Hello, everybody, welcome to Episode 298 of Spin Check that's presented by Pink Whitney for my friends at New Amsterdam Vodka here on the barstool sports podcast Family, the bubble has not burst yet. We got to Thrillist over the weekend. We're going to get some more hockey. Thank God we'll get to them shortly. Let's check in with the boys. Say hello for us producer Mikey Grenelle. How goes it. It goes well.

Big weekend for me guys. I went shopping in Soho for the first time, got tons of nice fancy clothes. Every store I'd go in I'd say what would be where. Some I'm a copycat. That's how I do it. So I had a great weekend, got tons of clothes and fall is going to be a big season for me boys.

Not not what would our R.A. where.

No, no, that's fine. Yeah. Good luck with that credit card bill when it comes. And speaking of business, next up, Paul is nasty. Bissonnette What's going on?

Bane Speaking of shopping, I got Finegan, our dog. He got a new bow tie collar. So we're paying him.

I'm like that crazy dog owner. Now, that's like Paris Hilton that her old show.

You stole her the biggest loser dog owner. Yeah, the dog owner that doesn't have kids and has a dog. And you're just like, what's wrong with you? It's not a human being.

Oh, what's going on with dog? Not much guys personality. You got to understand biz's he's six three two twenty.

I mean that you can't you can't try to just copy some of the same body as a little bit.

He's gave me a lot of fashion advice though. He gave me a ton of fashion advice. He told me that you find something and you stick with it. You find a nice thick black shirt that looks good on you. You buy 15 of them.

A big fan of that. I'm a big fan. I think I have a huge fashion guy, black t shirts. That's why I have 700 t shirts on. My personality is going to be stronger yours.

I like old bubbleheads of the ninety one whaler's are not like an actual nice shirt Grenelle.

He's going to be stroner with a man. Kelt on guys.

Sorry.

Oh it was this close because I have had the lightning since three years ago when the season started it was this close.

I have been so dead on with my playoff picks and it was this close to and but we got game six. I'm pretty happy about that.

We sure do. But first we got to get to game four, get the game five. Low game for Tampa Bay wins a wild one five four and Otey to take a three to one series lead.

Lots of controversy in this one, unfortunately, relating to the referees. We hate to talk about it, but when these guys are, we have to bring it up. There was a trip and call on Jamie Ben from the ref trailing the play. It's believed he thinks he everyone thinks he saw a slew foot. There was no slow for a lot of people. Saw two guys battling for a puck on the neutral zone. Should have been a call either way.

Whistle blown Powell play for the deadly power play from Tampa Bay. Chaton Heartbeat's Diaby 634 an Otey because I know you are champing at the bit to get to this one.

I know the refs are human and, you know, it's such a difficult job and these guys have been in that bubble and going through what the players have gone through to, you're on the biggest stage, that game. First of all, that was one of the most insane games I've ever watched. It had a little bit of absolutely everything, crazy bounces. You know, the momentum swings, especially without having a crowd in there. But I felt that the refs were chasing their non calls and calls bad ones all night.

And I guess it started with Rouper hence going down and I felt that Johnson should have got a trip on that. Got to control your Steck even though as he swung it around, you know he's got to, you know he's got to control it. He dropped it so Rouper hence ends up getting injured. I think he left the game after that one. I wasn't crazy about how soft the call on unsureness of the defensive zone was. Johnson also received the high stick in the offensive zone.

Let them go called then. Then the the. To me the biggest swing is when Perry ends up sticking point in the nuts and I got to ask you, you were pretty you obviously were down with the fact that they called the embellishment as well.

I just tweeted out embellishment. It no. So it was me embellishment. That's what I did watching TV. So then I tried to relay that on a tweet. I've never seen a call like that.

The whole game was such a joke because I think the worst. But it's a worse non call on Johnson, I think, than anything.

I mean, granted, Benz's in overtime, says some statement, but that how do you not give Johnson a tripping penalty, though?

He sticks in the guy's feet, he trips and injures himself to that and the grant right away.

You don't know he's injured, but holy shit, was it inconsistency? I like what you said, that they were chasing it, too. So you're trying to imply or you're thinking that they they got they got a couple incorrect. Whether they missed one or gave one, they shouldn't have early.

And they're like, oh, we got to make up for this now because the whole makeup effect and the whole idea, the. All right, well, they we owe we owe them one. Now, that only makes it more of a circus.

What I'm saying that because for fans listening like they're getting barked at by the players when they're missing these calls and coaches like things are being said out there. Right. So now I think that it's I think they're probably feeling the effects in the fact that they missed the trip and it's injured a guy. So then Johnson ends up getting high stick in the offensive zone and then that wasn't called. So I'm thinking, OK, maybe that's the one back. And then the Sirnak one ends up getting called an R.A. We were texting back and forth about this one and it was the loose hand.

On second, I thought it was fucking soft. And I thought not only did Johnson not getting the high stick call in front of the net, but the Sirnak was was kind of a makeup then then moving forward. As far as the Corey Perry one, I thought that was ridiculous, that he got an embellishment there. You get two right in the nuts, then that kind of set the stage. Then all of a sudden it starts. It shouldn't have been four on four then Sawaguchi gets beat by second and he uses that loose hand and he sets Then they call the timeout They end up killing off that that power play Tampa does because Dallas is power play stinks.

Yeah. Right now at least it's been struggling. Jamie, call. I don't like it, but as far as as far as like the loose hand and and looking at it from behind, there was a play earlier in the season where I think Jamie Ben went by one of the Tampa players and kind of like like kicked out them while they were by the benches. I'm not saying that that's playing into the fact of this call, but maybe it didn't give him the benefit of the doubt in the fact that maybe from trailing the play, it did look like a slow foot.

I thought it was soft. It did look as if, though, Jamie Ben's hand came over and this is this is the key here. The the the loose hand situation. Patman got one of the offensive zone. They'd already called the Sirnak one on the loose hand. And I believe, as I mentioned, the surrogates have one on second to start. So they'd already set the standard. And to me and playoff and I'm a dinosaur and I don't like a ton of powerplays and I like it battled out a little bit more.

So that's my opinion. I thought that that considering they'd set the standard with the loose hand with a Sirnak call, then it was a snowball effect from the fact that it was OK to play fast.

It's it's over time of the Stanley Cup final. You want to throw a penalty. You know what?

If Dallas is playing Tampa during the second game of a back to back same refs, they're all going out after and it's end of February and maybe the ref who's in the game got to notice. You got to call more penalties, call it, I don't care, regular season.

But right there, the only reason you cannot make that call, the biggest reason, I should say it, doesn't affect the play. They have eliminated each other. OK, if you want to say that, Ben, I think he kind of outmuscle them.

Certainly there was the free hand. But if you want to say, Ben, like totally took down point, Ben was also stuck out of the play. The play was moving up. It did not have any effect on what was happening. That shift, I'm telling Johnson.

But but I to excuse me. Excuse me.

Point is just on my mind because whole I agree with you, but I don't think it's you know what I mean.

So I'm saying, like, you can't it didn't affect anything. You want to make a call when a guy is reaching out to get a park on a two on one. I mean, certainly then you talk about, all right, he literally cost him a chance at scoring and then in the game, that didn't cost anyone anything. And it's suck to watch the game end like that.

But would you agree with on my assessment, Ari, that that considering early on that Johnson trip led to the that that led to the injury route Behance and then all of a sudden Dallas goes down a guy that it's a little bit of a psychological element to it as far as the refs.

Yeah, because I thought they were bad all night. Yeah. Yeah.

That's a great, great point you make like they were chasing that cause now they go to the what used to be called obstruction hold and remember the lockout back in 05 when they cancelled the season and they started calling everything tighter to open up camp had fifty powerplays a game.

It was amazing being a quarterback on the power play during that first chance to change the rules. There's ten powerplays in every period at the beginning.

So, I mean, as much as I think that might be a chintzy call sometimes, because I will say they've been consistently calling that for about fifteen years. It's typically called below the circles when there's a battle around or near the net and a guy takes his free hand and physically grabs the other guy. Now, in the Ben Johnson situation, Ben's given he has, what, a six inch height advantage? Probably thirty, forty pound weight advantage. It's a puck battle now.

Yeah. He has this free hand. I don't think he grabbed him. I think he just pushed them. And because he's so much bigger than him, he knocked them down. I thought, yeah, it was a neutral zone puck battle, not something that should be called not that blatant where you're going to affect the outcome of the game. And that's exactly what happened. And I like to ask Corey Perry about the cupcake. Corey, can you take us through what you saw at the end of the third period with you and point?

He's like, no, the end of the fucking zone.

Well, there's there's one of the guys we've got to talk about. Yeah. And I and I was mistaken. I was because Tyler Johnson and him it's funny when you guys are in Boston, we chatted like Tyler Johnson was unreal.

What year did they beat the Bruins are in the playoffs was the year they lived in Chicago.

So it was yeah, I think fifteen. OK, so that year Tyler Tyler Johnson came on the scene and he was you were thinking like, oh my God, this guy is a game breaker. And Brayton Point came up and did the same thing and then totally kind of surpassed them.

Tyler Johnson is a great player, but Brayton Point is a legitimate star in the NHL.

And let me tell you about Game four. You can talk about everything that went down throughout that game, but he scored a goal is twelfth. He ended up getting another one, but his twelfth with thirty seconds left in the first period, Dallas has that first period part to perfection. It's there up to nothing. They actually got outplayed. And you give up a goal to point with under a minute left. That was the big the big moment in that game.

And the craziest part about that plays, I guess, a set breakout. You want to feel good? Tampa's just go watch because shatkin behind the net. He looks up polacco so far. Blueline, buttonhook, spac perfect. Pass off the boards right to pilot who just turns up and that Dickinson thought he could skate with point.

This guy he's. Lasing he's so fast and he got one step on deck and said, perfect pass and then boom to one totally different vibe, and then, you know, they did the same thing in the second period. I think there was a minute left when they made it three three or was it four, four, three, three at that time.

I've been stroking this Pull-Out off like crazy that Kashima I've worked late that slight delay and then he absolute zipser and I want to talk about that goal. Well you mentioned that the the, the back to back passes and the fact that it's just like boom boom. That's how they execute the Tampa Bay lightning. They're right back on offense. Point beats this guy. My only issue on the defensive side of it is Siqueiros in the middle of the ice. For all you young kids listening, he doesn't have a guy and it's not his fault that point gets by Dickinson, but he has his stick off the ice, holding it with both hands.

Put your stick on the ice in the lane because that pass had gone away.

Kids stuck on the ice, kids that pass out. So we leverage. All you need to do is get a piece of that and it's going to go into orbit. And some lady normally would be eating it fucking in the crowd, losing her chocolates. But that's. Do you not agree? Did you see the replay on it? He's skating right through the middle of the ice. Stick up. If you could just get your stick in that lane, tip it.

There's nothing comes of that. You go out of the period up to nothing. But we've got to talk about the two quick goals that that Dallas did score after what I thought, like you said, being outplayed in the first period. Klingberg very similar to Karatas in the first game where first shots initially blocked. Seems as if the Vasilescu contract at Klingberg finds it again and boom, they're up one nothing. And then that Jamy Bend pass over to Pawelski, who we're going to have to talk about him, because at that point he tied the tied the record for most goals scored by an American in playoff history.

Yeah. Did you see how it went when they asked him after?

Yeah, well, they'd lost the game and he's such a team guy and yeah, I only I guess you have to ask the question as the reporter asked him how he felt, but you got to know he's like, I don't give a shit.

Great. Yeah. The reply was great. He said, keep it. Next question.

Yeah. It's like, come on, you're in the cup finals. You're living in a bubble. You just cannot wait to go home and you want a winner. It's all worthless. And you're getting asked about an individual record that for sure. Someday I'll think about it. Appreciate. But it was just there's no chance any guy that's playing right now or in the league really would care or at least make it verbally noticeable to everyone that he does want to talk about it.

Yeah. And then, I mean, after that, you know, tappa ends up tying it up and just a very exciting game through and through ends up going to overtime. And then you mentioned Shotty, the overtime hero. Do, says this guy, what a signing, and that's a perfect shot. I actually saw somebody or a couple of people like saying that that's got to be blocked.

But I mean, I know it's a perfect shot through the demons legs. I guess if you go down with the one knee down, you're more likely to block it there. But I believe it was Aleksic.

I think there was he's pretty good at blocking shots. So you just got to give Shatner Kirk credit and then Maroons one of the reasons to be standing right in front perfect screen. So that's when you kind of knew the series is over.

Granted, it was an awesome game five. You can go into that, but three one coming back against them. I don't think so. Oh, really?

You don't like the juju after the worm, the worm and Pavelka, you had an interesting stat there. So we're going to jump in the game five now.

Yeah. All right. First, by the way, no Stamkos in game four. And it did come out shortly before we started recording. He is done for the series, so we are not going to see Steven Stamkos again. And another note to Corey Perry. After Game four, during game four, he became the first of the NHL, Mr. September, the first player to score a regular season goal in the playoff goal and the month of September.

That's a pretty quirky stat because the season typically starts in October, but this is one of those overseas trips. So he scored in September a real regular season goal and now a playoff goal.

Is that why he was allowed to have his wife come into the bubble? Because I think is he the only player that has his wife inside the bubble right now? I don't think so. I know I showed her, but I don't know if she can't be the only one. But I believe if you're living in the U.S., she couldn't go. That's what I was saying, to joke before.

Yeah. There's a lot of, I guess, kind of controversy of hullabaloo about that. I don't know if she's Canadian, if she was already up there or whatever. But either way, Game five, Dallas wins a double overtime thriller three two to force a Game six on Monday night. Can't wait for that. Antine her Dobens stop. Thirty nine to forty one shots, none bigger than the point tip and double overtime. It's one of those saves you didn't probably maybe might not have caught as it happened, but they really slowed it down great on NBC and it was perfect, perfect tip from point.

And her dog was just in a perfect spot right off the edge of the pad. Tremendous save costs. A couple of minutes later, the worm ends it to give us more hockey.

What let's go to you first on this one. I mean, you're watching a team that that has just bonded so well together and Ben Soth been through so many different issues this year in Dallas. I mean, one of the worst starts in team history. Their coach got fired.

Everything kind of was really, really tough for them to start the year. And you've seen where they've come. So you knew for a fact they weren't going down without a fight.

I think winning three games in a row is going to be impossible for them. But you knew that they were going to at least give whatever they had left in game five. And they did. And Robin was just so good. I know he said before the game he wanted to start. I didn't really understand. I saw on NHL network saying, you don't even request that he start. Now, I know it was a back to back, but and he struggled, but I would have been very surprised if he hadn't started.

Do you agree with that? I don't know.

He really you were thinking you were thinking throw in the youngster. I don't know. I would assume the reason I said it is because there was a question whether he was going to or not in a back to back, and he hasn't necessarily been playing that good. And he got yanked in the game before. Yeah, so now that goes without saying that this team, you knew they were going to come out and give it everything, Perry, I mean, what was the goal?

The streak? I think it was at 19 before he got one and he opens the scoring early.

And you just got to think that it was it was exactly how they wanted to start. And you could you could see also in the first period, you know, was something was different. Something really came back and clicked because there was times you're like wondering what the hell happened to this guy. But Tampa's just so good. I mean, the game ends up being this thrilling game that they are going to double W.T.. It's a miracle they didn't put an end at the first the first overtime was one of the bigger ship kicking periods we've ever seen.

I think I said that about the Tampa period like three days ago.

So I give them all the credit. It was a great game, but I do think that there is just no doubt that they are wearing them down and that they are so good in this point. Kuchera plotline, when they're going, it's impossible. It's impossible to beat this team. They have too many weapons. And then those three on the ice are just at another level than anyone else cutting to them out there.

That goal, when he went to the outside, put his leg out to protect the puck, was was masterful. But I've never I've never seen domination like I did not first out. And then I just had that sense, you know, once Dallas kept kept pushing the game, pushing the game that they were going to find a way to squeak one. In South Korea, Perry ends up with the winner. And there was a little fun fact there.

I think he's the fifth place, our fifth player ever. To have five Otey goals in the Stanley Cup playoffs, and he's on a very interesting list here and I'm going to read it off. Joe Sakic, Maurice Richard, Patrick Kane and Glen Anderson. And my behind you, Joe Sakic has eight of them. So there that's a pretty nice list of five more career playoff winners pokerface, Anderson.

And the main the main reason, I guess, if it's ever going to happen, if they if they ever to win this series, it would be just don't get penalties because they only got one right then.

Because this this power play is you can you can really only hope to contain the way they move it around, the way they've figured it out. And Dallas has really been it's been too difficult for them on the pick. And they not only have been hard, they're taking so many penalties. So they finally stay out of the box. So that's the recipe. It's just going to be so hard because they're so quick. They're so fast. That's when the Hocking's come.

That's when all the different defensive zone penalties come, when you just chase it around this team.

Let me ask you this. All right. Only one penalty for Dallas in game five. Do you think that's a result of the game before and how how they got bent over and spit? No lube sandpaper finish?

Yeah, it did seem kind of suspicious. I guess the next game was only three total penalties all night. Yeah, the one by second to that was such a lazy, unnecessary penalty tool, catching the guy up high with the stick off the face off. You aren't even taken and it's like the list you always read.

It was the last thing you want to do. But he did redeem himself. He was put down on Perry's line. He ends up with three assists, just the second player in franchise history to collect at least three assist in a cup final game. I know people have been on Sagen. He's an offensive dynamo. He hasn't been scoring, but I thought he had a measure of redemption in that game last night. I know they haven't won anything yet.

It was interesting to the first first Stanley Cup with games on consecutive days since 2009 and it's only happened twice since nineteen fifty five, which just kind of a weird thing. Obviously the NHL didn't want to go against the NFL on Sunday. I think that's a big part of it.

Now, what I wanted to ask you, you know, what do you got when you watch the 08 penguins? You guys were in the same spot on the brink of elimination. Game five, game five, you won a three overtime game, the first game six. What was the confidence of the Penguins going into that game six? As high as it could be, we were going home, it's so much different than now with no crowds. It's disappointing thing, but we were going back to Pittsburgh where.

I mean, we were just we felt like we couldn't lose that place was crazy. Mellon Arena, the igloo, was the loudest place I've ever been. My friends, they came to the cup final game, not the game we lost. They came to the game we won. Actually, it was game three.

And they've been to the garden where the Bruins on the run, they're like, there's nothing like that.

I'm telling you, gives me the chills to talk about. And we came flying out and that team was so good. But, you know, on game six is a hard game for them to win.

It doesn't matter. Like how good. I'm saying Tampa, it's going to be a battle zone. Dallas, like knowing from experience, you're like, we're in it, dude. And all you think is win this game in game seven is a crapshoot. That's your whole thing. And that's what everyone believes to because one game, anything in the world can happen and just get us through this game six. Now, the toughest part is, is this one.

Tampa is going to be confident.

That's like, you know, the same way that Detroit probably felt as confident as they did going into Game six, like, well, we should have had a penalty. We blew that. Let's just close them out now. Yeah, I got a pair of confident teams, I guess, and going back to second, when he got dropped out of that line two games ago, he's been great. Like, really good. Noticeably before checking a lot harder.

You know, you saw that one play he made where he looked for checking, creating the separation of the puck was loose for and ended up setting somebody up in Otey when he ended up poking it towards them. But I think he had two assists also in the game before. So I really like that. That shuffling of the lines, it creates a little bit more more depth throughout the Dallas lineup. I don't know, man. I'd like to see this one go go seven.

And you've got to wonder how tired tap is after they push the pace all fucking game long.

Is the team chasing him around?

Very well. We'll find out what we thought we were boys.

I'll tell you, there are a couple. There's nothing more like a blind save. And each goalie made one Wesolowski made when there was a shot from Lendell. It hit route's his knee and Vasey was looking the other way and it just happens to hit him off the shoulder. And then the same thing with Dalby, there was a save on goodrow I mean, and thank God he didn't score. It was a kind of a hot and probably a high stakes.

He tipped it. Who? Dobens looking the other way, hits his pad, goes away and thank Christ, I think I think Enzo said it during the telecast like that. They did that. It didn't go in because they one hundred percent would have had to review it for a high stick because it was it was so close. I mean, it's like, oh, thank Christ. We don't have to go to a God in review for a potential cup final winning goal here.

I thought and I had tweeted out to like, please let the players decide the game. Please let the plays. And I had a bunch of like, oh, don't go commit penalties.

It's like, well, maybe I wasn't talking about that. Of course I was. How about the official who calls a fucking ice? And when the puck hits, Vasilakis pad takes a bounce with a trajectory that wouldn't happen if it hit the post. That's the type of shit I was also alluding to. It's like I mean, if they score off that that face off off that ice and call that, that would be just as bad as a fucking shitty penalty.

Keep in mind to right before that, Baroon got away with a trip behind the neck like a big time behind the goal line.

Another let's not forget to maroon short the pocket to the bench this year. Yeah, yeah.

Straight up fired the pocket, the bench you talked about Koocher off with. Here's another one for your third player with twenty six plus assists in a single postseason. Only two other players have done it. Wayne Gretzky four times and Mario Lemieux did it once. And thank you to Grindley for sending that over. That's a nice little stat.

If I could just point out real quick, Andy, Stricklin tweeted this week that Pat Maroon, I mean, he had to wait all offseason to get a call from Tampa. And this offseason they said he's going to have tons of suitors. Tons of teams are already lining up for him.

So good for Pat. Yeah. Wouldn't be disappointed if you ended up winning back to back cups. Talk about I mean, we've mentioned it before in the podcast, just kind of a guy who has never really had his payday given with what he's been through and the numbers he's put up in the past. So hopefully the big rig ends up scoring big on Akani.

I wasn't writing stuff down, but type of man, I was getting carpal tunnel, just keeping track of all the Dallas blocks. I mean, how many shots would they block and dive in in front of? I mean, Pavel's. Yeah. When Lendell, these guys were just I mean, obviously the season's on the line, but they were selling out. It was it was incredible stuff to watch. And of course Pavlovsky ties it with six and Change left second game in a row that he ties in the third period.

And like you said a few minutes ago, because now is the most playoff caused by an American with sixty one passing. The Great Joy Molland from Hell's Kitchen. Manhattan has four goals and five Stanley Cup final games ties Gordie Howe and Maurice Rashard for most goals by a guy older than thirty five. And you actually did it in fewer games. So I mean they like rewrite and record books left and right. And again, hats off to Jim Neil for bringing in Corey Perry and Joe Volsky.

These guys have scored the last six goals for the Dallas stars and they were the free agent signings in the off season.

And then. And then. And then shifted over to Tampa. We talk about the deals they made at the deadline and they gave up quite a bit for him and Coleman and goodrow. So these these additions are huge and they can make or break or teams. Like you said, Jim did an incredible job, especially with probably the negativity that he would have faced bringing Perry and even beforehand with him being an older guy, slowing down a little bit, dealing with injuries in Anaheim towards the end.

So he's been detrimental to them, haven't they?

Haven't both of them scored their last six goals? He's been one of them.

Is that what you said? You said you were instrumental instrumental. We've already been over this. Yeah.

And you were detrimental to the fact I just dropped thirty seconds before. Yeah.

So they know I'm about to say Pawelski is top three. We need for a sandbagger, but he has to bring a fifty fifteen handicap like you because he's nasty. But that's the guy when he's, he deserves to win a Stanley Cup. So many players out there do so many guys, let alone on Dallas. I look at and deserve a Stanley Cup. But what a career that that number to look at how many goals he has in the playoffs and.

The names that he's passed on that list, Lisa, I'm American USA hockey legends, the guys that looked up to my idols and he's passed them all. So congrats to him. What a player. And I've long talked when we started this podcast, I think I mentioned how good he is at Tipping Pucks and you've seen him create a bunch. He creates issues for the opposing team, whether he tips it in or he tips it off the goalie and it's a rebound in a scrum in front.

So I just love watching that guy play. Perry's came in and he's been great these past few games, like I said, the drought. But now, I mean, you know you know how much of a Ratti is. You see all the things he pulls and then he's able to score a couple goals. Notice Noticer score on the crease. That's just where he goes. Three lifts the worm. And who's the other guy I want to mention?

Oh, a little downer of a no Lyndell. I don't know, man.

This series I've seen this guy gorog. Yeah. I don't know if he's playing too many minutes, but there's a bunch of instances I can think of of him getting beat wide, him being out there for goals against. And he's he's a really solid player. He's had a of since severely underrated career, especially with the stars.

But this has been a tough series for him.

Also a tough series for the graphics guy at NBC. So detrimental to the stars line up.

I think he's only been on the stars, too. I why am I thinking he is somewhere else? I think I might have played against him in the minors.

Yeah, I want to play. I mean, he's good. Oh. And I just want to also pump, I want to pump Klingberg. No one is better at walking the line I think in the NHL than in this guy.

He reminds me kind of Eric Carlson used to do it.

I know that may sound like a chirp, but you haven't seen him at full health. But that Klingberg just gets the middle, opens up past shot, makes it look so simple.

I love the hips. Don't lie. Don't get Shakira and Dallas. I mean, they get they went into the game five all banged up and they've also haven't had Blake Como for the last couple games. And that's you know, that's I know he's not an offensive force, but he's one of those depth guys, one of the veterans that does all the little things that you want to get done.

He helps Joe Pattiz, which they haven't been able to do. Yeah, your score on the power play as well. I one other question, boys. I should have probably taken a screenshot. I can do it later.

But discovery on of blow dryers here between periods like Billy, Charles, Blow and Slapshot, they cut from at one point his hair was dry as a bone. It was like second, second. All the guys don't sweat. Maybe he didn't even play at all that period. Oh, I don't know, man.

I was it was kind of unusual to see so much dry here. But any any close notes before we move it along. Boy.

So we've pretty much covered it all. Yeah, I'm guessing both teams skated all of that Romit out on the ice a bunch of times and that's why we got back to back overtimes. Bizarre because most guys have tried different ways to last longer, but thinking about the crazy amount of hockey stats we get bombarded with doesn't always work. Well, the folks at Román and Online Men's Health Company, A Change in the game with Roman swipes, the secret to longer lasting sex.

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And one last note on the series web. And I would not count down also from a tweet from Chris Johnson with Steve Steven Stamkos done for the season. The Tampa Bay Lightning are trying to become the first team in more than 80 years to clinch the Stanley Cup without their captain. That's a crazy no. That is a crazy, crazy note.

That's actually nobody's captains never got hurt in the finals. That's crazy.

Eighty years the last time the cup was presented. And remember comes out and he comes out, though, and he gets it correct, but not to dress. And going back to when Pittsburgh won it without you in the lineup in 09, didn't remember when Sid got hurt halfway through that game and hurt his MCL.

And now you're right. He didn't play in the third. Yeah, I didn't plan third.

So they should just dress Stamatis to be just to be on the bench, just to go against the stat that someone did ask online whether whether they put them in the game just in case they won the cup to get his name on it. But he had already played more than the minimum enough games. And you would never at this level just do that.

Yeah, yeah. But you need all hands on deck right now, right.

Plus I mean, plus even if night suppose he only played twenty games this year due to injury, you can also petition the NHL. I mean and all of a sudden getting the court in front of the horse a little bit I'm sure like a guy who's been captain for a long time, they probably would have allowed his name because you can't get exemptions. But the last time the cup was handed out in Edmonton was way back on May 26, 1988.

Referee for the game, Andy Van Helmond, the linesman Ron Finnin race Campanello the Oilers swept the Bruins that. So Edmonson's going to get a couple Raisen sometime this week and NHL teams to rally from three to one and being down three to one in the final to force a game seven. The 006 Oilers 94 Knux 87 Flyers, 54 Canadiens Forty 45 Red Wings and 42 Maple Leafs. Only the Maple Leafs ended up going on to win that game seven.

So, you know, Dallas has a big, big chore in front of them. But like you said, don't count them out.

What's up when you say the ref was Andy Van Helmond? Yeah. Isn't that the ref? Bit like Terry O'Reilly hit. Yeah.

Yeah, I'm pretty sure. Yeah. Yeah. Back to that. Yeah.

Terry, what would you get now if you if you buried a ref season. I mean.

Right. You'd probably get a season. Right. I mean if you. Yeah I think I mean a full season.

You think if you think 20 games into the year, if you just bury the ref you get the rest of the year.

Well right now in this day and age, I mean, bitch slap the fucking referee is Weidemann did it in a way where you could really like you weren't exactly sure if he meant to do it.

I mean, this is like Terry O'Reilly meant to do that, because I remember my mother was like, oh, he's going to get in trouble for that as it happened.

I think that, yeah, he's skating. I was like, oh, please, get off the get go. They didn't call him the Tasmanian Devil for nothing.

Good to see ya. Have you guys heard Vin Diesel's new song? No.

No song in the summer song. I was singing the song. It was unbelievable. Unbelievable. Put the brakes.

Geets Oh, I think it was produced by Keigo. So I should be hating this thing. But expectations when you just heard me say that, you're probably thinking one out of ten Vin Diesel. Put out a song, it's got to be terrible, it's actually not bad, so you can name it. Maybe we could open up the pod with it today.

Oh, we're gonna have to get corporate approval for that. What's the name of it? What's the name?

It does feel like I do by Vin Diesel. He's got not a bad voice, little Kermit the Frog, but rubber ducky.

You look very, very similar. So check that one out. Nice banger for everybody.

It's funny because it sent Twitter down the rabbit hole of celebrities who became musicians, I should say, the actors who became musicians. And it sounds like Generation fucking Z, Alzheimer's or whatever they call them, discovered Eddie Murphy's.

My girl wants to party all the time until that time. People are shocked that Eddie Murphy not only had a song that then hit fucking number two on the Billboard Hot 100.

That's a jam. Yeah, absolutely. A song. That's just listen to part of it. He's not he. Yeah, he's singing, but there's so much shit on his voice. It's not his voice bruh.

But like I said, based on expectations, give me go and and I could sound legit and I have the worst voice in the world.

They owe me so new ways to do a duet. So you talked about the rabbit hole. I've totally forgot that Alex Ovechkin was in a rap song and he has a verse in it. Yeah, Russian raps the I still listen to it on my phone. Yeah, fires me up. We're going to be bumping the Russian gas remix of it pretty soon. The CBO job back to what other some other people had some decent tracks. Somebody put Childish Gambino in there because I believe he was an actor before he started doing that.

But he's got a Grammy. He's yeah. He's not on this list.

He's a legend. This is my favorite Russian song.

He's always been a multi multi hyphenate with pulling up this. No, no, no, no, no.

I legit love this song. Hold on. For some reason, it starts you.

I know this is rifle's everyone at home, so this is a beautiful he's going to listen to this guy's unibrow to sing and listen and post-war, you got to put it up to the receiver.

More seriously, I will trade my flock of sheep to put my son in Siberian husky.

Do you want the Russian gas down your five hole? Yablonsky came on the pod. He sucker punched my brother. I was not driving drunk.

What a song, just can't we can't hear it very well. Oh, shit, sorry, boys, Grigore LEPs and I can't say the name of it because it's in English, but maybe we could just get like a better version on there.

But it just reminded me that bringing up great music from Russia, Russian rap is coming at you like fireboats.

What were some other artists you'd put on that list of the top top actors, actresses who have came out with tunes, even athletes?

Oh, I mean, Shaq had a couple of rap songs.

Adam Sandler, Adam Sandler's on was Adam Sandler.

His mom cut like they were comedic songs, though they, you know, like they are. But he's got a good voice and singing. They're great songs like The Shampoo Bottle Up My Arse.

What song was that?

Don Johnson had a song back in the day like he was a big style at Miami Vice and he came out with a song, Hot Beat My saying that was particularly great, but it was like a legit hit on MTV man back in the day.

Well, worldwide you're looking at. Who's Bable Hasselhoff, Hasselhoff huge in Germany is I mean, you're looking at a superstar musician there. Yeah, there's somebody I'm not thinking of, though, that has a great I remember saying, wow, that guy is an unreal voice. He's an actor. I'll think of it was Patrick Swayze.

She's like the wind. Was that his track yap?

I can't believe I missed that he sang that. Yes. That's all that that that might be what I'm thinking of. Jamie Foxx to Jamie Foxx. Jamie Foxx.

So there's another guy putting the Childish Gambino section where this guy is just he could do it all. He's he's one of the he's sort of like the as far as like an interview as far as his acting skills, as far as a musician is, because I think he's a stand up comedian. He gets passes five James five tool. He's a five star athlete.

He went to college on a musician scholarship.

He he's the guy who gets asked by all these high end celebrities and elitists to host their parties. So he goes on the mic. They're like, oh, yeah, he's Jamie Fox is the man he had a Howard Stern interview about. I think it was like a couple of years ago, but he was ten out of ten. That was what I heard, that Ed Sheeran was living on his couch.

Yeah, yeah. He has one of the greatest performances in cinematic history as well. Cooper turned it on for that movie.

Another one. That's a great answer. He turned it on for that man. What was that movie called? The Stars Bulletin Board. Yeah, that movie was you talk about a sad fucking movie. Yeah. Yeah. That's happy down here.

Oh, little detail, Bradley. Yeah, we got some actually quite a bit of news since the last episode. We still got to get to the Penguins to have acquired defenseman Mike Matheson and forward Colton CVO from the Florida Panthers in exchange for Patrick Holmquist on Quest was a pretty relevant follow on the back to back cup champions that Penguins had a few years ago. He's got three years left that five point three per year. It's going to be thirty four in the next season starts whenever that is had.

Seventeen goals and fifteen is just last year. The twenty six year old defensive Matheson, he's got six more years left on his deal at just under five million a year. Kapit and Avy and the thirty one year old KVIA is in the last year of his deal that pays him one point two million. Florida sheds just under a million in salary. They still have twenty one point seven million in cap space, but they only get six forwards on the current roster.

That's current roster. That doesn't include like Minor League is. It was signed. Pittsburgh has six point one million in cap space and they still need to resign, either Jerry or Murray or whoever they decide to go with their best.

What he got? Well, two things. So we covered the Matheson thing last podcast with the speculation, the fact the trade didn't end up going through. You know, we use the term, all the tools, no toolbox. I haven't watched him play enough. That's just what I'm reading online. I hope he goes there and he lights the lamp. Kind of like when Schultz came over from Edmonton. Everyone thought that Schultz was trash and he went in there and hope that helped him win a couple of Stanley Cups.

So I hope he does the same. And as far as the Holmquist rumor about him throwing his Pittsburgh Penguins gear in the driveway because he was upset about the trade fox, that's where hockey players erode their gear so enough with the nonsense, unless you actually hear from them that he chucked his gear in the driveway.

You think he's skating right now? OK, all of it was like all in the same area, you think if he was chucking, it wouldn't be all over the place? I don't know unless I hear from somebody that out of his mouth that he was disgusted by the trade and felt betrayed and he did it himself.

I think I've seen that he's like was shocked. I haven't seen disgusted landside.

I have the clydeside it it's kind of it was obviously a tough situation for me and my family when you get blindsided a little bit. Quaqua said on Friday, when you know you have no trade, you don't think this kind of question is going to come up. But when I find out Pittsburgh didn't want me in Florida really wants me, it was an easy choice for me and my family. And I'm super excited to go down there and help them win some points.

OK, so that quote, that quote, that quote to me says that, like, fuck you. And I've always said if if a player ever gets asked to waive his no trade, how do you ever play it really hard to go back there.

You don't want me anymore. And I think that was kind of what his point was like. All right. I got a team that wants me. You're quitting on me. I won two Stanley Cups here. He's played a long time. And he's been a guy that's just like played a Hardstyle to. So you can't think his body is going to be in good shape someday when you retire.

So you're saying the guy who won't waive his no trade clause is like the crazy ex-girlfriend. It's like, hey, you know, I'm not feeling this relationship anymore. No, I'm staying. I'm not leaving. Yes.

Yes, I'll give you that. Like, no, no, no. I like my house here and my wife does a great Pilates class trying to get broken up with.

You're like, no, I'm good. Oh, we're going to make this work.

So Mattsson, I think could be really good over there. He does. He can. It's just I think the trade works for both sides because you definitely think Florida needs a little bit more jam up front. They need a lot of things. We got a lot more news to cover, but we are talking about the penguins, so it's probably a good time to mention our guest when we bring them on in a few minutes.

Kevin Stevens, speaking of winning two cups with Pittsburgh, as he did many moons ago, obviously had some rough seas since then, but we got all sides of Kevin Stevens. Great interview will be bring that to you in a little bit. But I just want to mention, because we were talking about penguins, the Rangers traded somebody. They traded a long time defenseman, Mark Stahl, and a second rounder in twenty twenty one to Detroit for the old future considerations, which could very well be a bottle of penguin.

After all is said and done, Gordon gets a five point seven dollars million Kapit and a thirty four year old defenseman off of his books for the cost of the second round. He'll be thirty four in the next season starts. He now has about twenty million in cap space and money to sign a restricted free agent. Defenseman Tony D'Angelo on the other side. Steve, why he can always flip style at the next deadline, whatever that is for something else and turn him into another asset.

Detroit's actual dollars. They only have to pay three point two million. He has a salary of four point two that already had a million dollar bonuses paid. Detroit has over twenty seven million in cap space. They have four picks in the first two rounds of the next two drafts and six picks in the first three rounds of those same draft.

So, Steve, why don't Steve White like, you know, I was a little hard on Tricor. He did a couple of things like that where he ended up eating salaries that teams didn't want, especially with the Rangers, the fact that they're they're heading in the right direction in order to gain assets or great move by Stevi, also a seasoned veteran who's going to come in there. And I think he handles his business fairly professionally. A little fun fact as far as Mark Stall's concerned, including playoffs play.

Nine hundred and ninety nine games with the New York Rangers. He more than likely will be hitting his thousandth game with the Detroit Red Wings. So my heart goes out to all those guys. We're going to pay for that gift, given how much time he did play in New York.

But yeah, I, I this is, this is this shows the business side is. Yeah. This shows never forget the 12th overall pick years ago, Mark Stall.

And you had a great career as a New York ranger and in the end nobody gives a shit about you. So hey, we just traded you for literally nothing. We can't afford to pay what you're making. Thank you for everything with that. That's just it's a reminder when this stuff happens at the end of guys careers, it is such a business.

Would you agree? And he's he's obviously declined a little bit. He got hit in the eye with a puck. Right. When he was playing in New York, yeah, and I want to say after that, he was really never the same and it's a shame, but nonetheless, still a great career. And as I said, I think he's going to go over to Detroit. He's going to be out of that limelight in a new organization who's on, you know, on the up and up.

And I would imagine Steve Wise going to going to keep grinding away at that chemo team in 2013, a month before the March 2013 hit him in the face.

That's crazy, dude.

Yeah, but my blogging colleague, 610 at Boskell, he covers the range is he had a great piece on the on the stall trade and gave him his props, like you said, because he's a guy, you know, the game might have just probably got a lot faster for him the last few years. But very well-respected ranger. You know, the true fans really appreciate what he brought to that squad.

I think Rangers fans are so hard, especially on their demand. I felt the same about Girardi towards the end of his career and how much good time he'd put in there. And, yeah, he'd maybe lost a step. But there, you know, New York's a tough place to play, man.

The ruthless another moving along here. As I tweeted on Sunday, expect the Bruins to trade the rights to Tory group. Probably should happen on Monday. Teams interested Colorado, Florida, Vegas, Detroit. Among the shooters, of course, for free agency doesn't actually open till October nine. People say, well, why would they trade for exclusive negotiating? Philly did it with Kevin Hayes, ended up signing him. Marchelle just did it with Edmondson, ended up signing him.

So teams are willing to give up. Probably I would say probably a fifth round will end up being just for the exclusive negotiating rights.

OK, I understand why it's going down, but I think the Bruins are really going to miss regroup group and I think he's going to go somewhere and he's going to be the usual guys can get 50 points, could play a ton of minutes.

I just it's very surprising that I wonder if they even talked.

I don't know if some numbers were thrown out, but someone's getting a hell of a player. And Grenelle still crank it to his quads guys. Yeah, I love them here in Boston.

I actually talked to him. I met him the first day or two. We got here right after you left college. The Bruins are doing a little shave your head things for charity. And you know, he had long flown here at the time. He jumped right in, got his head shaved, which, you know, a lot of young guys might not necessarily do. But I'll remember the first interview I did with him, just how much he oozed confidence, not cockiness, like not like, you know, abrasive, like he was just very confident, very confident.

His skills very confident. The team just an easy guy to root for. And I think he wants to win. So I'd be very shocked if he ends up signing with Detroit, regardless of what kind of tie wiggle his way.

I personally feel that Boston's going to going to regret this one. Yeah, yeah, well, we'll have to see. I mean, he's he's a he's a key part, but obviously they probably don't have have him in their budget. And I'm very curious to see what he does end up going up with. But.

All right. Moving power statement. Davis No, I do. Unless he's asking for some ridiculous number. But yeah, we'll see. I hope I hope it works out for him.

Bobby Ryan had the last two years of his deal bought out by the Ottawa senators. He had seven and a quarter million per year left. He's instead going to get seven point three, three million over four seasons. It frees up three point six mil for the Suns. And they apparently want to get younger in their lineup. Bobby Ryan, of course, six goals, nine assists back in the twenty seventeen Eastern Conference finals run. And I shit, I forgot to great the the Twitter handle down, but they sent out a picture of that team.

There's not one player left on that team from three years ago. They got within a whisker of going to the Stanley Cup final and there's not one player left on that squad. It's incredible.

No, wait.

It's an amazing downfall just by the worst organized organization in the NHL right now.

I mean, the last place you'd want to play right now is on the Ottawa senators. That's my that's my opinion. So you've seen what happen and you see that they struggled for fans and where the arena is. We've talked about it a million times. And the ownership situation, it's nuts to think how good that team was and who beat them in game seven. Oh, team my boy, Chris Coons, your time cup winner.

Oh, my gosh. Three cups. Did he get four, three, four, four and avoid this guy got one in Anaheim, three in Pittsburgh.

Right.

So anyway, yeah, it just looks shitty given with what he went through and you know how he ends up winning. Is it the Masterson. Yeah. Masterton. Yeah he was. How you pronounce it. My apologies but and then all of a sudden this and when you're bottom feeders I would imagine that he mentioned in his statement how close he had become with the fans and how they did embrace them. And he was upset. But a very classy statement on the way out from Bobby Ryan.

Yup, no doubt. And I'll just one other note in the sense there, about seventeen million below the cap floor, which is sixty point two million. But they do have seven picks in the first two rounds, nine picks in the first three rounds.

So all you know, this is a team, you know, if they get the right people in charge, ownership aside, you know, they you know, kind of following the Detroit's model a little bit. Bislama stock some money my way.

I'll come back a go speak in a sign. And they have signed Jeff Pièce to a four year, twenty five million dollar extension, six and a quarter million a year average annual value Kapit.

It's actually a seven hundred and fifty thousand dollar raise from what he was making before. I mean he's going to be thirty three when the next season starts at eleven goals, twenty nine assists and seventy one games played with. I know you were a big fan of him during the playoffs. Yeah.

I've been pumping his tires for a long time now. So you see that he probably took a little bit less. I, I know that really well Wall.

Oh you think, you think he wouldn't got that much.

I think he took less in turn potentially. But he I mean I think that's a slight overpayment. Much your offense.

My yield me a little bit gray to demand. Twenty five minutes, 40 points. Like six. Six and a half. Yeah.

All right. Well I guess that's what the market says. It's just I find it hard at that age in order to to yeah.

He's to say even but as an older guy, it's like skating isn't isn't at all the issue. You know, you look at it, you look at a guy like Perry's thirty five years old, but and he's kind of getting slower. Petrie's thirty three thirty turning thirty four. But he still flies. Yeah. So I just think that he mentioned that he wants to stay there, he likes what's going on there. I think that the guy's certain guys love playing in Montreal.

If you, if you're a good match or what a place. But I know it's probably difficult at times for them these past couple of years. But Peaches, they're there to stay.

All right. You know, I'm going to regret what I said. You're right. Consistency with the 40 points over the last three or four seasons and the fact that the market is going to be high for freeagent defense means that I guess that's where they're building their team. They've got a big back and now they've got Edmondson, him, Webber. So that's that's kind of their back end. And they're goaltending is the foundation of their team. So I'm going to I'm going to retract my statement are saying it's a slight overpayment because of the fog.

It's detrimental to the pot. And I think that the term makes a nice amount for years, not not a long risk. All right, I'll try another another sign of an with teammate Detroit extended, Sam Gonyea with the one year deal for 850 31 year old forward, had six goals, seven assists in 42 games last year, split between Edmonton and Detroit.

Looks like a nice little veteran pick up for a squad visit.

Cheap money. Hey, guess what?

He celebrated last night and resigning in nice, nice cup of pink witness, pink quaternion and Sodus. So gags the best.

He's coming on at some point. We chatted briefly and congrats Tami's. We play it a long time to split a law. Eight hundred and forty four games he has.

We're getting some nice support of the pink Gwatney front from other players. Greg sent me a picture as well as some questions on Pink Ready. Taylor Hall sent me a picture with the pink Whitney and his new dog, the Baesler.

So, yeah, visual gags chilling in Muskoka right now. He says I'm welcome any time. So if you don't, I'm going to take him up on that. Yeah.

All of a sudden, you you come with a huge duffle bag. You think for the whole interview for like four days straight, bro, then make sure you stocked the fridge.

I'm going to rent this place out, Airbnb, so make a couple of bucks off it. Do you have a roommate now that you know, you can get for fucking Bambis those things and fucking cheaply?

One other note before we send it over to Kevin Stevens.

The Jets Patrick Line is definitely in play when it comes to getting traded any chat rooms daily. He actually had this a while back. He said Lanny's name would be popping up in trade circles and it's popping up quite a bit. I'd be surprised if he doesn't get out at this stage. Six point seven million kapit. He is Arafeh after the next season.

But dude, this kid's still only twenty two years old. He had eighty goals in his first two seasons. There's got to be something off, whether it's with his teammates. This chemistry is something because how do you give up on a talent this good. So young.

No I think it's a case of where they're going to have to divvy up the money. I think they got enough guys in their top nine who could produce offensively where maybe what he's going to demand as far as money. His overall game is just not there, at least right now. And to me, that Matt makes that makes the most sense for that Winnipeg team. That's not saying that he won't end up figuring out becoming a better two way forward.

He did take strides this past season and getting better defensively and having more consistency in his game. But, you know, I've never been overly high on them other than, of course, him fighting the back of the net. But yeah, yeah, it's interesting how this guy's career is going to play out if you need a score, if you're a team out there looking for a score, I mean.

Twenty two years old, this guy's sick.

I mean, he's second overall pick like he has everything it takes and he's proven that he could score. He's got over forty one year.

Sure. I know. I know there's question marks but I wouldn't, I would want a shitload in return.

I'd want a monster return if I'm Winnipeg because this guy he, he can really he could truly be every year 35, 40 gold plated.

OK, so keep in mind though he's he was playing with one of the most underrated center at the time, safely, at least a decent amount of it in the NHL. And he's surrounded by other guns, especially on the power play there in Winnipeg. So be careful what you wish for. That's all I'm saying. I need to I need to see more consistency in a better 200 foot game before I start giving it the credit. Yeah, he could find the back of the net, but he's also getting fucking pucks put on a T for him.

Yeah. Yeah.

I mean, all due respect to those centers, though, is that that's a release, unlike most guys in the NHL either. Sure.

Either way, we'll keep tabs on it.

But tell me tell me a guy who disappears for periods of time as a forty Gorske or more than that guy, he'll go fifteen games where you're like, oh, I didn't even know this guy was still on the team.

Yeah, well, we'll keep an eye on it, guys.

We'll listen back to back Stanley Cup final games will certainly drain you, especially when they go to overtime and hopefully some of the players were using their hoop to track with their bodies.

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It is bizarre. All right. I think we should send it over to Kevin Stevens now Even's. What a player. What a guy. He came in and visited Camp Charlestown.

We want to thank him so much that you all enjoy this and we apologize and we apologize for not asking about a hole in one during the interview, which you told us about right before we started recording. So congratulations to him on that.

I was just jelly. Here he is, Kevin Stevens Ardie. Well, it's a pleasure to welcome my next guest to the show. He was one of the most dominant power forwards of the early 90s, twice scored more than 50 goals in a season, while also accumulating more than 100 points in those seasons.

In 15 NHL seasons, he tallied 329 goals, 397 assists in eight hundred and seventy four total games to five teams.

And of course, he won back to back Stanley Cups with the Pittsburgh Penguins and 91 in 92 Waggons. Thanks so much for making the trip, Kevin Stevens. How are you, pal?

Right now I'm great. Thanks for having me, guys. It's it's a pleasure. It's nice to be up here in Charles Tomohiko office misses home. But this is this where it all happens right here.

And for people who don't know growing up, I mean, like you were the guy I looked up to a guy from Massachusetts, you know, nine years old when you're starred in the NHL.

And I did want to first find out how'd you get the nickname Artie? Because everyone calls you already. Like, when did this start?

I got after A, B, C when I was here, I was that's my dad's name, you know, it's like, OK, so it's it's kind of like an easy name, Artie. Like, yeah, I can Neil. Someone gave it to me a, b, c and they're just stuck, you know. And my mother's my mother didn't like him. Kevin she thinks Kevin a nice name, but everyone wearing me out with Artie, everybody calls are you girls, guys, dogs.

Everybody is Artie you know. I know you know people that call me are you.

Well, I remember hearing they're like, oh, he's going to be at camp today when I was in Pittsburgh. I'm like, who's already like fucking Artie? I'm like, oh, I still don't know. You're talking about kind of like Walt.

Yeah, the same thing, Artie, like in his life, you know, that's what they call him. It's crazy.

It's like a Boston thing. It's just like they refused to call you by your first name. Yeah. Yeah, there was. I actually had that written down because of Bob Heat House, who was a commentator for the Muskegon lumberjacks. I was calling me I was calling him for some dirt on you and and I was looking some stuff up, too.

I didn't know growing up you were quite the ballplayer and got invited to play or so tryout with the Toronto Blue Jays and the Philadelphia Phillies as an athlete, it could have been you could have been winning World Series with Joe Carter instead of Joe Kartika. How about Stanley Cups with what's wrong with David Ortiz in Boston? Why Joe Carter in Toronto? That's the Toronto guy. Yeah, but yeah, it's now baseball. So I love playing baseball. It's kind of, you know, no, back there back then we could play three sports in high school and kind of like, yeah, now no one does it.

But back then I played base. I love baseball. I was a catcher and kind of that's what my dad was. My dad played in the Cincinnati Reds organization from the minors. He was a catcher, so dad never skated. So you actually want to push the pace? Baseball is fun. I love playing baseball.

So how did you with your dad, never play playing? What even was the beginning? I think it started, you know, from being here like Bobby you are. And that era, you know, it was like seven o'clock. You get up and you get in and watch the Bruins. You know, it's like, can I play a lot of street hockey? And somehow I get on the ice. And it was just kind of like, you know, I just kind of went from I played I mean, like I said.

So I just tried it and kind of liked it but never knew, you know. Yeah. There was no plan at all, no plan for me to jump on the ice at five and say, I'm going to go play football, let's do it. Oh, it didn't happen that way for me.

What was it, the aggression and the physicality that drew you in more than anything? Yeah, I think so. I think that part of it was fun. You know, that part like you can always play that way. It's different from baseball. I was kind of laid back, but but the hockey part of it was it's just kind of cool. It was just something I like. Natural. Yeah. Yeah. It kind of caught on and I liked it a lot.

Yeah.

So you grew up in Pembroke. Grew up in Pembroke. Yeah. And played what was the team. What was it. The Seahawks. No chance. Yeah.

The Pembroke House because they don't even have their own and there was no like Saussure Kings I played. Yeah. Strictly town hockey. You know, there's no like all star teams like there was no you know the best thing about back then I, I grew up in Pembroke. I went to Silver Lake, which was my high school, regional high school in my town still there. So like so now, you know, we know if you if you come in, you're playing hockey, you got to go to prep school, you go to Junior, you don't play high school.

And I think the best thing about, you know, playing high school, everybody's into it. Right. I know I was a quarterback and football. You know, I was catcher in baseball. I played hockey all through high school. So high school was good. You know, it was fun. And, you know, it's kind of like, you know, I was just an athlete. It was fun. I didn't know anything else. Really?

Yeah. Yeah. There's no at that time, there's no, like, summer teams. There's no any junior league. Yeah. We skated if we skated for like if we went to a camp for seven days that was it. You know, in the summer let's call Leo's camp or go down there in Pembroke and kill time for seven days. And baseball. I play baseball. Yeah. It wasn't hockey.

I still did play at the peewee tournament though. You play in the Quebec tournament? I play Quebec time. I played the one year that we we didn't do too well. I don't really want to because we were we were shellacked and we got out of there pretty quick. I actually didn't even ask you because of your time there.

I always just bring it up so quick can gloat that he won the only thing I ever won. That's what's so shocking. Wow. Yeah. My dad paid the coach to let me on. I know you bring up Silver Lake.

And then like I always say, when we talk to guys, we played public high school hockey. Minnesota's the best because they still have that program. Yeah. Yeah. To play from your town, it's just it's just sweet.

But like, who is who are the other great high school players when you were in high school around here like that.

Roy photography before you. It was before it was, you know, as Bobby Carpenter, all great, I remember watching the St. John's Prep and he was like the man like he was a phenomenal player then, you know, like guys like that act and basketball team and like parachuting that Sweeney made all those teams. And it was Matignon like Stevie Leach and all the Matney on teams. They don't even have hockey now, man now. But and when I was growing up, Matanya was like they wanted all the time with them and St.

John's Prep recopying to play where he was so good in high school. He was phenomenal.

Well, I was I was going to ask for eighty three. You were drafted by the Kings in the sixth round. Had you committed to Boston College yet? Yeah, I was already apk. You know, it's funny, I didn't even know I got drafted though. That was like my sister called me the next day and said, you know, I think you get drafted. I said drafted where I know what the army was the worst one. I said, I got drafted.

He says, yeah, the king's draft. Then I got a call, like after she called me, some would call me, you know, back then it was like, you know, if you weren't the top, you know, no one went to the draft. Like, did you know I would sit there like I didn't even think I was going to get I had no idea I was even in the draft. Look, I was kind of like I was just kind of going along.

I was FBC and, you know, I didn't like, you know, I was out of your freshman year, so I was out of my freshman year. And then I got drafted. All right. I was going in, I forget. But, you know, I had like I said, I needed a lot of work. You know, I could always I could score, but I couldn't skate like. So it was kind of. But, yeah, that's what I found.

I didn't know. I didn't know I even got drafted.

So that was kind of the knock. Like what? You were the skilled player, but skating was that. Yes, that was a week. That was a problem. I am a lot of goals and I think the last year in college scoring like thirty seven goals. When I played, I played with Janni, I played with Brian Leach, which is like, you know, so great by most time. Play with Kenny Hodge Union. Thank you, Brown, who is with you for a long time.

But both teams were phenomenal. We never really won like we were top rated team, a country like three out of four years. We never won anything with the Final Four once. But but that that that Bucky helped me like Paul Vincent used to come in. He put me in a rubber suit like, you know, I get this rubber suit. I couldn't get it, like, you know. I mean, like I said, I'm the only guy you got.

Sorry. Yeah.

Yeah, I'm the only guy in a suit. Like, I'm like, why am I in this rubber suit? You know, everybody's hungover. I'm sitting in a rubber suit sweating to death. I'm like, why? Why? I'm in this rubber suit. But it helped me skate a little bit. And then that's the way I learned how to skate was at the Olympics. You know, I worked out I was four years at P.S. and the Olympic team.

I need all these years. You know, these guys have come out eighteen, nineteen. It's like phenomenal to me. It's like I know because I needed the four years ABC, the Olympic year, which, you know, we skated for eight months together. We had Jack Bulatovic, assistant coach, and he was like phenomenal. And we mentioned yeah, he was awesome, you know, on tape. He's a great bunch of guys. That team.

We had so much fun there with the Olympics that in eighty it was in Calgary. OK, but we travel for eight months.

We travel around like, oh, my best friend, like Scott Young, Alberto like, oh, Clocky. Donatello yeah. Tony Grant. Oh yeah. We had a team return interior in that we had that team was so much fun and so many great guys like and we traveled together, we all get along was phenomenal.

Well so you're going in your last year BCE, you guys ended up signing Leach in. Yeah. Did you guys have any idea what this guy was going to bring to team? Yeah, they came from Corpus Christi, Texas. I mean, you know, your fucking drawings at school, though.

He was that way. I mean, he was down in Cheshire, Connecticut. But but I know we didn't really know. But he came in he won the Holby, like freshman year. He was that he was that good. He was like freshman year then obviously went to the Olympics and he he was phenomenal. Janni was the same way they came in together. They were friends. They played at the same prep schools they like and they were great.

Like Janie was the same way. Not many, like we all know, not much of a skater even in the NHL, but hands in the ice, like it's like it's crazy. Like she was just the opposite skate, skate, skate forever and never get tired. Day on the ice for months at a time. Never come off, you know.

So you think your time with the US national program really helped you prepare yourself for the National Hockey League? Just because I developed kind of late, I, I didn't play on the U.S. junior teams. I didn't make any of those teams. I was on any you know, I kind of got going with, you know, the world championship team I played on before the Olympics that year before the Olympics. And that's kind of where they kind of find a little bit about me.

And then one thing led to another. And I made that team. And, yeah, that eight months was the most important part of my eight months, just because, like I said, I could score like decent hands. Yeah. And we have decent hands. You play with good sentiment. That's half that's the whole battle. You know, we all know if you have good sentiment or you have sentiment dumping in, you're not going to score, you know, so I like to handle the puck and I got the area to score.

But the skating, when you when you I kind of developed to skate and then figured out how I could get better, that was a big part of that year.

It was it was when you would travel around leading up to the games, would you play college teams similar to how the team did? Yeah, I was.

We play mostly college teams, which we bomb, you know. Yeah. So I was like, you know, so we didn't have a great time. They always have these party. We know we had a phenomenal time, like those guys are such great guys. And then then we played some of the NHL teams and that's when it kind of got difficult. But we knew, like back then it was the pros of playing for the other teams. Yeah, well, amateur's for us.

But we know we had returned to the area to great going, but we knew those guys had to get hot, just like. Yeah, we can't beat those teams. If I go, we don't steal the games and they play well enough. I think we lost eight, six, the Czechs or something like, you know, obviously there's a lot of calls to give up, but it wasn't their fault. Leave me. No, sir, but I don't seem to know just who was the coach of that team.

I was Dave Peterson. Ben Smith was your assistant. OK, and yeah, a lot of fun. We had a lot of laughs.

When did you at what point did L.A. trade your rights to Pittsburgh?

I traded my rights kind of right and right. I think I was a sophomore or freshman. Right and right at the beginning of call early. Yeah. So like I said, I didn't do nothing. I mean, when they traded me, I was like, big deal. I didn't know. Yeah, who cares? Pittsburgh, you know, I didn't even know I was a Bruins fan. I didn't know really what else is going on. And I was kind of like, OK, I got traded on TV, so what am I.

So then then I finally, like my junior year, they had a scout come out a couple of times to talk to them. Yeah, that's pretty good. You know, I was coming out there in enemy. Yeah. You're going to freak out of this right here. That's pretty good. Yeah. So I was kind of like, yeah, I was, but then it kind of just went from there and I said, maybe, you know, maybe I can, I don't know, I got a shot know.

And the Olympic team gave me that opportunity.

And then you go from the Olympics to one of the two best players in the world, Mario Lemieux, who's finishing off one hundred and sixty eight point campaign and seventy seven games.

That's a pretty young locker room.

Well, you immediately pull my on a line like, no, I was I think I didn't play with my eye. They put me with him, like when I first came to Pittsburgh right after the Olympics in February. So they put me I came and played with him right after that and I couldn't play with them.

I go shove in the pocket of skates, you know, he all by yourself at this point, you know, when he yells for it and you've had four guys on my give it to him, you know, so it's kind of like you yell for you. What are you going to eat, guys? I give it you. Yeah. You always want the puck, you know. And I was like, panicky. I didn't know him, you know.

Mario, I got to give him the puck if you want to give him the puck, you know, so that didn't work out for a while. But then the next year I came in Johnny Collin. The next year actually I get the change of manager around. I got sent down. So when I came in in February, I got like seven goals and seventeen games or so know.

And I thought, wow, I'm on the team, I make the team, I come in and next thing you know, yeah. I'm like I get sent down. I didn't have a great camp but you know, I took things for granted, probably, you know, probably helped me a little bit. But I went down in Muskegon with you. You know, my skiing is a tough place.

Where is that? Michigan. OK, it's way, way out in Michigan. You know, where are you go to get there? You know, it's kind of one of those places that you just don't want to be at, you know, a paper mill snowing all the time on the lake. There wasn't any people out there. I think I was making like I was making like fifty five thousand dollars down there. It was like making fifty five million.

I was the richest guy in town. I couldn't cash my check anywhere. I go back and say, Can you come back tomorrow. Eighteen hundred dollars. Yeah. I was like so like that was, that was an interesting place but it was. Yeah I learned a lot down there. We had a great bunch of guys down there too. And yeah I remember the first day I come in there, the practice Mitch Wilston and Patty made two guys in that fight.

Their fight is tough guys, great guys. I love them both, but they come in and they both got the face paint with guns on the shoulders. Yeah, I'm like, yeah, I'm coming. It's the first time to walk in the locker room.

Little like these guys playing on the team. When they doing know they're going, they go out. They got about 3:00 in the morning. They go sit in a perch and they hunt to practice, you know, faces painted right down. You go on the ice to pay for the pain of the helmet on. Oh, well, that was a first couple of days. Yeah. I'm like, oh, my goodness, where am I? What's going on down?

I got to get back to the NHL. Yeah, that's a half. I went up and down five times. Had a great time. Oh really. They kind of scrutiny. Oh yeah. And a couple of times they go up. I wouldn't play, go up, wouldn't play, come down you know, and I just kind of stuck with it. But at times I really like big physical guy like where you getting challenged then.

Were you fighting then.

I remember the first time I went down there, David Maly, who who I am friends with now. But back then, like, we play in a world and we play that most festivals ahead. Yeah, I played in one of those. We got like a fight off. Yeah I know. Like he just didn't like me for some reason. First game I was down, we played his team, fought him three times. I didn't know how to fight like three, three times.

Like he just he's coming after me and he's like kind of like a fighter, you know, I'm not like, yeah, I can hold on. I hit a couple of guys. I wanted to go down with that score, get this thing over with quickly in some way. And the third time I really going to come again, like I just kept coming. Like, that was kind of like the first experience. And that was, you know, he had to stick up for yourself.

You know, that's just the way it was at that time. Yeah. Doing it. If you did it, then you kind of get left alone a little bit. And if you score a few goals and then but that's just the way it was. That was there was a lot that was good times. And I learned a lot down there. They had great guys. You played with Mark Recchi there. Yeah. Rexes here in Muskegon. Yeah.

I mean, yeah. Wow. I can't remember. One time we come off the road, this is great. We come off the roller rink in Denver or something. You know, we're staying at the hotel because we're up and down all the time. So we come back to the hotel, I guess. 3:00 in the morning, hotel shut down is an arrow going over here to the it says Muskegon players close. We had close to our right to Seven-Eleven.

We had to go pick up our clothes at the 7-Eleven hotel. It closed down so literally, like wherever I stuffed in the back room at the 7-Eleven, the guy the guy has it down there. We had to check in another hotel. And those are the things that I remember about, like those times. Like I got to get like. Now you think about that. Imagine.

I think I think at one point maybe they're just fucking with you in order to motivate you to get out there.

I was when that when they closed and I said the hotel is closed, like I mean, it's all a closer in here. I just went on a road to be gone five days and had the arrow to the 7-Eleven. That was a classic.

I know probably a lot of our younger listeners have never even seen Mario play it, probably just on clips. Once you become a regular, you know, you're not going to get sent down anymore. Like, do you still pinch yourself every day that you get to, like, play with this guy but go to work, whatever it was?

Yeah, he was phenomenal. It was amazing. Like, you know, just the stuff he did he didn't like. And then he started getting the all the energy. But just I remember coming up one night and I come into the locker room and I hear scores 89 school year nine. He like you know, he gave me the locker room to kind of pick it out. You hear the announcer say, eighty ninth of the year. I'm like, oh, my God, you know?

And that's just different. Yeah. When you hear that, it's kind of like but he he's such a great guy. Like, you know, when you get when you get to know him and get to meet him and our team was starting to get better, you know, and he felt that the team was getting better. He was. Yeah, he's a guy's guy. A lot of fun to hang out.

So then Yozgat comes in. Right. And you're just like, whoa. Yeah.

And I'm guessing because even now his English isn't, like, good. Yeah. Then it must have been nonexistent.

You no English. I remember like like he would like you to think about eighteen years old. Any of us going all the Czech like not speaking that language. Yeah. I mean I could be living devastator I wouldn't want be there at all ever you know. So he came over, his mom came with him. I had to know the language was brutal and he, he hung in there. But those days he was crying. In those days he was really upset that he couldn't handle like that, you know, and everybody trying to help.

And then Craig Patrick, who made some great decisions, he got a couple of checks in here, Hardeen, a Straka. He brought like four or five guys that he could relate to. And that really helped me because I was struggling a little bit. You know, he was like, you know, our first year he won the Stanley Cup. He was a third line guy. You know, he had twenty goals, but, you know, he was going to be a stud.

But, you know, he was playing with Trautwig was a third line guy. I think about that on that. Yeah. You know, the team a team we had there was. It was a joke. Yeah. Ridiculous. You know, it's just like we had so many players and yeah, Mario was great. He was, you know, a good leader and got some huge goal.

Well, yeah. You went from the year before. You guys didn't make playoffs like coming into that season. Were you well aware you guys not only had that young core group, but started adding these pieces around? Where were their expectations that year? You guys won it the first year going into training?

Yeah, I think it was you know, I think we had good you know, we're good enough players like we had, you know, Johnny Carson was getting a hundred points and he was a phenomenal player, was come on up. You know, they had me they had Mario was playing Bobby. We had got the cough, came over assists game, you know, then all these pieces started to fall into place and corporates us out of to them, you know, we're going to win no matter what.

And he brought a great attitude. He's taught us, like, you know, what to do off the ice and how we should, you know, work. Back then, it wasn't like now we set schedule. Everybody goes works out together. You know, you can leave if you want to have it where you practice, just go home, grab a sandwich and the day's over, but kind of pull that together. And he was a big part of getting the young guys to really work and work.

And we worked hard off the ice. It was one of the first time I really, you know, we worked out, but it was nice to have that, like, drive with everybody kind of pulling the same direction.

I got to experience a trip to the finals. But overall, the Penguins and like the fans are diehard.

They are. So the year before you won the cup and you missed the playoffs, was it already crazy then because Mario was there or was it not really like what was that? What were the fans like then?

The fans the fans are good and they're yeah, they they were kind of getting together again. And Mario brought, you know, my I was going to bring fans anywhere. So it was there. They were starting to gather into it. But, you know, that year we won, man. You know, that whole year I remember, you know, you're going to like in the playoffs, you got to pull into the parking lot and 5000 people in there.

Three thirty afternoon. It was awesome. You know, then you get in this beautiful weather, you get in the people. You never want a cup there. If people are going crazy, you then then you get into the locker room and forty minutes before the game, it's packed outside, like, you got to take a stick and the chant and you go back and you can hear them. You know that place that Igla was. Yeah. Oh yeah.

That was so good. And the fans were so phenomenal. We just had like you know was that run we had. It was, you know, big part. They were great.

Yeah. That first year I'm just looking at the playoff numbers. I mean, you had thirty three points. Lemieux had forty four playoff points in twenty three games for. Well yeah it's twenty. I was at sixteen goals. Twenty eight assists.

Would you, why would he ever get frustrated with you. You just said go to the net.

You know we had a good really he, he would get you know he wanted me to score when he, he wants that pocket than that. If you mess it he's good enough to pass it to someone else. So that's how good those guys are, and it's like and he always wanted to like, score and score and be better, and I think he he helped me with that a lot. And we became good friends when I became good friends of Off the Ice.

We could kind of like, you know, then the on the ice stuff because I wasn't scared to like, say, I can't give it to you now, you know, because, you know, you're not open. But even like he wants to talk all the time. And he was one of those guys that, you know, he's just gotta give it to him. He wants, you know, these they want in a neutral zone. You give to Zone.

I'll get the blue line. You you drive the net, open up to me. Just go tell them that they don't take you outside of the lane and open that they take you.

Then I walk around and I'll make a play and but he just wanted me to go with and take guys, give us some space, you know, so long as I could give him some space. You know, you guys, I just crazy.

Now, they had already started giving guys their own day with the cup by then, right? No. Oh, it's kind of like it was more of a local guys. Yeah. Together. OK, so we didn't I didn't have it. I don't think I had at that time, but it was, it was just starting to get that. But it's more like, yeah, there was a guy falling all around, you know, it was more of Yeah.

If you get it. Yeah. Yeah. Everyone even like that couple. Yeah. We didn't fall after nights out like this. We didn't want it anymore. That was no one was. I had to call one time, six months. It was a cop. I left like at five thirty to a couple. You know, we can't find the cop. There's no room in the car for the cop boys. Fucking hey that's how they thought of the scene with a movie Hangover.

They're like, let's go back to the days where they had to trace back to trying to find this cop again. And like it was like early in the morning, I just got into it. Yeah, we're all the couple. The couple was nowhere to be found, but we found it somewhere. I think one of the guys had it in the limo. The limo guy had I think the guy was driving us around. Someone just left in a limo.

I went to when the house the limo guys like meet and girls. He's like, yeah, yeah. You got to see what I got in my truck. Got backup goalie.

Oh, obviously this is before, like, the social media crazy. You'd be on the road. Would it still be nuts for Mario in terms of like people waiting to see.

I am and crazy like crazy. I remember being in Vancouver and that place is crazy. You know, you guys know the best. Yeah. Three I remember walking in like the third day right after the game went out. We came in like two of them or whatever after. And it was the kids came out and said, I've been sleeping here for three days, three days in his car. I have to think that sign of him. But but that's how crazy.

Like three days, you know, even like when I play with Gretz in New York, he was like that was Mario was really big. Gretchen's like really big. Yeah. Yeah. Different logic.

Did you see the Jordan documentary? It was kind of like that.

Yeah. Great regrets. But regrets is Marios was wasn't as kind of he wanted to stay in the background with the language to it to be the language. Right. And it was you know, he didn't but then he, you know, they learned it but he still wanted to be like him a little bit in the background, like, you know, he'd do it. Yeah. He obviously did what he could to promote the league and all that stuff, but he didn't want to go.

Gretz is more of the guy, the front page. You know, he didn't mind it. He was great with it. You know, he's a great guy. He was great with people and he really didn't mind that part of it.

You know, we could probably spend a whole episode on guys you've played with. But now going into that second year, you guys still have that very strong nucleus. But you guys you guys didn't get off to a great start down here.

I don't think we did. I think I wonder why. Yeah, I think yeah, I'm still looking for the court trying to find a couple. I think that was whole. I didn't go to camp, was holding out for a contract, but it wasn't you know, he didn't hold out. I just didn't. But then we went on like a 12 day trip at the beginning, like a training camp. And we were flying. We're flying around one year.

We're flying to L.A. six. We played them six times. You guys, Gretzky, Mario, we played them at these neutral sites all over the place. We we have L.A. got like my best friends, you know, and we're playing well, you know, playing golf, playing volleyball against some. Yeah. We don't want to play the games. You know, it's kind of like all that stuff like that. But then, you know, that venue, I was hoping that we didn't we wanted to cover and the team was very self-motivated.

But I don't think you even when they came back off that trip to most guys, you can't even bring your equipment. Like I was sitting out and I was in better shape when those guys came back. I said, you guys skate it all.

They're just kind of like hang out, play volleyball and golf.

But that's that back then was a little different than, you know, we just kind of like you said, we knew how much talent we had. That team was loaded with talent.

Well, it's tough to turn it on in the first half when you get you sneak in.

Yeah, but the crazy thing is, since then, Detroit, 1979. Yeah.

And the penguins, again, no one's been able to go back to back. It's so difficult.

When the playoffs started, it was the same thing you got so good.

Yeah, we were good. We, we kind of we, we were getting ready, we build it up to you know, we had a great point to play. We, we honestly thought every game we could win. Yeah. That's I've never been on a team, you know, we know every single night we put our skates on no matter what where we're playing, we can win. And that was a good feeling. I mean, you know, that's that's something we built up.

And we had so much chemistry on that team like guys, you know, we had guys that were in second place. It's like yoga, you know, a second. Yeah, Joey, monologuing 500 goes, maybe getting the power play time, maybe not. Yeah, like Trottier was a probably one of the best sermons of all favor, you know, the greatest guy in the world, trousers. You know, he brought so much to our team when we won the cup and he knew he was just that third line.

Pentonville, he was great with yoga. You know, that's how you know, that's important. We saw Barry P's and Randy Hillier. We had so many guys that were older that kind of pull and they didn't care when they weren't playing. They help.

You know, you guys ended up picking up Tocchet that second year at the deadline. So that must have been a big, uplifting moment, just given probably how the regular season was going in the dog days and all of a sudden you get another injection of a guy who's built that style.

Yeah, we had to talk was great. Like we traded Rex, who was one of my best friends, but talks like one of my best friends now. So it's kind of like talk was like he came in, right? We got Chelsea Ambersons, who was like Chelsea. He was huge for our team. And I only like just one big lugs that just got me guys all dirty, you know, do anything to win. You know, this is a big slob I remember playing against so heavy.

And I was like, but he getting here. And then we got Kenny Riggins. So, you know, we got to that was a good trade talk was great talks, a great guy. He was one of those guys that came in and fit in right away. The first game talking, we played San Jose and sounds like. Yeah, sounds that's when they were expansion. New iPad. Ricky told me it used to be point nine, you to get at least three points.

And it's a great story. Yeah. So I'm playing with me, Mario and Talk and Mario and I had seven point talk. Got a hot chick in the first period. My first game he's like yeah he's got really like chugging along in first game. He comes in, he gets a hat trick, he gets six points. I'm on the line. I get none, none.

That was even possible. I was I was going this way. That's why I had like 100. I was second leading scorer in the league, you know, and and when you get no points against San Jose, you want to commit suicide, OK, if you win like thirty or nothing. Right. I had no points and I had thirteen. That was that was that's still a joke. We talk, talk, we talk about tennis. Remember that first game we got.

Remember that night. Oh, and I got none. Did you did you finish second league scoring that you did. Yeah. And that was the year where Mario I think played well at fourteen last game. You got her.

I remember. I remember. That was funny because I'm in the lead a powerful things behind me. I think I'm like, oh my God, I might win this thing. Like, you know, I'm saying might take some time to sit back.

Wow. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Take a little, take a little time. Relax. You know, we'll take care of this. He came back, he beat me by like by twenty points, you know, he came back play like he got like in 16 games you get like thirty eight points and beat me.

Like you went by this third guy in NHL history to outscore Gretzky in the regular season. That's right. And I think and he it was his thirteenth year. Yeah. Scratched his 100th year. I hadn't scored, I snuck by and when he was fifty three. That's all I want to mention.

Scotty Bowman, you played for a couple of years. Was he the master. I had games. I can imagine all those players, all those egos like he must have to be a psychologist.

This guy was good. He always scored, he always had bearishness. And Peter Maguire, they're always they try to those things like guys they in when you coach, you know, and Scott, who was great coach, great bench coach, really saw the game like, you know, really not control the bench, but, you know, practice wise. Oh, man.

I heard they wouldn't even let them know. So we beat them. We had we really we had a meeting between us and the general manager and we took votes and he got vetoed out of practice.

Head coach. I hate coach. So we had no. So, Scott, we talked I guess, Scott, you can just stay in Buffalo with the family flying for the games like them coming. Ten thirty you we got a game seven. Yeah. We have great pre pregaming jump on the bench. Yeah. That's how crazy this thing was. And you know he yeah.

He got vetoed out and then he came back. We even have a say like I could. It was, it was, I was like I maybe agree to, I don't know but he just didn't practice. Like he's more like I want to be like, sorry. Mario said no, I'd love to blow the whistle. Scottie, he's a teacher now. He wanted to talk. Yeah. Yeah. Nothing wrong with it. But back back those days it was more of, you know.

Forty minutes. Forty five minutes. Good pace. Good off you go. Grab lunch, call it a day and like you know that's. Yeah but Scottie. Hour and 20 minutes guys. I can't see because I can blow the whistle. We can work on changeups you know we're going to work on changing.

You know I've seen so many clips too of the Oilers in their heyday. They're practicing no buckets, no shoulder pads. It was the same for you guys. That's yours out there first. Oh, so had no no helmets on. It probably didn't wear in practice. No one like that might be one guy out there.

Look at his hair still because I, you know, so it's kind of like, you know, that was the greatest thing, like sitting around on the shoulder pads if you want them, you know, it's kind of like, yeah, it was it was there. It's just different, you know. But we know the only good thing about that team was so good. We knew how to win. You know, we knew at the game time we.

Going to show up no matter what, and that's that's something we all believed in, you know, obviously, you know, one of the major things you create is the injury and obviously hate to bring it up. But we did agree we'd bring it up before I hit the playoffs in 93. You go to hit Geelong with a check and get yourself knocked out when you hit the ice. You're already unconscious. I mean, it's awful to watch.

I watch it again today and, you know, kind of set you on a tough, tough path.

Yeah, that was kind of that you just talk about. They were going for a third cup by far your best team by, but by far the best team. We won 18 games in a row that year without like a tie or and that's when they had the five minutes ago we were waiting. Our team was loaded, loaded with players, and we just thought we were going to win. And then, yeah, that was game seven. You know, I remember game six against you for the two in Long Island, you know, and, you know, we should finish him off that night.

You know, any time you get the game seven, like, we didn't we didn't come back and beat a six four. Like, it was like, you know, on that that team kind of drove us a little bit crazy that Kasprowicz is tomorrow, not, you know, so it was kind of like they had a few guys that could really drive us nuts in that time. I heard I got a I got a penalty fifteen seconds in the game with the guy.

So I was in the box and then I was kind of battleplan for like fifteen years, really, you know, big, strong hacker, you know, like Indian, like really tough kid, you know. And I saw him coming and I went, oh my God, if you see the check, I got him good. Oh, I thought you were going to smoke him. When I walked him, I got him. But if you look, he went like flying back, but I kind of jumped in here and he had hurt his eye.

He had hurt his eye, you know, so it was more he never was healed, but he had it on this time because he had hurt his eye. You know, that's when I got hit in the temple and I hit him head knocked out in the air and I couldn't put my hands down. That was kind of weird. And that's that's when I got hurt and kind of getting, you know, all the other stuff happens. I get, you know, get in the hospital pain medication and kind of took me down a path that, you know, ran me for a long time.

That next year, though, you still had over forty year goals. Yeah, I was just struggling. What was he like from all that surgery? Yeah, the recovery was fine. Like, you know, I was I, I didn't get to work out at all, you know, I kind of kind of just have in September come back and take it easy. And, you know, I, I did that and then but it was a tough season.

It was you know, I was in and out. I was OK sometimes not not great, but I scored. But we didn't we didn't win that year. So that's when they kind of said, you know, we've got to break this team up a little bit, you know?

And then you signed with Boston was a bit of a homecoming, but it wasn't I mean, it wasn't an ideal situation for anybody to come home, regardless of whether it was good.

That was kind of in the midst of a little addiction. So it's kind of like, you know, it's hard, but we all know to be a great player and, you know, to score goals and to be the best player you can be. It has to be one hundred percent focus. And I, I was trying, you know, I had a great wife. She took care. I didn't have anything. She took all the kids.

She took all of my life. She was awesome, you know, and it was kind of, you know, was now. But now this thing that I didn't know, I didn't know really well, I never had it, you know, I didn't even know what addiction really was like. You know, no one in my family wasn't something that but it kind of slowly kind of crept into my life and that, yeah, if anybody if you know about addiction, it's it's tough if you don't put a halt on it.

And that was actually the last year that Campanile played as well. Yeah. Yeah. Oh really. Yeah. He ended up retiring at the end of that he had the hip and knee stuff and he was yeah. He was a great player man. He was good.

You talked to some guys when they had updo coming home and they find it. It's a lot more of a distraction given that you're not far from your hometown and people, are you constantly asking for tickets? And and you also mentioned the personal struggles. Was it like was it probably the worst case scenario for you coming home?

Yeah, I think I think it was a worst case because of the addiction part of it. I don't think coming home, if I if I think it's harder.

But if you if you play if you play well, it's great. Right. You know, and I think it's a little bit harder, but I think the whole thing I got off to a bad start. I wasn't scoring. The team was supposed to win. We weren't winning. I thought I came here to play with O'Neal. I was playing with Todd Alex. So it's just kind of a lot of a lot of different things. Kass was a new coach, has a lot of pressure on him.

So there wasn't there wasn't there was a lot of things going on in the team, too, you know. Yeah, I didn't play well, you know.

Do you think that, like, everyone on the team was aware with what you were going through, the thing they were? I don't think they were. I think they might do a few things. But but I wasn't like I was doing stuff all the time. It wasn't like I was like but it was on my mind. More addiction's more of a mental thing. Like if the physical part of the physical part of that's bad.

But when you when you don't when you're an addict and you're not doing it, it has a lot of your brain is thinking about it. It possesses some space, you know, to be an adequate athlete, a good doctor, good anything. Right. You've got to have that focus.

And it was wasn't on a label, wasn't making me be able to do that all the time. And I became like, you know, I was then down on myself. I wasn't scoring. We all know how that goes.

And just everything just kind of snowballed. Yeah. You know, so it was tough was I was only here forty games, you know.

So you got traded out to L.A.. Yeah. And yeah. I mean, I guess it's good in a sense is as far away as you can go, but still you're battling the same things. Yeah. I was the the Kings teams that you know, the Kings, we were young.

Larry Roberts was the coach. He was awesome. Awesome. Great guy. Awesome guy to one of the best guys I met, Joe Hockey, and he was helped. He was really a big part of helping me and in trying to point. But the team was young. We really were. You know, we were trying to build and they were trying to build a good team out there. So I was there like a year and a half. I loved L.A. L.A. was like, you know, like I said, where?

East Coast. You know, you guys, you know, you're out that way. But it's so nice. The weather was so I didn't realize, like, how nice it was all the time. And like, if you could ever win, like, they won cops out there. But I could imagine if you could have a win out there. Man, I what a great place to live.

You go from playing, you play with the two best players of all time. I mean, arguably, right. Yeah. With Waino there. And at that point, like like going from playing with Mario, I always ask people who play with ball with what was the biggest difference that you noticed in them based on honest play.

I think I think like obviously grass is kind of toward the end, but I think they both kind of you know, they see the game a little step ahead. You know, they they they're both great.

But the physical statue of my six five like him so big you can't get inside. And they look at Gretz, who's a smaller guy but does the same thing. It's phenomenal to look at Kretz and how he got all those points and in a tough league wasn't the league wasn't like it is now. You could bury a guy. You know, he obviously had guys that could help him, whatever, but you had to be aware and had to be ready at all times.

And he was you know, Gretz was just a great guy. I was in L.A. and I went to New York with him for four years. I was there with him for a while. That's where I got to know I'm really good. He just two of the best. Like, you know, you talk about superstars, you know, I don't know all the sports, but I know we have the two best, you know, best guys to you know, you mentioned the tough league and of course, Marc Morial and then Wayne taken the abuse.

Still, at that point in time, you're probably brought in to also protect and given your numbers as far as not only offense, but penalty minutes wise, did did you did you reach a point where you just didn't have that natural that that want to go out there and keep scrapping?

And that that was no. When I was a pit that was never I didn't really like I fought guys like defenseman. I could play like, you know, like a Bookaboo with someone like that. Danica a little bit, you know, you were fighting, you didn't have to fight. The guys are animalistic. You know, where they just went out there and fought, you know, so it's always really good. When I first came in that first year pit, I was like with Jake Cofell and Richard Zembiec with the two guys and find I was on the fourth line with them.

And that's how I kind of learned they were great, great, great guys. Jase, a good friend of mine, is a great guy. And they would say, you know what? Can you just grab the fence and we'll take the other two tough guy you don't want to. And that's how you kind of learn game through these guys. And that's that's how you do it. And that's, you know, that's basically what I did. I didn't have to really fight.

You know, I jump in my car when talking more now than nothing. Yeah, not much. I got there, you know, he gets half a pound. And if there's anybody tough guys. Yeah. I remember one of the first next exhibition game, Danny Piao, who's tough kid. Really tough. Right. And we're playing Otto and I hear him come off to talk like in the open face off and the defensive end because I was just talking.

You're my idol. I got to fight two, three times.

If you believe in with this. What's going to happen here next. I'm thirteen years in. Gonna fight him three times. He fought them three times. No, Shady didn't talk to the chiefs and then he came after them like he fight and they play a little bit. Second fight now I'm at three p.m. they beat him so he threw me, threw him in his own pants.

There you go. Sign a stick for you and how the trainer send it over. I was like, hey, that's my I got to go three times. Come on, Danny. The next game. Yeah.

When I was playing in the NHL, it was, you know, I have a trainer sign the stick are having sign a stick and had the trainer send it over. Then it was like, I want you to cave my fucking face.

I got the love. I want your knuckle indentation on my eyeball with cocksucker's.

Hey, look, they you believe this. Oh, that was great. Yeah.

I want to go back to an incident in Boston while you were here. You mentioned Steve Caspa the night it was in Toronto. I believe he dresses both you in nearly just a stable, you guys. Yes. Which is a terrible coaching decision. You shortening yourself by two forwards. And if I was losing it, I remember this in addition to embarrassing to two well-respected veterans. Was that the most you've ever seen, a coach lose a room?

Yeah, it's I mean, I think that was you know, he was you could see like he was tore up by people. I'm like, this guy's crazy. Like, he's like, you know, why is he so upbeat about like for me I was if thirty games. Right. Yeah. You can be on a bench me bench me. Right. Nearly. Steve can I really really kick him. I fought for this jackass you know. I got this guy.

Yeah. Yeah.

Shoot me in Toronto like you know probably one of the top five ever Bruins to play, you know. Plus he had battled through everything. Yeah. He's a guy who gave everything for that team. You know, for me, I just got that I wasn't playing. You wanna embarrass me. And that's like if I went to Pittsburgh and they did that to me and the guys, guys, guys should have. And obviously, you can't do that.

You know, we're never. Happened in Pittsburgh because guys wouldn't let that happen, you know? Yeah, the coaches even go to practice knowing, yeah, you're going to Bajram sit them in the stands. Yeah, yeah. Put skates on and sitting in a bench. So after every face off, they show up.

So did you know going in you weren't going to play a shift after the game starting? Never called. Oh, that's so dirty.

Any call. It's like yeah I think he called the last minute left in the third, you know. You think I'm going out there, I'm going out now.

You got to be crazy. So he really he did really sharp things. I think the last I looked at. Yeah. Fuck off, skater. It will be over you right out there. So there are a lot of like yelling and screaming after the game. You know, I was quiet. We like I think we lost it. But you could tell Castro Castro was you know, he was trying to do the best job he could, but he was kind of he played I think he coached a year in the minors.

And you came into the situation where we made trades. We're supposed to win. There's a lot of pressure on us to win. Not so. He's trying to figure out how to motivate his team. And that was the wrong way to do it with Cam.

Took a wrong turn. Yeah. Yeah. Offseason habits had you when you first started playing pro, were you training in the off season and.

Yeah, yeah, we were you know, I went out first couple of years I train back here, but then I went out to L.A. with T.R. Goodman, the TR like oh that was the beginning of doing it. Yeah.

And talk and Chelios talk with. Yeah. So we talk about a house out there, so we go out there for two months and, you know, we train there and like we have eight or nine guys in the winter, they're like training. And and that was a great place to train like you guys. I always like to. I was very strict. If you want to train, you come and train. Should go out at night.

So it was clear from the minute you started playing pro, at some point there was a culture shift and the fact that you had to start keeping up to these young guys and in the off season became came about. I never had an source. And, you know, the only Ischia touches at the bottom of the cooler.

Yeah, well, we had our fun, but I never I never took time off, really maybe a week here and there. But I always try to stay with the program. You know, I love to ride a bike. I love to do that stuff. And that was kind of a big part. But we had a great group of guys that we pushed kind of, you know, even days we didn't want to train. We, you know, we're there to train, which was unusual because normally in the summer, you know, you train, you go out, you train back, then it's a little different than what we're doing now.

But it was a very great place to train. Went out there for a couple of months and then trained. And that kind of was a routine I had for a while.

Besides the injury to your face in that unfortunate hit, was there did you battle other injuries? And we pretty lucky too much injury. I had a couple of knee scope, nothing bad. I broke my ankle a little crack, but nothing nothing major in terms of that head injury. Then I was kind of after that, I was you know, there was really nothing. Nothing after that. Yes.

But it was a struggle for a little bit after that.

I want to ask you of fourteen when the miracle on ice happened. Well, you already all in on hockey then. Did that did that convert a little bit more?

I was I was pretty. I love talking. I love the big bad Bruins. I used to go play Philly in the afternoon. I remember going to Philly in Boston for like seventy seven to catch a fight. So I was like, oh my goodness, this is great. You know, the one o'clock game at your home at six thirty was like a five hour game. Like you got two guys and. But, but I love you. I love, I loved hockey.

I like I said, I wanted to play baseball. I didn't really know but that anything was awesome. You know, that was great. You know, that was so good to that, you know, anything like that stuff, that stuff was just phenomenal stuff.

You know, these days you've been doing a lot of public speaking in regards to your sobriety. How's that been going? Is that was that a tough adjustment for you to talk about that? You know what, guys?

The biggest thing about my story, I just tell the truth. You know, I tell them what happened. I was like, I you know, I was on the top of the world as a first team all star scoring fifty five goals. And I tried some first. Cocaine was the first thing that know I don't know, it was like I was twenty eight, never did a drug. I never did anything in my life. You never even knew about it.

You and I tried it and that was kind of like the thing that kind of set me off in you. Where were you playing then. So in Pittsburgh, OK, we got we're going for a third cup. We're in New York City like. Yeah. And the Milia kind of like. Yeah, you know, I got hurt maybe a couple of weeks before you actually. Right before I. Yeah, I got hurt. I tried I and it was like a twenty.

I don't even know what it really was like a twenty second decision. I said yeah but not no I didn't know how to be an addict you know. I didn't know I thought I would do this right. I jump on the bus the next day and life would be like, yeah, I didn't, I had no idea that it was going to affect. I really didn't know what it was by doing that. It didn't change my life right away, but it gradually grabbed me.

That was that was the thing that grabbed me at first. And that was that was like a ten seconds decision. So when I speak, I talk to these kids. It's guys I was the first time I was when I love my life, I had a great wife, great family, whatever. And I tried something not knowing that anything could happen, like, you don't know, sitting out there. Like if you try something that you couldn't go down the path I was on top of the world and try and an addiction is more it's not willpower.

And I was more than that. You need a recovery.

You know, I think there is a misperception, too, that everything goes back to the injury. You know, it actually. Yeah, the wheels and. And what your addiction issues predated the injury. Yeah, and that's the thing, I was right before that. But then then you get hurt and then, you know, obviously you need pain medication. So I open up a can of worms. I didn't really know, but I had no doubt about it.

I just thought it was, you know what? This is what it was going to be. No, you know, yeah.

They weren't exactly open back then either, like, oh, we're going to give you these medications or anything. Yeah, I like the cocaine. I didn't really know what that was going to do. Right. For some reason, I made I think I was drinking with the guys about like the twentieth time or whatever, just like any other night tonight. And then, you know, for the next 20 years, it kind of changed the path to what I was going I got to watch the short film like this shattered.

Yeah, that was great.

And when did that kind of come about? And everything that came about?

Like a couple of years ago, I was in I was working with the Pen Scout and yeah, they came out to Buffalo and I talked to a couple of guys and they said, Do you want to do this? And I was like, I you know, I yeah, I wasn't really sure. But they made you happy. You did? Yeah. I'm happy because I think, you know, I get a lot I get a lot of emails and texts to my power Ford Foundation and saying that it's helping people by watching.

And that's the biggest thing for me is I can help if it helps. So I'm not going to help everybody. But if someone can look at some or listen to me speak and it helps one person and you know, it's worth it for me because I know how hard it is to get. So I know how hard addiction is. And people that aren't addicts, you know, I people say who want to stop, they don't get they don't get that part.

It's very hard the like. And I wish I could say I was just stop. I wish I could tell people I know not to stop, but I know how I know how I felt. People said that to me, you know, it's like you don't get it. Yeah. It's just too hard, you know, like if you don't have a recovery.

Were you nervous at first about going up in front of people and telling your story? Would it take a push from somebody in order for you to get going on that?

I was I was a little nervous. You know, I did, you know, some big groups at first. And it was kind of like, you know, I just but but the best thing about it is that I don't have to really think about it, you know, like, well, there you go.

Motivational speaker, right. You gotta think about stuff. You know, my story is this. I went to be for great years and I had a great life. I had a great wife. You know, I agree. Everything in my life was if you were, I'd say the basics. You wanted a life. You want my life, my life. I'm playing alongside you. I'm a hockey player. I'm scoring fifty goals with winning Stanley Cups, great family going to L.A. to work out.

And somehow I'm great. And then I did this, you know, and I made that decision. And that's that's a decision that I have to live with now. I can move forward. But it took me a long time. Like, it doesn't like, you know, you don't get it like now addiction more prevalent. Everybody knows about it, which is good.

Yeah, it's awesome.

But back then it was more what is much of what the fuck's wrong with this guy.

Why is he like, yeah, why isn't he when I was the biggest team guy in the world, I love my teammates, I love being with the guys. Like that's like to me that was like winning hockey games and being with the guys afterwards. That's my that was my life, you know. And then, you know, I've had the family to go like we had a very close knit team in Pittsburgh. And then there was one and it was, you know, we are always together.

If it was the wives after in Pittsburgh or with us, you know, down the road, we didn't we didn't charter. So, you know, we went out after the games. We all met at the bar. Yeah. I had to talk about the game. That was the best thing about now. The Chargers, great people can get home, but no one talks about the game, you know? You know, we could talk for three or four hours having a few beers with ten guys talking.

Show us just how you know, that's why the stars are winning, because they get the beers after the game and we'll talk about it. Yeah, that's true. And it helps back then. You know, back then, our team was very close and it was, you know, that helped. That was so much fun.

Well, I can't thank you enough for coming in here already. And I think I got to play with Mark Rakhi and you say, you know, you love your teammates. And all he said was everyone loved you. So I think that that says a lot about you as a guy and in your career, which was incredible. So we appreciate it.

Oh, I appreciate you guys have me. You know, I know long time overnight. My boys love for you guys. You know, my flight to go. You got some good players. Hey, yeah. My old guy signed Pit and then my younger guy, he's going to he's going to be a freshman at Yale. And my daughter just graduate Junior. She's got a job in New York City. So. Well, good for them. So everybody's good to the boys.

Good and everybody's good. And just a younger guy get drafted too. Yeah, I know he didn't. OK, he broke. He would have been drafted, broke both his legs.

He came. What. Yeah, he was playing ennobles.

He broke his leg, had like three surgeries, came back the next. He played like seven games. He had like twelve goals.

He was leading the prep schools knowing I always heard about him. Yeah. Yeah.

He was a great year Broken-Hearted like so it's three surgeries and that's a snap both ankles. Oh.

And like the tough ones, you know, healthy now though it's going into there's now. OK, good. He's you know, he's just trying to get you know, skated this summer but yeah. He's a good player, he's big strong. So hopefully you can you know, he's young so I hope he can like his old man.

Nice to have a nice to have a big guy here that wouldn't even try to help me see Chestnut Hill and the shots that he win. How many people are you in?

I was a goose egg, you know, wagon that. How do we could wind up being dead like seven Hall of Famers, they couldn't win a but yeah, we went to that being put three years and then one team in the country, I think this other year we're third. We played one final and every consolation game in America, which is the best of luck because you go in there and play. There's one person in this hotdog you're playing.

You're playing hockey on real good. Thank you so much for joining us. This is great, great message. And I'm sure our fans will appreciate it.

And thanks for having us. It was awesome. Absolutely. I just want to send a huge thanks to Kevin Stevens for not only join us, but driving up to the city and joining us as well. I had a great chat with him. He's a he was a hell of a play, a man, and he came of age during that. The prototypical power forward era went back with guys like, you know, Karkoc and Shanahan. And these guys were not necessarily redefine the game, but just showing, yeah, you can score 50 goals and punch some of these lights out.

So when Kevin Stevens was certainly at the forefront of that movement, no doubt.

Amazing guy. Thank you so much. Yeah, big thanks to a lot of fun while getting now's the time to get your student loan payments under control.

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Yeah, it's a legally statement. Yeah, legal authority out earnest.

That's why I never went to college, started to pay student loans.

I wonder what schools you could have got into. What were your grades when you were playing? Oh, did you even go to school or was it from my mom?

I would have never graduated high school.

You would get were you getting like CS and everything. So the way it went was I was playing in Junior North Bay and in Canada there was a credit system where I believe you had to get thirty two credits to graduate high school. So when our team was sold to Saginaw, I was a senior in high school, but in the States you only needed twenty eight.

So it was perfect. I got transferred over. So my last year high school I took a male fitness grade nine geography grade eleven English current events, which was me having to bring in a newspaper article and writing about what I interpreted from the article, which at one point I was failing and the coach threatened to be able to game. So I had to start passing. I think I looked like a C minus to that. And what was. Oh, and then a lot in the last class I took was religion.

That was my that was the five credits I got my last year of high school that helped me get my high school diploma.

My parents drove all the way down from Canada to watch me walk up and get it, thinking of HL, tough guy is in a sit in a class of freshmen, a geography, 9th grade geography.

And I was almost late for my graduation because I was getting my back tattooed that they shot.

Oh my God.

Not the scarecrow that won, though. Not the business.

The on the inside of my arm like some douche Halloween time's coming.

But that's that was my high school story.

Storyboards, one of the play, a related note to my country flurrying. He said he's fine with any lainer deal that comes up potential Lana Del. He and this is for a gift from Jesse Granger and the athletic. He emphasized that he is not seeking a trade and if it were up to him, he would finish his career in Vegas. The quote from Marc-Andre, I understand the business side of hockey and that I might have to be moved. But that's why they make the film.

That's why the front office are the ones making the decision. So I know there was some scuttlebutt about him being traded, but he absolutely and he emphasized he's not looking for a trade. He loves it where he is. So I just want to pass that along. Pretty funny video we saw somebody challenged Pettersen Peterson Pettersen. He got challenged online to do some Harlem Globetrotters style driblets. So he goes out, he buys a basketball. He he does a version of what this kid did.

But he said like his own music, too, and stuff, this kid's like a character.

He's got his own team behind him, helping him out with all this stuff, interacting with fans and really building his brand. And he's a guy that we're going to get on pretty soon for an interview and and dive into this awesome, unique personality that's taken over the league or one of the players that's taken over the league.

Yeah, we going to start getting some more Europeans on like Elvis Presley fans is one of my favorite interviews. We've done the season. He was great. A rascally fella.

Another note, the cops were called and where else?

Florida, because fans were yelling shoot. And it wasn't it wasn't people in the balcony of the Boston Garden either.

Purlie spokeswoman, whatever department was in Florida, four deputies responded and discovered there were no domestic problems at the apartment question. It was a roommate screaming at the TV in regards to a lightning game. What, that the cops went on their way. Just a fucking funny here and someone else shoot in the place. Obviously, some people still haven't got that lightning fever yet. But Florida, a lot of people down there right now, a lot of people imagine what a game.

Imagine how loud they'd be screaming at the game. If there is the screaming at the TV to shoot, that's just like crazy to think.

But I did think you just mentioned Florida golf weather. Absolutely. Because it is Florida is coming up.

I mean, January, February, March of Florida is the best place. It's a little warmer right now in the fall for fall golf.

I want to talk to you guys about the roller quarter zips because these things, I wear them every day.

They're the perfect. You can wear them around the house. You can wear them on the course. You can throw them in the bag. I've talked about a bunch.

You got to go to the bar stool dotcom. Sorry, Peter Miller, Starcom Charcot's excuse me on that. Peter Miller dotcom slash Checketts you can check out. They have so many colors you can get the ones with the pink Whitney logo. We just released some fresh white ones, some navy blue with the gray zipper. So I mean, it looks perfect. It's very easy to swing a golf club in these things and tell you they're loose, but they're also fitted.

I know that doesn't make sense, but if you ever try one on, you'll understand what I mean.

So I want everyone, please, please use code bar stool at checkout for a complimentary performance hat.

That's Peter dot com check. Let's go check it out now. Absolutely, you want to look good out there when you swing in the clubs? I got some golf. You know, you guys know Jim Rutter. He's the original people, people, golfer, peoples, champ. Let's play on tour. He is myself and Jim are playing in a tournament October 5th and 6th. We got a big tournament, old sandwich, the pro scratch to day four ball.

Get your name on the wood and in the grill room. That's the goal. So we played the other day a little practice round. I think our best ball was three under. I think that if we can go about and have a day and a couple of days, we could take this thing down. It's a loaded field, bunch of former. So every team has an amateur and a pro. And we got some guys that two time defending champions business, my first year playing in the tournament.

So that's coming up. Really looking forward to that. I'll be rocking a lot of quarters of the whole time.

You'll be playing with the Chicot Balls to that. I was kissing in our last contest. Please, God.

Yeah, just putting a spin on those things. You were kissing them. You were touching them. You were rubbing those tight pants that you were wearing all over.

You rub in the balls all over them. Well, we did get one rivalry in the last few days.

I'm not sure we expected a friend of the program.

A couple recurring guest, Sean Avery, found himself in a little tiff with I guess one of our co-workers is Alexandra Cooper, who, of course, hosts the call her daddy podcast. Apparently, they live in the same apartment building. Sean's getting some work done and he has legal permits. It's everything legal. And apparently Alex complained to the landlord about the noise because I guess she records a podcast every day. I mean, you know, I know we do different whatever, not judge or anything.

Just I guess she does a little bit each day, but it ended up resulting.

And Avery going on Instagram and his podcast and delivering some very colorful quotes, I'm not sure if you've gotten any of them, but there's no I not the quotes.

But I knew about the drama because I saw a couple of the headlines. But how the fuck do these two end up living in the same building in NYC?

Seriously, what are they like? This is a this couldn't have worked out any better.

Like God must have put this one together or the devil.

Or the devil. Yeah. Seriously. Yeah.

Well, how many shows does she do a week. One, correct. Yeah.

No, I mean it's just the funniest part was the was it the landlord who called or who, who called Avery.

You know someone someone on behalf of the management.

I don't know if it was the super himself or whatever.

That woman had no clue what she calls herself into or she's going to call some guy, she's going to call some guy, and he's going to either be like yes or no. And next thing you know, it's turning into a content machine story because it's these two famous people in New York battling. And when he found when he found out it was her, he must have been like, yes.

Oh, I'm I'm sure that is just perfect now because what a what an idiot. I mean, you can't expect anyone to they don't care that they live next year. They're trying to work on their place. And if you have the paperwork and what you need to get done to do it, it's OK. People can kick rocks. It's like it's not like it's one 2:00 in the morning.

It's fucking middle of the day.

Well, one thing to Avery owns, he owns in the building he owns that owns the chiefs, owns, owns.

And I think she, I think she self produces went off. I'm not mistaken. So that's probably why she works every day. Either way, that wasn't the only story coming out of Manhattan, because I guess they found a workers man cave underneath Grand Central Station. Now, as a former municipal worker who's out of jobs, every fucking guy out there shits his pants a little when they read a story like this is everybody who works, whether you're a custodian, a train or any, you know, blue collar type job.

Everybody got a fucking hideaway. I had them every school. I worked that a little bit. You might might have a TV there or radio is set up for your rent the to report your podcast in a closet. I had it all. So you see a story like that and it's like, oh shit, they're going to find out about us. But I think because of the fabled history of Grand Central Station, that's why it became a story, because two guys sell, everyone gets the job done.

And you like a fucking four hours to you got to go do something. I've been there.

How do you how do you personally feel about this? Ferrare, you love it. You must love that you're recording our podcast underneath the principals desk.

When you were the janitor at that school to I would be in a closet with my finger on the button like we would have like a legit like Hall of Famer on and I'm like I hope people don't ring like you're doing.

Johnny Smith for the office, Johnny Spezza, the Office for PEDs Rapids, as does like Hall of Famer. It's unbelievable.

Yeah. Those are the fucking days, man. I we're almost done, but they get busted.

Is that in the article it was like think it was underground and it was a little shelter. They had a flat screen TV. I think they had Netflix set up. Yeah.

Somebody probably fucking they probably lose their pension now though. I don't know if they got good union representatives. I'm not sure. I'm not sure what I don't municipality or whoever fucking pays them.

But thank little man it's actually OK because they're going to rent it out because it's, you know, three hundred square feet and they're going to rent that out for ten grand a month and a note. So they're going to be in. When we go down to New York and do our interviews down there, honestly, I know we're almost done here, but hey, I want to give props.

LeBron James, he's going to his tenth finals in 17 seasons. That's just an incredible stat, no matter how you look at it. Three time champion. He's won the finals MVP, MVP all three times. I'm not showing the final stop because these are the cells in my Miami stuff to figure out things all the years. But I mean, this guy love him or hate him, man, you've got to acknowledge his accomplishments.

I think he's the first player to ever lead his team or to go to the finals with three separate franchises. Correct?

I don't I don't think that I'm not sure if that's true or not. I mean, if he wins it, that might be a different story. But I mean, there might have been some scrub fucking off the bench who's played, you know, for for a few different teams. But either way, what he's done is nothing short of incredible. So I just completely made that start up.

What else is No. One last note. If I know hockey winding down, you're going to be looking for shit to watch, especially while this will already be had. But Fargo is back on the year, not only a tremendous movie from the Coens back in the 90s, but this is the fourth season of the TV show. It's an anthology series. So you don't have to have seen the first three seasons that just, you know, a whole new story to tell him.

But Chris Rock Star on this season, along with Jason Schwartzman, looks tremendous. The reviews are good. So if you're looking for something to watch Fargo against that wall last night, Sunday night, but nowadays in the stream and I don't need to see the other seasons, you really don't know.

I mean, if you're a devotee of the show, then there might be some little in-joke you might kind of get. But no, you don't have to see the first three in order to enjoy.

I'll check. I'll check that out. Absolutely. All right, boys, I think that just about wraps it up next time we chat.

Well, next time we chat, we're going to the Stanley Cup winner.

Fucking soul brother fucking that's that's crazy because this has been this has been a long one. So I appreciate you guys. And as always, everyone listen. And thank you so much. It's been an absolute blast to cover this final crazy what's happened.

Give you one last chance with one last chance. You still got Tapasvi. I got ten, six, I think I might have said, what did I say before the series champion six, seven, six.

Yeah, so this is this is about to happen. And I get a lot of money riding on a two barstool sports book. If you're in Pennsylvania, shout out everyone that made that thing. I'll get off the ground and we'll chat with you guys Thursday.

Pito cost us. As always, we like to thank our fantastic sponsors here on Spitted Checketts big thanks as always to our friends at New Amsterdam, Vodka and Pink Whitney big thanks to our longstanding friends over at Rohlman. We love what you do as fellows. Big thanks to our new friends.

That would get me my my rest of my exertion levels up and down. It's perfect. Big thanks to everybody at Earnest. If you're looking to revive their student loans. Absolutely. Check them out. And thanks to everybody, repeat them.

All laugh making us look fresh on the golf course.

Have a great week. Off to corn on the cob. Binders full of stick out some. Luckily, when you up on the the.