You know who's going to get a haul is Granlin and San Jose. If they don't re-sign him.

And they did work with San Jose last year, getting Hurdle, maybe that's a guy that they're looking at. I don't know, though, because what I see, though, is Murls. Murls, you were ranting and raving to me the other night when we were talking Edmonton and Vegas and what will be that second-round matchup, I believe. Eichel's at a different level. Eichel, he had a year in Buffalo with 82 points

to get another 78-point year. He's had so many injuries. I think now it's like, oh my God, he's got his cup. He's healthy. He's happy in Vegas. And you're seeing dominance. I mean, he's going to smash. Knock on wood, stays healthy.

Smash his all-time career points high. He's leading that team. Merles, you said every, because you don't miss a golden knights game you said every shift he's creating scoring chance there's a chance every time and then this like stone he doesn't look like he's good but he might be one of the best players like he's always where he needs to be he's unreal he finishes everything he's got that big giant stick those guys are buzzing yeah eichel's flying. He's faster than everybody right now.

And if you remember back when he was, what, number two pick to McDavid, there was talks of one and two. These guys are pretty similar. And now he's finally looking like that level. Yeah, he's in the flow state right now. He's just feeling it. It's just crazy to live somewhere where you're that happy and then have the cup.

So that takes off all this different pressure. And it's like we talk the off ice happiness truly matters. And he's just finally like not finally because he's been dominant before. But this year it's something else. It's something different that we've seen from him. Maybe in the run to the cup in the final that you saw this. But now it's like, holy shit, like every every shift he's dominating. And then what we talked about Detroit's goal and and edmondson and cider and and pelica that swedish kid if he comes over

and turns into the player we think they have three dominant defenses like you got hannifin you got petro and you got theodore and it's wild and we we talked to cam fowler that'll come up in a couple minutes and he even mentions like theodore like they knew he was good but they didn't know he was this good and he's grown into just a dominant force on another ridiculous contract for that team so vegas right now they are set to do work again and it does suck that them and the oilers are going to have to play in the second round that's a kick in the dick that should be the conference final um so going to the other thing the other side of the league back to the stinkers back to the bums, back to the bums, back to the disappointments. We're back to New York City and the goddamn Rangers, guys.

I think it's... They're last in the Metro right now. They might be a lottery team by this all being said and done. Shusterkin's now in the IR. The only thing they had, Shusterkin. Kreider's getting scratched. It's like, holy shit, guys. Pasha and I were saying, have you ever seen a team

pretty fucking close to the Stanley Cup fall off like this? I didn't. My prediction from last year at the start of the year with them missing playoffs and Shusterkin getting fed up with what was in front of them, we should have just played that clip for this year. I would have been bang on. They've fallen off a cliff.

They went from fucking winning the regular season to the fact that you said they're probably going to be a lottery team. They got no mojo going right now. At this point, you got to think that the relationship with Kreider's fractured and he's going to be out of town. They're going to maybe move off of him and then a few other pieces. This might look like a completely different roster from the team that won the

President's Trophy two years removed by the start of next year. This is fucking nuts. Has Mika been scratched yet? He got moved off the power play. That's all he was a good at. That's worse than getting scratched. If you're Shusterkin and

they trade Trouba and what if they trade Crider, if you're moving on from these guys and then you just sign a huge deal on a team that is looking different than when, you know, you came into the season, are you pissed off or? So I think yes. And there's probably like, oh my God, like, what are we going to do? Grinnelli giving him credit.

You made the point to me, like You could turn it around pretty quick there, I think, if you make some of the right moves. Because guys would love to sign there. They would. It's the New York Rangers. You're getting free agents. Now, I don't think you could build. Now, you don't really want to build through just free agency.

But if Drury makes some correct moves, and really, they can get this thing turned around because of Shusterkin, I think. Now, it's all about who are we trading? Who have we decided is a part of this? Is it only Shostakhin? Is every other player open and available? I mean, Lafreniere's just been signed.

Probably not him. He's young. You've seen the skill, but he's been brutal since his contract extension. Trochek's a fucking beast. He's a guy you can win with. Maybe you want to keep him team's gonna be calling for him after that i don't know do you ever look to deal fox he's actually been pretty solid like lately especially even as the team sucked i don't know now you see what will

happen but if the correct moves are made i i don't think that this could be like holy shit like the next five years the rangers are gonna be trash i heard that drury would do bad things to get jt miller i keep hearing that rangers jt miller connection i think it sucks that after last pod when we recorded which was about nine or ten days ago that the jt miller press conference the day after the game that pasta said he wouldn't answer questions he basically came out and said that i could ask pey to come out here right now and we'd finish the interview together. So it seems like they've squashed that from a, like a, like a surface level for like the media

perspective. Don't know how fractured it still is inside the locker room, but it seems like they're going to be professionals about it. But I, what do you guys think about that whole thing? I think, I mean, I think Millsy being a North American kid, like he's answering more of the questions about that whole thing i think mill i mean i think milsy being a north american kid like he's answering more of the questions with that whole thing um and you know a guy that

he's a great teammate i played with milsy he's not he's never gonna say anything to the media and kind of throw his teammate under the bus but whether there is something going on um who knows i mean there's always something going on with the team there's 25 different type of you know personalities in the locker room not everybody's gonna have you ever been on a team where it was that inflammatory and you think it's just that inflammatory because it's vancouver like have you ever been on a squad yans where like that like that's happening yeah yeah for sure the guys don't get along yeah definitely publicly where it's being talked about in the media like no no no not

publicly not even remotely close like something like well people are talking about it like they're not talking about it you know what i mean it's like the media like milsy i think said he's like you guys are the ones talking about it it's not us so i think it could be one of those things where it could be nothing and they're fine, like he said. I think it's gone past the point of it being nothing. And Biz, I'm with you. This being

Vancouver, if this is another team, maybe any team in Canada, but another market, you're not hearing all the things we're hearing. I think the point now is whether it's this year or in the summer, one of them's getting traded, Miller or Patterson. Patterson's younger, right? So you think, oh, it'd be Miller. But then to see Alvin's quotes about Patterson,

it's kind of crazy. He did a question and answer or sit down and he said, PD has shown up to this point that he is an extremely talented, quality player that could and should be a number one center. I believe in him. I believe that he's capable. But he needs to mature and understand that there are certain expectations and it does not get easier. And you need to face the music when things don't go well. Is a trade possible? I guess I would say anything's possible.

Dude, I think that's well said. I think that's wild to hear I think that's well said. That's wild to hear. I think that's a public message to a player that you handed that contract over to saying, listen, everything to this point, fine, but if you want to be a leader and you want to get

paid like that, and if you are going to be a number one center in the NHL that has any aspirations of lifting a Stanley Cup, you have to have that kind of dog mentality and understand how to manage these types of situations number one center in the NHL that has any aspirations of lifting a Stanley Cup, you have to have that kind of dog mentality and understand how to manage these types of situations. He has not shown that. That's why I was shocked that he got the number that he got. Because when you get a number like that, you're being paid that high, you got to be like a

Crosby type or a guy who's like leading the charge in practice every day. You're the one eating all the bullets in the media. Like you need to be that type of guy. And he has not shown that he can be that player. So now at the fact that he said this, hopefully Petey doesn't read that and get poopy pants where he goes the opposite way, where all of a sudden he's the first guy showing up every day to the rink. He's the first guy in line in the drills. He's battling his dick off in practice. And then that's going to transfer over to games but if

you're just going to think that you can just be a piece and then get paid that much and everything's just going to be smooth sailing and that you're not going to be potentially up for trade that ain't going to fucking work and that's why the hordes that's going to be the whole and that's why i would assume if you talk to a lot of hockey people, they would say, yeah, maybe Millsy's a little bit too high, too low sometimes, and there's a bit of a wave to be rode. But if you're thinking of winning a Stanley Cup, you're taking JT Miller over Elias Pettersson right now.

I don't care how high end you think his skill level is. You're taking JT Miller because he's a fucking dog am i crazy no no any hockey guy saying see what you can get for peterson and and let's let's build around jt even though he's only got what three or four years left on that contract that's what that quote to me sounded like they were be more willing to trade him than correct and i know and and my thing is like okay if if you do trade miller like you thought the pressure was high before dude now it's like hey buddy the guy that was stopping you from playing so well is gone so let's see what you do now and if you don't do it now what what's what's the reasoning what what now is incorrect what now is happening behind the scenes

that doesn't allow you to perform at the highest level? That is like, you want to see pressure, dude. Get rid of Miller. And people think, in some cases, we might be looking too much into this. I feel like part of the issue stemmed where the relationship between JT and Pedersen had been restored a little bit.

I think there was a little bit of resentment of how Pedersen was approaching kind of since that contract he got last year, especially going into playoffs, given the fact that they brought Edmonton to game seven. If Pedersen's playing at the top of his game and not like, I mean, you saw the video of him on the fucking scooter in Vancouver,

like buzzing around or just kind of like he's like looking off into space, like a lost little puppy. Like, what are you laughing you laughing if I'm JT Miller and this is your opportunity to go for a cup and you've won the Pacific Division I'd be fucking pissed off too and tell him in the locker room let's fucking go fuck you you got your money bitch we're fucking trying to win here no you don't think that added resentment what's that no. What's that? No scooters trying to win. Do you think with JT's mentality that that built up resentment towards Pedersen? That whole situation come playoff time last year. He was invisible in playoffs last year. Yeah, he was. And they were up 3-2 in that series.

Crazy, crazy stuff happening in Vancouver. He looked like Bambi out there. He'd get knocked off the puck like that. If Bambi out there he'd get knocked off the puck like that if you blew on him he'd get knocked off the puck and and Vancouver right now it's even scarier Quinn Hughes is week to week oh the most dominant one of the most dominant players this season in the NHL is week to week and a team a team in Vancouver who needs help on defense and I think they were probably in the mix for our next guest. And instead of Vancouver grabbing another puck,

moving defenseman to help St. Louis went out and grabbed him. His thousandth game was the winter classic. He had two goals, hell of a guy. So right now I think it's time to go to cam Fowler, the leading all time point score and goals, assist points and game winning goals for the Anaheim ducks.

Now a St. Louis blue cam Fowler. Hey guys, before we go any further, Goals, assists, points, and game-winning goals for the Anaheim Ducks. Now with St. Louis Blue, Cam Fowler. Hey, guys. Before we go any further, if you're looking to get back to feeling your best, Rose Sparks might just be the solution you've been waiting for. It's a fast-acting treatment designed to help you improve your performance, if you know what I mean, so you and your partner can enjoy better intimacy. Before getting started, you'll complete an easy

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Compounded drugs are permitted to be subscribed under federal law, but are not FDA approved. For full safety information, go to roe.co slash safety info. It's an absolute pleasure to be in Wayne Gretzky's basement right outside Wrigley Field, getting ready for the Winter Classic, interviewing brand new St. Louis Blues defenseman Cam Fowler thanks so much for joining the show bud yeah absolutely happy to

be here we appreciate it and it's we were just chatting beforehand but a crazy thing for you I mean you spent your whole career in Anaheim uh drafted in 2010 I believe is that what it was yeah leading all-time goal score assist points game-winning goals for defense with the Anaheim Ducks but traded to St. Louis how's it going was it hard for you to kind of hear that news and or was it more excitement to get to get somewhere else yeah I think it was a little bit of both I mean um 14 years in one place obviously I was really comfortable there um Started my family, kind of grew up in Anaheim. So leaving that was really hard. But at the same time, I think it was just time for a fresh start for me. I think just in my career and where I was at professionally, I think it was just time to turn the page and jump in with

a new team, a new organization. so it was a little bit of both I was really excited and then you know obviously sad and nervous because I had you know created so many great memories there in Anaheim I think for a while your name had been out there right like like a good really good puck moving defenseman great contract was it hard for you the past couple years when your name was in the mix like when is this going to happen is it going gonna happen you know what i mean like playing it's it's it's difficult to hear your name as in the rumor mill a lot yeah i think um luckily i i got to a point where um i could kind of tell what was real and and what was fake so um even when your name's kind of being tossed out there i i think i had a pretty good idea of

of where i was at still so i don't think it really turned into something that became real until kind of this season honestly like there was a little bit of chatter but i don't think anything really came up um that was significant until this season and then um this season i'd say it was a little challenging uh just because i knew there was a chance that something was going to happen but i didn't know the timeline of it so so that part was was difficult but i you know as pros you just kind of have to block it out and try and do the best you can so this season was the first time you started hearing that noise a little bit more i'd'd say it was, yeah, it was something that became very real where to the point where in my own brain I was thinking, okay, you know, there'd be nights where I was thinking about walking into a career where it really became something that was,

okay, there's a possibility that this could really happen, and now I have to start kind of wrapping my head around everything. I was going to ask, did you surf at all when you were playing in Anaheim? Did you get involved in any of that? The Zekers program? No. Actually, I'm pretty afraid of the ocean, So I never really got into that too much. I tried a couple times, but I'd say it wasn't really for me. What, just like shark attacks and stuff?

Yeah, you know, I just, you're not really sure what's down there. The tides, the currents. And it's, I actually, I got kind of knocked around pretty good when I was young, like by a wave. And I think it just kind of screwed me up for the rest of my life. That's why you got asked to get traded to a landlocked state. You want to be near an ocean. That's right.

14 years, the request was in. Couldn't get out of it. That's crazy. You mentioned family. How many kids you got? Just one. i have a two and a half year old charlie and then uh my wife's expecting our second one so she's due in march oh wow so that's another aspect of the of the trade it's like oh my god i gotta get out i

gotta get us a house i gotta figure out she's gotta pack everything up yeah yeah that's um you know all that stuff like what people deal with behind the scenes when they get traded, I think it doesn't really get talked about that often, but there's so much that you have to sort out, you know, as a player trying to get your family sorted. And then obviously, you know, seven months pregnant, there's a lot going on with her. So there's a lot to balance.

But honestly, I can't say enough about the Blues organization making me feel comfortable and everyone just trying to do the best they can to make sure that we're transitioning smoothly. And you said that St. Louis didn't have anyone that you knew that well. I remember when I was traded to Anaheim, same thing. And it's a little tougher. If you had one buddy that you'd played with in Anaheim for a while so even though you've played so long and you've been a veteran it's still like you're like a rookie going into the room yeah it really is and um yeah like you said I I knew Torrey Krug and Justin Falk a little

bit played against Kruger growing up and then um Justin Falk we've done some USA hockey stuff but nothing not like a true relationship so yeah I really it was a brand new experience for me and um yeah I mean you kind of you you don't want to step on any toes and stuff walking in so you know I was you know I guess relatively quiet guy in general but i'm just trying to feel it out i didn't make a big you know splash or anything when i i just i wanted to get the lay of the the land and um and get to know the guys but honestly when i got traded to it was we played five games in seven nights and the first two were back to back we were in dallas and then home sunday so i feel like i kind of just got thrown right into it and that was maybe the best best thing for me

and and rookie party too oh there we go no way how did they squeeze that in the first seven days with five games that's fucking yeah it was the schedule was in like i hadn't seen a schedule like that honestly in my career and that's the point that i was traded at to them so we played a lot of hockey and then uh we were in florida we played tampa on thursday florida friday and then we didn't play detroit until monday so so 11 on saturday which club did you guys go to? Did you guys go to 11? That's right. That was a pretty good guess. Yeah, you nailed it. You mentioned playing with, what was it,

Falk with the U.S. program? Yeah. So I understand you're a trader. You were born in Canada, and then all of a sudden you're playing for the Team USA. What happened there? Born in Windsor, Ontario. You ended up playing junior there,

but how did you end up like an American citizen? Yeah, so I was born in Windsor um but i only stayed there for a year my dad got transferred to michigan after that and then um he's canadian he grew up in newfoundland my mom is american so i have the dual citizenship but um pretty much grew up in michigan so that's you know that's really all i picture alliance were you a little caesars guy honey baked honey baked the the awesome rivalry i love that i used to call them the cake eaters and all the matching gear who was they were cake eaters well they just had all the fancy gear i think like a couple of the kids had the brand new federov nike skates when i was playing really spanked the 7-1 they had uh hensick and skiba were the two

studs and they ended up being pretty good pro players hensick hensick had a pretty good ended up having a pretty good career oh yeah maybe more so in the american league but but still highly skilled so so uh you so your father's from newfoundland so you must be a good drinker you must be able to slam your pops back any relation to terry ryan or terry ryan senior no no i uh you know i'd love to get back actually he um he hasn't taken me to newfoundland i'd love to see it one day but um beautiful yeah i'm sure i'm sure it is but uh i'd like to have a few every once in a while i wouldn't say i'm a crazy drinker or anything but you know hold my own maybe a thousand games well not yet it's coming up at the winter classic which is probably the first I wouldn't say I'm a crazy drinker or anything, but hold my own. That's how you play 1,000 games.

Well, not yet. It's coming up at the Winter Classic, which is probably the first time that's ever happened. Incredible. Yeah. Yeah, thank you. It's crazy just how everything works out and then the trade and everything and being traded that day and playing in Dallas that night

kind of set everything up to be able to make this happen. So just funny how things work. But yeah it's pretty amazing i'm really looking forward to what do you what do you credit your longevity um staying healthy and and just like you big in the off season with the training or yeah i think there's a lot that goes into it. I think as my career's gone on, I've kind of leaned more into injury prevention. So I think when you're younger, you're lifting a lot of weights, you're doing the back squats, the cleans and everything.

And I've gone away from that as I've gotten older, just because I realized that I wanted to stay as healthy as I could and that's what was going to help me in my career. So, um, and then I think just my skating, I think just the way that the game is being played these days, I think as long as you can skate, like you're always going to have a place in the league. And that's something that's been a strength of mine since I was younger. So I've just been leaning into that too as much as i grew what like

working with someone individually or you just were just naturally always a good skater yeah you know i honestly i it's naturally kind of always been there since i was young i've done some some power skating stuff but it's more just um kind of agility and and like quick uh changing direction like fast twitch stuff um i've done a lot of that off the ice the last few years and i feel like it's it's kind of worked its way onto the ice and transitioned into that yeah especially older in your career it's hard i mean i lost a lot of that and like your hips get tighter and you talked about more how people have segued away from uh from like the hardcore cleans and all the back squatting. I think that kind of put a damper on my career a little bit.

I know for a way. You think that was it? Yeah, partly. And your hands. Those two. Hockey sense. I couldn't breathe because my nose was closed shut because I kept getting my face caved in.

Anyway. But I mean, you mentioned even as a young kid, skating was a strength. So as you're coming up and then you kind of of realize all right i got a chance to be on the national program and growing up in michigan it must have been nice that it was in was it in ann arbor still with you yeah yeah so it's only 45 minutes away from where i grew up oh that's great so you didn't even have you didn't even live with billets right i did though oh really yeah i just we had all these guys coming in from Alaska and Texas and I just

felt like if I stayed at home I would have missed out on yeah that's a lot so yeah so I I lived with Jerry D'Amico and with the Billet family out there okay and then so when you were 14 or 15 was was that your goal like the national program you start start thinking about it then, right? In two years now, I want to be there. Yeah, for sure. I think playing minor hockey, to have the chance to play at the national team was always the goal. And such a great honor for us playing in Michigan. So that was always the plan, was to try and go there and develop and train. And it's just kind of like a hockey hockey factory there at that program and then um the goal was to always get a d1 scholarship

and play and then as things went on you know draft stuff and where you were slotted it changed for me but the program was always at the top of my list as the number one goal so you yeah you were a guy like i remember hearing about you could have picked where you wanted to go on a full ride but you go to windsor yeah it was kind of crazy at the time i mean it's obviously happened before there was confusion with where like something with the school right notre dame right yeah so i yeah i was committed to notre dame yeah and then um i was i was towards the end of my senior year, and I still had another year to play because I was getting drafted with the 92s. Oh, you're after September? Late birth year.

Okay. And so I was trying to figure out what my best option was. I didn't know if I wanted to go to school, if I wanted to just go all in with hockey and go to the OHL so um I was kind of on the fence and then so Kitchener had my rights and they put me back in the OHL draft because I they weren't sure what I was going to do yet and then Windsor ended up taking me in the first round I guess of the draft after that so there was a little bit of confusion on like if i was trying to go to windsor like if it was set up to go to windsor yeah kids do say like i'm not i'm only going if it's this team yeah and a louis vuitton duffel with money yeah there was none of that honestly like kitchener was an awesome place to go to it's just the way that it ended up working out and then obviously

windsor was was loaded so like i can see how the optics might look bad but it was never anything like that i just ended up deciding a little bit later that i wanted to go the junior route and windsor took a flyer on me and it ended up and they had a pretty like sick roster as it stood right they were unbelievable and they they won the memorial cup the year before and then we won it the year that i went there too so they went back to back did you going to windsor have anything to do the fact that you were born there like was that just random it was pretty random honestly yeah i it was more about trying to play in like an nhl type schedule and get get used to that because they you know if

you play college you might only get 30 games or so and and I was I was trying to prepare myself as best I could for the NHL and so I think we played with the world juniors that year I ended up playing over 100 games um but just random the way that it worked out you know they had a great team new building but it didn't really have a whole lot to do with me uh being born there who helped you make that decision because 18 17 18 years old that's a life-altering you don't know what to do yeah yeah asking your parents uh agent friends like yeah i was um i was leaning on basically everybody in my life to try to help me out with that decision. At the end of the day, my parents said, like, this is your life. This is your decision.

We're going to let you handle it. And I'd say up to this point, still, it was one of the hardest things I've ever done because, you know, like you said, I'm 17, 18. things I've ever done because you know like you said I'm 17 18 I have a full scholarship to an amazing school where if hockey doesn't work out I have something to lean back on you know I have everything with that and then so to put kind of all my faith and all my eggs in that basket and and hope that the NHL worked out was really hard for me but I'm thankful and hope that the NHL worked out was really hard for me, but I'm thankful and grateful that everything ended up working out. Jans has a decommitment story that he shared on the podcast. What was it like for you? Oh, you heard it? Okay, interesting.

What was it like for you? Did you get yelled at on the phone, or was it more cordial? It was cordial, but I'd say there was a lot of disappointment on the other side. It was kind of like when your dad says that he's not mad, he's disappointed. I felt a lot of that, yeah. Okay. That's got to be hard, man, as a young kid getting that call. Yeah.

I remember I was in my billet house in in ann arbor and i was pacing the room because i just didn't want to make that phone jeff jackson right intimidating intimidating guy yeah i was already like pretty scared of him not scared but like yeah he's an intimidating guy so i was i was was so nervous to make that phone call and i it took hours before i mustered up the courage to dial the number did you ever consider maybe having one of your teammates do it no no you're gonna man up and do it yourself i yeah i guess i i never i never thought about putting it on somebody else i guess i could have yeah well so one of the guys played rock paper scissor right the brothers yeah the brothers did the brothers did for too bad too the devins yeah um when you got to anaheim though like fuck unreal leadership in that locker

room you had getsy there was pairs was still there so it must have been fun going into a locker room with all those unreal leaders oh it was it was unbelievable like getsy's still one of my best friends today and then we had pairs we had Saku, Timu like unbelievable guys and obviously unbelievable players so just the way that they welcomed me in at such a young age I feel like it really helped me um kind of get to where I am today and and also um Scotty Niedermeyer and his family, they had me live with them my first year. Yeah. And he had four. He was retired.

That year, right? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So they brought me in. And he has four boys, too. So I was the fifth boy. Oh, my God.

The house was insane. Pull-up game week, eh? Yeah. Yeah. That's right um but uh i think they knew kind of the adjustment that it was going to be to play at 18 and if i could have meals and stuff like i didn't have to worry about that it made such a big difference back to the draft because yeah you you never played an ahl game but like you were picked was it 12 12 overall so like did you did you think you were going to go a little bit higher was that like you slipping in your mind and you never could have imagined 40 points that next year in the NHL

like you came in it was so easy yeah I appreciate it wasn't easy at all but um I think the whole draft experience was difficult too because you have a lot of people telling you kind of where they expect you to go so you build all that up in your head and then anything can happen on draft day so I think you know technically I was slotted in top three top five and then yeah I remember that every pick kind of after five like it just felt like an eternity and then aaron rogers style shaking your head yeah well and then the so then it kind of became a story and then the cameras like focusing focusing in on you so i don't want to make it out to be this this huge thing because 12th overall is still awesome but when the when

the media kind of shifts it into okay this guy's slipping you know as an 18 year old kid it can be it can be hard so so that was difficult but then obviously that all goes away anaheim picked me and and also how you're kind of not in this media circus too you end up going to somewhere where it's probably a lot more chill and you can just kind of get lost and worry about the things that matter yeah no that's a great point i think i think being out there and it's a great hockey market great fans but you don't have the same sort of spotlight as you would you know original six team or canada or whatever it may be so i think that helped out a lot too with me kind of making like that transition into the nhl was pretty crazy biz looking at this sorry like oh no i remember

yeah top three top five and they messed up those teams messed up looking at the draft now a lot of nobodies yeah like you you should have gone third i sorry to interrupt you guys no no yeah was uh living with nidamier was there an option there it was kind of just like you're you're doing that yeah i'd say it was it was highly recommended okay yeah but i i never considered anything else like scotty niedemeier opens his home to you you're gonna no you're gonna go yeah was he talking hockey with you and or was he kind of just so quiet yeah yeah he was he was such a quiet guy like i would i would talk to him i'd ask him things but he would never kind of push anything on me like if i had any questions either like life

or hockey he was always there to answer him but you know you know him he's like he's just a quiet guy yeah norm yeah he's all norm everyone called him norm yeah because he looks like a norm i don't know i actually don't know why all i know is that he'd play 30 minutes and literally have a little yeah he wouldn't quarter size like sweat stain on his shirt on his shirt it was insane it's related to like a tv show or something cheers from cheers is it from cheers that's norm from cheers maybe that was it i don't know there's a story behind it but i don't know exactly what you're not allowed to tell it no i don't know i don't even know yeah i i was too scared to call him norm so i i never did mr niedermeyer mr niedermeyer scotty what do you remember about uh timu like

because when i got traded there i was like this guy's the biggest legend like his smile at the nothing rattles him man he's like the all-time guy yeah he he was um and just honestly the person he is like for how good he is his career that he had like he's such a down-to-earth person and i was nobody in the league and he always took such great care of me made sure that you know everything was good like he'd ask me about my family and he's just an unbelievable guy and you know he was always tan like his hair was always he's an unreal golfer like you talk about a guy that has it all it's it's him was getsy's just was he was still dominant when you got there or was dominant then like i just loved playing with him and being an offensive defenseman yeah coming down the wing

no look all of a sudden it's on your stick yeah those 40 points brought a lot to do with him that year oh a ton yeah he he was such an amazing player and and to be that big and and have that vision i feel like is so so rare um and in in his prime like with randy you know the playoff runs that we had he was he was playing like 24 25 minutes a night he was just a horse and he was physical he would fight like he was the the whole package yeah i think it was you guys had that was it a second round series against edmonton when kessler was on the team still too yeah that was the the second round when we had the the comeback in game five yeah yeah we were down three nothing with like three minutes left tied it up and then won in overtime so that was probably the farthest you'd ever been with the team right uh we we made

it to two conference finals yeah when um when i was there we lost to chicago in seven and we lost to nashville in seven oh those went seven both those years yeah was that the chicago series when andrew shaw headbutted the puck in yeah yeah i remember that i remember that yeah yeah called it back yeah oh so you guys were right there man yeah like those are some good teams looking back on it you know you you always think okay the team's gonna be good we'll be back again and it's it's so crazy you know i only had the the two conference finals and both in game seven it was just it's unbelievable how that stuff works out but we we always felt like we were we were right there you just you need everything to to go right you know in order to win and we were just we were so close but didn't get it done

what was your relationship like with carlisle he's an interesting kid how many norrish's you got that's what he used to say yeah he was um yeah he was i i think he was really hard on on the younger guys but also it it helped me kind of develop a thick skin kind of i wasn't i wasn't used to being coached that hard so at times it was tough but you know he he played he was obviously a really good defenseman so he understood the game but i think he enjoyed to kind of lean on the younger guys a little bit so too much who was your idol growing up nick lidstrom yeah yeah oh i guess being yeah michigan guy yeah playing against him was that was mine i talked about it on a recent episode and warm-ups

first time just staring at him oh yeah like that as well yeah because my first nhl game was in detroit at joe lewis and uh i just i was so starstruck just looking at him over there, like playing. I was so nervous. But growing up in Michigan, like any chance I had to watch him play, it was just, it was such a treat to watch him. Like similar to Scotty, it seemed like he never broke a sweat, was just always in the right spot. Unbelievable guy. Like I got to meet him too.

So he was always somebody I really looked up to. First game in your hometown. How many people do you you have you must have been playing for free that night yeah i think i was i i it was probably close to maybe 30 or so yeah actually could have been a lot worse you guys win so no we got spanked no yeah for nothing-0. Yeah, 4-0. When we were looking at some of the hockey DB, I was confused as to why Anaheim moved off of so many of their good D that they had in their system at one point. They had Montour. They had you.

Manson. Yeah, Manson. The list goes on. Yeah, Theodore Lindholm. Were you like, what the fuck are we doing here? Yeah, I i mean looking back on it it is crazy the talent that they had and i think it always kind of ended up where those guys were either on expiring deals or you know the team wasn't where we were supposed to be

so they they had the highest value at that time so i think it's a little combination of that but if we were able to somehow keep all those guys together it would have been unbelievable but i think just the way that everything shook out and then we lost theo i think to uh expansion i'm pretty sure so did you know he was this good no no shit well he was so raw like when he was in anaheim you you could see okay he has the natural ability the natural talent you don't always know how it's gonna yep kind of unfold but man oh man he's like he got his minutes in vegas that he hadn't gotten anaheim it's like oh shit yeah he gets his opportunity and sometimes that's all it takes and he just takes off so yeah he's uh he's turned into a hell of a player it must have been hard though because you mentioned the conference finals trips and then now you're coming

into the peak of your career and all of a sudden that's when like the team goes down a little bit so you got that taste of like chasing a cup and then there was a bunch of years where that's probably the the part of you it's like i i am ready to move on maybe because like we're not where i was when i came into the league yeah i i think i was uh i was spoiled because i was able to make a team at a young age but i was also going into a great situation where the team was really good so we we had we had a lot of success. I think we had five Pacific division championships like in a row, and we always had this taste of the playoffs and, and you get used to that kind of as a player. And then, um, when it's taken away from you and then you have one hard year and it stacks up into three and then five you know it just it can take a toll on you

kind of as a player and obviously the team was was rebuilding and building for the future and they have some unbelievable players there now and I think the next five years will be awesome for them but just where I was at in my my career I just felt okay you know you have Jackson Lacombe, Zellweger, Minchikov all on the left side yeah you know it's maybe time to give those guys their opportunity and and I can find a situation where you know just in my career it works best for me so that's kind of what it came down to I guess it's hard now because you're playing you're on a new team you're you're you're in it but at some point i would think you'd look back and be like i lead that team in every major category like it's really like to be drafted that high and then do it for

that long like it's it's an incredible thing for you to look back on and like a legend in that organization better than being a boss day yeah no well i i appreciate that i i i don't really know when all that will will kind of set in with me i think um i really enjoyed my time in anaheim i i have amazing memories there and i i think it did get to a point where I said, okay, I feel like I've given this organization everything I have. And as scary as it might be, it's just maybe time for a change and to turn the page. But I'm very thankful for the years that I had there. And I'll always remember it fondly. It was actually, you brought this up before before but before we saw you when you were

younger and you you you grew up in the u.s but you did have dual citizenship was there any discussion at like 15 of 16 of being canadian for the hockey part you know what i mean like yeah and they at that point they're already seeing kids as good as you that age like future world junior guys yeah i i think it was tossed around like i did have the the choice or the decision um but i never it was never a true decision for me i i just felt like i was american so i i do think because i i think it's 14 or so like once you make it or 16 once you make the decision one time you wear the jersey that that's it yeah okay so there was some tournament in that um time frame where i made the decision but it was never i never considered doing

anything else i just in my mind i was american yeah yeah oh i've gotten to work with kevin bx i knew him actually even before that like what a great guy great leader it must have been a blast playing with him he's a funny fucker in the locker room. He is, yeah. He's quite the character. He was always great to have around and was really great with me. I think he was kind of in a position too where I feel like I'm at now. He had so many great years in Vancouver,

and then he comes to Anaheim, and he's trying to figure out kind of where he fits in with that leadership group and his voice and everything. And looking back on it now, I can kind of see that that was something that was new for him and he was trying to get used to, but he was an unbelievable guy. Tough as nails too.

Were you there for the jump punch? Superman punch. I don't think it was he. Yeah. Was he playing for Anaheim? I think he was. Oh yeah. Okay.

I don't get it twice when he was with Anaheim. I don't, maybe I wasn't playing that game then, but yeah, no. And, and now Goody was there in anaheim too captain there like he talked about that too like he just didn't see it coming obviously but

juice is uh he's the real deal man that guy is that guy is tough oh yeah he brought a lot of locker room too oh yeah he was all moment never a dull moment always keeping guys on their toes like you know he could just come at you at any second you got to be ready for it you know so you were there long enough where you've probably seen because around the rinks and the practice facilities like the junior ducks junior kings and all the youth and how many kids come from california now that are so good like were you witnessing that a little bit in terms of how much hockey was growing there yeah even even later on as you played forget like when gretzky came over to california yeah for sure i i think um

kind of towards the early part of my career there i think that's when it was really starting to kind of take off and i know that the ducks and the the kings really leaned into that in their junior programs and building new rinks and all of that. That's awesome. Yeah, because honestly, for a while there, just to get ice for kids, they might have to drive an hour and a half, two hours to get to the nearest rink there. There just wasn't much in that area. And I know that both organizations have put a lot of money and effort into growing the game for the younger kids so i got to see a lot of that and the junior ducks

and kings now i think are both like yeah they're top teams super competitive so it's awesome to see that kind of spread around or spread around the country now where it used to be you know the michigan or minnesota like boston but now you got teams from all over and but those those teams the kings and ducks did a great job of building that we'll ask a few more st louis questions because we feel bad because you're with the blues and all we've talked about is well all the blues are like we're gonna buy him a thousand game gift now we've known him for a week oh yeah shenner's gotta go to the team find fun could have been one more game yeah yeah i know you mentioned all that like high-end young talent in anaheim who are you most impressed with with your time there at the end there like carlson

yeah i think uh i think people will be blown away with with how good leo will be yeah like i think he's just scratching the surface of of you know what he can be as a player obviously he's so young but to to have that size and that speed and the combination of his his hands too like how he can stick handle in tight i think he's gonna be he's gonna be the real deal seems like he has a great head on his shoulders too he seemed like the best kid unbelievable kid yeah unbelievable kid which you know it's it's hard obviously he's from sweden like he's coming into the nhl that can be a lot for somebody to process but he's got a great head on his shoulders and um

they have a lot of young talent there but leo i think he's he's gonna be he's the guy he's gonna be the guy yeah uh monty uh players coach what's your first impressions of him seems like he just commands the room and i love watching the videos when he walks in and he just he takes over yeah he um he's been unbelievable to me so far everybody has but making this decision i um really good friends with troy terry who played with or played for monty at denver so he knew a lot about him and um he said he didn't he had nothing but nice things to say about monty and um that's kind of lived up to everything he said so far just the way he commands the room I feel like he understands what it means to be a player

he gets it with our time management and and meetings and there's so much that goes into coaching but I think he's he's got it all so I've been super impressed with him and um I feel super comfortable playing for him too i've i've heard a lot of players say that do you mean like not having crazy long meetings and keeping them like eight to ten minutes and that's it adhd we're out of there don't have to pay attention too long yeah i i just think over the course of of a season you know if you have half hour meet or whatever like they all stack up and and you might lose a little bit of interest like as you just 82 games is a lot and it's sometimes it can be a lot of

information to process so he's just seven eight clips like things that really matter to him and he rifles through him and then he just everything feels efficient in the way that he does no wasted time no wasted time that's when uh when you met with him what did he tell you like what what do i expect out of you this is what i need from you is there some sort of meeting for that like your role um yeah so he he called me actually i was on my way to the airport in Columbus to meet the team in Dallas and he just kind of just said you know we're excited to have you I know things have been crazy today we'll talk when when you get in and um and then I met the guys and everything I had a meeting with the the d coach about kind of systems and and all stuff. And then Monty just grabbed me super quick.

Cause I think he understood kind of what my brain was going through. Like, yeah, it's going a million miles an hour. And he just grabbed, grabbed me quickly and said, Hey, listen,

you know, I know there's a lot going on, but you're here for a reason. Just trust the player that you are. Like we believe in who you are as a player so just go out and have fun and trust yourself like that was his only message to me and you have i think five points in eight games it's don't start off well though playing a lot yeah it's been it's been good you know i i get to play with pareko who um i think is super underrated. Yeah, he's having a great year. He's, yeah. And like that combination of size

and still to be able to move the puck and contribute offensively like he does, like is so rare. He's a mutant. I could not believe how big he was when I first saw him. Ivan Drago. Yeah, like I just met him in the locker room and I was staring up at him.

Yeah, I sat on the glass when the blues played the bruins they they center scored an ot and i was i same thing like i'd watched him never played against him i was like holy shit he's like six seven isn't he yeah he's huge yeah i think there was a bit of an adjustment for him when he had to go from like being maybe the second guy when uh when uh petro petro was there to to all of a sudden he was the main guy having to get those line matchups. There was a bit of an adjustment period, but I've really found over the last maybe 18 months that he's really coming to his own.

It's crazy how fast he can move out there. He's like a gazelle. Yeah, I've been super impressed with him. There's a lot of chemistry that goes in with your D partner too. So luckily we've been able to kind of get that going the last i think we've played the last five or six games together but yeah just back to your point like his size and there were a few times last night the puck was dumped into his corner and he just grabbed it and took it out of the zone himself yeah that's which to be able to

do at that size is just like he's the the whole package so um yeah it's been a good start for me it's been a good opportunity minutes have been good um you know i'm getting the opportunity on special teams too so i'm grateful and um yeah it's a great group of guys so We're looking forward to trying to get on a little roll here and make a playoff push. It must be nice to get traded before the deadline too because you're getting to know your group a little bit more. I got traded at the deadline. There's 20 games left or whatever,

and it's just like a sprint to the playoffs. I feel like you got the rookie party with the guys, so you get to know them a little bit more. It must be nice. Yeah, it is i think um and who knows how things would have worked out too if you know the longer the season went on i obviously knew that something was going to happen so like how that would have maybe wouldn't affected my play or something too so i think to to kind of jump into it when we did was was a good a good. And the last few weeks have been crazy with all of that and the rookie party.

Then back to California for the holidays. Back to St. Louis. It's just been a whirlwind. But the hockey part and all of that has been awesome for me. And it's just been a really good experience. And I'm happy that it happened when it did and i got the chance to meet everybody and just jump right into it will you sell the place to california could that be a place you live someday when you like when you retire or is it just hates

the oceans yeah you know what it was it was an awesome awesome place to live i think we are gonna sell it and gonna make some money on that one i bet i hope so yeah yeah it should we've been lucky with real estate out there i think just orange county in general is just booming but crazy out there yeah like newport's probably top five places to live in the states yeah i think um the living like everything about the setup there was unbelievable and i think teams might not get to see newport when they come to anaheim but if you ever have the chance to go out there like newport is next level the the food it's clean the people are nice clean the weather it's it's an unbelievable so we might end up back there i'm not sure but we are gonna i think sell that that place and then i just think it might be too

expensive to to live there long term like retire there but we'll see who uh who were the mvps at rookie party neighbors neighbors for sure really yeah oh he's neighbors yeah he's he's got a lot of old school in him jakey does well i saw a clip where he's i think he was doing sign language for like a way for the nhl to show like how to watch the winter classic if you're deaf or something i texted him i'm like jakey this is an interesting look he's like that was right after rookie party i couldn't even see yeah no it was a good time jakey was up there um yeah tyler tucker he was another one yeah we had a good time okay we had a good time well buddy it's been an unreal run for you it's continued keeps going on and first out first winter classic first outdoor game i played a stadium series at

dodger stadium in 2014, which was awesome. But obviously a little different here with the weather and everything. So it's going to be incredible. Congrats on everything and thanks for stopping by, man. Thanks, guys. Thanks for having me. Thank you so much to Cam Fowler. Congrats once again.

What a way to get your 1,000th game in the league. And it was pretty cool too. I saw the Anaheim Ducks last night against the Devils. They wore in Cam Fowler 1,000th game t-shirts. They showed some respect to their former teammates. Obviously, those were made before the trade.

Way to catch that, Bez. What do you mean? I fucking mentioned that earlier. If i did that you'd be jumping down my throat i was waiting i thought he was fucking with us yeah we got whiz over here fucking things up again you know what boys i gotta own that one shit i love when you do that so i can be so mean to you so you could say something even meaner you want to say something i did an ad read

before the pod and i actually read it pretty good and i'm like it's because it wasn't sitting next to me breathing down my neck waiting for me to fuck up so he could chirp me in the whole room laugh at me like at the live show when you were making fun of me and everybody was in fucking tears you're a bully you're a bully wit you're a bulldog i should have added i should have added some of that bulliness when i played hockey fucking out there scared as shit flamingoing everywhere getting sent to the khl pigeon fifth overall pick joke um all right well riding your scooter like a little bitch so uh before we get to uh world juniors did you guys know um can't follow the ducks actually wore

a thousand game t-shirt. Just said that. I know. Sick, boys. Thanks for pumping me up. World Juniors, guys. Team USA. Looking beauty. Won their pool. They're on. I think they play Switzerland in the quarterfinals, but Canada. Oh my God, Biz. You lost

to Latvia. You lost to Latvia. It was in Canada. What the fuck's going on? army had a little state of the union of canadian hockey i have something to say about it but biz that's disgusting it's latvia yeah i think army's basic point was like the pussification of hockey and where canada's kind of lost its identity like buddy when i remember when i like when i was playing like jordan tutu was a guy that Canada had in the roster where I bet you fucking,

the Americans were fucking pooping in their job. I was on that team. You were probably, were you shitting your pants before the game started being like, this guy's going to run me through the fucking end wall? I was going back for a puck. I was on my scooter with Pedersen.

And I was going back for the puck and it was in Halifax. It was like the whole crowd. It was just like getting ready, ready, ready. And I bailed out and tried to do like the one-handed get it over to your partner. And he hit me through the arm. I'm surprised my elbow didn't snap in half and the whole place is like, and then he went over and crushed my partner too.

I don't see this from Canada now. That's what Army's saying. I was definitely a little bit more proud in their response in the game against the U.S. I mean, maybe some undisciplined penalties, but definitely brought a lot more fire and a lot more intensity. I think they'd probably been called out of that horrific loss to Latvia on home soil. But ultimately, I think if there's a lot of these younger Canadian kids who are going to listen to this, skills are very important, but bringing fucking intensity and that fire in your belly to the rink, especially when you're putting on that Team Canada jersey, is the most important thing moving forward.

And if you continue the pussification of hockey in Canada, you're going to continue to be overpassed by other nations, even ones with far fewer resources than what we have up north of the border. So, I mean, I would love an opportunity to coach team Canada next year. Maybe like an Herb Brooks type situation. Herb. Herb.

Herb. Is it Herb Brooks? Herb. Herb. Herb. I thought it was Herb. Look at Yance's face. Forget about the name

He thinks he's going to coach the world junior team I got a Wayne Gretzky blazer on right now Oh that's actually true What the fuck are you talking about bro I could step behind that bench and fire those guys up I'll just do the lineup reads like I do at all the junior games Like the Oil Kings I did one lineup read for the Oil Kings

And they won a fucking championship You're telling me I can't fucking coach junior hockey? Are you fucking mind? I'll just go in there and scream in their faces. Get it done! That's when you were with Ane Gretzky, right? Correct. Ane and Herb,

two legends of the game. Fizz, one thing I noticed, well, two things. Until the end of the game, granted, there's a lot of penalty problems. Get Gavin McKenna on the ice. This kid is insane. That's why I should be coaching. He wasn't even out there that much, and they had a lot of penalties.

But then the other thing I looked at is, and I know there's a lot of depth, and they have so many good players, and you could play two years after you're drafted. But I look at last year's draft 2024. It goes celebrating he ain't playing. He's in the NHL. Beckett Seneke, not on the team. He didn't get invited to

even the camp. Caden Lindstrom lighting up the WHL. Fourth overall. Isn't on the team. T. Aguinla, he's not on the team. Carter Yakimchuk, Yakimchuk, he's lighting up Calgary Hitmen and WHL. He's not on the team. I know what you're saying.

I've never seen, I don't ever remember seeing guys picked in the top five, top ten not making their World Championship. I know what you're getting to. What am I getting to? This is an inside job. I think that President Trump has already made it in the 51st state, and he kept these guys off the team.

This is a fucking inside job. If he wanted an inside job, he'd let you coach them. But honestly, I feel like Canada, the way Canada is now, is the way U.S. was 10, 12 years ago where they're trying to pick players. Remember the Olympic year? It was like a role player. Ryan Kessler, team full of guys like that.

You're not going to win like that. Now, USA just takes the best players, and Canada's trying to pick a team that can beat U.S., but it ain't there, boys. No, it ain't there. USA is absolutely rolling, and no it ain't absolutely rolling and hopefully it rolls over to the four nations you're contradicting the point of where they needed to bring more more skill guys and skill it up against the americans i just feel like us uh

canada back in the day would just bring their best players and then you know maybe one or two guys like a jordan tutu and then you know just figure it out and those guys they took such pride they were like you know what I'm a third overall guy but I'll play on the fourth line this tournament I don't care like I'll go out there and you know like Mike Richards playing on their fourth line like just figuring out ways to win so

I don't know I just feel like they're just not I think they're picking teams like the USA used to do and that didn't do anything for us. Yeah they left off Michael Misa, who's leading the entire Canada Hockey League in points, just like they left... US used to leave me off when I was leading the college in points. It's very similar.

This Seneca is number three pick, and I don't know if it was in your Verbeek interview or just around the draft, but that was his thing. He's skilled, but he was sandpaper. He's the full player you need, so to leave him off is just thing. He's skilled, but he was sandpaper. He's the full player you need, so to leave him off is just ridiculous. It's an inside job. This is a fucking inside job. I'm going to

look into this. I'm going to put my PI hat on and get my buddy Shea Stevens on it. You think there was ever a chance that Bedard was going to be going? He could have played this year, right? Maybe they should have. I think he could have been eligible to play. They could have Fantilli, I think, Bedard and Celebrini.

So you do want to mention like who is missing, right? If it was like you add everyone that's in the NHL, it's a different ballgame. But hey, you dance with who you brought, right? You dance with who brought you. This happened other years. There's other years where all the 18-year-olds were in the NHL and Canada still whooped everybody.

And a man I watched up close and personal in the same world junior that Jordan Tutu was running around like a straight-up caged animal was Alexander Ovechkin. And that's when I first got to witness him. He had a hat trick against Team USA as a 16-year-old or whatever he was. And now he's back, boys. And he's back with a vengeance. He has two goals in his first two

games back i think they've only played two but he hasn't slowed down first off he's back way before anyone thought he would be back and washington continues to play phenomenal hockey and ovi is back on that chase biz it's still imagine it's still possible he does it this year uh yeah he's a freak for coming back that early I would imagine a little bit of the gas helped him get back on time. What is he, 25 goals away now? Another empty netter in his first game back. This is crazy, boys. I think he's actually going to do it game 82 against Crosby.

I think it's going to go down like that. And that's why I said do the Winter Classic next year because you'll still get a little bit of the build-up, but it'll still be relevant at that time in order to really, really celebrate the most ridiculous achievement that I think that nobody in the hockey world ever expected at the fact that Wayne Gretzky

would be passed for the all-time goal-scoring lead. It's wild. And, you know, we talked a lot about this summer, how much that team switched and changed and what they like did to kind of bring in or have a new beginning even though they made the playoffs they got dubois over there he's played solid great how about okay i cannot believe believe right now chicken he's got 11 goals biz he's always had a ridiculous shot like in the when he was with the coyotes he was the bumper on the power play

so he was acting as a forward and i'm not talking even just a slap shot like he when he gets it when he can release it with a snapper that it's it was it was faster than my slap shot definitely faster than yans i don't think i ever saw you take a slap shot so it's fucking impressive the way that he could shoot the pill and he's very versatile was surprised when he came in and started playing with Carlson, given the fact that they both have that kind of offensive aspect to their game, but he's fit in like a glove there. I think you just got to attribute Carberry

and how comfortable he's made these new guys feel, and they got the mojo right now. I thought maybe there'd be a little bit of regression after that hot start, especially after losing Ovi, but they've done a great job in sustaining it, and they just have a well-oiled machine that's coached very well. And right now, I believe they're at the top of the division,

correct? Right ahead of Carolina? Jersey, I think. They have a lot more games played, but biggest thing in Washington, even though they've split the goaltending duties completely with Lingard and Thompson, Logan Thompson's 15-2-2

with a 2.3 goals against and a 9.18 save percentage. We were in Florida for the All-Star game a few years back. We actually did an interview with him. Didn't even release it. Probably wasn't in the right headspace at the time, so I'm so happy for him to see what he's

done. He's been able to get like a fresh start things didn't go in vegas like he saw and all of a sudden like you're seeing why there was so much uh talk about him and discussion about him as he came into the nhl because he's he's been so good they also have lingering but it's amazing to see what that team's done and matt matt uh is it roy or Wah? How do you pronounce it? Roy. Roy. Played at Michigan Tech.

I think he's a Michigan Tech kid. Nice defensive defenseman. Just Washington. It's awesome to see. It's great to see what they've done, and they're buzzing around. Another story about a superstar in the NHL, as we discussed Ovechkin there, is the Nate Dogg. Chuck and Knox, dude.

I guess Barrett Hayden kind of bumped into him in the corner and all of a sudden dude they're squaring off and the dog's throwing hammers biz you gotta love that you gotta love seeing that right there the dog is barking boys the dog is barking you don't think he wants another cup you think sid's seeing that saying i don't want to go over to colorado come on man it's time for another run that's the breakdown folks of the dog they're sitting third in the central right now um just four points behind the wild i think that the the abs reshaping and bringing in new goalies throughout the course of this season was incredible and And then they went one step further.

They signed McKenzie Blackwood to a five-year contract extension, 5.25 AAV. So that's nice. He's in the final year of a two-year deal. He's only making 2.35, but they're looking good. That's Merle's his other team. Yeah.

Yeah. They're nine and two, the last 11. And I think eight of the wins are by the puck line. They're just destroying everybody. When that Nikushkin came back, it really, really solidified that team. They're awesome to watch, too. I'm looking right now at the stats.

I just want to quickly see what Nikushkin has done already. 21 games, 17 points, 11 goals. So, Lekkonen came back. He was injured. He's just under a point per game. Middle stats had a quietly very good year. And then the big three. It's all about the big three.

The Rontanen contract is going to become an enormous storyline. I would assume they're trying to sign him right now before he goes UFA. If he gets to the market, you'd think he'd be leaving. Because why not sign before then? I think he's automatic 13 and a half at this point. I think he's going to want what? What did Leon? What was his hit?

14. I don't think he deserves what Leon got. Oh, he's a horse. I'm almost buddy. I disagree. I disagree, dude. I disagree. I mean, Rontan and Rontan and Ronten's last three years, four years, including this year.

36 goals, 92 points. 55 goals, 105 points. 42 goals, 104 points. Right now, he's got 21 goals and 54 points in 38 games. Yeah, okay, so now read Leon's stats. Okay, okay, okay, hold on. I mean, he's in the 120, 130-point range. So, I mean, if you're saying that they're—

He's had 128 once. The year that—yeah, he had 128 points two years ago. Last year, he had 106. I think the goals are dead even over the last three years. Yes, okay, I see. I see what you're saying that a little less but but leon sign with the hometown team if he goes to ufa and then everyone's bidding he's getting 14 no doubt no doubt i meant i meant with uh colorado i i would say that yeah okay so i don't know

pierre lebrun reported that on insider trading too that if he hits UFA he wants 14. Okay. So maybe right now Colorado's offering 13 a year, eight years, and he's like, I'm missing 8 million bucks right there, boys. I know a team who would give it to him. The New York Rangers. Whoa. And Panarin only has

another year too. Wow. And they would front load that with bonuses out the yin-yang. In fairness to what you're saying, that he's not Leon Biz, even though I argued against you, I do feel like Leon has McDavid and Rontanen has McKinnon. I would rather Leon without McDavid than Rontanen without McKinnon. That's kind of what I'm saying.

And he plays center. Yeah. I can't picture Rantanen on his own with that New York team doing the same stuff. No way. Interesting story, though, to see how that ends up playing out if they get him signed before July 1st. On to college hockey news. A shocker to the college hockey world that ACHA club team UNLV

beat the national champs Denver in Denver. What a wild thing to see. And I imagine David Carl, who's on his way to another world junior gold after last year, he's looking at this. What the fuck is going on while I'm not gone? And they're missing Zeke Bouyem as well. But I ran into a former Denver player, and it was kind of, I mentioned, you know, you don't got your head coach. You don't got one of the best players in college hockey.

And he's like, who fucking cares? It's a club team. And at one point, UNLV was winning 5-1 in that game, right? Yes. Holy shit. Now, I love this story because this is something where if you're the UNLV athletic director, you're like, Oh my God, like we got something brewing here. I believe they get three to 4,000 a game.

G are they building arena? They have a sick arena. They have a smoke machine. They have their own locker room and Greg power actually who helped Arizona state. He's the Arizona state head coach. He was the one that kind of pushed them from club hockey to, to division one.

He actually sent me a text and was like, this win is the most monumental win in college hockey in the past 20 years because that's the win that the administration is going to say we can't deny this anymore we have to give you a division one program that's fucking awesome that is unbelievable that'd be huge and vegas is just growing with the hockey you got the ahl team there too that would be sick if they went up. Now that you could play major, junior, and then go to college, I'm hoping in the next

15 years, there's 10 new D1 programs. And I think that's a lot, right? That's a lot to consider that quick. But this could be something that UNLV is like, all right, we're all in. Fuck it. We're all in. Arizona State can do it. We can do it. And then we get the SEC teams and then we're laughing. And then there's some more scholarships at d1 hockey level for american

kids who are now going to get hosed by all these canadians coming after they play major junior well if you if you're into college hockey or even if you're not g has brought chicklets you to uh to our world our lives and just last week his one at Michigan State dropped with star goalie for the US World Junior Team Trey Augustine go check that out whenever you can Fishy man this series has been on fire Fishy does so much behind the scenes for us guys we have

such an awesome team I fucking love our squad got his Michigan State hoodie on right now oh look at that Spartans number one team my favorite part of the trip is getting to know Fish a little bit more. He's a beauty. He's a wild card.

You love the whack pack he has. Oh, yeah. It's insane. I love memes just wearing a wife beater no matter where we go, no matter sun, rain, snow, wind. He's got a wife beater on. Winter classic. He wears just a wife beater.

I was talking to Wayne in the lobby the other day. I'm like, imagine he's telling me he's talking to Wayne Gretzky. And I'm thinking, maybe he wasn't dressed like this. But yeah, he was. What about the waitress from Edmonton who came over and he talked, Keith? Weren't you over there when a waitress was like, what? Where are you from? He was like, where are you from?

He was like, Canada. And then she was like, yeah, me too, but it ain't good like that. Last thing here, Patrick Waugh, he took the mic and apologized to Islanders fans at an open practice on Friday. He said, we're not happy with the way we've been playing in front of you guys. No shit. Did you see what he did the other night? No. They were shorthanded

defensive zone draw and he pulled the goalie against the Leafs. It took the Leafs like eight seconds to score and end the game 3-1. How happy are those guys on the Leafs? They all passed it around to each other and made sure everybody got their cookie. Instead of doing a face-off play, it's like you get the second assist,

you get the first, and I'll get the goal. Thank you. See you later, Islanders. Islanders, scary, scary time to be an Islanders fan. Last thing I had here, Biz, you really cracked me up. I wanted to get this on record. So we were discussing the fact that Biz drives a shit box. I mean, I'm talking like you get in the car, and you're like,

oh, a homeless person was given a car, and they live in this car. It's pretty cool. And you brought up, yeah, I know I'm going to get a truck. And then you mentioned, I got to talk to grandma though, before I get the truck. And we were like, what? And you're like, yeah, well, I got to get the code from grandpa because my grandpa worked at Ford for 45 years. So I get a biz promo code now. So what is going on with the truck situation? Well, I'm going to get a King Ranch F 250 or F 350 diesel King Ranch. That's the, that's my dream car. And I got the lot up in Jackson, Wyoming. So it'd be a fun truck to bring up there. And when you get the diesel engines, I think these things can run for like three, 400,000 miles. And I think that I've earned the right to get myself a new truck. And I've had two F one fifties before.

Like, you know how you see sometimes those stickers of like the little kid pissing on like a Chevy logo or a Ford logo. The fact that one pressing on a Ford logo exists is an absolute debacle because four trucks are the best trucks in the world. I think Yance, you have an F one 52. Like there is no better reliable car or vehicle made, excuse me. So considering my grandpa worked for Ford for so

long, you just are automatically in the system for like a friends and family discount where you provide this code, you like call in, you tell them who worked for them and they give you a code and then you supply it at the dealership and then you get a certain price knocked off the vehicle so like it's not a biz promo code it's just like for anybody who works for ford okay okay how much is how much is the discount i don't i i floor mats give your floor mat if it's like a hundred bucks off and you're

wasting your grandmother's time like just just buy the fucking truck You get free oil changes In like upgraded floor mats That's kind of how it is That's what the No but I think it's a decent amount But I remember the last time I bought one I think like with like the full package I ended up getting it was like a 46 or 48 thousand dollar truck

So I don't know I might have saved like 7, 8 grand Whereas I don't know what it is saved like seven eight grand whereas i don't know what it is now but why not use it okay very true if you had that option would you you call it in merle you know i am my dad worked at jimmy john's for 43 years yeah okay here are your doritos for free sir then i can take that money off my gambling debt. Just justify it that way. I'd suck a dick for an F-150 at this point. That's how reliable those cars are.

Yeah. And with that, folks, happy new year. Honestly, everyone out there listening, whether you had a great 2024 or a tough 2024, it's on to a new year, new beginnings. I hope everyone had an amazing holiday. As always, none of this happens without you guys listening the best fan base we are the luckiest people in the world to have the best job ever and we cannot

thank you enough and I hope all you guys have an amazing year start it off right with family and friends and a lot of fun times over New Year's and then just rip it up keep crushing it thank you so much for listening so happy New Year to you guys. Love all you guys and hell of a week

at Chicago. The Ants has one last thing. I just know obviously we're biased with hockey guys, but did you guys see that Anaheim wore the t-shirts for Cam Fowler? That was pretty cool. Suck on that wit.

Happy New Year's, guys. I'm driving up the sunday river now leave me alone love you bye 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 don't know any other way. This feeling is so hard to break. I'll get you someday.