The Athletic Hockey Show - Keith Tkachuk's boys Matthew and Brady ready to battle in Atlantic Division, Are the Tampa Bay Lightning still contenders?

Episode Date: October 4, 2022

US Hockey Hall of Fame member Keith Tkachuk joins the Tuesday boys to discuss Matthew's move to Florida with the Panthers, Brady ready to lead the playoff hopeful Ottawa Senators and what it's like to vacation with the Tkachuk's.Joe Smith joins Craig and Sean from Tampa Bay to preview the Lightning season, and answers the question, are the Bolts still contenders in the NHL, as The Athletic Hockey Show continues to dissect the top storylines with a new season one week away.Subscribe to The Athletic Hockey Show on YouTube: https://bit.ly/3BKz27u Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This is the athletic hockey show. Hey America and Sweden will greet. I definitely, I like the Swedes. Canada, I guess. Sean, you may be in Canada for all we know. I don't think that's any of your business. I don't think that's anybody listening to business where I am or where I'm staying. Sean, I'm Craig Custin's one of the many hosts of the Athletic

hockey show. Sean Gentile is a featured player. Yeah. Featured player. Yeah. I'm a, you're a punky Johnson. Oh my gosh. Welcome to this week's episode.

It is a jam packed. For once, I'm going to do my job and actually tell you what's coming on the episode here. We've got Joe Smith waiting patiently. not only is he sitting like on the Zoom. He can't make any noise right now. Those are the rules, as we all know about Zoom guests and the podcast. We also got a late start. And then we just started talking about hurricanes and evacuations.

And then about Mark Bulger and how Sean knows him. Somehow he remember. Friend of the family, St. Louis, the Rams quarterback. And finally, Joe was like, hey, guys, I have to go to practice. Can we report today, guys? Wait a second. Who is that?

Why are you still going to lightning practice? This is like... I've got four NHL 99 stories, man. Oh, yeah, you slack me about one of those. Okay. How many lightning? Oh, we can't say. That's a little tease.

We'll be talking about that a lot next week, the NHL 99 package. That's on the way. So we have Joe Smith. And I'm not saying Joe's our second favorite guest on this episode because all our guests are, we love them equally. But Keith Kachak was our guest in the second. second segment. If you're a regular listener to the show,

you know the Kichucks are the first family of the Tuesday Athletic Hockey Show American Edition. Tuesday, that's a hashtag Tuesday Boys for three Csies. Can thank Quinn Hughes for that one. Cachin Hughes. Cichucks. Cichucks versus Hughes. Yeah, the Cichucks are now pulled way ahead.

And we're down to Chantel in Taryn, right? It's the only two left. who have not been on. We will get there if they have a family dog. So Keith, we, we, uh, Keith was going to close the season finale last year. And I don't know, he was in Greece or something. Can you imagine he, that he had something better to do with his time? Former professional athlete with two sons who were professional athletes.

Yeah, I think I'll go to Greece. Yeah. He went to Greece. We actually get into that. It's a great interview. It's really, it was a, it was a, It was fun. Yeah, I don't even want to talk about it because I'll just let you, you the listener, enjoy it.

Okay. But before we get to all of that, we can now bring in Joe Smith. Now, if you haven't been following along at home, Joe is now living or in, it will be living in Minnesota. We've assembled the super team in Minnesota of Joe Smith and Mike Russo to cover the wild slash take on national level projects slash still write about the Tampa be lightning apparently occasionally maybe when he's in Tampa and we are going to talk lightning with Joe today first of all Joe thanks for doing this in all of your busyness and real life things you're dealing with no you know no problem selling a house apartment moving driving house country it's a busy week coming up but yeah it's good to see you guys

it's always good to be part of the show always good um The question we have for you, this is the one we were required to ask. Read this, read this for me. Hold on, hold on, hold on. I got my. Joe, because this is all very planned. And in your opinion, are the lightning still contenders? Yes.

We go. Thank you, Joe Smith. That was Joe Smith. Good luck, good luck packing. Good luck packing. We'll talk to you about the wild and a word count one. How, how, how, how. how good do we think the lightning still are?

I mean, I still think they're a very good team. They're not as deep of a team as they've been in recent years. Like, that's the biggest challenge that they're going to face is like they've got the stars, right? They've got the guys that are proven in the playoffs. They have the best boy in the world, arguably. Victor Hadman, Kuturoff, Samkos, all them are healthy, brain points, feeling better than he did until before the Toronto series. So a lot of things going well for that.

But they just, you know, over the last two years has been a brain drain of, of, of excellent depth players, you know, you have Gianni Gordes, the Goodrose, the Coleman's, you know, this past year, you know, who was Wright McDonald will be a huge loss for him, Andrea Plott. So, I mean, just they need to have some of the guys that run the, I'd say the fringes, but not the non-star players, the Nick Pauls, the Hagles, the Coltons, and defense, they need to Calphoid and Philip Myers to, to play well. So there's a lot of things. They have a lot more ifs than they had in previous years, I think, because of the guys

that they've lost. Do we feel like the, there was people that were really excited to, to jump all over Julie and Breezebois at the first moment of, of weakness and say, hey, the Brandon Hagle deal, we see what you're doing there, but this isn't going to be the same as some of those other ones. Maybe this is, you know, an overreach or an overpay with the same kind of concept of getting somebody on the cheap. How are we feeling about Brandon Hagle as a solution to what you, exactly what you said, the depth behind? the stars. Well, it was a slow start for him last year to get more goals in 22 games after the deadline. It took him a long longer to acclimate than it did. Nick Paul, who's a veteran player, and Haigle did know he get traded. It was shocked. Thought he'd be playing with Patrick Kane in them. And then came to a place where he was playing like third line. He wasn't playing the power play.

He wasn't playing with Patrick Kane anymore. So it was different for him. But the playoffs, he was really good. I thought he only had a couple goals, but he was, he hurt his foot in a fourth-hant-series blocking his shot. And so I think we'll really tell the true value of Brandon Hegel this year because he's been played top six minutes. He'll play in the power play. Some penalty kill, a lot more comfortable in his first camp. So I think the true value is that I think Julian Breesball saw that Andre Plott would probably not come from him back.

And they needed somebody in that, not the same player, but in that ill to be able to play in the top six, we'll be able to play those kind of rules. And so to have him and Nick Paul, the full, those are guys going to be playing more minutes. And especially with Anthony Sorley out the first few months, some more media assignments there. So I think we'll treat the true value of Brandon Hegel.

and how good that move might have been this year when they really need a guy like him to step up. Do you think coming into this season that the plan was for them, once the off-season rolled around, to sign Mikhail Sergachev for $8.5 million for as long as they did and to sign Sorrelli for six and a quarter

for as long as they did? Like, are they, is that an outcome that they're happy with or is that just one that they're living with because that's just the hand that they were dealt? because that's a, I mean, they're paying those guys based on what they'll be, which is fine. And if they believe them, that's, that's great. But that is, that is a ton of money to expend on those guys for a really long time. I believe that was the plan all along going into the off season.

I think that's why they traded Ryan McDonough. I mean, I don't think they wanted to trade Ryan McDonough. If they had more cap space or in the Keith of Chuck days, if no salary cap, they would have kept him. But I think, um, oh, we'll get to that. $11 million man over there. That is a, that is a, that is a professional tease by, Joe for But I think that's why you saw that

Julian Breezeball asked Ryan we got it two days after the season ended Hey we need to move you It's because they wanted to sign those three guys A year ahead And that's when they're their MOL along They sign these guys are bridge deals That are favorable to them

With the idea that hey We'll reward you in the back end We'll keep these second wave of our core together For a long time They believe circuit Sheds a one Number one caliber defenseman in the first pair Or second pair now with the head in there But so yeah that's that was part of their plan

the numbers might look a little high on a couple of the guys. I think Chernak's numbers are fine. But if the cap goes up by $10 or $12 billion in the next couple years, like those deals are not looking pretty good in the scene of things. But they couldn't sign those guys without moving a contract like McDonough. And that's why they wanted to get ahead of it and do that this summer. What about Cal Foot? I think he's a guy who's maybe not talked about quite as much.

He's moving into the headman partner role. He's taking over for Gianruita, who really emerges. He was, I know. this is a hot take, but Jan Ruta's solid player for them over the last few years as the, as a top pairing defenseman on a two-time cup winning team. But is his foot skill set similar to Ruta's? Like, can we just kind of expect him to do the kind of stuff that Ruda did to let headman be headman? I don't know if he's as good as skater as Ruda is. He played a lot better going into the end of last year. He played in the game seven in the first round against the

I mean, Maple Leafs, like, he got a lot of more important assignments and got a lot of confidence from that. But I think the time will tell whether he sticks in that top pair. I mean, I think they don't have as much depth on the right side. I mean, Tramack and Sergei are pretty much locked in. But Hedman, is he watching the game, he plays with everybody because he plays so many minutes. So he'll start off with Ruta and then he'll move out of something else. But this will be a big start of this season for Cal Foot because, you know, he's got to prove he can play against those tougher matchups. He's not in the third pair anymore with Mikhail Sirkichov, have been plays against everybody.

So he's not the penalty kill to take it over for Root on the penalty kill as well. So I think, you know, as far as the development process goes, they've been patient with him as a first round pick. And now is the kind of time for that to pay dividends for that. They need that to happen because there's not really, you know, Bogosians out for two months too. So there's not much depth there on the right side that they can just flip somebody else in there. Joe, I hope I'm the first to ask you this. Steven Stamcoast can sign an extension in the coming summer.

Is he going to Toronto then, if that doesn't happen by July 2nd? Yeah, and well, it's up in two years, right? So I think he's in a wait. Yeah, he's up in two. I think he has to wait till the summer it is. I think he's in a wait until June 29th of 2024 and make that decision. And then the whole hockey world in limbo for... And then Shea Weber will get traded at the same moment.

Something right about. But yeah, he's actually, you know, talking about having one of the best summers of, you know, as far as physically, a number of years. He saw what he happened last year when he was fully healthy and back to the middle center position was really kind of inspiring for them in the playoffs, the way he played blocking shots, just scoring big goals.

And so I think now going to this year, this is a chance for him again to have a full season of healthy play and he's playing with Pucharoff and point. I think right now as far as the lines are concerned. So, you know, with all the depth that's been tested, they'll have another 40 goal year from this guy. Yeah, he'll be able to sign with, with Toronto. A couple years,

a couple years of seven years. Because they'll have ample camps, cap space offer because Austin Matthews is going to sign with the Arizona coyotes in two years. Oh, wow, we're getting all the, no,

no, he just gets Steve Eisenman will let him know he's coming to Detroit. And the first, you know, he'll just be like Steve. Steven, time to come. He had a, God,

he had a monster year last year. That's exactly what I was going to say. I mean, you look at, let's have a little appreciation. Okay, so you look at the numbers, you know, they had like a 100,

six point season or whatever. we're going through these season previews and I wrote I wrote a big chunk of the lightning one a few days ago even when you when you open the hood on what he did last year like it makes it even more it makes even more impressive and I think it I don't want to oversell it make it seem like people thought that Samcoast was done I don't think that's sort of the the narrative that was surrounding him but you're like yeah maybe he's like

kind of transitioning into a different phase of his career maybe like he's like you know, more of a power. He's going to continue sliding into like the power play specialist stuff. That is not true. That guy was a five-on-five machine last year. He was unbelievable. He was terrific and they needed him because Point was out, Boutreau was out for good part of the first half of the year.

And I think there's a kind of perfect storm of things that happened. Like he was healthy at first summer he can actually work out versus rehab from a core surgery or anything else like that. Team Canada was a really big, you know, motivational carrot for him. You know, I think he would have made the team if they actually would have went to the Olympics. And then getting back to the, that center position, which I think he's been

weighing the last number of years because of the depth they've had in this, the way that they felt about him, but he showed he was number one center in the playoffs and the pre-up-praden point. And so I thought what it was most impressive to me other than obviously the numbers, the hundred point season and all that stuff like that was the way he became, you know, such a huge

inspirational lead around the ice, the way he was bringing guys into the fight and doing things that he was playing that without any fear or was not timid at all as far as not worried about being injured, not worried about going to a corner, those were the one thing you didn't see from him before. And he was really playing with the ease and confidence. And he's having a hell of a lot of fun.

And he was really brought that team to where they were at the end of the year last year. So that's a good sign going to this one for sure. And for the least. They're one of those teams that we're just going to, we're all ready to move on from. And as you sit here and talk about it, you're like, oh, yeah, they're still really, really good. Like we're trying to find issues. And it's, this team's going to be, they're going to have a monster year. Well, think about it's been a 10-year run, too.

Like, the window that we've talked about is like, 2015 was the run to the Cup final, right? You know, and this has been almost 40 on 10 years. They went to the Cup conference final in 2011. Like, this is, you know, had been in Stamco's. Like, so this is a, you know, I don't know how long the Blackhawks won when it officially ended or not.

The Penguins, I don't know, that less happened with one the playoff series was what year? The Penguins won a playoff series. Oh, Sean knows. Exactly. It was 2018. It was the first round in 2018. So, you know,

Yeah, their window, they're like in legit championship window has been wide open for a long time. I mean, it helps when you have, the level that the level that Kuturav and Stamcoast and Vasselowski and Hedman specifically are at and like Braden points maybe from a production standpoint, you know, a tick below them. But those guys are still, they're like four win players, all three, all four of them. Like they're, they're top-notch super elite guys still. And like you said, this is your. eight or eight or nine or

eight for them as like as like legitimate title contenders. Well the difference between the lightning and these other teams were referencing. If they were built around just headmen and Stancoast, we would be saying, hey, is it time to tear it down or whatever? But like they had other superstars come up through.

It would be like if Patrick Kane and Jonathan Taves and Duncan Keith also had, you know, Kutcher and in, you know, Braden Point. Like nobody else had those, that next wave of superstars. are right behind them. And like that's, that's, I don't know if we appreciate that enough.

I think a key, and I wrote about it today, I did something like of a deep dive in the development program, went to Syracuse during the year and like, you know, what about what that was like and why they, this kind of how they use, you know, skating coaches, skill coach, everything else to kind of build these players because that's me the key to the next wave is they don't have any push of prospects. They don't have any future points coming. You know, they had. That was, that was giving me my next guy.

I saw you wrote that. I haven't got a chance to read it yet, but is there like, is there a next wave of not elite players, but the, but the, you know, maybe like an in-house version of Hegel or Nick Paul or these guys that they need to kind of restock the bottom six on cheap deals?

Yeah, I mean, I think that's, you know, guys like Cole Kepke this year might make the team. Like he was from UND and, you have missed a bit of sort of a lead. Sorry,

where I'll be going soon. But yeah, he's one of the guys like a Ross Colton kind of player, you know, and he, maybe he can step in and play on the third line this year or play in the penalty. kill kind of thing.

Isaac Howard, the first round pick this year will be, I think it'll be good in a few years, potentially, you know, when he gets done into school. But they don't have any of those guys coming. They don't have those blue chip guys, those drafts that they were building off of work a while ago now,

the Sorrellys and Matthew Joseph's and everybody else. And the plot was 2011, Kutraff was 2011. So the key for them in the development program is getting those guys, they can fill in those depth roles because they already have the Kutrovs and the points in the, in the Sareli's and Stamco's is, the lineup. They need the guys that can support them on $750,000 deals and contribute to them

because they have like $57 million to like seven rate players next year like that. So it's, they're going to have to find some good depth around the fringes because poor, Corey Perry and Belmar and Maroon won't be there forever. But I mean, even if they don't, like this strategy of you trading your first round pick for one of those kind of players is that's always there, right? Yeah. I mean, so it's like, yeah, ideally you develop them and you're bringing them up through the system. But, you know, in case of emergency, go to the Blackhawks and trade.

Not at the cost of adding a player who's good right now to a team that's great right now. Yeah, yeah. So you can't prospect hoard if you're the Tampa Bay Lightning. That's true. Well, they certainly don't though. Like, you look at me. No, no one's accusing them. For the record, they're 31st in Cory Pranman's pipeline rankings of the, of the prospects on the, on the ethnic.

but they turned like a radish and get shook into Hegel and they turned up Matthew Joseph into Nick Paul and you know they showed a no one foot turned into two years of Blake Coleman which turned in you know so I think although all those prospects that would be on the top of before he prominent's rankings were set off

and they have assumed the form of you know guys who have won cups on a two time champion like that's a trade that's worth making they've always called them like assets right I think that's what Steve Agerman and Julie Brees they'll say like, you know, these picks and prospects are also assets and you have to use them in that way, too. You've developed them. If you develop your prospects well, they become really valuable players, not just for you, but for other teams.

I think they've traded all but two of their first round picks that they've picked as players since 2013, like, 13 or 14, other than Vasselowski and Calfoot remained of all the first round picks that they've drafted since 2013, you know. It'll be funny whenever they have, whenever they actually keep a pick or two and make it. I know I feel like maybe this is happening with with Isaac Howard who you know they drafted last year maybe this is what that's what we're talking about in a few years whenever teams trade away like pick after pick after pick the fan base like hyper fixates on the guys that they actually draft and it ends up being really really unfair like we've seen it in Pittsburgh with Samplean like over the last over the last few years and this kid's you

know he's a was the 21st pick or whatever it was he's not he's like it's not someone who in a normal situation you pin hopes on but whenever you you're one of three legitimate NHL, you know, like projected contributors in a group, it turns into a very funny thing. So I'm sure people will be watching Isaac Howard's development like hawks over the next few years

because it seems like that's about all there is in terms of the high-end guys at least. Yeah, he's the, they don't have anybody else like him in their system. And so he's that high-end guy, the guy that, you know, plays in differently. It has a little swag as you saw the draft.

He was the suit kid at the draft, right? Yeah, he's like, oh, that's right. It's like, I'm the best looking guy here. Might be the best dress guy here, which is like what Sean Chantilly says all the time when he goes out. I hear that every day. Yeah, I was saying that with my blue button down sitting in the back of sitting in the back of the rank there. Yeah. In mid-July, the New Jersey Devils signed Andre Palat to, how are we?

Five-year deal worth $30 million. And at this point in his career, this is for New Jersey fans as they get excited about what they have. Joe, what does Andre Palat have left for them? And what does he leave behind in Tampa? like what are they going to miss most about his departure? Well, he was the guy that was kind of like the third person talked about on all the lines he played on, but he was also one that kept it all together,

like the triplets with Kuturoff and Johnson and the point in Kuturoff and pull out lines the two cup runs. Like, it's hard to find a guy that can play with those guys and compliment them so well, which is why I think New Jersey wanted them, you know, play with their high-end young players up the middle. And he's a guy who doesn't talk a lot, but he's a constant pro.

He plays the game the right way in practice. He kind of beat guys kind of follow his lead. He's a leading goal score in lightning history for game winning goals in the playoffs. You know, no one scored more game winning goals in the playoffs and not great a lot. He's up there, number three in playoffs scoring in team history. He's just a clutch player, a guy that everybody loves to play with. Kutrapp loves to play with him, point loves to play with him. So they're going to miss him a lot.

They don't miss McDonough, you know, as much even more, too. I think people don't underestimate the chemistry in a room and how, a guy's a linchpin between the coaching staff and the players, and he was just a rock in there. And so I think it took a lot of guys off guard when they decided to trade him and how it happened. And so that'll be a one that they'll sorely miss because, you know, of all the different facets that comes to play. Well, Joe, you got to practice to go. Unless you guys want to talk about Mark Bolger for 20 minutes, we should probably let Joe go. Well, my bad fantasy team.

I mean, you get people love fantasy talk about teams that aren't theirs. They love that. Jonathan Taylor, first-on-pick, what happened? Number one pick, you know. All right, well, Joe, thanks. Thanks, good to see you, bud. Good luck with the move. Next time you're on here,

we're going to talk some Minnesota Wilde and some projects you're working on, so that'll be fun. And I'm excited. Good luck this season. You're going to have me and Russo on together from his office and, like, Elmo, like, we'll have, like, dueling.

Absolutely. I just want to know how many radio deals Russo's lined up for you. Are you on, like, every local... He's... I don't know if we've had one deals lined up yet. I think I've gotten all the TSN like Winnipeg or Edmond St. Paul's or get forwarded to me. Oh my gosh. You're getting those now.

So like anyone from like, you know, TSN like Regina will be, you know, calling me like that. Yeah, that's great. They'll be good. I look forward to it. A lot of fun once you get up there. Whenever there's like a small army of people ready to welcome you guys when you arrive at your apartment after the drive, that's when you'll know that the Russo army runs deep. They're going to have, you know, whatever, food baskets and stuff waiting for you.

It's crazy people. I'm scared to even watch what I say about Mike. People get, we'll hear about it if we don't give them the proper attention you deserve. All right, Joe, thanks for doing this. Coming up next, we've got Keith Kachuk, who, of course, as we all know as Matthew and Brady's father, played a little great guy, fun conversation. We'll be right back. Welcome back. We are now pleased to be joined.

by the legend himself. As we work our way through the family tree, Keith Kachuk from the home office in St. Louis, I'm assuming, right? Is that where you are, Keith? Yeah, that's correct. All lonely here in St. Louis. No kids. It's a dream coming true.

Is it? How do you feel? Like, be honest. This vulnerability here is it is... You know, it was busy during the summer. Brady was still here, and my daughter was here before she went out to school. but Matthew lives right down the street. It's awesome having them home, but, you know, it's time to go back and, you know, get a little free time here.

But, yeah, I do miss them. When is, when is field hockey season? Is that a spring, is that a spring sport or a fall sport? No, it's full sport. So that's going on right now. It started, you know, mid to late August. So my daughter actually went there for, like, do some, take some summer classes and meet with the trainer and stuff. up and work out there.

So it's been good. It's been good. Got any trips planned? Got any Charlottesville trips planned? Yeah, I've been there a couple times ready. I'm going there again this weekend with my wife and Chantelle and its parents weekend. So we're going to catch a couple games and, you know, teams doing well. I think Brady was, when we talked to Brady, he was sitting in front of that same wall in the house and he was wearing the UVA lacrosse sweatshirt.

Like he wears that like postgame and stuff too. He reps pretty hard. It's a shame he can't make it out for a game in the next of the next month. Yeah, he was actually there before he went to camp, him and Matthew, both Matthew met us. He was in Florida, met us up there and Brady and myself and my wife flew in there. So we caught a couple games one weekend. So it was good for the boys to hang out with their sister and see how she's doing. So I've got three kids and they seem to tolerate each other pretty well.

I would like what why do you think or what do you think you and Chantelle did to make it to kind of put make an environment where your kids are so close right they do it seems so genuine and I think that's why everyone loves it so much right well yeah I mean well first of Matthew and Brady are 20 months apart and uh you know so they did everything together I mean you know I mean they had each other it's it's important you know they always had somebody to play with and then obviously my daughter came along and she's a little bit younger but she was right there in the mix and you know they did everything together we always did everything as a family together everything and i think it's important i think it shows right now i'm going to say care for each other and look out for each other and it's a lot of fun i mean yeah there's some battles here and there and some tense moments maybe on vacations nowadays compared to what it used to be now that my daughter's a little bit older and going through that college phase right now so some battles but at the end of the day they love each other and they root for each other and they love being around each other.

So, I mean, I know Taryn and Brady, they were, it was just them in the house, right, whenever Matthew went to London, like they had that kind of year where, you know, it was just, it was, it was just the two of them or maybe they could kind of link up in a way. It was when Matthew went to the program, the National Development Team program. So he left in, he was actually a sophomore when he left. So Brady was, what, eighth grade and Taryn was whatever grade. So then Brady went to the program. And then Matthew left the program and went to London.

So we had three kids, you know, 18 years old and younger, all in different places, which is unusual. So it was tough. That was the toughest part for my daughter was when they both left the house. That was really hard. And she was young. I mean, she's probably in, you know, sixth grade or something, whatever it was or seven. I can't remember when Brady finally left. So it was just her.

and she got my treatment. I treated her just like the boys. And, you know, we went down downstairs. We built something in the basement where she can play field hockey. You know, so we get a lot. Okay. So I wanted to ask, can you about that specifically? How much advice can you give her on field hockey?

Is it anything? Because the rules are so much different because you can't raise the stick up. Like, are you like, are the stuff? It's hard. It is. I don't know. I just, you know, just work hard. You know, compete and work hard.

You know, I don't know much about it. There are so many rules that I have no clue. It's crazy. It's a whistle every two seconds, but, you know, I'm yelling up there. You know, I'm starting to get it a little bit, especially at this level now. But still, it's not even close to hockey. It's just a, you know, the whistle. And you all have to play righty too.

It's just weird. You can't touch anybody. You can't use it wrong. There's no back hands. It's crazy. It's insane. You can use the backhand, but it's, you can't use it. you're going to hit it the right way.

You've got to turn it over and do it. It's just a little bizarre. So I want to, you have to have one family vacation store. Did you have one where like the car got stolen or, you know, I'm imagining like the family truckster Kachucks piled in. You have any good? They didn't, Craig. They did most of their vacations when they were younger when I was working.

So, you know, when I'm playing on the West Coast. What did you do for a living? You didn't even get into that. He sold insurance. I don't want to pay for these trips now. No, we just, we had a lot of fun. I mean, they did a lot of trips when I was playing. But then when I retired, we did a lot of stuff together.

And the older you get, the more difficult it is to keep them busy, you know, they want to do their own thing. But, you know, we had a lot of fun. We just actually had a great trip over in Greece this summer. We went to the yacht and had a lot of fun. fun. But, you know, there wasn't many fights on that thing either. You know, we had, you know, it was good. It made me towards the end. I think we kind of got sick of each other a little bit, but it was a great trip. We had a lot of fun. And man, I missed that place. That place was gorgeous. You guys had a pretty, yeah, Greece. Yeah. That's unbelievable.

And the water was pretty good. So we got to, you know, go different islands and stuff. And, you know, I wish we spent more time off the boat, but the boat was so good. The crew was so good. The chef was so good. They had a lot of stuff for us to do. And I mean, it was really, really unbelievable experience being out there and traveling different islands, islands, and just checking things out. It was good. It seemed like you guys had a pretty, pretty memorable trip to the shore this summer between Brady getting engaged and Matthew's contract going down. Brady, actually, I was in, I was in Vegas at the NHL media event. He was talking to him about that. That would be a,

owe to be a fly on the wall at that dinner in New Jersey. It was interesting because things are starting to heat up a little bit. The days leading up to that, and we didn't tell anybody. And then finally, you know, my wife and I, we were at the beach, Brady with Brady's future family. And I don't know where the boys were. I think they had to go do something with the one brother, John Farnatch, who plays at Harvard.

He did a little charity, like street hockey with some kids and the local kids. So Matthew and Brady went to help out, and my wife and I went back to the hotel. And all of a sudden, I hear my phone rang, but I'm too damn tired. I spent like eight hours on the beach, had a bunch of mudlights. I was exhausted. So I didn't answer my phone. And then, you know, he must have my brother-in-law, who was Matthew's agent, called Matthew. He didn't answer his phone.

I didn't answer his phone. I didn't answer my phone. And that's when it was about... I'd say about five o'clock in the evening. Because we're going to dinner at six, our meeting for dinner, we're going to go bar hopping before we went to dinner. And it was my brother-in-law saying, hey, where's Matt? I got to get a hold of him. So then I got to call, you know, Brady's future father-in-law, his fiancé, try to get a hold of Matt.

He would finally get a hold of him and say, come back to the hotel. And the deal was finalized, you know, before dinner. But they had a wait to see if the contract would go through with the league because this has never been done. So we couldn't tell anybody. And then finally we had the dinner later and later did a great spot. What's it called? It's in Jersey. It's freaking unbelievable.

Matthew actually drop a name when we were BS and about it. Yeah. It was something like that. I'm telling you. I don't know where it was in Jersey. It was freaking awesome. Awesome. What did you order?

What did you eat? I was about, I had a couple of fashions. I could tell you that much. but we had anyways, you know, what about 9 o'clock, 10 o'clock. Finally, I guess, you know, Shantelle and Craig called and I said, all right, whatever. And he took mom out, Chantel outside. They did the whole signing there.

And he came back and told Brady. And Brady and my daughter didn't even know what was going on because we didn't want to tell anybody until it was officially done. We knew it was happening. But plus, we didn't want to ruin Brady's day. We had no choice. It was a big weekend from Brady getting engaged. But that jersey is shore around that area.

Oh, it's gorgeous. Wherever. Manisquero or Manasqua, it was really nice down there. Awesome. So now that the dust is settled, I think we all thought like there was a better than decent chance one of those two would end up in St. Louis as part of all these processes. And now it's like they're both locked in, where they're going to be for a while. Yeah.

How close do you think that was ever to happen? You know, I mean, honestly, working for St. Louis, we felt like I wasn't involved in that situation with other than it was. I just, it wasn't fair for me and it wasn't fair for Doug and our staff. It wasn't fair for Matthew. So I kind of, I got iced out. I got iced out. It wasn't like Craig and Matthew. So that I didn't know about, but I knew about the other teams.

And there was just not of respect, you know, because I don't want to be working for St. Louis. and, you know, obviously bias about the blues, how great it is to play there and live here. But I'm sure there was a few teams involved. I won't get into them. But it was a different process. And I think it worked out for everybody, not just Florida, but for Calgary. I have a lot of respect for Bradtree Levin and, you know, the trainers, the staff, the PR people. I mean, everybody involved, you know, ownership and, you know, want to do what's best for everybody

and didn't want to leave them hanging high and dry. I think Matthew did it the right way. I mean, people can be pissed off all they want, but, you know, we could have done it the other way and really stuck it to them. Really stuck it to them. But I like Brad Troubbing, have a lot of respect for him. And he was, you know, instrumental in Matthew's development both on the off the ice in Calgary. That's so right, Keith. Like, like they maximize the return in large part because they got cooperation from the player.

Yeah. Yeah. I mean, yeah. I mean, I don't know if that happens a lot, but I think, you know, is unique the situation. situation. Like I said, the respect for, you know, Murray Edwards and the organization and Brad Trill, I mean, you know, what Matthew did up there and what he accomplished. You know, he had a great time up there. And, you know, it was a big part of his development, big part of his career. So I think it was important. People, I think, tend to forget that. They just look at the guy that wants out. And that's not, you know, it's, you know, we could have done in a whole different way. And, you know, they're lucky, you know, and I think everybody's lucky that it worked out for everybody. Have you guys had to, if you guys had to like come the terms with the fact that those guys aren't, that the boys aren't going to be playing together for their foreseeable future? Because that was always, that was another part of the narrative publicly, right? They're going to

end up. They're going to end up together in one way or another. We know that's not on the cars right now. You know, half the stuff that's written is false, you know, some of the stuff. They never once, they never once talk about playing again. I mean, it's very difficult to do. I mean, you know, I think it'd be very difficult, even though they're best friends and they love each other. They're both forwards, you know, I think it'll be a hard situation, maybe down the road if it works out great if it doesn't. But I think Brady's in a heck of a spot. Brady's in a great situation. I think they're going to do better than people expecting them do.

And he's a big part of that. And he wants to be there. He loves being the captain. He loves the atmosphere. He loves the dress room there with the guys. And they built something pretty good. And I expect, you know, all these kids are all the same age, you know, they're going up together. And I think they're going to, you know, within the next, you know, with that.

four or five-year period. I think they're going to be a team that, you know, is going to be better than they obviously been. And I think they're going to be a tough team to be down the road. I mean, you can put on your scout hat. Like, what do you think of, what do you think of Jake Sanderson? I know he's like, he's been a topic of conversation. It feels like big time over the last little bit.

I watched this kid at the program for two years and now I watched him to college. And I think, you know, with his injuries, it kind of set him back a little bit. But this kid is a phenomenal player. I know it's tougher for a D to jump in the league. There is no doubt in my mind this kid's an NHL player. And by, you know, like I said, it's tough for a defense when a young age. You go to, you know, jump in there, especially with a younger and experienced team. But there's no doubt in my mind, this kid will be up for the call there this year.

I expect him to be. He's such a good skater. He's got a little bite to his game. He's a smart player. And I think he's going to be out of that draft, him and students are going to probably be, you know, if you look back a few years, they might be one view if they regret. So you spent, you had a place in Plymouth, right? Like you spent a lot of time.

Well, we were down in Ann Arbor. We rented a place in two years with Matthew, with another family, the fishers. And then we got a different place in Ann Arbor, right by the big house with, I rented a place with Brady and we brought in Quinn News. That's right. Who was your favorite player that wasn't related? to you to watch in that era to, you know, when you were at the school. Oh, man. I mean, like, first of all, Matthew, I'll go back to Matthews team.

Yeah. That 97 group, you'll never see a better, better national team development program than that birth here from top, bottom. You look at all the guys that are playing the NHL. I mean, I mean, first of all, who doesn't love to watch Austin Matthews? I mean, he would start coming from Arizona and how good he was and look what he is now. Charlie McEvoy is another guy. A late addition, I believe.

The trial. He's one of the top, you know, right shot defense in the league. Then obviously Brady's team, I mean, Quinn Hughes, I mean, he's electric every single night. He stepped on the ice. You know, got to watch, you know, Josh Norris, wonderful kid,

great friend of Brady and see where, I mean, all these kids I've seen since they were like six and seven years old. Like, you know, I've known kids, and Brady and Quinn played. We, we formed teams with, you know, with, with, with, with, with, uh, with, uh, Quinn's dad and, you know, Jimmy Hughes and then some Wendell Clark with Wendell's kids. So we, they've played a lot of hockey together. And the same with Matthew, with all those kids like Noah Hannafin, Colin White,

all these guys, uh, you know, Christian Fisher. So we, it was fun. Luke Cunning, who I coached here. St. Louis. You know, so it was cool. I kind of missed those days. Those were fun days, you know. You know, you look back and boy, we were lucky to coach these kids.

It was a lot of fun. They loved to be on the ice. They loved to play. And it was fun, you know, going through that journey with them. I'm so pumped that, you know, you just wanted these guys to get scholarships and have an opportunity to play junior college. Never once that I think they'd be, you know, the National Hockey League plan. Never once?

No. No, because. I played. I know how difficult it is to play, but you don't realize that, you know, maybe when it gets a national team development program, but not when they're, you know, I mean, you know, 10 years old. You don't like, come on, like, this guy will stop growing on, this guy will grow up. There's so much that go into it. So you said something about the boys playing together that prompted a thought in my head. Who was one guy maybe, you know, you would have played with the Olympics or something? That you were super close.

us with but would have been terrible as a teammate like you would not you mean like who you loved but you're like boy we would have been awful teammates that well that's a good thing I guess because we like to have fun but yeah I mean I can't say because I was teammates with Dougie Billy yep and you know J.R so and me and Billy if we me and Billy played me because me and Billy known each other way back me and Billy played more together then there would have been there wasn't been some issues. There would have been, somebody might have got arrested.

I don't know. Having too much fun. But no, he's, all those guys, you know, they're all great friends of mine. And,

you know, but one guy, I don't know, probably my kids. Oh. We'd end up fighting. Should have hung on a few more years, Keith.

That would have been great. Come on. You had a few. Good gas left in the tank. No chance. This, you kidding me? No chance.

We were then fighting. Oh my gosh. Can imagine. Yeah. I don't know. And Chantelle, when it took, her son's side. Not, no. Oh, my gosh. Not our husband. I always.

Those guys, so we were, there was this thing where they, you know, they did the car wash thing, the, the media event where they just bring these guys like through one after another. And I think Brady and Brady and Matthew went back to back. And both those guys got ass just constantly. Like, it was the entire conversation. conversation was like, oh, you guys, you guys are in the same division now. You may be ready to fight? Is, is, is it, is mom going to be mad? And they're like, no, no, it's not going to happen. Like, she's like, she's, she's still got the rule on effect, even, even even, even though those guys are, those guys are going to play together a lot more. Yeah, there's plenty of other guys. Just pick, just, pick someone else. Yeah, plus, plus, Brady would destroy Matthew in a fight. There's no doubt about it. Not even close. I didn't even, I didn't even need to ask. Okay, that's kind of what I was building towards. All right. There we go. Let's see. I have you. I have you. I have. Matthew knows him. Matthew will try to outsmart him because Matthew is pretty sharp and he's pretty quick.

And Brady might fall for it because Brady, you know, he's a nice kid off the ice. He gets on the ice. He gets a little looney tunes, you know. But now they won't be doing that stuff. Did you, like, I'm curious, what did you guys tell them in terms of, like, we'd love dealing with those guys. Always have. And you've always been great. Was there any, you know, did you guys say, hey, this is part of your job?

there's there's an entertainment side of this was there any like coaching up or did you know just let them find their way i think do let them find their way i think you know what there's nothing better than a better experience for these kids boys or girls when you get to go to the rink with dad you know i think and my kid's got to do it a lot because you know obviously i played to 12th 38 so they were a little bit older at the time and they got to spend a lot of time and they didn't have school especially on weekends and i was fortunate enough to have coach like Joel Quinville who let the kids come constantly, which was nowadays, some of these guys or some of these coaches should just stop it.

Like, grow up. You're going to end up being fired in two years. So stop it. Don't give me this rule. Oh, you can't bring your kid on the game. Enough. Your family is more important than the goddamn game. So, but I was lucky to have opportunities like that to bring my kids down.

I think that helped them along the way. And I think, you know, I always told them be respectful to everybody, not just, you know, your teammates, but your staff, the training staff, the people who work at the rank, the media, you know, and everybody's going to write stuff about you, but you got to, you know, this is, you're getting paid a lot of money and you got to answer the bell, but be respectful. And I think, you know, they got some, they got some humor to their game. I think they're quick. And I love the fact that they have a personality. You don't want a guy that's stiff. And, you know, I think it helps both you and them moving forward.

I think it's, I think the fans like to see that. That's the big thing, right? Like, I know everyone we joke about like, yeah, it's great. Like, Brady and Matthew make our jobs easy and all that shit. Like, who cares? That doesn't matter. The bigger thing is that like people, people who are watching the games, you know, can connect and react and enjoy themselves.

And that's something that's still just, it's in short supply. It's a blue collar fan base. And I think boys, we grew up blue color. And, you know, I think it's important that you got to relate to the people. I think people appreciate that. You don't want to give, you know, those straight answers. Are those, like, the lie answers, be honest. I mean, sometimes it might bite you in the ass, too.

You know, you might say something that might be a little controversy, but I think this day and age, but you also got to be careful this day and age of saying anything. But I think they're normal, and that's the way we brought them up, and I think it's great for the game. They're normal except for the trips and the yachts in the off-season. We'll call her until...

Especially when this guy's paying for it. And I look, I go, this guy's fine for this. And this guy's fine for this? You had to pick up the tab? Come on. Hold down. And my wife's not a chance there. I said, honey, you think I'm going to take money?

There's still my kids. No matter what they do, until I'm dead, there's still my children and I'll still take care of them. That's great. That's what she told me. Yeah. Who would say that? Well, what about the South Beach bills, though? Like, those are, those are, it's more expensive down than in St. Louis.

Have you made it, have you made it down? We're actually, we're actually, uh, milled in a place in Naples. So that won't be ready for another year. But I'm still going to be spending time here to St. Louis and then Naples. But, um, no, Brady, Matthew's on his own. But he's buying, he just bought a house down there. That's what he said. I saw him, you know, I saw him a week or two ago and he said he hadn't worn shoes with laces in him for like two months.

Like he's all flip-flops all the time. He's figured it out real quick. Yeah, well, he's got his little golf cart. He drives around the neighborhood. Not a little golf cart. But, yeah, he's busy with everything. But, yeah, he's looking for it. I said, you know what,

it's probably going to be better on your body waking up, you know, instead of the cold and angry. But, you know, in the travel schedule. You know, you're in the U.S. We don't have to go through customs a lot. But, you know, it's going to be a, it's going to be tough. You know what? There's no, I mean, I told him, my goal.

expect, you know, it's going to be a lot more difficult than you think, just playing one. You're going to a new team, a new organization. You're not familiar with a lot of these things. So it's good. It's be focused and be ready to go. And I think he is. He's had a hell of the summer.

And I think he's a good big brother for Brady, for Brady and Tarran because he did a lot of great things this summer in terms of dedication and work it out. And I think it's, it's been great for him. And, you know, I expect big things from them. And, you know, obviously. You know, he wants to do as well as he can. But living down there, it's, you know, I can just see a difference in his, in his, the way he talks. You know, sometimes, you know, it was tough during COVID being in Canada.

Let's his face it. It was difficult. And he was by himself and, you know, like a lot of people were and it's tough. You know, I can just tell him his voice. He was just, you know, it's having a tough time. Yeah. Well, Keith, thanks for doing this. I got to ask.

So I've got my lucky Ray Ferraro bobblehead thrashers bobblehead over my shoulder. Do you have any thrashers stuff behind you on that? You got to have a Keith Kachukh, Thrashers jersey hanging up. Come on. I got a picture here somewhere. I don't know if you could see that. Me, Terran. Oh, wow.

Oh, there it is. After a game in Atlanta, I was in Boston or something. Is that Matthew? That's amazing. That's Matthew on the top, right, right? That's Matthew, Matthew, Brady, my daughter, Tara. Gotcha. Yeah, by bottom right, that's great.

Oh, sweet shirt. Sweet shirt I have there, buddy. What do you got out? Look at you. That's a lantern, baby. I have teeth there, too. Well, thanks for doing this. It was awesome seeing you.

Yeah, thanks for having you guys. Good luck with everything. Hopefully I'll see you guys around the ring sometime. Sounds good. All right. All right, boys. Be good. See you and Selby.

There we go. Yeah, right. I'll be right there. So, Sean, how quickly before we book a flight to South Beach to go hang out with... What do you mean before we book a flight to South Beach? We recorded that interview a week ago, maybe, like five, six days ago. You don't know that I haven't booked already, brother. Are you in South Beach as we speak?

Again, my location is none of your business. Oh, my gosh. I couldn't love that family more. The Thrasher's photo made it for me too. Like, I'll have to do a screen grab on Twitter. I realized as I was asking him to show us things, I'm like, oh yeah, this is great podcast. Like, he's like, here, let me reach behind and pull out a photo. I'm like, oh yeah, no one can see any of this.

But it did produce a great photo. All right. So the big takeaway, too, is that he's still doing the dad thing and paying for vacations, which is, you know, you hear that and you're like, Matthew just signed for a gazillion dollars and Brady just signed for a gazillion dollars and you're like, well, maybe he doesn't need to. Keith did fine for himself.

We looked at it. We looked at it up before. Well, hold that. Yes. Who do you think of Keith, Matthew, and Brady has had the highest annual salary in a contract? If you had to slaughter.

I know the answer. I know the answer, but I think I would have probably said, I think I probably would have said, Matthew, but not, but not by much. And it is, instead, it is Keith by, uh, Keith by a healthy margin. Keith Kichuk has made, he has made $11, or $11 million in a, in a single season to play,

to play for an NHL team. Like Nathan McKinnon just signed, you know, a deal that barely eclipsed what Keith Kichuk made in his, his finest season in earnings power. So, A, I'm sure he's lording it over his children, of course. you'd be like, come talk to me when you make 11 mil in a year. But B, if you're the kids, yeah, of course, dance paying for the trip to Greece. I don't make the kind of money you made, Dad, when there was no cap. My dad picked up the tab at a restaurant last week.

I'm not, I'm still getting alligator arms when I'm like, oh, yeah. Oh, my gosh. My poor parents, they always pick up the tab and they go, hey, but why don't you leave the tip? And I'm like, oh, yeah, sure. And I'm like, oh, I don't carry cash. Sorry, you're going to. You're going to do that, too. So every single time

We've been doing this for 40 years Do we have other stuff we need to talk about? We do Oh, we have a whole other segment The one you might even say He's the best Not just the best Oh, sorry, go ahead

Why don't you throw it to the break then, Sean? I was saving that for after the commercial there. You fool We'll be right back This is the only good segment on the show Joe, that's when Craig and I crack open the old comments section. We see what you left for us. We comment on your comments.

Pretend to answer your questions, but don't actually. But we never do. Especially because you know why? You know why? We don't know shit. We don't know anything. This is really, if you think about it, this is where we're exposed the most, where we don't have control over the questions and we can't prepare.

yes because it's impossible for us there how on earth could we know what these comments are before we actually read them live i mean i guess we could live to tape no no no no no no no there's no there's simply no way there's simply no way i have to be reading these for seeing these for the first time and making sure there's no that's part of the fun yeah it's part of the fun i like when we get halfway through and then it turns dark or negative and then we have to like stop or Yeah, bad words or weird personal grudges being aired. TjP says, loved slash laughter in the Michael McDonald impression.

I did not see that coming, by the way. There's a lot of, there's a lot of people in here who are, you know, people are praising my impression ability. Yeah. And they're praising it more and more. So. Some are. Some are saying.

Some are saying. Oh my gosh. Guy comes off to me on the street a couple weeks ago. Big guy. Big strong guy. And he's got tears in his eyes. And he says, sir, Michael McDonald impression was to die for. Now that's funny because so you must have done it elsewhere because we just, that was a

couple weeks ago that interaction with that fella. And that was just last week's show where you did it. You know, time is a funny thing, man. You never know. Yacht Rock. That came from a yacht rock question. You guys are the best. Shana or Shana, apologize if I'm watching her name,

thinks Craig might be able to get closer to a Bob Dylan impression, which is what T.J. asked for. Can you do Bob Dylan? The only Bob Dylan impression I can do is when he's saying, don't think twice it's all right as a reggae song, basically in the live of Budakana. He was very, very, very much on heroin at the time.

And he looked bad. That was it. We'll say the one for later. Daisy. He. He. Yay. Tangled up in blue.

Yeah. So I saw Dylan. On the side of the road. Yeah. I saw him with Wilco and my morning jacket. And it was, it was unlistable. Boy, how much you, why should you break down the demographics of that concert there, Craig? A lot of dads.

Lot. Oh, dads. In that one. Lots of. That was the quarter. Zips were running deep at that, at that one. Yeah, they were, that's, that's exactly right. That might as well just spend like the dad to her.

Imagine at the merch store if they, if they just had like unreal selection of quarter zips for all three acts, they would have made billions. I would have bought so many. Alex Ars says the new Friday show. I don't know what she's talking about or he's talking about. Should only be allowed to interview Canadian born Americans or American born Canadians in order to not steal the thunder of the Monday and Tuesday shows, which is, we've been over this, I think at some point or another on the show, I feel like there are more of those than

you think, the dual citizenship. Canadian-born Americans? American-born Canadians? Well, there's Jacob Chikrin. Someone who I'd rather not name. Jesse W. You says full 60. No, no, no, no.

Oh, go ahead. Alex says the full 60 intro is the best on the site. Full 60 intro. Hey, wait, wait. Shout out to the full 60. What is the full 60? For listeners who aren't familiar, that was a podcast that I once had. It was so great.

There was no co-host. It was just me and the guest. It was 60 minutes of depth in conversation. and maybe even learn them and cry. You laugh a little, cry a lot. Yeah, that's cool that your first, your way of gassing up for full sick. You're saying, well, first off, there was no co-host.

There was no co-host. It was great. It was great. Yeah, it was a lot of fun. This is amazing. Daisy M. This Canadian loves the so-called American podcast, the banter and the guest. SportsNound has a bias towards.

the Canadian teams, that's completely true. Sportsnet, most major, most major media companies are biased towards Canadian teams and specifically the Toronto Maple Leafs. I love hearing your insight on the American teams, Daisy says. I want to hear an in-studio interview with the Kachuk family and the Hughes family. That's a big ass. Oh, my gosh. In-studio, right?

Where would our studio be? My house? Honestly, like, I'm flattered that Daisy thinks that we have the studio and it's just not Clearly, I didn't even have the mic on last week. It's not just two shitheads talking to their computers from their houses. If you go back and listen, which I'm sure you all noticed, my audio was terrible because my mic wasn't activated. That's how professional we are. Poor producer Jeff was like, hey, it's not a big deal, Craig.

But this week, if you don't mind, not only do I need you to plug your mic into the laptop, but also make sure that's the input when we record a podcast or major sports media website. we need to do family feud with the Kachucks in the Hughes. Oh my gosh. A family feud with the Kichucks versus Hughes? Jim and Allen, you're hearing this? They've been on them. Were they both out of the same time? I've lost track. I think they were both on. Maybe that was the full 60. It might have been a great episode of the full 60 back. Lots of people gassing up the flyer segment. Charlie, Charlie was

great. He always is. So good. It's crazy that it took them. Well, you know, me and Haley actually had him on when Craig was on on holiday over the summer but that's his first like official Tuesday show uh appearance really I believe so um Corey E Craig with Sean's face turned to the Canadian podcasters over the summer with a Monday show I did that because I was asked and I'm and I'm a good teammate and now a Friday show which is a whole another gimmick in and of itself are you worried he's trying to Marty Genetti you? That is a wrestling reference.

Are you, does that not land with you like whatsoever? Marty Genetti and Sean Michaels, the rockers. I shouldn't walk close to windows. Are you going to push me out of a window? You never know. Stranger things have happened. People die every day. That's all I'm saying.

What? Listen, listen. Hey, everybody. Will you mute your, will you take your headphones off for a second, Sean? If something happens to me, everybody, like in the next week or two, you heard that, right? It's Sean Gentilly who lives at in Pittsburgh yet. 1-1-222-2-Bogie-2 Boogie Wogie Avenue. There's boogie-woogie-Woosies in every city.

It's true. It's like Elm Street. Every town has a boogie-woggy-abado. Ted C says, you guys remember Gentile plugging the ball-shaving razor with a vacuum in his seat-to-voice? The Santa voice. Oh my gosh. Little Craig Custin. Little baby boy, Craig Custin.

That was the moment I knew Rich Little, it got shit on Sean Gintilley. That was. All of us figured it out there. That's the only, like, I don't share what I do for living with many people. Like, my family doesn't know. I don't think my friends don't really understand. or no or care even you could say

but that ad read was one of the only times I've taken my work world outside of my work world and said hey I don't want to explain why I do a podcast or the reasons but you have to listen to this ad you said this is the reason I do a podcast this is the reason because it was

Santa Claus it was all right so I'm going to rank my three Sean Jintilla impressions is Santa Claus one Phil Kessel two which he's constantly doing At some point, you guys will hear Sean's real voice, which is way different. It's like whenever, it's like Kevin Pollock, how he just can't stop doing a Christopher Walker impression.

Whatever, it's like, okay, we get it. We get it. That's enough. You can do it really good. And Lauren Michaels is three. You guys have never heard it, but does great Lauren Michaels. All right. Richard S.

This is going. Richard S. says, you've been listening to Tuesday boys, hashtag Tuesday boys, sufficey's for over a year. And I always picture my friend, Hot Peter when I hear Gentilly. Shout out to hot Peter. Now that I get to listen to his goofy ass twice a week, I decided to look up, look pictures of you guys up. Craig, you're pretty much exactly how I expect you to look, but Sally Jintilla with all due respect doesn't look a lick like hot Peter. That's right.

Nobody calls me hot Sean. I wouldn't expect that. My question is, this is from Richard as, how tall are you, Sean? You look to me a tad below average, but five servings of shrimp, an entire basket of cheddar biscuits and two large beers makes me think you're six-three. There's a hold on. Can we unpack this question? There's a lot here. There's Lauren's question.

There's a lot of here. Okay. Before you answer your height and you give all your measurables here. So first of all, Sean's voice made you think he was hot Peter. I have questions about that. Second of all, is it a compliment or a backhanded compliment that I look exactly how you would imagine? He's like, this guy sounds like a dad who's probably in his 40s. Yeah, I think that's, no, you look, you look nice.

You sound nice, you look nice. Um, I'm 5'10. I, uh, I unhinged my back. That's not true. That is true. That is true. I, I'm, um, I, absolutely scrape 510. I've been, I've measured as such for medical professionals. Um, and I will hold that until the day that I die.

I don't believe that. I've met you, Sean. I'm taller than you. It's not tough. So I'm a tad above average. I believe the average American male is 5 foot 9 and a half, which brother, I'm not. You know, though, if you eat five servings of shrimp, an entire basket of cheddar bay biscuits. Ah, yes.

Two large beers. Sean gets to 6-1. Yeah, he can be 6-1 real quick. He's also a 10 in the dark. A lot of people don't know right about, John. Well, I'll say this. You know how like no hockey players are actually five? foot 10. He'll say they're 511 or 6 feet.

I am the same height as all those guys. So if I were a hockey player, I could get away with San-Owis 5.11 and a half or something. Like a certain other fellow who lives who lives and works in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Ooh. Sit ain't that tall. Michael Kay says,

now with both your alma mater's playing on October 1st, in your next show being after this game, can we have the loser of this? game have to sing the fight song of the winning team? No, it's not going to happen for a lot of reasons because Craig's not a lot of saying anymore. And I don't even think I could get him started on the Maryland fight song. Yeah, this is, this would have been good to read before the game, I guess.

We could have, instead of like as, the other thing is Sean was trying to like trash talk in the middle of that game and texting me. You were texting me like Mel Tucker texts. that I just wasn't engaging. Because I've already given up. You left me on Reed. I was like, I'm not engaging in this. I'm tired.

I don't, this is a let. Mel Tucker, everybody will be fine. I'm not worried about Mel Tucker. Sean. I'm fine. You know what? What's important is that Mel Tucker was not fine last week.

Eight winters, baby. Adam Nightingale, by the way. Adam Nightingale, best recruiter in the country. Michigan State hockey will be a powerhouse. There you go. Way to bring it back to something. somewhat related to the podcast. Leave B.

Need more AI generated lists, please. Which was that stupid handsome coaches list you completely got suckered by. Not only did you get suckered by it. I know. I was ahead of the curve. Everybody else. There were stories written about this. There were questions.

Bruce Mudra was asked about it. Asked to coaches about this. insane. I feel like seeing all seeing like that turn into a talking point among NHL media for a solid afternoon. I felt like I was in the twilight zone. Like I was like, am I the only one who doesn't care about this? It's weak whatever of training camp.

The season hasn't started yet. That was a gift from the AI gods. Jen says, do an Ilya briskolov impression, Brishgolov impression, which is the combo of the Wischinsky, Greg Wyshski from ESPN, Brzegolov impression, and I'll let you know if you can give Wichron for his money. No, see, I just, I keep these in myself.

Wish will deploy any of his nine impressions at the drop of a hat. He's just looking for any excuse to do it. I'm going to unveil he's over the course of the next several years. If you want to go back to the archives, the Greg Wysinski full 60 episode to tie this all together, really a fun listen. I'm just going to... Greg, you know, he's fine.

It was probably back in like 2018. Greg's not for me. Oh, okay. Oh, by the way, by the way, before... Just in case, I always forget that like, the podcast I do with Wish, like 45 people listen to and many more listen to this, we are friends. We have been for a long time.

We do another podcast together. I don't talk about hockey on that thing. It's about fast food and, you know, whatever. Fletch confess Fletch, which we talked about for a half hour last week. Fletch, the new Fletch? John Ham Fletch. Is it supposed to be good? I hope it's good.

It's supposed to be good. It's supposed to be good. It's supposed to be good. It's completely tanked because they basically buried it on purpose. Oh, it's out? It is out and streaming, my friend. Oh, I'll watch that. It got a theatrical release and made, I believe, $250,000 in its opening weekend.

Total disaster. But critically, the reviews, are all really good and I haven't watched it yet, but I will. That could have a second life. I think the whole plan for that seems to be like in a perfect world, it would be like Colombo basically, how there used to be like Colombo TV movies every, every couple years. And Peter Falk would come back and just do that. Like it'll just be a direct to streaming Fletch movie that comes out every other year with,

I'm okay with John Hamm. That's what it should be. I want to talk about John Hamm for a second. I was actually thinking about him yesterday for a while because I'm concerned. I feel like he's become too accessible. Like, he's doing progressive ads. Like, John, like, he's on a lot of podcasts. He's so likable.

I enjoy when I see, I'm pumped when I see him, but I'm like, he was on SNL, then he went on Eli and Peyton. And I'm like, I just don't want people to think he's, you know. I think the Fletch thing will scratch an inch for him and you can maybe get back to doing some a little bit more serious stuff. Because that guy's hilarious and wants to be known. and what most of all wants to be known as being hilarious. So I think that's, I think that's, we got it.

We got, he's really fun. No, mission accomplished. Go do, go do a prestige TV show, please. Let's do Madman. He's a subscriber. Hey, let's do Mad Men too. He's a big Jeremy Rutherford fan. Have you ever seen that photo?

If you see a John H comment in the next, because he is a subscriber, noted subscriber. I knew that. There's a photo. There's a photo of, of, correct me from wrong. John Ham holding up his phone Yeah With like a with like a JR story on it Is that right?

So make that up It's a true story Like this all comes from a place of love Because I'm a huge fan And I just I just don't want him to be too Over exposed This is the last one We're gonna finish on this one

Connor says I was very depressed a couple weeks ago To see PK Subbin retire and realize that this Washed out decrepit bag of bones is my age Welcome to the club dude It doesn't get any better from here on out Which players do you think will hit the wall this season, not necessarily elite players, but guys in their early 30s who've been consistent producers and just don't have the speed or stamina to keep up with these pesky kids

scaling it up. I don't know if I can answer that question straight away right now, but I promise you that over the course of the season, this is going to come up a million times because it's something we talk about inevitably, right? Like, we talked about it. We talked about it with Suban, we talked about it with Chara and Keith Hannel. That was like the whole thing last week, right? where it's like, oh my God, these guys, Suban's younger than me, Yandals my age. Like, I'm at the point now where these guys are really starting to phase out, phase out of the league. So it's going to come up constantly. I can't think of anybody.

I can't think of anybody offhand. When did you realize that you were washed up? Like, when? As, like, just in general. I feel like. Yeah, like in general. Like in life. Yeah.

I feel like it happened honestly. You were like past your prime. I feel like it honestly kind of happened for me over the course of the of the pandemic. Like I did like, I was still going out a lot and staying out late like at the start of all that. And now it's like, eh, I just don't,

I don't really feel like it. I'm done anymore. So I was like staying inside for two years, just atrophied the part of my, the part of my brain that, you know, likes to have fun. Great answer from Jeff to Met.

John Tavares. Oh. Yeah, I think everyone, everybody, everybody needs to be concerned about, about John Torres. Like, if you look at the 07 draft, that's P.K.'s draft class, like there's, you know, it's loaded up with people that are in that range, right? That age range. The Logan Coutures and Demi McDonnell, we just talked about and Chattonkirks and, you know, I'm trying to just sort descending.

I want to doms, all things. Oh, whatever. We'll be fine. It's a good question. We'll talk about that later on it. It's always, it's always something that's going to, that's going to come up, honestly. I'd be worried about, about Nassam Khadri. I think, I think, I think that those are, those are city miles on that, on that dude.

He's 32. That's like, these guys, these guys are, these guys are getting old. That's, that's what it is. Like, I don't think there's a lot of people out there who realize that Nazim Khadri is about the place, about the place age 32 season. Ryan O'Reilly showed some signs last year of decline. And like I said, I mean, it's tough to accept that, but I think that's true. The one that kills me is still, this is not a, it's not a unique thought, but it's, it's, it's, it's, it's Tyler Sagan. Sagan, Sagan, Sagan hurts because he was like the first, like, I, I feel like he was like a little kid when, when he came into the league.

in between injuries and all that stuff, he's, doesn't have a ton of rope left. Quite a bummer. That's really sad. So we're going to end it on a really depressing note of, just how, you know, we're all going to die at some point, probably.

And we're one day closer. Time waits for, time waits for no man. Time waits for no man. And John's already threatened me once in this podcast. There's, I got a few, few plugs I want to get in here.

Well, first of all, go to, if you want to be on next week's show and ask great questions like everybody, go to the comment section of this Keith Kachuk episode, the Joe Smith, Keith Kachukh episode, leave a comment. And we will make sure, we'll definitely read it in the moment and maybe even answer it. We'll answer most of them. I'll answer a lot of them. Not to the good ones. Rob Pizzo, Jesse Granger, and Mike Russo are the Wednesday roundtable on the athletic hockey show.

Daniel Nugent Bowman, DNB in the house. We're doing the lap, the season preview lap. I'm talking Oilers. Fascinating team. Yeah, they really are. With probably one of the two most handsome coach, you know, in the league. Definitely more handsome than the number two coach. presented to you by blah blah blah dot com

did it they got here's what I would read a story about the whole like whoever's idea it was and if they got a raise yeah the process I'd like

this is one of the things about this podcast being American like Jay Woodcroft would be a great guest I like Jay a lot yeah sorry and we can't have them on like I would say sorry but Jay

he's not from Michigan is he there's not even a there's no like excuse but what we could do his brother Todd is the coach at Vermont's good college hockey program there's always we always have time for the Woodcroft family

so that's the Wednesday show I think Sean does a show later in the week I don't know if I want to encourage anyone to listen to it since it sounds like the rip off of this one I haven't heard it but if you want to listen to that that's out there I think we're talking flames this week I think we're gonna

we might have Julie on possibly to talk about Calgary finish up our lap around around the league for for preview questions? By that point, by the way. By the way. Yeah.

Yeah. That show drops on Friday afternoon. By that point, our season preview, our season projections will be finished. And we'll just see how they're received. Oh, gosh. Okay. If you're a regular listener,

you probably have these last little plugs memorized, but we have a new one. I want to encourage everybody right now to subscribe to the athletic hockey show on YouTube. Oh, God, really? We're doing that. YouTube, like the one with video. Oh, sweet. Great, great, great.

So everything I've done on this is going to be on. Are we on right now? Is this being videoed in some way? That's great. People can figure out that I'm constantly chewing gum off Mike and. All those looks, it was Sean, it's like he's like, never know what to do with my hands. Oh my God. Just like pressing his forehead so hard and staring into space.

You'll get to watch all of that. And then you're going to be like, boy, he looks just like my friend, handsome, Todd. Yeah, but not, but not hot, not hot Peter. And then he'll be like, Craig looks. Yeah, I guess that's. Michigan license plate behind his. Oh, yeah, he's super Midwest to everything. I don't want people.

I, I got to like, I got to come up with a better background here. I don't want people know shit about me. I don't want, again, my location, none of your business. He goes with the blurred. I'm always suspicious of people. What are you hiding with a blurred background? Oh, it could be everybody with a blurred background. Hide in something.

Also, so do that. Like, let's get some momentum. Let's get a nice audience in there so we can have lots of people watching our YouTube page. I'm talking like a thousand years. What are you doing? Let's get out of here. Smash that subscribe button. on YouTube, bro.

Oh, gosh. I don't know. There needs to be like, there needs to be like, title screens of us just like every shitty YouTube video where it's like, huh?

Or whatever. Oh my gosh. Producer Jeff has to put a bunch of like, like when they ring the bell, the big giant bell cartoon comes out. Oh, good. Oh, here's another thing to plug. So as you know,

you can subscribe to athletic audio plus and Apple Podcast. podcast, get you bonus contact, content. And we are providing the extra content next week, Sean. Oh, great. Get excited about that. Congratulations, everybody. The Mount Rushmore washed up players.

Guess what? We've spent weeks, weeks plotting our comeback to the Apple mega super podcast plus page. Also, more breaking news. This is a great outro. Guess who's doing the Monday podcast next week, Sean? that's next week we're doing this. Next week. Next week, because fake Canadian holidays are back.

Oh my God, that's right. It's us. It's us. We are the Monday show next week because apparently the Pilgrims landed in Saskatchewan. Earlier. Hudson Bay.

I don't know. And then after that, of course. So August or October 10th is us filling in for the Canadian Thanksgiving show. And then October 17th we are filling in for the Canadian Christmas show because that is when they

Open Open presents. Remember when we did the Queen's birthday or whatever? Last year? I got to get this lady off the money, I'll tell you that much. Can't wait to pay for tolls when I'm driving through Canada with shit with Prince Charles, whatever, Prince Charles

face on it. He's cool. And of course, as, I mean, just special right now, you can get The Athletic for a dollar a month for six months if you go to the athletic.com slash hockey show. And if you are going to use a hashtag, please use the right one. It's not one. It's not one Z. It's not four.

Hashtack Tuesday, boys three Zs. Smash that like button on YouTube, bro. Smash the like button. Subscribe. Thanks to the Kachuk Family Operation For a great show Thank you to

Joe Smith To producer Jeff I mean mostly to producer Jeff I'd like to take my mom I would like to think my dad I don't want this to end Because then I have real work to do after this This is really what I'm doing right now

Guess what? Do you see it in my face? I don't Time to write Time to write previews Goodbye everybody Bye, everybody.