Spittin Chiclets - Spittin’ Chiclets Episode 673: Featuring Freddy Meyer

Episode Date: October 4, 2026

On Episode 673 of Spittin’ Chiclets, the boys are joined by fellow BU Alum Freddy Meyer from a summer interview to talk about his time in the league, playing in college, his son’s journey into hockey and much more. We’ve got a new media darling in Winnipeg just fighting his way through the league, The Oilers are always must talk hockey and the league is buzzing. All this and more on this week’s episode, you won’t want to miss it. 00:00:00 - START 00:00:31 - Chiclets Updates 00:06:51 - LarkinMania 00:21:39 - Shark Tank 00:32:23 - Rangers 00:39:40 - Devils 00:51:28 - Avalanche 00:56:04 - Around the League 01:18:54 - Freddy Meyer Interview 02:25:38 - Quick Hits Support the Show: REESE’S: Reese’s. The Official Candy Partner of Barstool Sports. Go Get Reese’s Wherever You Shop PINK WHITNEY: Pinkies UP! Go get a bottle of Pink Whitney. BODY ARMOR: Work hard and hydrate hard with BODYARMOR Flash I.V. Grab it at 7-Eleven RHOBACK: Go to https://Rhoback.com and use code CHICLETS for 20% off your first purchase through the end of the week. PERFORMANCE GOLF: Performance Golf is the all-in-one destination for anyone trying to level up. Go to TryPG1.com/chiclets right now, claim your 7-day free trial of the PG1 app, and start flushing it. Never guess again. MEN’S LEAGUE SWEATERS: Visit mensleaguesweaters.com/chiclets for 15% off uniform packages. That deal ends soon, so don’t dilly dally.You can find every episode of this show on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or Netflix. Prime Members can listen ad-free on Amazon Music. For more, visit barstool.link/schiclets

Hey, Spit and Chicklets listeners, you could find every episode on Apple Podcast and Spotify. Prime members can listen ad-free on Amazon Music. Me and Ryan have been officially welcomed to the jungle that is basketball sports. I brought it toward the coyotes, and I asked him if it was okay if I joined the Spit Chick-Chickels podcast full-time. Ryan Whitney's got a pink Whitney out there now. This is a standbacker, get that on camera. Pete Yandel, the song man. It's a full-time member.

Marley just got an assist from Chris Bates. Whoa, we're buzzing right now. Sunk. What is up, folks? Welcome to episode 673 of the Spit and Chicklet's podcast presented by Reese's voice. What an absolute pleasure. I love Penguin. He showed out Rees's, though, because guys, they're in.

They're in like Flynn. And I'll tell you right now, I've nonstop. talk about the peanut butter cup, the pieces. It's all about Reese's. And I'm so happy that we have this incredible candy because I wanted to get younger with this group with our demo. Is that necessarily a good thing with some of the conversations? No.

But when we're talking Reese's and we're talking Halloween coming up, that's how you know. We have a big time presenting sponsor. So thank you to that. Biz, what's your favorite? I know it's peanut butter cup for Keith. Well, I mean, it's hard to beat the peanut butter cup, but when you put the Reese's in the blizzard. Derek Green Blizzard, like, that's like, that's the number one.

You know what I do, Biz, when I'm making s'm making s'm mores. Yeah. Instead of the chocolate bar, I use a Reese's. That's Reggie's move. Like a peanut butter cup? Of course. Yeah, peanut butter cup instead of the chocolate and then the marshmallow gram. Dude, it'll change your life.

Yeah, Biz, no joke. We landed on the moon. And I'll tell you, it's actually very nice because we do have Chickles cup. It's this week. Oh, my. Right now. It's Sunday afternoon. We're recording Sunday afternoon. Come Monday. We're not friends. And exactly. You two. There's bad blood in the water.

There's baseball swing. I just get to sit there and I kind of root for both teams to lose. No offense. I'm happy if you want to you guys win it. But if you're both losing in spectacular fashion, that's just amazing for me. One of my favorite memes of myself I've ever seen is when you lost business, you were in front of me and you thought I was really actually saying, good job, good effort. My face was just like these losers. It's a classic. It's a Chicklet's classic. Chicklet's Cup is great.

So we got to make sure that we tell everyone, all right. Thursday night outdoors at Harpoon, 6 to 9 p.m. Friday night at Park City and trophy ceremony around 5 p.m. Saturday at Harpoon. All games open to the public. If you're in Boston, come check it out. And I do, I have to apologize for my voice. This is just coaching voice. This is just getting behind the bench and letting those kids hear that they got to skate, skate.

Skate. So I've been on the icer behind the bench a lot, and I apologize because having no voice, you just feel like a scumbag. You feel like a real loser of a podcast host, and I want to apologize to you, guys. Did you give up a touchdown? And let me tell you, we didn't give up a touchdown. When in actuality, we lost 7-4 this morning. So I could not, I could not call my boy Babs and say, we didn't give a touchdown out either. And for anyone who's know what we're saying, the Oilers finally didn't give up.

a touchdown worth the goals. They only gave up one. But the content in this league right now, boys, I don't get why we're so blessed to have all these things happen within the first week of the season to make this job just sometimes in the middle of the year, two episodes a week, you might have a show where you're like, there's not much here. Not this show.

No. No, no, no, no, no, no. No, no. And I'll tell you this, biz, you were in the middle of a little bit of a story of one of the major Oh, yeah. In fact, my acope. Rickashy. The Dylan Larkin saga in Detroit moves on.

Now, he gets announced as with the other scratches. We're hopping right in this. Yeah, you don't want to? Well, I was just going to talk about Chicklet's Cup quickly. Okay, yeah, yeah, I'm sorry. I rushed through Chickles Cup because you have so many titles. I should let you talk. No, no, no problem.

Yeah, it's been tough sledding for the big deal selects. But I think one of our issues is every time these guys come to the tournament, I can't keep him in at night. So I've partnered with Whoop where I'm going to be tracking these guys sleep every night. How well, I'm going to be putting these wristbands on these guys to track how many hours they're getting at night, whether they're sneaking out.

So kind of like back of the day, remember when we played in Nashville? And who's no neck, the coach, no neck? Trots. Barry Trots. He had their keys detected when they would get in at night or if they would leave the room and when it would swipe again. So not only am I doing that at the hotel, I'm going to make sure these guys aren't going to pound town all night long,

and they're focusing and getting ready for the games. But it's kind of like the funny game we played. Do you think if we put together the best of the big deal selects and the best of your team, Yans, that we could win the actual ball hockey tournament or no? I think one of us is winning it this year. Okay. Mostly because the Brampton team isn't there,

and I feel like they win it every year. So they're not coming. Yeah, but the Midnight Express is bad. I know. No, the Ottawa Godfathers are back. The Godfathers are back. Those guys are unreal. Remember my doppler dangler who's nasty for Ottawa up in London?

Remember that guy? So good. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Exactly. And then last year, they were eliminated on like a goals four against thing and they couldn't repeat. I thought that they were going to fucking nuke the whole tournament. But I remember hearing how they ended, they got hosed, dude. It was absolutely. You got to read the rules.

You got to read the rules before you get to the tournament with. Well, you got to put, forget the whoop. And I love whoop. You got to put a chastity belt on your team. Forget the whoop, all right? And don't bring up the 23rd rule in the rule book of the Chicklets Cup where everyone's completely mangled the whole time. The Godfathers were defending champs.

They got hosed. And they're coming for both of your guys. Your snout and your ears. You got long ears. I got long ears. You're both going down. Go on the-old. Wait, why are you coming at us?

We're on the same team here. What is this? Oh, my coach's voice. I'm in my Babs bag. I'm in my Babs bag right now. I told Terry that he can't bring us fuck tent, so he's not happy right now. So he's a little bit pissed off coming in,

which I want. I want him. I want him having a heavy sack coming to this high testosterone mad at the world. So hopefully we can win our first title. Now, getting to my Mya culpa, do you want to kind of go through how this all happened?

And I can explain exactly why I was, wrong. Yep, I do. And I got a little that goes into it as well. Now, Detroit fans, like, they're down and they're out and they're down bad. And prior to the season, it's just, it's been a circus, right? And you come to find out that, that Dylan Larkin is getting announced prior to the home opener with, along with the other scratches, because first game of the year at home, everyone gets announced from the, the smallest equipment manager, the lowest equipment manager, to the star of the team, the entire organization gets announced. And when it happened, it was ugly.

And it was like, oh, my God. Now, more came out after, but why don't you take us through you and the TNT guys and how you saw it go down and what you thought? So a lot of Red Wings fans, like I would say 95% of them thought it was a soft take by me. Because like you said, everybody gets announced even if you're a healthy scratch. So my whole thing is it's not like he's sitting out and didn't report to camp and is not going to play games. Like right now he's dealing with a little bit of a shoulder thing. So it's not like they're going to not have their chance to boo this guy. When he plays home games, every time he's touching the puck,

he's probably going to get booed exactly like he did when they did that announcement. So he's going to have to pay the piper and hear it from these fans. Like that is inevitable. Okay. when I heard before the game that they were doing it, I was surprised because it's kind of like, you're kind of just feeding them to the wolves. And regardless if every guy does it,

this is not, this is not your everyday scenario here. But the way that he reacted after he got booed, keep in mind, not knowing that four days prior, they said they were not going to announce him and he didn't have to do it. And then I guess the day before,

Larkin went to the team, whether it was McCullin, whether it was to Hork. And he said, hey, he goes, I want to stand there and take it on the chin with those guys. So credit to Larkin. I had no- Part of it was that he didn't want, because they weren't going to announce anyone that wasn't playing. And he was like, I don't want the guys on the team who are scratches to not get announced because

me, which I respect the hell out of them. Great leadership. Great leadership. Put the C back on. I think you should at least get an A back, right? Just give an A. Yeah. For sure.

So not knowing this. and then seeing him get it and then he got it bad. I don't know if it was worse than what he expected. His reaction to it led me to believe that they fed him to the wolves. Like he gave the wave and then he beeline it down the tunnel. So for somebody who would have been so like adamant and open to doing that and saying, no, no, I want to make sure these guys get announced. I was shocked.

Were you not shocked by his reaction? I was a little surprised, but no matter what, now mind you. Wait, based on his. reaction would you have assumed that they made him do it and he didn't volunteer to do it? Why? Just because he walked down the hallway? Like kind of stormed down the hallway? He, like that's a storm down the hallway reaction, right? Yeah, I think that, um, my initial reaction was that they did make him do it and that's completely wrong. We're, we're out here to say that now. Correct. But, but even, even what he expected, you kind of prepare yourself for something. And then it hits you and it's,

it's probably a lot harder than how you kind of imagined it, dude. Like you've been, you grew up there, you're the captain there, you crest the trade, and all of a sudden, all these people are literally, there's Osama bin Larkin shirts up there. So, I mean, to actually feel the energy in the arena, I can see him being like, all right, like, let's get out of here. I was going to get to, hopefully he didn't see some of the pictures from the concourse because there's that Osama bin Larkin shirt that's going around. that's obviously probably, like as an American,

that probably kicks him in the nuts even harder than the booze that he got and then stormed down the tunnel. So my occupal by me, I don't think it was a soft take if in fact they would have thrown him to the wolves there, given the fact that he is going to be playing games at home.

So he's going to have to take it on the chin literally every time he touches the puck. Like, this is going to suck going forward, boys. If he was disappointed by that, I couldn't imagine having to play through getting booed every time you're touching the puck at home. Can you remember a time?

Like, let's say they matched the intensity of what he got when they announced his name. Can you remember a time, a player, a home team of a home team getting booed that loud when he touched the puck other than Witton Edmonton? I was just going to say Witton. That's not very nice. And Pittsburgh.

I was going to say both. I was going to say both. Home player booed. I mean, didn't Larry Murphy get booed in Toronto? But that's a long time. had a bunch of guys. Who did the, did the Rangers have someone

they were giving it to? I don't know, but as far as I know, not a captain. As far as I know, the situation at this point, they are not going to trade him for nothing. Like,

Horkov's in there on an interim basis. He's completely suering the team and his own chances of getting that job for full time by giving him away. Like, if they want to trade him and he wants to be traded, Yes, it'll get done if Detroit gets back what they want. And if it doesn't, he's not going to get traded and he's going to be playing.

So you know what, Biz, you know what can switch it up? If he goes out there and he plays his dick off and he scores some goals, there will not be booing him. Now, maybe some people still will, but I would guarantee if he goes out in his first home game, he tucks one in the first, they're going to cheer and it's going to get less and less and less. He's going to have to deal with it, though. You're right. So there's another name who's probably public.

enemy number one even more so than Larkin right now. And it's Chris I'llich. I know nothing about this guy. I obviously know that the family is owned the team a very long time and that people know that maybe his father would not be working and doing his business dealings as he has been handling the team. So that's, I guess, why I'm so confused is how angry they are at Larkin. But meanwhile, during the game, they're chanting sell the team. Makes no sense. And then you see the Edvinson situation going on. in which is being mishandled. And now all of a sudden, Elliot Freeman announces that things were getting closer. They were bridging the gap on a contract.

It seems like things were going to get smooth over and he was going to be back over here in no time. And then boom, things have fizzled out. And now he is requesting a trade. So Larkin has was said at the beginning press conference that he's going to wait until he's traded to kind of explain why he ended up wanting out.

And I can understand the fan's frustration. I don't necessarily agree with them on the fact that they're like, he agreed to an eight-year deal with a no-move clause. So that's his commitment to staying here as long as the term of the deal where it's like, I don't know, man. Like if we can back it up a little bit here, Larkin and the team, like they were going back and forth and it was getting a little bit ugly when they were trying to figure out his contract.

Do you guys remember this? Yeah. Yeah, remember your interview question right before the game, which we'll get into another classic right before the game interview question from the NHL this week. During the game. And then, like, I would say that he's held up his end of the bargain for the last five years. He's put up 30 straight, 30 goal seasons that last five seasons.

He's probably been their best overall player. He plays all special teams. I think that the one gripe that fans could have is I believe that after the Olympics last year, he had one five on five goal. And maybe in the past few seasons, his play hasn't maybe matched the play. of before crunch time when they're getting down the stretch to get into playoffs. We have to be fair about the assessment here and where fans can kind of gripe about what Larkin's play has been and what he's brought to the table.

But they also have to look themselves in the mirror and understand his situation about a player who's played there for 11 seasons. They made playoffs his first year. He played five playoff games. And since then, as much as he's done for the team, and I would say agree to a pretty fair team-friendly contract, has not gotten much help. Name me their best free agent signing

other than Patrick Kane, who's clearly on the back nine and not like a, no offense to Patrick Kane. He's not exactly a needle mover in the sense of big free agent signings. Tell me the biggest free agent signing they've had and brought in

since Larkin has been in his prime there the last five, six seasons to get over the hump. Well, the free agent signings are hard, it's harder now, but the brinket was brought in there, right? Okay. Was he traded? I think he was traded there correctly. I think that was a trade.

Maybe a sign and trade from Ottawa. Yeah. That was a trade, yeah. A trade, listen. Yeah. Nothing. Andrew Pop. Right now you look at their top two centers, right?

And that's for people. Those are their, I'm. That's the biggest one, Sharot. Okay, Arvinson. Maybe. But like, Teresenko. back nine same as Kane Gost despair was there

A one year deal And then he was gone And then they traded him Yeah if you look at this list If you read this list It's I just think right now That this situation is such a mess

And the way If The real complaint I'm seeing From Wings fans right now Is that they didn't want to include Edvenson in a deal for Quinn Hughes And now at this point like Edvinson's not signed yet.

So it's like, I think there's just a real disconnect right now between, you know, ownership and the fans and how things have really played out. You got to get Edvinson in there. That guy is nasty. He's enormous. He flies him in sighter. We talked at the beginning of last year.

And mind you, once again, in, I think January of last season, they were in first place in the Atlantic. Gee, fact checked me on that. They were definitely in the top. January 20th or something. And we're sitting around like, how about Edvenson and Sider as a one-two punch the next 10 year? And now it's like Evanston skating and Sweden. And the fans are booing.

The former captain requested a trade. And other fans are chanting sell the team. So talk about a gong show and talk about something that these fans are just, they're thinking back to the glory days and like, what the hell happened here? Do you think that this Edmondson situation is opening up? fans eyes to maybe why Larkin wanted out of this situation. Yeah, I would imagine because I think Edvinson requesting a trade is more so, hey, let's get a fucking deal done and let's get it done quick. And to me, that's ownership not giving him the money that he's deserved and they're trying

to lowball him. I don't know what any of the numbers are, what they're offering him or whatever, but to me, that's what that deal sounds like. him asking for a trade while skating in Sweden right now is more so him using the cards in his hand and saying, all right, let's either get this done or trade me and it's going to be ugly for both sides. But for me, it seems like he wants to stay there

and just to get the ball moving a little bit is asking for that trade. Going back to also not only the free agent signing, the biggest deadline deal they've done is bringing in Falk and they gave up a first rounder for him. So I like, I, I, I get where fans want loyalty from Larkin, but you have to understand that this guy went to four nations.

You're playing on an incredible team. Then you go to the Olympics and you're playing in a winning environment. And I think we can agree. And even with the money he's making now, it would reflect that. I think he's a second line center on a Stanley Cup winning team. And like, if I don't know, maybe if you asked him and you had a conversation with him, he maybe even tell you the same. So he's just expecting a little bit of help.

he wants a little bit more depth on the team. He wants other guys who can help contribute. But like when you're putting up 70 points and you're the leading score every year, boys, we see what's going on around the league and how many other teams have guys who are in the hundreds. And it's not even necessarily a points thing. It's more about like we need second and third line guys

who can contribute. And it's been this waiting game of drafting, developing, drafting, developing. And not many guys have come up to finally help. Yes, they've had Edvinson. Yes, they've had Sandine Pelica. Yes, Raymond. Raymond's nice.

Finney. You know, I think maybe fans are hoping a little bit more from Casper, although he's had a pretty solid start. Like, he looked good in that game against New York. But, like, when push comes a shove, like, I just think that as time is going to move on here, I think fans, especially Red Wings fans, are going to realize, like, maybe Larkin's gripe is just like, man, like, I don't want to keep whittling my career away. I mean, you're going into year 12. I haven't made playoffs the last 10 years.

And like there's no help in sight coming. And we haven't fucking signed a good free agent since Christ as a cowboy. And I hope that you Patrick Kane and, uh, lovers and even himself would not take that as like a, a slap in the face. It's just more about like Patrick Kane is not the Patrick Kane of the past. Like he's not driving traffic night in night out in an MVP of the league and a heart candidate and what he was in Chicago. He's like a, a great, middle six guy who's going to help your power play and help provide leadership and in advance young guys learning little nuances of the game. So it sucks. It's in a shitty situation, but it seems a little bit hypocritical when you give him the fucking business. And then 10

minutes later when play starts, you're telling the ownership to sell the team. It's like, oh, so do you understand where he's coming from or don't you? Or you just expect him to go down with the ship. If that's what you expect from your captain and in Michigan native after signing that deal, that's fine. But remember, contract negotiations didn't go smoothly. And I don't think that the organization is held up there under the bargain by surrounding him with better pieces. For him, not getting those surrounding pieces, that means every single night because they only have one good line. He's getting the hardest matchups every night. You know, most teams have two good lines where you might get a couple shifts off

against playing against the best shutdown D or the best shutdown forward group. So for him, he's getting the hard matchups every single night. He probably wants a night off where he can kind of float through, get some points and have a good night. But I think for him, he's got to open up his trade

list and go to San Jose. I think he'd be unbelievable in San Jose. Well, that goes into Thursday night. In one of the most electric home openers I've seen, I'll say, the Shark Tank is back. It's back. The Shark Tank is beyond back right now.

The place was bonkers. They have an incredible 4-3 overtime win against the Florida Panthers. So, wait, are you done with Detroit? Are you going to say, do you have any opinion on this? Are you going to say much on it? Or are you kind of just done and want to move on? Well, I was kind of leading into the fact of in that game, just awful, awful thing to see in that Barkov gets hurt again.

Now, luckily, it's the other knee. We have not heard of the result. all shit Sunday 138 Eastern PM. I've heard, I think everyone's heard rumblings that it could not be season ending. Hopefully, like, that's just brutal for a guy. Every fan base in the league respects the hell out of him. Florida Panthers fans are obsessed with them for good reason. But the first thing I saw was that if this is real long term, you can really see Larkin ending up on the Florida Panthers now.

Would you guys agree with that? In terms of if it is, if it's season ending, I hope it's not. And I guess I hear it may not be that that would make total sense to me. But then he wouldn't be able to come back for playoffs. Because they would be over the cap. Correct. The LTIR thing, once playoff hits, you have to operate on the actual cap from regular season. So once you said, if it is season ending, then it makes a lot of sense.

If it's not, you can't do what Vegas and Tampa and all these other teams, Florida, have done of the past. Yeah. Yeah, it's a, you can have, what is it, like an average of last year's salary cap. So it's like $3.25 million going into playoffs. If, uh, if they put him on LTIR and he comes back for playoffs, right? I don't know that, that element of it. It's, it's, you're right, though.

It's no longer what, what it was before when, when people were calling the lightning and Vegas cheaters. So for those of you who were a bit confused, like, let's say Lark was traded, if Barkie was going to miss majority of the season and they put him on LTIR and then playoffs hit and he was ready to go, they would have to make a decision on how to take certain money out of the lineup.

Barkoff could come back in and Larkin could play, but they would maybe have to take out you know, Seth Jones to make the money work or whoever it would be night in, night out. And I mean, with the amount of injuries that do pile up, it could still be a possibility. Like you just never know. Now, I don't know what Florida has to give up.

that Detroit would want, nothing. Lundell's the name that everyone's talking about, but I don't think they would trade Lundell. I think they see him as like the next bark of. Like, I wouldn't trade them. And I don't think they have anything in the pipeline and the miners.

So it'll be a tough, tough thing to get that deal done if Detroit's asking for, you know, players back. And they don't have a first rounder until like 2030, I think. Depends. I will go back and say Larkin's got to get healthy.

he's got to come back and play and he's got to play his ass off to get traded or maybe somehow with Eisenman being the main problem I think and him not there anymore maybe somehow they get together again and he stays but the only option here is getting healthy and playing well

that's it yeah that's it if I would if I'm the team I would just say boys let's all get together in the same room same with evidence and same with Larkin and try to try to fucking and try to get the band back together.

I honestly think there's just as much of a possibility that he stays this entire season as he does get traded. I think that they need to clean this up in-house because as crazy as this sounds, and like I said, they haven't signed free agents and there hasn't been much help coming up through the minors. I think that with Larkin and Edvinson there

and no bad contracts and they have so much cap space, I think that they could be a good team in a few years if they're able to somehow get some other guys over. There's not many free agents out there. I know, I don't know what they have in the pipeline, but buddy, if they get rid of Evanston and Larkin, oh, buddy, they're right back

top five worst teams in the league again. What's the issue with the Illich family? Because everything you ever hear about the Illich is dead. I know Mike Illich was an all-time legend, Stanley Cups, and his son, Chris, I don't know. I've never met him. I don't know anything. I don't know why they're saying sell the team.

Like, I don't know what has involved. The thing, too, is, is like, I don't think they should have got rid of Eisenman when they got rid of Eisenman because they didn't have, well, one, they didn't have a backup plan. So why I do that? And I don't know if part of it had to do with maybe there was that, like, I don't want to call it internal conflict, but like, what was going on between him and Larkin? Do you think that that had anything to do with the fact that they let him go? I'm not sure. Yeah, that's what you have to wonder. if ownership wanted Stevie Y out.

And that's why they're saying sell the team. I just don't know what the issue. Because the Illich family was like the first group I've ever heard players talking about. I want to thank the Illich family. Like when they won their cups and everything. So maybe it's the Illiches wanted Stevie Y out. That's why the fans are mad. But that's something I haven't heard.

I think the main reason is kind of what we're getting around that nobody has a clue. You know, and there's just a lot. There's just so much going on that the fans are just kind of like, All right, we've had enough. But back to San Jose and the Shark Tank and watching that team, I couldn't believe it. They got Will Smith and Celebrini out there PKing now. Ten seconds into, I think, Will Smith's first shift on the PK,

he snipes on a beautiful pass from Celebrini. He then gets a power play goal. Nurse is involved when Barkoff hurt his knee. I don't think it was anything, you know, wasn't anything malicious, but he's right there. Truba's throwing a flying elbow to Reinhardt as he's driving the net. and this team followed by a shirt is it shershernov the Russian he gets two goals and the OT winner on Saturday night they look awesome and it's more about the building dude when we when we played and we've talked about this buddy Metallica was pumping and the and until the 10 minute mark in the first period you just prayed you weren't down to nothing not one nothing to nothing they're coming flying out of the shark the fans are rabid and all of a sudden you're on your heat you're on your heat you're on your heat you're on your heat you're on your heat you're on you and it seemed like it's looking the exact same way again.

I think that Stenberg had his first point on Saturday in the NHL on an absolute beauty of a dish to fully with a complete tap-in. Celebrating two more assists in the second game. I just love their moves in the offseason. It's very early, but more atmosphere-wise, it's like there is no longer a walk-in-the-park night in San Jose. Like, they're back. They got to sign Will Smith, because if he keeps this pace up,

he's going to be getting a Leo Carlson deal. Like, they have to get that done now, no? You would think that would be on, on Greersey's radar. Mike Greer's done a great job. Unbelievable. You talk about the guys they have from this draft that aren't even in the NHL yet either. Yeah.

Yeah. Denver, somewhere else too. And I just think that Will Smith, who had played center his entire life, right? Like, does he want to play center? I think he's probably like, I'll chill in the right wing with Matt and celebrate. Yeah. I'm fine here. but if he doesn't sign, yeah, there could be a monster offer sheet there for sure.

I just think that it's so cool for that fan base who, you know, had some great times without a cup, and then we're back into the doldrums, and then one draft pick changes it all. And now it's like, holy shit, the sharks are fun to watch. And that first two games, like it's electric hockey. That Panther Sharks game, it was like a playoff hockey game. It was great. It was awesome. Oh, yeah.

I know how good Celebrini is at just turning defense into offense. You saw it against Florida. he stripped, I think it was Matthew or picked off his, picked off a pass, boom, three strides he's gone. Then they get that two on one goal. And then he did it in the last game. O T.

As O T. Byfield. Byfield, he was 6, 9, 220 pounds. And then he's just boom, gone. He's so responsible, but so good offensively. He is probably the most, if you're going to watch hockey, you're watching him. Hey, how about Bizz, how he pushes it,

just with that one hand. Like, when he doesn't need to dust it off, he gets that high. high right hand, he just pushes it as he's going. He pushed by the people. Like there's nothing. Yeah, all the best players now when they need space, like there's no handling of the puck, dude.

It's just pushing it and going. And, um, yeah, going back on a nice goal though, Biz, he did. That was a snout. He did. Bifield looked good. And going back to that game against Florida, um, like the reason why you need Truba and, uh, and, uh, and, uh, Darnel Nurse.

You see, I think it was Barkoff who hit him initially. And maybe it was Kach who came in afterward. but who did who did trouba go and grab and scrap Brady oh Brady it was Brady yeah not Matthew it was Brady and like just like to stick up for your teammate like that it was great watching that game it was really cool to see Mason Marchman score that first goal for him too like they're posting all the pictures of his dad when he played there and he had Mason on the ice so it was pretty cool to see that nostalgic photo and I'm sure it meant a lot to him in an emotional night in his first game with the sharks but yeah I thought I actually

thought that LA played a great game. I thought they controlled the majority of that play in overtime, too. They had the puck the entire time, but it comes back down to, uh, I, I also really liked Mesa's play. Yeah, he had maybe a couple turnovers there, but he looks poised and ready. So that's why when you say, like, Larkin, are you saying, like, have Misa, have Sellebrini and also potentially bring in Larkin? And like, what, what would you give up for him? Because, like, I really like that Russian kid, uh, who Celebrini set up in overtime for that goal. Yeah. Like they got some good young pieces.

So like if that's something that you're looking for with like, like, or maybe it was you who said at Yans, who would you look to send back the other way? I know, because their draft picks has been so good. And you want to, you know, build through the guys that you draft. Yeah. So maybe they wouldn't even want them and they're happy with what they got. But I don't know if you drop Wenberg and Wenberg's a great player. He's, uh, if you drop him down a lot,

Everyone just gets dropped down one little line. And I think, I mean, then Mises on your fourth line. Jesus Christ. Yeah, I don't know. I haven't played wing like Will Smith. I just think looking at that roster and then the D they brought in, it's a hell of a team. Like they are fun to watch.

And it was funny boys. In other news, we got a text from J.T. Miller after the 5-1 win with Igor Shasturkin scoring a goal, the Rangers winning saying, What the fuck is spitting chicklets going to talk about now that the Rangers won and we scored? Basically a giant fuck you to us, which, hey, we were wrong. I think we thought they were getting shut out at home. They get a big win. A game in which Coop said it looked like we were still on summer break.

Like summer's over, basically. I don't know what the hell that was. And then the Rangers, they rebound. They win again against Detroit 2-0. So looking pretty good. But Chesterk is scoring a goal? I didn't know we had that in him. Is he known as a good puck handler?

Yeah, he's pretty good. I think he's hunted for one before. So I believe the 21st goalie in NHL history to score a goal, he has now completed the Gordyhow Hattrick through his first career. Oh, yeah, he had the fight last year. He was asked about whether it was more special to score or the fight. He says, I do find myself watching the fight a lot, but I didn't have to get punched in the face, so I'm going to say the goal.

Yeah. So really cool moment for him, especially in a home opener at MSG. that kind of gets their mojo going after that disappointing start they had on the road in Boston. But man, they look good. They were playing really well connected. Cooley looked incredible. Perot. That Perot was moving nice.

Yep. And a D man who, I think it's his fourth team in six years, I love that Dersie. Had a nice fight against Detroit. I think he had two goals against Detroit. Did you see that? One got called back. Oh, drag a leg, buddy. I know.

There's not only the worse. That was the worst one I've ever seen. Holy fuck. Well, the worst one I ever saw actually was this morning when the puck went to the neutral zone and Wyatt Whitney stayed in front of the net in the offensive zone banging his stick for it. And a kid went to pass to him with that one got blown down. But yeah, the non-drag leg drag on the Jersey other goal that got called back. That was interesting.

Yeah, the Rangers, good for them. And JT's just, he's giving it to us. We're going to hear from him a lot. JT keeps running his mouth. We're going to drop the unedited version of the sandbagger and he'll be fucking done. Did I tell you guys that Dolan's kid reached out about trying to get us in a box there

and basically recruit us on the Fugazis? Let's go. Is that also, is that, that, that's like the olive branch out to us, with us at barstool? Like, we're alive. I got to do it. I have a major lack of trust when I get messages like this. Like, I think that I'm being fucked with.

It's fully. that's what I'm saying. I think it's somebody fucking with me and I don't believe it to the point where I'm like, oh yeah, yeah. I said, let's jump on a Zoom call to discuss because I want to be able to see the person's face and see if it's actually real.

Smart movements. Should we maybe try to line up a Zoom call to potentially shake hands? I met him a couple of years ago at a Rangers game and he spent like 10 minutes talking about how much he hates you and how much his dad hates you and how much they'll never let you in the arena. so this could be a prank, but this could also be the bloods in the Crips coming together.

Wait, was this a DM or a text? No, it was a text. Call that number right now. Yeah, FaceTime it. FaceTime it. No, because don't face time. You got to FaceTime. If they don't answer, they don't own an NFL team, do they?

They're not doing it. They're not watching NFL right now. Man, thinking of us with the Rangers in a box with a Dolan? It's a no-brainer. That is wild. This is the first message I got for him from. What's up, Fugazi? So we're going to MSG.

I'll be back from college for a bunch of games this year. Is he in college, G? He's like 30 years old, I think. The kid I met was pretty young. He was pretty young. Let me look it up. I go, let's do it. I said, how was summer?

He goes insane. Got our first ring. Was drunk for like 75% of it. Nick's championship. So that's when I was like, okay, all right, maybe here. So later on, I said, he goes, let me know if you're free for a call soon. I got to have a convo with you. And I said, would you be able to do a Zoom next week?

He said, yeah, 100%, just can't be recorded. Here's the kicker. So this was on Tuesday, September 8th. So no contact after that. Tuesday, September 15th, hey, biz, looks like I have to put our meeting off till when we do it in person. I have to run it by my dad along with our PR people. Considering you're in media, this is just protocol, unfortunately. But I don't see a reason you and the fellas couldn't come hang for a night.

They might be setting up to have us murked. Hey, I think that's him. I don't think he knows the beef. I think that's him. He knows the beef. He was telling G about the beef. Yeah, he's got like five sons. He's got a bunch of sons.

So it could definitely be in. Five kids? He's got Ryan, Aiding, Charles, Quentin Harrison, and Casey. What did he say his name was? he never did he did what's up that's sketchy that's sketchy uh part of me really hopes it's him right yeah we can figure something else here and then a probably bigger part of me hopes you're getting just completely punked by somebody and i just said which son is this yeah last text message september 8th should i call the number yeah face time it if he's in college and he's

getting a face time from you right now he's loving it i mean he probably as if this isn't the son that's running the Rangers now, you know, he could talk to his, he could talk to his older brother and his older brother could be like, you're done, you're done from the family, buddy. We don't speak about them. He's like, you texted biz?

Biz. Oh, okay, we got an answer here. You're live to tape. You got to tell him that. You're live to tape, but we can edit it. Live to tape. We're on chicklets. Oh, I can't be on chicklets.

Okay. I'm in trouble. Okay. Are you actually Dolan's son? Let's talk to you. Okay. Okay, fair. I think it's him. I think it's him.

I think it's him and I also think that right there, that shows the fear of God that has been put into that family about spitting Chickleton barstool sports. But hey, like G. mentioned, Bloods and Crips, if they can figure it out at one point in life, we can too.

Because the Rangers are humming. The Rangers are humming. I'm kind of just being a little bit of a slut for all the original six teams right now. I mentioned potentially Detroit. I'd never joined Boston, but New York, which is, I think the best city in the world. Quick shout out.

I forgot to mention talking about San Jose, because they beat Florida and they beat the Kings, and the Kings game was awesome as well. I said in the preseason previews, Panarin with La Violette. Have you seen Panarin so far? He's been dancing. That was a beautiful one-timer last night.

He looks incredible. And Byfield gave him that dish. He kind of whiffed on the pass a little bit. still ripped that thing home. So Panarin looks awesome. The kings might be better than I thought they were. Funny boy, Clark Lee looks good too. They got the funniest guy in the league.

Best laugh in the league, Brant Clark buzzing around, pissing people off. Okay. I want to bring in Pasha right now. Because an incredible home opener for the New Jersey Devils boys. Like the arena was alive.

They were flying. Jack Hughes looked incredible. He scored. I think he had 10 shots on. net or 10 shot attempts. He had the puck the whole game. When he has the puck too, I think Bucciagas mentioned it. Where did I see him say?

It wasn't on the broadcast. It might have been on his show with Frank Zara Valli. Like he puts him up there with McKinnon and McDavid in terms of creating magic when he has the puck. Like when Jack Hughes is going, he is dancing. It's constantly like out skating guys. His hands are so good. That given go with Brat was so filthy.

Little sauce. He gives it back to him. The fact he chucks the. thick in the stands and a guy in the Hughes USA like talk about making it look like it's the devil's year no they then get trounced by the islanders 6-0 the next game

just a pathetic loss but but the home opener was amazing except for one moment and Jack Hughes is being interviewed I'm going to say this AJ Malesco okay awesome person she was an incredible player in her in her own right awesome career

she does a really good job she just whiffed on this one and and I think that the feedback online of the people supporting her and chirping Jack Hughes was like, take a joke. It's like, hey, when you have been injured constantly throughout your career in the middle of a game to even have an injury mentioned to you, it's just not kosher.

It's like there was one tweet that kind of went viral that was like, what would he say if Biz and Witt asked him? It's like he would do the exact same thing. He would probably be even more angry because, you know, we played in the NHL and know how mentally, frustrating injuries can be. So his reaction, I didn't think it was out of line at all. I think it was just a bad joke. It just didn't land. It's one of those. Even if you're not prone to injury

and you haven't been hurt, like just the to mention injuries during like right before. To put it out there at all. Yeah. It's just not. Yeah. Like you said, it's not coach. I felt bad for it because like you said, AJ's a great, great human. Like I went to her charity this summer. She has a great charity event in Antsocke. Just a all-time person. And it's just she messed up. It was a blender and a blunder and, you know, she'll be back. She'll be better than, you know, I'm sure she felt horrible about it, right? So obviously feel bad for her. I thought she did an unreal job, like, finishing out the rest of the game where, like,

that would fucking, like, I would be like in shambles a little bit. Mind you, I've asked some pretty stupid stuff on air too. So, like, I'm not like innocent of that as well. But in the same breath, kind of help promote the game because the fucking online was blowing up so everybody probably turned that game on and Jack Hughes is putting on an absolute clinic so a couple clicks for AJ for growing the game with that one. And Pasha, you could take her face off a dartboard in your apartment now because like, I know you were overreacting to that, but you had to be very excited with how they looked.

They dominated that first game. I'd love to hear your opinions on the six nothing lost to the islanders as well. Quickly, quickly shut out to Murals because the minute it left her mouth, he goes, Hughes is going to get the winner now. and it just, it set it all up. Over time, did we, did we mention the fact that Kinectne tried to block the house into the crowd? That is so petty.

He had, DeKembe Mutumbo, that thing. It would have been, it would have been even a better clip. Jack Hughes must have known that guy was sitting there because you look, he kind of like did a turn and then went right to that guy and threw a tape to tape because that's what he does and boom right in the guy's hand. He said he spotted him earlier in the game. During the shift, he saw him. He was like, I'm going to scorn. go and throw this guy is just looking for birds in the crowd is oh hey but i'll tell you what pasha

when hughes went down low and stole the puck from sanheim like sanheim can skate dude he blew away from him like i don't know if there's the end of the shift for sanheim but like the separation speed was incredible there yeah well the devils looked incredible that that first game as biz said they're under the hood metrics were through the roof um so thank god they got that win last night different story. A little bit of PTSD last night. The last time they're at UBS, they lost 9-0, now 6-0. And it was a 0-0 game, and Jack gets tangled up, goes headfirst into the boards. And as he's going to the room, the Islander's score. And my heart just sank. I'm like, is this really fucking happening again? Thankfully, he just cut his lip. But yeah, last night, you know, again, they were kind of dominant.

And then once they got scored on, the wheels fell off. So it's not great to see. But they didn't give up a touchdown. So that's good. And it's two games in. So I'm not willing to overreact. No, they did give up a touchdown. Six points for a touchdown. Very true. Very true. They missed the PAT. Hit the upright. They blocked the PAT. Yes. But too soon to panic. You know, I got to give them seven, eight games. They got new guys of Angelista, Manta, trying to get chemistry figured out. Bulltending last night a little bit suspect. I'm not going to lie. I did pick up my phone to tweet, I rakeef, but then I reel myself

back in and realize I did my head very kind. To get my head level. Frank the tank was losing it too. I thought you were going to come on here. I thought you were going to come on here. First thing say, if you guys watch Luke Hughes right now. Yeah, he looked great in that first game. And the second game, he tilts

the ice. He fucking is dominant. He, I would say, going to the year was the biggest catalyst of having to take a huge step to take this team to the next level. And again, two games only, but he looks like he's taking that next step. His skating, his confidence, he's finally getting shots through. I felt like last year, every shot he took was blocked. So if he can continue this play, I think this guy's the limit for this kid. So he has been a huge bright spot. Big test Tuesday against the mammoth, because the

mammoth look great. Oh, the mammoth. That can be a shit kicking by that game last day. It will not be. They look like an all-star team. I think every, I think every player on the ice touch the puck every time they scored in that 4-1 win against Columbus. I could see that being like a 6-5 game. You have to watch the, they had three power play goals, I believe. It was a joke last one.

The last power play goal was one of the most tick, tack-toe power play goals I've ever seen. Was that Gunther's? That was Gunther's second. Gunther, Gunther, Cooley, Keller, Surgachev. Is it Lee?

That's the net front? I'm not exactly sure, but they are snapping it around. And like that team, they look awesome so far. Fast as shit, man. Fast as shit. They can play. I mean, we talked about what

Weig said before the season and like how the group of guys they're all on the same page. Like, I think that two games in, they got, I mean, they dominated the blue jacket. Shots were two to one. Nyes looks good. Shout out Matthew Nyes on his first two games.

But go ahead. Kosa got his first win. First NHL start and first win, go figure, A. They're going to get fraud on Tuesday, so don't get two horned. up, boys. Going back to quickly to New Jersey, I love Timo Meyer. He just needs

a little more finish. He must have had fucking eight 10 bell chances in the first two games. He can't finish. That is the story of Timom Meyer the last few years. It's so frustrating as the devil's fan. He generates so many chances. He's so good. And the guy just can't fucking finish. I don't, like, you

guys play, like, is that just who he is? The guy can't finish? Is that something you can get better at in the summer? Because if so, like, why is he not been doing that? But like, it's a year, it's Three years now, the guy, fucking point blank chances, all these chances, he cannot finish. I probably see the last guy to ask here. I think all of us. Well, yeah, none of us.

But, dude, coming off 20. He's got more goals than me now. They're 28 goals. He had 28. 26. Than me. 24. Like, you're talking, this guy can't finish.

And he's getting that. Like, so you're looking for 35. 40. Oh, buddy, I'm telling you why I watch every game. This guy could be having 40 plus. the amount of chances he's getting and not burying. And he has a 40-goal score a few years, like five years ago or something. So it's very frustrating.

I mean, I would be more frustrated if he was invisible and not generating chances. But just like seeing him buzz so hard and every year I'm like, okay, this is the year he's going to start finishing them. I don't know. Maybe that's just who he is. I don't think that's something you can kind of work on in the summer. It's like you're either born with it or you're not. Like just having that ability to bury it any.

Like you see the certain guys have that ability. and I mean, you're still getting 25, 30 goals. Like, you cut the guy a little fucking slack, Pasha. No, I know. It was more about just in the first two games where, and I've noticed Pasha saying it since they traded him from San Jose, like how much he generates and how many chances he gets. He just has a hard time sometimes fine in the back of the net where, yeah,

if like he's scoring on more of his operative, like what's his shooting percentage been the last couple years? Like I'd be interested to see what it's been. Last year was way below his career average. Yeah. So that's kind of just from the first. couple games. It's a team-wide issue for years now. Like against

Philly you saw it like thank God they won but those skate laps around teams and dominate and then the team will just come down after being hemmed in and score and I've seen that too much where it's like it's a team wide issue of finishing. Outside of him is there anybody that you would like who's better

who's the best guy like net front like disrupting the hard areas because you talk about skating circles. One thing I did notice they do tend to hang out in the perimeter. a little bit more than usual. So is there, like you look at like the mammoth picking up Anders Lee and certain guys who are just really good in front, they take a lot of focus away sometimes where guys

are able to bury on those rebound chances or even in tipping chances to just create more traffic. Well, Mantah, the big body that brought him in for that, he put a screen on on Dougie Hamilton's goal and he looked at his goals last year in Pittsburgh. Most of them were net front tips, rebounds using his size. So hopefully he'll continue to provide that. but I would say that like, yeah, they need more of that. Nico's great kind of net front bumper tips, but he's not a huge body.

But they are missing. They need to get greased your goals, take the goalie's eyes away. Even a five on five, that's not even just power play. Like five on five you have to have guy. Even like I look at a guy like Mercer who plays hard, grittier player. Like he should just be parked in front of that net during a five on five ship banging away. But yeah, looking at their lineup, it's kind of, you know, besides Manta, you're like, who's the big body that will go to the net,

get these greasy goals. And we all know, like to score in playoffs, you have got to score like that. So maybe they go out and get someone. Quickly, I do need to apologize in the mammoth. It's Schmaltz that's on that unit.

And it was his goal that was the Tick-Tacto one. He got two last thing. 500 career points, I think he got. What? 500 points already? Keller got 600. Yeah. In like 689 games.

Oh. So do you remember a few years ago? And I'm not trying to bring it back to Leafs. It was just because I was watching him a lot, where Matthews is scoring a lot from where he was basically by like the goal line. And like maybe even in some cases outside the dot. The Leon. If yeah, Leon does it a lot too. Watch the mammoth. How much they snap it around and hit seams. I've noticed like four or five of their goals so far. They got those guys back door on bad angles. Like Schmaltese first to open things up in in Columbus. Like it squeaks in the side. It's so

hard for that goalie to go post to post where even if he does get a piece of it, sometimes it finds the back of the net. So mammoth look like the globe trotters right now, especially when they're on the man advantage. Even five on five they do it sometimes. So a great job of finding that loose spot. It's kind of like the new slot area in the NHL. And in terms of also looking like a wagon, the Colorado Avalanche are they're actually trucking people right now. St. Louis had a great win. I would say a team early. on, real early on, two games. Dallas has been like, I don't know.

It's not, it looks slow. Biz was on that one, but St. Louis went in there, took easy, easy care of them. And Biz, you mentioned that McTavish goal was nice. He got them going. So then they're going to Colorado. All right. Big winning against Dallas.

Colorado blew him out of the building. The McCar first goal, the game was incredible passing on that play. I don't remember who snapped. Oh, I think McKin. No, Nett just gave it over to him. McKinnon. catches to his backhand, over a tapping from a car.

So the aves right now is like, oh, we got Bednar signed, and we are ready to go. So just wanted to shout them out quick because they're in that. I poked a bear a little bit there. You poked a bear. Minnesota looks like a playoff team, too.

Just want to mention that. Going back to Colorado, I would be interested to see how many games they have this year where a team is on a back-to-back and they got them just teed up at home. Like St. Louis, they had that big win in Dallas,

and then they got to fly, play in Colorado the next night. Like I would have bet the fucking like the house on that. And they are just absolutely buzzing. They, they look like the Globetrotter. So the first mammoth abs game, which they're playing in the outdoor,

the Winter Classic this year, that needs to be sold out. That has to be fucking packed to the tits. That is going to be so fun to watch. That, that is going to be a high flying action right there. Keith, who did you text the group about this week for Murals to check out?

back-to-back's teams getting to play? I think it was Montreal. They have like 19 games where they're playing a team on the back-to-back and they're not playing the night before. Okay. All right. So, yeah, that's a nice little schedule. That's an under the hood. That's big time under the hood. If you're coming from the U.S. going through customs, you get in a little bit later than normal going.

Yeah, those are good under the hood stats for some betting. How about the kid, what's it, Dvorsocky in St. Louis? Yeah, Dallivor. The Vorski looks nice. He's a handsome kid, too. Yeah, he was a high pick. Yeah, I think so. So that Jura check, too, I didn't realize there was two of them.

Did you see the comments by Monty about his game? Oh, he was smooth. He played really well in Dallas. I watched that game. He said he honestly, I think he said he reminds him of McCar and Quinn Hughes. Oh, like his skating and his ability. I was like, whoa, and I did see him. He is smooth as silk.

But I was like, that is like, mention him those two names. is a little crazy. You know what I like the most about about that night is he scores the goal and then they deem it offside and at that time that would have put him up three nothing so they're only up two nothing against Dallas at this point and he's smiling with the guys on the ice

like taking the piss about it. Like that tells me how much confidence this guy has and how like sometimes to have like a low give a fuck meter where you could just let that stuff like water off a duck's back that tells me like you have the jam. He played really. really, really nice. He's a younger brother than the one in Philadelphia then, right?

Oh, they're brothers? Yeah, I think they're brothers. It's correct. He's the younger brothers to be younger. Oh, I didn't know that. Yeah. Okay. Yeah, 16th pick in 2024.

So, um, some big shoes to fill now. Guys, we got to talk Pink Whitney right now. That's it. Pinkies up. We're going to be announcing our winner pretty soon of the contest for the greatest pinky out there,

the money, the billboard, it all. But even if you didn't win, or don't win, you can still enjoy Pink Whitney with the rest of us. Chicklet's Cup is this weekend. We're going to be crushing it. It's going to be everywhere. Celebratory shots for nice goals.

You know the winning teams are going ham on Pink Whitney that Saturday night at the Harpoon Brewery. Shout out Pink Whitney. Shout out mixing it with ice, a little bit of soda water sometimes. I go just Pink Whitney on ice. Once the ice melts, it's perfect. But there's so many different ways. You could even throw in a little lemonade if you want.

You want to double that up. You can do it. You can do whatever you want. Pink Whitney, the little shooters, the big old bottles. It doesn't matter. As long as you go give it a shot if you haven't. And if you have, thank you so much. I hope you enjoy it.

And I hope you appreciate how much we love you. Us here at Spitting Chickens, love you because you love Pink Whitney. So Pinky's up to everyone out there. And always give me a Pinkies up if you run into me somewhere. I appreciate it. I'll even dapp you up with my pinky. That's what we'll do. Pinky's up for Pink Whitney forever.

Since we're talking Central, we have to talk about this Bauer kid. Oh, yeah. Can we play the interview, G, or no? Ty, your first NHL game, your first NHL fight. What was that moment like and what was it like for the guys to come over to the box after? Yeah, surreal. Surreal, you know, it goes a lot more than just the actual physical act of fighting. You know, I've been fighting a long time to get here.

I've stayed in that fight. That was for my teammates. that was for my family. That was for this city for keeping faith in me. So I'm super grateful. I will run through a brick wall for that kid. I'm moving to Manitoba. I heard before the game, he was being interviewed and then like thanking the people for interviewing. I'm like, thank you for taking the time and interview me.

Like just so grateful to be in the NHL, man. I fucking love it. If you guys want to watch some tilts, go watch his hockey fights. Go to hockey fights.com. He's had ones with Galant and the Miners. like he's pretty much fought every guy in the minors to get to where he is. He fights Castellic, right? That's who he ended up lighten up, like it looked like he bloodied up his nose.

And then today, as we're recording, he just gets in one with Colossar and he gives him two left to the face. This kid. He's a maniac, buddy. He's, I think he's automatic top 10 scrappers right now in the league. He's played two fucking games. Beautiful. To hear a kid who like, just the gratitude he had. And the other thing I thought was I was like, this is a future coach.

It, like, it reminded me like Paul Maurice talks. Now, is this crazy considering he's a rookie in the NHL right now? But, like, the way he kind of, like, he just had so much, like, what, pizzazz? Is that the, what are the kids swag? Oh, yeah. Like, just like the gratitude. And then you go through his career, I mean, five years in Manitoba. So he mentions, like, I've been fighting for this.

I'm guessing he was an overager in Seattle. He was a captain two years in a row. there. He wore the A of the year before that. So four full years in the in the WHL, parts of five seasons, but like that's a kid. Yeah, dude, I have been fighting to get here, not just physically. Like there were plenty

six round pick. What are the odds on a sixth rounder makes the NHL? 2%. Especially after four years in the minors too. Gee, do that aura. That was the word I was looking for. Gee, do the AI work of percentage chance of making the NHL

as a sixth round pick. So, man, That's, that's a guy. I didn't even know we'd already fought today since we started this corner. Yeah, that's a good jersey. That's a great jersey, buddy. He's going to be such a legend there. And with all like the dark cloud of the hell of buck stuff and like uncertainty of how the season's going to go and, you know, just how that market's been in general,

that is such a bright spot and a good story and something to galvanize that group, my favorite word. By the way, Chicklet's memes woke up on some Cougars couch this morning, I'm sure. and he text the group chat. He goes, kind of feels like a Kyle Connor Hattrick game. Playing against his, he's a Michigan guy, right?

Yeah. He's a Michigan boy. Does he have a goal? In Detroit, he's got two right now. Shut the fuck up. I took it. I think that Kyle, he's got two fucking goals.

He's got the primary on the first too. So he's got a goal or two goals in an apple. Is it three nothing? Three nothing midway through the second right now. Detroit is, uh, they're going to be. on waivers pretty soon. But

Gans, you said that you made the bet. Yeah. 100%. What are the odds? When somebody throws that out at you in the morning, like you know, he was just dusting off the eyes, splashing some water in the face, and that comes to somebody's head, you have to take that bet.

Well, he also was on, I don't know, he was still mangled from the night before because I sent to the group boys, like Twitter is so ruthless to guys who don't play well. Like, algorithm basically just shows me random burner accounts carving players in all pro leagues. But specifically I'm getting more NHL stuff.

I was like, these guys, they can't be on Twitter or Instagram like while you're playing, right? Like what, because you're seeing it. There's no doubt you're seeing it. And memes is like, yeah, man. And now and now it's not just tweets with words. Like there's memes and stuff, dude. I go, yeah, buddy, that's literally you. That's because of you.

What are you talking about? It's because of your name. It's your fucking. on your first certificate. Yeah, man. And they're getting meme now. It's like, what? You created this entire world of just meming people to death.

So. Okay, here's the career for a sixth round pick to play one NHL game, 30%. I can't believe that. I can't believe that's true. 30%. Just one game, though. Yeah, but one in three, six rounders or, you know, one and three and a half players in the six round play an NHL game.

That's surprising. 100 plus NHL games 15%. I never would have guessed that either. But hey, those are guys that stay in the fight like Bauer. Less than 1% of 6th rounders play 1,000 NHL games. But the thing I was going to say about players staying off their phone to, you know, not get meme to death, I would imagine Elias Pedersen has been off his phone the way that he's been playing. And he is fucking dialed in, focused.

And it looks like looks like. looks like the Pedersen of the past. On top of that, he's got a fucking mean streak going now. That hit that he laid on the Calgary player to turn it over to go back for the other way for a goal. This is a new look Pedersen. Yeah. It's honestly how he played his first couple.

He was ruthless with the reverse check, like the Forsberg. He was ruthless with that and he'd come high at you. I remember him, like if you went to go hit him, he would jump up and try to get you and get you good. So it's good to see his mean streak right now. and it's Vancouver, I mean, obviously the two games against Edmonton were fun to watch just because it was pure crack hockey.

But, you know, they got something good going, man. It looks like they're playing hard for Malhotra. Like they're, they look like a galvanized group. I told you, I can't quit him. I can't quit him how good he was. He leads the league and hits right now, fellas. Eli is Pedersen. I think he has five points already that hit he threw in center ice the Saturday night.

It led right to a goal for Vancouver. Yep. And then they got a picture. of him on the bench, he's get the helmet off, and people are saying, look at the look in his eyes, it's back. And you know what, Mani Malhotra, a guy who was drafted super high, but made his bones in the league as a checking center. Like, that is somebody I would think that could get through to him.

Like, dude, your skill's still there. Like, just grind it out a little bit more. And then the offense comes maybe a little bit easier. So a lot of heat taken for him. So let's give him some flowers when he starts a year like this, dude. Good for him. That's probably for him. just getting a new GM, new coat.

I mean, he's had a couple new coaches, but they probably sat him down. We're like, dude, we need you to play meaner. We need you to hit guys. That's when, you know, now you can get through all the stats. It's like, listen, when you're hitting guys, your percentage of playing better is whatever, 10%. So it's just having those conversations, I would think.

And RJ seems like one of those guys that he's having conversations with his players of what you want to expect from them. And it's working for them. He's playing great hockey both ways of the ice. You mean like when you're playing more physical, even if you're not getting points, you just kind of feel more engaged and more involved. Yeah,

and they probably have the stats to back it up. It's like, dude, you're, because you do feel more involved in the game. If you're not getting points and you're getting in on the forecheck, creating space, making guys uncomfortable,

even as a skill guy, it, I mean, everybody else on the team sees it too, right? Like when your highest pay players out there running guys, so it's good for the group. I know.

He had eight hits in that game against Calgary, and I think he has 16 total over three. How many? all last year. That's a great question. Eight. All right. Rick Talker was a six-round pick.

There's a lot of sneaky six-rounders. I think Zetterberg got two. I thought that was the seventh. I thought that was the seventh round. Maybe. Maybe. Had sneak bombs. Hey, you know, either way.

Montreal, Pittsburgh, Saturday night, boys. Pittsburgh, grew texting. Was that Thursday? Or was that after the first game again that you had Wednesday biz? Like, they got some guys, some random guys. pretty good. They got more. They got some more now. Now they were up 5-1 kind of laughing at Montreal and all of a sudden Montreal ties that thing up and Malcolm make it with a beautiful pass, I think, in overtime and the penguins get it done. But do you think that, do you think being

down 5-1 in that game like a lot of that comeback has to do with St. Louis? Like I, I'm thinking like as a coach and like your not respect level, but like, you're, how you're, how you, how you, you connect with your coach, like what he's saying to them at intermission, I think that there's not a lot of coaches that can inspire guys for a comeback like that. Maybe I'm, maybe you guys disagree. But with the clips that came out last year, with a clip I saw recently saying, like, he says something like, I'm the most jealous man in the room watching you guys, like live out your dreams. I think it was from playoffs. Like, I think he has a lot to do with a team that's able to, where a lot of teams are packing it in, like, oh, it wasn't our night. They come back and get a point.

It's pretty legit for Montreal. It's either good coaching or good leadership. Because you know sometimes when you're getting trunks like that, the coach doesn't even come in, and then your leaders are speaking. You bring in a guy like Chris Kreider, obviously Suzuki being the leader of that team. So I'd put just as much on the players in the locker room too,

whether they're either listening to what Marty's saying or they're doing it themselves. That's a group that just wants to play hockey, man. Like they just want to go out there, have fun, play hockey, play hard. So I would give a lot of the credit to the to the leadership group Because dude, when you're down like that Most of the time you're like, yeah, you're like, all right, let's just get this one over with But to, you know, have the jam to come back up and make it a game, get it to overtime, get a point.

That's huge for a group. No doubt. I wanted to see what happened. Did you see Suzuki and Crosby going at it? They're barking at each of them. Crosby was getting a little fiery. He was right before the face off. He was like, do something about it.

Something like that. I was like, whoa, I wouldn't, I missed one. what happened though um so yeah one thing though you like you go game one wednesday like sid takes that hit they end up scoring that goal and then if you look at the goal that he he assisted on um yesterday i forget who scored the goal but his just like he's in and around the net he fucking pokes it loose he goes around the net he has a second effort at it a third effort at it it springs loose and then they pot the goal and i think it might have been sam gerard's goal yeah but like it was he is he is so fucking tenacious

to have that many points and to be the age that he's at and the way that he still gets points, you talk about, like, we were talking about the net front presence earlier with New Jersey. Like, he has to be probably, like, as far as skill, one of the best net front guys of all time, whether it's him off the side tipping those pucks in where he just kind of taps it and it, and it springs in, but he will compete his dick off till the end, I'll tell you. And it's probably nice for him because everybody, has so much respect for him. Like the D aren't going to work him

over as much as they would another guy just because of the respect level. So he, I mean, obviously he's been doing it forever. And I'm sure in the beginning of his career, he was getting tortured by the big, you know, Darien Hatchez of the league. But just to have that little extra space and he takes advantage of it, right? Like he knows what he's doing.

He knows that you got to score goals. You've got to go in front of the net and create havoc. A guy who scored in that game, Declan Carlisle. I was like, who's this? I was with Bill Ryan. and watch it and he's like, he played at Maramac. I didn't realize he had 41 games with Tampa last year. And then mainly in Syracuse, though,

and for a few years comes in, he looks great. So it's like Pittsburgh, I think Biz Texan, I think Dubas might be a genius. And also, I think it was Army saying, I think it's the fact that you're, like, you're walking into a locker room and Sid's there and you know he's only got so much time left. I cannot let this guy down.

And I also want to impress this guy and him to remember that we even played together. Yeah. That's like, that's like numero uno. Like don't fuck it up. And if we, if we're in a playoff race, this guy's sticking around. He ain't going nowhere. Gee, tough loss for your Bruins in Minnesota.

But Petrka with the OT winner in Winnipeg, another nice goal. When he took off from the defensive zone in OT, I had no idea he was that fast. Yeah, he's, he's looked so good, man. It's like the Bruins haven't outside of Posner knock. It seems like the Bruins haven't had like a dynamic. skilled, fast, elite winger like this in so long. Yeah. Yeah. Hagan's got his first too, right? Hagen's got his first. Nice. It was in, it was around the net front.

You know who, you don't look good to it? I'd like to hear your opinion on this, but Mason Lurai, I was very impressed. I've been saying, I've been saying this guy has, now, he can skate, he's got huge range, he's got vision, he has some of the most incredible pizzas you've ever seen. last game. And he had one last game. So it's almost like, all right, you know, let's say every four games, you're getting large cheese fresh out of the oven, like piping hot.

But you know what? You take the good with the bad. And there are times with the way he moves, it looks pretty nice out there. Yeah, I mean, he started playing defense when he was at Ohio State too. He's still pretty new to the position. So it's like he's still got a long way to go. that's why he's described as raw, right? So I've been impressed.

I like what I've seen from the Bs so far. Mikey D. Pietro, too, the backup looks great. Oh, didn't he give up four last night? Gave up three, but he played incredible. Okay. The fourth was an empty netter, but I thought he played incredible. Zedorovs looked really good to me.

He's been up in the play a ton, creating offense. And obviously, when he's in the D zone, he's so big and strong, like he just pins guys to the boards and they can't move. But I like the fact that he's up in the play as much as he is. like when he, because he's a really skill guy.

I used to skate with him in the summer. Like he's a really skill guy, but now he's like, he's staying around in the offensive zone. He's not just getting it up and going back. Like he's hanging around on net run. He's a force when he's doing it too. Because it's just so big, has that long reach. But it was good to see towards the end of the game there that Sturm started playing

Minton alongside Posternock and Paterka because Linholm is, he's just, he's too slow. He slows that line down, especially with the speed that Perturka brings. I'd rather see him bump back to the third line there. Mitten's been making place. Mitten datsu, baby. Pavelle. Clifton was given an interview. He was like, I didn't know Zadorov was this good.

He was like, I had no idea. He was this fast and that he was this skill. It was kind of funny to see a player who just played against him be like, whoa. I mean, man, that playoff he had in Vancouver, he was ridiculous. Yeah, yeah, that's serious. He gets Edmonton. A couple goals against Edmonton. He was buzzing up and down the ice.

Yeah, he's, and like, he'll handle his own. business he'll get in your face play a physical and he does he does bring a certain swagger like if you watch him and warm up like he thinks that he he's the show yeah oh yeah everyone's there to watch him yeah speaking of of edmonton so you know we talked after the the opening night lost to vancouver they had vancouver again and then they're up six goals like all right this is how it was supposed to go boys i fell asleep i woke up for you know the 3 a m wake up got to pee i just check to see like scores. I'm like, nine to seven. I was like, that ended up nine to seven. I actually, it, it woke me up so much that I couldn't fall back asleep. I'm like, there's no way. I had to literally

YouTube the highlights of the game. Like, what, how did this end up nine seven? But you know what? They came back against Seattle at home. Levi got the start again. One goal against. Big goal by Leon Ryan Shea with an incredible assist. He goes to rip it down the wall, almost breaks McDavid's ankle, and it bounces directly to Leon with two minutes left. He gets the game winning goal. But as you said at the start of the show biz, Babs came out. First thing he says, we didn't give up a touchdown.

So six out of the first, no, what do they got? They got, they have five out of the first six possible points, correct? How's that for a start, biz? It's unbelievable. And like, listen, like, I, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, It's getting like hard to not like Babbs if you're an Oilers fan. He's he's comedy on the mic, right? Like, I mean, look at you right now.

You're giddy over him. You're ready to fucking invite him on the pod. He's ready to pick me off and bring him on as a cold. He didn't give up a touchdown. Then he went like this. Babbs hockey, baby. The Oilers beat. If anything, Oilers fans should be fucking thanking me.

You're dead. I'm the reason you got him. True. True. Well, Tyson Barry's the reason. True. McDavid has nine points in three games. Like, imagine how fun that must be.

I told you. Yeah, this was the year. This was the year he was going to go off like we've never seen before. Although I might have actually said he's going to get less points because Papcock's going to say, let's focus on defense anymore. You don't need 150 points. But you know what? Maybe he does both.

Maybe that's how this thing goes down. Or coaching doesn't really fucking matter that much. And everybody plays the same fucking systems and does all the exact shit and it's all about the players. right unless you're down 5-1 to the Pittsburgh penguins on the road and you end up coming back and forcing OT because that was my point that's fair that's fair um last thing before we throw over to freddie mire actually two more things shout out Alex tuck you sign with a new team you got the nerves and for you in the first period of your first game on the new team to have a puck dribble out in front of the net to you for the easiest goal you've ever scored it's just like oh oh oh oh

that's exactly what I needed. He goes on to get another. Timo would have missed it. He goes. You know who gave it to him? Another guy who needed a fresh start in a new location. PLD. Good for him.

That was a hell of a four check to strip. Who are these strip? Bussy. Bussy. No, that was against. I mean, no, no, that was the other. Yeah, it was a Bussy, Bussy. Yeah.

That is the best feeling in the world. Carolina got a win against Philly Saturday, but if they lost that game, I was like, whoa. I saw a few. on line. Did somebody send this to the group chat? Yeah, Merle's buddy hot take.

Merle's buddy hot take that Caroline is going to miss, you're going to miss the playoffs because now after they've won and actually accomplished the ultimate goal, Rod the Bod can't grind him to play that hard anymore and that their team's done.

That doesn't matter though. Rod the ball's going to be on game notes like Billy G was on chicklets. Just fucking putting them in a body bag, calling them a clown, put the clown nose on. A little cup hangover. No, we'll see what happens the next couple weeks of Carolina. Toronto, interestingly enough, they lose to Ottawa. Pretty good game, actually.

Matthew's got his first goal. Marchenko got his first goal. That passed by radish to Marchenko was sick. He right through the seam, I think, under a triangle, and then Marchenko buries it on the backhand. You think that's a, you think that's a, a face off play? Yeah, 100%. Okay. Yes.

I went back and watched it again. It's pretty obvious. He just walks to the middle quick and snaps it down low. Expose the middle. I was surprised he was that open, like right off the post like that, but sick hands and tight. Oh, yeah. The meanness of the internet, McKenna's getting, you know, people are like, oh, what, this is not preseason anymore. All I'm going to say is this.

And this, this isn't even my take. I read this. So I don't remember who said it, but it was said by somebody else. Jack Hughes had 21 points his rookie year. Gavin McKenna could possibly have a rookie year that is underwhelming. He's, what, 164 pounds? This kid's going to be nasty. He's going to be unreal player.

The neck guard, though. We got to go to the shirt with the neck guard. The skin under the neck guard. That could be a problem. But I don't think this year, there's going to be moments he looks phenomenal and makes plays and I saw another feed that was mentioned he could have like three assists by now you know a couple guys bury but in terms of like the five on five analytics looking bad like dude he's he's a smaller 18 year old like just give this kid time it's it's not going to be he had a slow start at Penn State too yeah and I think he had 10 points one weekend yeah so so I think he was a little bit doomed when I called him mariner 2.0 I think I kind of fucked him there I think more neck tattoos and less neck guards. Yes.

He's what I would say. He needs to lean into the Ascarov neck tattoo, not the, not the dusty. What if you get a neck tattoo of a neck guards? You didn't have to wear one. Did the younger guys have to wear the neck guard? Yeah. Yeah. This is your first year in the league.

So like Martone got lucky playing a couple of games last year. Oh. Did not have to wear one. That is huge. That is huge. That is huge. That's, I never thought about that. Hudson with a nice song behind the net the other night.

Oh, thank for, that was, that might have been nicer than yours, Jans. Do you think he said it? Sorry. Did he say it? I asked for the hot mic, but I haven't got a response from, from, Sergey, their PR guy. All right, before we go to Freddie, Freddie, at Freddie. A former teammate of mine, Freddie Meyer at BU and his son, Carter Meyer, who could be a top five pick this year. I just got to say, we had Chief on, butards out.

will he change things? Yes, offensively. Chicago's horrible, but they're brutal. They're legit horrible. But I don't know what else. I watched that first period in Buffalo

because it was the first game of the night that started. It's hard when they got 13, well, not 13. At that point, they probably had like nine games that were going on by 730. But that was the only one that had started.

Frondell had a great play over. I think it was on the Donato goal. Great pass. Gave him the beautiful pass, gave him the tap in. I don't think that's, I think they're going to be a top three worst team in the league again. Yeah.

I know even if Padardt comes back, lights it up. It's like defensively, it's, uh, it's gross. It's a cluster fuck. A cluster fuck is right. Um, all right.

With that, I played with Freddie Meyer at BU, mean bastard on the ice. He was physical, undersized demon. He would have played, I think, longer,

um, nowadays he could skate. He was mean. He was physical. And, and now his son, Carter who joins at the end of the interview. We talked about it. He left the U.S.

national program. He's in the Quebec League now playing for Quebec with his brother, Freddie, Freddie Jr. Let's throw it over to him now. For all you golf nuts out there, there is nothing worse. Everyone knows what I'm talking about. Nothing worse than showing up

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Right now, claim your seven-day free trial of the PG-1 app and start flushing it. Never guess again in the game of goal. Guys, it's Witt here. And I know we have a lot of beer league hockey players listening right now. If you're a beer league hockey player, just listen. Hear me out. Men's league sweaters is a beer leagers dream come true, especially if you're the captain. They make it wicked easy to get unreal uniforms. Design them online. Just pick from one of over 75

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slash chickade. Pleased to be joined by a guy who should have been on a long time ago. Freddie Meyer, my former teammate at BU, legend of the game. Is he jacked when he played?

He's always jacked. Holy shit. He's always ripped up. What was you doing? But he'd be like doing 3.50 bench. Then he'd be just like flexing at you, like letting you know.

Okay, you were mocking guys in the mirror. He should have saw a wait in college. What he looked like? I knew that was going. He was all. my body early he was the first guy to just carve me be like oh my god wear your calves buddy i said that at penguins training camp i he had me playing in the coast before i knew it buddy

this guy did not like told the story tom costopoulis he when i got to wilksbury's like oh my god he's so sarcastic and he's like dude that's unreal you must crush your calf exercises and i was like yeah yeah i've been working a lot this year you know body by boil and he everyone just starts laughing i'm like oh fuck oh shit that was Freddy. He was the first one to do that. Yeah. What was it like playing with Witt in those days, like as a player, though? We had two good teams together.

Yeah, we had a couple good runs. You know, I think to defend Witt, he got drafted top five or five overall, and then he came back to BU and, you know, everyone is expecting home runs every game, you know? And so he puts pressure on himself and where he knows, Parker's got him down the tunnel,

yelling and screaming at him. I sprained my ankle. I sprained my ankle playing handball. Remember those 6 a.m. handballs and and I jump up and my leaps then boys my ankles feet dead and they were beast moored come on and I landed on guy's foot spraying the ankle tried to come back hurt again you know the sprained ankle you think the start of the bad feet it was a hundred percent to start fucking handball

that was the first yeah and 100 percent left ankle and then was brutal all that year that year I'm this turned into just like the witcho um that year like miss missing time coming back like tweaking it coming back i played it northeastern we won i had a goal and two assists i think and i'm like oh yeah like it was a nice goal and neil shay called me as a scout for pittsburgh who's probably the main reason pittsburgh picked me fifth he's like hey what's going on with you he's like are you okay to play like this is and i was like wait what do you mean i i shared one and two he's like you can't even move out there and i was like oh no because i knew it

So it was just ugly. And then that year is the year, we were good. But if I was better, I swear to God, it could have made a difference. We lost and we could go to the pros of four. And I was a non-factor top five pick the year before. Was this the one you scored on your own net? That season, that same season. He had a few moments that year.

Hockey's, I think I had like two throughout the year. And then hockey's finals, overtime in the garden against UNH. Tyson-Tipsky throws one from the corner. I tip this thing shelf. People wearing Whitney, UNH, Thursday. next year Whitney, you and age. They got them backwards on the glass.

But the next year I was nice. The next year I was nice. Not to pump my own home. He was gone. Was that the year that the infamous where Parker got you in the hallway over the cage? I was probably every year.

You got the cage tree. I was down the runway a lot. He would get the dumbest penalties. This guy, this guy we played hard. But then like we're up late and he's just Elborn guy in the head. Just Freddie Meyer goes by boom,

Elwood the Temple. and he gave you it for the penalty. He would have a thing called Mookville, so if you took a dumb penalty on Sunday at 6am, you had to go to the rink to ride the bike or run or whatever. And he was just blast me all the time, and I'm like, Jack, like mid-game, I don't think about Mookville.

Like, it's dumb. I'll keep showing up, but it's dumb. Like, I'm not, like, literally, by the time I was a senior, it was gone. You said, I don't care about Mookville. Like, when I play, I'm just playing. I'll be there across the other bike. I'm just in the moment.

I don't think about consequences like the next day. Last five minutes you might turn on the radio. You played hard, Freddie. Fuck. You played a long time. I mean, your journey's interested. So you went, he went to be you in the middle of what would have been your freshman year. I remember.

But even before that, let's go back. You grew up in Sanbornville, New Hampshire. I've been to this place, the poor people's pub, the restaurant in town. This is like, I would say as rural as you get for around here. Was it live, live, live, freer died. That's his license plate. And he made it in the writing on the line. Oh, right.

Yeah. Yeah. No, yeah. No, yeah. Same Warndville is the middle of nowhere. Probably some cities in Western Canada that could probably compare. But overall, yeah, middle nowhere, small town New Hampshire. Not too many guys make it out of New Hampshire, but found a way.

Where did you skate? Like, where were you, when did you start? Like, because Merle's mentioned you joined the Syracuse stars, came in, didn't leave the ice at, like, 13. Wasn't on the team all year. He was the hired gun for the Pee-We tournament. When before that were you, like, seen and- Yeah, it's, uh, Roger. Chester,

New Hampshire, which is like, same way, 20 minutes south, but that's where I started playing youth hockey and just kind of progressed from there

and played, I think, my Bannam minor year down in Massachusetts with the North Shore Raiders, which was in the old Metro League, where there was checking

in mites, I think, in that league back in the day. And just got kind of seen from there and went to Cardigan Mountain and just kept playing, I guess,

playing well and playing hard and opened some eyes along the way. And were you just a hockey junkie? Because to leave, we were talking earlier, you left in seventh grade to go to Cardigan Mountain,

you're away from your family. Was it one of those things where it's like, you telling your parents, I want to play in college, I want to play, seven years old? No, seven, seven,

three. I was like, yeah, his parents got arrested. FAA, that's gone. Seventh grade. So how old are you then?

Like, 11, 12? Yeah, 13. Yeah, so in the range. I think the deciding fact was be where we lived and where I needed to play in Massachusetts.

It was like slowly killing my parents to drive there five, six days a week for practice or games. And so my older brother went a couple years before, so they had some experience with Cardigan. And then it just seemed the right fit. And truthfully, those years at Cardigan, I haven't looked back at the rosters,

but we had, there was lots of guys that went through there for a year or two and then ended up playing prep school and Division I hockey. So it was actually kind of a sneaky hole in the wall type spot that a lot of kids would go and play and go to school and move on from there. Did that teach you like discipline or had you already been disciplined before that, like moving away from home that young. He was doing the bog runs in college. Never learned disciplines.

Move. I think being at Cardigan for sure, like there was, you had to be at breakfast at certain time, you had to have your room clean. It was like, it wasn't a military school, but very regimented it and like, you don't know how to tie a tie and how to put a suit on. What color socks you had to wear? Accountability and all that things. That kind of definitely helped.

And ninth grade there was going to move on and go to prep school. And then the U.S. national program was started and somehow bought me seen he convinced my parents and I that it was the right right spot to go back in 97ish that was the first year of it yeah first year of the program you went from cardigan to that from cardigan to national program wow who are you guys playing at cardigan like prep school like how cardigan plays like prep school jv type okay everyone's younger yeah everyone's younger i mean they had back in the day like select festival and all that stuff so you do that in the summer and then you roll into cardigan and play soccer and then you play hockey in the wintertime and then um yeah they were building the team

from 81 in 1981's on birth year. It was it was kind of hard around when you broke in as an undersized defenseman like were you a pretty a pretty good skater like what how would you describe your game you're kind of built like Torrey Krugge yeah identical yeah cigarette machine

I like that I used to say uh Rolfsky was my comparable you know going through it in college but um I would say yeah I'd be played hard I could skate um I think hockey sense is pretty pretty good kept it simple uh lockout 0.4.05, the NHL changed the rule, so it was less

cluttering grabbing and more, I don't know, I think smaller defensemen, the window opened up for us at that point. So if that didn't happen in 0405, maybe we're not sitting here today. But I think that helped. And then, but I think overall, like, I wasn't scared of bigger, stronger guys. And I probably hit more guys than I should have and ended up with concussions. So, but overall, I think it was, it was just compete level is what I usually say for myself of, you know,

not, and trying not to lose any battles just grind it out and make it work. You always played like that even when you were younger? Is that your dad? My parents know nothing about hockey. It was literally like my dad, I always say my dad would, he should be a sports psychologist,

but he's not. Every game I played was perfect. Like he knew nothing about it. Never, no, no negative. Yeah, it was just four penalties. Is that how you are now? I think overall I'm like that in terms of like,

you know, I don't know, my wife probably yells at the kids more than I do, you know, in terms of if they're not playing well or whatnot. But he went with that approach and like I said, I mean, we've all had coaches that suck the fun out of it. And I think I've tried to have that the opposite approach to just let guys play and let him fun. And yeah, hold them accountable and put them through stuff.

But overall, like, teach them to play the right way. I remember playing with you in Phoenix and like your pregame routine. And then after you were working out and that, like, guys weren't doing that a ton like they are now. But like from the time you got to the rink, you were focused on the game getting ready where other guys are playing soccer fucking around. I remember you being like strict regimented. Yeah, I had a cold cup of coffee in Phoenix for about a month maybe. But yeah, no, I think for me it was probably being at BU and Mike Boyle at the time and just figuring out what you need to do for your body to give you the chance.

And I was always six, seven, eight defensemen. So I felt like it was always like nickels and dimes I had to do before games or after games to give me a chance the next night. And I try to lean on that as much as I can all the way through and make the most of it. And yeah, in Phoenix, same way. I had a bad back in college. So it was pregame warmups and form rollers and stretching and core exercises and guys look at me like I was crazy, you know, but it was just something I know I needed

to do it in order to have success or play. Like dynamic warmups. That was the early days when like Sid broke in. Okay, he'd be leaking before games. Yeah, you would, but you're back. Was I at BU? All of a sudden you need surgery. Didn't you wake up and it was?

I had surgery after my freshman year at BU. We went to like three or four overtimes with St. Lawrence, the game that would have got us into the Frozen Four that year. And then we rode home on the bus from Albany. And from there, my back just kind of like gave out. And I had surgery probably in June of that year. Is it something where now do you think if that happened, you would have rehab and rehabbed and done whatever you had to do to knock at it? Or at the time, even now would you say I had it? I needed it. Back surgery is tough. It's a good question. I feel like I had instant relief once I had it. I don't know what they would do now, you know, 30 years. years later in terms of that, but it definitely helped. I mean, I definitely had issues throughout, but I felt like it also made me aware of what did I need to do to, like, try to stay healthy through those, you know, before or after

games, for sure. You went to, so we were talking about the HL, the lockout year, right? And you guys won it all, Philly. We just interviewed Bershron talking about Richards and Carter. I remember they came into that team. We ran into you guys, you trucked us, but I still, I remember seeing the crowds at that arena. It was packed for that win. Yeah. It had to be pretty good because the next year you played a lot for Philly.

And also you were undrafted and you got signed by them? I was undrafted out of BU and then signed with Philly. Okay. On a two-way contract and spent 0304 and the minors, 04 or 5 was the lockout year. And we had a pretty stacked team then. We might have won it all without Carter and Richards to be honest with you. And then obviously they dropped in once they lost in the OHL playoffs. And then, yeah, we just want, we just finish.

finished it off. But yeah, Wachovia, we played back in the day, the Spectrum and the Wachovia center were in the same parking lot, where we played in the spectrum and the big boys played in Wachovia and then for the finals, we played in Wachovia. I think we got like 18 to 19, 20,000 people. I remember seeing those games.

Like the A was no joke back then. So for two young players like that to just come in and like all of a sudden rip it up, he, uh, Witt mentioned today with Bergeron, did they not lead the playoffs in scoring one, two? I thought he said that, I think. Oh, he did. I don't know.

I don't know what the numbers were. They came into it halfway through, but we had like Yanni Picking and Patrick Sharp, and John Slaney was like American Ballster. But were they like a, were they their first line all of a sudden? I don't remember what the lines. Umberger was good. Um, Berger. We had like, I mean, they came in and played.

They're obviously very good players and it was kind of their start too, right? Right. So they definitely helped us for sure. But I feel like, like I said, we had some, we had some. Slaney. Yeah, we had some guys. He's a good dude. Oh, what a good dude.

He was good. He was using a wood twig back then. He might still, is he still using that coaching? For sure. I'd like to see a photo of him. He was coaching in Portland. Oh, was he? Yeah, when I got picked up there for like five, 10 HL games.

I think he scored a World Junior winner. Yeah. Oh, he did. I think in the maritime, so I think it was like out and all, wherever he's, wherever he's from Halifax. Is he not the highest scoring H.L. Defensive of all time? Or that Curtis Murphy could be, I bet he's up there.

Brian Helm. But were guys on that team when the younger guys came in? because you guys play all year together were guys pissed that they're coming in like the HL, maybe the older guys like oh fuck this is my chance to win and I don't feel like it was I mean thinking back to it

like might have been a forward or two that got bumped out with those guys right of course but I feel like it was just guys wanted to win right like I was like all right here it is you know I don't remember who got bumped in those lineup situation I think we all knew they were coming okay

it was just a matter of like when they showed up if they were making playoffs how long did they go like when are they coming to the like backfill in a way which was happening I'm sure Wilkesbury and these other places too you know what I mean it was getting log jam there they had a lot of good prospects back then too like that was when like the

the fleurries and all those guys were coming and obviously him fifth overall it wasn't it was after Generation X No I was part of it was generation or maybe that was the one with like Orpick and Coltshov but there was a funny tagline in Pittsburgh that it was everyone before

You guys actually pan out. Mine was like wicked blurred out and then armies was really blurred out that I was kind of blurred out. And it was slowly bright. Yeah, yeah, yeah. That's brutal. Oh, yeah. So, Osby's really bright. I remember all the marketing, because I was drafted there. But is that the toughest organization slash team you ever played on?

Because I felt like they always had not only tough NHL teams, but the year of the lockout, they would have, their HL teams had like mutants on it. Yeah, we had, yeah, we had, we had some really tough teams. Yeah. Well, that was, Craig Brube came, got. I don't think it must have been 0304. He came and played for like a month. Oh, God.

And then he, then he stood behind the bench. So he went from playing to coaching in like a month. And then we had. You played with them. Yeah, they traded Pat. We had a PJ stock came in that year, the Van Amir brothers.

This guy, who was like a skill guy that could fight. We had, we had, like some. You had heavies. Heavies, yeah. That's why I felt like I could do it, whatever I wanted, you know? No one's coming after me.

What was chief like in the room? Like, at the end there. That must have been, like, you said, yeah, he just literally like came, like, came in. being a good dude and everyone's looking at this guy. Like, who is this guy? You know, like, we had a huge line brawl, 0304, late in the year with Binghamton.

And if you, if you search up that thing, like, Neil Little came from the other end and, like, dove over Ray Emery. And it was literally like line brawl off the line brawl. And then I always, I always laugh because David Heimwitz, who runs the Eagles program here, he got paired off with Chief. Oh, no. And like the third, the third thing. And I was next to him like, this guy's, this kid's going to die. this kid's going to die on the ice Chief did it

It was like I didn't know like I don't know something Yeah it wasn't as bad as I was assuming But you know how those go Like you don't you get paired off the wrong guy Next to you know you're in one Oh what a scary man that would have been to play against

Yeah that long ago there was tilt in that league Oh It was like borderline UFC Early days UFC Like McGratton was Ridic that year in Binghamton Oh yeah

He was early days When you're early And you're hungry still, and you're that size. I tell a story a couple of times on the pod. He was playing with the Mississauga ice dogs, and I was in North Bay as a 16-year-old, and he was like the four, and I was at the point,

and I send like a sifter through to the net, and he comes through, and he kind of spears me in the nuts. Like coming out to the demon, it spears me in the nuts, and I was like, oh, I'm like, don't spear me in the nuts. And he fucking turned around, he looked at me, and he held this stick, like I said, I'll fucking spear you in the face. I fucking near the,

16 years. soul I shit my pants and obviously I got back to the bench you're like do not. Don't even go to you. Don't say a word to him. Just whatever he said to you just take it like your little walking lap dog bitch. He would literally at home in Binghamton just beyond like doing a groin stretch at the red line the entire

one. Oh yeah. Staring. Staring at the thing. And he'd be skating around like this going by the bench. He'd stick yeah. He'd stick and everyone's the Ogie Orator. He dummied someone in in Binghamton one night on Wilkesper. I don't remember who it was and then he was like they got tangled up they're down and then he's like crawling away like this he's no like a tiger yeah he was like and it

was quick but he was just an animal he was petrified he was i played with him in phoenix and there'd be games where he couldn't get a fight and he'd be so upset like he's like i just need one i need what i'm like i do not stay away from me but he was funny too oh he was hilarious and often times the toughest guys like they're the sweetest guys off the ice like he's a sweetheart yeah yeah yeah what a what a weapon um And then so you're up and down at that point with with flyers. Like your time there awesome. Like you enjoyed every minute of it. Yeah, Philly was,

it was awesome. Even, you know, back in like the early 2000s, like organization, the players, the management, coaching, all of it was awesome.

Yeah, up and down, after the Lockout year, ended up kind of getting called up and sticking like mid-December and, um, was there for about a year and then got traded to Long Island. Was the owner in Philly around a lot?

I came to, yeah, he would come down a lot. like post game and shake everyone's hand on a win on a Saturday afternoon. That's so cool. He was around a lot. That's kind of like that Bill Foley. Is he doing all that?

Vegas is, if McPhee doesn't kill him in the celebration with you win at all. But he's, he's a very like hands on hands on. He has him to his ranch every summer. Yeah. Like he flies the whole train. I think it might be just the guys.

Maybe it's the whole families. I don't know. But obviously he's got a nice piece of dirt somewhere. I think it's got a golf course on it. Like, yeah, yeah. Like acre, like hectares of land. Yeah. But yeah, like to have an owner that's like that involved and that passionate and that so involved with the community, like it kind of felt like it went a little corporate after that because how can you sustain that, right?

Yeah, because it was like Ed Siders Foundation and there would be, you know, we would have to do stuff as a team. It was very family eccentric for sure. Yeah, yeah. Family. He was the most popular person in the organization. Like the fans loved them. Oh, I bet. They must love them.

Yeah. And they haven't won since 75. So, like, they were patient. Right. Obviously, he's, like, that good that they, you know, even not winning titles, they still love them. Yeah, all for sure. So going to the island, like, getting traded, how was that the first time getting traded? Or was, or did you just not?

I always tell the story when I was in Philly. I was actually, my back was flared up. It was like early December and working out teams on the road. Paul Hungren was he's, I guess he was a GM or assistant GM at the time. He's like, hey, Freddie, when you, when you finish your workout, just come down to the office. And in Philly that year for about three weeks where they were. struggling. I'm like, all right. So I walked down to his office after I got done working out

and he's like, he's like, so we made a trade today. I'm like, oh, sweet, who do we get? He's like, well, we sent you to Long Island and we got Zittnik. I'm like, I'm like, what? He's like, yeah, just keep your phone on. The assistant GM will call you soon and you'll figure out what the details will be. Hey, check out this score. Hey, we want to trade.

Oh, who's in it? You. Literally, I was like, yeah. Good luck. Oh, fuck. I just made the best trade of my life. What I hear about it? You just fleece the islander. Oh, my God.

Oh, pack your shit. Get on my office. Literally, I was like, what I do now? He's like, go downstairs, pack your stuff. Yeah, you're out. Oh, I love getting funny trade stories. It's amazing. I think it was Garth Snow's first ever transaction, though, you know, for those keeping

times. Really? What's that work, though? So you kind of want, you kind of. Thanks, Garth. Appreciate that. Thanks, God. I was drunk when I made the trade.

God damn it. I need you to step it up. But you kind of came in around that time where the owner was like handed out 15 year deals, right? Like it was kind of... Oh, was Wang there? Yeah, that was like that summer, Ricky signed his deal. Fifteen year deal for Ricky.

Yeah. Oh, I heard... He's still getting paid. I think he's got a few years. Him and Barry Barry, Barry, who was it, Barry? Bobby Benia's got a few years. Bobby Neas to like 20, 39. July 2nd, Bobby Bonilla day.

That guy should be a fucking agent. But so what a quirky time where, but he was very passionate about the boys and the team to the point where he handled a guy a 15-year deal because he loved them. And then like Garth Snow was a goalie playing there and he liked him. And that's why he hired him, right? Yeah, Garth was Ricky's backup, I think, the year before. And then elevated him the GM because no one else after playing. I didn't know that year.

From the tunnel on the fucking stool to the fucking stool to the fucking. fucking GM sweet tall around his neck to trading for Freddy yeah yeah no I think I think I honestly think that Garth was hired because whoever was the GM at the time was like no I'm not signing that contract so he got fired and then they hired Garth and Garth's like yeah sure way push play and because the owner's like you're signing him yes I heard Garth snow's a guy we need to get on the pot yeah he's he's he's he's a good dude he's he's he's a funny guy yeah yeah he was crazy not much of a traitor but one of the worst negotiation Oh man, this guy, this guy in his trade.

Can we go to his trade history? Like, what were you there for some other gems? Yeah, who was there? Who was the coach then? Cap? No, Teddy Nolan was the coach. For a couple of years here, Scott Gordon was there for a couple years. What was Teddy like?

What was he doing? Teddy, I think. Did you see him go to the board one time? I'm not sure if he knows how to draw a drill. No, shit. For practice. What would he just name the drill? No, he would just the assistant coach

was flinney there? Yeah, Flinney was there. So Flinney, his little, his guy that he brought everywhere, did everything. And Teddy was just a motivator. I fucking loved Teddy. So that was the crew in Moncton? Yeah. He brought him with him to the NHL.

Yeah, yeah. So no, Teddy couldn't, like, he was like, at the time, the ultimate players coach. Like, it was, like, he changed practice time from like 10 a.m. to noon time because the guys are going to, like, sleep in. I think he wanted to sleep in. And then, like, every, every pregame skate was optional. and then that's like before they were options

before they were option this was like just don't show up you don't show up and then Aaron Ashram I think was out of the lineup for like four or five games in a row as a healthy scratch

and he wasn't showing up for the pregame skates so Teddy's like I think I got to change the rules here on these who needs to show up for the pregame skates oh fuck I get bagged after every single one of those when I had him in junior

and our team was I think we lost like nine 10 games whatever it was in one game we were bad we get off of practice just doing the Indy 500. We did that for 60 minutes. He was like, all right, you guys wasted my time last night? I just wasted your time off.

Did it the whole hour? Yeah, I'd Freddie back by the end of it. You had a lot of back problems going there, eh? Yeah, just it was one of those things that just... Do you not think it was because the exercises we were doing? We were talking about. We should not have been snatching and hang cleaning. When we were, when I was at the national program,

Boyle was just sending programs at the time, and we had minimal instruction with it. And so, yeah, we would just try to, like, back squat clean. Everything is hard as, as much as you could. Bro, I was fucking pounding my box. Yeah, we were doing the clean stuff. And, like, probably now it's like, I don't know about that on the old joints. Oh, buddy, I was doing like 400 pounds squats at like 17 years old. Yeah, people would be like how much you squat.

It's like, relax. Yeah, simmer, simmer. Simmer. Timmer now. I mean, you were at the national program, actually, that was when the boxing was real aggressive. So I came two years after you, I think, a three, and it was sort of tamed up. I think when you got there, weren't you fighting like the Golden Gloves

champ in Detroit? Literally, like, day one we show up in Ann Arbor, and we got this like, I think his players, they thought it was like just like a way in it, maybe some bought testing of some sort. And they had the other guy Kurt would have his like golden glove boxer with him. And they had it set up in this conference room.

And like, it was like, guys were like, I don't know how we'd lined up. But first three guys went in. I think all walked out with concussions. Like, there was. no training. It was straight like punches to the head. And I'm like, good thing. I was like 10th in line. I'm like, how do I run around this conference room as long as I could so I don't get punched in the face? And then every Wednesday we had, yeah, they had boxing ring. We had set up every Wednesday.

Yeah. Like it was, there was some good days where it was like heavy bags and speed bags and like stuff that we probably should have been. And that was like, I think I had a bad risk more Wednesdays than not because I was like, I don't need to get in the cage and start pounding each other. took boxing lessons coming up. I just thought it was kind of necessary. I think it's good to like get fucking suckered in the face where you're like, oh, to like learn what it's like. Because when you take like a big hit and stuff like that, that sounds a little hardcore.

Did you do that? Yeah, it was a little lesser, but that was the one time I was in there with Barry Talixen, who's a great kid from Minnesota. He's nasty, nasty player. Okay. But I would say like not the most motivated guy, great dude, but just kind of chill, skilled.

And then I get in there with him and we're just throwing pillows. Neither one of us want anything to do in that. And the boxing coach, I don't remember his name. Kurt. I think Kurt was gone. Kurt was gone. Mike Tyson came in for the motto. It was him.

It was him, I think. And he's like, Taltsin, get the fuck out. Nathie, Brian, Nathie, tough-ass kid. Oh, no. Yeah, Northern Minnesota. A beast. And he's like, Nathie, get in there. Kick Whitney's ass.

and he came and he just drilled me like five times i'm like that's it get the fuck oh whitney i'm like this isn't what was that fair last year going running the power play at feldon hill i'm like get my head punched in and we got we got three and three in suf falls um so cedar rapids and what was the other one what was the other tough drive we had a 24-hour bus ride in that year that was hard yeah i mean we flew a lot the first years, but I think they started driving more. Oh, we were driving everywhere. Yeah, yeah. Sleeper bus? Fuck is that funny.

No, the ride home from Sioux Falls, South Dakota, Vanek lit us up. He got crushed. And it took us like 24 hours. They made Witt fight on the bus after. Oh, I had a dis man. What was the kid? What was the kid? And they gave us, there was a box

of Pete. There was a pizza for each two guys. Okay. And each guy got a bottle of water. And then we just drove and drove. And people were starving. Bottle of water for, yeah, that was kind of how it wasn't junior. You didn't have, like, I don't know now.

Maybe they have, they all loaded up with, like, food and drinks. I would imagine. I would assume these junior buses have like, yeah, like, like, uh, I got, you know, beef jerky and snacks for them. Like, but like you said, like back then, it was fucking after games.

You'd get like a- Papa John and an aquafina. Shout out body armor, but this is a story. This is an old story. I wish body armor. Horrible body armor. I wish body armor,

because you, You have the wide nose nozzle for the hose to put your cock in so you're not pissing all over the place because the veterans won't let you get to the back of the bus to use the pisser. But what was the kid's name that they sent in to beat you up again? Brian Nathie. He ended up playing it. Brian Navey. Get in there. He's like his ass.

And he was so happy. He's literally the fighting Irish guy. That's where I got to play with Matt Green though. That was he was and that was, you know, none of us knew anything about fighting. Actually, I was there the second year. So they had been fighting the year before a lot of the kids. Like you played two years there, right? So it's kind of interesting that they put an emphasis on that,

even though I think you guys were wearing cages at the time, right? But the USHL was fighting. Okay. And you're playing the USHL. And like my year, we started playing college teams. We played like Michigan State, a bunch of teams. But before that, so before the year, we're playing OHL teams. And these guys have fought before, but Matt Green and I were new,

the second year, the U-18 year. Okay. I got in a fight and did okay. Like I showed up and it was an exhibition game for the OHL team. And then Matt Green fought a kid and beat the living shit out of him. Gave 30 punches in 828. And it was the most insane toe to toe and Alex Roberts. Was he there when you were there?

He was like either an assistant or like an intern at that point. The D coach for our team. He put the video on and we all watch. He's like, let's watch that again. Or maybe it was just with the D but he loved Matt Green. Yeah, Greener was a game. He was a beat. He was such a good player, man.

He was a beat. Now, unfortunately, Mike Eves would always give him shit and he was the head coach, but it was like he just ate shit because he would play hard. Maybe with the puck at that point, right? He wasn't, like, great, but he was just the best teammate animal ever.

So that program, like you, I just looked, so you and Andy Hilbert, like, the top 81, some of the top 81s. You guys played in Long Island together. That's pretty cool after USA together. Well, and Ricky, too. And Ricky, oh, yeah, he was there.

Yeah. Yeah, we had to get back to some of these moves they were making. So Ricky and I actually, yeah, that's right, the trades. Back to Garth. The worst, Garth Snow trades, Meyer, number one, first trade and worst. No, yeah, I mean, Ricky and I played North Shore Raiders together in the Metro that year before I went to Cardigan. So I've known him, they knew him forever. So, yeah, it was, it was, uh, 81 group was decent at the program for the first year.

And same way, it was, it was in town. We played North American League. So you're talking about fighting in USA, North American League was like, I don't know how we made it out of some of these cities a few nights, but. Oh, yeah. Just because you get pounded the first year, really.

Everyone's so young. Yeah. And you're playing against men. Oh, yeah. And it was the first year of the program. So you think about dropping whatever, 25, you know, the same age on a team.

And then all you sudden, you pop that into the North American League. And you got, you know, 20-year-olds in Springfield, Illinois, like, you know, who the fuck are these guys? Like, and just trying to like, let's run them out of the building. Yeah. And where U.S.

So, yeah. Target. Would you guys try to always sign a few guys that could chuck them at a young age? I would say they, I don't know how, no, I don't think they knew Matt Green was that tough. They probably knew he played hard, but I don't think they were like, look. No, because there was no time to fight before that. We had Pat Foley, who was like, a man child. Did you guys all, like, were you guys looking at Greener a little different after that?

Need anything, Matt? Yeah, I would actually say for shit. He gets the best. all your homework done? How did you go? How were you in Long Island? I was in my water bottle. I'll drink it.

How did you go to Phoenix then back to Long Island? Yeah, this is a good Garth snow truck right here. Listen to this one. So we, that coming out of training camp that year, we had, I think it was 10, 10 defensemen, like almost training camp breaks is 10D.

So I'm looking around like, well, there's two of us are out of here, like at some point. Teddy Nolan was there. He brought in, I can't think of the guy's name. I mean, maybe Gerard.

Galant from, came from Columbus as an assistant coach and he brought with him the Johnson, Johnson kid, I can't think of his first. So he, like, he just brought some guys. So now we have 10 guys. Aaron Johnson. Aaron Johnson, sorry.

10 guys breaking camp. And next day I know, like, pre-game skate on a, I remember this so clearly, there was like, pre-game skate on a Saturday. I'm driving home, not in the lineup. Next day, no, like, it's like, you know, my phone rings and it's Garth Snow. And I'm like, well, here we go.

So he's like, hey, you know, did you did your favor i'm putting you on waivers it's saturday you know the teams got an extra 24 hours because it doesn't clear until monday at noon time thanks for the favor yeah thanks you know and so like i and so here we are i wait monday at noon time i find out that you know phoenix phoenix claim me off waivers um so i fly out i think monday night to phoenix i was there for like a week or less than a week and then uh my older guy freddie was born in in o seven and so i literally my wife got induced i flew back from phoenix for 24, 30 hours saw the birth and then was back in Phoenix for the next couple weeks.

And then from there, same way. In Phoenix, not playing a lot. I was kind of, I was, I think they brought me in because one of the guys was out, heard at the time. So it was a little bit of a filler. And then same way. I got put on waivers in Phoenix. And they said I was going to clear waivers and stay in Phoenix.

But at the time, I cleared waivers. I got off the guys from practice. Like, yeah, we'd change our mind. We're going to send you to San Antonio. Your bags packed. literally he's like we're sending you a San Antonio he goes but pack your stuff we're going to fly you to you to Chicago bring all your stuff with you fly to Chicago you're going to join the American League team for the trip for the weekend I said I got like I got like a lot if you hand fill of bags here like

you think I could fly to San Antonio drop my stuff off and then jump on a plane he's like nah the trainers will help you when you get to Chicago be good I landed Chicago like midnight I'm trying to get all my bags get to the whole get to the wherever we were staying with the San Antonio and then you know it all worked out but it was just like those are things that like sometimes like fans don't understand like you're all of a sudden getting to a hotel room you're with a new team you're getting in your hotel room at like two in the morning you're like oh my god i got to meet all these new guys tomorrow yeah he's met his son for 10 minutes literally literally yeah and then all that and then and then have to play a game yeah so then i was in i was in san antoni for about a month

and i came in with coaching their time but it was he was a great dude he like kind of got he let me actually fly home for three or four days to see uh see that my see freddie and my wife and which was great. And then same way, go back on waivers and I cleared waivers like Friday at noon time. My agent calls me. He's like, I got good news and bad news. He's like, you've been picked off waivers. It's good news. I'm like, oh, sweet, where am I going? He's like, you're going back to Long Island. I'm like, are you fucking kidding me? Like, they just put me on waivers a month and a half ago. Like, why am I going back to Long Island? He's like, I'm not sure. So long and short, that's awesome. I went back to Long Island for like two months. And I went back to Long Island for like two

months and then Garth signed me to a two-year extension. Two-year extension. That's fucking unreal. He actually loved you when he, that's quite, why didn't he ever put you on waves? I think he liked me. I think Teddy Nolan was like, these are my guys. So he had, he let those guys play for a couple months and they weren't playing. I don't remember who moved or whatnot, but like, then he brought me back and then I, and then I, and then, but Teddy wasn't there anymore, right? Teddy was still there for like the rest of that year. And then I think Scott Gordon came in in the fall, the fall and yeah.

Huge. Because you had to get put through waivers to come up. That's how they... Because I was on a one-way deal. So in order to clear waivers, I think because you're on a one-way, I had a clear to go through. Actually, yeah, I don't even think if you get claimed on waivers,

you can go down for like a month. No, no, you're automatically up for a month. Is it a month or it might be more? Yeah, speaking to a guy who's been ticked up off waivers. Hey, you want to know something fun? That's the one experience that I bring to the podcast. The San Antonio Rampe... Three teams tried.

On Biz. three teams. I could give you 100 guesses. I don't think your name in the leading score of the team that year. I bet you I can. Could I know the name? Yeah. I think it's that blonde kid that was a pain in the ass.

Yeah, kind of. I don't know who that is. He's kind of right, though. He's kind of right. All the cars and he was there for a couple of calls. Oh, Colanos? Colano? No. No, it's not him. I'll just tell you because I don't think it was Morles. Wow. Blonde kid paining the ass.

When you said, yeah, Blonde can pain. Okay, okay. Always right, invented everything. Wow, I was bag on, wasn't I? Yeah. That's pretty crazy, though. Is that where your wife had given birth to Freddie? Was she Boston?

No, she was in Long Island. Because we're in Long Island. Her doctors, everything was in Long. Yeah, but awesome or non-awson, we had a rental at the time. So I'm out. So essentially, like, I moved another guy in there. We moved out. Her dad moved her back to New Jersey.

because you're like I'm gone I'm gone like go back to New Jersey like just be with your parents we'll figure this thing out so when I called her to be like hey we're going back to Lyon and she was like she probably would have killed Garth Snow at the time yeah we had the host so Aaron Johnson actually was a guy that moved in and so I call Aaron I'm like Aaron like you got to do me you got to do me a favor like I know you've moved in for like two months like please I get to find you another place like it worked out he was he was actually very good about yeah he worked out it was so we went back yeah we went back in and yeah so it was it was like once you said it's like that you know everyone sees ovestrian score a thousand goals you know

it's like the guys that are at like the bottom of the lineup that are riding the wave that you never know like what that next call is going to be like oh no it's garth snow i'm not answer it no way like i know what i know what this means you know or you get on the bus and you have to walk by the gm you just put your head down and pray that he doesn't say anything to you that's a tough place to live if nobody says a word to you for months straight it's the best yeah i like seeing who you played with. So Tavares, probably early days, so that was cool.

First year, yeah, yeah. You had the Bill Garon Comrie years. We had a really, we had some good groups. That's a fun fucking team right there. All time, guys. Yeah. Those were the groups that Sid was torching. We were going to the NASA Coliseum. Those years

Sid was lighting up the Islanders. Am I wrong on that? It was, yes, it was good. Because I'm thinking of those teams. Those teams were like year five or six for, you know, like that was like his fifth or six year probably in the league where he was like, first couple years I was in Philly. He was like getting his feet on the ground.

Oh, that's what you were just like 120 points winning hearts. Yeah. So, yeah, we had some good groups of though. Yeah, like you said,

Garren, Mike Sillinger was like a career, career good guy, yeah, journeyman that got traded every trade deadline because he could win faceoffs. And, um,

yeah, we had some, it was some fun years. Who was the most unique character you played with in your time in Long Island? What was you? Yashin? Maybe, oh,

Yashin, maybe, Sexylexi, but it was, I would say like, Brendan Witt, maybe. Oh, the big E-Man. Yeah, I don't know where Witter's probably

living in Montana right now, like, in a bunker. Full beard. For sure. Why was he like, the end of the world? A little bit of end-in-a-world, do you know what I mean? Like, he was living in Long Island. He's in Sanbornville. He could be in Sanbornville, yeah.

Lives in the basement with a poor-ve-bill-bub. No, he was, I just remember him back in the day. Like, it was, his wife was in Washington or Florida or still with the kids, and he was in Long Island by himself, and video games are not that popular. I'd be like, what'd you do? How's you doing? He's like, oh, I get tired. I'm like, what do you mean?

He's like, I've been playing Call of Duty all night against a bunch of Asians. I'm like, oh, my God, like, you didn't go to bed? That wig that guy was? Oh, yeah. He was like. Wow. He did the long hair. He ran around.

Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, he was a good guy, though. I liked him a lot. But yeah, he was a character. Oh, fuck. I thought he was taller than six, too. But yeah, he just looks like, oh. He looks like a handsome brother.

Do you look like a handsome brother? Yeah. Those Highlanders, how did you end up in Atlanta? Were you with Army in Atlanta? No, he was, I think he was out of there the year before. Same way,

just went into that summer, no contract, ended up, ended up, I think, signed in a PTO in Atlanta, made the team out of camp, and was there.

And I always tell my kids, like, don't, life's not hard, life's hard, but I was, I think I counted, 26 games in a row.

I was a healthy scratch, but I had to take warmups. So I would take warmups, go through this whole prep, As you were saying before, like I was like, I might play. I fucking get ready. So whole preparation, warm up ends. I walked down the tunnel.

This is a GM. 26 in a row. 26. He's like, hey, you're not going to play today. 26? Yeah,

you've done more. No, I think I did like, I think I did like, 66. I think probably my longest was about 13, 14. And that's when it starts through. That's when I would go to the ends.

Sometimes it'd be like, hey, I kind of want to just get sent down so I could play some games, man. I'm like, I want to play hockey again. I'm just bag skating with Dave King every day. Doing crossover, crossover, crossover, like, because he came from Russia.

Yeah. I was doing all these Russian bag skates, buddy. I was living in a boss. I was living in the barza. We'd be leaving the rink after you shower, and Biz would still be on the ice just and it'd just be him and king or. You hear the strides. Cross over, cross over, cross over,

knee drop. Cross over, cross over, cross over. But that team wasn't good either. So it's like, I can't get in. It was winning. Yeah, it was just one of the, I just, I was the odd guy out. Like, you know how it is sometimes. They had a few guys that were making some money and you're at the bottom and then you, but then every two weeks you look at your fucking.

That was the time for sure. And I was like, I can't let the GMC me because I think it was on a two way then. Rather be in Atlanta. I think it's Chicago Wolves with their team at the time. I'm like, oh my God, when is this call coming? I just know it's coming. When is it? And it didn't, it didn't come.

And then I got, then I got hurt. I started playing and I was here in Boston. I popped Luchick like in the early, right before Christmas time, a little bit of a lime brawl broke out. You got paired off with Lute? No, he was coming up the ice with the puck head down in the neutral zone.

And I hit him. It was probably like we were losing like three or four or one like five minutes ago and then like literally instant line bro. And so I was nobody, I really paired off with anyone, but everything was done and done. He kind of came over the top and hit me late. And I feel like that probably started some concussion issues.

and then played for another few weeks and then had a nice episode on the ice in Atlanta just collapsed out. You did? Really? Yeah. Yep. Yep.

Like after getting hit or? Wasn't even if you look at the clip, it wasn't even getting hit. I just literally like felt like I was starting to black out and I'm like at the blue line. I'm like, I get it at the bench. Like I don't know what's going on.

I turned to skate to the bench and center ice like down. Holy shit. Yeah. Do I? Would I have seen this before? I'm sure you started. I got to see the video. Yeah.

No, literally. I was, I kept a puck. in the offense zone, like nothing, no major hits. Where was the game? In Atlanta. In Atlanta. Yeah.

Because I was going to ask you about some of these guys you play with there. Kind of like, this is the team that eventually moved to Winnipeg, but like Dustin Bufflin, Andrew Ladd. You had some, like, we had a lot of the guys from Chicago. They won it the year before. Yeah. Those guys came to Atlanta. Yeah.

Sterling was right. Yeah. Yeah. Why that move? Why if Chicago to, yeah. I don't know if Chicago was like getting rid of salary. or what was going on with that. Or there was a trade.

I'm not sure. I'm not sure. I was looking at that clip. Was it Hosa? I miss what you're saying. I was looking at that clip. That's the kid from Pittsburgh. It's scary.

Because you're not even, you didn't get hit. No. But you played the next year. You weren't. Well, that's so I had, I had concussion like symptoms for four or five months, got healthy in the summer,

trained hard, got went to Sweden, played 30-something games, felt great. And then took another hit right around. Like we had like on Christmas break in Sweden. And I, my symptoms came.

back almost instantly. So you would have kept playing over there. I loved it. Love it. It was unbelievable. And was it what? Did they tell you like, hey, you shouldn't be playing or you, I mean, you have the kids, but yeah, I was like, I had a neurologist here in Boston that I saw before I went over and then it happened. And then I came back and met with him again. And he's like, I'm not going to tell you what to do. But like, you need to like think about this. And my fear, I think at that time was like, all right, I've had two in a short period of time. I don't feel terrible. Like, what is the next, what's the next one going to be?

Yeah. What's the next one going to be? And yeah, same way. The kids at the time were like two and three or four and three. And so like, I'm like, I'm only 31. I was, you know, kind of, I don't say prime, but like, in a course. I was kind of weird. You kind of get like plinkled back and forth off a few guys here.

Like this one. Yeah, it looks like you give somebody a cross check, but not like. Like very. No minimal. Yeah, very minimal. The neurologist said there's like sometimes it's like, uh, a marble on a table and it's it's on the table and it's moving a little bit and then all of a sudden you're like you'll just have this like almost like a brain reset where you shut your computer down

right right they always said like oh you should like sometimes when that happens you're gonna be in a better spot than if like you don't have that like for sure rein reset but unfortunately it took five months for the computer to reset you say you're 31 and like so that had to be hard then because you're like fuck injuries kind of ended this like you was it hard after the game I feel like I just was like with the symptoms you like you're like I don't know I just I didn't struggle with like being done because I was

I was scared of the next one I think was kind of it was a that was a bigger fear it made it easier almost it was made it easier and fucking great rip man you played your last year in Sweden yeah yeah and Motto for Motto what a good I mean that was a great rip man you talked about your son now he is currently in a weird situation

like the first of its kind with the with this Yeah, like, well, so I guess we could bring up your older son, Freddie, plays in Quebec. Yeah, and Carter, who's with us hanging now, he is committed to be you and he played at the national program this year, but looking to play with his brother next year in Quebec, if that's how you'd put it. Yeah, I'd say that's, yeah, that would be the goal. You know, obviously, he from afar saw, you know, the experience his brother had in Quebec and playing in the CHL and really? playing in front of 8 to 10,000 fans at home. And so, yeah, we're working through some stuff.

But yeah, that would be, you know, I think it would be cool as a dad too to see them in that situation. They played together for me at Rivers Prep School here locally the last couple years before this past year. So to get them back together before the end up at BU, it would be cool. And then he was planning on going to the development program, but is now not?

Like, how does that situation, how to work out? He played, so he's played one year here at the development program. Okay. This would, upcoming year would be his, his second year at the program. Same way, you know, overall experience was okay, not great. You know, I think he's looking for a change of scenery and I always thought kind of going into it too, like, all right, what does this thing look like?

Like, you know, how it'll work out. The whole landscape, do you mean? Yeah, the whole landscape. I think in the, you know, in the last 12 to 24 months with NCAA, obviously, NILs, NCAA, the borders being open, you know, I think in a really good way, it's created a lot of great options for US-born kids, you know, and obviously the national program has always been the one-way track for kids

you were born in the U.S. That's like where you wanted to go. And if you didn't, then you went and played in the U.S.H.L. and then you ended up at college. And now that you can play CHL and end up at college in the same spot, uh, it just, it, it makes the landscape very interesting. So it's nice to hear firsthand because I think Matt Murley's been open about saying like, oh, it's going to basically ruin the CHL where I think it's going to have the opposite.

No, I've said it's, what, did you mean the USHL? No, I think that Merle's jokes around about how those leagues are toast now. No, he thinks from like 16 and 17. Yeah, we joke about it on game notes all the time. Correct. We more say NCAA is. Just this that much better, but that's basically. But I'm saying I actually think it's going to improve junior because I think the approach now

should be, I don't really look at USHL as good as the Canadian hockey league. Right. So I would say a lot of American kids will start. going up top to play from, you know, maybe 16, 17, even 18 in some cases, and then coming back to college. So it's going to kind of benefit the growth of it and not make it kind of one or the other. No, I think so totally. I mean, you can see it in the in the Q draft just this past week. There was 45 Americans and I think 32 maritime is drafted, which is like unheard of, right? So I think it's opening the door up for these, these kids that are good.

Maritimers too? Yeah. Wow. So like that, just showing. you what the numbers are. The Quebec League alone, who obviously has Quebec plus the Maritines as like draft population in New England. We've, okay, because we've kind of talked about how there's like not as good as many French players that are coming up. And then now you're basically telling me like the Quebec Hockey League, would you say 50% of its players are now being drafted outside of Quebec from like Maritimes and, you know, I don't know what that, how many kids are totally drafted. So I don't know if it's 50%. But I think the Quebec League has the most to gain from the new rule because his story.

Berkeley, you have a Yandel that goes up. But overall, like, kids weren't going. They want to play college hockey. You're in New England. You've gone to Thayer, Rivers or wherever. Like, you've been on this, like, this track. You know, back in the day, it was like, like, risky business, you know? In a way, like, you want to play major junior, like, Timmy Conley going to Erie back in 97, like, was like unheard of, you know?

But now, like, now, yeah, now the Quebec League can dive into New England-born kids. And now you've got this, I don't say plethora, but, like, he's. kids that like once again i can you know i can drive the sherbrook in five hours if my kids playing in omaha it's going to take me you know 12 hours and three different flights to get there and i think it's overall like a better league maybe the top tier teams like the chicago steals could be a top team in the chl but i feel like the bottom portion of it is not as quality as the chl is that a fair statement i think it probably ebbs and flows each year with where the leagues are at or where teams are at, but I, you know, I think my experience this year watching Quebec play,

like, it's, the Quebec League is very professionally run. And I assume all CHL is very professionally run. Right. The coaches are, are elite, the ownership groups, the management groups, there's, uh, the travel, the food on the road, the hotels, like, there's not too many stones unturned. And I think, uh, I would say in, in order for the USHL to stay or get into that sphere, they need But the ownership groups need to lean into what the cost are going to be to make it a top tier experience. Kind of like what college teams have done as far as upping their experience where now some of these locker rooms, G's doing these tours of, I'm like, are you fucking out of your mind? Yeah, exactly.

I mean, college is the same way. Exactly same thing. Like you can't have to fly, you can't fly commercial. You got to fly a charter to Michigan. Like, you know what I mean? Like you got to keep up with the Joneses. And I think the CHL teams maybe have more means. They're getting more fans.

They have, there's more money coming in. so they have more to respend on the on the programming but like um i think that's where the us hl needs to lean in on like our what do we want to be how do we how do we get to the spot or you're going to keep losing kids because of the experience the experience is going to be better if the borders are open why can't he go from the nd tp to the quebec so the the this the obstacle that we're dealing with is uh essentially when you when you commit to the nash program you signed it to your contract so so with with that there's there's there's there's been guys in the past.

J.P. Hurlberg is playing the W.HL and was at the Nash program last year, right? So there is some out clause in the contract. It's just, I think USA hockey's wrestling with this new landscape where guys might want to leave. And do we let them leave? Do we, how do we lean into this? How do we accept this? Do we need to, like, relook at our product to figure out how we don't lose kids?

But you can imagine any kid if I was from Michigan and the London, Knights drafted me and I walk in and see their locker room and their setup and 8,000 fans and you can still go to where you're committed to. And you can still go where you're committed to and there's everybody can eat. Why don't you sign a one year deal? What's that? Why does it have to be a two year program? Yeah. So they're going to lose that. No one's going to sign a two year deal. Why would I would think moving forward there's going to be some year to year. Are they giving you a hard time or getting out of it? There's, we're working through it. Yeah. It's not just like a plug and play. They'll be like an out fee to get out of it.

And then once you get out of that, then there is a hockey can or USA hockey has this transfer agreement in place. But you want to go, yeah. That's a fucking front wipe. How is this even? That's a front wipe. Dude, they were paying guys 200 grand in the early 2000. Oh, yeah.

Hennessy made that going out of junior. I don't know the exact number, but he definitely got big dough to go up to Quebec. And he left Milton Academy. So it would have to be, Quebec? Carter's been drafted by Quebec City. Okay. Cool.

And so he's like a, I don't want to say a prodigy, but he's like very highly touted coming up here. Like what, what's the assessment? Yeah, what's it like being a, like going through this now is with your son? Like you had your own career, your own goals and now you're kind of. Is he allowed to come on? Can he continue to talk on chicklets? Yeah, yeah.

All right. He's got a mic right now. He's got a mic. Okay. Okay. So I guess I'll ask this. Like, was he lying when he said he doesn't give you shit after bag? Yeah, good question.

It's more my mom. Okay. Wow. Okay. Ding, ding. All right. If you were on a desert island with a teammate and, uh, did you see this? And he had water and you had to kill him to get it.

Would you kill him? We're draft interviewing you. You got to kill him. Yeah. Wow. He's a fucking dog. He's okay. He's not going back to Sanbornville.

No. He caught in the end of where I grew up. No way. Okay. Let's ask some more draft questions. What was the other one? Um, the brick. one. What was the brick one? No idea.

Fuck, Mary Kill. No, no, no, no. You can't do those. You can't do those. Oh, my. Yeah, so I guess it's, what it's cool. Like, if Freddy's already there, and did he go there expecting to, like, play as much as he did? No, Freddie and I went up last August for rookie camp, just as, like, got him into rookie camp, went, made out of rookie camp, into main

camp, and they were at, the coach was, in, Simone Gagne is the GM there, who I played with in Philly. So they were just like, what's your plan with him? And at the time, I'm like, well, we just came up to see what the level was because I knew this thing's like, see how he looks, what this level, like maybe this is a 12 month plan for him. They're like, I'm like, he's coming back to school with me and he'll play for another year and we'll see where he out. And they're like, he's playing pretty well.

So same way, like grinded through rookie camp into main camp, played well at main camp and then was offered a spot. And we knew going into it, he was going to be like six, seventh, eighth defenseman that they were taken. But same way, I watch practice. I watched some of the games. Like I knew the attention of detail from the coaching staff was there. And, you know, I think it was, it was good for him to rip. the band-aid off and get to that level and have to be forced to be uncomfortable. And yeah, he went from a seventh into a six.

And I would say by the end of the year, he was playing like four or five minutes and played awesome. And it was fun to watch his progression through the years and through the year. We got a lot better this. Yeah. More better than you would have got it. 100%. Yeah.

Just like the details of the game. And once again, it's pro hockey, right? You're playing 60 plus games. There's video sessions. There's skill sessions like you're learning how to become a pro. Right. And I do think, like, people have asked me, like, all right, what's the difference between the U.S.HL and the Quebec League or that, for my experience? And I think the Quebec League is similar to pro hockey, whereas U.S.HL is similar to college hockey.

And I guess for anyone, like, is the goal just to play college hockey? Like, maybe some people. I guess some people, which is okay. But, like, for me, the goal is like, I want to be a pro hockey player. Like, what does that mean? Like, when I get to college, like, they can teach me out to dump the puck in chase me in F1. Like, but I want to make plays. I want to be, you know, I want to play the game the right way.

And is what you see at the NHL level. my eyes. Right. He and everyone the CH from what I took out of it. Like every guy was trying to become a pro. Whether they were delusional about it or not, every single guy wanted to play pro

that was their next step. Like there was no going to college when I was there. So it was like these guys, you had to be good in practice, you had to be good in the games. Like you had to earn yourself every day. I get a question. Carter. Oh yeah, go ahead. Go ahead. I was getting, because we were just chatting about this

earlier. Are you reading the stuff that's being written, written about you? Are you staying away from reading it? We were saying, I was saying I used to do it and I regret ever doing it. And now you see your name in a lot of these next year, 2027 draft. And I didn't. And what's your dad

telling you? Yeah, I didn't do it because I couldn't read. But go ahead. You might not have been in the, in the summer of those conversations too. Exactly. Same with my dad, he wasn't really in those conversations about draft. So he can't really like give me experience about that. But just not really trying to like look into it and just

focus on getting better this summer okay like do you want to play in the n hl and like why like what what what drives you essentially well i mean you see like how obviously my dad played and like growing up like seeing that and like him coaching me just like it's like that was like his life and like i i i've obviously going to be where he went and just trying to like follow on his footsteps and won up him one day you've always wanted to do this as far as you can remember yeah because your dad did it whole life yeah were you in the locker room when you were young like we're um i don't really remember that part i mean i'm sure i was around it but okay just hearing stories no memories of it because it was so young yeah when he was

playing who do you watch the most in the yeah who are your guys i mean it used to be like matthews but i mean you see what celebrini's doing so it's kind of hard not to watch him i you're just watching him all the time watch him every game what do you love about him celebrini yeah i mean he's a BU kid, but you see how hard he works each shift in like his 200 foot game. How successful he is. And same with Eichel too. You see what he's doing

in the playoffs and how he's leading the team. So I saw him play in the New England tournament. So that was your last game at Rivers. Very skilled. Has the dad's edge, I'd say. There was a couple penalties. I'm like, that's a Meyer. But you play with an edge.

That's part of your game. Okay, you do. Against run around hit guys? No, against Dexter. A little bit. My penalty minutes were kind of up there this year. Do your coach give you shit about it? A little bit, but you're getting on the stat sheet, so that's what matters. What's your game? How would you describe your game? I'd say like a 200 foot center who is going to score your goals and make plays, but also

like when you need like someone to play physical and like step up and win battles, like I'm also going to do that for you. So, okay. What's your what's your size? Like what are you like? What are you like a 6-1? Okay. Maybe 6-2. Okay. Mailman.

Still growing? Yeah. Ficked the right. Oh, yeah. Find the right address. You know, you get the right mailman. A mailman. You started the year on U-17 and then got brought up to you 18.

Yeah. Yeah. So that's got to be pretty cool. Yeah. I mean, it was cool. Like you always grow up like dreaming about doing that. So is there any kids that we should be looking out for around your age? Like, who are the other kids where it's like, okay, I've played against this

this guy's going to be the real deal and maybe a potential celebrini one day or another big name. We played against the kid Joseph from Canada at the challenge this year. He's like six five centerman. He was, he's our age too. He plays out in St. John's. Fucking right. Is he a maritimer?

I think he's French. I think he's French. Okay, we got a Frenchie coming. Matt Cullen's sons. Very good. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, yeah.

No, he's got a couple kids, doesn't he? He's got a 10. He's got a kid, Wyatt is the 08 who's going in the first round, and then there's a 2010 Joey Cohn who's just as good, if not better. Okay, all right. So, yeah, I'm thinking of the American. One of them on the U.S. team? Yeah, Wyatt was.

Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. I remember Washington. Yeah, Wyatt's draft stock, like, rose this year a lot, the second half. Yeah, he's talented kid. Sweden. What was Sweden like? for me I was married with with two kids living in the smallest town in Sweden and I think it was We were in the same city biz I was in quick yeah it wasn't yeah yeah nice place I mean the middle

winter sounds cool yeah it was in the summer and when you got there for camp I remember it was beautiful little beautiful Swedish town I think on the Baltic sea there yeah you know then it's it's dark at 130 I was gone before then but I could imagine and when it's dark at 1 30 and doesn't get light till 10 30 the next day it's probably you know what you're yeah it's more He was eating shrimp. I mean, for us it was actually, I think for Carter and Freddie, because they were there, obviously, and when they would, they would go to like this like kindergarten, Swedish kindergarten. They'd get out of like 12, take an hour nap.

They wake up at 1.30 and now it's, it's dark out. But at that point in that far north, the like Parks and Rex guys that would probably mow the baseball fields in the spring and summer, they would just, they would, they would flood all the fields. So we, we skated probably like three, four days a week, like throughout the winter because there was nothing else. do they would put their snow suits on and joffa bubbles and like down to the snow banks. Okay. So that's yeah. See like I feel like those reps early days are such a major advantage.

Like I used to skate on the pond. It didn't it doesn't get cold enough back home or it really no. Now it's different. Weird. It's weird. It's weird. But I gotta. Hey, I gotta continue. I gotta go to his game. I gotta go to riders. My lot. Okay, my last question would just be to Carter. Uh, like, what do you have to do on your own as far as your like workout regimen at this age? Like, what are you doing in order to prepare for the next level? Like how much would it take if anybody he's listening to like to get it i mean for like the last like a couple like five years or so i've been going this place bando i mean we've been going there like consistently like kind of five days a week especially in the summer like we're going five days a week we're going to shoot pucks

after like okay we're in there for like an hour and a half each day just just grinding grinding that's what you'd love to do though grinding that's all that was my last question what do you got With, no, I got a playoff game. I got a baseball playoff. Are you coaching? What? You coach?

I'm assistant. I'm a, some more of a sunfireers. Baseball. I'm the pump him up guy. I'm the pump him up guy. Freddie, thank you so much. This is all right. Thanks, guys.

Appreciate it. It's been awesome. Catching up with you. And good luck to your kids. All right, boys, listen up. We're a hockey podcast. We're hockey guys, but we can appreciate college football season and what it means to so many people out there and nobody does it

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head to rowback.com. That's R-H-O-B-C-K dot com. and use code chicklets for 20% off your first purchase through the end of the week. This episode of Spitten Chicklets is brought to you by the Body Armor Flash IV. We've talked about this for a long time. Right now, you can tell by my voice, I need a Body Armor Flash IV. It's in the fridge downstairs getting ready to be crushed by yours truly. Flash IV is packed with electrolytes delivering faster,

longer lasting hydration without any artificial thighs, flavors, or sweeteners, whether you're training, traveling, or just feeling the heat, work hard and hydrate hard with body armor flash ivy grab it right now at a 7-11 near you thank you very much to freddie and carter mire good luck to carter in his career um and freddie we appreciate it so uh there's some news that came out this week kind of i'm not exactly sure of what's happening here but the nchel players approved the use of their name and likeness in a new marketing effort inspired by popular hockey themed romance novels according to a league spokesperson. It's hot for hockey campaign. The NHL is enlisting hockey romance authors to turn

real-life league news into short audio stories told in the style of the game. 30 to 90-second pieces don't describe any actual romance between players, but they lean into evocative language and dramatic production elements like soft piano backing music. Seven installments featuring six players, McDavid Ziegris, Ajo, Eichel, Connor, and Mika Zemniad have already been released on Spotify. One of the most bizarre things I've ever seen. This came across. But is it, though? I've been saying this, man.

I know. You have. You have. It's all about the smut. And if you check the under the hood analytics, man. I know, but like, in terms of, like, McDavid's married. Like, it's kind of. I know, but it's fantasy.

It's smut fantasy. Could you imagine bizes? Well, Avery did one. Avery came out with one. Avery wrote a whole novel. That's what I mean. Yeah. Yeah.

These are quick ones. Biz is, imagine biz, and there he is. On the bench sitting there. In between the D and the forwards. Is he hard? I don't know. Has he moved in 20 minutes? No.

Oh, didn't end up with a shift. Oh, he may sit on the bench in the game, but he's going to put me on my workbench at home. Paul, Biznasty, Bissonet. I would say they leaned into the wrong guys. Like, Rempbe should have had one. like why didn't they do Raubba?

Bauer. Oh my God. Zegra is a good choice. Zegaris is a good choice. He's with like a TikTok wasn't he? Yeah, he was with the Mello. Really?

Yeah, now he's now he's dipping his pen and company ink. Who else should have one? Celebrini. No, Smith, Will Smith. Oh, Smith. Yeah. What are we talking about?

What are we talking about here? Fucking the cap will go up another 20 million. Oh, memes. The summer I got Comedia with memesy. That should not be one. No, absolutely not. Although it was a five-star rating.

Oh, it was good. I listened to it. It was only a one-minute novel. That was a quick pump and dump. Like a Trump stock. He couldn't even get his snake-skin boots off before he busted. He just pulled this big co-canned cock through a zipper of his pants and laid it into me. And it smelled.

He rolled back his anaconda. It smelled horrible. Slipped it in. And then he made a mean. He made a mean. He made a mean. meme about Gavin McKenna going back to Penn State. Fuck, what a man. Can you guys think of any other players?

Like who would be good? Yeah, we need a little diversity. Maybe Revo? Yeah, I get Revo. Here's my retired sex capade with former NHLer Ryan Reeves. Once again, married. So in terms of like erotic stories, I don't know if the wives of the married guys in the short stories are real. But it's all, it's all fictitious, right? It'd be, uh, it would be Revo as, like that that who's the one who pounded that Lena the plug or whatever Adam Love or yeah

Adam the plug Yeah Adam the plug. Or no, yeah, Lean of the Plug Adam 22's wife. That's yeah. I think we can move on. Yeah, we can move on. We can move on.

We can move on right here. Banana Man. I want to shout out we talked about Tristan Leno. Merle's mentioned this good player. Look great for the ducks and then the contract gets signed well he's looked pretty fucking good boys and i saw a tweet

let me find it right here in terms of the possibility when people mentioned that the an i've ducks did this because they just have PTSD of what happened carlson and what they had to go through with with got the a there was a tweet here that said um fresh off signing a 43.2 million dollar contractress in leno log 27 minutes total 27 minutes time on ice against the defending west conference champs at 5 on 5. He led his team in time on ice, was on the ice for three goals, four, and none against, and posted a 58.3 goal GF percentage, that's Pasha's. So maybe they were cooking. Maybe they knew what they were doing. Oh, they knew what they were doing. Maybe they knew exactly what they were doing. And he's going to get every

opportunity. He's going to play the minutes because they want him to be good, right? You can't sign a guy like that and, you know, play him 10, 12 minutes a night. So he's going to get the minutes. And to prove himself all year, he's going to get it. And then hopefully the rest of his career. curious to know if there's going to be a contract to like one up the ridiculousness of that one. Like when does a guy who's only played game in the minors never even played an NHL game get like a six, seven year deal? That is what you're going to. That's what you're going to need. You didn't need a no NHL games played non-entry level deal for seven times seven.

Did he do the college thing where he only had to play two years? Like how many years had he marinated in the minors to end up getting through his entry level deal? Or maybe he was he undrafted? He was drafted in the second round at 2022. Right. He played in the Quebec Major Junior League 22, 23, and then has been up and down in the H. on NHL since. Okay.

So he, yeah, he played a couple games each year. Yeah, he played his first, his rookie year played seven, the following year he played six, and last year he played one. So he regressed in games played to last year to then get that deal. Amazing. Amazing stuff. So that's why I'm trading Truba and Goudas kind of made sense. Because that guy, they were probably like,

we got this guy, but we can't play him because we got these veterans. What is that biz? I fucking, I went to Poundtown before the podcast. Shirt on, Poundtown? Is that where you finished? No.

Winnie the Pooh? What is that? What is the white stuff? I put, I put the, what do you call it? The odorant? the odor on. Oh, okay. Classy.

And then I just went through. I was leaking still after. Sorry, boys. Boys, on this day, in 1997, 69-year-old Gordy Howe played a single shift in the IHL

for the Detroit Vipers becoming the only professional hockey player to compete in six different decades. My dad, Big Dan Whitney, is downstairs right now. On Halloween,

this year, he turns 69 years old. that's just The Bruins got to let him play They should Honestly give Big D I think his last men's league shift It was like a cross check in a face

A fight like that you know He goes hard Do the Bruins do the last lap The Bruins do the last lap The Bruins do the last lap big damn But I mean how did Gordy shift go We need video that shift Matt

Oh we got it We got it We got it Yeah he was He almost got caught some guy His wing took off and had a breakaway But they went off sides And it was his guy

I mean, he was 69 years old. Like, come on. But he looked all right. He was skating around out there. It was impressive as shit. Yeah, he did. But the other guys around him weren't, like, going slow and, like, they were flying around. And to end the show, boys, some awful news in the hockey world.

And it hits close. Piz and I knew Lyle Lodel O'Dline pretty well. He passed away. And I cannot tell you, coming in as a rookie in the NHL with Lyle Lodeline as a veteran on the team, like how incredible it was spending time with him and getting to experience like just Odie whether you were in the locker room out on the ice out for lunch that turned into dinner after.

Hey, Mick Ultra babe. That's what he's, everything was babe. I don't know how many times. I think, I think, Scuds and I were texting. I was texting with Orp as well. It must have been 40 times that it was like,

yeah, I broke Doug Harvey's record for the Montreal Canadian. Five assists in a game, babe. and just the way he said it and the way he was like, like, buddy, he was bringing rookies out for lunch and, you know, it would be dinner and the stories all day into all night and his like ability to tell a story, remember everything, Stanley Cup champ in 93. I think he said he was out for a week after.

Just awful news. And did I read in the article since getting stung by a bit by a cactus? Yeah, you got, yeah. I think it was in Arizona, actually. What is that? Yeah, he just, he got pricked by a cactus. And I don't know if it, if it caused some, like, autoimmune type disease, but it, yeah, that was, he'd been having, like, health issues and complications ever since that.

And, uh, I don't know if that, like, played a part in, in how he passed. But, uh, just to go back to what you were saying, like, I got to go to training camp and he was there. And, like, I was very fortunate to get to view, like, the old school NHL. and like what it was about. And these guys were like larger than life personalities. And, you know, after, as soon as the game's done, like the six packs waiting there in the stall type stuff.

And, you know, just how they handled their business where they would show up, like the, before practice, they were very serious. They were ultra, ultra professional. And then afterward, you know, they like to go enjoy their pops. And one of the other cooler stories that I've heard about O'Deline was in Montreal as Terry Ryan, you know, obviously he's a, you know, off the wall kind of guy. He showed up to a game one time and like, you know,

snake skin cowboy boobs. I think they must have been memesies or maybe he handed him off to memesy. And, you know, he was kind of dressed like a rock star. And the following day when Terry Ryan got to the rink, he had a Hugo Boss suit, like ready for him so he could like just to kind of teach him. He didn't embarrass him, didn't even mention it. It was just there waiting for him. And that's how he kind of delivered the message to Terry Ryan about how to hand him.

handle himself and carry himself coming into the league. So gone way too soon, a legend of the game. And as Witt said, like the type of guy where, you know, now that he's passed, like everybody's texting each other being like, oh, we lost one of the good guys. We lost one of the good guys. So very unfortunate. And, yeah, a condolences to his family. It's really RIP to da veteran.

I mean, I remember in practice, he would wheel the net. You know, you kind of get on your back foot, you snap a breakout pass. He would then hold the pose. So he'd like be on the one foot. He'd snap it. He'd hold the pose with his stick right where it was as the puck went off the plate, right into the back of the line and just be like, da, veteran. And it was just comedy.

And I, yeah, I haven't seen him in so long. But just brutal news, you know, way too young, amazing guy. A guy who stories of him will live on forever. And I think that that's what he'd want to hear. So condolences to his family. Also, I think the first, was he the first captain ever of the Columbus Blue Jackets? I believe. Yeah.

He came in and he was captain their inaugural season. They put a nice post out and what he kind of meant to their history. So, yeah, you want to shout out with the Oderline family. And Odie was a true legend. So everyone, Chicklet's cop this weekend, very excited. We'll be back to you guys on, what is it, Friday morning. Pinky's up, showed out Reese's. We'll be together Thursday recording. Yeah, I love it. Yeah, we will.

Always nice, always nice being together. Have a great week and we'll see you at the end of this one, boys.