Spittin' Chiclets Episode 625: Featuring Rob Ray

Hey, spittin' chicklets listas, you could find every episode on Apple Podcasts in Spotify. Prime members can listen ad-free on Amazon Music. In the works Pizza, Papa John's hands select seven toppings, pepperoni, mushrooms, black olives, sausage, peppers, onions, and Canadian bacon. Woof! When it works, it's Papa John's. The works, now starting at 10.99. Better ingredients, better pizza, Papa John's. Work hard and hydrate hard with Body Armor Flash IB, whether you're working an extreme heat or powering through a long shift, Body Armor Flash IB delivers faster, longer lasting hydration. With more than 2,000 milligrams of electrolytes, vitamins B and C and zinc, coconut water, and no artificial sweeteners, flavors, or dyes, Body Armor Flash IB keeps you performing at your best. Get Body Armor Flash IB at your local 7-11. Me and Ryan have been officially welcomed to the jungle that is Boston Sports. I brought it towards the coyotes and I asked them if it was okay if I joined a spit-chickled podcast full-time. No, a little bit annoying. Ryan Whitney's got a pink Whitney out there now. I'm just a man-bagger. Get that on camera. He can handle the song, man. Kate! It's a full-time member, Marley just gotten us. It's from Chris Beak. Whoa, whimp. Buzz in right now. Skunk. What is up folks? Welcome to Episode 625 of the spit-chickles podcast. Hey, Chickles fans, we're going to take a quick break for a message from one of our partners. Kozy season is upon us. Bombas makes your comefiest fall staples so you can make the most out of one of the best seasons of the year. Bombas' new suede magazines are perfect for fall with cushy souls, assurling lining, and water-resistant suede. Plus, for every item you purchase, Bombas donates an essential clothing item to someone phasing, housing, and security. Head over to bombas.com/audio and use code audio for 20% off your first purchase. That's b-o-m-b-a-s.com/audio. Code audio at checkout. All right, now back to the show. Right, Piz? It might be Jersey, Jerry, and Little Sass's new gaming lab. Who knows, right? Because they won in on the pink Whitney sponsorships. So we still have to cut a deal with him. But incredible idea. And I love it. It's easy. It's very easy to market that. And if you know, you know, you know, you know, you know, you know, you know, you know, I like that. There's pinkies out. If you see me around, just give me a pinkie's up. I'll give you one right back. We can even tap pinkies. I know it sounds a little weird, but boom. In the world of pink Whitney, it's not odd at all. It's not always safe with love winds, right? So if somebody cuts you off and they're being an asshole, instead of giving them the double barrel, just give them the pinkies out. Say, hey, yeah, I know, I know you're not that person. I still love you pinkies up. Grab a shot and, you know, cool off. Yeah, you just need a drink. You're just angry and rushed and upset. If you're cutting thousands of people in line at the airport, just, just walk through like this. Oh, yeah. You better look up your bottles to pour it out and their mouths on the way by with. They're screaming at me and just giving them this one. So, right down the line. Son of a boy, dad was talking about this. Did you hear the, did you see the clip? Yeah, I did. And for people who don't know, we were on son of a boy, dad. Great guys. It's Frances Ellis. It's Ron. It's Sass. And it's just. It's really the most talented guys. Yeah, yeah. Now, Frances had my back. I think Ron Khan had my back. Sass, Sass turns out to be the biggest scumbag of anyone. Because Sass said he loved you. He said he was a big Whitney guy. Yeah, but I love Sass too. But in the sense of the argument or the discussion, Sass said he will never let anyone caught him. So if you're, if you're somebody like me, that's, I'm going to miss my flight. No, granted, I ended up in the Delta Lounge. That was the tough part of the story. He's like, no, no, I'll miss my flight too. Because of his experience, there was a bunch of people who were late for a flight where he was right, though. He's like, well, if I let all these people go by, well, then all of a sudden, I'm going to be late for mine. So Sass. That's a different circumstance, but I think he made it sound like it's always no. I think that that experience just made him say, draw a hard line. Or if anybody is late for their flight, too bad so sad, rebook, it's your problem. So the point where when it happened to him, he looked the guy dead in the face, he goes absolutely not. I'm not, if you go, if you guys go by, I'm going to be late for my flight. And then, but he, the guy who was asking people had gone past, let's say 10, 15 people and then got to Sass. So then he was stuck behind Sass and he was just there the whole time. So think of, think of how uncomfortable it would be to say, give it the ass. Come across, crank these up, don't even think about taking another step. You and your whole party can sit your ass down. For me, it would be, we're going to take my crews, yeah. For me, it would be more uncomfortable just having him stand there for the 15 minutes. It took the check in right behind you. And you're going to ask, I think he, I think he kind of lives, yeah, thrives when it's uncomfortable. Yeah. Yeah, I don't know if it's to that extent, but I don't think Sass gives a shit if it's like awkward. I really don't. No. Respect them for it. All I could think of when Sass was telling that story of him saying, no, and you know, Sass, like he, he looks like a gamer, like a video gamer. I'm sure he has his headphones on at the airport, hood on, whatever. All I could think of was him telling your dad with that he can't go by in what would ensue after the fact would be life altering for Sass. Why would you roll mad challenge him? Uh, I think back in the day of Dan Whitney, uh, 25 years ago, he's probably like headlocking the kid in the middle of the airport and like they're rolling around like wrestling, Pinkie's up. Um, but nowadays my dad would say, Hey, you know what, I understand and get it. And with old age comes peace of mind. And I shouldn't say old age as you age comes peace of mind and maybe realizing that this little gamer slash comedian slash, um, how else would you just get started? Yeah. Yeah. Non first class flyer, um, he's going to win the day. And so I was laughing a lot. I, I thought it was hilarious. Actually, Francis, Francis asked me, Francis is internet, invitational fame has exploded to the point where he's now getting asked and paid like a lot of money to go be the comedian at member guests and one of them is at this insane like golf course, like top of the line world class. Are you allowed to say which one? He didn't, so I'm not going to, but he, he not always being paid an exorbitant amount of money to be the, you know, the kind of the host and the, and the entertainment at the member guest men's night. They're also giving them a spot in the member guest. He asked me to play in it. And I, uh, so it's funny, I guess that leads me into what I did this weekend, not to take over the conversation. I said, listen, this was like a month ago, I'm like, dude, I would love to, I can't because if my son makes it through rider and his team make it through playoffs, we'll have the semifinals that weekend and the finals, hopefully. Now at that point, the chances of us getting through, I thought we're, we're pretty slim. As I think we finish, we finished six that the end of the league at the end of the season. Well, boys, the junior dogs tier two might a team pinkies up got through this weekend. Let's go. It was, it was great and, and, and, and it was one of those things where you go in and so you, there's eight, eight of the whatever, 11 teams, 10 teams make the playoffs. Then they split you off into two groups of four and you play, you know, the three other teams than the top two teams from each group move on to the semifinals next weekend. I went in and it was, you know, some of the better teams. We won the first game down to one, tied it up like seven minutes left. Kids scores the game winner with a minute left, win that first one, kind of had to win that one. Then the next morning, all of a sudden, based on the other teams that have played, it's like, hey, if we win this morning, we're in. It doesn't even matter this afternoon, got that done to a team who I think was like three and one against us this year, pinkies up. And then in the afternoon against the team who had to win to get in, man, we lost four three, but like, we had a hell of a weekend. And as a coach, I think all got people who coach whatever sport and youth sports, it's very fun. It's also sometimes a lot, right, like you're, you're sacrificing a ton of time and energy, but that's not, that's not nearly as, as, as much fun as it is, the, the tough things. But seeing the kids improve and seeing how happy they were, it was the best feeling. Now mind you, in Florida, they sent a video, I think they did it for the other coaches on my birthday. Have every kid wishing me, you know, happy birthday. And I was like, I swear to God, I got like a little emotion like this is just awesome. Like, hopefully someday these kids are like, Oh, I remember coach Whitney or something like that. He helped my game. And for Ryder personally, Ryder's, I think he improved a lot this year. And he's not, he's not a great skater right now. So at this age, it's hard like he's a weaker skater, but the kid, he thinks the game pretty well. Like he, for hockey, I queue for a kid who turned eight in November. I'm like, okay, like he'll make little plays and little passes. And a lot of the year, so he plays D, the puck would get rimmed around to him at the point. And he really have nobody on him. He kind of just like fired back in the corner. And I was kind of showing him like, Hey, but I get it. You know, you don't want to lose the puck. But you have, you have time and you can get your feet moving. You can find a pass in the slot or something. And in the game Saturday morning, puck comes around to him. He gets it, gets his head up, gets his feet moving quickly for him, quick down the wall. and just fires a seam pass right to the slot to a kid all alone who buries it and I was like, buddy, it was the best feeling as a coach. I was like, that is truly improvement. And I pinkies up him right in his face on the bench. And he said, we do it back to me. And then the rough made a bad call and I gave him a pinkies up. The ref did, the ref did give us a warning. You guys got you guys are getting a little loud with me. So can you see a little bit of Matthew Schaefer in him? I don't see any Matthew Schaefer in him. Unfortunately, I do not see any Matthew Schaefer. And I love getting into Matthew Schaefer. Because to me post Olympic break with all these different storylines and the trade deadline coming up. This kid is a truly generational franchise altering number one defenseman who's going to break a record this year, knock on wood that I didn't see ever getting broken again. Brian Leach had 23 goals. I mean, what was that 88? We're talking about 40 years ago, just how old was he at the time? I'm guessing he was 20. Let me look it up. Yeah. I think he was 20 and he also played some games in the NHL the year before that. I think he played like 17 games in the NHL. Yeah. Dipped his toe a little bit. Obviously Brian Leach is incredible Hall of Fame or one of my idols growing up. But like the fact that like he was a few day Matthew Schaefer was a few days away from not even being in this draft. And he could be drafted next year or this coming year. And the fact that he has 20 goals already is absolutely insane. He turned 21 that year when he had 23. Yeah. Wow. This is nice. It's not. Schaefer is actually closer, still closer to 18 years of age and he is the 19. Yeah. So that's I wrote a writer's age. Yeah. Then he is most elite. Yeah. Just his IQ and how scouts just say like he doesn't force it either, right? He just kind of lets the game come to him insane shot. I mean, our expectations were high boys. But the fact that he's he's doing what he's he's doing on the ice and he has like the character and the attitude and and just like the the media sense and all of it. He's a full package and he's a complete organizational game changer. And they got to be so fired up that they picked him one. Yeah. And I actually, I was listening to an interview with boomer a sire, a boomer a size and legendary Hall football player in Schaefer's living with boomer size and starter. If you guys didn't know, he's living with that. And he did an interview and he was like, you know, talking about how he didn't make the team. He's like, watch, I guarantee you he comes back from this Olympic break and just starts good and getting hot again. And I'm like, Jesus Christ. He's got four goals and two games being back, right? They and I don't know what he knew or what if he knew what he was going to be doing before the or during break. I don't know if he went back and just skated all break, but he has came out insane because that's a tough break for an 18 year old kid to be, you know, to take two weeks off of not playing when you're getting in such a good rhythm of figuring out the league to take two weeks off and come back and come back with this fire. It is truly amazing. I want to say he had a two goal game, uh, the game before the break too. So he got the first game. So I think he has two two goal games since it. First game's back. Okay. So it's back. Sorry. My bad. But, uh, yeah, you said it and probably lit a fire under his ass because I think a lot of people did want him on the team. Um, when more C went down, it's like, uh, fuck that would have been. I think I would have liked to have seen shape for there. But I mean, also you could say that a boo shard, a lot of a Monday quarterbacking after the tough loss for the Canadians. But, uh, I don't, I don't know if you guys have any other like stats or I do have a couple stats. I have a couple stats. Um, now part of watching him, it, it's the skating right away that jumps out. Okay. Like, obviously this kid is, you know, he's, we're looking at like a top 1% skater in the NHL. He's, he's got the most 22 mile an hour or more speed burst in the NHL this year by defenseman. And if you look at like his game, like it's not all skating though, because he has such a crazy hockey IQ and his skills are so good that yeah, he has the ability to beat people one on one with his skating. But like, it's his brains that's making him so good. It's not just the skating. It's like the decision making stuff, which is the hardest part of getting in the NHL. Now when you can get out of trouble and get out of problems in your own end because you're skating, it just, it makes it that much easier. But we're looking at a kid. As Biz mentioned, who turned 18 right before the season. He's third, this is in the entire league in defenseman. He's third in the league in puck possession. He's second in the league in zone exits, second in the league in zone entries, third in the league in open ice deakes and tied for second in the league in goals. Wow. He's witty under the hood. 18 years old. That's a tweet from Mike Kelly over. Wow. And another tweet I saw, this is Tofer Scott at hockey think tank. It's a clip of it was two to two 10 minutes to go on the second period of the game on what was it Sunday night of Florida and the islanders in which the islanders came back and won a game that they were down two goals for the second game in a row. It seems like they've done that all year. Barzell and and Schaefer in this clip, you have to watch this. They're skating and them working together and kind of switching spots all over the offensive zone leads to a crazy chance by Schaefer when he takes it on the rush. And it's just it goes, it goes back into yeah, they got lucky winning the lottery. But all these teams who or fan bases who don't agree with tanking, I get that. But look around the league guys and look at the players we talk about most and look at the teams who turn it around quick. You get first overall pick. You get second overall pick and and Calgary and and you know, there's and look at San Jose. Look at what San Jose has done. I think Will Smith was fourth then celebrating now Misa who doesn't even really play that much. It's on like pace. If he played a full season for around 40 45 points. He's 18 years old. You have to finish in the bottom or get lucky as hell winning the lottery to get like game changing franchise changing talent. And so if I'm some of these teams and I'm looking around, I'm I get the ticket sales and what tanking can do and how tanking can go wrong. But I also look at what what you need to have happened to get a player that's going to change your entire franchise around. And that I think if you look at those top end guys and like guys who are at the Olympics shining in order to change organizations around, you need the top five top 10 picks. Even even take top 10 top 10. No, I know. It's hard. The drop off after like the top three is the three. It's the three spot. I think. Yeah. It definitely dips a lot. And yeah, it's you're going to probably see a few teams doing their best attempt to tank after this deadline. But a lot of sellers, man. A lot of sellers right now. But you said it though with the Schaefer thing too, which is crazy. Like obviously him going first overall means the islanders were so bad last year. They're still they're 21st in the league for goals for for a he's second on his team and scoring like he's not surrounded by these superstar players that have given him back to like no disrespect to their team. But like Barzelle and Horvata, they're two top dogs, right? Up front. And then, you know, it's kind of you could be out there with, you know, they like to muck it up. They play a different type of game. So the fact that he's scoring 20 goals on, you know, what a team like that is so incredible to me and to do it at that age like this guy. Do you want to say this guy's the limit for this guy? And it really is. But like how much better can he get? I know. I do. What is what does he get if he if he has another year to back up this year next year? He's probably going to be getting 18 million 19 million dollars out of his entry level contract. Well, a kid like this that is this young. And yeah, when they can reassign him next July one, this is a kid like I'm taking four and five year deals. Max the whole my whole career. I if I am a high and elite level superstar player in the NHL, I am not taking a seven year deal ever. Yeah. I don't I don't like where's the where this game is going where it's at now. How much room we have to grow and how much more popular it can still get in the US. And I just think with with how the game presents on TV, it's getting better and better and the excitement around the league is getting higher and higher. If I'm a superstar, I'm never taking a seven year deal. I know, Biz, we talked about this off camera and locking it up and what do I get a change? All right. Because now it's going to six and it's you know, seven year for the team that has you and then six years if you're a restricted or unrestricted free agent going to a new destination. So the four or five year deals make a little bit more sense because the eight years is the last year. You're going to be able to do it. But yeah, it's going back to what you talked about how they don't get they don't have really any goal support other than a few guys. I want to say, Sirokin and the islanders right now have the highest saves above expected in the entire NHL. So that's a big reason as to why they're in a playoff spot. I don't know if we ended up putting this in the outline just to go back to last night's TNT where Vegas ended up getting worked. I think Vegas has the third worst. Right now and they are just leaking oil. So I don't know where you guys the goal pending just matter so much in today's NHL And it's yeah, it's it's a it's a big reason why the honors are or where they're at They're fourth in the league for goals allowed a 2.7 for again Not to bring this back to the junior dogs 2017 birth year But I did the reason I mainly brought it up is because our goalie Stood on his friggin head like and it made me think it's like wow these kids are turning nine this year Like rather be nine at the end of November, but this whole age group. There's some nine year olds right now Whether they're nine years old or in the Stanley Cup playoffs like it is goal It is the game of goal tending we saw it We talked about it with hellbuck in the gold medal and when you get into the playoffs Can you rely on Sirokin to continue this like can the islanders go on a run like my gut would say no But because it's not a one game thing, right? It's it but if you look at like if he somehow catches fire to a certain extent like they could win two rounds Yeah, who'd the islanders play right now? I think they'd be maybe playing Pittsburgh that Metro is is a is a kind of a janky division where but here's the thing though I've continued to to be like a Pittsburgh odd Pittsburgh I wrote them off last night against Vegas and look what they keep doing. No Sydney Crossview. They spank them five nothing So yeah, I mean, that's a obviously that Carolina series if they played them next would be a lot different story But I think that if you're islanders Pittsburgh right now. That's a coin flip point flip and that would be a fun series Sit me back. That would be pretty entertaining. They're going to go back to the Coliseum to play. Yeah, I don't know if you guys heard that Yeah, they do the first three rounds. Yeah, yeah, but We talk about them not being able to score that much I don't think there's many teams that would want to play them in the playoffs like they're a pain in the ass to play again So I would imagine their their hard to play against their fast or physical like they're not a team that's gonna make it an easy Seven game series. I wouldn't want to play them and I actually I know I said I just pick I would pick Pittsburgh But I want to just give a round of applause for the islanders because I do believe Sunday night That was the final nail in the coffin of the Florida pants. Yeah, they're dead. So I finally like get out of my face for a year Yeah, get out of my face and if the others were like looking even Somewhat better than they are I'd be really excited, but the the Panthers dead the Leafs dead and the excitement of the Eastern Conference playoff Picture this year to me. That's like the storyline of the season right now all the new blood We're gonna get into Buffalo and how dominant this team has been for a long time We're gonna look at Detroit who's sitting a wild card spot right now But that Atlantic's kind of crazy Montreal who got in last year, but you know, it wasn't their time yet Washington had had their way with them Boston somehow is in the mix. No clue what's going on there this season can't believe the run they've had So it's all about kind of getting rid of Florida and Toronto who you could chirp Toronto all you want They've been in the mix for a while. They've won one round I think twice But big the other always in the playoffs. Florida's just dumbied everyone But my biggest takeaway and we'll talk more after the deadline Friday if the Carolina Hurricanes can't get through the Eastern Conference this year This is their year just wrap this is their year best there's no excuses There's no teams out there that are the boogie meant to them Florida is a team that just dominated them physically. There's no one out there really like that I mean the Bruins are really physical and they're a tough bigger team, but this is the Hurricanes time It has to be and I wonder what they do with the deadline. Well, I know what they're trying to do. Okay, they're trying they're trying to get Troche are they they're trying to get troche he's played there before they're trying to get them they got it They got to get a little bit of help up the middle But I I think that Billy G's gonna bring his boy who he just want to go metal with over the Minnesota I want him in Minnesota Sam yeah, I I think well it just like you said it's it should be Carolina's time I think the Minnesota fans deserve a run they deserve one man It's a it's a gauntlet of a division to get out of but my god do they need a run? Well, you look at even like Stamcoast those good guys who have no trade clause or no move clause guys are putting Minnesota on their list where they want to go this year So big shout out to Billy G for putting his team in this position and shout out to the guys for putting them in this position But that team man if they can go on imagine how fun it would be in Minnesota Having this team go on a run like they what's the furthest they've ever gone to around they went they went to the conference finals The year I believe that was Patrick was last game. I think correct G looked at up for me. I think they call a rato in the first round they ended up I don't remember who beat him in the conference tunnel was it Anaheim? It might have been Anaheim when Anaheim went and lost the devils and game seven of the cup final G's gonna have to do some digging for me right now. It was the as in two two thousand three season I believe. Yeah, so that was that was the year's Jaguar one The the cons might then a losing effort. Yeah, and they lost that's right and they lost and that year Anaheim took them down It says during that run they defeated the Colorado Avalanche and Vancouver Knox before losing to the mighty ducks of Anaheim in four games Okay, my memory right now. I think after this playoff win as an assisted coach. I'm kind of flying high guys I thought I kind of a national commercial out and then all of a sudden he's up thing. I got an alcohol That's always nice when the coach of the team has an alcoholic sponsor drink, but pinkies up guys Pinkies up since we mentioned Minnesota and Billy G Um, I thought like the way that he handled like Quinn getting to go do SNL and everything and just his quotes knowing that you know Quinn obviously wants to come back and make an impact for for many Given the fact they've given up so much to get him and want to go on this run But just how how he's all in on helping endorse the game and allowing these guys to live in the moment with with what they've accomplished Just a cool thing and I know what we'll dive into it, but just uh, you know from from Jack going over to do Pat McAfee and and From the boys going over to do SNL with the ladies I just an incredible run since they ended up capturing gold boys Yeah, and I think plenty of Canadians are probably like oh my god more Olympics This'll be at this episode This'll be at except for the occasional trip from me and Jans just to remind you it's four more years till the next one But let me read the quote from Billy G when asked about uh Quinn He said I know it's worried him because he wants to continue to live to deliver for the wild We've talked about it and I've encouraged him to do this just kind of soak it in like this might be a once in a lifetime thing Hopefully not so you get to do Saturday night live go you get to do all these other things do it You know what? Yeah, you might be a little tired for today's game in the next game. I get it. I get it I get it but do it and yeah enjoy it because you can rest later and that to me It just speaks to the new way of the NHL right and now granted Billy built that USA team So maybe that adds a different layer, but yeah think about back when we were playing like or before us like GM's me like What the fuck do you think your wife can't even get pregnant? Yeah, I remember I remember someone their dad passed away and they missed like a couple weeks And they didn't even get paid during those weeks it was a fucking gauntlet back then But yeah, you can just tell Billy G played the game forever. He's been around the game forever He knows how much of those guys put into winning. He knows how much it meant to the US He was a part of that 96 team which meant so much But then like this is just another level, right? So unbelievable, but bring it in Troach for a guy that if he could bring him in right now Especially a guy who's familiar with with Quinn and Faber and Bolby like that that's a home run of a deal But absolute shout out to Billy G for for letting his guys do that and because we all know how hockey guys are like No one wants to be the center of attention and be there like Billy's probably dude go and do this please Please like you need to do this for the game, right? It needs to be built So unbelievable gesture from him. Did you watch it? Did you watch the SNL opening monologue? Yeah, I loved how they made they made a thing of like you know the girls like it was just gonna be us But we let them come so they're getting on sort of what became this like ridiculous story And I don't have the quote in front of me so people could look it up or maybe you could grab it But Billy G was also asked about that and he really gave a like I don't fucking care And he didn't swear, but he's like I do not care. He's like I'm not gonna let this overshadow what these guys accomplished and seeing Seeing what Abby Murphy said to us and seeing what you know the girls and the guys were together on Saturday at live It just kind of put everything into perspective that yeah a lot of people were really pissed off and I think when you see that the teams get together and speak so highly of each other the way they do It's awesome his his his quote was I'm not surprised at anything nowadays I'm not surprised, but I'm also not letting it bother me. You know what we just want a gold medal Nothing's gonna ruin this. I don't care what people say or what they think and it's like I love that man And there's people probably listening and who read that that it really pisses them off even more And it's like the meaning that they've made with Hughes in the locker room with the gold medal in a beer. Don't care We did this. It was great and seeing you know Keller Hillary Knight and the Hughes brothers together was awesome I was surprised though to see Jack Hughes because McAfee was in Indianapolis at the combine. The combo. I'm a great interview to man I tune into that one. I was like when did he even find the time to fly to India? It was like cool that he did it in person because it made it even you know every interview We do in person better than then the zoom links I feel like although we do have a zoom one today that Buffalo Sabers fans and old school hockey fans rock great was his electric as I ever could have imagined. Did he know we were recording? No. Oh, I didn't. Okay. He was fucking. So we were having a little bit of technical issues. I don't know if someone was calling him during the interview or his lasagna alarm was going off. Yeah. This guy was having lasagna that is not a joke. So I said it 50 times. Well, I think so. Sometimes these guys might think they're coming on like a radio hit where it's 10, 15 minutes. Well, we want to dive into their careers and kind of get sidetracked into what's going on with the current state of affairs with the Buffalo Sabers and their run. So I think we had him for about an hour. By the time it was over, he just was like, I need to get to my fucking lasagna or I'm going to beat the shit out of you. You three fucking donkeys on the zoom call. So at the beginning of the end, when he signed on right before we started recording, I was like, Hey, you good for an hour, 15. You know, just we kind of throw that out there and then hope like he'll stay longer. He's like, uh, let's keep it to an hour, boys. Let's keep it to an hour. And then we're like, okay, okay. And then, you know, we took him longer than that, I believe. But the end of the interview, guys, it's a classic. The way that this goes down. And I guess also the time, I don't even want to spoil anything, but, but this is the key we started it with. I'll give you an hour. I got a lasagna waiting for me. He might have worn us off the hot, he's legit Garfield. He scarves. He said lasagna 37 times during the interview. Yeah. Yeah. And, uh, and, uh, and we didn't want to be the only one to burn it. So he, he, he, he kept him for an hour and 30. That thing held then day. Could you imagine if he went out there and it was all gone, if like everybody just ate it, they're like, Oh, shit, Rob, I would go in a, I would go in a witness protection. Yeah, I'd go to the soil golf club. Nobody's gonna get that joke inside joke. That's where we're going to be. Uh, the Bob does. That was the track they took us to. Uh, and that will be the last of the four golf matches we did over the, the Olympic break. Fuck did we get a lot done over the Olympic break, man. That was more than the players. I ran into somebody, uh, today at the, I was having lunch. He's like, any sandbaggers coming out, uh, when are they coming out? I heard you guys talking about him and I was giving him the line up. And he was, the kid was fired up. Like, he's, he's most fired up for Grootin with, uh, Paddy Maroon and Ryan McDonough, which Grootin is so electric in that one. But yeah, there was like my snap count. No, I don't even think I gave him one. I was so scared at how he judged yours. Yeah. I, I just get, I, we made a big pot and I gave him one and he thought I was like a personal attack on him, like maybe mocking the fact that he asked guys to do it. So quickly I went on a defense and said that was just out of respect coach. I, I don't want to mess with you. Yeah. Um, but, um, yeah, we, we got some good ones coming out and that to sorrow golf club. Who? That was, uh, holy fuck. Quite the track, man. The Taj Mahal of golf. The, the, the, where they, I'm, uh, I'm gonna lay off to sorrow golf club. No, I liked it. What do you mean? It's great. Yeah. No, that booming, booming neighborhood community. They have their, um, guys L.A. A disastrous season and they made them move, uh, Jim Heller fired. Uh, DJ Smith will take over as the interim head coach for the rest of the year. Ben a weird year in L.A. man. And if I'm, if I'm like reading the fans vibe, the frustration level stemming back to last year's first round, it would, and DJ Smith ironically enough in his press conference, first press conference as the interim head coach brought up, I think that the loss last year and the way we lost like lead into this year with this group. And for a coach to say that, it's kind of crazy. I like the honesty and how would it not? And I think the fans, and I remember coming on in that playoff series and being like, I don't think this guy's like coming back. I don't think any of us did. And they gave him another chance and it was the challenge on the Evander Cain goal and game. That was game three, I believe, right? Um, was that game four? I don't even remember. But you know what, though, that, even a side with the, the, the game play in which when they were up and they were just sitting back and allowing Edmonton to walk all over them, it wasn't even hockey. I can't even describe what it was basically just like retreat nonstop. Like there was no type of systematic game plan to try to shut down McDavid. Like maybe force them to one side a little bit sooner. They were just backing up by the time that McDavid got to the blue line. They were basically already in defensive positioning. Remember we used to do that drill three. Yeah, we used to throw a tip where the five guys in the diesel would already be set up. And then the guy would just basically get to carry it in uncontested and then you'd start the diesel. That's what it looked like. Yeah. And, and, but the thing is though is like, regardless of that, that call and the goalie challenge and kind of the self-implosion, I don't mind the fact that this guy got another opportunity, right? He can't just like all of a sudden the guy makes a mistake and boom, he's done. But I just really feel that, yeah, this team since then hasn't been able to recuperate. I feel like, and like I love Critt and Bifield. I think that he's going to have an unbelievable career. You have to assume that there's maybe some also lingering effects to his game based on that. Like, you know, he hasn't been the player that I would have expected him to be this year with the lack of offense. And maybe it's a little harder because all of a sudden, for the first time in his career, I feel like Jose Copatara is not the guy. And you know, obviously him knowing that announces retirement. So now all of a sudden, Critt and Bifield is going to have harder and more difficult reps night in night out. But, yeah, I mean, I think it was time and sticking with that point and the fact that it's Copatara's last year, like, I think this is a last ditch effort. We make that they make that big trade. Basically, it's one in one out with fiala going down. That's what sucks. Because they make that trade with fiala out for the year. Yeah, I don't know either. But I like the opportunity that DJ Smith has to do in order to basically make, make it a fun environment. Make Copatara's, you know, last, whatever it is, 2025 games and hopefully they end up making a run to where they get into playoffs, make it enjoyable and make it a, you know, a team bonding experience. And hopefully they can rally around it with a player's coach like DJ Smith. But it definitely has been a big disappointment in the moves that Holland made in the offseason and hoping that they would find themselves in a better position. A few people have mentioned Elias Patterson potentially being dealt to LA. Do you guys like that? What do you think of that? They have 13 million caps based right now with the fiala. Fake Elliott Friedman broke a trade to Detroit today that I believe like articles with articles for them written on a Detroit Friedman. No, it was Elliott Friedman. And then it was his Twitter handle. But instead of HNIC, it was H.I.N. and see it. Look, I was staring at it like, ah, look, how, what is, what is different here? Better than getting busted by fronk. I got, I got fronked the last week. You got fronked said, well, it fronked. I got fronked. Um, but here's the thing though, is Vancouver with, there's said they're not interested in retaining any salary from Patterson. Then they're not trading them. Well, LA could make it work. They have 13.3 million. Yeah. But it's funny. LA is waiting for two years from now when they have the chance at McDavid or Matthews. Like they're not. If LA took the Elias Patterson situation is, it's incredible to me. What's happened to this guy? I remember watching this guy early in his career being like, this guy is unreal. He plays with pace. He's a game changer. He could score great setup guy. Like, I don't know what's happened. I don't get it. I, it's one of the craziest like career downfalls as of right now that I can ever remember. Like you don't go from a hundred point player to what we're seeing right now from him. I don't know. I said he's not playing with, he doesn't, I feel like when Horvath left something changed. It's definitely a regression, but he isn't exactly snapping around with like elite, elite talent right now. I know, but buddy, there was a time when it, like he was that elite, elite talent that could drive or his own guy. Yeah. Yeah. If you're making that much money, you need to be a line driver. You need to be a guy. He'd be like, Hey, we can put anybody like a bark of it. You can put anybody with him. A guy like that where I, will he ever get 90 points in his, he's got 35 points right now in 51 games. I think you could get back up to 80 90 points. I think he needs some players. He's playing with who is it? He's playing with a vander cane, who they're probably playing with Patterson to try to elevate his trade off. Yeah. And then Jake DeBrosque who I think gets, you know, but right before the Olympic break, he was actually a healthy scratch. And that might have been for the first time since it's like rookie year or maybe the first time ever in his career. Now, as, as abysmal as it feels for LA and the firing of the coach, they have two games in hand right now. And there are only four points back of Edmonton in that pathetic, pathetic, Pacific division. There's one team in the Pacific division that has more wins than losses. And that obviously showed some losses. And that's the Anaheim ducks. Wow. This is it's pathetic. But it's pathetic. But he, the Vegas Golden Knights haven't beat a team that is in the playoffs since November. November one shit. Like every win since November 20th has been against a team who doesn't currently at the time of the game sit in the playoffs. So here's the thing about LA though, man, like Fiala is done, right? Now it can DJ Smith and Biz, you said it, like make it fun again. Dude, their style is so boring. There's no chance that guys are having fun playing that way. That's type of hockey. Like let these guys free roll a little bit and looking at fans it kind of what they're saying like Brent Clark is a puck-moving, great skating defense man. Start playing the shit out of them, dude. He doesn't play enough, right? Like at one point this year, I think Kempi was, they had a five forward power play. He's playing, he's running the power play like where a defenseman is and it's like get that guy on the top of the circle where he can release his one-time earn. It's just, there's been so much there that doesn't make any sense. Now it's not all the coach, like you go to Holland, they Gavrikov left. He wanted to leave and then they traded Jordan Spence, who's a pretty good player to auto up for like a third rounder and they brought in Dumel and C.C. Like that's a downgrade on both both those guys, right? Like that's two defensemen out that are way better than two defensemen that are currently there. So it's not all in the coach, but they're style. You have to make guys enjoy coming to the ring. Give them a chance to go out and score some goals. Well, boys, LA is third in the league, third worst in the league. They've won 15 games in regulation. The only reason they're even in consideration for the playoffs is, you know, getting to overtime and getting that point. So I don't, I don't, I don't see them getting in and if they get in, like, oh, good luck. You got call. They have 14 overtime or shootout points, like, yeah, 14. That's fucking gnarly. I don't, I don't even know if there's another team actually, you know, who else is in the same division as Vegas, who have been to, I think that Vegas leads the league in a amount of shootouts they've been in. And I want to say they're like one in eight in, which is, which is a little bizarre. Do you think this is a last ditch effort to like, hey, guys, this is co-puitars last year. We got to figure something out. Like, you think they make any moves to get players? I know the Peterson thing. I agree with you. What? I don't think that happens. I think they're crazy to do that deal to be honest. Like, you got to bring some, if you're trying to make the playoffs for co-puitars last year, for all he's done for your organization, do you bring in some guys? I was actually surprised, given the fact that Hillers probably not making much money that they didn't try to maybe bring in DeBore. Maybe he didn't, doesn't want to go there because he doesn't see them as a team that's going to be competitive in the next few years after co-puitar retires. I'm surprised that they didn't fire him sooner. And if you'd fired him in the off season, which, but as I get it, like, you know, saying a guy should have been fired because of one playoff series, I think some fans would have agreed with that. But I understand they bring him back. But look at what, look at what's happening with Columbus now. It's been brutal for Columbus. They were the hottest team in the league. They've struggled a little bit since the Olympic break ended, but look at the run they went on. Like, if they changed coaches in early January, maybe it's different. It just seems like too little too late. If they'd fired him in the summer, Marco Stern had been with them forever, right? He's coaching their NHL team. Look at what he's done with Boston. Would he have not wanted to stay with LA? Like, that could have been an option. So there's all this Monday morning quarterback going on from Austin, everyone else. But LA's prospect, like, aren't great either. So it's almost like, all right, yeah, like, are we going to try to get in its co-puitars last year? Or are we going to maybe unload some guys and try to get some prospects back into our organization and retool that way? That to me is smarter. Now that sucks for co-puitar, you know, like what is the decision? Are we looking towards the future? Are we trying to help him one more year get into the playoffs, which they'll get smoked by Colorado? So going back to going back to G's comment about LA having enough cap space for Peterson. You have to imagine by the time that that Matthews would be available, would, would dody be off the books because I want to say that dody makes $11 million. So that might matter too, right? They're going to have some co-puitar coming off the books, which I think he makes $6 million this year. Then all of a sudden, dody comes off the books and then really, you're only lengthy contracts that are heavy are, are can't they campaign by feel in 27 28 offseason. They're going to have 50 million cap space right now. Yeah. So maybe going back to your point, G about them going, the thing is is, is if you're not, if you're not retaining any salary, it's just like maybe, maybe the, the price is a little bit less than like, what do you think? What do you think they would have to send back? A guy like Brent Clark. Do they even know? No, no, no, no. I think buy fields would, I think buy fields would have to go back. I don't know. I feel like if they're going to get rid of Peterson, it almost just be like, hey, take him. Take him. Take him. Yeah. Like, just take this contract, please. Maybe a first round. They're a couple picks. Yeah. Okay. Okay. You know, you know how, you mentioned that they need to bring back some fun. You know that that's what's going on in that locker room when they bring in the big fella, Matt Green, the coach, the D. That means they need more fun. He's moving to the D. Yeah. So they need more fun. And he will bring that watch. He'll be such a vibes guy. They'll go on a 10 game heater. Yeah. Yeah. They'll be also after practice. Bellied up at a bar. Grabbing lunch. They routine six pack. They went 20 in a row, get in as the eighth seat and do what they did with greener when they just crushed the whole. I know. They won the cup in like 17 games that you worked us. But I think this week's exciting. And what I'm pumped about is I feel like in, I don't know, maybe the last three, four years, we've gotten to the deadline day and everything's already kind of happened. Nothing's happened yet. Well, I mean, we had cool act. That was a decent size move for call order to make going from over from Pittsburgh. I guess last year we had Martian did like 3, 10 almost after deadline. That was exciting. But so far, it's quite Olympic break changed a lot of that. So Friday, we got a very special game notes extravaganza. They do this live from one to I think four o'clock Eastern. I'll be tuning in. Bizz you'll I'll be there. I'll get on the show for a little bit. Maybe keep the be able to appease around biz. We're going to be at sports net, right? Yeah. I would assume that army's going to be there and doing it out of the office like he was last year. Yeah. That's the plan. Army will be having you guys. He'll have his phone. So he'll have a bunch of you guys pop in on the set when you guys are in your breaks. My biggest dream for for, well, of course, Trollcheck going to Minnesota was one of them. I would love to see Detroit somehow get Robert Thomas. Thank you. I got a big one that's going to happen. I think. Whoa, what do you got for us? Dallas stars trade Robinson, Robert, Robert, Robert, Robert to the Ottawa Senators for Brady Kachuck. Think about it. Think about this. If this happens at the deadline, that one of the why it's I think you're not, it's inevitable. It's inevitable. Did they got to do it and and and based Austin's out of there too, Sagan, Sagan's contract off the books. That opens up the money for Brady to come in and if you have to get rid of Robinson or whatever. What's his name? Robertson. He's got a brother. Nick who plays in Toronto. And then the Jackie Robinson junior in Keith's mind. I love it. What's the difference? Robertson. Robins. So you're saying. And S O N it's R O B R T S O N Roberts and okay, a fouls change. You know who I'm talking about. I think I think it has like Jim Nills, Jim Nills in Animal. I think he goes out and does it like there's been talks about moving Robertson for how many year, like if it seems like two years now, like why not do it now? And then you get a guy like it's weird that they haven't already locked him in. That's right. He's based on what he's done and it seems like there's a lot of back and forth to agreeing on a number. And you touch on it. I think it's inevitable that that Brady could chuck ends up in the United States. I think that what a lot of the American guys dealt with after winning it and showing pride in their country. Like the way that, you know, hey, listen, if you're a Canadian media person and that's how you want to handle your business, no problem. But once McDavid's deal up and he's down on the motor and likely, okay, then just dry side will follow. And then you got Brady. Good truck. Who's what? What do you mean? You think that we're talking about Brady and Austin? Well, I, whoa, whoa, I thought it was you were the guy who got the text from stuff. Are you doing stuff dirty work now? No, no, no, no, no, no, stop and I've made up, stop and I as tight as we've ever been right now. Okay. What do you, what do you think the probability in three years from now that Brady, Matthews and Connor are playing in Canada zero percent? I think, I think that Connor will be there until 2037 and end up winning like three cups with the others. Okay. So no more Detroit. No more Detroit. No, no. That was important. A big time mistake by me. If I have your balls in a Mason jar and it's mantle, what's going on here? This is I think Austin Brady or Gonzo, I think Connor and Edmonton, it's just, it's just meant to be man, it's meant to be and I'll talk about Brady leaving. Yeah, he's gone. I'll talk about Austin Brady, the most likely of all of them. I think it needs to happen right now, though, with all the shit he's had to deal with this year. Like, if I was him, I'd be like, see ya. Now Dallas, Dallas is on fire. Boys, they've won eight in a row. They got some special stuff going on there. Why is it Watson said another record to me for the most, the three consecutive 30 goal seasons under a certain age? He is just a power play. Menace, too. He's not a power play merchant as Pasha calls certain players in the league. league, but Wyatt Johnson is deadly on the. He's the single season leader and power play goals in their franchises history. Wow. Set that with with 25 games to play in the season, like beating guys like Mike Madonna and stuff like that. So they got it. They got a good one on their hands. But Dallas, like they've, like I said, they're on a roll right now. I feel brutal for Sagan. That sucks. Because when did he tear his ACL? I think there was like, maybe there's a chance there's enough time he could come back. Maybe second round or something like that, but they look at it and say, listen, we're going to put you on LTIR, which now means you're out for the entire season. I did mess that up last week when I said, this was the last year, you can like sneak around it. You can't do it anymore. And Mark Stone got injured again, boys. I was like, Oh my God, I kind of forgot that you can't do it anymore. I don't know. Now I'm switching subjects here. The injury, Latang pushed him like, like a little kid, like, and he left the game. I don't know. I don't know what the hell happened. Okay. So Sagan heard his ACL on December 2nd. Now, yeah, that's kind of ACL is what seven months minimum, right? And you park off. Yeah. I'm sure you're made in the lab. But don't you think like, especially like we were talking about co-pitar kind of last runs. You think of a guy like Jamie Ben, like he's on the back nine. Like I think Dallas needs to make a move this year. They've gotten close to last couple of years. They know what they got to deal with in the, in the West. Like, could you imagine Brady could chalk on Dallas with playing against fucking Colorado in the second round? Like Minnesota doesn't want to see that happen. No, I know. And they should go out and do it then. I mean, if that happens, that would be, that would be maybe the most electric dead line. What percent would you have Brady getting traded this year before the deadline at Yance? Oh, I don't know. 50. No, I feel like I'm at like three. Yeah, I feel like that's, that's such a big deal. Unless it's been talked about, but this is kind of all happened quickly with the shit that he's had to deal with. I feel like too. And yeah, I don't know, probably 20% Brady. Good shock. The senators, by the way, like that poor team, I've said it all season, they should be sitting in like second place, if not first place in the Atlantic. If they had remotely, remotely average, golden, like that, that's the one thing that makes me feel like he's willing to kind of at least stick it out is like, we have a pretty good team here. Like we just can't get a save. So as a senators fan, you're watching these games. We're outplaying teams and we just can't, we cannot get a save. It's so, it's so like, what's the word? Not debilitating. It's just like God damn, we just lost another one because our goal is sucked in. You're also trying to create a little momentum. We're last year. They go up against Toronto in the first round. I thought it ended in six games, right? But I thought they, they played just as good, right? I think three of the games ended up going over time. So you're trying to build a little momentum and get these younger guys some playoff experience. So to halt that and then now all of a sudden, if they don't take a year off, yeah, it just takes a lot of wind out of your sales as far as as far as the group and that type of experience. So a bit of a kick in the deck. It's probably only going to be Edmonton and Montreal for Canadian teams in the playoffs, boys. I know. Crazy. What do you think about your oilers since coming back from break? Talk about not being able to get a save. Now people, people are like, I keep bringing up the goal. And then I get it. A lot of people are like, it's the defensive zone play. It's the demand. It's nurse. It's like, yeah, I get it. No doubt that can be different. Dude, they just scored 17 goals on a three game, California trip and went one and two. Like, and they said they're not going to look for a goalie. So the whole Bennington thing that's not going to happen. So G in the outline has Elliott's quote saying apparently that he's been told, and this is the godfather, like that they're kind of going with what they have. I just, I can't believe that. I can't believe it. I was telling me that Jari hasn't been the same since he got injured. I think he got injured against Boston or in Boston. I don't remember when it happened, but dude, they went and traded Skinner. And it just seems like, and boys, I was at the end, like, all right, enough is enough. But fuck, man, they traded a guy who's like basically the exact same who makes way more money. It's like, now you're looking at like, what the hell is going on here? Like what it was. And who's won that trade so far? Oh, by a mile, by a mile, maybe so maybe it is, maybe it is the defensive zone in the. So that's the argument. If you get, is it literally that Edmonton's so bad defensively, no matter what goal you have, you're going to just, you can't, you can't give up six calls. Maybe, maybe that's it. Maybe Matt Green can work for, for that mandale. They played for both of them time. Let's give cough some time. But I, I did get into a little thing online today about Evan Bouchard has been so ridiculously good this year. John Bouchard got listed his, um, nor Strophy votes. I think he had Werencky one, when he was to zero argument number three, he had Kale McCart. This season, Evan Bouchard by every metric has been better than Kale McCart. Now all these people are laughing at me. You idiot. You moron. Nice ears. I'm not saying he's better than Kale McCart. Kale McCart is a better player. If you offered Evan Bouchard for Kale McCart, the car I have lunch with legit, they might spit in your face. They legit would just laugh you out of the building. They're not even close at Kale McCart is a better player. This year, Evan Bouchard has been better. What happened was the start of Evan Bouchard's season was an absolute disaster. Like I think some of the worst hockey. I mean, he was, he was going, he was going full Darnell, but it wasn't even Darnell. It was Evan Bouchard. And since November 1st, he's kind of been the best defenseman in the league. He's ninth in the league and scoring his points, everything. No, he's great on the PK. He gets out of his zone with ease. He's just been overall incredible. But what happens is the beginning of the season and the eye test, they can't forget it. They can't get over it. But if you watch the oilers consistently, you're realizing like this guy is a world class defenseman who also should have been on team Canada with Shafer. And I, I got no problem whatsoever saying that right now, the top three of the Norris, Evan Bouchard should be at the award show, whatever they do now for that. Okay. Now the rest of the team, but by zoom. The rest of the D, I don't know, Darnell got really snippy with the media the other day similar to the way Leon does. I thought it was a pretty cool reply to, to spec. Yeah. Are you think people considered people considered him like getting a little defensive there? No, I think he's like legit. He spec asked. He goes, yeah, could you say that you're fighting it? And he's like, yeah, that's fair. That's all he said back. I actually commend Darnell on his restraint. And I'm a, I'm a big like Darnell guy in a sense of like the, his character and who he is in that locker room. And that's probably why those guys have his back. And they don't want him moving. All it's ever going to come down to is him making probably $2 million too much. That's it. That's all it's ever going to come down to. And even when even with his salary, like there's been plenty of times this season and throughout the course of the playoff runs, the guy's been phenomenal. Awesome. When he keeps it simple, he's mean. He can skate. He's, he's money. Yeah, it makes a little bit too much money. That's not the, that's the worst thing that happened to the oilers, because he played in the all Canadian division. And I want to say you had 20 tucks that year. And then they had to pay him. He had them by the balls. That was it. COVID fucked them. COVID fucked. You texted me. The oilers, if you look back at the roster a couple of years ago, I've fucking been beaten this drum. I'll beat it till I'm to the death of me. Dude, they, they had it. They had it. They had it. Now, they didn't have a goal yet. And they've had fucking 11 years to get a goalie from McDavid. But they had, and now, so boys come on nice. This guy's money. Awesome player. Great defense. At least starting to score more. But if you look at Ryan McLeod right now, Buffalo, this guy is money. This guy is unreal for the sabers. And he was loved in that oilers lock room. Like he, I just, I heard, I heard they love them. I heard he liked to have a few pops. And he was just a funny bastard. And they love them. And he just jelled with the group. And even like, I was a big fogo guy. Last year, I want to say he was one of the best five on five goal scores in the league with L.A. And then obviously the, we can keep beating the Broberg Holloway till we're, we're blue in the face. But I, I just really felt that they had the winning formula. They go to game seven. They lose by a goal and then turnover. And then last year, turnover turnover. Just too much, too much. How much turnover, how much turnover was there in Florida after they fell short to Vegas? They brought in. I feel like they did a lot with the D. Yeah, I feel like every, they've done, they brought it all over. They brought it all over. They brought all over that next year. And then when didn't was Mika on the team when they lost to Vegas? No. No. So they brought him and all we all over. All that was was a patched, you felt like a little bit of a patch job. Right. Yeah. They didn't fuck with the core. Now, the Oilers haven't really either. It's been the French things. It's been the, like the Oilers have no third line. center and then you look at Ryan McCloud, you're like, oh my God, imagine that guys are 3c right now, but I don't know. I'll say this, if it finishes like it does right now, we will wax anaheim. And then, okay, Vegas gets through, we'll wax them too. So all of a sudden, we're back in the conference finals, right? So I don't know. Maybe they're just looking at that way. One thing, if we want to move away from Edmundton, I think we don't want to talk about you taught at all. We did at the start of the year when they got off to the hot start that they dipped and then I feel like they're doing a lot better. I heard there've been ultra aggressive on trying to bring in a big name, ultra ultra aggressive. I heard they they were on on in penaren. I believe Elliott touched on that on TNT. So who do you think that they try to land here? It's got to be Robert Thomas. Yeah. Because this name is now out there. Okay. I think it's insane that they would trade Robert Thomas. The return would have to be unbelievable. It makes eight million bucks for how many more years? It makes nothing. And then Steve would, Steve taking over next year. I'm sure he's got a say in this. Yeah. Wouldn't he want a guy like Robert Thomas around? Like he just seems like such a St. Louis guy, like a player. I don't know if it's because he's been there for a while, but like, I don't know. He just seems like a guy I wouldn't want to get rid of. But if you do get rid of him, you're going to get a boatload for him. You said that. That would be like to add to that forward group with him the way he plays. I think that would be an unbelievable, unbelievable deal. But that's another one that seems like a summertime deal too, just with like the, how big of a name he is. Dude, Thomas has five more years at 0.1. So he goes to Utah, Teague again, LaGon. Right? Now maybe that's something where Stine's like, all right, well, if I'm building for two or three years from now, that's some, that's a player that's like, okay, right? I got this guy. And it would be a lot more than that, but that's a super high pick with a ton of potential. Now I love the fact that Ryan Smith and Utah, he's a, yeah, every single insider saying that all they're, all they're hearing is how aggressive he is or they are the 10th guy on the bench in the NBA makes for the first, first line center on every team does in the NHL. So he's probably laughing at these numbers. Yeah, right? Yeah. Good point. I can't wait to see what happens with Robert Thomas. The other, the other name is Codry. So apparently, I think three people, three high ups in Colorado were at the flames game against, maybe it was Anaheim. If he goes back there, that's what we said, screwed him was when he, when he left theirs. And since they, since they've lost him, they just kind of haven't been the same in the playoffs. I feel like rock Nelson, though, at this point is a grade with the way that he's played. And now he, that he's finally settled in in Colorado. As Elliot also mentioned, though, is I don't feel like Calgary is interested in retaining money either. So it's like, I will wear it. Where does Colorado go? I mean, they can't have much cap space on the books. Who do you, who do you get rid of the, the, the, the Gerard deal and get him off the books, probably help them. Gee, help us out on cap space for Colorado. And where everything I hear says that like Ross Colton would be traded for like any, I like his wheels. I know, I know. I think he went pretty cold this year. Army put him on as a slump buster. And I think he scored the next game. Army's a magician with that. They currently have 9.8 million cap space. So they do have some money here to make a deal. But Biz, you talk about Nelson being a good fit there. And he's been awesome, especially this year, but Nas in the playoffs, the way he plays, he keeps other teams like you don't want to play against the guy like that. Cause he might cross check you in the face. He's got that, you know, screw loose, whereas something in playoffs where you need a guy to do something, he's going to do it. Yeah. Like that's a home run. Well, fuck, Myers will have all three of them. Well, Biz, it's it's apparently your, your maple leaf sky, Scotty Lawton could be on Colorado. That could be a guy that they go out. That would be a good, yeah, that would be, I mean, uh, yeah, that's like a call, Gleana when cogs was there, that type of player. Yeah, that's it. That'd be a vibe. He's a vibes guy. Toronto is, yeah, they got a, I'm here in all of Reckman, Larsen's name being thrown out there just because he's also got term. I look at him like a Carlo deal where somebody's licking their chops and I could bring in this guy as a number four. I want to say he's locked up for what? How many more years under four million and, and you got, you got a guy like it's, it's, it's, it's not just a plug and play for the rest of the year. So I would imagine his return could be nice, McMahon. Um, and yeah, but if they're going to blow it up in Toronto, why not just blow it up and, well, yeah, I, unless you're getting the proper returns, I wouldn't because I think that all of her is a great player. I think that Scott Lawton, I just don't know what Scott Lawton's asking for. What is he's probably got Toronto by the balls in the, in the sense of what he brings to their locker room is asking for three and a half four million bucks is a, as a third, fourth line center, like what's he asking for? So Toronto situations, very interesting. I'm going to get to see them play tonight in Toronto against, uh, Michkoff and the flyer. So I'll be clocking Michkoff's ice time. I'll be locked in. Yeah, I'll be locked in. Is this the first time you've seen Michkoff play live? No, I got to see him between the benches and Buffalo. Oh, yeah. And that's where I was. I, he was getting muscled off pucks and stuff like that. So I'm, I'm, I'm interested. I, I'm yet a good, the hot start. I didn't get a two-goal game yet or night fresh out of break. So he's, he's doing his best shave for impression right now. What did, what did I know you don't fish for it? But what did talk say about him today, when you saw? I did. I had to leave to come record the podcast. You're just kidding. Oh, we did game table them in the room. I sat there me and me. Hey, I'm just bringing this buddy of mind. Yeah, obviously, he's a translate to get the puck out of you ever seen one of these Michkoff is a laser pointer. All right. All right, roll the clip. See, this is before we get to Rob Ray guys. I want to talk about Buffalo. I think Buffalo is one of the best teams in the NHL. How crazy is that to say they bring in a new GM and all of a sudden they are a complete wagon. Like not like, hey, we're going to say a wagon and drop t-shirts and then they're going to lose 36 games in a row. We're talking 21, 5 and 2 in their last 28 games. Since December 1st, first in the NHL with 52 points, first in wins with 25, outscoring teams at 5 on 5, 82 to 59, the Olympic break ended. They've won three in a row, including back to back, water to Tampa. They worked over Tampa. That's left. I think was 17, 0 and 1 in his last 18 games. They run him out of the game. They shut down Kutra Rob. It was just, it's been a clinic. It's been something that nobody saw coming. I don't even care if you're a diehard Sabers fan. You didn't see this coming. Taj Thompson is a machine. Alex Tuck is a machine. I think it's quite obvious to everyone. Your Moe comes in there. I don't give a shit if we can't sign Alex Tuck before the deadline. We are not trading them. We believe we could beat anyone. They're not even dead to rights to win the Atlantic. Yes, they're behind Tampa and Tampa has games in hand, but Tampa goes to Buffalo for two more games this season. They win both of those in regulation and continue this run. We could look at an Atlantic division winning Buffalo Sabers team. They come back home tonight as you're listening on Tuesday. They got Taj Thompson towels with gold medals in USA logos everywhere. He said, these are the atmospheres and the and the buildings you dream of playing as a kid. I think we're looking at 2006 playoff hockey type five Tuesday night in Buffalo. Yeah. And on top of that, they had the leading amount of people watching that gold medal game. The Buffalo region led the way. That's a that's a hockey town. That's a hockey region. And wow, they're on fire right now. So all thanks to you saying they have 0.0% chance of making the playoffs. You're welcome. 0.0. Do you think that do you think they should be forced to rehire Kevin Adams if they win the Atlantic? If they win the Atlantic, you can't bring them back in because the vibe since he left, but if like they somehow won the cup, like he's on the ice, right? Like, Hey, Kevin, like we could clinch the stand. I think you got you have to give him a ring. That's not negotiable. But but it's kind of like on a way different situation, because he did a lot more for Buffalo than I did for Pittsburgh. I didn't want to ring. Now, maybe he does because he built the team, right? I was just traded. See you later. Chris Coolness comes and I didn't want to ring if they're even off the one. I think baseball does. I don't believe hockey does, but he built this team. I just meant watching them play is crazy. And and talk about talk about tanking and talk about being bad to get first overall picks. Rosmastaline is a first overall pick. Everyone knows that has reached a level that I think everyone's saw coming when the kid was 16 years old. You start hearing about him. He was so good in the game against Tampa. But you see the goalie scored. It was fucking unreal. Sick. And then even at one point, Braden point two handed him over the skates, right? And that Austin comes in little sweet comes in, kind of drops the gloves with point points and with like one like kid goes down points like sitting there cocked and ready to even do anything else. But buddy, you got a little sweet coming in to protect his captain. Another sweet who's one of the best defenseman in the league. It's just it's it's awesome. It's it's so cool to see. They have a kid that's playing D there that's Zach Mezza. I hope I'm saying his name right undrafted played at Quinnipiac I was reading some quotes by him. He's like whether it was fair or not like the beating that this team has taken from the fans in the media the past few years It's just so cool to see now how everyone is so happy at the rink You guys remember on the losing teams going into the rink boys. Oh An Edmonton minus 37 degrees four feet of snow and we've lost 11 in a row. Good morning guys Like that was like 14 years of Buffalo doing that And now you're at the rink and you're just this kids like selfishly like I'm just so happy to be here I'm you know bottom bottom pairing guy but playing well And it's just incredible like the vibes around here unbelievable and Their fans deserve this their fans should thank me 0.0 pinky up and now We're gonna get to talk to rob ray about a team that he's watched all these years boys And he described some painful ugly days and what he's seeing now and how cool it is So we'll throw it over to him We talk sabers at the beginning and we talk his career after and it's electric I promise you so pinky's up rob right was on you's on your baby Hey trickles fans. We're gonna take a quick break for a message from one of our partners This episode is brought to you by state farm football has a play for just about everything You can go deep keep it on the ground or drop something nobody sees coming And whether you want to run a flea flicker or the push push you need a plan to fit your unique situation That's why state farm takes the time to get to know you so they can help personalize coverage for your life and budget Now that's a solid game plan like a good neighbor state farmers there. All right now back to the show Hey trickles fans. We're gonna take a quick break for a message from one of our partners This one's brought to you by tick pick ever actually read a ticket receipt service fee processing fee convenience fee Convenient for who that's an extra 30 bucks a ticket tick pick doesn't do that never has never will No fees means the exact same seat same section same row Costless on tick pick fans trust tick pick for all their live events check to reviews yourself So why overpay for the exact same seat download the tick pick app and never pay another service fee again And for new tick pick customers take $20 off your first order with promo code PMT 20 in the tick pick app terms apply That's PMT 20 at checkout for $20 off your first order. All right now back to the show It's long over dub is we finally got this guy rob ray you think of Buffalo Sabers you think of a tough tough man Oh, yeah, playing a long time in the NHL rob ray. Thanks for joining the show. Yeah, you know problem gentleman pleasure. It's an honor It's an honor. Oh, it's an honor for us. It's an honor for us Yeah, I would not want to see this guy in a top supermarket back home kind of muscle you for a little bit of space In the aisles You wouldn't be one to battle through one of what you call those tickets my avocado Ha ha ha ha exactly how you're doing laser. What does it take you down? Oh, it's been great man. It's uh Season's been awesome for us, you know what you guys it's like doing this stuff To sit there and actually have something positive to talk about for so long and uh, you know There's something to sit there and I look at Dan. I go we go to commercial when it's like Are we being too positive here? There's this really kind of happening and you know you don't want to get yourself too caught up in it But hey, they've done it long enough now that uh, you know, you get it. They got us convinced so hopefully the fingers crossed, you know, so I made the big mistake. I'm the fool. I was out there saying 0.00% chance they make the playoffs But I'm very happy they've turned around because I want Buffalo to be back in the mix I remember that team, you know, I think it was always at oh six and how crazy it is and the teams you played on Do you believe even earlier this year when they were just looking bad again? Did you still think it could turn around like this No Okay, no You know why because it was there was really not a ton changed on the team It was a lot of the same guys you got off to like an old and three start And you're like here we go again and you know, it's really But the the only thing that kind of maybe caught your change your mind a little bit is we'd play Dallas We played good teams Colorado play them hard. We win some of those games and it was like they got it in them But it doesn't happen all the time and uh, but I think they realized themselves too that they could play with the big dogs When they had to and it was just matter becoming a little more consistent Yeah, I think the teams just like It looks so fun to watch now, right like it's a great product. They're exciting. They're young I just we said earlier like I feel bad for Kevin Adams a little bit because he built this team and I don't know if you Think a new GM and and and yarmul coming in actually like made a difference with the way they played Well, they're success this year's got nothing to do with Yarmul or the way they're playing or anything It's all I did it this summer I was in Italy this summer and We're at the I saw the pope like 10 feet from me and I'm standing there with my daughter And I yell at him. It's really quiet right when this he's driving around in this truck and he's Blessing babies and that he's like 10 feet from me and I'm standing there with my daughter and it was quiet and I yelled Pray for the sabers. We need all that we can get And he looked at me smiled and waved and he took off so I'm taking credit for it. Okay, uh, okay There you go. How much of that actually happened were you over there and all all of it every one of them and I was like My daughter goes to me. She goes you're such an idiot. Why would you say that and I'm like There's nothing in my life. I need help with the only thing that struggled in my life as a sabers So that's all I can think about and she's like you're such an idiot. Now you go look honey. We get paid by the game. Okay And she thought about it for a second. She goes man. I guess it wasn't so bad after all So we were likely and then that was the end of it in the hopes of American too. So that's good vibe Yeah, he understood what I was saying. Yeah, yeah, you're like Pope Yeah, Pope, I've been polishing turds for 10 years. Can you please break this curse? I want to say something positive. Give me a playoff game check phone. Yeah From this season's standpoint though, there were struggles out the hop. Do you pinpoint like one moment or or or one thing That that kind of sparked it and where they kind of caught that momentum and positive thinking you know what it was We were on a six game trip 14 days and we started in Philly we lost but it was it was a chaotic game a lot of stuff went on in that game, you know Challenge calls all that then we go to Where we go now Winnipeg same thing it was just a frustrating game and then into Calgary That was kind of like oh my god and we lost all three of them the first three games in the trip And the guys kind of got together. There was a lot of rumblings that Kevin was going to be replaced when we got back and The guys I give him credit as a group, you know They're like enough enough all of a sudden now the general manager is going to be changed and you know, this is on us And you know, they amongst themselves they figured it out and said that we're the only ones that can change this and I give them credit. I give the credit the leadership group in the room. They they've you know got to that point Realize it figured out what needed to be done the very next night. They go in an Edmonton play really well Then on to van Caver and Seattle they went all three general manager get fired when we get home and you know Yarmul good guy. I don't know if you guys know him because super good man He went in and said look keeping it simple This is what I expect this is where I want you to do if you're not gonna do it or you're not willing to do it then You won't be here and I think those guys kind of came away from that and they go Oh man, he's got a plan and he's a leader and That's all it took They were convinced that you know, what was going to happen or if there was anything change there that he was going to be doing the right thing He was on their side and and he's very blunt He's read out and tells you exactly what you know what he expects and they bought into it. I'm a Norris coming back was obviously Don't panning out the way That he's panned out has obviously been doing a particular trade, but the when I saw that team play live when I was there It was the back end that I was blown away by because I think that Samuel sent has kind of reached this like top level of potential of what they expected When they gave that long deal a bow by rum is starting to look like the guy that they expected in in Colorado And obviously you got dolline and I was even pretty impressed with power Even though he's been taken off the power play. I feel like even he's I'm getting a little better. So I really felt like the engine that was driving him was that back end Yeah, and I think that they realized that over the summer and they really concentrated on it on You know working with those guys a little more Sammy. I'll tell you for him The I swear the big thing for you know, it's healthy You know for for two three years now he's battled stupid little injuries and take him in and out of the lineup But he was never healthy and now you know, he's playing more physically. He's closing gaps quick. He moves to park quick He's being more physical, you know all over the place. He's jumping up in the place coming up with so his confidence is through the roof But it just comes down to his healthy. He can play the damn that he has to play You know dolls has been you know great for us once again, and he's gone through an awful lot And he's still being able to play at the level. I give him credit You're talking power power is played better in the last two months Then he has probably since his rookie season and you know more confidence getting up in the play Picking and choosing when to get up in the play He's doing such a good job of, you know, offensively getting back when he has to, you know, still defensively a little bit sometimes, but his game is raised 10 levels, you know, from where it was even at the beginning and going by him. Oh, such a good guy. If you ever have a chance to meet him, he's so down to earth, but he's a guy that keeps everybody on their toes. He's there. He's kind of the guy that he's not going to, you know, the skits are in the room. He's a guy that's going to call it spade a spade and, you know, he lets guys know, but he backs it up with his play on the ice, even when Dahls was gone, you know, him running our number one power play. He's been fantastic. So yeah, a lot of good things there. And then, you know, once you get everybody else healthy, you still got Tim and some Kesseling these guys that, you know, have been kind of in and out and Tim and will be a bit, but Kesselings back now. So you got a pretty solid back end that not only defensively now, they can jump up in the play and create an awful lot, but the physical side is where that we were kind of lacking and they've really picked that up. What about Lindy? Like, I know when he got hired, there was some questions about it. And I know you had him, like, what do you see what he does for this group? Cause, you know, the new wave age wave of kids not coached the way I'm sure Lindy coached you. Yeah. No, totally different. And I actually played a little bit with Lindy and then, you know, him coming back into coach. And so you knew him pretty well. And when he came back and as a coach, you, you kind of have a good feel for what he was going to be like. And you did a good job. And, but I think the biggest thing for him and even talking to him about it is when he, when he left us and then he was a system coach, you know, in a couple of different places and, and he learned how to start dealing and communicating better with the younger guys. And I think as a head coach, you don't do that quite as much, but when he was in that insist, a system position, he kind of, you know, he had to be, he learned how to deal and talk to the guys. And sometimes maybe he didn't, you know, communicate quite the same way as the head coach when he first started. But now he gets it. He gets that he's got to be, you know, you may treat me different than you and the next guy and the next guy, everybody's not the same. And, you know, I think he's got a really good feel of, you know, how to get to these guys, how to get the best out of them. You know, he tries to be fair, but he's still hard. And, you know, in practice and demanding and all this kind of stuff that, you know, he has the respect from them. So I think more than anything, it took a bit for a young group, maybe to understand the little harder coach, a little more direct, a little more demanding. And a lot of those guys never have ever experienced that before. But, you know, most of those kids, when they come from wherever they came from, they had the coach that had them on the back, you're the greatest thing in the world. You know, keep doing whatever you're doing. You know, once they've got the hammy, it's not quite that same guy. So, you know, they had to learn how to deal with it as well. But done a great job with these guys now. Part of warning Buffalo to be good again, like I mentioned, is remembering the crowds and the playoffs and when they were good and how the fan base is that passionate. I'm like wondering, do you, is it harder for you because you remember the days, right? Like, you remember the big games you played in there. So it's like, I, there's 25 year olds that they haven't, they haven't seen them in the playoffs since they were what, 10? Well, nice kids, 17, you've never seen them. Yeah. You know, it's, you know, it's a whole generation of kids, you know, in our area that have never really experienced that, you know, that playoff fever, that doozy ass and the atmosphere and all that. So, you know, and even the guys in the team are talking, you know, we, we sit there as, you know, a lot around a lot in our group. You know, these guys, we're involved in awful lot, you know, in town and, you know, you're with these guys in awful lot. So it's, you try to tell them what it can be like and they're like, there's no way, you know, because the fans, you know, they, they, there's less and less people coming. They're getting on them. And the power play's not working. They're letting them hear, you know, they hear it on the radio, social media. I'm like, no, you guys, as soon as you start winning a few games, man, it's going to be totally different. It's, they'll be lining up to get this building sure enough, you know, the place is sold out all the time. Everything's positive. From the second they step on the ice, the place is going nuts. And so now they're starting to get a feel for what it's like. And then you're sitting there going, this is nothing. Like, till you get to the playoffs, wait till you get this thing going and then you really see, but you find guys after every night, after the game, you know, they're, they're commenting on the crowd. How great the crowd was. You know, so supportive this that and they've never experienced it before because you really never gave the fans too much to cheer about now that they're excited and happy. But what's going on? They're, they're getting a feel for it and they love it. And they're like, keep it going. So, you know, it kind of pushes them to, we got a pretty good home record and, you know, I think the people there are kind of showing them over the, you know, that's probably three months that they appreciate what's going on and when they do, it's, it's not a hard fan base to please. You go out there and work hard and effort and, you know, win a few games. They're all over it. So, but it is, like you said, that fan base there when it's going and you get into the playoffs, there's nothing better. I can remember back in '99 when we played Toronto in the conference final, I was like, this is the most, people are camping out on the streets for days waiting for the game and, you know, it's just, it was amazing, you know, putting on the games at the ballpark and the ballpark's full of people and the games outside the people that couldn't get in the building. There's 10,000 people outside. My guys, you have no idea what it can be like and once you get to that point, man, it's like a drug. You just want it more and more and more and now they're starting to get a little feel for it and see what it's all about and it's, it's, it's really excited these guys. I'm sure the boot sales are pretty good. Oh my God. Oh, yeah. You know, the beer swords, you know, they're, they're going, they can't keep them in stock. So, do you think, do you think this break was good for this group or you think they're going to come out of it like, oh, shit, we wish we could have just, you know, not had the Olympics this year and they're going to take this health, I guess, now after that game. Yeah. Hopefully he's all right. You know, that would be a huge huge loss, but he's all right. No, I think they're fine. And I think we got some guys in our team that were, we're playing and they weren't obviously on it. It's like every team you're coming out, you're going to have guys healthy now and everybody's going to be healthy for this last 25 game stretch. Hopefully they can, you know, keep it going to the end, but you know, I, I think it's a team that has got a little taste of, of success and they want to keep it going. It's not like, okay, yeah, we did it. You know, we proved everybody we could, you know, get ourselves in a good position and then kind of take their foot off the pedal. I don't think the leadership group, and we got a pretty good leadership group in there that they're going to let that happen along with the coaching staff. And, you know, I think they just, they hopefully they can pick up where they left off. You never know. But we're going to be healthy. We're going to get, you know, get Norris back, you know, you get Benson and these guys all back. Greeners should be close to coming back. So there's a lot of guys are going to be stepping back into that lineup that, you know, there's going to be competition amongst guys now to stay in the lineup. So I think everything pushes and points towards hopefully, you know, success when they come back. I mean, boys, I mean, as much as I want to talk about the sabers now, I mean, we had John because we want to talk about your career. Yeah. And I'm so interested to hear on how you, you ended up carving out the career. You did born in Sterling, Ontario. That's where I am right now, boys. Where about is that Sterling? It's about two hours east of Toronto, just north of Belleville, Trenton, small farm town. I don't know, there's probably 2500, 2500 people here. When I was here, it was like 1200 people and it's, it's such a good spot. In your, we went to high school in school and all that in Belleville, it's like 20 miles away, but no, it's a, it's a great little town. And I was the first guy to come out of here, Matt Cook was the second guy to come out of here to, to play. A couple likeable guys. Yeah. And you know what? I'm a, my sister's house right now and he grew up in the house that I'm looking out the window through the cross the street and it's like, that's how small town it is. Everybody knows everybody. It wasn't behind you because you would have hit you from the, oh, I know he wouldn't have you from behind. Man, it's such a hot place, man. Oh, no, Cookie, he always treated me well. He didn't hit me too bad. So he knew that I was getting some of it. Yeah. Yeah. I appreciate the way he played though. I appreciate the way he played. Yeah. We're not a high skill center. Want a cup? We're a hard working center. Okay. Yeah. So what got you into it? Like were you gold glove boxing before you even got in a hockey? No, bail and hay and work and man, that's how we do here. This is a farm town. This is a, this is what we grew up doing. My dad had a farm machinery dealership. We sold new Holland farm machinery and it would be in the middle of the summer and somebody would come in and they'd say they're shorthanded. My old man would be telling me to jump the truck with Joe. He needs help with the farm. Boom. Jump the truck away. He never eats a lot. But that's just the way it was. That's the way he grew up and I was even playing in the NHL and you know, two weeks after I'm done playing, the old man would call and he'd go, hey, I need your help. Let's get home. I had to go home and start working all summer and make my $200 a week and spend 800 in a bar on the weekend. And I'm like, this isn't working out too good, man. I get so. The math ain't math. No. It's not. This is starting to cost me money coming home so, but it was just a lot of fun. You know, on people here, I went to the rink today, skated with the kids and, you know, I skated with my nephews team tomorrow morning, your dad and my son's here. We just go and hang out with them and, you know, everybody at the rink thinks it's the greatest thing in the world. But it's such a great place to grow up and my kids love coming back here and it's where they're going to drive. Where my son, he goes, he's 17 years old, my brother and a lot of them down to the liquor store today to grab my case of beer. All's in. and no problem with the girl, come home. Anything else you need? So that's just a cool spot. - This is a random question, but when you were younger and your dad had say, "Hey, Rob hopped on his truck, going over and helping him out for the day. Did you ever kind of give him the shrug or hang the hat at all where he taught you, maybe you're not gonna do that again. You're just gonna listen to this." - No, I was scared to death of my dad. My dad's 85 years old, he's sitting out there, he can't hear anything. He's drinking his recardi lime and water, and he looks at you and I'm like, "You need another one, Dad?" And I'm still a little intimidated by him, so. - No, no, you never questioned the old man. - Is he the one who's instilled obviously toughness in you, too, like even when you played, what got you fighting? - Well, fighting, I was just like in junior, when I went to, I got left here at, I don't know my band of a year, and I went to Trenton to play junior B, and I'm about 14 year old kid, and you're playing 20 year old men. And my very first tryout in Trenton, and I could still see the guy. He was only like, five, nine, maybe five a little guy, and I'd get in a fight with him, and I'd never been a fight in my life. And I go to the ice and he picked me up by the back of the shirt and the back of the pants, and he threw me head first into the wall. And I go home and I'm like, Trenton's about 20 miles from here. I come home and I'm like, "Dad, this is what happened." - Boy, I learned to defend yourself. You know, just going from that point on, and that was my first fight in hockey, but from there, you know, next year I played tier two in Wippy, and I think it had 400 minutes of penalties that year, and we won like six games all year, and it was just like, oh my God, it was hell, but three of us off that team made it to the NHL from a team that won six games when we were 16 years old, and you know, off to Cornwall for three years, and that's, you know, the OHL back then, everybody fought up your 50 goalscorer, you still fought. Miners got drafted after my third year of junior, that sense of the minors after training camp, and John Ben Boxmeer was the guy. He's like, "Look, this is what they want." They think you might be able to do it. Are you interested in doing it? And I'm like 19. I'm like, "Hell, yeah, you just show me." But I quickly find out John Ben Boxmeer was the wrong guy to get fighting instructions from. He'd never been in a fight in his life. And I ended up getting, yeah, it would be, I ended up at 46 fighting majors that year, 446 minutes of penalties. And I bet you I won maybe two fights. I got to see out of my eyes from September to friggin, you know, the season was over. But I got to show it up every night. Yeah, but it was like, these guys are like back then, 35 to 40 year old guys playing for their livelihood and the minors, they got a wife of 10 kids, and you know, they weren't letting some shitty ass kid coming in and try to mess them around. They was, oh man, there's so many guys down there that we were just like scared to death of, but you just kept doing it. And then you got a chance the next year to play, so it was all real quick. Once you got to the NHL, it was easy. The minors were, it was hard, man. Yeah, it was a nice play for real. They played for real, man. Like you, there was no messing around. And when you're down, it's the need of the head, you're getting a finger in the eye, you're getting your mouth ripped open. And I think there was more injuries happened once you got to the ground because they were just animals. Yeah, no cameras, but I was going to ask you, is that like kind of what growing up in fighting in juniors, that kind of where you learned what the kids call nowadays, thirst trapping? Did you always fight with no shirt on underneath? So come on up on all the ladies looking at you. No, God, I was, I was single to his 35. I got married at 35. So what a veteran. And I was a decent shape, you know, whatever you were taking. You're fine. Like barboth. No wonder when you're at home, man, you get that shirt off and then roll it to the bar after the game and it was like, pick and choose. Because it was like, everybody was like, they loved it. And still I get these old ladies coming up to me at the rink. You know, they're 70 years old, like, oh, I remember when he used to slap busters and I was like, yeah, still. And I've asked his my son or my wife or kids will be with me. And I'm like, still got it. Hey, boys, I still got it. I will. I remember. That's funny, because I asked my friend from Buffalo. She, I asked her, she's a big sabers fan. I asked her if she had any questions and that was the question. No. I think I actually went to a game where you, you just stripped off at home. I was like, what the fuck is this? And also they couldn't grab on yet. So they think there was nothing. There was nothing to grab onto you. Like hockey fighters fight like kind of like a judo. Yeah. Yeah, your chest. Back then, Ty and I, Ty and I were the two smallest guys doing that job for years. And, you know, they're all huge. They were all big. So I don't know. I, it came off one night and I was like, yeah. And then I started using the goalie cut jersey. So again, I have more room and you couldn't get tied up. And the guy grabbed onto your arm. You know, they used to do, to keep you from throwing punches by grabbing onto you by your bicep. So the bigger jersey, they weren't allowed to do that. So the jersey comes off a couple of times. I'm like, that was pretty good. And I cut all the straps off my shoulder pads. And I had Velcro on the caps and they'd hooked inside the jersey. So it literally put them on. It stuck there. No straps on your elbow pads and everything. So they just, everything fell right off. And there was a nice man. You'd get some guys and all of a sudden they'd grab on. They'd give it a pull. They got the jersey and they looking at the jersey and everything. And they're looking at me and their eyes are like popping out of their head. And I'm like, yeah, I got you now, but I just started throwing. But it was, it was more due to survival because, you know, you weren't always big enough to deal with some of those guys. And back then they fought, man, they, like, it wasn't this stuff you see today. Like the 10 second throw four or five punches. You grabbed onto like Chris Nile and her murder, McSorley or Jay Miller or these guys. You had to plan on going for a minute, two minutes, sometimes. Totally. And it was. Yeah. And hard. And so you had to try to find every advantage you could. Or else you were going to be ripped around and you're going to be done. We had a trainer, Jim, Jim Pete Tatelli, we called him the fight doctor. And he would always anything to do with fighting, man, he used to give us robes. Every guy that was kind of a fighter guy, he'd give him a robe and mine that sugar rating, you know, 32 on it and he'd make a big deal about it. Have a big presentation in front of the team and all this kind of thing. And so for us, it was like, got to get a rope, got to get a rope. He's made the all-star team got them and guys have fought got them. So when you got that robe, it was like, yeah, that was kind of your, your, your solidification of being a part of the group. So and he, and he was always like, you know, he, he would do it in bad ways because he'd be rolling into the other room like I'm there to the night that Tony Twist caught me. He'd in the room the night that night and he's like, oh, Twister, Razor's coming out. He's coming out. Yeah. That was kind of, not friends with Twister, but I kind of knew him a little bit, you know, because you know, over the years and, and, and he and we go at it and all of a sudden we line up and he looks at him and he's going, we're going to go and I'm like, why? And then he just pucked off. He starts going at me. He hit me inside the face, knocked my orbital bone up in my nose. My whole side of my face filled with air with nine days. And after the game, he's coming in. He's all concerned. He's coming in a room. He's like, God, what? I go, what? Like, what was that all about? And he goes, well, your trainer said you were coming after me and all this kind of thing. And I'm like, please, I fucking, from this day on, I'd hated that guy. And I wanted to kill him every time I see him, but that's it's part of it. And I guess, no, that's not part of it. I, I've actually never heard a story like that. I've never heard a story like that of the trainer going in and riding off fighting them out, man. That's fucking crazy. You bitch. Yeah. If your trainer had gone in and been like, Hey, you ready? I was like, Hey, bitch, I don't mind you doing it. I don't mind you doing it. Maybe that you're stirring the pot and then I have to be ready for something. But that time, that time, that time of the morning, even existed. Did you kind of grow numb to it where you kind of just knew that you had to do it or every pregame nap, like, did you start getting like the tingling in the belly? Like, were you able to even nap day of the games? Like, how was that like for you? Well, no, they are the games night before it was brutal because you were always thinking about it. Yeah. Yeah, the thing is back then too, it was such a part of the game, right? Yeah. The day before the morning skate, the media, something like we were playing Toronto. I'd have more people around me want to know about a fight with Domey that night than Pat LaFontaine or, you know, Hashtag, you know, talking about the game, you know, because they put so much into it. So you couldn't get away from it. You couldn't get away from it. You just knew what was going to happen. It was just like, get it over quick. And I think most guys back then, let's get it over with quick and just let it go and be done with it. So that's why you saw a lot early in games go and set the tone and away you go. But, you know, there was a lot of times too, like John Markler loved the man, loved him. But when we were at home, he'd be like, okay, Bernie, Razor, Razor, Cruiser and put the five guys out that we had that can handle themselves and it'd be like, get the building going boys and then the rest of the guys will take over after that. And so it was game plan to go out and, you know, puck drops, I get in the front, puck drops again. Maze your Bernie, get in the fight and, you know, from that point on, you played the game so, but it was used as a tool back then too. Yeah, it was just, it was so different than, like you said, like the aspect of not really like want the fight the guy at the time, that, yeah, that to me has always been like, She in Biz talks about the anxiety, but when you came into league, I mean, you look at numbers, like you mentioned in the minors, you made it clear right away. Who was somebody that like was really intimidating to go against for the first time or a guy you were excited maybe to fight for the first time as you came into the league? Well, Ty and I had fought through junior anyway. So you kind of do each other, but I think when you get in there and then you see guys and the Peru guys and watch guys like Joe kosher. I was like, I don't know if I want to get a hold of this guy because all you to hear is, you know, it's hands, this and that. And I'm like, all of a sudden you get locked in with him and he hit me so hard one night in New York. I think in my eye was shut before his hand left my face. You know, you just hit so hard that, you know, there was guys that you just, you know, Marty McSorley is another one. It was just like, you know, it was probably one of the toughest guys. I thought it was Paul Lose. Remember Paul Lose? Yeah. De-man played in Florida. De-man, Florida. Oh my God. He hit me one night. Great square in the forehead. And my helmet exploded. Honestly, God, it popped all the screws out of the helmet and it was laying there in two pieces on the ice when we were done. That's how hard he punched. So, but, you know, I, you know what? There was your guys. Yeah, Dave Brown was the guy that, you know, as I get going, it got a little more comfortable that it was like, I want to fight this guy. I just want to see it because you heard so much about him. And we're in Philly one night and it ended up happening. And I, we're square and off. And here's John Muckler over my shoulder. Raise your don't do it. Don't do it. And I'm like, too late now. We're into this one. And we got into it. And I caught him with one near the end. And kind of just, you know, stopped and grabbed on. He's like, that's enough. And I'm like, cool. I could do it. You know, and it was great. Okay. There was, there was little, you know, fights there here along the way. And, you know, you grew up watching Chris Nile and you get a chance to fight with him. And if you do okay, it was like, yeah, this is pretty cool. So, they were in my little milestones. Not so much on the goal side. It was, you know, getting a chance to fight those guys. And, and for you too, because I mean, it's a, it's your, your list that at six foot 200 pounds. So you never had no nights off because you were fighting the heavies. And I'm sure all the middle class guys wanted a piece too. Everybody was coming out. You know, we had guys, we had teens when we had Gordy Donnelly and Paul Cruz and Bobby Boogner and Broadway and Bernie and we're all different weight class. But we never really were heavy weights. So, it was almost like, I got stuck with them and they got stuck with everybody else. And they all laughed about it. But it was fine after a while. You got comfortable. And, you know, once the rules changed and all that kind of thing that, you know, you, you got so comfortable with it that it, it didn't matter really who it was. But it's some big boys out there. You know, Peter Warrell and all those kind of guys that, you know, you don't have a brochure and it's like, what the frig? They're just massive men that you just would eat George LaRoc. It's, it's just big guys that it was hard to, hard to deal with. So, but you survived and then most of the time it's, you know, and a lot of times too and fighting back then was like momentum one way or another. So even if you didn't want to fight, if say we're playing Tron or whomever pie was playing with at the time and he was like, yeah, I need to, I need to get one. Okay, let's go. You know what, because down the road, you know, you might have to do the same thing the other way. And, you know, a lot of times guys didn't understand that or respect that. So they're like, no, no, no. But, you know, a lot of the times what was done in those cases, well, there's still an element of playing. Like, who would you say that the coach that instilled the most confidence in you? Where you, you know, like, it's clear that you're unreal at the fighting thing and you wanted to do it and you knew you had to do it. But like, who would let you play a little bit where you started gaining more confidence and you're like, Hey, there is another side to the game and I'm sure the young child and you love that side more. And I got space because of what I do. Yeah, yeah. No, you know what? My first, my first coach in Buffalo was Rick Dudley. And, uh, Dudley was awesome. And because he played a hard game and he understood the game and he respected that part of the game, you know, but he was all, all the time too is like, okay, you got this. Now, let's work on this. Let's, you know, work on different sides of it, put you in good, you know, opportunities to play with different guys sometimes, you know, play in the top line here. They're giving it a sniff of the playup. Power play once in a while. But he was a guy that, you know, he respected a lot because he gave you that opportunity. Um, you know, John Muckler was a guy that he came in and he goes, Hey, I treat superstars like superstars. The rest you just be happier here. And I'm like, I'm looking around. I'm going, I guess, I'm just happy to be here. But Teddy Known was great. You know, he always gave you, you know, put in good situations and, and give you a really good chance of, you know, playing different scenarios and, and different guys all the time. So yeah, it was, it was a lot of guys. Then he the same way, very respectful to what we had to do and, and, uh, you know, treated just really well. So I, but, you know, I go back to that. He taught me a lot about the fighting game side of it, the mental side, uh, went to when not to, but, uh, on the other hand too, you, you're going to stick around a lot longer if you can bring a little bit more. And I, and I think that was a big thing that, uh, you always tried to, to get a little bit better in, in different areas because we all scored goals in, in junior, like 50 some points. My last year, junior and then you, you step in and then you go, you know, into a deal, totally different role. So you knew you could do it, you know, so it was just a matter of getting that chance and, you know, he was that guy that kind of gave you that first real chance. You mentioned Teddy Nolan and I had him in junior and I absolutely adored the man. He was so good to me. Such a good coach, great motivator, but I think you only had him for a year as well. Did you ever see him grab the pen and go to the, the boy, like he wasn't much of a teacher. Was he with you guys? And, um, do you think he got a fair shake there? Like only a year, right? No, the first time, no, the first time he was there. He was there for, for a while. So, but no, Teddy, Teddy was a guy you're right. He wasn't an X's nose guy. At the time that was Donnie Leaver. And just a quick story about, about Teddy not being the X's no guy. We're in Colorado one night. He pulls the goalie, right? So he puts his five guys out on the ice. The ref comes over and he goes, Teddy, you need another guy. He goes, Teddy's like, I'll go five guys out there. And he goes, Teddy, you got the goalie pulled. You need another guy. And he puts down the bench. And he's like, Hey, who wants to go? It was like five of us jumping over the board and then he's like going his back. But that was, that was just Teddy. You know, he was, the guys would go through a wall for him. Oh, yeah. But to drop a power play, you know, that somebody else would do it. But he was such a good motivator and treated so well. But, uh, you know, he was awesome, awesome, awesome, awesome man, respect for the heck out of them. You know, there's nights when he wouldn't put you in the lineup. And, and I think you felt so bad that, you know, he's calling in and, and they just made sure that you understood, you know, what was going on. And you made sure that, you know, there was no hard feelings. He was, but I'd go through the wall for that guy still. That's unreal. You had him for the one year, you're in month? Yeah. Yeah. He was, he used to like braid braid behind the bench and then like give you something like it was like a bracelet or something. He was the best. What? He was just a motor. He thought he did would motivate you, get you, and then his assistance or he had unbelievable assistance that he surrounded dude. He literally did. Yeah, he'd be like, he'd be like, yeah, he's like, you know, everyone's getting around because he called the timeout. He's like, I just call the timeout because I've been your bracelet. Look at this one, you know, like he brought a guy in at the, he brought a medicine man in to Detroit one day to bless all our sticks. Yeah. Oh, we went like three games straight shut out that we never scored a goal. What? How do you whip it? And he was like, when Bob, doctor, I put a witchcraft on him. Yeah. If you hadn't seen the Pope this summer, you, it still would be going on. It would, we'd be still in a problem. Even when Bobby Boogner came in, he loved Bobby Boogner. He was, Bobby Boogner was his boy. And he's going, you guys are going to love this guy. He is tough, his nails, he's this, he's that. And we're like, okay, cool. You know, that's great. We're in, we're in Boston, I think it was. And Bobby's first game, and Dean Chanel's grabbed onto Bobby and just kicked the living crap out of him. Your Bobby comes back to the bench, go into the restroom. He's bleeding from every spot in his face. They can be bleeding. And we're like, we're looking at him laughing and turn into Teddy going, this is what you're bringing us. This is the help you're going to bring us. And he's like, wow, you know, and so, but there's those things like that with Teddy. We're just off the church. Funny. We were talking today about the, like the positive vibe guy torts as the assistant coach for, for team USA, he's like the third assistant right now, but he was the assistant coach in Buffalo when you showed up. So what was it like, maybe knowing a different side of torts, where you're kind of like, I guess like the players coach, because you're not the head coach. Well, torts was probably worse as an assistant coach is intense, you know, because he could get away with it. Oh, dude, there was, there was so many times that, you know, him, and he, with him and duds, him and duds and duds was like crazy behind the bench. You know, he would be chewing through pens and the ink could be running down his face and everything like that. And we're like, when the trainer says, we just, you got to say something to us. I said, I said, I'm doing you'd say something to him because I was afraid to say anything, but torts was, you know, you'd always know, torts was such a kindhearted, good guy. But when it got into the game, man, who was this, tough as nails and hard, he got hit the head one night on the bench in Washington with a puck, broke his jaw. Everybody knew it was broke because it was hanging. And he's like, poor, you got to go get some attention. He's like puts his mark on my son's horn. Let's keep going. You know, and he just, he wouldn't stop. He just kept going. But it was, it was what he, he was in, we're in Philadelphia and Max is y'all know the guy behind the bench. And torts is kind of, coming over to help him. And it was low glass that formed then. And the guy had grabbed onto Torch's tie on the other side of the glass. Got his foot up on the glass and is just pulling on this tie of Torch. It was so tight, Torch's like turning color. And finally he got the tie away from the guy and he's over to the training, he's going, "Torch, Torch, Torch, Torch, Torch, Torch." - Can you couldn't breathe? It was cutting off the circulation and it had bears Torch just-- - Cut it, cut it. - But yeah, I know, Torch is a wonderful man. Like, so good, so good. But he would, you know, he's always telling you about, you know, his playing, I'm like, Torch, you only played the minors, you didn't play up, you know, like this and that. And giving him a hard time and he'd just get fired up so bad that, you know, it was good because he takes the time, he took the time for all of us. And a lot of us that didn't get the time or the extra time were the special treatment, he gave it to us. And I think that was a big part for Torch, why everybody loved him so much. - And you guys had a lot of Hall of Famers. I'd be pure Tershion, just got in. - Oh yeah. - And your Chuck was there, how's Lee was there? - Howard, Howard Chuck? - Yeah, wow. - And if they were-- - Oh, beautiful. - Mugelny was probably young then, 'cause he wasn't over a point per game. What was Dave and her Chuck like? - Ah, the man could drink more beer and not get up from a bar stool that any person I've ever seen in my life. We'd go to the place after practice. - Iron liver. - He'd sit there from two to five or six before he got up to take his first leak. And he would never move. And one thing Andy taught me, he says, "Is there the longest day that I should pay?" 'Cause he was so cheap. So I'm like, "What are you talking about?" Just watch, and he'd stay. And we'd go to somewhere every day after practice and slowly guys would start fading off, having to go home for dinner or why's there whatever. And as they're leaving, they're all throwing some money on the counter and he goes, "This is what I'm talking about." See the bills? It's X number dollar. See the pile of money? There's way more than that rate here. So you just pay it and take the rest. And he goes, "Long you stay the lesser paid." Unbelievable. - He used to do that too when he'd go out at the club and be charged actually. - Yeah, yeah. - Oh, did he? He's one of those guys. - I had the credit card machine and then the lady comes over and she says, "Here's your bill." It's like, "Oh, I gave it to my buddy there." - Yeah. - I want to ask, 'cause Biz just mentioned Pierre Turgon. We were down to Florida. We got to interview him here once. - Yeah. - And we were chatting about the trade, right? Like, what did you think at the time? This is a 100-point guy, a young, super skilled player. Was it just a surprising to you when that went down? - Yeah, because we all looked at his beer was going to be one of those guys. Like Joubert Perot with his whole career and playing and, you know, such a big part of it. And then you never really seen the superstars like that trade it. So, yeah, when that happens, it was like, there goes Pepe Goss, he was such a big part of this group and, you know, and he loved it. Like, he's often there and he was such a good guy too that, you know, it hurt. It hurt a lot of guys and they were kind of when it happened because we still, the older guys were there when he came in. So, yeah, that was not one of those moves that everybody was jumping up in the air and making sure the new guys came in and felt good about themselves because they loved him so much. - What was a hashtag like? I feel like he's one of those guys that no one really knows too much about him. He's kind of like, I thought you were going to ask him about Pupa, they're in Pupa. - Oh, yeah, he's my favorite guy on the internet. I love that, man. So, I get a point. - Joubert, I see him the other day and I go, I see the poops, I go, "Did you have a stroke?" Like, "Did you have a stroke?" Or something, he goes, "No, why?" I go, "I'm just watching you on the internet, and it sounds like you're telling me to work in your way through it." - No, I said he's the most electric guy on Instagram, right? - He's incredible. Whoever his PR lady is, she deserves a raise. - I think it's his kids that do it. (laughing) - Oh, what about the dominator though? That guy was just sort of his mind. - Oh my God, it's such a, out of his mind. He was an incredible obviously no on the ice. Hardest working guy, you're going to be around and I weren't quick that in practice don't score on him because if you score on him, then he gets pissed off, then you had to stay longer after practice. He'd keep you there for an hour. And I always seemed to find a way to score on him and practice him, you get mad and you get mad. These are stale, stale, tap their own. Until he was happy with everybody going, but this guy was incredible on the ice. Like, he was just incredible. But he was, his favorite thing is I must see. I must see and I'm screaming that the whole time. - And then you get off the face off, he's always want to be telling the guys where to go. And you'd be out there and you'd go, they said, you go over there and you go there and you go there and we're like, what about the puck dumb? Don't worry, I must see it. I must see it. And then he was just, he was like, God, it was, he was different off the ice. We'd go on road trips and every road trip it would be like, draw straws to see who is going to be the guy, stay sober to keep an eye on Dom and make sure he got back to the hotel, okay? And it was, oh, incredible. Like that, it was like, he was always like a babysitter. And oh, babysitter. Him and Michael Groschik around together all the time on the road and one day were, I think we're in LA or somewhere like that. We're at this bar and all of a sudden there's this big ruckus in the back where we realized it was Dom and Groschik. We're like, oh my God. So we go back to the back, the bar we get Dom, get him out the side door, get him outside. And everybody's like, what about Groschik? We're like screw Groschik. We got Dom out. This is all we're really needed. And a couple minutes later, here comes Groschik and he's throwing out the side door, you know, and he goes rolling out. And he's like, all we're like Groschik, we're just coming back in to help you there. You okay? (laughing) But it was just like, get Dom out there. Let's take care of Dom. So, you know, he was like, like autographs. You know how everybody asks you guys autographs. So it was like, everybody wanted hash inside a graph. And he kept a notebook. And he would mark it off at the end of the year. Razor got an autograph on October 26th. So if you went back to him at some point during the year for somebody to get another graph. He'd go through his book first and he'd go, I don't know, back on that. I don't want to forget, he's got one of those receipts. I don't even have his fans. So I'm like, oh, how's he keeping? So with teammates, if you came to him in January, I've got one a year. Yeah. Everybody got one a year first. No, he didn't have his fans through. He had a different notebook. He'd draw on their face with the ink from the tie of Rick Dudley. I mean, the pen of Rick Dudley that he's chewing on. Yeah. Yeah, he drew that pen. Oh, that's what he was, then. But you know why he was so good that everybody was like, "Scoot, let's just take care of him." Wouldn't be like, however he wants to be. And as long as he keeps stopping the puck, who really cares? So, but he was, yeah, a different bird. It kind of, the whole thing kind of revolved around him. I got to hear about the run in '99. And obviously it ends in this brutal way that turns out to be such like, I mean, not a stain, but it's like, oh, Brad Hall was in the crease, right? Like, did you realize at the time that it was a disaster? Was it later on that it came up? And obviously, you know, it was an incredible run by you guys. But the way it ended, it's just kind of nuts and buffalo. Yeah, like we obviously weren't expecting to even be in that position. But once you get there, it's like, "Okay, let's, let's, here we go." And, you know, the first couple of games in Dallas, so I think we split there, maybe when we did, and then come back home, but when that game, that game of that goal, it was, it was late at night. And from my understanding, as soon as the goal was scored, the people upstairs in the NHL, good old booth, were like instantly packed up and gone. And as soon as the goal went in, because it was right at the end where the Zamboni was, the Zamboni doors blew open. And there was 500 people on the ice within 30 seconds, there were cameras and everything. And the coaches really never knew what went on until they got back into the room. And, you know, the guys that were on the video in the back room were like, you know, this foot was in the crease, then Lindy was back out on the bench, shelling and screaming, but by that time he let out. And, you know, there's, they're celebrating. There's 500 people on the ice taking pictures and you couldn't even get a replay because those guys had packed up and were instantly gone as soon as the game was over. So did it suck, yeah, it sucked really bad. But, you know, it was, it goes back to the way Buffalo was. We go to the final there and then like the next day, they had a thing in our town square in the city. And there was probably 30,000 people there. It was like we won the Stanley Cup. And, you know, you're up on stage doing the same thing as if you won the Cup, you know, talking and the people it was unbelievable, you know, how people reacted to it. And people in Buffalo, they just look at it. This is, you know, it's another one of our memories or history of our sporting franchises kind of, they all look at it and we got screwed. And most of us do too, but it's, it what do you do? What do you, like you can't sit back and they were what it could have. We shouldn't have maybe been in that position. We had chances to win that game before James Patrick put one off the crossbar just before that. And a, you know, in half inch either way, you might have won that game earlier. - Yeah, it was a great series. Were you a fan of the, what is it? The Goat Head uniform? Or are you a fan of the old school one? Which one do you like when they're wearing? - I'm old school. I, you know, I like it when teams are, you know, they're original, you know, we grew up seeing teams with certain colors, certain logos. and I like it. I can understand when they changed through it was kind of a little different thing. It was a financial decision too. The younger kids seem to gravitate towards that one now in their town. But I think most people when they think the Buffalo Sabers, they're not thinking of the gold heads so much. They're thinking of, you know, the golden blue and white and the swords and the Buffalo on the front. So is there good? Yeah. Hey, we had a lot of good times in that black and red and you know, that gold head. But we had a lot of success with it. But big picture. I still like the original NHL has some unbelievable traditional jerseys. Like the original six. Yeah, but then you look at like the Buffalo Blues and then like Philly and Dan Lewis. Yeah, St. Louis, that's one stunning. So yeah, NHL they got some stunners. Um, Mulgillney, did we ask much about Mulgillney? Oh, I wanted to hear about it. So Buffalo was his first landing spot, right? Yeah. He came over. Like, uh, yeah, Alex and I got both drafted the same day. Buffalo had actually two fifth round picks that year. And they took Alex with the first pick and they meet with the second pick. And out of that draft, him and Ernie, the only two that played. So, uh, you know, there was, I think we had like three picks before that or something when the guys played a little bit, but nothing, you know, too much in the rig. And Alex and I were the two. And and it was, yeah, pretty close. But Alex was probably the purest talent guy that I've ever been on the ice with. And he is skating ability was this from zero to top notch was sick. You know, not a big wind up, not a big pervenous stick, not a slap shot, nothing. Just quick release, but puck movement, you know, just so intense to when he played, it was, it was amazing. This guy's a good guy. It was a good guy off the ice too. He was so many different things that, uh, you know, we were Kenny Sutton. I were with him when you remember when he tried, they tried to abduct him or, you know, threatening him to extort him from out of the money on that. We're sitting at lunch with him and this guy comes in and and tries, you know, extorting him right there and and Sutton are looking and they're talking Russian and we're like, what's going on? As soon as the guy left, he was like, his eyes were like boggling out of his head and we're like, took care of it, got it over the NHL security and they ended up getting the guy the night. But we had to go to, you know, court and everything about it. He was just, but a good guy. I can remember when they, they came to the arena trying to take his condo from him because he bought a condo and when he, when he paid for the condo, the down payment, he thought that's how old it is. He didn't know there was a mortgage and the bank comes to the rank looking for him because he hadn't paid his mortgage. He's like, what are you talking about? He paid for it. We paid for it when and, you know, they're like, no, you got to, it's a mortgage, dude. You got to pay it every month. You just can't, you know, you don't just pay once. You got to pay it every month and he couldn't, and he couldn't understand that. Oh, there's just so many things with him that was, he was scared to fight for a laugh and and all of a sudden they're like, okay, you got to be of the game. We're going to St. Louis. They lived with him in St. Louis. He got the St. Louis and he decided he didn't, he wasn't so afraid of flying anymore. He flies home with this. But just such a, such a good guy. Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah, this plane looks safer. Oh, I can't fly. I can't fly. I'm scared. Okay. Here you go. We're playing in St. Louis. Get in the car and away you go. They got him there and he's like, flying isn't so bad after all. You just, oh, it's your screen went blank. It was random. It just kind of happened all of a sudden, Rob. Oh, fuck. They're all though. They're eating lasagna. And I'm sitting in here talking to you guys. It's been a hockey day here all day. They were here this morning to watch the Canada game. There was like 25 of them. Now they're here watching the American game. And now they haven't left. Wow. We got you on a fast for this podcast. Maybe shed a few of those LBs. We kind of lost you for some of them will guilty chatter. But like from a visual perspective, but it's almost like we forget though, like what he was going through in his personal life and not only get adjusted, but like the fact that he defected. But yet like when he got to the rink, it was almost like the hockey was his escape, right? Oh, incredible story to how those guys got him out there. You know, with hiding in houses and taking him from country to country to eventually get him over here. Donnie loose with the big part of that. Do you know the full story? Can you like explain a little bit? I don't think we're ever going to get him on. It'd be just be nice to hear like, no, I think it was this more, you know, when they're at the world juniors, what there are. And then, you know, got him from one country to another hiding him in a hotel, you know, waiting for the paperwork to get cleared that he could get from, you know, that country to to bring him over. You know, as a young kid, it was, it was stupid that, you know, what he had to go through. And then when he gets here, you know, they try to extort him while he's here. Just amazing what he did and what he went through, but still be able to be the kind of guy he was and play the game. And, you know, I think it was at a point where he's sitting there going, I'm never going to be able to go back. I'm never going to see my family. And, you know, that's how bad it was. And that's pretty crazy for a, you know, 19, 20 year old kid. So, but he, you know, he made the boss and he was he made sure that, you know, he was, he was very quiet guy. He didn't ever want to talk every time if somebody wanted to interview. And he's like, oh, I don't speak English. So don't speak English, you know, and it was always one of those. But he, you know, he, he just was so cool about everything that he did. I can remember the day he showed up and he had his ears pierced just because he wanted to. And everybody's like, you can't be have your ears pierced. It's, I'm having my ear pierced. You went through, I went through, I'm having my ears pierced. And, and, you know, just things like that that he, and he did teach me to that if you have a smoke before the game in between each periods, it opens up your lungs, you can breathe by their skin faster. He was ripping darts. Oh, huge. He's like, oh, he's got to have a smoke. He can go have a smoke and then come back in. And he's like, okay, I can breathe now. Let's go. And then, you know, he goes. Where are that? I had no clue about that. I didn't think he knew. Zubov did, I believe. Yeah. That was pretty obvious. Yeah. Yeah. No, it opened up as long as you can skate faster. Because you were his age drafted the same year. Did you kind of, were you kind of the guy that were, was tasked to kind of take care of him in show him around town? Obviously, it sounds like he was one of the guys. No, right then, like Jeff Parker and those guys were a little bit older. And they kind of, you know, took on to him and, and kind of looked after him when he was here, but everybody kind of done a hole. He met a couple people, you know, away from the the team that were good people that everybody knew that, you know, kind of, you know, held his hand and took care of him as well. Donnie Carl, some guys around town that looked out for him and made sure everything was good. So, but, you know, you know, as far as the room, those the older guys, like Davey Intercept and those kind of guys, they were the Johnny Tucker and, and, you know, they made sure that, you know, he learned everything he needed to do. But it's obviously didn't do a very good job when they come trying to kick his house from him, but other than that. But he was, he just, we wanted, like, he was just that guy that, you know, he's, we go out and buy a Honda Civic, he goes out and buys a Bentley type thing. And it's like, why'd you do that? And he's like, I always wanted one. I remember being at this house one day, and I look and he's got like five checks piled up on his counter, because we used to, you know, put this check in your stall to, for pay. And I'm like, dude, you're going to take these to the bank. And he goes, and I'm counting it. It was like, it was $600,000 or something piled up there. And he goes, I can't. And I'm like, well, you don't have a bank account. He goes, no, I'm embarrassed. He didn't want to take the money to the bank, because he was embarrassed to take it in that. Because he did so much. Yeah, give me a percentage. I'm all over. I got no account taken in there, Alex. But that kind of a guy, you know, understood the value of it and didn't want to walk into a place and fought. Yeah, here, you know, put this on my bank account. Really? Yeah. So we only got to have really fun. Yeah. Not only got to like not rob a bank with a bellcloth on depositing. Yeah. Yeah. Try to drive it on my account. Yeah. Put it on my account bitch. Put it in there. It's weird for you. Yeah. Oh, man. I kind of want to go back to the fighting. Like you mentioned, tight only thesis competitor. Like, what do you remember most about the fights in particular and how you had to fight a guy like that? Like we talked about the jersey thing popping off, but like the he would spin around and like different guys styles and how they would do it. Yeah. No, Ty was because he was smaller and we were smaller. He always like to get you spinning and then get you fall into the ground a little bit. If you could hold yourself sturdy, then he had a little more trouble and just stand there and throw. But you get thrown and hit him a hundred times. You never hurt him. I cut him kind of once in my career. And we had the same agent for the draft and we were roommates at the draft. And we got into the hotel room. Him and I got in a fight in a hotel room. He banged his head off the nightstand and it cut him a little bit over the eye at a little blood coming out. And we're like, we got to stop. This is the end. We got to stop here. And that was the only time I ever cut him was off the nightstand in the hotel room. I hit him a lot and he hit me a lot. I've never cut him. Never cut him. Yeah. And just it's almost like he would lead with that forehead and you get him with probably if like after you would hit him a few times with your hand be numb or were you so in the midst of it you would notice that because I remember fighting a guy like John Marasti and I would he would just take two three off the forehead and I'd feel like my hand was broken and then he would just take over it. That night's the marble. Yeah, you just hit him, hit him and he was just kind of cute smile. And I guess. And remember, when we had to put the stupid tie downs back in the force, he got me, it was exhibition and he lifted up my jersey and pulled it aside and he put my head in my arm. So my literally my head blew my arm like that. And I confused what he would do. I was like that. That's when I flipped out. And I went from. So I was probably that sounded like you. I'm underwater here, guys. Yeah, I'm like, I was swinging away and I couldn't hit him. But, but you know, to his fans, he wasn't trying to hit me as well. He was just trying to prove a point of laughing at me. So I went from having no tie downs to a tie down tight as anything on the back with a clip, a tie down on the front of my jersey, tight as anything with a clip. No way. The jersey never could go anywhere after the fact. So you went the complete opposite way, off of that learning from that one experience. No shit. Yeah, because the tie down, you hook it down, then the jersey would still lift up. Why didn't bring that in? It would still come over you because I don't know. Because razor was fucking broken. Yeah, because I must have got somebody's wipe. I don't know. But I went from and I put those little plastic clips on the back of it and hooked it to my pants. So it was tight and then a plastic clip and a thing on the front of my pants and it clipped in. That's something which wasn't going anywhere after that. To then, you know, a couple fights in you got used to it again and the way you went. So in one extreme to another, for like maybe some of the younger fans that we have who like haven't watched and gone to your hockey fights to go through all the old clips of them. Like where would you put your top rank ones where you were like, ah man, if I could go back to that that moment of going fucking toe to toe for two minutes and I'm at home and I turn around after the fight and I want it and the fucking crowd is going absolute bananas. Like what was would you go back to? Well, any any tie fight in our building was always good. You know, there was, I remember a fight I got a fought, um Jim Kite and he was in San Jose and and I hit him and down he went and the whole building went quiet, right? And I'm like, oh, that was pretty cool. And I'm making my way to the penalty box and the whole building's quiet. Ripped Simone, our equipment trainer on the bench and all I can hear him yelling, it's a miracle. It's a miracle. He can hear again. But I'm like, no, you can't see that. Oh, and then there was like just, oh, man, there was so many nights that you just, there was nights and Calgary after was a Jimmy McHowan broke, uh, um, Pat LaFontaine's leg there the one year. The next time we played them in Buffalo, we're like inside their bench fighting, you know, fighting in there, getting straw and oh, jumping back on their bench, going out, I'm 10 hundred broken his leg and a fight on the ice and he's laying there. The trainers couldn't even get to him because there was still so many fights going around and, uh, there was just too many stupid nights that you're just like, well, hey, chicken fans, we're going to take a quick break for a message from one of our partners. Now raising canes, we focus on making the most crevable chicken finger meals, getting them right every time. That's why we hand batter every chicken finger, mix every cane sauce, butter every Texas toast, stir every slaw, soft every fry, squeeze every limit and brew every ounce. We do this inside every raising canes every day because when you do it right, you can taste it in every bite. Raising canes, chicken fingers, one love. A rollback last hour. We're going another hour with this guy. This has been unbelievable. This is it. This is, this is incredible rock. It's lasagna in the other room. Okay. Sorry starving. You guys are nice guys and everything, but no, I get it. Hey, I get it, but, but my, the last question, the rollback is we all get one. Would there any instances back then of, of things like continuing when you get and kicked out of the game going to the locker room? I mean, I know the tunnels are sometimes different to lock rooms, but I feel like back in the day, maybe underneath some madness happening that just wouldn't happen now. What a question. I can roll back. I got a good one for that. Timmy Hunter. We're in Vancouver and him and I go at it on the ice and I'm giving it to him, verbally. I'm cocky, giving it to him, calling him an old man, this and that and going a little worse than that. And he got kind of thrown off the ice first and then I came up after and you kind of went off the back of the bench and then you walked underneath the stands and down and it was wide open down there. And there's people down there and everything. So I walk enough, I'm thinking, okay, I made it through that one. There's a big ass concrete pillar and all of a sudden I'm walking by this pillar and this arm comes up from behind the pillar and he goes, old prickate and he grabs on to me as I'm going by him and I start going at it underneath the thing. And there's this big curtain that people where the fans run the other side like catering to them or whatever. We go through that curtain and it's like a buffet line that people were in there. The buffet thing goes flying everywhere. Him and I are getting up and we're throwing punches and we're on concrete with our skates, right? And we're going to fall and we're getting up, we're falling. Our trainer Jim P to Tally's out there and he's like, oh, I need you didn't know what to do. And all of a sudden, yeah, no, no, we're still going out of Pat Quinn comes off and he's like, all of a sudden he comes up and he put his hands on the bolt of air back of her shirts and that's enough. And we both stopped dead looked at him and he just kind of lifted us up separators and then went that way. I went the other way and that was the end of it. But we went right through that big curtain, knocked the whole buffet thing over, fighting on the concrete, falling all over and then he comes out and that's enough. Oh, it was great. That's a Hall of Fame rollback question. What made you break it down? Because it's like what made me think of it is like back in the day, you could be near each other, right? Like they just make sure no, you're not even near each other. Back these ranks, these old ranks were smaller. Like the locker rooms were closer and I just can't imagine a fail line seeing two monsters, dad rolling on the cement their skates. Yeah, but even even back then you had to get through the crowds sometimes like a Boston Garden. You guys all have you ever played that? No, I went to the big flight there. Like I don't know how many times the the rest would keep you at center ace because people are throwing things and the benches were side by side. They put this little plastic pre petition down in between in the benches, let's tree stairs into the dress room and you'd have to wait to center ace, get ahead of steam up, get up in there quick and then kind of pretty much fall down the stairs so you wouldn't get pelts that are killed by the people when you're going off. There was so many different times and different places that was sick like that. Rob, we just got to we're I got one last question, we just got to get your video back before we say goodbye. We just lost you again. Yeah, do you? Then you're out for lasagna and then we'll say goodbye. It's going to be burnt. You might not sign back in. That might have been him on purpose. Like I'm out wasn't going to eat. We're keeping this. Rob you there. Why may not hear us. No, he's going for a lasagna. Keep this in. Go for those. Come on man. Go for it. Please go for some lasagna. I think he's gone. You know, you know, my question was going to be honest. That's a great way to end it. He basically just knocked us out down. He knocked us out. My last question was how did it feel like not like putting on another team's jersey? Like he played his whole. I know. With Buffalo. No, he played with Ottawa. No, he got 11 games. I know, but I'm saying is then he puts on a lot of a settler's jersey. How weird was that? And he only played like nine games or whatever. He played five games one year, six than that. Oh, okay. 11 games. Yeah. So I guess we're not going to be able to ask him because he's talking to him and answer that point. Yeah, yeah, answer. So there's a layer of sauce, then cheese, and some meat, then another layer of pasta, then sauce. What did you say? We're done here. We're done. Thank you so much. We're really glad, guy. That was so good. Unreal. Hey, Chickles fans. We're going to take a quick break for a message from one of our partners. Feel lucky. You should be meet the new lucky one, sweet tea from Miss Peaches, the vodka drink that's positively doing good, made with real tea and real vodka, non-carbonated, the hundred calories. And here's the scoop. Their new sweet tea is the only vodka based sweet tea on the market, simple ingredients in a smooth full flavor that makes it taste just like the real sweet tea. Best part, every can helps rescue dogs find their forever homes as they work to a goal of donating $1 million to dog rescues in 2026. So if you love true sweet tea, this one's a no-brainer. Pick up a lucky one sweet tea today and get back one can at a time. Thank you very much to Garfield, Rob Ray. Boys, when he put up his arm and tell the story of that fight and then the audio, that's probably what it felt like fighting the guy. That was just the perfect audio message. That was tight, right? Yeah, that was one of his tight don't meet tilts. Fun fact too is as we're recording this on on Monday, 25th anniversary of tight don't meet fighting the guy in the penalty box. the flyers and we have that match up the flyers game. Wow. Yeah. And we we're going to be talking about on the broadcast. So man, could you imagine that happened today's NHL? I could see Grady getting into a fight. I know people out there are disgusted and I'm disgusted with myself at not asking Rob Ray about the story when he beat the wheels off the fan. Oh, yes. I go, guys, I'm sorry. It was after I think we interviewed him after Canada women's US game, gold medal game. I don't know how I forgot. I had it written down too. So I apologize, because God, yeah, we were going to you, but he had to get to his fucking lasagna. Seriously. In college hockey news, did this keep, did you see what happened in the UMass Yukon game? I saw the clip and it prevented what a two on one. So UMass is playing Yukon. It's an overtime. Yukon is in a spot right now where the top 16 in the, it used to be called pairwise when I was in school. I'm not sure if it's a different name now. Gee, you can help. NPI now, NPI now. The top 16 teams get into the NCAA tournament. I think Yukon's at like 15 right now. They're 14. They said it 14. Okay, they said it 14. They're playing UMass. UMass comes down. This is at UMass. They get a chance. Yukon picks it up. They're going down two on one to win the game. With one of the top goal scorers in the country and Joey Moldone coming down. So it wasn't just some schlep and some legend at UMass. This kid must love and live and eat and breathe UMass hockey. He turned on the lights for a goal that it wasn't even close to a goal for UMass like on the rush down and shut the lights off in the building on a two because is that is that what happens when they score like you hit that and then lights. They have an insane light show, which is a new thing. All these schools do it where you score a goal at home and the lights go off and then you know, they got the at B use get the red lights and it's actually awesome. I've loved. I don't know what college teams started that. You know, I know Penn State at Pagula started doing it right. Yeah, I saw they do it. Okay, but it's sick. They got to stop this then if that's the the rep. repercussions. I don't know how I think is it unfair to the UMass players and coach. Yeah, but like I think you got to give him a penalty. I don't know how they didn't get a penalty, right? Like put the team on on a four on three. The rest of the overtime based on the fact that some UMass kid who is probably smoking a ball before he does the light show on goals decides to turn the lights off on a two on one for Yukon. Now if Yukon wins that game, they're then in a better spot in the NPI, right? Oh my god, they're probably sitting at 11 or 12 right now. I mean, that's that was a monument and mind you, Massachusetts is right behind them. UMass is like two or three seeds behind them in the NPI. So like this was monumental for college. No, no, it's not that kid is that kid pinkies up in the top row. Well, he's working two on one. I know what to do. I'm going to shut the lights off in the building. He's not paying for his tuition, right? No, no, no, God, no, no, they might put him on the team now. Let him be like the third goal. But you don't think that they should have got a power play for that. In the moment, you probably just you're just what the fuck is going on right now if you're the officials, but yeah, I mean, I'm pretty sure you couldn't do that. But there has to be some form of punishment, no? They threaten, like, you know, when people have thrown shit on the ice, they always threaten on the loudspeaker. If you throw anything on the ice, the other team's going to get a penalty. I agree with you with the shit out of the lights. Grease. Grease. It's such a UMass move. I've ever seen I mean, this will affect hockey East standings as well. I mean, Yukon leads UMass by one point in the hockey East standing. So it's, it's crazy. The trickle down effect this, this light show can have on all of college hockey. And shout out, uh, don't be you just sweeping BC this weekend. Just enormous. BU's got to win the hockey East attorney to play off, uh, to get in the turn. But they could. They got big Mike, big Mike, you go or off, second round pick to the devil's posh about or hope this kid pans out, um, or the devil's, I mean, the devil's, by the way, have won one playoff round in the last 12 years, posh talks about them, like they're the fucking 97 red wings. But I don't think it's a long shot, though it. I don't think it's a long shot at all. It would be you to win hockey like that. And, and we really haven't talked about, you know, you got the lottery. I think the usually the lottery's in May. It's usually second round is that they have it. It's always very exciting. McKenna guys, he had a 10 point weekend against Ohio State. He had eight points in one game, I believe. And yeah, he's got the shirt on. Um, he has, I think cemented himself as the number one overall pick. Well, also people were saying, oh, it's against Ohio State. They're not very good. Well, the next weekend, Ohio State beat Michigan State, the number one team in the country like five nothing or five wants. So college hockey is so deep. There's a team. I never even heard of this school. August stanna. I thought it was an Augusta. I saw Augustana. I'm like, oh, maybe this team. And maybe this team right now is in the incidentably term. I've never heard of them. So as I've mentioned before, I don't see a way that there can be any bad college hockey teams anymore. The CHL rule, every team should be good. Every team should be at least competitive. And Augustana's prove it. Where are they getting kids? Are they all 25? They must be all CHL kids. Their roster actually has a ton of Americans. Like when you go through, they're just an older team. Like you look at their roster, five or six, 2001, she do the math. Those guys are 25 years old. They got some '01s, some '02s, a lot of guys from the Null, a lot of big guys as well. So they're a bigger, heavier older team. But that's kind of what separates them. But Augustana, their team only came into division one hockey in 2023. So relatively new program play out of mid-coa arena. I think they dropped like 40 million on that 3000 seat barn. Pretty nice. But yeah, it's a program on the up and rise right now, up and coming program. And you love to see that for South Dakota. Okay. And wait, just to go back to Gavin McKenna, he has nine goals, 19 assists, 28 points in 14 games since the world juniors. Wow. Not bad. And because his line made things come back. And dummy to kid who said something to his mom and Conne McGregor shouting them out on social media. I don't know if Conne McGregor's the guy you really want, maybe talking about you. I don't know how his, well, Gavin did the, the gesture. He scored, he scored the goal. He did the Conne McGregor shoulder. So I mean, there's a reason he's reaching out to him, but just not random. We should also talk in college hockey, Abby Murphy, a girl, her saying she'd take out your knees, biz, all-time classic. Oh, yeah. She scored two more goals against St. Cloud. She now is the all-time leading goal scored. Minnesota, 141 goals. Trickles ball. Showed out, Abby. We did all the heavy left there. Showed out, Abby. Can't wait to see this first overall race, right? Between her and Harvey Harvey. Yes, at Wisconsin. So the PWHL in great hands. Boys, what else we got here? Genos, Genos getting frustrated guys. Why haven't they, they, they signed Geno yet signed Geno? There's no sense. I think Pittsburgh's putting all their money in Dubas stock. They don't have any left to pay Geno. I think the Dubas fans are calling themselves the, the Dubas sites. The Dubas sites. I think I was. Well, because Dubies, the Dubies wasn't Toronto, so they had to think of a new name. Yeah. Yeah. Just get the stink of Toronto off and away from everything moving forward. Well, he was, Geno was throwing the weight around on Sunday against the Vegas gold nights. He looked good. So I don't know what it is. What is it? What sort of, right? Berried hurdle itself. Yeah. Right. 30 seconds into the game. What do you think Geno's number looks like, like around the four, five million range? Yeah. Give him a one year deal. Five, five. He's got all he's done, given whatever he wants. And you know, now too, with Sid being out, he's going to step up his game even more. He's been doing it for 20 years whenever Sid's out. Like, give this guy. There's been, there's not that many that have came through the league, but whatever they want, they should get. Why wouldn't you, if you're dubious, why wouldn't you just like reach out to Geno and say, Hey, let's go, let's go grab a drink. Grab some Porsche. Like, if I was a young GM of an NHL team in this fucking Russian legend, who's done what he's done for the organization, just wants a one year deal to keep it going, when he was caught to play the retirement. Now he's at a point per game this season. And it seems like, obviously, Sid's going to keep playing lettanks going to be back. Go meet him. Maybe he wants a two year, maybe he wants a two year deal. And that's the problem. Give him a two year deal. To be fair, though, Biz, you were the one who started, you were the one who started that he was going to retire. I don't think he ever said it. What do you mean? I think that was all you. You started that rumor in the beginning of the year. No, I don't remember him saying that either. Oh, I just I thought it was like kind of like it was maybe the end of the road for him. I never know. He never said it, though. Oh, hey, okay. Okay. Well, it's it sounds like maybe it was a consideration coming into the year, not knowing how things were going to go. I don't know. Maybe I didn't make it up. Oh, fuck. Yeah, something. Yeah, something else couch. Fuck his couch. Boys, uh, Chinacov is nasty. Do you mean Gensel? Okay. So we, this is what we talked about in the group chat. Ben Kindle wearing 81, which looks like Phil Kessel and Chinacov wearing 59 looks exactly like Jake Gensel. It's very confusing to me, although it's probably like maybe a good sign like we have the new Kessel and the new Gensel. Chinacov's on a pretty old pace in pits. Kessel's a little bit more removed than then Gensel, right? And also Kessel's probably about 40 pounds heavier than Kimmel. So the Chinacov, no offense, Phil Kessel, he was a little, he was thick, right? He had, you know, junk in the trunk, but as a compliment, as a compliment. But yeah, the Chinacov, man, this guy is just great skater, great foundation, the way that he's able to move around. It's crazy. Yeah. Just great hockey sense, love what I've seen from him so far. In that game, you know, he was great, hitting the pockets at the right time and just playing with the tonic. Where do they give up for him to get him from Columbus? He never really was given an opportunity and it probably doesn't hurt that you already got a guy like Gino there, right? You got another Roushki, is he? I know, but they had the Russian Mafia in Columbus too. That's true. That's true. Maybe there was too many of them and maybe they were like, there's many different. Oh, it was for, it was for Danton Heinen and the Blue Jackets received a second round pack. So Heinen and a second rounder, second and third rounder for him. That's what it was for Doobus. Doobus Stock, just flying high, Pittsburgh, I mean, biz texted the group chat. If I gambled, I would be pounding Vegas today. Buddy, I set it on national television and then Eric Carlson put me in a locker after the game. Did he? Yeah, he said he, they must, they must be like watching it in the locker room or he said he saw it on a social media clip. So Carlson, just easy living, man, I'm probably checking his phone between periods and give a share, right? Just two apples, life is easy to error Carlson and he said he wants to be hopping on the Pittsburgh train. I said, no, you don't. You don't want to. There's only one thing that could tank Doobus Stock and it's Paul Biss and Ed. Yeah. They get the game seven first round, biz flies in everyone's like, no, what's nuts though is the, the penguins are doing great attendance wise, which I would know why is crazy. Look in parking situation, really brutal around the rink, brutal shame and the ass to get in and out of everybody's complaining about it, they have that, that lot where the Melon Arena was, I don't know what they're going to end up doing with with the parking situation and helping it out from that. But, but to get in and figure out the parking for the game, it's, it's deterring a lot of people from going. Wow. And that's a shame because they've had a lot of time to figure that out because that rink is what, six, seven years old now, no more than that, because they want both of their, they won the second. It's 15 12, 12 years old. It's actually crazy how quickly these barns get out, like outdated, I know. But that's another, like, there's no trains that go into the, like you can't take the train and like you can to the fleet center, you can't take the train to know that you need to park. That was a great giveaway for people who don't know. The Mr. Rogers, uh, signed there by business, they gave away Mr. Rogers sweaters, a yellow, like V neck sweater that Mr. Rogers wore with a penguin's logo on it. The guys wore it. Is she from Pittsburgh? Yeah. Did they believe it? I believe it was a Nantucket guy in the summer's key. Really? Yeah. Got that statue downtown next to the movie theater. Oh, that's right. Yeah. Nantucket, Mr. Rogers, I mean, some, some would say I'm crazy for using this electric, I mean, an electric guy, like was he electric? It does a personality. No, but his content was just top notch. Yeah. Just calling every morning of on life and the way that he was able to break it down. It just, it made it so pleasant and happy and it just, you know, they signed off every day too. Like he was a G. He would, you know, he'd take the shoes off, put the slippers on, put the, put the sweater on, hang up the jacket. You know, Mr. Rogers makes you, you know, yearn for a time with no internet and cell phones and nonsense and shut up to Mr. Rogers for never getting in trouble either, right? I don't think Mr. Rogers ever had legal issues. I got good time. It was boys. No. No. I don't think. I mean, I don't think Gavin McKenna is going to be doing any Mr. Rogers celebrations. No, he's on the Epstein list. Bob is set the fuck up with signing off. Why are you bringing this to Mr. Rogers, dude? He's a fucking lady. I fucking fucking joking around Jesus. Why did you guys get so serious? Dude, don't fuck around with Mr. Rogers. I'm not. I love him. He's a legend. It was a joke. He's like your guy in Canada that you called Suzuki David Zoo, fucking Porto. He said Rico Bosco's on the Epstein files. I didn't hear you guys backing up Rico, the writer. Where were you backing up the writers? Well, he had enough backup from Abby Murphy's brother in his group chat named the writers. Also, Hillary Knight just said on CBS, she played through the entire Olympic Games with a torn MCL. That's leadership. Holy shit. That's born the time. I think that's her taking a shot at Sid. You think? Yeah. That makes sense because when I saw the video of her proposing, she didn't fully go down on one knee. You have to look it up and guarantee that I do what a fucking legend Hillary Knight playing through that. Good for her. No shit. She battled through injury, even in the which knee was it. I want to get by Kansas. Her right. Her right. Didn't go down all the way. Right knee torn ACL battles through engagement battles through the proposal ties up the gold medal game. And we grab our first of what was two gold medals in ice hockey. Wow. It doesn't get old, man. It doesn't get old. Thinking back to last week. Legend grows. Yeah. Well, great show, guys. Thank you to Rob Ray. Very exciting. So Mr. Rogers. Yeah. We're hoping to get a we're hoping to get a guest on for Thursday to maybe tee us up for what should be an electric deadline day, but is you'll be able to watch him. I know, but you're going to have you're going to have that shirt open like I know you on sports that you'll have that thing. Why me and like all this will be this will be the only button down on the shirt. I know how you show that chest. Those of you who don't know he's in Toronto. He's got the bat signal out right now. The old pussy flare, the CN tower and biz doing a complete spread eagle on the couch. That way a little. Yeah. Yeah. Keep going up. Keep going up. I'm going to activate my glutes more in your L5 as one is going to be done though. Yeah. And this is this is biz the next 48 hours in Toronto. We're signing off, lift up those hips, biz and there it is. Have a great week, everyone. I got my ambassador job. Hey, biz ready to go. Biz. Hey, this is what you really are. We're a pinkie's up from the waist down and we're selling the drink with me everywhere. Hey, Chico's fans, we're going to take a quick break for a message from one of our partners. Hey, it's Fran from Chicks in the office. It's officially sweater season and this fall Abercrombie is setting a new standard with upgraded fabrics like 100% cashmere wool blends and other natural fibers. This collection brings quality and craftsmanship to your favorite seasonal staple. The one I'll be wearing most is the roll neck crew sweater. It is so perfect for busy weekends dressing up for a night out. You can dress it up, dress it down with my Abercrombie denim. This is your sign to curate a whole new aesthetic as the temperature drops. Shop new sweaters at Abercrombie in the app online and in stores. All right, now back to the show.