Spittin' Chiclets Episode 681: Featuring Blake Wheeler

What's going on spit and chickens fans? You can find every episode on Apple podcast, Spotify, Amazon music or Netflix. This episode is brought to you by State Farm. Football has a play for just about everything. You can go deep, keep it on the ground or drop something nobody sees coming. And whether you want to run a flea flicker or the push push, you need a plan to fit your unique situation. That's why State Farm takes the time to get to know you so they can help personalize coverage for your life and budget. Now that's a solid game plan. Like a good neighbor, State Farmers there. This football season, it's game on with Ryobi. Whether you're getting the yard ready for kickoff, clearing leaves before guests arrive or powering your tailgate, Ryobi's 40-volt outdoor lineup has you covered. With over 85 products powered by the same 40-volt battery, you'll get peak performance across leaf blowers, chain sauce, tremors and more. When it's time to take the party beyond the yard, Ryobi's portable power solutions. Keep your tailgate running strong. Ryobi, the number one cordless outdoor power brand, visit RyobiTools.com/tailgate. Ryobi, only available at the Home Depot. Me and Ryan have been officially welcomed to the jungle that is basketball sports. I brought it toward the coyotes and I asked them if it was okay if I joined the stick, Chico's podcast full time. No, no, 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 got his asses from Chris Feet. Whoa, we're buzzing right now. Sunk. Welcome everyone to episode 681 of The Spit Chico's podcast, presented by Rises Halloween was a banger in our house. Hold on, I'll tell you that for free. And I know, I know everyone out there was Russian Reese's. They were enjoying their night. Probably some alcohol involved Shuttle, Pink Whitney, but Saturday night, Halloween will not happen again for 11 years. So I know it was Reese's consumption that went everywhere. Bizz with that look, I know I had the same look. I was so confused. I said, how is it 11 years if there's only seven days a week? I think leap years have something to do with it though. Explain. I can't explain, buddy. I'm not the explain guy. We don't really have an explain. We have morals. He's an inventor of everything. But I'll tell you, my wife was all in her feels. She sent me some Instagram. I know other dads got this sent by their wives to tonight will be the final or the last time Halloween is on a Saturday night for 11 years. Think of how different your children will be in 11 years. Let them stay up late, let them do whatever they want, basically, and let them crush Reese's. I know not whatever they want, bitch. She's don't give me that face. But still Reese's. We love you. We love the fact that you're our presenting sponsor. And thank you so much. Boys, how was the weekend? And not to mention this friggin league, this league week. Oh my God. How is this keep happening? How do we get so lucky? Oh, look at that picture of Yance. I didn't see that picture. He said, you were pretty good with about being in the moment with your family because you were not very involved in the group chat this weekend, which is good, man. Sometimes you have to dial out. You have to be present. And as you said, this is the last time that Halloween is going on a Saturday for 11 years, leap years, or whatever the fuck full moons. But yeah, it's you got into the spirit of Halloween this year. Yeah, absolutely. Every I love Halloween. One of my favorites, but it stinks now. Like my kids are older. They don't want to hang out with us. They're at parties now. They don't even walk around that are neighborhood. Even so I went all out, especially, you know, with the Reese's hand in out candy. But you know, the key move is you save a few for later, right? Because obviously all the Reese's are going to get taken. You got to throw some in the fridge and in the freezer for yourself, because at the end of the day on Halloween, you got to take care of yourself. But yeah, yeah, the costume, the Reese's that I had on my head, I had to order a baby costume, because it had that for, so that's supposed to be for a baby's head. So I put that on there. Well, they got big heads, right? They basically are pretty close to human size heads. So yeah, I mean, just aid for effort. I wouldn't put it ahead of Ralphie. But you're oh, well, I was, I think the RA might have one Halloween. Yeah, he did. Do you think you went out like that? We'll have to ask him later this week. I think he had just came in when he came on the pod. Yeah, he might still be out right now. I would say RA puts more effort into his Halloween costumes than he does on any single combined outline for the year. Oh, yeah. Like the famous trade deadline one when he just listed every team with like a couple names beneath everyone. We had no clue anything. It was like, no, that was that was one when RA RA, you know, I think that might have been in, uh, with it was that in, uh, in Vegas. No, no, no, there's a different one. We were, I was sitting at this desk with great deadline recap. I'll never. Oh, I do like all of his costumes. You have to explain it because not a lot of the times. Like people, a lot of the young kids don't know. What do you do? Stand by me last year. That was a tough one, but it was awesome. Yeah, it was awesome. Yeah, he goes old school. He goes, you know, he's going old school and you know that he probably loves getting to explain the costumes because then it's it's times he can chat away with different people. So, um, yeah, boys, I'll say this why it pulled off a classic move. I never thought of this. I don't know how he thought of it, but I looked over at one point and he had unwrapped a mini Reese's peanut butter company who's just holding it. And I was like, Hey, bud, you have to eat that. And he's like, so he kind of ate it, but it was like looking at me mad. And then later he had the little bag of Reese's pieces and he pours him in his hand and he's just holding them. I'm like, what are you doing? I'm like, they're going to melt. That's what kids hold food for like two weeks. Well, listen, he said, I know they're going to melt. I said, then why are you like not? He goes, because then I, I'm saving it for later. Then I can lick it off my fingers later. So I get to eat it twice. I'm like, wow, smart smart. See, they're smart or adoption. Besides my, besides my walls and my, my, my car upholstery being just, oh, ridicules, chocolate, crushing the chocolate. You got to get around interior and all your cars now. If I have a kid, my whole house will be fucking covered in late text. Oh, yeah, you'll be, oh, a kid will like drop something at the table on the floor and you're like, oh, oh, yeah, they'll respect for me. I weren't done for you. Wife's like, uh, he dropped one piece of a cut up apple. We could pick it up. Fuck no. Why it and Yoshi for kooch straight up. See you later. You're gone. You're gone. At least, I could save some money on the cap. Uh, treat their own homes like you treat, uh, hotel rooms. What kids treat their own homes like you treat hotel room. You're shit everywhere. The only thing you don't treat them bad, but you let your stuffs everywhere. Like day three of one of our trips, you had like the whole place covered with your. Yeah. I mean, the towels. It's a fucking walkin' around. Yeah. Towers are hard as rocks. He's using a towel as a weapon if somebody breaks a pregnant towel. It's like a fucking, it's like a, what do you call those things where you knock the candy out of like paper mache? Oh, yeah. And he actually has come. And the sticky uses to break the pinata's got a little covered thing on the end of it. Oh boy. Just an old cool old school. I didn't get one trick or treat her. Oh, it was pouring here, buddy. I was in the middle of El Nino all weekend in Scottsdale, Arizona. Oh, we've had the greatest weather I've ever seen at a walk. It's been 65, like 60 to 65 for a week straight. No, no, no clouds in the sky. It's incredible. I was, you know what I was for Halloween. Fucking lieutenant day and on my fucking roof going through the eye of the storm. You ain't got no legs, Lieutenant Diane. It wasn't I was supposed to die in the war. Those I was supposed to remain a leaf's fan. Oh, yeah. And things got worse. You know, these fucking the, what do they call them? The retro throwback jerseys? Yeah. Some sick fuck from fanatics decided to send me one. Wow. So you know what? We'll do something. We'll do something where we figure out some way during this show for a fan to do something and comments or whatever that you send them. Oh, yeah. And I will say, you know what the saddest part about it is these might be the nicest ones. Yeah, those fucking open this thing up expecting a meat cob, each God Jersey. And then I get the nicest clean. Those are, those are, those are, and I don't love winning it easily. The best of these new hometown remixes. He looks like he's going to a club in Miami, shout out the Panthers. Yep. You know what I thought to do though? Like when I got this is obviously I'm not going to be rocking it. I guarantee Matthews would sign it and personalize it. We should do to where like maybe there's like a minimum donation to Jeff Tafe's charity. If we could put it up on the bottom of the screen and G, if you can get the details to like which website to go and donate to his charity and then we'll raffle it off. And then like whoever do the same with Barkey. I'll have Barkey sign this one. Yeah, maybe like 20 bucks. And then it enters you in a draw to like win this. And I'm sure Matthews will be kind enough to sign it. Jeff Tafe's doing some really cool stuff for for for veterans and people in the military and their family. And you'll have yourself a beautiful remix, Austin Matthews. Yeah, those are nice. And I don't feel bad for you. But so Friday, I went to a costume party. And I'm kind of getting ready out the door. Reggie came over here. He's grown up. His costume was his costume was a shirt, say, that says it was like a kind of like a pumpkin drink and a beer. This is my costume. Don't give me a beer. Very funny. I thought, but I have this like blown up aliens carrying around a mini human. My head's the mini human. I tried to cut a part of it, but I cut the wrong part. So the duct tape's the mini human being carried by the alien had duct tape feet. It was, it was tough. Look, but as we're kind of pulling in the news breaks and I'm like, oh, my God, I can't, I saw the Elliott article with just Kucherov and Elliott just drops these bombs with like, he already has a little article written and I'm like, holy shit. And then our group chats pop it off. I'm on my phone. She's like, can you get off your phone? We just got to my Kucherov just asked to be treated like, who is Kucherov? I'm like, just leave me alone. I can't get over it. I mean, God, Dylan Larkin right now is like, no, no, no, no. Well, am I going to get traded now? All anyone's talking about his Kucherov. He goes on to play like 10 minutes later as three assists, take me through your thoughts, base, take me through your reaction. And basically you're immediate feeling of when you saw this all come down. Well, the fact that they're playing against the Fred's and then they get to interview stammer after the game and it just, it's, it's fucking nuts. And shut up the Kucherov for letting his teammates know on the plane beforehand. I can only imagine you're the reigning heart MVP. You've done everything you possibly can for an organization that he's done. Like I mean, list off the hardware and what she's done. You go that whole season, the one year where he didn't even play comes back and playoffs, leads playoff and scoring. I think you led playoffs and scoring back to back seasons. And you see these kids who haven't fucking done all, fuck all in the league, getting, you know, $50 million here, $18 million here. And you get a call from your agent and you tell them that the paper that's been set across the desk from Breeze Boah and the Tampa Bay Lightning the original offer apparently is $13 million. So a bowl byroom makes I would rather get kicked my house egg. I would rather get my house egg. I'd rather go through El Nino again back to back weekends with my landscaping ruined. I'd rather get hoofed in the nuts by every fucking person on my block. It's such a disrespectful offer. And the worst, the worst part about it is after I fire off a tweet about how fucking disrespectful and pathetic it is. And I hope that he moves on is the Tampa Bay Lightning fans having the nerve. Some of them saying, Oh, have you seen him the last couple of years in playoffs? Fuck you. Fuck you. You think every fucking year you're going to have this fucking like you're going to have a consmite type playoff. You think that's that that's how it goes. You're not going to have your off years. Like give me a fucking break. And then and then to boot then all the other offers come over the table, the offer sheet. And then and then they go, you know what? Let's let's bump it up here. Here's here's 15 million. And apparently now I'm going based off of what I'm here and it was a four year offer at 15 million per year. So it's not even like he's getting term on the 15 per year. He's getting like, all right, we think you're going to basically be at your prime and your peak for another four years. Because keep in mind, folks, he just won the heart trophy. I'm always 33 is 33 is 33. He just won the fucking heart. Okay. So I don't really want to hear this. Oh, you don't pay for what he's done in the past. You pay for what he's going to do here. Like, I don't know, man. I don't I can't think of a team that would be maybe as lost as they would be without coach as a Tampa Bay lighting. All of their offense power play. Everything runs through him. Look at radish in Toronto right now. How many fucking goals did he have last year? How many guys even have one? Is that a goal? So I'm not even a Tampa fan of my bloods boiling over this. I don't understand when a guy like, we know Breeze one. And I think he's done a tremendous job. He's an awesome GM in Tampa. But I don't think we we talk about Breeze bra the way we talk about Breeze bra if it ain't for Nikita Kutra. If it ain't for Steven Stamco's. If it ain't these other guys who have kind of been like, Hey, man, we think you're out of your prime. How many fucking goals that Steven Stamco's have last year? 40 over 40 over 40 light it up this year, too. So yeah, 42 last year. If I'm a GM and you know who I am because of guys who have fucking got it done on the ice and helped me win Stanley Cup to basically, you know, put you at the top of the class of GMs in the national hockey. I call Kutra, I've in I call his agent. The first question I ask is, what do you want? What is it that you want? Obviously fans right now are like, Oh, yeah, he's obviously going to say the max. When he tells you that, that's when you work down, you say, we want to give you that. I think that we could win another one. If you're able to bend a little bit for us, like that's how you fucking word it. You don't slide an insulting offer over the table to start things out because then the relationships fractured right from there. Then there's animosity. So I don't know what's being said in these negotiations or how the wording is or what the exact offer that's on the table. But if the first one was 13 and then it moved to 15, yes, Tampa fans who are all up in my fucking mention saying, I don't know what the fuck I'm talking about. That is a disrespectful offer to the reigning hard champion and a guy who has the reason that you've gotten so much enjoyment as a fan is a big part of Nikita Kutraov who who is. Hey, in the summertime, when guys are like, oh, I'm going to go home and fuck around a little bit with my buddies. No, I'm going to be in Tampa on the ice for an hour every day, fucking working on my skills, the bettering myself and my teammates, slapping the face offer, a disrespectful one. And I hope he says, fuck you when you get nothing of return and he finishes off the season there. And then he goes on and you get nothing of return and he goes and gets exactly what he deserves somewhere else and he goes and wins one. That's my feeling on it. When Tampa won their last cup, Kutraov's 27.24, like these guys are in their prime, did anyone think that their window was closing the year that Stan coast left? Like it was kind of like they could win two more in the next three, four years, right? What have they done since then? Nothing. I think breeze was getting a lot of credit for a team that was assembled essentially by Stevie Y. What are the, what are the biggest deals you guys think that breeze was put through the help them win? Okay, so it's Gensel signing like they have a one with Gensel. That's fair. No, they brought in McDonald. They haven't run with Hagel, but a handle deal was awesome. One with them. No, they've had never won with his guys that he brought in where the Barclay, Goudreau's, the Pat Maroons, the who else Coleman. Wait, no, so they won one. No, Hagel was not on the team when they won. They made a little bit of a run, I think, with Hagel when he got there his first year, when he was like, when they brought in Coleman, they then won. Yes, one with them. That's what I'm saying. Like they bring in the bottom end guys who end up being good, but I put that more on the players in Tampa. That's not like the Hagel was there when they played against Colorado. I believe in the final. I also, I got to say this Keith, I'm with you on parts of that, but we don't know for sure, because the owner could be the one that's like, I'm not giving him 20 times whatever. Like you don't know, sometimes you don't know if it's the GM's decision or the owner's decision. Now my thing with coaches is this guy, like he's not going anywhere. He turns 34 after the season, this entire year he's 33, okay. Buddy, this guy's never been the best player in the world at times or top three player at the world for the last one eight years because of his speed. Right. Like I'm not worried about this guy losing a step and all of a sudden just not being dominant offensively. It's with his mind. It's with his vision. It's with his creativity. Like I would give this guy no question five times 20. Apparently G in the outline wrote he wants six times 20. If you're Tampa Bay, you don't really have many prospects boys. Like they have mortgaged and mortgaged and mortgaged the future time after time to stay in the window of competing and having the chance to winning it. Go down with the ship with this guy. Exactly. Exactly. And let me tell you, if he did, and I don't know this to be true, but the way it worked, if he waited to do this till after he broke the all time franchise points record, I know that's very funny. And you could see, you could see by his reaction when it happened, something was off. Did you see the video of when they had the, all the fans had the cool, you're right. He just spoke to the media and I can pull the video up in a second here, but his quote was it, it was poor communication in respect. It was never about money for me. It was never a bolt. It was the respect factor. And I get that. And biz, you're right. The line that you said in the group chat or just now was like, these deals, these young guys are signing and granted incredible players and they're 22 years old. and I get it, but he's looking at that scene. What I've done for this city, this organization, and what you just offered me is an absolute slap in my face. - He's one of the biggest low maintenance guys in the league. Shows up, does what he needs to do, puts in the work, like you said, is every summer, during the year he's putting in the work. And for him, I completely get it where he takes it as a slap in the face, like you can't have a guy who does everything you ask him to do and more. And then when it comes to negotiation after he's done everything for your team, you throw him a bullshit offer. I think it's, I commend him for what he did, 'cause at the end of the day, when you're with a team not long, especially during a season, when essentially your goals are to win a Stanley Cup this year, he's like, "You know what, fuck this, this is about me. I got disrespected, I'm going down, this is my decision." So I tip my cop to him. - I honestly can't believe that who was ever in charge of this didn't ask for an in-person meeting with him and his agent, send the fucking jet, we're going to know Boo and saying, "Boy, it's like, what are you thinking? What is it that you want?" That should be the first question in order to stay there, okay? And then when he throws out the six times 20, work back and say, "Hey, maybe we can get you the six term, but would you work off of Caprice Off's deal?" I guarantee you, he fucking lowers his number. When you start at 13, by the way, I bet even out of respect, if they just said, "What do you want?" He would have just said a number and taken it. He probably wouldn't even got to 20. - But you know who would be, you know who got the fucking same contract, the Summer Bowl Byram. - Right. - That's what you offered. That's what you offered the reigning heart champ. They just don't talk to me about all back then and in the summer it was different, even before these crazy deals were offered. Like, "Hey, obviously Conor Bedard's going to be a special player, but he ain't fucking Nikita Kutrop. You're not even going to start a motor with the fucking Conor Bedard deal?" - I know. - We're talking here. - Let me talk to him about here. - And this is a guy who has two cups, two heart for NHLNVP's three art rosses, two Ted Lindsay for player-voted MVP, five time first NHL All-Star team, seven NHL All-Star game selections. And the last two years, he's won the art ross and then you're off from that. It's a wild story. It's also a question I have for you, either one of you guys. So they've lost in the first round four years in a row. He has, I think-- - That's what fans are using against me. - I know, but I'm saying if they lost, say four years ago in the first round, then went conference finals, then lost first round, then lost second round last year. Is it different? Is this solely based on his age or is it partly to do with the playoff success that Tampus had? - I don't know. And they fucking, they, they, they, they, they, they don't have them. - If they don't have them, they probably win. They should have won that series. The, the, the, the, what sucks is I think that they've won like in their last 12 home games and playoff. They're like two and, two and 10. - But she, can we, can we watch the video if I speak into the media today? - Go ahead. - Somebody? - Nikita, what, can we hear from you? Just kind of what you believe your future is with this team and you know, obviously we've heard all the reports about you saying that you're not going to resign here and you want to train. What, what are your kind of comments to all of that? - You know, for now, I'm part of the team and I'll do anything. I will do anything I can to help this. My teammates win and you know, yeah. - Do you see a situation here? The way that, do you see a situation here where this ends with you remaining on this team after this year? - You know, I made my request and. - What's it know? - What is this organization meant to you? - You know, everything I've got to hear, play for, now this is my fortune for a couple of championships where I met a lot of great people. You know, everything my kids grew up here and I'm forever grateful for my organization. - It's Coach, I know. - How important was it for you that your teammates know the situation and what you're going through as well? - Yeah, they heard it from me first and you know, these guys and my family and this will never change. - Coach, I know a lot goes into these negotiations, right? But was there anything in particular that you can share that made you come to this decision on Friday? - Great question. - That's been learned. - They're what? - So again? - Was there anything in particular, you know, I know the reports of you having a meeting but was there something in particular that made you come to this decision on Friday that you wouldn't, you know, torture teammates that you were requesting and trade? - I think it was, you know, it was never about the money for me. More. About poor communication and respect. In the last four months, we only have had two conversations and, you know, Julian and the man made it clear that I'm free to walk on July 1st. - Oh, wow. - It still feels like, just from saying how much this organization means to you that you're still in your heart of hearts once you want to be here. - I mean, you know, for the time here and, you know, I'll do anything I can to help my teammates. - Coach, can you really quit? Can you just maybe describe after you told your teammates, are you able to share maybe like what the response was from your teammates and your selfless desires? - Okay. - Yeah, there we go. - So, he's done. - Even fucking he ends his pool guys pissed off back there. - Oh, he's empty in my mouth. - He's empty in his. - I wondered if there was maybe a chance that this could end up being fixed. - Nope. - This thing's done. - Done son. - And for fans, I think there will be fans out there who see that line of it. It's not about the money and be like, that's bullshit. Well, I, I think he wants to understand what he's saying about respect and the fact that if that was the first offer, that right there just basically terminated your entire relationship, I'm not gonna sit here and accomplish what I accomplished and get the bow and buy room contract handed over with my agent's desk when I'm a year away from becoming. - Did he say they've talked four times since the summer or two times? - It's twice in the last four months. - They should've been talking them twice a day. - It almost seems like they, that's the July 1st point of Resign, July 1st, right? And I'm assuming he probably was like, oh, they'll call her that day, no. And now we've talked twice and one of the conversations was a bullshit offer and maybe the second conversation was the two million per year more offer. I just. - And do you, was there ever a time where he was, I never remember him like complaining about his contract. He was always like, he's been making nine five. Never, I think point makes nine five as well. So he's not like, he's like the highest paid guy in the team. I mean, how much has had been making for a long time? So he's been snapping the money around too, not, you know, asking for more, asking for trades. And I completely agree with him. He wasn't, it's not about the money. The guy's got enough money. It's the completely like what you said, Biz, it's the respect. And he, it's like a marriage, right? Like you got to take your wife out on a date. You got to take her on a vacation. They just thought, oh, 'cause he's here. He's going to want to be here forever. Uh-uh, not when the Russians want the respect. You got to give them the respect. - How, I just don't understand how you don't meet up with them. And you don't say, what is it that you want? Like just like, like you said, the respect. - And there's very few players that you're dealing with. - Yeah, we're talking about every guy here. We're talking about a guy who just won the heart and the art Ross and a guy who just set the, like the, the, the, what is it, the franchise franchise record and points for your organization. I, this is a, I, I think this is a classic case of like, you like piss them off to where he like, he like wants to go and then you just kind of get rid of them. And for whatever reason, they want to free up that cap space to go sign who, to bring in who, like who the fuck is out there. - Yeah, no one. Larkin. - I, I, yeah, this one, this one's so bizarre to me. And, and I think coup had, uh, coup had a long kind of quote when they asked about it. It was actually pretty well, well said. Like, but you can't, and I think Breastball said, we have no interest in trading. And the key to coup travel, it's like, well, I don't, you're going to have to trade him. Like, you really going to let this guy walk from the other mistake? Oh, cool. - Yeah, like, you didn't, you didn't trade stamp coast. You didn't sign him. You got to trade this guy. You got to get something at this point. And we've often talked about kuchis. I think he's a little different. Really doesn't like doing media. It doesn't really do much, doesn't much media. - Tilly wins a cop and then they're consmite and then he's gonna try to be on stage, yeah. - And make it fun of the cap relief that they, they had reliefs out all year. (laughs) - I get keeping him if he asked for a trade two days before the trade deadline, but he asked for a trade in October. Like, you have to trade him. You can't let this linger all season. - Well, you also brought up the ends. Like, there's, there's also been some difficult trades that they've made. Like, when they gave up, what would they give up for Tanner Genille? - They've had draft picks. - Yeah. - They've had a few not so impressive - Surgechev. - The surgechev one, I mean, Moser has not done anything offensively this year. I still think he's a, he's a player. But they, what did they, what did they get back and return for that? They got back like a couple of draft picks, JJ Moser, somebody else, and then they sent back surrogate chev. Would you consider that a bat? They had to free up some money, I believe, to sign, I think it was to sign Gensel. And maybe because Hagel's deal was kicking in. I don't look at that as like an awful trade. I think surrogate chev's a better overall defense than Moser, but it's not like that is what that's the move that's like killed them from getting out of the first round. I don't know. We see what surrogate chev's doing on the Utah power play nowadays, like there it is right there. Oh, it was Connor geeky. So it was a pretty decent return. Yeah. Yeah. That's the one you were talking about. There's a Tanner's, you know, one, they give up a talent foot, the first round, their second round, the third round of fourth round and a fifth round for Tanner's, you know, kitchen sink. They've relied for a long time on being contenders with a great coach. They've had a top three player in the league, Booch. They've had an unreal defenseman in headman all these years. And they've had Vasilevsky, along with the pieces of, you know, Hagel, Gensel, and throughout the lineup in the years of the cup, right? Great. Stammer, obviously, but coach has been, he's been the head on the snake, man, like this is the guy, like this is the one player that the whole game goes through his stick. He controls the puck the entire time he's in the ass. Look at the radish, the radish thing of not having a goal this year because he doesn't really have a half wall guy with the vision and creativity of Kuturov to feed him these little sauce past one-timers that land flat with no spin. It's, it's a crazy situation where all of a sudden you've pissed off a guy who's, what's the word when you stick to your guns? Oh, yeah. These Russians, like when you cross them, what is that word? Somebody, stop. Well, stubborn. Yeah, I don't even think I was thinking of that conviction. Oh, yeah. Nice. And he's got it and he's all set now and then you look at the return, right? Like the return will completely depend on the returns tenfold if he signs an extension with the team that he gets sent to, right? If it's, if you're setting them to one because I think he has a ten team, no trade, correct? Yes, ten team. And all of a sudden, you hear like there's rumblings of all the teams of what they'd have to get up, give up to get them. And then I for one just kept seeing my algorithms and throw out like Montreal, Montreal, Montreal, Montreal. I think Elliot said Toronto and Montreal are at the top of the list where I mean, he played with Marty, his first year played with Marty's and yeah, like those two probably have a similar mind, like the way that they see the game, they probably had great conversations. I bet, I bet coach learned a lot from Marty, he sees what he's doing in Montreal. I could see that in from everything that everyone says, apparently Montreal has all the assets to make the trade, the cap space, the, you know, players, you know, young kids, whatever the prospect. So I think that would be cool if he went there. And those Russian guys flourish it in Montreal, it's almost like a mini Europe. I hope he signs there for 13. I hope he goes there and signs for the contract that Breeze will offer them. But Dallas Robertson goes back, he signs an extension with Tampa. He turned down 13.5, let those account to be turned out 15 from Seattle. He got offered equals deal and Dallas said, no, now I get it. So we're looking, let's, let's look at what the free agent, this is the thing about Tampa two is we talk about their window, right? There's no free agents next year. There's Jason Robertson, so somebody's going to pay top dollar for him. He's going to get at least Capri's soft money somewhere. Crosby, I would imagine he's taking a hometown discount and or going to play with it, or, or, or, or fucking maybe I'm going to play with Navy said with, he said he was never going to say it again. No, I'm, I'm giving you the, I'm giving you the options here, right? Like he ain't, I doubt the Crosby's going to Tampa. He's either going to Montreal. You want to play with Nader? He's resigning in Pittsburgh. I would assume Pittsburgh's the answer outside of him. But then it's coach and then the other guy that, the only other stud for it, I could think of that would command big money as a guy we were talking about in the group chat, who's got 12 bingo so far as Leckanon. Now you guys seem to think I was a little crazy in the group chat. I think Leckanon gets 10 million on the open market. Yeah. I mean, that's like six million two years ago. If he continues this, if he continues this, he will. I would, I would be surprised if they don't figure something out and call Rotto with him. Like that's a guy. The dog's probably like, sign him, get him signed in with all this kutra of stuff going on now. Teams are going to start talking to their guys a little bit more. Who are you? F A's this summer? Who's a better forward UFA than than the four guys I just mentioned up front? No one. I can't. So that's where it goes back to Tampa in their window. It's like, well, do they have anybody coming up? Doesn't seem like they have any prospects. No. So who are you going to, are you just going to like, oh, you're worried about overpaying kuch two or three million per year as opposed to what are you going to go sign for? When in five years, your team's probably going to be heading towards a different age in the different like day and age, I should say. Gensolane getting any younger. Do you think kutra obsies that and he's like, oh, I, I want out and out because I think the windows here are closing a little bit. No, I actually think it was the offer. And when I brought up what kuch, what kup said, one of the things was he said, kuch is 100% a part of this team, he wants to be a part of this team for this season. And he's committed to be with the group that loves him and that he loves. So that almost makes it seem like group thinks he'll just play out the rest of the year. They ain't going to trade him. But then there's lose him for nothing, which I think would be completely insane. You can't. It happened with stammer. I just have this gut feeling that there's some crazy like three or four way trades going to go down because you got a guy like krin Hughes who's been offered the max deal in Minnesota who's more than likely not going to sign it. Well, if if if if you're them, would you then would you be okay if you're Billy G offering that type of max money to a guy like kutra off, bring him in with Caprice off. Do we know who's on his 10th and forget the fact he's not a center, like, which is what they need. I mean, both of those guys playing like both of those guys play like centers, they carry it. They're puck carriers. Has there ever been a four way trade? I asked that to Judd on the phone and he said, I don't think he said that there's never been a four way, only three ways. I don't I think that we could this league's gone this mad that I could see a four or five way trade going down this year is his 10 team list came out yet all of Canada, except for Montreal. You got to imagine Utah's got to be in the mix here, right? Like, they have just an abundance of prospects. Ryan Smith has been trying to make a splash for years. Surgachev, his buddy is playing for the team. Feel like it just makes sense. I like that a lot. Yeah, that's a, yeah, that's a big move. But when this news broke, I could not believe it. I still can't believe it. And it all comes down to a lack of respect he continues from Breezeball and the entire organization, which to lose a hall of fame greatest player in the history organization over a cheap skate offer. That is, that has to make lightning fans sick. I actually can't believe lightning fans are coming at you, but they're fucking out of their mind. Oh, those state tax suck my dick. No state tax. Fucking guys fucking won every piece of hardware in the league. I'll ask you this too. Has there been an organization that's been more cutthroat to the superstars that have brought them Stanley cops, the Cavalier, St. Louis, Stan Coast and now Kutra made me a more cutthroat organization. They are very willing to not, they're all about like, hey, this guy's on the back nine. Like we're not paying them what, what we're paying a prime 26, 27 year old. And it's just, I thought it would be different with this guy though. Yeah, but a little bit out of his prime, a Nikita Kutra is a lot better than a, who knows what you got coming in, in, in Tampa at 26 years old. Yeah. Yeah. Over 100 points. I mean, I could talk about this for four hours, 144, 113, those are the last four years. That'll be the last time he does media till the summer. Oh, yeah. He won't answer another question about it, but everybody also have to and people are going to get sick and tired of asking, getting asked the question. How can they keep him all year and lose him for nothing? You cannot do that. That's my thing. You need to talk about something happier. I'm going to fucking snap between this and the, and the UND video, like I might, I might fucking kill someone. That video is so funny for anyone to see this video. Okay. You could see if you're watching Netflix. So this kid, there's two guys at a game, two buddies at a UND fighting suit game. And body one goes up top grabs two beers, probably cost the box, absolute gentleman. And he gets back to the seat. He sits down and his one buddy is looking to his right. He's chatting, chatting up a girl. She's a few seats over. And he's nudging him saying, Hey, hey, I'm back here. I did the beer run, got you a beer paid for eight, eight keeps nudging him on the side. And this buddy doesn't even turn around to look at him. He keeps talking to the girl and he gets annoyed by the buddy nudging him, trying to hand on the beer. And he throws a flying elbow and knocks his beer out of the guy's hand all over him. And visibly, the guy is visibly frustrated like I think I'm swinging on my friend. If I would throw the other beer in his face, I would jersey him and then throw him over the balcony. Okay. The best part is, as he's nudging him. And by the way, buddy in the black jersey who bought the beers, he definitely said, I'm going to go get us a couple beers to the nudge, the nudge, the nudge. The fact he didn't just look before throwing the elbow like, stop nudging me. That's what's crazy to me. Just just he threw the elbow on purpose. The guy's full fuck off as if he was actually going to get laid like, look, he's full gila flirt full gila flirt mode. And he's like, guy, leave me alone, the good only good part is for black jersey watch a little extra beer goes in his. So he kind of makes out a little bit here. He doesn't lose any beer he gains a little bit, but he wears it though. He wears it. I was. I want to show that. Sure, though. No. That's not. They better get married. The only way this is okay is if they get married. He's going to have to survive a rough and rowdy with me because I want that guy right now. I've watched that. You don't think it was too many nudges? No, you have a beer. You're like, bud here, here, here, here. He was so excited to give it to him. I just can't believe if somebody's nudging me. I just look before I throw a fine elbow, but maybe elbow boy was like a rough and tough player when he played here and taken his shit. Well, I'm more angry than probably Kutte. Which was when he got the $13 million offer at this video, they should, but he should put meme, should put kutra and breeze Wad and that fucking take a meme out of that. Oh, that, that, that video, man, the fact that the broadcast caught that whole interaction is pretty wild. Oh, it's incredible. Did we find out who these guys were? No, those are just just a couple former best friends. Die, die hard in North Dakota fans. The other trade that went down was Seattle traded Shane right, fourth overall pick a few years back for Matthew Wood, who was the 15th overall pick the next year, 2023 Shane right was 2022. I think they both have like three points this year, just not often do you see a trade like this, I guess, but both guys just looking for a fresh restart. Both teams just kind of stuck in the middle, I would say, although Seattle right now is sitting in a playoff spot. Like we keep there have been undercover good, though, Bobby McMahon's been awesome there. I know. I think they're also doing it without who's the other Mick. The guy with 40 talks, not McMahon, there's another, McCann McCann McCann, McCann, this, yeah, this just feels like a change of scenery. You know what, the real positive here are always boys, both no state tax places, pretty nice. Although, although you just said fuck state tax, no, I'm saying that as their argument as to why he should have taken a 13 or 15 million, and it's not a low ball offer. I wasn't saying it like that. Now I believe this state of Washington is, isn't implementing like a millionaire's tax anything over a million bucks, they're going to start digging them for like 10% beyond that. So little bit of a kick in the dick for wood, thinking he's going to state tax and then Tammy, welcome to the Democrat state. So that's a kick. But I heard that this wood kids got some good upside to him. Yeah. Big kids, six, four, yeah, two, two hundred pounds. And I think what do you have 17 goals last year or the year before? Yeah, last year, 17 goals and then and then Shane, right? I mean, everyone remembers the video of him staring down the teams when he got drafted, right? Yeah. And we were hearing about him going first over all of 15. It felt like. Yeah. Here in Rogers. That was the Jay Bomyster draft. My draft. He's always going one and then he's sitting around that you went third and the cameras are just on him. More than they are on the kids going first, second and third and Shane rights case. But maybe, yeah, maybe one of these guys are both of them pops off in a new spot. I don't know. I don't know. You know, if Shane writes it, not an elite level skater, which fuck, you can get it away with it. If you're super smart, not saying he is or isn't, it's just, it just hasn't, hasn't come easy to him. But he's been with Seattle where it seems like it's hard to get a lot of points. You know what's weird too is I feel like both teams are overachieving right now. And then Nashville's been very entertaining to watch. I had him on the no watch list and like every game, like even the one against Tampa was a five four finish. I think Stammer had one and that one to tie things up late. But now you're hearing rumblings that they're like looking to shot Ryan O'Reilly who's on the last year of his deal and Stamco's. Yeah. Like all of a sudden they're getting things going and now you're going to move off these guys and go towards a youth movement. So interesting to hear that now the things are going well for both teams. They're looking to shake things up. So more, more so Nashville. And like where would a guy like Ryan O'Reilly go? I mean, he's anyone would want him. Oh, yeah. Imagine he's your three C. New Jersey. He would look awesome. And you're all right. Pasha call you. I know. Fuck that would suck. I thought he was going to say Bruins. Pasha even loves his Jersey's hometown remixed the devil's hometown remixed Jersey. Everything's coming up. Pasha. Is it nice? We got to wear those devils Tuesday night. Oh, those are those are good. Those are good. Those are good. Those are clean. Clean. They're clean. Exactly. What was the one I saw that Montreal is Montreal's a look? No, I like the islanders. That's brutal. White. That's too white. Looks like a practice Jersey. Yeah. I didn't like San Jose's because I don't know. I don't like the big S and J that they have in the front. Yeah. I didn't. I just go with the shark, the old teal shark. That S and J's way too big boys. Yeah. No. Three. Yeah, they're on the socks too, they're on the socks and pull up the Bruins one. G was wearing it. I want to see the full. It's got this like comparing it to the University of Minnesota. I'm like, I see that. That's not a great thing. Is it the Jersey? I wouldn't say compared to the University of Minnesota, but the full uniform definitely does because they're wearing those like yellow gold helmets. And I think it's a nice touch. They've never in the in the franchise. His history warn anything other than black, brown or white helmet. So I think it's pretty cool. I like the number on the front that they have. Yeah. It's pretty cool. And I like this B logo here that they have to kind of old brown. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, it does. Bentley too. The only brown Keith will season is underwear when the brown folks called Keith dad to prove them. Yeah. Tough one. Tough one for me. I like it. You didn't like the Islanders one. Didn't we talk all some are all summer that the fishermen. But they did a lighthouse and not the Islander guy. It is. That's that right there. Oh, fucking a. Okay. Never mind. Maybe it was a different Jersey. I was thinking of from last year. I was unbelievable. They had to bring them back. Yep. What did the wild do? The wilder. It's just Queen Hughes. They're like, please stay. That's like Dallas. I like that one. Yeah. It does look like Dallas. Yeah. That could have been better. His curse reverse. This is like their hummingboys. Queen Hughes looks unbelievable. They put a year out on Washington Sunday. Yeah. That was it. Yeah. That was it. Yeah. I thought. Oh, maybe I think of it a different game here. A year off. Another one. That Minnesota Washington game. I thought that that was going to be a two one tight-checking game. Minnesota. What looked? Class is better than Washington that game. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. The beach god. Another one too. He's got another anything. Now, how come the goalies are never every single one of his goals is off to the side of the net. Yeah. The goalies somewhere else. Well, rebound. I would have anyone I would try to choke it, but like, I don't know. Is it not a skill to like go to where the clock is going somehow? He just knows where it's going. That is a skill you can't really teach. But the flyers get a win on Sunday Saturday. Guys, real quick. Can I say something about Nashville? I just before you guys move on. I think Roman Yosey's name is a name we're going to start here and a lot more moving forward. He's a free agent at the end of the 27, 28 season. That's going to get a lot of noise soon. Really? Oh, I think so. Another Jud guy. Oh, they're Jud guy. He seems to me that a guy that'll play in with one franchise this whole career. With Jud run in the show. That's true. Yeah, 37 leagues. The league's so different now. Imagine him in Toronto. I think there's a possibility he could go there. Really? Yeah. They're going to keep making moves. Well, nothing will happen till Jud gets back from his honeymoon. We know that is the league. Yeah. Leagues on pause. The leagues on pause. Well, he's going to be getting a couple massage, fucking, making trades 15 points at 14 games for Yosey. Only one goal, but still this turn. I didn't realize he was turning 37. Yeah, that's played over a thousand 44 games, guys played forever. So Sunday night, the Sunday afternoon, Winnipeg Jets cruising into Carolina. I don't know if I've ever seen a team look that less interested in the medical removes. Carolina just does their thing. It's just a complete clinic. We keep saying it there. You can't really say much about Carolina besides they're just a complete machine. And you come in there on a sleepy Sunday afternoon and you look like that. You get in a touchdown, put up against Jets are now are they 0 7 and 2 in their last nine games? Yes. Oh, what do you even say about the team beside this vehicle, Bjork, very high pick this summer. He doesn't have a point yet. I haven't noticed. You said he was going to be nasty. I've been watching. You said he was going to get his clips. sent to you every night. So you could watch him. He doesn't have a point. Buddy, you got to send him wherever you can send him right now and get him out of the NHL. This kid's going to be nasty. I'm not selling my Vigo Bjork stock. This team looks horrendous. They look like they have zero interest. Scott Arneal was disgusted after the game as he's been after every game. He was snapping. Vigo Bjork needs to go somewhere where he's going to like have the puck and get some points before he loses all confidence. This is you can't you can't draft a kid that high this past summer and keep trotting them out there. No points. No points. No points. This kid. When was the last time this kid went that many games don't a point. Never. Never. Never. Never. Never. Never. So let's figure something out there. Shovel day off and get him to a place where he's dominating. I would say to summarize that game. It was seven nothing. Villa Mackie gives it the scoreboard point to Bauer and Bauer is like, I know, I know. And they caught it all on camera. It was honestly was worth the beer toss. And it looked so sad. He's like, I know, I know, dude, like fuck, I know, man, come on. I'm just trying to get something going here. It's seven nothing. So I think that was the night before he had that marathon fight with Boko too, right? Yeah. Great. But the only good news is for Winnipeg Jets fans is none of those guys that are still there can ask for a trade because none of them had helleys back. None of them were like, they're all like, I don't know. We want to be here. We want to be here. So enjoy it. I don't think those guys are great. No, they can't. Oh, you think, okay. So you think that they fucked themselves, but they keep going there together. All three guys. Well, the only guys that would be on that list are our shifly Connor. And then I guess you can consider Morrissey as one of those guys, right? And it's more, I don't even know. Yeah, Morrissey's not in the lineup, which is what you heard in them a lot. Their power play. I think it's clicking at about 16%, which is usually something that they is one of their catalysts. They are so first line dependent probably one of the most first line dependent teams in the league. I believe just over 50% of their, their offense comes from that top line. They're petally kills atrocious. It's bottom seven in the league, I believe. And it's at 70%. Like, I think their goal pending is obviously cooled off from the hot start that Skinner had. I don't know where this team goes from here. And shovel day off is I believe the longest 10 year GM in the national hockey league. He's been there for like 14 or 16 years. Is he really? Yeah, he's the longest 10 year general manager. Can we look that up for clarification? It makes I mean, not to say he's the biggest coach lover, but my common order did not have positive things to say about Scott or Neil. But I don't think. Call me, I don't just call me like one coach ever. Yeah. Yes. Darryl probably. Yeah. He does. I actually saw him and Darryl laughing it up. They were the game together. He's also Darryl had his arm around them too. Yeah. The cock in our Neil have always been in Call me's crosshairs. And he went heavy with the tweet yesterday. And then right when they made it seven, nothing. Cockney. Yeah, he's like touched down or extra points. Good. Gever. They have needs to fire on you immediately. So one thing I did forget to mention, talking about the wild quick. The pres off came the fourth fastest active player to 500 points. A pres off. Once again, I had my VGO Bjork pick. You guys had many missing the playoffs. You guys, you guys had the wild who right now, I believe let's see. Let's check for sure. They have a five point lead on the central division. Yeah. So I think I think Billy G's got my face on a dartboard in his office. I think that right now I had I had the kings making it in the West. I think that Caprice off has more goals than their whole team combined at this point. You had L.A. making the playoffs. I was I only had seven teams. And then I just threw them in as a last ditch effort because I couldn't go back on my word on Minnesota. Now Caprice off 15 goals right now through 15 games. Is that what it is? And he's the next guy in line in their organization's history is 11. So he's he's 15 goals 15 and 15. 16 games. Oh, 16. So he, I mean, look at morals was even wrong. Marles was turbulent about taking the 18 million. He's earning every goddamn sentence from it. No, but he'll say his argument will be you can't win with them. And they have it on just wait till if they win the cup. Marles. He's done. He's done done. And I and I got certain things that make me be done as if if McDavid's wearing another team's jersey someday, I'd be done. Marles. If the wild win the cup, he's off the internet. He's like the short game king and the internet invitation on missing two, three foot pots. And he's done. He's not the short game king anymore. He's we didn't talk about that big John's big pot. I'll talk about it at the end because I want to ask you guys a question. Oh, ask me quickly. We're going to throw it over to Blake. We'll just have this question quick. What do the Red Wings Islanders Dallas stars L.A. King's Calgary flames, Philadelphia Flyers, Winnipeg Jets, Chicago Blackhawks and the Columbus Blue Blue Jackets haven't common. That's such a weird thing. David has more points. It's got to be something with the oil. It has to be. McDavid has 39 points, which is as many or more points than all of those teams have goals. And it's not just about McDavid. It's scoring. And my tweet, you guys agree the all-time greats always put on a show at MSG. They always MSG. It's like they know the all-time greats. No, like when I had my first two gold game in the NHL at MSG, yeah, like the all-time greats. No, you know when you're in a very special building, McDavid scored that goal. First, it's just it's and and Gavrikov's a hell of a fedsman. He he looked, he looked like a beer leak. Yeah. And there's nothing you can do about it. It looks like there's on Halloween dress. There's a pile on and you see the way he came off the bench like he just boost just gave him a little two foot pass and then just gets to go like this. And McDavid comes off the bench and he's going a thousand miles an hour. And I think because he's beating those goalies to the far post like we've talked about, how good he that time he he's able to flick it short side because now the goalies have to cheat getting over. So he's just going to go, okay, I'll go short side. The guy's incredible. And he's the fastest player in the history of the NHL, uh, fastest play to get 30 assessed in a in a season. Yeah. And set the NHL record for having an assist in 14 straight games to start a year, right? So the fastest player ever to 50 points is Wayne Gretzky in 18 games. McDavid needs 11 points in the next three games. I think one of the games is against Vancouver. Okay. Oh God. That could be a three or four point or pray for fat. He is going to fuck them up. Wait, and how many games does he have to do it? He has three eighties, 11 points at three games to have to tie Wayne for I better get the biggest apology from staff. If he, if he comes close to Wayne in the 215 points, the real reason I brought up the oilers, though, is to shut out a guy, Ryan Nugin Hopkins, who tonight, as you're listening on Tuesday, when they play the Devils will pass Kevin Low for all time games played by an Edmonton Euler. He's the highest ever. He's had a thousand thirty seven, which is what Kevin Low played. So Tuesday night will be a thousand thirty eight. And yes, they don't have a cop. I know what I hear. All you idiots hating on me. But that guy has been the constant for a long time. As they came out of the decade of darkness into these years of amazing runs and entertaining crack hockey and playoffs in Edmonton. This guy has just always been there. The most one of the smartest hockey players I ever played with. He continues to go out there, a coach's dream. And I'm sure at one point in all this madness since he's been there, he was in the middle of a possible trade. Oh, yeah. They've been smart enough to realize like, no, we need this guy. So shut out the Nugin. He is just an awesome, awesome guy. And I mean, I haven't seen him in 16 years, whatever's been, but a great player, a great person. Pretty cool that he's set for the Edmonton Oilers to have the most games play that that's an awesome. He's Mr. Oiler. And never, ever, ever considering trading a player with a soul patch is nice as he has. That's true. Or has had. I think I told you guys all the time, but when we bring him up, I used to train with him and him and his brother, his brother's a like a physical trainer. He's just all class, weight, work ethic, and just like what a run, man, what all Mr. Oiler, tip the cap, boys, tip the cap. He's a great representation of the NHL. Just guy that goes out there, does his job, does it well, doesn't complain, shows up every night, block shots. He's, he's a weapon that guy. But also I want to shout out your goalie there too, Matt Tompkins, hadn't played in the NHL in over two and a half years, gets a win. So that, that was awesome for him. I think he's 32 years old. So, and I said, I just said Jari wasn't an actual goalie back to back shutouts. Um, so that's that's classic. I told you, he's going to be leading him out of the tunnel for game one of the playoffs. They have four, they have four goalies now. I have something to say about Ottawa, but it's going to be after we throw it to Blake Wheeler. So Jets fans, I'm sorry, man. This is not right. Incredible fan base. Just this is this is disgusting. And maybe Jets fans, reach out to me. Let me know, is this on our Neil? Is this on shovel day off? Look, who what is, what is your, who is your main blame going towards? Who's the blame pie going towards for what you're witnessing as a disaster of a season happening in real time? But Blake Wheeler had a had a little bit of a rocky relationship with the fans there at times. But I would say an all-time great jet. We actually, we hadn't sat down with him. I knew we interviewed him, but funny enough, it was 2017, I think, in the middle of a 91 point season, right at the end of a 91 point season. We sat down with him again since retirement, since playing here with the Rangers. This is a great interview we did a couple days ago. So right now, Jets fans, just listen to one of your all-time greats and try to relive the days of when you went to the Western conference final and enjoyed watching your team play hockey. Blake Wheeler. Let's take a minute and shout out Pink Whitney. If you're watching on Netflix, I got the Pink Whitney shooter right here. Things incredible. Go get a bottle of Pink Whitney right now. It winters coming. The clocks have turned back. Though it gets dark early. And what's a nice way to celebrate the end of a work day pouring a nice cold Pink Whitney on the rocks, right? That's that's my drink of choice. Or you can mix it with something, but it's Pinkies Up everywhere. Pinkies Up is the rallying cry to the group. Our group, your group, wherever your friends may roam, where you like to enjoy adult beverages. Go grab a Pink Whitney. Go Pinkies Up. Pinkies Up means it's time for Pink Whitney shots. This episode of Chicken to sponsored by Blue Choo. Guys, what do women want in need? Stability, reliability. Be her rock with Blue Choo. That's right. Be her rock. They're sponsoring the podcast and sponsoring your bedroom performance. Blue Choo Gold is better sex in a tablet. They combined four ingredients into one powerful solution. Two ingredients get you hard physically and two support arousal and desire in the brain. It works fast and last. Guys have a complete experience in the bedroom with Blue Choo Gold. There's a reason Blue Choo is the number one brand for better sex. Experience it yourself at bluechoo.com and we've got a special deal for our listeners. Right now, when you buy two months of Blue Choo Gold, you get the third free with promo code Chicklets. That's promo code Chicklets. You will also receive an additional 10% off plus free overnight shipping on your first order. Visit bluechoo.com for more details and important safety information. We thank Blue Choo for sponsoring the pod and the bedroom. Pleasure now to be joined by Blake Wheeler. Funny enough. Biz. You know this. I know wheels does it. I don't know if the ends does. We interviewed Blake Wheeler one time on the show episode 73. And the next episode. That was that was by the way, that was April 11, 2018. The next episode is when Biz joined full time. I missed you. So he heard our interview of you and he was so disgusted with how I did that he's like, I got to join that show. I thought I thought I sold him on it. So that's good. Fucking rates you did. I was jealous. I couldn't be a part of it. Just like that weekend you had in Winnipeg with the boys. Yeah, it was going to be back. It was a lot of fun. What did you say for your answer? I got a kick out of walking out to the bench. I think people were asking all the players. You still got it. Thorborns was the best. He goes, I never had it. I don't I don't remember yours. But it must have been a blast seeing all the boys and just getting their experience that. Yeah. No, I think mine was we're going to find out because the truth is that since I retired, that was like skate number three or four. So you didn't know what you're going to get out there. But yeah, it's a man. What we were laughing about out there is like how everyone just like falls back into their like spot on the team. You know, like all the same jokes are being told. You mentioned thorbs like he's like like we're like the the he's like our son. We're like all orbiting around thorbs. He's like telling all the jokes. It's like in between the second and the third period. He's like, Hey, we need our big money guys to step up here. Like I think he had a helper in the first. You know, so he's like his first assist in 15 years. So he's just flying on cloud nine. And yeah, it was man, what a treat to be back there. And I'll tell you what, like playing a game in front of 15 to 16,000 people going crazy was we were caught off guard. So you guys did your alumni game indoor, right? At the stadium? Yeah, we did it indoor. I was talking to Mark Chimman before it. And he was like, I had I had a hard time with these tickets that I did for the heritage game. He's like all the people coming. They wanted to come to the alumni game. I mean, for obvious reasons, like everyone was there to see buff. You know, but like it was we knew it was going to be sold out. We had no idea that it was going to be like a playoff game in there. I mean, the fans were going absolutely insane. You know, we were going half speed, but like it's still like a half a playoff game out there. Everyone's there to see buff, right? Because he's one of those guys that since he retired, it's like he fell off the face of the earth. He's fishin doing his own thing. Have you seen him since he retired? It's since you retired? Yeah. So we live back in Minnesota now. We live about five minutes away from each other. Our wives are best friends. Our kids are each other's like first friends. So we see them all the time and we have seen them all the time. I would say of all the bufflands. I see buff the least just because like you said, he like I love to go golfing the summer. Buff tolerates golf and I tolerate fishing and hunting. So, um, you know, we see each other quite a bit. Um, we don't do the outdoor activities together. Wheels, it's funny because we were talking about getting buff to do something. I forget, but it's who told you like, do a fartist. Do a fartist. He's like, do a fishing turn, like some sort of fishing tournament with them or content piece and he'll probably do it. Like you asked him to do a sandbag or something like I'm all set. Yeah. He's a pass on that. Actually, what you should do, you should sit up in a deer stand with him for like six hours. That would be, uh, you'd get him, you'd get him there for sure. Cause he might shoot one of us before a deer though. After all the questions, we'd be going around. He's a car in ourselves a deer pest just to get an interview with. He's very particular with that bow. Uh, he doesn't miss. He's a bow hunter. Yeah. The other day, we were walking down to the field. He's like, hey, hold your arm out. I hold my arm out. He's like, all right, I got one that'll fit you. I had no idea what he's talking about. He's talking about bow and arrows. So he's, uh, yeah, that's what he loves to do. Were you as shocked as everyone when like he came to camp? And I believe at the time, like, were you still with the team when he ended up like just retiring? I don't know where? Yeah. So we, it was just like a typical before the season skate. Um, and we were out there. It was like kind of like a captain's practice type of deal. Maybe a couple of days before skate. Um, and he just got off the ice early. And that is not a typical buff. Like that's it to be expected. So when I got off, I went out, uh, back into our equipment room and, um, our, our head trainer Rob Millett was like, well, Bob just told me he's retiring. And it's like, haha. Yeah, yeah, whatever. Um, and, and then I get home didn't think anything of it. And, um, you know, like I said, our wives are really good friends. And his wife called my wife was like, you know, Dustin's retiree. And so it really did come out of nowhere. Um, I mean, it's, you know, the particulars that go into it that, that's his story. But, um, I would say like nothing was atypical up until the, the point where he was like, no, I'm done. How amazing was it to see him? Like, and obviously, I'm sure you knew of them growing up and playing against the, but like, when you see him in the walkroom with his shirt off, like the fact that like, yeah, you didn't have the best build neither, did I? And I'm not knocking his build. He was an amazing player. But like, to see how he is and to see how he moved on the ice and how good he was and how fucking scary was like, were you, was everybody in awe when they first saw him? I would say it's, it's one of those things where you kind of take it for granted until it's gone. Uh, I knew how good he was always like, and I was probably on record a number of times doing like, I wouldn't trade that guy for anyone in the league, you know, back in his prime. Just for all the things you mentioned, like, he was scary, you know, he put up a ton of points. Like, everyone was terrified. It was on the ice, but like, all the little plays he made as a defenseman. I mean, he just made a right winger job so easy. And when he retired, it was like, like, holy shit, now I'm getting these pinching on me and I'm getting hit. And, um, you know, the ice just changed in so many ways. So I probably didn't realize how, like, how good he was. The impact he had on our team until he retired. And there was like, oh, shit, we missed this guy. And it's, it's crazy because like, people were already obsessed with them and like, just the way he played. And actually, when, when he was there this weekend, they released all the old like big hits that he had. And in some cases, he's just launching two guys every time. There's two guys see a later and just exploding guys, but just kind of the aura he had. And then for him to end up the way he did, it's like, people all of a sudden, like, they didn't get to enjoy buff anymore. And I, I, that was probably the most upset I ever saw of a player just retiring out of nowhere where I'm like, oh, no, like, like, is there no possibility this guy actually comes back and to do it really in the prime of his career and leave money on the table. Like, I think just people were just overall shocked. And because it was buff, it just kind of like, I don't know, it hurt a little bit more. Yeah. And he, like, he epitomizes that city. Like, he's a blue color guy. Um, I mean, he, he basically grew up an hour away from there in Roso, Minnesota. So I think the city of Winnipeg just like, they really relate to him in a lot of ways. Like he, he kind of like is what Winnipeg's all about. Yeah, he's a fan favorite for the hits. Um, but I think it's like all the media stuff too. Like just, he didn't really talk to the media much, but when he did, he would say something that just like blew everyone's minds. Um, he kind of always kept everyone a little bit. at a distance and I think he liked it that way. Yeah, and so what I think people were bummed out about was like a, they didn't get to like really see him on the A's, but they never got to say goodbye to him either. But I think it was just always like, man, where did buff go? You know, like we would love to see him one more time. I could tell for him to like that was closure for him too. Like I think it was along the way like he had been missing out on that him and his family. Like they deserve, they deserve that. They deserve, you know, what he meant to the community, what he meant to that organization. Like he deserved the send off that he got. I'd be shocked if he wasn't a part of that organization in some way shape or form of the future 'cause just what he means in that place. And wheels, the last time we talked, I mean, you were in the midst of 91 point season. You were a steady like point per game player in the NHL. Star really. And since then you have retired. You did a lot of work with, or a little bit of work I was reading with the first line, with the players union where you help guys with wellness and transition. So for you, how has it been since retirement? And how do you feel like looking back now? Do you think about your playing career a lot? Like you mentioned, you know, it's skate a ton, but I don't know, how is your life going? And how was it when you were finally done playing? - Yeah, it's been great. Like I have three kids. I have a 14 year old, 11 year old and nine year old. So I'm around the ring all the time. I mean, I'm, you know, almost a full time assistant coach at nighttime. - Yeah, I do. I know you guys had a ladder on the show recently, Andrew Lads. So he and I have been doing mental performance coaching together for the last couple of years. It was, you know, I was coached by gentlemen named, Dan left Florida towards the end of my career. It was just really helpful for me. And I like you mentioned the first line stuff. Jay Harrison is a former team at a mine. And so that's been something that's really meant a lot to me. Just, you know, you guys all know like, playing pro sports is glamorous and it's fun, but it can be, it can be tough sometimes too. And, you know, it meant a lot to me to have people supporting me along the way and kind of helping me, especially at the end of my career. And so that's been kind of what I've been doing during the day and assistant coach at night. - Yeah, and Sir Witt, did you guys know Jay Harrison at all? - I know who he is obviously. - Great guy. Pretty intelligent, can play the piano. Like just pretty fascinating guy. I got to hang out with him a little bit. Like in the summer camps to use to do. I think he might have went to Maddie Nichols camp one or two years, but just a great teammate and great guy. - Yeah, he's brilliant. I was teammates with him and Drew Stafford at the same time. Like two really smart dudes and love conspiracy theories. I mean, they were like talking about the moon being made on the cheese and like. - Kind of crazy. - All right. - Okay. - Yeah, some stuff that like I couldn't wrap my head around, but at the end of every dinner, I'd go outside and be looking up and be like, maybe it is, you know, I don't know. (laughing) These guys might be onto something. Big boss like Umber Tyron joining us. I'm gonna go eat it. (laughing) I'm out of here. - Now, one of those guys that you mentioned later on in your career, you had the mental coach, but early in your career, not a ton of guys had that. Or were you one of those guys that had it from, you know, when you came into the league till the end? - No, man, it's like, it's kind of like why I'm doing and why I love doing it was like, I wish I had that. Like even going back to college, I wish I had that from how I was 20 years old. I didn't really start until I was in my mid-30s. I mean, I dabbled in sports psychology and psychiatry, but it was only like when things got really bad and I was trying to like, fix something. And so it was more like, reaction old and like, intentional. And so, yeah, like while I was being coached, what kept going through my head was like, man, more guys need to know about this. Like more guys should be using something like this. Particularly from, you know, younger age and you're seeing the way the league's going, like the amount of money being thrown at these guys, you know, guys are captains now when they're in their early 20s. Like that's a lot of responsibility for these guys. That probably aren't really ready to handle it. - Yeah, it's funny like, the best term I've ever heard for retirement, by the way, is it, well, when you're playing pro sports, it's like extended adolescence. So you're just like told where to be, when to be there, there's food ready for you and then you retire and you're like, oh, I'm actually like an adult now. I have to start doing stuff and I bet you for you, you're traveling a lot when the kids are, your kids are a little bit older for your age, but then you were just thrown right to the fire, I'm sure your wife was like, all right, time to start doing some shit around the house here. - Yeah, it's like, you know what a calendar is? Like you got to like plug stuff into a calendar. Like for the longest time, it's just like, hey, be here and if you're late, you're in trouble. But like now it's like, oh, I gotta actually add stuff into my calendar. So yeah, there's a lot of thing, I think honestly, like there's times even like right after I retired, my wife would look at me and she'd be like, you gotta get out of the house. And I'm like, I got nowhere to go. Like where do you want me to go? You know, it's snowing outside. So yeah, those are little things that you just retirement. It just takes adjustment. Like just learning what the real world's like. And yeah, it's a good point. 'Cause you don't really think of it that way. You're like just told what to do and I'll go do it. And now you gotta start filling your calendar your own way. - Sorry if I'm naive to this. Now you talked about the mental coach stuff. You guys had some pretty good teams here. You guys ended up going to the Western conference finals the one year, right? That was kind of the year you guys were hoping to win it. And then after that, like I remember there was, I don't wanna say battles, but maybe a little back and forth with you and the fans and maybe the way that they were reacting based on their expectations of the team. Like is that why you ended up reaching out to somebody to help you mentally? And was this past weekend also closure for you or had you already gotten that with the fan base in the city of Winnipeg? - No, that's a good question. Like definitely that was part of it. I think being captain of a small Canadian market is just, it can have its challenges. And the people in Winnipeg matter like they're the best. There were many times that you'd go out on the street and have somebody like bashing you. There's normally people being like, tough on last night, you'll get a next game. The people were always great. I would say like it all coincided a little bit honestly with how Buffer tired. Like when he left the team, it kind of set us back. I resigned a five year deal with the expectation that we were gonna be competing for a cup every year and we had to let a lot of guys go that were big part of those teams. Then all of a sudden Buffer tires. Not too long after that Brian Little had to retire early, he got hit with a puck in the head. So like a lot of my really close friends who were kind of the guys that were in that room last weekend, we're all sudden gone. And we went from a team that's contending for a Stanley Cup to really a team trying to make a playoffs. Which was tough, like expectations were super high and almost I'd like the snap of a finger. We went kind of the other way. So that made it really tough. You know, I'm entering kind of the mid late 30s. You know, high spade player on the team, Captain the team, expectations were high. Now we're not really meeting those expectations. So you coupled that with being the dad of like three kids under five, it was tough for a little bit. And like I said, I was super lucky to ladder. Andrew Ladd was such a great friend of mine and suggested I talk to Dan and kind of change my life. - Wow, so that that was around that time where you were introduced to him. That's all, man, I couldn't even imagine having one kid. You got three, you're the captain, you have to answer at the podium, expectations are being met. Like people forget, like regardless of money and what you're making, that amount of stress on an individual, I couldn't imagine. - Yeah, and it just, I think it accumulates over your career too. And playing at Winnipeg was the biggest blessing in my life. And I think that like I said, when you are in a small Canadian market and high expectations, I mean, you see it with the guys now, the guys in Toronto, the guys in Edmonton, like it's a lot. It's a lot and it's a privilege 'cause you want to play in front of people that care about the game. I had the pleasure of playing 20 games in Atlanta and that's a different experience. But I was super lucky to play in front of those fans and I think that with that privilege, does come a great deal of pressure. And we're on the heels of the whole hell of box saga and him getting traded. And I think with you being an American guy, what you're talking about, being in a Canadian market, it's tough. It's tough on guys, mental, everyday life. I just kind of wanted your opinion on how that kind of all folded out. It's just such a big news story that I feel like you and especially being around it last week, I'm sure everyone was talking about it. - Yeah, for sure. I mean, I think in certain respects, it was great that it happened on Friday. So it wasn't, you know, drug out while we were there over the weekend. I think there's, there's like, you feel caught in between a little bit. Like I love Healey. He was a great teammate and a good friend of mine and very close to the organization as well. So you can kind of see both sides. I think as a player, you guys probably all feel the same way, but I don't want to put words in your mouth. Like teams can trade players at any time. Like they can have a change of heart at any given time. And so when a player does it, it just becomes a way bigger story. I know that he signed a contract for eight years and he was three years into that and that's, you know, that makes it a little bit sticky, but that's where I think it's just not an easy answer because why can teams change their mind on a player, but a player can't change his mind on a situation. And I really don't know all the particulars of it, but I think like just my high level view of it is, there should be, you know, I have also read a lot about people frustrated with the no move clauses and how guys are using those, but I mean, that's kind of hell of a buck. Like that guy's the best goal in the league. Not everyone has a no move clause. It's very small percentage of guys that have that and they've earned that right. Those are the top players in the league and like any other pro sport, those guys, [BLANK_AUDIO] carry a lot of leverage. It's funny you brought up like the expectations your team had is your captain and you're not fulfilling them because I think back to Sean Horcoff was an amazing captain and Edmonton and you could tell like we were you know we were on some real bad teams when I was there. He was on some great teams before but it would crush him right and he's working his ass off and he's talking to the media but thinking about it like we knew or the media knew we were going to be bad before the year whereas for you it was like hey we went to the West Harvard's final here we go and with buff leaving I know you guys are super close but was there an aspect of you that like was almost mad at him a little bit like did you get upset at that or yeah was there a group of guys that went over to his house and was like hey it's happening please please no yeah he's like this I met you just signed yeah no so that day like he and I wouldn't got lunch somewhere in Winnipeg and we just had a couple had a couple beers and talked about it and like I understood you know like I get I get how hard this league is you know and if a guy's heart's not in it who am I to like try to change his mind of course of course I wanted to stay of course I knew what he meant to me what he meant to our team in organization but you guys know like if your heart's not in it anymore like this leaks too tough man it'll chew you up and spit you out and that's where he was like he was just like man I my heart's not in it anymore and so that's when I kind of knew that like there was nothing I was gonna say with that being said like of course it was hard like I wasn't happy with it I was frustrated about it you know could have what it should have like could it have happened in May instead of instead of August or September and then could we have made corresponding moves yeah but that's that's hindsight and that's 2020 so yeah I was I was mad about the the situation but I wasn't mad at him because I just I understood well speaking of being mad at situations I was mad at you for not signing in Phoenix um oh yeah we were drafted there draft overall right yeah we thought we thought the savior was coming and uh no no never came but nah just obviously joking around but what was your decision going into that and was that at the you know when the role kind of I think Kevin haze Jimmy Beasy did it where if you stayed four years since you were drafted you could sign anywhere yeah man so I played my last college game actually out in in Boston we got beat by BC um and I was like ready I was like ready to sign in Arizona like my agent was there I was like okay season over like I'm ready to go let's let's do it um and like after the game he was like well not so fast um like I knew you um Shane Done treated me and my family like absolute gold being like anytime I'd see you guys you know go to a game uh donor was coming down saying hi after the game like he I mean he treated me like I looked up to that guy I wanted to play with that guy um I was high school teammates with Peter Mueller so like there I wanted to be a part of that like I'd watch your games and I'd get super excited um apparently uh the feeling from the organization wasn't necessarily mutual um Mike Barnett was who drafted me and he was no longer there um so I think for the time I was drafted until the time I left college like I mean there had been four or five years of draft picks by both you know Barnett's group and then by a new uh GM so I think there's a long line of guys who they had in front of me and um the excitement that I had about it wasn't necessarily shared and so I think that's when my agent was like hey um there is another option here and that's where I was like you can you cannot sign and become an understricted free agent and um that was his advice like I think this is the best route for you just based off that route just based off the field he was getting from the organization I do love looking at the rosters of guys who like who played college and looking at your roster I didn't know you were a freshman with Phil so yeah castle oh yeah to experience freshman year and by the way of course he goes in and lights it up yeah so I can't I can't imagine it wasn't just comedy getting getting to play with him that year it was something man and and I was lucky I got to play with him then we did a world juniors together um I think it was his second year embossing was my rookie year embossing it was his third year embossing it was my rookie year embossing so um yeah he was he was so much fun to be in the dorms with and um just get to know and be around I mean what a what an absolute stud of a hockey player I mean even back then as an 18-year-old like the WCHA back then was tough I mean he was like big boys old boys and he came in and I mean he ripped it up but he was just such a character I mean the guy you see today is the same guy that you know I've seen since 18 years old like you know you go into his dorm room and the only thing higher than his bed is like the wrapper of candy bars and power a dial you know just stuff you can't make up um but you know he's been he's been a lifelong I mean even my my wife you know loves Phil like we've been friends with him that long from college um actually now that I'm now that I'm talking about it uh Phil's blood is on my wife's wedding dress still oh from our wedding night so uh that's how far we go back what was the story of how he got cut we're on the dance floor and Phil comes over and he's wearing a you know his shirt's wide open belly's hanging out we're dancing and uh I think the story I think my wife had a beer bottle in her hand he had one in his hand and she bottled him and his beer bottle shattered his hand so he was bleeding and then at some point he forgot about it and hugged her and so now that's the blood so um that's awesome she took it out on our on our 15-year anniversary and there was the smear my daughter was like what is that like uh that's Phil vessels that's Phil Quessel's operant who uh who who all city play with it on that team did you guys go far at college they would call a gosky the goose season mini too yeah yeah we have my freshman is offering a real good we were the number one team in the country uh I think number one overall seed going into the tournament uh my freshman year was the year we lost to Holy Cross that was probably the biggest upside in college hockey history uh that was brutal and uh second year we lost actually to North Dakota to go to the frozen floor we just beat him up that was that was like what a one of the best hockey games ever played in my life I mean there was probably 10 NHLers on you know on those two teams and we played each other 10 times it's probably a split like yeah Osh was on that team Jonathan Tases on that team um we had we had oposo goose myself um Eric Johnson was on our team so we had we had some hands up there yeah what was the score oh it was overtime I think three two overtime yeah brutal who got it I think it was uh Kevin Porter got it he was in that I think he was in Arizona he was a Phoenix guy yeah yeah yeah he played in San Luis II I think for a while did he yeah I think he man what was the game I think it was against North Dakota where you scored that when you don't yeah that was the week that was the week before okay I wasted it regular season finisher no it was the it was the it was a big game it was our uh the WCHA championship game uh it was at the excel site it was a it was a it was a big goal but it was you know I wasted it a week early it was almost like whoever won that game if you guys went that's right in the regional the other team was winning that one right and the thing I couldn't understand for uh back-to-back years we were the number one overall seed the first year our region was us North Dakota Michigan Holy Cross the second year we were the number one overall seed it was us North Dakota Michigan and Air Force so in the first year in the yeah in the first year our region was at North Dakota too so um there I think there I think they're out to get us texting with Hawke Pozo before this and he told me to remind you of the uh cabin rides in your Azuzu your free styling apparently you're an unreal free style what that was back that was pretty good too I was back that was back a big yeah that was back that day I need to uh must it on obi I need to get a couple of cocktails going before I started to style but um yeah we were we we'd always do team parties up north uh like like team building type of stuff and um yeah I hadn't uh I can't remember the year but as an Azuzu trooper she was a bad girl and uh yeah we we we packed her up there's five ten guys in there um and we like how we were just sitting there and have drinks and like freestyle battle that was like during the eight mile era we all are always free styling each other um and and we woke up and and the the the azuzu was like basically on the beach of the lake we're on and we're all pointed at the lake uh so we did some um some some parallel parking uh during the night too those it was a good night did you ever watch the um like if you go to that eight mile DVD you can go to the like behind the scenes of that battle the outtakes no way actually freestyle the like the people did you ever see that no I haven't seen that all incredible anybody who has the eight mile DVD you can go and I guess when they were doing the freestyle they were kind of just like uh they were like uh do like moving their lips but they weren't actually singing so the people in the crowd after being there all day filming were getting a little bit antsy yeah so finally at one point fucking and they started booing M&M like they were booing because they were pissed so he fucking finally got fed up he turned his mic on and then he started doing it and then they started doing real battles where three people came up he ended up going against a girl like I thought she was going to kill herself yeah how about you fuck he dumped me there none of this was in the movie this is all just like it was just side stuff they put it into like when you're looking for the DVD you can go into like extra scenes and you can go find this it's incredible with because it'll show you how talented he is off the top where like like either type bars off the top of his dome it it gives you chills and because it's 2012 yeah because it's 2026 you can YouTube it you don't have to have the DVD I kind of I kind of want to see it on the DVD though it might be might be you have a your goddamn fucking blue race out and you're gonna get your fucking DVD at your blockbuster do your house all right well my Instagram like my my Instagram algorithm is like I watched that Harry Mac guy I know you guys okay he just look at what he styles on the beach he's on but he'll be like give me seven words and you to give him the words. - Oh, yeah, I know that guy. - Yeah. - It's just that I'm like, had an L.A. and just like starts, like just going at people. It's unbeaten. - And it's the way they give him work. They'll be like cucumber. Like they say the most, and then boom. He just, he gets him in. You're like, where's he gonna get that one in? And then drops it immediately. It's sick. - We've been trying to get Phil Castle to do a sandbag with it. He's a bit of a weirdo when it comes to the media, right? It's kind of like, I feel like he's a little bit like buff where he doesn't like that attention. - Yeah, but he loves it. - He loves golf. - But he loves it. - But he loves it. - Maybe. - So do you think that you could lure him in to doing a bagger? You him and maybe somebody else? - Maybe. It's possible. It's not impossible. I mean, he's probably nervous to do it 'cause it's on camera. And he doesn't hit his driver like higher than like 10 feet off the ground. But he makes power from everywhere. He's in raging guy to play golf with the ball time. - He's got a greasy stroke. Like he's almost like leaning forward with that barrel by the time he gets it. He's on that front foot. - This, we're trying to get him on. Stop trying. - Maybe challenging him. 'Cause he just wants to keep falling. - He was telling me like last year he's like, he's fucking kids tying these deals. He's like, I can still play in the NHL. It's a fucking joke that I can't get a deal. I thought I was just therapist for 45 minutes. I sent him an invoice. And I was like, I felt like you're a mental coach. - He should have gone a deal after Vegas. It was after they won it, right? - Yeah. - Yeah. - He's probably not wrong. He probably still could play. But like, on the golf course, no guy ever played with makes more like 15 footers for parts. It's crazy. Just backbreakers. - Yeah, until the camera show up. - Well, you never know. - Maybe that's why you don't want to do it. - Who would be your third if you could get him in the mix? - Oh, you put me on the spot. - What about Goose? - Goose would be good. Goose would be fun. - And it's sort of all goose first. - And goose is too good. - We need Bophathy. - Yeah. - She's nasty. - Goose is good. - Boph hits it a mile. I watched your guys one with, with, with, with, with Melzie and intro, which that was all time. I wasn't, I wasn't there. (laughing) - That was all time. That was good. - Well, Melzie, buddy, Melzie backed up everything that day too. It was like, like he was so drunk. He's talking so much shit. And then so good. I was like, oh, God, we got nothing for him right now. When the DVD comes out on that, the outtakes will be incredible. - Okay, wait. (laughing) - I play with him a little bit out of use when I was still living in Connecticut. And it's like, he's like non-stop chair, but he's a sick player. - Oh, what'd you do? Stay in Connecticut after the year with the Rangers? - Yeah, we, we stayed out there for three years, and then we moved back to Minnesota this summer. So we're out there. - Okay, so what made you decide to come back? - Just a family. Mostly, I mean, the youth hockey scene out there, it's awesome, but it's like, I mean, I was on a plane with my oldest son, like five or six times last year. And then even when you're home, like you're driving to New York, you're driving to New Jersey, you're driving to Massachusetts. It's like, I felt like I was never home. And at certain point, my wife and I were like, we can do this much more like, sane way back in Minnesota. So that's kind of what it came down to. - Yeah, there's something about, I guess a closer sense of community too, as you get older, and you've got all your family, so that free babysitters all around, I guess. - That's right. And it's like kind of three Uber drivers to just get them to and from practice, and you know, maybe we can go to dinner once in a while together, maybe go on vacation, you know, got it for a bit. But yeah, it makes too much sense when you got people to another world to help you. - Pick them up from the leaning center. (laughing) - What town are you guys in many? - We're in Oregon, it's right next to why is that a? - Okay. - That's just craziness. I wanna talk to you on Winnipeg a little bit more, but I guess we could go back to Boston a little bit. We never really talked about your time in Boston, where you started. Was Kessel also there when you were there? - Yeah, my rookie year, he was, it was his third year in Boston. - Oh, okay. - That was like his breakout year. Like I think he had like 30 some goals. Yeah, we were good that year. We were I think first in the east that year, got upset by Caroline and the second round. But yeah, him, I think Savvy and Luce each were aligned. They were great. - And that was when they just got in Chara. Like he was pretty, like pretty new, maybe a few years before that. - Yeah, we were good, like right off the bat. - What a locker room. - I also feel as though I'm allowed to ask this. I went through it. I don't think there's a ton of guys like us that got traded from a team and then won the Stanley Cup. Now Ryan Malone for us, he had signed in Tampa after the season we lost the Detroit. And then the next year I was there, but I got traded and I remember he called me after they won. We were both, we were so happy for them, but it was still so sad, we're like crying. Like, I don't know for you if it was similar, like just watching 'cause you had been there two and a half years and it played real well, it's something that I'll never forget for sure. I mean, I'm still so excited and happy for them and still so bitter in some ways, I guess. - Yeah, for sure, it's a, it was just a weird day. 'Cause like you said, I mean, I had some great friends on that team who I was super happy for. At the same time, you're like, man, I could be there. And you know, so it's hard to think about that way 'cause like you just don't know what might or might not have happened. But you know, and also like getting traded was the best thing that ever happened in my career, so. - Yeah. - It was at the time, it was super hard, you know? Like for sure, you're watching the guy you were just with for a few years, you know, go all the way. And I think at that time, you're just naive enough to like, oh, I'm still young, like I'm gonna have my time. And you know, all the stories that they all, you guys all probably remember, like older guys in the room, they're always just like, you know, don't take this month for granted. You don't know how many shots you're gonna get at it. And you're like, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. But like, I got 10, I'm gonna get, I'm gonna be here every year, and they're right. You know, like the amount of time that had like legitimate chances to win it all over few and far between. And so those early years are awesome, man. We were in it every year and it was great to see those guys ultimately do it, but yeah, selfishly, it was a tough day. - Gary Roberts-Wit. - Yep, the Gary Roberts-Wit. - Gary Roberts told me, he said, you little fuckers. He said, you ain't gonna get here every year, man. You better embrace this shit. - Yeah. - And I found myself at the end of my career doing that too. Like, listen up, you little fuckers. - Yeah, this is gonna be over in a fucking minute. - They're like, shut up, wheels, like, you're just, yeah, shut the fuck up. - What was the trade? - It was me and Mark Sturley. - For Peverely, and anything guys, and he was Boris and Valovik or something, he was a. - Oh, a big E-man. - It's a lot of game. - Yeah, I don't know if you ever played for Boston. I'm not sure if you ever did, but yeah, that was the trade. - It was actually like, Peverely played such a big role in them winning, but it ended up being a good great trade for Atlanta and Winnipeg. - It was, yeah, it was exactly what they needed. Like, the Bruins needed a third line center. Like, 'cause I was playing most of the year with Seagan, Michael Ryder, and like, I think it was Seag's first year. So, it just was like, they needed that. They needed that guy, you know, he killed a lot of penalties who's kind of like a Swiss army knife could do really anything. I think he scored some big goals in the playoffs too. So, you can't fault them for the trade, you know, I think in the long run, yeah, it turned out to be good for Winnipeg Atlanta. But, yeah, it didn't make it easy at the time. - How was it coming into that locker room? I had a chance of playing with Sean Thornton. I was older when I played with him, but he wasn't the easiest on young guys. And then obviously he got guys like Chara, Bergeron. Like, how was it coming into that locker room as a college kid? 'Cause, like, coming in as a college kid back then, and you never played any minor league game, Spoon Fed, but how was that? - Yeah, I completely Spoon Fed. It's beautiful. I got to hear it all the time. But I would say they were good, they were good. You know, like, it was a crash course in the NHL. Like, this is what it looks like. This is what you do. Later on in that year, we traded for Mark Recky. So, he was the guy I sat next to in the room. So, especially early on, I tried to just be like, seen and not heard. Like, don't get anyone's way. You know, I think as you get more comfortable, you know, your second and third years. And it's like, holy shit, you get too comfortable, you know, whatever. But it's all those things that I think that's what the NHL is. And I actually felt super lucky that I got to learn from that group of guys. There's, I mean, at the end of it, how many Hall of Famers are gonna have come from that dressing room? So, especially as I, you know, became captain in Winnipeg. Like, I felt like I had a really good foundation, learning from, honestly, some of the best leaders that I ever played with or against. - When you first got to Winnipeg, what was Paul Marie's there? Was he the coach? - Manuel was our coach for two and a half years. And then Paul came in that third year. So, yeah, they like Claude Goe. And then, I think Paul, you know, he was in Toronto and then he was over in Russia for a little bit and then he was doing some TV stuff. Then he came in that third year. - And then his exit was kind of like buffs. It was just out of nowhere. Remember that? - Yeah, yeah. Oh, for sure. I saw a funny clip. I was gonna ask about Claude Noel. He was joking about how buff was like, basically playing every position on the ice. Did you see that clip? Or did the interview did this past weekend? - Well, he probably said that while he was coaching too. I mean, he was hilarious. Like, we would, we would, that game would end and guys would like get their shit off as fast as they could and we would turn on his press conferences. Win or lose, like, we would get beat bad. And we would just turn him on in the lounge and just this thing, he would like, be like, I don't like our team. I don't like our group. I don't like the way we play. - Oh, that's where it bones got around. - Yeah, by polar bones got it. - Yeah, and maybe, I don't know. That's another combo. But you know, it was, he was funny. Like, we really got a kick out of Claude and he, for the most part, kept things pretty light around the room. - I'm actually looking up Claude Noel right now. He coached the Milwaukee Adreno's team. We lost two and we'll call the cup finals. - Yeah, he coached the Moose. I think that's how he got the job. He was the coach of the Moose at the time. And yeah, he had a ton of his success in the America league. Honestly, the ones that were the most funny were, and they showed a few of the highlights, but it was the ones where he was bashing us. And he would just be like, like, so at a loss. Like, it was just like, I don't know what to do with this team, right? These guys just don't have it. You know, that type of thing. And you know, then he'd come back in the room and we'd all been laughing. You know, we had to act like we were being serious. (laughing) After our first win in Winnipeg, the next day, like there was, you know, typically like, the coach has written on like meeting time and this is what we're doing and stuff. All it said was just joy. Just wrote joy on the wall and that was it for the day. It's like, there's joy in Joyville. - So good. - So good. - Yeah, take this win. - And then when it was talking about it, yeah, and the kind of the Paul Marice, like, that was, yeah, that was a wild exit. Like, what do you remember of that? - Yeah, I mean, that was hard. Like, he was, he is the best coach I've ever had, you know. He's the best coach I've ever had, period. And you know, he met so much to me in my career. He met so much that organization. I think all the guys, like we went from not being a team that was competitive really for a playoff spot to a team that was contending for Stanley Cup. And it was, a lot of it was Paul, you know, just how he drove us every day. And, you know, that was a really hard day, I think, for everyone. 'Cause we were also, he'd done there almost 10 years. And then it just was like, the rug got pulled out from underneath you in a way. So, kind of the same thing as Buff, like, I understood. I just, I understood where he was coming from. He and I talked all the time, you know, we had a super close relationship as like a, you know, player and coach. And so I understood and I didn't like it, but I understood. For people who don't know the backstory, there might be some. Basically, he said, like, I don't think my message is getting through any more, like, I'm kind of paraphrasing, obviously, but it was more like, he just felt like, he couldn't get through to the group anymore, right? - I think, and I think coaches are intuitive enough to know like when it's maybe getting to like the end of that. I certainly didn't feel that way from the room. Like, I never, you guys have all played for coaches, where he lost us, like, guys aren't listening anymore. That wasn't the case. Like, guys respected the hell out of Paul. I never thought that guys like, like, quit on him by any means. But I think in his gut, you know, he was just like, getting depleted. I'm sure coaching in Canada, you know, he'd coached in there for a long time. It can pose as challenges and he'd been there almost 10 years and he probably just felt like it was time for him to move on. I actually don't know this to be a fact, but I wonder if he actually even thought he was gonna coach again. You know, he was probably gonna be very selected with where he would have had he taken a job. And when that team came knocking, I'm assuming that that was probably one of the only ones he would have even entertained. - I was just gonna ask, like, what made him such a good coach? Like, can you break down the traits that you would want to see in a coach that made him so successful and why you loved them? - Yeah, I think he was like, he wasn't just like, hey, it's my way or the highway, do this or else. I think he understood that each guy was different, especially like the league was changing in a way where you couldn't quite bark and yell the way you used to. So I think he had a, like, he was an incredible communicator, how he would communicate with you in front of the room was incredible, like the first time, you know, he came in and introduced himself. It was like, oh shit, like that, that's different. That is, we got a coach now, like the way he presented himself, the way he spoke, he had an incredible way of getting you motivated for every game and it would always be different and it wasn't the same from, like, he didn't have like a stick that like, okay, it's January, Paul's gonna say the thing that he said last year, like, every game was different and I think that that's an incredible trait to have 'cause it's game 67 and it's February and it's like, let's just start checking these things off and get to the end of the year and he's got a way to motivate you and I genuinely think he does care about the guys too and I think it comes through with how he communicates with everyone. - The other thing too, you said how he was kind of like modernizing himself or he was adapting. At that time, were you working with Adam Oates and you and Shifley and my understanding is he would even be cool when Adam Oates would come to town that you guys would work on power play with Adam Oates even though he wasn't a part of the coaching staff? - Yeah, I would say like, he was cool with us like working on skill stuff, you know, and I think that there were definitely, there were boundaries to that for sure. Like, if it was an off day and Oates he was a town like, file means, I don't think it was something where, you know, we were doing it before after like a sanctioned practice. But in Oates he's great because, you know, he's doing it within the confines of what he does. It's skill stuff, you know, he's not saying, hey, I think you guys should be running like a one, two, two and like, let's go practice it. So it was never like interfering with like, the message from the team or what the coach is teaching. - Yeah, Shayf and I like, we had our spots on the power play so we could like work on stuff within that, but I think that's where like, yeah, having Oates you get to work on the off season stuff like, he's the best. - I saw a cool clip of you talking about Shayf Lee when you broke the record from most points as a Winnipeg jet and he congratulated you or like, you said, yeah, it's mine till you break it. And I'm sure he was young when that happened. So you obviously saw from right when he came in that he was going to be a stud. - He's just, his work ethic is unmatched. I mean, I think you guys would agree like, all the top guys in the league, like they are, they're willing to turn over any rock to find the next level. It's like, you know, the McDavid's of the world, like they are doing whatever it takes to keep getting better and that's how Shayf is. Like he'll do anything, he'll try anything to try to get better at the game. There's nobody I've ever met that loves a game more than him. And like his growth as a player from, you know, 18 years old until today has been incredible, you know. So pretty early on you saw that this guy was special but then his hunger to keep getting better and better. It made me better, honestly. Like as I was getting into like my, my early to mid 30s, like just being around him drove me to the better as well. - Kyle Connor fucking gets me going with. Hey, like watching him play. He's got like a funny like two, three quick strides. Like when he needs to get going, he's just a water bug out there. And like have you, have you been surprised with how he's been able to like year over year, like he's putting up 40 talks? Like what did you see from him early on? And, and what's his like temperament? Like because we had him on and he was pretty quiet. - Yeah, and I saw that he, the year you went to the West Conference finals was his first full season. So kind of makes a lot of sense without Goody was that quickly. - Well, it's funny. I remember a conversation with Paul and like, - We liked our team going into that year. And there was like, there was a hole on our team and it was the left wing spot with Shife and I. And so it was like, who's gonna go there? Cause we could, you know, we could put someone there and then it makes a hole to somewhere else in our lineup that we necessarily can't. And so he was the guy, like before that season, it was like, gosh, if this guy hits, you know, look out. - Or laugh it. - Yeah, we could be a real year, a real team. And I think pretty quickly, like first couple of games, you're like, oh, this, this gets legit. Like he's the real deal. Yeah, he's super twitchy. Like his first two steps are like on top of the ice. But he is incredibly explosive. And one of the more like unique and powerful releases in the league, I mean, he shoots it from note with no time in space and it's like a rocket comes off a stick. He can get it into any spot and he wants to. Yeah, one of the most fun guys to watch in the league, honestly, I think everyone would agree with that. It's like, we got to get him on TNT a little bit more biz, get him a little bit more notoriety. But he's, yeah, super laid back guy. I mean, I think he fits the mold of a Winnipeg jet, loves the hunted fish and pretty chill. Doesn't get to to upper down about anything and a ton of fun. He's one of one of my favorites. - KFC, baby. - Cos, right. Kyle fucking Connor. - That's right. - Yeah, he looks like a guy if you saw him in the grocery store, you would think he was just a winner. - It's kind of like McDavid's body a little bit where they're, you'd see him, you're like, they're not. - It doesn't make sense. - Yeah. - Yeah, they're like skinny almost. It's bizarre, but they're just so quick. - Yeah. - Just powerful. - So powerful. - I put him next to DK Matt Klapp. - Yeah. - To see. - Rose versus Joe's. - Yeah, Rose versus Joe's. - Yeah. Watch DK on the ice then. Yeah. Yeah, that's, man. Like, what did you think about playing in New York? I know it was one season last year in your career, but always a place I thought would have been pretty sick. Like that building, it's just amazing to go into on the visiting team. What would you feel like during that year? - Yeah, it was unreal. I mean, I have another just like a legitimate chance to win. And you knew it pretty quickly. Like we were pretty stacked from the back end, having Shestie in the net. Your lineup was stacked that year. And I mean, yeah, as you know, like that, that place is, when it's seven o'clock in time, like there is no better place in the world than Madison Square Garden. So, yeah, I mean, it was pretty cool to book in my careers with two original six teams in Boston and New York. And yeah, when I had the opportunity to go to New York, it just, it's hard to pass up on that opportunity, especially out of the team that had a legitimate chance to win that year. I mean, we won the president's trophy, but we were probably the second best team that year. Unfortunately, Florida was just that much a little bit better. - You got hurt during the year, and then you were able to come back. I believe you played in the playoffs of the game. Did you know that that was kind of? going to be your last game, or you had expectations of playing the next year, uh, I was hoping to keep playing in the playoffs. Yeah. Um, you know, unfortunately, like, so my injury was, I basically tore up the ligaments on both sides of my ankle and I broke my fibula all in the same play. It just got stuck in the ice and you play long enough. You're going to get bad breaks sometimes. But, um, the second shift of that game, I hit, um, um, Montedor leg on leg, just like an accidental thing. He was coming off the bench. I was going to the bench. Got up, I was like, okay, like that literally hit the exact spot. My fibula was broken and feels fine. As a game went on, it was getting worse and worse than like after the game found out that it was broken again. So that was, that was that, um, but I think when that, when that injury happened, I was already kind of feeling like, you know, I'm away from my kids all the time. Um, you know, you're kind of having those like Tuesday nights in Columbus. You're like, what, you know, what am I doing? You know, what I could do is I could eat packs on you. I could be doing a few suit of things. Yeah. A few other things right now. Guys are starting to say, like, Wheeler, let the kids play and you're like, oh, fuck. Oh, when you hear that one, it's like, it's like, it's like a match of honor. I heard that. Yeah. You're kind of like, uh, am I? Yeah. What am I? Am I embarrassed? Am I embarrassing everyone right now? Like different kids play this. Yeah. So anyway, like that, I think that that's when I was starting to have thoughts about it. And then when I got heard, it was like, all right, maybe maybe that's a sign that, uh, that it's a rap, you know, I've been really lucky in my whole career. Like I hadn't got injured very much, uh, at all. And then, uh, to have that happen at the end, it was just like, all right, maybe, maybe that's a sign. Fuck, man, do you got your thousand games? Did you get to win two president trophies? Uh, just the one. I think my rookie year in Boston, somebody was right ahead of us. I can't remember who finished first. So I think we were second. We were first in the east. I can't remember who, who was on the other side that that was first. But yeah, one, one president trophy. We got it in the mail and it was shattered in half. So I don't have it to show you guys. But and then did Winnipeg win at the year after you retired? Two years after I was there. So the year after they were very good. And two years after they won the president's trophy. Yeah, so, um, yeah, I mean, we obviously, another great kick of the can for them to, to, to go all the way. The only other thing I was going to ask about the, the Jets was I noticed that Charlie Hutty was assistant coach. I just, I've heard the name a bunch like, is he an interesting guy? He was like, whether he's like, yeah, he's the best. Um, he was actually going to be our coach this weekend. Um, but health concerns, he couldn't do it. Um, but he, he was like, him and Buff on the back were a comment. They was just a comedy show because I mean, what are you going to say to Buff really? Like, how can you coach that guy? Um, and so like every once in a while Buffs out there and, you know, we call it, I called Buffa midfielder because he didn't really play. That's not trying to get right there. I'm photo. He was nice though. If you were a watch old games of him, like he was, he was, he was, yeah, he was sick. And, and so he, you know, he's bitching at Buff when he's on the edge. Like, get this guy. He's out, you know, he's playing forward. He's not playing. And then Buff comes back to the batch and he doesn't say anything to him ever. Yeah. This is your time to coach him. Let him know, you know, yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. He would start laughing. But good shit, Buff. Yeah. He was got one there. Buff. Yeah. Yeah. But they had such a fun relationship. I mean, that back end was, uh, I mean, my, you know, last couple of years, I'm going to pick our back end was, was incredible. It was Toby Ensroom, Buff, uh, Jacob Trubo, Josh Morrissey, um, Ben Shirat Tyler Myers. Like it was, man, that is a good back end. It was crazy. But there weren't enough minutes to go around. So, um, yeah. Big two. Yeah. Big. I mean, it was built the right way and, and, uh, and hugs had a lot of fun with those guys. So, um, we wish you could have been there last weekend. Now, I, I did ask this and you did answer it, um, about the like, uh, was, did you already get your kind of like your peace with the fans as you were leaving Winnipeg, or did you felt like this past weekend was like more of like, like kind of like the healing of it, like the true healing of, of, of what you wanted them to know how you felt about them. Yeah. I think when, when I was in New York, you know, I got to play in Winnipeg and, and definitely like had that moment where the, the fans and they, it was over the top. Like they were so, so great. Um, and so I, I definitely had that, um, I think like probably for a lot of guys this past weekend, um, because you've been away from it for a little bit longer. It was like, like, wow, like what we meant to that community and, and, and vice versa, like what that placement to us, a lot of our careers. Um, so I think it just kind of took it to another level. Um, you know, the, the, the, the fans there were, it was over the top this weekend. Like we, we really felt, uh, pretty cool about that experience. So like to answer your question, I, I feel like I, I had it already. And last weekend was just like, um, icing on the cake. Yeah. Awesome. They had their team rip from them to go back there going that run. Like it's, you know, they're, yeah, they're kind of, they're that underdog story that I, I really root for. And I'm interested to see how they handle the hella buck situation. I, it's almost, it would almost be cool to see them take the high road and give them like a standing. Oh, you know, well, you know what? I, I, I, I don't know what's going to happen. Um, I do know he's going to get crushed. I know, but you know what I'm saying? It'd be like, time heals all wounds and in, like, no guy in that, you know, who's to say what's going to happen in the future? But, you know, a guy that won a heart trophy in three beseners, like in a place like Winnipeg, like that's a special guy to that, that town of that community. Um, so in the big picture, I think that there will be a healing. Now November 10th will, that's my fuel. And I think, and I think years down the road with Brady, Ottawa would do the same. Yeah. Yeah. I, it's just so fresh. But yeah, when you look at what hella buck did there, at some point, I think there'll, there'll be some gratitude from the fans and all that. After this interview, it, like, I, now I want to see them give him a standing. Oh, like, I feel like I feel like I play for the Jets now. God, you're, you're so good with us. That's how everybody who plays for the Jets. That's why, like, when you do hear guys don't want to play there and stuff, you talk to guys that played there. Everybody seems to love it so much and the community. So shout out to Winnipeg for being the fans that they are. Yeah, not just a typo on that. Like, I got asked that last weekend. And my answer was, I think it's a true, like, show me the list of the guys who have wanted to leave Winnipeg. I'll show you one five times longer of guys who either stayed or wanted to stay. And that, but that's true everywhere. You know, like, there's, there's guys in other quote unquote more desirable places in the league right now that are looking to get traded or holding out. I mean, it happens all the time all over the place. But I think when it happens with a marquee player in a small Canadian market, it just gets blown out of proportion. Yeah. And I mean, I know you signed a deal there. And obviously, hella buck was a part of that crew, but Connor and Schifley, like, that was at a time when they were like, oh, where are these guys going to go? And they re up together. And it's like Kyle Connor was pretty vocal to about, you know, I don't necessarily think they appreciated how hella buck did his thing. Maybe, maybe that's not the correct wording. But he made it clear. Like, I love being here. And he hasn't, he hasn't made any requests or anything. So it's a hockey town. I'll say that. Yeah, they love it there. I mean, it's like, I always compared to like the Green Bay Packers of the NFL, like a small, but like, that town just just loves that team more than anything. We always just awesome, man. Yeah, no, I got a couple more for it. Okay. Nice. Yeah. You got some more to bebys. No, he's just a great, it doesn't want to hold people too long. He probably saw it's what I do the last time. That's why he joined the show full. Yeah. So when you were done, you did a year working a little bit with the Rangers was not doing that anymore just because you guys moved home. I think so. Yeah, I think, I think that that was like Drew was so awesome to, you know, Chris Drew is so awesome to give me the opportunity to get a peek in behind the scenes and see how, you know, the sauce is made. And I really enjoyed my time there. And it was great to learn some things. And we disagreed. Yeah, with me being a Minnesota just made more sense to, you know, if they had somebody else local that could do that role, like it just made more sense. So I'm grateful to have learned about it. And, you know, maybe when my kids are out of the house one day, you get back into it. But yeah, for now, I'm just happy to, to have learned and move on. I wanted to ask you because we didn't touch on really your international play. And I think I met you for the first time 16 years, all the whatever it was out in Lake Placid. And, you know, you were the top guy there. And, you know, I looked it up. I think you're 14th all time in USA scoring. So that's amazing. And I'm sure you'll be in the USA hockey hall fame soon. But just kind of you played in Sochi, you played in the world. What was it? World Cup, whatever. But how proud would you not only of yourself for that, but then, you know, seeing the Olympics last year and what the, what the guys did for, you know, guys like you hear stories that guys were reaching out to guys that have played before. And, you know, how cool is it to be a part of that, you know, brotherhood? Yeah, man, it like, talk about not having something on your bingo card. I mean, playing in the NHL was was above me on anything I ever dreamed of. And yeah, to have played even like World Juniors, I didn't know what the World Juniors tournament was until we were at that camp together. Basically, it was like, my agent was like, Hey, there's this thing that you got to go try out for. And I'm not kidding. That's actually true. Wow. You weren't that like, so you weren't crazy growing up about like World Juniors and stuff? Dude, I for real, like I think maybe it just lends to how Minnesota hockey is like, I wanted to play in the state high school hockey tournament. Like, that was my, that was my dream. And like, those were my heroes. We didn't have the North Stars anymore in the wild weren't back. So I wanted to play for the gofers. Like, that was our NHL. And so the NHL would just always seen like this pipe dream that was above and beyond. And yeah, so to answer your question, like World Juniors felt like, you know, was was just not even a dream I ever had, but just something that I couldn't even fathom. Yeah, when I made that Olympic team, I mean, that was like a holy shit moment. You know, being around those guys, being on that team. I didn't get to play a whole lot, but I didn't give a shit. I was just so happy to be there. I would open that door all day long. I got to be on the bench when Osh did the shootout. It was tough that we lost to Canada one-nothing, because we could have won a gold medal that year too. It means a ton to me to realize a dream that I never even had, and then to watch those guys this winter and what they did. It felt like a, I don't know what the word is, but it just felt so fitting. I know a lot of guys from my generation were so proud that they were able to get the job done that we couldn't get done, but to feel like you're still a part of it. I know you feel that way too. You got to experience what that was like to be in the Olympics. That was like a gold medal for all of us, for all of USA hockey, all the kids, now they're all, that's all they know now. We just win golds, but our whole lives, that wasn't the case. So now we're top of the mountain for a little bit, which is-- All right, we can end this thing. You're up in the US, but there's nothing I can do. No, no, I love both countries. I spent a lot of time in the US, but-- No, I know, I'm just going to hurt. It's got hostess everywhere. Every city goes to, he's going to buy a house. I have my lose everywhere. I stuck up my ass holder in that one, so it was a tough week. All right, I got the rowback last question. Use code, checklists on rowback.com for generous, 20% off. Through your first purchase to the end of the week, that's rhobac.com use CHIC, L-E-T-S, polos, hoodies, swim trunks, they got it all. So check out this one, the back to the past thing I got. Rowback, have you ever worn any rowback wheels? No, it's incredible. We'll send you some. Yeah, I got that one too. Oh, I got that too. That's nice too. I love it. Yeah, that things clasp, put it on, put it on right now. All right, this question might be a little long-winded. Might confuse some people, but so I'll start it with this. Making the NHL is the odds are nearly impossible, right? And then you played over 1,100 games. So I think it says what I'm looking up here is around 3% of the people who played in the NHL, played 1,100 games. So it gets even crazier what you did. Now you're coaching your kids. You mentioned you at least coached your boys or girls or-- Boy girl boy. Yeah, boy girl boy. OK, so maybe some advice for me and other hockey parents out there, the madness of it all now, how are you approaching everything in terms of coaching your own kids and dealing with maybe parents who are so-- And I don't even blame some of these parents. They're confused. They don't know what to do. They're keeping up with the Joneses. How have you and your wife approached your kids careers and how they're playing and how they love the game? With what you accomplished and how rare that is. That's why I brought them back to many. Yeah. No shit. Well, I think to your point, people are doing the best they can. I don't think there's any malice to it. I think people genuinely are just-- they don't know what the answer is. So they're just trying to do the best they can. They see this other kid doing this camp. So he's got to do the camp. So everyone's just trying to keep up all the time. My advice to anyone that ever asked me is, I just tell my story. Basically, I wasn't picked to be in the top 52 for the select 17 tournament in Minnesota. I was cut from the final 52 in Minnesota. And I got drafted fifth overall year later. And so the point there is that if you're a good enough player, they're going to find you. There are kids that are just ripping it up that are hiding. And if they are, they eventually get fouled. And so what I tried to tell people is to enjoy it because the point of youth hockey is to have fun. That is first and foremost. And for my kids, my goal is that, however long they play, however high up level they play, they look back on the youth experience and they go, that was the best fucking years of my life. I got to play with my buddies. We got to win some games, but the stories in the locker room, all the fun that you get to have. That's what it's all about. Now, if you're lucky enough to be one of those kids, they're going to find you. And then you get to play college hockey. And then it's going to be up to the kid how far they take it. It's not up to the parent as much as, you know, sometimes we like to feel like we're making an impact. Like, if my kids love it enough and they're good enough, it'll work itself out. It's easy to have that perspective with the career that I had. It's a lot harder if you just don't know. But, you know, my advice is always to like, take a step back and just enjoy it. Because one day they're going to move out of the house and most likely to your stats, they're not going to play at a super high level. So just play the odds, enjoy it. And if they do, hell yeah, like that's just icing on the cake. That's such a great point because I mean, all of us played in the NHL. And I don't want to speak for everybody. But my greatest memories are from when you're a kid and when you're in high school, it's not even close. High school hot, that buddy of mine, and I would recently were talking and we were saying like, and Minnesota is even different, right? Because you play for your town and it's the best. It's definitely the top dog in USA for high school hockey. And Massachusetts used to be that way, but there's always private schools involved. But we were still saying like, ideally, you know, if your son loves it, he plays high school hockey because that is the best and then looking back on Pwease and all that. But I was interested how you were approaching it based on, you've now witnessed how crazy it is. It's just, it's a different landscape than the way we grew up. And Minnesota is a little different, but at some point that might change a little bit too. It's just like, it's the money involved. But I was, I was appreciate you giving that answer. No, my pleasure, and I always told my son, I was like, hey, you know, you know where to find me? Like if you want to go work on your game, you want to go to the, like I'm not going to pull you out of bed at six in the morning if I'm dragging you out of bed. You drag me out of bed? That's a different conversation. I'm willing and able to help you. I'll bring you anywhere, however I can. But if it's coming from me, it's just going to be miserable for both of us. You know what I mean? - When Scott the kids sleep in the baza the night before games. - No, I actually, I have a, I have one of those, what are they sleeping, the high draw? - Hyper bear, hyper bear, hyper bear. We're doing a limb lengthening surgery soon. - Chinese pet dogs. - Yeah, I'm getting a little bigger. - Your kids will be tall. Your kids will be tall. - Yeah, yeah, yeah. - Thanks, buddy. I appreciate that. - Well, Wheels, this has been a blast. - Last one I had was, you talked about your algo. Did you ever, do you ever follow that? No, no, Instagram. Do you ever follow that Johnny Ham check? - No, he's just on Theo Vaughn. - He's on Theo Vaughn. He's a funny motherfucker, dude. - I got a check in about two. - He just walks around Columbus and fucks with people. He's like, he'll walk up to a job site and be like, "Hey, I'm here to drop off the 20 inch chains." And the guys are like, "What the fuck are you talking about?" - He'll hook a few of, he'll always hook somebody in where they're just becomes a crazy back and forth. - Oh, many followers. - Oh, buddy, this guy should have 20 million based on someone. - And he drives Uber? - No, he just, he'll pull up to a guy at like a stoplight. And the guy'll have like some like midlife crisis. He's got the fucking top down, like Ferrari or whatever the fuck it is. And he's like, "Hey, Bob, you are a motherfucker." - Remember me, fucker. And he's like, "Hey, yeah, I remember you." He's like, "How you been, dude?" And he'll just get him going. He's fucking 10 out of 10. - A phone, a phone. - You don't remember me? And the guy was like, "Ah, I kind of do." He's like, "I used to have two ponytails coming out of the back of my head." - He's like, "Oh, yeah." (laughs) Like, just the interactions. - All right. - I'm about to get fucked up. I'm gonna follow you. - Yeah, you know. - What other fucked-up shit you got on the Algo? - Oh, man. I keep it pretty PG, man. My Instagram's pretty lame, but yeah, I told you, freestyle rappers and-- - We should do a Winnipeg jet cipher. - Yeah. - We should join up with you. Get buffing there to spit tonight. - He doesn't have any flow. - Of course. - Off in? - No. - What about Huddy? (laughs) - Little Huddy. - Little Huddy. - Wheels, last thing. - What was lowest round this summer? - Oh, man. I don't think I broke par, but I think I was right around even a couple of times. My game's like, it's okay. It's been the same for like 15 years. I never go to the green. I just, I play like 15, 20 years. - Yeah, you could shoot, you could shoot 71. You could shoot 83. - That's right. It doesn't matter. - We'll tell that punk bitch, Castle, if you want some action, we can get it going anytime you want. (laughs) - It sounds like there's a match to be had. - Look at those shorts. - It's surprising to get his arms around the barrel. - How about the shoes? He's rocking with the black pants and the blue shoes. Nice shoes. - Yeah, those are team issued from Toronto. - He's like a male version of Page Sparanic. He's got to get his arms around his barrel. She's got to get around it. Her tits. - Oh, he's gonna dummy. If he agrees now, he's coming in full of piss and vinegar. - I don't think he can handle the bright lights. - All right, wheels, you can hear the man, dude. - It's been a real appreciate, buddy. Congrats on an amazing career, dude. We really appreciate you spending some time with us. Good catchin' off. - Yeah, thanks, boys. Thanks for having me, you guys are the best. - All right, see ya, buddy. - See ya, wheels. - See ya, fellas. - Guys, we love Reese's. We love Reese's. This is the Reese's Oreo Club is incredible. I mentioned that. I had a Twitter video that I put out of all the amazing products for Reese's. There's something for everyone when it comes to Reese's. But right now, everyone, if you're craving a little chocolate, go get a peanut butter cup. Go get some Reese's pieces. Go get an Oreo mixed Reese's peanut butter. Get a Reese's peanut butter cup that has Reese's pieces in the middle of the peanut butter. They have it all. That's what Reese's does. Reese's the official candy partner of Barstool Sports. Go get Reese's wherever you shop. - This episode is brought to you by Body Armor Flash IV, a long weekend I just had. Halloween on a Saturday night. You know, you're going to be hurting and when you're hurting and you need some, you need some satisfaction and you need to maybe like get some electrolytes in your system, body armor flash IV is all you need. It's packed with electrolytes, they're like faster, longer lasting hydration without any artificial dyes, flavors or sweeteners, whether you're training, traveling or just feeling the heat. I know our next sandbagger, I'm going to have some body armor flash IVs. Sometimes we're feeling the heat and nose and we're dehydrated. So boom, body armor flash IV, all the flavors they have, work hard and hydrate hard with body armor flash IV, grab it at a 7-11 today. Thank you very much to Blake Wheeler, awesome guy, crafting an incredible career, it's good to catch up with him and shout out to Jets fans and my guy, Vigo Bjork, don't worry, don't worry about Vigo, promise you that, don't be anyone taking this out on Vigo. Vince, the Ottawa Senators stat I wanted to give you. Now this came across my timeline after they worked over the sharks and then Wersovsky said, I think he said they're the best team they've played against this year, but then Ottawa goes into Anaheim, blows a three-nothing lead and loses while the sense fans have a right to be a little annoyed, a little annoyed about the disrespect they're getting from the leak. But this is since central after today, this was after yesterday, the sends will be at 16 games played, eight of them are part of back-to-back, half of their games are on back-to-back, 50% should be illegal, pulled this crack me up, pulled up a completely random team, Montreal, one set of back-to-backs, okay, I'll check another random team, Toronto, two sets of back-to-backs, so Ottawa, no credit, yeah, the leaves they're getting it done with early in the season when you're still fresh. Well, I know, but some of these teams like they don't even have a lot of them and Montreal, they get all of their back-to-backs at home or sorry, they get all, they're playing the most games for these are on back-to-backs where they get them on day two. So interesting fucking, I'm starting to really like these Senators, man, they're good. Now, without, without, but, but, but, but they need, they need all markback, I don't, I don't even actually know what he's out with, but they, you can't be losing games to Anaheim who has not looked great this year when you're up three nothing, that just, that can't happen. It would have been a hell of a, a Sunday night win for them, but how many more back-to-backs do they have? That's a good question. Maybe G could look at it. But that's why when people, when, when, when some leaves fans are like, oh, no, they, we don't get special treatment, like you kind of, and the, and the sense, and the sense fans are the ones getting the, the, the shitty deck with playing through 16 games, half of your games are on a back-to-back, back-to-backs are no joke. They're not three and three in the AHL where you go, what do we do the one time, Syracuse, and then I think we went down to Norfolk and then back up and played Norfolk the next night. So Norfolk and we all, we all had to do the bus stride, just AHL, just, I've done a four and four before. Wait. Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. You got called up from the coast. No. Same league. I think we had to make, we had to make up a game. Box break down. We had to make up a game. Four and four. They don't give a fuck. And then that, that fourth game was probably at noon, too, because they wanted to just get it over with. We ended a year in Wilkes Bear with four, four and fives. Oh, we'd go Wednesday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday, four weeks in a row to end the season. And that was the year Ross loop is chuck on the last game at the Philadelphia spectrum. A noon start. He basically was asleep after warm up before I went out there like the whole team is just like sitting there. I think loopie might have actually passed out. He was that tired. It wasn't right. The jungle sends a plate back to back four times this year and they have 10 more. Wait. What? How would it only, how would it only be four times I think you met because of eight, eight games have been back, back to back and for them, too, like they're the only ones in that building, too, that it's not like like Toronto, you'd figure would have to make up more days with the concerts and the raptors and stuff like that, try to fit games in. There's nobody else playing in that arena and in Senators land, is there? I just remember that coach requested a trade and said, get me the fuck out of here. This hits me at random times, but they lowballed in the key to culture of Saturday. I watched the Bruins against the black hawks. I think I said it last week. I tweeted it. The Chicago black hawks boys who are fucking horrible and they actually had the Bruins. They were up for two. The Bruins were all over them. They went down twice and scored after being like hemmed in and then Chicago was kind of all over the Bruins. They ended up tying it up, an unreal tying goal. I think G was at the game, a ton of patients by McAvoy up top, but an electric atmosphere for a Halloween afternoon matinee at the Boston Garden. Geeky needed that too. Geeky really needed that goal. I think he only has won this season and like that's, he's been snake bitten all year. That was a monster monster goal. The pop in the garden, too, was nuts and then went home and over time. That was unbelievable. That was sick. The way he used his body, he just completely bitched out. I think it was all over more and just boom, put his shoulder into him, like a little fake backhand to the forehand to the black hawks, but I know you have a month TNT this week. I'm sorry, buddy. You better get some smelling salts. Oh, I'm in a car of them. They're playing Florida. So I hope Florida pumps them. I just, I mean, look at, look, look at over it, like, okay, Seth Jones trade, got a way, you know, got off of a great player, not even sure what the return was on that. Spencer night, which he's, I mean, you got to have a goalie. Imagine they didn't need to have something. Wasn't Hegel on waivers years ago? No, hegel, no, they left strome on not, they didn't qualify strome. They traded Hegel, which okay, I get it maybe at the time, but like, you can't just keep getting off of good players. Then the one this summer where you, like, listen, man, I think that Bo Byron was tremendous last year. He loved him in Buffalo, loved him. But he played in Colorado. He was third fiddle. Want to cut there was, was solid, they obviously were with, what's his name? They had Milinsky coming up, is that how you say his name? They had him coming up. It was time to move off of him. He goes to Buffalo. You got Dahlene. You got Power. You got Sam Wilson. You could argue him and Sam Wilson are basically third fiddle there. And you're going to fucking pay, you're going to, you're going to, you're going to trade a fourth overall pick. And what else did they give up? Did they give up a first round or two? It was the fourth overall pick. I thought they gave up more than that, too. It wasn't just fourth. Oh, they gave up a crevier, big, big defense, yeah. Big good defenseman. And then you, and then you give him 12 and a half million, which makes him at that time, like the highest, one of the highest, I think he was the highest paid defenseman league at that time. And Tomacar re-opped. Yes. I don't know, man, I don't know how much longer David sends in the seat, but this team fucking blows. They got no jam. They have no identity. They got that. They got bedard and they got who's the other one there, Frontel. Frontel. That's it. There you go. They green way. Yeah. They gave up green way, Byram, for number fourth overall, number 45th overall, and Nui crevier, who I think is going to be a great, huge, you know, big, great number four defenseman. So he might actually be just as good as maybe not offensively, but what you provide as a fort defenseman, shut down long big body, helps kill penalties, helps take care of other team's second line, just it's a fucking shit show in Chicago. And we had chief on here, opened the season with his propaganda, saying that they're going to be in the mix for a wild card spot. Well, he was very excited, he, I think one tweet was I woke up and I just, I'm really starting to think we got, we might have something special here. You guys are horrible horrendous. They have nine points, a minus 22 gold differential. Those are second worst only to the connox. And it's, it's ugly. The only excitement they're going to have is celebrating Patrick Kane milestones, the whole couple of years they have them locked in her contract. Robert Dard has nine points right now, he's only played half of their games and he leads the team and scoring. And the next guy's Patrick Kane and then front out underneath him, do relegate this team to the HL. It's not a loaded draft this year either. Like it's not like they're coming in with like, they're going to get this franchise changing guy. If they get the first little role pick, you got two points, gonna, supposed to be Quinn Hughes. Landon DuPont's a good player, really, really good player, but I don't think anyone's dubbing him like this. Quinn Hughes. Oh, I disagree, I think he's going to be off when he's, yeah, I think he'll play like Quinn Hughes. I don't think he'll be even close to Quinn, so they don't need because they got by this way. At this point in time, way better than Quinn Hughes, I should say way, he's better than Quinn Hughes was at that age. My point is outside of DuPont, it's not a loaded draft. So you missed on the first overall pick. It's not really a deep one. What did they get in the van or Chicago if they both end up this bad? Yeah, Chicago needs it. But looking at the roster, like you don't even see it. anything like besides Bedard and those got like, what else are guys even gonna want to sign there? Like you've said, Biz, like there aren't even UFA's anymore. No one, like the July one is basically done. Like who's gonna go there? Where is that, when is this team gonna turn around? Like if you're a Chicago Blackhawks fan, when do you see them getting it figured out? - Were there like top prospects? Like I know Frontel was, now he's playing. - What's Lushanov or whatever the hell's name is? - Lushunov. - Lushunov? - Yeah, what was he, he was the top five guy, right? - What about who's the small centerman behind Bedard, they got? - All of them more? - No. - Frontel? - No, there was another one. - Frank, this is our. - I think a lot of people are looking at the Lushunov to pick to take him second overall. That could end up not working out. But I mean, hopefully, young, young. They took Kevin Corchinski in 2022, seventh overall, like. - Name some names after him. - You know what, the draft isn't great. Granted, it was only four years ago. After him was Casper, Matthew Savoy, Mitt Yukov, Connor Geeky, Matej Chuk, Nazar, McGrawdy, Lecker-Mackie, down a little further. We got Snuggaroo, we got Yurov. They had Rinzel, they took Rinzel in the first round that year too, boys. - It's ugly. - Hey, and another thing too, is if you're redoing the draft, are you even taking Bedard? Are you taking Carlson? - We need five more years to say. - Yeah. - And Carlson's just surrounded with better players, so he's gonna be better. - Way better players. - Those are way bigger to have the release of Bedard. But a guy that the Blackhawks would love that is just turning into army? I think army said in the group chat, like many McDavid-like is Logan Cooley. That hat trick he had in Pittsburgh and his hometown. Pittsburgh ties it up with 20 seconds to go, and he scores with one second left for a hatty. That kid turns on the jets and takes dy. And I will give army a little credit. Sometimes he kind of does look like McJesus with his wheels. He also looks so strong on his skates. Yeah, he's like little cigarette machine that just has fucking afterburners. So that was an awesome hat trick. I love that one. - Did you see the goal that they gave when Malcolm, it looked like it was Goli interference. He hit the Goli's glove and then ran into him in the crease. Like the one that they scored to take the lead. And that was the first game of a long road trip. I believe a six game road trip for Utah. So you're leading the whole game, then Pittsburgh tied it up, and then they get that go ahead goal with 24 seconds. That's a kick in the deck. When you're up the whole game and your first game over road and you're like, oh God. And then Cooley ends up scoring that sick goal, hat trick in front of his family. They had a rented out box, and then they ended up getting the dub and overtime. It was an awesome game, unreal game. And I agree with army, he does have the jets. He's built like a brick shit house too. He doesn't look like he's that stocky, but he's got a huge back on him. Just like you said, when like the superstars at MSG up their game, the superstars when they go to their hometowns, up their game and put on a show. And it's cool. You see his parents, his grandparents, whoever else is in that box going absolutely insane. That's got to be the coolest thing in the world, getting a hat trick in your hometown. Like a team like he grew up within the sit era that like probably going to games and to do it against all those guys still being there is fucking incredible. When I played at home somehow in like a scrum, like I ended like a luch was like body and me around and okey and bulls are in the stands going, kill him, luch, kill him. No, remember when I scored, remember when I scored against the Bruins and Bill Maharis, I'm looking over, I tied the game with like under a minute left, tie it up, I get to the bench, I'm on like, you know, look across one of our friends, Bill Maharis, the onion man, I'm looking across and he goes like this. He loves the beans, dude. Giving you the finger. There was a pretty cool, I mean, it kind of happened when Troch got traded there, but there was a cool picture circulating, both of them in the Pittsburgh Predators, Jersey, like that was their minor team growing up. And then and then coolie taking a picture when Troch was playing in the NHL when he was younger. I don't know if he could pull those up, but things have obviously come full circle. Both those guys get the go back home and I'm pretty sure Troch had a point in that one as well. So yeah, great. Why are they getting the Pittsburgh Predators and not the Pittsburgh Penguins? No, they are the pens now. Pittsburgh, junior penguins, like they have a really solid youth hockey program, but that might have been before it. Oh, well, I'm not, I'm not sure. Or maybe they're district or wherever they were, there were different ones. So I don't know if we got that picture, but it's a pretty cool nostalgia. The Devils continue to win boys. Devils, they had a good hockey team. Now they have hella bak, who's two and all. It's just like, analytically, the best teams defense defensively as well. They don't give up shit. They don't give up anything. It's crazy. This fucking guy sitting at home in his dad homemade data center with his stupid stats, making me sick. Oilers got to get that one at the potential center Tuesday. Just just mark off. Just keep rolling along this road trip. What else did I want to say? Oh, when we talk about how bad Chicago is, like the same thing could have been said prior to the year, both Calgary, Bravo to Calgary at that time. They're fucking playing hard. They're playing well. They're playing for Tito. They're playing. I want, I think they've won six of their last seven games after a slow start. Pretty sad thing in the locker room. Did you see a white cloud? He ended up getting the player of the game. And like obviously it was everyone's a good mood 'cause they won and white cloud had to put his dog down the afternoon of that game where they, who'd they beat with? Do you remember? It was on the road. That's Seattle. I think it might have been Seattle. I think it was. Pretty emotional, like almost in tears when he was given his post game speech after getting the player, the game for the team. And just like, obviously some of the fans are a little frustrated because they're like, we need to tank and continue to get good players. But easy team to root for right now. They got the Mojo. They're playing hard for one another. I mean, if you look at the goals, they scored against Toronto the other night when they beat them. They're fucking snapping it around. They got some highlight real goals. So pretty pretty close. Coronado had four points the other night. That was Saturday night against the, no, no, no, it was the game before the abs. They lost to the abs. They've won five straight at home though, which is pretty sick for the last year at the Saddle Dome. And they're showing up at home. But like you said, the fans are like, okay, yup, this is cool, like make sure, like in December, you start losing. I often, I often discuss with fans, like I really think it's split 50-50. Like there's some fans like our buddy Maharas at the Bruins that no matter what are rooting for their team to win. And then I think like it's completely different side of fan bases that just when you know you're not going to make the playoffs, like please be as bad as possible. I always kind of wonder what makes you decide if you're always rooting for a dog or a root in for the future. Much of all, by the way, it keeps winning. They don't have Suzuki. They've battled, like they're just, they beat that, they beat Pittsburgh five, four Saturday. That was a good one. Sid actually got hot there. They sit at three points that night. - Well, he set two records. All right, well, sorry, he tied Marcel Dion for six all time and points. Remarkable, he's still going. And he set the most assists for a player in a single franchise with 1,000 something. You could pull that number up. So that was a nice little. - 1,112, he passed Ray Bork. - For most assists with one franchise throughout their career. So he just keeps climbing up the leaderboard and a lot of categories. And I can't wait to see him rockin' a Colorado Avalon. I'm sure as he later gets here. - He needs 79. - Well, he needs eight more points to take fifth place and pass Ron Francis. 79 more points to pass Gordy Howell for fourth all time. Do you think he gets that this year? - Brian. - Brian. - Well, I mean, his streak of point of game. - Point per game. Yeah, that he broke Wayne's record last year. - Yeah, but he would be over that. You said he needs how many more, 79? - 79 more this year. - Well, that means he would still be over a, if he got close, you would be over a point per game but still not reach that milestone. How many's he got right now? Eight, nine points? - I think he can do it. - Your team kind of stinks. - Yeah, they're not, they're not. - He has 10 points at 14 games. We need to finish the year with 89 points and he has 70 games left. That's, that's doable for him. - That's doable for him. - That's doable, but doable. Oh, Russia's back, apparently. - Yeah. - Now then I saw, now when I say Russia's back, there was a ruling in some court somewhere that Russia can play in international ice hockey competition this year's world juniors, the Olympics, everything. Then I saw something meme-sent where Canada may still try to not allow them to play at the world juniors in Canada. Where are the world juniors this year? Were we back in Canada? - I thought it was in Canada last year. - Was that Minnesota last year? - Minnesota last year. And everyone was starving the whole night. - It is Edmonton and Red Deer, Alberta. - So Rick, maybe Canada's gonna try to ban them? I don't know, but if they're in the next World Cup, I want them in world juniors, it'll make it way better. But World Cup, we need Russia. So at this point, I would think the league will just go by this ruling, would you guys agree? - While it's in Canada, so did they get the final say? - Well, it's Canada and Europe. So yeah. - Yeah, yeah, I don't know. - Get Russia back in the big game. - Don't you have to qualify for things like that at the world juniors or no? - What do you mean? - 'Cause obviously they haven't played any international stuff like if they qualify. Don't you have to qualify like win tournaments or something? - I think if you finish, maybe the bottom two, you end up having to go to the B1 to get back into the A1, but based on their last tournament, which I'm assuming they'd go on, they've never had to do that. - Okay. - That was how good they are. They just slide right into a normal spot in world juniors and Olympics. Great question though. The UConn beer celly was electric. I gotta give those guys credit after scoring a goalbiz. I don't know if you saw this. - I never saw it. - Clubs off the sky, middle, slides it over. One timer and UConn right back out in front. They have a 3-2 lead on the power play. They're second power play goal tonight. - Didn't spill any either. Didn't elbow their friend for if they're buying them beer and he's trying to talk to a woman. Very good right there. One of the coach was like, oh boys, but they could just say they're having a water. Just quick cheers after the gold, big water. Everyone, the breast cancer awareness merch will stay on sale for another month. So please check it out. You see the hats that the boys are rocking. There's great hoodies all that. So it goes to a great cause. All the proceeds go to. - Move over breast cancer. It all goes over to move over breast cancer, which provides wellness trips for women who have been diagnosed. - Murls has a big week. So everyone Tuesday, there's chasing goals. If you're in Pittsburgh, Eleon Murls, they need a win. They really need a win. They're gonna be at Pittsburgh chasing goals. Okay, so maybe find out we can find out. They'll definitely be at a bar before the game. I know that known Mur. The penguins play at home against the Golden Knights. So that should be a good one. And the Golden Knights have to play the night before Boston. They're on a back to back. But, and then also Murls is doing the all cast on Thursday. On Thursday. So check them out if you're in the Pittsburgh area. And the final thing would be the internet invitation, which has 16 million views. - Holy shit. - There's two episodes. - Yeah, the first episode had 10 million views right now. - Oh. - And five hours. - Five watched, obviously some spoilers here. The second episode, final hour. I was out on the course. I didn't, we, Team White was dead. We were dead. We had no chance of moving on and beating Team Blue. And then we just saw a miracle happen. I, coach Gruden grinds out a half point, I think, against Frankie and Francis with Bobby Ray, the guy with no sleeves. Big John takes the internet by storm, which many people call him the greatest putt in YouTube golf history. The crazy thing was that they didn't, they cut out a lot, but Grant Horvat, who's, I think the goat of YouTube golf, correct? The most popular, maybe highest. - Is he really? - Oh, yeah. - He's the, I think he's the biggest. - Yeah, for sure. - Star. - I don't know if you want to look up like YouTube subscriptions. - Yeah, he, you're not wrong there. He's a monster. - He's a monster. - He's a monster. - He's kid friendly too. - So he wasn't, he wasn't playing well. He ended up making a putt in which they won their match 'cause the short game king ended up missing a three putt. - I ain't a whole dude. - Two of them. - That kid was a yappy kid, man. - Oh, he ended up just, yeah. - He looked like a dickhead. - Yeah, he looked like a complete clown. - Because he was begging, wasn't he begging for the, a gimme, when your nicknames the short game king, you can't be begging for a tapin'. - Earlier in that match, his partner was Roger Steele and he putted it, it looked to be two and a half feet past and he's like, you gonna give me this grant? Which, right away, it's like, no. And he misses it. So it's like, all right, well, I'm not giving you another one. It comes down to the last hole of the match with the porknoi there, just nightmare fuel. Telling him, you're a joke, if you miss this, you have to leave the, you're done, you're done forever. You have to change your name and he misses it. - So he missed two in that nine, right? - Yes, yeah, two, like three footers. - It would be like, if a long drive guy was like hitting his driver, like two 20. - You're short game king. And you're missing two and a half footers. - A lot of people are saying that these guys, they're playing in these matches and stuff normally and they're just picking those ones up, right? They're not really ever putting out those small ones where when you got money on the line and your golf reputation for a lot of these guys, that's their identity. Like, I missed three footers, like it's going on a style. But these guys, that's their whole identity and fuck, I don't know how you remember. I don't know how you recover from that one. Some of these guys walk around with an arrogance where it's like, holy fuck dude. You're a YouTube golfer, pump the brakes here. - Well, that's why I grew to fucking brakes. - Root, our team, I was over there having beers. I don't remember this, but there was a section of the tournament in which, or before the second round where Groot and Bobby Ray were going out against Frankie and Francis and there were people on the white team, like, that's unfair. That's unfair. This is basically saying they're going to get worked. And then Groot and Bobby Ray go up, Bobby is like, fuck these, and Groot and like, fuck these. Let's go beats a fucking hall of fame, YouTube golfer. Basically, like, the way he says things is so funny. But in the whorevap match against the short game king, he wasn't playing well and he had to hit a shot out of a bunker on the ninth hole and he hit an unreal shot. And then you get up there and he has to make the par putt, which looked to be about like five or six feet. Do you have the video of his hand shake up? Yeah, this is wild. Watch his hand. Look at his hand as he makes impact. It's unreal. That is crazy when I saw it hand it. That's the, that's the nerves. And that's what you can, you can see short game kings bought where his ball is. That's his mark. So his was two feet past short game kings. Yeah, double the length. And you're playing. It's, it's 1.3 million a person, right? Four million dollar purse, basically. And at that point, like your, your, your whole team's relying on you. So the nerves, they are, it's harder to describe. Like it's not just like a money match with your buddies. It's just like, and you know, everyone's going to see it. Yeah, like millions of more views than the masters, but this is a guy who's like constantly playing with pros and a very good golfer, whose hand is actually shaking as he makes impact. So credit to him. And then we, we're going to a playoff against team blue. Now we send out, um, Michael Morris, and, uh, who, who's our other stud, uh, ruffles. Okay, against Roger, uh, Peter Finch and their other stud was drawn a blank. Was it Perez? No, no, because Perez is on a team, Perez is part of it. So, so Grant is now sitting waiting. He's not going in the first shot, mind you guys shot. Now, if you, if you tie to the other people, have to go. Yeah. And so it was being discussed, like, who's going next? Now, obviously, big John golf was one of them because people were quite aware. This is the first day, but like, I didn't know. I thought big John's golf was just like golf content running, getting smashed, having every hot girl want him. No, the guy was, he's like a plus three, like, I had no idea. He was incredible at golf. So he was definitely going if we tied that and Grant sitting there is like, I don't want to go. I was actually, once I heard that I was going up to everyone, like, F P, you have to go. Like, F P's a game or a fat press. Oh, yeah. I mean, you have to go, like, this guy doesn't want to go like you can't sense it, but he was like, I don't want to go and I hadn't even seen him put the, when he in regulation. What's Grant Horvath's handicap? He's probably a plus two or three plus one. Yeah. Plus one or two. I mean, he said I don't want the ball. He did not want the ball, but credit to Ryan Ruffles, how great captain went up in the zone. He's like, big John golf is going to pound one and you're going to, you're going to hit it onto the green and we're moving on and it's exactly what happened. He had an unreal shot out of a bunker, actually, I'll be like a hundred and what, 50 yard shot. I think maybe a little bit more probably played more was dead up hill. Yeah. Cause he's known as like an unreal iron player and Ruffles said that to him. He's like, dude, he's going to hit drive. You're going to have an iron in, put it on the green and they did it, man. Like, shout out, I mean, I guess if you're on that team and your third best player is saying, I don't want the ball. You're like, oh, shit, but I, I guess for him, it's like, I'm not feeling good in my game right now. Maybe have Fp. If he's feeling good about his game, have him go and then the guys talk into it and then he fucking puts on a show and makes, makes an unreal shot and then hits that pot for you guys to move on. And I think a lot of it too with the shaking and being nervous is, if you miss that, you're letting down other people. It's not you. You're letting down a whole other team of people who are fucking wanting and needing that money and doing anything they can to get it and, you know, he clutched up and moved you guys on, which is incredible. The pot, the pot John made that was that pot was the last rotation. If it didn't go in, it was a centimeter from the whole to the speed on it was incredible. And then he's walking off just with the putter up in the air and, and Porto is like, I've met my match or the 25 year old wiggled there, he gets unbelievable. There's a backstory too is, is I think that he got invited last year in no show or something. So no, no, no, it was to the house there, the, um, barstool spring break house. He got invited there and he missed a few of his flight. So Dave was basically like, fuck you, you're not coming at all. Okay. So that's what it was. next time. What about a tough situation for Riggs there? Like his guys are on the other team. He's got a root against Frankie and Francis. Those are his guys. Speaking of your guys being on another team, like I watched the second, like, Red vs Green matchup was like Black Hawk's connox on a Tuesday night. Like that was for nothing there for team Red. I was, I was bad in the, I was bad in the second match. I had Taco who was, who was awesome very patient. He all shot fucks with my brain. All, if I get invited back next year, I'll, I'll be a lot better. I'll actually put some time and effort into like, working on my game. Me and Yanns actually played pretty solid together. We just ran into a hot team. Buzz saw. I mean, yeah, they were, they were a buzz saw. Uh, what was, what was I just going to mention though? Oh, that ruffles guy met him in the airport when we landed. He's, uh, he's Australian kid. Very good golfer. He, apparently he was a phenom when he was coming off. Yeah, I think he was. It like kind of like a very, very mackerel type phenom. I think he dealt with a lot of injuries. So, but just like, I know I said like some of these guys have attitudes and arrogance about them. He is the complete opposite. And for him to say, no grant, like, you're going to go here and believe in his guy and it's still confidence in him. That's like kind of the epitome of who he is as a person from what, at least from what I saw. So really cool, really great guy and, uh, and couldn't say enough good things about him. One time ago, I would like occasionally smoke weed playing golf like no longer. Big John golf is drinking smoking weed the entire day. I don't. He's young. The young man's game. He's like 55 pounds. I know. But that guy, like, he doesn't even seem that mangled, but he has to be mangled from what I'm witnessing. He's consuming, uh, him and FP were an excellent team. But yeah. He was using which they should be slob in his knob and giving him whatever it is endorsement wise. I think he bought it. I think he bought it at like a garage sale, like one of the, I think there's like a backstory to it. He did it as like a joke. Yeah. The Reaper. The Reaper. Yeah. Big John. Just. I would think that that pot and hit that moment for him, like, ends up making him like a ton of money, like in the future, like, just, I already saw he. He was doing something with like, that what's that indoor, the TGL? Oh, really? He's like part of one of those teams now. They were giving him a jersey. I think this kid is living. He was at the Miami Heat Game the other night. I saw a video of him, like, buying his brother or Rolex or one of his buddies or Rolex already. So I think he's doing pretty well in the NFL was like from Michigan. Yes. Yes. He's a rock star boys. He's a rock star. And a great kid too. Like, we got to know him pretty good over that tournament. Like him, Chetty Kyle, those guy, they're, they're great kids. Oh, they're awesome. I didn't know what I would like think of him as a guy based on seeing big John's content beforehand. I'm just running drunk and wheeling everything and playing golf. Very like genuine kid, like a really nice guy. Nothing at all. Like he kind of, not that he comes off like root or anything in his videos, you just kind of, you might think he's just like a fuck boy, but he was like so nice, like great conversations and an awesome kid. He owns porno, which I just, I mean, he owns date. It's incredible to see somebody just own him like that, but I think Dave respects it. Yeah, I think I think Dave deep down probably likes the, uh, did you hear after he made that putt? They didn't even show him them. Mike's must have just picked it up. He was like, I was screaming fuck you to this people. I, he was like, I don't even know what I was yelling about. I think he's yelling suck my dick to people. I don't even know if he might have blacked out though. Yeah. 100%. Three out, uh, Monday or now, yeah, Monday, one o'clock, all right, everyone, thank you so much. I hope you enjoyed Blake Wheeler, Jets fans, hang in there. We go hang in there. We go. It's coming. And, um, go. Oilers Tuesday against come back, Pasha, uh, anything else, busy boy Wednesday night will watch you. We got Revo in the seat. Oh, TNT Revo is making this TNT debut. Okay. All right. Uh, don't let him bully you. Don't let him bully you like you did that time inside Louis. The minute he opens his mouth, I am going to be giving it to him about him as GM of our fantasy football league team. Well, I don't know if we've won a game. He says when I even allow to talk about it, oh, we're going to talk about our national television because I just lit 5K on fire, fucking allowing him to be the GM. And he's like, oh, no, I'm running the team. I have all this. I have final say. I fuck it. Yeah, right. You do. There's the Jerry like getting money from other teams and throwing our team. That could be what's happening. Love you boys. Friday. Love you all. Have a wonderful week. Game notes Wednesday. Peace. All happened, all happened, all happened again, all happened, all happened, all happened again. A bad habit worth breaking. But it's taking time. I don't know. It don't let us. It's going to happen. It's going to happen again. It's going to happen again.