Spittin' Chiclets Episode 635: Featuring Rick Middleton

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I brought it towards the coyotes and I asked him if it was okay if I joined the spit checkered podcast full time. No little bit. Ryan Whitney got a pink Whitney out there now. He can handle the song man. It's a full time member. Marley just gotten this from Chris Bate. Whoa, we're buzzing right now. Welcome everyone to episode 635, the spit and checkered podcast. Hey checkered fans, we're going to take a quick break for a message from one of our partners. StelBlueCoffee's new can lattes are here crafted with 100% Colombian coffee. And whether you're braving your morning commute or chasing your pup, StelBlue cans are for those always on the go and for those who care. I named the brand after my rescue dogs Stella who inspired our mission to help more dogs find their forever homes. So when you drink StelBlue, you're not just fueling your day, you're saving a dog's life. Try the new cans today, taste the difference and make a difference. All new StelBlue coffee cans lattes now available at StelBlueCoffee.com or subscribe on Amazon for 10% off. All right, now back to the show. Okay, I like that. Bizz, you were back at TNT a little bit this week and it was nice to see you there. It was nice to see you. I know you had the weekend off, right? Yep. Some crazy games. You were still watching some great videos on Instagram, but I did get I did get a kick out of the game, the Macklin celebration of reading and we can get into it later, but an awesome, awesome moment by Ryan Reeves just busting through in that interview. So that's something we could talk about. Just letting everybody know he's he stuck around what that like 970 number for games played. So yeah, San Jose, I would like to see him get to the thousand there. That would be that would be really, really sick. Yeah, for sure. And actually, we'll talk about that later because I want I want to get into it a little bit, but peaking is I think you're leaving today for peaking. Yeah, Wonton's here. I just showed him the the mincey stain peaking. We peaking. Oh, we're going to have us in the house right now. He's here. Wow. Okay. Okay. That is interesting. Like just picturing him like in your in your house right now. I don't know what the what Wonton dawn does in his free time, right? Like he's very organized right now. He can't be worse than having mincey. Oh, yeah. That's the thing. Once I've had mincey, it's like it's only anybody at the company can now stay at my house because it can't get worse than that. But he's he's very organized. He's he's going through all like the sleeping bags, the 10th situation that we have enough dry food. Last time we we only brought one water bottle that had the filter on it. So that was pretty stupid. You know, learn from your mistakes. We didn't die. So let's just keep going and learning and season two of peaking. We did the pilot. That was in Tennessee and the Smokies, La Cante, Mount La Cante, the most bio diverse national forest in the United States, where if not North America in a sense of like how much different vegetation it has. And then obviously we took our efforts to BC and we did all that. We we did the three part series that was season one. And now have a Sioux Falls. I think it's going to be a two episodeer. And who knows? It's a really cool thing. You hike in, I think about 10 miles. And then there's these these falls there. And then there's also then another hike within a hike. It's like the Inceptions of hikes. And then you hike back that same day. So you basically sleep at the same place for two nights. And then you hack you hike back out. So it's basically a three day journey. Can you promise me one thing? Yes. You get the dawn on a bicycle again. Cause that was some of the best television watching I've ever seen. Remember him on the mountain bike going downhill. He he was like a three year old. Oh yes. Remember he wanted he needed like a warm up. It's like it's like tutorial to hit the range before not playing golf in three years. But it's riding a bike. So it's not really like hitting a golf ball. So what he what he lacks in athleticism. He makes up for an intelligent. So that's why I think we make a good team. Like I have half a brain. He's got one and a half. I am, you know, physically you're the man child. Yes. Yeah. That's a great way to describe it. So I'm fired up for that. We had a lot of good hockey this week. Boys. I'll throw it over to you. I know you guys had a bit of a difficult weekend. And yeah. So I'm going to I'm kind of going to discuss it at the end of the episode. But you know, really kind of tough thing going on with somebody Keith and I are very close with. So in terms of our golf trip, which was awesome. And some it was it was a cool place. Cabot citrus out in Brooksville, Florida. And we'd love to talk about it. But it's like it's a weird time to try to be like laughing at stuff right now. I'll kind of address it at the end of the episode. So we'll talk about that maybe later this week or something like that. And there was there was so much good hockey. We don't have to waste it with the golf stories. And I guess starting with last week, the first show in terms I talked about the for you biz, the the sharks come back and the sharks. They're somehow still in the mix. They were in it up kind of all year. Shockingly. Then they look like they were dead. Now they're somehow still alive. And the race in both conferences is just wild. It's this weekend. It was so cool to see. I unfortunately didn't see a lot of it, but watching highlights and kind of catching up this morning before the show. There's a million different ways we could start. But the shark's team and Celebrini on Wednesday night. Like what else can you say about them? The tying goal. Now this is last week. I know, but the tying goal is just a complete rocket. There's no chance there's any goal in the league stop in that puck. And then he gets an assist on the winner by Wenberg. And the docs, all of a sudden are like kind of they're in the playoffs, but they had that division. I feel like yeah. And now I do think I'm into the Vegas is going to get it. What did you kind of take away from the game and watching him live? I know you've done it a bunch this year, but that was different on Wednesday night. Yeah. I mean, like I think going into the game, you had 101 points. And the next guy in line on his team was obviously Smitty. Will Smith at 51. Will Smith has missed a bit of time. But to be that much ahead of the next guy on your team. And like, I think Will Smith would also tell you if he didn't have Macken, Celebrini, he might be at like 40 points, maybe, you know, high high 30s. And then we're talking about a team who's obviously probably picking in the lottery, top five worst teams easily. And then your leading score are being in like the 40, 45 point range. So what he's done individually when Smitty has been out, like just the whole year, the fact that he went to the Olympics. And like, I think the the one thing that we all brought away from that was like, man, he was playing with McDavid and McKinnon. And he's like, give her the beaver pelt like yo, yo, over here, like like that's. And then to like come back in, not get tired from that. And then just keep going and doing what he's doing. The most alarming stat, I think, well, there's two. How bad his team in when he is when he doesn't record a point. That's wild. I think they had at the, I think the other night, they did it again. I think they might have done it the other night again. Maybe I'm crazy here, but maybe two wins all year without Mack and Celebrini getting a point in the lineup. And then most three point games in a season by a teenager, which Wayne Gretzky has 19. And when he's he did it the other night when he had four with us, that was his 17th three point game of the season. So literally, if you're looking at even just though he's responsible for 17 of his teams wins this year. Because if he's not there, like they're fucking not obviously getting three goals. So that's just so we've always evaluated the heart on whether you squeak in a point playoffs, the easiest example of this right now, I have this Taylor Hall and how much of a gap there was to him into the second guy in line. But I think we could also agree that year. I think a lot of people might have thought that McKinnon should have got it, but regardless, like what he's doing right now for his team and based on like the characterization of what the heart means. If they squeak into playoffs, he is hands down the hardware, like it's not even a debate. And you're, and you're saying top three finalists, no matter what. Cause I honestly, I would, I don't know if a player has ever won it with missing playoffs. I would, if he just continue to do this and he's like in like a, if he breaks the San Jose Sharks points record, which Joe Thornton, I believe, did the year that he won MVP, which was 107, maybe 114, 114, I think it was 114. I mean, if he breaks that as a 19 year old and is still over 50 points ahead of the next guy in line, I don't know, man, like I was seven games left. And I think he would need nine points to break jumbo. He's 106 right now. That's, that's below his scoring pace. So I'll tell you this, if he, if he ties Wayne's three point game record as a teenager. He beats the San Jose individual season point total, even if they don't make playoffs, I would, I would vote him number one as MVP in my ballot. I don't vote, by the way, I don't, or did you don't dig that the, the craziest thing I forget who we were talking to is either GM or one of the coaches for team Canada. And basically every guy like Sid, McDavid, McAnon, every guy said, for Olympics, I want to play with Celebrini for a 19 year old kid to get those praises of your, your peer is, that should give him the MVP right there. It's just like, here's a kid playing in San Jose on a team that shouldn't even be in the mix right now. And he's getting them in the mix as a true, like he, he's changing that franchise overnight, right? As like a guy that you get lucky to get to draft him and now your team is set. Your GMs are going to have jobs. Your coaches are going to have jobs. You're putting asses in seats like he is a guy who was changing an organization right in front of our eyes, similar to what Shafer's doing. But I think for sure, he's a top three. If he doesn't win, he deserves to win and, you know, it's be one of those things. He'll be in the race, I think, for the next 15, 20 years. Yeah. And right here, we got it. Mario Lemieux in 87, 88. He led the NHL with 168 points in 77 games. One the MVP penguins missed the playoffs by one point. So it will be, if San Jose misses, it'll be right one, two or one or two points, I believe. They do, they only have 75 games played, so they got the game in hand on everyone. And we'll be in two out. And that actually broke Gretzky's streak eight straight years of Gretzky winning the heart. So wait, the next closest guy to Mario Lemieux was almost a hundred points behind him. Dan Quinn had 79 points while Mario had 168 holes. So celebrities at 50, celebrities at 52 points more than Will Smith. I do wonder right now in the league, how much more is that over second place in a team scoring list? I imagine that's one, right? I mean, Connor has Leon and Kutraov, who would be second on Tampa? It might be decently behind behind Kutra, actually, but I don't think it's 52 points. Well, it's like Hagel. And, ah, I feel like Hagel gets full, we got, uh, let's see. Quick, because I look. Point was hurt, though, even radish radish is good. We got Tampa Kutraves 125, Gensel's 84 points. So it's, it's, it's what would that, that'd be 41. So I mean, it's still a big difference. You know, 52 points more. And in terms of San Jose, if they don't get in, it sucks for all hockey fans out there. Besides Predators fans and Kings fans, you know, the team's vying, but just to see him in the mix. But if they don't, it's a hell of a year in San Jose. It was like, I don't think they thought it would be like this. Like this, this is getting beyond Mike Greer and Wasofsky's wildest expectations for this season. I believe. And he also doesn't cheat the game, too, right? Like he's not one of those guys in. We all love coach and stuff, but he's not given the defensive effort that celebration he's given for his team to, you know, have a chance to win games because he knows he can do it off offensively. But for his team to win, he's got to play really good defensive hockey and he does that every single night. It's almost better that he's so young and naive to the fact that he's literally, he's feeding so many mouths right now. It's fucking insane, buddy. It's insane. And, and I don't know what the answer is for the contract, he's going to sign like he would be one of those guys right now. If I was San Jose, I would say eight years, the 27, seven, oh, I thought that he, is it, I thought that this was the last year you're allowed to do eight. Oh, okay. Maybe this summer until it had to do it, I believe before July 1st, okay? And or it would, it would, yeah, but you can't do it till July 1st, right? Because he still has one more season. Wow. He, they got to be able because he's his property to almost have that like grace to get him. That's, that's a good point though. I know. Cause I wonder if, but, but I, I will be shocked if he's not a four year guy like we've talked about. Yeah. But here's, but here's the thing though is, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's humming right now. But listen, when it gets to that close to 130 range, like it might play a toll for four five. It has to, right? It has to. It has to. The, the number I saw, and this is totally off topic, but I believe that never in the history of the NBA has, has, uh, like 10 games in one night and decided by like 30 or more points and average or twice in the past, it, by, it's happened twice in like the past week. So I, I know the NBA still is, is above the NHL by a log shop, but it's going in the opposite direction in terms of the excitement and where the NHL is heading and viewership. You're right in terms of the cap, like in seven years, it's not, it's not going to be a 165, right? Like, unless, unless, if that happens, we're all laughing. We're all fucking loving life. So, um, I do want to bring up something in terms of, we just mentioning MVP, just going back to your basketball thing. Do you know that the, the salary cap actually went down, I believe it's next year. It's going down very minimally, like less than like half a percent or maybe a percent, but you talk about it, it going, but oh, oh, all of a sudden, it's a, it's a broken product. It's awful. And that's just good news for hockey. Yes. And in talking about kind of MVP discussion quick here, our guy, Bucci is just getting dragged online, um, in terms of his comments about Werencky, winning the Norris, no doubt in how he's including the Olympics in his kind of process of, of figuring out award winners. I don't really know how people took that like super serious. Like I, I knew he was just, even it looks like he's fucking around by, like he said, tongue in cheek. He wrote tongue in cheek. I think your brain's rotted. If you don't realize I'm a little tongue in cheek here, I guess people, maybe listening, you couldn't see his face and you weren't sure that, but he's just kind of like, I think rubbing some salt in the wound of Canada and reminding everyone that Werencky was a big part of team USA, winning gold. But, um, yeah, people were fuming about that. And they were also fuming about his idea for college hockey, getting like a super league. I think that the fact that that's like kind of somewhat been in the works that might not be the right term but been thought about and discussed. It's just not that insane. People were big mad. They were, they were big bad online, um, but I think that's like a good thing when you do a part of that. I thought he was just throwing shade at biz. I thought strictly just going at biz for saying, uh, rubbing in the salt in the wound for team USA. Like, obviously he wasn't saying all, but I would have, I was nodding my head and saying that I would be totally fine with Werencky winning, winning the Norris. Now, I, I'll, I'll give you my vote. My answer right now, though, is to who I'm picking. I'm picking Bush and the reason I'm saying that is the reason I'm saying that is because if I had the first 10 games of the season that that guy had, I would be in a, like, an assailant. I would be on sui watch. I wouldn't have any. Ready for it, but Cardi, Bush, like, yeah, that was that might have been some of G's best work, but Cardi, Bush just rolls off the tongue real nice. Like, what are we getting tonight? But after those first 10 games where I was like, Oh, this guy might be in Bakers field by the end of the year. All of a sudden, I'm saying this guy led the scoring by, I think he'll probably finish 10, 15 points ahead of the next guy. Uh, I know it's not all about points, but I was watching him the other night, man. He is so fun to watch, like the, the, the risky scene passes he'll try and when he's going man, it's fun, man, it's fun. It's fun, hockey to watch. So, but Cardi, Bush, you got my vote, buddy. Thank you. I appreciate that as an, as an oiler's guy. And oh, was there some action in the, in, in Rogers, the other night with the oilers, he getting that to him in a minute, but I think first is the major news that broke on Easter Sunday. Oh, you know, we thought, we thought the most shocking, uh, fine. Buying and hiring of the year was Bruce Cassidy, let go eight games left in the season Stanley Cup champ and the, the content machine, John Torturella comes in. But the islanders and Matthew Dars said, hold my beer, yeah, hold my pink Whitney because we have four games left all at home. We are having a collapse of epic proportions right now and Patrick, wow. You are no longer the head coach of the New York Islanders and Pete the board comes in. the board who's now been a head coach in the NHL. for 19 years in a row, it's 31, including junior. He's never had a year off paycheck. This he's never missed a paycheck in that many years. And while I feel bad for Patrick, while I, I kind of love this. And there were Islanders fans I saw that were like confused. And like, what are we doing? He's a loyal. Yeah. No, they are not loyal. But Matthew Darsh, man, it was a little surprising, I guess, that he took over his GM. And then you hear the news that he went and met with Patrick Wahn. He was very comfortable and confident in him being the head coach. And he runs with them throughout the year. And what a year they've had. It's been the shaffer story. It's been Sirokun, who I think wins the Veznon. It's been all these different things and they're cruising towards a playoff spot. And then since the Olympics, it's just been kind of a disaster. Now, Biz, you brought up a while ago on TNT, the underlying numbers and how Sirokun and shaffer to a certain extent. I said if they fall off a cliff, I, Demon Pittsburgh, I said, if they fell off cliffs, I wouldn't be surprised. Penguins fans are like, you haven't been watching a and with all respect to the penguins. They called on that one. No, a, a, there was a lot of, a lot of things going on like a tang was even playing that great. Like all of a sudden they switched their goalie, like, Skinner, obviously played awesome. There were some variables as to why we could and then cross be going down. Yeah. And then Malcolm five game suspension, like the resilient resilience. Resiliency. You got it wrong episode. You were big. I got the early gun, like in the sandbagger there, I thought I had it. Never go the early gun. Unbelievable job by the penguins and congrats to them. Milestone too. I think Geno hit 14 hundred points other night. I said, what did sit hit? Sit hit another one. Well, sit hit is 21st straight year. Well, that's it. Game. Oh, and that is one that I don't know if that's touched again. Do does anyone even play 21 years? I mean, there's this is just, this is just completely insane. And it was an absolute snipe in their two beat downs against Florida that got them that that I think that passes Gretzki. Gretzki had 20 and he got 21. So to go back to the islanders though, like, obviously, this is a hard league. And there's there's factors that let, you know, after the Olympics is to maybe why it led to this decision, maybe debor have them wanting him not to go and talk to other teams and say, Hey, if we hand him this, you know, this is a good situation for us moving forward and Patrick what it's looking like he's not our guy moving forward. But obviously, my diabolical mind is thinking they fucking sent this hall of fame gold tender into a hotel room with brain shen to convince him to wave his no move clause. Hey man, I love what we got going here. Come on over and essentially not bullied him. But how the fuck are you going to say no to patty wall when he's convincing you about this winning culture and two years in a row now, this teams try to trade you and say it Lewis. So you're probably thinking, okay. And then that was sunny in the Bronx. I'll say, you know, now as you can't leave to the guys in the bar, like that door shot, like shenner, you're like, you're coming to the islanders, right? That's a hell of an analogy. Pinkie's out to that one. Yeah, Shen was the biker and and while was the mobster, you ain't leaving. You're coming with us to then three weeks later, boom, bullet in the back of the head. Do you think two weeks later to sorry, I stand corrected. I stand corrected. Two weeks later, you now get called into the room, boom, bullet to the back of the head. Do you think that he has service on Easter on Easter Sunday? Do you think that he had any inkling that that was coming Patrick? No, no, no. And you tell me the NHL isn't a copycat league. Like if Vegas doesn't go out and do that, bring in torches, do you think that's even on the islander's mind to even be able to pull that trigger a question. That's a great question. I saw bars out today. He said like in the room when the news broke about Cassidy and then towards the Vegas, they were like, holy shit, like the guys in the room. Like, oh, my God, only eight games left. And he's like, now we're just like, oh, what? Like we waited four more. And I do think like a midseason shakeup compared to what just happened. But yes, you know what? It's a great point. Also, Vegas has looked phenomenal. They beat Vancouver off the hop. They had to do that. Then they took care of Calgary. Then they waxed Edmonton in Edmonton in the stoff thumb matchup of the century. The thumb gets the last laugh and that one. And maybe it's like darsher's like, oh, shit, look at these guys. Now when darsh met with law in the summer and decided, you know, I'm comfortable with him being the head coach. There is a part of it where what have we always said? And like everyone says, a GM gets three, if not two coach hires, right? So he got one. He got one coach. You got to laugh all you were on the leaves. And we're on to two. I think GM used to get three. Now it's one maybe two. Yeah. So he's probably like, all right. I like what I see here meeting with them. And I'm not ways to one of my bullets. But when the collapse has begun and they aren't just the four in a row, the losses at one point, I think before the four losses in a row, they were 70% chance to get in the playoffs. And as of Monday, April 6th at 2.57 PM, they're at 30% because teams have a game in hand. And it's like, he's like, all right. Not only do I think maybe with four home games left, we could figure this out and get in, but also I'm taking to bore off the market. And you said that is like to bore, he was going to have his options almost to the point where I was like a little surprise that he took the Islanders job. Well, he had no way for a team to open up that he hasn't coached already. You laugh, I bet you, you're telling me like new Jersey, like what wouldn't have considered bringing him back? Like what about Vegas? Would he want to go there though? Well, that's what I mean is like not like he's probably like fuck of I guess like even like not to say they would, but like torts ain't the long term answer. What other good coaches are out there? Well, and listen, if Edmonton loses first round, like no blocks gone. Yeah. And and then it's like he's got to think like, but they already got their next guy though. Who's soft? Yeah. Yeah, right. Coach and GM, the board is a hell of a coach, though, boys. I know. I think it's two with with Darsh, like if they, if they end up winning these next few games and get in, he looks like the ultimate, ultimate genius, right? But if they, and if they stayed with Juan, they got in. It's like, okay, we got lucky. If they stay with them, don't get in. He looks like a, you know, like he's not doing his job correctly because he didn't go out and make a change. So I think for him, it's a such a ballsy move to go against another French Canadian legend, you know, French on French crime right there. So I don't think they're going to be hanging out and more Trump law this summer. No, that was a one time thing. That was probably a one time thing. Like imagine their members at the same golf club like that, that match in the member member could get awkward. But like, the board, his, his first year with a team every year, they, they go on absolute runs in the playoffs. Now if you could just get in, I don't know. Now, but here's my question. All the underlying stats, right? We're just, a broken is just saved this team. So their defensive play as a disaster. Is that coaching where the board can come in and fix that? Or is it personnel where it's like was like, all right, well, I, I, I'm kind of dealing with what I have here. So first of all, it's a no lose situation, which is a great one for, for the board to step into. Like he probably gets a nice handsome, you know, money up the hop here and then a four, four years beyond this year. Wow. So like, is that is that true? Yeah. I think that's what Elliott Friedman reported. And three beyond this year, three beyond this year. This included. Oh, yeah. Okay. I saw the number four. My apologies. No way. So think he's up. Um, he's up. Um, so no lose for him situation. I think that he's a smart enough coach to make like adjustments quickly with these guys and be like, Hey, let's expose these guys here, here and here and clean these things up. Like look at what look what bonus did with the team that had the worst defensive numbers in Columbus and as quickly as he did it, it's really sometimes just going in there with like a, a more concise message and, and explaining it and getting through to the guys in a better way. Like I wasn't in the room. I don't know how to walk, communicate to these guys. It seemed like he's gotten a lot better at it. And he's a lot more of a player's coach than maybe he used to be. I think there's like a lot of things you worked on. Recently, if you watch the press conferences, he was taking a lot of accountability and he looked almost like the jacked. So in order to kind of insert this team with a little bit of life, kind of like, uh, uh, Vegas did it. It makes a lot of sense. And another thing, too, if you end up getting in more than likely, you're probably going to get third in the Metro, right? Because you, it has like, it's almost like you're fighting for that metro spot. I mean, if they were playing Pittsburgh, like I would pick Pittsburgh to win, but like with the board of behind the bench, I would, I'd be like, Oh, fuck all right. Let's see what he can cook up and how he can shut down. I mean, he's, he's helped coach, uh, um, sit at the Olympics. Like he, he's aware of tendencies. Like, he's keeping his radar anytime he's around these guys. And he's done it for as long as he's done. So he knows a good game plan against certain systems. So yeah, I would say that if he gets in that he, they could get to the second round. I don't think they're beaten Carolina now. They get into the playoffs. Does he win coach of the year? It's in his contract. Um, now this is a side topic. Uh, I, we wrote in the group chat. Who would you rather play if, uh, if you're, uh, Boston Buffalo or Carolina? I said I, I would rather play, uh, uh, Buffalo because I feel like if you're Boston, you can rope them more into like the, the bullshit, like bring them down to the swamp because they'll also try to play that way. Carolina, I think that they're head down, fucking skate, skate, skate, skate and they'll skate into a ground for if you're Boston. I asked that question and I'm with you. Uh, I think that Buffalo, just a lack of experience. Let's, let's get into them because God damn shout out Buffalo and most people in my seat sitting here, the man in the arena who said there was a 0.000% chance they got in the playoffs only for them to become the best team in the league from, from that quote on, most people would, would be embarrassed and, and disgusted with themselves and just, just sick over the fact that like you look that dumb, but I'm happy as hell that it happened. I am so pumped up for these fans, so fired up for that city. And I've been wrong so many times in my life as a podcaster that that is one that I can hold my head high and really, really understand that this team deserve this and you, you had to do your part in making such an idiotic, idiotic, um, exclamation point on a team that I truly thought sucked that turned out to be great. So I wanted to get that out of the way. But back to Boston, they, they haven't been there. They haven't done it. Carolina. They're just, they're in the conference final every year. Like I don't want to play Carolina from Boston, but they have no dogs. Rasmus doll has never been in the playoffs before Buffalo has been itching a host of dog. He's not a superstar, but all this. He's a dog. Yeah, because it's hard. You say that. It's like once again, we're just pointed out he's been to the conference finals. It's not just like scrubs are getting to the conference finals every year. Yeah, but wait, you've, you've always said like they don't have the one guy. They don't have that one guy to win the cup to put. Yeah, exactly. I don't think they have the one guy to beat the Boston Bruins either. Know what wins playoff games to Jeremy swaming goal tending. That's the one thing you got on. I think we got better defense too. I really do. I think the Bruins defense this year has been fucking awesome. I think you, but you're, you're looking at it from like a roster. If you're going one for one down the line on demon. I'm, it's a five man game. I think the other night, Carolina fucking outshot somebody like 40 to 10. Like I think that that's kind of what they end up doing to the bees that they meet them. I mean, Carolina Carolina in the past week, they beat Columbus back to back, possibly crushing their season, then they got wall fired, beating the islanders. And then Ottawa got, got a big one. We'll talk about that in a minute. But Carolina, I always just chirp them in the conference final. The first two rounds, I'm just like moving them along in five games every time. So I, Grant, I'm not saying that they would just walk all over the Boston Bruins if Swayman's playing like he has all year. But I think I'd rather play Buffalo. I just think going into Buffalo too, like they haven't had a playoff series in so long. That whole mice advantage is going to be fucking scary in there. Now that's how every team is in playoffs. Every, every, every fan base is excited. Everyone's ready to go. It's a new season. Yes, Buffalo hasn't done it in a long time. But I think every, every, every stadium we go into, you're getting high octane, you're going to get a lot from the, from the fan. So I don't think that matters as much for the players. So here's another example. Yes, when we made playoffs the first two years in Arizona, we played against Detroit, buddy. They just, they were, they had the experience, like they just knew how to beat us. They swept us the one year. They beat us in seven, the, the next. And I feel like from those experiences we learn and then the following year we go to the conference final, like, like that excitement and those fans going crazy and having home mice advantage is great. But it's also a little different when you're not used to maybe getting punched in the face and, and dealing with the ups and downs and staying even keel. Those are the types of things I tend to value just as I've gotten older. So like no disrespect to, you know, no disrespect to Buffalo at all, but you know, it's, it's going to be a learning curve, but they could also go on a run. I'm just saying if you had, if I had to pick first round hand pick, I would rather, I would rather pick sabers and also because if you're Boston, if you're playing that greasy game, I feel like Buffalo, not having the experience would quote unquote lower their standards. They come down to the swamp with you where Carolina might be like, Hey guys, we've seen this act before just fucking keep skating, keep putting it those areas and we're going to keep chipping away, chip, chip, chip in a way. That's my thought on it. Great call. But back to the islanders, we'll see what can, we'll see what can happen here. Gee, look up quick. I think they have Toronto, which that should be a dub, right? And like I mentioned, they're all at home. Do they have Florida too, which they should be able to get that win based on that's a full blown tank. They got Toronto, the senators, Montreal and then Carolina. Okay. So it was the center. So that's a huge one. Montreal, Carolina, they could maybe be. They're in, right? So maybe they're not exact, maybe they rest guys. I don't know. But it's going to be awesome to see and it's going to be amazing to see if the board can come in there and turn it around this quick. And if Sirokin stands on his head, they could win all four. I mean, he's won a plenty of games this year already, but it was still shocking. And it was still kind of crazy to see that news break on Easter Sunday. Like we thought eight games to go and torts was the big news of the season. Nope, because Peter de Bois back. And the other thing is I don't know. I wonder when Darsch called de Bois, right? Or he would have had to ask Dallas for permission. Do you think you think he met with one person? Oh, Darsch. I would think so. He texted him. Oh, fuck. Yeah, security with them. Imagine, imagine Tavern of Talpadi. What do you think? What do you think? What do you think he said back? Tabernac. Kaskatusei. Kaskatusei. Yeah, man. That's, that's a, that's a ball. He moved. Darsch don't give a shit. No, and the last thing I was saying, broil, Schaefer has now the most points ever by a defenseman as an 18 year old coach killer. Whenever we shave daddy next, you finally have some ammo. We went after your nose. You went after your skill and the game. You want to have a coach killer. Stop. And now you could buy your coach killer. Post this. I'm, don't take this tongue and cheek either. Nice. I'm not voting for Matthew Schaefer for rookie of the year because he's a coach killer. You want to come out there right now? Oh, yeah, you have the noble sponsorship. You should call it the coach killer, the coach killer, twos, fucking noble, noble new shoe. They'll be boots so you can stop on them on the way out of town. It's got spikes on them. They bring back the metal spiked golf shoes because you sent them to Padi. Hey, hit the links, buddy. You'll see, you'll see Darsch yet the member, member. You mark your ball with it in a blue jay sandbag. And then you put a spike into someone's throat as you fire. Yeah, you hit a button and then and then like a little knife pops out. You could stab them in the back just like you did your head coach. Collect your rookie in the year. Get called the coach killer by the guy doing the broadcast of the awards. Walk out with your head hung. God damn, I thought it was a good player. So Biz just ended an amazing rookie season for a franchise defense. Yeah. Oh, great. But now what's going to really be after me. Sticking with this Eastern conference race, I want to just say I'm so sorry to the Detroit Red Wings man and their fans and for them to go into MSG and somehow some way the Rangers look unreal lately. The whole thing is a Cora kid, but parole hat trick. They got all these young guys. It's like the worst thing you can have happened. It's like they're just like playing their way out of a higher pick. But I guess I guess you're happy is Chris Jury or Mike Sullivan scenes and young guys. But these games are I never put too much stock into the games when you're out. You see young guys light it up. That's when the oilers flourished during the what they kept the first overall pick that we did. We did. We never got to scary. We never got to. But there were the only balls in the fucking machine. Just a hundred oilers balls. Now quick did make some incredible saves in that game. But all right, we're going home back to back against the wild. And they go down. And I believe is at one point the fans would boo on them. Oh, well, they were up one nothing after the first after putting up a staggering three shots on goal. I'm like, holy fuck, get these guys a sniffer. If I was the head coach, I might have gotten like at the TV timeout, started banging one of the guys sticks on the boards just to kind of get some type of fucking emotion. Well, they're up one nothing. Carole Capriceau in the Minnesota wild just started firing. Tara Sanko had another one. That was a pretty. That was a night. I think they had a power play to also go up to nothing. And their power play even going back to the game before like couldn't get them any fucking juice, no momentum. Like you think with some of the guys they have on that power play, they would have got going. But but you know, they go, they go into the locker room. I think it was four one. And for about the last five minutes of the period, you could hear some boo's and then after 40. Imagine being in a playoff race. getting booed off the ice by your home fans. That's fucked. That's fine. I'll tell you, Darren McCarty wasn't born. He wouldn't have. He wouldn't have. I know he wouldn't have. But you can't blame these people. But then what happens? What? What was going to be a season saving comeback of the century against the top team in the NHL? They tie it up for four. They were down and dead. And all of a sudden it's like, oh my God, we're alive in this game. The greatest born American player in the history of hockey takes just no other word besides a bonehead penalty. I don't know what he was thinking. Did he glitched out a glitched out? The puck was nowhere near it. I thought because the play wasn't around, they would have just let it go. Did it impact the play moving forward too much where it was like, yeah, it doesn't even matter really. Like it was it wasn't like it wasn't contact that was just what I can't think of the word. Like this is a miscellaneous contact. That ain't that ain't the word. But he just, he stuck his thickened. I saw somebody on Twitter say it was like when you just try to poke check a guy in NHL video game 500 times, like, and it just looked so weird and then the guy falls. And I don't know what he was thinking and could pres off absolute snipe one. They have five chances to get the puck out. They couldn't get the puck out. The one guy tried to go up the middle. He went tape to tape with, I think it might have been Quinn Hughes, middle of the blue light. It's like he, like he was on his power play with him. And then they kept snapping it around. Then eventually Capri Soft goes cross body elbow down, elbow bar down. Now, yes, what did you think of the penalty? Like, can they let that slide for the greatest American born player of all time? I mean, looking back, you'd, you'd hope for his sake that they would, but I don't think you can. It's one of those things. It's a great comeback, great story coming in, but you can't let that go. I'm sorry. As much as I, if I was the ref, I would have let it go, especially if I was American, but the ref was probably Canadian. We needed Timmy Peele calling out. I think to that shot by Capri Soft, though, was a six, six joke. I know. I know. In the past, too, like bold, he didn't wait at all. He like saw it and immediately it's over there. And that's not like a light pass that things rocketed cross seam through the seam. And he's just like on one foot, just as Biz said, elbow down. And then you're just like that crowd like, at least get a point out of that thing. Just get it to OT. And then like the camera pans over and can't escape out of the box. You're like, this is down bad as the wings have been. Because in all these years, not being in the playoffs, like this was the one. This was the, their top of the division at one point. They're just looking good. March hits again. Like, you might have been able to see the march breakdown the prior few years, but this year was like, it's different. And then they went out and they got par on who has, I think one goal, no assists in 11 games is a red wing. You get Justin Faulk. They did, they made some moves. And it's just happening again. Now they're still alive. They have, they have the, they're tied. They're two points back of Ottawa who's sitting in the second wild card. Hey, that's, that's the gift that keeps on giving 80 Ottawa senators. The Ottawa senators. And I, I love it. I want to show you the Toronto's dramatic. You think Toronto's dramatic. Well, once Tio's out, it's like some, there's the other team in Ontario that can get all of the media headlines. They've got jealous and they wanted more of the headline, the headline hogs. And I, I just want Ottawa in because I, I want, I want to kind of try to rub it in your face in a way. And I know if they don't get in the video that you may release on Twitter, like it might make the Martian and some other senators fans find that house ears and Scotts down, burn it to the ground. We already had a fan, another fan, find it. I had a flyers fan sent two canolies to my house. That nice cargo guy who was posting all those AI memes of me and talk it. Yeah. He sent two canolies to my, when you sent the picture, I thought you wrote in a restaurant and the guy was a flyers fan. That was to your crib to my house. He's like, tweet now, but isn't that fucking crazy? I just up my security system. How were they? It's, it's, it's, it's, it's on dawn. Is the security guard now? How were the canolies, biz? I, I, they're in the fridge right now. I kind of, I, I DMed him. I said, are these safe? And he said, yeah, they're safe. I know. Trust the Philly guy, though, all the beach cove talk, all the talk it backing. There's going to be a turd in the middle of it is what's going to happen. If I take a nice warm by, it's going to be like those ones in Van Wilder, where the guy, they filled up the, the donuts, the stuffed donuts with jizz, the dog jizz. Wasn't that in Van Wilder? But biz, like, they should be backing talk it right now. What you've said about him is all coming to right now. They're, they're, they're on the, they could be making playoffs. legit. I had a fan, the, or not DM me a message me after I said to Jordy from Barstool, like, oh, fucking Devora, a careerier shocker. He had him in Arizona. And now he, he knows how to use him and he fucking, he's having the best year of his career. Good for him. And a fan wrote what changed his season around is after Olympics, a, a podcaster asked talk about moving Zegress to center ice and then meet Scott back to his right wing position. And that's what's done it. Collectively, those two have had five goals in this run after the Olympics. But that's what's, that's what's done it. That's the only thing that's, that's changes, fucking team around. Well, you had, let's say Philly for a minute. Yeah, let's say Philly. What were we talking about right before we were talking the, the gift that keeps on giving the Ottawa center and the true, and the true content machine in the, in the game of hockey, big wall could chuck a big wall, went on Matthew and Brady's podcast and a complete shit storm game out of it. And it was, I, I really did think he was just chirping Florida the whole time. I, I didn't really see it as going after Ottawa, but we had discussed all Mark not playing in that game and saying he needed a rest and, and maybe he was kind of like throwing a little shared at them, but Ottawa senators fans caught window that podcast and they lost their mind. And at one point, gee, you had tweeted some video where there was a reporter or a senator's fan calling out Brady. He went on, feudy show on sports net, not just like any show. Yeah, that was like a, that was a big clip, just stirring it up, calling them out. Yeah. No, I guess Brady's like goal scoring's been down a bit, but, fuck man, he answered on Sunday. They got an enormous win against Carolina. They, they, by the way, did you see stuixels going on that game? It's disgusting. He's so good. He's just so fast. He's been so nasty that guy and Brady had two, I think. And then after the senators fans, this is why I wanted to show them out. They were, they were writing me in there saying, all you do is shit on the sends fans. I, which I feel like I don't, but maybe I do, I don't know. And all you're saying is Brady's going to leave and Brady's out of town. And the fans were, were they were, they were giving it to Brady in a good way. They were loving him. He gave an awesome interview after where it just looks like, man, this is the Brady contract that I think senators fans have always loved. They'll put his life as body on the line to get wins. He does whatever it takes to win games. They're looking good right now. I think they are in right now as of, uh, yeah, right now they are the second wild card team. So I guess like senators fans are saying like, we love this guy still. And I don't know if the noise is, is the vocal minority in terms of like saying he hasn't been getting the job done. And he doesn't care as much as he used to. I would probably label him save crowd as the ones who are barking when he got back from the Olympics. I think it's more the media than the fans. The fans dictate what the conversation is. Like you see online, if so many people are barking about it. I think they kind of like, I mean, they tend to like obviously pander to that subject. We, I mean, I know I go on there. It's like, what the fuck are Ottawa senators fans talking about? They're talking about all this nonsense about the old mark situation. Like the only reason I'm talking about is because they're talking about it. Right? Is that fair for you guys? 100% Keith, what did you think of big walk on there? Like do you think what, when he was saying that stuff, both of them were like, oh, fuck that. No, I think I took it as he was talking about Florida, but let's not forget. He pulled this a couple of years ago and turned Florida's franchise completely around and they went on to win back to back Stanley Cubs, got them in the playoffs that year when Leo the lion, right? That was that same year. The rant he did on the radio, I think. That was when they were in Toronto on a road trip. Yeah. And that was the year they lost to Vegas in the finals, right? Yes. Yes. Yeah. That was when Matthew was hurt. He, although I thought I, I, I, I know he was talking about Florida. It might have had a little bit to do with Ottawa when he changed them around. And if he gets them in the playoffs again, gets another team in the playoffs, like, what are we talking about? The guy's a legend. The legit legend. And I just think having him on, you know, he's going to say something one that's hilarious. And two, he, he speaks his mind, dude, he doesn't care. He says exactly how he feels, which is why I love Tratt and with him and running into him. And he, he pulls no punches. And man, we pulled no punches with all Mark. Now, all Mark did play back to back, correct? He's played the last two games. And I think that, you know, you should show them out. If we call them out, we should also show them out. And I love Ottawa's team. All we've said all year basically is that when they get golden and they're nasty. And dude, if Tampa plays Buffalo somehow, But what is Tampa and Carolina right now, if Ottawa gets the second, the Tampa's two points behind Carolina with a game in hand. So whoever wins the east, if Ottawa gets the eighth spot, both Ottawa can win that series no matter who they play. I really believe that. And so the fact that they got the win Sunday against Carolina and Brady was a big part of it. And Sanderson's back, that is like, they're looking good here, I think. So you kind of alluded to like the hot topic though, like, well, it's a Hall of Famer. Well, he's going to be like, he speaks his own mind. He speaks for himself. Like I think you could tell by the clip that it made Matthew and Brady uncomfortable, like talking about their teams and like, you know, he could laugh about it off, maybe off screen. But I think that it got some unnecessary attention. But a another galvanizing moment for Brady to stuff, stuff all those fucking idiots who want to stir it up in a locker. And if, listen, this off season, if that's, he ends up deciding he wants to move on or two years from now, the one thing you can't, you'll never be able to hold against him is his effort. Like, even if even if his decision ultimately ends up, he doesn't want to be there, he's not the type of guy to pack it in. And if you think that, then you just obviously don't know him and you don't deserve him in the first place. And not to mention big Walt has played more games, scored more goals, been around the league. And he knows what he's talking about. It's not just some random guy talking about a team like he has the leg to stand on. Is that the, is that how you say? But like he's a guy that speaks his mind. He's been through every situation in the NHL. He's been in the NHL or his kids have been in the NHL for the last 35 years or however, whatever it is. So I think whatever he says holds weight. He's a guy that knows the game more than, you know, that we've, he's forgotten more than we all know. But I think for him to have a mic in front of his face is outstanding and we need more of it. And he's more likely to talk about like kind of how it wasn't a locker room back then. Like if, like going back to the all mark situation, you said with full marks for like bouncing back, back in the day, if the goalie would have been like, Hey, no, and then like a couple of leaders would have found out they might have went up to him and been like, what do you do it? Why aren't you fucking playing tonight? Like they might have done that back then. It's handled differently. So the extremes of how much 20, 25 years and playing time can make, would you agree with that with back then if that would have happened, there might have been a couple guys who would have went up and been like, no, you're fucking playing. All the stories you hear, I mean, we heard all the stories about Walt and Phoenix playing there from the trainers 1000% I believe if a goalie tried to, or any player just said they didn't want to play. He would have, he would have called them out 100% to their face. So quickly here, I looked it up, so Ottawa has Tampa, then they got Florida, and then they have a monster matinee Saturday with the Islanders in Long Island. And then Biz, they actually finished the year, and this could get him in the playoffs against Toronto. That's the last game of the year. I actually looked this up the other day and I think I said that to the chat. If you have a chance, you got to go and their season biz, that would be, you know what I'm going to do, go to the Ottawa fans, I'm going to make you beg for my juju. You better beg for the, they don't want your juju, I don't think. What do you mean? If I'm usually if I'm not rooting for them, it's the, the opposite happens, you better be begging for my juju. For the Leafs? Yeah, yes. Okay, okay, okay, so you're saying that, that if the Ottawa fans beg you enough, if they're just like a, more of the game, yeah, you'll ignore the game. Yeah, they're nice enough, but if not, and they, you know, they want to still be mean, listen, they're more dramatic, they're more dramatic than the Leafs, it's just the Leafs have more media around. Yeah, I would expect maybe, maybe, you know what, also some apologies because they're such hypocrites because they call Toronto such a clown show. And I think they've proven this last half of the season that they're an even bigger clown show as far as the whole circus. Can we not agree? Maybe with Toronto being out, some of the Toronto media is going down to Ottawa and causing a little bit of a clown show. Oh, okay, you think it's like an inside job sports that everyone's given them a little bit more attention with Toronto and then that's created the madness. Huh. I mean, the biggest shit in Toronto was William Neumann or wearing a tank top and like given the finger to the camera, you know, they have not had any of that, that is, there was like, above in the LED rumors this year, like there was fucking, what do you mean? It's been a three fucking ring circus. Yeah, but the, those rumors were created by some clown. It wasn't actual a story based on your best player. They kept flipping off the camera in a tank top body, the exact, and then the donkey fans ran with it the same way they ran with trying to spin whatever Walt was saying to make it about them. You probably think this song is about you, about you, about you so vain. I, I think that another part of the Eastern Conference playoff race is if you told me before the year that with five games to go, we were staring down the barrel of an all Pennsylvania matchup in the first round, like one, I would have said you're crazier than R.A. I love R.A. You're crushing R.A.'s world, he's crushing crazier than R.A. And two, there's just no chance that's happening. And right now, the penguins would play the flyers and what the flyers have done. And this port and mark tone kid coming in, four games played three points, one in one yesterday, Sunday afternoon, Easter matinee against the Bruins, he could have a goals right now, but he's true nasty, crazy, he is nasty. And just to see him get the chance with the season on the line on a five on three. The kid was playing against Western Michigan three weeks ago. And now he's in the middle and in front of the net on a five on three and O.T., he buries the first career goal brought, we've, I think at one point this year, we talked about like coolest ways to score your first career goal. How about in the middle of a playoff chase at home on a five on three and O.T. tackled by Zegris on the way to his celebration, but this fire's team, man, I, there has to be fire's fans out there that just right now, like just say you guys were right. Talk. It's a great coach. No, Michkoff still may be an amazing player, but port and mark tone might be even better than him right now. Oh, they're saying the best rookie since Lindross. That's already being talked about on Philadelphia. You're laughing at me right now 30 minutes before I hopped on this podcast. We're talking about right now best rookie since Lindross and, but I'll say with four games and how he's shooting the pill and he should have had a couple on that game before the O.T. winner. Like he can shoot it off the rush like a fucking BB. And that play that he made inside the D zone to, buddy, that was an assist that's not, it might look like a second assist or it was first one because he could divorce. Yeah. It was gross. Gross pass to have the balls to do that in your fourth, fifth game with a guy come down on you, like putting it to the middle on your backhand. It's so, I think with him, Forester and Tippett, like big guys can skate well. They're hard to play against and they all have absolute hiss missiles for sure. It's like those guys are that that's going to be a fun. That could be the next Legion of Doom line, the Legion of Poon. Um, was it up the loophole and one other guy? Um, burger, um burger, was it actually, no, it was a Carter, all that Carter holy fuck that is a Legion of Poon was the Legion of Poon. That's, that's an all time, that's like you gratsky and fucking throw it away on your sack. It could have been loophole. And the equipment manager, that was the Legion of Poon was loophole and nasty. It was. It was, um, but what were all, uh, Porter, Marton. Yeah. That, that, that like one touch assist on your backhand, the D zone right to the Vorak. And I touched on my earlier, uh, in the pod, like the Vorak. What a season he's had. I mean, obviously it's helped like, um, they have really good strength on the wings. Forester was out a while with that fucked up shoulder. I think he like mustered his shoulder on a slap shot or something. One timer. Yeah. A one timer. He's got nice chicklets, eh? Yeah. Are those real? I'm not sure. I'm not his dentist. Why, I figured you played with him, right? We never, we never talked about that. But he did when he shut when we would play darts, he'd go like this. That's all I remember. I bought him. So his teeth were hidden. Okay. Did he actually do that? Yeah. It was unbelievable. We called him the MJ of darts. Oh, is that, is that why he was doing it? Tongue out. Yeah. Well, the darts been unbelievable. He's probably their T overall team MVP. Another thing. Q man, like to management, they didn't get a first rounder for a wrist the line and like his name was being floated out there, he's he's played hard, man, since he's been back in the lineup. Like he's a solid fucking guy back there. Sanheim. Um, who's the other one I'm drawn a blank on before is it's sealer sealer's a male. Yeah, buddy. He's right. Still looks awesome. He's been great. Skates well. Yeah. Sanheim and Rista line and then they got York and drives they'll top four that maybe before the year. You're like, I don't know. Sometimes awesome. Some questions otherwise, but they're they're playing great. And as you said, Vladars, he's awesome. He looks great. And like, I'm saying this now, I want to. I want, I want the fires in Sam because because the fan base and and let's, let's be honest. Meach cough, got 10 points in his last 11 games. He's been solid. He looks way better. Yes, he does way, way better. And in fairness to fire, he's getting more ice time. He's getting more ice time. So maybe you were correct on that one. I think maybe like the Olympic break did do him a lot of good. Maybe I think we might have said it didn't because he looked like shit. Out of the Olympic break, but he's looked really good lately. He's playing where they want to be playing on his off wing. And the team's just chilling together. And I think if you if you want to talk fired and you spent hour after hour carving him, now you should be able to sit there and say like maybe I was fucking wrong. Like this is his first year there and the team look like shit. Now they're in the playoffs. How many points did they finish with last year? Can you look that up this way, you ended up being like a 25 point improvement. You know who else wants Philly and Sid. Oh, yeah, imagine him playing again. He must be licking his chops. If that first round match up, Mark him down for 23 points and five years. They did get him, right? They lost to him one year. Yeah. It was a crazy series. Flower and Briskala. Like, if it would have been a beach ball, it still would have been like three, two, four, two games. No, remember. Yeah. That was the year. Yeah, they could not stop the puck and then they also pit beat him in the year. One of their cups, right? When Talba gave the schtukarsillo, that was a big, they've had some incredible series. Yeah. Play them. We played them in the year that we went to the cup final as well. And what an atmosphere and that barn flyers fans orange everywhere. Yeah. I just think that like they were written off by us, by everyone, by a lot of their fans. And you could see how it's an 82 game season for a reason, man. And talk at his beliefs and maybe he has switched up some opinions here and there on guys. But Porter Marton coming in and playing this much, like that's like an enormous impact. And if Washington, who somehow got themselves back to the mix before they were drummed by the Rangers, the new superpower of the league, the New York Rangers. The call Hudson's kind of in the same way, like if, if Washington was in the mix, you just add one of these college guys that are so ready for the NHL. And it's like a big trade at the deadline. So Porter Marton playing this way, it's making an enormous impact. And it's pretty cool to see because I had no idea. We might have talked about it at the draft or whatever, but he was like a diehard flyers fan growing up. And he's from Ontario. It's so weird. And then you're picked sixth overall, it's just an awesome story. Last year, 76 points to already this season, the flyers have beaten last year by 14 points and they got five games left. So it's crazy. It's crazy. It's crazy. Tip it. We didn't really talk about tip it. Like, yeah, as you played there when he just got there, right? I played with them in Florida too. And then he was traded for Jerusalem. So I got to play with him in Florida and in Philly. Could you see this? Yeah. 100%. Dude, just like his build along, like he was young when I played with him, but he's just like a big, solid kid. And you could tell it was going to take him a couple of years and, you know, Kudos to Philly for getting him in that gerute trade. But he's just the guy who's just going to take a little bit of time, which you're seeing it right now. He's been unbelievable. You can just tell he has confidence the way that he plays because he would do like, he'd make a crazy play in a game, like a crazy tow drag, like once every 20 games. And he like, man, if this guy just figures it out and he starts doing this when he wants to, and now you're just seeing the confidence in his game. He's just more familiar with the league and he's in a budding superstar in this league. He's unbelievable. He looks like a Philadelphia flyer with the red hair, the, with the jerseys on. Like, I love his game. Yeah, it looks like gritty a little bit, but unbelievable kid too, like shows up, does his hard, works his nuts off every day. He's earning everything too, right? Everything's not just been handed to him. He started out on the fourth line in Florida when he was young. So he's not a guy's been bitching and complaining about not getting ice time. He's earned everything. He's earned the respect from his coaches now and Philly and he's been awesome and easy got a roof for for me. Fucking right. Yeah. Like, I mean, one clip from yesterday's game, just like, when a guy gives up the puck and then when you see him go full whoso, where he's like, fuck you. I'm getting that back. Yeah. That is the Marion whoso. Yeah. In real call. Yeah. He turned it over in his own end and it was in the dying minute. I think they were up one nothing at the time. But you turn it over like that in your own end. They score like fucking, that might be your season. He just fucking out of a cannon went and fucking stick lifted the guy, grabbed the back and, you know, out of harm's way. So a lot of respect for his game. I think it comes down to consistency like this year, like majority of the games, you're like, okay, tips. Got it again tonight. He's fucking buzzing. He's creating chances on his own, physically imposing his will. So just an absolute mutant. Yeah, and when you say for people sometimes, like, it'll, it was going to take a little time. Like what do you mean by that? Because it's so evident with some guys, you're like, oh my god, this kid's going to be good, but it might be three years from now. Like what did you see? Is it like trying to beat people one on one when you don't need to or? Yeah. Little, little stuff. Cause he's got those, those first three, like violent strides where you can, he can just get his, his fast as he needs to in three strides. And I think that, like, it's more figuring out the league when you're a young kid. Like you get thrown into the league at 18, 19, 20 years old. Like it's going to take you some years. And he hasn't been on the teams that are winning. He hasn't, you know, hasn't made the playoffs in Philly. So just gaining confidence in the league, learning how to play against certain guys, learning how to play with certain guys. But the tool, the tools that he has, he's got an absolute cannon of a shot. He skates really good. His hockey IQ is good and only going to get better. It's just one of those, like you come from junior, where stuff's easy for some guys, right? You're scoring 50 goals, you're playing every situation. Then you go to the NHL and you got to earn it. You got to find a way to get in on the power play, get in on the PK. And I think he's just kind of put his head down and put in the work. He's had all the tools and, you know, having also having a coach believe in him too, a guy like talk that's helped him out, probably immensely as an unbelievable power forward that, that talk was. He's probably looked at him and like, hey, dude, like you're a big, strong guy. You got to be more, you know, physical on the on the four check, just stuff like that. So I think just figuring out the whole 200 foot way to play the game in the NHL is taking a little bit of time. But, you know, it takes you five, six years and now he's going to be a superstar for the next 10. And he's got a pretty good deal too. It's like a seven million box. Not sure. I think I think he only makes like seven and change, maybe seven and quarter. Yeah. But, but and then Zegress has been a big hit there. He's been awesome and kind of pissed at Zegress, by the way. Why would he do fucking cock blocked, my tone celebration, he's going to go jumping into the crowd. I think. I know. I know. I know. As a guy, it's like, it's like, we might make the playoffs here. Like, oh, who did that to you, but Taylor Piot, but yeah, but he might have been nervous. You were going to whip your cock out or something and he's like, I'm trying to save this guy I have fine, no, I actually appreciated it like he calm, I probably would have done something stupid. You're right. Right. You're like, given it the something about Mary, like finger, licking old woman, I always thought it would be silly. But I was kingpin, kingpin woman thing and like everyone's like, Oh, get this. If you ever scores, get up first, I always thought it would be silly if you put your stick between your legs and you started fucking the camera hole in the corner. I just thought that that would be like silly. It's really silly, right? It's really silly and be a last day on the on the ice. Oh, yeah, you're out of the. What if Meechkov does that first round game seven, OT winner, Meechkov, I was actually thinking and I'm not trying to be a pain in the ass flyers fans, but like he probably was like a little rattle when my tones on that five on, he's not told, don't be a sense fan. Don't be a sense fan. Oh, I'm just totally fucking around guys, the Montreal Canadians. They finally lost on Sunday, the devils. And by the way, I think Jack Hughes has like 35 points since the Olympics. He's been unreal. If he hadn't cut his fucking hand, would Frank the tank was there? God knows what we're looking at for a devil season. They beat the Canadians and they stopped them. They've been on an incredible role. They got a hundred points for the first time since 1617, they had 103 then. They should beat that this year. They clinched a playoff spot. They're in back to back years and they have a core that is set up for a long time. And I know we've spent a lot of time on the Canadians, but did you guys see Caulfield is in the hunt for 50 goals right now? Did you see what he said to the crowd as he got off the ice? I can relapse. Yeah, I can see all that. So he basically, I don't know if he screamed or said it quietly, but you can read his lips. Now, I don't think, and I really hope Canadians fans aren't like upset at that because it's the, it's all they could talk about right now. They're in the playoffs. There's guys with balloons, 50 balloons, like five zero, there was front page of the paper. Every time he gets the pocket, and I love it, but I think he's just like, it's just kind of like, oh, like, let me just try to get this. Like you're making this such a storyline. Like I'll get it. Just shut up. I don't think it's like, he loves the fans there. Look at his smile after he scores all his goals, but I did get a kick out of him telling like 20,000 that are obsessed with him. Shut up because they're cheering too hard for him to get his 50th goal at home. And he had a bunch of good looks, but even St. Louis said after the game, like, we kind of just like, he didn't, he did not say we need this to happen. He's like, it's going to happen. We believe it's going to happen. It'll be cool if it could happen at home in front of the fans, but it is like the main thing right now, whereas it's like, let's just get it over with. You know, let me ask you this. Would you rather have every time you're at the top of the power play, because you guys did that. Like, this is the perfect question for you guys. Have the fans yell, shoot and or and or. Whatever else you're going to say next. Every time you get back to the bench, bang guys behind the glass, and he's there, and he's just like knocking on the glass constantly and just like, you have to have bang guy. Yeah. Hunter. All the time. He shoots sends a chill through your spot. What if it's like the commercial I did for draft Kings where you're taking your shower in the morning and bang guys there and you're in the glass window on the side of the house. I didn't do the shoot, the shoot guy, especially from a guy that didn't really shoot the puck that often. Yeah, me either. The same. It's like, although I think at some point when they realized I had a muffin, they kind of stopped yelling shoot. They're like, yeah, past. Yeah. But but if you hear shoot, now the worst part about the shoot is shoot, shoot, and then you maybe get a shot blocked. And then they're like, Oh, it's like to read cider. I only shot it because you were yelling at me to shoot. So, uh, oh, that was boldly at the end of the game that blocked that one. Are you saying cider gets a lot of them blocked? I just from the games I've watched, I don't know if they're pan, they're, uh, if they're yelling at in the building and he's feeling it, he just tough, tough, couple games I watched were. Yeah. I feel like he takes a lot of big clappers, whereas like, that was right off boldly, when news doesn't take slap shots, no, just snaps those, whatever, 24 inches, 26 inches off the ice snappers, floaters and they're hard and they're getting tipped or they're going in. Who was a guy? Who was a guy that you would, like, you play with, I would always get his shots blocked. Like, like off the shin pad, out of the zone, the forwards are just looking up this guy. I feel like I don't, I can't think of anyone on, on, on that, in that aspect, but I remember Ross Lupus truck who's a great player, uh, Pittsburgh player in Wilkes, he had a cannon. He missed the net a lot. He had a, he had a little propensity. That was like double beyond, beyond, he would miss high a lot, but fuck, they'd be coming by your chicklets and nobody would want to block them. I remember hearing from guys, it was, it was penner and a couple of other guys on, uh, Edmonton that went Surrey was there. He was whistling 103 mile an hour, one timers in practice, high, heavy, and just like penner is like, I had, I like, I, I was legit shitting myself. I think he might have put a full face mask on, maybe in practice. I might just be imagining that or he said he wanted to, but the defense, who do not care that rip it high and hard, as a forward in front, like that's just beyond petrifying. And it's usually those guys just have one speed, like the Shay Weber's and the Sheldon Surrey's like, they're never just like getting it by the first guy. They're shooting to either score or kill someone. Yeah. It's all you want to block my shot while you're going to have a broken ankle and it's even in practice, too. The practice ones are crazy. Is it you last pod saying Margar is going to be where the Ludwig should. Ludwig was in a Dallas alumni game and he, I think he got new shin pads. No, buddy. They, the, the, yeah, the mariner has him. Oh, boys, before we throw it over to brick metal to nifty. This is awesome. Oh, yeah. This is awesome. A great interview. He's an awesome guy. I think we should discuss Buffalo and just the fact that we didn't go fully into it. But then like the way that it's happened and I almost think it's cooler that they were that bad at the beginning of the year. Like if the whole season they were great. Yeah. Awesome story. No matter what, it's great. But like that clip, all I think about is that clip of the kid leaving open a night and just motherfucking that team walk it down, was that opening night people listening, driving right now. They're probably Buffalo fans and saying, wow, what a run. What a rip. Like, they're just the craziest part of Lindy Ruff being behind the bench as it's going all the way down. Did you guys see that generate, like the voice over? Oh, my generate RJs. Oh, good. It's us. Oh, goosebumps. It makes me want to go to every Buffalo game in the playoffs. Marles will be there. Hey, we should, we should rent Ernie Clement's Sprinter van and go to a game. Marles should have to drive Betsy or whatever it's called to the game. That would be a nice night. Well, because it's probably halfway from his house, right? Because he's an Albany. So you have to drive there by there anyway. It's unbelievable. You came for one fucking goal in a hockey game. No. He's got a Lindy Ruff here. You know, even more ironic to back then get on and listen to that. That's all I want to do when I'm in the fucking playoffs. I was saying, fucking DC world, have a tie by fucking right. Shut up. Fuck. It's unbelievable. We're so fucking bad. Now, now the best part is these guys, they got jerseys, they got hats. They shelled out money for opening night and year after year, it was going to end. And that was opening night boys and in their mind and in my mind, it was already done. And just the fact that that kid who looked to be about six to two hundred pounds, he was at Disney World riding the teacups as a six year old the last time they're in the playoffs. This kid has been watching game after game for year after year. And now he gets to see playoff hockey and not only is it playoff hockey, it's a team that like, biz, if they won the east, would you be surprised? Would you be like, holy shit? Or would you actually be like, yeah, I guess I could see your comments. No, because it's believable at this point. Yeah. I think like you said before, I think it's awesome that they started out kind of shit and everybody was writing them off and then all of a sudden they fired their GM and Kekelein and goes in and has a word with them and they go on this absolute heater. They went on one of the best runs in NHL history through like a 30 game segment. I think it was like top, I think it was the best. But just yeah, remarkable and I'm happy for them, no more deserving fan base and kind of weird how they thought this year was going to be their year to win the Super Bowl and then they get let down on that four-interception game and then all of a sudden the Sabers elevate them. I'm just trying to look up here who they lost to opening night and what the score was as to why that guy was ranting like that. They lost to the New York Rangers for nothing. Okay. Go out of the season. It's just let me. So I read it as an article on the athletic I pause, I don't have the author's name who mentioned since the Olympic break, Owen Power has taken over the number one assignment playing against the other team's top line and Dahlene had been doing that for so long. Dahlene's offense has always been there, but just creating not as much responsibility defensively has made him be even better on offense and power with more responsibility. And part of it is like, I know as a player, if I was maybe one night, I somehow was like, all right, you're planning on top blind tonight. If there was some crazy thing happening or the coach took drugs, I was like, you know, you feel so proud and you feel so excited for the chance to do that. Maybe that's changed Owen power too, but the better like wow, you actually play him against better players and you get a better own power. It doesn't seem like it would necessarily work, but, but also like I don't think there's like any, I don't think there's any expectation for him to put up points and numbers and sometimes like that gets maybe a little bit lost where much money in your mind, you probably think you have to do. Do you agree that when you get straight shutdown matchups or a job, it's like, all right, I don't care about point. Perfect exam. I remember having a conversation with Ekblad, you know, when they were going on their runs last year, two years ago, he was like, man, like I came in first overall pick. Team is same as power, right? Like those get their expected to get points, expected to put up numbers in the power play. He's like, ever since Maurice came in and I've had the job to be the shutdown guy with foursling, it's been like, I've taken so much pride in it and I've, you know, changed my whole game to basically, like, you know, what? I'm going to be the guy that shuts down McDavid in this finals. I'm going to be the guy who shuts down Leon, like, so you can have that pride of not to only just getting points and stuff, but really putting your team in an advantage shutting down other team's best lines. And if you can do that night in, night out, and Owen, Owen Powers has the build for it. He's got the stamina. He's got the offense of like the, he's going to make good breakout passes like he's a prototypical shutdown, like just body type alone prototypical shutdown demon that can make good passes, get your 30 points a year. And it from the looks of him, the way he's playing looks like he's having way much more fun being in that role. And who knows if it was Kekalainen who came in and was like, Hey, listen, don't worry about even getting another point for this team. Just shut down these guys and you're going to earn every single dollar that you get. And I remember, uh, she says it was Matthew Fair, Fairburn who wrote the article. Um, I remember talking to Rob Scuderi, who was an incredible shutdown defenseman. And he wasn't super physical. He actually had great hip checks, but he was just an unreal stick, an incredible skater, and just was a true shutdown. And, and he would, he was like, say to me one time, like the fact that I have zero pressure to get points. Like it's way easier, like it's easier for me. Like I, he, I do, I think he said, I don't need to get one point this year and, and I could do my job. And like, the pressure of getting points is the defenseman. And that's why when you see guys who do it all, like dodi in his heyday and like Duncan Keith, you're just like, this is fucking insane that you're getting 50, 60 points and you're playing shutdown roles and against the best player. Like that is, as prongs talked about the true, true number one, not a lot of them, not a lot of them and, and own power, even if he's enormous and not, I don't think he's over. No, compare him to. Oh, Jay Bomyster. Yeah. And Jay Bomyster's in this outline as well, is, um, because Daliene is set to make his first career postseason appearance after a clipsing 400 points. Um, he's, he answers the shifts. He's got the most points by any defenseman in NHL history prior to making their first postseason appearance. Only two other blue liners had at least 300 points prior to their first game. Bomyster and Thomas Shabbat. Oh, shit. Hey, wow. The reason I say that is I think that when we obviously, when he got to Florida, they were not a very good team. And like, it's like kind of like, hey, you skate like a gazelle. You were playing world juniors at this age and you were kind of essentially a prodigy coming up like power was one of the most sought after guys before he went to Michigan. And, you know, all of a sudden, it's like, hey, we want you to be that the guy you just described, that, that, that Chris pronger given his size, right? I also think that I don't want to say this and speak out of turn for Eckblad, definitely for power. My biggest issue was like, okay, you're trying to be this flu, flu offensive defenseman. Like, you're that big. You got to impose your will a little bit. Like in front of the net, like, and I don't think maybe necessarily, you know, I don't, was that glad like that? Would he fucking give a guy a cross check? Would he be a mean fucking son of the bitch? He is now. Maybe not in the beginning of his career when he was trying to be the, you know, true, you know, offensive guy, but the last five years, he's been an absolute prick to play against. That's a main reason why they've won two Stanley cups. Right. That's kind of what I was saying. Like, was it there before or because he was trying to focus on these other things where it's just like, oh, he was trying to be this silky, smooth defenseman where playing against him, especially if you're a top and guy, it's like, oh, you're not getting that extra bump. You're not getting that extra little cross check. Oh, I don't have to fight his heart against him for this, for this box out to get to the net, where all those little details to like you said, powers game have made the world a difference. And I think that because Byron was buzzing so much offensively, I don't think he's playing power play much anymore, is he? He was when Dahlene was out. He was, he actually did a pretty good job of it. But since he's been back, I don't think so. But it's also too like when you're, you know, more of the, the shutdown guy, it, you're going to use your energy in places in front of the net by working a guy over, finishing a guy in the corner. But if you think you have to go out and get points, you might not be, you're like, I'm not going to waste my energy here because I got to get up in the plan, try to get a point. So whoever is sat down and talked to him and kind of figured out his role with that team, it's been unreal. Unbelievable. If you look at their, their first power play unit, Zucker, Norris, Jack Quinn, Thompson, and Dahlene. Second unit is Tuck McLeod, Benson, Josh Stone, and Bowen Byron. I think in the playoffs, now Bowen Byron is 39 points, but he's been unbelievable. He's awesome. But I do think you put Dahlene on either unit. It's the number one unit. Right. So maybe Dahlene's getting a minute 40 in the playoffs, maybe not just talking about that. Oh, just now, no, but like I think you mentioned it like first unit. Sometimes now, like if they're that good and it's Dahlene, that you're getting the one 30, the second unit, you're just trying to go forward. I think are interchangeable with Dahlene up top. And that's no, no shot at Bowen Byron. So yeah, incredible races here. Talk a little in the West after Nifty Rick Middleton. For people who aren't aware, this guy was so fucking good at hockey. And he's a great interview, awesome human being. And I hope you all enjoy it. Bowen hour 15 minutes. And he's, uh, he's a legend for sure. So right now, Rick Middleton. All right, guys, real quick. Just got to jump in before we go any farther. This episode is brought to you by Body Armor Flash IV, an official partner of the NHL Flash IV is packed with electrolytes, delivering faster, longer lasting hydration without any of the artificial dies, flavors, or sweeteners. So whether you're training, traveling, or just feeling the heat, Flash IV is few. And like I said, game notes will have boots on the ground in Las Vegas this week. So the boys will be all over the Flash IV. It's got the heat. We're going to be traveling. And you know, we're going to be drinking as well. So we need the Flash IV strawberry kiwi. It's my favorite. Always a go to you. You can find it at 7 11. So work hard, hydrate with Body Armor Flash IV. Grab yours today at 7 11. Before we go any farther, we got to talk about our great friends at Draft Kings. No sport flips faster than hockey. One power play, a goalie pulled with two minutes left in everything changes. 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And I'll tell you this, my dad, when I said we're interviewing this man, he said that's David Poshchinock before David Poshchinock. Five five time 40 goal score 100 points, 90 points, a legend of the game, Nifty Rick Middleton. What's going on? Well, thank you for that. But, uh, you know, I don't, I don't have, I didn't have the shot that David has. I'll say, I wish I did. I'd have over 500 goals. Well, we appreciate you coming on. And it's great to talk to you. We love talking to the guys who played in the heyday of hockey. And what you did for the Bruins, I got to be honest. I didn't realize I wasn't really, you know, watching them. And I looked at your hockey DB. I was amazed. And then talking to older guys, you're playmaking, you're scoring. So it's, it's an honor to have you on right now. We really appreciate it. Thank you. I, uh, you know, I was fortunate. I got drafted by a, uh, I grew up in Toronto, original six leaves one four cups in the sixties. What's it? What's a young Canadian boy to do in the sixties with three television shows on TV? You know, so I played a ton of street hockey and just worked my way up like every other hockey player and got, got lucky and enough getting drafted by the Oshawa generals played junior A there had the best year in my life that my draft year, which again, you know, sent me to the stars and the Rangers took me in the first round. Another original six team. And then a couple of years later, I get traded to another original six team. So I've, I've had a lot of luck and as blessed for it to be able to play with those organizations. I know the Bruins were signing your checks, but are you still at heart a bit of a Leafs fan? Uh, why are you shaking your head like that, Yantz? I'm sorry. I can't be because my nephew lives up in Toronto and he's an avid leaf fan and I, I just can't cheer for the box. Good for you. Yantz is loving that sound. Oh, yeah. He says that after they won their fourth cup, I grew up and I, I was at least. That's it. And you know what? I always dreamed of playing on Maple Leaf Gardens. And when the first time I did with the Oshawa General, I hated it. It was hot. It was stuffy. There was no air flow. Oh God. But it was my dream to play there as a kid. I was just going to ask you the, the nickname Nifty. It's one of the best nicknames of all time. And the fact that you were so good with the puck and didn't use tape on your stick. Like how, how were you able to do that? You know, I've been asked that a lot. It wasn't a gimmick. I mean, if you look at Bobby, he had no like one strip of tape on his stick. I mean, it's, there's really no, to me, there's really no reason to use the tape. I didn't have the big booming slap shot. So it wasn't like I was breaking sticks every day, every day. And I think what happened was, I played a ton of street hockey right in front of my house. We had that neighborhood in Toronto. And you don't use tape on your stick when you play street hockey because all the snow sticks to it. So I think I liked the way it felt, you know, controlling the frozen tennis balls in those days, no street hockey ball. And I must have morphed it over and tried it on the ice when I was younger. love it and of the park, you know, and I think that's just the way it did happen. I have gone to tape when I've been in a slump before. I was just going to ask you, if you ever, I went to a bit of a, not many, I'm sure. But not very often. Yeah. Most guys change the color of their tape. He's like, I'll actually put tape on now. But with the wooden, with the wooden twigs, right, there's a little more give. Like now when guys don't have tape on the stick with, with, you know, the composites, I'm like, that's crazy. You can't. I tried it with the alumni or the Bruins alumni when I was playing the puck just flew off. Yeah. Yeah. I had that problem too. I got the one that has the texture and the holes in it. Oh, the name escapes me. They make it out of Boston. And they've got the NHL to, is it called tovy? Ovy. Yeah. And I don't use tape. I just got holes and it's very light and it's got, you know, like rare, a lot of texture. So you feel the puck very well. It's like using an old wooden stick without the tape. There you go. Okay. I don't know. Whoa. It's, it's great for a lot of hockey sticks. Let's put it that way. So Nifty, you're going to think I'm crazy. I'm trying to get my whole ball hockey team to switch these for next year. Yeah. Yeah. They've got a great feel to them. Yeah. And they got the NHL to endorse them, I believe. I don't know if anybody's using them in the NHL, but you're telling me that guys are going to, you think guys can use these on the ice. Hey, I was thinking about ball hockey. You're telling me this. My ball hockey, too, but, I mean, I used it alumni hockey. Come on. Yeah. Okay. Okay. I'm not fire very hard, but you know, the sticks and it doesn't have the whip. I don't know about the shaft on it. It can't have the whip that the regular sticks do. No, you can't have, you got to put tape on those, those sticks, you know, because I tried it. A puck just flew off. I want to go back to your nickname. It says that you were one of the best at the time of challenge challenging and beating guys one on one. Like, like, I feel like back then, it was a little bit more uncommon. And maybe there would be a lot of like pushback from coaches, the challenge guy where, you know, it's just a different game. Like, how did, how did, how did that all go down? And would you agree that you were one of the best guys at beating guys? That was what I was good at. You know, I didn't have the big slapper like ghee from the outside, or the super snap shot, you know, like, bossy head from the saw. I had to work in the three feet to the net to get the puck into the net. And a lot of them didn't hit the back of the net. But, you know, my, I just, I had developed somewhere along the line. How do get the fence man to look down? And I used to like to stick the puck between their stick and their feet, not through their feet. But so they can see it, you know, they're trained to watch you here. But as soon as they look down, they're in trouble. And in those days, not saying their fence man couldn't escape, but in today's game, they have to be able to turn his skate because they can't interfere with you. And the old days, they just grab you and, you know, coffee and lock you down, you know, there was never any calls. So you could draw a lot of penalties if he got halfway around a guy and he reached out and grabbed it. But a lot of times, and I didn't get a run on all the time, you know, it's kind of a percentage thing. And Don Cherry actually helped me instead of like doing it all the time. He's, you know, mix it up. That way they won't know what you do whenever time you come down. But in the little Boston Garden, there's not a lot of room. And in those days, you could, you could slow the game, the face down if you had enough time, which really screwed up that offense because they're backing in the top of their goalie before they know it. So you, and I had a Barry Peterson was my centerman. That was, he always got me the puck at the right time. It was a lot of fun. And who gave you the nickname and when? Jerry Chievers claims he gave it to me. Maybe in the late 70s when we were teammates under Don Cherry. You know, I'll believe him because outside of that, I nobody else claim it. So it is a great neck name. If you're a hockey player or nifty is legit. Just wanted to stock it. And I did some in-between periods, analyst stuff with the on Nesson doing the sports network from old 2 to 0 8. And we had Catherine Tappen. I'm sure you guys know Catherine. Who's great. You should call me nifty on the air. And I'd have little eight year old kids coming up to me going, Hey, nifty. So they had no idea about where I got the name or when I played. They just knew me. So I thought that was great. Another generation, you know. So everybody just calls me nifty now. Nobody calls me right. So when you say, you know, you're a young kid growing up. The Leafs are winning Stanley cups and hockey's just such a part of the culture there. Was there was there one person? Maybe your dad or another coach that you look back on as like an enormous influence in your life as a young player? Well, I really only had two coaches growing up. One was with Wexford and Toronto. I'm sure you're aware of a lot of Toronto organizations. Wexford's been around there forever. But Glen Mortley, he made it fun. That's when I was a young kid. And then I moved to the Toronto hockey league and got invited to try out for the Toronto young nationals under a coach spending a Frank Miller. And Frank over a couple of years changed my game around, improved my skating. He was a skating nut. And I still see him. He still lives up in near Ajax and Pickering. And he, I would say the Frank was responsible in those three years. I got six full scholarship offers. I got drafted by the generals. I got an offer to be you. I almost ended up in Boston going to call away. Thank goodness. Thank goodness. I didn't. But I ended up, my house in Toronto was only half an hour from Osho. So I lived at home during my junior career, which not many guys get to do it. I get to pocket the 60 bucks. Yeah. So back then, like, now you see all the Instagram and all the power skating coaches. Like, what was the way to improve your skating then? Like, what were you told? Was it a different type of stride? Was it maybe more, you know, weightlifting things like that then? Like, what did you do? Or was it more just being on the ice? Really just being on the ice. I mean, my, I think, you know, maybe I had a growth spurt or whatever. But I used to play football in high school. I play rugby in high school. In those days, nobody cared because I was playing hockey outside of school. I didn't know what I was doing. And then, you know, and then they didn't know I was playing football. So I just, I didn't do a lot of weights or anything, but I just maybe had a growth spurt. And I think I had a pretty good stride, you know, and it just says I got stronger and bigger. I developed it into the game that I ended up playing, you know, but there wasn't, you know, there wasn't a lot of like tie a rope around them and get resistance. And, you know, that's not those days. That's for sure. The parachute now. Yeah. Yeah. Just a lot over and backs. What age was that when you started doing all that power skating? Like how many years before junior? I give lots of the young nationals at 13 to 16. And then I played their first year in 17. I got drafted by the general, but I didn't feel as big enough as I'm watching the Toronto Marlies and the Hamilton Redwings on freaking TV. And I'm like, I'm not ready for that yet. So I played a year of B in Toronto, the first year that young gnats had a B-team. And that really gave me another year, one rookie of the year, and all that stuff, and prepared me. So I was always like one step back, two step forwards, you know, I played a year in the American hockey league when the Rangers drafted me and then got me ready for the NHL. So you must have known your timing, because I mean, you stepped right into junior and, you know, your first year at 70 points, your second year with a monster, you know, 137 points was, was it mostly all year or were you having? Did you have good teammates, guys that made it so big? Oh, no. I had a line with Brian Casela and Billy Laughhead and Billy, and they both got drafted. The Billy got drafted by the Redwings. I scored 67 that year. Billy scored 52, and we really didn't go anywhere in the playoffs. I don't know why, but I just had one of those magical years that everything seemed to go in, and with great teammates that was set me up, we set each other up, and Brian was a great center, and, you know, you know, how it goes. It was a magical year. We obviously had a pretty good tea other around us, you know, but everything seemed to go in that year. When you were younger, were you watching a ton of hockey, where you were dissecting it and learning that way? Like, were you a bit of a hockey nerd, as they say? Yeah, but I wasn't that cerebral that, you know, like way, you know, threats, you know, dissecting where the puck isn't where I should be, and I mean, but I was a huge leaf fan. I think I hated the Canadian starting at five years old, you know, the fear of Toronto fan, and that kind of continued for a few years. But no, I just love watching the game. I would make up games because it's only 16, so I'd run my own seasons with dice, and when I was a young kid and, you know, see who would fantasy. I knew everybody, but I had hockey cards of every player in the league. So when I got popular, I caught my mother, and I say, when were all those hockey cards, you were like, oh, I threw those out long ago. It was probably 200 grand worth of cards if they were in good shape. Exactly. Stanley Cup teams, Who were your favorites, like who were your guys? - Baby Keon and Frank Muhammad was the big him. - Yeah, yeah. - And I love Johnny Bauer and that, you know. Played against some of those guys later on, you know. But there was a magical team, I mean, in those days as a young boy in Canada, it was without cell phones and computers and a lot of, there was all there was to do, watch Gunsmoke and Vananza on Sunday and hockey and Canada on Saturday. - When you talk about that magical year, like, you say it's great timing, it's your draft year. You go first round to the Rangers. How do you go second round in the WHO draft? Like I'm thinking if it's first round in the NHL, you'd be maybe even higher in the WHO at that time. - They probably don't think you're coming. You could use it as a bargaining power, but since I went first round to New York, you know, I didn't have a lot of bargaining there and I never really thought about it. Because of that, you know, I just always want to play in the NHL, not the WHO, but it was a nice Minnesota to draft me. But no, I was adamant that I was going to play in the NHL and I never, if you remember, the Bruins beat the Rangers for the Cup in '72. So, you know, they still had a really good team. I didn't make it out of camp and they said we want to send you down for some season. I really never spent a lot of time in that state. So, like you said, to get a map, got a brand new car from a signing bonus and flying Providence, Rhode Island, somehow. - Luckily, it wasn't too far. - Then the NHL, I mean, the amount of fighting and brawls, it was amazing. - Yeah. - And was the NHL even crazier then? - I don't remember it as like a brawl at night, but there were teams, you know, like we, we called that like a so long ago, it's hard to clearly remember, but we called Nikki Fittio for the playoffs from the Cape Cod Cubs, I believe. First time I ever met Nikki. And because we thought, they thought that we were going to play Rochester, who was coached by Don Cherry. And Johnny Winsink was his tough guy. We didn't already had a brawl during the year with Johnny. And we thought we're going to play him in the playoffs so you better, you know, get ready. And they ended up getting beat up by New Haven, so they sent Nikki back out. (laughing) And then they ended up up with the Rangers later on, but yeah, it wasn't as much as you might think or it wasn't like Slap Shot or anything like that. - I mean, even your time with the Rangers, only two years, you were a young player, but a great player. Like, how surprised were you when they traded you? Because back then, you know, guys seemed like they played their whole career on one team. And, you know, especially for you, a young stud, it must have been a bit of a shock for you. - If you had about an hour, I could tell you the whole story, but perfect. - We're going to do it nice. - That's exactly what we love here. - Yeah, we're going to be a talkable hockey match. - New York was a crazy town. First of all, you never practice in Madison Square. So we lived in Long Beach, Long Island, small town where alternate practice rink, Charlie McAvoy was born there. He grew up playing on here. - I was like 20, 21 years old, and you're stuck in this little town, you know, and there's not a lot to do and you're a lot of downtime. So it was in the 70s, there were no rules, you know? So we had a lot of fun. And that probably caught up with me, especially when you're on a losing team and not a winning team. You know, and so the first year we lost though the first round of the playoffs here, the Challengers I think in a two out of three. I didn't have a bad year. I had 18 goals by Christmas. I was shot at the rookie of the year, but in January I got a stick in the mouth from Bob Daley and lost my first four teeth and 16 stitches. So the Rangers put a football helmet on me, right? 'Cause we're going on the road to Chicago and Chicago and St. Louis and then Minnesota. It's like hitting me here, right? An actual football helmet. A football, yeah, I look like Fran Tharkin. - The punter, the punter, man. - So, a week late, I wasn't eating very well. And a week later we going to Minnesota and a guy comes in to hit me along the boards and all my memory was I went to slide the check 'cause he came in to run me. And I think it was Dennis Hextal, but I'm not sure if I'm positive all this time. And I went over on my ankle and I break in my ankle. So I was out eight weeks, like almost to the end of the year and there goes rookie of the year. And I came back scored four more goals, baby. That's why I ended up with 22. But I had 18 by Christmas. And the next year, Derek was on the team. I forgot to mention that, Derek Sanderson. - Yeah. - It was the reason I wore 16 when I went to Boston. A lot of people don't know that. Derek and I were friends, but they traded him early in '75 to St. Louis 'cause they thought he was getting some of the younger players. And they actually put this in the paper, the owner, Bill Jennings of the Rangers did an article like a month after Derek was gone that they asked him why he traded him. He says he's getting two of the younger players, Rick Middleton and Ron Greshner, in the training problems. - You guys were on the team too much. - Our name was in the freaking paper. I'm like, what? Come on, he was already gone. They were just, you know, making it up. They see like you guys were boozing too much? - Oh yeah, for sure. I mean, we-- - Everyone was. - Were you? - Yeah. Well, watch too much. Come on. - Yeah. - You're still here. - This was, it was before Studio 54, but we just, the giants would play on Sunday afternoons. We play home games on Sunday night. We'd all go to a bar on first avenue called the Tiddle Taddle. And, but Derek was going out with a 4.8 and C model, a beautiful girl. And, you know, he was seven years older than us. I didn't realize Derek was that much older. But he would stay up. I mean, me and some of the other young guys, Ron Greshner, who I still talk to with the Rangers. And we stay at, have a good time. As long as we get back on the ice at 10.30 one day morning, out in an hour away in Long Beach. So that was kind of the lifestyle, maybe not every Sunday, but that was kind of the lifestyle. But the fact that they put the names in the paper. So I didn't say anything in a couple of weeks later, like at the winning goal against Billy Smith up in the, in the island. And some reporter came in and asked me about it. And I was so naive in those days. He wasn't a beat reporter. And he just asked me innocently about it. And I said, well, I couldn't believe such a well-educated man, like Bill Jennings would believe in such cost. So because it wasn't true. Derek wasn't like corrupting us. Next day, I go into practice and one of my teammates had me in a New York Postage. They opened it up and it's high headlines. Middleton takes shot at the boss. Oh, God. That was temporary. I got traded in May. That's a panic. That's a panic. Shit. I still got the article. And to this day, I should have thanked that reporter for doing that, because that's what got me traded. Got you out of there. Well, that was a year of the big trade. That spoke came over. I got a chance to play in New York, but that spoke in the same line. That was a great honor. But the team never joked. It's the only year we never meet. I never made the playoffs in my career. Was that year? And then John Ferguson traded me right around Memorial Day for Ken Hodge. Yeah. So that's what I was going to say. The Rangers and the Bruins had already had the big deal. It was Retell and Brad Park for basically Espo. And that trade worked out pretty good for the Bruins. That's what Brad and Joe's and Lucy was in there also. But then the deal with you and Ken Hodge, I mean, you were 10 years younger. And I looked it up. I couldn't believe he only played about 100 more NHL games. And he'd been a legend on those cup winning teams. But that was a hell of a deal for the Bruins, getting a guy your age and then realizing like your potential. I had always heard that Espo wanted one of his old wingers. And I only asked him recently, oh, no, no, I didn't tell him that. It was like getting rid of Middleton. But whether he wanted one of his old wingers or not. And then when I got to Boston, I had heard that the Bruins had soured on Kenny. I don't know if they were playing him or what. But I think that's what happened. They were sick of me in New York. And I was having too much fun. And the team never made the playoffs. And I ran into John Ferguson at the All-Star Game in Washington in '83. And he's across the room and he looks at me. I did it for your own good. I said, I know what you're saying. Thank you. But you got to remember Harry Sin and John Ferguson were the coaches on the '72 Canada team. So they knew each other very well. So you're throwing a lot of names out. Who was the boss again? What was his name, sorry, at the time? John Ferguson was-- Ferguson. Ferguson. Third coach GM in New York that year. Did you have a conversation with them after that article came out? Did you go, hey, hey, hey. Oh, no, no. He said that, oh, we're going to meet with Bill. We're going to straighten this all out and never have. OK. And my last one regarding that subject, how many times did you go from that bar right to practice every Monday? Well, we would drive in together. I drive in with Steve Vickers. And depending on whether he wanted to drive home that night or not. So a boy, a boy and him. Do you mind? No, no, no. Our good buddy is friends with Jeff Vickers, who's his son. And he would say this. Yeah, the story's back to-- The murals claims that there was times It was just a couple pops after pre-game skate before the game. No, I don't know if that's true, but why I never saw I never saw that. Okay. You know, there was enough, you know, nice before sometimes you go on the road. I mean, we flew commercial in those days. We were always somewhere, you know, the night before the game. And as you guys know, you can't pick your spots. It just happened sometimes, right? What was the name of the bar again, and were you nifty on the dance floor, were you kind of getting out there? There was no room to dance. It was jammed with football players and hockey players and women. It was late 1974 or '75, you know. Would you spit, you know, would you just like have a nice conversation with me? How would you spit game? No, geez. I wish I could remember Jack to those days. I had better numbers than Barry Bonds though I heard. Nifty just buzzing around the bar. He didn't get the nickname Nifty from his ice, his, his ice. Well, I had other nicknames in New York, but I'm not telling you. Let's transition to the Bruins. Don Cherry was the head coach when you moved over and to talk about how he helped you with your two-way game. Could you ever have imagined he would have went on to do what he did on television? Could you see it then? No, but we were the biggest draw on the road, so he always loved to talk, gone, and they hunted him down the press because they get a byline for the newspaper. So he was always talking to the press, always, you know, building up the team. He was a player's coach. He loved it. He loved this week. Come out and have a few pops with us from time to time. He loved this guy. He was a winning, you know, but which we did a lot of, but now he was, he was a great coach. Funny story the first time I met him because I'd played against him in the America League. And then I'm not sure the year before he moves coach in the Bruins when I was in New York, so he must have played against each other. So we know new of each other, but I had never met him. And so very first day we were a training camp in Boston, up in Fitchburg, Massachusetts. So I go on the ice and I'm skating around with Peter McNabb, who just got traded from Buffalo and when I roamed together for eight years, I got rest of the soul and Wayne Cashman and I think Bobby Schmotz, and we're just talking, you know, loosen up and all of a sudden don skates over and takes his glove off and sticks his hand out and he always call me Ricky Boy. Hey, Ricky Boy, you're looking a little bigger. He says, well, you have been working out. I said, no, but I just had a good summer that the tittle time I mean to come on, maybe the only time I ever saw it bond speechless. And Bobby Schmotz fell down his lap and so hard. And that's a set up our relationship from then on. We are always very sarcastic to each other, you know, kind of a two-part question. Like, how was it having one coach, like the fact that there was only one coach back then, it was just Don Cherry, like how much work was he doing with players or was it more like players helping out each other? And then he talked about your relationship with him and in your jersey retirement speech, you churped Don Cherry about having too many men on the ice. I didn't think of that until a week before because I knew he was going to give me a shot. He had that relationship. So I had to get him with something and the look on his face was priceless. It's so good. Well, I want him to answer that about only having one coach, so there was no decoge, there was no nothing like one guy only 70's that was very common. You know, guys would stay out extra or what they call the black aces if they're not playing a lot with stay out and do drills or, you know, Cario Riley was always the first on last off and sometimes didn't come off, it would skate out there and do what they called two pass down, you know, with the guys in our playing a lot. So you didn't have to tell the guys, you know, the guys weren't playing stayed out and did more and the guys that are playing a lot might go off a little early. If the puck came in above Jerry Chievers' waist, he'd just skate out of the net. What about during the game where is Don Cherry calling up who's next up front and who's next on D? That's why they had the too many men. Yeah, pretty, pretty well. I mean, yeah, I mean, now that you're asking me, I'm trying to think, but he was the only guy behind the bench, yeah. You know, and the trainer that called up the key, yeah, wait, exactly, he saw a guy up, he fucking forgot the call, who was up, well, I mean, I don't know, too many men on the ice in 79, you know, which nobody really knows except Don knows who he called up. And I was one of the guys on the ice. I have no memory being on the ice. So nobody knows who shouldn't have been on the ice. It wasn't like somebody jumped too soon or the guys were six guys were skating around for about 10 seconds, you know, and nobody really realized it. So another thing when I told my dad, we were interviewing you, I got the whole breakdown of that 79 semi-final series with the Canadians and didn't know you went down to O and Montreal, one game three and four in Boston, lost game five, Montreal, win game six in Boston. And then that legendary game seven, what, I mean, obviously the too many men and the heart break is, is what everyone remembers, but what else do you remember about that series? The heart break was more also because we've lost two cups from the two years before in 77. Maybe there's four games to nothing. And we just couldn't match up to them. You know, they're nine guys on the Hall of Fame, you know, I'm not even going to name them. But then in 78, we got so sick of these guys, we knew that, you know, maybe I think Karway might have retired. Lamar was still there, I think. And we just thought, you know, we can challenge these guys and we won two at home. We forced game six, but we couldn't, we could never win in Montreal and they always had that extra game. And then by 79, we thought, we can beat these freaking guys, right? And we ended up playing them in the semis. And we, the big thing that helped us was winning, while we won all the, everybody won their games at home and forced that game seven, which again, we had one in Montreal yet. And, but we felt positive that we could play them. We're up three, one going on the third period. And we knew we were going to get in penalty problems. We knew the fans get them one penalty. Oh, yeah. Yeah. I was going to ask you that, do you, did you feel even from the years prior, you said you never beat them when they were at home? Did they get the calls? Oh, absolutely, absolutely. Yeah. I don't want to be a, you know, a whiner, I'm just saying, I think everybody in the league knew the Montreal, the fans would get them at least one call game, you know, and it happened to be in the third period. And I think they got one power play goal out of the two, they tied a three, three. And I, I end up scoring a four minutes ago to put it up for three, and we thought we had them. And a funny story, even nobody ever heard was we had a third goalie in the stands, his name was Jim C. Weed Petty. He's still in the C week, because of his hair. And he may still hold the record for the most penalty minutes in the East Coast league for a goalie. But he, you know, he always dressed the third goalie, so he got to sign him in between periods. And he goes, Nifty, I'm going to watch and drive, and he likes to put his paddle down, like all the goalies do today, but driving like to, to put his stick right across like this, he goes, if you ever get a chance, shoot it to the far side, it'll go in under the knob. You know, like, like I didn't know that, but I was, thanks, Jim. Yeah. We'll bet. Right. So if you look at the goal, I was, I came, I was playing a left wing that game with wing cashman on the right. I played a lot of left wing. Don't you play me on left a lot? And Jean-Retelle at center, so I was in the left hand corner, and I came around behind the net, picked up the puck on my backhand, and most of flashed in my head for a moment, because I tried to fire it to the far side, but I didn't have the angle. And Dryden had his, his paddle down and hit the inside of his blocker, and it went in. And so we went up for three with four minutes to go, and, you know, they were worried. And, and I won't take all the credit. And that's what I was told is that it was kind of, it was kind of the cup final. Like that. I think they beat the Rangers 4-1. It was like, you two were the, like, you're probably beating the Rangers. No. Rangers 1 game 1 in Montreal was still pretty tired from our series, and then Montreal rolled over. But what was the guy's name again? The goalie. Jim C. Wade Petty, who passed away not too long ago, so he was the original E-Bug. E-Bug. That's what they call the third goalies that hang out in the crowd. Yeah. Yeah. Oh, that's awesome. Well, yeah. He, I don't think he got in any playoff games, but he always had the B handy, you know, but he played during the year, quite a few games. What was the blowback, like, after the, like, the too many men? I know you joked about it in the speech, but like, was, were the, were the fans in the media pretty hard on you guys all about it, and even don't want specifically the, the, the, the Bruins. fans, you know, they just wanted, they love you if you work hard, you know, that's the way they were and store. And they, they were as heartbroken as we were. You know, a couple thousand people showed up at the airport, you know, well, if only times I really got emotional, you know, coming home, not winning and seeing everybody, you know, we're there to sort of console us, because they knew that we had them in the two minutes away. However, one that we felt that we'd beat the Rangers, they, you know, obviously, Grasher, Grasher doesn't agree with me, but who doesn't? Ronnie Grasher. We still keeping it, in fact, he was on, on the Rangers in those days for like 14 years. I don't, I don't know if you know Ronnie at all. Great guy. But I mean, you said that the fans were there meeting you guys at the airport, but you know, the guys that I talked to, like with my, my dad and his friends, they're all Charlestown guys and they said that they, they'd be hanging out at bars and you guys would all come in. Like you guys were men of the people back in the day, just like hanging out with fans, not really how it is anymore nowadays, because guys get, you know, a little bit more harassed, I'd say, but you guys, it seemed like you guys were just regular dudes. I think in this there was no cell phones in those days. That's all fucking to you, preacher, preacher. There was a sports bar downtown, Daisy Buchanan's that, oh my god, owned one time. And that was kind of the, not just for hockey baseball, I mean, that was kind of the jog bar, a little bar and like nothing to write home about, but it just had that atmosphere. And the guys would go there after games, a lot of us. And then across from the garden, you know, the Sully's tap is still there. I actually, they actually fill me in Sully's tap for the documentary. And I'm not really sure why, but one of the oldest bars in Boston. So the guys in those days, yeah, people would recognize it, but they were always great. There was great to it, you know, because they loved the Bruins. I actually was at Daisy Buchanan. That's where I was on my official visit for BU. I puked there. So I know Daisy Buchanan's close down now. I think I wasn't the only guy who puked in there, but a fun time. But it's funny. Looking at your teams, great Bruins teams. It was like, you ran into these Canadians, dynasties. And then that kind of ends. And then the islanders come along. So it must have been just so difficult for you guys. You're like the second best team all these years. Did you ever have any good battles with the islanders in the playoffs during their run of four straight? Well, 1980, I remember there was a big brawl in the garden. I can't remember how the series went. But 83, we finished first in a league. We had home ice advantage all the way through and we lost in six and 70s. I do want to pump your tires. Sorry, you had 33 points in 17 playoff games that year. That's right. We'll sort of against Buffalo. One team is still in NHL record. I think how many points that series? 19 and seven games. Wow. Also it was a good series though. Five goals, 14 assists. And I think Barry had like 18. I just ended up getting the record because I have one more point where you plan against a French connection then. Is that why they were late in the last three? I know. I think I think they're month of in gone, 83. I can't remember. They want to get in Danny gear. But and they pushed us. They pushed us one seven games. I mean, you can't get all those points. So I should play in seven games. Yeah. No, I was just lucky to have a good series. Unfortunately, I didn't do it against the islanders. This one's a little vague. Do you have any more Don Cherry questions? And the last thing here, I noticed that I believe that after the run where you guys got the too many men, he didn't come back to coach after that, right? That was the hand running was on the wall. Him and Harry weren't getting along. Anyways, I often wonder that if we had a gun on to win the cup, I don't know what Harry would have done because they weren't even talking to each other. So you know what they were battling about? Was it just like ice ice times? I don't want to say that what it is because I'm not really positive. But I think Don wanted a little more say in the team or maybe who's going to the Myers who's coming, you know, almost what GM's job is. And Harry, I don't think wanted to do that. And then they got into the war of words and in the press. And then they just went opposite direction from the stuff that I kind of remember. But too bad because he was a great coach and the guy who loved them. Yeah. Any other awesome stories that you could share about Don? Yeah. I just like interactions like maybe games where you guys gotten brawls like maybe he was going at it with the other coaches, anything. I mean, I feel like a lot of our listeners feel like he really got shafted with his situation up in Canada. And they any chance they can hear about one of a throwback stories from him. They fucking lose their mind. I remember they I said that he always went in. We always went in the night before the game for the most part. And the press would always hound them to get a byline for their headline the next day. So we went into Colorado to play the Rockies. And they were I think they were in like last place in their division in their car. And we were in first place in ours. So the reporters asked them. He said, so how do you guys get up for a game like this? You're playing, you know, a team that it's not very good. They don't have very many points. What do you say to get your players pumped up? And Don says, well, I think tomorrow night, I'm just going to tell them where they're left skate. So though you know, they got that freaking thing pinned up in their dress. So that was a brawl. They were the brawl. He didn't know that he didn't want us to have an easy game. He knew they were going to come out and play like well, we kept champs. I think there's just that weather left skate. Yeah. Thanks, Don. Was it for the game and see this fucking guy. We're in one now. Yeah. We had a tough team. I mean, I got a lot more room out there because of, you know, the lineup that we had. And teams was like teams didn't want to go in the spectrum with the grocery bows and they certainly didn't want to come in with the little boss and garden because there's nowhere to hide, you know. And so it gave me a lot more room because they had a lot of these other guys to worry about more than me. So I was able to do my thing, you know, who was the biggest killer in the league then and specifically for you guys? Like who was the guy where Terry O'Reilly? Oh, Terry. He was the heavyweight. Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. But he had 90 points one year, too. Yeah. He lived a team in points and penalty minutes one year. Yeah. Whatever you know, he went to Johnny Winston. The line was Peter McNabb at center, Terry on the right side and Winston on the left side. They weighed over 600 pounds. Can you imagine playing against them? You know, you'll line up and they're just looking at you because 200 pounds back then, you were, you were a beast, right? Yeah. Peter was, was huge. He just wasn't a fighter, you know, and he could fight, but he wasn't, you know, hey, to do that. He was a goal score. I mean, he scored 40 goals a year since the time he got the boss was when sick. The one in front of the bench that time, challenging the whole balance and win a soda bet saying your franchise forever. There was a brawl that started. They didn't have a lot of tough guys in their line up. Terry O'Reilly beat up one guy. One sink beat up the other. And then he comes over from the bench to challenge, not one guy jumped over. Everyone's like this. The coach was slow and bearous. That next game in there was a brawl six seconds in and there wasn't a guy under six three. I think each team had five guys left on the bench with the game. I would have been tying my skates if he's over there. Oh, yeah. So back then, if a guy went up to your bench and he went like this, you're saying that a few guys would have just hopped over the boards and went out of his head. Somebody did it to the bro's bench when he kicked me. Everybody would have jumped over because you know, as soon as two or three guys jumped, they're coming. So you might as well just everybody, you know, and there was so many, there was a fight down the hallway because no, there's a boss in garden. You had to go down the hallway between the penalty box and the Bruins bench and go down the hallway to the visitor's dress room and the bench was across the ice. So more than one brawl, Nylon, got it. He started one with you, Kenny Hoensman, but Minnesota started one and went down into the hallway. I think it was that game after that thing with Johnny. What were the fines like back then for even jumping up? Because nowadays, if you jump on the ice, it's either a suspension or a heavy phone. I didn't get fined a lot for fighting. You know, I want a lady being come on, but check it out. I heard in those days that the players would have to pay the fine, but they got reimbursed. Oh, nice. You're not going to penalize a guy and cost them hundreds or thousands of dollars if he's doing the job that you want him to do. I don't know. I don't think they can allow to anymore, but how they track that. But in those days, yeah, I think it was under the table here. Now you get suspended in junior leagues if you call a guy a pussy. Oh, really? Yeah. Yeah, exactly, exactly, it's fucking crazy. You could penalize for speech. Where's the world coming to? I don't, five games a guy got for call. We were called a pussy gate. We tried to bring it up on here. It was a big, big ordeal. But times of change, man, where I agree, man, if a guy's going like this to your bench, fuck, every guy should be hopping over. But as Jan said, it's a 10-gamer now, it's crazy. Well, they just really didn't have a very tough team, but at the time, but that changed them forever. Minnesota, I'm going to the cup in the 80, I think. That was probably 78, maybe 79. And they changed their whole lineup. I mean, Brad Maxwell, Stevie Payne, and there's some big kids. After that loss to the Canadians, the game seven, the next year, that was raised rookie year, right? Yeah, yeah, yeah. So I can't imagine his numbers and what's been said about him and just what the career he had, his rookie year, were you like, holy shit, this is different? Well, we knew he was special. What was great about Ray? He wasn't coming in to be another Bobby Orr. He found his own game. And the first few years, he'd do the end rushes once in a while and all that and show the offense. But I think he worked out a lot in order to play as long as he did. Because that, when you came in in the 80s, it was really not a lot of working out in the 70s. The 80s, you started working out a little more. And by the 90s, guys are lifting, they're doing, they've got coaches and it had all changed. But in the 70s and 80s, it wasn't a lot of that. If you see, Ray's not all that big when he first came, he was young, too, it was only 18. But over time of the 90s and then 2000, played 20 years. He worked hard on his strength. And then he turned into just a defenseman, a quarterback back there. And it helped his longevity. But the numbers that he put up and the games that he played. And the Bruins actually took him to arbitration. Harry took him to arbitration. And he's played another three years for them. He didn't leave. But it was right at the end. He wanted a shot at a cop. And they agreed to send them. And the word was that he was going to go to Philadelphia. They ended up training him to Colorado. Thank goodness, because Philly never won the cop after that. No. When you bring up arbitration for him, at what point did salaries become public? Were you playing at the beginning, middle of your career, and you wouldn't even know what your teammates were making? Would you ever talk about that stuff or no? No. I had Eagle Sinister at my agent my first eight years. And he was like, you guys don't want it to be public. You want to keep it private. And we all know why now. But he was gone by 91. And it wasn't a coincidence that the salary started to go. I had heard, I don't know, maybe it was a day after, he was gone. And he was booted from the Players Association. So the St. Louis GM signed Hull and Steven's $1,000,000 contract threats. And the Lemieux were the only guys making that money back then. And then when they signed those guys, then Boston had to sign Neely and Bork and the arms race was off. But it didn't happen until the early '90s, mid '90s. I've never heard anything good about this Eagle Sin guy. And is there anything like what did-- what was his for people who don't know it? What did he do? Like he said, he was an agent and then he went over to the Players Association. He had about 1/3 of the league at one time. And he did that because he got Bobby early in Bobby's career. And I went with him. And I can just talk about my experience. I can't say that he didn't get me some pretty good contracts. But in those days, you were paying them 10% to invest your money and do this and that and the other thing. And there wasn't really any of that that I saw. Not for me anyways. And then there was a lot of scuttlebutt in the early '80s about him. And so actually the truth, I went through a divorce. And all my paperwork was subpoenaed. So I got all my stuff where I heard a lot of guys, if you quote them, you find your botches on Bay Street. But I ended up getting all my paperwork and such. And then Russ Conway wrote the book, Game of Skonduct. I don't know if you guys ever read that. But look it up. Russ was a small town reporter that worked for seven years uncovering everything that the US Justice Department used to file 32 counts of racketeering and conspiracy against them. Against Eagleson. And they couldn't get them. They wouldn't extradite them out of Canada, the US, for four years. And he ended up the made a deal that he pled out on three counts of wire plot. Game the Boston. I was there that day. Gordy was there. Bobby was there in the courtroom. And then he went to Toronto and pledged on eight counts. I think in Toronto. Went to jail for six months. And payed $1 million Canadian fine. He was out. That's all. Yeah. It's a slap on the wrist. Now, so you're saying that if like guys became unhappy with them, maybe because they didn't feel like they were getting what they want. And they said, Hey, I want to switch agents. You're saying he would just basically all the investments you were thought you were making. You just like, he's like, Oh, they went tits up. You're not getting any money back. We were all young and dumb. You know, I didn't know what stuff nobody talked about stock market in those days and sevenies and such. So, you know, you really, I didn't really know that much. But I heard of a lot of other guys with other agents that got Rob Blind lost all their money. You know, it wasn't, I'm not saying this without it. It's just, he wasn't doing what we were that I was paying him for. So that's why I left him. Now, you'd have to ask some of the other guys what, how they handled them. And you mentioned he had Bobby. So that's probably what gave him a lot of like validation and a sense of getting other guys. Well, I was a ton of kid, right? First round draft pick. Who else am I going to get with the head of your union? Who else could you trust? Right. And then he was the head of the union and an agent? Yeah, he's the head of the players associates. Yeah. And then I would say the worst one that's been talked about is at one point, a boss in the Bruins would have been okay giving Bobby or just based on what he was bringing to the table and he was revolutionary and he was like Wayne Gretzky that they wanted to give him a percentage of the team. I heard that too. I don't know. I heard that like you, a percentage of the team to keep him a Bruins. And apparently, Eagleton and Chicago made an offer for him and I believe from what I heard that Eagleton recommended to him that he take the Chicago deal. And never slid the equity portion across his desk to leave him. I personally don't know, but that, you know, that was what everybody heard. And you'd have to ask Bobby that for sure. Another guy that came in at that time came nearly like Barry Peterson. I don't think people realize how great of a player he was. But nearly came over and just the physicality like just so perfect for Boston, right? When that happened, when the trade happened, Barry and injured his arm, he had a cyst. I don't think it was cancerous, but he missed most of 85 because of that. And then we never played together. We played three years together, basically. And we tore it out. We had some really good years. When Mike Krizalinski was our left winner, when he first came up. And then I got a puck in the head and practiced in 86 and I missed the rest of the season. I got a blood clot in the brain. And then that summer, they traded Barry. So we never played again after 84 pretty much. And when they traded him for Cam, I'm like, Cam, nearly. He was a fourth-lying winger for the Vancouver Connect. They never played him. You know, he'd be getting on a couple shifts and banging a few people. But I'm like, you've trading Barry Peterson for Cam. That was with my thoughts about it. But they had seen him in junior, I guess, the Scouts knew what he could do. But Vancouver, for some reason, never turned him into what he turned into and bossed him. It was a great, it turned out to be a great trade for the Bruins. I actually got to play left wing on his line the first full year he played in 86, 87 with Thomas Gradine from the Vancouver Connect was a centerman and I played left wing that year. So it was fun to play on a line with him. He was just becoming Cam, nearly, Ben. Just starting to run people over. Yeah. I mean, he was so strong. He had the shot, and you learn, it's all the timing of it. You just can't run and bang guys and the puck doesn't go in the net by itself. You gotta look at what in the 90s he played with Adam Oates. When you have a great centerman, I had Barry Peterson. I played with Jean-Vertel in the 70s. When you have a great center, when you have a great centerman, they can do so much for them. And when Adam came to the Bruins, him and Cam lit it up, it wasn't for his injury. He's just what it kept going on nifty. I think that yeah, it's what are you playing two or three All-Star games three golden three got voted on the one in 82 the year I scored 50 I got voted on the second team You know they always put me on on it's a right-winger I put a lot a lot of a lot of left-wing But I was and I'm always going up because bossy a little flicker. I'm like, yeah, I got a good chance I'm a left-wing I'm by a left-wing this year. Yeah, but I was always a little sick as a right-winger Do you the Jeavity unreal memories from those games and like what it was like maybe meeting some of your idols for the first time and do Anyone any of them stand out? Particularly your first one. Well when I first got to the Rangers, you know, I'm a training camp with Roger bear and Eddie Jackham And you know here's some koski, you know all these guys that I watch growing up, you know Jean-Retel and then I I never never got a chance to play with Ratti in New York because Roger bear was always his right-winger So I never got I didn't play with Ratti until he came the Boston and then I got traded there And they put me they put me on his line my very first game was a Bruin They put me on a line with music on left side two Hall of Famers and hotel at center I got a hat trick my first game was a Bruin. I said, how can you not get a hat trick playing with those guys? Yeah, I mean you were in the middle of your career when when when Gretzky came in like when he came into the league What was like the the hype and you know kind of the war around him with everybody because you know the social media wasn't it like it was Like was it just the word of mouth? Everyone's talking about how good this guy is up in Edminton. Yeah William Wallace and Braveheart Hearing about this legend coming up like and you we had we could see clips of McDavid you couldn't see clips a Wayne right now pretty much and you know But we were in the east and they were in the west and we didn't really see it see a lot of them But anytime you watch the highlights or you know you actually did play against them you could see he played a different game out there and In the I played in two Canada cups in 81 and 84 and I only made 81 because Jibber Pearl broke his ankle I think and so again, I played left wing on the third line but in 84 I went to camp and they put me on a line with Gretz So I was me Gretz and Goulet and we had lost the the Russians eight one in the final game in Montreal for him and 81 Same team the 1980 team Right, oh wow. Yeah, the only time I played against Tretchi act They put they put Michigan in in the round robin. We beat them 7-3 I put one over a shoulder in that game But in the final game they put Tretchi act in and his his glove look like it was like this big It was one one halfway through the game. We'd be able to say Wow the sneak out of Montreal. That was for sure, but then we we played him in the semis in 84 and Aigleson out of his Because he didn't want to take the chance of losing a one game He made this final a two out of three in 84 and we beat them 3-2 and over time Bossy tipped in a coffee shot and we beat the Russians 3-2 and we played the Swedes 2 out of 3 beat them So he got the Canada Cup back but 87 is the one that everybody remembers because Lemieux and Gretzki played together That's the drop pass to Lemieux that he buried. Yeah, oh wow. Okay. Yeah, when did Mario come into the lead? When was that? Mario played his very first game scored his very first goal against the Boston Bruins and he turned Ray inside out That was the game. That's the part where his first NHL goal. He was playing us and He beat Ray. Yeah. Oh, yeah I've seen that video walked him. He scored a few more like that too. Everybody thought he was kind of lazy because he had that lumbering kind of Skating style, but they didn't understand that you know, he He could do strides will be around you for those of you though that don't know like that The series when you guys played Edmonton in the finals that fog game. Yeah, why did they finish the game in Edmonton? Why didn't they just finish it in Boston that happened to be my last game and in the Boston Garden because we went to Edmonton They beat us out and then Harry bought me out of my option here. Thank you very much. Harry said it 12 points for a thousand so Oh, you got you got Phil Castled. Yeah Before Phil Castled the wall was But that they explained that it and it's it has been written before if you cannot finish the game The game reverts back to the other team and then if the series went seven we would get game seven in Boston That was game six why I read like that, but that's that's the explanation. It was probably Eagle Center did it Well, we were down three games to nothing. We just you know, we didn't get blown out in any games, but we just couldn't match up and gramped You're was awesome and that was Gretzky's last cup in Edmonton, right? Yeah, yeah, he got training Yeah, um, you're bitching about may believe gardens and how hot it was in there. I mean fucking you guys you had fog Obviously, it probably wasn't too cool in there. Yeah, the little warm of the garden in those days. Yeah, and me Yeah, yeah, yeah, the skater and there's no air conditioning. That's why it blew. I mean whatever air conditioner they had going Blue all pretty good thing. I think and that was I think the nail in the coffin for getting rid of the old Bull Boxing Garden. They had they had the upgrade It wasn't Fenway unfortunately. They couldn't do anything about it We do want to get into you know after you were done playing and Actually, I guess I should ask Harry buys you out of that option. Yeah, and you're so close to a thousand Was there any other team you could assign with or was it was it you kind of being like I'm it's over here It's kind of believe where I played Switzerland, right people know this. I got a I had a verbal deal with Harry that If I could stay and and skate as a pseudo assistant coach, of course, I wouldn't be paid and just stay on the ice with the team and traveled with them Beginning of the year. Maybe I'll go to Europe and I'll Stay in shape because their season starts earlier ends earlier and I'll come back and play down the stretch Don't try to get my 12 points. That was the thinking So I remember I was we were in it was November and I'm in Buffalo line and band the phone rings and an agent friend of my mark for Own says hey, I got good news and bad news I said all right. Give me the good news as I found you a job in Switzerland Well, what's the bad news? He says to the last place team of the bee league and they want you there Thursday One white and bed and Buffalo Are you gonna go I'm going to eat like yeah, I'm going Oh, I'm gonna call my wife So we got the boss. I knew I wasn't going to be like very Very long, but you know, I was going. I mean, I was adamant. I wanted a shot at it I got over the hockey was so bad. You can imagine The other seven goals a game a game and I said I can't scour eight. I'm 34 years old. I'm sorry And the coach couldn't speak English and you know all the kids on the team were young the other import was From owned by Edmonton The goal our goalie the highest he ever played with senior hockey. It's wrong. Oh You know, I'm playing in this league in Switzerland. You know, it opened ended rings with wave in the flags Like college again, like what am I going to come that you're fast, eh? I got two 10-minute misconducts. It'll like six weeks. Sir the referee was so horrible And I came home. I flew home for Christmas. See my boy I flew home three days. Are you been the lottery? Uh, you said you were going for crocs Thought you were going to get a haircut. Yeah. Yeah. I'll be right back I flew home three days after the locker be crashed So I'm nervous as hell when the plane went down to Scotland And I'm flying Swiss air and I'm thinking, no, I should be all right. Nobody wants to kill the Swiss, right So I flew over Chris. I said I got to go back. I said I told him I would and contract but we're going to be out of the playoffs I went back my last game was in Geneva. I got two goals in the third period for six six tie It was statistically out of the playoffs So I said goodbye to one guy about a plane taking a flu home January 6th and never went back Never went back and I got home and it was just You know, I'm done. I'm not I'm not gonna Mike Milbury called me said Harry wants to know a week later Do you want to go to Maine get your legs? I'm like well no more training cab I got to move on with my life sooner later and it's time to do it And that was it. Now Harry was known as like a cheap owner right back in the day was there like a certain Was there like a bonus you would have got at a thousandth game or a thousand weeks? I would That I would got it for the point. Yes, I'm too. Why didn't he sign you? I don't think that was the reason They would have charged him for the silver stick. Yeah That last year I wasn't playing regular for the first time in a decade. I wasn't on the power play I didn't even dress for the beginning of the playoffs But they were having trouble against Buffalo and they knew I was a Buffalo killer. So they stretched me And we ended up being about in six and but it was it there was an awesome year because we had Craig Janney He came to the team and Bob Joyce and gave us another whole scoring line, Cam played right wing on that line. We had the Willie Platt at the end of his career, Jane Miller, Lyndon Byer, we had a tough team and we went all the way to the finals. I mean, we rolled through, we didn't roll through it. We beat Montreal for the first time in 45 years. I was at that game. Yeah. No shit. Game five with Montreal. Oh, no. No, that I was there when you beat them, then the Bruins beat him a couple of years later in Boston. Maybe it was the first time they'd knocked him out there and I pulled a short, a short hand to go. I went down and the guy shot it and hit my, this pad and kicked my knee back and tore some of my, my, uh, cartilage in game four and I couldn't dress for game five. I was so pissed. I wanted to be in that game, but I couldn't drop my, my knee had blown up and I, I wasn't at full speed. So I was in the, in the stands in a suit, sweat and we were up three, one with three minutes to go. I was still nervous because I, so I, I seen it happen before when that one cam scored make it four, one was all over and, and rest of the history. 50. This has been fucking awesome. Amazing. Yeah. And this is great. And we might just add to the, the, the, the pot, if you don't mind, maybe get you on every week. Ah, I got to do quick out here. So I'm lucky. Look at those sex old time. Yeah. Oh, that's the best, the best talk. But this is rowback. Last question. Use code, check notes at rowback.com for generous 20% off your first purchase through the end of the week that CHIC, L E T S on R H O B A C K dot com 20% off all polos hoodies, joggers and more. So a lot of people don't know that you won the Canada Cup. But you also got a gold medal and you were the head coach of the sled hockey team in the 2002 Paralympics in software USA for the US and what's crazy is I was reading about it after you mentioned this before we started recording that they'd only played one game prior to this and you'd never coached it and kind of take us through how that all came about. I call it the bizarre world of sled hockey back in those days, USA hockey wasn't even involved with it. I threw some money at it, but it was it was being run by wheelchair sports, but I got a call in like January, February of '01 from a friend of mine, Paul Edwards, who was on the US disabled ski team. Unbeknownst to me was also a sled hockey player and he goes, "Hey, I heard that the US national teams looking for a coach and I didn't know it at the time. But in the world championships in 2000, the coach quit because it was in shambles. They didn't win a game and on and on and on. He said, "They're looking for a coach because the Paralympics are in Salt Lake City and next year would you be interested?" And then in the same breath, he goes, "You do know what sled hockey is, right?" And I panicked. I thought, "I didn't have a clue." But if I said, "No," he'd say, "Well, never mind." So I said, "Oh, yeah, yeah, I know what sled hockey is. Never didn't have a freaking. " I just heard hockey Paralympics, I mean, right? So I was intrigued. I talked to the manager the next day and he said the same thing. They never won a game. They went to Nagano in '98, their first time and they didn't win a game of the same world championships, the coach quit, they were in a mess. And now they're the host team. The only reason they were invited was because they were the host team. They would never have been invited if it was anywhere else. And we were the sixth seed out of six teams. We're behind an exit one time. Turned out to be Estonia. So long story short, I get the job and training camp is in August of '01 in Buffalo and 30 guys. They had to leave it open because it's a disabled sport in those days. Anybody that played sled hockey could come and try open an actual thing. They didn't want to get sued, right? So out of 30 guys that we had to pick 15, those days, they only played six forwards, four defense and two goalies. Dress. And you had three guys in the stand. So we picked the team, but there was another coach out of Chicago that had this team in Chicago. They wore the black arcs jersey and they got money from the black arcs and they were in the best funded and they're the best team in the country. And as it turned out, about half the guys we picked from a national team were from Chicago. But there was other good players who were around the country also. And we were supposed to play in a tournament in Canada against Japan, us in Canada September 12th and 9/11 happened. So we never played another team. We never went to the tournament. We didn't have any games in six months before we went into Salt Lake City. All we did was one week in the month for four days, we'd go to a city where some of the guys live. We go Boston, Chicago, Dallas, Minnesota for like six or seven months. And the next thing you know, we're going into Salt Lake City. And we have no clue whether we're good, we're shitty. We're going to get our ass kicked in front of our own fans. I didn't know how good the other teams were. Canada was number one seed, Norway was two because Canada beat them in the world. But I knew we had some talent, you know, and I had to teach the guys the system in six months, six weekends because they'd never been taught a freaking system. So I taught them the old Don Jerry system. So that because a lot of the guys couldn't skate carry the puck all that well, some could. But you know, once you make the red line, they said, dump it in the other corner. That way the other one, you're done to have to slow down and go in and just bang the defense, but because like women's hockey, most of the goals come from, you know, 10 feet around the net. And they get the puck down low, and we're going to score. So we worked on that system for six months. Long story short, we go in first games against Japan, the fourth seed, there's nothing, nothing going into the third period. And if we don't, if we don't win this one, as well, just go home, we're not going to metal. Turns out we won three nothing, but our next game was Saturday night in front of 6,000 fans at the e-center Salt Lake against Canada, number one seed. And boy, guys were, they never played in front of 6,000 people before. Yeah. And we spanked them five, one Canada didn't win another game and didn't win a medal. So now we're two and all. Third game is against Norway. And if we beat Norway, we're in the gold medal game, and we ended up beating them two one in our hardest game, and then we beat the sweet and six, nothing in Estonia, 6,1. We all scored the opposition 22 to 3. Now, I don't know if you know much about sled hockey, but it's not a recreational sport. It's dirty as hell. It's full check. You know, they come off bleeding because they have razor blades on the end of the stick to the Japanese. This is at the Olympic level, the dirty as hell. Right. Oh, yeah, respect or honesty, they have a penalty called T-boning, you know, a lot of the runners sled into a guy, but what they would do is right before they hit them, they kicked the end up like this. Oh, Jesus. Knock the window to catch you in the side and hit the kidneys. Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. You must have been teaching them. It's in the documentary. You should see the hit with a little over a minute left. Well, the gold medal game was against Norway, because Canada never won another game. And that make a long story short, we were up 3-1 early in the second period, and we got tired. This is in 8,317 people. Maybe the largest crowd that ever see a sled hockey game that is fake, because they play in smaller venues now. And they tie it and they made a 3-2 in the second. They tied a 3-3 in the third or goalie saved this mani-gara goes into a 10 minute overtime with a little minute over a minute left. My captain, Joe Howard, from Brockham, Massachusetts, flying down the left wing, he's got one got to beat. The biggest player in sled hockey, his name is Robelstad, defenseman for Norway, Joe cuts in. Robelstad hits him so hard, you have 3 feet in the air, because he was a double amp, and he lands on his face. And Robelstad got a penalty for T-boning, and we couldn't just go in the power place and now goes to a freaking shootout. I had never been in a shootout. I had to fill the players out beforehand who would be doing it, and we lost the flip, so we had to go first. And I had to defense from the war number four, so Vester Flitz called him Sly. He scored 11 goals in five games with three hat tricks for us. He was unbelievable. He was Bobby Orof there. You should see this guy. Once you see the films, you'll see it, right? I put him first, he goes in, pulls the puck, puck hopped over his sticky misses. Their captain goes in and scores or downwind nothing. My captain, Joe Howard, goes in and scores. Their second guy goes in and scores, so after every shooter, for whatever reason, the goal he's had to come over to the bench, and then the shooter goes out, and the other goal goes out, and so on, right? So now I'm thinking, I got to say something to my goalie, Manny, you know. I got to build him up, but you know, he's just let the first two shooters go win, what? So he comes over to a bench, and I looked out and I said, Manny, I didn't fuck a stop one. How to pump them up because they say, well, not be a good time. I didn't know what else to say. Oh, and he ended up stopping the next three shooters, and we won three, two in the shooter, We want to. Holy shit right down to the last shooter. They had the last shooter. He had to stop it. You're a funny guy and if the you must take so so much pride and you know what? Where USA hockey sled hockey was before you got there to where they are now like they're the you know top of the class right so like it is unbelievable Since we won the gold they want to bronze in terino and then when four golds in a row there Canada can't beat them either. They're the best team in the world. Declan Farmer is like the McDavid of sled hockey You should see so he wants to come on the showbiz. Oh, hey fucking Yeah, we should have them on before the Paralympics. Yeah, that's they they reached out to me But it was we didn't know we didn't even know what we were doing You know you know saying hockey didn't take it over until oh six and ever since they took it over They ran it like a friggin hockey team. Okay, and that's why they're winning winning winning winning So they get a good shot of getting five in a row I said if they had to kept us on his coaches. They might have like Nifty. You're like you're like tape You're like tape McCrayer right now. You're kind of going to the other side aren't yeah Nobody was calling me to go coach any national team. So what I got me off for I think you're if it was in like Zach Stan. I've been like first of all is this has been so fun for us man This is like snap around one of the boys. Um, yeah, I want to go back to dawn You talking about how much of a player's coach. You was how much you loved them You just talked about implementing his systems at the Paralympic. So just like I guess like I did you kind of follow what happened up north like you still keep a touch with them like John came Don came to the night they retired my jersey in 2018. He was in the the New England sports museum Was honoring him the night before and my my night was the next night and he said that was probably going to be the last time But he came to Boston which I think it was So we really haven't spoken in a few years, but you know, I I see him these he's always in the press you know He's always in the press and um, the big push now is for him to get the order of Canada Didn't get in hockey Hall of Fame and he should he's a Canadian gem, you know, yeah, and uh he should be and uh I hope that happens for well said about eight years ago you got your number retired and just To have your number retire by an original six franchise like what do you remember about that night? Probably got maybe a little emotional watching the highlights seeing the jersey get raised up there Well, you know, when I got emotional is when cam called me it was the middle of the summer. I had like Four months to work on my speech. I mean, and it was 30 years after my career. I mean, I had a lot of people In 30 years, you know, but when cam called me and he not I was a president of the abruins alumni at the time And you know, I thought it was alumni stuff So I wasn't even thinking he caught me off guard and a little small talk here and there. How's the golf game? You know, obviously says well, we decided we're gonna retire number 16. I went what? I didn't think I heard him right and I did choke up and my wife came home like five minutes later And she thought somebody dies and what's wrong? I said knowledge. It's good. It's good And uh, so I I took but I didn't think of that line about the too many men on the ice about a week before so bad Only the people of a certain age would remember would know what I was talking about, right? Yeah Do you think you're not going for groceries again? Are you? He's in Switzerland But even like you know, the Bruins have been around now for over a hundred years And I think you were number 11 to get your number 12 like 12. Okay, like no willy willy came Maybe I was 11 and willy was 12 and now and now charo 13 Yeah, but like that that that just the rich history and oh yeah, I'm giving it out to everyone though right because there's been so many good players and then You know, I'm not just in the Hall of Famer ending, but to be Have your number retired in the city that you still live in and played for and finish your career there You know, yeah, you know, I can't even explain to what an honor it is and to look up and see The players before me going all the way back, you know, Eddie Shore Dick Clapper I didn't really didn't know that Clapper was I had the look them out. He played he was the first player to play 20 years in the NHL And though in that era and he played forward and defense You know, I mean to be and then Bobby of course and Phil and You know all these guys this to be part of it of that group is I can die a happy man. I said yeah, I was gonna ask you like what's the you know What's the what was the best thing about being a Bruin, but I feel like you just kind of broke it all down right there Well, you know not not winning a cup. I mean Daisy Buchanan being on those teams It was like two different eras the 70s that end of all time hockey when the helmet rule came in 79 That even though we were grandfather did the game was changing and I got a chance to Meet some of the old-time players that I grew up watching and played with and and against and then the new breed Gray Bork was coming in camp nearly and and I got a chance to play with look and with that breed You know and then at a time when my game was just getting you know reaching its heights and Jerry Chievers became the coach And Jerry wasn't you know than old goalie. He wasn't he wasn't a big exes and those guys, but he played me to depth I mean I I heard I heard a saying once that somebody asked so how do you know when to take nifty off? He says when he turns blue You know and I said just Just play me man play and so that's that's why I'm was able to put those points up those years Along with having Barry come on the team. So the timing was great for that and I feel I played two different eras in Boston and And then Terry O'Reilly became the coach with three great three great coaches and all the great guys Wayne Cashman I mean Wayne should have his jersey retired two Stanley Cubs only a brew and ever captain You know Captain Cash he was the all-time best and that's when your nickname changed from nifty to smurf smurf. Yeah When your face turned blue. I didn't say my face was blue. I said when it turns blue. Yeah Did you throw a helmet on ever? I put a helmet on because I got a buck a puck in the head and practice and got a blood clot in the brain And it was on the outside of the brain, but unfortunately. I told the neurologist that I heard this song three times in a row in the dressing room But the radio wasn't on So he said I had a seizure So they put me on anti-seizure medication called dilanton And so my head injury healed six weeks later. So I'm like, oh, I can come back, right? So I work I go now ride the bike or something like that. I'm walking down the hall in the garden. They're coming off the ice They started hyperventilate and I knew what it was because my mother suffered from it So now you got to go lie down on the table and breathe into a paper bag and get a carbon dioxide backing So now I go to the dog because well, we don't know if it's a medication or your head injury We don't want you to stop the medication. So that's why I missed the rest of that year I remember it was right after the season they wrote of the playoffs and it was May and I said screw this I got I know I'm not even thinking hockey. I can't raise my heart rate Yeah, and it turned out it was a medication. It was screwing me up But I read even to this day I read on the internet that the reason I retired is in my recurring headaches Who do you call on the internet to tell them no that's raw Right now this is your call. This is your platform. Yeah Well nifty this was incredible. What a legend you are and um, I'm really really. Well, thank you Thank you for having me on. Yeah, and the uh, the documentary is ice gold Ice gold. We'll do a special episode with with the gentleman you mentioned who's basing. Oh yeah, Gecklin Yeah, Gecklin farm. Yeah, and then and also get my buddy Tyler who's gonna be competing in In the snowboarding over there. So yeah, right? Yeah. Yeah, so I kind of got introduced to some guys Through a hike this summer that are in the Paralympics and the one kid who's doing the oh shit gold Then I'm getting to the top of the mountain. He just qualified for for the Olympics as well So very cool. I'm fired up in like school the year that you're a part of as well you going over No, but I'll will be supporting them and I just did a face time with him yesterday I'll put I'll face time before they take off and I'll just be rooting from a distance But we just we want to get them on to tell their story because what these guys do is fascinating and and it's also a good message for Other people that have lost limbs where it's it's not the end like it's you know, there's there's plenty of resources Now where you can get back in and in so many different sports Yeah, and it changes lives it really does it does I'm just hoping that I'll be around in eight years because it's coming back to Salt Lake City Oh, yeah, they want the blind the blind hockey in those Yeah, I'm gonna mix at that point. So we're trying to push that as well. Good. Good. Yeah. Yeah, you're the man buddy Thank you guys really appreciate it All right guys before we go any farther we got to talk to you about our good friends at skills We launched new co-branding hockey training aids with skills the leading sports skill training brand now You can go to dick sporting goods and pure hockey locations and see spit and chiclets on the shelves release training age for players of all ages for the guys like murals who are playing in the beer leagues and then the crazy hockey dads like Colby who are trying to get their kids shoot. We have the universal shooting target hockey shooting trainer and the foam shooting targets perfect for the driveway or on the ice these products will help your offensive game in a big way. The universal shooting target builds a visual focus to improve shooting accuracy. The hockey shooting trainer features five target areas and helps build the vision and muscle memory needed to increase scoring percentages could all use a little increase in our scoring percentages and the foam shooting targets have a quick hook in loop attachments for multiple shot locations go get the brand new skills by spitting checklets hockey training aids now available online and in stores at Dick sporting goods and pure hockey locations. Thank you so much to nifty Rick Middleton awesome guy and the legend declin farmer. At some point we're going to be sitting down with him. I'd love to chat with him and I've been lining up with a shameless from USA hockey. We're going to figure that out. But God Middleton was a player, boys, looking at those numbers and just realizing how good he was. We appreciate him coming on. Funny bastard, too. Hey, he's one of those guys that like our dads, obviously he was a little before our times, but my dad's been asking me since we were since I told him that we interviewed when it's going to come up, but like they all say he's like the David Post and I like how good he was and you know, you talk to anyone that ever watched him and they just say how special the player he was and what a special guy sitting down with them. That was so much fun. Not knowing a ton about him. Like I did hear my father a lot of times, like, yeah, he reminds me of Rick Middleton. I'm like, oh my god, like he's talking about like a superstar in the league right now. Like who is Rick Middleton and feel bad saying it now because I didn't, I didn't realize how good he was. So R.A. gave me a buzz recently about this. Is it Park, an old Bruin Brad Park, Brad Park, Brad Park, that's, that's R.A.'s all time favorite hockey player and he wants to get him on the pod, but like remember R.A.'s a little bit older than us. So like obviously the guys that impacted him and who we got to watch in some of his favorite years, you know, going to Bruin's games. So I said like this summer, it'd be fun to launch almost like the R.A.'s world, but where he lines up the interview and we get whoever he wants to get. The last one he ended up digging up was, was Vakota, right? Yeah. Make Vakota that was one of our all time person too. Yeah. So it'd be cool because, you know, during the, the off season, we have a little bit more time and less hockey to talk about. So maybe R.A.'s world's coming at you, you know, twice a week and maybe it's these one-offs. Maybe if he wants to do it or if we all get in the mix too, but, but Brad Parks, the guy that he wants to get on, I think to launch it all for R.A.'s interviews. I love it. Well, you're talking about launching it all. A life was brought into this world in Edmonton and I was in the arena and that is just what a sign, what a sign for the Oilers and this playoff run coming up that a woman who was so pregnant and so ready to go, was willing to go root and cheer on the Edmontoners, that she gave birth in Rogers. And I'll tell you right now, like that sign and that woman, she was probably told by several people like, no, no, no, no, no, you know, it could be coming any time here. Nope. I'm going to watch the Oilers and I'm hoping to get a glimpse of it. You know, she got it. All right. Stop. If that baby's middle name boy or girl isn't soft, I'm going to be so upset. I know that would be legendary. And I just reading that like, I mean, God, she goes into labor and they're, they can't get out of the arena, boys. And I just think it's a, it's a good sign. It's a nice vibe, bringing life into this world just as the playoff's are right around the corner and make Jesus is there to bless her and it's just, it's something that that I think I don't know if we'll ever see that again, a baby being born in an NHL arena and that's Edmonton for you. That's how much these people love their hockey team. And while most Oilers fans are just trying to stock down Leon Drys' title and will he be ready in game one, there was one who was just her Lamas class had taught her to breathe and as you said, his scream shoot as you give birth in the arena. So an amazing storyline there now, unfortunately, what did you see what they give away for player of the game, right? The plunger. And then they got the other thing. I think that like the work vest or something, they have two of them like offensive player. They swapped the hardest worker out with the umbilical cord. That's their new one. I thought the hardest one got to cut it. Good. Well, that's, I think that one of the one that, yeah, one of the arena staff brought it down. And they just, that's their new like MVP or the game piece. You don't think that can lead a team to a cup run? Well, they also had placenta milkshakes after the game too to restore energy and that's probably going to give them like the, you know, almost valuable placenta. Yeah. Who needs to go to Dubai when, when you get the placenta in you. But Vegas, man, they, they worked the oilers five, one, um, three and all under torts. I, I thought it was, it was pretty cool. This was out there, any, any spokeable Carter heart, you know, Carter heart just takes a beating in every arena he goes into. He's, he's taken off the IR last week. I think Thursday, maybe torts can get him going. I'm sure his quotes help the kids confidence, right? Like, I believe in this guy. I think he's a good human being and the fact is that like, you know, all the noise out there, like we're doing our best and to just ignore it, right? So that's a storyline we could keep, you know, keep watching kid torts get him going. I wouldn't be shocked if all of a sudden the kid's playing incredible hockey. Torts is a goalie's dream because he's just screaming at guys to block shots. Block at block everything. Yeah, he talked to one long quest like those guys, like, remember them selling out blocking shots every guy wearing the shop blockers, the padding on their, like, he makes guys block shots and show up and bail their goalie out and not put so much pressure on their goal tending. So like, he's a goal tenders dream to have him as your head coach. Yeah. No doubt. And buzz on this pod. Yeah, you're flying. This might be fly. You look at me like that. You can't take a compliment. You're flying. No, I can't. Um, big, big games tonight. Big games tonight. LA Nash. LA Nash. A bad rash. By the way, the, the threads we should have showed, showed it out when we were talking about the sharks. They went down three nothing to the Fred sat at night, made it three three. I'm like, Oh my god. But they end up losing six three. The Preds have beat the shark 15 straight games. That's kind of wild stat, but they got, we got Preds Kings tonight. That is going to be just a complete playoff game. Looking forward to that one. And sharks are at home against Chicago, like, that's a game like you want to get in. Like, you can't be losing to the black hawks. And it's also exciting, uh, being in that role and Edmonton for a lot of years. Like, you're, you're trying to ruin a season, right? So it's like, that's like, that gets black hawk guys going. I think Sasha Boyvare scored his first career goal, the former BU terrier. Uh, it was a game winner the other night. Um, and then Sabre's lightning there tonight. They're fighting for the top spot in the Atlantic. So a good, a good slate, um, you know, you'll already know the scores. I mean, you guys obviously want celebrating the end, right? Because there's only one spot left in the West because these guys locked their ticket. But you, Tom, and there that's going to be a crazy atmosphere in the playoffs. I would like, I'm, they're going to probably play Edmonton, right? Well, whoever wins that division, and right now that it's, it's just a lock at the top. So I think Edmonton and Vegas beat them. I think they could beat Anaheim. I don't think I would rather way rather play Anaheim right now than play you job. Oh, I don't know, man. Coach, coach, coach Q's experience in the playoffs. Like, yeah, they're a young team and they've kind of gone through some walls right now, but he'll have them ready for playoffs. Really? You right. Okay, Dostyle gets going, man. I don't agree. I don't agree. Okay, I don't agree, but you know, the way Anaheim's playing right now, like you never want to see that before the playoffs. Like you want to just take it a little bit of burnout, a lot of young guys. Yeah, okay. The wild clinched again. It was actually their second fewest games to get to 100 points in 21, 22. It took them 75 games this year, 77 and Brent Burns. We got to show him out. He's got his thousands consecutive game. He's 64 away or maybe 63 now from Phil Kessel's record and Eric Johnson was interviewing him. And he kind of said, like, what? How has this happened? And he's like, it's so much luck. He said four or five times a game, like something happens. It's like dangerous. You're just like, oh, and I don't even really like talking about it, which I totally get. I never brought it up to you, Keith in that run because it's just, as Burns. He said, like, it's, it's all luck. Like, puck off the foot, dude, it's, it just is what it is, but it's still incredible. And he was talking about the, the nice ball is a wine he had a little celebration. He had people in town after that. And I want to address a tweet. I've been taking major heat for. I said, if you're not questioning the avalanche goal, tending, going into the playoffs, you don't know puck. Now this was after, I think it was, I always messed this up. Blackwood wedge wood. I apologize. Which one was it here? Blackwood that was in net and people said that they're going to be going to wedge wood to start. And wedge wood has been noticeably better all season, numbers wise, wins wise. So yeah, they, but, but it's still been a 50, 50 tandem. I think wedge wood has played like maybe six more games right around there. So my question is, like, yeah, he's been great, but he's been doing it as having a partner, right? And if you go to him. you're the guy. Yes, it's, it's different. You, I know it's playoffs, the intensity is different, but you've been used to not really playing like every single game. So the problem was the next game wedge would shut out, shut out Dallas in Dallas. It's a people said, how stupid are you with and you're a dumb, dumb man. But I just think like men, remember the Bruins, they, it was the same exact thing. They pretty much all mark up. Yeah, there'll be confusion as to who you go to. And yeah, I think the good news for them though is their first round series is going to be a bit of a layup. So you can get them a little bit of confidence going. So that's why locking in the first spot was so important. Imagine going against many or Dallas and you're in your juggling goalies. That Dallas Colorado game got me excited for playoffs. That was like a playoff take game. That was bigger than none's country. This week Minnesota plays Dallas. And that'll be for whole mice basically in the first round. That'll be an incredible game, I think, because you know, you're just thinking, Hey, like chances are this thing's going to seven. And this game is to see who's going to have home ice in game seven. So that's one to keep an eye out on the connox. They have clinched dead last place. And with that comes the highest, the best odds to get the first overall pick. They've never had the first overall pick. They got a 25.5% chance of getting the first overall pick. They now will pick on the top three no matter what. I'm telling you right now, is this going to be another wit mush? There is no chance. They get the first overall pick. I think if I would rather have second this year, just to not, oh, I think it's McKenna in a landslide, though. I know, but I would just be like off, like, you know, something that defenseman kids pretty fucking good, isn't he? Well, they're Stenberg and then Verhoff. But Verhoff, I think, I just think with like Aquilini, like always in the news for bad reasons, like they're not. Oh, I don't think there's a check index chance to get first pick. No, I don't. I don't. And Vancouver fans. That's why I don't like you saying this because now they're going to get it. Hey, and you got who New York and Chicago right there with like some of the next best odds. Like, come on. You don't imagine, but Darden McKenna on the same team, like how much action television wise are getting. I mean, you weren't even going to take them last week if you got what do you mean? Didn't you say that you trade the, the, the, the. So with Boots across, well, I think that would just be, and it would kind of be just be a smart move, right? I think what was, what was it? It was, you would get second overall. And who and and Booyam, and Booyam. Yeah. Yeah. Hey, now Chicago is right behind the bus. And then Calgary right now, that would be the best three odds. But Calgary is the highest they've ever picked. I think it's fourth. No, so that gives Vancouver a better chance. Well, here we go. Gary's fucking Canada again. Come on, Gary. But Calgary, we gave all our first overall picks to Edmonton for fuck's sake. That's what happened. If Chicago gets surprised on you, if Chicago gets it, it'll be just meltdown mode from Vancouver, get surprises. Name the movie with. I don't know it. Big daddy, you. Hooters, hooters, hooters, hooters. Don't blame me, blame your dad. Yeah. And I pissed all over the bed. So we pretty much covered it all. Guys, I, uh, I do got to jump in real quick while we've been recording. We did have a little bit of breaking news on the show here. And I don't feel it would be right for me to break it. So let's bring our guy posh it in right now to break some, uh, some pretty big news here. Wow. Yeah. Finally, um, long overdue, the New Jersey Devils announced they have parted ways with Tom Fitzgerald. Boom. Uh, as you know, I've been pining for this for months and months and months with the fire. Fitsy chance. You know, this is, this is a sad day. Like I wouldn't say that I'm happy to sad day. I thought Fitsy had a good start to his tenure in New Jersey. And ultimately anytime your gym gets fired, it means the honest product hasn't been off the snuff. So, um, it had to happen. But, you know, I wouldn't say that I'm happy about it. But this is the first domino that needed to fall in a series of a few dominoes, I think that need to fall in order to get this team back where it needs to be and ready to properly compete. Yeah. Come October, Emily Kaplan. I saw just, uh, just posted that no interim has been named and the GM search begins now. So there's some interesting names out there. Um, one, I would say my top pick right now would be Sonny Meta. He's the assistant GM, uh, for the Panthers. Obviously knows what it takes to win rattling off a couple, a couple cups there. He's actually a former pro poker player. Uh, has a really analytical mind. You know, me, I like going under the hood. Um, I know he's highly regarded. I know the Maple Leafs have expressed interest. Uh, I wonder if that kind of lit a fire under the devil's asses to kind of get some urgency going here. Um, but, you know, it's, it's a pivotal moment for them. They need to make the right hire. I would hope that whoever comes in wants their own coach and shows Keith the door as well, because I talked about those dominoes. Keith has to go as well. This better not be a okay fit sees the guy that we're pinning this on. Let's keep keep around. No, they, I've been saying this for a long time now. They both have to go. We're halfway there. I'm a little confused why they let him run the trade deadline if they were going to fire him a few weeks later. Don't love that, but beggars can't be choosers. Uh, I think, you know, this needed to happen. So, you know, it's, it's an important first step. It'll be very interesting to see what the new guy does with Dougie, what his thoughts are on Nemitz and his long-term, you know, position with the organization. Um, and then, you know, all this noise around a guy like Brady Kitschock. Obviously, we know that Fitsy is his, um, his cousin or uncle, whatever the exact connection is. Um, I don't think, you know, that'll affect that. Let's say Brady was to kind of want out of Ottawa. I don't think he'll want to play for the devil's less, just because Fitsy's not there. So these are all summer conversations that need to happen in terms of reshaping this team and the dominoes have to fall in order to make them a contender again. So yeah, big news. People seem to say that Fitsy's a Nashville bound. That makes a lot of sense. He was their first captain. He's had ties there. Uh, so yeah, it'll be interesting to see what happens. Obviously, this is fresh news, not expecting, uh, you know, full breakdowns from you guys quite yet. But the game notes crew will be boots on the ground in Vegas. They're going and they'll be reporting there. So you'll hear plenty more on game notes this week from Vegas, frozen four. Oh, murals pray for murals. They're going to have a pink Whitney meet and greet on Friday at Tom's watch. Um, Tom's watch bar. Um, I, I love murals at meet and greets. He's an amazing person, a guy. You know, I don't love them though. Let's say a little in Vegas, in Vegas. Let's say a little prayer for all the blackjack dealers and that put your hands out. Everybody, all the people behind the scenes. All the blackjack dealers out there. We love you. We care about you. Fish. We're sorry about the verbal barrage. You're about to receive from one of our own. He doesn't mean to have patience. Um, murals is not a bad guy. He's probably just taking out his list stress on you at the tables. Um, may you gave him a lot of doubles and a lot of ups rather than downs. So you don't have to go see a, a psychiatrist after your time at the table. God bless. Happy Easter weekend. We love you, Jesus. Thank you. Yep. Thank you. So, um, what I mentioned, uh, at the beginning of the show, guys, uh, we, we've talked about a lot of just like heartbreaking things that and everyone goes through stuff in life and this one, um, this one's the toughest for me and Keith guys. Um, I've talked a lot on this show about, about Reggie. Uh, Reggie is Kenny Roach. Um, you know, one of my best friends in the world. We lived together. We, he was a freshman at BU when I was a junior just immediately, uh, became really close. We lived together for 10 years. Um, and in the process of, uh, living together, uh, I think in 2008, 2009, um, three girls moved in next door. Um, one of them, uh, Laura and just a beautiful, beautiful person inside and out and Kenny and her headed off right away. Um, started dating like pretty much, pretty much immediately and he was still playing hockey. He was over in Italy and they came back and they just were incredible together. They're, they're the, uh, the two of the best people you'll ever know. Like my buddy and Keith's buddy here, he's, he will do anything for anyone. Like I'm talking the most loyal, best friend you could imagine. Um, they got married. I remember falls and I did the best man speech. It was such a fun night. Laura looked so beautiful. She's got wonderful friends, incredible family. Um, she was in the process of, uh, helping her mum out a lot. Her mum was battling cancer and she battled hard for years. Uh, passed away. I just remember at her funeral and wake. It was just so sad because she had done so much for her. Um, she also has a special need sister, Jenna, um, who's been full full honor entire life, you know needing. needing help and needed to live a life where her parents were taken care of her. So I think Jenna losing her mom along with her brother, Mike and her. It was heartbreaking and she fought so hard. And Kenny and Laura, they ended up, they had their first daughter page. She's nine now. That's my goddaughter, just a beautiful young girl. So smart. They have Caroline seven, Luke's five, Luke and Wyatt are good buddies. They live, I don't know, half mile from me right now. And 17 months ago, Laura was diagnosed with cancer. And it was just like, what? Like, you know, like hits you like a ton of bricks. And, and our group chat at home, that we always talk about Keith and I. Like, Kenny, we're going to get through this. She's going to beat this. There's no doubt. And what's crazy is they never, um, it was, it was an unknown origin. What type of cancer it was, they didn't know. And I think that, that creates such a difficult approach to fighting it and battling it, not knowing what, what kind it is. And, you know, they went, they went to Houston. They went all over and, you know, she's on chemo and she's battling. Now mind you, throughout this entire thing, she looked incredible, incredible. And throughout the process, like, they just, they couldn't get a fucking bounce, dude. Like news after news, it was just like, you know, like so many people fighting cancer and battling this fucking horrible disease. Like, you see, like some good times and some, some good numbers and some good tests and like little hope here and there and Reggie never lost his hope. And I know he, he was, he was doing a lot for, for, for Laura and her, and her kind of mental approach to it all. Um, she was always in such control, like this, she was, she was such an incredible person. Like, she ran that family, like, cross every tea, dot every eye and then all of a sudden, like, everything's out of her control. I think that was really hard for her mentally. And, um, you know, we're doing whatever we can. I know, um, all of our friends, you're bringing over meals, you're doing whatever you can as she's been fighting this thing and fighting this thing. And they were able to, uh, go away to Disney World a couple months ago, which was great. Um, and she was, she was doing great. Man, like I said, like looked amazing. And things just took a bad turn a couple of weeks ago. Um, and the worst part was she got on a trial. She got on this trial drug and they were really excited, man. They'd been trying to get on this, this trial for a lot. She met every criteria. She's so young, so healthy and, uh, that was like big news, right? Like, all right, like this trial is hopefully going to do a lot. It's had some amazing results and a couple of weeks after the trial, like, all the numbers, they just shot up and, and there were tumors, you know, everywhere and all the sudden, the news was bleak. It was bleak. And it was, I went out to lunch with Kenny, uh, two weeks ago. And he just walked in and he just kind of, he's like, it's bad, man. And you know, you see your best buddy just hurting. And you just hurt so bad for him. You're hurting so bad for him, dude. And, um, just seeing like the kids and like, she lost her battle on, on Sunday, Easter Sunday. And, um, we got into the hospital. You know, she, she, uh, passed like shortly thereafter. She had all of her best friends in the room, Kenny's family, her poor father, man. Her poor father, he lost his wife, loses his daughter. And, uh, just sitting in there with, with all our buddies and just, just giving them a hug and it's like, there's nothing you can't, there's nothing to say, dude, there's nothing to say. You're just like, I'm so sorry. I'm so sorry. Like, just life isn't fair. Um, and I don't, I don't want to like, overshare, but just her dad, like, just saying, thank you, Kenny. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you for taking care of my daughter, man. Like, this guy is the, the best man. I've, the best kid I've ever met, dude. And he's, he's just an incredible father. He's, he was an incredible husband right up to the very end. And, um, you know, it just sucks because it's just hitting everyone really hard. And seeing what he means to so many people and what she meant to so many people and like, how many lives she impacted. She was so successful at her job. She was an incredible mother, incredible friend, beautiful wife and, um, so our guy's hurting right now. And that just in turn makes Keith and I and the rest of us just really hurt. And, and you know, now it's time for us to step up, right? Like, that's all we could do is be there for him and be there for him as, you know, the weeks go by when everyone's lives go back to normal. And then, you know, he's sitting there and he doesn't have his wife. So, uh, her, her 40th birthday was coming up in a week. So 39 years old, rest in peace, large, beautiful soul. And it sucks, sucks. And anyone out there who's lost somebody to cancer doesn't matter. All the young parents, friends, kids, it's fucking brutal man, brutal. But I wanted to, um, you know, speak on her and kind of honor her and Keith, uh, just think it have some funny things about it. We were talking when you guys were down in Charleston for the weekend and she told, she told you guys what she, what she done as a job at one point, none of us ever knew this business. We never knew this. Tell everyone that sitting there and obviously just sitting around the pool, having, having some cocktails and she offered up the information that at one point, she just happened to be blades, the mascot for the Boston Bruins. She was doing an internship for the Bruins and, and the real blades had, uh, you know, banged in sick or whatever and just the type of type of woman she was, she stepped up, but, you know, wasn't part of her internship. She said, give me the costume. I'll be blades. There's a bunch of these kids out here looking to see blades at this. I think it was like a ball hockey tournament or something. I'll be blades and, uh, from then on, call their blades. I was looking back at text and, you know, sending gifts of pictures of blades and, you know, just someone that, to offer up bad information to me, she knew I was going to run with it and tell everybody and I'm like, are you really sure you want me to know this? And she was like, absolutely, it's part of my, it's part of my journey and, you know, just, man, it just goes to show you what type of, what type of person she was. She was looking out for other people before, before herself. And, you know, I'm sure no one wanted to get into that costume of a, you know, big sweaty person that was in there before you, but she did it and, you know, true, true class of a class, a classy person. And, um, Whitwell said, obviously, everything that he said was amazing. And, you know, just going, you know, to Reggie, and I truly don't think out of anyone that we know, anyone, anyone else could handle this. Yeah. And go through this and he's just such a strong guy. And he's going to be there for those kids and, you know, like, like everybody says, it takes a village to raise a family and those, those three, those three beautiful children with everybody's help and everybody's prayers and Laura looking over them from, from heaven, you know, they're going to be, they're going to be just fine. And, you know, it'll be our mission to help out as well and be there for them and just, if fucking her, it's man, it's this one, you know, unfortunately, we've all been through a lot of shit, you know, in our lifetimes, but this one, man, it hurts more than I can remember anything. It's like, yeah, this one's, uh, this one's just, it's just so unfair and life ain't fair. But I, I, I wanted to bring it up because, um, she was special, she was special. So everyone, you know, you get, well, hey, I gone just obviously thanks for sharing that boys and like to come on and hop on and talk hockey. Like, this isn't really affecting you. Like, the minute you log off, it's going to hit you like a sack of bricks again. Like, with, as Jan said, like, you're, you're so good at speaking and, and, you know, getting your feelings across. I'm so sorry for your guys' loss and you could just tell how much it's hitting you guys. Um, yeah. And, uh, it's just like, you just see your kids and you know, you have no idea. We've said that a lot about people passing. People talking about people have passed away. Like, you have fucking no idea what's coming. So puts things in perspective and, um, we'll be there for our guy. And, uh, she was beautiful. Inside and out. So everyone, I hope you have a good week. Uh, kiss your love, kiss your loved ones, kiss your wife, your husband and your kids and just be thankful for today. So thank you, everyone, for, for listening to that and, uh, for tuning into the show when we have a Friday show. so we'll be back to you Friday afternoon, alright? It's going up again!