The Athletic Hockey Show - “The Michigan” innovator Mike Legg joins the show, Gary Bettman’s reaction to Rocky Wirtz’s town hall outburst, Trevor Zegras should’ve won the ASG Breakaway Challenge, Canada-USA women’s hockey rivalry, Multiple Choice Madness, and more

Episode Date: February 7, 2022

First, Ian and guest cohost Julian McKenzie discuss Chicago Blackhawks owner Rocky Wirtz’s wild town hall comments in response to The Athletic’s own Mark Lazerus’ question about what the Blackhawks organization is doing to prevent another Kyle Beach situation, NHL commissioner Gary Bettman’s unsurprising reaction to the Wirtz outburst, the silliness of Alex Pietrangelo winning the NHL All-Star Game Breakaway Challenge over the likes of Trevor Zegras, Jack Hughes, and Alex DeBrincat, and more.Then, former University of Michigan star and innovator of the lacrosse-style, wrap-around goal, now known as “The Michigan”, Mike Legg joins the show for a fun interview to talk about the origins of the move, why it’s not referred to as “The Legg”, how he feels about younger players like Trevor Zegras and Andrei Svechnikov iterating the move in the NHL, getting threats about using the move again from opposing players throughout his pro career, what he’s up to now, and much more.Plus, to close things out, Ian and Julian give their thoughts on the Canada-USA women’s hockey rivalry as one of the best in sports, in light of a Toronto Star article suggesting women’s hockey shouldn’t even be at the Olympics, as well as a couple of Multiple Choice Madness questions including if you take Trevor Zegras out of the competition, who of Jack Hughes, Kirill Kaprizov, and Alex DeBrincat should’ve won the ASG Breakaway Challenge, and whether players should be obligated to buy gifts for a teammate they indirectly injure in practice or not.And, right now, 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.

Welcome to it, everybody. It is your Monday edition of the Athletic Hockey Show. As always, it's Ian Mendez with you in one of the co-host chairs, but our good friend, Haley, Salve, and we're giving a little bit of time off here in February, as we talked about last week. Haley is off doing some television, studio work with the Olympics here. So we're giving Haley a couple of weeks off here,

and we've got a great co-host sitting in. Julian McKenzie jumping in. And Julian's going to be with us for the hour. We're super pumped for this because we talked about Mike Leg on the pod last week. How come they don't call it the Mike Leg? Why do they call it the Michigan or the lacrosse goal? Well, guess what? Mike Leg is going to drop by this Monday edition of the Athletic Hockey Show.

We're going to have a fun conversation with him. We'll chat about kind of the current iteration of the Mike Leg, Michigan stuff. That's Trevor Zegris. He was front and center at the All-Star Games. So, too, was Gary Bettman. We'll talk a little bit about women's hockey, too. a great matchup between Canada of the U.S. set to go at the Beijing Olympics later on Monday. But welcome back, my friend, Julian.

It is great to have you sitting in and kind of pinch hitting here for Haley Salveon. What do you say? Hey, man. I'm happy to be here. I'm happy to help out wherever I can. You sound so good as like a broadcaster. It's almost like you've been doing this for like a long time. Really good at this.

See, that's code for you saying, damn, you're old. No, no, I'm not saying that. I told myself, before I went on this podcast today, I will refrain from making old jokes at Ian Mendez. That is not an old joke. That is me showing praise to an OG in this game. That's me showing praise, but not me calling you old. Oh, you know what?

Mike Legg and I are about the same age. So a little later in this podcast, you're going to be outnumbered here, you know, by a couple of guys in their 40s. So then. Oh, my God. Yeah, then you're going to. Look at you. Oh my God.

I think Mike mentioned either on air or off air that the goal, I think, happened like 26 years ago. Yeah. I'm like maybe like a year or two older than that. Yeah. See, I knew. That was in the pre. That was off the air.

But all I could think of is in my mind, Julia, don't say that I was 18 months old. I was in diapers when Mike Lag. Score that goal. I had to hold back. You had to hold back. Just like Haley does too. Always makes me feel old.

But hey, I want to talk a little bit about the All-Star. game this weekend. And, you know, something I talked to with the Sean McIndoo on Thursday was that was just on the heels, Julian, of those comments made by Rocky Words. Remember Chicago owner, Rocky Words made the comments in that town hall, or Mark Lazarus, I thought, did a terrific job and A, asking the question and B writing the follow-up column. And Sean and I on the Thursday podcast, we said, hey, we play a little Betman bingo. And we're like, what do we think Gary Betman's going to say in regards to the Chicago situation. And then as we watch it unfold, Julian, on the weekend, there's not going to be any

punishment for Rocky Words. And it really sounds like the NFL's like, hey, Chicago's doing the best they can. We're going to move past this. There's nothing to see here. I was disappointed by that, but I guess I shouldn't have been surprised. What was your takeaway from the fact that the league is basically saying, hey, Rocky Words, it's okay. You kind of spoke out of passion, but you're doing the right things, and we're just going to move on.

I have two thoughts about it. One, I was not surprised that he was not disciplined further. Rocky Wirtz essentially kind of told on himself with how he handled the back and forth with Mark Lazarus that this is about making sure this all goes away and we're just trying to cover this up. So no one talks about it as opposed to just being accountable. but it does not surprise me in the slightest that the National Hockey Week said, you know what, they've already injured enough. Let's not add on to this further. The second thing I think of is, you know, like we look at Gary Betman, and I feel maybe

for certain hockey fans, I don't think it's emphasized enough that Gary Bettman is the guy who speaks for the owners. And the owners are essentially his boss. because someone will look at Gary Betman in a moment like when he was speaking at the All-Star game and some of the different things he's saying. Like for years, I know at least for me growing up, you know, the popular thing to do

is to just look at Gary Bettman and be like, he's the one making the NHL all bad or he's the one who doesn't care about this thing or he's the one who's doing all this stuff. But it was not emphasized to me enough that he is essentially just speaking on behalf of the owners. Not to say he doesn't have his own brain. Not to say he doesn't have his own decisions and all that.

But I don't think we have enough people who look at the owners of the NHL and look at what they endure. Look at what they put hockey fans through with lockouts and stuff. They've not kind of put their feet to the fire on all this. I wonder if other NHL owners would have mentioned even to Gary Bettman about the idea of saying, hey, Rocky Words can't be saying those comments about the Chicago, about the Kyle Beach thing. I mean, that was obviously something that tore a lot of hockey media and a lot of hockey people apart. I wonder what other owners are thinking about it.

And I wonder if there was enough pushback from them to say, yo, Rocky Wirtz should not be fit to be in the position that he's in if he's going to say stuff like that. So for Gary Bettman in the NHL to say, you know what, we're not going to discipline him further. I'm not completely surprised at that. but I wonder if when people get upset at the National Hockey League for them not doing this, is that, is Gary Bettman the person we should be upset at? Like, I don't think so. It's, it's the Blackhawks, obviously.

But I also think we need to look at some of the other people around him and think, well, why aren't you saying anything about what's going on and calling out Rocky Words for this? Because I don't think that's, I don't feel that's okay. I don't think it's something that the Blackhawks should be trying to cover. up. I mean, between that and and the lawsuits that have since come out from the Rocky Words comments and now we learn news that they had to dismiss an HL trainer because of the fact that sexual, sexual, withdraw some allegations around that person and they eventually have to get rid of them. Like, this should be a franchise that should be sanitized. You know what I'm

saying? Like, this should be a sanitized. It should be cleaned down and a whole new reckoning should be coming for them. I mean, the NHL can only do so much, but I don't know if they're necessarily the entity. I don't think it's far enough to just be mad at the NHL and Gary Bettman and Bill Daley that they're not, you know, disciplining Chicago further. I think there are other people we need to put the feet to the fire with. Yeah, you know, it's funny you bring up that analogy if, you know, they need a full cleaning. I'm going to use a similar analogy here. It's like they're just using Fabriz. It's a terrible, like the room is bad, there's a terrible stench, and they're like, well, what if we just put this fabric cleaner

and we sprayed it through the air and you're not really necessarily getting to the root of the problem, which might be, as we saw with Rocky Words, it's this feeling like, okay, yeah, yeah, yeah, we've moved past it. Like, there's nothing to see here. No, there is something to see here. And I think you make a really good point about, you know, there's other owners in the league that needed to step up. But when's the last, like, it's almost impossible to think.

When's the last time an owner spoke out about another owner in the league? And I think that's part of it. It's an old club of tight guys who, they probably all, to some degree, all of them think to themselves, well, if I speak out about this guy, someone's going to speak out about me. And they all have skeletons in the closet might be too strong of a term,

but maybe they all feel like, well, if I call somebody else out, I'm going to have the light shine on me and maybe I don't want the light shine on me. So it creates this environment where nobody really calls anybody out. And it's really disappointing. I thought the league should have done something to address this other than kind of, hey, there's nothing to see here.

Like you said, we shouldn't have really been surprised. And to that point, I'm not an idiot here. I realize the Wirtz family and the Blackhawks. We're talking about an original six franchise. Yeah. You know, could you imagine if you're part of the Arizona Coyote's ownership group and you step up and you say something about the Wirt's family? And then that next meeting with all the owners, Rocky Warts is looking at you differently.

Jeremy Jacobs is looking at you differently. All these other guys. Like, I mean, you're not just calling out anybody. You're calling out an owner who, remember, before the comments, this is a guy who was seen as a savior in Chicago for taking the franchise from obscurity into a powerhouse of the 2010. Like, a lot of people looked at him very favorably. And I think also Mark is right when he says that a lot of that goodwill, he built. up, a lot of it is gone now. So yeah, I will add that as well, but I don't know, just for me, like I think if you're just looking at this situation and just thinking, man, the NHL, the Gary

Betman, it's all Gary Betman, you should have done something. I think you're stopping yourself short of what also needs to happen with if you feel that Rocky Wirtz needs to step down. But also, again, I'm not surprised that nothing happened. Yeah, and listen, Gary Bettman's kind of state of the union address, one of the storylines that came out of Vegas, I thought the star of the weekend, Julian, was a guy who didn't even play in the game. And that was Trevor Zegris. And we're going to talk to Mike Legg here momentarily about kind of Trevor Zegris and some of the cool things we're seeing young players do.

And I love Trevor Zegris. First of all, I love Dodgeball, one of my all-time favorite. By the way, if I asked you, is Dodgeball a sports movie? What's your answer? Yes or no. It's a sports movie. Okay. I think so, too, but I've seen people say,

that's not really a sports movie. it is. How is it not a sports movie? I've heard people say there isn't Dodgeball isn't real and all this stuff. Have you played dodge ball a gym class? Yeah. That's enough for me. Yeah. But I last played it in like 1993. So

you know. Oh, you know what? I'm not. Nope. No. See, don't go down there. Do that. Nope. You're not going to bait me that time. All that to say, it's a sports movie. Yeah. I played dodgeball at a time when legitimately teachers probably could have thrown wrenches at you. Oh my God. You know, as part of the drill.

That's probably the way it was for me in the 90s. I don't know how it is in Ontario for these schools, but that's a little much for me. Yeah. But I love what Zegra's did. I thought it was fantastic, the creativity. I thought for a split second, it was almost like the mascots who came out. Like they came out too late. Like, there was a little bit of a timing issue there for me where I thought, I think the

mascots needed to throw more dodge balls at him. But how does Trevor Zegris not win? the shootout competition. And how does Alex Petrangela win for the lamest attempt out of all of them? I couldn't believe it, honestly. Ian, I have a confession. I have to be. Okay?

Uh-oh. I have a confession. I have a confession here. So I watched the entirety of the All-Star game on the Sunday. I sat down, my dad, we watched, we bonded, we just watched the game. Yeah. I did not sit and watch the broadcast for the skills competition. Okay.

I was just hanging out. You know, I had my phone up and, you know, I just checked on Twitter momentarily, but I was like playing video games, hanging out, my sister just binging shows. Like, I was just chill. You know what? I said, you know what? I'll just catch up online and watch whatever comes out in skills competition. I, like, check my phone at one point.

And I see the Zegra's goal. It's really sick, obviously. I get the dodge balls, the blindfold. It would have been funny if they threw like a fake wrench in there, but like it looks perfect. It's amazing. That video and the Fountet, the Bellagio, those are like the two enduring, like, viral moments for me. Ian, as we're recording right now on a Monday, I have not seen a video. I have not seen a tweet.

I have not seen anything about Alex Petrangela. I have no clue what he did, and I have not seen the NHL or anyone else tried to make any point about it. So, like, you could easily just be some casual dude who just heard Trevor Zegra's did something cool. And if you get told like, hey, man, he didn't win because Alex Petra's. Transel did something, you might have no idea what he did. And up to this point, I have not seen what he did. I have no clue what he did. And I think that's enough for you, for everyone to know that the H.L.

got this wrong. And John Hamm, as I understand, he put up the one nine just because, you know, of what Olegenthalo did at the Stanley Cup or whatever. We got to think about who judges these events, man, because we need people to take that seriously. Because we need to get to a point where the breakaway competition should be, I guess, it's not going to be the slam down competition. but they can at least try to make it close.

And if you're going to do that, you have to get people who take this seriously. And I get, you know what, there are certain things the NHL shouldn't take itself too seriously with. But for something like this, we should not be at a point where Trevor Zegris does an amazing move like that. And then we're just kind of like, oh, yeah, that didn't win because some goal that no one cares to look at or I have not seen any viral video about one. Like, I think that's really weird. Well, I'll tell you what, Julian last week, I was doing the show, the pod, as I usually do with Haley. And I said at the, and we were talking about Trevor Zegris going into the All-Star week. And, you know, which was more impressive, the Trevor Zegris, lacrosse style Michigan goal that he scored against Montreal or the flip over the net.

And I said, just, but before we answer this question, I want to ask you, why, like, why do we call that the Michigan or the lacrosse goal? Like, why don't we call it the Mike Leg? I think we're giving, we're selling Mike Legge short here in hockey history. And so sure enough, as the week went on, Julian, I said to our producer, Chris Flannery, is there any way we could try to track down Mike Legg? So I know you're just as excited as I am, right, to do this. Oh, yeah. I'm very excited, absolutely.

This is really cool for us. So we say, well, good morning to him because he's out on the West Coast. We say, good morning. And welcome to the athletic hockey show, Mike Legg. What's going on? How's it going, guys? Yeah, it's going, going good. Yeah, yeah. It's interesting nowadays with all the, all the hype on the Zagrass. And, yeah, it's interesting back into the mix again. Yeah, name gets brought up more now. Okay. So let's start with this, because this was my rant last week was, I wish this was called the Mike Leg or the Leg or the Leg up or something. What happened here?

Do you feel like you're being sold short when people call it the Michigan or the lacrosse school? You know what? Actually, today, I, yeah, I'm kind of feeling that because more and more and more people are telling me that. So I'm like, yeah, maybe all this time I'm like, you know what? It's awesome, right? Give the props and it's the Michigan. It's just fine. and then, you know, close circle of friends are like, no, no, wait a minute.

They call it the Forge birthday, you know, and what should be called the leg. And I don't know, till right now, till today with you guys. I'm like, you know what? Yeah, me, maybe, maybe. I don't know. It's hard to change it now. It's like giving yourself a nickname. You can't really do that.

I guess, but like you could always like trademark it in some way. I don't know. I guess that kind of leads it to the next point I was going to say. Like, what do you think? of all the different nicknames that are out there. You mentioned some of the other ones, like the Forsberg and all that, but that's for a different move. But like at one point before we're calling it the Zegras, we were calling it the Schesnikov, or now we're calling it the, what Zegras ended up doing with the flip behind the net. Some people are calling it the dish again.

Like, what do you think of all these creative nicknames? It's kind of neat how this is all coming back around and I'm involved with it and it's lots of fun for me. And yeah, I love seeing all the, all the new stuff. And, yeah, I guess if my phone still rings, I guess I'm involved with it somehow. So that's still still kind of cool. But yeah, I just love all the new stuff going on and the All-Star game with what Zagrass did was, oh, it was fantastic. Great to see. It just evolves, involves, evolves. So, yeah, it's pretty awesome. Yeah, you never tried it blindfolded, though, did you? No, no blindfolded.

No, no, I've been asked already. Can you do that? Let's try it. So I'm just like, I don't know, maybe. Let's get after it. That's pretty funny. That was good. Did you have, like, why did you ever?

So I'm curious with when you actually did the move in, in college. Like, how did you have the courage to do that? Like, what made you want to do that? Like, where did you see it? Like, how did you get up the idea to do it? Yeah. It was so it was like, I think I was in my first year, Michigan or just going into Michigan. And there was a, it was a guy in London, Ontario, Billy Armstrong.

And all of us kids kind of growing up and we kind of knew the name and we had this, it was like a minor pro skate. And of course, at that age, I didn't have enough courage to go and talk to really anybody. And we kind of, I just kind of kept an eye on them. And it was a warm up before we started the scrimmage and just go around and take shots. And I just kind of kept my eye on him. And he was down the other end and he picks this puck up. And I was like, I don't have the courage to go and talk to him and see what he did. So in my mind, I just started thinking, okay, how did he do that?

What just happened there? And afterwards thinking about it and trying it and kind of incorporating into the game of, oh, okay, you know, usually like back in the day, the wraparounds, just low, beat the goalie to the low corner. And when you ever watch those, the goalie has to push off and just quickly get over and cover that bottom. And then you see this big gaping hole up above them. I'm like, let's try to put it up in there. We'll know what hit him.

So it was just like one of those things, you've practiced, practice, practice, practice. And it just came about that way. And I would be at Michigan. And of course, we'd have all this extra ice time and stuff. after practice, not during practice when coaches are trying to teach you something. I got to bring that up because I've been in a lot of trouble with a lot of coaches with kids don't know how to skate. They don't know how to shoot a puck, but, you know, they're eight years old and they're

trying to pick up the Michigan or the Mike Leg and the Zagrass or whatever you want to call it. So I get a little bit of earful like, why'd you do that? They can't shoot the puck properly. So I remember about Michigan just practice, practice, practice. practice in Red Berenson. My coach is sitting over there, and there was about three or four of us on the ice the goalie

and practice behind the net and go all the way around or come in on a shootout and do one of these or spin around us and throw it at him. And he comes by and he just, you know, straight face. He just says, is that legal? I was like, yeah, yeah, I asked the four referees. and stuff. And he just didn't even smile.

He was like, well, why don't you do it in a game? And he skated off the ice. And I'm like, oh, my good. Okay, all right. We're coming into playoffs. So I'm like, don't even know. No, no, no, no, no. Playoffs, get it out of your head.

Don't even think about it. And then it just presented itself where I was just following up the play in behind. And Johnny Madden got tackled and I kind of just pulled it behind the net to look. And yeah, that game was, we were just getting completely dominant. Marty Turkle standing on his head, and I remember sitting on the bench just we're all like, we need something with like a big hit, big play, something to change the game. And that just presented itself. And it kind of was like, okay, we tied it up two, two.

Let's carry on. And we ended up, of course, winning that game and then go on to win the national championship. So it got a little bit more steam, of course, with those two things going on. But yeah, that's how it kind of came about. You know, you mentioned Marty Turko's name, and I'm curious, as you talk about practices, now what happens in a practice because you're trying this move in practice? What's Marty Turko saying to you when you're pulling this stuff? That's a, yeah, that's a good question.

I remember I was trying to do it on Marty, and if you do get it, you're going to receive a slasher of puck. You know, he can shoot the puck pretty good, so you can't get too far away from him before he's rifling pucks at you. if you do put it in and I just had a we're just practiced another one as a as a two one one coming in your off wing shooting from the instead of shooting from the center and holding that defenseman in the middle he's supposed to cover the backdoor pass instead of shooting from inside you spin a ramah and you fire it from a different angle on the goalie and I remember doing that once on Marty and yeah the pucks were flying it's Bucks were flying

I was lucky he was bobbing and ducking And he was Giving it to me But yeah It was all in fun You got So we all know about the one game That obviously made you famous

Did you ever get to do that move again At any point in your pro career? Yeah Yeah Yeah I There's a couple A couple little ones where

I did it in Finland In the elite league over there It was on a power play It was more of a, I was in the corner and there was, I was playing with, it was another import from Russia and he was like, do the move, do the move. And we're passing it back and forth on the sidewall. He goes, you go down low and I'm receiving this puck and yelling back. And I'm like, no, no, no, no, no, no.

And he's passing it back to me. Yeah, yeah, yeah, go do the goal. So he skated across the goal line with the puck as he skated and sort of threw it in. And he was like, I told you, you should do your goal. And then the roller hockey one, too, was, it didn't go in, and it was mayhem after that. Yeah, there was the two coaches. My roller hockey coach was Al May, and the other coach was Mr. McSorley. So two tough contenders.

And I guess I had a bounty on my head if I was to do that because I did it earlier in the year was roller hockey. So I came around and put it in the goalie's chest and he kind of looked up at me and you know, I did one of these and looked at the next guy coming. First guy breaks the stick on me. And it was just, it was, it was mayhem. It was pretty funny. So, man, so that, I mean, that's happening in roller hockey. But for the rest of your collegiate career, the rest of your career, was that a talking point with opponents before, like, did anybody in a pregame skate, you know how you guys often meet at Center Ice? Can you walk us through? Did guys like legit threaten you with don't pull that stuff in the game tonight or you're going to, you're going to

wear this one in the, you're going to have my, my stick's going to be in your teeth or something like that. Yeah. Absolutely. Yeah. Absolutely. I'd be, yeah, could be a game just sitting there lining up and we haven't even, you're right, starting face off. And then I don't. look over and here's, you know, six foot six, 240 pounds. He's looking at me and he's giving me a tap. He goes, you try that. And that's why I'm going to be on you all night. I will pick you up and throw you in the 10th row. And of course, I'm like, yeah, you definitely could do that. You're a monster. So, yeah, it was always, always there. Yeah, we had some guys that would stick up for me and stuff like that.

And the olden days, olden days, I guess you can call it that now, hockey. I don't know. It doesn't seem like it. It seems like yesterday. But, yeah, it was more, yeah, you get threatened all the time, all the time. You do that, I'm going to break your arms. Like, what? You end up doing one of the coolest plays.

like and obviously it's legacy as enduring and like like like we obviously we like hockey we like seeing that skilled stuff it just blows my mind whenever we see that stuff on the on the ice and the next thing we're thinking is oh well you know if you do that again and make us look stupid we're going to slash you in the ankles like yeah stupid it's great it's crazy right like I look at it now and I think that that might be a bit of the the the change in all what is going on and the talent and the kids trying it. Nobody's threatening their life. I didn't, I don't, I don't see it that much. You might get one guy going like, don't try it against us. I'm going to rip your head off, but I don't, I never saw any of the videos that followed whoever pulled it off that,

that what happened right after that? You know, you see a lot of, I guess a lot of people tweeting in or commenting in on all these, on Zagras's goal and, oh, I want to talk. taking his teeth out or I would have done this and that. Yeah, it doesn't happen really that much anymore, right? It's the two guys you make a point of the two tough guys on the team, and you don't take liberties on the other players anymore that much. Like, it's kind of going to the wayside and all this skill is coming in and the talent and the tricks and all that kind of stuff, which is I love that part,

but I do love the other side of it too, right? You got to keep in check. Like I always, you grow up and embarrassing, like, if I did that goal and it was, you know, 9-1 and I made it 10-1 with that, what am I doing? I don't like that. I don't like that. I would never do that. Understand. Play firefighter hockey now, and I don't want to do that.

I don't, you know, guys are like, oh, I'm going to do that. I don't know. No. Oh, we don't need to do that. So, yeah, just a funny, funny thing in time, I think, for myself to kind of be coming through that and see that now. It's been, I don't know, what, 26 years or something like that or 25 years, that happened. And then the wave of skill and stuff coming in, and it's awesome.

I love seeing all this stuff. It's great. It's great. Everybody picking it up a little bit different, scooping it up under the puck rather than picking it up and and crosbie had a backhand one and all this all this new stuff coming in i was like i want to i want to want to like a touchdown pass like a defenseman on the breakout pick it up behind the net and throw it to a guy breaking through the middle and he catches it puts it out for a breakway i was like yeah it would be so sick if that happened in an hl game yeah pretty pretty neat i think it's

still still evolving i'm sure there's something kids out there right right now. And I learned it at, like, shoot, I must have been 15, 16 when I started trying that. And now, even my, my boy at 10 is picking up the puck. I'm like, what? That's my move. Dude, do something else. Now, have you showed your son? Like, does your son know the legend of the, the play you pulled off against Minnesota? in the house I have monitors set up and it just is on repeat all the time so he's got all of them watch this is your dad no just good at it no it's a little bit a little bit they haven't

even been it been back to uh michigan yet i know we're had the COVID stuff coming in so we were thinking about going back and making so that'll that'll be a trip and it's I think they find it pretty funny. A couple, like the video, the video game they had that my move was in. They came to the house and the movie crew and they did the clips and all this kind of stuff and they were in the house and at the rink. And so they came home from school kind of like, and they got in some of the video that they were taken, that they were going to edit and all this.

And it was kind of eye-opening for them a little bit as a couple of. in and, you know, two daughters and a son and they're, you know, as they're walking up, the cul-de-sac in her house and they're like, a lot of big trucks in here and what are they doing, you know, these people in my house. Yeah, it was pretty neat for them to see that. Yeah, I don't make them really watch it that much. So. Yeah, sure. Do you have the original twig from the original goal you score, the original stick? Um, no. It's in the hockey Hall of Fame, I think. Well, I mean, no other better place to have it there. Wait, wait, wait. What do you mean? Wait, what do you mean I think it's in the Hall of Fame?

We back this up? What do you mean? I think it's in the Hall of Fame. Weird flex, but okay. Yeah. Yeah, yeah. Like, eh. I guess it goes in waves where they, I haven't even talked to anybody there forever. So it's there and they, it's like on a revolving type thing where they'll bring it out for maybe a year and then put it away six months and then they just change things up. That's the way I understand it. But I don't have my choice. It's supposed to be there. Not bad. At least it's somewhere. At least it's like not like rotting away in your garage. Could you imagine you score a goal like that that has been seen like the world over, especially in the hockey world. And then you just like answer this question.

Like, oh, it's in my garage. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. The kids are there playing street hockey with it or something. Oh, my God. I didn't imagine. I need a bottle of stick just like your kid takes it.

The blades like this thing. Oh, no. So I got to ask you too because I know that, look, look, you even talked about you took some flack here in North America about that goal and you had some threats kind of made at you on the ice and even the roller hockey thing. I read a really cool story about how you went overseas. I think it was to Sweden. Shortly thereafter you scored this goal. Could you maybe walk us through and our listeners through what happened to you when you, you were almost treated like this hockey royalty when you went over to Sweden about a year after scoring that goal?

yeah yeah that was that was amazing it was like a it was a quick in quick like it was like three or four days just non-stop and that was i don't know i still fell down i think it was a maybe a junior in college but still like traveled there by myself and i met up with some um like some toronto reporters anders ericson nicholas lidsstrom they all kind of took me under their wing a little bit and it was um It was the most amazing, I think, award ceremony that I've been a part of. Just crazy Swedish party. It was this, it was an award ceremony, but then it was like a showcase of all new equipment on like all the models of Sweden. So they'd have an award and then they showcase like these new shoulder pads.

And it was like a runway and back in. And I'm like, and it's all in Swedish. So I'm, you know, just sitting at the side with, you know, a couple of the guys looking up at the show going on and award, award, award. And then probably about halfway through. And they doubt, I just hear my name. And then these people here just cheers, start cheering. And I'm like, I didn't even see a video.

I think that was my name. I'm like sitting off to the side. And yeah, and then she said the lady that was commentating or hosting it. She says, yeah, it says it all in English. This is the goal of the year. Do you want to see it? It's Mike Legg and she points over to me and I'm like, what? This big screen comes down.

It's like a hundred foot by 100 foot big screen on the stage. stage and I'm like looking they show the goal it goes crazy she calls me up and I guess over there she used to do um uh she'd have athletes there that she'd do interviews with but over there she'd do them in the sauna and I'm like it's so good looking lady she's up there yeah so I guess it was her show would have these athletes and they'd go in the sauna they'd be wearing towels and that she do this interview with them. And so she was a big hit over there. So I get up there and she starts interviewing me.

Oh, you're going to college. And she's kind of playing to the crowd a little bit now. And she's kind of looking me up and down. And she stops the interview like, oh, how old are you? And I was like, like, what's going on here? You're not going to pull a son out here or anything. But I'm like, so nervous. and then, yeah, she starts into this interview and asks me, you know, are you single and doing this kind of stuff?

And the crowd is like, ah, yeah, I'm crazy. And I'm like, yeah, you know, feel now, feeling a little bit confident. And at the end of the interview, she goes, you guys want to see the goal again? And here you go. And she goes, you're just too cute. And she kisses me on stage. And I was like, you know, I was like, I was like, oh. What are I'm like, what's going on here?

I don't even know how to have it. Yeah. But she was so, so awesome with it, just playing to the crowd and stuff. And, like, her and her and her, her, her, her, fiance, we went out after and Nicholas Lidstrom. And we had just a great time. Wait, wait, time out, time out, time out, time out. Did you just say fiancé? They had a fiancé and she still kissed you?

Yeah. What? Yeah, yeah. It's your... Huge. huge huge i don't know it was huge i was like i'm not going to make it out of sweden here i'm like

what's going on here i met this guy nicest guy like yeah whatever it's like oh okay man all right just yeah that was uh experience for sure i was like a little bit open

a little bit open yeah yep it was yeah for that party it was like the whole side of the wall opens up and it was attached to a club that was another like there was a whole party going on over there and it was uh yeah it was unbelievable it was unbelievable they chewed around with all those with the crew that was there like yeah nicholas lidsstrom like i'm still like man took me under his wing and hung out we had dinner and yeah it was fantastic it was awesome, awesome trip.

I wanted to know, I know we kind of spoke earlier about how it seems as if nowadays, whenever people do the move, it's a bit more celebrated than if we were to see it in a game where back in your time, at least people would be a lot more combative if you did it. Do you think, I'm just curious, why do you think it's taking us so long? Obviously, that add to being there helps it. But like, why do you think it took so long for us to go from a point where, like, doing a move like that should be seen as like, for lack of a better term, a bad thing to now where we're seeing Andre Svetikov do something similar, where we're seeing players at the NHL level try to do it.

We're seeing players in junior do it every so often and other parts of Europe as well. Why do you think it's taken so long between your goal and the current generation for us to see this creativity displayed so often? Yeah, I, you know what? That's very, very interesting question for sure. Man, I know it might have been a kind of a bit of a maybe a changing of the even coaching style and what their thought process was as, you know, some older coaches and would maybe be like there's not a chance you kids are doing that in a game into, you know, the more evolving,

you know what if it's if it's there if you could do it show me if you could do it i want to learn more about it and then you know kind of kind of that presenting itself i think have maybe a little bit to do with it with the not getting your teeth put in the back of your head type thing and kind of a little bit of a mixture of those two things i think would um i think there was a change there i think there was I think there was. So, yeah, it was pretty, it is, there was a big wall, right? There was a big, you know, where's this gone? Where's this gone?

Does anyone picking it up and going with it? So, yeah, it was, that's what I think would probably be the cause, most of it. But, yeah, the changing of players, too, I could say. like as you're growing up and seeing that in the social media aspect of the side, you can see all these guys that have their YouTube channels and have all this kind of stuff going on that kids can take that at age six, five, or whatever they want and just start practicing it. Like I said, I don't think I started when I was 16, that actual move to do that.

and lots of practice. But yeah, these kids get a, you know, maybe a 15-year jump on me. I got to ask you, Trevor Zegris did the play where he took the puck, put it on the blade, and kind of flipped it up over the net to his teammate, Sonny Milano.

They call it the Dishigan, having some fun with the assist there. Did you ever mess around with that and try, you know what? What if I flipped it up over the net to a teammate who is sitting in the same thing? slot. Yeah, yeah, we would, we'd throw it around and, and try to flip it up and, you know, when the goalie's looking over his shoulder, just try to get it on the back so it trickles down

under the crossbar and it's already in the net, he can hardly feel it go in. And, yeah, for them to, like, actually have those set plays are, it's pretty cool, right? The other, he went right to the front of the net, choked up, wait for it to fall just enough. Yeah, seeing that video, their defensive zone coverage is just sick. It was, they had everybody right in front of the net and no threat until that happened. What? How do we guard against this now? Put somebody behind the net?

I don't know about that. Maybe you have to. I don't know. But yeah, it's pretty cool. So we know about how big of a viral sensation the Zegra's goal ended up being. When you think of your goal of the leg, do you sometimes wish that you would have scored that goal like now? And how do you think things would have changed for your life if you ended up scoring that goal in the social media age we're in now? Yeah, that's, you know, when that happened and it's, you know, the grainy video, even my kids get a kick out of that.

a grainy video of like was that really you i can hardly see the you know it's uh yeah it's you man i like that's yeah that would be be interesting interesting to see if it was it was a different time like when when we went back for our uh reunion at michigan and we we did that shoot out the shoot out um that that that night, this is like the first time I'm like viral. Guys are like, oh, it's going to go viral. Oh, yeah. What is that?

What do you? You didn't know what it meant. Yeah. What is that? And they're like all night long. It's like, oh, it's up on 600,000 views. And it's, oh, it's up to 800,000 views. And I'm like, is that viral?

Is that what's viral? What's viral? 100,000, 5,000? What? Or just online? Like, I'm like, oh, cool, right on. I know. Yeah, that was kind of a, and that wasn't that long ago either where, yeah, that one, that one was a amazing one too for the shootout with the Turko and Morrison and myself.

That was, that was pretty fun. But they, yeah, for the social media, for me back then, it was, it was pretty funny, those little stories that I have of us going on to the final four and we have a pregame state. We come back or catching an elevator up to our room and there's there's the pizza guy delivering some pizzas. He looks over and sees our jackets. He's like, oh, you guys, Michigan. Are you one of those guys that did that thing with the puck to put it in? I'm like, what? This was like a week and a half ago in some pizza guy.

It was like, you know, a couple states over. knows about it. I'm like, mind blown on this. So yeah, it would be interesting to see what would have happened if it was, you know, social media was pushed back in time. It would be interesting. Hey, Mike, as we, as we wrap this up, this has been such a fun conversation. We probably kept you longer than we intended. But I want to ask you here just to wrap it up. You know, Julian just asked you about, hey, what if you had scored the goal now with kind of social media and Instagram and Twitter? I want to know, what would you have been able to do? Like, the NCAA has kind of relaxed some of its, you know, draconian rules around athletes and their ability to promote

themselves. If you had scored that goal and had the ability to kind of monetize it a little bit, what do you think you would have done? Like, are we talking T-shirts? So we thought, like, what would you do to kind of try to cash in on this moment if you could? as a student athlete. Yeah, that's pretty, I, somebody was asking about that before, right? They were a little bit relaxed on those, things and you can kind of capitalize on it on your own,

on your own and, yeah, yeah, that would be, that would be interesting, bobblehead probably first thing for sure. Yeah, for sure. Yeah, absolutely. He's ballad with that arm going in like this or something, but yeah, yeah, it was, yeah that's that's a good one yeah i haven't i haven't really thought about that one too much like

yeah it's it's good for them to see and and and brand that um yeah i guess and in the big picture for me doing doing that and i say like you you practice something practice something practice something and you completed it's for me it was like a a kid practicing a wrist shot and he finally raised it into the top quarter because he practiced, practice, practice. I'm like, it's like what I did, done over with. Let's move on. What else are you going to do? You got that down.

So let's keep going. And I guess that's how it's evolving too, right? They see this. Now everybody's scooping it up. Now everybody's putting it behind. Now they're making passes with it. And yeah, it's just kind of evolving and going into that. for myself to benefit from it.

I've never even really thought about that. No. I know, I guess the rules back of the day were like even going to Sweden, I guess it was the way I understood it was they could pay a certain amount and the award couldn't be over a certain amount. It was all really restricted for that. So they gave me a, in Sweden for the goal of the year, it was like a hand painting. It was pretty big of me doing the goal by an artist over there.

And it was, you know, all framed up. It was really nice. I think it's still in the mail coming over. I'm not sure. It's been like decades for this. Let's make it a bit of time. Just send it, yeah. No, it's pretty good.

but yeah, that couldn't be, the award couldn't be over a certain amount. But yeah, I guess nowadays that I think it's changed for that kind of thing. So, yeah, I don't exactly know the rules for that, but it would be interesting to dig into it and see what the players can benefit from and what those actual rules are for winning awards like that. It would be interesting, yeah. Yeah. Hey, listen, Mike, this has been fantastic.

Before I let you go, you've dropped a couple of clues. You said you've got three kids. You're in a firefighter, you know, hockey league. So maybe you can just fill us in. Like what's day-to-day life for Mike Legg now in 2020? Yeah, yeah. We lots of hockey. Lots and lots of hockey.

I'm coaching my boys team and a U-11 team. I'm coaching a mid-JID-A-1. It's a U-18, AAA team. and assistant coaching with a junior B team here in town and lots of development on that side of things. Daughter is playing top-level soccer, 12 years old, doing awesome, and other daughters volleyball, tennis. So super active wife's probably in the car right now

driving somebody somewhere. Yeah, she's, you'll know how it is, right? run the gauntlet all over the place and get them to do some activities. And yeah, that's our daily life. And, yeah, you know, Burnaby Firefighter, very proud of that. Yeah, it gives a little bit of flexibility sometimes to, you know, meet all these requirements, I guess you'd say. But, yeah, it's good.

It's fun. It's busy. I love it. Love it all. I love seeing the advancement of kids and all that kind of stuff. Keeping busy, real busy. Well, hey, listen, with that busy schedule, we can't thank you enough for carving out a little window with us. It was a lot of fun, and we appreciate you doing this, and I think a lot of our listeners

are going to appreciate this conversation. So thanks for this, Mike, and we'd love to connect with you down the road. That would be fantastic. Thanks a lot for having me. It's great. That's great. Thank you. All right.

Listen, that was a ton of fun. wasn't it? Like, Julie, with Mike Legg? Like, he was fantastic. And, you know, I'm always mindful when we reach out and Chris Flannery does such a great job as our producer, you know, reaches out to people and says, hey, you know, probably, hey, can I get, can we get 15 or 20 minutes of your time? And, you know, you're 30 plus minutes into the interview.

And you're like, man, I probably could ask him five or six more questions because he's so great. It's great when it feels like the time flies. Absolutely. I think we had a couple questions left on the cutting room floor. but like dude was just really fun, really, really engaging. And the whole, my biggest takeaway from it was just like, man, if he had like the foresight to just like make like shirts or trademark the leg or something, like dude could be swimming in money.

But like, dude, like seriously, and I'm glad I got to tell him this off air like after he finished recording. If I'm Mike Legg, considering what's going on with the goal right now, considering how people are talking about the Zegris and the Svesnikov and all that, next year's All-Star game, dude should be there. He should be like on the breakway challenge or Trevor Zegris, like working on some move coming together. That's just a perfect way to provide an homage to the OG goal. And plus we got to learn about how he ended up coming up with it himself. Like that's that's cool too.

But if I'm Mike Legg, I'm doing everything I can to be at next year's All Star game at the All Star Festivities. And I think it would be a really cool moment for people to realize like, wow, this is the guy who kind of paved the way for some of the talent that we're seeing right now. Yeah, hey, listen, speaking of talent that we're seeing on display, Canada, USA, Monday evening, about 11 p.m. Eastern time, 8 a.m. Pacific time. It is, I think, one of the great rivalries in all of sports. In fact, I would argue, Julian, I would put Canada, USA women's hockey, boy, near the top of the list in terms of best sports rivalries of the 21st century, right? Like I'll put it up against Red Sox Yankees or whatever else you want to put in there. Give me Canada USA women's hockey. It's great.

And there was a lot of chatter, though, this week after a Toronto Star column suggested, I don't think women's hockey should be an Olympic event because there's only two countries that kind of seem to compete for the gold medal. The game hasn't grown. I think you saw the sort of fierce response to that. article. A lot of people really disappointed. I'm disappointed in that article because I think when you look at the way that the women's game has grown, like I looked it up, you know, when Team USA and Canada played for the gold medal at the 2018 Olympics, at the time, Julian, it was the most watched late night program in the history of NBCSN. So that's insane. That's insane. At the time, it was almost

four million people. Remember, this was late at night in Pyong Chang. This wasn't in a favorable time slot. It was the most watched late night program in the history of NBC Sports Network. And it makes you think that, think of the generation of young girls that have grown up wanting to be Cammy Granato or Haley Wickenheiser or Jen Bauderl or Hillary Knight. Like, it is, the impact, I I don't think you can necessarily measure.

But to say that they shouldn't be at the Olympics, I think it's going to end up being one of the highest rated events from this year's Olympics again. And that's why it should stay in the Olympic cycle. Yeah. For me, when I saw that that article was going around, that wasn't even worth my time to consider. We know when it comes time for the Olympics,

when it comes time for international competitions, when it's Canada against the United States, you know, especially in women's hockey, That's must watch. But I think what's cool now is like bit by what what's cool now bit by bit, we're starting to see more names pop up from other countries around like outside of Canada and the United States that are stepping up and our players to watch. Like you can even go to our Olympic hockey tiers for women's players and you're seeing players

from all these different countries who are considered to be elite or bordering on household names. And it's not just about the seraphiliates of the world anymore. We're going to get to a point where we're going to learn about players from Finland and other countries. And I think the idea that because of the fact that some of those other teams like Russia and Finland are not on the level of a United States or Canada and just thinking, well, you know what? Because the game has not grown so much to a point where it's truly competitive, we need to stop women's hockey. I think that's just a BS way of thinking. And also it seems to be consistent with the writer who feels as if this should be. not have been a thing from the 90s or whenever they were first writing about this.

Yeah. I think it's important for the game of women's hockey to grow and for them to be able to get to a point where they can play at the Olympics is still a drink or true. I mean, look, we could talk about Canada, USA, that team that finishes in third place, that medal means everything to them. For people from their respective countries who see them do well, that might help them foster their interest into playing hockey. and as these federations get more money and put more money into their programs, we can get to a point where that gap closes. Once upon a time, the men's game was enduring the same thing. You have to go back years and years ago.

But it wasn't all the time. We saw countries like Czech Republic, like Czechia and even Russia to a certain point, too, being dominant. They took them a while before they turned into the powers that they are today. You have to kind of sit through the progress before you can get to that point. So I just think that to take, I mean, everyone's entitled to their own opinion, but we're also entitled to disagree with opinions as we see fit.

I disagree with the opinion. I think it's very short-sighted to just think that women's hockey doesn't belong. And just one more thought here to wrap this up. A bizarre sequence in the Canada game, women's game against the Russian Olympic Committee Sunday evening, Julian, where basically there was a couple of COVID-related issues with both teams. The Russian teams, the Russian Olympic Committee, they didn't have all of their test results in.

The Canadian players, and I think they were very hesitant to get on the ice because, hey, we're waiting to see the Russian COVID test results before we take part in anything. And there was a cloud of uncertainty. And it was agreed upon that the players from both teams and the officials would wear basically like N95 masks, like KN95 masks, which are basically it's almost impossible, I think, to be in a situation where you're exerting yourself physically

and you're having a K-95 mask on. They play the first two periods with those on. The Russian players took them off in the third period. But what a bizarre scene. Boy, it felt like nothing said 20-22 like watching an Olympic hockey game with these athletes playing with K-95 masks on. There's also a part of me that, like,

I got to see like some of the, like, you know, photos and whatever. there's a part of me that thought, you know, I kind of expected this to have happened like a lot sooner. Like if you would have told me that we were going to at the beginning of the pandemic that, you know, we're going to be seeing like a game where players are going to wear masks against each other. I don't mean like in baseball where you have to be like in the outfield you're wearing a mask. But I mean like everyone on both sides wearing a mask. And it would be like, that's happening in 2022. I'd be like, really? It took us that long to get there.

But like it was just such a weird scene to see. I still think it's very weird. the fact that the Russian Olympic Committee, there was all this weirdness about, supposedly about submitting tests for the COVID tests that they were taking on their players and Canada just kind of, you know, waiting in the locker room,

just waiting to see how that was going to play out. I don't know if that should have been a thing at all. I just think that's super weird. But it's, we're just in weird times. Yeah, no, that's probably the best way to wrap it up. We're just in weird times. Couldn't agree with you more. Hey, want to wrap up the podcast, the Monday edition.

Julian, as we always do with a little multiple choice madness. So I'm going to throw a couple questions at you. Now, you said that you never saw what Alex Petrangelo did in the shootout. You just like vaguely pointed at carrot top and then it was really, it was lame. And it was like a marching band with LED lights. Anyway, that's about all I can do to describe it. Now, I need to ask you, did you see any of the highlights of what Jack Hughes, Caril Caprisoff or Alex DeBringcat did? I caught up and watched those, yes.

Okay, so here's our first question for multiple choice madness. So if we remove Trevor Zegris' dodgeball attempt, who do you give the highest points to for creativity for what they did in the shootout challenge on Friday night? Is it, A, Jack Hughes with the magic trick where he had the little mini-me pop out of the box and come and take a breakaway attempt, was it B, Coril Caprisov,

with an ode to his hero, Alexander Ovechkin, even had the Gatorade, the yellow laces, All of that. We see Alex DeBringcat going full Allen from the hangover and getting a little assist from Vegas Raiders quarterback Derek Carr. So if we're going to go for points for creativity, where do you go? Hughes, Capriza of DeBringcat. Man, that's really tough.

I think I might have to pick Alex to break it. I think just going full Vegas with that. That is creative. Like that is cool. Like the nod to the hangover. The second and the third movies were not that great. The first one, while some of the language used in it does not age well, overall a pretty decent comedy film. But I think it was still a pretty cool gesture on the part of Debrink it to kind of bring him off to that.

Slight bias on my part because I do like Alexander Oveskin as a player. I really wanted to say B because I really liked what Kilbert Carrakebrose often. But I also think Jack Hughes deserves a ton of credit for what he was able to do with the mini Jack as well. Like that was fun. Those are three legitimately cool options. but I'm going to say C, Alex DeBringit. And what's weird is that none of these ones won. It was Alex Petrangelo with the least amount of creativity.

You know what? I love Jack Hughes. I think him, what I loved about the magic trick is, hey, like it's magic, right? So again, you're kind of leaning into the Vegas theme. But what I loved is, you know, he skated around the box three times really quick to kind of, you know, do the trick. But I love the end when him and the mini me threw their sticks into the crowd. Because when I think of the best. That's great.

celebrations of goals of this hockey season. I don't think anything touches Jack Hughes, throwing his stick into the stands after that overtime goal back in, whatever that was October, November. It was so cool. I loved it. I just thought it was so cool to do that. So that one got my vote.

You know what's the best part about that celebration too of the one that Jack Hughes did in that game? I think the last time was on the podcast, we talked about it. And I think Trevor Zegrois tried to do the same thing too. Was it Trevor Zegrois who did it? And he got a gay misconduct for it. You're right. The best part of that Jack Hughes did not get a game misconduct for it, which is still

one of the most ridiculous things we have seen all year. Do not let any other foolish just go on this season. Let that bury it. Like that is still whack on the part of the NHL that they would put a penalty for throwing a stick into the crowd. It's a fun. I mean, as long as it doesn't hurt anybody, I guess, but it was still a really fun thing. And I'm glad that Jack Hughes was able to put on for everybody and do that move.

Okay. Last question to wrap up the podcast. I want to fill our listeners in on this. Okay. So Ottawa Senator is forward, Connor Brown, is returning to the lineup on Monday after missing the last couple of weeks with a broken jaw. He suffered the broken jaw after he took a puck in the face that rang off the crossbar during a pregame skate in Calgary back in January. That shot came off the stick of Thomas Shabbat. And yesterday, Julian, Connor Brown said to say sorry, Thomas Shabbat bought him a Louis Vuitton backpack.

to say, hey, sorry, man, my bad for shooting the puck that hit off the crossbar, that deflected off that and found your jaw and broke it. So here's my question. Should a teammate be obligated to buy a gift to say sorry when the puck deflects off something else and then hits his friend? So I can understand it looks. And if you take a shot and hits a guy square in the face, I get it. But what if that shot hits off the crossbar, hits off another guy's stick,

hits off the stanchion, the glass something? So what do we think? A, yes, you know what? When that happens, it's the right thing to do. Or B, no, it's a total accident, and you should only be obliged to buy something if the puck directly hits your teammate off your stick. That's a really interesting question.

I like the gesture. I like the idea of getting a Louis Vuitton bag, just, you know, as a backpack. Like, I'm just picturing in my head, like walking around with an LV backpack. Like, that sounds pretty dope. I'm just going to say yes, I guess, because like, I mean, I don't know.

I don't like the idea that like, man, like you hit someone and it's like, man, you have to do this. Like you shouldn't do it because of the fact that it's like this custom or whatever. You should feel out of the goodness of your heart that you did something wrong or you did something even by accident and you realize, man, like I hurt this person. Like, I'm sorry. You're something to make it make you feel better. The one thing I'm just worried about is like, what if like that happens again?

And depending on like the, the gift that. they give the second time, like what if somebody starts getting on nitpicking? They start saying, you'll got this guy, an LV backpack. How come I only got a Birken bag? Like, actually, you know what? Berkin might be more expensive. I don't know. But like, what if we get to a point where people start measuring gifts? Like, that's the one thing you have to worry about. But otherwise, I think it's a pretty cool gesture to do. Yeah. Yeah. Like, imagine you get like a $30 gift card to Starbucks or something. You'd be like, I don't know. That's not quite cutting it. Yeah, I think I agree with you. I think if, hey, if you feel like it's the right thing to do, go ahead and do it.

Okay, but let me wrap up by asking you this question then. Okay. If you knew that you had to take a puck off the face, but it ended up with you getting a Louis Vuitton backpack. Do you say yes or no? Okay. Um, hear me out here. Myself and my current incarnation of myself, someone who works at the athletic, making the salary that I make, I would think about it. as an HL player, if I'm making at least six, seven figures, no, I do not want to puck off the face. I'll just buy the bag myself. That's also something else you have to think about too.

Say you're a four-flying guy like a tweener. You're making like HL money. Yeah. Like, what gift do you have to get? Like, you might have to be cool with a $100 gift card to Boston Pizza depending on who you getting that money for. Yeah, here's $100 to Applebee's. Like, I don't know.

I don't know. I'll pay for dinner when we're on the road. something. I mean, like Thomas Shabat's making the money that he's making. Like, yeah, he can afford to buy a Louis Vuitton bag. I don't know if Patrick Sealoff is still playing anywhere or how old he is, but like,

I don't think that guy made that much money in the NHL. If he was a situation like that, like, what is he getting? What are you getting? Like, is he buying AirPods? I don't think, Patrick, it's weird that you bring that up. Patrick Sealhoff's the guy who knocked out Clark MacArthur in an

inner squad game. And I don't think... Yeah, and I don't think he got him anything. Oh. I didn't even realize that. How random is that? Maybe that was planted in your head because you knew there was something involving Patrick Sealhoff and a team.

And by the way, for the record, I am way too soft. I would not take a puck off the face for anything less than like a small vehicle. Is like, depending on how much the bag. Actually, how much is the bag? I'd like to know how much the bag is because if it's like a hundred bucks or if it's like a couple hundred bucks then maybe it's not worth it.

If it's like in the tens of 20s or 30th actually know what? Don't give me the bag. Give me cash instead. Oh. Give me the cash. Yeah. Might as well do it.

Give me the cash. All I can think of is the Randy Moss straight cash, homie. That's one of my all-time favorite clips. Ain't number 10 grand. You've got the Moss. You got the Moss nailed down. Yeah.

Oh, yeah. Yeah, they got him when he was like walking to his car, right? Like for that clip. He's got like his hood on and everything. Just like, like, strike cash, homie. Like, ain't enough to take Ray. Like, who cares? And he did that for like, what, like mooning?

That's what he did like the, he mooned the crowd at Lambo Field. Is that what that was for? Yeah, I think so. Yeah, Randy, how'd you pay the fine? Straight cash, homie. By the way, as we wrap this up, our producer, Chris Flannery is telling us the Louis Vuitton. And I don't know where Chris is getting this from. Is he going to Amazon?

is he's just Googling it. He's saying ballpark Louis Vuitton backpack, $2,500. So $2,500. Okay, no, I can't, no, that's not enough. If it's like 25,000, then like maybe, but like 20. So you're like me, you're looking for vehicle money. Yeah. Look, look, it's a puck off the face.

That hurts. Hey. Like, I've had a soccer ball hit me in the face, and that hurts. And I got that out for free. Like a puck. No way. Yeah. I'm out.

I'm with you. Hey, listen, man, this hour and change flew by. This was a ton of fun. Thanks so much for Pinchitting here. I know you got a loaded schedule where you're on different podcasts and you're, you know, you're working with us at the athletic. So finding a little bit of time for this Monday, man. This was, this was great.

Ian, I have all the time in the world for you and the show, you know, just let me know when you want me to hang out again. Yeah. Let's do it. We'll do that for sure. And thanks, everybody. for listening to this latest Monday edition of the Athletic Hockey Show. Follow us on your favorite podcast platform.

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