Spittin' Chiclets Episode 669: Atlantic Division Preview

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The official bar soul sports social deduction game from the brilliant mind of Nick Tureini. In what's quickly becoming the most popular new party game around, players are secretly assigned unique roles with the good guys trying to expose the bad guys and the bad guys doing everything they can to stay hidden. Each game unfolds under alternating day and night phases, with roles like the cool chick, the shy guy, the gambler, El Presidente, the mentalist, the planer, the funny guy, and more. Every round is unpredictable, chaotic, and ridiculously fun. Who's the bad guy? Is great for parties, pre-games, family gatherings, or groups who just love deception-based games. Game night will never be the same. Shop now on walmart.com. Me and Ryan have been officially welcomed to the jungle at his bar soul sports. I brought it toward the coyotes and I asked him if it was okay if I joined a split chick with podcast full time. No, no, no. Ryan Whitney's got a pink Whitney out there now. He's a man-bagger. Get that on camera. He can handle the song man. He's a full-time member. Marley just gotten his from Chris Bate. Whoa, we're buzzing right now. So long. Welcome everyone to episode 669 of the split and checklist podcast. That's right, Biz. Pinky's up. Pink Whitney is here and if you think your pinky has what it takes to go pro, Pink Whitney is searching for its most valuable pinky MVP. That's right. We want to see your pinky submit a photo of your pinky at most valuable pinky.com for your chance to win $10,000. Who knew your pinky could win you 10k? Okay, and the best part our MVP won't just take home the cash. Their pinky will be featured on a Times Square billboard. So I'm not joking, Biz. I'm not joking for this. I'm not joking. I want to sign up, but I haven't I haven't I got to cut my nails. So I'm not even throwing up my pinky right now, but I'm just saying pinky's up. Pinky's up. But if your pinky, whether it's pretty powerful, photogenic or downright pink, we want to see it head to most valuable pinky dot com for official rules and details. Pinkies up. So a nice little, a nice little early season contest to get 10k and your pinky finger up it. Now your pinky finger could be next to Sydney, Sweeney's new naked. I imagine, imagine you think more people are looking her naked with like basketballs on her butt cheeks or your pinky, they got your 10k and in a Times Square billboard. But what an episode we have guys. What do you think she's getting paid to put her knockers out like that from I would guess everything. She does. That right guys. I would assume it's a draft Kings. It's gambling. I hope it's Gavin's. It's not draft Kings. It's it's foolish. Well, if it's another name, we're not saying it. Let's just say it's draft Kings. Yeah, sake of the story. Traffic. Um, so I would assume everything she does is a million minimum. I, yeah, maybe, maybe more. I don't know. But a 10k for a pinky and too bad. 10k for a pinky. If you take your whole body into play, that adds up. Did you hear that had an occult submitted a pinky photo? Oh, then the, the competition's over. He's winning the hair, the hair, the hair on his finger pink. So yeah, then it's over. He's going to win that like Chubaka finger. Yeah, that's an automatic win. Boys, boys, we have a very special episode, the Atlantic Division preview and it's kind of changed my mind in the middle of an interview we did with John Buchegloss, where we, you know, we had Bootsion. I want to say first off to talk about some teams, but mainly to talk about Barry Melrose got wrenching news for everyone. You know, I knew he was sick with Parkinson's and then you find out in the middle of NHL media day, he passed away. And so at the end of the episode, we, we talked to Bootsion about some teams and we, we, we really dive into what Barry meant to him in the hockey community. So tune in for that, please. Bootsion did a great job kind of describing his friend, but that was tough news to get. But this Atlantic Division preview biz as I just mentioned, you changed my mind. I was central, central, central. I think this is the best division in the league. And we'll get into it when we talk about the teams, but we have Eric Engels, coming on to talk about Marshall and Ottawa. We have Jeremy Swaman joining us to talk about the Bruins. Bootsion Gloss, we went over Tampa, Detroit and Buffalo with him. So it's going to be a jam packed episode. But I think first we got to mention a big time wedding this weekend. A big time wedding at a beautiful venue. So G hop on here, posh on here. Now in classic classic classic spit and chiclet style. This is an all-timer. It's actually. This is it all like. Do you have any idea what we're about to talk about? No, I can't wait. Do you? I don't really know, but all I do know is when I walk down the aisle, I was looking for you guys. I'll get out into the crowd. I'm like, I got to, I'm looking for your hair, because you could only really see the top of people's eyebrows and one of my forehead. Look for the afro. Look for the, and I couldn't find it anywhere. I'm like, where the fuck are these guys? So what happened? Okay. Well, this is, this is where we were. I'll show you a picture, but don't show. No, don't show that picture yet. I don't think because the way this all ended was so perfect, too. So perfect. Pasha. All right. This, this starts at five. Okay. We are four minutes from, where the hotel four minutes from where you're getting married. So it's like, all right, we're going to meet in law bit 430. All of a sudden it turns into 440, but we're fine. And Pasha lets us know. I got an Uber. I got an Uber XL. We could all hop in. So, and we ordered at time. Oh, we ordered at the exact same time is Army and Burles of Uber. We're all in the lobby together. So their car ends up showing up right away. And then I'll let you proceed. Well, the problem being that there's, there's Uber ratings. I don't know if everyone knows that you can check what you're reading. Pasha's Uber rating must be so fucking bad. And I honestly imagine he gets in the car and he's like talking to guys about like the devils. And they're just like, all right, or he's not tipping and his Uber rating shit. Because all you know, his Uber says be there in four minutes. Four minutes goes by all of a sudden it'd be there in six. And it's just going up and up. At this point, it's like 451. I order an Uber. It's there in three minutes. Okay. We pull up. It's myself, my wife, it's Pasha, it's memes, it's biz and biz business date. We pull in at 501G. We still think we're completely fine, which we actually wore. Okay. But the gate groomzilla up top here. Grinelli had this guy. He's like, no, you can't get in. It's 501. I'm like, no, dude, like just let us go in. He's like, no, they're walking down. I'm like, there's no way they're walking down yet. So he makes us wait. Now it's 509. Now we go up to him and we're saying like, let us in dude. Like he's like, oh, yeah, they're in there now. If he had let us in when we showed up, buddy, we are sitting there. 501. I was drinking a beer at a table like with my buddy. Exactly. I remember being like, oh, 501. Does the wedding start soon? And so on's like, yeah, it's supposed to start now. But it fit. Okay. So this guy kind of holds us. Now we were in terms of like hockey culture, uh, being five minutes early as Bella check would have impressed. Yeah, like we were we were late, but there was even breeze like, no, we'll be fine. Like these things never start right at five. But you had this, this fence, not see, just stopping us from getting into the goddamn wedding. But the funniest part is so we're standing out there. Memes me, biz, posh, and we're like, this is unbelievable. Like how are we the ones that are late? And what do you guys? You had to travel the parties. What do you know? And I think it's where I think it's posh, who's like the worst part about this is R.A. is probably in there on time. Who comes strong. R.A. Look at us. I've ever seen him. Oh, I looked unbelievable. He did shave the skull it. Not happy about that. He had his, uh, he had his custom tailored suit. But just the fact that we're standing there, like I cannot believe that like we're not being allowed to go in this place. We're we're, we're, you know, G's work bodies, his teammates. And what do you know? We see R.A. rumble and stumbling down the sidewalk. I'm like, you couldn't, you couldn't like write this script in a movie. That this is how this is all going to work out. Not to mention business comment in the Uber. Oh, this is fucked. So we're in the Uber and we're kind of like a little now breeze in the front. It's then all of us in the back. See she had something. She needed to cut the tag off. She was like, Ryan, yeah, I can cut the tag off this. I'm like in my head. I'm like, yeah, I fucking have scissors, what are you talking about? Do I have anything to cut the tag off? No, sorry, honey, I don't have spare scissors today on me in the wedding. The Uber driver, all of a sudden, now the Uber driver, Middle Eastern man, Middle Eastern looking man. And he says, yeah, I actually have a knife and he whips out like a switch blitz things, like legit, I was like, from the back seat, I was like, whoa, he hands it to me, great guy though, does the, holds the blade, hands the handle, you know, you teach the kids the scissors. I'm like, classy, thanks for taking care of my wife, I had enough scissors for at this wedding. And my wife says, wow, have you ever had to like, use this in here? Like, and he's like, no, no, no, luckily, no, thank God, but I fought and I racked for seven years. I'm like, wow, and Paul, this and that and the last seat. He goes, for the U.S., oh no, buddy, I turned around. I was like, posh is started. See you guys shit, posh went, my face and then business like, but you know what, in fairness, the guy goes, yeah, I was the best. He's like, I post a specified it. I do look like Middle Eastern for the U.S., bro. - Which team, which team you fight for? - There was a two-sector, and then I was like, for the U.S., and like, yeah, I just, I was holding the knife, and she's like, she looks back like, I was trying to pull back the comment. I'm like, this and the back seat. - She just hands bizz the knife. - So this is God, yeah. - So where did you guys watch the ceremony from? - No, nobody, so here's the best part. So obviously they held us back, 'cause imagine we're walking in and a lot of comes in, walking down the aisle. - Yeah, all right, walking over chairs. - So we waited 'til as soon as she went down and everybody started facing the front, then we started sneaking the back, but then like, I think like army and murals turned around, and then basically half of the people started turning around. Tip towing up from behind. And then we're like-- - And there was rocks that the stones were loud. - No, there were sea shells, and they're cracking, 'cause they were walking on the sea shells, 'cause that's what the paths were made of. And then I'll never forget so Corey, who was filming the wedding, he works for Barstool. - Absolutely. - What a guy. - Unreal guy. His girlfriend was helping who we parted you with and had a blast with the night before. And she was taking the photos for it and helping video some of it, that she was at the back. And as soon as I step on the one seat, like the sea shells, she turns around and she's like, all you guys are late. And we're like, I'm like, shut the channel up, shut up. - So we're all like crouching at the back of that. - Yeah, I was down. We were behind last roller, we were all in one knee, 'cause we would have been the only thing you saw. - No, but it was sick, 'cause when they were like, you may now kiss the bride. And then I saw all you guys standing in the back, the whole family, I stood up. - I'm like, where did they come from? This is sick. - Yeah, no, no. We were there. - You didn't have a chair? - You didn't have a chair for the whole show. - No, there was, I didn't even know if there was enough chairs that we'd been there on time. - I didn't see any empty chairs. - Yeah, I didn't see many. - No, it would have been very difficult to, like we would have had to like go like halfway into the role, bubbling up with everybody as the vows were being read. But we didn't miss anything as far as the dialogue. Like we heard the vows were incredible. - Well, we didn't miss me walking down the aisle with Ravioli who stole the joke. - Well, I saw it on Instagram, so I did see it. - There. - I did end up catching it. - So she had a dog handler for his weddings. There's this woman like taking care of the dog during the ceremony. And then Breeze like, look at the dog handler. And she's laying down on the grass. She's got her legs crossed. Ravioli, but I'm like, this is unbelievable. She made the day so easy though. Like having Ravi there and just having her like come in the corner, taking pictures. It was, she was unbelievable. - So and then Biz, Biz was just an incredible move. Like thinking on his feet, the guys always dialed in. And besides asking him Middle Eastern guy if he fought for the U.S. in Iraq, the wedding gets going. And you know, you do the dance like right away. Like before you're gonna go sit down and eat and we're doing the dance. And all of a sudden G and Alana had hired this saxophone player. This saxophone guy kind of stole the show, I guess. But he gets up and there's, was it Wang? - Was it him Wang? - Name is Kevin. - But we can go by Wang. - Okay, Kevin Wang. He's out there and he's playing, like he's playing, but I don't hear saxophone. So I'm like, I said to myself, I'm like, he must be a fake. Like it's fake because there was saxophone in the music, but he would play over that part of the song. And but nothing was coming out. You could just only hear the sax from the music. Oh, maybe he's just like for show. But Biz realized that would be the dumbest hire of all time. A guy who can't actually play. And so he looks at the DJ and he's like, dude sax, no sax with, no, no, no, no, it's no noise. And the DJ is like, no, no, no, it's good. And Biz is like, no, no, it's no way. And you gotta see a Netflix what I'm describing Biz doing. And all of a sudden the DJ realizes it and must have turned on the saxophone mic. And boom, we get-- - Yeah, the MC came over and he started playing with a few buttons and then (imitates guitar music) Yeah, it was unbelievable. - You saved that guy. - You saved it. You saved it because we loved the sax. And we could hear the sax, like right when we were coming in and stuff, so like you fucking dialed us in there, dude. - It was unbelievable, tune. Everybody was back. - He was back. - He would back every-- - What tune was it? - Oh, I wanna be with you everywhere. - Yeah, nice, great. - I don't want you when it came on. - It was a flea, we're back now. - When it came on, I was like, oh, I don't like, can you dance a first dance song? 'Cause it's a little more upbeat, but I was completely wrong. - It was perfect. - 'Cause you had times when you're spinning around. And I'm up there. - And I'm up there. - It's high too. And that was all a lot of too. 'Cause I wanted to do like, I think it's everywhere by Noah Cajan, and it's a really sad song. And that would have changed the whole vibe. We walked down, we were gonna walk into like a slower song and then go right into a Noah Cajan first dance. Everyone's, everyone would have been crying and watching. And we were like, no, fuck that. Let's come into like, don't leave an EDM song. Have the sax going right into Fleetwood Mac. So we're dancing fast, we're spinning. It's not really like a slow song. Everyone's doing the clap and waving their napkins. And then it was right into Like a Prayer by Madonna. And then it was like three or four just like great sing-along songs to keep the vibes high. - And it was in Newport, but we were in like Tuscany. I'm telling you, the amount of Italians at this way, it was just Italian, Italian. They're doing all the Italian stuff. I spent, if I danced for a total of like 45 minutes, like 10 minute increments, right? - Wow. - That's good for you. - Oh yeah, I was dancing. Then I was just doing this the whole time. - Yeah, I remember seeing you boys do it. - I remember seeing you boys doing it. - I was just so mad at it. - But a great best man's speech. And always the riskiest part of the wedding is the maid of honor speech. She had two of her friends do it. They crushed it. They crushed it. - Crushed it. - And I'm not trying to be that guy. A lot of times, every single speech was unbelievable. - Great, every single speech was unbelievable. But they were incredible. And then, Alana's dad's book. And I'm telling you, this was such an amazing speech that in the middle of it, I just hear Murls' wife starts crying. - Wow. - My wife's getting a little emotional. It kind of made me want to have a daughter. I'm not going to lie. When he said the two verse one thing on the cancer, that was like, I was like, I couldn't even breathe. I went and saw him. I said, that was such an unbelievable speech. You had every person in there feeling emotional and you could tell what your daughter means to you. So just an incredible night, gee. - Congratulations, buddy. - Thank you. - I don't want to say to you guys though. - Two nights. - Yeah, two nights. It was a great weekend. It was an unbelievable weekend, like getting down there Friday night. But one of the things, so me and Alana started going through, she had a content creator there. It was taking videos and cell phone videos and pictures. And she had a video of me and Alana walking down the stairs, but she's back. And it's you two right in front of the camera. And you guys are going fucking damn dude. - And me and Alana, when we saw that, it was emotional because you're like, wow, you see how much people actually care about you and stuff. And when you're doing your first dance, you see your buddies in the background and they're all so happy for you and they're crying. And you're like, wow, I really didn't know I could feel happiness like that. I've met Tom Brady. I've seen the Patriots win the Super Bowl. I thought that was pure happiness. But when you're on the dance floor with all your loved ones and like, you know, the most beautiful bride in the world and everything's just gone right. Like in my life, usually something goes wrong. I always am just like, yeah, something's going to go wrong. It's just inevitable. Just kind of prepare for it. Nothing went wrong this whole weekend. Like, they see a new shirt, Mrs. Vizoni all Friday night. You're like getting in her face about the guest list. Like it was just to see all these people come from. - She invited like 45 Kruger's to try to get R.A. laid. It still didn't work. 'Cause he was hoping for one of the bridesmaids. But it was like the weather was immaculate. Like the sun right behind you guys as you were reading your vows. Jans, you laughed at him just mentioning Tom Brady. He actually mentioned Tom Brady during his vows. Or was that during the speech? - I mentioned it during the vows and gas also going out out in the vows too. How about that? - Yeah, gas. - Yeah, and then sure enough, Sunday morning, torrential downpours in port. So just the fact that everything held off and it was executed perfectly and shadowed to a Lana who, who you mentioned planned about 99% of all of it. And it was one of the best weddings I've ever been to, not one bad speech, getting a meat, getting a meat like more of your extended family and your friends and stuff like that. That's why the Friday party was pretty important too to like really get comfortable with everyone. And despite it being 215 people, it felt like a lot smaller wedding. Like maybe like, oh my god, this is so many people. It felt like a small wedding inside the venue. What a, what a spot for a wedding. No, that, that put it the ocean right there. That was, yeah, what is it called? Belmayr. Wow. That's a special place. So congratulations. I know you're off to Hawaii tomorrow. That is, I've been there once point. My favorite place I've ever been. So you deserve that. And I hope you enjoy yourself and congrats, buddy. It's, it's a new beginning and very happy for you. And what you guys have been through, it was, it was just a great celebration. You both looked incredible. Yeah. Thank you. Yeah. I guess the fucking flight to New Jersey for a haircut. I can't say you're saying. And was good. I was laying on Newport. I played golf twice that weekend. Probably wasn't a smart thing. He played nine on his, on the morning of his wedding. Did you do that with? I played 18. I shot the best round in my life, too, and still doubled on nine, too, though. So the, I was feeling on top of the world. I just made it. Honestly, shut the fuck up. Go take the dog out so you can shit before the wedding. But I do love you guys. And it really meant a lot for you guys, all the guys being there and, you know, a lot of family, my family and everyone that put in all the work for it. I just, uh, like I said, I didn't know I could feel happiness like that. And, you know, I love a lot of so much. I love you guys so much. And, uh, yeah, I'm just excited for the next chapter here. Yeah. To start the year, like getting together with all the boys and being together with the guys, like an a non-work event. It was, it was awesome. It's, it's what we needed and, uh, a great way to get the ball rolling on another season. Oh, another very, very funny thing was. We're eating dinner. We're sitting there. I look over in the arm dog. He's got an air pot in. And I'm like, what are we doing? He's like, Cruz is playing final exhibition game, Swift Karin. What the make exhibition medicine act Swift current going at it. He hawk you dad. Listen to, he's got the saxophone guy in one year. And then he's got the, the play by play guy talking about Cruz, pulling it up through the neutral zone. He's got no Swift current, though, boys. He's still in Swift Karin. And in that game, he was on the ice for three on three overtime. So shout out Cruz Armstrong and, uh, shout out a great weekend. Biz for you. Um, we forgot last week, which was kind of on my fault. Host in the show peaking is peaking's reaching another level, buddy. And I know you're actually going to film one this afternoon. That'll be out in a couple months. But I have, uh, riders friend from school, his mom reached out to breed and said, business outdoor hiking show is incredible. So I think you're reaching all these different demos. And you and Donnie have a great connection, but that, that peak in Arizona, have a suit falls was excellent. It was beautiful. I got shut out to, y'all, what a beautiful hike. I, I seriously, anybody who's listening right now, um, you know, especially like you with, you got three boys, like when they get old enough, I recommend getting a tag and bringing them there for that experience and just doing it with fake the water. It, it, yeah, it's on, it, it was unbelievable. So shut out to want tons of John Kelly and gold finger were the guys who like had to log all the gear and video all of it, help edit it. So shut out to them. But, uh, getting to work with one ton and his editing skills and his creativity and intelligence. It's been a, a, a true blessing and just grateful to be able to do with this, this stuff with them. And I truly enjoy hiking and being outdoors. So the series is called peak and we've talked about it on here before. We started out with the pilot, which was in the smokey mountains, uh, in Tennessee. And then we did that whole BC journey. And then, um, and that was like a three part series where we finished off with the amputees. And then this was season technically season two. And it's called the Havasu pie. And it's a hike in Northern Arizona. Um, it's like the oldest tribe, I believe in the United States. They own, they own the land there. Um, tags are expensive. But, uh, once again, go on there. It's only, it's only a one episode, uh, season. Like the last one was three episodes because it was so long, but it's about an hour and 20 minutes and a lot of cool experiences. And I hope you guys enjoy it. So at one point, we'll have to get wanton back on. And actually, after this episode's done recording, I'm going up to New Hampshire. And we're going to be doing, um, the season three at Mount Washington, which I believe is the highest peak in all of New England. And I mean, we get, yeah, it's a bumper sticker. Uh, when we get there, because he has this car. I'm not one who grew up in the New England area has seen the bumper stickers. This car has climbed Mount Washington, but you're climbing it in your feet, not a car, right? Not a car. We're climbing it with our feet and we're staying. There's like, uh, there's two huts, so you can, you can go and stay at the huts and they have meals for you. So unlike the last one where we pitched our own tents, which I don't know if for those of you who haven't seen it, I ended up sleeping in a, in a one tenter, a one person tent with wanton dawn. He had his horn up my hoop the whole night, uh, for, for two nights, actually, uh, this time we'll be doing the hut experience. And, um, I actually was able to buy, uh, not only just the bumper sticker, but an actual Subaru as well on Facebook marketplace to do the thing. What about the painting that you bought? That thing was incredible. We went to back. Yeah, I just felt right to give it back to them. And also the, these guys were so nice. And it was my first true Indian, uh, cuisine experience. And, uh, we hope that once people watch it, it'll actually drive traffic to their business because they just started that business out there, which is a little bizarre. You're, you're, you're trying like Indian as in like, uh, uh, dot Indian, not feather Indian, which the tribe we went to was feather Indian. So it's kind of like a funny way to tie in the video. And, uh, and for those of you who watch it, we'll know exactly what, what, uh, painting that we're talking about. It only felt right to return it, right? And sign it. It was, it was a great kind of signing, sending off of the episode. Like, wait a minute, we're going to sign this and we're going to give it back to you. And funny enough, they hadn't even considered putting something there yet. They still had to spawn the wall that you, you took it from. So, um, I think when they saw you guys come back in for round two post hike post film, they were like, wow, these guys really did love the food. Yeah. You, you were mowing down on that. It was a risky vehicle for a hike. Very risky. Oh, yeah. Butter chicken and through a hike is a tough way to go. Oh, yeah. Leaky bum the whole trip. Um, but yeah. No, thanks for bringing that up, boys. Yeah. For sure. Um, it was great. So kind of some housekeeping there. And, and we're on to, we're on to hockey season. I believe camp opens. Today, as you were saying, 50, we get the rookie rookie cams going on. Those are, yeah. No, see? The rookie can't brutal those were. I'm not buddy. Pittsburgh did not have rookie camps. There was, I don't, I don't think a lot of teams did that. I never even have testing. And they had to do, they had to do like a bunch of different like, uh, what would I say? Like a bunch of guys have had to do it, who played in the NHL. I saw Cole Hudson was miked up for watching the rookie camp. And he kind of dominate the end of last year in our tone, which makes sense, right? Like, you're not just going to sneak by having to, having to do this before main camp comes. And I think it's probably nice for guys to be on the ice with team with coaches, um, before main camp starts, you're maybe feeling even a little bit better. But yeah, camp is right around the corner. It's here. The Atlantic division is here. But before we get to the teams, um, Vegas, kind of a big announcement, Mark Stone. We were in classic chicle. It's fashion. We're like, I don't know. Like, hopefully, you could stay healthy. But like, if you get the, the Twitter notification that Mark Stone's not going to be playing in a random game 28, you're like, Oh, I hope the backs. Okay. But he got a two-year extension, uh, nine million per year, which is, I mean, hell of a deal. The guy last year, I think that's what he's making now, isn't it? Uh, is that less than, is he nine to five? Uh, gee, look it up quick. Probably right around there. Yeah. Basically, but I mean, 73 points at 60 games last year. The team's completely different. He's their captain. He's their leader. So, I mean, I love the signing, but I was like, wow, they, they must feel better and he must feel better about his health and what we were mentioning to sign that right now. He makes nine five currently. So he took a pay cup is, yeah. I mean, like, he's the type of guy if he plays half the regular season games, who gives a fuck if he's ready to go for playoffs, like absolute gamer, um, you know, like, even like when you put them on best on best, like he's just a guy who is able to somehow get a round out there. Crazy. And, and, you know, disrupt things net front so good along the wall. His hockey IQs through the roof. So pretty like low risk move for Vegas. So like, if you're them, you're over the moon about this signing, especially with where the caps going. So congrats to him. I hope he's able to stay healthy. And, uh, yeah. And just a great move and not, and not the only one they made, yes. Yeah. I agree with you, especially for him, like he's in that Marshawn category where if they don't play a single game all year and just play in playoffs or play a handful of games during the regular season, as long as they're playing in the playoffs, that's what you're paying them that nine million for. But yeah, the back thing does scare me a little bit though, especially with those big guys, you know, you see how it can deteriorate guys careers and it can, you know, it's tough to get back from if you do hurt it or tweak it again. But hopefully he stays healthy and he's able to play more games than he has. And good for him, no matter what, like you got another 18 million bucks. Awesome and he's made he's made a ton of money, but just a great player cup champ awesome news for Vegas there And they also locked up Braden Bowman six-year deal three point four a year So he had eight goals and 26 points at 54 games as a rookie last year. I believe undrafted Well, they trade all their draft pick. So yeah, that makes sense that does make sense But you know like they get a guy locked up for low money who they probably think could be a 20 goal score So if that's the case what a deal that'll be so Vegas is Vegas is making moves and I think mainly what came out of the Media's kind of circus they have in Vegas with all the different networks there to interview guys is is Quinn Hughes It's it's getting while it's getting wild. No pun intended that he's basically said like I am in no rush What so ever to to sign an extension? I have the quote right here. I do not feel I Don't feel backed up against the wall. I'm very thoughtful. I want to make sure I'm taking my time on everything and make sure I'm making a Decision that is going to be good for everyone. That's kind of where my head's been at like I get it You could tell that he is he's very confident in himself. He knows how dominant he is He knows how good he is and he is a guy like I don't need to make a decision like I Don't and if I'm not super comfortable or sure of what I want to do yet I'm going to go into the season and it's not his job to worry about if it's a distraction His job is to just show up and be the the best or second best offensive in the league every year It seems and and reach that 90 hundred point area where he seems to be at all the time now and he's like dude I'm gonna I'm gonna have my game. I'll be ready to go I like my guys in Minnesota I'm just kind of not sure what I want to do yet I get it and I also get how it's frustrating for the like the fans But he does seem like a guy who's very methodical about the ways About his business and he's not going to just sign a contract just to sign it and I'm yeah Here I'm talking about Billy G He's got all the respect in the world for Billy G I'm sure they're gonna try to figure something out and get something done But at the end of the day, this is what sports is like if you're a free agent you don't have to sign if you're You know one of those big dog names like like he is in the league You do not have to sign with that team you can wait it out You can get traded at the deadline away for the summer sign somewhere else are signed there So I I respect the fact of how he's handling this you know He's earned everything that he's that he's doing right now. So good on him one of the most underpaid players in the league currently Way different than the McDavid situation because like you saw before last year's training camp how much it was coming up Every time McDavid was getting in front of a mic. They were asking about it asking about it Well, this isn't the team that he was on since he was drafted right right like this like he he doesn't like as much as Minnesota gave up for him and they believe in him and they want to reassign him for as much as he wants He has there's like zero pressure for him to sign there He doesn't owe them them anything no and boys like you know We talk about it throughout this podcast when we had Bootsagross on like I think that like I think that the Atlantic is the strongest division And I think that there are better teams like We talked about Minnesota and the midst of that like boys, you know, they got Eric's an act But like they're not that strong down the middle. They're in a juggernaut of a high-end division like they have some high-end teams in there Like they might be a middle of the pack team and like and if you were to sign there like he's probably looking at it Well, what if we get off to a bad start? Well, then he gets y'all he could tell them hey get what you can for me I want to move on to greener pastures and also like maybe he doesn't want to put himself in a situation where if he's taken 20 million just like Makar just did now all of a sudden you have Caprice often him eating up What up whatever it is no 35 to 40% of the team's cap. It's like where is gonna that could have put them moving forward or from an optimistic standpoint is Hey, man, maybe there's somehow able to to land Larkin and all of a sudden they do have Eric's an act in Larkin at sunrise And they do look more like a contender and then he's more likely to stay and even sign in the midst of the year But I think that where it is now and it's unfortunate to say this it's looking more and more like Pasha's gonna be right and he's gonna End up landing with his two brothers in New Jersey and in that situation Maybe he doesn't want to handcuff them and he signs for a team-friendly deal where he signs a Four or five year deal to align himself with his brother there Jack Hughes and he makes 15 million 16 million where he's not bending them over And they're able to go get other assets. So I think that's more likely to happen right now I just hope for Minnesota and Minnesota for wild vans that they're able to get just as much as they gave up for him in the first place Which I don't know if he's if he's handing over a sheet that's saying New Jersey Devils. It's kind of like They kind of and Pasha has said why would the devil's do that when he's just gonna sign there in the summer Yeah, so it's like unless you really want this year and think you could win this year, but yeah, it's a It's just yeah, like Keith said he's he's earned the right to do what he's doing right now and when you're that good It's like hey, we just we'll have to have you on the team now and we just hope you want to stay but what what did the chances You think he stays? I think there's a 15% chance he stays and and that would depict on how they do in the first 25 games And that's with them doing well in the phrase 25 30 rolling. I would like to think it would it would be higher I'm kind of hoping because of how fun they were to watch with him now wherever he goes I guess it would be that fun to watch the team But like that building was so electric and him just like every time he's on the ice he has to puck the whole shift So it's like the watching them play with him was so fun, but yeah, I mean, I don't 30% 40% maybe it is a point no piss. Yeah, I don't know what I'm I'm trying more towards Pizz I have thought more and more about like him not signing, you know, because like all do I want to do I want to be in Jersey now But you're probably right, but he is maybe looking like are we that good here and if they were able to get Lark and like all of a sudden that could change his mind. That was a that was a good call by you the one the one benefit that Like like from an optimistic standpoint is there are a lot of amazing unrestricted free agents coming up In this year's talent pool like for next summer, but as we know usually those guys are all locked in by a time the season ends So what can what can many many do to entice them and how much of him Having to get paid from that, you know 18 to 22 million dollar range Is he gonna be like fuck man between me and Caprice off or making 40 sheets? That's you know 35% of our teams cap But that means he'd have to go somewhere so he has to go somewhere where nobody because he's gonna get that money So he wants the next guy you're saying to what be making 11 12 Well, the thing is he's saying he would sign for like 15 in Jersey I will and then and then keep in mind jacks only make an 888 whatever 82585 So if he's all of a sudden taken 20 in New Jersey if you were to say you get jack and Clint Hughes at 28 million bucks That's a bargain. That's like you know, you get two elite players for that amount of money. Yeah, keep in mind That's a I grilled posh at the table about it and that was his reply So he's already under the hood and all over it. So shout out to poshra of course he is And before we get to Eric angles talk Montreal and Ottawa a little bit Bolhorva was named captain by the islanders today Thought it could be shaffer of this one might make a little more sense You know, he was a captain before He's done this responsibility in Canada, right like big market He knows what he's doing. He's a little older. It's going to be shaffer see at some point But with with Horvath signing there and playing as well as he did last year I get this And I think that shaffer would I would assume has an a on But Bolhorva I think is the type of guy you would want as your captain, right like very responsible and seems like a great teammate In the last thing you want Shaffer going into his sophomore season is have to bear the same now all of a sudden Feel like he has to do more from a leadership perspective. Just let him be him. Let him do what he did last year That's all you give a fuck about who cares fuck if he's got a see your name as Jersey and you see you You do see the decline especially in defenseman after year one because you know people start to figure out your tendencies You're getting you know Worse matchups or better players worse matchup for you, but yeah, I like the decision to not give him the captain Where if they did give it to him, I bet okay, it's going to be his at some point But to give him this second year to kind of figure out the league a little bit more and figure out everything that entails in the league I think it's a smart move given it to both Yep, so we'll see what happens at the islanders this year, but let's bring in Eric Engels right now After a magical season last year the Montreal Canadians What can they do this year? It's similar to Buffalo you take that huge step in like what do you have now Eric? How are you doing buddy? I'm doing great. How are you guys? We're doing great. We're doing great So I what I've taken away this summer from Montreal and we can get into the crytor news, but Did demitalov or Hudson leave the practice facility? No, I it would be like July 15th They'd have those two out there like doing like one-on-one drills So what have you seen from the guys and who was around all summer? I mean those two guys in general and I think Demitov was here a bit more than Hudson who goes home to Chicago And I even I ran into Demitov during the summer and I was like you don't want to go visit land in Chicago at some point Great city to go to in the summer. He's like no, I love Montreal It's like, okay, that's pretty clear with you going to the practice drink a couple times a day He's got Adam Nicholas here a guy from from your parts weight who Shows up every single day of the ring to put him through two workouts a day and these guys push each other to an incredible and they're a big reason why the Canadians find themselves where they are and certainly where they're headed. I mean, they're so passionate about the game. I know your buddy, Billy Ryan, will tell you all about Lane and you out of chances to see him at BU. - Yeah. - To have someone who works as hard on their game as Lane Hudson and Ivan Demadov is to know that this team is becoming a dangerous one in this league. - And I think if you look at this team and obviously just signing Criter, who I had the pleasure of playing with him in New York, I think him coming in there at the, you know, where he is at his career, I think it shows where Montreal is at, where they're gonna be, where they're trying to get. You look at their young talent, it's insane. And to bring in a veteran guy that wants to be there, I think it's such a big pickup. Obviously he has the familiarity with gourds and, you know, rammer and guys like that. But such a big pickup for you guys, I think, getting him. 'Cause he'll be slotted third or fourth line. And he'll be awesome, I think. - I think he could be slotted first or second line, actually. - Really? - Now, whether or not that's where he is in March, if the Canadians find themselves where they want him to be, is another question. But here's a guy that had 22 goals and 50 points and almost identical role playing with Troy Terry and Leo Carlson last year. You know, you could put him with Nick Suzuki and Cole Coffield and Slav Kofsky for 30 games last year drove a line with Demidov and Captain. And I know everybody looks at Montreal and they're like, they need a second line center. It's this, like, eight goals. Sorry, for a long time it was, they needed a first line center. And now they have a 100 point guy who won the Selky award. But for me, your Slav Kofsky plays like a center. So, you know, and I think it's become hockey has become even since you guys stopped playing that much more positionless. You know, the face-off smatter and then it's first guy on the fourth check and everybody's got to fall into place on the back check. Obviously, the responsibility always lies mostly with the center end. But the fact that Slav Kofsky plays that way through the middle of the ice and plays with a guy who's his dynamic is Demidov and that he's been on a line with Kofsky and Suzuki for this long. And they've been one of the best lines in hockey and he is now prepared to kind of drive his own line, opens up the possibility of taking a guy like Criter who's familiar with that role and saying, "Hey, you scored 22 and 50 with Terry and Carlson. What can you do with Suzuki and Kofsky?" The fact that the Canadians even have those options speaks to why Chris Criter chose Montreal. They've gotten to a certain place where they have so much depth where you have so many guys you could point to that could go up and down their lineup. And I think that's indicative of what a good team is now in the NHL. I heard St. Louis had called Criter from when they were together with the Rangers and that was a big part of like, I know what type of player you are and I know you're exactly what we need and their relationship being teammates probably had a lot to do with it. So it's pretty cool because you're right. He is not going there at his age if he doesn't believe like we have a chance to win. And like also like he's a bigger guy which I felt like adding size wasn't the worst thing. And he can still skate like the win, right? You look at when you're playing against Carolina, the pace of play was up there. So you got to kind of look at who you're going to end up maybe meeting down the road. But as far as Montreal, they're probably their biggest worry and signing from the Aussies and needed to be Martin St. Louis. And I believe just as we were hopping on, he ended up signing an extension. And that's a good, good place to be and from an organizational perspective. They got both goalies there and they're locked in. They got their their D core, which at this rate, nobody's really overpaid, right? You have who was the one from the honors? It starts with a D. They got dobs in it last off season. So they're back and solidified. They got their four groups solidified. And there's not much movement. So it's really a group that's familiar with one another. And now they got their coach. They believe in back. Yeah, I mean, I can't say it much better. You know, Marty St. Louis, the most compelling story in the whole rebuild, right? Comes here with only bantam level experience as a coach. Immediately makes a type of impact. And you know, and you're at the beginning of a rebuild, everybody from the general manager to the players is saying it's not going to be a linear process. You're not going to put one foot in front of the other. The Canadians have done nothing, but put one foot in front of the other each year. They've gotten better each year. And Marty is obviously a foundation of that. You know, asking Criter today, the golf tournament, like how much of the draw was Marty? And you said massive, like massive part of it. And I think it was easy for us on the outside looking in or at least being me being close to it and getting to know Marty as well as I have over the last four or five years, that you would look around the league and say, then there's got to be a lot of players that want to play for this guy. You know, there's coaches who want to coach with them. Derek Alon came over and the offseason and the opportunity to be on the same bench as Marty Sandley. He's been huge. It's crazy that he's one of the most tenured coaches in the league. I asked Kent Hughes today. I said, look, he was clearly the guy to take, he proved that he was the guy to take you through the developmental phase of the Canadians rebuild. Like what makes you confident that he's the guy to see the project through it? And make them stand in the cup later. He said, he hasn't given us any reason to doubt. And I think all the people who did doubt, you know, Marty's made a lifetime of proving the doubters wrong. So I think he's such a player as coach, but he's also matured to the point where he can, he can crack the whip and he can steer the ship that way and that all the guys accountable to the level, you need to be held accountable if you're going to be a cup contender. I can't sit here and say the Canadians are there right now, even if they made the semi-finals that they're on the level of Colorado or Florida or Carolina who just won the cup. But I believe they can get there with this guy behind their back. Yeah. And I think he, I mean, haven't played with Marty. He was like 36, maybe 37, but he was a rink rat. Like all those guys like you guys have in Montreal. They're always on the ice early on the ice lay. So I think that that kind of rubs off on his players. But for me, I want to ask you about the goal tending. The duo back there. Like you talk about Buffalo, you know, the kind in the same situation in there. One question mark is goal tending, right? Some of the other teams even Florida, the question mark is in goal tending right now. You guys, even though they're young goal tenders, there's two really good goal tenders there that you can go to any night. There might be three, you know, Kent used said today that he didn't, he didn't want to go into the season with three. But that could mean a couple of it could be Montenbois created. It could also mean that he'll be here in Fowler. I'll get more experience in the American Hockey League. You know, I think Montenbois like the best example possibly in the current league of how goal tending is voodoo. And you just have no idea what to do. I know anybody like if you go back two years ago, when he made the four nations see him for Canada and people were like, oh, yeah, he just made it because he's French Canadian. They needed a French Canadian gravity. He was top five in the league in goal save that love expected. Last year, it was a disaster. And I think there's a cautionary tale there for a guy like Dobish, who came from relative anonymity and a late round kind of draft pick. And just a bit of experience in the valley to all the sudden from trade deadline through the second round of the playoffs, he probably put up the top numbers in the league. He was phenomenal. And he had a tough start the last season as well. It's been interesting for Fowler to see all that. We know what Fowler is about. We know he's a big game player. We know that he's been a winner at every other level. We know that he has the same level of talent. We think as Dobish and that he could potentially be the guy in the near future. There's a lot of teams that need one. They have three right now. And like for people who are like little montenboats over and they'll never happen again. I would don't know that. Washing against that because it's just this league, right? Like Tristan Jari, go through the list of all guys. Yeah. Dad and never going to be good again or guys that were incredible. And all of a sudden they were brought down. So. Yeah. We hate speculating on this podcast. We don't really really do that much. Um, you mentioned it though. You said really probably the only weak spot on this roster is a true second line center. And I look over there in the same division in Detroit. And I think of a team who has goal pending like you just mentioned where you could slide over which Detroit needs. Uh, you guys have some pretty good prospects. I believe you guys have a Russian kid who's absolutely filthy. Uh, don't know his name. It would probably know and probably some other guys that they would be interested in. Could you see Dylan Larkin coming over to the to Montreal Canadians? Because if I look at him in the mix here, like that to me is a Stanley Cup contending team. I think if Dylan Larkin wanted to be a Montreal Canadian, he would be one. I don't see another team. They would give up a better package to get him. That said, it doesn't appear as though he wants to be. It seems he has his sights set on Minnesota, Vegas and Florida. And because they don't have a general manager yet in Detroit. And because those teams don't necessarily have the best packages to give room. Uh, it's going to be a pretty awkward situation come Wednesday when camps open and he's sitting there. Um, you know, yeah, I think in an ideal world, the Canadians, but have a second line center that slots in perfectly. Hey, like Adam Phantilly would be unbelievable for the Montreal Canadians. But I don't think the Columbus Blue jackets have any intentions of letting him walk out the door no matter how far apart I'm hearing they are in negotiations. I think what's more important for Kent Hughes and Jeff Gordon and what they've emphasized this is like they want the best players possible. They're age appropriate for their core. So when you're hearing a ton about Karel Marchenko, that fits, you know, like and they'll sort out the center issue in time because you're right. That kid in Russia is your off ski. He's coming and potentially has the potential to be that type of player. Michael Hage is going back to Michigan to try and go win a national championship in a hobby baker and fulfill whatever promises he made to the guys there. He got sucked into the whole college. You got to come back and finish the job and this and that and good for him like I don't think you're ever losing getting more Experience, but I think personally if he was willing to come to Montreal right now He'd be their second-line center. I think he'd be pretty prepared to do well at that job And it's certainly well-insulated and with a hell of a coach to steer him in that direction But he could be here by March so I Don't think they're viewing it as like it's all or nothing if we don't get that piece We can't depend. I think they're viewing it is like they have that piece potentially in their system already And it could be better than whatever they get on the market and if something comes along that they can do Just maybe Pittsburgh. I don't know. It's the it's the the bricks early in the season You were the call-out guy in angles has been the Canadians guy with Sid's love of the Habs growing up So This is not I said he wasn't gonna say in this year He didn't end up in that drum all year now. Thank you. I mean thanks angles like how did they how are they so good last year like what what happened I mean, I said to you guys last year if they were really bad and the Canadians were really good I really like the chances of it happening. I still think That could happen, but you know, it's it'll become something different now like or good Thanks for coming on. Yeah, that's all we needed from yeah, and I actually think that I think if Hage hadn't got injured or Hague however you say like he's probably there now, but it could like scouts I've talked to like yeah, that their season could end and he literally slides in to the lineup as the second line center He's that good so My question on D though is all right, so Hudson is he's gonna be a perennial Norris trophy contender. I love Matheson's game Caden Goole when he's healthy is awesome. He's great one-on-one defending. He skates awesome. He's big But that's been the issue is him staying healthy, right? Like is there anything you're hearing on how he feels going into this season? Well, I think he's gonna miss a couple days right off the start. I think he had a Minor procedure in the off season to correct something But I will say that the nobody in the organization seems particularly concerned about it and okay I think we look at some of these guys and say damn like it's like one thing after another and they're never Gonna be healthy like Andre Markov who was a legend here in Montreal went through a three-year Period of his career where he tore his ace he tore his ACL twice and then tore his Achilles in between And like it was like he's never gonna be the same and he came back and had like 52.64 points these and like it's I it's it's less predictable than then goalhead like I you know Kirby doc has gone through the same thing Like at a certain point does the lock change the other way and it's like there they turn a not it turn it into an Iron Man tree Maybe he could speak to that breath. I'm like good. Like I don't I don't know like Nick Suzuki's never missed the game in the NHL Like what if you know who knows what's got this year like it it's it's I hope for the guys who have been through it though Like I look at a guy like Hayden Gooli. I look at a guy like Kirby doc like It's been a lot of shit that they've had to deal with with this like you can only imagine the mental wear and tear of one thing after the other You know like Kirby of course ACL and MCL in one shot comes back plays a you know almost half a season and then tears the ACL in the same meat like And it's not oh that guy's injury prone. It's that's a freak thing that just happened like It's terrible you hope it's behind them because you're right about Gooli like when he's on He's awesome He he plays like a prick which the Canadians need more of and he has a lot of unharled the ability Offensively when he focuses on the right thing and plays defense for so there's a it's a good group back there If you imagine if you can imagine that they're they're left side and no matter what the money is for all three guys being Mathis and Hudson and Gooli They go up against pretty much like I look at Buffalo. I left the Carolina as like top left sides in the league. They're right there Yeah, um, okay, so then we're looking at like a magical season coming up hopefully right and and then you're also thinking that the fans are They're excited. They've seen what this team can do But there's also moments where they can they can get they can get frustrated pretty quickly So I imagine that them starting well and building off last year is going to be so important because if you get off to the slow start There is a risk of like then things become uneasy and the media can be crazy there Have they talked about their start being real important? They haven't said it all right, but I mean, I think it's critical for every team But specifically you look at their team, right and like 100 point player in next-to-zook the 50 goals score and cool coffee 106 points in the standings last year made it to the conference finals The expectations are internally really high, but outside of that it's like how are you gonna talk to yeah? Because you could have looked at them and said they were ahead of schedule right four years into a rebuild. They're doing that Um, that said all these guys have grown together. They've all gained that experience together The team hasn't turned over much Criter is coming in Derek Lallon is coming in there's not many other changes crazy enough like they're crowded up front They're crowded on the blue line. They're crowded in net and can't use this still trying to add to this team and they have cap space I mean, they're all of the potential is there for them to be A really dangerous team from start to finish the real question is is how dangerous is all the expectations and the standards being risen to their success like how much of a threat is it and how are they going to handle it as a younger group I think it's great that the 35-year-old guy in Criter comes in as the elder statesman and has that experience and can help Tom things down Josh Anderson was named an assistant captain today Very deserving of that honorees up for a contract at the end of the year I think he's critical their success and I would expect that they'll talk to him soon about getting an extension Like you look at the older guys around the room and it's like you better take hold of the situation Because if you get out of control real fast if expectations are met off the hop so you're right way like you have to start out of the gate strong and I don't know how you guys see the Atlantic division I mean, I think Toronto got better. They're not going to be a walk over with the way they remodeled their bottom six Yeah, auto was going to be looking to prove everybody wrong after conchucks out the door. There's no easy points Boston never goes away. Florida's coming back with a vengeance Yeah, and Buffalo look at what they just did There's the lightning are hanging on to keeping their window open and doing a damn good job of it They were a lethal team last year. So like if they don't show up out of the cave Chasing it is is impossible Yeah, you mentioned there being cap space and you see all these guys signing pretty much team friendly deals in Montreal How does how does Kent Hughes been able to do this and go it's like to keep these guys around for a pretty good number for most of them I don't know. I told them uh Two years ago. I said can if you get Hudson done for under nine nine million a year They'll put a statue of you outside the bell center and then you got demadoff done a few days before Carlson makes double um You know these guys get it. I think it was two years ago I'm with you guys and I pissed off a bunch of Ottawa senators fans by saying you know I can't tell you the Canadians will make playoffs, but I think they'll finish ahead of the sends and standings It's okay. They got the last laugh. They finished two or three points ahead of the standings But the reasoning that I said that was not because they had more talent or this or that I felt their culture was way ahead of where Ottawa's was And when you look at the progression of the Canadians under Marty Saint Louis can't use Jeff Gordon Their culture is what you point to like these guys care about each other They care about winning and they're leaving money on the table to do it and leaving their general manager money to go out and sign the big one or trade for the big one and He's he's pushing are I'm telling you right now the team that you see today or the team that's entering and getting on the ice Thursday Which I expect will be with Arbor Jack as well as the last guy remains on sign Is not going to be the team you see in March like there's going to be some changes. There's going to be some additions there's going to be some subtractions and Hopefully in the name of getting them to a better place, but like that cap situation Enables all of that. It's I think it's been a masterclass In terms of how to run a rebuild but I like can't use in the work that he's done Sets him up to be in the conversation for exactly to the year for the next I don't know how many years A head here where they're they're opening up their window and and it is true that like you see a couple like Demadov For him to take that deal because I really think and talking to players around the league like you Demadov could get 90 points this year and there wouldn't be one person surprised right guys who've played against them Talking because he's that good for him to take that because he could have been like I don't really care that Hudson took that like I'm going to be able to get more and he didn't and then you're then you're cooking with gas when you got two of them doing it Suzuki's number and then when you bring up the marchenko smoke it's it's so common and it's so everywhere now that With you saying he fits in the fact that they could sign them too is the biggest part of that So like if he ends up there because I've heard that for a long time now It's a lethal team and even signing Bull Duke who I know he started the season great maybe tinkered off a little bit but four million I think four four and a half like that's a nice deal to and that was a four-year deal right the other day Yeah, four years 4.2 is an annual average like You go back to Demadov He signed the first second he could sign. I know I get where all these guys from Carlson goatsye You know guys are still there right now Fantilly Like we're looking at bank breaking deals like and and everybody knew This was going to happen like He just said And Lane did it last year and he dragged it out and he ended up here and I demodized words where we have the opportunity to win multiple championships. And that's why I didn't even think about it. It's a lot of money, but it's enough for me. Like, his agent probably told him, like, play this year and light it up, you know, like I may, maybe I'm wrong, maybe I'm wrong. You know what? I can't speak to what Dan Milstein told him, but he obviously told him the right thing if the kid doesn't care and he just wants to win. Like, I think the best agents in this game, if you're really doing right by your client, you're not just pushing them to break the bank with as much money as possible. You're saying, like, how good is the situation going to be? How many guys have we seen signed deals in certain places at later stages of their career where they took the money, but like, it wasn't going to end up well from a role perspective or they weren't going to be happy in that place because they wouldn't have a chance to win. I mean, there's some guys that would ask for a review and I can't use always talks about his experience with Patrice Bergeron, like the fact that winning was all that mattered to the guy and that like, they would get him enough money and they could have pushed for more, but like, he wanted to be in Boston and I think just, if you are a great agent out there, of course, your job is to protect your client's best interests and get them the most for their family and for generations of wealth, it's essential. But you also have to listen to your client. You also have to appreciate what they want and what's most important to them and how they prioritize it and then protect them and say, "Whoa, we're not going to do something that's going to be bad for you here." Like, Demanoff is going to come out of that deal at 27 years old or 20 years old. I know. Or with 75 million. He's going to make enough money for 18 generations of his family to live off the interest. So I mean, it's good. The kids got his head properly on his shoulders and I think that's congruent throughout all of Montreal's room and the initial example came from a different regime at Bergervei signing Nick Suzuki to the deal he signed them to and Nick Suzuki every year has gotten better. But his stats technically have, every single year he's had more points. That's wild. If he does it this year, then it's like, holy shit, this is not normal. They don't have one bad contract, right? They only have one bad contract. I guess the bottom line is they can afford one now. You know, by bad, we mean like a really crazy expensive one. If they want to go add a player that's going to make $15 to $18 million, they'll be able to do that and cut the fat away from their team to make it out. You can't be in a better position when you're on the rise from a cap perspective and the cap is going up dramatically from year to year. And they'll spend to it, so a very exciting year. We all have them in the playoffs. I would say last one and maybe not a guy who's a world burner per se, but you guys got some toughness up front with Anderson. We didn't mention Jacki, right? Arbor Jacki. He's still not signed, right? I think he's supposed to, it says they're getting closer to signing them, so assuming that it gets done in the next day or two. Jeff Gordon said today that they, or was it Ken Hughes, one or the other, I'm confused. I have to re-listen to the audio, but that they're confident. I think it was Gordon that they're confident that when Thursday comes around, the players get on the ice. They'll get something done with him. He's had incentive to wait, biz, you know, see how things shake out here, right? Like he was scratched from 17 games last year. He played under 12 minutes and 40 games last year. You guys have played in this league. All of you at defense at some point, didn't you play defense of it? I train the count. But practice. And when he adds more of the practice off. If you're an old ball's veteran playing a nine minute game, you know how to handle that and stay kind of in the moment, like shift from shift, but I can't think of a harder role for a guy who's under 25 to sit for long periods during a game and get out there and be fully focused each shift. And like I thought he handled it quite well. It's not his fault that he was relegated to sixth, seventh defenseman in Montreal because there's five or six guys ahead of him. When you look at the guys we mentioned before, Matheson, Gouli, Hudson, Dobson, Carrier, who's been great, like just him and Strobel have been fighting just with each other to stand in there so close with each other. There's a possibility that Arbor Jacki plays forward this year with his brother. You know, it's not off the table. It's something that's certainly being discussed, I believe, and it's something I'd like to see personally. I think it's a tough job doing your own end, but you could see the benefit on the forecheck. We saw him for like four minutes as a forward this last season. But if you're Arbor Jacki and the reason why he's kind of not signed yet is kind of have to wait and see. Like, if I agree to doing that, am I going to get the runway? Am I going to get, you know, 12 minutes of game to show that I can play that role and play it well? Can you imagine games against Florida with him and his brother on the same line? And like it would be this I'm I think all of us should be hoping for that scenario to develop. Like I said before, Ken Hughes has cash space. He's got surplus of players at forward defense and net and he's still looking to add. So a lot could change between now and the start of the season and certainly now in March. So do you think he's more not signed right now because of a money thing or him trying to figure out where he fits in playing wise? I think it's that. I think it's the second one. I think he needs to feel like he's going to get a real chance and I don't blame him. Right? Yeah. He's paid his dues and here's a guy that's done everything for his teammates that's asked to them and he's become a real pro. He's such a likable character in the league, but in the room and for guys like me getting to know him, he's a great kid comes from a great family and he's a beast. And I think one of the things that makes Jack I special is, you know, he believes in himself to a degree that maybe even some people don't believe in him. And I think if you look across the history of players like that in the league, they always manage to prove that they're better than most people think. And I think he just wants that opportunity and I don't, I don't begrudge him for that. I don't think the Canadians be grudging for that. I think they'll get a deal done for him. If I were him, the best scenario for him is go sign a one year deal, go sign a one year deal. You'll come up for a very strong arbitration case, but also be one year away from UFA and have an opportunity to push your way to wherever you want to go, wherever they'll value the most, or make your way with the Canadians through that one year, improve yourself, indispensable. And it's a tough thing to do with how much depth they have going over to auto one now. I kind of think people sleeping on them a little bit. It's an interesting year because you're right. You said it a couple of minutes ago, like they have a lot of fuck you mentality. I believe in that locker room now of like, all right, this is over. It's done. It sucks. We lost our captain, but like let's show how good we are. Now I think in this division, I think Buffalo, Montreal, Tampa and Florida are the big dogs. I think Detroit's eight. And then I look at Ottawa, Toronto and Boston is kind of all pretty even. So like I haven't decided who my 15 to get in that, you know, the second wild card team will be, but Ottawa has a chance for me and I love bringing in Eclan, right? They traded the ninth overall pick, but you've seen in San Jose, he's a very skilled player. I know they want to get batter since sign I think by midnight tonight so they can give them the eight years. He won't have the chance to do that if it's tomorrow Tuesday as you listen. But what are your thoughts on this team going in? And do you think that they can really like prove everyone wrong, basically? I think it's a great place to be in. They made the playoffs the last two years and everyone's doubting them now. I mean, if I'm a player, I'm coming in just like fuck everybody like we're going to we're going to show everybody what we're made of. And I don't guys like outside of like Colorado and Carolina, like how many teams do you throw in the same cluster? Like no matter what the Canadians did on the rise, no matter what the sabers did on the rise. Like how many teams, not just in this division, but in the league, do you throw in the same cluster of like, okay, get off to a good start, get good goal tenning stay healthy. Okay, that's the recipe. That's it. There's not much separating these teams, like, you know, and how many teams that have been on the rise over the last few years are looking at what Montreal just did and saying that's us this year. That's going to be us. Not that like there's a lot for the Canadians to live up to. The senators certainly have something to prove to everybody just because Kachak is out. It might bring them closer together. I would think it will, honestly. And Florida is coming back like everybody's looking at them and like, okay, they took a year off. They're going to be a wagon. Will it work that way with a different goal tender? What if he gets hurt, like early, as his history would suggest is possible? Like, there's so much in the air. I look at Colorado as a team above everybody and last year they ran out of gas. They got hurt just in workout. And like, who else is really on that level? And how many other teams are all bunched together of, it's just going to come down to health, goal tending and a hot start? Yeah. And all Mark is probably the most important player in that locker room. And you saw it like last year, like, I just think of this team as there's the headaches are kind of gone. And I'm not saying Brady could chuckle as a headache, but the storyline was. But in the midst of last year, they also had the all Mark and I can't play it a night and that madness. And now I guess that could still be a thing. But when he's on, you've seen this guy dominate games. So like, the question for me is if they get him at the top of his game, you're right. They can beat anyone and they could go on a run. I think Stutzle is incredible. I know the Martian storyline of life. laughing at the thought of him being captain's funny. But I mean, that's a hundred point player. And that's a guy who can carry a team off and so he can carry a line. I love Pinto, like they have forward depth. I think Eclan, you know, he needs to have a good year for them, he's gonna get top line minutes with Stu. So, but I love Sanderson, I love Shabbat. I guess maybe a couple questions on the right side, but Jordan Spence is a good player. I think they're probably to me, like the team, I'm wondering like, what are we gonna get here? Like that, they're a top question mark team for me because they could be great or they could struggle. And right now I have no idea, but you want to take a piss? You want to say anything about them? No, I mean, like they're strong down the middle. I think they're under their back ends underappreciated. They play pretty physical. And then they have those two puck movers. I think with Sanderson, Shabbat's in the perfect spot as far as what he needs to do offensively, you kind of touched on it with, I think, all mark is such a big, important piece to this. And with all the headaches from last year and even with all those, they still made playoffs. I think with like us against the world mentality and that strength through the middle that they can prevail and surprise a lot of people. I think that most of us, if not all of us, only had three teams coming out of what was the Metro? So that leaves five, yeah, the Metro five spots available in the Atlantic. I'm going to have them missing playoffs, but wouldn't be shocked. They're just like even even with Detroit in the mix, there's just no easy point. So as you touched on angles, it's all about your start. And if you can just kind of keep your momentum there and stay healthy, it's really anyone's game. So really interested to see what this team can do without the noise in the locker room this year. And Jirou back in the mix, boys, great leadership. He gets the play at home. Hopefully he doesn't get his car stolen. - Positive. Yeah, no promises and canter. That's kind of what's been going on lately. - I think the biggest thing for me with this team, I think Jake Sanderson is going to really pop off and be one of those guys that you're looking at a talking about a guy who can win a Nordist trophy. I think he's going to be getting tons of power play playing in every situation. I really think he's going to make that next step to get him to be that top echelon demon, but I don't see their team making that next step. I just think everything that happened this summer, they're losing your cap then you're the guy that it seemed that brought everybody into the fight. He's gone. Who's going to fill those voids? So I think I don't have them in the playoffs, but I think you're going to see some good things coming out of Ottawa and mostly with Jake Sanderson for me. - The big question in the division for me is Toronto. I have no idea what to expect from it. - I know. - I'm like, I was completely shocked that they replaced Craig Baroube with Jim Hiller. And I think McKenna coming in can make a huge difference. I think they've remodeled their bottom six in a way like where a lot of fans on the outside looking in will be like, I don't know about these guys. And then I'm like, well, like guys like do have and stuff, they're, they're going to make this team less of a walkover. - Yeah, they're me, they have some, they have some toughness in there now. They do, like they're meaner, I would say, which is good. They could upset the entire division. Like they could be the wild card of the division where it's like, whoa, all of a sudden they're good again. Like, well, I think people are saying, you know, what are you going to get from McKenna? And I'm guessing, I think Leafs fans would be very thrilled with 50 to 60 points. I think that'd be like, wow, okay. Like this kid's here, he's an NHL player, which I think he is obviously, but it's all Matthews. It's all Matthews to me. And for a long time, this guy's, you know, he's in the conversation, his best player in the league. And it's been two years now, and this is not to say that injuries haven't had a big part of this, right? He's dealt, he's dealt with the back, he's dealt with the wrist. But if he's, if he's what we've seen in the last two years, like they're in trouble. And if he gets back to being the Austin Matthews that this league knew the first seven years of his career or eight years, whatever it was, then yeah, you're right, they could all of a sudden be like, you know, top three in the vision all season. Bob also, Keith, you probably know a little bit more. Like you think of Bob and winning the Stanley Cup, but like there were regular seasons in those Cup years where you're like, it wasn't even the starter. So I don't, I don't know what you're getting from him, but I think he's probably out to prove people wrong. Yeah, this team, I don't know how long is Domey out because he's important to this team too. And I don't think there's a chance. There's a chance he doesn't, yeah, he doesn't play all year. Well, you look at a team who like needed to make changes. I think they were the busiest team in this division as far as guys that they brought in. So they put their money where their mouth is. They bring back, they bring over Bob who he had a, he's familiar with Stolars, but they have a great, if they each play half the amount of games, I wouldn't be shocked. And then all of a sudden you just ride the hottest guy going into playoffs. Obviously, Bob, you look to him with his experience and when he gets zoned in, he's world class, one of the best going. And you guys said it, like look at these guys. You said, do you have already Colton Sizzens? Like he's an incredible guy to have up front, Bluger. Like he's a big body can play Ross with it. Like look what he did when he went over to Edmonton at the start of the year last year who can move. And he can get, I mean, he's a middle six guy where hey, maybe all of a sudden he's the type of guy who could develop chemistry with Matthews. And you talk about McKenna, like I think with, with radish in the mix and with McKenna playing on this power play, I think this is a top five power play in the league. Like these guys are going to be snapping around. And with the, it's almost like that knee injury at the end of last year was almost like a blessing in disguise for Matthews to be able to hit the reset button a little bit earlier and, and get some rest, get a great summer of training in, maybe make some adjustments as far as how he's loading and, and what's been going on with the back issues. So having that long off season to prepare and come back in with an open clear mind and, and having, you know, the confidence winning a gold medal with team USA, which can't hurt either. You know, I think that that there's something to be said there, right? Like you, you, you win a championship and, you know, it's like, check off one of the things off the bucket list. I think there's no doubt, oh, I think that there's no doubt. This is a, no problem. I think there's no doubt there's a playoff team. And I agree with you on the fact that they moved off of Barube for Hiller, but I think that that, I don't want to say there's like, um, probably a little bit of noise from up top about how they're spreading the ice time out and maybe how they're playing Matthews and maybe less D zone starts and less of that brunt. Are they going to play a one through one shit where he can. Uh, I can see their D. There's another thing to, I don't, I think that there's going to be a lot of, uh, I'm sure there was a lot of discussion from up top and how they, how they want them to play where Hiller was probably a lot more open-minded and has learned from his mistakes. So I, I, I don't, I think that this will be probably a good reset for the whole group to have a different voice in the locker room with new players to kind of head into this, uh, this kind of, this new, uh, this new chapter in leafland. So they're, they're a playoff team. I think they're going to have a lot of success and a lot of people are going to, uh, be eating their words despite me not being on the, on the wagon. Uh, I, I, I mean, I, I'm not ready to say they're definitely a playoff team. I haven't decided, I haven't decided between Boston, Ottawa, Toronto for that, for the fifth spot in this division getting in. But their D aren't great, man. Like they're and, and, and, and radish, yes, you, you bring them over and all of a sudden your power plays better. But like the left side, I like McCabe, um, I, I just don't trust the D. Now, angles, when you bring up, do they play a one three one? Like, Hilary could be looking at it. Like we have to play a style that protect our D a little bit. And, and I, I just, like, I'm surprised right now. If you look, if you look at their lineup, okay? Like up front, I actually love this team. Like, and it's, if Matthews gets to where he's going. What's the mechanic going to be? I can't even believe all the knives was traded. But it went through a second late. Like, I, I love the fact he's still there. And Eastern Cowan, man, his seconds, he's in what step does he make? Then you go to the D and it's like Morgan Riley still being there. Like, what a career he's had. But it's like, they're on him now and he has a couple of bad games. Like, that's a, I thought, I didn't think Morgan Riley would still be on this team at the start of this year. I didn't. So you're, you're looking at a D that Tanev is like when he's playing, yes, like the D completely changes. But like he, he plays a hard game. Boy, it's like, how often is he in the lineup now? That's another question mark for me. Wait, do you think radish will be as good as he was in the power play last year than this? I think because honestly with Neelander Matthews, McKenna, like with his shot, like I don't think, like he could get 25, 30 goals. Real. The coach is so good at getting that puck up to. I don't see Matthews. Matthews is more of the shooter. McKenna could end up being right there on the half wall. And I think he'd be able to. Now that's big. We're talking Kutra versus McKenna his rookie year. I just think their power, I business, right? I think their power play is going to be lethal. Hopefully they structure it for Matthews to actually be the shooter because that wasn't the case last year. I have no idea what was going on there. Right. When I brought a pillar, it's like, my question about the Leafs is, was he coaching the Kings that way because of what they had? Or like, are you going to try and bring this stifling defensive to a bunch of guys who just don't want to play it? I know. That's the issue with the Leafs. And like, part of me is like, Just let them run and go out and run, they're trained to do and the other part of me is like they're never winning a Stanley Cup doing that So I don't know if that's the answer like Mike Babcock tried to get them to play the right way and like no matter What his tactics in terms of off the ice and all the crap that he pulled He knew what it was gonna take to win there. That's why he's an Edmonton right now those guys didn't want to do it in the end and they got rid of them and You know under Barubi they definitely didn't want to do it and they got rid of him and now Hiller is there and he just ran the most defensive style of hockey you could possibly run and They're not going to want to do that for him So maybe your right is if he's if he's open to changing it from up top saying like let's let's do this a different way I look at Buffalo like when you rough at some point Talked with his players and they were like let us run Lindy like we're just gonna run and have to know if that can win for Buffalo but It's certainly produced much better results. They finally made the playoffs and they were exciting as hell guys I do have a little breaking news here on Buffalo Uh, they just signed and because you mentioned him earlier They just signed Noah Oslin to an eight-year contract with an aav of $6.6 million. Yeah, so we get into a Buffalo with We already recorded with and we talked about how good this kid looked the game I was out when he got hurt against Boston He looked phenomenal up until then and like we just mentioned with Batherson like today is the final day. It's Monday the 14th of getting the eight years So make sense and that kid at 6.6 That's kind of a Canadian style contract where you're like wow like this kid could be worth a lot more than this Not not in five years but like in two years or even this year. That's an unreal deal Unreal deal for both sides has done you know everyone was like, oh he just took over Kevin Adams He's like he's done unbelievable work and this contract in eight years now We're gonna be talking about how is one of the best contract signed this kid is one of the smartest players in the league the way he plays His hockey sense is through the roof. I know of a ton of executives around the league who didn't take him or draft him That absolutely love him and I think the guys here were really high on him too and Montreal like he He wasn't available to them in the playoffs at the injury. He would have made him he could have made the difference against the Canadians that deal is going to look really really good as it ages back to Toronto quickly I mentioned the Matthews of the past two years and the injuries Do you still feel like we're going to see the 50s to 60 goal guy or do you think the last two years is is maybe more of what he's going to be now Eric? I honestly hope we see the guy who scores 50 to 60 again because he was so incredible to watch do what he did I don't know if it's his back. I don't know if it's his wrist and honestly I don't know if everything he went through through the last two years and what the team turned into Some of the passion or love out of it like it was so rare from Montreal or any other place looking in and obviously being in Canada We get a lot of attention on the Leafs working for Roger sports that we see a lot of them Just just struck me is like I can't remember the last time I saw this guy happy and It's such a big part of playing like if I was working in that market as a reporter There's nothing more that I want to do and sit down with Austin Matthews and talk about that very subject like just how Where his passion is at for the game and how it's been Potentially sucked out a bit by the experiences of those injuries and what's happened with the team over the last couple years and how He can rediscover it to find the level that we all know he can play at because I Don't really want to hear about how he's a silky worthy defensive maven like I want to I want the offensive superstar I know he's the best I also I can't understand how on a power play with Neil Anderson is one of the best set-up men in the league and And with all these this talent kind of around them that he that it hasn't been structured to have him as the shooter over the last year Like I it was totally mine. I was going to those games in Toronto between Toronto Montreal, I'm like what what are they trying to do here? Are you saying almost at the bumper in the middle? No, or on the flag. It's not about where he is. It's about like structuring the place so that he's finishing it That's what you do when you have As lethal and elite of a shooter as on like speaking like carry price Do you see like say like this guy's shot his release? Is unlike anything I've ever really faced and Terry was big on respecting every shooter in the league I once did a piece with him where we were talking about the contrasts and styles between him and Dominic Asick And I spoke to Asick for the piece and I was like, you know Asick used to leave you five hole or used to leave you blocker and then take it away at the last second I was like can you still do that? And he was like no like you look at third and fourth-line shooters in the league and how good they are You the minute you start guessing your fuck and then like he was talking about how great Matthews isn't how difficult he is to stop and like that's the that's the player that I still believe is is in Toronto and It does he have the love for being there and and the passion to bring it to the next level if he's healthy enough Because it's I still think it's in I don't know how it could not be in there I hope it's in there. I hope for Toronto fans. It's in there because if it's not there and much bigger trouble than any of us think Like I don't want to hear about Austin Matthews the selky candidate like I want to hear about him chasing the rocket and being there with coffee old and the conversation like yeah That's why I mentioned like give him the ozone starts like don't like that they for sure The ozone. Oh, yeah, so business you're saying take the way it responsibility defensively. Yeah, I'm with you on that But he is so good defensively. I know I know but I think seeing Mariner Go to the cup finals and have to play off he had like not putting it in that he won't resign there and he's going to be gone But there is probably a part of him like wow like it looks a little bit easier somewhere else when you're talking about like just the pressure of Toronto now I do respect how these fans and a lot of their media is like enough with the fucking pressure like you're playing in The greatest hockey market in the league, which you could argue is true, but I do see A world where he's looking around like fuck man. It's just it's hard here like there's just every day as a grind with the off-site stuff Like you could say that guys are soft saying that but it's still a fact. I don't think it's with like I don't think it's the market I think it's what has happened there over the last two years. I think it's Every single thing that's happened and the injuries and piling up like you could say the same thing about Montreal And now people are choosing play there because look at what's happened in the last couple years and the positive momentum that's well If you're a real player in the league you should want to be in its places like that the media Is so overblown in turn like we're pretty easy on the Canadians and have been for years that they've been Barless relevant that they are right now and the Toronto media wants nothing more than to see the Leafs Capitalized on the talent that they have and finally break through that was certainly the case of the last few years I'm like, yeah, there's a few people a couple of columnists that might make it difficult the fans themselves Leafs fans who have taken the biggest beating in the league for decades and come back Game after game and paid those as ridiculous prices to be in those seats and watch them not fulfill their promise like can't say they're too hard on the team like I Think it's more about the circumstances of like when it goes off the rails and there's all this stuff going on at the rank Everything outside magnifies it. You know when a fire starts. It's really hard to put it out and that is understandable, but like Austin Matthews has Been unequivocal about wanting to be in Toronto and he resigned because he wanted to be there I just hope that he finds There was a certain joy in his game that I have not seen in the last two years And I don't know what the reason is and I'm not sitting here judging him for it I think he's human. Let's see if he can get it back because if he can I think it's at the source of him becoming exactly what he should do And the best part for Toronto no doubt is that biz is done So when you talk when you talk about things, you know fall on the right way for you like the biggest motion the league Yeah, he's off the he's off the wagon. So but Eric we appreciate it, buddy Went through three three Canadian teams right there with you and thank you very much for hopper on we'll talk soon Other guys, thanks for having me. 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Ferries by state, limited time offer. - Thank you very much to Eric Engels, dialed in on all the Canadian teams in the Atlantic. So we appreciate that. Before we go any further, our guy, Bucci, he came on, we chatted Buffalo, we chatted Detroit, we chatted Tampa, and most importantly, we talked about Barry Melrose and what he meant to so many people. So right now, our friend, John Bucciagrasse. All right, everyone, listen up. Listen up, we're talking rollback. You saw today, Biz was wearing the relaxed T-shirt rollback. They got it all, and you know we're hockey guys, but we can appreciate college football season two, and nobody does it better than rollback. Rollback just dropped the game day collection, and it's custom designed for every single school. Polo's, quarter zips, hoodies, all built specifically for your team's colors. Not some template with a logo slapped on. Same soft, comfortable feel. You already know, and hear us talk about, just rep in your favorite school. Georgia Bulldogs rollback, bring it to me right now. If you want to look as good, repping your team as the boys hoisting the cup look, repping theirs, head to rollback.com, r-h-o-b-a-c-k dot com, and use code Chicklets for 20% off your first purchase through the end of the week. (air whooshing) It's a pleasure now to be joined by our good friend, John Bucciagrasse, and Bucci, we want to start off, and just give our condolences to the loss of Barry. I know how much he meant to you, and I'm really looking forward to hear you talk about him, and what he meant to you in your life. So thanks for joining the show, man. - Great to be here, great time of year. In September, looking forward to hockey, and looking, always looking forward to seeing all my TV friends again, you know, Barry and Bararo and everybody. So this is always a Christmas. This is always my new years to me. In fact, I was just of the NHL players, media tour in Vegas for three days, getting a bunch of content and said, uh, economic David walked up, we did a little bit with him, pushing the ESPN plus, and I go, "Happy New Year." And he kind of paused, and he goes, "Did you say Happy New Year?" He goes, he goes, "Yeah, that's what it's like." It's like, "Happy New Year." That's all you boys. - Economic David never looked better. - He never looked more 10. - Handsome, relaxed, engaging. He was asking me college hockey questions, Whitney. - Wow. - Who's the best team? Who's gonna win? It's like, well, he's got four years of eligibility. He might go on play. He's never talked to me like that before. So this could be the only time you got a coach. - He's one of the best coaches of all time. - Yeah, finally keeping guys accountable. - Sick individual, but a great, great coach. - He looks ready. - Bucci, listen, so we're talking Atlantic, right? And we wanted to bring you in for a couple of teams before we chat about Barry and his legacy. And the first one we were chatting about earlier was the Detroit Red Wings. And I'll say that for all the years of non-playoff hockey and the disappointment and kind of building on the eyes or plan and moving up a little bit each year, it seems to not only have just fallen off a cliff, but this September feels like maybe the worst feeling of any Red Wings fans in the last 10 years. It's just crazy where they're at. Larkin is no longer the captain. He will be at camp. What are your immediate thoughts on this season and where they're at? - Yeah, I agree. It's like getting that text lit at night and you see the bubble, bubble, oh, what are they gonna say? What are they gonna say? - And it just keeps bubbling and bubbling and never stops because they fell asleep with the cursor blinking. - Oh, no. She's not coming over. - She's not coming over. - Shit. (laughing) - The Red Wings are a cursing blinker right now. That's what they are. They're the bubbles on the text chain. I mean, you know, they add what? They add Arvetson and Colossard. That's all they add, right? - I know. - And Arvetson a good year last year, 25 goals and he might do it. And they need more of that. Quite frankly, they had so many faceless, personality lists late first round picks that kept plugging in the bottom six. I'm like, who is this guy? He's just so you could put anybody out there. You wouldn't know the difference. Take the name plate off. So they got to start trying to get more of that, but I agree, unless they do some sort of franchise altering trade with Larkin. And they could trade him in 24 hours. There are so at his cap number, there are so many teams who would add him in a heartbeat. This not a difficult trade to make, 24 to 48 hours. It could happen today, it could happen this week. So, but again, who's going to trade him? Chris Illich, you know, I don't know who's going to trade him. Darren McCarty, Hey Darren, you make the trade. Go ahead, but like call the alumni. I don't know. - I would love to see what he would cook up. No pun intended. - He started at a charity event this year. Boy, what a beauty. I love that guy. - When's the last time something like this has happened where a captain's demanded a trade and he's been stripped of a sea? We were at G's wedding this past weekend and I walked up to the table and they're talking about hypotheticals for the Red Wing's captain. I didn't have my Twitter on. And I'm like, oh, and then they finally mentioned that they stripped Larkin of the sea and I'm like, holy shit, like, I can't remember a situation like this and this type of drama heading into training camp for an original six franchise. - No, it makes sense though. You can't have the sea on him because, you know, maybe you then take away some of the media responsibilities that he has. Siders gonna be the captain. Let's face it, he's the guy. They're gonna put the image, you know, the image and likeness of the Red Wing's is him. And that's why they want everybody to be like. Like when it was Lidstrom back in the day, Isaacman, that's who we want you to be like is him. And it was like the great Mike Milbury quote when there were the rumors of trading Ray Bork because why would I trade a guy? I want everybody else to be like. Like that was one of my all-time favorite hockey quotes of all time. Eventually they did because it was used at the end and they were obviously going in a different direction and he got his cop. And so yeah, in the end, it's gonna be Sider. But yeah, it's a mess. I can't see how they can rise above it. I don't think there's enough there to rise above it. So it looks like another lost year, another reset in Detroit to try to figure this out. - In a few years ago, you know, when you know, you know, Sider and Raymond are coming up and young studs showing potential, you think that this team is gonna be on the up and up. And you just haven't seen it the last few years. You bring in older guys, Kane, Van Riem, that good locker room guys, good players. And then, you know, this year, you don't really even have those veteran guys around. So I just wonder what their kind of identity is gonna be looking like in the next five to 10 years. - I think that's the problem. - They're in good shape, though, a little bit with the fact that they do have some of these young good players like Raymond Sider on some pretty good deals that Emmett Finney showed a lot of promise where, you know, he still hasn't gotten paid yet. But at least they have good players with good contracts as a baseline. But what did you make of the fact of them kind of moving on from Iserman in that position? Like, did you think it was time to finally, to make a move in that regard? - Not necessarily, he has had tough lottery luck. Let's face it, they have not, they had some tough luck where they dropped and then where they were, a guy just wasn't there, a really dynamic offensive player. You know, Raymond's really good, but he's not obviously a huge needle mover. You know, the Dubrinket trade in sign was a good deal. The guys got 40 goals. That was a smart move, getting him and identifying him. You know, Kane was a bit of a flyer. You know, obviously a good one-way player still produced somewhat offensively. But just, you know, obviously the Sharat deal in sign was a little weird. But now with the cap, not that bad, the goalie was never really identified, but it's hard to find a goalie. Look at Edmonton, they've been scrapping with McDavid and dry settle, trying to find somebody who can be a goalie. You just kind of, it's like middle relievers in baseball. You never know when they're gonna get hot. So I think just a little bit of, you know, tough luck in Detroit. And I'm sure Iism is ready to get great players, but with the cap going up, everybody's signing extensions to their young talent. It's gonna be hard to get it. We're gonna add teams. It's gonna be even harder to get it. So I don't think necessarily, like I would have had no problem giving him another year. I don't think he's like whiffing. Like I said, just a little tough luck and just not having as many guys available free agency. Now again, looking back, when Ikel became available, should every GM had emptied the tank of course, those guys don't become available. You overpay when that happens. Just like if McDavid becomes available next summer, or Matthews, I'm not gonna sign a long-term deal. Edmonton's in, so here, trade me now. I'll give you a chance to get something. That's when you got a strike hard. The premise on the draft lottery and having the tough luck is true, but they have done a great job. Like Cider was picked and the entire arena was like, what, what? And he's turned, they have a number one, what I think is gonna be a superstar defense, and if he isn't already, they are in need more than anyone of a superstar forward. And that is one thing they don't have. They don't have a true number one elite level center. You just mentioned the names, Ikel, McDavid, Matthews. And they haven't been able to get it 'cause they're never picking high enough. So when you're sitting around and you're looking at like, a good D, which by the way, a great pick in Edmonton, who's not even signed, they don't even have a GM. They have the Detroit Tigers GM taking his name out of, (laughs) out of a, he was in the mix and I'm reading that. I'm like, I think it was Jeff Greenberg. Jeff Greenberg withdrew his name from consideration. I'm like, what? I'm like, what are they, what is going on right now? And it looks family. They've done such an amazing job. Look at all those teams, but what do all those teams had? They had a superstar and they had a couple superstars. And in this 10 year drought, Larkin is a second-tier star player. He's not the names we said. And until they get one of those guys, which seems to be through the draft and through the draft only, it's gonna be the same old song and dance. It sucks, but I mean, goal-tending wise, that kid from Michigan State remind me quick his name. - Augustine. - Augustine. - Like that looks like a possible future, number one, I know he's a little smaller, but it's just a weird time and I feel for the fans. I've long. said, I got pictures of myself in Red Wing's jerseys growing up, and I wish they were good and I think the leagues better when they're good, but it just, I got them. I got them penciled in as last place in this division. Yep. I can see that. They're either second last or last. I agree. We were talking about goal tending and like obviously the patience of the draft and in the Iser plan. And they drafted that Kosa kid on 15th overall. What was it in 2021? He was incredible in Grand Rapids. He ended up getting one game in the NHL. Like you look at his Grand Rapids numbers. Like he had a two 33 goals against average with a 915 save percentage. I think they had an incredible team down in Grand Rapids. Like how does he never get a sniff where all of a sudden you've you've developed him for four or five years now and then they move on on from for a late first round or this year at the draft. So it's kind of some of these moves they are making are a little bit confusing considering goal tending was one thing I would have liked to see them develop. I agree. I thought a couple years ago was a time to bring him up. I did a game in Boston December 4th of not last year, but the year before. And that's when the Red Wings were about the fire of the coach. And I said, he's bringing them up now playing the rest of the year. See what you have. And right, because that was the draft that they had Edminson first, right? They had the two number ones. They took Edminson and Kosei like, whoa, this is the two big dudes. Edminson's beautiful skater. He's got like headman skating ability. He's ahead of the curve. Headman offensively way ahead of headman in his career. Edminson took a long time to produce points. Edminson's already looked like to me a 60 point guy. If he had the reins and he's on site. I mean, I mean, he's signed him yet. So much should be somewhat of an easier identifier to so many comps out there right now. But of course, everyone's going for the moon now. I don't blame them. So many agents signed bad deals with guys. They extended way too early. We saw this capperizing coming. I don't know why they, they, you know, they did it so early. But anyway, so yeah, Detroit's got a lot of issues right now. And I just, I don't see it. It can happen. You can get bottled magic. But I agree. Last in the Atlantic, lottery pick, reset, take all year to reset. It could work out with a number one overall pick who knows and then go from there. But yeah, the start all over again is tougher. And I'll say it once again, biased. I don't care. I don't get why Sean Horkoff has been hired to do to have that job. He's going to be a GM at some point. He's been a part of the organization. Maybe they look at it like separating from what's been there. But I'm telling you red wings fans. I think it would be an amazing move. But with that, I think none of us haven't gotten in guys. No, no, no. And I think it's the toughest division, the NHL, even more so than the central. I agree. Deepest division. Deepest, but not as high level as the central. Okay. Well, like you consider Minnesota to be one of those high level teams in the central. I think the, I think there's probably four teams in the Atlantic that'll be better than them. It might be right. Because I got three, maybe three, three, four, but I got Tampa, yeah, Tampa, Buffalo and, Florida and Florida are the three, I think right there with Minnesota. I don't know Ottawa, Boston, Toronto or quite Minnesota's level. Okay. But certainly three. I agree. Yeah. You're right. I actually thinking about it now. I didn't forget about Florida being back. But I think we hop over now to the Buffalo Sabers. And in the same way, Detroit was through these years and years of no playoffs. Buffalo was kind of with them, maybe even lower because it was such a disaster and everything flipped last year. And it was so exciting. And to get through the first round and to just have that season where the fans feel alive again, it was electric. The team is fun to watch. The city's bumping again. The arena is incredible to watch a game at or chug a beer saber out and spill it all over yourself and look like a fool. But I'm interested to see this year because my thing for me, Bucci is that yes, you, you broke through the disaster and the doldrums and the dark, dark days. But you cannot take a step back now. Like this is the time to keep going. And if you somehow all of a sudden are in January and you're sitting like, you know, on the board of a wild car spot, it's like, wait, we didn't build on this. And they made a lot of changes. Byrims out. You see a lot of guys coming in. Taco. Taco. Exactly. What are your takeaways on this team? And if you think they can keep rising from where they left off last year? Yeah, talk Byrim out. Zalweger, Crevier, and those are the only changes. 109 points. They're going to take a step back. They're not going to get more than 100 points this year. They are great. They are great on the road and home. They sold out their season ticket package this year. But I really do. I'm still bullish on Buffalo. The goal-tending position still not sure. Will they swing with Halibuk? I know Yarmou likes to swing for the fences. You never know that could happen. And that could be a bit of a possible game changer there. But I think Zalweger will be a decent comp to Byrim. Smaller sky, puck mover, slap shot from the point. He can do a lot. And he can skate. Big really good skater. Byrim was a Stanley Cup champion. He's got a cool name. He looks good. He moves good. So sometimes those guys we overrate them a bit because they're great skaters. They're handsome. They have awesome names and they're on the cup. But Zalweger's probably close enough. He's probably close enough. Crevier will see. I know a lot of people are overly bullish on him. Like he's the next, you know, Bobby Orr or something. Yeah. He had a couple cool shoot-up moves. And he's six with 12. But we'll see. You know, we'll see. But overall, you know, with power in Daliene, Byrim was certainly a luxury that they could move on and build more for the future. But there's so much good stuff there. Young Done is an absolute culture changer when they traded him. What a trade that was to get Done. And signing at that number now. Exactly. And Hellenius looks so good in the postseason. He's still can't find the comp. He reminds me of his center. What a beautiful skater. So there's a lot of depth here. But I think it's important for Lini to get off to a good start. Like I think he is actually like that's a guy with Bruce Cassidy out there and people out there. Any team it gets off to a four and six start five and seven. Like watch out because there's a guy out there with his name on the cup that is ready to jump in and tighten everything up. So getting off to a good start, I think is key for Buffalo. I was just going to ask you about Owen Power. I thought last year in playoffs, he made a big step for himself. I do think he could be a guy like, you know, a poor man's Chris Pronger. He's big. He could he can just figure out how to play mean. Do things a little bit more simple. But I do think last year in playoffs, he made a little bit of a better step. Do you see him being a number one, number two defense? And obviously, you know, you have Dali in there. So he's not going to be the number one. But you see him as a guy that can play in every situation and play you 25 minutes a night. You're right. It's a tough tough for him to have Dali in there. You know, only 29 points last year. He's got one power play goal in his career. He had no power play assists last year. I mean, this guy, we watched him in Michigan. He's an all-world talent. He's a perfect power play point guy. But it's not going to happen, especially nowadays when you're elite guys play a minute 50 on the IPP one down. It'll come off. You know, they're in such amazing shape. Other coaches want them out there because there's just such important moments to get a chance to get a power play goal. So the second unit sees less and less time. I love. I did a game last year with T. J. O. She in Minnesota and Brock Faber was like a six-year-old mate. Can I play the power play, Quinn? Quinn's out there all too. Sorry, Brock. You're not going to sniff power play time. So unfortunately, power is a bit like that. But I agree. I thought he looked great in the postseason. No goals, but he had six assists, you know, like a 40 assists pace. That's elite in the NHL when he had 40 assists in a season. But no, I agree size, skating. You start to figure it out, getting more comfortable. Again, he was really young coming in. I remember him running for the boss at a morning skate a little bit like Sprit in his dress shoes, like little things like that, right? Just aware of time and space and settling in and being excited to be in the league. Now he's, you know, he's really settling in. He's 23 years old. He turns 24 in November, you guys. Sometimes we forget how young he is. 24-year-old year, right? That's the year you become a man in hockey. Especially as a D. Yeah. And they have, sorry, quick. I know you're a hockey player. They have, Dahlene is the guy. He's the all-world superstar. Duncan Keith was that in Chicago and they had Brent Seabruck. And I'm not, I'm not saying Owen Powers Brent Seabruck, but I could see him becoming a little, a little meaner, right? He probably skates a little better. He's bigger. He doesn't have that, you know, that pizzazz yet. And Seabruck's a three-time cup champ. But in terms of you don't need him to get 50 points. You don't. And the, the problem would be if he personally is like, I want to be a number one. Well, on this team, you're not going to be. But if you turn into the player, you can be what a one, two, like punch that would be with both of those guys. It's the similar to the way Keith and Seabruck ran the, ran the black Hawks for all those. I think it was a little bit. Yeah. That's a safety good comp. Yeah. Yeah. I thought it was a little bit to his detriment and the fact that there was expectation where he had to play penalty kill, power play, even strength. It felt like the reason that he started progressing is they took that power play responsibility from him. I think they gave majority of it to Byrim what he would have got. And that's where I thought he was starting to thrive. And more of like a, I don't want to say a shutdown role, but just like worrying about playing five on five against other teams, top lines. And, and that's where things started going good. So to, to go back to kind of the regression, it's, I kind of compliment YAR, YARMO for not paying talk and then moving off of. because I feel like as maybe as it'll set them back in the long run, it's going to, it's going to end up helping them, like, be a better team because like, they don't, they won't have many bad contracts, they get that Rudolph kid at, at number four overall, which won't have an immediate impact. But do you like the fact that they end up moving on from Byron and then kind of just adjusting and doing what they did? Byron, for sure, obviously there was an overflow there. Tuck is a tough one. He's so good in all situations. When you're goalie, when the other team's goalie is pulled and he's out there on a five on six, he's so good blocking shots, getting empty net goals, big power guy, but yeah, that number was tough. But certainly with Byron made sense. We mentioned with power and even getting Zalwiger and having Daliene. Yeah, that's interesting. You mentioned the Seabrook comp real quickly with, he had more power play goals in his career than Keith. In fact, towards the end, he was the power play guy. I know he was that big right handed shot. I know. I know. But you're right. Size pretty much the same nine goals a year. That's, you know, that's that pretty much would be power. You know, their power six six. He was like six four. But yeah, they're very similar 30 40 points defend well, get some power play spot time. And so that's a pretty good comp. And like you said, we go Seabrook and Keith and power and Daliene. Yeah. And you got something there. And not to mention that like Samuelsen is a hell of a defensive defenseman. And that guy is, he skates well. He's enormous. But up front when you talk about losing tuck bays and Bucci, you mentioned Helanius and how good he looked. All right. So they have him penciled in his third line center. Noah Austin looked incredible. I was actually at the game at the game. He heard his ankle. So all of a sudden, he's going to be back. They have him as youth. And then the one guy, I don't know enough about. I'm sure Saber's fans can kind of fill us in. But this Yuri Kulak Kulak, he was hurt all last year at a blood clot issue. So he's he's got a crazy kind of resume as a youth, first round pick, late first round, few years back. But penciled in is like the one C possibility. So it's like these younger guys are coming. None of these guys are old. They're not crazy contracts. So I think like Yarmos looking like tuck. I can't pay him $10 million. When we had these other guys, we're going to need to sign who are who are going to be better in the next two to three years, then tuck his, I think that would be that would be Buffalo's goal all these. Yeah, they have they have great wings up the middle, though it is. Yeah. Kulak can he do it? Josh Norse? Can he stay healthy? I'm huge on his talent. We mentioned Hellenius look great, but young and then Ryan McLeod, who does slot better three or four. But the wingers, you know, Tage and Zach and Osseland and Dome and Quinn and Zooker and Krebs and Mallonstein. Really good things. So maybe they can, you know, the middle is big on. Now if the middle pops with Julique Norse, Alaneas and McLeod, they might finish first. Panthers are no panthers. I don't know because the the back end is deep. As you mentioned, you got Timmons and Krevy A. Dalline, Samelson, Powers, Elwiger. Pretty good. But again, the question in net, will the goalie make the say is they need to make and then, but still bullish on Buffalo. And do you guys think that they have more of a possibility to move off of some of these names? You just mentioned, or to solidify goal tending. I just feel like he's like, hellabuck, it feels like like Ryan Miller 2.0 there for me. He's got a great job. Did we know your rumors? Is that that was going to go down? Like, wasn't there some deal? I was hearing that fourth overall pick and then maybe and some other stuff was going to go back to solidify to get hellabuck. And they could, and they could still trade the fourth overall pick now, right? Root also good player like Winnipeg would take him to Anna Jackwin and somebody, right? And I don't know, Buffalo can afford to trade one of these centers for hellabuck. It's like we said, there's too many question marks. But Jackwin, who I love, like I think Jackwin's a 30, 35 goal automatic, stupid release kind of guy, but it might cost him someone like him to get a hellabuck. And I think greenelli says UPL here, but I think Elliott had mentioned UPL might have Winnipeg on his no move. So like that couldn't go down. Maybe maybe I misheard that or read it wrong, but if that's the case, then you're because Winnipeg is going to need a goalie back if they do move them. But for sure, right? It seems like Buffalo, it would be like the perfect spot for him. Yeah. But I also liked the way that UPL played last year. And there might be Buffalo fans saying right now, hey, we believe in him. And you know, maybe there's still room for him to grow. I felt like as playoffs went a little bit deeper. I think he was a little shaky against Boston, figured things out. But ultimately, I think that they he ain't a number one like hellabuck. Let's just put it that way. And you think if they do get hellabuck, they're the contender from the Atlantic, Bootsie. I think they are right now. Anyways, I mean, I still look at Florida, bringing in obviously Brady, Marx from Goudes, Hathaway, Shmeed and Ella. You know, with their healthy, I think they actually, they're actually, they're better than they were two years ago. Like, we'll see about Goldtenny. Obviously Bob in Toronto now turns 38 in a week. But I still think I'd give it to Florida with those two cops and bringing Brady and even like I said, even Hathaway and Ella and we'll see what happens in net. But it's close for sure. That's a that one too. Like whether it's Colorado Dallas, Buffalo, Florida, it's close, man. I mean, Buffalo Dallas. How good would that playoff series be? Saber fan, I'm confident against Dallas. So Dallas does something. Yeah, speaking of predictions, I would like to see Florida, Toronto round one with Bob and net. I would love to see that. But imagine a, imagine a place in the Atlantic where Florida and Buffalo are second and third and you get to see Zach Benson go against Brad Marshall for all seven game series. Like they would, they would a 1,000% fight, right? Like they're not scrapping more than once, more than once, probably. So good. So Saber's fans, very happy for them. They deserve last year. Now I think all of them are in agreement. Like we cannot have a step back. And the place is going to be rocking every night. And I can't wait to see what they do in this second year of the new Sabers that we, we finally got to see last year. And so I think a team we, we hop over to now that I can't quit. I look at this roster and I think that the cups were a while ago, but the Tampa Bay Lightning. I, uh, boys, I look at the first line. I look at the second line. I see point. I see Cerelli as centers. You lose radish in the big bomb. You bring in John Carlson, who we saw still have more than enough game to be elite. Headman's back seems to be in a way better mental place. Coops the coach. You got it. It's Vasilevsky. Like I'm still bullish on this team. And I, and you need to mention Gensel Hagel. I know. I, they are still you look, you kind of forget about them because the Buffalo's coming up and Montreal did what they did and Florida got their guys back. And it's like, well, look at Tampa's friggin roster. Now the argument would be like, was it too long ago? Do they still have it there? I believe they do Gucci. 106 points last year. Four straight first round losses. Which is crazy. But regular season wise, they keep getting better. So it's, you know, they lost the Panthers twice, the Maple Leafs, and then Montreal last year. Uh, in John Carlson, in McKayev, which I like, big range, each 20 gold score. Yeah. VL gives them a little personality. They've been trying to find that fourth line when they when they had Maroon and Belmar and they had Corey Perry there. Like that was a cool, they've been keep trying to, you know, to reinvent that. It's kind of like when they brought in Goodrow and Blake Coleman. That helped them win those two cops, right? That's what they look at VL. Maybe he's Blake Coleman. Doesn't really score. So it'd be nice if he scored more. But McKayev, Carlson and VL in radish out, obviously, turns to a good power play player. He'll really help Toronto. Toronto will have a top five power playing no doubt in my mind. Uh, Nick Paul, man, he just didn't score last year, but Nick Paul, we think Nick Paul, well, you know, that's a, that's a tough minus. That's a good ad for Toronto, but we'll see. And Bjork Strand never worked there for some reason. And, uh, and Corey Perry is obviously just about to age out. So yeah, I think there's still a 106 point team. Like, I don't know what throwover under is, but it's got to be close to that. It's probably like 104 by imagine. Um, but yeah, I don't see, you know, it's amazing. Cooper. It's been a while for straight first round losses. I'm not sure any other coach survives that. Um, so we'll see is the fifth year. If it happens again, is this the time for both of them to move on? For Cooper to, I get a team that's ready to go and hop up like the Phil Jackson move to the Lakers. What's Cooper's Phil Jackson to the Lakers move to get two or three more rings, right? So no, no, not going to happen in Tampa Bay. They had no headman last year in that first round. They don't meet them in game seven. Like they, I think what was that the first team to ever win a game seven with under 10 shots? Yeah. That's right. They should have. That was the 99.9 winnow meter game seven. It's somehow Montreal pulled out. But you mentioned VL. Remember how good he was for Anaheim on the that fourth line that dominated Edmonton? He hops in dominant James at times in the first round. Legit looked like Gensel like he was incredible. His skating is great to that fourth line's awesome. We mentioned their top six. And I just think John Carlson still so good to bring him in like, there's a reason Carolina wins the cup and then trades for his rights to try to get him. Like, this is not a guy that's like, yes, back nine. But by all means, still a very elite puck mover. Oh yeah. So I have him in the playoffs. The, the, the first round exit thing is bizarre. Those Florida teams were so good. Should a one last year, if you want to look at, like, I think Coop leaves that, watches this film. And he's like, I think we win that series most times. But you got to get over the hump. And the question is, can they now Kucherov? It's the same thing where you talk about McDavid, and you talk about McKinnon. We're guilty of it in dry style. But like, he's probably going to get 130 points again. And so like in the playoffs, though, he has, he hasn't, been the regular season kuterov. So that's something they're looking at. But in terms of like 84 games and what they have, like, I, I think they're top three in the Atlantic. And I think they have a chance. And in the first round, it's one of those things like, can they, can they just get by whoever they need to get by? Yeah. Kuterov, 33 years old now needs a contract extension. That's going to be an interesting number. But yeah, you're right with 22 playoff games. The last 22 playoff games, the four first round losses, two goals. I know. It's crazy. That's an eight goal regular season. We can't have that. Like he's out there too much. So we got to fix it. You're right. It's all about regular season elite, but then four straight losses. And let's face it. They could see Florida in the first round again. They could see Buffalo in the first round again. They could see Montreal, who they last to in the first round again. That it's tough for them now as these teams Buffalo young coming up, Montreal young coming up. Florida's still in their prime. Their guys aren't 30 yet. Like the Tampa guys are already 30, right? Now, they're about to get there in Florida where they're going to have all those guys over 30, but still enough of them are in their 20s. And so this is probably the last, I think this is the last run for Tampa Bay. If it doesn't happen this year, they, I would, I would kind of reconstruct a bit, sell off a bit, some of the high assets. And then maybe even let group go somewhere else and try to win a couple more cups that way, although he certainly has a World Cup in the Olympics in his future kind of like Sid in Pittsburgh. He's got tournaments to help wet his appetite. If his NHL club team isn't quite a Stanley Cup contender. I think biggest question for me is that the D like they're old. Like if you look at that back end, they're not spring chickens anymore. They're all the night. Love McDonough. I love Cernac headman. Like they're great guys. Been great for a long time. But in even, I mean, the only thing with Carlson's like, he's never been an elite elite skater. He just gets it done. No, it's where to be very good positionally. But does the age of their back end scare you at all? And mileage, right? Like Eric Cernac, I picture him as a 42. He's like, he's like 27, but he looks 42. The guy's been blocking hundreds of shots. Like there's different miles on the tread of their tires. That's the thing, right? That's why even that's why going to, you know, three straight Stanley Cup finals. Now, they've had four straight summers. They've had four straight long summers to prepare. But you're right. That back end of Carlson, headman, McDonough, Cernac with all his miles. And then you're counting on Dastu and Moser. You know, Moser's a really good, good player. But to have those anchors back there and at that age, you're right. It's, uh, it's going to be a long show. But sometimes teams like that come out of nowhere, uh, pull off an upset someone else upset somebody in the first round because certainly Tampa Bay could have been in the finals last year, right? Like they could have, like we said, beat Montreal, win the next round and then see Carolina and I, they like that matchup, right? They're comfortable with Carolina. They could have been there last year. Like they could have been the team. That's what so I'm sure for them and their fans, like, man, even though we've had four straight first round losses, we know that's, you know, we're not, we're getting a hundred points, a hundred six points last year. So yeah, so I'm sure they're going to scrap it together. They never stop trying. They're kind of like the Las Vegas without all the headlines in the East where they just cutthroat. They go for it, right? They'll, they'll move on from stem coast. They'll try to get canceled. They'll try to get everybody they can get. And I'm sure there's a defenseman out there if they can, if they can figure out, you know, and they're in on Byron, right? Byron, what is a chance they could have gone there, but that number got too high. And so you're right, though. Yeah. And I bet they're trying to identify a young defenseman who they can somehow off a team that has a, a glut of them to try to get. They did get that, that, that, that stew was phenomenal for them. I think was he, he was in Europe, I believe it was. Yeah, so that's a nice bond. Yeah, but I'm with your boots. Yeah, actually, the more I think about it, this kind of is like, seems like could beat the last goal around. And also, even at Kutraov's age, him playing for a contract is scary. And you know, the Russians, you know, those Russians. Oh, contract year contract year. Okay. Watch me get a hundred and fucking 12 assists. So yeah, I got him in the playoffs. You guys all got him in. Yeah, I got a man. Yeah, we got we got Buffalo and Tampa in and then we obviously have Detroit out. Yeah. Yeah. And and we appreciate it, but you know, I want to say this, my first real memory of being a diehard hockey fan was 94 playoffs. And I remember being at a baseball practice. And the Rangers were playing the devils in the Easter conference final. And I could, I was at practice and I can't wait to watch this game. I can't wait to watch this game. And so as, as 94 comes and then 95, I'm really all in 96. Now I'm 13 12 13. And then Barry Melrose comes to ESPN and NHL tonight and those clips of you guys and you guys getting to know each other and kind of what he meant for hockey in the US. I saw a pretty cool clip online. I don't remember who it was saying I didn't know anything about hockey. And I'm just kind of watching ESPN. And there was this guy with the cool haircut who taught me about the game in a fun way. And at a time at ESPN where now we're we're getting better with hockey. It's getting bigger and there's more. There's a lot more going on at your network. Then there wasn't much. It was Barry and Barry taught so many people in a fun way and it seemed you could tell all the sports center anchors love them. And you get to know him. I know it meant a lot for you and your career and your friendship and just talk about kind of what he meant and your initial reactions when meeting him. Yeah. Obviously news of his death in Las Vegas. I was at the rank at the NHL players tour. I can't believe how hard it hit me. I've been lucky. I haven't really lost close friends so far and really lucky that way. I've lost family members. But I couldn't talk. I couldn't say three words before I started to cry. Like I couldn't believe how heavy it hit me. And ESPN asked me for a statement. And I said, well, I'm not going to talk because I won't finish it. So let me write it out on my phone and give it to you, which is what I did. And so yeah, it was, yeah, I got to ESPN in 96. Barry had been there. Obviously he wanted Memorial Cup. He won a Calder Cup as a head coach and they almost want to Stanley Cup with the Kings gets fired after two and a half years. Comes right to ESPN. NHL tonight is launched on ESPN 2. I get hired in 96. I start being the host in the fall of 98. And just getting to meet him that he was just this mountain of testosterone. I always said, Barry didn't have a receding hairline. He had a protruding hairline. It went forward towards his eyebrows every year. He was a Scottish descendant, you know, scots. They're usually pretty quiet. Barry's quiet. Barry was actually an introvert. His wife was an extrovert, which was perfect for Barry. It's why they're, they stayed married. You know, they're in the rest of his life. Most scots are cheap, though. Barry's not cheap. Barry's generous. So he's very generous. And so just meeting Barry and being around him. And obviously, my initial reaction, well, this is the guy who coach Wayne Gretzky. That's all I knew about it, right? We didn't know a lot about his past. Play 300 NHL games, Red Wings, Jets and Maple Leafs. But so yeah, just being around his personality, how he lifted the room, didn't just light up a room. He lifted it up and his laugh, his wit, razor sharp wit. That's what made Parkinson's and the rest of his brain damage, whatever it was, and I think it was way more than Parkinson's. In my mind, we'll see. I don't know if the family is going to donate his brain at all for CT research and not very fought a lot. And maybe that was part of it. I don't know. But Jets, to have that razor sharp wit and then to get what he get was just awful. But you know, at the end, it was tough on Barry. He was having hallucinations. His brain was definitely abandoning him really almost probably torturous these last couple of months as I learned. So after day one was just filled with so much sadness and just shocked and unprepared for it. I should be more prepared for death than that, but I wasn't. After that, it was just pure celebration. Too many laughs to be sad. Just so much joy. I'm not like that cliche. Don't be sad. And don't be sad. It's over. Be glad it happened. That's never. I mean, that's bullshit. For some concerns. No, I'm sad. It's over. But in this case, actually, after day one, that was the case. Like I'm so happy. I got to work around him have probably five. I tried to do the math probably 500 dinners with them walking across a restaurant. Everybody looking at Barry Morrow's and his jacket and cowboy boots. Even people who didn't know, I'm like, that guy's a star. I don't know who is that guy. That guy's a star. You know, men wanted to be him, women wanted to be with him, and it was fun to be around. You said he was a bit of an introvert, but when you would go out to these dinners, would he just kind of pepper you with all these stories of all these situations he'd been through, like, you know, going to the stand the cup final with the kings. Would you just grill them kind of like he was your mentor and just want to hear all these old school stories of his playing days or his coaching days. Yeah, but they weren't unsolicited, right? You had he didn't want to dominate a table, dominate a room. It's such an amazing cocktail of someone with so much swagger and confidence and not an insecurity in the world. Yet never wanted to be the center of attention, but didn't go out of his way like it was a cause like that fake, you know, have some people or fake that way. Fake humble, fake humility. Oh, I don't care. Blah blah. You know, no, it was real. And so that's why he drew in everybody, whether it was the janitor at ESPN or the president, treated everybody the same, always on time, always 15 minutes early, always in a suit, always ready. People say you guys had great chemistry. Bootsie you and him. He had great chemistry with everybody. He was in the elite television talent. He made everybody better. He made everybody relaxed. He made everybody feel good. He put everybody on his toes because he had the locker room with that he had, you know, obviously hardened and all those locker rooms is a player than a coach. And so he was ready, ready for TV and And so yeah, never that's just to be so humble and have that much swagger is very rare. Was he a guy that realized how much he meant to a game? Because I always like wish that, at least people know, like, like Whit said, when we were kids, like you fell in love with hockey because of guys like him, guys that were able to make it cool and for us to watch the highlights in the morning and watch the games at night with you guys, like, did he know what he meant to the game, do you think? I don't think so. Yeah. He didn't think that way. You know, he was obviously young and handsome and had the hair and look great. The camera loved him, right? That's a that's a sneaky talent to have in this business is the does the camera love you or not? The camera loved him. And so and just to have that skill to make people better and around him. But yeah, what he's done, I can't believe he hasn't won the Lester Patrick for contributions to American hockey. The guy's done 18 frozen fours. He was on television for almost 30 years in America. He lose hockey for 17 years at ESPN and he never leaves. He's doing sports center. He does baseball stuff with the, you know, sports center with the blue jays, huge baseball fan, good baseball player, growing up and always could cross. He had great crossover appeal like Dali Parton, who recently passed away. But Barry was a country artist. He would have had an album on the pop charts, right? Or the RMB charts. He just Charles Barkley called him the best analyst on TV 10 years ago. Like, I'm sure that shock Barry. But yeah, no, he did, I don't think he ever really did. Again, that's kind of that Scott's Irish not take compliments very well kind of trait that we kind of have. Like, I'd rather you, I'd rather you say I'm awful than I'm good. I'm way more comfortable. You telling me I suck than you're the best thing I've ever seen. I don't know how to respond to that. So and that was kind of Barry, just quiet, walking across the ESPN campus sunglasses and cigar, sitting on the bench and everyone just kind of look at him in awe, but so approachable that loud laugh would relax the whole room. And just a huge contribution to the game in America, since they ESPN hired him in 1995. Yeah, very infectious laugh. You're right. He had it laugh for you. You're like, oh, and it would just come out at times like, oh, that got him good. You could just hear it on sports center of your show and, you know, you've brought up many times. I think you were the first to bring it up that like himself and Don Cherry's, you know, still with us like them not in the Hall of Fame is just as a builder and you even, yeah, I know you would say hockey, the Lester Patrick award. It's just crazy and I just hope at some point somebody figures out, let's get Don in, you know, before he leaves us and I'm not trying to put that out there by any means. But Barry Melrose deserves to be in the Hall of Fame. And it is crazy that ESPN didn't have hockey and there was never even a thought that he wouldn't be a part of ESPN. He was probably a little worried when they lost the right to like, no, no, you're not going anywhere. Right. And that's, that's, they usually move on and everyone's worried about it. I got this great little direct message, Chris Curtis who's on a local Boston morning show, WEEI. And he said, he sent me this message, you and Barry defined hockey for me. I never played and really didn't care about the Bruins growing up. But your infectious love of the sport and each other, which I love drew me to the broadcast, but that was Barry's skill. He drew people who weren't necessarily NHL fans to the broadcast. And that was his great skill, yeah, not an analytical guy. Not going to break down a huge thing, X and O's, and that's another reason why he connected with the viewer. He wasn't. We do too much stats nowadays, right? Too many expected goals. What the hell is that? Barry, imagine saying expected goals around Barry. He's a kid. I'm an expected rib eyes or expected glass of wine. Okay. You know that. I know that stat. Yeah. So yeah, he was passion and heart and effort to drop on a farm, you know, no indoor plumbing when he was born. No way. No way. Animals get gutted right in front of his eyes at age 10. I mean, imagine being 10 years old and seeing all these animals get gutted and flayed, you know, growing up. That's a different upbringing, man. That'll harden somebody. So that's where he came from. You know, that was born in the '50s. I bet his TV didn't have a television probably when he was born in 1956, you know? So just a different life, different cat right into hockey, never left hockey till we got the ESPN. Not the most refined guy worldly because when you're a player in a coach, you guys know, you're told where to go. You're told when the bus leaves, you're told when the plane leaves. I had it. I always tell my favorite Barry story is Barry, why are you going to the bank? I got to go cash my paycheck. I go, Barry, they had this thing called direct deposit. They'll put it in there for you. No. And it's a daily. It's amazing. Really? Yeah. So that was kind of a cool innocence wonder of Barry, like, you know, you just wow direct deposit. Like, it was constantly wild by life because again, it goes back to Saskatchewan, population 900 Calvington on a Tuesday, it might be 892, you know? Yeah. Everyone's going into town. So, uh, so yeah, just unbelievable, unique old school character that we don't really see anymore and, um, huge loss, but what happened to him these last four or five years wasn't Barry Melrose anymore. In some ways, we already mourned the loss of him while he was still alive, um, but still to get that news from Steve Levy. He tried to call me first. I don't usually see my phone and calls and stuff. It's on silent night. Got a text and Barry's gone. That's all he said, Barry's gone. And I knew what he meant right away is like, oh, and then I called him, but, uh, to see that Barry's gone in that rank because you, you know, I'm hyper. I'm working. So I'm very focused on work. And okay, I got to talk to Gabe Landiscock and now what's this little skit we're going to have with Leo Carlson and then pull him to get that news in the middle of being hyper focused. Right? I think that was the contrast for me. I was laying in my bed, just got a doon scroll and got that text. It wouldn't hit me the same ways it did at a rank, you know, at work, that focus. And like I said, to be at the rank, uh, is to get the news is almost a blessing because, you know, I just bury in the rank. That was his home. Obviously, after the few days of like finishing your work there at the, the media tour, like, was there anybody who maybe reached out to you unexpectedly that would like share a story about Barry with you that you were like, maybe surprised by it because even after logging on Twitter and just seeing the outpouring of messages and support towards them, like, like little Wayne was like saying that he was crying like that's when you start realizing that. Yeah. Yeah. That's when you know you made it as Jan said. So was there any story that you were able to hear about him where you just put a big smile on your face that you didn't know about? God. All of them. But you're right. Yeah. And so if the Lester Patrick ever says, so why should Barry get the Lester Patrick award? Cause little Wayne. Yeah. Yeah. That's why. You're in. What more do you need? Yeah. Oh man. The message is the text. So you really, because you know, my iPad is kind of connected to my phone. So I got home and I, I'm a big, I just like to delete emails and text. It just feels like everything's lighter and it works better if I do that way. Some people keep them. Some people delete them, right? And so I was like, I just looked like 390 messages. You have, oh my gosh. There was a lot of messages that day and the day after from players and GMs and people reach out, getting my number and getting ahold of me and the DMs and the messages on Instagram as you post stuff about Barry and old clips. And so yeah, just, you know, the stories are all the same really. How he treated everybody the same. How he lifted every room and just the, just the story of my, my second Barry, very, very story after the direct deposit was how Bill Drelago would come up doing completely naked and say, Barry, have you seen my beer? Have you seen my beer? And no, Billy haven't seen my beer. And then he turns around walks away. The beer can is wedged in his butt cheeks straight up and down. Barry, have you seen my Budweiser and he's walking away? There's the Budweiser wedged in there. Only a hockey butt could put a can of beer in or south and just have it stay there. So, Andre Waw with the cookie and then Barry, he told the cookie story and just Barry, but you tell the story 10 times because of the laugh, because of the big fake choppers and the big smile and everything. You would listen to it 10 out of 10 times and it was always funny when he told someone else who had nerded. Yeah, tell it again, please. And so yeah, it was the outcoring was it helped. It was beautiful. It's what makes us humans, right? As part of humanity is how we mourn death, there is no life without death. It's, we have to have it. It's tough. But and then that's like his, that's his big blessing too to make me feel so good about somebody passing because you remember all the great times and I really hadn't done that before. I would like stew for years over things that disappointed or were said to me. I hope I can learn from this. I hope this is last great lesson that mourn quickly and then move on and celebrate quickly. That's the way. That's not a bad thing to do. Yeah. And then your guys' connection was special and I thought of you. I thought of Steve Levy right away and I wanted to give you, you know, our condolences and have you on. You know so much about the game. You're doing such a good job at ESPN and to get to talk about Barry. So we appreciate it very much. Appreciate let me speak on my guy and I, Steve Levy too, who set a good example for me on how to treat Barry on the road to help him out, to get the dinner reservations. You know, help him get him to the rink and and Steve was a good role model for me to really do that even though Barry was 10 years older than us. So really shout out to Levy's on his tenderness and taking care of Barry and I kind of picked up that part of treating Barry and really helping him out throughout the years, especially towards the end from Levy's. So yeah, I appreciate you mentioned him and thanks for having me guys. Looking forward to another season and listening to you guys every week. You've been great for hockey. You've done has been a nice job of energy and entertainment and thank you for what you do. Thank you. Guys, we're going to take a quick break and talk about the shell oil company. I'm going to be honest, I don't usually get excited about loyalty programs. They promise big rewards and then it's like you actually have to eat 48 slices of pizza to get one free. So when I heard about the shell fuel rewards program, I was skeptical. Shocking. I know me skeptical. I know. But here's the thing. It actually kind of an annoyingly practical program. You already get in gas. You're already grabbing take out. You already buy and snacks you definitely didn't need, but absolutely deserve on a long ride. And with shell fuel rewards, you just get rewarded for all that and not in a fake points you'll never use way. It's actually savings on gas and the part that got me the savings stack up. So it's not like one sad little discount. It's your fill up, you eat, you shop, and it all piles up into real savings at the pump. Joining takes less than three minutes in the shell app and you'll save every fill after that literally every single one. So if you want my recommendation, join the shell fuel rewards program and save, join the shell fuel rewards program in the shell app and enjoy life with more. And now we got to go to R.A.s world because R.A.s boss to Bruins, but don't forget we have the Panthers. And R.A. has a Panthers bag. He has a Panthers bag everywhere he goes. So his two favorite teams, when they play in the playoffs, he's a winner no matter what. All right, come on in, buddy. Hello, everybody. Welcome to R.A.s world here in the spit and chip that's podcast. What's up, boys? It's been a long time. Not really. A couple of days. Great time this weekend. I do. He talked about the wedding earlier. Gee. Shadow Tolana. Awesome job. It's spectacular. The crowd was great. The venue was great. Everything was so awesome. It had an awesome time. I knew you mentioned this random sex guy. That was good stuff too. Just having a random guy, but the sex of the background, the wanger. R.A. I'm so mad. You cut your hair. Yeah. He looked great though. Yeah. I mean, I think, yeah, I think just probably pulled it off a little bit better going with the ball. The down to the nub this weekend, you know, pulled the suit off. Look. Funny enough though. We got hats at the wedding. All the ones to hat went on with the flow out the back. That could have been a game chain. The only thing that kind of took the shine away from Alana's dress was that belt that you bought and brought, they'll belt you brought in Vermont. You have it in the room with you. I didn't grab it. Yeah. It's within this thing. Oh, these things. I think it's like, but that's. I didn't see the belt. Oh, buddy. It's good. Good. You would have picked them out. If he comes back with a belt. But that's a belt. It was. It was. Yeah. Like a little hard. You got to show this thing off, dude. Sure. Sure. Sure. I got. Oh, dude. It's a bit dazzling. I don't know. Got the means. Memes was hard looking at that belt. Seriously. I don't know. Ten out of ten. Where'd you buy that? I bought it at the rodeo. When I went to the rodeo up Vermont, when I bought my cowboy hat, I bought a little belt. Wasn't sure I was going to pull it off with the suit, but yeah, the color kind of went perfect with it. So I showed it to Biz, Biz Dugget and told the rest of the crew about it. So yeah. Yeah. I love the belt. I'm a little rattled. You didn't get a matching belt buckle, but that's the next phase. Yeah. He did get a used mule, though. It came with a mule. Oh, nice. Yeah. Well, that's a pretty decent size buckle, too, especially when you sit down and you go a little bit of a, a little, a boy like myself, it kind of leans into the, the boiler a little bit. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. The whole lot of the WWF one by, but before you jump into stuff, guys, like, so I stayed yesterday because the, the, the flood was bad. I guess I don't know if you guys get hit or drive a north. And plus I realized we weren't taped until today. So I stayed, I got my room for another night and I'm driving home this morning. I left it like a little after six this morning and I'm, I put the picture up. I think I, I said that the fish look. So this guy is on 93. I look over way. He's like, all right. I raised way. He's like, Chick-Linch, Chick-Linch. It's like, I'm kind of cut off on my specs, are all right. This is probably, this is like the stop and go. So it may be 25, 30 miles an hour. He, but the dude kind of like timed it perfect and he got his phone. So we got it. Like that shot come out pretty good. Consider we were both going on the highway at a pretty good like, looks like you're driving a boat. Dude. It's my brother. Oh, this is grandma key. Is that a mark, Sadie's? No. It's the, uh, my brother's grandma key, 2004, he's got about 126,000 miles on it. And, uh, yeah. Everybody nice to see Ari hanging up his clothes and his liver on bike. Dude, like, is anyone never driven to a fucking wedding before that's, that's where you put the clothes. I'm on the hands. That's what the hands are. It's a blind spot. So it's a blind spot. Like people like, yeah, I'm living out of my car. I wish I was living out of the cab. You'll have fucking cheaper than you look incredible. R.A., the whole wedding. You looked incredible. You were stunning. You were stunning. You almost stole my brother's girlfriend at one point. And I saw that video that's dancing together. It's one of the girls. Eight of them. It was my brother Andrew. He's almost stole his beautiful blonde girl. It was awesome. Oh, it was. I don't know if it was one of the cousins, the good, the kid who's a good looking kid, but he was definitely a little bit, not so he, when we went to the after party at the marina bar, he like, I guess the one of the cops that was on duty said, you know, he like, he liked me on the show, whatever. He was like, he offered the guy five grand to taste me, apparently. Like the cop was like, no, it was like, buddy, that would have been the worst five ring you've ever spent. I made you six hours ago. You want a fucking taste? He's trying to get me the taste. It's funny. I think that's a lot of his cousin. I don't think that was my cousin. Okay. It was definitely, by the way. I looked like Quagmire. He had the big jaw with the baby blue eyes. That was. I did look like Quagmire. Oh, he absolutely character. Yeah. It was great to meet some of your cousins from Minnesota or just, you know, some of Alana's cousins. It was just like, I just said, I have one story about there's two of my cousins. So one of them, Alana's cousin, actually, she's a diehard devil's fan. So I see Pasha and I'm like, oh, let me, let me introduce them and I'm like, Pasha, come, meet Alana's cousin on a Lisa, she's a diehard devil's fan. Right away, Pasha throws out a random no name prospect. She's like, I don't know who that is. Fake devil's fan. Oh, he's such a loser. He's such a loser. He's such a loser. It was crazy. He gave keeps the devil's like, he'll meet a devil's fan and challenge them to see if they're like a true enough devil's fan for him. Fucking fucking Pasha. I made it. Okay. Okay. What a piece of shit. And I'm talking to one point four over rating. I looked over. You guys were all taking a knee. I was like, you guys know the cap and stories are all done. You guys are done on one deep fight. I was like, I didn't want to be seen and then I stood up when my knee was sore. But all right, we're kind of, we're, we're, we're, we got to get to the brunt. This is just what I want you to kind of take us through your expectations because in the past few years, it's like they're done. They're done and they keep making the playoffs and Pasta keeps getting a hundred points and McAvoy was on pace for his career. He was incredible offensively like, what do you see in this year? What do you got? I'm shocked that there are a hundred to one to win the cup with, not that I think they're a favorite. No, I mean, they weren't nearly that high last year. This team didn't get any worse. I mean, they brought in Praterco, which I think is a great move. He's only 24. He's been three times 20 goal scorer, probably good score, 30 this year. He brings score on punch. He plays had. He's got a great motor. I think playing for Sturm will be good as a fellow German. He essentially replaces Davidson, which, you know, obviously it's a, it's a younger guy, a little bit more motor, a little bit more speed. I thought Prigon and Wilburgan and Conor Clifton solidifies the D core. I mean, they have, I would say, you know, in above average D, McAvoy, Lindholm, Zedorov, Noah Boygan, Lowry, Joke Haju and Clifton, there's, there's your top seven right there. Swamon, obviously, the number one, they bring up DPH role, Corpus Sallow. He did his job here. He was, he was a more than serviceable backup, even if his numbers weren't that great. I thought he did a good job here. The goal tendent set. And it's another year experience last year, when we got out of Mitten, who's the Dino who I love his game, Hagen's could be a bit of an X factors well, 30 to one that won the call. Like I said, out thing he's a favorite, but I don't, I don't think this team got any worse with it. I don't know that they got considerably better in a league that seems to get better every year, especially in the East, but I don't know. I think they're going to get in the playoffs. I do have them as one of the five teams, because I only picked three from the Metropolitan. And I do think they're going to be a, a playoff team coming out of that, that division, frankly. All right, you spent like my biggest thing is geeky got 39 goals last year. Do you think he's close to that over under? Where do you think he's at for goals next year or this year? I think he'd probably stay in the 30 goal range. I mean, obviously, great. If he cracked 40. I mean, he almost did last year, but I think if he stays in that 35 to 40 range, he should have, I don't, if he flat toes, that would be great. I don't think people were going to expect those numbers out of him when we brought him hit a Boston. But, you know, pasta, I get he's, I mean, I think what top five is six points in points in the last 10 years in the league, Zaka probably not a true number one. I do like what he does. I know Lindholm has them in the best sign, but Middlestad has another year of experience. Geeky, we just met. He's been great. Hagen's, like you said, I don't know if he's that would come the X factor, but this kid, I don't, he could surprise this year. He said, I think he's the X factor of the Bruins future. I think he is like the biggest piece, like if the biggest need right now for the Bruins, they don't have that number one superstar center and that's what this kid is supposed to be. So if he can be that 70 80 point center, this year, right in, no, not this year, but I'm saying in years to come for the future, if he can be that number one center and you, you need to see steps this year. And that's why I do have a question for you guys is like, why, why are these teams so quick? Hagen's has played center his whole life. He's always been a center and now he comes up to the NHL and it's, he's been pretty forthcoming that he's more comfortable playing the center position and then they throw him on wing. So why do teams do that? I'm trying to put it back so hard. - Yeah, imagine playing against those Atlanta. Panic centerman, like look at like look at all the guys. He's got to go up against and like confidence is a, I mean, if he get beat, beat down right away in the first 20 games, all of a sudden, I mean, who's the guy you guys were raving about a few years ago? Who, mantra, mantra, like, you know what I'm saying? Like all of a sudden, I called him the next David Kreechi. Yeah. Like it's just, it's, it's, it's difficult. It's difficult. You don't want to throw him to the wolves, especially so young. And, um, but yet then there's such a pressure to like advance him and get him in the NHL and get him working. Like back in the day, most these guys got to go marinate in the minors for a year or two and get, get, get that type of experience. So that's a lot of pressure. You're saying they've never had, that's what they need to replace. I think that's still the case, though, is like in, in today's NHL where it's, it's such a young man's league. Like I would rather see Hagan jump in there and, and fight or flight kind of like you got to learn by doing it as opposed to going and playing the NHL for a year. Like some people are suggesting, like don't you think there's a little something to let's get him in there. Let's, let's get him playing center now because he's got to learn it eventually. I don't know the fan base. Yeah. I don't know what the fan base. Next thing, you know, Boston radio is, is online. It's not like they're, it's all like you're going to Columbus to do it where you don't, you, you're allowed to take that slow progression. There's that pressure right away, right? Especially if you're slotted there. So I think, I think circumstance in the market has a lot to do with it. Wait, you know, with Fraser Minton, he was a rookie. They threw him right in at center this year. 35 points. Yeah, but he's also not getting, but once again, like he's not getting those first line reps. He's getting to play third line center where, you know, the matchups aren't, aren't, aren't as bad and there's not as much scoring threat on the other side to expose you when you are making those mistakes. So hold on. I love. Did you just say that suit? Well, let me just say, there's a, a, a, a rookie center. The fuck he's waiting about. There was a rookie center that played in Detroit is rookie season. He scored 35 points. Fraser Minton is rookie year scored 35 points. Oh, that's, okay. Well, that makes sense. Correlated to that. A little correlation. I'm going to start. 35 points. My rookie here. [Laughs] Craven Pavel Dodson. That's quick. Should have switched a forward. Oh my God. Craven That's suit. Now, I guess a worry would be that Zaka had such a career year. Like can he, Zaka was awesome last year. But according to, according to our devil's lunatic, he's like, he's going to suck this year. That's what he does. He's inconsistent year to year game to game. It's so different. Well, he did it all last year. Now, can you do it again this year? I think, fuck, I think I've decided auto was not one of my top five teams, which leaves me with Toronto Boston just because they keep getting in. I think I might pick Boston to get in. Fuck yeah. They're going to. Well, and Swamon, too. Swamon after the, the whole doubt and that year just didn't go well. Well, last year, boom. Incredible. So like, you, you got to think he's going to be dialed in again. I love Mac. A boy. I still have it. I'm, I'm bullish on low ride. Maybe because I see this tall, lanky guy who could skate. Like, I've seen him make so many great plays. And then you've seen him make some of the worst plays of all time. I'm kind of speaking about myself. I guess right here. So I believe he could still be very good. But you remind me of Lidstrom. But it does, it does feel like the, the, the, well, at least from the game outside that they expected some sort of a drop off. I mean, the B's had 100 points last year. The overrun of this year is only 88.5. And like I said, I don't think they, they dropped off as a team that really at all. I mean, I don't know if they got it. It's significantly better or just maybe a little bit better. But I, I don't know if they're going to have that much of a drop off. And I know one other than people love talking about the cap. And I feel like that's something that media and fans talk about way more. I think it's time. I think it's time. I think it's time. I think it's time. I, I think I agree. I do think it's time. But I also think like, you know, it's just some of the fans love to talk about media. The guys in the room. I mean, you guys obviously playing the league. Everybody knows what everybody has done that room. They know everybody's resume. So I think at the end of the day, it doesn't necessarily matter as much to the players as it does elsewhere. But yeah, I think if you're, I think if you're one of those three guys that they could announce to captain, you're probably like, Hey, what are we doing here? Let's name a captain. Like, well, let's, let's get off our fucking ass and name a captain. I think they should do it. I think that they should be the first team in a long time. If like, one's the last time a team said two of them were maybe pauses at home and then McAvoy on the road. Maybe a little double dip in action. I don't do that with a little chaos. I don't know. Yeah. I don't know. All right. This is a crazy question. And this is coming from a buddy of mine. Guy heard Bruins fan. If they ever got off to a bad start, and the season is just kind of not there. Do they ever think about trade? No, no. Well, no. I think that's it meant to throw out the baby with a. I mean, the next bad tattoo. No, we'd like throw out the baby with the bath water. I think like, you know, it's a crazy question. I know it. Yeah. I don't understand what the logic would be unless you got this absolute insane deal. That's four more years. It's five, including this at 11, too. So you would get this insane package. I know. This is just this guy who's like adamant that he thinks he's going to get traded at some point. I think a slow start you would see Pavel Zaka traded just because he's in the final year of his contract. Teens are desperate for center help. We've talked about how Montreal needs that second line center. I'm sure they would offer a package for Pavel Zaka. Like teams are teams need center help. And Pavel Zaka's only making four million bucks a year. That's an easy contract to take on. If Pavel was going to get traded, don't you think it'd have to be one of those things where he like demanded it? I feel like they would never get rid of him. Yeah. Yeah. I never. I'm pretty sure he's got a no move, right? And he doesn't seem like a guy that would ever ask for a trade. He always, I mean, looks like he's having so much fun every day. So I think they're in the sort of tread and water phase now. It's like, you know, you got a number one guy in McAvoy. You got, you know, pasta, super duper style. You got a modified number one goalie. That's, you know, that's not enough to start a rebuild. You kind of think we're on the fly and, you know, some teams are good at it. Some team has some teams on it. But, you know, ideally, there'll be a true contender, you know, within a year, it's too hopefully. So I'll give my prediction if they make playoffs after we speak to our next guest. How about that? Okay. Okay. Well, I know he's going to, he's going to, he's going to make us feel like they're going to win the stand, the cup, the guys, positive energy, incredible season. I hope he's got his guitar on him. Let's bring in Jeremy swimming. I ran into this guy at dinner. What a great guy to run into at dinner. Swade, dog. How you doing? Good to see you guys. Great to see you, buddy. We appreciate you hopping on, man. I know last year was awesome for you, right? Like you got rid of all that contract nonsense from the year before. So you yourself going into this season, you must feel great good summer training and how you feeling? Yeah, you nailed it. It's a little bit different going into the season when you have a full training camp and, you know, you're wrapping up to, to get in with the boys and seeing everyone you're back and you're not in the spotlight necessarily, which is really nice. So it's been a great summer and a busy summer for us. We had our first baby. Nice. We have changed our lives. Great ways. So it's been excellent. Yeah, just really excited to get, get it going. How has that affected pre-game naps at home? Good question. Yeah, it's a new normal biz. Like she got to wake up it when he wakes up, you feed him and it's amazing how like little sleep you actually need to perform and learn. And, you know, like it's been a test this summer, like bringing him home for the first week. What a disaster that was. It didn't mean so much more respect for guys that have these kids there in the year. And they're just like, all right. Oh, do you babe? Like I'm going, I'm going tomorrow, like take care of him. It's insane. So yeah, a lot of respect for the moms and it's been incredible during this so far. Have you picked up the guitar and sang them some lullabies yet? Man, every time I do, it's one song that just makes them scream crying. I'm like, he's got a lot of it, man. It's gonna be great. And like, yeah, I'll just like start playing. And then as soon as I start playing Maine by Noah Khan, just loses his kids. So I'm just going to keep playing it because I love that. Well, everybody cries to that guy's music. It's depressing. Man, you think he got somebody to be though. It's like a bad cry. I'm like, what's going on? What is it? Is it the song? Or is it like dad? I don't know if you're as good as you think you are. I watch you. You're great. The hockey. Yeah. Hey, take me through 'cause we talked to guys of training and how much guys are on the ice now and summers have changed so much from when we played as a goalie. How much are you on the ice? Who's shooting on you? Like, what was your kind of summer? I guess like schedule? Yeah, it's been different. Like from Alaska to now. You know, it's such a different world. When I was growing up, I was a creature. I have like, I love skating. You know, I figured you can't stop boxing the gym. So like, you can get your skate in your cardio as much as you can, like just feel in the ice. And so I usually try to get back on the ice, you know, two weeks after the season starts or stops. And just like once a week through June and then exactly like ramped it up periodically throughout the summer. But the main thing I try to do in the summer is just focusing on muscle groups that you really get a lot of wear and tear, especially for goalies, it's hips, it's groins, knees, ankles and stuff. So I'm big into Pilates now and that's been a really big, big benefactor for me. I just feel like I have a lot more stability and it just kind of like tightens up all those muscles that just get expanding, expanded, expanded. So, but then yeah, being in Boston now, it's been great training out warrior guys are are local pretty much year round and then obviously from other teams, everyone comes back to Boston. So the skates are just awesome. and it's pretty doable to get ramped up for the season. - Do you wear your alo matching set and get the matcha before you go in? - It's a great question. Yeah, I know. I should because I get humbled by these women, man. They're just given her in there. - You're going to like Gen Pop classes? - I don't know what that is, man. - He's in your population. So it'll be you in like 15 rockets in there and just stretching out your ruins. - It's the moms, man. They just like they come in and go to work more respect for the moms. And yeah, like I'm shaking, right? And you know, you're holding these squats and all this stuff and these moms are just like no problem. Like I'll hold a kid doing this too. Like let's go. You know, oh, for all of them. - They're breastfeeding, fuck, and they're holding. They're holding the split squat. You're like, "I don't even get that." - Sway's playing man, pissing all the kids off. - I get a little laugh from my mom. - You're even kid. - Yeah. - Oh. - So I was just talking about the point totals going into this season. It feels like the prognostications seem maybe a little low for the team this year. But in the room, do you guys feel like you should, there should be like another step coming. I know you might have exceeded a little expectations last year. What do you think the general consensus is in the room, what you guys are gonna do this year? - I think so. I think again, like last year is last year. And a lot of that talk is like, you know, we exceeded expectations. But as a player, it's like, as soon as you make playoffs, the expectation is to finish the thing, right? So you're never satisfied. And I think what our room has, that a lot of rooms don't is like the external belief that just knowing like, we really compartmentalize, you know, what's been set outside and like, as soon as you're getting it in the rank, it's what we know we're capable of. And I think that's a pretty contagious feeling that, you know, we have and the expectation is like, whatever's outside's outside ours is ours is our own. And we know that we're capable of doing pretty special things. And that's kind of what we're honing in on. - I know last year was the first year with Coach Stern. How long does it take for plays to get used to a new coach and his system and the way he does things? - It varies from coach to coach. Goalies are different. You just stop the fucking to get along with them, right? So it's a good place to be in the net. But, you know, I like to talk to my teammates and exactly like the transition that they have with new systems or whatnot. I think the communication was really well done by him. And I mean, obviously we had success last year. So what he's doing is putting us in a great position to win hockey games and playing to our strengths. So I think anyone, you know, playing for a coach like that can get behind them and be excited. - Did that sort of early in the ES snapshot? That kind of turned things around for you guys quite a bit. Would he kind of, I guess for the first time and for any of you guys? - I think so. I think it just shows he cares, right? And that's a really big thing for players is, you care so much that you're livelihood. And at the same time, you know, guys are making legacies and we have an elite talent, you know, a core group and young guys. So you see a coach that cares so much. It fires you up and it makes you want to run through a wall for them. And I think that just having that vulnerability with us has really touched a lot of guys and, you know, getting excited for competing for this guy. And obviously each other. - R.A. had mentioned it before you came on just that you guys haven't named a captain yet. Is that something that's talked about in the locker room or at all? It's just like, hey, it'll get figured out when they figure it out. - It has to think, you know, we know who our leadership group is. And I think again, like Boston's culture, it's our job to maintain it. You know, we've had so many incredible leaders and guys that have not been here, you know, with those leaders, it's been really impressive to see, you know, the top dogs just kind of like go with the flow and understand that everything will work itself out but off is the ultimate team game. And I think that's been like, impressive for, you know, me to watch 'cause goal is again, like you get the wide view of everything and you just kind of like the backbone kind of silent, go do your thing, but to see everyone step up and have a voice in the locker room, the integrity and their work ethic. And obviously like, show me, you know, don't tell me kind of mindset. I think that's been really apparent and whoever does get named captain is extremely deserving but I don't think that's gonna switch up anyone's role and you know, being upset or not. I think whoever's our guy, we know that we have multiple capabilities or captains. - And so Frazier Mitten, aka Pavel Datsuk, he just signs. - Were you on listening to that? - I heard the tail end of that, that was. Yeah, he's Pavel Datsuk. So you got Datsuk at 7.2 million, that's fucking unbelievable but it seems like a guy that everyone loves and he had a great rookie year, like, were you excited for him seeing that deal and what do you expect from him that you think he could take another big step? - Mature beyond his years too, right? Like I got his Russian, he's unbelievable. - Yeah man, it was awesome. He came up to me in a workout in the morning. He goes, "Hasteway, I just signed the extension." And I'm like, "Sick man, it's awesome." - Can't play in the Olympics, but sign the extension. - And he's like, "Yeah, like seven years." I'm like, "Whoa, like that's amazing, like that's huge for us." So I told him right away, I'm like, "Hey, you're gonna be a leader on this team if you're not already." And as a player, again, that's been here for a while, you see those kind of talents come through and you exactly, you wanna see them get locked up and be a brewing because now he gets to focus on exactly, like, he just focus on his life away from hockey. He gets to get situated, get a home, eventually started family and all that great stuff. And now, exactly, he's all business, which I think frees up a player in his position, you know, really well. So I was pumped about that. I know a lot of guys are really excited about it. And again, the exhortation's still there, that we know he's gonna perform and keep pushing. - You're like, "Oh, interesting, you know, it's the fight the whole off season to get it." That's crazy. (laughing) - You lost some grip, you got some grip points from me, but all right, must be nice. - Oh, okay. - But I was in the trenches as you guys go on a camp. (laughing) - Yeah. - Or you signed that before the season? - Yeah, holy fuck. - He's like, "Don't is such a pledge at a work with us." (laughing) - But hey, you came in, when you came into the league, it was like, you and Almark, it's interesting. You guys have always had great relationship with the two goalies. And then last year, Corpus Salle, and this year, it's deep Pietro. So for you, it seems like it's important to have like a really great working relationship with the other goalies. That's true. - 100%. And I think it's just a great place because, you know, nobody else has that position. Like, were you getting, you know, one position to get filled? So you have to have that same, you know, kind of level-headedness because it's hard, you know, every goal that comes in, you want to play. And I think what has helped me so much is, you know, like when I had lean-as, you know, he reached out to me in the summer. I was not a young guy, meant the world to me. And I just know that a conversation, like, we went to lunch, talked it out. Like, this is what we expect, you know, from this year. And like, it was so cool. 'Cause like, I never thought about, you know, winning the Jennings or winning these crazy wards and like, obviously going to playoffs. And like, we knew that we wanted to make playoffs, but he's like, hey, like, we're gonna win a Janet. And I'm like, wow. Like, that's a team game, you know? I thought that was really cool. And so that forever stuck with me. And, you know, exactly. It's like, I think a team really rallies behind, you know, a goalie tandem to that gets along and really drives the bus. Because you need points any given night, you know, you saw how hard the Atlantic was last year. And it's just gonna continue getting like that. So whoever's playing, you know, for the Boston Bruins, you wanna have them pull their weight. And at the same time, team success is individual success. And I think that that narrative for goalies to understand is so important. So that's definitely, you know, something I really wanna drive home with every goalie that I come into contact with. And Corpie was incredible for that. You know, he's an incredible individual on a ton of experience like that too. So just soaking everything up from him. And now it's, it's crazy to be the old guy. And now having Mikey who's also had the ton of success in the A and expect him to have the same success coming in the NHL. So I'm really excited to share my experience with him and exactly drive the bus with him. - I know that obviously a ton of people in Boston are excited about Hague and just kind of talk to us about what you've seen with him. You know, obviously you guys skate together in the summertime and you see him shooting and making plays out there as a young center. What do you like about his game, what he can help with with you guys? - I think he's another one of those guys that's mature, you know, beyond his years, especially at the ring. And he's just so smooth. Like again, he's one of the guys that skates all summer, he sticks around, which I think is really telling, you know, when guys stick around. Obviously he's a Boston college guy, but it just shows that they care and they really wanna be at the facility and really have like no excuse. Like we're going to work every day. And that's something I really, you know, notice with him and exactly like he's able to talk to a 35 year old or a 19 year old, you know, no problem. And I think that goes a long way coming into a, you know, a new NHL season and when he came in last year, it's the same thing, like a really hard position. You're playing playoff games, you know, right out of college. And I thought he dealt with, you know, the pressures and the change is really well and he's only gonna keep growing. So I had the chance to go up to, to go up to Maine, to do a Chick-L-T University video, Alphond Arena. I think it's one of the best arenas in all of college hockey. Talk about your time at Maine. And I actually heard a pretty crazy story about you even getting to Maine was pretty crazy that you were cut from some junior teams in Alaska. And, you know, you found a team last minute. So kind of talk about your journey to Maine and how awesome it was once you got there. - Yeah, it was meant to be, you know, looking back. on it now. Yeah, the journey was pretty, pretty different. Again, like, growing up in Alaska, you know, you didn't even, I didn't even know where university main was. Like, obviously, a new or main was on a map, but like, I remember going on my visit and I come from Sioux Falls and it was like three flights and there was like 19 people on the flight, you know, because you're just been from like city to city. And actually, you know, you get to the airport and it's like you and, you know, the 19 other people that were on the flight and they're just getting in trucks and massive, like, hunter vehicles and you're like, all right, we're home. So that was a, that was really cool. But yeah, like hockey East, I knew that you just hear stories like, "Well, the smoke's like Boston College, BU, Northeastern, these powerhouse teams." And obviously, Maine, who was a powerhouse, you know, at one point, just kind of off the beaten pass, where like, somewhere in the youth there, like, somebody told the head coach, red, that I was like a big outdoors guy. And so like, the first time I was ever talking to college teams without the USHL Showcase and Omaha, and I had never talked to a college team for not even like UAA or UAF. And so I'm like, just over the moon excited to talk to one team. But next day, I know there was like 15 teams outside the locker room and they're like going to locker room and it was like one after another and it was like Minnesota, Ohio State, like Cornell, crazy schools that you never think that were like even a possibility coming from minor hockey in Alaska. And then all these teams were just talking about, "Hey, like, you know, we want you to come in, play right away, true freshmen." And like, just feeding you what you wanted to hear. And I'm like, this is insane. And then Maine comes in and they're like, "Hey, so we got an incredible river that runs through the campus called Knob Scott River. There's bass in there, there's different kind of fish, and there's like hiking hour and a half from there. Like you can get away from campus." But I'm like, this is sick. Yeah, the bass you just described Alaska knowing it broke in. This is a full sunlight, all season long. Yeah. And then like the last part, they're like, "Oh yeah, like we want you to come in the true freshmen and like, can't go to work." But we're not promising you anything. And I'm like, boom. There we go. And yeah, like to your point, Mikey, like, I got cut from a junior team in Alaska, the Kenai Brown Bears. And I was like, 16. I tendered with them. It's obviously you guys know what tenderly means. But I basically was roster spot before the draft. And so they're promised to be in world. And they're like, hey, like, you know, coming in next year, it's perfect. Like you're an Anchorage kid. And you'll be playing right away. We'll get you college commitment. And then I go to Maine Camp and make the all-star game, like how do good camp. And they're like, "Hey, we want you to go do a year at U18." And like, you're not, you know, making a team. And I'm like, well, what's going on here? Like, you promised me the world. And also, you're cutting me. So I literally didn't have a team to go to. Like Alaska didn't have enough U18 kids to feel the triple A hockey team. So I was just in this crazy, like, debacle of, you know, what do I do? So this coach from Colorado Springs, Greg Van over. I had a couple buddies that played for him, Pike Speak Miners. And they're like, if you're going to go anywhere, you got to go play for Greg. And so as a conversation, I have my dad and like, I'm like, hey, can I have like one more shot here? Because you kind of know if you're leaving Alaska, like you're paying to play, paying to play, and then you kind of fizzles out. And we weren't in that business. That state of mind, it was like, you're either going to go for the NHL or you're going to go for college and go to school and get a real job. So we kind of had that conversation and we're like, all right, let's go to Greg and try it out. And that year was the best year of my life. And got dropped in Sioux Falls. But the moral of that story is that when I heard that mean wasn't promised in anything, I knew that that's exactly what I wanted to play for. And like, it changed my entire career and mindset. Pretty cool story considering, like, at that time, getting cut by that local team, like, to find out you'd sign a contract for $65 million. It's like, what the fuck? It feels like yesterday, man, like, it's crazy how time goes. And this is all a bunch of was it just you rounded into form as a goalie? Like what almost changed? Yeah, I was a late bloomer. So like, I'll be honest, like, I probably wasn't ready to play in the mall at 16. You know, I mean, wasn't his fault for cutting me. I think that exactly that link. I was a late bloomer. It wasn't growing, you know, super big. But everyone saw my dad who was 65 and tall and skinny. And like, this kid's going to grow. So he's got potential. But like, you know, I'm five, five, seven, 140 pounds. Unless he's the milkman's kid. Yeah. Like, let's take the risk. Exactly. So yeah, the right team banked on it. And then exactly, like, I think junior high school has shot up like four or five inches and gained some weight. Main's got a history of producing some gold tenders too. Big time. And that was like, what I like, not kind of noticed too. I mean, Alfie Mischo, he was like one of the main reasons why I went there too. And like, you know, his, his resume speaks for itself. Like with the goal is that he's produced. And I, I call him, you know, every week to this day, like, he really stood down. Tim Thomas go there, am I crazy? No, for mom, I word, Bishop, uh, Dunham, Garth, no, yeah. Okay. They've had legendary goals. Not Tim Thomas. No, Vermont. You via. Okay. So your dad is a true, your dad, like, he'll travel around everywhere to see your games on the road. He comes to Boston. Like, he's always, he's there a lot. Man, it's funny when people are like, where is your dad? Like, he's not here today. No, he's not. Yeah. So, yeah, he, uh, he's living in Arizona now. So it definitely makes it easier for him to make, you know, games and he makes all those West Coast games. It's awesome. Like, he's in a time of life too, where he's able to travel more and, and let the dream that we always had together and be able to come to games and talk shop after. It's cool. That's awesome. What, how'd you get stuck in an elevator with Mesa Moe, right? No, that was, was it Mace? Where'd we get stuck? I don't know. I was in the notes here. I'm like, what the fuck? Danny Powers told me you and Mace and Laura. Supplies, you could just reach his arm on. Fix it. Yeah. No kidding. Well, I know I got stuck in an elevator with Laucco. Only elevators you've been stuck in. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. We were visiting Shandon Kirk. It was like New Year's Eve for Christmas. And like, he lived in this building in Seaport. It was just like old. It's like right above Lockies. So it's like that old building is forward. No, for, you know, what? I don't know if he lived there. For we live in North end. That was the same elevator too. Yeah, he had he had to fit with that elevator. What's the mystery game? The infrastructure. Yeah. Paying all the players too much. Yeah. But yeah, like Laucco and I, it was a little Christmas evening stuff. And we're just going down. It's just like boom. And then you're just like, see in pitch black. And so like we call call shadow. You're like, we're stuck in your elevator. And to the point where there was like no getting this out. And, uh, oh yeah. Fire department came, like the sparks were coming through and we're just sitting there like classic. No problem. Merry Christmas. Yeah. No kidding. Holy fuck. So wait, I think you know, one of I think 14 guys from Alaska put to play in the NHL. It must be like, is it like sort of tight fraternity? How many of these guys do you know, like, do you kind of get like a secret handshake or a wink for NHL is from Alaska? Is Golmer the the one who paved the way? Is he the most famous one? Absolutely. Yeah, I mean, he's he's one in a million. I've golfered a few times and it's like, it's it's the best, you know, you just, you're just listening. And like, again, like when I sign my contract, we went golfing and he was just telling me all these stories. You know, coming from college and it was COVID too. So yeah, I spent a ton of time in Alaska, but it was funny. Like, my pro group in Alaska, I was probably 14. And it was like Joey Krab, Tim Wallace, JJ Johnson, Nate Thompson, uh, Goma's never skated with us, but yeah, it was it was a group and it was like 14 years old. So I'm just getting like 90 mile an hour, just rinsed in warm-up shots. I'm like, this is great. But then you just like, that was great because I was competing. And you know, it's like awesome. You're skating with these top dogs that have also been through it. And you're literally just a 14 year old like getting driven to the ring, but your dad's still they're doing pro skates. So that was awesome. Uh, take us take us back to Italy, because what an incredible story, right? Like, uh, just getting to do that in front of Biz for me, it was just, oh, I was just I'll never forget it. But for you, um, you know, I know like played the one game, like maybe, you know, didn't go personally as you as you hope, but it's all about the team and you win the gold medal and like, what does it mean to have that group and forever be a part of that team? It's, uh, it's incredible. Man, like, you still look back on it. You don't realize how big a deal it was until we got back to the US. And now even the summer like golfing with guys are telling you where they're watching it and like, waking up early. And it was just like, it is, it's incredible to think that like, all the great set of come before us, you know, it's the 1980 team, obviously, like, and like, you're the one that like wins the next gold medal, like a part of that crew, it's, it's, it's really like humbling. And, uh, all the things that had to go right, you know, in my life and everyone else's life to like be in that moment, be on that team, uh, just to experience how they're forgotten forever be grateful for, but it makes you hungry. man like, you know, playing that game, they're exactly like, I felt so bad. You let him that go from the red line. I'm like, oh my God. And it's like the worst time to do it, but you know, it's, it's, it's funny to look back on and be like, what an experience. Like you, you powered through that and you didn't let it waver you. So it's just all this experience that you're gaining and then seeing, you know, hellbuck and in the gold medal game and like again, like, they virtually, he's faced and didn't let anything face him. It's just like having a front row to these elite performers, you know, get the job done. It was experience I'll never free out. Where do you think hellbuck ends up just kidding. So wait, do you keep the metal on display in your home somewhere? What do you do with the metal? We got it upstairs. Yeah. It's like, kind of in the closet. I got like the World Championship gold medal and then like the ring. I think we're waiting for the Olympic ring too, but that's, it is crazy to look like from the year that, if you're on the contract year, that was so like insanely hard, you know, for me individually and like us in Boston, you know, in a microscope, like, and then a year later to see those two things on my desk is like, wow, like everything, everything's meant to be. All right. Uncle's going to be selling it to the pawn shop in about four days. I would move that thing. I don't know. What's your address? Nothing. I know where he is. I'm just getting inside the bank, right around the block, Ellen asked to sway with like, what was the comparison in a 10 new ball buckle? A comparison of intensity, you know, being, you know, a pot of a, you know, gold medal game versus the NHL playoffs. Like, obviously, both huge, but what's the difference? Like, what's the main difference between Olympics and like NHL playoffs? What'd you say? Obviously, it comes onto one game, you know, that's the biggest thing. It's like Super Bowl. Like, all comes onto one game. There's no like series. So, yeah, within international events like that, it's just heightened because, you know, every mistake is magnified and it's just interesting how it all plays out with like teams, you know, getting placed in divisions and like, everything has to go kind of perfectly. But, yeah, as soon as you get to the gold medal game, it's like, okay, like, don't stay with for tomorrow, you know, and that's the best thing about it is like, you know, you wake up tomorrow, a champion, it's a pretty, pretty good sacrifice to grind through every single thing and really be detailed throughout the entire game. I got kind of a random one. This is non-hockey related and going back to your music background. Do you jam out with any other guys on the team who play instruments? I have. Yeah. Morgan Geeky. He's my, he's my jam guy, yeah, with another guitar or is he the bass? He's a guitar too, yeah, and it's been awesome. Like we had a thing going for a while, like any city we went to, we'd land and then go find a guitar store and just be like, we try to stay away from like a guitar center, but like, you gotta find like, you know, a more mall and pop plays, but sometimes just guitar center and like, just kind of chill out before dinner and then go to dinner from there. But it's, it's fun to have like everybody like that that's able to kind of disconnect from the game and just go jam. There's a number of Smitty used to bring his on the road. It's crazy because it's all goalies, like Henrik Lundquist plays guitar, Sean Burke, who is the goalie coach at the time played the guitar. It must be the way that you guys process things and how many, like how many goalies end up being musicians, specifically guitar players. I mean, yeah, it's a cool correlation. Like, I just think it's, it's cool to exactly be able to disconnect like literally you're working on guitar just like anyone's working on the skill, you know, it's just something that's completely different and the better you get, like I will say the first three months is the worst three months of your life. You don't know anything and you're just grind and sound terrible, but like once you start getting it, it's just repetition and it's pretty fun. So my dad, Clay, grown up to a little bit. So like, that was a big, you know, motivator, like, all right, you can't be better than me. So I gotta get him. Yeah. Last one as a follow up, assuming that anyone of your teammates could play any instrument, play in your four man band and maybe the band name. Wow. Okay. Who's playing the drums? The door is playing the didgeridoo. What? Just literally, but what's the didgeridoo? You know, an Australian thing. No. Oh. Okay. Okay. So you're going a big band. Yeah. I think it's a tough one to put on the spot, but like, man. Got to think like pasta's on the triangle, just like thing thing and then geeks on the guitar clearly. I want to say like, who's got vocals like pasta's got the look to be the lead singer. He does. Yeah. He does. I think, uh, that's exactly what the skimp is. He's not. He's got. He's got the man going this year. There you go. Yeah, put the Mac on vocals, just feel in it and then the name of the, uh, he's uh, through the wire like Kanye with the broken jaw, man, man, man, man. Were you in net when that puck hit McAvoy? Yeah. Man, you can feel a fuck. That video still to this day makes me legit, poor and she and his teeth flying everywhere. That was insane. And he came back and he was incredible last year too. Yeah. There's a guy like, again, just nothing stopping that guy and you get so much respect over the years and just see an empower through and just have success time and time again. Like, it's an absolute pleasure being, being next to him and like, yeah, when you felt that, like, let me just, you know, and feel like you know, that sound. It's just like goes through you. Yeah. You go right over to him and it was just like, oh my God. So yeah, I can't have that again, but I put a bubble on him. So what? What last one? He felt like going against Sweeney and Neely for to arbitration. Oh, man, you get taglets growing up, three or four like the tag guys you, like, looked up to that inspired you don't want to pick up your acts. Yeah. Stevie Ray Vaughn, Eddie Better, Tim Reynolds, dad, yeah, the big three, yeah, who's Tim Reynolds? He plays with Dave. Dave Matthews. Like, like, yeah, Dave and Timmy are like, they shred. I got to see them live for the first time a couple of years ago too, and I was, I was a pleasure. So it's just a different world. Like, those guys are like, the elitist, right? It's amazing when you, when you play and like, understand how hard it is what they're doing. They're just like, no problem. You know, just jamming and dancing around. Can you read music or you teach yourself just on listening? No, I'm purely like YouTube. I was like, want to learn a song, YouTube it and just memorize it. I don't know how to use it. I'm just starting to get into like the music theory stuff. So like if you're learning scales, like how to like, you know, match an e, e, whatever like song is an e, then you can like solo over it and like, major or minor bettodonics and stuff. So that's my next, my next chapter. I feel like a John Mayer. I mean, I know more, maybe more than ladies love him, but I feel like he's kind of risen the ranks. Oh, yeah, I thought him live too. And I was like, just insane. Just what he's doing, like literally groundbreaking and making, like I listened to one of his jams one time. Here's just like a YouTube video and it's like, yeah, I just do this, you know, and then I just, he's kind of do this. And it's like, what? You're like, what? I just speak in rocket science. Yeah. Actually, rushes at the, the guidance tonight across the street is the Canadian being. Oh, yeah. And over the guidance, I'd obviously just dropped tomorrow. I don't know if I'd have a grab a ticket, check out Noises is coming back. You and Oasis fan it all the way. Yeah. We've heard them a few times. Yeah. They got a good, they got a good day. I mean, the garden, like Boston, like Boston, like you stick around the summers. You're, you're seeing elite, elite, you know, different bands coming through and like cool venues too. I'm sure. Yeah. My favorite thing to do. So wait. Hey, so wait. You mentioned Florida before I got to ask any good marshy stories and how weird is it playing against them now? Yeah. Plenty of marshy stories, man. I mean, again, he's one of those guys, like you get your main guys, you know, kind of going, going through the years and like, I call him on, you know, really personal stuff. You know, guys like that just experienced driven. So he's just one of those who you absolutely hate to play against, but love him to death. And like, you know, he lives down the street from me too, which is awesome and like being able to hang out with him and his family and now like stepping into that family. Chapter two, like just bouncing ideas off of him. Like, how did you manage, you know, your home life and be able to perform like you did day and day out? And yeah, playing against him is like, I know all your moves, but you're still scoring on me, man. Like, what's going on? And it's, it's, it's pretty cool, you know, to see like how he's just tormented goalies throughout the years. And then you're facing him and you're like, here we go. Like, this is, this is it. Got to go now. So a ton of respect for him and, and what he's doing and has done. Well, buddy, we appreciate you hopping on. I know camps just around the corner, but thank you and, and congrats on everything last year. And it's, it's pretty cool to see where you're at. You seem so comfortable in your own skin and, and the type of goal you are. So good luck this year. Thank you so much, guys. You guys have got a special place in my heart and, you know, what you guys have done for the players and, and the league has, has been incredible. So keep doing what you're doing, really appreciate it from all the boys. Now, if you can get me a, a, a, a, Frazier, Mitten, stick sign, so, because I had a tattoo going, I lost it. I'd appreciate it. He's going to put it in the same safety deposit box as that gold medal that you're going to move over. You're done. All right. That's incredible. - Thanks, man. - Thanks, man, thank you, bud. - Thanks, man. - Guys, we got to talk nicotine pouches, which means we're talking Lucy. The Lucy breakers is what I really want to talk about. The flavor, it's intense, long lasting, and it actually satisfies. Bite down before use to pop the flavor capsule and unlock the full breakers experience, a satisfying click, a rush of new flavor, and a pouch that feels unlike anything else in this category. Breakers flavors are built to stay vivid from start to finish. The apple turns icy, the berry gets a blast of citrus, and mint gets even more minty, creating a refreshing flavor experience that lasts longer and stays more interesting than ordinary pouches. Lucy is the only pouch that delivers long-lasting on-demand flavor. Get 20% off now, your first order, when you buy online at lucy.co/chiclets with code "chiclets". And here comes the fine print. Warning, this product contains nicotine. Nicotine is an addictive chemical. - What a guy, art biz, did they just get the fifth spot? - No, oh my God, no. That was an incredible interview. I hope they don't, so you can join us for playoff coverage. (laughing) - Fuck you. - You're fifth team, 'cause I think we're all in agreement and tell me, correct me if I'm wrong. We have Monterey, we have Buffalo, we have Tampa, we have Florida, I'm taking Boston as the fifth, Bays, you're going Toronto, I assume? - Yeah, Toronto's way more loaded up front. I agree the back end, but I think that goal tending, especially they have a better tandem. Overall, I'm leaning towards the leaves. - Okay, and all right, that leaves us with one more team and we'll get your picks, but the Florida Panthers boys, kind of crazy to see them. Finally, just take the year off and the injuries and it's like, everyone is saying, oh, they're back, Stanley Cup number three here. It comes, but Angles does have me thinking a little where you're just like, you're so sure of what's gonna happen but you don't, you don't really know. Now, I think it's safe to say, like Brady and Matthew together, like what they're gonna be doing, all the contracts they have. I mean, just a Twitter feed popped up. Like, Forzling makes five, five, whatever it is. So Keith, I guess it's kind of your squad. What do you think? Is it gonna be as easy as everyone thinks? - Easy, no, but like you said it earlier, the parody and the league is so equal. Like, there's so many good teams, anyone can beat anyone, but I just truly think that this team, especially as soon as playoffs starts, they're gonna be a different animal. They're obviously gonna be really good during the regular season. They're gonna bring teams into the shit. They're gonna make teams uncomfortable from game one to game 84 and then on into playoffs, but you just look at their top six. Look at their tops. You got Brady Kachok, Alexander Barkov, who missed the entire year last year, then comes back and captains his team to a world championship. So he's ready to go, he's itching, ready to play, and then Ryan Hart on the right. So that's an insane line. Then second line, Bennett, Verhaegi, Matthew Kachok. Like, come on, that's gonna be probably the best top six in recent history, maybe since that's who can the boys. But for me, it's their back end. Like, I truly love their back end. Like, Jones, Foresling, Eckblad, Mikaela, and then you bring in the butcher and you have Koolakov, who has heard a lot of the year last year. He's gonna be healthy, ready to go. Just a real back end that you look at every night, if you're skilled forward, you like, fuck me. I gotta get to the bad areas. They're gonna make it a living hell. So I really think that this team's gonna suck the play against every single night. I think you're gonna see Brady and Matthew getting each other going, getting teams going, being real pieces of shit in the most respectful way possible. And then Marchi, I think, is gonna be out for a little bit, but then he'll be back ready to go. Because you think when they won what two years ago, it was Marchi, Lucy, and Lundell, right? Probably the best line of that will play off. And that's their third line. So I don't see many flaws, except for maybe the back end. I can let you guys handle the goal tending. I think Marchi, I think he's the perfect fit for a guy that you could get in. Like he's big. I think Rob Talos will do a really good job with him of getting, you know, played deep in his net. Like you've seen the way that he's helped these goalies. So I think Marchi's gonna be better than a lot of people give him credit for because, you know, some of the teams you've been on before hasn't, you know, been the way it should be, but I think he's gonna flourish here in Florida. Yeah, the volume, there's gonna be less shot volume, you'd think. Yeah, right? Bids, are you, are you a soul that's everyone else's on them? I just like, I don't really care where they end up. It's just making playoffs. And like even if they're a wild card, they don't care. It's just, they want to see eight seed. They want to see eight seed. And like, yeah, I'm a little bit like, there's the question marks a net with Marchi. Interested to see what he can do. I think he played with Shmeed, right? So that's a familiar tandem, right? 'Cause he was in New Jersey at some point as well. I would imagine at the same time. So yeah, I just think that this is like, with the amount of rest, with the amount of like regroup and the fact that they know that their window is now in the next few years. Again, I see no way that these guys miss playoffs. There's no way, no way, no chance. And I do think it was a cup contender. I think that the other stronger teams are in the West. And we talked about how hard the division is, but ultimately they're making playoffs. The problem with them, like for every other team is, yeah, it doesn't really matter where they finish. They get in. That team is going to wear the shit out of everyone. Like just wear them down where they're gonna be mean. Yeah, Gouda's being there. He's gonna be running around Brady and Matthew in a seven game series. Bark off back. So they're so good. They're so big. And then like how good Reinhardt is, you know, the Bennett's there. He's running around killing people. So it's more about, yeah, 84 games long year. They finish as the first wild card team. They're like, all right, now it's time. And then in a seven game series, you get to game three and four. And it's like, we can't really do much against this team. They're so big. They play so angry. So them winning the Stanley Cup. Yeah, what are their odds right now, R.A.? As 650 plus 650 to one. So what is the, are they fourth in the league, fifth in the league? I, but you know what I think them in Carolina might be, might be tied the last time they were both tied for the number one seed. Well, number one on the odds wise. But yeah, I, and they would have plus 140 for the division, which obviously has a favorite. Yeah, I agree with you guys. They're definitely getting in. I'm getting back off back. As no shit, Sherlock huge, bringing Brady and those, the two brothers playing together. I think yeah, they're going to be a, a, a, a, a, a, a tan of how that's going to be a force to be reckoned with. And also to maximum has the potential to be like a, a really good story. I think he's, you know, he sees up there. He's played a lot of, he is, but he's 36 years old. He was originally a Florida draft pickback in 2008. Second round overall. Third and third overall from the bus. Yeah. So, you know, it would be, you know, a, a, a little, a little symmetry if he was able to, you know, get him on a nice playoff from. But yeah, I, I, I, for the rest of the thing, I get Tampa, when the division, Florida, Buffalo, Montreal and Boston, I have those five teams getting in the playoff said, I had three other in the other division. So yeah, I think Florida, they'll be right back in the mix. No doubt this, yes. So yeah, Florida is, yeah, they're tied with Carolina for plus 650 and, and next is Colorado 700. And the oilers are actually fourth plus 800. It's our year, it's our year. So, yeah, a great division here. It's going to be chaos. I would say it's chaotic. The way you look at each team and, and maybe even Detroit, like somehow figures it out and then like all of us talking about them being the worst team in the division. We look like fools, which happens quite, quite, quite often. Things out what out of higher GM? Yeah, exactly. I know. Let's get a GM, get Edvinson signed before camp starts. That would be ideal. But all right, you got any, uh, any show recommendations for we wrap this thing? Uh, well, this is Aaron. Tomorrow obviously the Emmys are on tonight. I'll, I'll be looking at them. I'm sure the pit's going to clean up once again. Oh, I'm going to see that Oasis talk at the movies, but classic recommendation. I'm surprised they actually never had given this out before. It actually debuted on HBO 25 years ago. A band of brothers, uh, like, you know, arguably the greatest the midi series ever made. It's about easy company, uh, the second battalion from the 506 parachute infantry regiment of the 101st Airborne and World War II. And it traces this, this group of guys, you know, basically from in boot camp all the way through, you know, the end of World War II and, you know, some of the guys through with the whole mission. It's just just one of the most stunning, uh, pieces of art made that that plays tribute to these great guys. It was a book, uh, I believe Stephen Ambrose was named, came out 92. So yeah, uh, band of brothers, it's just a watching. It was just a wonderful tribute to it with, with, with these guys. I, you know, like guys like my grandfather and, you know, that generation with what they sacrificed to, to basically save the world, uh, from, from true evil. So, uh, band of brothers, that's my classic recommendation this weekend. Yeah, check it out if you haven't seen it yet. How about the scene in, in which they see David Schwimmer's character later. And it's just like, and, and then he's like salute, salute the, salute the officer in front of you or whatever. It's just that show that, that one episode of, uh, Bastone, is that where they were in the, oh, my, yeah, all right. Actually, I, I think like every six to seven years, I kind of watched that again. And, and then they go back. at the end of the episode, they actually, the men who I'm assuming have passed away by now. I mean, that was that long ago. These guys were old then, but they talked to the people that these guys are playing as characters. That's a great recommendation. I think we've talked about it before, but what a show. - Absolutely, absolutely. - All right, so next week we have the central business off to Mount Washington. The end is in Florida. I'm full swing hockey season with the kids, so can't wait until next week our final division, and then we're ripping. So I love you all. Thanks for listening and congrats to G. - And congrats to the granales. - See you boys. (upbeat music) ♪ If don't let it, it's going to happen ♪ ♪ It's going to happen again ♪ (upbeat music)