Spittin Chiclets - Spittin' Chiclets Episode 552: Featuring Doug Armstrong & Kevin Shattenkirk

Episode Date: April 1, 2025

On Episode 552 of Spittin’ Chiclets, Doug Armstrong hops on the pod with Biz to talk about Holloway’s offer sheet drama and oilers fans losing their minds, Robert Thomas proving he’s elite, Hiring Jim Montgomery, and Binnington’s maturity going into the playoffs. Later on, Kevin Shattenkirk sat down with the fellas to talk about growing up playing with Kane, the most insane college comeback game, finding out he was traded to St Louis at 2am and how he found out he made the Olympic Team. But first, with the NCAA Tournament narrowing down to the last four teams, there’s some studs gunning for the championship; can Denver go back to back? Is Penn State a Cinderella Story or a legit contender? How were the GameNotes guys so wrong with their picks? All this and more on this weeks episode, you won’t want to miss it. 00:00:00 - START 00:00:25 - Chiclets Updates 00:19:52 - NCAA Tournament 00:33:42 - Around the League 01:12:47 - Doug Armstrong Interview 01:41:41 - Quick Hits 01:56:21 - Kevin Shattenkirk Interview 03:18:43 - ETC. Support the Show: PINK WHITNEY: Take Your Shot with Pink Whitney NOBULL: Visit https://nobullproject.com/chiclets for 30% off your entire order. GAMETIME: Download the Gametime app today and use code CHICLETS for $20 off your first purchase RHOBACK: Use code CHICLETS on https://rhoback.com for a generous 20% off your first purchase through the end of this week BODYARMOR:  Get your BODYARMOR Flash I.V. today at a local 7-Eleven or on Amazon! https://www.drinkbodyarmor.com/flash-iv-sports-drink/ DRAFTKINGS: GAMBLING PROBLEM? CALL 1-800-GAMBLER, [phone] or visit gamblinghelplinema.org (MA). Call 877-8-HOPENY/text HOPENY (467369) (NY). Please Gamble Responsibly. 888-789-7777/visit ccpg.org (CT), or visit www.mdgamblinghelp.org (MD). 21+ and present in most states. (18+ DC/KY/NH/WY). Void in ONT/OR/NH. Eligibility restrictions apply. On behalf of Boot Hill Casino & Resort (KS). 1 per new customer. $5+ first-time bet req. Max. $150 issued as non-withdrawable Bonus Bets that expire in 7 days (168 hours). Stake removed from payout. Terms: sportsbook.draftkings.com/promos. Ends 4/13/25 at 11:59 PM ET. Sponsored by DK.You can find every episode of this show on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or YouTube. Prime Members can listen ad-free on Amazon Music. For more, visit barstool.link/schiclets

Hey, spittin' Chicklets listeners, you can find every episode on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or YouTube. Prime members can listen ad-free on Amazon Music. Me and Ryan have been officially welcomed to the jungle that is basketball sports. Our white whale, Sidney Crosby! Shave his head! Shave his head! Shave his head! Ryan Whitney, Paul Bissonnette, R.A., Mike Grinelli, Spittin' Chicklets! Whoa!

What is up everyone and welcome to episode 552 of the Spittin' Chicklets podcast. We are live together in Atlanta, Georgia, the the dirty south down in the ATL hanging out together getting ready for a sandbagger I'm sick as shit I'm grinding through this because I just fired myself up I imagined I was listening to Thunderstruck and I've been asleep in my bed for 23 hours in the four seasons the worst four seasons in the country but no offense to the four seasons here what is going on, everyone? I'm with Biz. I'm with Keith.

I'm with G Pasha, fishy. What a crew we have. And shout out Pink Whitney. I was in Nashville for IceCon and we got Pink Whitney. It was our guard. Oh, no, I'm just sick. I didn't even drink. Just absolutely grinding through this podcast.

But I'm ready to rip. Just like everyone was ready to crush Pink Whitney at the Barstool Bar, getting ready for Icecon. Icecon was a complete disgrace. I feel bad for Elio. He lost everyone mortgage payments, diaper money, and food for their kids, but it was still fun to see everyone. It was fun to drink Pink Whitney, even the people who didn't do it like me. I still looked at the bottle and said, what a cool pink bottle and what an amazing drink.

I wish I could have some but I'm sick as shit. But I love Pink Whitney and I love you guys. What's going on, boys? Oh, Lee Kreisler. I've been in bed, I've been in bed for 23 hours, haven't eaten in 48. I'm so proud to be your teammate. No, I'm so proud of you.

Biz today, he picked up two interviews. He picked up an interview with Doug Armstrong, did it solo because I was hurting so bad Then he picked up Nick Dow did that solo cuz Keith was stuck on the tarmac at Fort Lauderdale for six hours Why do they get you on a plane and then make you wait? I don't get it Oh, I you know what I think I think that the foreplay boys are fucking with us I think that they've probably spiked your food. No, no, they didn't they didn't know It's just I was due to get sick. I hadn't been sick this whole winter You know everyone gets sick, especially with kids when you have kids

They just bring home these nasty germs and I thought it was uh, I thought it was um, what is that word food boys? No Allergies, oh because allergies allergies been killing me the last two years as I turned 40 I started getting allergies in Nashville Why it hit he has brutal allergies and his eyes were swollen shut and he had boogers everywhere I was like I don't feel good because the allergies, but then Yesterday it just hit me. I'm not gonna talk about myself being sick the whole time But I just I just had to talk to you guys and shout out you for doing those two interviews alone How's army army's great?

Army is so funny. I know he's a funny. I told you weren't doing the the interview because you offer she did two of his So I think he was a little shocked by that and he's like a fuck that guy But I got to go back to the sickness thing. Do you get the flu shot? No. So I used to find when I would get the flu shot, I would get sick. And then when I- Oh yeah, it gives you something.

Yeah, it puts it in you. And you feel like shit for like a day, but you're supposed to not get it. Oh, I would get like deathly ill when I would get the flu shot. Yeah, it's so, yeah. No, I don't get it, I don't get it. I haven't gotten it since,

remember the teams, they'd make us get it. They would make us get it. It's like, dude, I know I'm gonna get it. I don't get it. I haven't gotten it since member the teams. They'd make us get it They would make us get a dude. I know I'm gonna feel horrible tomorrow for this bag skis I don't care saying and put the friggin needle right in your arm. Do you think I was out of line? Maybe blaming the foreplay guys about spiking your food. I mean Yans was delayed on his flight He was just he was doing circles around Atlanta for a little bit in the air. No, no I thought you were in the air? No, never. Oh, I thought you were in the air. No, we sat on the tarmac. We just sat on a plane for six hours. Even worse.

1020 to 420, sat on the tarmac. For six hours? How crazy is that? No, you didn't. How crazy is that? I just blip. One time I was flying somewhere with a buddy and he passed out right when we got on the plane.

It was like a 7 a.m. flight. And he woke up at 1030. He's like, yeah, I'm like, buddy, we haven't even moved yet. And I'm going to be today. You passed out, passed out because we tax you don't. We sat on the tarmac and the guy was like, we're third in line. I was watching White Lotus shout out White Lotus, Walter Goggins and sat there, passed out, woke up and I'm like, oh, we might be here.

Sure as shit. No. And then the guy next to me for the next five hours peed every And set their past out woke up and I'm like, oh we might be here sure shit No, and then the guy next to me for the next five hours peed every 27 minutes. No, that's me Me getting up. That's me. Oh, that's who you just got to give him the aisle seat. You just got it I just started like buddy. How are you hosing? That's why I bring the body armor wide nozzles. I just hose on the plane Yeah, you see that kid at the baseball game, I think it was a Brewers game, just hosing right in the middle of the concourse of the field, yeah.

The kid is literally hog out in the middle of the concourse, just peeing. Baseball's back. Into a bottle or on the ground? No, no, no, right on the cement. Oh, really? Yeah, like a real sicko. This had to have been in Cleveland.

Real sicko. I think it was Milwaukee. I'm pretty sure it was Milwaukee. It's a drinking city. That's why all these illnesses are buzzing around. People just treating the streets like their goddamn toilet. So maybe I was out of line blaming the four play guys, but we do have a very intense match tomorrow and obviously a little bit of adversity leading into this one with your illness. But no excuses. No excuses.

No excuses. Play like a champ. We did, yes or no, switch up the course, because we did get a few pictures of a course that we were supposed to play. You went and tested it out, literally disgusta. Oh, I mean when I tell you, when I tell you this was the worst golf course I'd ever played, I'm not even going to say it, because the guys there were so nice,

and a guy brought me around, and I was like, dude, I, he's like, what do you think? I'm like, going to say it because the guys there were so nice and a guy brought me around and I was like, dude, I was like, what do you think? I'm like, what do I think? I'm like, there's a bulldozer on three of the nine fairways we've played so far and there's, there's no sand in any bunkers. There's just enormous pieces of tarp. I was like, you want this on camera? He's like, no, you're playing the front nine three times.

Keith was texting Frankie. Like, is this a joke Frank Frankie was crying I could see his tears over text. He's the biggest baby in the history of the world Oh, he's a snapshot. He's a sexy that you just gave the thumbs up to you got a read He's a snapshot somebody else read it. Oh, yeah, you don't want me reading it. We'll miss our match is I have the most insane Maple Leaf stat that we'll get into in a little bit. Like hockey Illuminati would literally come in his jeans when he hears the stat, I'm telling you.

But I'm not even going to tell you yet. Okay. All right. So when I got the photos from the course with a bulldozer and a tarp on it, like it was Benway on a rainy day. Uh, names. He put a photo in the group chat of all us, us three on the tarps cover up home plate. Oh, that was just Chicago white socks. The one of the worst franchises and pro sports, like a true disgrace that they didn't, they weren't able to put the tarp on the entire infield and then it just ruined the

first baseline. I guess they were trying to like put mini-TARPs all over the first baseline, it was just pathetic. That was the course we were at. Oh no. So what did you send to Frankie? So I said to Frankie, hey if we need to pay for a course, whatever, we'll do it, we gotta switch it up, we can't play this course.

We're YouTube golf stars now. So he wrote me today, excited to see you tomorrow, Yans, unfortunately you're, oh, cause I army Colby Armstrong said he could set us up at Atlanta golf, uh, Atlanta country club. So excited to see you tomorrow Yans. Unfortunately, your guy couldn't come through at Atlanta golf club. We called and said Yandel set it up and they

said who, so I don't know what that was about, but we found a great course that hopefully will live up to your standards. Echelon Golf Club. We let them know to get rose petals ready for you on your arrival. So the chirping has begun. Yeah. I mean, I don't know if they want that smoke though. They can say whatever they want. Like, right? We're battling things. Keith sat on a plane

for six hours, had a guy P next to him 45 times I'm sick as a dog biz plays golf three times a year when we do three sandbaggers. They should win no One no, I mean these guys play golf yes every single Day, but Trent moved to Florida to play more golf legit, but he saw the writing on the wall They brought in beef you he saw the writing on the wall that he was probably gonna get. Beef saw the food at the post, at the turn shack. But at the end of the day, we're professional athletes. Yeah, yeah, we play the pro sport. And we're gonna find a way.

We're gonna find a way, we're gonna figure it out. I'm figuring, I'm looking right now. Even though they poison your food, and even though they messed with the Delta Airlines for Yans, we're gonna pull through on this one. My wife's trying to get me, she's in the process of finding me an IV to come to the hotel in the morning, because I've had IVs before with, before golf,

with tortle, and I'm just like, I'm like a Robocop. You know, like just like swinging around my body, and not shanking the ball, and just lighting it up with feeling no pain And I can grind through anything boys. I think we should be getting that I think we should do team tortle Fishy and posh Pasha also got me this mono Lauren. It's from natural coconut 500 For him and his blue light therapy or red light therapy. I saw him in the steam room earlier.

He kind of looks jacked right now. Usually when you get a girlfriend, you get fat and gross because you're so happy and you don't need to impress anyone anymore. Well, he's got to do that to keep this one. He's kicking outside of his car. She's doing dick pills commercial with you. So I mean, he needs to remain.

So that's what those pills are. Haven't we talked about this? No, I thought that was public knowledge. So I mean she needs to he needs to remain I thought that was public knowledge. They one time I saw doing a dick commercial and I said who's this Rocky said that's Pasha's girlfriend What's up, I've drawn a blank on the on the the pills like that Felix health Yeah, so you can go there to get a bunch of prescriptions online, but they were trying to promote to my audience So they're like, okay, well, let's promote Cialis and Viagra, dip pills. Yeah, yeah. So we did, we were doing a photo shoot,

or not a photo shoot, a commercial shoot. A porn? No, and she was nice enough. She had a little experience, you know, filming a few things. So we figured. Not like, shut up. So we'd already been hanging out. I was hanging out with her

friend. I remember I told the story of the pictures. Yes. Rocket. And, and, but she shares the same name as my father and it created too much PTSD from the fact that my sister's also married to a Paul. So we didn't want like, we didn't want my sister dating a Paul and then like me married to a kind of a Camille and We're off the rails at this point, but now Pasha's dating my co-host in a dick pill commercial And we're just one big happy family here. Shut up the Felix health She feeds possible the dick pills and then and then she's able to pound her the way she needs to be powdered the way That you pounded her when you film the commercial just no Pasha. No just kidding

She's so angry does anyone else feel like this microwave weight, I mean this microphone weighs 53 pounds I can't even hold this thing up right now Felix. I'm gonna grind through this I feel like we're still in the sauna. I feel like I'm on another planet right now I need to eat something but my stomach just can't. I'm not going to complain all show. I'm not going to complain all show. Could you please tell us the Maple Leaf stat right now? No, don't.

We've earned it. He's complained about his sickness for 30 minutes now. The last year that the Boston Bruins and Detroit Redwings didn't make the playoffs was 1967. No fucking way, no way. I saw this and I went to AI and I asked AI, am I getting punked? Is this a real stat?

And AI said, Whit, you may be sick, but this is real. This is real. And I knew he was in there. He said, Whit, order some. He popped on the screen and said, get back to work. It said, order some soup, Whit. This is AI talking, but the last year, both the Wings and the Bruins didn't make the playoffs,

was 1967, the last year, the Maple Leafs raised Lord Stanley. Wow. So I'll tell you right now, and they're winning, they're leading the division. They are. Even though they haven't. What is going on? Even though they didn't beat the San Jose all? Even though they didn't beat San Jose all season long

and they squandered those ones, they go in on the California swing, they end up beating LA. Huge win. Did you see that scrap? No, okay. The scrap, we'll get to the scrap in a second. I feel like Matthews, it's been just building up.

He's been injured all year. The goal. He's been playing Pogba. The goal. The goal. He goes, he gets it, goes between his legs like on a one touch, then goes under some poor scrubs triangle. I don't even know who the defenseman was. And then just snipes.

I was like, oh shit, Matthews. Bro, you know what's even fucking crazier? What? You know who just texted me literally one minute ago? Hockey Illuminati. Brad Treeliving, the GM of the Toronto Maple Leafs. I'm not gonna read out what he sent me, that is the fucking.

Hey Biz, stop talking about my team. You're a piece of trash. Stop banging Pasha's girlfriend. You got any dick pills for me Biz? How does he know? Just these are gonna kill you, you know that right Pasha? But you won't be able to film a sand bagger tomorrow,

he's gonna be in a fucking body bag. Our whole team teams being taken down I can't believe send back your ambassador. I'm starting to think the Leafs are gonna win the cup. I Swear to God. Oh, I swear to God. I had I once I saw that stat and tree-living is texting you watch You're gonna lose to Ottawa. We're all over the place right now. That's okay We're all over the place right now Quickly before we get into the current NHL, I was at Icecon. Now for people who don't know-

I thought it was WICcon. It was WICcon. What happened? Ryder had fun? So he had a blast. Besides, he said, this is such a boring game, Dad. I'm like, I know, I know. It was so bad.

Nashville is so bad. Now they didn't have Yossi. They didn't have, I think everyone else played. They had this. What's the what's the goalie's name, Pasha? Saros? No, it was the other guy. Anunnan Anunnan. Unbelievable. The guy they still lost, but the guy was phenomenal. Vegas was out for like a Saturday skate, like a like a pickup hour.

They still won. Eichel, who's I think fourth or fifth in the league in scoring right now Just dominant he had a goalie and assist he was nasty But the ice people man these people they come and they just lose and lose last year They lost in Scottsdale this year they lost in Nashville And they're coming from all over the world and they're putting their entire trip on the game Yeah, there's a guy from Czech the normal guy from Czech. What's his name? JC? There's a guy from England Yeah, there's people are crazy and one guy yelled out this game's making my dick soft and riders like what's that mean dad?

I was like, I'll tell you later. He's like when you'll forget I go five years. He goes you'll definitely forget Talk to Justine Pasha's gonna be on waivers tomorrow pod drop we're gonna be number one in Canada Pasha's gonna be downloading riot just texted biz Peter North hey you up oh my god so ice calm was a complete failure so great people so wait so so Portland was all over you originally because you announced that you were going there to see your brother, who has moved there, and that you were bringing Ryder,

and then he said he was gonna scream at Ryder's face. No, he said, I hope someone says fuck you in his face. And actually, Kirk, my guy Kirk Minahan, he later was like, you said you hope somebody screams in his face? He's like, I didn't say I hope. We replayed it. We went to the tape, and it was like you said you hope somebody screams in his face like I didn't say I hope we replayed it We went to like the tape and like it was like a review for a goal and and he said it yeah He said I hope of someone screams in your face

And then there was like one guy over there like he's like hey this guy might yell in your kids face And I was like buddy you kidding me like I'm gonna have to fight you in an NHL arena He's like no no I have kids man. I just wanted. I just wanted to get in Portnoy's good side. I'm like, oh, by saying you'll yell in a seven-year-old's face, what a loser you are. He's like, no, I have kids too, man. I go, he makes you even a bigger loser. Is that why he was sucking up with the WitCon shirt

and trying to bring the fit? So he made a WitCon shirt. Then another guy's fiance, who was one of the three women at IceCon, she made a black Whitney family reunion Nashville, Tennessee, March 2025. He ended up giving it to my dad, because my dad was at the game too.

Oh, it really was a family reunion. Well, yeah, so my brother Collins turned 40 April 1st, so we wanted to go down. I hadn't met his daughter yet, so we got to meet his daughter. It was a great trip. We didn't bring Cal, because Cal's just a real motherfucker right now.

He's 11 months old. This kid, can't bring him anywhere. He's nuts. He makes Wyatt look like normal and calm. I know. So I always thought the third kid was supposed to be relaxed. Cal's insane. So we had a little family trip without him.

Yeah, Keith's a third kid and look at him. He was mooning his brother's dad's, brother's friend's dad's when he was 10. Literally shoving his asshole right in guys faces He was a punk and so I guess my third kids Maybe you'll break the frickin all-time Iron Man streak though. I was technically the third to Mom had a miscarriage. I guess I was yeah. Fuck. I didn't know that bit of a right turn No, sorry that but W dolly love you. Fuck this. Sorry. Yeah, where do we come from?

Yeah, I was just trying to make the point that I'm crazy. Yeah, you are crazy. You are crazy So it was just a great trip though because like we got to see my brother's place He lives in East Nashville Nashville the coolest city to the fact that Bridgestone and the football I think it's Nissan Stadium is right downtown, but they're building a new stadium. I think it's going to be ready and they got two more seasons for the Titans. It's going right next door. They're building like a Patriots type Patriots place style, like enormous, like retail restaurants around downtown. Then they hired the guy who built the Seaport in Boston to do another huge area in Nashville over. It's crazy. The growth.

Oh, it's like, it's like Scottsdale. Scottsdale and Nashville are very similar. He lives in the Grove area? He lives in East Nashville. So I don't really know, I don't know anything besides East Nashville. But yeah, it was awesome to get down there. And then the game was like a bummer,

but it's still, the city is so alive, so electric. Elio on the Zamboni. Elio, buddy, Elio was on the Zamboni. He looked like a giant 10th grade special needs kid, just riding, like a huge kid who played linebacker and didn't know how to read, and he's just sitting there so sad. There's no goals.

They scanned my cat. The guy came and grabbed him with six minutes to go in the second period. I was like, where's he going? And Dave's like, he's riding the Zamboni. Apparently he didn't want that game, but Dave made him go there because it was about that's the problem Dave's just torturing him the entire time Dave's screaming out the live line throughout the game like live over under three and a half Just making them sound even worse like the game had no chance of going over

Well, meanwhile, I find out Elio had like basically begged the guy to let him do Columbus That's a Draft King state Columbus scores a lot of goals They can give up a lot of gold night before that they that was the game we were gonna go to 12 There's seven six 13 goals. Yeah, shoot out against who's that against it was an amazing comeback It was a come. It was at Ottawa. It was Vancouver They were down nothing and Columbus won the game to keep their playoffs hope alive So that would have been the game we were at but Dave's like nobody's gonna want to go to Columbus We got to go to Nashville. So blame Portnoy for the loss, I guess Yeah, but still a fun weekend nonetheless until I got sick and just started grinding through this podcast

But there was other news in the hockey world and we can kind of start with college hockey biz You've become an enormous fan. I feel like like you know I just kind of follow you guys yeah I kind of just follow you guys okay maybe not then well no I pay attention a lot more because you guys are so invested obviously G's the one who kind of got the ball rolling with talking about it more on the podcast you having played college hockey like obviously you know what you're talking about you follow mostly BU and the fact that you're an associate coach kind of I was for like 10 minutes last year I still I went and visited the team last

week by that I mean visited the coaching staff and watched a little practice and I'll go back a couple times before the frozen for shout out Grinnelli who is the chick let's you master and murals and game notes murals are horrible they back a couple times before the Frozen 4. Shout out Grinelli, who is the ChickletsU master, and Murls and GameNotes. Murls and Grinelli are horrible. They didn't pick one Frozen 4 team right. They didn't get one. They didn't get one.

Army got Western Michigan, that's it. These idiots follow college hockey more than anyone, didn't pick BU. Let me tell you something about J. Pandolf. We played four years at BU. He went to the Frozen 4 every year. He's in his third year as head coach. He's been to the Frozen Four. He's seven for seven and these assholes didn't pick him to come out of that

that region. That's an incredible run. It's amazing. Amazing. You think there's a... Mixed in a couple cups there too. Do you think there's a possibility that he gets an NHL coaching job pretty soon? I think he could. I think he could if he wants and I just hope he doesn't. That's kind of where I'm at. I mean, Boston, why wouldn't Boston hire him? Because he knows. He has a kid in high school. Yeah, I'm just thinking he knows that like, you get hired to get fired in the NHL, right?

Like, you could have this, he could coach at BU the next 25 years making a hell of a living with a great team every year and just not have to worry about the drama of NHL head coach. NHL head coaches, I mean, who's, I think Knoblock's one of the most longest tenured coaches and he came into the league last year, 10 games in or whatever for the Oilers.

It's crazy. So college hockey though, BC just in an unbelievable choke, number one team in the country, they lose to Northeastern in hockey's playoffs and then barely get by Bentley only to to lose to Denver Denver now is a problem okay this goaltender is he the biggest gamer Matt Davis he's incredible Matt is there a possibility that he goes down as the best college goaltender of all time his Mike college could you read out the tweet of his college tournament the

NCAA tournament numbers so every time he's entered like the you read out the tweet of his college? Tournament the NCAA tournament numbers. So every time he's entered like the you call it the frozen for even if it's no Just NCAA tournament like regionals then frozen forces the final. Okay. Okay. All right Yeah, but his numbers are insane for all of them. I think yeah, I think he's at like a 935 safe percentage. I don't know. I mean G's gonna read it off here But somebody tweeted it out afterward. And this is the kid who last year, he was the MVP of the finals. Made that save on Leonard.

Made ridiculous saves in that final and then had one of the best post-game speeches I've ever heard. It was very emotional. Yeah, it was. They were the first university to hit 10 championships as well. So I don't know if you guys have heard

the post-game speech that he gave last year in Minnesota, but more than likely, are all four of those teams heading to St. Louis for the Semiton Finals? So Denver plays Western Michigan, both NH, what is it? NCHC. NCHC teams, which kind of people thought it was gonna be like a down year But they got two teams in the frozen for hockey's but they played each other in the NCHC finals as well

Denver goes up three nothing in the game Western Michigan comes back to beat them in overtime So there's definitely a little bad blood there Okay, it's gonna be a fun game for everyone to watch and then be you first Penn State Penn State played Yukon in an all-time classic And then BU first, Penn State. Penn State played UConn in an all-time classic. Neither team has ever been to a frozen four and Penn State got it done. Awesome goal in overtime. UConn, like I kind of felt bad. Mike Cavanaugh was a former coach at BC. He started making some big time waves with UConn. They have a new rank, but Penn State, Penn State got the better of them. I watched the game Penn State against Maine, right? That was the game prior. They worked them.

They worked them. I was impressed with Macar's brother, though. He was hammering guys. He just signed with Colorado Today. I saw that he just signed that. But going back to Penn State, that was a club hockey program not too long ago. Less than 15 years ago, when I was in college, they were a club team. Like, that's crazy. And I've seen like videos of their home barn and it was pretty much a home game for them Because you guys mentioned they were in Lehigh about they were in yeah Allentown there Which is kind of a scam that like it's bull. It's bullshit

So they like I feel like because they were the third seed the force They were the fourth seed in that like you almost shouldn't send them to what would be a home game for them Yeah, if they're gonna be there are there the 13th, 14th, 15th, or 16th, right? Like I don't know how it worked out. Maybe they were the 13th, but don't give them the chance of having two home games, right? And you know the Nittany Lions fans are gonna be traveling. They're gonna travel wherever.

So the fact that they were able to get that home crowd in Allentown was a big thing. But it is cool to see a former club hockey program. I think it's also massive for college hockey because of the alumni network. Penn State's alumni network is massive. Everywhere you go, there's Penn State alumni, and they're making waves now,

and the alumni network's gonna notice there's gonna be a ton of people in St. Louis. It's good for the game. What were Matt Davis' stats? Do you have that tweet for them? I saw against BC, 70 out of 71 shots in two tournament games, 985 tournament, 985 save percentage.

You see him in between whistles, like he looks so calm, like that must be so nice for the players, just seeing him doing his meditation, sitting there. But it's so weird to see opposite hand goalies, especially in college, like be this dominant. I know. Just looking at the game, I'm like,

oh my God, BC's gonna beat them by 15, next thing you know, they get nothing. Who do you think of when you think of like, like when they, Jose Theodore? Me too, yeah, me too. Biz, Silly Side Gold Tennis. Grefg Führer. Who Führer's he was, holy shit.

I didn't even think of him. Yeah, I think of Theodore. Jose Theodore, dummy'd us in a sandbagger. That Penn State though, my buddy in Florida, he went to Penn State, loves Penn State football, now he's all in on the hockey too. He like bought a house in Penn State just so when he goes up on the weekends

to watch football games, he has a place to stay. Like these people are insane. State college is insane. I am very worried about the future of college hockey with just kind of Big Ten completely taking over with this NIL money. Like I'm hearing Michigan has like 700 grand a year to give to kids. Now I don't know how accurate these reports are, but any team with an enormous big time

college football program is just going to have resources that teams like BU and Denver and these other teams don't. Now they're in the frozen for let's see where this goes over the next couple years, but the Big Ten programs with the football money could end up just buying up all the players. I don't know what's gonna happen. Don't you think the history of the, when I think college hockey, I don't know,

maybe it's because I'm from Mass, I think BCBU, you don't think those schools will always have the guys who wanna play there? I think they will, and I think they'll be able to give some money to guys But you know if you have this football money or maybe Yukon has basketball money, too I don't know how that'll work with them BC. You'll have some football money, too So that's kind of a little scary being a good thing about the big ten schools though Too is they'll get a TV deal like if you want a college hockey TV deal

That's only happening with the Big Ten schools. They're the ones that have the money, they have all the connections with the TV deals already, and that's what's preventing college hockey from growing the most I think right now is a TV deal. I got the stat here, it's over six NCAA tournament games, Denver goaltender Matt Davis has only allowed five goals. That's equal to less than a goal, a game,

and a nine, well thanks, Tips, and a 976 save percentage. He's made 203 saves on 208 shots. That's the highest save percentage of any goal tenter in the past five years who has played in six or more NCAA tournament games. So he's just on an absolute heater, he's feeling it. And an easy guy to root for.

So- Undrafted too, right? I believe- Undrafted, correct. I believe he's undrafted. I think he'll get a shot. So here's the thing, like, I don't know exactly where Dustin Wolf was drafted, but I don't,

is Davis not necessarily the biggest goaltender either? I think he's small. So sometimes they write off these small goaltenders where where man you just got to find guys who are gamers like I... Yeah Dustin Wolf was 214th pick seventh round 2019. And and he developed in LA and and in front of the the at the El Segundo where all the LA guys are so the fact that he slipped through the cracks there but it uh it's crazy man You got to give these gamers an opportunity I'm sure he'll get a contract somewhere when his college career is over I think the biggest news coming out of the post regionals was probably Ryan Leonard

Yeah, no surprise at all signed with Washington. So what an amazing heartbreaking loss, right? They they're number one seed in the whole tourney. They lose. And what's he gonna do? He's gonna make his debut Tuesday in Boston, his home state against the Braves, playing with Ovechkin. So, and then also Gabe Perot. I was a little surprised to see him turn pro. There's been a discussion about how you turn pro

and you burn a year of your entry level deal, right? Which by the way, Rangers fans, Pasha, I'm with you on this. So dumb. I was reading the responses. You have to go to the responses of the Rangers tweet announcing the signing of Gabe Perot. They're like, three years? Never even heard of this guy. Never even played the NHL. You're giving them three years? There's like 500 comments like that. I'm like, holy fuck, Rangers. Get out of your own way. That is what entry level contracts are, but they'll burn a year. Now the argument is, some people say,

oh yeah, get rid of a year right away, but if you're not necessarily gonna light it up in the two years you're gonna be playing, you're not gonna hit that home run on that first deal. Maybe having a third year would almost help you sometime to crush it on the second deal. Do you know what I mean? Agreed.

I think that their thinking is, is that they're gonna get plenty of opportunity in that first year, and if they don't, if they play somewhat decent in that second year, the full year, which would be, I mean, you have both options. If you light it up your first year, then all of a sudden you're actually eligible

to sign next summer, July 1st, to extend. So it kinda gives you two opportunities without having to wait that extra year. I mean, look at what, what do you think Connor Bedard's gonna get? I know we're kind of jumping ships here at a guy who was a number one overall pick, but he's proved it for two years now.

I'm pretty sure he's gonna finish with 65, 70 points, and he's probably gonna make 10 million a year. Two years. I can't wait years you read his deal I bet he's gonna get 10. I think it's gonna be more than that. Actually, we should be talking about college All of her more and Sam Renzell from the University of Minnesota who also lost they turned pro with Chicago this Renzell Incredible I told you guys six five. I didn't know much about this guy dude. He skates like the wind He's incredible man. And once he fills out to that's what everyone when we went there was saying is this I told you guys six five. I didn't know much about this guy dude. He skates like the wind

He's incredible man, and once he fills out to that's what everyone when we went there was saying is this kid hasn't even touched So how did Minnesota win then if he played there then snuggaroo play there? They had all these guys and they could win there their choker They choke a choke artist chokers and snuggaroo and snuggaroo left as well, and he's playing for the blues I got a chance to talk to army. I tomorrow night? Did you talk to Army about it? Nice. I got the chance to talk to Army. I actually got a chance to talk to Nick Dowd.

He won't be on this podcast, but it was good to catch up with an old teammate, and a guy who's been a member of Washington Capitals for seven seasons now, and he joined them the year after they'd won it, and obviously there was a lot of superstars and special players on that team, but obviously this year has been you know probably his best most

successful year there and we did touch on the fact that Ryan Leonard will be joining them at the end of the season here to get his feet wet and and and Leonard having spent that extra year at college and doing what he did who knows man like he has the opportunity to come in here and make an impact, come playoff time. These young fresh legs, seems like he's a little stockier. He's built like a shit house. He's got the NHL build already. Yeah.

Which they say too, if you need to get bigger, you go to college so you can lift five days a week. And I think when he's out there on the ice, it's like when a point guard has the basketball, you're like, oh my God, he's gonna there on the ice, it's like when a point guard has the basketball, you're like, oh my God, he's going to do something here. And it's every shift with him. He is a, I didn't watch a ton of their games this year, but probably the last four or five and he is a special, special player. Now look at it, Washington's lineup right here. Like they got Wilson with Strom and

Protoss. They got Ovi with Pierre-Luc Dubois and Bolivier. They got Mangy Apani with Lars Eller and Taylor Radish. Then they got Connor McMichael with Nick Dowd and Brandon Duhame. This is on Daily Face Off's line charts. So like, with the year they've had, right? Like all of a sudden, it's kinda odd. Somebody's getting bumped out for Leonard.

Looking at this, I would assume Bolivier. Now this is without me knowing anything about the season he's had. But you're not gonna stick him on the fourth line, I don't think. Maybe you do, but even then, like who's coming off there? So when a team's that good, it is a little bit of a story, like oh, who's coming out?

Well, so they traded for, he was in Pittsburgh and they traded for him, right, Bolivier? That's where he started this season. I think he's a pretty streaky player, the type of guy who can get hot. He did have one decent playoff run there with the Islanders, I felt like, and yeah, I feel like he'd be the easy guy, at least off the hop, just to get Leonard's feet wet. And if Leonard hops in and he looks like an NHL player, like, you know, I wouldn't be shocked if you saw him for the rest of the year.

Now, if he's having a hard time getting adjusted, at least he gets to be around the environment, be around the team, get used to what it's like to be a full-time NHLer, but it's actually the perfect team to get kicked off with if we're gonna transition to the NHL. Not only did I get a chance to talk to Nick Dowd, but the Jacob Chickren deal. What a monster contract. I also didn't realize he's only 26.

He's still young, man. Has he been in the NHL since 19? He's been since he was very young. Yeah, with the- Holy shit. What is the news I'm hearing about he wants light bulbs out of his house? No, no, no.

Is this like fake news? I think Shrone was messing around. Yeah, I think they were blowing it a little bit out of proportion. I think at some- The health nut. At a certain time, we should get Pasha on to talk about this unless we want to keep

How he's on the phone right now trying to get out of the dog goes hey, hey, babe. Don't listen tomorrow Hey, yeah, the dog goes, but if I'm in there, could you put candles instead of light bulbs babe? I just took a dick pill Love you, but at a certain time of night You don't want to be like taking in any blue blue as they call it. It fucks up with your sleeping. Your circadian rhythm. Your circadian rhythm. So when I'm laying in bed on my phone for an hour, it's not good.

I've literally been doing it the last 15 years. Shit. Yeah. I was just life going. How about my laptop on my bean bag right now, like it has been for the last 20 years. I'm low T, that's why. I got the fucking phone on my cock.

I think I'm low T too, that's why I'm sick. But like, literally perfect timing, you know, he's dealt with so many injuries I know the years and like, you know I don't even know if he's had a full season played yet like based on the fact that how much he's been injured But last year he played 82. Oh he did. Okay, so it was a and it didn't work out there You know, everyone's like oh, what's gonna go on in Washington? Well, he just had a 20-goal mark the other any goals and that was after he signed his deal too So he got 19 and 20 and I would say that you know, once Carlson's gone, that's kind of his his decor, right?

He's the offensive guy. He's got the big shot. He can run power play and and given with the growth of his game He could probably handle all situations, right? So he actually turned 27 today, his birthday, happy birthday, Jacob Chickren. He just got married over the break too during four nations, so a lot of positive things happening for him. There was another rumor that he got rid of the marriage. No he got married over the brick yeah over the four nation eight times nine he got no well actually eight times four and a

half because he got married right oh yeah yeah you're done you're done you're done eight times two after expenses and yet but no but what were we you were saying something about Tesla. Tesla. Oh yeah, apparently he doesn't want to be sitting on a battery all day too. Or doesn't want somebody to like blow your car up because you're driving one of those. That's not ideal. But he's taken a lot of steps from the nutrition, the training perspective, and he's went all

in and dived all in on that. And it's obviously paying dividends like as much as as much as the chirps he get eating the raw meat and liver King this and light bulb that like whatever he's doing is working it I will join whatever cult he's in if I can get a ticket like that and and look like a Greek God yeah very good-looking man oh he looks like that Hemingsworth yeah he does like that pictureingsworth. Yeah, he does like that picture. He's a mess. That picture's crazy Oh, but he looks like a Greek guy on this one. It's like whoa. What the hell? That's an Ottawa that's a he had the short hair and he looked like an absolute

Oh, you had the wrong diet going then that's why he was doing Why he looks so pale what a deal though for him I mean, I think he's tore one ACL twice and the other one once. So there's times where this guy's wondering, am I ever gonna get a big payday, right? And I think he had signed, it was like. He signed a pretty good deal.

I wanna say it was six, I think it was six years at like four and a half. And it was one of those ones that at least provide, it provides you enough security knowing you're never gonna go broke. But I think that he had bigger aspirations being drafted in the first round. He was a studding junior.

You're playing in the NHL at such a young age. And yeah, I think that he was the type of guy who believed in himself to reach the echelon in which he's done this year. I mean, fucking 20 goals as a D-man. He might finish with 25. That's insane. We talked about Makar maybe hitting the 30 mark and how he's a shoe in for the Norris.

Well, I mean, Chickren ain't that far behind. I think that based on this year's stats, he's easily a top 15, maybe even top 10 defenseman. So good for him, very well deserved. And it's just like a great message out there to any kid whether you get drafted high whether you don't and you just battle injuries like don't give up pour everything you have into it and and the game will find a way to eventually take care of you if you put that much into it. As Bugsy Malone said love the game it'll love you back. Yeah but say it in his voice. Hey love the game we love you back. Is what I say. Jägerbaum. Jägerbaum. So staying in the in the East

Montreal with an enormous win against Florida 4-2 actually sticking with Florida for a sec. Marshawn plays his first game Friday night gets the game winning assist in overtime. Who's he give it to? Ben at the menace. Ben at the menace. I'm like, Jesus Christ, these two together, Kachuk's out there skating today, so I assume that he's on the right path, getting back for playoffs, but Montreal,

they're not going away. They are not going away. Lane Hudson gets three assists. One of them was a beaut to Suzuki, right through the crease. They win four-two in Florida, and it was an ugly game. I never seen this Mikala What the hell is he doing? He took a slap shot at the other team. Did you see that? He got fine five? Yeah, for some reason he took a slap shot I saw the ref got the ref basically like saved him the ref at that point should let him go and like

You have to fight if you're gonna take a slap shot at the other team, like you should be allowed to be attacked. I think that he had a calm temperament before he went over to Florida, but once you join that whack pack, you just become a crazy person. They tell you, like you have to do something really, really dirty tonight,

or you're not hanging out with the Pee-Haw Brothers. All right, I'll take a slap shot at the Canadians. But the Canadians, right now, they sit in the in the second wild card spot. They have a game in hand on the Rangers who are tied with them in points. But Columbus has a game in hand on Montreal and they're two points back. Detroit, on the other hand, man, I don't know what's going on in Detroit. It seems like they just they couldn't even build on last year. And they are not out of it by any means.

They have nine games remaining right now. They're three points out. It's more about just Columbus and New York are in front of them till you get to that second spot in Montreal. But it seems like Larkin and Raymond have gone a little cold. I also am doing some research and finding out the Red Wings are have a chance of basically having the worst penalty kill in league history Like their penalty kills just horrific so you can't all of a sudden have a great power play as they do this year

And then lose your PK. I guess Todd McClellan was talking about how before he got there They were trying something then they've tried something else now They're trying something else so they're almost kind of like stuck in between three different ways to try to stop taking penalties that's that's kind of where I was going next maybe just stay out of the box but much Detroit fans they're looking at it like last year you remember the push they had they were right there one point they almost did it and now this year it's like we're taking a step back and I don't know if at some point you think Steve Iserman's job is you know a little bit on the hot seat or something,

but the Red Wings, I thought this year, now all of a sudden Montreal, who nobody considered even close to really where Detroit or Ottawa was, is looking better than Detroit is. I think that if next year they don't have a season like Ottawa had this year, that you could start the conversation. I think that it's Stevie Y. I think he he's gonna get a little bit more of a longer leash than majority of guys in that seat, especially what he's done for that organization, and he deserves it,

and I think he's a brilliant hockey mind. Ultimately, if your draft picks aren't hitting, which I think that they have a wave of really young ones that are about to kind of come to fruition and really start making an impact. You mentioned like Larkin and Debrinket have calmed down a little bit. I just think that they're just so top heavy and they're so reliant on those guys that to just count on them for a full 82 every season, no team does that. Like the teams with depth where they can snap it around,

where certain guys could take the limelight off those guys for a five, 10 game segment, that's the type of roster that you have to build. So I guess I'm not shocked based on how the deadline went. And it just didn't seem like they were pushing the chips in and that they were in any type of win mode now, but they're still in the Viagra triangle going into next year if they don't make playoffs. But if it's an ugly start and they start fading off, na na na na, they're walking the fucking plank. And I would, I bet you if you polled majority

of Detroit fans and you said by the end of next year, if it's another abysmal season, no playoffs, that you could start the clock at that point where if that following year there's no playoffs, so another two years of misses, you gotta, at a certain point, what do you do? At some point, you gotta. Sometimes if you don't have an answer

to put somebody better in the seat, you kinda just keep riding the horse. I would imagine that if somebody's going to start barking at that point. Am I crazy? No, not at all. I mean, yes, you are, but not with that. I am the third. But it's also too, who was the last big name free agent to sign there? They're kind of in that, you know, it's not the greatest city, no offense, but guys aren't dying to go there, you know what I mean?

When they were winning, you know, they were getting, you know, the Brett Hulls, the Brendan Shanhans, the big boys wanting to go there because they were winning. But now you have to draft well, you have to develop your guys. They've been known for really good development, sending their guys to Grand Rapids, giving them

a couple, couple of years in the minors to figure it out, but I think they gotta pull the trigger a little bit sooner now with these young guys and get some young blood in there and develop them in the NHL as opposed to the AHL, because you're not getting the signings that you were back in the day. I thought that Teresenko would be a lot better there.

He wins the cup last year and signs in Detroit, and he's got 10 goals, 71 games. That's just kinda like, you needed him to pop off for 25 to 30 and then you're looking at like, all right, we have another goal scorer in the lineup and maybe he's just kinda, he's got 822 NHL games, 121 in the playoffs, he's 33 but never been the fastest skater, maybe now that's kinda catching up

with him but I thought he would be a lot better this year than he has been for Detroit. Raymond's been awesome, but like I said, he's kinda slowed down a little bit. It seems like since Four Nations, like you see these teams that had like guys with a bunch of break, you know? And like, look at Washington, right?

Nobody was there. And now Edmonton's dealing with a McDavid injury, and some of these teams that had guys there It's just it's almost hurt them a little bit, but Florida, Florida. Yeah, exactly So although Ottawa hasn't slowed down the one other East team that like we never talk about and if they do go to the Cup finals, you'll need security business. Carolina's just humming along. Maybe maybe this year somehow Carolina is able to do it. They have a great first round matchup against a team

that Pascha roots for that stinks. Halsey's, it's like rejuvenated his career. I know, I know. He looks awesome there. And I think that it's about being comfortable, right? Maybe the way that he plays, Rod Brindamore loves it, but I think that Carolina's sneaky, just moving along, moving along.

And what's his Jarvis has been awesome, man. That guy, he's probably gotten a lot of confidence actually from four nations, even though he didn't play an enormous role. He gets to see how these guys act, these superstars, and he's he's been playing great. So, yeah, Hall's got 14 points in 23 games, their eight goals. And Carolina's eight and two in their last 10. So I don't know anyone else in the East actually staying in the East. 14 points in 23 games, they're eight goals, and Carolina's eight and two in their last 10. So, I don't know, anyone else in the East? Actually, staying in the East, we gotta talk about Torz.

He got himself fired. They lost an absolute blowout game to the Maple Leafs, and he came out and said, I got no desire to be coaching this team, basically. I don't know. And then there was, apparently, there was an incident with York can York Right where where the following game after torts was like what what was the title that they said that he was relieved of his duties

Yeah, they well, yeah, I got exactly fired. But Elliot said at first that he stepped down Because he hadn't heard yet from the Flyers and then the flies Can't fire me if I quit kind of yeah. Yeah, yeah, can you come in my office? I quit I think essentially he was he was fired. So then the the following game after he was relieved of his duties Cam York sat on the bench the whole game Like that's what I did didn't play one second didn't get didn't get to step over the board So even count as a game played for people who don't know that sucks at least give him a 10-minute misconduct So he gets the game played like that reeks of maybe like they kind of got in like a shoving match and maybe things

I talked to somebody in Philly chest to chest. No, it was just um Like he had a bad play in the first period. Toronto scored and Torz came in and just was unloading on him. And then he kind of went back at him, like almost one of those, like, hey, I'm gonna be here longer than you are. Whoa. Yeah, I heard he got personal with Yorkie and Yorkie was taking it for a while

and then he got personal with him and then Yorkie unloaded on him, which I love that out of a, if you, he had enough. He had enough. You get personal with the guy and then Yorkie unloaded on him, which I love that. Out of a, if you get personal with the guy and then that's different. Call me a loser 16 or 17 more times. I'm outta here. Shout out baseball. Small cock, bad breath, guys don't like you.

Yeah, hit him with everything. So he didn't play the rest of that game, then torts got fired and then the team just like punished him, like we can't have that You know you screaming back at a coach you're screaming at you. It's probably at the popcorn out like yeah But they didn't have they they had to dress them because they like didn't have enough healthy guys to not you're not not a call-ups Yeah, oh really? Yeah Jesus Philly man, but they had to dress them because not have enough healthy guys to not, you're not allowed to dress. They ran out of call-ups. Yeah, oh really? Yeah. Jesus, Philly, man.

But they had to dress him, he's not having enough guys. You're not allowed to dress, not the number that you need. So he just sat on the bench all game. Gritty play. Yeah, that's it, that's, but I mean, I played with Yorkie for the year in Philly. Nice kid, passionate kid, cares, but like, I would have never expected him to yell back

at a coach like that and I absolutely love it. No shit. Yeah, I mean, I'm sure you just had enough. It's probably been three years. So you know the full story then. No, I don't. I don't. Bullshit, Yanz.

But yeah, no, I'm proud of him. Should we waterboard Yanz to get a lot of him? I think Torz was like telling him like, re-sign here, I'll bury you. It was getting a little over the line, I'd say. Oh, you know what was said? I don't know anything. I'm just telling you what I'm hearing.

If you hit someone with the, I'm gonna be here longer than you, and then they get fired the next day, it's so fucking funny. Hey, I remember when Terrian was just like all over me I remember my agent would be like dude you're gonna be there longer than him you're gonna be there longer than him I was like, okay. Yeah, that's a good thing to think it's a good thing to think and then he got fired And then I got traded like four days later and my agent was like hey, I told you you made it longer than he did

Technically I did make it a day longer than him. At least you could trust me with. Yeah, exactly. I'm a man of my word. My words are strong as oak. But it said, Brie said, I felt it was time. You're gonna ask me, is there one thing that happened? It's not one thing, it's a series of things

that have happened and probably a little bit more in the last three weeks that have escalated since the trade deadline. I'm guessing he wasn't thrilled, right? Like Lawton gets traded, they'd already traded Frost and Farabee, and you're just kind of at a place towards is like 65, 66 years old. The team, I don't think Philly is even remotely close to being a good team. Like, when are they going to be good?

You know, it'd be ironic if Anaheim hired him. And Goche got him. No, they just traded Cronin for Torts. Oh, Goche. Goche. Goche. Goche. Dude. Dude.

Um, do you think Torts coaches again? I think he does. What? I don't think any, I don't think the league can quit this guy. I kind of agree with you. And it's like, who would hire? It's like a toxic relationship where the guy just like, can't not take the girl back. Like justine come back.

Conditioning step. You almost like towards his revenge. I'm trying to think of what team could, it would be a veteran team. Yeah. It'd have to be like Carolina if they would ever fire Bryndamore and bring him in for half a year or something. Imagine they were together, both a half. He was making four million though. He's got one year left of four million. Well, not anymore.

No, I think because the way they handled it, he's still gonna get his money. Really? Yeah, I think so. I think so. Oh, this wasn't his last year? No, he had a year and a half. No, it's kind of four times four, which is that's a that's a healthy tag. Um, okay

So where where would you most love to see torts? Winnipeg back to the Rangers Speaking of him and Brooksie, uh I met Brooksie son. He was at the Barstool Bar. No shit. That's the picture I sent you. Can you name this guy's dad who we interviewed? I sent the picture. That was him. That was him.

He was wrecked. Great guy. Great guy. Came up to me at one point. He's like, wanna call him? Wanna call him? Showing me his phone. It was Lula Amorello.

I'm like, no Brooksie Jr. We're not gonna call Lula Amorello right now in the bar stool bar But I met I would have called him. He was telling me all about him and his dad his dad's battle with torts and stuff Great guy little Bruxy. He's like 45. No, what was he at? He's no he was there like the day before and be there He was on like a bachelor party there and then at the same time la violette son was there And I don't even think they knew each other I I wouldn't obviously I don't want to see it because it means things wouldn't be going well in Toronto I love chief imagine towards in Toronto. That would be a

Real yeah him and Steve Simmons just fucking fist fist fighting wow, I mean where his torts been he's been in Tampa He's been in Columbus? He's been in Tampa, he's been in New York, he's been in Columbus, he's been in Vancouver, he's been in Philly. Are we missing anywhere else? Is he coach Calgary? I think he was a assistant before too, right? That doesn't count. Where else could he be?

Yeah, Boston is there rebuilding. Oh my. Torz would scratch pasta in an instant. Pasta's been unreal this year too, by the way. The Bruins, gee, are so bad. Maybe they're gonna get a top five pick though. They might, could be top four. Top four, I don't know why I saw McAvoy skating again.

I would, why did you just keep him out? Keep tanking. Sit him till September. The good news though is, is I'm sure that we'll see Torts back on television. Yes, yes, I would think so. Maybe with you. Were you with him before?

Yeah, he was doing ESPN, so I would imagine they would bring him back and or us. We started bringing in bonus too, but I mean, maybe they wanna snap it around and bring him in for a test ride. I would love to do a show with him. I've heard he's great. Oh, he's a guy.

Oh, same. Family guy. I had him in the Olympics, so it was two weeks, and he hated me as a player. Well, that's easy. But he was the man as a guy. Yeah. I think guys do love him as a guy.

I think just as a coach, he just wears you down. Wears you down. Wears you down. Yeah. And then just grinds your gears over and over. You know what I did think about Torz though, going back to NCAA, that kid tried the Michigan on Yukon, and did you see that?

A kid on Yukon in overtime tried doing the Michigan, and the defensive from Penn State ran in over, and I was like, Torz might just crank one off to that. Like you know Torz hates the Michigan, if you see a defenseman just light up somebody doing the Michigan, Torz is probably just watching that. Torts might coach Penn State now just to coach that kid. In the, in the spank bank. Oh, that kind of just reminded me, uh, the,

our first ever pilot episode of the show, Peeking with me and Juan Tondon is going to be airing later this week. So if you guys want to check that out, that'll be on. Tell people what the show is about, what you did for the first episode. Yeah. So are the... Tell them about your order. Tell them about you ordering breakfast. Yeah. Yeah. That was kind of the order heard around the world where it was very high maintenance. I ordered breakfast where I changed literally every single thing on the...

I get eggs over easy, but over medium. Fresh squeezed orange juice from McDonald's. Yeah. So that ended up going viral, but the premise is, is we're gonna pick a new location, we're gonna travel mostly to national parks and we're gonna go explore a city or a town or the area and then we're gonna proceed by doing a hike of some sort. We did Mount La Conte, so it was in the Smokies and it was awesome. It was like about an 11 mile hike, like close to five and a half on the way up

and five and a half on the way down, obviously. And it was a great day and obviously we enjoy some Scooby snacks on the way up too. So it was just a great time exploring with the Juan Tondon and Cory, who's our film guy. And he edited the thing, so it'll be coming out and this is the pilot episode and I look forward To doing more. I would probably try to bring them to Arizona next Then camp out on my lot in Jackson and go do something in the backwoods there, which would be awesome

Ryan with them and then eventually in the summertime Yeah head out to to Vancouver and do something in the Pacific Northwest area. Grouse-Ryne could be an easy, like a quick one, but I think you want more of a substantial hike, especially if you're in that part of the world. Like Grouse-Ryne, you're done in 50, 51 minutes or whatever. Or if you're Bedard, you're done in 38.

At this point, we're obviously not getting Bedard because he hates my guts, because I told him to play defense better and which then they moved him to the wing because I'm the best coach in the world. Didn't you guys go to Dollywood on that trip? We went to Dollywood to go sniff Dolly Parton's bras. Yeah, that was a fun exhibit.

It's like a Six Flags but Dolly Parton themed. Yeah. Oh, it's an amusement park? I thought it was like Graceland for Dolly Parton but yeah, it's an amusement park. You just ride like mechanical tits. Yeah, that's it. Speaking of, I did a monster,

I toured Nashville in a monster truck, forgot to mention that. What? Yeah, there's something for why. Not the teacups, the tea, I don't know how to say it. To today, Junior. Phil Raruto.

I toured Nashville in a monster truck, and on the tour I learned that it's called the Volunteer State in Tennessee because Texas was fighting some war with Mexico, and they asked for 2,800 men, like the state of Texas asked for 2,800 men like the state of Texas asked for like 2,800 men from Tennessee and 30,000 men went to help like they're just great people in Tennessee and I am assuming they won the war considered it's Texas and not Mexico and now because of this still to this day the tour guide told me that if any kid in Tennessee gets into college in Texas,

college is paid for. Wow. Gee, look at us. Unbelievable. No, I don't even wanna know if it's fake. So, it's the volunteers is the name of the university, isn't it? Yes, yes, University of Tennessee Volunteers.

Is that Knoxville? That's in Knoxville, yeah. Okay, so that's actually where I landed to go meet Donnie. Oh, really? And then we went to a place called Pigeon Forge. I went- Must be horrible. The worst place on earth. Yeah.

There was 14 laser tags, 29 mini putts. There was like a- Mini putts? Buddy, there was a million mini putts. They had any, any like junk store. You can imagine a dollar stores I hate a vape shop vape shop cash. Oh, yeah, you want inflatable dolls? Yeah, come here Oh, what shitty cheap t-shirts that you don't need come here. Yeah, you want a million mugs? Come on over It was called pigeon Forge and then the the the main place where we stayed before we went on the hike

was called Gatlinburg, Gatlinburg! And the whole city looks like it's owned by Ripley's, believe it or not, and there's all these pancake houses. The food is terrible, terrible! He brought me to this place called the Moody Mushroom, and he said, he vouched for it, he's like, oh, this is unbelievable pizza. I wouldn't feed it to your dog.

Are you sure it wasn't a mellow mushroom? It was the mellow mushroom. Yeah, I've had that before. You've had it? Yeah, it's a chain, it's like a domino. That's when he started balding from the tryptanite they put in the pizza. Fucking Christ.

So, I mean, the people were very kind and friendly. You know, the pancake houses were the pancake houses, but if you do have an opportunity to hike Mount Lakonte, it's called Lakonte. Jesus Christ, he's stitching for it. And they have these, they have these shacks at the top of it where if you get out a year in advance

and you can file for a a permit you can stay up top So you can hike it stay up there for the night cook your own food Smoke some J's do some shrooms and then and then come back down the next day So it makes for a pretty cool experience We were fortunate where we went on a Friday and on on the Fridays They send the llamas up where they have like they put all the supplies on and we cook send the llamas up where they have, like they put all the supplies on the llamas. And we cook up those llamas and eat them up with some barbecue sauce.

We slit their throat before in a gold-scoring slump and we eat the llamas. No, but they carry- Send them to the K.H.L. They carry all the supplies up because like when you get up there, it's like as old school and you're, it's like you step back in time.

Like you're in like the Jesus Christ era. Yeah, yeah. Where nobody wants to go. How much would we have to pay you to go do that hike? I don't mind a little hike. He goes on like seven mile hikes. Like I'll do a mile, do a mile up a hill. I like blue hills.

It's like 700 feet, 75 feet. You can bomb up there and get a little sweat going. Yeah, it's not bad. It's not bad Would you would you? Would you rather have gone through the sickness you've gone through today or have to have done that trip with me? I'd rather go through this sickness for a week straight and do that Sex you were eating shit food, you were just ugh, ugh. But I will say, I wouldn't change it for the world.

Like hanging out with the four Playboys. Oh no, oh no. Check it out, Poking with Juan Tandon and Biz coming out this week. Kids in Tennessee definitely have to pay tuition. Yeah, you made that up. Really? No, I didn't make it up.

The guy driving the monster truck. Maybe they get the in-state like as if you pay. Just, just attending a public school or university in Texas as an out of state student from Tennessee typically means paying higher tuition rates. Oh yeah, not even. That's what happens when you're driving a monster truck, giving a tour. Yeah, it's on. It's sponsored by Monster Energy and meth.

Like you don't think. It's got the brass balls on the back Yeah, I mean this guy said this he's so confident so Trustworthy, I he's like I'm gonna say that on the pod sure shit. He was lying Well going out at West the LA Kings are not frauds like Merle says they're a wagon right now Now the Leafs did get him and I think they lost another game I think they lost their last two games the Kings, but they look good man and Quinton byfields probably one of the biggest reasons I This has been your team for three years now biz like one of you said and one call to save my life Well, yeah, the a HL team did but yeah, I the organization did you weren't on a two-way?

did but yeah I the organization did you weren't on a two-way okay so you're gonna stick with as you have the three prior years that they're gonna beat Edmonton I think that like you were laughing them off stage murals were calling them frauds I never called them frauds murals I know I can't pick one you were like there's no way that Edmonton loses to them I think that Edmonton needs to get healthy and things need to start going in the right direction for them, they need to figure out their fucking goaltending and not get any more offer sheets

and their players stolen from them. And yeah, I think that they do have, I think that if you ask me right now, if both teams healthy, I would give Edmonton a 51% chance to win that series. I think it's going seven. I wouldn't be like that shocked if they lost. Like I feel like Edmonton got smaller, slower,

and older in the off season. Like say what you want about how Skinner's played lately, he's played a little bit better. Nugent Hopkins has turned the corner. But like look at the fucking list of guys They lost they lost Fogel. They lost move last the on the Kings I think he I think he's like second on their team and five on five goals. He's got 22 this year. He's been great Yeah, I don't I don't think he barely plays any fucking power play

The list goes on of guys that they lost and then they replace them with the Arvidsons the Skinners They're they're smaller players. I really liked Arvidsons playoff two years ago with the LA Kings I just am not as threatened as I would have been last year about the Edmonton Oilers and the The the question mark on McDavid's health and he's not back quite yet, that just fucking scares me a little bit. And they seem to be very top heavy.

So it's not only like, oh hey, welcome back to lineup. Hey, we're gonna be playing you 24 minutes a night because we're not as deep as we were last year. So I could be totally wrong and they could just all of a sudden, Frederick's back, Evander Cain's in the lineup and they're fucking buzzing like the 84 Oilers again by all means, but I think this one's gonna go the distance.

The only thing that helps the Oilers in my mind is like the Kings leading scorer, they have two guys with 60 points, okay, right? Like that, it's Kempe and Kopitar, their next guy Fial, has 50 points. So when you're talking about like true top end talent, like they can't sniff the Oilers, but obviously the Oilers were way better last year.

Like I can admit it. And they fucked up with a couple moves in the off season. The Armstrong buried us with frigging Hallway and Broberg. Hallway looks like fucking Patrick Kane in his prime right now hallway and Broberg hallway looks like fucking Patrick Kane and his prime right now and Broberg's phenomenal But it's still about like McDavid and Leon and LA having nobody close to them, too I do believe it would go seven now interestingly enough it went seven games three years ago Then six then last year was just domination in five this year if LA holds on to home ice

They're great at home, but they suck on the road So it's also like if Edmonton can get one game in LA then all of a sudden we just hold hold court at home And we win the series But it's a weird feeling now seeing the Kings be and the Kings are deeper no doubt I love Gavrikov on D, like Brant Clark. It's just, it's a team that's very good. And Kemper's actually been awesome this year, but it's like, I don't know if you've seen his numbers,

but he could be like, almost like Vezna type if it wasn't for Hellebock just being out of this planet. So LA's got a very good team, but Byfield, that's what Kopitar said, he's been our best player for a while. Like he has kind of reached another level But they don't have Leon and Connor. That's my only hope now. How long does that last for the Oilers? Who knows this year?

It's been it's been just bizarre and if you can get Frederick Kane and Connor back That's a different team. We're talking about if Kane comes back, and he's like really good like then we could win the cup That's the thing is like right now, right now it looks like doomsday, but in two weeks it's all of a sudden, oh wow, they've worked the fucking Kings in five and they're fucking on to greener pastures. Now Leon came back.

Ooh, 50 and 51 baby. And he put on a clinic against Calgary. He had an assist on the first goal by Arvidsson. And he put on a clinic against Calgary. He had an assist on the first goal by Arvidsson. He then scored the tying goal with like five minutes left for his 50th goal, his fourth season being a 50 goal score, and then got the OT winner number 51 to win 3-2.

I tweeted out yesterday that Leon Dreissel is the MVP of the league, and if you don't think that, you get a big dump in your pants. Some people were very upset saying like hellebuck and McKinnon I get it and I think that those are the three finalists But to me Leon like leading the league and goals by this many He's played most of the year with Paul Colson and Arvidsson like come on and I understand he's got McDavid on power plays and stuff but

McKinnon has McCarr. It's not that crazy to think that you have another big time guy, but without Leon this year, who's been the Oilers' best player by a lot, who knows where they are? They could be sitting out of the playoffs right now, and Leon's just been so good. He's got 50 goals, 50 assists, again. 51 goals now.

51 goals, 50 and 50 guy though. It's just, to me, he's the MVP. He's carried the team completely. I would have no problem with him. Okay, I appreciate that. Keith? Yeah, I think any questions that were ever in the past of could he do it without Con or whatever,

he's obviously put those to bed the last few years. He could drive the bus on any team. He doesn't need somebody else. He could drive the bus on any team, he doesn't need somebody else, he is an absolute stud. So the thing that like, scoring 51 goals and I still think of him as a passer, a playmaker. He's such a good playmaker, but he just knows how to finish.

Like he's not ripping the puck a thousand miles an hour like Ovechkin, but he just knows how to shoot it. He beats goalies and weird balls. Yeah, and it's that weird paddle. I'm sure shoot it. He beats goalies in weird spots. Yeah, and that weird paddle. I'm sure it's hard for the goalies to read coming off it, but yeah, he's 100% in the MVP race and probably should win it just seeing how many he did. You know where he got his paddle from?

Remember that old goalie stick that was in the away room at Rexall? That's it, oh my God. Did you ever play a way game at Rexall? They used to have that big, that huge ass goalie stick. I don't even remember it though. It was just sitting in the locker room. It was just in the away room.

Yeah. I remember we used to give it to Red when we were going all the way out. Remember Red? Oh, the best in Calgary. Oh, best Red story. So Red was, he worked the visitor's room in Calgary and we used to bring him to Edmonton. He'd fly on our plane with us.

And remember Red, he sat outside the room, he was going, let's go. Let's go. So, it started with Walt, right? Keith Kachuk was very good to people who were like underprivileged. Like there's stories of Walt when the team buffet was done and all the guys had gone in their room

to take their pregame nap. Like if there was like a homeless person or two outside, he would invite them in the meal room to like finish the food because there was always this unbelievable food that was left over. In some cases, I even heard that he invited a few people up to be able to use his room to shower. Is that true?

I've never heard that. Maybe, that wouldn't tell me. Yeah, but he's just like such a salt of the earth, unreal human being. So I think when he was playing in Winnipeg, they got to meet this red guy. And when he was moved on from Phoenix, he would then meet them when Phoenix came into town for Calgary Edmonton road trip. And then donor kind of took the torch. So this guy was kind of our good luck charm.

I don't think we lost the game in Edmonton my five years like our record against them was unbelievable It was also when wit was there too. They would Remember we beat you guys one game there for sure. Maybe one I bet you eat well wait So he he was in Calgary He'd come on the flight with us to Edmonton and we got him a room at the hotel and we were like red How was your stay last night? He was like, oh, it was good. He was like, next time, do you think you could get me

a room with a TV in it? It was in like the bureau, you know how like you have to open it up? He didn't open up the, what's it called? Yeah, like the armoire. He didn't open that up to find the TV. He's like, I don't have any clothes to put in there. I'm not gonna go in that room. Oh, that was where the TV was, Red. Armoire. Armoire, I like that. That's a good word. So speaking of the West, finishing it up,

I think the 18s are set. I think he was a huge strip club guy too. He used to throw the tuneys. Oh yeah, we'd all give him 100 bucks from our per diem pack and he'd go blow it at the rip joint. Oh my God, he'd probably marry one of them with all that. He'd get 2200 bucks. No he did.

Yeah he did, and he fucking lost half of it immediately to the sweat of the West. He'd go, I'm gonna go get a new one. I'm gonna go get a new one. I'm gonna go get a new one. I'm gonna go get a new god, he'd probably marry one of them with all that. He'd get 2200 bucks. No he did. Yeah he did and he fucking lost half of it immediately to the stripper. The eight teams are set in the Westall I think.

St. Louis has been on a complete tear. We're gonna throw it to Army in a second. The Wild probably have a better chance of getting caught by somebody. This is a St. Louis Blues themed podcast. Ever since the winter classic, right before that, they made the trade for Cam Fowler. That's where I kind of felt like they had something.

I still didn't then. The Kelly Chase shoulder pads. It felt like they started gaining a little bit momentum. Braden Schenn's thousand game. You could say maybe it started earlier in the year when they picked up Monty. They had a hot start with him. Then they kind of faltered again after that.

But I really felt like after the winter classic and Fowler scoring a couple goals in his thousand game and just kind of the mojo along with guys, like it's not just Holloway and Broberg, like Thomas. Cairo have had huge ears, Bolduc, they have this player in a window of 23 to 26 that are like, that's going to be their next core group that are all peaking right now at the perfect time. And this has been a hell of a run. Nine in a row.

One if not the hottest team since the four nations. I talked to it to it with Doug Armstrong about how Thomas couldn't go Because he was hurt. So, you know got the rest and really built up like fuck. I want to play meaningful hockey. So Should we throw it over to Doug Armstrong? Yep. Yep winners of nine a row including last Last game against Colorado to one-1 on the road. Before that it was against Nashville, they were down 2-0, and then storm back 3-0 unanswered. So it's been a magical run and Benner's kicking, so they're fucking looking dangerous. Alright, time right now for Doug Armstrong.

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or text HOPE-NY467369. In Connecticut, help is available for problem gambling. Call 888-789-77777 or visit c ccpg.org. Please play responsibly. On behalf of Boothill Casino and Resorting Kansas. 21 and over, age and eligibility varies by jurisdiction. Voighton, Ontario. Bonus bets expire 168 hours after issuance. For additional terms and responsible gaming resources, see dkng.co.au. Welcome back to the podcast. Unfortunately, given the fact that you gave offer sheets to Broberg and Holloway,

Witt will no longer be joining the podcast where we do interviews. So we've lost him. Yans' flight was delayed, but it's great to have you on. And your team is humming right now. One of the hottest teams in the league. It must feel unbelievable. It sure does. I give, you know, obviously the guys have came out of that four nations

event with a purpose and they've played really good hockey since then. I think the having a new coach, uh, because I think having that little training camp, mini training camp really helped us and, uh, Bennington and Pranque were coming back on a high and then Robert Thomas being healthy is, has taken his game to a new level. And, and just from top to bottom young players to, to, uh, our captain Shen playing fantastic hockey, we we've had contributions throughout the lineup and that's the way we're built.

And to have success, we need to have, have everyone pulling the rope in the same direction. So, uh, we actually got Shaddy coming on this podcast as well to talk about his retirement. So we're making it very blues focus. But going back to the start of the year when you had to make that decision to let Bannister go, I mean, obviously it felt like Monty was really a guy that you'd been eyeing. So when he was fired, you guys scoop him up right away. Just an absolute no-brainer for you guys.

It was and it was one of those things where, you know, going to bed the night before, we weren't considering a coaching change whatsoever. You know, we had, we were going to move in a certain direction and all of a sudden as someone of the caliber of Jim Montgomery comes available and you have to be, you know, for us we had a plan, but you have to also be able to adjust to something like that coming down the pike. And again, Monte's track record, our relationship, my understanding of working with him here and, and knowing him, I thought he was a perfect fit, not only

for what we're doing today, but when we get there, he can coach that team too. It was a, uh, one of those ones where I, when we talked, I said, not many coaches get this, you get to, you have to, to bake the cake and you can have a slice or two if you want also. So he's done a really good job for us. And you were happy with Bannister and it seemed like that was the decision coming into the year and you're going to let him roll. So it was more about the fact that Monty and his talents became available more so than

Bannister. How hard was that for you to like deliver that news? It was really difficult. We did it early and we were on a road trip in New York and Drew took it like a professional. I told him that it was more a reflection of someone of that caliber becoming available. I think if you look back to when Drew got here, we were a 500 team, we ended up with 93 points.

If we were in the East, we would have made the playoffs last year and transition. We brought in new players at the top of our lineup this year. We brought in the offer sheet boys. So there was a lot of, a lot of, a lot going on quite honestly, and we were just getting our feet under us and then Montch became available. So it was one of those ones where I felt for Drew, but, um, as you know, this business can be, uh, can be cruel at

sometimes and unfortunately for, uh, we had to make a hard decision with Drew, but my job was always do what I think is best for the St. Louis blues as an organization. Um, given how the year's gone with Monte under the helm, like, is there anything about the way he approaches coaching that surprised you, even though you knew he was as talented as he was like Is there anything you've been floored by I always see the clips of how he enters the locker room and how he addresses the team Where I'm like Jesus Christ

This guy must have killed public speaking in high school and college because he sure knows how to address a room and get everybody's attention Yeah, and obviously, you know why I'm not privy to that being being sitting upstairs But I guess what I have learned and what I really appreciate is dialogue after the games that we have and then just our ability to communicate later on in the day after. Like every day we'll talk in the morning and then early evening just to refresh of what's going on. He does, you know, I've worked over the years with people that ask me because they think they have to, they have no, they don't really care what I say. Where Monty actually seems to digest a few of the things

that we're talking about and agree to disagree, but at least he thinks about them. That's awesome. That's, and like, because you guys have such a young core, are you maybe expecting like more feedback more regularly? Like, does that make sense? Whereas if you have kind of an established veteran group, maybe you wouldn't be as communicating as much to the head coach or are you trying to constantly get feedback to know because you look at this core that you guys have,

it's kind of between the age of 23 and 26 26 where your really valuable pieces are who are going to be that next wave of St. Louis blue. Yeah, I would say that this is the for the first time in probably 24 months is that we've had our veterans and our young players all playing At the same time for the same purpose and and I understand it I've been around the game long enough to realize that when you're, when things aren't going good, you know, there's just human tendency is okay, this isn't going well, I got to take care of myself, you know?

You know, at the end of the day, like it is my profession. And right now we've been able to play good enough where, where the players can sacrifice personal gains for the, for the betterment of the team. And then when you see the benefit of that, it pays dividends. And I think that Monty and I talk quite a bit because we have really strong leadership in Shen and Falk and Perenco and Binnington. And that next wave of guys coming. And we just got a couple of guys like Butch Navitz, Kairou and Thomas that are sort of stuck in the middle there. But Thomas and Kairou at the young age of that, and they are, they are the

engine moving forward, they're the engine now, obviously. Uh, uh, Robert Thomas is just such an elite player. I, I felt bad for him this October, November when he got hurt because, you know, I, I'm, I know he had his sights set on the four nations and now, and missing that opportunity because of the injury. The work that he's doing now, he's on everybody's radar screen for the Olympics. And that's just a positive for the organization. But yeah, we do ask a little bit more because what we want

to do is build a foundation that's sustainable. So as they mature, we don't have to ask as many questions. That's awesome. Yeah. Cause with Robert Thomas getting hurt, like I feel like some of those players who were able to get that rest have been able to come out of those breaks and, and kind of light the world on fire as he's done. And I feel like him and Cairo are just really coming into their own.

Like the reason why you gave them those eight times eight contracts is exactly what we're seeing now. And even going towards Cairou where maybe there were some inconsistencies in his game where he's kind of rounded that those out a little bit more. I think, because as you know, you, you, you, you can rush a lot of things in life. You can't rush maturity and experience.

And, and Kyra came into a highly functioning team, you know, and, and it was hard to get in. And then we thrust the contract on him and the opportunities. And, you know, it took and it was hard to get in. And then we thrust the contract on him and the opportunities and, you know, it took him a little while to grow into it, but now every night he's a threat to score goals, that's what he gets paid to do. That's his, you know, everybody has one, one quality that they lean on and his is to put the puck in the net and he does that regularly for us now on. I just think he's very comfortable with the pressure that goes, that comes with being a scorer.

He understands the effect that he has to have on the game. And, but it's one thing scoring, the other thing scoring and being a plus player that, and that's what he is now. Uh, and, uh, it's really no good if you, if you get two and give up three, you know, at the end of the night, uh, that's not a good night for, for the team. And that that's where he's really matured and grown. And, and as I said, you have Robert Thomas, you have him, and then you have that Broberg, Holloway, Jake Neighbors, Hofer, a bunch of guys, Bull Duke, a couple of

first round picks coming into our group now. So we do have a wide, a wide grasp of players. The one thing again, that excites me about Monte is that Holloway and Bull Duke are playing the best hockey. And so is Shen. And so those are the goalposts age wise and he's getting the most out of those. And so I'm sure everybody in between the post is doing well too. I was going to bring it to Bennington, but I guess we'll go to Shenner.

There was, there was rumblings that he was potentially on the trade blocks I actually heard a story this could be completely fake on Twitter where I get all my news That you you guys had actually maybe brought him one and proposed it and he was not happy about it We're like what was that like and obviously the decision to eventually keep him because you guys didn't get what you thought The value was in return ended up paying dividends. Like he's doing what he's doing now. He's the leader of this team. And sometimes the best deals are the ones you don't make. So I'll just throw it to your plate. Like, is that true? And was he not happy about it? And obviously have you guys reconciled your differences?

Yeah, well, maybe I'll take it a little bit further back. Is it coming out of the four nations? Uh, our, our job as a management group is to, to have a plan and, you know, and then you adjust to what the information you're given and we said to the teams that, you know, we're, we're not playing to a caliber of hockey that's sustainable or successful, uh, we have players that are going to be available. And now with the caveat, if we start winning games, things will change. So if you want to buy, buy now. And we ended up going on a little bit of a heater and then we got to that last game. And, uh, we had said that the only trade we're going to make a hockey trade, we're

not going to make a futures trade because the players had given us the information that that that's what was needed. You know, like they would understand a hockey trade. They wouldn't not that we do it because we need their acceptance. You have to do our job, but they had earned the right to play this out. And so if we could have done a hockey trade, we would have looked at it, but we weren't going to do a futures trade. And again, not this isn't with with Shenerts with anybody with a no trade clause in our group.

They have the right to veto a trade and they've earned that right. We've negotiated that right. But I also have the right to find out what their value is and take it to them later too. So it's a no trade doesn't mean no talk. No trade means you get the final say. And that's just not Shennert, that's everybody.

How many times did you have to use a yesterday's price is not today's price at the deadline. I use it a couple of times. But, um, when you spoke to him about maybe something potentially happening, what was, was he maybe a little upset saying like, like, no, I, I believe that I can get things turned around here with this group. Like, was there any dialogue like that? Or maybe is that a little bit too private? Am I getting above my skis here? Yeah, I don't really want to get into individual stuff

just because I don't think it's fair to him because whatever I say now, he's gonna be asked about tomorrow after somebody sees the podcast. But in theory, what I said to you earlier is true is that I have a job to do and they've earned the right. And, and, uh, we had a situation, uh, because he's not playing where I could bring up with Torrey Krueger a couple of years ago and he said, no.

And I said, I, I respect that, you know, you've earned the right. And we move on and, and so it's. And, but I do say to players, like, it's easier for me to say it's only a business. I'm not packing up and moving. do say to players like it's easy for me to say it's only a business. I'm not packing up and moving. So, so I, I, I do get it when, when, you know, when they, when it's brought to them, but I have a job to do and my job is, is for the, is for the St. Louis blues organization.

And, but I always respect the player that has his rights and he should, he, he's earned those rights because of his play and his stature in the league. Oh my God. It'd be funny to golf with you a full round. You got some, you got some good one liners. You don't fuck around. Um, I want to talk, you mentioned maturity earlier and you know, Bennington came in the league ends up winning the Stanley cup very early on.

I think there was a lot of attention drawn to him after that where probably given his attitude and how he carries himself, maybe some guys taking cheap shots at him in the crease and he's a fiery guy and he would want to handle his own business and maybe kind of got a little bit lost in the sauce with that kind of stuff. And I feel like maybe you and the organization, I know chief at the time might've had a conversation with him where he looks as locked in and is focused as he did when he went on that playoff run. Do you feel the same and you feel like that maturity has finally came along with all the accolades and the money and the contract that followed all that

success? Yeah. And again, as we talked about earlier, you, you, you can't rush experiences and things like that. And I think one of the things though, is that, that is different is that when you're winning and that shit happens, everyone just laughs it off. But when the team's not winning, that just gives them something to point to, to why. And I remember saying, I think it might've been last year, could it, maybe it was two years ago when he wanted to get it flurry. I was just like, just let him go.

Let's get this out of his system. Like uncle, if you want to get it flurry, I was just like, just let him go. Let's get this out of his system. Like uncle, if you want to have it, go have it. But it didn't happen. And we did talk to him after and said, like, your, his fire was all for the right reasons. It was team oriented, but it became a distraction. He'd be distraction to the coaches, to, to himself. And he understood that. And you know, he's probably right at the tail end of having to deal with a

lot of, a lot of things because of that. The referees human nature is, Hey, you brought it on yourself, deal with it. You know, the extra whack, the extra punch, the extra push. And he dealt with that now for the better part of 120 games. And now I don't see, they don't do it as much anymore because he doesn't react to it and he, I think he's earned the referee's trust again, that, that he's not, he's not trying to navigate the game in a different way. He just wants to play his position, stop the puck.

And then you fast forward that to the four nations. And I think going into the four nations, the question was, you know, where was, where was the goaltending in Canada going to stack up to, to the other countries? And he goes in there. We don't get a, like, if you go back to game one, we don't get a point without him in overtime. He made some great saves against the Swedes. You know, that if we don't get that extra point, we're not in the, we're not in the

final game and then you get to the final game and what he did, uh, to the U S in the finals. It, it just made it, it validated his stature in the league, but it also, and, and being a, you know, an Ontario and Toronto fan there, like he, he can go home this summer now and breathe. Like, could you imagine if a bad ball had gone in, like he wouldn't have gone to Toronto, now I said, you just go there, go out every day. You're going to get a free beer from somebody. Why?

And he's a sick puppy and he lives for those moments. Like, I feel like he is one of those guys that even going back a few years ago, when you guys played against Colorado, you guys were the hardest series they had. And if, if he doesn't get injured there with his knee, I want to say it was Kajri who fell on him. I don't think, I mean, that might've gone to seven. Yeah, we were up and we were playing really good hockey. I think that's the year they won.

I think we could've scared them, but hey, things happen in life and things happen in hockey. I felt bad for Benner, I felt bad for our team, but he's a competitor. Like if you get him there, and that's always one of my belief in him is like, we have to just supply a team for him. And when we get there, I know he's not going to spit the bit. I can't remember somebody offer sheeting somebody and it working out as well as the Holloway

one has, but you did it with two guys and you have struck gold on both. Should we be expecting this more from the St. Louis blues? Uh, have you gotten death threats from Oilers fans, including wit recently, especially when you're at foreign nations? So it was a funny story going into that. We were in, uh, we were in Edmonton at the, uh, Hulinka that, that just went before we did that and we had all this plan and we had to wait

till our retrace and we're done. There was a plan on when we did it, but I said to our guys like, don't send that fax till that plane gets out of Canadian airspace. That is unbelievable. We got home and we did have actually a day or two later, but it was a perfect storm, Biz, honestly, and I actually think it's, it's probably going to reduce offer sheets and increase them because when I look and see, you know, Edmonton had a really good July 1st, they improved their team.

They're still a favorite to win the cup, you know, but to do that, they had, they had to assume some risk on, on, on amount of cap states they had. Now you look at Boston, Detroit went to totally the opposite way. Detroit had the forward and the young D, they left 19 million there. Boston had the goalie, they left 10 million. So I think what I'm expecting is that A, the rising cap would likely mean it's harder to get an offer sheet through and I think teams are going to make sure that they prioritize

their players so let's say we have a player now we're gonna we're gonna save as much money as necessary to match anything that we don't think is fair now somebody offers three or five first-rounders I'm not like maybe maybe we'll say as an organization, we'll take that. So we don't have to save more than that. So I think, you know, we're going to try and organize it where we'll, we'll, we won't match it if, if, if the compensation is what we think is appropriate. And I, but I think, you know, we're going to make sure we save enough space for our

guys. And I think it might've just let everyone maybe focus a little bit more that, that, you know, we're going to make sure we save enough space for our guys. And I think it might've just let everyone maybe focus a little bit more that, that, you know, buyer beware if you, if you're right against it. I think the comments you use, cause people were questioning on whether you would have sent the offer sheets over if it was Ken Holland, who was still the GM. And I think you said I would have sent those offer sheets over if my mother was the GM of the Edmonton Eilers the way that these guys are performed. I actually believe you now

Yeah, well ultimately and and you you know, how how st Louis operates you're here for a short time, but you have a lot of friends in our organization still and and it's a It's a blue-collar city. They expect us to do the best we can do And it's a, it's a blue collar city that expect us to do the best we can do every day. And if we do that, they're going to support us and offer sheets are part of that. And my job is to take care of the St. Louis blues organization. Mr. Stillman, who's our owner here says something to me that, that resonates is you're just a Stuart of the franchise for a small amount of time.

You know, you're not the franchise. No one's bigger than the franchise, no player, no time. You know, you're not the franchise. No one's bigger than the franchise. No player, no coach, no owner, no manager. So just do your best to make sure you're doing the best for the organization. And I thought at that time, or we thought at that time, the best for the organization was to, to do something unorthodox in the offer sheets, because we thought we could get the players. Unbelievable move.

Who are you most excited about as far as those young groups? Like you mentioned, bull Duke. I don't think he's talked about a lot. He's had a really good coming out party this year. So like I mentioned before, it just seems like everybody from that 23 to 26 year age is just thriving and kind of, you know, maturing very quickly and maybe a little bit ahead of his schedule. Yeah.

Well, I would say the, you know, we talked about Thomas and Kairu because, you know, it's one thing to be the best player, but then you have to be like good leaders and you have to set a standard and they're, they're setting that standing, they're learning to do it more and more every day, which is exciting. And then drafting skill, we're starting to see

it paying off like Bulldukes is a scorer. the snuggard kid that just signed up, excuse me, out of Minnesota as a score, he had his first practice here today. We saw some release points that were impressive. Dvorsky is another playmaking centerman. So the excitement is, is that, and we know they're all not going to hit. That's why we sort of buckshot that we're trying to get as many guys in a, in a five year birth rate. Uh, you know, so if you have 13, maybe eight will play. Well, that's a lot. That's a lot in a five-year plan. And what we're trying to do is get these guys all together so they can grow

together. They can skin their knee together, but they can also have great success together. All right, guys, before we go any farther, let us introduce you to Roeback Activewear. It's Azalea season and Roeback is ready. If you've ever seen those incredible floral polos for spring golf, yeah, those are Roeback. Check out our latest Sandbagger video that this man edited right here to see us rocking these beautiful, beautiful polos.

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That's 20% off all hoodies, joggers, and more with the code CHICKLITS. So Grinnelli's head's about to pop off because I haven't mentioned that snugger root kid yet. He's been doing all the the Chicklets University series. He's all about the college hockey, which is thriving and doing unbelievable along with this series. And he was mentioning to me that a lot of people expected him to potentially maybe sign after his freshman year. Well he goes back his sophomore year, has a great year, goes back even

for a junior year after they thought he would sign after sophomore year. So what is about his decision to stay there and develop? Like obviously you guys are happy with the way that it's transpired but like what do you think the ceiling is for this kid because we've seen a lot in in the in the college ranks and people Think he's gonna be a bona fide superstar Yeah You know superstar there's not a lot of those but I think I think When he went back we wanted him to come out after his freshman year if he had to come we would have accepted that But but we we weren't pushing that. You know, after a sophomore year, uh, when cool, like his two guys, he had

the most success with knives and, and cool. He had both on, we thought he could come out after sophomore year and he made a really well-educated, well-thought out reason to stay, both gaining physical strength, extra practice time, becoming better on the wall. He wanted to improve his leadership skills and going back there, he was a captain of the team and all those things, you know, we thought he should have turned pro and in hindsight, he was right. That extra year really helped them, helped them on the ice, off the ice. I picked him up the other day to take him to the rink and you were talking to a man, you know, when you come to development camp, you're talking to boys.

He's a man and his mindset is that of a man. Now he understands this is how he's going to make his living. Um, you know, one of the things that we talked to our younger players about is I expect you to be extremely respectful in the locker room, understand your place, but when you get on the ice, do not be respectful. I mean, these guys are counting on you to put food on their table. So you do what you do. If you're a shooter, you shoot the puck.

Don't, don't overthink it because that's, that's what they need. And they expected you because this is how they make their living too. So he wasn't doing the Reval, falling asleep in the hot, falling asleep in the hot tub. He wasn't grabbing the aux cord like I was when I first got there, asking where my pretty impact was. He came in all class and treating the boys with respect. Yes. Yeah.

And as I said, it's just his first day, but I just think that he's just mature now. And I think he's going to be a really good pro. But the good thing is, is where we're at in our maturation, we don't need him to come in, he's not the final piece. You know, it's not like you have to do this or else it's a failure. He's going to come in. If, if, if, uh, Monty plays them great. If he doesn't play them, the experience that him and divorce, you're getting

bomb just being around Shen and, and Pranko and Bennington and Thomas and those guys is is going to be so beneficial for next year. But I do think he can score some goals and we're going to find out here maybe over the next five or six games on how he fits into our group. That's awesome. Actually, the G and Fish were also saying that Faber had a little bit to do with his decision as well. Staying that extra year, the maturity, being a leader on that team. So I've pretty much asked you, I think everything I wanted to ask you about the Blues and we want to thank you for hopping on. I think this is your third or fourth time and we wanted to make it a Blues focused podcast because you guys are one of the best if not the best

story in the league right now. So thank you so much, Armie, for hopping on and G did you have anything else any final words for wit? Yeah, yeah any final words for our buddy? Yeah. Well, hope he gets better. You know, I'm very very nervous now I want to make sure he's okay Now tell him I'm telling my miss I wish he was on and your new your new partner I had it and that opportunity to meet him yet, but I'm looking forward to it And I always love coming on with you guys It's it's a it's a ton of fun and getting someone on time with the biz,

that's a highlight of my career. That is, and I'm gonna leave you with one difficult one. You could say pass and not answer. You guys are more than likely gonna end up in a wild card. You would either play, probably looks like Vegas or the Winnipeg Jets. Any preference on maybe who you think you match up against better.

Any preference to travel, maybe Vegas, you know, play the tables a little bit. I'm going to take a hard pass. Okay. All right. That's a very wise decision. Okay. Well, army, we can't thank you enough, buddy. And good luck on getting another run here and hopefully you guys make a push.

Always, thanks Biz, always appreciate it, pal. You're the man, thank you. Thank you so much to Army Biz, great job there. Picking us up, appreciate it, and the blues are humming, the blues are humming. The NHL and Rogers have agreed, according to Politico, I think it is, Sportico, on a new Canadian TV deal, 12 years, 11 billion Canadian, which is like one billion US.

No, 7.7 billion in current USD. You're a fucking idiot. More than double the current deal that I think ends after next season. Owners are gonna vote on it this week. Kind of crazy, I think it's, like Amazon would then buy gonna vote on it this week. Kind of crazy. I think it's like Amazon would then buy some of that. Do you know how it would work?

That would be what I would assume. Right? Yeah, I mean, you know, I'm not exactly the guy to ask about this type of stuff. So Rogers owns some of the Leafs, right? Or MLSC? They own like regional stuff as well. Like Elio do regional Leafs games and stuff like that and

Yeah, I think that they would probably delegate some of that I think they probably just learned the lesson from watching what What happened with the basketball situation with to get ahead of it? Yeah, get ahead of it. And then if you own it, then you can always sell Yeah parts of it off rather than worrying about that later and having people outbid you. I thought it was gonna get to a place where it was gonna come up

and it was kinda gonna be like the states where I think you want the exposure of having ESPN, Cary Hockey, and TNT, and different players, because not only can you consume it in different ways, but it's just good to have different people doing it. I think more jobs. More jobs.

I think that TSN has some very talented people there. They do regional games, of course, but I would have assumed that it would have been Amazon, TSN, Sportsnet, and then maybe even another random network in Canada that would have taken it on, just kind of like we talked about the US But hey man, congrats to them for locking it in and controlling that and that's great for the league man That just means the caps gonna keep going up That's sure that is like some gnarly money and the US deal

I think is 600 million per season and that has what two more years. Oh, yeah the no the That'll have three what? Two more years? Yeah, no, that'll have three more years. Three more years. Yeah. It'll have two more years after that deal was supposed to be up. So that deal that we just talked about was supposed to end at the end of next season.

Okay, okay. So, and after that there's two more years. So three after this year and yeah, just a great job. That next US TV deal could be huge. Yeah, I think that you're not trying to price yourself out or you're trying to kind of trickle it out where you want to continue to draw fans in, right? You don't want to all of a sudden have one outbid it

and then all of a sudden not a lot of people can access it and then it's being counterproductive from the amount of people watching hockey. So that's just kind of where I'm at, but money talks. I know, but it's good to see though that, I mean, they do a great job, right, and they're spending a lot of money now, so it's awesome to see that the money's flowing.

The money is flowing in the NHL, and that, you're right, the cap will continue to go up. Sidney Crosby, guys, I sent this to Keith and myself's group chat at home. It's mind boggling that he has over a point per game in 20 seasons. 20 NHL seasons. Like, a point per game is so hard, so difficult.

How many of those years has he been like 30 or 40 points higher, right? I mean maybe not that much, but like he's still doing it. 20 years later, he knocked up and made sure that he would get over a point per game. And it's crazy to me. It's wild to think, so like he's done it every year he's ever played hockey, right?

He's probably for like the first like maybe like what 13 years of his life he's probably over two points per game. I think he could still do it another three more years. Yeah. Yeah, I think, yeah. He's such a psycho off the ice about taking care of his body.

Like he's not the type of guy who's gonna, he's not gonna have, when he's not 100% committed, he's not gonna play hockey anymore. Next year you got the Olympics, he'll be in the best shape of his life, he's gonna be ready for that, point per game. And then what, does he have one more year or two more years after that on his current, on his deal? And he's already proven that like,

when the time came that he wasn't the fastest player anymore, it wouldn't affect him. Cerebral. And so, yeah, I think as long as he's playing, he'll just get over a point per game. 20 years, broke Gretzky's record of 19 years doing it. And what's his drop off, if he's at 60 points, are you mad about that, if he's 43 years old,

at putting up 60 points? If I'm a Penguins fan, I still want him on the team. I'd probably uninvite him to the Sandbagger, but I'd still be okay with it yeah you'd be fine maybe he won't want to play like I bet you if he has a season where he's under that'll be it can you imagine that's what he finishes with 80 points in 81 games he missed one game he's like see you guys all right so let's look here he's ninth in all-time scoring with 1,677 points Next is Lemieux then eisman then Dion Ron Francis Gordie how mark messier yarmulke agar Wayne Gretzky

Who does he catch? Okay? He's Lemieux's at 1723 so that would be he's 46 points away from him Chuck So I think he also do you think he could beat Mario's franchise record and goals? No, 56, sorry. What? Do you think he could beat Mario's franchise record and goals?

Because he just passed it in assist. I would imagine he plays to beat that. That would be my guess. It would be very difficult. You need 72 more. 72 more goals. I think he'll be very close. I think that he'll retire with being the Pittsburgh Penguins leader and everything

unless of course he gets dealt. So four more years, 20 goals a year. All right. So, so let's see here. I think my math is way off. What's all right. So 23, he's not asking plus 23, 47. So he needs 47 points to pass Lamu. So he's gonna get him. And then he needs like 32 more, 33 more after that to pass Aijan. And he's gonna get him. And then he needs like another less than 20 to get Dion. I think he, I think he might end up, he might end up fourth all time.

He might, no, I don't know if he'll catch Howe, but he is on the path. He's gonna catch Francis, I think. Francis is, he needs 125 more, right, roughly. Should be able to get that, right? That's doable. This is crazy, though. I mean, me trying to do math right now

and then with you two. That's okay. Yeah, you two are just looking at me like. It's very soothing actually. What's math? You could say any number would be good. He'll do it. Is this what it's like listening to me read?

You see those torpedo bats in Major League Baseball? Yeah. What the fuck is going on there? I hope that, so the little research I've done on it, like they hired a guy from MIT to design the. It's exactly the GM of the. How the fuck did we get there? No, it's the GM of the, it's the GM of the hurricanes.

It's the same story. No way. Yes dude, the guy was like an MIT professor or something. I gotta look this up. But I hope that they just paid this guy a shit ton of money and like hey, make these bats just for our team. I heard the Ronin trade was going down,

they said he won't agree to a contract essentially, he said I don't give a fuck, I'm worried about the Torpedo Bats just trade for them. And that's what I heard happen. No, no, it wasn't the guy who was saying it's like that guy. Oh. Yeah, yeah, no. No, it's like very similar where the guy wasn't like.

Not involved in baseball. Oh, he's not? No, he can't. Okay, the guy wasn't like involved in baseball. Oh, no, you can't okay Aaron lean heart the mastermind behind the Yankee torpedo bats has one of the craziest career pivots ever He earned a PhD from MIT. He worked on a NASA funded research team He was a physics professor at Michigan for seven years And then he left academics at 40 years old to pursue baseball. He started at the Dawson Community College in Montana

before becoming a minor league coach for the Yankees. Leenhart then got moved to the big league club and was responsible for bridging the gap between the analytics department and the players by translating complex analytical data into actionable insights. What a journey. And he built the torpedo baths actionable insights. What a journey. And he built the torpedo bats.

Wow. What a read. This guy's like Forrest Gump. I know, look at him too. Guy was a physics professor at Michigan and now he's one of the coach of the Yankees. Yeah. And these bats, apparently they've taken the wood

out of like, I don't even know. I think they took. Old ships? No, they took like the the wood out of like, I don't even know, old ships? No, they took like the sweet spot out of like other bats and put it where the dead spots are. It's all legal, right? Do you know that if you're from Tennessee and you get into a college in Texas, you go for free? Yeah, and you get to swim, everything.

Yeah, homeless guys. And you get to bring a torpedo bat to school to protect yourself from homeless people that keep you. You get to give your professors wedgies to there's homeless people that you use a torpedo bat on if they come near you unless waltz with them giving them food and then it shall always game meal showers call wall and I was we're to have all these five goals away boys okay. We're back there got nine games left Well, he's doing it. That's a is Oh hundred percent. I think it's gonna be Pittsburgh We've said this 400 times on the show this year, but you said it first show of the season Pittsburgh game

So we're actually flexing a bunch of games. I saw jazz was that icecon. I was supposed to bring that up. He Statition He drove down Saturday morning and I saw him at the Barstool bar and he was telling me that you guys got a bunch of OV games coming up. Yep. Yeah. Yeah. We got this week. They're playing Carolina and then I believe, yeah, I believe we got next week or next Sunday as well. It wasn't supposed to be, they're gonna keep flexing them and when it hit five games Betman and Wayne on the road together. They're bunking up. They're following the goal change a bed Sharing a room. They're bunking up. Yeah, cool. Yeah, that's cool. They're documenting the whole process That's gonna be already did it for Wayne Gordy did it for Wayne and and they're gonna document it with the Amazon them bunking up Oh, really? Yeah, it's of cool. Them getting room service together disagreeing on movies. Yeah probably. Some Sunday action late night. Who sleeps on

the cot? I was gonna say something I'm not gonna say but I think that Wayne will be shoving Gary in a cot. Yeah. any second, any chance he gets. Gary come put this pot, I'm gonna put this cot in the hallway, you're gonna sleep out there and I wanna hear a word out of your mouth. Just get the jet ready and Ovi better break this thing soon. Just get that HHR up with these TV deals and do your job. Also I'm having this daydream of like Sid being psychotic about not wanting like Ovi needs the goal that game and then Sid like like diving in the crease to

like knock it out from going in like you know Sid does not want that to happen against them no way no shadow way shadow on the entire way I don't know no way I don't know no way that there you're talking about how psychotic city I you know what's over you to break the record against him I feel like the pettiness of their rivalry is gone like I don't think it was ever petty I think it was just two nail guns head-to-head Yeah, no, but I'm just saying like I don't think that they they carry the animosity towards each other like they once did Like like not in a great not did. Not in a bad way, it's because the media and everybody was

pinning them up against one another, who was going to be better, who was going to win the Stanley Cups, who was going to be the better number one overall pick. It was just built up media-wise where now they've been able to achieve everything they've been able to achieve, where I would say that they're dead even. Like you're going to have one guy who's going to have the goal record.

I think Sid's way more happy with three cups than having that in one cup, right? So it's just kind of the Olympic gold. So they both achieved and lived up to every bit of hype that went towards their way. So I don't know if he would care. I actually think he would not mind being there for that experience. Now, if we're talking about something like that, it was pretty cool.

I don't know if you saw when Washington was leaving the ice the other night, Ovi called all the guys back on the ice to say goodbye to Marc-Andre Fleury knowing that he was gonna be their last matchup against one another. So just a cool gesture. And I think that Ovi's one of those guys, he flies under the radar.

I don't think he necessarily likes talking about himself, but you could just see that he's a great guy, great teammate. You see these videos with his teammates in the hallway. Bands make him dance. Bands make him dance. I was thinking they have to have Juicy J come and perform that for him.

If he's one goal away, they have to have him come and sing that song in the hallway. It's so funny whenever he's singing it too, like all the guys are dying laughing. He's got a big piece of gum in his hand. I swear to God, I swear to God, bands will make a dance.

I got a whole lot. I love their tunnel antics. Oh my God, I swear to God, man, don't make a damn. I got a whole lot. I love their tunnel antics. Oh my God, more than anything. I love their locker room, their... The Rangers' bus ran into Mackle and Celebrini's car, apparently. Oh yeah. What the fuck did they do?

What's this bus driver doing? One, nothing. What? Actually two, they beat him that night. Yeah, that's a... If you come out of the game think of how tight boss hit your car What the hell remember how tight that? Driveway was in San Jose though, so you can't put too much blame Macklin probably a rookie driver

It's probably only had his license for two years probably left it out a little too far can't blame the bussy here Yeah, bus he's like not on me. Yeah, what kind of car was it G? There's a Range Rover X3 Heard of it. Not the little one, right? No, I think you got the big dog. Sometimes you're like, I got a Range. I hate the sport. JT Miller had an X3.

That's who did it. That's who was driving the bus. Oh, that's right. I forgot. Posh is like, yes, I hate that car. Do you expect anything less from that organization than to hit and run in a parking lot? Did they run? Oh they ran.

LeBron was calling Betman up. He's like, hold on Wayne's ordering fries to the room. Let me get on this. I'll fix this right now. Wait one second here. With that we're gonna throw it over to Kevin Shatenkirk. Kevin Shatenkirk, one of the best guys I've ever met. Hell of a career. We interviewed him a few months back, right when he announced his retirement. We've been sitting on it a while.

Great dude. We're gonna throw it over to him right now. We talk about his career, his life in the NHL, and what's next for deuces. So right now, Kevin Schattenkirk. Woo-woo, it's Flash IV time. Body armor, baby. And this episode is brought to you by Body Armor Flash IV.

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It is a pleasure and an honor, and I can't believe it's taking this long. But now we finally have Stanley Cup champ, good friend of ours, and newly retired Kevin Schattenkirk. What's going on, Shaddy? How you doing, buddy? Doing well, my man.

Good to be on here. I know, I can't believe it's taken this long, but this is a good time to do it. We've been doing it so long now. Has he been on, thinking, years ago? Grinnelli's like, no, he kind of always said once he retired. So it worked out good. And we were kind of hoping to see you again, but I guess finally you realized it was time. It was time. You'd done so much and you were just kind of ready to hang them up, huh? Yeah, you know, it's tough.

I mean, I think if you asked me that in July and August, it would have been a different answer. Even through September, you're kind of waiting around through training camp and seeing what might come around, but, um, you know, it's, it's, it kind of starts to sink in a little bit, you know, and I think being home and getting the opportunity to be around the family a little bit more and, um, hang out with the kids, you know, see them start to grow and, uh, and be around for some, some milestones. It, it was kind of the right time. And I think,

you know, I just, I reflected on a lot of things. I think, you know, I always wanted to play a thousand games in the last couple of years. I was focused on that. And then when I really thought about it, you know, I kind of knew that that wasn't going to make or break my career. You know, I didn't, I didn't come into the league to play a thousand games. I came in to play one and, and see what happened after that. So yeah um, yeah, happy to be, uh, in this spot now. Were you training after the season preparing as if though you were going to play? Like, was it like, and like, was it a case of where you were still trying to find a contract where you offered PTOs? Like how did that all go down?

Yeah, I was, I was training. I was skating, um, you know, trying to stay ready and, and see what might, what happened, you know, what might come around. But, um, I had a couple offers for PTOs at the beginning of the, uh, you know, training camps, going into training camps. And I just kind of thought, you know, that, that isn't really what I wanted to do. I didn't, God forbid, you know, something didn't work out and you get cut. That's not really how I wanted things to end. You probably saw what me and Whit went through.

You're like, I'm not going to be like those fucking losers. Well, I was glad I had a front row seat for that. So it was, it was nice to, uh, to be there for your PTO experience. The circus was in town for a couple of weeks. You know what? That was like, for me, I feel like that was the start of this podcast. Like we would go out to lunch and, and I feel like there would be six of us. We would just sit back and let's listen to you two go.

Like I remember Whit telling a story about like flossers and, and Biz was like stealing your, your floss or something from you. Bought them from CVS for like 10 bucks. Biz wanted to give you like $2 for them or something. The individual ones. And then he snagged them. He took them out of my hotel room. I just bought them. Don't you get like a thousand in a pack? them. He took them out of my hotel room. I just bought them.

Don't you get like a thousand in a pack? Yeah, he took them all. And he took them all. And then now he's flossing on the golf course like in Sandbagger. So he hasn't changed. No, not at all. But I was like, there's something here. I think these two are going to have something to go out on after.

But going back to that experience, though, the one thing that I took away from just getting These two are going to have something to go out on after. But going back to that experience though, the one thing that I took away from just getting to hang out with you and the rest of the Blues is how tight knit group it was and just like the camaraderie and you have a lot of friends and you're a funny bastard. So I would imagine that is probably the hardest thing for you to let go of right now is just all the guys in the locker room going to the rink every day and, and being out of that routine with your friends. Yeah, I think that's what everyone warned you about, right? Is, is, uh, you know, telling you that's what you're going to miss the most.

And, um, there's no doubt that's, that's the hardest part, but, um, you know, I, I feel like when I played, I really. Cherished a lot of those moments, a lot of those small moments in being at practice on a day that you didn't want to be there. Maybe giving shit to a coach for bringing you in on an off day or something. That's what brought the group together. I always tried to take a step back and just, you know, never take anything for granted. Um, you know, and, and always appreciate every day in the league. And I know a lot of guys say that, but, um, I had a lot of fun and, and, you

know, part of that maybe held me back a little bit as a player sometimes, but, uh, you know, I never missed a night out and, and, uh, always, always wanted to be that guy that was there and didn't miss, you know, any of those jokes or funny moments. Yeah, that's the biggest thing I miss is the plane rides, the locker room. And like Biz said, every team that you were on was a close-knit group. And it was probably because, I know you're not going to say it about yourself, but it's probably because of you.

Because every guy you talk to just raves about how good of a teammate you were in the locker room. Obviously, your play on the ice spoke for itself and Even going back to the thousand thousand games thing. I have a silver stick, but you got the silver trophy So you don't need that right you get you got yourself a Stanley Cup and you know, obviously amazing for that But uh, yeah amazing career. Thank you. Thank you. No, it was great. I mean I am You know, like you said, I think that made the decision a little bit easier knowing that, uh, you know, you have a Stanley Cup in your back pocket and, um, I, you know, being playing on seven different teams along the way and, um, you know, not really knowing

where you're going to fit in the locker room. I think that was, uh, something I was fortunate for that every group I went into always had a great group of guys, both young and old. And, you know, I tried to just impart my wisdom wherever I went. It's really great for you that you got your cup because you'd been in St. Louis for a long time and all those guys, or a lot of them, you know, Steiner and these dudes that you were really close with when they won, like, it wasn't the same season like when I was traded, but it had to be like, oh my God, like I'm happy for them, but I also was kind of a part of a lot of that in the growing years.

So then to get yours, it had to feel extra special after witnessing them get theirs, right? Oh, it was, yeah, a huge weight off my shoulders. I mean, I got traded to Washington. They won it the year after I left. And I thought, you know, the team that I was on, we were, that was maybe one of the best teams I played on in my career. Yeah.

And then following that year, then St. Louis goes on this magical run and takes the Stanley Cup home. And I was obviously, you know, obviously very, very happy for those guys for the city. You know, I know what it's like to play there, but yeah, that one hurt a lot. And you're just thinking like, oh, maybe I'm that guy that's just going to be missing his chance by this much his whole career. Then I got bought out that summer, which was even more of a gut wrench. But I look back on it now and

smile. It was obviously the best thing that happened to me and, and, uh, went on to Tampa Bay to do something special. We'll get into that in a little bit, but I like start at the beginning, especially a guy like I've known, but we've never really had a discussion about you growing up and how you got into the game, how you fell in love with it. So New Rochelle, New York is where you grew up, correct? Yeah. So is that, is that Long, technically? No, it's Westchester. Westchester. Okay. So like you're a diehard Rangers fan. You know that as a little kid,

you remember just watching Rangers games. You remember the beginning years of hockey, who you got, who you, how you got into it and all those things. Yeah. I mean, my, my brothers led the way of two older brothers and they, you know, my, my dad moved around a bit for work. He was in London and Japan. So when they, they came back home before I was born, my oldest brother wanted to get into, uh, into some sort of winter sport and, and tried hockey out. That was kind of the, you know, the birth of hockey in our family.

But, uh, your dad never played. My dad never played. He was a football, you know, rugby bruiser type of a guy. Um, so, you know, when I would turn like three or four years old, my brothers were playing for the New Rochelle lightning with, and my parents just didn't want to chase me around the rink anymore. So there was a little studio rink. They threw me into a learn to skate and, uh, you know, the rest was history.

But, um, you know, the rest was history. But, um, you know, from that point on, like we were, we were growing up playing at rye playland, which is where the Rangers used to practice. So, you know, this is the golden years of, of the Rangers with leech and graves and Messier Kovalev, like, you know, Richter, the list goes on and on. And once a week I was watching these guys on the ice and from there I went to New Jersey Devils youth program. The Devils teams were practicing at our r-Ring.

So like I had it around me just by chance all these years. And, um, you know, just, just amazing to be able to, to, to experience that as a young kid. It's, it's funny having two older brothers because you were probably also just going to their games and then like some kids are running around, some kids are watching it, and some kids are doing a little of both,

but they probably meant so much to you. Like when you're drafted and end up in the NHL, like without your older brothers, you watching them and following them, it probably never even happens. No, without a doubt. I mean, you know, I was grateful that they always included me, right? With their friends.

A lot of, a lot of, a lot of times, you know, you're probably just pushed off to the side, but, you know, I was always allowed to play outside with them and, and always serve the purpose. You, even if it meant getting a net, like most younger brothers know, like you just do whatever you can to get in the game. Um, and you know, I think also like to make it this far and have two brothers who didn't have any ounce of jealousy in them, you know,

they were proud of me every step of the way. And that means a lot too. I mean, they're always gonna be my role models and people that I look up to. And for them to be there to support me is amazing. I could even like, I could sense the gratitude in your, in the way you're talking right now and just reflecting on all of that, going back to your, your childhood, were you always a defenseman? Like were you all the way up?

I, you know, early on I started as a forward. Um, and I remember my, one of my coaches when I was probably six or seven years old just said, I want you to play defense next game. And I kind of looked at him and was like, well, can I score goals? So he said, go home and watch Brian Leach and tell me if defensemen are allowed to score goals. And Brian Leach was my number one guy watching growing up. And that's how I turned into, you know, the defenseman that I was.

How quickly did, oh, I was just going to ask how quickly did it accelerate? Because when you moved over to that New Jersey program, it probably wasn't long before you were getting scouted for the U S program. Yeah, it was, you know, that, that jump was big because, uh, the hockey around, you know, where I grew up, wasn't huge at the time. It's blown up now, but, um, area and Long Island was another hotbed for it. But New Jersey was kind of where you start to go into the regional, the festivals and all these little tournaments, summer tournaments and stuff.

Yeah, I mean, I always played a year up. I always played with the 88 birth year and I feel like that helped me. Uh, but it accelerated fast. And I mean, we, you know, won national championships. We had, we had great teams, but, uh, again, you just never really know like where you, where you stand until you just tick off every box. And by the time I was 14, 15, you know, that's when I got invited to the, the NTDP camp and, um, you know, absolutely

shit the bed in my tryout, but still lucky, lucky. Oh man. I caved under pressure without a doubt. Wow. So even at that, I remember going out, but I don't remember feeling like that type of pressure. Maybe I was just so dumb, but you were kind of going in like, this is the best players. I got to make this team and just just folded.

Yeah. And you know, like that that year, like you guys remember, like the USHR reports that would come out of the festivals, right? Like, I think coming out of that, I was like in the top two or three as a defenseman. So I'm like, I got to go there and show that I'm like one of the guys. And that didn't happen at all. And, and, you know, I think one of my coaches from the Atlantic district, John Riley had kind of had to like beg and plea for them to the K just watch him again, like come he trusts me.

He's he's the guy. And, uh, you know, luckily it all, it all worked out. Correct me if I'm wrong here, but you're from Westchester and that whole mid fair field, like the old Connecticut Yankees, that's like one of the top programs because they have such a big pool of kids to choose from. There's a lot of money there, which does matter in hockey, unfortunately. So you ended up going to the Jersey program. Like, why weren't you a part of that Connecticut Yankees type thing?

Because you went to Brunswick too, which a lot of those kids end up going to. Yeah. I mean, the biggest reason was because my, my middle brother, Keith made the devil's team as well. So, you know, it was one of those things where my parents couldn't drive. No, they weren't doing both. My, I think my oldest brother was playing, you know, for the Long Island Apple Corps. I don't know if you remember the Apple Corps, I mean, a Steve, back in the day,

but, um, so it was like one of those things where it's like two are going here, one are going there. And, and obviously the devil's had a great team, but, um, later on, when I, when I was in high school at Brunswick, I started playing for mid Fairfield and, um, we had an awesome team there, Mark Arcabello, Pascioretti, like ton of guys who were on our team, we wound up winning a national championship there. So that was when things started to get going around our area with, with the youth hockey. I didn't know that when you go out to that national program, it's an actual triad. I thought like you're a guarantee to spot.

It's like a four, you know, they, they, they invite 40 of the best at your age. So, um, well, obviously it's not a triad. If he made the team consider your age. So, um, Well, obviously it's not a triode if he made the team consider how bad he was. He's saying, I think, I think every year there's like eight to 10 kids that are on the team, but everyone does it. And then there's definitely some roster spots open. Yeah.

Few kids go out there with like their contract signed, no doubt. Yeah. You know, I certainly wasn't one of them at the time, but yeah, it's, it's, you know, and even through the summer, I think they still evaluate kids at that, uh, like Ivan Holinka tournament and add some guys in along the way. But, um, yeah, it was, you know, probably my first taste of like, you know, almost like going to an NHL training camp and being like, I got to make this team. When you get out there, a lot of times the first year is hard on kids. Like you're living away from home for the first year is hard on kids.

Like you're living away from home for the first time, usually, and the grind of that many games and the workouts. And yeah, you're treated like a pro, but at a young age, it's kind of hard. Was there, were you homesick? Were you like, this is a lot, or did you kind of like dive in and love it from the get go? No, I was missing home the first couple of months without a doubt. I mean, you know, I left Brunswick, I'm in Greenwich and you know, I have this unbelievable campus.

There's, you know, my first time going to school with girls, I was at all boys school growing up. And then I'm moving out to Ann Arbor, Michigan. I had an unbelievable family and that was my saving Greece, the Pericos family. They owned a couple of restaurants downtown in Ann Arbor and were able to get me out and go to some Michigan football games and hockey games and experience the town. But those first few months of real hard work doing boxing and playing Um, you know, we were getting, we were getting our asses kicked left and right. And you're like, you know, thinking, what the hell is this all for? And you, you got to play with Patrick Kane. How was he at, at, you know, 16, 17 years old?

Could you tell that he was going to be the player that, you know, the hall of fame player that he is now? Yeah, without a doubt. I mean, again, because I played a year up and he's in 88, like he was always, every tournament we played, we had in 88, like he was always, every tournament we went to would be like, Patrick Kane has 20 points and the next Bex guy has 12. Like he found his way to get his goals as a sys.

Um, and then when we got to the, to the NCDP, like it was no different. And, um, you know, everyone would always say like, this is the level where he's too small, he's going to get pushed out and he can't perform, he's not going to put up his numbers and you know, it was, it was comical because like I would watch them on a day to day basis. And, and, um, you know, he worked so hard on the ice. I mean, his, his size and stuff didn't come until a little bit later, you know, when he actually filled out.

But to do what he was doing at that age was absolutely incredible. Shadi, I'm actually shocked Witt hasn't brought this up. When you played with that New Jersey minor league system, you went to the 2002 PV championship in Quebec, correct? Yes, we did. How did you fare there? I'm surprised Witt didn't mention it. He does every time there's a guy who played on

We we won we won So that I believe that was the first year where they stopped Doing like the crossover where the winners of each division start playing each other, but we won like the NHL double a division We lost to I think in an exhibition game to like honey big to one, the AAA, um, and they were insane. I mean, they had some unbelievable players. There was a team from Slovakia that was nasty too, but they wound up being like finding out a couple of years later that they were all 86 is playing on the team. Yeah, exactly.

But I mean, like I hear a lot about the team. Yeah, exactly. Who'd you say? But I mean, like I hear a lot of talk about- And Scudio Aguilera was on the team. Yeah, honestly. Honestly. I think it was like- Like that number 17 from your fucking game the other night, Whit. I don't know, no. I think that kid is the correct age with all the birdie certificate stuff you've got to

give in now. Yeah, like Hosts was playing for Slovakia. Yeah, exactly. Exactly. Leaving the Thrrasher's. But it was awesome. I mean, like, like, Witt always talks about, like, it's the greatest experience that you can go through as a kid.

We lived with Billet family. It's like, it was just, it was an incredible, incredible time. When did you know BU was the spot for you? That's what I remember first seeing you and didn't know about, like, you know, the USA program and the players, but always watching BU. I'm like, Jesus, this kid's silky and you had a great team. You guys won it your sophomore year, but what was the recruiting like with Jack Parker, Quinny and all that?

Like you must've had your options of really anywhere you wanted to go. Yeah. You know, I kind of ruled out going like West early on to the WCHA. I just, I knew that wasn't really where I wanted to be. Um, you know, and I grew up going to a lot of hockey East games and championships, uh, experiencing that and, and always knew college hockey was where I wanted to go. But Michigan was, was like my team growing up. I mean, Brendan Morrison and you know,

that whole like Marty Turco era was, was who I loved to watch. Um, so I, they actually gave me my first offer and I was like, right away. I'm in like, let's sign the papers. Let's go. And my parents said, no, my parents were like, listen, if, if Michigan's going to offer you, there's going to be more teams, you know, just be patient. You know, you have to go check these places out, meet the coaches. They were always great in that regard of making sure that I made informed decisions. At that point, I kind of narrowed it down to Michigan, BU. I wanted to go to BC, but they

offered Nick Petrecchi as their loan scholarship that year. Nick Petrecchi as like their loan scholarship that year. So it was BU and Michigan. And part of why I went to BU is because I was living in Ann Arbor and I was so homesick. And I knew that I wanted to get back to the East coast. I wanted my parents to be able to come watch some games. And I loved Jack. I loved Quinny. They were great salesmen, but I know, I came to find out later.

They were obviously better coaches and, and, uh, you know, they, as soon as I got there, it was, it was, you know, the, the perfect match. What was the most angry cage yelling? Like, what's going to ask him? You ever get the cage treatment from Parksy? Of course. Of course. I mean, like he was the most intimidating guy ever, ever. And you know, I remember like some of the old, old guys being like, like, he was the most intimidating guy ever.

Ever. And, you know, I remember like some of the old, old guys being like, well, you didn't have him when he was like drinking and smoking, you know, cigarettes on the bench. Like, you know, you think his highs and lows were bad now. Like he would be like this and like there. But, you know, like he always knew like just how to get you, like how to get you going. And, you know, he always knew how to like clip your wings when they needed clipping. You know, you come out of a weekend with, you know, maybe four or five

points in two games, sit you down and ask you, how do you think you play this weekend? And like, I was great. Like I had two and two at to that. I asked the bar. He's like, you were fucking awful. You can't defend, you know, like just and you're sitting in your chair just, you know, like, all right, I guess I guess I got to go back to the to the film on this one. But as an offensive defenseman, Biz, sorry, quickly. No, no, I love it. I love it. If you didn't if you didn't get points, which like he knew he was smart enough to know that like, you know, I got to get points, which is ridiculous, but that's just how we all were or are.

He would, he would say, hey, you played phenomenal this weekend. Like that, that's the hawk you got to play. The points will come. Like he was good. He definitely could sense though, when anyone thought that they were just buzzing around, he's like, fuck you. I need to knock this guy down a few pegs. He's like, fuck you. I need to knock this guy down a few pegs. So, so Quinny does the recruiting part of it is Jack Parker there when you're doing these meetings so he can bring you over. And obviously you mentioned how intimidating is, is he putting on this

like kind of nice front when he's recruiting you and then all of a sudden you have this first experience when you get to your first day of practice. So personable dude. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, like, you know, Quinny,, he was at the time and, and Mike Davis were, you know, they were the guys on the road and going to the games and checking out,

you know, all the players. And then when they narrowed it down, they would bring guys, you know, on their visits to BU and you'd go and you'd like, you'd go into Jack's office and sit down with him and your parents, um, you know, he always knew what to say to your parents and, and, and he really was essentially your, your father away from home. I mean, he, he took that responsibility, you know, pretty, pretty seriously that he was in charge of your kids. Um, but you know, without a doubt, like the mood changes once you show up on

day one and, you know, for practice, like he's not got you here anymore. Yeah. Where's that guy from your office? Hey, Shaddy, I need to hear your breakdown of one of the greatest college hockey games of all time and biz. I guess Miami of Ohio fans would completely disagree. But my buddy, Vinny Laverde was on the opposite side of this. Yeah.

Oh, he told me that. I played with Vinny. I want to call the opposite side of this. Yeah. That's right. He told me that. I played with Vinny. I called her a couple of them and he still talks about it. He's still devastated from this game. If you had the live odds like they have now, like it was 99.999%. They were the national champs.

So just take us through that and what happened. Yeah, I mean, you know, I always think back on that game and like we, we just didn't show up, you know, to play. Like I don't know what it was. We had a pretty amazing win against Vermont the game before that in the semis that, you know, kind of gets overlooked. But you know, we went into the game and Miami absolutely dominated us. Like they, from start to finish, they were just playing harder, uh, you know, blocking

the shots they needed to block, putting pucks in deep, like just the way you win. And, um, you know, we, we had a lot of, a lot of resiliency that year. Um, we obviously were such a good team that we never felt like we were ever out of any games. And, um, you know, when we scored that, that second goal and we looked up and we kind of had like whatever it was, a minute or so left in the game, we knew that something was going to give. We had the belief in the players that we were going to put out there. You could tell, I mean, the last couple of minutes there, Miami just started to sit back.

They didn't attack anymore. I think at one point it looked like they had like a three on one and the guy just dunks the puck and like just save us in on this lead and just, you know, all of that. Just end this. Yeah. I mean, and then we tied it up. Unbelievable play by Matty Gilroy to Benino. The place went nuts. I actually think my dad left the rink when it was three to one with a couple minutes left because he was so upset and missed the two tying goals. And then he was like, well, now what do I do? Do I come back into the game? So I think he just kind of sat that

one out and went into overtime. And again, once we got into, into overtime, like we knew that we had the game at that point. Um, but it was still just an incredible game to be a part of. Whoa. How was family leave? Don't leave me blue balled here. Like who scored the goal, how to go down.

So, uh, yes. I mean, it was like, what was it? What was it like in the locker room? You guys like we fucking got these fuckers. Oh, yeah, like where we go in the locker room we had heard that you know kind of some of the backups on their team had their like Championship tees on and hats like ready to get on the ice And which is like, you know, there's two minutes left. That's no fault of their own. What are you gonna do? Just wait, but I think it was three one with like a minute 30 left.

Minute 17. Yeah. I think it's like, yeah. So we went into the locker room, cooled down and, and obviously like gather ourselves. But again, there was just like that quiet confidence that we had them. We had our game in order. We were, we had everything going. You know, we went over time and, and few minutes in, you know, I got a, I got a pass low to high walk the blue line. Um, look for my shot. My buddy Colby Cohen came behind me. I did a, you know, behind the back drop pass and the blue line, which was almost picked off for a breakaway. Oh God. Um, yeah.

And then Colby kind of took the puck, opened up, took a slapper and their captain, I always forget his name, but he went down on just full stack the pads. It hit his pants and just loops over goalie doesn't see it and goes in the back of the net. So it was like, again, that's how those games are won. College games, especially those momentum swings. And it's always, it's always the one that, you know, maybe you don't expect to go in, but, um, it was an incredible, incredible finish. Wow.

What's, what's cool to see is, um, nowadays, like kids are staying one year, maybe two, but you want it all. You had 30 points, which is a lot for a college defenseman. You're, you're a high pick and boom, you decide to go back. Actually. Like that, that's a pretty mature decision. It's way different now, I feel like, but looking back, you must've been like that. That was the right call. And like, how did you come about not turning pro then?

And also got to be captain there, which I'm sure was like an unreal honor. Yeah. Yeah. And I mean, that was a huge part of my decision. Um, you know, we, we had, you know, obviously some great players in front of me. Mack Elroy, like I mentioned, um, you know, Brian straight, Eric Gribo were, you know, the two or three people ahead of me in, in, in age. And, um, you know, when Maddie Maddie left to go pro, um, you know, that

they gave me the captaincy and Brian straight and straighty, you know, unbelievable guy, great leader. Um, he was weighing out his decision of what he was going to do and then he decided to leave. So I was like Kind of like dude, you left me hanging here. Not that I was leaving but I was like, I kind of need you to You know help me run this team uh, but you know, we go into the junior year and and I just felt like I I needed to see But, you know, we go into the junior year and I just felt like I needed to see, you know, if I was ready to go. And I didn't want to make that jump too early and feel like I missed out on, you know, an amazing experience at college. You know, just to kind of go slumming around on a bus and feel like I was, you know, talking to my buddies the whole time, wishing I was at Tee's Pub.

feel like I was, you know, talking to my buddies the whole time, wishing I was at T's pub. So it was definitely the best decision for me and we didn't do great in the next year, but it allowed me to realize that I was ready to move on to the next level, that I wasn't really getting much out of college hockey anymore, rather than leaving and not and, and, you know, not knowing. Did Colorado tell you at the time it was up to you? Because now I feel like a lot of these teams are like, Hey, we'd rather have you developing in the AHL, we want control. Or was it like, Hey, when you're ready, let us know type thing. No, they, they were pretty, you know, open with us and, and they, you know, they kind of said that they thought I should,

you know, maybe think about leaving, but it really was up to me. And, um, and I give them a lot of credit for that. And, and, you know, they, they also laid it out. Like they were probably, they were like, you're probably not going to play, you know, in Colorado, we were going to want you in the minors. And that way I was able to make my decision. And I think, um, they didn't promise me anything. And I know that changes, that's changed a lot these days where kids are coming

out and they're like, you're going to get 10 games or 40 games, or they're asking for games like that's ridiculous to me. He, you're one of the, the only ones that never played an AHL game, right? Like, no, he's got a few, 13 of them. I got a couple. Did you? I got a couple. Yeah.

A couple saw these steps. Yeah. I played three's got a few, 13 of them. I got a couple. Did you? I got a couple. Yeah. Yeah. I played three out of, uh, out of college. Like it did like the PTO, whatever. Those ones don't really count though, because it's like, yeah, that's like a showcase. Give me my signing bonus, bitch. Going into Colorado, especially back then, That must've been pretty intimidating. There was some legends on that team. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, my, my rookie year, um, you know, Adam foot was there, Scott Hannon, uh, you know, Zach, it had just retired, but, um, you know, Milan Heyduk was leading the charge upfront, like it was amazing, amazing group to be a part of.

What was Adam foot like? Like, did he take you under his wing, giving you tips at practice? Like, was he just that old school too, where on the road you're just like, Oh my gosh, guys, he's like my dad almost. He let him use his nose. Oh my God. Like his nose was beat. Like it was impossible to talk to him and not look at that thing.

It was going every which way. But, um, I mean, he was, it was almost like, because obviously now he's coaching, like he was getting ready for that job, you know, at the time. He had Matthew Shane living with him and, you know, I'd taken him in to his house, but like footy every morning, it was sitting getting ready for practice and he would just be holding court, chirping guys around the locker room. Um, you know, I blocked a shot one night and I was limping and I wound up getting the day off from practice. Oh no.

And like, you know, I wanted to crawl into a closet and just hide from both of those guys from Scott Hannan, who was my D partner and Foddy. And they're like, coming in, are you fucking kidding me? You're sitting like all this stuff. And the trainer is like, no, it's my call. It's my call. He's like, I don't care. Get your ass out there.

I was walking out of the training room to go out and he's like, nope, you're not going, um, you know, but the, you know, it was just like most rookies do or should do like just shut up and listen and speak when spoken to type of thing. I know that's changed also a little bit, but I just enjoyed it. I enjoyed listening to these guys go back and forth and soaked up a ton of knowledge from them. John Michael Lyles was another guy who really took me under his wing being an offensive guy but you know I had one game where we were playing Dallas. We went to a shootout and Brad Richards you know went down made a move missed and he skated by the bench and I was like you know nice fucking shot Brad. Oh no. Oh jeez. He's a really young guy.

Grabs me and he's like don't you ever talk to Brad Richards like that or anyone. He's like how many how many goals do you have in this league? Like you gave me that whole rundown, you know, and I got it right away. You know, it's just me being stupid and naive, but I was so grateful to have guys like that around me to just keep me in check and, you know, just make sure that I was doing things the right way. Crazy news that year where St. Louis decides they're ready to move on from Eric Johnson

and you're in Colorado, first year pro, probably loving being in the NHL and boom, you're traded. Usually you get a little bit of time before your first trade. That was a pretty shocking deal. He had been the number one overall pick, but they move, I think it was you, Chris Stewart, and a first round pick and all of a sudden you're getting told you're traded. It must have been complete shock for yourself. How did you find out? Yeah, it was a crazy story. We were going out to San Jose and we're playing one game just in and out.

This is the time where you weren't allowed to wear different clothes for dinner, just wear your suit. I just brought out whatever I was sleeping in and my suit we're gonna be in and out and I had dinner at my My cousin Rachel's house that night told them I'll see you guys tomorrow at the game Get back and I was room with a guy named David coachee fighter Oh, yeah, I played with them play with them in the miners coach. I don't know if you guys are playing with them. I play with them in the minors. Coach eyes. Salmon breath.

Yeah, salmon breath. Like 17 pounds of salmon every day. Literally. Like, holy fuck. I don't know if there's enough omega threes to worry about all those concussions you've got, but good luck with the salmon. Honestly, he was trying to do his best to work on his CTE, I think. But he legitimately would be like, grab the controller out of my hand at

nine o'clock at night, turn off the TV. He was a bully. I love them, but he was a bully. And he'd walk around with just as like short briefs on just like flexing his muscles. He was, he was great to me, but like just an odd guy to have a roommate. And we're in the room. It's like 12 o'clock at night. The room phone rings and it's Greg Sherman.

Coachee picks up who the hell is this? Who's calling? He's like, put Shadi on the phone. Shadi, one of your fucking friends is calling our room. And I'm like, one of my buddies is calling the room phone. Like it's 2011, dude. I have a cell phone. No one's calling my room phone.

So Sherman called, he's like, Hey, come down to my room. I put my suit back on cause I don't have it, you know, really anything in a room. Any idea what this is about? No idea. You got a shirt tie on your cocks hanging out. It is robe. Yeah. Half bam bam go. You're like, what the fuck?

I go down and, and you know, Greg tells me that I've been traded and going, I'm leaving at five o'clock in the morning. Um, and I wake up, get up, get my bags at this point. I'm like, just lights on screw you coach. You, I'm never going to see you again. Go downstairs. The car's waiting for him.

I get in Chris Stewart's there. He's like, no shit. No, like, you know, what the hell are you doing? You didn't tell me that I was traded with Stewie's. I had no idea until I got in the car and, um, we, we flew to St. Louis, we played that night. Um, we, we played against Anaheim and St. Louis.

I flew back the next day to Colorado, packed my car to get it shipped. And then the following day after that, we played Colorado and St. Louis. So it was like, yeah. So, you know, five on three, I had, I had, I think an Apple or two that game, but, uh, you know, just that's the crazy, the craziness of the NHL sometimes. Stu chains must've been a good guy to get traded with though. Cause he's such like a big personality, fun guy to be around.

He's the best. I mean, he, he's a day one for me in the league. You know, took care of me at development camps. He was obviously like a little more accelerated and getting to the NHL and being a couple of years or being a year older than me, but, um, you know, anytime we just clicked anytime we hung out and, uh, you know, just an outrageous human being at times, like he said, he walks into a locker room and just, he's just crazy. Absolutely crazy. Um, so I was lucky to be, be a part of that with him.

I heard an unreal story about him. It was like, you know, the PK meeting was at five 30. So the coach came in, he was like killers five 30. And he stood up. He goes, you talking about the real killers or the penalty killers? I heard his one-liners were insane. Good. Unbelievable.

Like, you know, he, he would just, he would just like, again, come into a room, like he'd score a goal or something. We'd coming down the line. He'd be like, like, let's go, baby, let's go. Like he just, and he always was ready. Like he was always ready to go out, ready to chuck him if he needed to chuck him. Like he, he always knew like what, what moment, what the moment needed. Uh, you know, and, and I was grateful to be like one of his best buddies and,

and, uh, he took care of me. So I was, I was lucky to have. So that first year, like I remember that group of guys that you had Yipper, you had Ryan O'Reilly, like I remember here, I think we actually saw them when they were on their either Olympic break or all star break. Had you been trained before that or after that? Because I've heard iconic stories of their time on these trips together and just this young group of guys you guys had there.

Well, we call ourselves the fab five. So it was me, Stewie, Yipper, Phil Dupuis and Ryan O'Reilly. Oh my God. Dupes is a beauty. I played with him in junior. Dupes is awesome, dude. I mean, this is probably why I got traded because like, I think after two years, none of those five guys were on, were on the avalanche except for O'Reilly go figure

You know, but even as like an 18 19 year old O'Reilly was leading the charge at times You know, but it was it was an awesome group. I got traded after that that all-star break and You know actually no, I was at the all-star game at year. I think the ends you were there I was there and like the rookie rookie thing or whatever. And that's almost why it was taken even more back when I got traded. And I came in after the all-star break, like, Oh yeah. So I'm bringing my arms around.

Come back to haunt your dreams. Yeah, exactly. So, um, but we had a crew. I mean, we were, we were out probably more than we needed to, like thinking that we were keeping it hidden. What you mean while at like eight o'clock we're all walking out of the steam room every morning and they're like, but Jonathan's like, we got to get rid of these guards. When you get to St. Louis, it was Dave, was it Davis Payne?

Davis Payne had just taken over that year. Yeah. And then all of a sudden next year Hitch comes in and Biz and I still laugh about Hitch in training camp, just being a part of that team, like how he would talk to the team, how guys would talk back to him. But he made an immediate difference and all of a sudden like that blues team got better and better. And what was your relationship like with him? Like would he give you shit? Were you one of the guys like, uh, like that would give it back to him a little bit or no way? Always, always. Uh, you know, and I appreciate the, the side of hitch that, you know, he always could take it.

He never carried it into the next day. Um, you know, I said things to him that I would never say to like anyone, let alone a coach. Um, but he just, he had a way of pushing your buttons and, and he told me that he sat, he sat us down when he first took the job and kind of had individual meetings along the way and just, you know, sat me down and said, look, I know you're a young player, but I'm going to treat you like you're 27, 28 years old. I'm not going to let off on you. I'm going to push your buttons even when you think, you know, that you're doing something right. I'm going to like needle you even more. Cause I want to get the let off on you. I'm going to push your buttons even when you think, you know, that you're doing something right, I'm going to like needle you even more because I want to get the

most out of you. And it took a while to learn that lesson, you know, but he was a great coach. He was smart. His X's and O's and his game plans were always on the money. And, and, you know, we bought into that and we were, you know, hardworking team. We, we obviously had some talent, but, um, you know, we knew where our strengths, you know, really were. And that was from grinding teams down and playing a physical game.

And, um, you know, if you made a mistake and came back to the bench, you're like, you didn't have a second to think about it. Hitch would just be right on you. And that's when I would just be opening a B door. Oh, I have a seat. Like I think one game. Anytime. Yeah.

Like one game I remember it was the second period we're at home and, uh, we're on the power play, so we're out and out there for a face off on the right hand side. I think back is wins it back to me. I get the puck. I'm getting ready to like walk the middle and hitch is already like screaming for the bench,, Skate, skate. I look back as I'm walking the blue line and I'm like, Will you shut the fuck up and right back into the play,

then get back to the bench. I'm like, I can't even hear myself think out here. Let me play the game. And he's like, all right, all right, settle down, settle down. But I mean, you guys know you were there for that training camp. He likes things done obviously a certain way. down, settle down. But, uh, I mean, you guys know you were there for that training camp. Like it was, he just, he likes things done obviously a certain way and, and, um, you know, he's, he's very meticulous with, with everything, but we had some great coaches around him too that, that knew how to, uh, you know, calm us down. Brad Shaw was a big coach for me. Uh, Kirkie Muller was, was awesome. So,

um, you know, they were like therapists at times more than they were coaches. I was always intrigued to, uh, his ability to break down the game tape and simplify it and his explanation, especially for a guy like who never played, right? Like his details, like you just mentioned to the game were just fascinating. And I don't remember the video sessions being overly long either. So he was very concise and, and knew exactly what he wanted. Yeah. Yeah.

I mean, that, again, that was the beauty of it. He'd say like, here are the three things we need to beat this team. And, you know, whether it was like possessing the puck down low or, you know, they play this sort of defense. This is where our shots are going to be. Like it was, it was easy because we, cause he showed us that early on and we bought in and we, we went on a crazy tear.

That just kept staying consistent for the time he was there. I still remember, I think we actually played together, Biz, in an Intersquad game at camp that year. You were my D partner. Do you remember that? Yes. Did you remember that? Yes. And I remember, he's like, this ain't good. This ain't good.

I think that was the year that I did get traded too. So I was like, all right, they're bringing in biz over me, but I remember there was one play like I got up, I got a puck, I was kind of passed back door and biz was kind of back through the scene. Like, I think I shot the puck and he said, I got back to the bench and Biz was like, Hey, did you, uh, did you see me? Did you see me on that play? And I kind of like looked over and I didn't like, I was trying to be an asshole, but I

was just like, huh? Like you're kind of cutting me off. God. And you're like, yeah, don't worry about it. Don't worry about it. You know, it's, it's, it's cool. If you call me loser 10 or 11 more times, I'm going to get out of here. Next day I got the car service like you and Stewie.

Like Steve. You must have been telling all the other guys like this fucking assholes on the bench during this inner squad game, my partner buzzing down the back door asking me for tap ins. Fuck this guy. Get him out of here. That's what I noticed. There was a tone that changed with you in that camp with me. And that was probably the moment right there.

That was it. A hundred percent. I also remember, I think like Otter was around then and was Otter and Hitch's relationship like the funniest, like was that the comedy routine because I feel like Otter was like, that's what I remember. Like Otter was, it was crazy. Well, he had the best understanding of Hitch because of his time in Dallas.

So, you know, him, Jamie Langenbrenner, who we had a couple of years before that, Brendan Morrow, I mean, they came in, it was almost like they were tired of the act at that point, you know what I mean? They were just kind of letting us all go through it, but you know, Otter Otter, talk about quick wit and one-liners. I mean, he was ruthless. Absolutely ruthless. Sitting on the bench and listening to him go and then obviously you had Revo and DJ Crombie at times is another guy who could just pepper pepper players. You know, it was like almost

exhausting to listen to over and over again. Like, I'm like, you know, I get it you guys play eight minutes but like save some energy for the ice because this is like it's wearing me down. But you know, and I again like Otter was around. I think he took a lot of a lot of lessons from Hitch and I'm sure he would say that he appreciates it now, like being a coach and seeing it on the other side. Was that first year in St. Louis for you? That was Revo's first year up too. Were you there when he was falling asleep on the massage table or anything?

I missed that. I think that was his training camp of that year. When I got traded, or maybe even the year before, but, um, yeah, like Revo had his moments for sure. Uh, you know, and I still remember like me and Stewie went and picked him up one day for a game and Revo came out, he's got like size 14 shoes. He comes out with his suit on. He's got white shoes on these things. Like it was unbelievable walking, like he

walked out looking like Don Magic Juan and Stewie just absolutely laid into him. It was unbelievable. You know, again, another guy like Revo that I kind of got to grow, you know, and into the league with. Great guy to have on my side. Obviously I obviously picked two of the toughest guys on the team to be my best friends, but lucky to have them both. A big responsibility in the locker room is being the locker room DJ. Now I know you didn't get your silver stick. We were talking before we ended up recording here.

You should get the golden aux cord. What drove you to be the team DJ? Like, did you just like, were you on fucking Napster getting all the tunes or I think what, what was it about you that got the reins? Toughest job in the game. Yeah. I mean, you know, I think, uh, I think it just came from like one day being in the blues locker room and kind of just saying enough, I can't listen to like, I can't

listen to the same old shit that we're listening to. And I always was, like I always loved music. You know, any type of music, didn't matter if it was like house music or rock and roll, whatever. I tried to keep my pulse on, or my finger on the pulse and everything, but you know, I just, I plugged in one day. I always listened to stuff myself. So I just figured, let me throw it in and see where it goes. And yeah, I mean, it kind of took off from there.

I remember, I think it was my second or third year with the blues. I put up on the board, like, if we sweep the abs, let's say we're in our division. I'll get new speakers for the locker room because our speakers sucked. And sure enough, we won two out of the three right away. So next thing you know, I'm having speakers installed in the locker room, which I was so happy about because now I'm like, this is my concert hall. I could kind of just let it rip in here. But I always cherished, uh, and, and, uh, and love that responsibility.

And I did, used to do the lineup read in St. Louis, which was another, you know, big honor to have to take on night in and night out. Every game, Hitch would hand the lineup in and I used to do it with, uh, Scotty Nickel, who really like was the one who I think started it. And he was so good at it, but we would trade on and off. And then next thing you know, he was gone and I was left with that responsibility. How hard was it keeping everybody happy with the tunes or did you do it? Like, what were you, like, were you bounced around country, techno, like rock?

Like, were you just all over the place? Yeah. techno, like rock, like were you just all over the place? Yeah, the rule was like, there was no house or no hip hop before like half an hour, you know, once the 30 minute mark. And you get the BPMs going. And then it was time to jack it up. And I would usually start, you know, with some hip hop and then really like jack it up. And then sprinkle the MDMA and the body armor cups, excuse me.

Exactly. And then let's fucking go baby. Yeah, exactly. I like that. Before we get over to like, you know, the trade and leaving there, you played in a legendary college game and you played in one of the best Olympic games I can ever remember in 2014. First off, making the Olympics and to like first it was in Russia. How exciting was that?

And then that Oshie shootout, like you knew it, you'd seen it. I remember him in practice at training camp breakaways. He was insane at, but it must've just been incredible. Like thinking back and remembering that game. It's Russia. Yeah. Yeah. It was nuts.

I mean, I think going into the Olympics, like I remember they announced it, uh, I think at the winter classic when I had those like kids skating out and they were turning around, it was cool. Actually. It was cool. It's that they didn't tell me that I made the team before that. So I was legitimately watching that game like with my family at home and we're on the phone and I think I was one of the last guys that would like the kids skated out and turned around.

So no way that's how I found out. That's how I found out. That's how I found out. Like I thought it'd get maybe a phone call or something that, you know, I made the team or I didn't beforehand. Uh, so that was kind of the start of it. And then, you know, once we got over to Russia, like it was, it was great. I mean, we had an awesome, awesome group of guys, uh, you know, that we played well in the, in the early round, but that game against Russia was like, you know, it's nuts

I think Putin came to the game, which was even crazier that we were playing in front of him and then we get into that shootout and You know, we're not you're not used to that when you don't have those rules, right? You're like Even for us, I think for some of us when we saw Oshko a second time We were like is this allowed, you know, like, cause it's not fair cause he's that good. Um, but I mean, that was, it was amazing. Like I, whenever people talk about that game, I'm like, yeah, I had the best ticket in the house right on the bench with no responsibilities of like thinking that I was going to score.

It's a nice feeling, isn't it? Oh, it's great. It's great. The whole, my whole career. I think I was probably right in the middle, right? Where you, where you would have been. Yeah. The best, best job in the world. I think Oshie made that team. I think the year before that Olympics, we, I went to worlds and he went and we played like, our team was horrible.

We played like, it was either Italy or Kazakhstan to get like relegated. And it was in a shootout and he scored like six in a row and I believe he had one contact in at the time. He did that in the World's too? Yeah, this is in... where the hell was it? Germany? Germany? Because I remember like Ben Bishop was your goalie too. I heard like like I heard you guys were just getting after it. Oh my god. It was me Break World Championships. It was me, Greener, Oshie and uh, Chorny was our found four.

Oh, I love Chords. As in Greener from LA? Yeah. He was my roommate. He could slam him back. He was my roommate. It was bad. Jens, do you remember, uh, do you remember when you almost got into a fight at Olympic

camp? Yeah, I was just going to ask you about this. I got, we got a text. Got to be off ice. We didn't skate exactly. We were at a, we were at the bar, like world of beer or something like that. And we're all just having beers. And, uh, there was some guy that he was like mouthing off and, and chirping us like kind of started off as playful.

I think he was a red wings fan or something. And next thing thing you know like Yans start peppering him back a little bit again Just like very harmless and the guy went over the line I think he said like whatever made a joke about your mom or something Yeah, and it's like oh really buddy like let's go we're going outside, blah, blah, blah. It was unbelievable. Like I'm again, I'm sitting there with all these amazing guys, you and these other players, and we're just like having casual beers. Next thing I know Yance is like being held back from this guy at the world of beers. And I'd always laugh about that now. I'm like, that would've been amazing if we just had 30 guys tune up some,

some random guy at world of beers in DC. You might've made the team, Jens. That's probably why I didn't make the team. He's trying to fight a wings fan at the bar. So when you got moved to Washington, you were coming up on UFA, I believe. When did you realize that St. Louis wasn't going to sign you or that you didn't want to sign there? I know they had Petro, so there's so much going on, but was that hard for you if it was them that were like, hey, we're actually not going to

re-sign you this summer and you're probably getting moved at the deadline? No, we talked that summer before and Army was good about it. He laid it out. Petro was obviously the guy, the number one guy and, and, you know, going into that season, you know, being the power play guy and feeling like I was starting to really, you know, come into my own and, and not really know like what my ceiling could be. Um, it was kind of a decision that I, I had to make, you know, whether I would be staying in St. Louis and sit behind Petro for the rest of my career, which, you know, it was

definitely nothing to sniff at because he's a phenomenal player. But I wanted to know, you know, like what I had in me and if I could be that guy myself and, um, we knew, you know, we kind of knew by the time December hit that that's what I wanted to do and, and we and we explored, you know, some trades earlier on. I almost went to Tampa, I think in January. Um, and you know, couldn't, it was going to be like a sign and a sign and or a trade and sign an extension type of thing. But, um, again, I just, I wanted to see, I wanted to go to free agency

and see what that was all about. Um, you know, and then obviously at the deadline I, I was traded to Washington. I thought I was actually going to Pittsburgh. Uh, it sounded, you know, everything I was reading on Twitter, at least it sounded like everything was done and I think Washington came in in the final hour. I mean, just reflecting on your time in St. Louis, obviously you're going to be remembered as a blues guy. Like I look at the list of guys like you you had Stas and you there, Steiner,

like just so many awesome, how hard was it to say bye to all those guys in that locker room after you end up getting moved on from, and then I was also going to follow up with Steiner. Like, did you see him eventually getting into management? Like he's, I think he's been crushing it with Army so far. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, you know, to your first point, your first question, when I think of my guys and my closest

teammates, it's that group without a doubt. I was so grateful that I was able to grow up as a young man into an older man and learn from those guys. We did. We had such a great group. We would do the Vegas trip at the end of the year, every year. And, um, you know, we would have great team parties, you know, whether it's Christmas parties with the wives and the girlfriends, uh, you know, there was,

there was never a moment where like we weren't together doing something. And we saw the value in that. And, you know, Steve odd, I think was a big, like big proponent of that. When he came over, you kind of noticed that maybe there was a little bit of a divide in the locker room. Maybe it wasn't exactly where it needed to be. And he just like forced us to get together, forced everyone to come out. It didn't matter if you drank a beer or if you didn't. Everyone should go out and be together and talk about a game, hot stove it.

Like that, that goes a long way when you're looking to fight with your team at the end of the year. So I learned a lot of lessons. I brought that with me when I went and Steiner was, again, he could have been our captain just as much as David Backus was our captain. Everyone looked at him that know, I didn't see him going into management. Like I always knew that he loved the game, but, um, you know, he sold out and now he's, now he's going into management, but, uh, you know, at least this hopefully might mean that maybe there's a job for me somewhere down the line. You think he's still riding that Monarch bike with those quads of his?

100%. What a machine. I have like one of his workouts one summer. I asked him, uh, you know, when I was like, all right, I got to take the next step here and like Steiner, can you send me your, your bike workouts? Because I want to come into camp this year and rip it up and sent them to me. I did one workout and I was like, absolutely not. I'm like, I'm fine where I'm at.

I'm just going to be like the fat out of shape, you know, offensive defense. He was doing it before practice and training camp. I'm like, buddy, you've been on the bike for 30 minutes and it's fully cranked on the, on the RPMs here, man. Save the pistons and see that big like metal thing, whatever the big weight going down. Yeah. I thought he was doing the wind gate. Yeah. Unreal.

I was kind of going to ask about the Rangers and I know like it was a childhood dream to play for them and it didn't end the way you hoped, but kind of like what happened there? Like, what was your thought process going in and what was your kind of experience looking back on getting to be a Ranger, even though,, even though it didn't go as you'd hoped? I don't have many bad things to say about it just because it was worth the experience of playing in New York. Jans knows and Jans, I feel like I just missed that window of those teams that were so good in New York and right on the doorstep of winning. And that was a big, you know, big reason why I went there was because, I mean, if you could win in New York, it's, it's forget it.

But you know, the team, we were a great team when we started that season, my first season there, I think we were a couple of points out of playoffs, but you know, we kind of started to slide a little bit. Maybe we weren't, you know, maybe similar to how it's going for them right now. And management didn't really see the, see the end of the road looking very clear. And I think it was time to maybe make a move. And that's when, you know, the letter was dropped by Dolan and, you know, that was crazy. It was, it was to be a part of that and like pick up your phone.

Yeah. I'm like, what's going on? I think I was injured at the time and I tore my meniscus and I tore it in training camp and was playing with it through the year, just trying to grind through. Eventually it came to a head where I had to get surgery, but I was focused on the next year, It came to a head where I had to get surgery, but you know, I was focused on the next year, like coming back and being the solution and you know, they had, they had given me this deal. I wanted to be obviously a leader for the team. Um, but you know, we, we came into that next year as a part of a rebuild and I didn't realize at the time, you know, how hard that is to, to start that and, and

get things going in the right direction. Well, did I hear right? You said a letter from Dolan. Like, did I miss something? What happened? Yeah, they were like, he just like quit. He's like, time to rebuild basically. Yeah.

Pretty much was like, we have decided that we are going to like strip this whole thing down and rebuild this team. We're going to trade our older guys away. I mean, the first one to go, I think was McDonough and JT Miller and Rick Nash went, you know, it was, it was, you know, top to bottom, like no one was safe other than probably Lundquist. And it was crazy. I mean, I never seen anything like that before.

And we're about to see it again. What's that? We're about to see it again. What's that? We're about to see it again. Yeah. We're in the process. That's the, that's, you know, again, like, I mean, I don't know, like Trubes, what Truba said about like being fired at MSG, it's a rite of passage. Like it's, it's not wrong.

Um, you know, it's, it's part of what you, what you sign up for when you play there. You know, I don't think it's, it, it, anyone should be surprised by that. You know, you're playing in New York, people expect results right away. I just wanted to ask about this whole situation going on. So you're in agreement with Truba and if you were a player on that Rangers team right now, would you like, would you be upset maybe at the way that management and they've handled it? Cause like, I guess you kind of saw it firsthand. I know that there's an expectation playing in New York, but is there also

a way to treat the guys in the process? I think so. Uh, you know, I, I think there's always open dialogue, you know, with the GMs and the coaches that I played with, um, or played for, you know, there's always been an open dialogue as to like, this is where you stand. This is where our team stands and you know, whether you're safe or not, you kind of know.

And you know, I think when you bring that out to the public, it makes it real and I mean you're not going to know how guys are going to respond to that, right? It's hard when your name is getting put out there in a press letter or memo that you're, you know, you're, you're available for trade. To be able to go out there and show up and, you know, not feel embarrassed in front of your teammates, you know, walking into a locker room or stepping on the ice and maybe the other team is, you know, needling you and chirping you about, you know, hey, I heard you're on the block. I mean, that's, it's, those are all real things, right? So it's, um, it's hard to deal with that without a doubt. The JT Miller trade was crazy looking back.

I mean, he'd had back to back, like mid 20 ish goal seasons. He's 24. I guess nobody, they didn't know how good he was going to become. Did you, could you sense like, Holy shit, this guy could be a hundred point player. I did. I mean, I couldn't see him being a hundred point player, but I knew he was a player for sure. Like a top two line guy without a doubt.

His shot was incredible. But like at the time he was like one of those guys who didn't want to shoot the puck. You know, like we were, we'd be on the power play together and he'd set them up and he was just like, I don't know if he was just too young and playing with obviously some legendary guys that he felt like it wasn't his place. I think when he went down to Tampa, he kind of, again, came into his own a little bit there. Then when he got traded from them to Vancouver, it seemed like he really took over and decided that he was going to be a leader and a force

on that team. I think that's what we've seen today. When did you find out you were being bought out? Kicking the dick. Did you get a phone call same thing at midnight when you got traded from Colorado? Had your agent heard rumblings this might happen? Well, I mean, like just like anything in New York, you find everything out from like Larry Brooks first.

So I mean, if you picked up the, you know, the posts for any of the two weeks leading into that, um, that day, you know, it was, it was being thrown out there by him. I mean, they signed, they traded and signed Truba. They went and got Panarin, uh, you know, and then that second buyout window was, was coming and you know, I was kind of the one guy that was out on the line there that, that, that would have offered them the cap relief they needed. And I think we got all the way to that final day. Um, and you know, it was like maybe in the last few minutes of the

buyout window when I was driving home from, from a workout and, uh, got the call and, you know, it was like, Holy shit. You know, we had just said, we had just had my first son, uh, a few weeks back and, and you're kind of like, you know, you're out of a job. You don't know where to go from there. I mean, that whole process is very strange, but, you know, I think the following day I had like two or three phone calls from teams and, you know, that sort of picks your spirits back up a little bit. It makes you realize that, you know, there are some teens that still value you. You know, I'm in Tampa, you know,

was one of those teens, which was great. You ended up making more money than you would have based on the, how, cause you got two thirds of your salary. Then you signed, did you sign for more than what that one third would have been? And what's it feel like double dipping like that? Yes, I did. So I did, I did. The Anaheim contract was what made up for it. And what's it feel like double dipping like that? Yes, I did. I did. I did.

The Anaheim contract was what made up for it. But yeah, it was great. It was awesome. I mean, like Ryan Getzloff always used to say in Anaheim, but every day or every game we would play the Rangers, he'd be like, Daddy, you're so bad that this team's paying you not to be on their lineup right now. But I was, you know, I'd always say like, yeah, but the checks keep coming, you know, and I got them for another like four years. Um, so you would get, you would get two separate wires every place a month?

Two every, every payday I get two checks. Oh, cause anyone ever gotten three, three different teams paid? I think Studer is getting it right now. Okay. Oh yeah. Yeah. Oh yeah. Yeah. I mean, I just wish I could have pushed it, you know, into my retirement years. I know.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Like, like O'Shaunty. Oh, Bobby, the Bobby Bonilla day, July 1st. He used to, he lived on my street. Really? In, in New Rochelle, Bobby Bonilla lived down the street for me.

And I'm like, no wonder this guy's always getting his cars, you know, shine in his driveway. He's got like a million four coming every year. I think for another like 25 years too. No, no, it's coming to an end. Is it? Yeah. Maybe it was for 25 years or something.

It was like 20 years. Yeah. The whole like getting bought out, obviously it sucks. It happened to me. It's a, it's a, it's definitely a kick to your ego, but for you, the next year you go to Tampa and you win a cup, like how, like looking back now, and you might, you must just be like, they could have bought me out 10 different times. And I still, to get that cop, like that's kind of all you're looking to do

once you make it and establish yourself in the NHL. Quickly, quickly, sorry. Cause I also want to hear who else you may be signed with because you had some teams call. And finally, Bobby Benias getting paid until 2035, every July 1st. He still has 11 more years, so 10 more years. So what other teams were in the mix maybe and like, how'd you pick Tampa? Yeah, so, so I think when it came down to it, you know, at that point it was first, second week

of August. So you're kind of screwed. A lot of teams have already signed guys and that, you know, on July 1st and there, you know, there's not much space. So the final two teams were Tampa and Anaheim and Anaheim offered me a two year deal, but I knew at that moment, at that point, that I needed to go to the best team possible. It wasn't about the money. And I needed to make sure that I put together a season

where I got myself back in the game type of, so to speak. So when I went to Tampa, like instantly the, the way I felt going into those practices and, uh, and through that training camp, I was like, this is, this is where I want to be. I mean, the pace was so high. They had just come off of that, that lose, you know, losing to Columbus, getting swept by Columbus and you know, And you know, it was intense. I mean, I remember we, first day we had just like a scrimmage that really, there

was no, there was no like nothing to it. It was just like, Hey, go play type of thing. That's how it felt at least. And the next day we came in and we had video and Coop laid into me. He's like, you know, I think I, I swept across and a guy and like someone else got a breakaway and they scored. He's like, what the fuck do you think you're doing? Like, are you here to play for this team or are you here to play shinny hockey?

And I knew like that it was, this is why Coop was such an amazing coach. Um, he knew he, who he could lean on, who he like, he could give it to in front of guys that were going to take it and not be hurt by it. And he was setting the tone, you know, and he did it multiple times over the course of the season. But again, he knew like when it was time, like if he saw something slipping, how to really make sure that guys knew that we needed to get our shit together. And like that moment right there was like,

all right, like, you know, this is where I'm playing. I'm playing on a winning team again. And nothing's going to be, you know, let go by the wayside. Like we're, we're going to have to be detailed and ready to play every day, which I loved. You guys must've been fuming as COVID hit and fucked everything up that year because the anger that those guys were coming back with, it must have been evident to you. Like, that was embarrassing. They break this record. They're the best team of all time, regular season, and swept. Could you sense even in camp that guys were like, let's get this thing going? Like, we need another crack at all this? Yeah. No, I think that's just how it was. Like, I mean, I think everyone was ready to get out of the, you know, the first

couple of months of every media outlet and every city you go to asking about the year before and, um, you know, for me, I didn't have to, yeah, I was like, I didn't even make playoffs last year in New York, we were about a hundred points out, um, so, you know, I think that was, was a big, uh, you know, Big weight off of everyone's shoulders. And we kind of got to December. We went on, on the global series trip to Sweden and, uh, had an unbelievable time over there and, and, you know, swept the Sabres and

that kind of kickstarted our, our year. Um, I think we won like 13 games in a row or 11 or some of that, something like that. But you know, that's again, like guys understood that we maybe weren't playing our best and we were maybe distracted and, and thinking about the year before. And at that point, you know, our leaders just started to take over and say, like, you know, we got to start doing something here. Otherwise we're going to end up in the same position as we were last year. And, um, you know, there's a lot of experience on that team.

There's guys who went to cup finals and I think everyone just believed in each other and, and, you know, the once COVID hit, we were like, holy shit, like we're in the middle of, you know, our run here and now we're like getting stopped completely. Everybody loves the mystery of Kuturov, right? Like, is he such a nasty player? I don't think a lot of people know a lot about him other than of course, that celebration when he really came out of his shell, but like, what was it like being around this guy who's just an absolute fucking assassin out there,

probably top three, top five player in the world year in year out. What's he like behind the scenes? He's quiet. absolute fucking assassin out there. Probably top three, top five player in the world year in, year out. Uh, what's he like behind the scenes? He's quiet. I mean, he's a soft spoken guy. I mean, you like, unless you get them on the podium after a Stanley cup with a bunch of beers, you know, he's, he's, uh, exactly like as he's advertised. He doesn't, I don't think he loves being in the spotlight. I think he just loves playing hockey and hockey and just trying to be the best.

And again, I'm sure he has that fire in him that he's competing with other guys in the league, but I think he just wants to be his best self. And if he can improve by 1%, he's going to try to find a way to do it. Um, I don't, I've never played with anyone who's poured more time on the ice into their, you know, into their game. Um, you know, and he, at least when I was there a few years ago, like that's seemed like he was starting to make the, make the turn in the gym too, and start to work out more and do that stuff and understand the importance of it. But, um, you know, he would spend hours on the ice, just working on like,

picking up hard rims from the other side on his backhand and getting his head up right away so that, you know, if you're a defenseman, you're coming in, you think you have a guy lined up with his back to you, like as soon as you see his eyes come up and face you, you know, you're screwed. And he had those pucks like one touch on his forehead. It's nuts. It's absolutely crazy, but it's, you know, when you see it in games, it's obviously amazing, but like you watch him practice it every day and you think to yourself,

well, like there's the perfect example of, you know, you keep taking your reps at something, eventually you're going to know how to do it. Like it's secondhand nature. Kim Atkinson told me he, when he got there this summer for the, you know, the skates before the season starts, Kuturov was on the ice by himself. And he just come in over the blue line, do a turn, make a backhand sauce pass for like an hour and a half to know, but he was the only person on the ice, not even passing to somebody else.

So he's doing all this by himself. Yeah. Yeah. A lot of it, you know, like, and even, even when we would have, you know, the end of practice, when everyone would be like shooting around and doing all their stuff, like it was almost like, you know, the one end at the top of the circle, where he's posted up on the power play. That was his spot, like give him 20 feet. He's going to go through his drills and do stuff.

And maybe he asked Pointer to come down. He's going to work on his little pass into the slot and work on his bumper play with them. Um, you know, but he, he doesn't need guys on the ice, you know, like to, to practice this stuff, he can just stay out there and, and it might even look like. Slow to someone because he's working on something like so specific. Um, but again, like those little backhand sauces, they're always like

just a little bit over the blade. So you can't knock him down. Like it's, it's so frustrating, but, um, absolutely incredible to watch on a daily basis. That's awesome. Any other, uh, any other coop stories? I mean, you told the one in training camp where he called you out right away and you kind of appreciated that about him.

Like, is there anything else like a story that resonates with you and, and your connection with Coop, because I think everybody's just fascinated by the fact that he's lasted as long as he has and how much of a player coach Eddie Stills is and his message stays fresh year in year out. Yeah. You know, I think there wasn't anything else like specific. I, I, I, he always delegated, you know, different things to different coaches, which I saw, um, it was kind of like the first time I saw that.

And, and, you know, he didn't over, you know, he didn't want to like take all the power to himself. Uh, he wanted to let his other coaches work. You know, Jeff Halpern was working on the power play and Todd Richards would have like the D-Zone coverage and it was just refreshing to see that and, and, see him like he knew what he was. Like he's, he's a great motivator. He's a great manager of players and you know, he would come in on a daily basis

and always have that energy. And again, like no, maybe if a guy comes in and he would come in on a daily basis and always have that energy. And again, maybe if a guy was fighting it in a game or is on a little bit of a slump, how to approach him or maybe one to get on him and make sure that he needed to pick his shit up. He always would be coming up to us at morning skates and asking us Oh, like where'd the boys go last night in Nashville or something? you know, he always wanted to have his finger on the pulse and in that regard, but You know Patty Maroon played for him growing up and and he told us all early on he's like

Don't tell Coop where you went the night before the game because God forbid you make one mistake He's like, don't tell Coop where you went the night before the game. Cause God forbid you make one mistake. Like he's bringing that out. The crazy part of bars Maroon played from when he was 13, that's probably when he started going to the bar. Yeah, a hundred percent. I'm like, not all of us are like you, you know, we weren't like, this isn't our dad. We weren't drinking when we were 16 under this guy.

Could you have re-signed back there when you signed with Anaheim? Like, was that something where you're looking for some term and going out west? What happened in that negotiation after you guys did win? No, it was kind of like we knew the agreement type of thing. We tried to make something work, but it just couldn't with the way that their cap situation was. It was unfortunate. I would have loved to stay there and obviously be a part of the next year and even the run in the finals the year after. But it was just one of those things where we shook and said our goodbyes and, and, you know, understood that we both

would have wanted something to last longer, but it just, it wasn't going to happen. So, uh, yeah, at that point, you know, Anaheim circled back and, and, uh, you know, the money went up, which was nice, you know, like when you, when you prove it and you went to Stanley cup, it was, it was perfectly times, but it was perfectly timed. But deciding to go out west and go to Anaheim, I kind of knew obviously the situation there at the time too. I was leaving a Stanley Cup contender and going to a rebuild, but being in New York, I kind of knew what I was prepared for, which was nice. I know you got to run.

My last question is, even though you're so freshly retired, have you thought about what's next? It's so normal to take a little time off, but even when playing, have you thought about coaching, management, scouting? Has there ever been any thought with you or discussion with your wife? It better not be with the Boston Stranglers, you piece of shit. I'll fucking come after you. We need some guys on the ball hockey team.

Yeah, we do. Shaddy, stay away. We need some skill. Whoever slides the envelope under the ball hockey team. Yeah, we do. Shouting, stay away. We need some skill. Whoever slides the envelope under the door with the most cash wins. It ain't going to be Biz. He'll send you a t-shirt. This man's going to be triple dipping. No, I mean, I think I don't have any desire, at least right now, to coach or, you know, be a GM at, at this level.

You know, it's, um, it's a ton of work and you understand how much they get pulled away from their families and the like. So I'm happy with being around here and maybe trying to do something in broadcasting and media or whatever that might be. If not, maybe working with the PA because I did a lot of work with them over my career

and always enjoyed being with them so I think as far as hockey goes that's that's where my sights are set and you know, maybe coaching my little guy here for the next couple years and probably turning into a Monster hockey parent like most are these days. It's impossible not to I'm learning I'm learning the hard way right now every dad who says they're not a crazy hockey dad's all lying shatty Were you banging on the glass this weekend? I'd rather make sure it's with my ring finger too, so it's really loud Skate move your bend your knees. That's my thing bend your knees. He's got a head. I remember my dad saying Ben Well shatty unbelievable career, buddy

I'm so happy for you Stanley Cup champ you did it all with class and and every teammate that you had is gonna miss you So thanks for coming on and joining us. Thank you guys appreciate being here with all you guys is amazing Thank you very much to deuces Last what a guy what an amazing person hell of a career you guys will be back on Amazon Yeah, we're gonna miss you. And Harry Knuckles. I know boys, I know, fuck. Wish I could make it.

Really wish I could, but I won't be there this time. But you two with Andy Petrillo, will there be a third for you guys? I don't think so. Normally there isn't a third. Oh. We just asked that. You guys just let them bring me one time?

Well, a special occasion. We needed someone to make fun of. Yeah, yeah, exactly. I got tortured at that thing. Yeah, yeah exactly. I got tortured at that thing. Oh, it was unreal. Jesus Christ, no wonder I'm not going back. I called Better Help the minute I left that studio. We got a Whitney Bumchin pinata for this one.

We're gonna, between games we're gonna hit it. We're gonna get it. Who's the games? Is it Thursday? Let's see who we got that night. Let's see who we got Thursday for you guys. All right? Right now.

I'm hoping for some games with playoff implications. Thursday, there's always a lot of games. A ton of games, yeah. Thursday, we got nine games. Bruins, Canadians. Canadians need to get that win. It's in Montreal. Lightning, Senators. Avalanche Blue Jackets.

Blue Jackets need as many wins as they could get. Pred Stars, Penguins Blues, Blues keep it going. Kings Utah, Oilers Sharks. Keep naming teams. Gonna run over Macklin Celebrini's rental car. Jets Golden Knights and Ducks Flames. So you guys will be there representing, and we can't wait to watch.

I'll be watching, I'll be texting you guys, and I'll be making fun of you on Twitter. We got Peaking, obviously Biz mentioned that, so check that out. We peaking! I can't wait for that. We peaking! Biz on Shrooms with Donnie Does in Pigeon Forest,

fucking Tennessee, so check that out. Re-educate. wish us good luck. Game notes Friday, noon. They need, need to address. Murls needs to sit there and apologize to every viewer. I'm sorry, I'm the college hockey expert and I couldn't pick one team. He never picks BU, ever.

He couldn't get one frozen four team. But game notes Friday, noon, right G? You're talking with the same guy. Noon, baby. Same guy who said that the LA Kings were frauds. Yeah, Murls. Murls has been cold this year on his picks and stuff. Every year.

Murls, what are you doing? What are you doing, Murls? Not one frozen four team? The OG 29? Yeah. Yeah, that's exactly what it is. McKinnon stole his number. And it was all downhill from there biz. Thank you for doing army alone

What do you mean dude? You were incredible flu game performance all great now we got SARS. I'm going to sleep Love you guys. Have a great week. We'll see you next week Bus drivers don't hit any Range Rovers out there or Tesla's unless you want to light it on fire Bye Rovers out there or teslas unless you want to light it on fire Bye I don't know where the other way is feeling so hard to go I don't know where the other This feeling is so hard to break I'll get you someday