The Athletic Hockey Show - David Backes surfs into retirement. St. Louis Blues, Florida Panthers & Carolina Hurricanes remain undefeated in NHL

Episode Date: October 26, 2021

David Backes, the former Captain of the St. Louis Blues joins Craig and Sean on the Americans edition of the Athletic Hockey Show to chat about his career with the Blues, Bruins and Ducks, the infamous offer-sheet by Vancouver, the 2010 Winter Olympic games and how much losing hurts. David talks about what he is doing now, including taking up surfing in southern California, he an his wife Kelly's charity Athletes for Animals and their venture to open a vegan fast casual restaurant.Craig and Sean highlight the undefeated NHL teams, including the resurgence of Vladimir Tarasenko and the St. Louis Blues, Joel Quenneville's Florida Panthers and the lights out play of Frederik Andersen and the Carolina Hurricanes.The guys also answer your comments from the Athletic App, including how bad the Chicago Blackhawks are, Jack Hughes potential and the listeners fascination with our ad reads.And, don’t forget, you can sign up for an annual subscription to The Athletic for just $3.99 a month when you visit http://theathletic.com/hockeyshow Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Hello everybody. Hey there. You listening? This is Craig Kastin's of the... This is Sean Jintilly not coughing into a microphone. Did you? Ten seconds. Maybe. Did you bring the flock of birds this week? I'm sitting by the non-bird window today. There are no trees outside. I'm joined as always. On Tuesdays in the special Americans edition of the Athletic Hockey Show, the only show where you'll hear American teams and players mentioned at all on the athletic hockey what's it called the athletic hockey show network I guess

Ian yesterday really he just goes out of his way to not say American player did he's crazy he speaks in pig Latin he refuses to actually essay owns Jay can we talk like there's way too many American good Americans in Canada I still am not over that like playing like the bet anyways this so we We, of course, I have a great show. We always have a great show for you. This show especially, and maybe we say this every time about our guests, but this week we have David Backus on, and he is so good.

So David Backus, when he, like, after a game and he's annoyed, it doesn't want to do media and is exhausted, is still great, is as good as an interview as you can get. He was, as we mentioned, all of our, like, go-to from producer, or Jeff to me and Sean, you needed a good soundbite or you needed some insight you went to David Backus, no matter what you were writing about or who, what game you were covering. Well, we got refreshed, like haven't done a media call or talk to anybody in the media in three months, David Backus. I mean, you pump tires on everybody who speaks on the show.

I know. Well, it's part of the deal. I don't. Oh. I think some of the guests have been terrible. Who specifically? Bill Daley. Looking at you, Bucci.

Mark Lazarus. Backus was unbelievable. He was unbelievable. My thought coming out of that was we have to get him on TV. He's got, he, I, he should be selfishly. That guy can do it every one. He can do it every once. He's got.

you know, he's in a bunch of different spaces. He's talking about, you know, plant-based food franchises and he's still got the charity going. And he clearly has a bunch of interest. He's talking in his laundry room, drinking tea, ready to go out with his, you know, investment banker buddy in Huntington Beach or wherever he was trying to serve. Like, I'm down with that, but he needs to be on TV. because he had a couple monologues there about what it's like to lose the worst hockey games a player can lose, which is game seven of the Stanley Cup final, the gold medal game in the Olympics,

and how those were different and how they, you know, how we reacted and what it was like moving on. And it was really compelling stuff. And we for once just kind of shut up and let them roll. You could see both of us wanting to jump in in times. And then we were like, you know what? We're going to, this week and this week only, we're going to let the guest talk. Yeah, I was running, I was running and getting duck paved to put it over my mouth because I was like, not going to screw this up like the Jack Hughes interview. I do think at one point, I did ask Sean a question during the David Backus interview.

Yes. Did not make its way into the interview Q&A transcript, which is up now on the athletic.com. Go to the athletic.com. So because we did go along with David Backus, it was. It's 30 plus minutes. And you don't have to be a blues fan or a Bruins fan. Like, you just need to be a fan of hockey and human beings and America.

A lot of, like, of course, if you played on the 2010 American U.S. Olympic team, I'm going to ask about it. That's in the bylaws of this podcast. I think you, I think you said it. There's, I don't know that I've ever heard a player speak that open. and articulately about what it's like to lose these games. I've never heard anybody better on it, honestly. It was really, really good.

Much better guy to talk to than Lazarus, too. Stick around. That Peter Boss. Don't even get me started on him. Good God. It's going to be like Joel Quenville, like, tell. If we say, hey, this week's guest was really good. We think you're going to enjoy it.

That means they were terrible. Like you got to start doing the, you know, when he's just like, how did this guy play? And he's like, yeah, he was fine. He was fine. That means just awful. So if I say they were great, like the best ever, that means they were above average. If I say stop what you're doing and fast forward anything we're talking about now and listen to it, which I don't really want you to do. But at least listen to the Manscape Ad.

Then it's really good. So that's a long way of, that's us saying we're going to keep this first section tight because we went along with Backus, and we're going to do that in a 10-minute block talking about how good he was. But I think we should stay on the blues, Sean, because there's been an interesting development in this upside-down start of the NHL season, where, you know, the lightning aren't good, and the Leafs aren't, all these things, weird things are happening. And we're six, seven games in, for the most part, for teams, and we still have three undefeated teams. And if you lost in overtime, you don't count.

sorry Washington Capitals we'll talk about the Capitals I like the Capitals there was a fourth team in Edmonton but of course we won't talk about them I want to start with the St. Louis Blues you know because it ties a nice bow on the episode with David Backus but the return of Vladimir Tarasanko into Beast mode

has been awesome like if you watch him he's got like he's back he's just completely back has a highlight real goal last night And then I'm going to see if I can pull up the quote. First of all, you talk about Vladimir Tarasenko for a second, because I wanted to pull up the quote, he said, because I thought it was interesting.

I'm not sure outside of Conor McDavid and, you know, at times Crosby, it times Malk and guys like that, I don't think we've had a better highlight real guy over the last decade when he's healthy than Vladimir Teresenko. Like he, you know, sometimes they can. insistence he's there. Sometimes it's not. He's obviously been hurt the last few years. But when that guy's on, I'm not sure I've had more fun watching a hockey player in this decade. So to see him go back into, like you said, Beast Mode a couple games ago, he had seven shots on goal and the game

winner and all that. Doing all that after, you know, a pretty hellacious run of shoulder injuries is a treat. And I'm not, and I'm not sold all the way on the blues, right? I think that's a, I think that's a really good group of forwards. I think that's, you know, really, in terms of four lines, I think that's something we haven't seen from them over the last, over the last few years. There's, there's reasons to be concerned. The expected goals percentage isn't where it, isn't where it needs to be. The shot share is not where it needs to be. Oh, let the blues fans enjoy it for a second. That's, that's my long, winded throat clearing way of saying, like, I'm really, I'm really, really interested in this team. And I, and I know

there's, you know, maybe reasons to pause, but, um, they're fun to watch. And a big part of that is because Teresenko, for now at least seems like he's back. Yeah. So he says after the, so the fans are chanting his name. It's just, it's awesome. It's like St. Louis fans are the best. You know, I've been in that building and in the peak moments. And it's just great. And so also a really underrated completely, um, and I say this with, I say this with, I say this with, affection because I worked with a lot of St. Louis people. Before the cup run, complete headcases. Oh, yeah. Yeah. That, a complete, like, I don't know if people who maybe don't pay attention to that franchise, or haven't paid all that much attention to that franchise, realize, like, the psychic scars of

the early years, because they came, they came close and didn't do it. And then all the, all the whole teams. I mean, that's just like a, that's like a tortured fan base. So that's been fascinating to track. And the Cup was a huge, a huge release there, right? Well, they're one of those franchises that people, like, they've had teams that people forget because they didn't ultimately win of every era. And then you have, like, I think there's teams of the era where, like, I was at every single game. And, like, people are going to figure about those Anaheim Ducks teams that were so good,

that, you know, that would lose to the Blackhawks or lose to whoever. that the Bruce Boudreau Ducks teams are going to go down in my and no one's going to remember them. Like that's just what happens. Sorry. And they easily could have won a cup. There's those blues teams from that area you're talking about where where they just would run into the Detroit Red Wings

and Steve Eisenman and the Colorado, whatever it was. And it was like they were so good and didn't win. And so now you're tortured and now you're wondering, is it ever going to happen? Because if that team can't win, my goodness. And then they win and they have this breakthrough. And, you know, and so Teresanko has been great.

So he says a quote. Jeremy Rutherford, this is off of a tweet that Jeremy says. And I want to, you know, he's talking in past tense. And so this gets to, and I'm definitely reading too much into it because, A, there's a language thing, right? Like he's speaking English and I'm, you know, way better than my Russian. So I don't know if it's intentional. But, you know, he says, I've always said it, you know, my family got so much help from people in, And from people from St. Louis, the support through this 10 years was very awesome.

Like, I'm still feeling like he's, you know, is he still one out? Like, where are we at on that? Is he just pumping up his trade value? I mean, Doug Armstrong came as close as he could to saying at the start of the season, like, we're just going to see if something works. And, you know, hopefully we can find a solution that works for us and for him. That's a major paraphrase by me. but that's that's kind of what he said.

So I don't know. It makes you wonder how good they would have to be in October and November and December to just say like, let's ride. Let's see what happens here. Like is it best for both sides to just have another, have another full year? I don't know. A better way to look at this is if you're St. Louis and it's February in your second the division or whatever and stuff's close.

and you look like a legit, a legit contender, why do you trade Vladimir Tarasenko? To do him a favor? Yeah. I don't know. I mean, they've already proven they're not going to just trade him to satisfy his request.

Clearly. But I look at his number. He's at $7.5 million for this year and next year. And the summer, that seemed completely unwieldy. You're like, if they want to trade them, they just have to get that contract off the books and get nothing in return. Like, that was where my head was at,

because you have your injuries. So if you're moving him, you're just moving them to get the money off the books. Now I look at seven and a half and I'm like, huh, that's not a bad. And it's up and, like if you could sign Terra Sanco

to a two-year deal at seven and a half, you're doing it right now. I think that's kind of a fun part, or fun, fun, might not be the right word. It's an interesting part of going back to a flat cap system

where I feel like we were close to recalibrating how we thought about player contracts. Right. Like, we were stuck in stasis there for a while. And my theory is a lot of it has to do with Crosby because he's like the, you know, the barometer, I think, for what constitutes a truly top line salary and whatever. That's changed over the last couple years because of Austin Matthews and Mitch Marner.

And obviously the guys in Edmonton, you know, you look at the deal of Barcov just signed. You know, good players, truly elite players make or should make $10 million a year now. And that's just something we were not, we were not. capable, I don't think, fully of understanding, say, two years ago. So you look at seven and a half million and you're like, this has to be a no-doubt, no-brainer, top 10 forward in the league or whatever. And that's not the way it works anymore. A seven and a half million dollar player, you know, doesn't need to be a 50-goal guy anymore. So there is value. I think there may be some hidden value in that Teresenko contract on ice at least. The issue for him,

I mean, clearly, in the blues, is that he's a bad hit in the boards away from maybe never, from maybe never playing again. Right. Because the shoulder stuff is very real. And he's had multiple surgeries on it. That's just the way it goes. So, you know, maybe they let it roll with him. Maybe not.

It's super duper interesting. And like I said, there's reasons to be concerned, I suppose. But they're fun to watch right now. Pao Bajnevich has been a blast. Like, that's, that's found money for them. And it's a great cost. Why didn't every other team make that trade? Like, that was like, they were don't.

Donating a good young player because the Rangers the the Rangers just wanted Sammy play a step Is that what it was? Okay. I just they needed them they needed them how like how how else could you You know what what else you're gonna do against against Tom Wilson and what if the blues are like we'll keep half of Tarasenko salary just to hit a home run in this deal if they're if they're a good team like what do you what do you do you do you do you punt on the season and trade in trade in trade in trade your best winger? because of what's happened over the last few months? Like, I don't know. Maybe you look for another superstar on the trade block who has injury concerns, and you make a trade built around that and send Tarasenko to the Sabres, who then, in a Nykel deal, who then retain half the salary and ship them off for futures.

See, we just... There we go. That's a great move. That works. So... The cap, the cap works out, basically, for St. Louis. We just figured it out. I think we just...

All right. The other two undefeated. So it's Florida, Carolina, and St. Louis in the U.S. Who are you hitting your weight? If you're like, okay, which one of those three is the best? Florida. Easy. In your mind?

Yes. I'm in on Florida and I'm out on Carolina. All right. That's what I wanted to ask. I thought we all were supposed to like Carolina. What happened? Carolina's, you know, fun and tweets and whatnot and offer sheets, et cetera. They're at that point in their evolution as an organization where the shit gets kind of old.

Oh, you're over them. Cute, absolutely. Come on, man. I'm a, I'm a, I'm a, I'm a, I'm a, I'm a, I'm a, I'm a, I'm a, I was into the hurricanes before they were cool. And now, and now, and now, and now I never liked them at all. Oh, you never like them. You'll deny it. No, I'll deny it.

I'll go back and delete tweets. Like, I don't care. You were like, yeah, done, sherry, ha ha, this is my team. Tom Dundden, I love you. Yeah. So who's the, who's, so. Please, please, please sell me a car at 36% interest. It's, if you're out of, who's the new, like, what is the, what team is the hipster team like that?

That's a great question. Is it the Panthers? might be the Panthers. I'm two years away from hating them too. You'll turn on them so fast. It's probably the Panthers because not a big fan base, so there's not a lot of buzz, but they are legitimately good,

so you're right about them. I mean, and seriously, if we're talking about, if we're talking about sustainability in the undefeated American teams, I think they're the ones that have it. The question mark with them heading into the season and whatever, we're six games in or whatever it is.

so it hasn't been answered yet, but it was it was Bobrovsky. If they could get anything out of him and if he didn't, you know, revert into playoff mode in the, in the fall, they were going to be dangerous. He's, and he's been, he's been really good. You know, that's such an interesting group of forwards. Um, you, I, God, Jonathan Euberdose, again, rocking up points. He's a, he's a, he's a fascinating guy because, like, it's like whoever, whoever you throw on a line with him as a Center produces. We saw with Alex Winberg last year. We've seen it with other guys in the past. You know, that's a, that's without even talking about Barkov. Watching Sam Bennett score and power play snipes a couple games ago, like we love Sam Reinhardt here. We've talked them out

before. I, I, I like them. I like them a lot. I like them a lot. I like them in that division a lot. And something we were talking about before we started recording was like, because obviously we don't have to go into lengths or don't have to go into leaves at any kind of length, but the least might be fourth in that division, you know, and they're dropping points like it's their business right now. Metro looks tough. Yeah, it may not get in. Got the lightning, you got the Panthers, you got the Bruins, you got five or six or seven pretty decent teams in in the metro. I mean, the road out for them is paved. All right. Last time I want to touch on before we get to David Backus is your Buffalo Sabres.

I'm holding my Donnie meatballs. Here it is. I always keep it. It's like my Linus blanket nearby. You know, we're, we should buy two. I should buy two. One to wear and then one to just get like very tastefully framed and hung in my bedroom above my, above my bed. Above my drive. Above my drive. dresser. Oh my gosh. Just keep your dresser out and then a frame, Donnie Me both. I don't have, I don't, I don't have anything above my dresser. Well, shit. That's a great idea. That's a great idea. And then a picture of like the zoom of Donnie McGronado just crushing you in like a whole out quote. Yeah. Me with my, me with my head down like I'm getting yelled at by one of my uncles or something. Yeah. So we knew all along that that was a great hire. Of course. Correct. Of course. And that they would they would overachieve this year because he gets the most out of young talent, of course. I have. have no thoughts on the sabers other than I'm just happy for fans there to have something fun to talk about and for John Vogel to have some you know it's not a 10 alarm fire to put out I feel like I feel like we do like weekly check-ins on the pod with with Vogel where we're like do you think you think he's doing okay I just worry okay okay so I here's my concern about the savers I'm trying

to be super measured in the in the praise that I that I give them is that you know, you got to figure this is, they're not going to win, they're not going to go at a four in one pace for their, for the rest of the season. I think that would be pretty, pretty unreasonable. Yes. They just beat the Lightning 5-1. Like, what the hell is happening?

Craig Anderson making, making 35 saves. Great interview, by the way, by Ian and Haley yesterday, or I posted yesterday of them, of them talking to him. Oh, because he's American, that should have been our interview. Like, that was out of bounds. That's right. Can you golly playing in a minute? Like, why?

There was nobody from Ottawa at an interview? That's why I brought it up. It was going to be a backdoor, a backdoor way to air grievances with them. Stay out of our territory. Stay off our grass, Mendez. But like, I don't know. The Sabres seventh in the league with a 54% expected goals.

They're out attempting people. They're getting half. it's not as much, it's more sustainable, it seems more sustainable than you think. They're not doing this through like smoke and mirrors where they're getting goalied. They haven't gotten goalied to a 401 start. Right. They're dominating five on five play pretty decisively. Like maybe this is it.

Maybe this is the six game stretch, you know, that belies the rest of their results. But they've been legitimately really good. These are not cheap wins. Here's what I'll say. It's almost because we've had some weird hockey seasons during a global pandemic, I think everybody forgot what October was like. These are the easiest games to win every year. The good teams don't care.

The teams that have been bad would like to get some wins. These are not, this is not hard hockey. So all of these, the Red Wings, the Sabres, I'm happy for them. They're going to get some wins. This happens every October. And the teams that are really good don't come out of the gates. flying because they don't care. Toronto doesn't, these teams don't care.

You think Tampa cares about games in October? No. No. They're going to be fine, everybody. Toronto's going to be fine. I know we don't talk about them. They're going to be fine. I know nobody wants to hear that there, so they're not listening anyways.

All these, like, these teams that are overachieving that aren't supposed to be, like, it's good for them. They want to come get some wins. And then one player gets hurt or something because that's what happens in a hockey season, and there's no depth, and then they go back. Totally. Like, this happens every October, not to be that guy. Yeah, but that's, but that's part of the fun.

That's part of the fun talking about October hockey. And it's something that we haven't gotten or whatever. We certainly didn't get last year. It's fun to try to figure out who's legit and who's not. Yeah, because one of these teams is legit. I guess that's fair. One of them is. It's not going to be all of them.

Like, we can sit here and worry about Tampa Bay? No, that's not what it's. They're not visiting the playoffs. Like, Dave, I said, Doc tweeted like, oh, they're down to 65. They're going to be at 90% when they would be at. battle off three straight wins or something. Yeah. Come on.

Because they have... I mean, the thing about Tampa is Vasselowski's the eraser, right? Like, he's going to go on some brain-dead terror where he puts up a 9-41 over the course of a month and then everything's going to be fine. Everyone's going to forget about Kutra being heard or whatever else. That's right. All right. But that doesn't mean we can't have fun.

No, we can have fun. I think we forgot what October's like and how these games are not the same as they are in spring. That's all. one of these teams, and we don't know which one, is legit, I think. Maybe. And the answer's Buffalo. And why is it? Which of these teams is legit and why is it the same route?

And I'm glad, I like that you're out of Carolina. I don't know why. I don't know where I stand on the hurricanes, but it's perfect for you. Yeah. Get ready for the anti-Carolida takes because they're going to be coming fast and furious throughout. All right. Let's take a quick break. Buckle up for this one.

And we got David Backus in the best interview this podcast has ever had. One quick tease for that. He says he says poop twice, if that's a sell for anybody. Oh. Enjoy. We are now thrilled to be joined from Southern California by the recently retired David Backus. Live in the Good Life, sip and tea. David, how are you?

Thanks for doing this. I'm well, enjoying being dad full time. And, you know, sunshine never hurts the everyday feeling when you wake up. So we're loving the Southern California life. And recently my neighbor's been taking me surfing every week or so. So a humbling experience nonetheless, because going out there and getting my butt kicked and smash around my waves is, you know, I think I'm an athlete. and my neighbor's a bigger guy, you know, kind of walks with a little bit of a limp

and he gets out there and he's been doing his whole life and he paddles and hops on that board. And I am struggling. I mean, I drink more water out there than I do the rest of the day. But I'm loving it. It's great to be out there and yeah, living the life. Have you gotten up yet? Yeah. I mean, I probably ride, you know, five or six waves a session or an hour and a half, but it's not pretty. But you get that feeling and you're like, okay, let's go.

Let's go. Yeah, just kind of a new endeavor in my life. Have you surfed, Sean? I've never even, I wouldn't even try. No, I would be like, that would be a disaster. I'm the world's, I'm the world's worst water skier too. Like, I'm just not.

I don't think I'm built. I don't think I'm built for that stuff. Oh, my gosh. So I'm always curious about like, you know, we've had players on that, you know, that are kind of. starting the next chapter. And I know sometimes it can be really hard, right? Like, it's, it's all, it's, the hockey world is so all encompassing. But I wasn't, I wasn't really worried

about you. I feel like you've got a lot going on and pretty balanced and you've got your priorities, it seems like, in the right place. But how has that transition gone for you? It's been good. I think there's, there's certainly been moments of like, where does the game fit into my personal life of am I watching, you know, a full game at night. I think my body clocks kind of said we should be doing something, you know, and that's not necessarily just physically. It's like we need to be somewhere. Why aren't we going anywhere?

There's there's hockey happening. I probably, you know, if I see a game in overtime like the Anaheim in Minnesota the other night, I was like, okay, I'm going to tune in real quick and watch the overtime. I think it's never been something I've watched a lot in my free time because I've been in it. You're at 82 games plus preseason plus hopefully postseason. And when you're on the road, there's a lot of time to engross yourself in the game. So my whole life has never been really filled with hockey games. So I had the conversation with my wife, I think on Friday, like, am I going to just sit down and watch a hockey game for two and a half hours?

like with two young kids it's just like not something that I'm diving back into but I still love the game I'm still a fan of the game and still following it still a ton of friends that are in it and trying to encourage them and help them out along the the journey of of the ups and downs that come along a long season so yeah you can you can be like the rest of us now and just tune in during the third period and just flip back and forth between other games like get the get the remote going and watching like little five second chunks. That's the move. You'll feel you.

I think you'll figure it out pretty quickly. Kets the nightly highlights. That's right. I just scroll Twitter and look for highlights there. That's it. That's where I'm at. I haven't watched a full hockey game in years, years. You're not stuck in a sweet as a healthy scratch watching every, every shift painful.

So that. two and a half hour potential game would be after the kids are in bed. All right. They're, I mean, I think they like the idea of it. They think it's cool to just see the action on the ice, but I have a three and a half year old son and his attention span for anything is probably three and a half minutes if you got something he's really interested in.

So, my daughter can sit and with a bucket of markers and a blank white piece of paper for hours. So same. Yeah, They're just not necessarily in the sit and watch a game for extended time. But they do have interest in the game. I don't know if it's from the little bit that they were able to watch me play or just something that runs in their blood. But the idea of, hey, can we go skate or can we try to play hockey or just, I want to play hockey?

And it's like, we've never pushed that on you. Where are you getting that from? Yeah. Kids are pretty smart. They know. So have you thought what that connection to hockey might. look like for you, like, professionally? As is, like, you can, you have like a lot of avenues in front of, if you want them, or maybe

just surf. I, I'd, yeah. Well, my wife and I have kind of, uh, dean this year is like our honeymoon year of like a, yeah, we're going to take a year and just get back to us and family and being present. And like, I can walk my kids to school and pick them up every single day. And you know what? That's a decision. My wife and I just look at each other.

and we're like, you or me, and that's kind of cool to have instead of just she knows she's got to do all that, and I'm on the road or at the rink. So I think after this year, it might be something that we jump out a little bit more. And we have had, you know, quite a few avenues that we could have pursued. But for now, we're just kind of hitting that pause button. And we're going to do us and get back to a little bit of, you know, what we, reintroduce ourselves to each other, I guess. And that's kind of good at as well.

That's something we talked to Travis Ajax about, too. He mentioned carpool duty. He was psyched for it. You guys can trade, you guys can trade tips on wrangling off the kids and getting, getting them going in the morning. He was psyched for that too. Snacks in the back of the car. That's all I got right now.

Oh, my gosh. What pocket do you put the snacks in? Like, where, like, where do they go? Yeah, I can organize together. And my car has always been like the clean car. My wife's vehicle is like a disaster. I'm like, what do you do to this thing? And now I know, like kids get a snack in the back.

And it's like, you know, the crumbs and the wrappers are everywhere and their toys that they had to bring in the car that they are disinterested in three minutes in. But all good and loving that part too. We randomly found an apple that was underneath the seat of our car. We had a major fruit fly problem in the minivan. recently and we couldn't get to the bottom of it. What is the source here? We need to figure it out. Like I pull it out.

It looked like something from like it was like white. It looked like a Christmas decoration. It was so moldy. Did you put a little string on it? I should. We might as well. Like I might put it on the tree this year. It's hanging on the rear of your mirror actually.

It's for sure. It's an ornament. So we got to the source in that. So a couple of things. I always, you know, now that we have some space, there's been a couple of things. your career that I was always fascinated about. And one was the offer sheet, if you don't mind.

Like the, I liked that. That was the one. I'm going way back. Well, because now we can talk about it and maybe in more. That was the one where there was like a fight, right, between the Canucks and the blues where it was like one guy. Who was yet? There was another offer sheet done.

Steve Bernier. Steve Bernier. I love that stuff. I love the retaliation in the, in, you know, that never happens in the space. What was, what do you remember most about that at that moment in time? Well, I was on my honeymoon, and I've told the story a little bit of, I was on my honeymoon, and my agent called night before free agency. I was restrict, obviously.

And he said, hey, just hang around, you know, never know what's going to happen tomorrow. And I was like, all right. You know, and I was in Hawaii. So it was whatever, noon Eastern was 8 a.m. in Hawaii. And all of a sudden, my phone rings. And we had had no formal discussions with St. Louis. And I was hoping for a.

one-way contract of any kind, a million bucks, a million, you know, if there would have been a million dollars on a one-way deal for however many years, I would have signed it. And he calls, he's like, Vancouver called and they want to give you an offer sheet and they want to offer you three years at two and a half million, you know, with signing bonus in the first year. And I was like, what? You're like, first of all, how do you say no to that? Second of all, St. Louis, wasn't like in I mean you got from the year end and we were terrible in St. Louis early my career. So it was early April until early July to have a discussion, throw a bone out there and

just see where it goes. And none of that had happened. So Vancouver came calling. It was like, hey, they want me. And I guess the backstory is. So we're in a hotel room in Hawaii and our honeymoon. And I get off the phone. I'm kind of like shaking because all of a sudden I went from hoping to make a million bucks a

year to a three-year deal at two and a half million. I'm like, this is like that scratch off that, you know, you thought you had $100 on, had a, had a 50, yeah, it had a $50,000 bonus prize in it. So I'm like, Kelly, like Vancouver just offered me three-year deal at $7.5 million. And there's no way we can turn this down. And she like gets sad. And she's like, I don't, I don't, I don't want to live in like, Canada. and Vancouver. I don't know anything about it. So we start looking it up.

And I'm like, it's on the coast and we're Googling Vancouver. And it's like the most livable city in North America and all the walking. And it's progressive with all this and my wife's vegetarian and all this food that she's into. And all of a sudden she's like, this is going to be great. And no later that she like comes to terms of like Vancouver's going to be awesome. We get the call back from St. Louis. And they're like, we're going to make. match. This is a no-brainer. We watch you a part of the future. And now she's sat on the other side.

She's like, I was excited for Vancouver. And now we're going to stay in St. Louis, which we love St. Louis. Right, of course. I mean, it turned out obviously the way it was supposed to, but we're like, it was like this roller coaster of like, not Vancouver. Yes, Vancouver. Oh, we're not going to Vancouver. I miss Vancouver. And we're never even a part of it. And now we're back in St. Louis with this great, you know, contract and we can move closer to the city because on my entry level deal, we bought out in the boondocks really of, you know, a far suburb of St. Louis. And so it all worked out great, but those were kind of like that roller coaster. And like you said, after St. Louis matched, it was like the next day,

St. Louis offered sheeted C. Bernier from Vancouver for one year, two and a half million kind of similar. Yeah. Not on the stage of Aho and I can't even say cut Cammy or, Cock in the end of it, yeah, you got it. In Montreal, but, you know, the numbers have grown over the years, but the back and forth is still still prevalent. That'll, that old situation. I mean, they used every second they could, right? Like, they've had, it was the full, the full allotted time.

Yeah, I couldn't remember how long, how long you had to wait. So like an overnight, not even overnight, same day. Oh, God, really? Same day. It was like three hours later. Three hours. more than enough time for you to be like, wow, there's like, here's, here's maybe where we'd live and here's some cool restaurants. Like, that's, that's, that's, that's, that's the amount of

time. That's the amount of time it takes. Like, like, like, it wasn't, it wasn't overnight or a week or whatever. It's, yeah, I don't know if you guys are married, but on your honeymoon is not the time to be disappointing your life. So when she's, like, devastated, we're going to Canada and Vancouver, I was like, no, look at all this great stuff that could happen there. So maybe it was my fault for getting a rubbed up about it. But I mean, Vancouver, if you had to live in Canada, oh, yeah, that's a big if. Vancouver is number one, like probably by a country mile. Yeah, I would say. It's easy. It's easy, too, when you're like, okay, we just became seven and a half millionaires, too. Like, like, you know that that money is coming, like, like, like, whether, whether it's,

whether it's in St. Louis or over Vancouver, right? Right. We're not going to have to live, you know, and it's going to be better no matter what happens. The commute's not going to be from the middle of British Columbia to metropolitan Vancouver. We're going to be able to afford a place in the city and you're going to love it. So let's stay in Vancouver for a second. What was it like from the players from your perspective in the Olympics? I especially think after like how gutting it was, but also what a great accomplishment. What was that experience like, you know, in those final days there?

Well, I think as it's happening, I mean, especially in Olympic format, it's happening so fast that it's tough to digest, especially the external, you know, back home, what's going on, how exciting this is to the people back home just because you're in it. And I think part of that is survival and being able to like minimize the moment so that you can perform. because if you get wrapped up and like, oh, we're Miracle on Ice, 20, 10, 30 years after the original, and here we go, gold medal. Like, now of a sudden you're locking up because you're like, you've blown this thing up and maybe to what it actually is. But if you can minimize that to be like, hey, we're going to, you know, we're going to the rank where we always go in Vancouver and we're going to play another important game.

And I just got to worry about my next shift. and if I can get that opportunity, what am I going to do with it? And so I think as it's happening, you're like, okay, next game, next opportunity, let's enjoy this Olympic experience. Look at all these cool people. We're able to explore the city of Vancouver. And that was my first time there was at that Olympics. And I mean, the city and that Olympics was like, where obviously I was able to go in

Sochi where they had the condensed village, you know, and it was kind of, you know, all the venues were all on one campus. So you went to the campus and you were at the Olympic venues or you were in the city. In Vancouver, it was like they were all spread out and it's so walkable that you could walk to all these things and the whole city was engrossed with it. Like for me and my two experiences at Olympics, like that was, I don't know if it's been done better than how Vancouver did it and how it was embraced by the whole area. And then it's in Canada.

So hockey's like magnified a thousand. thousand times. So just what a time to, you know, be part of that. As it comes to the, you know, that gold medal game, it's, it's one of those things where I think it was a, most of our games were like 1215 or 1230 games. And then it was like the last thing of the Olympics and then it was going to go right into the closing ceremony. So going to the rink, it was, I guess when we beat Finland in the semifinal game and we crushed them,

I was thinking, like, we're going to play for a gold medal and, you know, rationalizing my own head, I'm like, the consolation prize

for not winning this game is a silver medal. That's not a turd in the punch bowl. Like, that's a pretty good accomplishment. But we're going to win this dang gold medal.

Like, let's go do this. Ryan Miller was out of his mind playing that tournament, like carried us along with, you know, Perese and Langanbrunner and Brian Rolfski and just the guys that were contributing in key moments was awesome.

So that gold medal game back and forth and, you know, you get to overtime. And I remember Ryan Whitney in, you know, after regulation, he's in the locker room. And we had a makeshift locker room in that Vancouver rink. And he's like, someone's going to be a hero, you know, in this room. And I remember like it was yesterday and it was 11 years ago. and I'm like, someone is. And I don't think I got a shift in overtime. I was sitting next to Tim Thomas on the bench,

like best seats in the house, rink side. But we had a couple of great A's. They had a couple of great A's. And then I remember Sid coming off the wall and shooting. And, you know, I was still in disbelief that it went in from everything that, you know,

all the, there was better chances in overtime before that. And when that went in, it was like, oh, you know, like this doesn't seem like justice because all the work that's gone in there an opportunity we had, like for it to be a, and I don't know if he'll call it a greasy goal, but it was kind of a greasy goal where, you know, out of all the chances, it wasn't the best one. And so it was kind of a letdown where you're disappointed. You're like, we're in overtime of the gold medal game. Like, we should have, I mean, we were right there. And so.

Yeah. you look at our faces after that and you're like devastations on them but you get a silver medal around your neck and three of us went to the closing ceremonies after that I think it was jack johnson myself and ryan miller um and you know we had to dress up like clowns in our ralph laurent i still have wearing berets or whatever whatever the stuff you guys in for yeah Burkey's like, I can't believe you guys are even putting those things on. You know, part of it was, you know, we didn't get to be part of the opening ceremonies because those happen while the season's going on. And so I went to the game, like, I'm going to the closing ceremonies.

These are the gold medalists or a silver medalist. And I want to be part of this. And I think that day, I think it takes to the gold medal game. We're like $800 a piece, at least from the player's perspective. and I had 10 people in town. And then closing ceremony tickets were the same amount. So I think I spent $15,000 or $16,000 on tickets for like gold medal game, closing ceremonies.

And I'm like, I'm going to the closing ceremony. So we got dressed up in our monkey outfits and slammed a couple beers and then walked across the street to the closing ceremonies at the football stadium there. And I mean, that was awesome too. Like as much as you were like devastated that we were in overtime of the gold medal game, we had a silver medal. And I was so proud of that. Still, I'm so proud of that silver medal that that was a cool accomplishment. And then the closing ceremonies were off the chains and all the athletes around you that had amazing Olympics.

So yeah, that's kind of my Olympic monologue for you. I mean, it's great. It's great that you got to enjoy that. Honestly, that's something I think about a lot whenever teams lose. these devastating games. You have to pivot so quickly to whatever comes next, right? And you have to get dressed and go to the closing ceremony and stuff. Like I, if you, if you said, like, I floated through the closing ceremony, it sucked, I was miserable, I had a horrible time. That would have made just as much sense to me, right? Because I, so it's always, it's always fascinating to hear,

like, what the acceptance process is like for, for you guys after, after losses like that. Yeah, we might have had a secret, uh, uh, distributor of some adult beverages during the ceremony to make it enjoyable and to, you know, like either celebrate or drown some sorrows. But, you know, it was like, we're at one of the coolest concerts ever, like some of the performing acts that were there and, you know, having our fellow Olympians around us. So, yeah, it was, it was awesome. And you talk about pivoting. Like I think that ceremony and celebrating the Olympic spirit did kind of dampen a little bit of that immediately. Where you look at like the 2019 Stanley Cup final, when you lose game seven, it's like there's nothing to all of a sudden, you know, pour a little water on the fire because that just sucks all summer and into the next year and whatever the heck that brings.

So that I think was more gut. And there's no, not, I mean, the silver medal is a consolation prize, but a Stanley Cup final, they don't give you a bronze cup for getting to the second place while someone else get a silver cup. Like, you go home with a, you know, a full bag of poo and you're just there. And so that's what they give you? That's screwed out, man. it's because it's because it was in Canada

they're just blat in disrespect that's what you get to get it. I always think about that like people talk about the cup hangover for the winners right and I all like the I would think it would be way harder to try to climb that mountain again

coming off a gate lake I don't even know how you'd have the mental wherewithal to come back the next season and go through it again well I think it's I'm not trying to diminish anybody with real PTSD

but there's a lot little bit of like right to get to a Stanley Cup final you need to be vulnerable and lay it all in the line and just be willing to have heartache and be willing to have your heart ripped right out of your chest in order to have the opportunity to accomplish that ultimate goal of winning that like that's the commitment you need to your teammates and to every shift is to to say I'm all in in and this is either going to hurt like hell or this is going to be glorious as I'll get out. And that's the risk. Either you put that on the line and you make it that far or you're not willing to put that on the line. And round one, you're like, you know what? This isn't for me.

And you don't have enough guys willing to do that. And you never get past those first couple rounds and you wallow a little bit in mediocrity. But if you're willing to say, I'm in, I'm either going to take a gut punch or I'm going to raise the cup. That to me is like the, what you wager in order to get to that point. And so when you get to that point and you get the gut punch and you go, I was right there. And, you know, I didn't play in games five, six or seven. So I don't know if like in my mind, a little bit of my psyche and maybe this is my

protecting myself is like, I'm still in a two two series because that's when I left the series was two two. And I had no other impact. I was a professional bag skater for the last week of that series. Add on, it was against the team I played 10 years for and was captain of in the city I loved. So there were a lot of layers for me in that series. But when you get that far and you don't win it, that summer, I guess part of it is like, I got to get back up on this horse and try it again.

and am I willing to go back into those depths of like vulnerability and open up your chest and be like, here's my, here's my heart. Anyone want to squeeze it? Or is this thing going to grow twice a size and have an elation moment of like what you were able to see those other guys do, you know, in spite, you know, instead of you. You know, there were moments in my summer training where I was like, screw this. to do another set because if it comes down to game seven and I got a chance like I think there's always a little bit of that in your training where you're like okay I can do one more because I want to

pretend it's my last shift and I got a chance I want to be ready for it but now it's like you know what that circumstance is like and you want to be everything you can be for it. All right. I know you probably have a wave to catch or something here so I do see the athletes for animals tea. Yeah, seriously. Is it? Oh, Torricat. So you're good. We got all the time. That's why the door shut. I'm in the laundry room. Yeah, welcome to my life.

So, so I always love that you, you know, that was a thing you had going with Kellyan, you know, with the, with the animals and the dogs and you were in Sochi rounding up dogs in the streets or whatever was happening over there. How much, you know, how much satisfaction do you get from that? And are you still, is that still a thing that's prevalent right now in your life? Yeah, so we've got our charity that's still running and we're doing our fall grant cycle right now. We had 89 applications for funding for different programs that are forward thinking and trying to combat pet homelessness and pet quality of life from the front end.

And it's just so awesome to see all of the great work that's being done by organizations out there. And we have this platform to leverage to raise funds and to raise awareness for. or some of the work that other groups are doing. So we want to continue doing that. You know, we're obviously with COVID, the idea of a formal fundraiser other than me cleaning out my closet and auctioning off a bunch of gloves

and the blues contributing a couple of relic jerseys that were just collecting dust in an old closet. But it was extremely successful. Again, humbled by that support that so many people did and then supported us. But yeah, we're still functioning and still doing it. that and we're getting into franchising a couple

plant-based fast casual American grills so we're diving into a little bit of I want to hear more about this. Let's talk about that. I want to hear more about that. Does it have a name yet? Yeah, let's pump it up. Well, the franchise is stock and spade. Stock and spade. It's Minnesota based. So we're

going to start by doing doing one in Minnesota and then we'll see where we go from there. Obviously, the idea of California and plant-based eating is much more prevalent than Midwest, but my passion of Kelly and I's both of eating healthy for, you know, my digestive track issues I've had, you know, to just try to control your controllables. And then Kelly's really compassionate about the animals and connecting to her plate. And then for, you know, environmental issues that seem to be prevalent lately as well. So all those reasons, we want to further the cause and make it more accessible to people.

And there we go. Well, I don't know if you've heard our ad reads on this podcast, but if you ever want a stock and spade ad, we've got a lot of inventory. We're really, we're really convincing. I always, I always love,

I always love hearing about people who get more into plant-based food because of the environmental aspect. Like, I think that's something that just, it's so much easier. Like for me, because I love, I love meat, right? And I don't have necessarily the, you know, I don't have the animal connection. But as someone who, you know,

who care, who cares. cares about climate change and all that stuff. It's a much more persuasive kind of argument to work to work into the mix there. Yeah. And, you know, just from a digestive tract issue myself, like I was, you know, 33 years old, a healthy professional athlete and I was having a colon resection from diverticulitis. Like to me, I was, it was just kind of an awakening of I got to control everything that I can to try to sway these odds in my favor of having, you know, or not being hospitalized as a

relatively young man. So I got into it a lot more. That way, she's more connected to her plate. And then we're both, you know, environmentally of factory farming and the methane gas, the amount of water it takes to produce, you know, beef. So all of those things, I think, just lend us to an opportunity to, you know, be entrepreneurs and run a business, but also to further a cause that we really care about. So we're jumping in. Awesome. One more thing, too, did it? It's October, it's October 25th. We're like a little bit into the season. This is like kind of around the time that you started your, started your tour ahead of the 2010 games or you're fighting, you're fighting, you're fighting for you Perry and

whatever else. It's time, it's time for someone to take, it's time for someone to take up that mantle. Like who from that group is is going to is going to take over and go on the same towards you. Well, I think I think you need to somebody might take up that mantle, but I wonder what that looks like in today's NHL because the game has changed. Like there's a fight. I don't know what someone's got statistics, but there was maybe a fight every other game in 2010. Like now there's a fight every 10 games. 10, yeah. If that. And it's like there's there's two guys. on each team that might fight tonight. And typically one of them doesn't play.

And it's just not the same as it was. And I love that that gets so much press. Like to me, if I'm playing Jonathan Taves, I want to fight him every game, not because I want to beat the wheels off him, because I want him in the penalty box for five minutes with me because my job is to stop him from being effective as a hockey player. And finally he said yes that night.

And then, you know, it's, I don't know if it was Nash or Corey Perry next, but it was like now all of a sudden there's gaining steam on this on this storyline. So I'm like, well, who do we got next? I think it was Miko Kovu, maybe the fourth night. And he was not obliging my request. So it was like, well, maybe we keep this to Canada because those guys seem a little bit more willing to combat than maybe the finish guys. So first time was luck of the draw And then after that you're like, no, okay, I'm picking that guy

I'm picking that guy You know once you get through the Olympics And I knew it at the Olympics I wasn't going to be a top line guy So I'm like, we can stir the pot a little bit here Where it's a little bit And let's be honest All three of those guys are not guys that are

You know, they're better hockey players than I am My only way to succeed in the league at any time Was to get under somebody's skin And to try to get them to think about whether I was going to hit them or grab them or, you know, rough them up or, you know, if I'm playing a skill competition against any of those guys, they win. Those guys are just more skilled than I am. And that's the way most of my career was.

When I looked at my matchup for the night, it was like, I need to get Sidney Crosby to think about, like, anything but trying to make hockey plays. And that's how I win tonight. or Jonathan Taves. And truthfully, I mean, I feel like I was pretty good at that, but I was also blessed with a T.J. O'Shear and Alex Steen or, you know, a Paul Korea that could play hockey, skillfully, and, like, compliment. So I would ruffle somebody's feather or knock them off the puck, and those guys were in a great place to capitalize on that disruption that I made.

And so I think there was a lot of, you know, God winks on my career of putting me in great positions to... You just lucked your way into a bunch of 25 goal seasons. That was an accident. That was Keith Kachuk pointing to a little circle in front of the net and saying, this is where you score all your goals. And somebody might have that stat too. How many, how many pucks did I actually shoot into the net?

Because there, I mean, there was a few. But if it was like 50%, I would, I mean, that's my guess. It's about 50% were tipped. And then 50% I had some exertion to propel a puck forward to put it into the net. Where you were actually pushing it forward? Yeah. The rest, I was like standing there like a lug and it either hit off my butt or my shin pad or I got a stick on it somehow and it went to the net. Like without those words of wisdom early in my career.

Because in college, everyone is like, I was running a half hole in the power play. I was not the net front guy. I was the guy who had the puck on my stick. And you look at the pro world, and it's like, if a coach put me on the half ball, they probably got fired the next day. Like, I needed to be the guy that was standing in front with a big body, screening a goalie, battling a defenseman. And then you get a rebound or you get a tip on the one coming in. So I don't know how we got on this tangent. But Sean.

My God. Yeah. Well, you can pass words of wisdom on to Matthew and Brady. You can tell them to fight a bunch of Canadian dudes in December and January. They can take up that mental from you. You can pay it forward. Problem is they both have to live in Canada. So you wonder how that transpires when they're surrounded by the enemy.

Like they might, I mean, they do their fair share of ruffling feathers. And I don't know if those guys need any advice from me. They're pretty special talents. And look at that family. Like three first rounders. And I love Walt saying that they're now officially all off the payroll. His daughter's a division one. hockey player at Virginia.

Like, incredible. Like, what genes they have to just be exceptional athletes and excel the way to have pretty awesome. And they were all in their underwear in diapers when I was living with him early in my career. And now they're superstars in the NHL. And, like, what a family, like great people, too. Like, like, she had all involved and all just, like, the best. Like, I was just talking to Haley, who covers the flames for us.

she's gotten to know the Chuck kids and I'm like and she's just like oh that family and they invited me into the suite and I'm like of course they did because that's they're like that's how they are like they they're just welcoming and the best yeah they're awesome awesome well David thanks for doing this this is awesome this is a lot of fun my pleasure thanks for I'm here anytime enjoy the waves and good luck with uh stock stock and spade is that what this stock and sweet that's it stock and smade awesome awesome all right thanks man you're back A lot of great day, guys. That was great.

Great to catch up with David. As producer Jeff said, he was, you know, you have go-to guys in each dressing room. Whatever dressing room he was in, regardless of the level, Olympics or St. Louis or Boston, that he was the go-to guy. Because I've never heard anybody articulate what it's like to lose the Stanley Cup as well as he just did. The vulnerability, I've never heard it put in those terms. The vulnerability you have to have as a player to say, I'm going to put myself out there. and we're going to do what it takes to get there, even if it means we are crushed.

We just let him roll on that, too. Like, that was one of those things where, you know, starts talking and you just let him, let him say what he's going to say it because it's, because it's, like, I'm with you, man. I've never heard anybody speak about it in those terms either. It was awesome. Guys a gym. And now he's surfing and focus on sustainable eating and all that stuff.

I love it. Love hearing it. Oh, he's great. That's great. Well, all right. Let's, we got one more segment, a lot to get to, but let's take a quick break and we'll be right back. I think the last segment here is really turned into a place for us to wait into the comments on the, on the athletic podcast app.

We got, we got people rolling. I love this. We're conditioning people to dump on us here. I love it. This was, this is so organic. That's what I like about this wasn't Sean and I brainstorming. Be like, hey, what should we do for segment three every week? This became, you guys going into the comments.

section of our specific episode on the athletic app again really hard to find so these are the people that do this are like hey i want to interact and these are so the the dozen the dozen people that do this we love you you leaving comments a you've earned it be you subscribe to the athletic which you should in 50% off the other that comes i got to i get joker or whatever and um we like to read them and that makes us and see and see you're smarter than i am because i can't ever find these I'm pulling them up. We are going to dive in. And so,

so OIFE B, and I feel like I'm butchering that. So A-O-I-F-E, this is now a regular of the show. So I like that. We've got regular commenters. Yeah, also, also please, Oifee or Oife, please like leave a comment telling us how to pronounce your name because I'm like. I'll read your comments every week. I just want to say your name correctly.

I've gotten very self-conscious about screwing up your name. As someone with a last name who people destroy. Troy. Gentile. Gentile. Gentile. Get Gentile. Gentile. That's what the extra L is for, people. Come on. So, Oifei says, I will not rest. I don't think this is targeted to me, I'm going to assume, but maybe both of us. I will not rest until you do a podcast in head-toe thrashers gear. I need some thrashers gear. Does that mean we have to gear up with like, do you have to have a pad up or can I just wear my, you got to wear, yeah, you got to get a helmet from a, Scott Mellon B. I was about to I was about to whiff. See if,

see if Bogogian has any leftover gear. Oh my gosh. So I own two things thrusters related that are just leftovers from my time covering them. One, I just noticed, I actually don't own it. It's in my in-laws cottage. One giveaway game,

they gave out a Thrashers CD-ROM or CD case. You know, one of those things has like the Velcro and you flip through and you have all your CDs in it. This is how old this franchise is. And I am. I got stolen out of my car, by the way. Oh, your CD case? Oh, horrendous. Hundreds.

Hundreds. Hundreds gone. I had my CD stolen welcome week checking my freshman year at Michigan State. We were all moving in and we just were going back and forth to the car and someone walked out with my whole CD collection because we just had the door open. I had a loaded iPod stolen off my desk, at a party in my apartment in college park. Terrible. So the Thrashers CD case is at my in-laws cottage in Lexington, Michigan. I'll give the address later, the coordinates later. It's next to Pierre's. And they use, because, you know, my father-in-law is the only person still using CDs and he's got all his, you know, Beatles or whatever, credence. And, you know, he's got. And so I, we were putting on music one night in the summer. I'm like, this is the Thrashers. So that's the one piece. The second piece. Is that like, is that like we're. CD wallets are going to end up, like, at vacation homes and cottages and stuff.

Like, whenever you see, like, if you rent a house or whatever and you see, like, they have the board game closet where it's like, here's Clue and Balderdash and whatever else. Like, that's where categories. Because it's never the new games. It's always, here's the games from. This is 1986. Taboo. I didn't know they made this anymore.

The beauty. So that's what makes cottage life great is. The technology is always 20. years behind because you want to shut your phone off so you have all the you have VHS and you if you're lucky and you have all this stuff also my sister was telling me VCRs are hard to get like if you wanted to buy VCR right now it's like $300 because she was she was wanted to watch like a wedding video and she's like I went on eBay to buy VCR and it was ridiculous it'd be cheaper just to get a transferred to yeah of a usable format I just can't

believe VCR is expensive all right moving on oh the second piece of thrashers thing I have blackover. This is so random. So they did a casino night every year. And I went one year my first year because I'm like, you know what? I should have a few drinks with the players and get to know them. This is I just had started. This is a good chance to like in a very casual setting outside the locker room get to know players and staff better. Good strategy as a young writer. And they gave out these, I think the Waterford or these champagne flutes. And they had um little you know remember back in the day where it was like the popular thing was to have like a little thing on your wine glass to identify it was yours almost like an earring you know what you mean

that i don't know that was that that was that i honestly i'm not even saying it's to be a smart ass no okay that there was a moment in time where like everyone for christmas got like these little tiny things you would clasp on to like the stem of your wine glass so i guess to identify that was yours so if we're all drinking a bunch of wine and they're empties it's like oh my wine glass is the Santa Claus charm or whatever. Oh, God. Maybe this was, this happened. I remember those Christmases where people were games.

Yeah, it was, and it was, and you, you got that glass and then you busted out, you know, Garnet X'll be or whatever. Yeah, so I've got little tiny thrasher logos. I'll take a picture of it. And little thrasher logos attached. They were Tiffany. That's what it was. They were really nice.

Good God. And they were on these little, so whenever I get, bring out champagne for whatever reason, I think the last time was not New Year's related that I did this was when I turned in my manuscript to my book. I drank champagne. Oh, you wrote a book? I did. I did. We'll get to that.

Actually, it's brought up in these habits. And celebrated it and I brought off the thrashers. And it's like, hey, the thrash, it's great. It's a great thing to own. So no thrashers gear, I guess this is a long way of answering that question. I'm coming to the house and I'm going to steal that. Okay. Well, at the very least, I'll have some champagne.

I'll send you one. I've got two of them. You'd be the only person that would appreciate it. Oh, I know. Seriously. And I have the third thing. I have a Ray Ferraro bobblehead. That's it.

Wow. He's always by my, he's not, I'm looking at him right now on my window. So, hello, Ray? It's a Ray-Farrow Bobblehead. It's a Ray-for-a-broadhead, though.

It's like super cutting. He's holding a mic. He's the only person giving true insight. All right. He's getting caught on live mics and saying stuff that he's going to get yelled at for. John W. Great show this week. Love the Humor.

Jack Hughes should hire you both to be his agents. We really were pumping him up. That's fine. Journalistic integrity. Well, yeah, guess what? A lot of good. That did. Good God.

Sorry, Jack. Within a day, what? 24 hours he gets hurt. Yeah, that pocket. And Ian and Haley, I thought this was like in our little side slacks in our office. We're blaming us and mentioned, you know, like Craig Anderson. went on their show and actually had a shutout or whatever. We had nothing to do with Jack Hughes's injury.

I don't believe in any of that. It's not the Sports Illustrated curse, which I do believe in. Haley's taking full credit for that game last night, by the way. John W. says, with the start the Blackhawks have had a hot mess at best, agreed. We are anxiously awaiting whether you are ready to call their season or not. Call our season. This is a Blackhawks fan. The fans are calling for a sacrifice, i.e. Calliton's job.

Are we calling the Blackhawks? We called the Crackin last week. I feel like we're, we need to go longer on them next week. I don't know if this is the right space, just to throw it in, like at the end of a, it's, like we need, we need, we need 10 good minutes on, I'm talking about, dump, we're on MSNBC. We've got the results are in. The state's blinking.

Absolutely. Are we calling the Blackhawks? Yeah, I'm, I'm standing in front of the Kornacki screen, like gesturing like a maniac, like, Stan Paul, it's done! He's done! All right, we're calling it. The Blackhawk are done. They're toast.

All right, that's two down. Just glad Seth Jones is on the preliminary U.S. roster. That'll go great. Oh, yeah. Maybe you jump the gun a little bit there, Team USA. I'm shocked. Who's the jam in that team? I was going to say, what went into that decision-making process?

Get out of here. Goodbye. All right. We're calling it Blackhawks or toast. They're out. And if you want to jump into the comments section on the app if you want us to weigh in in any other American teams only. to make the call.

We can make calls positively too. Can we? Are they a playoff team? I just gassed up. I just gassed up the blues despite the fact that everything suggests that they're going to go in the toilet at some point.

I have no problems doing that. All right. Kevin T. As a Sabres fan, I'm pretty disappointed that you didn't dunk on them. It's a hockey podcast tradition at this point.

Kevin, we love the Sabers. This is hurtful. We love the Sabers more than we love easy jokes. And that is that is, that is saying quite quite a bit no i don't i love i love sabers fans i i have i have a couple

close friends who are who are buffalo folks and like i don't it's that's corny you know lazy stuff to to dunk on them at this point i agree um so who's on our love list the panthers the islanders still not the hurricanes not the hurricanes and the sabers so that that's on our i yeah i Islanders are they're testing me. All right. Well, we'll get to them another week. Dave D says, fun interview with Jack Hughes.

Thanks. As for Manscape. I don't know if you guys have heard. Manscape is a sponsor of the podcast. I was laughing away at the pseudo. I should probably have read this before. I don't know where this is going. Pseudo commercial on edge of my seat waiting to hear what the next amazing benefit of this bizarre product is.

It really cannot believe anybody would ever consider buying it, although the pouch seems to have some value. buddy i assume you've already you've already heard the ad ring for this week so you found about some new benefits they're a sponsor and we love them turn hey Craig turn that mini candy bar and do a king-sized candy bar you're going back into it oh it's the only thing i go back and listen to every podcast is done we close the book and then we move on the worst the worst the worst part about this is having it is having to listen to our Q&As with these guys. It just makes me want to put a

gun to my head. But I'm like, oh, yeah, Manscape Dads. There we go. That's good content. Michael D. says, Craig, absolute opportunity missed to recommend Jack Hughes behind the bench when chatting about sports books. You missed a free promo. I seriously thought about it. I thought it would just be, it would come across as either ass kissing by me or just completely disingen, which this is the more likely route. It would just been completely disingenuous. It was like, oh, Oh, thanks. I don't know if you've ever heard of a little book called Behind the Bench. Some guy I knew wrote it.

If you haven't read it, it's one of the, rated one of the top ten hockey books of all time. You can get it on Amazon. Anywhere books are stolen. Anywhere you could steal a book, steal behind the bench. I heard there's a sequel on the way and that you're almost completely done with it. Oh, my gosh. No, I'm stressed. There is a sequel on the way.

It's a GM version. and I've actually had some great conversations. I can't talk about yet. Yeah, he's about to outsource the transcribing to me. How do you transcribe eight hours of like conversation? Guess what, buddy? Never going to find out. Never going to find out.

We'll see. This is the best show of the week. Thank you. Will, I agree. Craig panicking about whether this reality is real or not is highlightworthy. I don't remember doing that. Is this real? I do.

Is this real? Bill says, Glad you got a laugh from. Who cares? This isn't real. For what it's worth, it was a quote from Sean during the office pool's selection.

I knew I said that at some point. And then Bill, Bill dropped the audio clip in there too. So just for, just for posterity's sake. Yeah, I knew I said it at some point. I'm an idiot. I'm an idiot.

Of course, it was me. Jason wonders when Roman is coming back as a spot show. Hopefully soon. He's got some perfect ad copy. All right, I'm going to read this in my ad voice. This is from Jason K. This is his proposed Roman ad read. Hey, some guys strike out with the bases loaded.

Some guys three put on the greed. There was always a three-putt on the greed. This is all true. This is just verbatim, verbatim Roman ad copy. Some chuckleheads have an all-American sweetheart on their podcast, and then he dislocates his show. That's it. Roman is discreet and comes right to, all right.

No way you get Quinn Hughes now to find out Jack's go-to-ditch. Jason K., I disagree. We are going to get Quinn Hughes. That's going to happen, I promise. Bruce G. On behalf of Ian and Haley, here's a T-shirt for you. Grasshoppers are gluten-free. I can guess what that's in reference to, yes, okay.

Corey E. Love the American Show. Gotta ask you, though. You love to fight with Savage Salvean and Maniac Mendez, but why are you afraid of Down Goes Brown? Whose Down Goes Brown? Is that a... Not familiar.

Also, where's the fantasy episode for the show? Sundays are looking wide open. Again, I agree with all these suggestions for additional shows. You don't want advice from either of us, man. Yeah, you heard our hockey pools episode, Take Back Spatcharett Reddy. Do it. You know who you should pass on Terra Sincol?

He's a bum. We would have drafted. William Ecclid. Cole Cillinger. $25 a piece, please. Jack Hughes. We were all over Jack. Again, we're probably,

I don't know what place we are in the office pools, but we're not doing what would mark stone. Half our team's injured as we, that's not our fault. I checked out after Patchy Ready and Stone got hurt. Yes. So, so thank you to office pools. All right.

That's a wrap. We're already pushing. Too long. Jeff, Tomas, the bell. He's got to get to Myrtle or whoever was recording next. I'm just showing what we have to do that.

We have three hours of leaves post-mortem we have to get to, so we need to jump off here. So let's end. Of course, they cut the American show short. If you miss American Craig Anderson of the American Buffalo Sabres, he joined Ian and Haley. You know,

I don't usually like to pump up their show, but Craig Anderson is, he's a great talker. He's always, I always like Craig because never minces anything. Like he's got, he's a bit sour at times. I mean, I've, with deep respect. I pissed him off once a few years ago.

Did you really? Oh, yeah. Yep, made him mad. I can't remember. It was, it was, uh, it was during, it was during a sense, a Cens penguin series. He did not, he's, I love guys like that. Yeah, no, like, I have all the time in the world for those guys. Because you get, like, Pavalski's one of those guys that I would piss off, but then you got him and he's good and he's great. And, like, doesn't, like, look, we're going to be, like, it's going to not always go well

between us and if we're asking questions that we think need to be at so and all the time the world for craig anderson he's great so listen to that episode edy lack is he he's uh he's the guest with piso and sarah syvian and jessie granger on the wednesday edition of the athletic hockey show let me tell you about eddie lack he was a guest on the full 60 if you want to go through the archives which you you know if you're feeling um nostalgic for the full 60 go listen to that episode because edy lack is great he's a great interview and i'm mad i didn't think of If you want unfiltered Craig without some jackass laughing behind him, go listen to the full 60.

It's better than this one. If you want interviews where we don't jump on each other to cut off the answer from the guess. We got to stop doing that. I thought we were good. Yeah. We're learning. All right.

We're learning. Make sure you subscribe to the Athletic Audio Plus on Apple Podcasts to get all the bonus content from our entire next. network at the athletic. Here's a little tease. Sean and I are doing the bonus episode next week on Apple Podcast. So The Athletic Audio Plus. Do we know what we're going to talk about?

Absolutely not. Start with a 30-day free trial. Then it's just 99 cents a month after that. And last, if you're not subscribing to the athletic, I don't know, whoever you are out there, go to theathletic.com slash hockey show. You're getting in for $3.99 a month. Can't beat that. Sean, great work as always.

David Backus, for real, sincere thank you to the best interview that's ever been on a podcast. And to producer Jeff for setting that up, as always. Thank you for listening, everybody. Have a great week. We will see you in the bonus episode next week and our Tuesday episode. Most of all, happy Halloween. Thank you.