The Bridge with Peter Mansbridge - Enough Covid, Enough Trump -- Let's Talk Hockey!

Episode Date: January 12, 2021

Paul Bissonnette, the star of Spittin' Chicklets, hockey's most popular podcast gets us ready on the eve of the new NHL season.

and hello there peter mansbridge here with the latest episode of the bridge daily it's tuesday of week 44 and today is going to be a little different. We're not talking COVID today. We're not talking Trump. We're talking hockey. Now, I know some of you are going to go hockey. I don't want to talk about hockey. Hey, this is Canada.

We're going to talk about hockey today. Because tomorrow, the NHL season starts. And doesn't that feel weird? Here we are in the middle of January, and we're just starting the NHL season starts. And doesn't that feel weird? Here we are in the middle of January and we're just starting the NHL season. Well, everything's related these days, right? It's all related to COVID and the disruptions that's caused. But it's an opportunity for us to kind of step back and talk about something different for one day.

I wanted to do this and I wanted to do it with somebody special. And I got somebody special. Not a big former player. Not a big manager. League executive. No. But it may be, may be one of the most influential people in the game of hockey right now. And you might find this a little bit surprising.

Because he's a podcaster. One of the most successful sports podcasts in North America is a hockey podcast. And it's called Spittin' Chicklets. Now you get it, right? Spittin' Chicklets is one of those old, old hockey phrases that came up and people saw hockey players losing their teeth. And the tough ones used to say, ah, just spittin' chicklets. saw hockey players losing their teeth. And the tough ones used to say,

I just spit in checklets. Well, this is what this podcast is called. And there are a number of former players, hockey people, on the podcast. But I guess the best known is a fellow by the name of Paul Bissonette. He lives in Arizona. He's a Canadian.

Former player. Former tough guy. But very influential in the game of hockey right now because of the things he says, because of the friends he has, because of the commercial contacts he has, and because of, well, because of Spittin' Chicklets. It has a huge audience. And so I thought, hey, let's try and get Paul Bissonette. He's also known as Biz Nasty.

It's his kind of handle. Why don't I try and get him? And luckily enough, we have a bit of an acquaintance, so it wasn't too hard. I called him up and I said, let's do this. Let's do this for the night before the NHL season starts. Get your thoughts on a wider range of things about hockey. Now, some of you will have to be a hockey junkies

to understand some of this stuff, but mostly not. It's just a good talk about hockey today and hockey in the age of COVID and hockey in the age of the era of a different kind of style of play, hockey in an era of a different kind of superstar. So hopefully you'll find this interesting. We'll probably have a very different kind of audience today than we usually do in terms of additional listeners, because once word gets out that

Biz Nasty is on the bridge, I'm going to be a whole different type of extra listener to the podcast. Anyway, I hope you enjoy it. I know I certainly did, engaging in it. So here's my conversation. Now, let me just tell you, as I said, influential in a big way through a lot of different ways. Influential also in terms of the habits of some hockey fans. You know, what do you associate hockey fans with who are sitting around watching

a game? Probably a little bit of drinking beer, right? Is there a beer associated with hockey? The Beer League. You know, picking up a six-pack or a 12-pack on the way home to watch hockey. Well, Biz Nasty and the gang at Spittin' Chicklets have got people not drinking beer. They're drinking a certain kind of vodka. Beer and hockey go together, but right now it's kind of vodka and hockey going together. We'll get into this a little bit.

You'll get it. It's bit. You'll get it. It's interesting. Honest. Promise. Enjoy. Paul Bissonette on the bridge. Okay, Paul, so I want to start this off by trying to get a sense of what I should call you. Do I call you Biz or Mr. Nasty?

Oh, gee. Paul's fine. My mom calls me Paul. Biz Nasty is a bit douchey. It was something that was kind of given to me when I was playing in the AHL, ran with it, ended up creating some social media channels with it. But ultimately, yeah, it's a little bit cringy when you're 35 years old referring to yourself as Biz N so call me paul peter and a lot of people do call you biz nasty the reason i asked the question that way is i'll always i don't know you know you're not very old you're just a kid still um but do you remember a band called or it was a singer uh by the name of meatloaf sang bat out of hell a number of big songs from kind of the early 80s. But he's big and he still tours and everything.

And I can remember watching him being interviewed on television back in the 80s. And the interviewer started with, what do I call you, Meat or Mr. Loaf? So I remembered that this morning. I thought, I've got to start that this way. You know, you're known to obviously to an awful lot of people as Biz Nasty, as well as, you know, your podcast, Spittin' Chicklets with the Boys and occasionally by your real name. So we'll start with Paul. But I should ask you as well, before we get into this, you've had some fun at my expense with your little skit about Peter Mann's biz. Tell's about how to tell everybody that they went full sustainable beef. And, you know, they pitched the idea and me and my friend Jeff Jacobson, who's my business partner and more, if anything, he's a good friend.

And Pasha Eshke, who I've worked on a bunch of film projects and anything content related. And we came up with this concept where I was going to be the news anchor leading it in. And I said, you know, it's sustainable beef. I guess it's not the most intriguing topic and it's, it's probably hard to grab people's attention. So how do we kind of go off the top? And I said, why don't I shave the top of my head and I'll go as, as, as Peter's man's bridge. And I believe Jeff Jacobson goes, goes Peter's man's biz. So we kind of changed the name up and, and I think luckily you took it, you took it well and you weren't offended by it. I'm sure you, you know, you can, you can rag on yourself just like the rest of us. And it ended up catching your attention. I saw that you followed on Twitter and I reached out and I said, thank you so much. You know, it's an honor. And, you know, you did it so long in the media world for, and, you know, I think it was over 40 years and it was kind of just a, a tribute to you. And I'm glad that, that you enjoyed it. So it ended up coming out pretty good. I played myself in it as well. I also spoofed on Kyle, Kyle Dubas, who I put as Kyle Dubas,

who is the analytics GM for the Toronto Maple Leafs. And I think he took it well too. So it ended up by getting executed and here we are now. Well, listen, it was a great honor for me. I was amazed that you even remembered who I was. I mean, you're not that old, Paul. You're like, what are you, 35? I think every single time I watched the opening ceremonies for the Olympics, you know, through a Canadian feed, it was you. And, you know, whenever there was a big interview or a big story that had to come out, it was you. So it, you know, those are the things that I miss about not being in Canada anymore is seeing those familiar faces on television that,

you know, same, same goes with the world juniors and the TSN feed. You know, I was down in the States and, you know, unable to hear Ray Ferraro and Gordon Miller where it just like, you know, that's just kind of what we're used to. So, you know, congratulations on a wonderful career. And it's, it's kind of an honor being interviewed by somebody who also spoke with Barack Obama. That's, that is like, that's, what was that like? That was pretty neat. You know, listen, sitting in the White House interviewing the president, you know, it's, it's a big deal. I mean, it was an important interview and I had to deal with all the, you know, the things that you deal with in an interview like that. But at the same time,

it was, uh, it was, it was pretty exciting, especially for a guy who started his career in Churchill, Manitoba, you know, basically loading airplanes with bags until somebody heard my voice. It, you know, you're sitting there interviewing the president, you're going, man, this sure beats loading bags on an airplane. Anyway, let's talk. Let's talk your biz, your business, which is hockey. And, you know, I read that profile on you from the Globe and Mail a year or so ago because James Ross, Jamie Ross, I guess, you know,

he wrote one of the sentences he had in there is that you're a former tough guy who now may be the most influential person in the game as a result of, you know, the things you say as a result of a spit and chiclets, your, your podcast. I mean, that must, that must impress you when you read that back about yourself. You know, obviously, you were in the league. You played. You know, you weren't Wayne Gretzky.

But you had a career in the NHL. And now being talked about as the most influential, possibly, person in the game. How does that make you feel? I honestly get a little bit uncomfortable. Because it's just, you know, I was this, you know, wacky guy when I played and, you know, in the locker room, I was, I was kind of the court jester, maybe not as much early on because I was actually a somewhat of a decent player. You know, I ended up representing Canada under 18, but as my career went on, it just, it was kind of noticeable that the skill level, I think that some of it has to be God given to a certain degree.

And obviously you can work towards some, but in order to be able to crack a reasonable spot in an NHL lineup, I just don't think it was going to happen. So I kind of had to adapt my game. And as it progressed, it kind of just became more of a jester. And because of all that, I guess, because I wasn't being focused as much on my play because other guys were, I had the ability to clown around online. And once I started my Twitter account, my Instagram and do all these other little things, it kind of just took on a mind of its own. And, and you know, in, in when my career ended, I, I took a nosedive right into it. I did that film project, as I mentioned with P Posh Esky that was called Biz Does BC.

And then I ended up jumping on a podcast and then that took off. So it's kind of just taken on a mind of its own. So when people like throw around that title, as I said, it gets a little bit uncomfortable because it wasn't really meant for that. It was more like, hey, I was a small town kid from Welland, Ontario that ended up get to live my dream in the NHL because I adapted my game to becoming a fighter, met all these incredible people, all these wacky personalities that I want to introduce to all the hockey fans out there because I think they deserve it. It's this very interesting world. And if I can kind of be the guy to present that to them or help with, with of course the other members of my podcast and through other forms of video, you know, I think it's turned into this, like this, this silly little thing that I think everybody has for the most part, a good time consuming. And, and, you know, that's

why I wouldn't like a title like that's dropped. It's kind of like, well, that was never really the goal. It was just to come around and have a good time. And I think that everyone has, has had a good time and we're averaging over half a million people an episode who listen to our podcast and, um, it's opened up all these other crazy doors, getting to do, uh, you know, ads for McDonald's and, and pay tribute to legends. Uh, we, we, I also got to do a Watson gloves commercial recently, so I don't say no to much. So that's probably why all these doors have opened and probably why a guy like Jamie Ross was willing to come down here and follow me around to figure out, you know, what's all the noise about. Well, let's talk about some noise now. I mean, hockey starts tomorrow.

Are you excited about that or are you a little nervous about it, given everything that's going on around hockey and around life in general right now how are you feeling about the start of hockey um i think that the the nhl has done an exceptional job as far as how they did the bubble and then now how they're they're trying to handle this season uh is it perfect by any means no is it you know is it scary given that you know there's there's there's consequences to if people do in fact get COVID uh you know it's really it's really not my say I'm just kind of like you know just a guy who who works for an NHL team I work for the Coyotes as well so if they think that they're able to get it going and keep everyone safe and uh you know I say I say let it roll so you know it also keeps people busy and keeps people's minds occupied during this difficult time.

But for anyone to be able to argue the other side of it, of maybe where they're putting people at risk, I mean, I'm pretty excited given the difficulty of this year with, you know, not many things to watch on TV and to occupy our minds. I'm excited for the league to get going again. You have a great relationship with a lot of the players and I'm wondering what you're hearing from them in terms of the startup. I mean, they've been in a very short training camp situation. They had to go through quarantine before they get to training camp, and now they're about to start. Where's their head generally? I think the bubble from talking to every single player was very difficult,

being away from their families and just kind of being confined to the same exact space. The fact that it's being ran a little bit different during the regular season, I think that guys are happy that hockey is getting going. Of course, if they would have been taking a full year off, as far as young guys and their development and guys who hadn't really established from the league, that would have probably been difficult.

But I think guys are really excited to get things going. I genuinely do, just from talking to them. I think there's always that concern as far as teams, you know, getting, you know, breakouts or whatever it is. I know Dallas right now has had an issue with the, right at the beginning of the season here. So we're going to see how they handle that. But it's, it's one of those things where like, I, you know, I'm afraid to speak on it because it's such a serious issue that I'm willing to concede with anyone who has a more intelligent opinion than I do. They've got certain divisions set up, and you'll only play within your division for the whole regular season. And obviously, you're a Canadian kid.

I'm a Canadian kid. We look at the Canadian division. In some ways, it's kind of what we've always wanted because there's such great natural rivalries there, and it has the potential to be quite exciting. what we've always wanted because there's such great natural rivalries there. And it, you know, it has a potential to be quite exciting, but how do you look at this, this idea of,

of a single divisions where you only play with them within that division right up until the playoffs? For the short term, I do really enjoy it because it's going to create those rivalries. And one thing that's been difficult is no fans. You could just see the intensity and the shifts of momentum and how much it weighs on guys. And, you know, it's like, it's like art essentially. And you year here, I think it's just going to be, yeah, it's going to create that rivalry, that passion. You might even see more fights than we're used to seeing. And it's also different. And Canadians will probably pay a little bit more attention, maybe more so than they normally would, given the times, because it's a unique situation. They were able to do this.

Of course, the not crossing the border was kind of the main reason why they did it. But to me in the shortened season, why not make it even crazier given with all the rules and the structure of the divisions? So I'm pretty amped up for it. I mean, Battle of Alberta is probably a prime example. There's a lot of hatred going in there to begin with. Now you're going to see these guys face off 10 times against each other. You might see some uncharacteristic things where even you're seeing a lot of passionate guys like McDavid. I'm not saying he's going to drop the gloves, although he did do so in junior with the Erie Otters. But yeah, I'm a lot more old school than a lot of these new media members to where I don't mind a little bit of the violence as long as it's genuine and it's natural I think that if you know a guy's pushing on a guy and a guy's getting irritated I believe that he should be able to tap him on the shin pads

shin pads and say let's go let's let's let's settle this like you know a little bit old school like in the back of the barn as as Berkey would say and you know some people would disagree with that just given what we with what we know as far as knowledge about con And, you know, some people would disagree with that, just given what we, with what we know, as far as knowledge about concussions, but, you know, coming from a guy who fought, I think that it still belongs in today's game. Did you ever have a concussion? I've had plenty and here, you know, I'm not, I'm not trying to sound controversial when I say this is I think that like the, probably the drugs and alcohol had more of an impact on me than, than getting punched in the face for a living. And yeah, I've had many, many concussions and I think early on definitely didn't know the, the, the quote unquote risks to it. But, you know,

as it went on and when you kind of started finding out more and more about this stuff and how it would in fact impact other guys who would receive them. Like you would, you would, you would meet a guy who would have eight concussions who, I mean, you know, in my case, maybe the intelligence wasn't always there, but I, I didn't necessarily feel much different. Like I said, it was more so the other things that were going on off the ice that were probably affecting my noggin. And even from talking to other guys, they seem to think it was the same way but in that case you might have a guy who got hit one time with a concussion and he's sitting in a dark room for two months and then it ends up ending his career so like I said it's uh it's yeah it's it's uh it was a long career of fighting but uh yeah I probably sustained probably between

like six to eight concussions I would say a few of them diagnosed. But at the, at the beginning of when I started playing pro, there was never the take them off the bench, go do the baseline test. I believe the baseline test probably started halfway through my professional career where you would get tests before the season started. That way, if something did happen, they could compare it to where you were with your numbers and your test scores when in fact you you sustained what they thought was a concussion so they have taken like crazy measures or not crazy like good measures in order to secure guys uh health and safety uh those just like were not around when i started when you since you have stopped playing have you done checkups to see how you relate to those baseline figures that you had?

Is there anything you do in terms of monitoring to ensure everything's okay? Yeah, I'm actually going to go get an MRI in a couple weeks as far as a brain scan. My biggest issue, I'd say, with all the fighting the fighting Peter was I would get my nose caved in. I probably broke my nose probably a dozen times. And I actually had surgery on it when I was with the Pittsburgh Penguins organization in order to re-break it. So I could, you know, my, my septums were all messed up so I could breathe properly. And after I was done surgery and, you know, I got the bandages up the nose and stuff and he said man he goes that was one of the worst i've ever seen when we went and cracked to re-break it it it like broke off and all these little pieces of bone like it just like shattered so he was spending 45 minutes of

the surgery picking out these little shards of of bone out of my nose but you know going back to fighting it i rebroke it probably that next season fairly early on so there's really no point but now it's the point where i'm waking up 10 times a night because i can't breathe through my nose and i'm i gotta get one of these c-pat machines i've been i've been researching it so that's another study that i have to go to so if anything it's my sleep because of my breathing that's affected me more than anything that my even that my noggin so we can see you on some of the CPAT commercials in the future. There's another marketing tool for you. Yeah, there's my next infomercial.

When you say, and I'm assuming you say, when you say the odds are, the possibilities are there's going to be more fights this year, you're saying that because of the rivalries, because these teams are going to play each other much more often and quite often back-to-back-to-back in some cases, and that when you're like that, the tension level increases. Would that be true?

Yeah. So, like, picture it this way. You have two number one centers going at it, or even, let's say, McDavid and Giordano, and they're the line match, and they're playing three of the next four four games excuse me against each other and you know he in order to try to get that slight advantage over mcdavid given the speed that he's got you know there might be some little cross checks to the side and over if you play them one game and then you're out of town the next night it's over and done with but if you know that you have to deal with this guy for the three times in the

next four games, and this is just an example of names, by the way, that eventually maybe if he's not able to produce offense in the first four periods of that matchup, he, yeah, sometimes the wires cross because there is so much pressure mounted on these players in order to produce. But yet you have other guys on the ice who have that same pressure where, you know, they'll do whatever it takes in order to get that advantage. And sometimes when that happens, the wires cross. I mentioned, I mentioned the McDavid example, just because in junior, it's, it's very rare for him to, to end up snapping

or getting frustrated. But at one point he did, and people were like, Oh my God, but it's just like, well, well you know if you paid attention and you watched the tape and saw how many little cheap shots that guy was able to give you and then people would argue hey the refs need to step in and protect but that's just a small example and then you get guys on the third and fourth line who are playing an even more physical role and they're playing against each other you know three of the next four games yes my prediction would be that we see a lot more of it. And I mean, I thought the bubble in playoffs might have taken a little bit of intensity off

because of the lack of fans. I think in the first game, there was a scrap. I forget what teams were facing off. It might have been Washington and someone else, but they were going toe to toe. And yes, I think this will definitely create more rivalries and more bad blood. And I think that it's, it's going to be more of a issue of survival this season than anything. You know,

there's been a lot of talking in this town in Toronto about having to toughen up the team that it's, it's got a core group of really exciting players are very good skilled players but they weren't tough enough so they've gone through a number of things to you know to to get tougher to get smarter in some ways to get more mature um and i want to get to the joe thornton thing in a minute but first of all i know austin matthews is a buddy of yours, partly, I guess, because he's from Arizona. But he seems, when I watch him, he seems in the last year to be tougher, to be physically tougher. He takes a lot of cheap shots, as most superstars do,

in terms of physicality from other players. But he seems to be retaliating, not getting into a fight, but he's not afraid, as he seemed to be in the first years, to push off and to push back. He's definitely got some chippiness, and he's also a horse. If you've ever seen him off the ice, his legs and the way he's built, I mean, I tend to use the Jager or Matt Sundin examples of just where he's such a presence out there, where if he sticks his butt out, it's just,

you can't even get the puck and, and along with all the other tools he has. And yeah, I think that there is an advantage to guys who do play that skilled game and who are elite, who can handle their own business. You just mentioned Joe Thornton. There was a funny, there was a funny article that came out of all these like hidden stories about Joe Thornton. And one is, was I, I think somebody I think somebody went up and like hit McDavid and then Cassian went over to handle his business. And then when the face off, the next shift came right

beside the San Jose bench, Joe Thornton leaned over and over Cassian shoulder, who was lined up next to McDavid. And he was like, he was trying to get McDavid's attention. He wouldn't look over. And then finally he just yelled it out. He goes, when I was your age and I was the best player in the world, I used to handle my own business like that. And everybody on the ice started laughing and Joe wasn't being mean spirited about it. He was just, you know, it was just chirping a little bit to Connor McDavid. So I think, yeah, it definitely does have the advantage when certain players can't handle their own dirty work.

But as far as the overall team toughness is concerned, I always like to use, I mean, look at some of the last Stanley Cup champions, like St. Louis specifically. I wouldn't say they had many heavyweights on their team, but team toughness overall where if you hit their goalie, you would notice all five guys on the ice over there and they were ready to throw down. I mean, they were having scraps in practice halfway through the year

for crying out loud as we just saw one between the Vancouver Canucks the other day. But I think that team toughness is so overlooked, maybe more so nowadays, because there has been that shift in more skill and more penalties called and less fighting, and that's fine. But I think that when it comes to playoff time and it gets to that nitty-gritty, I think teams that do carry that overall team toughness presence do tend do tend to go farther. Like I know Washington had a skilled team, but if you look at their entire lineup,

when they finally ended up making their run, there's a reason that the guys like Tom Wilson around, there's a reason that, I mean, bricks or peck was there. I mean, he wasn't the flightest of foot, but he's also, you know, a guy on the back end who was willing to throw the weight around and stick up for teammates. So you could go down the list of, of all the, the the the most recent teams la when they won back-to-back cups you know they they had a very big strong team and hard team to play against so i'm uh you'll you'll tend to notice throughout the course of this interview i i'm very old school in my thinking do you think you know

just to pick up on that for a moment if you were 18 now would you have an NHL career ahead of you no uh not with unless I like really really took a nosedive into my skill development Peter the game has changed so much I was just talking to Shane Doan the other day and uh um Austin Matthews and McDavid were here training when everything got shut down. Right. Cause you know, I think, I don't think protocols were as intense here. They were still following all the rules, but he was on the ice. He brought his kid on the ice with him as well as Tyson Nash, who does a play by play between the benches for the coyotes,

whose son plays for the last of the hurricanes. And he goes, he is with the way they train and the way they practice. Now they do everything at full speed when they're catching the puck every time every every time they take a stride it's like the puck has moved six different times and the minute that they want to change directions it's right where it needs to be on their blade their heads up they're in the perfect like knee bend position and they're able to make the play and he's and he he said like these are the guys who are at the forefront of this like new movement. I use the term they're like, they're like these video game players. I mean,

if you watch McDavid on the ice, the way he attacks certain areas and how he's able to do it, where if you look at his hands, it's like he's chopping sushi or something. It's it's just, it's, and I'm, I'm looking forward to the day where there's, you know, hopefully there's, you know, 10, 20, 30 guys that are of that caliber just because of understand the type of attention to detail and how hyper focused these have to these guys have to be in order to to work on their craft to provide the entertainment that they do like it is a it is a full-time job how dialed in these guys are to

perfecting their game they're like they're like a f1 race car yeah i would have paid to watch those two guys practicing together did you watch the mcdavid piece when he got injured with his knee and how he was able to come back it's it's you know you could see the distraught on him and the decision that he had to make and you know his career is flashing before his eyes and then just the you know the constant need every morning he wakes up like what do i have to do this hour what What do I have to do the next hour? It's wild, man. I wanted to get your thoughts on the Joe Thornton decision.

Obviously, for the last couple of years, Toronto not getting out of the first round of the playoffs has put a lot of questions at the doorstep for Kyle Dubas, the Toronto general manager, that he'd build a team that was too young, definitely skilled, no doubt about that, but that there was no sort of edginess around it, not enough toughness, not enough gray beards, not enough guys who were kind of mature.

Maybe they'll bring you in, Pete. Yeah, that would probably guarantee something. But, you know, so this year, last year they had Jason Spezza, who became very popular and remains so in Toronto because he wasn't afraid to drop the gloves in one of those games against Columbus in the playoffs last year.

But they go the whole route here and they get Joe Thornton, Jumbo. And, you know, Joe grew up on the farm next to my sister's farm in St. Thomas, Ontario. So I remember seeing Joe when he was like nothing. And so watching him now, he's an old guy, you know, compared with the, with the Matthews and the Mariners who were skating around him on the same line. And you wonder, okay, so how is this going to work? Will it work? You know, can it work? You got a guy who's obviously got a hall of fame career and from everything you hear, he's a fantastic guy.

But he's into his 40s. He's definitely in the sunset years. Can that work? Does it work? Oh, absolutely. I think the experience – so there's a lot of different ways I think it's going to work. I mean, special teams is very important. Of course, power play, they have all these skilled guys, and they're going to have to take advantage of that. All this experience he's going to work i mean special teams is very important of course power play they have all these skilled guys and they're going to have to take advantage of that all this experience he's

going to bring he's going to be able to you know show these guys you know this is what i've seen over it's kind of like tom brady in a sense you know it's like he's seen every single defense and how they defend so on a power play or a pk setup from the other team he's going to know what areas to manipulate he'll you'll help have input on those things and those types of meetings. I mean, he quarterbacked the power play for what, 20 years now in the NHL. And one of my big things,

and maybe I look into it a little bit too much, but I would imagine that the, we talked about the pressure earlier and what these guys face in Toronto and Montreal and those places, it's on a different level. I think that part of the reason why it's going to help bring him in is just maybe deflect a little bit of that pressure when when maybe media is trying to make stories I don't want to say out of nothing because they have a job to

do too but you know you win you know you win five uh five four and it's a goaltending issue or you win one nothing and it's just like what's wrong with the offense it's just like it's never good enough and I think that maybe if if the pressure does mount internally, when things do get difficult, he's going to be able to probably calm those guys down and just adds a little bit of levity to the locker room where the brunt of that pressure might not be felt as much. We just had Jack Eichel on the podcast. It hasn't been released yet, but they brought in Eric Stahl who he won a Stanley Cup earlier on in his career he he was a young NHL captain and Jack said he goes

I mean among everything it's obvious that you know we had a very young team and now he comes in and among a few other pickups that they made and he's like right away like it feels like a little bit of weight was lifted off my shoulders where it gets snapped around as far as leadership's concerned so i i also talked to shanahan about it and and i'm not like a hardcore lease fan i grew up watching them and following them following doug gilmore i'd say there's still a very large window here with this group of guys they have and they're trying to find the right pieces to fit so you know i i would i would probably wait at least a few more years before I was going to get critical of this Toronto group.

I think they've done a good job of assembling some highly skilled players. One of my concerns was the fact that with the salary cap and now that it's been halted, that it will be difficult to squeeze in the right pieces to surround those guys who are making the big, big bucks in order to get the job done. But I think that they're going to be okay. And I think adding Joe is not only going to help out this season and a guy like Simmons as well who helped with the toughness aspect,

but I think it'll pay dividends past this season, even if it doesn't work out this year. Is Toronto an impossible place for a player to play? I think in Canada, you're a bit hard pressed to get any type of guys as far as free agents on bargains. I mean, you would argue, well, we just talked about Joe Thornton who they got for seven 50. And to me, I would definitely consider that a bargain, but I'm saying is in a guy,

you know, I mean, Tavares ended up coming over, but I mean, I don't, I wouldn't say he took a bargain. I mean, he's making, what, $11 million? So that's a pretty strong cap hit. So I think that they're at a disadvantage just because of how big the microscope is on players. Another guy I just talked to the other day was Carl Alsner, and he got offered a pretty good contract from Montreal when he was up, and he had a few different offers from other places.

And, you know, he had that seed of doubt in another situation where he had to make a decision within a certain amount of time and not much, a career decision on where he was going to go play because there was contracts being offered at the deadline or not the deadline. What do you call that? Free agency. And he ended up going to Montreal and it, you know, it's a, it's a very, very intense situation when you're a defenseman making a lot of money and you're one of the big free agent signs are coming, expecting you to come in there and make a massive impact. And, and yeah, I could see where sometimes it does get to guys.

So I do see a bit of a disadvantage just on how intense it is. Now the other side of the argument would be like well we want guys here who can thrive under that type of pressure and that's sports for you but it takes a different type of breed in order to play in a big market like toronto and not let anything affect you and just get the job done i want to uh shift for a moment to um to one of the areas that you're uh you're kind of known for yeah and you've already showed us a couple of ways and that's sort of your expertise in branding, in the branding content space.

And the reason I want to bring that up is because one of the things that fans will notice that's a little different this year when they start watching hockey is the league has rented out the top of the helmet, right, to advertisers. I try to buy one. I try to buy the Coyotes helmets, put Pink Whitney on it. And Pink Whitney is your big sponsor, right? They said no alcohol on the helmets.

I said, come on! Pink Whitney, for those who don't know is it's like vodka right and it's a very popular uh brand that uh spitting chiclets is want to hear something crazy about pink whitney peter is uh the rock actually tweeted out recently that they broke the spirits record um they sold 300 000 cases of his new tequila in the first year of production which which it ended up beating um which george clooney's one it was a tequila as well casamigos so george clooney a bunch of guys they released that and i think within the first year they sold 200 000 cases in the first year of pink whitney and it hasn't been released yet because we just got the numbers, we sold 807,000 cases of Pink Whitney. Now, where does Pink Whitney advertise beyond Spittin' Chicklets?

Or is it the big advertiser for them? We did some stuff on NBC throughout playoffs. But honestly, yeah, through the the hockey podcast and that just tells you how hardcore not only the you know the the barstool and spitting chicklets fans are but canadians in general it wasn't even available in all all of canada until halfway through the first year it got launched and then when it finally was in ontario fully in the month of july summer, we sold just under 35,000 cases of Pink Whitney in one month. And it's just been wild. So it's been definitely a very fun journey.

And we're looking forward to giving back to all those hardcore hockey fans who have kind of embraced this as their new drink. And we kind of describe it as the new John Daly slash Arnold Palmer. I think John Daly is the version with alcohol in it obviously right um but uh yeah it's it's been great and we're looking forward to really doing some fun stuff with the hockey community so uh they would not let us sponsor the helmet but maybe we can get on the board somewhere and uh and and make that work but yeah branding and advertising has been definitely something that i've dived into more lately. Well, how do you feel about it? Because here's my, you know, forget about Pink Whitney. Like here in Toronto, I think it's Scotiabank or one of the banks.

And I assume in different places there are different things going on on top of helmets. I guess my concern is, is this kind of the beginning? Is this how it starts? Is this how we end up looking like European hockey players with their stuff all over their jerseys and their pants and socks and whatever? Well, I mean, they've said they're doing it for this year just in order to keep revenues in and keep people employed.

That's how taxes started. We're just going to do it this year because we need some money. That was, that was like a hundred years ago. Yeah, exactly. Yeah. Next thing you're going to have, you have people coming out, uh, painted with, uh, with body paint between the periods, the shovel of snow or whatever it is. But, uh, I think that it's okay for this year in order to, uh, to, to create some revenue in order to keep some people employed and some of the revenue that they lost apparently it cost them about 80 to 100 million or even put that whole bubble experience on for playoffs so the league lost money doing that so i understand why they're doing it i don't i think i might be okay at one point that they put a couple crests a couple

patches on the jersey up top kind of like they did with the nba uh but i yeah i don't want it to get too intense as far as uh painting the jerseys up with all these uh these ads i like it a little bit more traditional i would like it to see it go back to just the way it was uh once everything's back to normal but but completely understand why they had to do this you never played in europe right i actually played with the card of Devils for 11 games during the NHL lockout. And I had a blast. It was such a unique experience. I went to this league that we were busing 10, 11 hours from Cardiff in Wales

all the way up to Edinburgh, Scotland, day of a game. And I, you know, you had to pack your own lunch on the bus and eat your pregame on the bus, putting it in the microwave. And it was, it was a very humbling experience. And I played in the East coast to where I came up, not like some of these guys who get drafted in the first round and they never don't see a PJ, right? Cause some of these guys like, like Ed Jovanovski was a guy I played with and he'd never seen the AHL. So he'svanovsky was a guy I played with and he'd never seen the AHL. So he's used to the private jets. I played in the ECHL when I had our, our sleeper bus breaking down on the way to games to where our booster bus following us had to get out.

We would load all of our gear into the booster bus. They would wait for the sleeper bus to be repaired and we would take the booster bus to the game. we could get there on time. So it was very cool to see it, uh, you know, a place like, you know, England and, and, and, uh, Wales and they got a team in Ireland as well, or a couple Belfast giants, but, uh, it was just cool to see hockey played a different way and they were chanting during games and how intense they were. And it was also nice for me at the point in time where when I was playing in the NHL, I was getting very limited ice, but I got to go over there and get some ice time. And we joke around the podcast. I used to call myself the Sidney Crosby of Cardiff because I actually get to, I got to lug some minutes. So, so that was my only experience playing in Europe for a team. Although I did travel there to play for Team Canada and under 18 uh Piyushchani Slovakia and then we ended up going to Yaroslav Russia to play um to play in

the the world championships under 18 which that was the first time I'd ever been to Russia that was the first time that I'd ever gone head-to-head against Ovechkin and saw the the greatness that was uh Alex Alex Ovech. You could see that right away? The first game we played of the tournament was against the Russians. And, you know, the Yaroslav locomotive, unfortunately, it was the KHL team that had the plane crash. And this was beforehand. And they had this beautiful new arena that was built.

They had a bowling alley in it. It was state-of-the-art. And we come out, and it was the most intimidating setting I'd ever seen. It was basically everybody in the lower bowl had the long coats on with the Russian army hats. And it was like they were told to go there in order to go support the Russian team,

and they spanked us. They beat us 6-3 that game. And I think it was probably the best thing for us because it woke us up. And we ended up fortunately going on to win the gold. But that was probably one of the cooler experiences I've ever experienced as far as playing overseas, if not the most. And the other cool one I had was, so when I made the NHL, my first two NHL games were with the Pittsburgh Penguins in Sweden. And we played against the Ottawa senators in the world premier games.

And they were stacked with, with Swedes. They had Alfredson. And it was a, it was very special because he was going to get to bet, go back home and play an NHL game in front of his home country. And who do they have come out and drop the opening face off? Matt Sundin,

10 minutes standing ovation. I'm looking around. It felt like it was a minute, but these people went nuts when he came out and just to see the impact that these people had made on their hockey culture, it was, it was, it was not. So once the goosebumps had settled down, we were fortunate enough. We ended up getting an overtime win goal by Tyler Kennedy. And just that was, that was cool. And, and then I ended up getting picked up off waivers and I know I'm kind of rambling on about all these European experiences. Now, sure enough, we, we do the world premier games the next year.

When I was with the Arizona coyotes, we played Boston the year, they ended up going on to win the Stanley cup and we played in the Czech Republic. We went to Prague and of course with Boston, having char, a few other Czech players at that time we had Radim Vrbata we had Martin Hansel so it was a very cool experience and sure enough I end up we end up getting David Pasternak on the podcast he said that he got to go watch that game and it was just the the coolest thing because he got to see some of his Czech heroes play in the NHL on their home soil and and sure enough he ended up getting to do it a few years later as well.

So I've had a few cool experiences across the pond. You left me hanging on the Ovechkin thing. Do you remember that first time you saw him play when you were whatever you were, 18, 19 years old? Well, yeah. I mean, I think he might have had a hat trick in that 6-3 game, and that was the first game of the under-18 world championship. I know he at least had a few because I was picking him out of the net.

I think I was dashed, too, for sure, in that game. I think one of the coaches actually pulled me over at practice the next day and said, hey, you're going to have to give a little bit better than that. And I was like, yeah, I'm well aware well aware i said you put the gear on and go against ovechkin buddy so there was no doubt even in those early days that i blamed him i said that's your fault for doing the matchup yeah right but he yeah he was he was just a tank. How just big and solid he was and how he could move and how explosive he was, he was scary. He was coming down the wing and you were on your heels.

Who's the best player you ever saw? Oh, man. I'd say one of the most dominating performances was when I was in the American Hockey League and Alexander Mogilny had been sent down to Albany by the New Jersey Devils. It made no sense. But just watching him play against American Hockey League guys. And I think of a little bit of frustration at maybe some of his own teammates on the ice because he was just making these crazy plays and like guys were not executing because he could have had probably 10 points in the one game.

But that was probably the, one of the most dominating performances. But I mentioned that I started my NHL career with the Pittsburgh Penguins and just watching Sid and Malkin off each other in practice and how they always wanted to be first in line. They always wanted to set the pace, their, their work ethic, their hockey intelligence. That was, that was cool.

That was the good way to start my NHL career and, and, and something that I'm going to get to carry on forever and tell my, my grandkids at one point, hopefully. And, uh, even, even get to tell them at one point i did i was on a line with uh sid and gino it lasted about six seconds and when i finally put my head up because normally i was staring at the ice when i was handling it and i'd made the play and realized i was on the ice with them i just made a beeline to the bench and made sure i i i substituted for the right guy that should run the ice in that situation okay listen guys yeah this has been great uh paul it really has and i could listen to you uh for hours telling stories um set me in the in the right mood and set my listeners in the right

mood many of whom are you know i think there's a lot of hockey fans listen to my podcast but they they're also into politics, and lately it's all been kind of COVID or Trump. But tomorrow night starts hockey, starts another year. In an odd time, January starts. But nevertheless, it's part of who we are as Canadians and I guess as North Americans. So put us in the right mood for how we should be feeling about hockey as it starts for another year. Well, I mean, the perspective that I'm looking at is I always want to see the

game grow. And I think that they're, they're making intelligent changes in order to do that, where I think that maybe some of the things that they've done in the past were just, it was just maybe more so neglecting. And, you know, we, we saw a lot of that with what was happening in the bubble with, you know, with the hockey diversity Alliance and, and, and getting more, you know, ethnicities and cultures involved. I'm excited for where that's headed. I'm excited. I talked about the, these new players, this new wave of player and how hard they work in order to entertain us and,

and, and, and push the game to the next level. I'm just really optimistic about where the game's headed and how they're handling everything. So if any of the hockey fans are listening, I would hope that they're kind of on the same thinking pattern as me as far as that's concerned. And given the circumstance, I think that the league in general has just navigated to a place where we're, you know, they've prepared themselves to head in that, that proper direction. Um, I, I I'd like to see the game grow a little bit more globally. Uh, maybe now's not the time to do that in a sense of, of where the world does in the state of COVID. But I think that once everything finally gets settled down, that it will be. And, uh, and, and there, there, you can even see it with the way that they're putting the stars more on the pedestal.

They're starting to treat it a little bit more like the NBA, whereas those are the star athletes. Let them show their personalities. And it's definitely a slower approach. But I think that the game in general is heading in a very positive direction. So I hope people are going to be entertained by what the league has set up and with where it's headed.

I was a little bit worried during the playoffs when the players demanded the day off and the league gave it to them to show their solidarity behind the whole issue on race. I was a little bit concerned watching that kind of joint news conference that they had. Was, is this going to be a one-time thing? Are they actually going to do something as players? Are they going to take this issue forward in the way that they can to make a difference?

And I wonder where you are on that. Do you think they have done that and are doing that? Well, you know, in any situation, you need leaders in order to do it. And I think in the case of hockey, at least, I know for even like me personally, like we had to discuss this on the podcast we completely shut down the podcast and we did one episode that was dedicated to just hey guys like this is this has gotten to a place where we kind of just need to take a step back here let the people who have experienced what everyone's talking about right now take the lead and and and and we just really need to listen and I think that I think in the case of hockey I think players just more so over the course of time just kind of really like fell

in line and and no one's really you know it's kind of been would you say it's fair to say like especially in hockey that like no one really sticks their neck out like like crazy it's it's kind of more of like that team mentality and do for the betterment of the team and nobody wants to to be the one guy that's taking all the attention is that fair i think that's fair so i think it's just a case of maybe guys being a little bit uncomfortable in order to to step up and talk about it and especially if they haven't experienced it, because it needs to be talked about through people who have lived through what's going on. And, and, you know, I, like I said,

when we talked about on the podcast, I was a little bit uncomfortable because, you know, even coming from my, my mom's half black, Yolanda Sinet, she was born in Chicago and, you know, I'm a quarter black, but, you know, I, I'd never really experienced any of these things being talked about. I grew up in well, well in Ontario and I, I'd never really experienced any of these things being talked about. I grew up in well in well in Ontario in a small town and even talking to my mom, she's like, you know, Paul, you, you know, I dealt with it a little bit growing up, but it was never, you know, we were fortunate enough where we grew up in Canada where it's, it's,

you know, it's a lot less tame than, than, than the maybe the division that's happening in the United States right now. So it was, it was a difficult time. I just hope that as you kind of alluded to that, that they continue to take that approach and they continue to tell people like, Hey, if, if something does happen again, that this isn't just a one-time thing that we need to slow it down. And I, I think the other side of the argument is why I, you know,

I go to sports in order to get my separation from that. And for me, it's, it's, it's another case of, well, if this is clearly a bigger issue than sports, I'm just going to shut up. I'm going to listen and we can get back to playing games when, when life in general is a little bit more settled down and people are being heard. Wise words is nasty. Yeah. I just, like I said, I don't feel like I'm the person that should be able to speak up because I didn't experience it. But when all of it went down and those things were being said, it was an emotional time for a lot of people, man.

The world has gotten to a pretty crazy place, but I'm very optimistic that we're heading in the right direction now. Well, there's no question that that was a moment last summer for all sports leagues, and they all kind of stepped forward in their own way. Most of them did anyway, most sports leagues. And hockey did, and it's how they follow through that becomes the issue as to whether the moment was truly taken advantage of but i you know i understand what you're saying i mean for hockey as opposed to say basketball or football uh where the uh the percentages of african-american players are obviously much much much higher than they are in hockey, that it's difficult to step forward the same way that football and basketball did.

And it was kind of very visible in that news conference as we watched it, as the majority of white players surrounding those of color tried to show their support for their support for a for a cause that they all felt was important i well we had um we had ryan reeves who ended up uh he was the one who spoke and we had him on the podcast right afterward and he said that all the players right away when they there was any mention of it they were like absolutely we'll stand behind you and as you saw that they did and dumba the way he got up and spoke and he and he hit it out of the park that takes that takes a lot and especially in that short amount of time in order to collect

your thoughts on the issues that are happening and then deliver that on the national stage I thought it was a big step for the game and I thought it was really important. And, uh, yeah, it was cool to see. And as I said, they're, they're definitely taking the right approach now and I hope that they stick with it and don't, uh, they don't kind of get off course. Paul, listen, thank you. So I know you're a busy guy and, uh, especially right around this time of year. Um, so I really appreciate you, uh, you doing this. It's been, uh, it's been enlightening, informative, and entertaining, just as I assumed it would. So listen, good luck with the season.

Bud, just like you, small-town kid, it's an honor to come on your podcast. Congratulations on a wonderful career yourself, and hopefully you're enjoying retirement to a certain extent. And who knows, maybe we can get you on the golf course for a sandbagger at some point. You play much golf? Yeah, but you don't want me anywhere near you when you're playing golf.

That's what wit tells me. But here we are. Yeah, exactly. Hey, thank you so much to you and your kid who's behind the scenes here. And I know I've met him before, but it's been a pleasure, man. And thank you so much.

Thanks, Paul. Take care. There, I told you it met him before, but it's been a pleasure, man. And thank you so much. Thanks, Paul. Take care. There, I told you it would be different, right? My thanks again to Paul Bissonnette. Pride of Welland, Ontario. For his time today, getting us set for hockey, which starts tomorrow. Also tomorrow, Wednesday, that means, you know what that means, even here on week 44, Wednesday means smoke, mirrors, and the truth.

And Bruce Anderson will be here, of course, from Ottawa. And who knows who else could be interesting, right? That's tomorrow. Meanwhile, that's it for this day. Hope you've enjoyed The Bridge daily. For this Tuesday of week 44, I'm Peter Mansbridge. Thanks so much for listening. We'll talk to you again in 24 hours. Thank you.