Toronto Mike'd: The Official Toronto Mike Podcast - Kyle Bukauskas: Toronto Mike'd #550

Episode Date: November 29, 2019

Mike chats with Kyle Bukauskas about his rapid ascent at Sportsnet, his memorable interview with Brad Marchand, the Gritty incident and more.

Welcome to episode 550 of Toronto Mic'd, a weekly podcast about anything and everything. Proudly brought to you by Great Lakes Brewery, Palma Pasta, StickerU.com, Bryan Master from KW Realty, Capadia LLP CPAs, and Ridley Funeral Home. LLP CPAs and Ridley Funeral Home. I'm Mike from TorontoMike.com and joining me this week is Sportsnet's

Kyle Bukowskis. Hello, Mike. I was worried all week about saying that last name. You nailed it. It's actually easy. Slight hesitation. It's very easy. The thing is, it's nine letters, so it can be a little intimidating to look at, but there's no hidden sounds. It's very easy. The thing is, it's nine letters,

so it can be a little intimidating to look at, but there's no hidden sounds. There's no silent letters. The consonant I needed to make sure I didn't forget was the S. That's often missed. Right. And that changes it completely. I think I might have promoted that Kyle Bukakis was coming on,

and then I had giggles from Tyler. I had lunch with him yesterday because, you know, it's close to another word. And then I realized, oh yeah, there is an S in there. And then it's easy to say, if you remember, it's Bukakis. Yeah, that's kind of followed me around from the beginning, but it's fun. And good for you for not changing your name. Like back in, if you were like, I don't know,

if it was 50 years ago, you might be trying to be Kyle Brown or something like that. Right. No, I'm not leaving it. Proud of the Lithuanian background. Is that what it is? Yeah. Okay.

I'm trying to think. Previous Lithuanian guests include Leo Raudens. Oh, great. Awesome. All right. Raudens is easier to say. But yeah, what a pleasure to meet you. Thanks for having me, man.

You literally just got to the door, so I need to check out the hair now. I haven't even done so yet. But it looks fantastic. Fresh off the plane. It was an early morning. I'm coming off back-to-backs here, Mike. Where do you come from?

We were in Ottawa Wednesday and then last night in Montreal. So the players usually get the day off after back-to-backs, but the media does not. No. So we're keeping going here. But I'm a little loopy here.

This may be a good day to interview me. Thank you. Thank you. I'm going to try to get you loopier. Would you like a beer? Yeah, why not? It's 5 o'clock somewhere. Okay.

I feel bad I didn't get one out of the fridge. That's all right. Is it okay? Because this six-pack, I'll do it off the top since you might dive in here, but Great Lakes Brewery, fantastic local craft brewery. I know you're not a Toronto boy. I talk to a lot of Toronto guys,

but you're a BC guy. I am, yeah. But I've had Great Lakes before. Like I love going to the LCBO and just checking out the selection of Ontario craft and Great Lakes is one of them. And yeah,

I think 99.9% of all Great Lakes beer remains here in Ontario. So it's always super fresh. So, okay. You got the great, you got the pale ale, which is like the, uh,

I figured I'll go that way. He's, uh, that guy's name is Gordy Levesque, by the way, the lumberjack. Oh yeah. Okay.

So yeah. Enjoy. Can you do it on the mic though? I want to hear the pop crack on the mic. All right. Wow. Are you on the mic though? I want to hear the crack on the mic. All right. Wow. Are you on the air tonight? No, no, not tonight.

Okay, get hammered then. And I know for a fact you're not driving because, yeah, enjoy, please. Oh, let me just thank once again. Thank you, Great Lakes, for your wonderful partnership over the last few years. And we hope to continue that. I'm hoping we can bring another Toronto Mike listener experience

back to the Great Lakes Brewery patio in spring, I think June 2020, working on some cool musical acts for that. And that'll be amazing. But they have a wonderful Christmas market, December 8th. That is a Sunday. And I was at it last year.

It was jam-packed. So if people can get out to Great Lakes on the 8th to check out the Christmas market. How's the Canuck Pale Ale? It's crisp, even though it's not completely chilled. No, that's good. And again, I wish I had asked you earlier because I do have one in the fridge.

But you know what? It's still good, right? Yes. Again, I wish I had asked you earlier because I do have one in the fridge. You know what? You know, it's still good, right? Yes. We're past the point of no return. Now, you are blessed, obviously, genetically with a thick head of hair. I was as well. But you have your pigmentation because you're a young man.

I think that's a big thing. You will have great hair until it goes white. Yeah, I hope so and i my uh my mom is always the one to remind my brother and i that it's her genes that has resulted in this so uh thank you to her is that it's kind of taken on a life of its own the hair like has it become like a part of your brand your personal brand have you yeah i don't know i don't know if i i have i don't know if i uh if i particularly have one but uh certainly that's become a huge talking point and not like growing up i mean in high school and stuff like i would before school i would wake up in the morning i'd shower towel dry and however it kind of fell that was how it looked that day so not until later on

okay so tell us your secrets right off the top, and then we'll get serious here. But is there a technique, like you comb it, for example? No, I don't comb it. I mean, okay, so I started here at Sportsnet in Toronto in 2013. The next year I moved to Ottawa, and Jason York, one of our Sportsnet analysts, who's an Ottawa boy through and through, hooked me up with one of the guys that he's seen for years, Dino at Fernandino.

And I started going to him. In Ottawa. In Ottawa. Before I saw him, no one ever said two words about my hair. And then he's kind of, as I always blame, I blame him all the time. I said, you've created this monster. Well, the trick is, as I look at it now up close, because I've seen it on TV a hundred times, but now up close,

I see the trick is to keep it really short on the sides. Yes. And then it's short on the sides. Yes. And then it's long in the top. A little bit longer. Yeah. I think I could do that. You know, again,

I don't have the pigment, like pigmentation is gone. So it's doing, it's gone. Like I want to say like the, the scientist in Back to the Future, Doc Brown. Yes. Or Albert Einstein,

maybe like you really do need that pigmentation to keep it all kind of cooperating. But I think I, Albert Einstein, maybe? Like, you really do need that pigmentation to keep it all kind of cooperating. But I think I do have the hair to pull off the Kyle Bukowskis. Totally. I might go for this, maybe. Maybe I'll do that for TMLX5. Now, Kyle, will you be in Toronto?

Will you be Toronto? It's a Saturday. It is December 7th. What's your schedule look like? Oh, no, I'm not. Actually, we're in St. Louis that night. So I will not be in town. So you're off the hook.

But everyone else should come to Palma's Kitchen. So Palma's Kitchen is near Mavis and Burnham Thorpe. And we're having the TMLX5. It's noon to 3 p.m. A lot of interesting people. A lot of Sportsnet people, too. Like, I just talked to Mike Wilner, who's going to make an appearance.

And his mentor, if if you will in sports media is a gentleman named peter gross peter gross is going to be there which is going to make for a very uh kind of a neat little moment also there's a documentary do you did you ever collect baseball cards growing up i didn't i was more hockey card guy but but you still collected. Sure. There's a documentary on Netflix called Jack of All Trades. It's a sports memorabilia collection, but there's a personal... I won't give any spoilers, but it then turns into this wonderful little family story here. But the gentleman who stars and directed that is a guy named Stu Stone. So Stu Stone is going to be at TMLX5, but also Stu Stone has Mike Wilner in this documentary

you can watch on Netflix, right? Oh, yeah. So it's going to be neat. But I have it in the freezer for you because you mentioned you're going to be picking... No, you didn't mention, but okay. There's a lot going on here, Kyle. Okay, a lot to unpack here.

But thank you, Palma Pasta, for There's a lot going on here, Kyle. Okay, a lot to unpack here. But thank you, Palma Pasta, for sending over a lasagna for you, Kyle. It's in my freezer right now. And for hosting us on Saturday, December 7th at noon. Shorali Najak was on an episode of Toronto Might. We did an episode of Scott Moore about diversity in sports media and he was fantastic and he was supposed to have a lasagna but he was going straight to the airport because

you know he's on the road a lot like yourself and then um today it just so happens the lasagna i give you after this episode is going to be enjoyed by shirali right yeah i think so we're going to have a couple people are going over to his place because the Leafs and Sabres play at four this afternoon as part of the Black Friday bonanza in the NHL today. So I'm going to bring it over there for some extra grub. And what time should I be there? Should I be there for four?

Yes. Yes. I think it's a big open invitation. Bring it over. But I am just, in my mind, I'm thinking, because it's frozen solid right now, and I don't know if you can make that for 4 o'clock. I think you have to thaw it first.

But anyway, maybe you'll have it tomorrow night. But he's picking you up, right? So Shorali's coming here to pick you up and bring him to his place? I think. I think if not him, I'll just get an Uber like everybody else does. So I'll reveal now. I bumped into Shorali at uh an event i was i was at an event dave hodge and the reporters yeah had an event at the paradise on bluer and shirali was there like he was there with john shannon they were there and i was

chatting him up and he said i'm going to your house he says i'm he goes i'm going to your house friday and i'm thinking oh i'd like to have him on but he said, I'm going to your house. He says, I'm, he goes, I'm going to your house Friday. And I'm thinking, oh, I'd like to have him on, but he wasn't in the schedule. And then he explained, he's going to, he's going to pick you up here after this episode. So yeah, it's very nice of him. As you know, he doesn't live too far from here. So it was, it was nice of him to offer up his services after we're done here today. Even more reason for me to show up for the four o'clock leave game. That's right.

I'm all in. So congrats on the hair. And is it Montreal you came from? came from yeah flew in this morning and um and you go next to where do you go next oh you're here for saturday night yep yep and then back home in ottawa next week and then st louis next weekend amazing and uh you were born in bc and you played hockey right like what level did you get to as a hockey player? I just played like, well, out there it was called like midget rep. I know they're changing the names of the divisions here within Hockey Canada,

but when I played it was called midget rep. And then I graduated high school and went to post-secondary in Calgary to pursue this industry. And then from that point on it was just shinny or intramural hockey. And that's kind of, it was never at a or intramural hockey and that's kind of it was never at a super high level of hockey but i love playing it growing up and whenever i get out now i still do but you know you have a landing page on the hockey prospects uh you're elite prospects right prospects yeah i heard about that a few times and looked into it and i have no idea

i have no idea how it's just that's that's come to be because uh i was never a player worthy of an elite prospect does anyone get a page that doesn't play like anyone who plays beyond house league gets a page well i don't know like what's the criteria were you ever um at any moment in your illustrious career did you ever have any hopes of maybe playing uh i guess what is it out there west coast whl is that what the whl yeah uh maybe when I was like six or seven, but once you kind of get older and you realize you're nowhere near that kind of level. No, I didn't.

I'm just wondering how you got that page. I have no idea. I practiced a couple times with the Junior B Club in Courtney, which is about 30 minutes south of my hometown. That was as close as I got. What's your hometown called? Campbell River. I think I know this name.

Yeah, salmon capital of the world. That explains it. What's the population approximately? 34,000, 35,000 these days, I believe. Yeah. It's always interesting when I hear it, because I'm from Toronto. So when I hear a number like that,

I think, oh, like the Blue Jays, well, back in the day, it was every game, but in a playoff game or whatever, would have more people there than live in your town. right and then i mean like my girlfriend uh is from a town in alberta called jenner and i always thought i was from a small town and her town's like gosh sub 100 i'm like oh okay that's a small town uh so it's all about perspective of course all right did shirali warn you about uh the real talk that takes place on this program? Like, have you been...

Well, I've listened to a couple of episodes. What episodes have you listened to? A few are like... Jay Onright, Dan O'Toole. I mean, those are guys that I love watching growing up. Scott MacArthur from this summer. I thought it was a really, really great conversation. 499.

So I've listened to a few. Okay, good. Okay, so you know exactly. So the first thing is, did you pay for that elite prospect page? I did not. Like, again, I had no idea. I can't remember who was the first person to let me know, but I had no idea.

Level with me here. Okay, so I'm clicking over, because I'm thinking in my head, oh, was he like a potential pro or something, right? Like, I'm not even thinking NHL, but you know, there's a lot of pro leagues. ECHL or something. Anyway, then I see on the page it's got like you played some triple a midget or something but like there was no

stats for you like it doesn't have any any evidence of a point or even the game played i think it's just it's just a blank page it's almost like the uh their seo expert came in and said, everyone gets a page because people will Google the name Kyle Bukaskas and then we'll end up over here. So it's an SEO game, I think. That's my conclusion. That's good. You may be right on that. But that goes to tell you that the league I played in in Midget

was clearly not even high enough to be able to share their statistics with a website like Elite Prospects. They don't have access to it. That's right. That's right. But you were never really an Elite Prospect. No, I was not. This is all false advertising.

Okay, so scratch that. Never was going to be a professional hockey player. But when did you realize that you wanted to be on that side of the microphone? When did you decide you want to be in sports broadcasting? Probably in high school, like when through middle school and maybe even a little bit before that. Like I loved the idea of being an actor. Like I love Jim Carrey.

I love the stuff that he, like his humor and stuff like that. Are you funny? Well, no, that's the problem. And again, a good reason why I didn't pursue acting because I wasn't very funny. But, and then from that point on, I mean, to kind of combine humor and what I love to do, play hockey and then watching

as I mentioned before, Jay and Dan on TSN and then for us out west on Sportsnet it was Don Taylor reading the highlights on that channel and those were the guys that I religiously watched every morning. Okay, tell me about Don Taylor because Toronto born and raised. I don't know this name very well. You don't know? okay okay tell me like should i know this name well i guess

growing up out east you would have watched other sportscasters but uh for us out west and on the coast i mean he was the face he was the voice of highlights every night for for a lot of time really from the most part from what i remember from when sportsnet first launched in the late 90s um right up until uh he left about five years ago uh he was he was funny he was witty he was creative when he read highlights he had great impressions of maybe he was like your uh hebzy it could have been right and and so like you of course i don't know it was maybe a generation before me but out here you talk about the days of sports line and stuff like that like i would i had no idea that existed growing up out west and then only learned about it later when i moved out here so um i suppose where you grew up plays a role in it too but uh he was he was fantastic and so we're jay and dan so i watched them and

i thought man what a great time they seem to be having every night and i couldn't think of a better better job to kind of pursue. So that's originally what I wanted to get into. I wanted to sit on an anchor desk and read highlights every night, and then I just kind of fell into what I do now. All right. Now, that's like on Seinfeld when she yada, yada, yada'd the best part. Right, right, yeah.

Oh, I mentioned the bisque. That's right. Good for you. It's interesting because I've talked as you know i've talked to jay and dan and jay particularly will credit mark hebbshire as an inspiration like because hebsey was doing it with jim tatty on sports line and then for you know then our generation here or whatever now you've got or your generation i guess we got a few years between us here uh it would be the uh would be jay and dan for example and now jay and

did dan have uh influenced the kyle bucock pos he almost did again bukaskis i'm gonna just call you kyle that's okay so interesting how it kind of keeps kind of replenishing so uh what basically i've had scott moore on the show a couple of times and in one of the episodes i actually meant to pull the clip life Life got in the way. But he referenced his last three hires or something at Sportsnet. And you were on, I think, Carolyn Cameron yourself and somebody. I can't remember who the

third person was. Do you know? You want to guess? Yeah. I don't know. Would Eric Thomas have been on that list? Maybe. We'll go with Eric Thomas. Eric Thomas always confused me because I grew up with an Eric Thomas. Different Eric Thomas have been on that list? Okay, we'll go with Eric Thomas. Eric Thomas always confused me because I grew up with an Eric Thomas. Different Eric Thomas. But who did...

Although I knew him on a show called The Tom Rivers Show on CFTR. This is going way back in the 80s. But he became like a racing guy. Like when you wanted to talk about, I guess, NASCAR or Indy racing or F1 or something. Eric Thomas was your guy, Raceline Radio and all this stuff. So when this new Eric Thomas showed up, I was very confused. But OK, how do we go from you wanting to be an actor and then realizing you wanted to have fun like Jay and Dan and Dan Taylor taylor to scott moore uh approving the your hiring at sports net like filling the cracks there yeah yeah i guess there's there's a bit of a story

there in between i mean i in high school as i said i decided this was something i wanted to pursue so i applied first to ryerson for their four-year program and then just as like a backup i applied to a school in Calgary called SAIT, the Southern Alberta Institute of Technology, their broadcasting program. And so Ryerson, I was basically all in on that. Like I wasn't even really thinking about- But why you came here?

Because it's the capital of the universe? I was right. Like I figured, right? Because that's where TSN's broadcast outfit is. It's where Sports Night is. I figured if this was an industry I wanted to pursue, I knew ultimately I would have had to come to Toronto to do it. And I was told just in talking to some other people in the industry,

and I remember actually having a brief Twitter back and forth with Jay Onright in high school, and he said, like, get into Ryerson because he went there too, of course. And so I applied there and then got my application back and I was rejected. They didn't let me in and I was like, what?

Did they see your hair? Like, did you put a photo on you? No, no, I don't think so. I think we had to write a paper and whatever else we had to put as part of the package and I didn't get in. The joke when I,

and again, I'm an old man so Ryerson wasn't even a university when I went to UT and it was a polytechnical institute, Ryerson. That's how old I am. But I always like to believe anyone gets into Ryerson. I'll be honest with you.

Not everyone but Kyle. They were not letting me in. Wow. So that was kind of a kick to the gut a little bit because I'm going, oh, man, well, this is not off to a very good start. And then I got my – a few weeks later, I got my application back from St. and Calgary, and I didn't get into there either and i'm like like and so i'm thinking well geez this uh this career is over before it even got started so um i sent a note to to the

school in calgary just asked like hey like thank you for uh your consideration just wondering what was wrong with my application they said well we never got into the mail and so it got lost somewhere but we still have some spots open so you weren't rejected you just heard nothing no we i got a rejection letter but they did not specify on the initial one that it was because they did not get my application package okay so um they said we still have some spots open so resend your application so i did and thankfully then they went all right you're in um and it ended up being a complete blessing in disguise it was a two- year program. And in my second year there,

there was a lady who was filling in a maternity leave position running the communications department of the athletic program at the school, Trojans Athletics. And her name was Lindsay English. So her and I worked together because she would have students from our broadcasting program do like play-by-play and color for like the varsity volleyball games, basketball, hockey, because they would webcast them and also run the hockey games on the campus radio station. through that she got familiar with my work a little bit and um about late february so i have a couple months left in in school and i was leaving in april to do my one month practicum in victoria uh she sent me a note one day and said uh do you have plans is this your last year and do you have plans afterwards i said uh well it is my last year and at this point no like i'm just started to apply for jobs and uh so she said well i don I don't know if I mentioned this, but my dad is the news director at Sportsnet. And I was back for reading week and I was mentioning you to him and he wants

to see some of your work. And I thought, well, this is great. Like if I could send a demo tape or anything like that and just get some feedback from a guy in his position right um that would be the coolest thing so i i did that and a few days later uh mike english sent me a note back and uh said you know hey you know you got some some real potential here i like this i like that you know the only thing that's working against you right now is your age because i was 19 at the time right and looked 12 like you think i look young now. How old are you now? 26. Wow. Yeah, it's come by quick.

I can see what I'm wearing because sometimes my T-shirts on this show are 26 years old. But not this one. So I got that email back, and he was asking, you know, I understand this is your last year. Like, do you have any plans going forward? And I wrote back, you know, thank you, but I got nothing going on. As I said to his daughter, I'm just applying to where I can

to try to get started somewhere once school's all done. And then that weekend, we went up to Edmonton, rather. The school up there ran a one-day broadcasting seminar for their broadcasting program, and we went up the year before and went again there that spring. And so we were sitting in the auditorium there, listening to a panel talk about, you know, the emergence of social media or whatever it was. Right.

And so all of a sudden I see an email from Scott Moore here on my phone. And at that time, I don't know who Scott Moore is, right? I just see Scott Moore, president phone and at that time I don't know who Scott Moore is I just see Scott Moore president of Broadcasting at Rogers and The subject line was your demo reel And said you know hi Kyle your demo Reel was passed on to me by Mike English

And at the bottom of it said You know we want to bring you out to Toronto For an interview and an audition And you're still a teenager I was still i was still in school too like and so i just mind-blowing yeah like so i i can't even begin to properly describe kind of what i was did scott moore know about the hair i don't know if he would have saw yeah because the demo tape that i had but again it was way different back then like it was no i

had no idea what i was doing it was just kind of short and kind of spiked up up front. Like I was 10 years in the past of what was trendy at that time, you know? So I had no idea what to think. And like, it was just chills kind of running through your whole body going, this isn't how it's supposed to work. And cause you're told all throughout school, you got to go somewhere small, you know, kind of start somewhere where nobody's watching, make your mistakes and kind of work somewhere where nobody's watching make your

mistakes and kind of work your way up and i was all in on that i understood that was kind of the path to get to where you wanted to go and so to see that was completely mind-boggling so a few months later i came out to toronto and we were doing uh at that time you remember city tv had their brief run with their 24-hour news channel that they wanted to run up yeah and channel 15 here of course i remember that yeah so uh they were looking i think for young anchors to fill in because every hour they would do sports updates out of the the sports net newsroom on that channel so i i guess i i assumed going into it that i was the only person doing an audition that night but i was think i was one of seven and all the others like had worked they were in like the

highlight zone at sports net or other roles there in in the newsroom that wanted to get their shot on the air and actually a number of them are on the air now um so you can't name them could you name it I mean like I know I know Jesse Rubinov was was there and um there were a few others too that uh that they jumped out that I know of have gone on to on-air jobs since. So I just, I remember watching the first couple from the control room and I thought, oh boy, like this is, this is the big leagues. Like these are all really good.

And so I did mine and then it was like three minutes where you like have a little on-cam and you read like, there's like a hockey highlight package, baseball, basketball, and that was it. And then you get out of it. And I remember it was a complete blur and uh my favorite part though is i'm standing there waiting to go in the control room and scott moore was in watching a couple yeah and he's walking out and as he's walking by me he goes don't fuck it up and walked out and i'm like well and i just my heart just sank uh 19 year old kid and uh he's supposed to say break a leg. Right, yeah. He went a different path.

So anyway, so did the audition and hung around there, met with a couple of people, and I kind of left with the message for them being, you know, we'll be in touch. And waited kind of over the course of the summer. And finally, late August, they had said, all right, we're going to bring you out to Toronto. We're going to hire you.

I moved out there at the end of September and October 1st, 2013 was my first day at Sportsnet. Okay. How old are you that day, that first day at Sportsnet? Are you 20 now? I was freshly 20, yes. Yeah.

Yeah. You know, I'm listening to you tell this origin story. I'm just like, this is Disney Plus. This is the Kyle origin story here, the new Avenger here. And I'm listening to it, and it's something I just talked to Laurie Brown about, but the importance of luck in a career being made.

Totally. You totally have a great voice. I think that's the most I've ever heard you talk, because we get you for, like, I don't know how long those hits are on the hockey telecast, but we're lucky if we get you for like, you know, 45 seconds. I have no idea. How long do you, how long is that a typical like? Well, I mean, the opens can vary from like 30 to maybe as long as a minute. And then, yeah, you know, game coming out of a commercial break, you got 10, maybe 15 seconds, maybe 30 seconds before a period. So it's hard to even, you know,

you present fine, of course, but we all just are staring at the hair we don't even hear you sometimes but now i'm that you're in my head that's probably a good thing right but you've been in my headphones now for what have you been in but almost a half an hour now and it's a very clear uh very strong voice and there's a good cadence to it like it's enjoyable to listen to so forget the whole visual side which is of course you're a handsome guy and it's more than just the hair. But so much of your origin story, as you sit here at 26 years old, and you'll be, you know, how many of us,

how many hundreds of thousands of us are all going to see you on Saturday night, right? It has so much to do with the fact you're at SAIT, because better SAIT than sorry. I like that. Thank you. You can use that. I might get a tattoo, yeah.

Next podcast appearance. And Miss English, whose first name I forget. Yeah, Lindsay. Lindsay. Yeah. Being the daughter of a Mike English at Sportsnet. And I'm telling you, what percentage of your career so far, and it's early stages now, and there's a great ceiling for you,

do you give to being in the right place at the right time luck if you will totally i mean i a big part of that and that's why whenever i go speak to because every now and then i go back to to say and just talk with students there or i you know through social media or whoever talk to students that are going to ryerson or college of sports media or wherever across the country and that's the one thing I bring up like you have to put yourself in those situations right like if I had not decided I would like to do those things outside of class time to try play by play for volleyball try play by play for basketball where you get to meet someone like Lindsay English

then right down the line leads to an opportunity where you're at Sportsnet right like you never get those chances if you don't put yourself out there and try to get reps so I think that was that was the big lesson for me and that if you if you as you say you try to get as many reps and and try to meet as many people as you can you never know where it might lead you because as I've learned over the course of my six plus years in this business you're a selfie vet now it's a I don't know if I'm quite there but it's just such a small world because as I've learned over the course of my six plus years in this business. You're a selfie vet now. I don't know if I'm quite there, but it's just such a small world, Mike, and I'm sure you've felt the same way in some of the people you've interviewed over the years.

How many people know others? Especially in this country. Right, it's crazy. Everyone's connected in some way, and it's constantly, and it always blows my mind. And then I think, why is this still blowing my mind? You know how this country's media world is connected. But your story in particular, because you try to go to Ryerson, and if you had gone to Ryerson, you'd probably be like you mentioned, you'd be out in Thunder Bay getting in your reps.

Well, you think, right? I was starting at Sportsnet when I otherwise would have been entering year three or four at Ryerson. As I said, it was a complete blessing in disguise when I didn't see it as such right off the hop. at sports net when i otherwise would have been entering year three of four at ryerson right like as i said it was a complete blessing in disguise when i didn't see it as such right off the hop and so i as i always said like i have no idea what compelled scott to give me uh an opportunity and sports had to give me an opportunity at 20 years old but i just bumped into him i was in town here a couple weeks ago and caught up with him a little bit and just told him again like

thank you for for giving me a chance because who knows where i'd be uh if not but i'm certainly glad that i'm here now was he hanging out with drake no no he wasn't but i've heard all the stories man he's uh he's doing a great job he's uh he was a big part of as i said uh me getting started uh in this this market and and under the the sportsnet uh brand and company. So I'm glad to see he's doing just fine. Well, he did well for you and I'm happy for you. And I should maybe disclose, I personally am grateful to Scott Moore because on his way out, he came in. Yes, that was another episode I listened to.

It was very good. Right. Yes. And that's where he told me, I think he talked about you being one of his most recent three hires or whatever but uh i gotta say that uh it's hard to get someone in that position to come to an independent space like this to have what i call real talk you know so i can ask him like why are you retiring my bob cole and all those you know what i mean like like and i'm still angry about it scott but you know you know maybe that was the right decision and I have too much nostalgia clouding my vision,

which is very, very, very possible. But he's taken a lot of heat, Scott Moore, only because the three-headed monster, if you will, that struck the deal for NHL rights, the massive deal. And now, of course, there is a lot of cutbacks happening at Rodgers. So you might be safe because you probably aren't making, you're not making the $800,000 a year yet, right? Wink if you are.

I'm not making $800,000. You might be okay. But a lot of high-priced talent has been cut to save money because of this very big deal, which I feel like that deal is going to turn out okay if the Leafs can make some deep playoff runs. I think we can make it all good for you guys. Well, yeah, as you know, it's no secret that further Canadian teams go in the playoffs,

and particularly with Toronto, I mean, it's better for Rodgers and better for... Particularly in Toronto? I hear it's more than particularly in Toronto. I hear you need Toronto to go beyond seven games in the first round. But here's hoping with the coaching change. But, okay, we're all over the place. But this is my way of saying it. And Scott Moore was part of the – I've had extensive conversations with David Schultz,

and I read his book. So I feel like I am now a professional in this deal. So I'm here to say it's not really fair that people are like, oh, what a worst deal in sports media history. And the three gentlemen who helped make that deal are responsible because the exact same deal was on the table from Bell Media, like the exact same dollar figure for the same term.

Like, this is from David Schultz. So, I mean, everyone's like, how can Rogers make such a stupid deal? The exact same deal that Bell Media wanted to make with the NHL. So, I mean, anyway, I'm just, you know, I think they get undue unfair criticism. Well, and you just know how high demand hockey rights was at that time of the deal. And I'm sure still is now.

The landscape has changed a little bit since then. But certainly it drives a lot of eyeballs every week, as you know. And it will all come down and we're going to repeat ourselves again, but the Leafs have never escaped the first round since this deal was signed. And I would love to know the numbers if there was, for example, a conference final. Let's say there's a game six where the Leafs, if they win, they go to the Cup. So we've all lived that since you ate. Not you, actually.

Let me do the math. Well, I was around, but I have no recollection. You were in diapers. Just like Joe Carter. I was around, but I do not remember where I was. Right, right. I tell the same thing when Nixon resigned. That's right. Yeah, I was in diapers when that happened,

but it was a life for it. But yeah, those numbers will be very strong and there will be a massive... I mean, we all saw what happened with the Raptors last year. Sure, exactly. It was incredible to watch. Absolutely.

So we'll take a break. We got you now at Sportsnet and I wanted to go back to something I talked about off the top where I met Shirely. And I'm trying to remember what day this was. You don't know, do you? This week has been a blur. Was that this week? Yeah, Friday now. to something I talked about off the top where I met Shirely. And I'm trying to remember what day this was. Was it?

You don't know, do you? What are we? This week has been a blur. Like, was that this week? Yeah, Friday now. I think it was, yeah. I think it was Monday. Because I remember him talking about it. It could have been Monday.

Right. Okay. So, right. I'm a little confused because, I'm a little confused, because my plan was to take this live performance by the reporters with Brendan Shanahan. My goal was to make that an episode of Toronto Mic'd on Monday night.

So I was going to take the audio recording from the board at the Paradise on Bloor, and then Monday night I was going to share it with the world as an episode of Toronto Mic'd. This was my plan. They had an equipment malfunction at the Paradise, so I couldn't get this file. I was very upset. But that meant I had an episode with Brian Master, which is probably a good idea to tell everybody. Brian Master is a salesperson with Keller Williams Realty Solutions Brokerage.

And Brian Master is also a wonderful, legendary DJ in this market. He kicked out the jams with me on, I think, Tuesday. So that became the episode that I thought the reporters was going to be. This is how I got all mixed up. Fantastic, by the way. If you want to hear a guy who knows his music

and has a fantastic voice, listen to Brian Master kick out the jams. And then write him an email at letsgetyouhomekw.com and ask to be added to his monthly snail mailing list. He sends out information about your home and living in the city and tips and tricks you can use. And it's really cool to get snail mail

from Brian Master every month. So get on that list, letsgetyouhomekw.com. Okay, but then what I did, Kyle, this is what we did. Somebody took video of the reporters event. So I took the audio from the video. So it's not from the board.

So it's not what I was hoping for, which is something to sound like we're going to sound. We're going to sound amazing, man. At least you will. But I got audio that

you could hear and I shared it. And I'm just going to play like a one minute clip of Dave Hodge talking about working with Don Cherry in the mid 80s. So this is a one minute teaser. And this episode is available to all Toronto Mike subscribers right now. But here's Dave. Back in the early days, Don would call me on Friday night

and would tell me everything that he wanted to talk about. And I would say, no, no, no, maybe. And here's what we are going to talk about. But one particular conversation we had was Don saying, what's that game the other night, boy? And that Patty Roy, that Patty Roy, and make it seem like I'm going to talk about Patty Roy. You can see where he is. And I said, Don, if you want to talk about that goaltender, we will talk about Patrick Waugh. And Don said, I call him Patty Roy.

If you want to call him Patty Roy, you can call him Patty Roy. I said, by doing so, Don, you're insulting the man. You're insulting his family, his friends, and the entire French-speaking population of this country, largely based in Quebec. If you mention the name Paddy Roy

on TV, you will be corrected and hear the same speech. So we talked about something else. Like a teaser trailer. That's kind of what you get from this, this event, which was great.

And again, that audio is available, but I thought that was, I thought that was an interesting, not only was it funny, cause I just thought it was funny to hear Dave Hodge do a Don Cherry invitation. Do you do a Don Cherry?

No, I don't, I don't think I do a very good one. I will say though. So a couple of weeks we were in Toronto on, on Sunday night. It was the night of the Hall of Fame weekend. And so Jim Hewson, our play-by-play man,

was awarded the Foster Hewitt Memorial Award. So the Sunday night, they just had a little get-together at a spot downtown Toronto. Jeff Domet was there. Yes, he was. Because he came on the show and talked about that's the day he met Dave Hodge for the first time. Great, yeah.

And I met him for the first time the day later at the ceremony itself. So he was, so a number of people spoke that night. Craig Simpson spoke, Shirely Najak spoke, and then he introduced Dave Hodge. And they, of course, worked together quite closely in the 80s. And so he was, he was brilliant. Gosh. And I'm sure you know him. Well, that's why Shirely was at the event because of his relationship with Dave.

Right, right. So anyway, anyway he was he was hilarious and you saw a kind of preview of it there just in that one minute clip his his delivery his comedic timing uh it was wonderful to listen to yeah he's got that dry sense of humor and that form is really conducive to it like i mean i felt yeah he was really really funny but it's yeah it's not the uh ha ha ha like it's not the jay and dan type style it's more of this drier wittier and it was very good yeah he was really really funny but it's yeah it's not the uh ha ha ha like it's not the jay and dan type style it's more of this drier wittier and it was very good yeah he was very good but uh i thought it was an enlightening clip too just uh and again i should preface this by saying i've got a lot of respect for ron mclean and i'm uh he's an fotm himself and i told a story when the y108 morning show came on this program last week i think that

was friday i told a very a story about uh something that happened the night before involving myself and ron mclean and a listener that brought me to tears like because of ron mclean's generosity and kindness like literally i told the whole story in that episode a lot of respect and time for for ron mclean but it is is interesting what Dave Hodge is suggesting there, which is that Dave would not have allowed this, the Don Cherry we know today to have evolved and to have almost like to have been born. Like he would have stomped it down

as it tried to escape the birth canal. You know what I mean? Are these analogies working for you? Yeah, I see where you're going. Whereas Ron McLean, also a very ethical and talented broadcaster himself, learned to sort of allow that to become the behemoth that became the Patty Roy stuff and everything that we kind of lived with forever and just took as dawn being dawn. Right.

It's just interesting. Yeah. And I guess, gosh, i wouldn't be one to to speak on on that dynamic obviously they grew very very close as you saw in the last couple weeks you got a little more of a glimpse on onto what their their relationship has been for the last 30 plus years but i mean you know ron would have came in a guy late 20s rights would have been a different stage of his career and of his life than what dave hodge was and the ability to say we're not doing this.

Very good point. And I know, I mean, you know, Ron, I think he's alluded to it and we've seen it over the years too. He's got a bit of a mischievous side to it, very, very clever and very, very brilliant. You know, certainly there was times where he had to rein things in, but you could see why, you know, they like to, you know, bend but not break over the years.

And then certainly it was unfortunate how it all ended. And then it broke. And then it broke. And then it broke. But you can see kind of how that dynamic formed. Because it's interesting. You're on the same program as them. So on a Saturday night, well, not now, not this Saturday,

but in the past, not too distant past. Yeah, no, I got you. Yeah, you'd be the guy kind of, we'd see you kind of at the, so you see kind of Ron, I mean, I've watched it a million times, you'd think I could remember, but like Ron's your host of Hockey Night in Canada. You are the ringside host? Like what's your title over there? Yeah, yeah, ringside host, ringside reporter, whatever.

And we, you know, usually we begin with, he'll, like Ron will introduce you and you'll kind of do your set up the thing. I actually have a couple of clips I'm going to play in a bit here by popular demand. And then at some point, and then the first intermission, you'd get your coach's corner with Ron and Don. So what was your relationship like with Don Cherry? Did you get to know him?

Not know him particularly in person, just because, again, I was always at the rink, and they were in studio in Toronto, right? By the time I started doing more games on the show on Saturdays, we never really saw them at the rink until the Stanley Cup final. So there was a couple run-ins at the rink,

just like a quick kind of handshake. It's a very good point. We forget that you're at the game. There's no you're on, you're at the game. There's no blue screen there. You're at the game. And Ron and Don are at the CBC building? Yes. Yeah.

In Toronto. Right. So that's where they, that's where they do the show out of. That's where they do coaches out of until the Stanley Cup final where the show heads on the road. So that would be the only time,

like, you know, the odd time in the elevator, maybe at the hotel or at the arena, just a quick hello and how are you doing? So beyond that, I didn't get to know him personally, myself. Do you, and I was going to save this for the end, but I'll throw it at you right now real quick here. At some point, do you envision yourself with Ron McLean's job? Oh gosh, no.

No, I don't envision that. I mean, I have... You don't ever, like,'s job? Oh gosh, no, no, I don't envision that. I mean, I have, you don't ever like, cause I mean, Ron, Ron,

I'm not, you're not, I'm, this is not me saying, do you hope Ron gets fired? I'm not, not at all that I'm talking about at some point after many years, Ron decides to hang it up because he's,

he's ready to retire. You don't envision like that would be a goal for you to host the country's biggest sports showcase? Well, I mean, it would certainly be an incredible honor, right, to be in a position like that. But I just never have even thought really about it, mainly because, you know, sometimes you get asked the question, well, what do you want to be doing in five years from now? What do you want to be attending? That's an HR question. And, you know, I mean, with this industry, it's so rapidly evolving, right?

It's so difficult to predict where this business is going and what jobs are going to be relevant and in demand five years from now versus today. I mean, I think of how much it's changed even from when I first got hired here in Toronto. So I just, I refrain from kind of being like, well, in five years, I'd love to be doing this. I just, for now, I know I really love traveling,

being at the games, doing the ringside gig. And so if I can keep doing that right now, obviously I have a girlfriend at home right now. In home is Ottawa. In Ottawa right now, who I spend a lot of time away from, which isn't the easiest thing, but you know, at this point, no kids.

It's pros and cons. Yeah, I know. I'm sure certain but, you know, at this point, no kids. It's pros and cons. Nothing like that. Yeah, I know. I'm sure certain times where she enjoys a break for me, but, you know, no kids, no pets, no nothing like that.

So it's easy to travel now. This is the time in your life to travel. Exactly. I hear exactly what you're saying. Exactly. So if I can keep doing this for the foreseeable future,

then I'm happy as can be. It's really, really fun. And time is on your side, which not everybody can say. Like, you're 26. You're actually already ahead of it. So right now, it's almost like you're playing with house money.

Because most 26-year-olds who want to be sports broadcasters are not yet on Hockey Night in Canada. I suppose that's fair. So as I said, let's keep it going. Roll with it. Enjoy yourself. Keep improving. I would say that your ceiling is whatever you envision it could be.

There's no reason why you can't have Ron McLean's job at some point in your career. Why the heck not? I guess you're back me into a corner here. I just know that what he's done and what he's turned that role into and his ability to storytell, to connect with the audience is such a talent that I just watch with such awe and respect every single week. So he's done a masterful job there. So I don't think it doesn't matter what happens in the future when he ultimately decides to move on

and that next person comes into that role. It'll never be about replacing Ron McLean because he just won't be able to. It'll just be a new chapter. There is one great risk, of course, as I consider your career here. I feel like now I'm your agent here, but I realized the one risk,

which we'll have to, maybe we can get insurance for this just in case. But yeah, you know, you're turning 30, the hairline recedes, the hair thing. I know. Like that's it for you. What if it all goes south? I know, that's it.

Then they actually have to listen to me and they're like, wait a second. This was what this guy's been saying all this time? Yeah, for the first time ever, Canada will hear you and realize, oh, you're not that good. I know. Yeah, that's what I lay awake thinking about every night.

There are circumstances. Do you, here, enjoy a sip of your Great Lakes beer? Actually, and since I gave you the beer and I gave you the lasagna, which is in the freezer, meat for you, I've got a meat for you, and Shirali and myself when I'm there. Yeah, we'll see it for us. Right.

The great people at StickerU.com, StickerYOU.com, uh made up toronto mic stickers and that's really buddy thank you these are great you i envisioned a logo of kind of like a silhouette of your your head with the hair and that becomes like the branding logo for kyle bukaskis and we get stickers made maybe decals like you have on the back wall here and temporary tattoos, magnet badges. There's so many buttons.

There's so many options. Sounds like the sky's the limit here, Mike. Yeah. So thank you. We've got to get to work. Thank you, StickerU, for the Toronto Mike stickers. No joke.

After that blur on that, what was that called again? Paradise. After that Dave Hodge event, after that Bluer on that, what was that called again? Paradise. After that Dave Hodge event, and again, shout out to Michael Farber, Steve Simmons, and of course Bruce Arthur are also part of the reporters.

It's not just Dave Hodge, and then Brendan Shannon special guest, but I was biking home on Bluer Street, and I saw a car with the Toronto Mike sticker on the back, and then Troy, who lives in the, Troy is, he actually works at Great Lakes Brewery. He lives in East York. He texted me a photo of the car in front of him.

They were at a red light and the car in front of them had a, was a different car, I should point out, had a Toronto Mike sticker on the back. And so that's two sightings in the wild. Wow. Is that cool for you when you see that? Yeah, of course. When I saw it, I stopped my bike and I took a picture and I was like, who's, who is this? that's two sightings in the wild wow is that cool for you when you see that yeah of course when i

saw it i stopped my bike and i took a picture and i was like who's who is this like uh it's amazing to see your it's the only sticker that was on the back of each car too cool so two different cars have one sticker on the back and it's toronto mike sticker that's amazing that's awesome so if we want to you got to make up some kyle stickers so they can have two stickers on the back but enjoy your uh enjoy your sticker use. Thank you. Lots of gifts here today. This is very kind.

And I'll save this one for the very, very end. You are a lucky man. Don't ever forget that. You're not just blessed follically. You're blessed in this way as well. Oh, by the way, if you don't want to replace Don Cherry, I'm sorry, Don Cherry,

I was going to say, I butchered my line there. I said, if you don't want to replace Ron Mc, I'm sorry, Don Cherry, I was going to say, I butchered my line there. I said, if you don't want to replace Ron McLean, you can always replace Don Cherry. Yeah. Well, we'll talk about that after I stop recording. Okay. Do you remember your first national game?

Yes, I do. Okay. Who was playing? Montreal and Ottawa, in Ottawa. Bob Cole was doing play-by-play. Oh, baby. And Gary Galley was between the benches. No, I guess he would have been between the benches, yeah.

What kind of guy is Bob Cole? Did you at least get to meet him? At least he's in the building with you. Yeah, we did a few games together over a couple of years. It was really cool. I remember that day. So we stay, when you go do an odd game in ottawa usually stay the crew stays at a hotel downtown right and you know the wing

the rink is way way south uh canada sorry way out west and canada and i was living in montreal all the time um so i was staying at the hotel so we went out to the arena for the skate in the morning and uh afterwards i was tasked with giving bob a ride back downtown to the hotel um so we get in the car and we're leaving from the loading bay there at canadian tire center and there are some fans outside um they were waiting for the players to leave to get autographs and they see bob in the car they're waving to bob and he waves back and uh so we're going back on the queensway and so i had already lived in ottawa for two years at this point so i knew my way around.

I knew where I was going. Wait, why did you pick Ottawa? Like, why not here? Well, I lived here for a year. And then at that point in the springtime, they had moved Sean McKenzie, who was in Ottawa, back to Toronto. So they had a gap in the Ottawa market. So they said, why don't you go to Ottawa

and cover the Sands and the Red Blacks? So I said, sure. So that's how I ended up in ottawa and then two years there and then i got a call one day it was actually the day of the pk suban shea weber deal wow uh that uh they needed a host to do ringside for the montreal canadians regional package so that summer we moved to to montreal and i was there for two years and now back in Ottawa again. So back to the car ride on the Queensway, heading back to the hotel. And so, as I said, I know my way around and I'm getting our way back to where we got to go. And Bob makes the comment, he goes, certainly know your way around this town, Kyle.

This is great. And I'm two hand like white knuckling on the wheel. Like it's there's no rain. There's nothing. It's a completely clear day. but I'm thinking, my goodness. You have precious cargo. I have precious, precious cargo. I cannot get in an accident today.

So that was my first experience with Bob. And then sitting in the meal room before the game, having some dinner, and he sat down next to me, and then he pulled out the rosters of both teams, and he went through each last name with me to make sure I was pronouncing them correctly. So that was really cool. Could he pronounce your name correctly? He did. Yeah,

I think so. So he, yeah, yeah. So it was, that was just a neat, neat moment to have your first game on hockey night be with, with Bob Cole.

And now to do games with, with Jim Houston, who, when I was a kid was doing the Canuck games on Sportsnet. So he was a voice that I listened to a lot growing up and to now call him a colleague and a friend and someone I get to work with every week is really just a blessing, as you said, a bit of luck

because you're wondering how the heck did I get here? A lot of luck, come on. I said a lot of luck, not a bit of luck. Jeff Domet calls him Huey. I guess that's what buddies would call Houston Huey there. And I remember before, I mean, the Canucks thing, obviously that's a Vancouver, BC thing, but

I remember him doing Blue Jay games calling Blue Jays baseball. Right. And there would have been some Maple Leafs before that. And I was a very big fan when you were, well, you're not in diapers anymore, I hope, but you were a toddler. And I was a very big fan when you were, well, you're not in diapers anymore, I hope, but you were a toddler, and I was really into the NHL Nintendo games, NHL

games, and I think it was mid-90s, it might have gone into the late 90s, actually, but the voice of the game was Jim Hewson. Yeah, that was the early 2000s. But, okay, so I definitely wasn't, I don't think I remember, I think Eric Lindros was on the cover of the last that was 99 and i think bill clement was still doing

that because i had that for the n64 that was my first ea sports game and that was i mean it wasn't full-on play-by-play like it'd be kind of a lot of silence and then a shot right you'd hear great save but it wasn't you know right but it was jim houston right well i think it was bill clement for 99 at least on the nintendo maybe it was different for maybe it was windows actually i'm okay playing on because i had nhl 2002 with mario lemieux on the cover for um pc and that was jim houston and don taylor did the color for don taylor the aforementioned do i've got a catch-up on i gotta go to youtube and catch up on my don taylor yeah so they were, and that was kind of more of like a gimmicky, comedic play-by-play color dynamic.

I think Jim Houston gets not disrespected, but doesn't get his dues in this market because I really do get a sense from other Leaf fans that he's really seen as a Canucks guy. There's a perception. I don't see it. I don't hear it when I listen to him call a game.

But there's a perception that he, I don't see it. I don't hear it when I listen to him call a game. But there's a perception that he... I don't know what we're looking for. Joe Bowen, who does regional. It's not a fair comparison because your HockeyNet Canada national broadcaster is supposed to appear unbiased, right? And he does. Right.

But there's a perception that he's a Vancouver Canucks guy and doesn't like the Leafs. I think that perception's out there. Have you heard this from any of you? I've certainly heard it. I don't buy it, of course. Like, I mean, I get it. He's a BC guy like I am.

He did Canucks games for a lot of years. Right. So it's easy to make that connection. But between him and Craig Simpson, it's incredible to watch and listen to those guys work the way they call a game together, the chemistry they have. And obviously that comes just from working together

for so many years. But I mean, and it's different because I guess, I don't know, if you're a Leaf fan, do you want the play-by-play guy to be a bit more biased towards your team? Okay, I've had this conversation. I've had this conversation.

And there definitely are some, what I would call some unintelligent Leafs fans who feel that it should sound more like Joe Bowen. But Bowen, although Bowen's not bad, but when the Leafs score, Bowen goes into a whole holy mackinac excitement where he won't do that when the, he'll celebrate the goal and be like,

goal! But he won't do a whole song and dance after the Sabres goal. So there's definitely a, and because it's a regional broadcast, I think we all accept this as fair game. Like you're allowed to be kind of rooting for the Leafs, if you will. But the, yeah, so they feel like there should be,

you shouldn't be rooting against the Leafs when you call the hockey night in Canada. And I don't know. But he's not. And you know what? The most, the best example of that is, you know, like Craig Simpson will go through his Twitter, and on a given night, say, if we're doing a Toronto-Montreal game, Mike, okay?

Yeah. So midway through the second period, he'll get a tweet from a guy going, ah, Craig, I can't believe you hate the Leafs so much. Just say it already. It's so bloody obvious. I can't stand listening to you. And then five minutes later, he'll get a tweet from a Habs fan going, ah, Craig, you are such a Leafs homer.

I'm sick and tired of it. It's unbelievable. You can't please everybody. You can't win for trying. You can't win. So, I mean, those guys call it down the middle. And no, Jim Houston is not Joe Bowen. Joe Bowen's made a wonderful career doing what he does.

And Jim Houston is just a different brand, on a different platform. And so calls the game differently and i don't think there's anything anything wrong with that i mean they they see everything that's going on out there and they just they tell it like it is i don't think they're overly critical on either side of the of the ledger and uh but they're certainly not homers nor should they be they're a national broadcaster al michael's not a homer on sunday night football right do you believe in miracles right now uh i just thought of this but okay so national broadcaster this is canada like if it's a canadian franchise versus an american franchise not that this happens i don't believe it happens but you could justify that you could

you could be you could be for the canadian franchise versus the American franchise, like in theory. Or is it just that it would be compromise of journalistic standards? Yeah, I mean, so I can speak from like my position as the rinkside host. And certainly there's certain matchups, whether it's on a Saturday, a midweek game, whatever, you have a Canadian market that you're showing, Montreal we'll say. And they're playing, so last night, New Jersey, right? And so maybe because of kind of understanding your audience

and trying to project that the majority of your viewers that night are going to be Montreal, maybe by default you have a little more stuff ready, Montreal-based, because that plays into what your viewers will be tuning in to see. But at the same time, you also have to know what's going on with New Jersey. What are the storylines going on there?

Because you never know how the game is going to unfold and what storylines will be best to tell on that given night. But certainly that can happen because it's just, again, understanding your audience. But I don't think there is a bias

in terms of catering towards a one Canadian market over others. Right. Simply because that's where they are. But as I said, if you play that rule of knowing who's going to be tuning in on most nights, I think that at least helps guide things. Well, no wonder we want our guys calling games to be pro-leaves,

because we're all tuning in. Now, tough times in Montreal, eh? Like, this is not a fun time to be a Habs fan. It was, it was, yeah. Well, Hebsey's decided that

whatever that game was when Carey Price took the, was it the knee to the head or whatever, and they didn't take him out for concussion protocol. Hebsey's decided that whenever that was,

he's decided since then, this is, again, Hebsey's opinion, I heard it this morning, that since then, Carey Price has been off his game.

But here, no hockey talk here because I want to find out if you remember your first playoff game yeah uh as a as a ringside guy that would have been uh Montreal New York in in 2017 first round um that was my first one at the Bell Center not that long ago we were this is still 2019 right yeah I'm gonna keep track of all these things. Okay. Now I'm going to play a little clip. This is very recent. This is, yeah, it's not the one

you think it's going to be. That'll come, don't worry. But here is a little bit of you before a game. Fact of the matter is, even though we're coming to you from America this whole weekend,

we are definitely coming to you from Canada. Strath Royalty. Let's begin with Kyle Bacoskas at Wells Fargo. Kyle. Now, Ron, well, unfortunately for the Maple Leafs, they will not have John Tavares in the lineup once again for the seventh consecutive game, still dealing with that broken figure. And for on the back end, they are without that grittiness with Jake Muzzin out tonight due to personal reasons. Meanwhile, Alain Vigneault remains very hands-on with his lineup.

Jake Boracek drops down to the third line, and Tyler Pitlick is in for Chris Stewart. It's always nice to catch up with old friends in the city of brotherly love. Sean Reynolds in Dallas, please take it away. Thank you, Kyle. You know, that really needs to be visual, of course, but you got to seek out the visual. But, you know, we can't do that in a podcast.

But of course, Gritty, is he licking you? What's he doing there? No, no, no. He well, he was he was tickling the side of my face. He was patting my head. He was under the chin. And then for a final act came at me with the silly string right the silly side of my face um i thought you did a great job uh you know keeping your

composure and making kind of a little little crack about it there at the end but i thought you did a pretty good job considering you were being assaulted on national television by gritty so he's quite the star right i mean even a year later since he first came onto the scene, everybody still loves him. That was a lot of fun. And that got way more play online. Okay, I saw on Twitter, I mean, Twitter, there's some nuts on Twitter,

but some people really felt like you were actually assaulted. Like there were some people who thought you were violated. Like that was inappropriate. Can I ask if it was planned? There were some people who thought you were violated. Like that was inappropriate. Can I ask if it was planned? So we had talked about having him part of the opening there, right?

So it's not like he just showed up and I had no idea. But I will say, total honesty, I had no idea that that silly string was coming at the end. So that reaction, if you watch the video, the reaction I had was complete. I had no idea that was coming. Okay, right. Okay, I was wondering how much of that was coming. Okay. Right. Okay.

I was wondering how much of that was pre-orchestrated. But again, those little clips that go viral are kind of priceless. That's sort of like... And Shirely and I like to joke about this a lot of time because we can spend so much time trying to find the perfect story. I can get the best quote from the player. There's this little nugget that nobody knows, this piece of information, and deliver it in the best way I think possible,

and you never hear about it ever again. And then you get hit in the face with Silly String, and it's everywhere. Well, Gritty is like a social media gold. He is. He can't miss. They've done a really good job there. Honestly.

I don't want to talk about brand. Right. Do they have awards for mascot of the year at the NHL awards or whatever? Like Gritty, yeah, Gritty. I mean, poor Carlton the Bear. Like, get out of here, Carlton. Well, how about between Gritty and the Philly Fanatic?

Like Philadelphia have it pretty good in terms of mascots. Those are two of the best. And remember, this is the town where Santa Claus, was it an Eagles game or whatever, where Santa Claus made an appearance and they threw batteries at him. You've said City of Brotherly Love. It's like the most

ironic nickname over there. It really is. Okay, so you weren't assaulted by Gritty. You didn't go to police or anything. Did not press charges. Nope. Because that would be quite the story. Now, a lot of people chimed in on this, but I'll just give credit to Michael Lang because on uh

two saturdays ago i was at the danforth music hall uh watching the watchmen and the grapes of wrath and it was fantastic and michael lang listener who i've met at i think all the tmlxs so i'm sure he'll be at tmlx5 on december 7th he showed up and bought me a beer. And I want to say thank you for the beer, Michael Lang. So Michael Lang writes in and says, can you ask Kyle, who is great, by the way, that I'm not just faking that, that's really in there. It's on Twitter right now, about that Brad Marchand interview, specifically how he was able to react so quickly at the time.

So I'm actually going to set up the interview by playing the kind of part, what I would call kind of part one. So let me play part one. Forgive the potato quality of this recording, but here's part one. This year it's in Fox Harbor, Nova Scotia, the NHL Maritimers

for kids. Brad's always at that. So here he comes, the Kyle Lacoste. Brad Bruce Cassidy was mentioning maybe some hesitancy from David Pasternak. What have you seen lately from number 88? He's such a dominant player in this league. Doesn't take him long to create something. So been a big player for us all year.

He has in playoffs as well. Need him to keep going. Did you manage to get your skate resharpened after Thursday? Yeah. Okay, so that's part one. So tell us, okay, for part part one here tell us uh so your question what was that in regard give us some context to the question about the skate okay i think i know where you're going with this um so the day so this that was before game two i was pretty warm for game two uh so in game one in overtime before faceoff him and marshawn and cam atkinson are lining up um in a neutral zone

draw and it's quite evident that marshawn stomps on atkinson's uh blade of his stick and breaks it and uh so uh after this was now the off day in between games one and two um atkinson was asked about it and he made some quip about like you know i expect him to to refund me for the stick you know it's a 300 stick you know i want straight cash for it and uh marshall said you know i think he was he put his stick there on purpose he was trying to dull my skate blade i think that was you know just wasn't very nice of him so i did obviously did not do a very good job of it but my thought like i was trying to play into marshall's joke that he had came up with, right?

Right. No, I see that now. I'm glad you're giving this context. Right, right. So I was trying to play almost down his line of how he was taking things from the day previous, and clearly it was not the right time to do it, and I certainly learned my lesson,

but that was my attempt. But you were trying to be, yeah, but can we play, because in that clip, Marchand uh marchand or marchand how do we say this uh i actually know this for all his years of watching this i know it goes back and forth but i remember like in the cup final this year when they the players do their little hockey card things where they look to camera and say their name and their favorite player and he said brad marchand marchand okay yeah so when brad marshawn uh he answers the

first question like normally like everything's fine that so he's you know he's art you know he's as articulate as he ever is and he goes on and then he the answer to your skate sharp and he i guess it's a yep or something and he skates away like do you know at that point that your attempt at some good nature humor uh floated like a lead balloon yes yes yeah very quickly i was like wow that did not go how i anticipated it because again like it wasn't like i was trying to be like a smart ass with him or anything like again if he had not said what he had said the day previous i would not have asked that question um well first of all he's already jealous of your hair so that's already got him i highly doubt it's back up there okay so that happened. And then we'll play the second clip and you can tell us.

Okay, so here's the, this one's the one I kind of see floating around more often. But this is like, I guess, part two, Kyle versus Brad here. Thanks, Jim. Brad, you said after the third game of the series, there's no panic in the room. What can you say about the way your group handled the next three games and ultimately advancing to the conference final? We did a good job. I know Tuukka Rask was saying this core isn't getting any younger.

What do you make of the opportunity that lies ahead of you? It's been fun. So I see where this is going here. I'll ask you one more about your line. It got back together. You had said the chances over there were just starting to bury it these last few games. What kind of zone are you three in?

We're good. Thanks. last few games. What kind of zone are you three in? We're good. Thanks. Again, though, this is live

and you handle yourself well. I'm just thankful that I didn't freeze there. Who would have known that that was on a Wednesday instead of a Tuesday night, how things all would have gone there. But now,

I think when that happened, so that first interview didn't get a lot of, the first clip that you played, didn't get a lot of play. And then when that happened, so that first interview didn't get a lot of, the first clip that you played didn't get a lot of play. And then when that happened, people went back. Was this the next day? No, no, no. This was game.

So the first one was before game two. This is now game six, at the end of game six, when they'd wanted to go on. But is this the next time you spoke with him? Yes. So this is the first time you spoke to him since the first. Correct. So clearly, yeah, I guess you went into his bad books or something well here's the thing a lot

of people drew that conclusion right that the first one resulted in what happened yeah i'm drawing that conclusion am i wrong what i was told is that one had nothing to do with the other so before game three of that series i went to the bruins pr staff and said hey look like was what i asked him did that offend him did that piss him off and if so i'd like to just clarify things because that wasn't my intention at all and they're like no no no he's good um and over the course of that series there was a couple things that that he had did on the ice the stepping on the stick and there was um another couple instances where um he got a lot of criticism be it online um from other people in in the media

industry people writing about it um and i think some of that got back to him and and it it bugged him like he's going like here here it goes again. Like people are coming after me again. This is the, again, what I've been told in the interpretation. But who tells you this? Is this like buddies or is this? No, no, no, no, no. This is from people directly involved. The team, like the Bruins.

But not Brad. Not Brad directly, but through the team. So we get to get, and in fact, between after game three and until that interview we did at the end of game six um he had he wasn't doing any more interviews in game with us the national rights holder in canada and nbc the national rights holder and the united states uh until game game six. And we were under the impression from the Bruins that he had no issue doing an interview if they were to win that night, and they did.

And then what happened happened. And another reason why I believe that to be the case, because then a few minutes later he goes into the room and does his usual media scrum with reporters and does the exact same thing and gives one word answers so that wasn't a kyle thing well that's the thing i think if he was directly trying to get at me i think he would have done what he did on the ice and then gone into the room and give i wonderful well thought out answers to the rest of the media just to just to compare and contrast the difference just even just to show how yeah that was a kyle thing as

opposed to a brad thing yeah right so that that was my takeaway from it and you could even see even before that there were a couple times where either at a press conference or just in a regular scrum in the room earlier in that series where as the days kind of progressed you saw he got shorter and shorter with the media like there was clearly i don't know what it was exactly whether it was something being said about him online on television in the newspaper um that bothered him and i think he had just eventually had enough with what had been said and so he decided to to do what he did and i mean i me personally i'm not bothered by it it and it's long over with now.

Well, I liked how like for the third question, I like how you, you know, predicted the, you saw what was going on. You know, you read the tea leaves and you kind of let us in that you knew but you were going to ask it anyways. Right, because at that point, if I'm trying to still be like ultimate interview guy

at the end of a series and you know that he's just doing that, then it looks a little more awkward so why not say i can see where you're going so i i remember so that happens and i just kind of thought well geez and i said actually at the end of the interview i threw back to jim i said well that was worth it jim um because i'm thinking geez what a waste of time that was and so like 10 seconds later david backus comes over so right away i'm already thinking okay we've got another guest so here comes comes our next interview subject.

And so I wear an Apple Watch. And for those that don't know, of course, you can program these things that whenever you get texts or other notifications on your phone, it buzzes on your wrist. So I'll never forget there as I'm asking a question

and I feel this thing go off and I'm going, oh boy. Right. That's like real time instant uh feedback yeah this is like 30 seconds after it had happened and then it ended up taking quite uh what an age we live in so and i remember because at that point that had been like a month straight on the road for me and i after that i was able to go home for like 24 hours and then we're going right back to boston for the third round.

So while all of this was kind of unfolding and people were weighing in and everyone was giving their take on what had happened, I was just happy to go home, do some laundry, hug my girlfriend, see her, see Dana, and I just wasn't giving much thought. I wasn't following along really much with what was going on. And then only after the fact, when I was talking to other friends and people in the media, there was like, oh yeah, this person was talking about it. And on this radio station, I heard them run the clip. So only after the fact, he kind of realized more so the lengths that it reached. But it was a good

lesson in just how quickly something can kind of blow up like that. And I just, for me, I'd always been a guy that was one of the people telling the story i was never ever part of the story um but this is no fault of your own that you were part of that story this is to happen to you and yeah what are you gonna do and so it's as i said it's a good lesson of just how to how to handle those things that i have no ill will like i don't really know br Brad the person and I haven't spoken to him since about it. But this is the same,

we're talking about the same Brad who has an on ice reputation for being a bit of a dink. Like, I mean, licking people and things like that. Right. Or he's crossed the line and stuff, but like you talk to his teammates in Boston and they,

they love him like him and Sidney Crosby and Nathan McKinnon all work out together in the summertime. And, you know, I, I don't know for sure, They love him. Him and Sidney Crosby and Nathan McKinnon all work out together in the summertime. I don't know for sure, but I would assume that players of Crosby's and McKinnon's ilk wouldn't associate themselves with bad people. Clearly, they see him as a good person. Are there any bad Maritimers? Right, exactly. As I said, it was just...

The thing for him and the reason why I haven't tried, like I've long forgot about it. And I bet you. I'm here to remind you. Yeah, I know. And I have no problem talking about it, but I just, it's not something I think too much about anymore. And for him, I mean, that was just a small blip on what was a two month journey to try to win a Stanley Cup. So I'm guessing if you were to bring that up with him today, he would be like, I don't know what you're talking about. I haven't, I have no recollection of that. But he'd be lying because. Well, who knows? I'm guessing if you were to bring that up with him today, he would be like, I don't know what you're talking about. I have no recollection of that.

But he'd be lying because... Well, who knows? I'm just right. It's funny. It became something where I became under the spotlight and the microscope for the first time. But for him, it was just another... But it's good for your profile, right?

Of course, you didn't orchestrate this. But the fact that this happened to you, because you come across fine, right? There's nothing you're embarrassed of or ashamed of that that clip and that clip did travel far like across hockey fans across the country and beyond because it was a boston player so it's in the states too but it actually does end up whether you will acknowledge it or not it doesn't end up boosting your profile i certainly heard from people that i never knew knew my name in the aftermath of that and it was actually and i remember that kind of went on and i was like well you know it was it was a big story in canada but surely that's only the lengths that reach because we're on a

canadian network and uh and i remember being down like in boston for the first two games of the conference final against carolina a few days later like, hearing the odd chirp from a Bruins fan, which was great. I mean, they're supporting their player. But do those chirps throw you off? I have general questions. Is this stuff, it's scripted, but is it on a teleprompter?

What's that? Those questions, are they memorized and you just recite them off the top of your head? Like in interviews and stuff? Yeah, yeah. Oh yeah, yeah. We don't have, there's no teleprompters in the ring. You're not reading in or whatever.

When we do our opening, there's no prompters. I mean, certainly you kind of go over things in your head about what you want to say, but there's nothing there in front of you while you're on the air. This is the, we got to learn how the sausage is made here. Okay. So you, but did you write these questions or did like they get sent, did they get written for you? No, no, no. I mean, between like Shirely and I, oftentimes we will go over some things like at least for interview subjects before a game.

There's a couple of things where we want to ask about this, especially if there's like video we want to show or a picture or something like you got to be on. You're wearing an earpiece, right? Yeah, exactly. Will you hear it? Like will Shirely say something like that? If he wants to get in my ear during the interview about ask about this or whatever then then then you adjust or like make sure when you're on front of mic to get meat lasagna uh that's right that's right that's right

exactly um so there's there's always that that constant communication and um but that was but at the same time there's i think there's a lot of trust between producer and reporter. Like, it's not just me. Well, I know you're not going to go rogue or you would lose your job quickly. Right. But at the same time, I mean, not every time do they know exactly what I'm going to ask. And that interview that you ran there before game two was one of those ones where we hadn't really... Well, we had talked about something along those lines and I just tweaked it to what I actually asked.

So as I said, it wasn't the right moment clearly to ask him, as I said. I didn't mean any ill will by what I did. Okay, so when that started floating around, I started thinking about the Hedo Turko Glue. Turko Glue, yeah. Yeah, as you can tell, I don't enunciate very well this is why I never have been offered a you know hockey night

in Canada I think you do a very good job thank you because you're a professional so hearing that makes me feel better but remember the famous ball interview right who was do you remember I'm throwing you on the spot I can't remember who conducted the interview

Eric Smith anyway the ball interview is kind of like legendary in terms of Right. Who was, who was, do you remember? I'm throwing you on the spot. I can't remember who conducted the interview ball. It was Eric Smith. Anyway, the ball interview is kind of like legendary in terms of when an athlete is doing the interview, maybe they have to or something, or they're obligated to do it, but they're not actually interested in participating. So that's what you got from Brad there.

Now it's funny. Brad is a Bruin, Boston Bruin. And that episode I've been referring to a few times where Scott Moore came over with Shorali Najak and we did we talked about diversity in sports media. Also

featured Sophia, here's another name for me. Ready? Let's go. Yurstukovic. Yurstukovic, yeah. Yurstukovic. Am I doing an extra syllable in there? You say it again. Maybe. I've always thought

it was Yerskovich. You might be, I need her to make a ruling here. Yerskovich. Okay, I'm throwing an extra. I need to phone a friend here. Yeah, that's a tough one to spell because I would tweet

about her appearances. She's been on a few times and that's a tough one to spell. Hardest name to spell since Ann Roszkowski, which is a name you probably don't know because you're not from Toronto, but

that's a tough one to use, these Polish names that throw me. But, Sofia now is working for New England Sports Network. Yeah, Nesson, yeah. Right, and I just wanted to give a shout out because she used to be on Hockey Night in Canada herself, and she's a friend of FOTM, and she was

part of that Shrally Scott Moore episode, so shout out to Sophia. Sophia J. I saw her in Ottawa this week when the Bruins were in town. She's doing a great job. Yeah. Good for her. I always thought she was,

I always thought she was underutilized like that. She was, she was, she was deserving of more opportunity is how I always felt for her. She's very, very talented. Totally. Is that Brad Marchand interview your worst interview ever?

Um, well, probably in terms of what you get out of the interview subject. Yes. Well, you got, I guess cause you got nothing. So,

but have you ever had any interviews go South and maybe a, cause that one is bad. It's bad interview, but again, you don't come off looking bad at all and it was just he just didn't want to do it and you could tell and goodbye but uh have you ever had an interview like turn sideways on you not yet anyways like i find besides this one i mean but i'm on the other side of it now um but uh no like the ones that beat me up if i like can't get a question out the way

you wanted to or you stumble over a set of words or you forget something that you want to ask and then you end up beating yourself up over or you call them by the wrong name by accident right i don't think so because if i have the whoever was uh played it off nicely but certainly there's those like i remember that first year doing the the montreal canadians regional gig and you go from doing no virtually no sideline work in the nhl to now you're doing two three sometimes four games a week and it can be like you just get into that rhythm of go go go travel do a game you forget what city you're in right and so you're all of a sudden now it's in the second intermission and whoever comes out from the minnesota wild and you're like oh right it's this guy you just kind of have that moment oh charlie coil okay and uh so you wish you had

a teleprompter you just get a reason yeah like okay so it could be a little give us a little taste of this schedule because it does sound like you came in i guess you flew in this morning because you came here straight from the airport i did yeah so from montreal so just today you go to yyz and then you come here and then Shirali is going to take care of you tonight. So where do you sleep tonight? We just stay at a hotel downtown. Yeah, it's usually the same spot every time

when we do games in Toronto where you can walk over to Scotiabank. So it depends on the week. Like this was a busier week where I had a game in my hometown or where I live now in Ottawa on Wednesday and then from there right after the game I drove to Montreal we did a game there Thursday night so you drive that I wondered if you drove that or you fly that I normally drive just because of how short it is and uh drive or take the train and you listen to Toronto Mike podcast via bluetooth I have

in the past exactly as you know I've got it dialed into the car daniels i think i just shared this story but uh ken daniels uh wrote me a lovely handwritten note about like the hours he spends in his car with me the voice that he's listening to yeah and it was really a sweet sweet sweet sweet note from the voice of the detroit red wings yeah what a kind man he is um yeah so it depends on the week where this was as i said it's it's a busier one but there's some where you know you're going to whatever game is on on saturday in toronto or wherever you leave there on friday and you come home sunday and then during the week um you know if the sends are in town for me i'm there at the rink covering them just for like like sportsnet news department right and then you're watching games at night and you're trying to start coming up with ideas and stories for that next Saturday. So it doesn't really stop.

Some weeks are a little lighter than others. But once you get going, when camp gets started in September, you're into it until you're told you're done in the springtime. All right. So we already gave a lot of credit to Scott Moore. He hired you. So he gets some credit but is there anyone at sportsnet that you'd like to shout out right now who has uh maybe gone above and beyond to help you like to nurture this uh obvious uh i was gonna say obvious great hair but great skill that you have and at the age of 26 you're i would say if you're doing the leaf game on a

saturday night that your top dog at the ringside reporting or whatever your title is again, ringside. Yeah, I don't know how the structure works. Certainly that's a big show for us, as you can imagine. Well, the most eyeballs. Yeah. So it's a real honor to be part of that. So who do you want to, is there anyone at the,

you want to shout out that has been kind of a, even don't well i won't put words in your mouth like a mentor or just helpful in any way yeah yeah i mean you know you mentioned scott and we talked about the role that he played and uh mike english who i brought up before i mean he's he's out living in vancouver now but he spent a lot of time with me initially and he was the first one to take my tape and to then pass it if he hadn't passed it on to scott i mean who knows what we certainly wouldn't be sitting here today i don't think um you know lindsey's the true hero of your career totally like the between between all of that like there's there's so many um people along the way as i've i've told here that uh that play a part and just giving me an opportunity i know when i first started i spent a lot of time with

with arash madani uh just shadowing him when I first got to Toronto and watching the way he works, the way he prepares. And he works very hard that man. He works so hard. And I mean, for those that watched recently, the Davis Cup weekend in Madrid and the amount of content that he had,

I unfortunately missed most of it because I was following around hockey and we were in Denver last weekend. So we didn't get a chance to watch what was just really an incredible run for Canada. So every summer now, since I've been at Sportsnet, I've had the chance to work Rogers Cup tennis. The men's side where Arash works center court all week,

and that really is where you see him at his best. Go ahead. I was going to say that we already established that the Maritimers are all wonderful. Arash is from Truro. I know, to say that we already established that the Maritimers are all wonderful. Arash is from Truro. I know. Yeah, that's right. And he's an FOTM.

That's all you need to know. Arash Madani. Glad you brought him up. Anyone else you want to shout out? Well, between him and then Shirely has played a big role. See, Shirely is a guy that most people don't know his name because he's behind the scenes. He's been producing.

I mean, I know of him because i was talking to scott moore and scott moore was telling me about uh the work of shirali najak and i literally had never heard the name before and then i started following on twitter and then i reached out to him and said would you come in so i got to you know spend time with him meet him i do intend to bring him back uh for a proper one-on-one because he was part of like a consortium there yeah yeah he's gonna come back but uh tell us about shirali for those who don't know this name because we only know people in front of the camera yeah so he's been with cbc for a long time right like since since the early 90s uh been in hockey for a really long time and so he predominantly

sits in the production truck for our leaf games on on saturdays and then um throughout the playoffs and and does some other projects uh over the years to olympics what have you um so he was a guy that i first started working with this is my third season working with him now um and just the way he's got a real good feel for the game right like and i'm sure you got the sense just in your dealings with him. Like he's big on feel. He's big on soul. He's big on real.

He has great taste in podcasts. Great taste in podcasts. He trusts the hockey guys like Jim and Craig to take care of the hockey stuff. And he tries to fill in the gaps with, as I said, feel and try to just create that connection with the viewer and just do something special something different every week so just having a chance to to work with him and open my eyes to to that sort of way of of thinking and you know how can we do something different how can we do something special each time um we go to air has been you know instrumental and i've been fortunate to all you know all the this is this will be my saturday be my third game

this week and it'll also be my third producer and everybody um i've had a chance to work with like scott lennox was our main producer when i did the the habs regional gig and that was my first taste of doing ringside reporting so the patience that he had with me when i was trying to figure out just how to do that job and uh the connection that we formed because of that was something that uh you know i'll always appreciate and admire. And, you know, there's a lot of great people at our shop, you know, Billy Duke and the rest of the gang at the assignment desk that, again, as I was trying to find my footing as a reporter, and I was, you know, early on taking a little bit more time to put my story together, because I'm not really sure, is this good? Is this, does this make sense? They were all very, very patient with me.

So I have all those people to thank as I've kind of made my way through the different avenues at Sportsnet and worked different roles over the years. Why have you not yet shouted out the Sportsnet hairstylist? Well, I... You do it yourself?

I do it myself. We don't have a hairstylist. But I have to then, well, I'll shout out Deb Berman in wardrobe for outfitting all of us because I would have no idea what to look for. I remember like the first times going to look at suits and stuff and stuff that I would never look twice at. She's going, well, this would look really nice on you. And then she put the whole ensemble together.

Did she dress Strombo when he was there? I want to know who is he dressing himself? No, I think I, again, wasn't here, of course. I was in Ottawa, but she is at the helm of all of that. She does a wonderful, wonderful job. All right, final question for you here. Oh, boy. It's not a doozy.

The big doozy was, you know, what happens when your hairline starts to recede here? And, of course, I thought you bought your way onto the elites prospect. No, no money was exchanged. To me, that's the real talk I was looking for. But the season ends in June, late June,

but when the Stanley Cup final ends, famously Bob McKenzie, you mentioned Sean McKenzie earlier, but his dad would famously, I guess, June 1st is the free agent frenzy, is that right? July 1st. July 1st, oh my God, yes, of course.

July 1st, and then like the next day he goes to a cottage and never to be seen again. Right, the combo. Until the preseason, I guess, whatever. Like what do you do during the summer? Do they make you work or do they give you the summers off?

Like what's the deal for a hockey guy? Yeah, I guess everyone's kind of different. I'm lucky that, you know, you're busy enough throughout the hockey i i guess everyone's kind of different i'm lucky that you know you're busy enough throughout the hockey season that i then just kind of bank a lot of time off over that time that i can kind of use over the summer um so i work july 1st like all of our reporters across the country that's obviously a big day in in the hockey world um so i'd try to fit in a trip home um so my hometown cam Camber, Robert, Rod Brindamore, the head coach of the hurricanes and longtime NHL player is from there as

well. And he's ran a, a charity event out of that town for the last, the 20th anniversary is coming up here. So, sorry, 25th. So I've,

the last three years I've emceed that. So I go back home and do that ryan nugent hopkins is involved there and that's just a really neat way to just go back spend some time back home see some people see my my folks and and some other people around town who haven't seen for a while and then just kind of relax you know i mentioned doing rogers cups so that's one weekend in august either here in toronto or in montreal depending on the year. And then, yeah, just enjoy some time off. Like last summer, Dana and I went to Italy for a couple of weeks. We'd never been there before.

Whereabouts did you go? We started in Venice and worked our way down through Florence and Rome and then down to the Amalfi Coast, Sorrento and Positano. And we loved it. Wow, what a cool spot. Yeah, that Florence is quite the place. I think that was our favorite place. That was our favorite place.

Because everyone knows Rome is Rome, right? And Venice is Venice. Although I hear they have a flooding issue right now, so you probably went at the right time. But Florence is the one

that you're not quite expecting what you get out of Florence. And yeah, I think that was our highlight too. Yeah, we did. And it wasn't part

of the plan going in. It was just kind of spur of the moment. The one day we booked like a scooter tour the next day. Right. So we got up and went

and we had these like little old school Vespas that we ripped around and like on like the Chianti Hillside. So the scenics, the scenic and the views from where we were was really incredible. Something out of a postcard. Oh, unbelievable, unbelievable.

I want to tell everybody about an event that's taking place on December 4th. That's coming up. So December 4th. That's coming up. So December 4th, it's a Wednesday at 7 p.m. This is called the Holidays and Hope Candlelight Service. So Brad and the good people at Ridley Funeral Home, they're going to be hosting this annual free memorial service in honor of those loved ones who have passed away

and cannot be with us this holiday season. It's taking place at the Assembly Hall. That's part of the Humber College South Campus. So you'd find the Assembly Hall at like Lakeshore and Kipling area. And if you want more information about holidays and Hope Candlelight Service, contact, go to ridleyfuneralhome.com or call them at 416-259-3705. I'm going to give you a gift here. One more for you, Kyle. Oh, wow.

Another one. Another gift. This is courtesy of the Electric City Candle Company. This is just a listener of the show. His name is Chris in Peterborough. He works with special needs adults who play hockey. There's a league for special needs adults, and they need money to keep the league going and stuff.

So what they do is the special needs adults, they make candles, and they sell these candles, and all the proceeds goes to the hockey league, and they're trying to buy a used van to help with travel. So I just told Chris, like, let's just create some awareness here. So. Oh, cool.

That's really awesome. These are the websites I need people to take note of. If you want to pick up a candle and they're great for, you know, on the holiday season, electriccitycandles.com is where you go to get the, the candles. And if you want to learn more about this special needs hockey league,

go to electric city, special needs, hockey.com. And you can learn more right there. So did you think you got enough gifts for coming by here, Kyle? I only have so many hands here, Mike.

You've, uh, that's right. He'll be coming here soon. Thanks so much for having me, man. This was a lot of fun, dude. The pleasure was all mine. Thanks so much for having me, man. This was a lot of fun. Dude, the pleasure was all mine.

Thanks so much for doing this. And thank you for leaving me a couple of tickets to that Leaf game on Saturday night. That's right. We'll see you there. Do you have that power? No. Gosh, no. Not at all.

I'm the wrong guy to ask. I'm sorry. Well, kick it upstairs and see what they say here. Who's it for? Toronto Mike. Forget it. And that brings us to the end of our 550th show. That's a milestone number as far as I'm concerned.

Congrats, man. Congrats to you. You can follow me on Twitter. I'm at Toronto Mike. And Kyle is at SNKyleBukowskis. Nailed it. Our friends at Great Lakes Brewery are at Great Lakes Beer. Palma Pasta is at Palma Pasta.

Sticker U is at Sticker U. We got Brian Master. He's at LetsGetYouHome at KW.com. Get on his mailing list. Capadia LLP is at Capadia LLP. And Ridley Funeral Home is at Ridley FH. See you all next week. I don't want to be today. And your smile is fine and it's just like mine. And it won't go away.