Spittin' Chiclets Episode 619: Featuring Chris Pronger

Hey, Spittin' Chicklets listeners, you can find every episode on Apple Podcasts and Spotify. Prime members can listen ad-free on Amazon Music. Me and Ryan have been officially welcomed to the jungle at a bar school sports. I brought it towards the Coyotes and I asked them if it was okay if I joined the Spittin' Chicklets podcast full-time. I'm a little bit nervous. Ryan Whitney, you got a pink Whitney out there now. I think this is a fan bagger, get that on camera. He can, the song man. Chase is a full-time member. Marley just got an assist from Chris B. Whoa, we're buzzing right now. Sonk. What is up, folks? Welcome to episode 619 of the Spittin' Chicklets podcast presented by... And I need to drink a lot of it after what I just watched in Super Bowl 60. Pink Whitney. Keith, you're hitting yourself in the head. I wish it was a Pink Whitney bottle, because at least you could drink a little of it if it smashed off your dome after what we just had to witness as a New England Patriots fan. But Pink Whitney is always there for you and never disappoints you the way that the Patriots and Drake, man, that entire team just did. Incredible season, but incredible living with Pink Whitney. Yes, living, not just drinking. You're living a good life if you've got a little Pink Whitney involved. Maybe not every day. That's probably the definition of somebody who has a problem. but a couple days a week to enjoy yourself a nice glass of Pink Whitney on the rocks. So shout out them and shout out all you guys for drinking it. What a rant. Yeah, I don't know. Are you all right with it? That is incredible. Yeah, no, am I all right? It's just like it's one thing to lose a Super Bowl, right? You know, we've lost some heartbreakers. The New England Patriots now actually have the most Super Bowl losses in the history of the Super Bowl, six. They're tied for the most wins, so 12 trips, six losses. But it's one thing to lose the Super Bowl, and it's one thing to lose it like that. That was, thank God I didn't fly across the country to go to that game. Biz, kind of want to throw it to you first based on you being there in what seemed like a pretty sick atmosphere. It was unreal. Like, I have no complaints. I didn't have a dog in the fight, obviously being the company man. And the love I have for, like, people's hate on dynasties, I wanted the pass to pull through. Happy for all my Seattle or Vancouver friends who are Seattle's fans, like that whole crew. I feel like it probably makes up for the Butler interception on the goal line. So at least they have that going for them. And, yeah, if not for that play right there, They got three Super Bowls in the last 11 years. So pretty good franchise and very impressive. And all I kept hearing about was the defense. And wow, that was a clinic. Some pretty sick open field tackles. Really didn't give them much at all. Now I'll throw it back over to you guys. Obviously, as far as the playoffs were concerned, Drake May probably, I guess, underperformed based on maybe an MVP caliber season. just couldn't get any type of rhythm going, nor did maybe they give him enough chances to throw it, but that offense was brute. Brute. Yeah. They had nothing. Before we get into the nuances of the game, I just want to have a quick moment of silence for the buffet in the box that Biz was in because I heard you put an absolute beating. DraftKings? Oh, we got that. And he's good to go on low sodium for your 20th player. Jeremy from Draftings texted Keith and I, and he said, I've never seen somebody eat this much meat. Like this guy, he's gone back and back and back. And I said, you haven't seen anything yet, because that was the first quarter. And I'm speaking for a friend who orders sometimes four entrees. Four different fish entrees the one time at dinners. And when he's got what looked like, actually, an out-of-this-world suite and an out-of-this-world huge job. Well, it was DraftKings. They're taller than class. I said, he might not see one play of the game. So I'm happy I didn't come in swinging with the DraftKings promo because the people were going to be like, okay, enough. But, buddy, the show that they put on, the way that they got us to the stadium where they were like, when they walked us closer, you were getting handed off on my way out the stadium. I had to leave my backpack in order to record this podcast. One of the guys took it, ran it over to the car that then took me here after the game. As far as the box was concerned, buddy, Jon Hamm was there. Ended up seeing Jay-Z when we were leaving near the elevators with Beyonce. The girl who was in the movie with Marty Supreme was sitting next to Wonton. she's very exotic looking, she's beautiful the one who was married to Ahmad Shumper the basketball player? no, no, no, no, that was the one that won one battle after the other I love her, that's like Tatiana or something I don't know she has like a 12 pack, that one oh yeah she's got some ridiculous abs yes she's a stunner no, this one kind of looks like the Zedanya one you know who it is, who is it? I don't know exactly who she is but you gotta tell the story about wonton donning Kendall Jenner are you taking a shit right now G? no he's gotta be in the bathroom right now he's recording but you gotta tell the Kendall Jenner wonton donning Kendall Jenner walked in our box and for whatever reason this building has like a 1.8 pound burger but it's like a fall off the bone what do you call that meat like almost like brisket or whatever it is short rib short rib short rib it's oh buddy it was to die for so because wonton's a bit of the foodie they brought it down to him like hand delivered it so he's just he's kind of keeping up with the gimmick that he's got this big burger and he did it a couple times and he's kind of stuffing his face with it and in walks kendall jenner and through the door and she like has one hand on the door and like locks eyes with him and he's just mucking this huge burger staring at her and then she stops and then closes the door and goes back out there so just it was enough for her to leave I would be engaged to Kendall Jenner right now if it wasn't for fucking wonton one and a half pound fucking brisket burger I would have had her but Yans you're going to love this one I was chatting with a WWE hall of famer Nikki Bella Do you know who that is? Yeah, she was married to Cena, no? Okay, okay, oh shit, what? She's dating the guy on the Eagles now, correct? Oh, no, she has a twin sister, so her sister might not, the Bella twins, one of them was married to John Cena. Well, if she's with this Eagles guy, what was all that one in a million talk? I knew I'd get wet with that one I got you two years I got both of you Oh buddy I might have been one of your top lines of all time On this show What she had to describe Stunning Oh she was stunned And she's fucking badass man She did WWE for like 20 years man You gotta be fucking hardcore He's got the same L5S1 issues you got. Oh, yeah, dude. Oh, fuck it. You know it. We'd share a chiropractor. We'd share an ART specialist. But you ain't sharing your time of suits. No, no. Hey, well. Well, I got two of them now, so maybe I'll send one over. I was planning the bachelor party. I thought we had things locked up. I'm getting cock-blocked by a Philadelphia Eagle for kind of a lot. I can't compete with that. It could be her sister, though. I'm not sure with the names. I'm not good with names. Yeah. Both sisters were in the box. I think Faze made a run out of that one game. Yeah, they're both in there. Okay, so I would imagine the one who is single was chatting you up. So wedding back on. Where are we doing it? Where the bachelor party? Wrestling ring. I think it would be fun to bring you guys have you ever done F1 with no I would 1000% be down to go to an F1 race I've been to a NASCAR race I would rather watch that Superbowl every day for 500 days in a row than go to another NASCAR race but F1 no doubt I'm down I would actually never have done it I kind of want to do Saratoga because of how highly wit you talk about it. Yans is all about it. You said it's one of the best places. And then, of course, Merle's invented Saratoga. Hey, speaking of Merle's, Merle's is loving life right now because, you know, he's been just so bitter. He's that bitter ex, right, that the Bills lost again and the Patriots suck. Sam Darnold. Merle's texted me about 20 minutes before kickoff and mentioned, like, biggest bet of my life on the Seattle Seahawks. They're going to murder the Patriots. And I said, this is exactly what I want to hear. And sure enough, he was bang on. So Merle's is hot. He's hot and he's happy. So he put a big wager on it? Yeah. Good for him. He probably paid for his furniture or TVs at least. Yep, all his TVs. And I'm sure he's got to build a fence or something. Tom Brady walked in our suite said hello to him yeah just he was getting you know these guys were getting David Gruntman was in our suite the whole time so this David Gruntman guy he owns a bunch of nightlife he's one of the biggest guys in nightlife probably in North America and considering he's like the king of Miami probably one of the biggest in the world he was in our suite and the next thing you know he was in the halftime show so he was one of the guys outside the pink building early on with Alex Earl, Jessica Alba. Was that her? Yeah, that was Jessica Alba. The halftime show, I'm not like somebody that was losing my mind leading into the halftime show, but, Keith, I'll tell you this. We finished the last episode. We were talking about Bad Bunny, and Biz was saying he's a big fan. He's multi-talented. Hey, listen. Very funny is the caddy in Happy Gilmore. Very funny is the caddy in Happy Gilmore. SNL. Yeah, the guy's obviously talented. My thing is, music-wise, I lived in Russia for a year. Some of the beats are okay, but once they start singing, I don't know what they're saying, right? It's very similar with Bad Bunny. I just don't have interest towards music. I don't know what they're saying. It's not like, hey, I hate the guy. So the halftime show, oh, well, I'll get back to Biz. So Biz texted me after the show, Keith, and he's like, tell me, tell me you won't put this on right now and your hips don't just start moving. I put the song on. It was one of the worst songs I've ever heard. And the halftime show, the visual effect of it, pretty cool. Yeah, production was crazy awesome. Production was cool. I just, I had Reggie's daughter next to me. She's nine. And she said, I don't get why it's all in Spanish. Like, you don't know what they're saying. I said, Paige, let me tell you, you're a lot smarter than a normal nine-year-old. Because we're all saying the same thing. And then I said to her, you know, I work with this complete clown who's sitting up in a box right now. And I know this. I know for a fact you were doing it. You know his moves. But that's the thing. So here's the thing. I agree with you in the sense of if you are one that like listens to the lyrics of music, then yes, that won't appeal to you. I'm not a huge lyrics guy. I'm more of like a B and like like and I'm also not rocking to every single bad money song. I think he's had like probably four or five that if they came on, I'd listen front to back. And the one I sent you is freaking awesome. That is an awesome song. I'm going to read out that song to people at home so you know exactly what I'm talking about. But going back to the show, there was probably like two or three times where you're up and you're moving and you're feeling good and you're just moving your hips. It's feel good, happy music. The one popular song off the album you just won Grammy of the Year for, it's like four letters. Do you know what I'm talking about, Yans? H-O-L-A? That would be Ola, right? No, it's called DTMF. DTMF. DTMF. That one that they sang. Yeah. Hey, if I could just picture if you had a kid and you're at home and it came on, it's just one of those ones where he might be jumping on the couch too and you're kind of lifting your arms up in the air and you're just having a good old chuckle. And it's a feel-good, happy song. I'm not bumping a whole album feel good happy song for people who speak Spanish but feel good happy beat for most people who don't speak Spanish I don't think you need to know what the words put up a poll I don't think you need to know the words of DTMF on his new album if you listen to it front to back to enjoy it and smile and dance and be silly with it that's what I'm saying I'm not saying that if you're saying, hey, listen, we did Bad Bunny this year. It was a full Spanish album. Is that the native tongue? Is it Spanish? Yeah. Okay, yeah. Let's go back to something that's full English next year and more like old school rock, like a throwback. Or who's this country artist? Is it called Zach Top? I don't know. I actually, in the middle of the Bad Bunny show, I'm just kind of craving ACDC right now. like a legit rock and roll school. Imagine getting Queen back. Yeah, just like some rock. So cool visual. And I want to say something right now to everyone who's like, oh, get to hockey, hockey show. We have an hour and 50-minute unreal team-by-team breakdown with Chris Pronger, who's in the Hall of Fame, and then a bunch of NHL topics. So this is the show. And then we're going to break down all of Bad Bunny's catalog on the back. of the plot. Hey, but can you at least agree that it's pretty crazy this guy is like the most popular artist on the planet right now. He does WWE. He's doing SNL. It's remarkable. I think Taylor Swift. He's Taylor Swift and he's so likable. You can't not like him. Maybe you don't like his music. It'd be funny to go grab a drink with him. No? No? Yeah, I mean, if he's going to be able to talk. Because if I just look at him and he's like singing and I'm sort of doing the. He better bring that sign language guy with him. Shout out Sam Darnold. Really happy for that guy. I think we mentioned last episode, like kick to the curb, kind of bust. Five teams in eight years. Lamar Jackson was drafted ahead of him. Behind him. Who's the guy in Buffalo? Josh Allen. Josh Allen, same draft. Baker Mayfield, that draft, and the first QB from that draft, 18, I think, 2018, to win a Super Bowl. But just the fact that he was the bust, and I got quotations if you don't have Netflix, and then, you know, back up San Francisco, Carolina, Minnesota, okay, he's reached his potential. We're going to kick him to the curb for J.J. McCarthy, who's – I mean, Drake may look like J.J. McCarthy tonight, but horrible. And then he goes to Seattle and fucking wins it all. I was pretty pumped for that guy. That's pretty cool. And that team, I don't know, Keith, a little football breakdown from the ball-knowers here. it's like, obviously they're a way better team than the Patriots. The defense was incredible for the Pats. The defense for Seattle is amazing. I don't know if they were that much better or Drake may truly just choke. So apparently the coach for Seattle, his defensive schemes make it almost as if though they have another guy on the field, the way they're able to move and shift their defense. That was kind of a waste. I told you this, Nicky Bella? actually Paul those schemes they're running they actually have their fan base the 12th man out there where the fuck you go I'm talking defensive schemes with this I will say though as a blue blooded Patriots fan They definitely had the easiest road to the finals maybe in the history of the NFL. Obviously, getting there, you've got to be good enough, right? They were good in the regular season. Drake May wasn't great in the playoffs. But Seattle, man, as much as we hated watching it, the Patriots had won some Super Bowls like that, like the one against L.A. I think it was like 13-3. If you're on the other side of that, you're like, hey, my team was the better team. Seattle came out. They played their game, which I didn't watch a ton of Seattle football this year. But from everything I watched this morning, that's the way that they played, just smothering defense, Nikki Bella style. And it's like you got to figure it out. And the Pats couldn't do it. And at the end of the day, they got beat by a better team. Hey, you're uninvited to the wedding. No, dude, take it back. No, actually, you can come, but it's cash bar for you. What if he gets Bad Bunny to be the musical performance? Hey, my plus one is Cena. Yeah, then I'm going to be in the fucking hole. They fucking 10 million bucks to get him for six minutes. Hey, I'm going to eat like Biz eats at other people's free food. The way you eat, I'm going to eat at your wedding. You're going to be in the hole. Hey, so we kind of glanced over DraftKings. Shout out to Jeremy. That might have been the best sushi I've ever had. Not at a fucking stadium. Best sushi I've ever had. I couldn't believe how good it was. It was the complete opposite of what R.A. ate in the buffet or the box in New Jersey. Okay, for the dinner he brought us in Vegas when it was 110 and he got us a seat outside. Did we ever talk about this? When he ordered the salmon pizza with fucking fish eggs on top of it. Hey, funny thing about the buffet, when we were at Penn State, when you guys left, I went down to Frank's box and I was talking to his wife. I'm like, man, isn't, oh, she said it. She's like, it's just a shame, like how much food gets wasted at places like this. I'm like, that's where you just invite Biz. He will muck every single ounce of food. He's a garburator. Garburator. Garburator. Garburator. Hey, so they accidentally brought in the tray of fillets before they were supposed to. and we were there two hours before and I opened up the surround room. I must say it had to fillet before kickoff. And then they bring out this sushi spread. I couldn't believe it. I'm 1000% waking up with gout tomorrow. I might amputate my foot tonight just because knowing I'm coming. You might have mercury poisoning and the gout and all of a sudden in L5S1 from getting body slammed by Miss Nivella. Who else was there? Sierra walked in, and Danger Wilson walked in our suite. Watch your feet, people. We got some names being rough. Hey, listen. Hey, listen. I think it's, hey, is it not silly seeing all these famous people in one area? Was this a different box than Dave's? Yeah, we had separate boxes. I was with Jeremy and the DraftKings people. We had a football player in ours. OBJ came by at one point. OBJ was in there. Oh, poor guy. He's fucking got no money. He's got a $100 million contract. He's got no dough. I bought his cleats. Look at these things. Hey. I got him for fucking 18 pieces of sushi. I had to give him the sashimi grade, the good stuff. But that's how fucking good this stuff was. nigiri out of your jean shirt pocket right now and ate it. I'd shit a brick. I wouldn't be surprised. Oh, so the guy, so a couple things. The woman who sang God Bless America, she was incredible. And then I was actually sitting right next to in the box the gentleman who sang the anthem, his father. Do you know who that was? Charlie Puth. Charlie Puth, yeah. We sat next to Charlie Puth's dad the whole time. Big He's a bitten chiclets guy. Loves hockey. Yeah. He's a big time. Oh, he's awesome. Are they Canadian? No, he's from Boston, actually. He went to New Hampshire for a bit, and then he moved out to L.A. Oh, New Hampshire? New Hampshire. Down in New Hampshire. Incredibly talented. I thought he did a great job. It was a great rendition. And then he's like, I have a feeling this bad bunny is going to bring out Lady Gaga. And I'm like, oh, okay. Fuck, I should have betted on that polymarth or whatever the hell it's called. polymath have you heard of this freaking site was Jeremy talking to you about that yes yeah polymarket's nuts for anyone who doesn't know it's gambling on anything in the world where I don't know if you I don't know if it's up to the public to put out something that you can gamble on or that's somewhat regulated but it's like hey uh what's an example of something on the road how many times is Biz going to mention his cornhole in the next spit and trickles episode So, will Biz finish this fillet out of his pocket? How many fucking McGeeris is Biz going to stuff down his yap before the end of the second quarter? Over under 4,000 swipes on Raya by November 1st, 2026. And you can bet it. And boom, November 2nd, you're getting paid or you're not. And I don't even think that, I don't know how they make, like, they don't take money, do they? it's like basically like the books try to make it even right like they have just lines in sports books to get it basically where they're just winning the vig no matter what happens right that is just like people are betting against other people kind of they created a way where it's like you're just betting against somebody else so i i we're we're for sure so i'm for sure somewhat butchering it but no no i think i think you're pretty much bang on where like you said the the on the exact math in real time is so close. And when they take the margin on the person being paid out for the win, that they automatically win. But I think that legislators are kind of like, and they somehow deem it as a trade, the way that they've set up this company. So it's technically not illegal in the non-gambling states because it's not considered gambling, where now gambling sites are like, well, what do you mean? like oh we just got to say it's a trade as opposed to like gambling they're making their own to like fight back against the poly market I was just shocked to hear that it's a site that you can you could will Trump tweet about this today yeah yeah yeah it's got the most random shit so with the bitcoin like now bitcoin's going down the world's moving too fast guys it's moving too fast You don't even have enough time to enjoy a buffet. It's moving way too fast. Yeah, that's why. Just get your sushi, meet WWE women, and just smile. Just touch grass and smile. And say thank you. And say thank you. Imagine how many thank yous he said tonight. I must have thanked Jeremy 26,000 times. Hey, let's put that bet out on Paulie Math. or polymark so basically to dumb it down wit it would be like if they put that out there like will biz have 50 pieces of sushi one person puts it out there and then other people see it and then say no he won't yes he will like how do you even get like traction on it it's it's it's i think it's like uh on twitter no it's on the the website or the app whatever like but what's crazy about it is it'll start like switching so quick live where say something is um so unlikely to happen like if it's a yes or no question all of a sudden you know it's like 85 percent of people are betting yes and all of a sudden it's flipping and 60 percent of the people are saying no yeah she was the girl that marty supreme knocked up odessa azayon oh yeah she's so unique looking She was so cool. Stunning. I've never seen her. Stunning. Final thought on the game. The only worry I have is, like, Drake May had this MVP season against, like, really bad teams, and I'm like, oh, my God, this guy is, like, future superstar. He was really bad every playoff game. And the offensive line, Will Campbell, who was injured, he was horrible. And now I'm, like, so down in the dumps. It's like, are they even, like, that good? Like, was that, like, a season that was just a flash in the pan? It's like when you start playing real teams. But, same time, he's 23. He had to be just overwhelmed. It was one thing, though, to just maybe play great in the playoffs as a 23-year-old possible MVP and then stink it up in the Super Bowl. But he was bad every playoff game. Because won't their schedule get harder next year? doesn't in football how bad you finish, the easier schedule you get. So you'll play like – you always have some other divisions you play, like in the NFC and stuff, and if you finish fourth in your division, you play the fourth-place team the year before in every other division you play. So this year they'll be playing the teams who won all the divisions, whoever they play against, besides their AFC normal games. So just basically for everyone in the public, though, I kind of apologize for having to watch that. That was the most boring football game I've ever watched. And at one point, I realized it was like the third quarter. I said, we had a couple people over. I said, they got over midfield. And my buddy's like, they did like the first drive and they got to like the 48. So what are you going to do? I will say, too, even just being a fan and just having that extra week of being able to talk about it and having something to look forward to, it was great. And, I mean, obviously those guys, you feel gutted for the guys that lose. The guys who win, it's fucking life-changing. Feel bad for the Patriots guys, but hopefully they can come back. But, I mean, you just never know. But I also do think, like, Vrabel's building something really special there. I think the way that he gets his team to play for him is super special that you don't see a ton in other sports. But, yeah, it was definitely a brutal game, but I felt gutted for the guys that won, happy for the guys that – or gutted for the guys that lost, happy for the guys that won. Now football is over, boys. Now it's all fucking hockey business. Oh, it's all hockey. I would say 60, 40 maybe fans in there, but it felt like Seattle fans. My brother was there and said it was like 90-10. No. The A's fans were way louder, I would say. They were louder. Your brother went to Cornell. Biz went to Davenport U. I'll take Sean's. He said it was 20-1 Seahawks fans to Pats fans. Okay. I take Sean's. No. No. No. I'm with Biz. No. I would say it was probably, let's say 60-65%, but they were twice as loud minimum. They were way more into it. I couldn't believe how loud they were. There's nothing to get into if you're a Patriots fan. There was literally nothing. But as the game started, who's on D? Like the minute they had the ball, almost the first half, it was still a game. And every time Pats had the ball, I'm like, holy shit, man. I can't even hear myself think. Hey, that kicker should have won MVP, by the way. Yeah. Who won MVP? The running back. The running back, who I think he had like 95 yards at halftime. He looked like Bernie Sanders. Great call, by the way, on the group chat. He did kind of look like Adrian Peterson running. And then Brian said Boobie Miles. That was funny. That was funny. Guys, real quick, before we move on, we got to give Dave a shout-out. He flew 20 of us Patriots fans out there. A couple guys had never even gone to an NFL game before. You didn't have to pay for your flight either? Man, didn't have to play for flights, hotels, anything. I figured you had to pay for that. Man, they're taking us to the DraftKings party, the Sports Illustrated party on the night before. We had a party bus with high noons on it right when we stepped on the bus. Like, they took care of us to the 10th degree. So, like, sit tap for him, man. He's the best. That was a once-in-a-lifetime experience. You can't find a better boss than that, guys. He's a fucking man. Fasoli, dude, when they had a video of Fasoli crying, like, that warmed my heart. It really did. That was an hour before kickoff. The players weren't even at the stadium yet, and he was crying. that's why that's what sucks man all these guys it's like yeah if they get it there will he do it again yeah but the good news is with like PFT has zero chance of ever winning a Super Bowl Big Cat has zero chance of winning a Super Bowl they're all over Hank I know you're in Hank's room right now those guys are absolute trash the way they treat Hank is disgusting they're the definition of like haters the trolls online that just like hate themselves and take it out on other people. They're giving it to him right now. Yeah, I'm a part of my take fan. The last two weeks, the last month, I'm like, this is painful. These losers are so jealous and so miserable with their own existence. This is for PFT and Big Cat for going after Hank. Oh, the last one. The last one. You got to check your undies. That was sushi, filet, short rib burger, Kendall Jenner makeup everything a couple cannolis with Fasoli a hint of Nikki Bella's perfume so moving along my love I have gotten to know the Kachuks I love the Kachuks if you are not a friend of Matthew Kachuk or a fan of the Florida Panthers that hit on Kucherov and just I was like this is why he is the ultimate number one rat in the NHL that game was complete madness and he just gets off the bench on a PK and just goes way into his own zone and just bundles Kucherov from behind fuck this I'm going to cause a melee and this Brandon Hagel is a fucking nail gun he's nailed He broke out with all the points one year. Then he fought Kachuk last year, Four Nations. He must have thrown 27 punches on Thursday night in that fight. And then the way that game went, did Shaverne end up getting kicked out of that game? I don't even think he did anything, and they just told him to leave. They were like, hey, do you mind getting out of here? It was like biz at the buffet, like, hey, your time's up, dude. I think they did kick him out but he didn't do anything I was like what did he do? I thought he got the boot yeah when I saw Matthew doing that looked to me like hey this is the last game before I gotta go play the biggest tournament of my life I'm gonna get thrown out get a couple minutes extra of rest before this flight over to Italy I didn't mind it I didn't mind it one bit And Tampa put a beat down on the Panthers. Guys, the news broke. And very funny with like Frank Saravalli and what's happened in terms of the Florida Panthers draft pick that the Chicago Blackhawks acquired in the Seth Jones trade. For a year now, everyone has thought it was just their pick. No matter what, that is Chicago's pick. and all of a sudden Frank and I don't know if Frank had tweeted out originally I think I saw something where he did mention it a long time ago he was in the weeds going at it with Blackhawks fans that it's top 10 protected so I don't know how that didn't come out earlier like I said maybe it did I don't remember it but I know there was a bunch of like battling back and forth maybe they didn't even notice it just because they're like top 10 protected like they're not in that realm they're not going to miss playoffs, right? Yeah, you're right. Maybe that was something where it's like. So it kind of just probably didn't get mentioned that much, but this could turn into, that's a big thing, man. That's a big thing at this point. And Hawks fans are fuming, and I kind of get it because they're like looking like, oh, my God, they're struggling. And then they find out, like, whoa, wait. If somehow Florida really, really goes to the shitter this final few games after the Olympic break. Like, we don't even get the pick if it's like 6, 7, 8, 9, 10. So let's dumb it down for some of you listening being like, what are they talking about? So in the Seth Jones trade, there was salary retention and then a conditional pick, right? So obviously if they end up missing playoffs, a catastrophic end of the season, and they end up getting a pick in the top 10, they get it protected this year. So then Florida would then draft in the top 10 this year, and then it would bump back to next year where the Blackhawks get their first rounder. Well, once they get healthy and things are rolling for the Florida Panthers, I think they're probably going to be drafting between 25 and 32 next year. So you're missing out and potentially moving back 20 spots in the draft where I don't know what the analytics are, but when you drop out of the top 10, it dropped significantly as far as like NHLers playing a long period of time and actually making an impact in the NHL so that 20 picks is like catastrophic for a team trying to build to where Chicago is going and Keith I want your opinion because this is what I was getting to I know Barkov has been skating and stuff but Panthers fans may be like this guy's an idiot and maybe part of this is like if the Oilers somehow get to the finals I just want to know that the Panthers will not be there. But would you not be willing to be like, all right, Barky's not coming back. Anyone else you've banged up, you don't have to play either. We're going to make sure we finish in the top bottom ten, get a really high pick. Everyone is signed, and we come back next year, and we're ripping and roaring and ready to go. the argument would be like we're still in our window and if we get in we can win it but what do you think about possibly being like we're not going to punt this season keep this high draft pick and next year we know we will be back in the mix yeah I the only thing is I don't think they have that in their DNA in that locker room and the makeup of their team I think they have to go like 17 and 6 to get into the playoffs or whatever those numbers are around there so it's like whatever say they come out and lose the first five games and it's like okay now we gotta have a crazy crazy run then it's like all right maybe we shut down barky but i honestly don't think that they have that in their dna in that locker room even just the guys alone like where like imagine telling matthew kachuk when he's playing right now like hey dude we're gonna shut it down so we can you know get a higher draft pick they don't give a fuck right yes but looking at it the way you're talking about it, it definitely makes sense, and it makes you think, like, did Zito do this on purpose? Well, I think that he, I think that, yeah, I think he was just, I think it was a thing that was so far-fetched that Chicago was probably like, sure. Right. I know. They're like, yeah, whatever. Yeah, that's not a realistic situation, and even then, like, maybe not even use it. Like now all of a sudden if they do falter and they do get a top 10 pick, now they maybe use like an eighth overall or ninth overall to go get something to help them out in, in like what they want to do in the next two, three years after that. So, uh, just a, a huge, uh, a huge play by Zito. And I, yeah, I don't even know if I could say miss by Chicago, but just, just, yeah. Just a bummer for the fans to find that out and be like, what the fuck? Like, Why hasn't this been mentioned since last year's deadline or whenever they got Seth Jones? The other Thursday night storyline was the goddamn Pittsburgh Penguins boys. It is incredible. They have all these guys, you know, having awesome seasons. Malkin's been a beast. Sid is Sid. Carlson's been awesome, right, when he's been playing. I know he was injured a little bit. But Kendall is nasty. nasty and I saw a thing where Kendall is I think he's going to break the record for most points from a player um picked in the in not in the top 10 like playing as an 18 year old this may be a tweet that I saw and this is like the dumbest thing I've ever said but it was like Bergeron I know was a second rounder played as an 18 year old and had a good season and did Ryan O'Reilly Did he play as an 18-year-old? I think he was in the tweet. In Colorado? Yeah, I think he did. And Kendall's on a pace to get, I think, 45-ish, maybe 50 points. He just, that kid's a gamer. He's really good. I think Bobby Orr was the other one in that tweet, wasn't it? Who? Wasn't it Bobby Orr in that tweet? I don't even know what Bobby Orr was. Was he even drafted? What was it like then? Didn't they just, like, sign you when you were 14? Yeah, you're right. But the cool story was this kid, Avery Hayes, who got called up and I think got to the arena at like 5 o'clock. He's carrying in his bag. He had two goals in like the first eight minutes of the game or something like that. And that was just like, oh, my God. Like I saw Kevin Hayes, funny they were playing together, or he was at least on the ice. He grabs the puck for the first one, gets another one. They're showing his parents and his brother in the crowd. Then after the second one, you could tell they were like, oh, my God. But so the Penguins just never saw it coming. Awesome storyline. Do not want them to fall out of this race by any means. I think they're going to be in the playoffs. We get Sid in another possible run, and it's a pretty cool storyline that I don't think anyone saw coming. Do you think that they're big-time buyers at the deadline? You owe it to Sid and Malkin and Letang, right? Like, you got to do whatever you can to get these guys. Obviously, you can't trade guys like Kendall, this Hayes kid, but, like, you got to make a run, get guys whatever you need to get these guys to get a playoff run because Sid deserves it. At the end of the day, he deserves it. Okay, so here it is. 18-year-olds drafted outside the top 10 to play 70-plus games. This is in the salary cap era, and their point totals. Bergeron, 39 points in 71 games played. Cole Sillinger. Bergeron was 45th overall. Cole Sillinger was 12th overall. Had 31 points in 79 games. Benson did it. He was picked 13th. He had 30 points in 71 games. O'Reilly was picked 33rd. Wow, O'Reilly was a second rounder. And he had 26 points in 81 games. Benjamin Kindles faced 40 points in what would be 79 games. So the Penguins looks like they got a steal there in the middle of the first round. And, Biz, you're a dubious guy. I think you're owning a lot of stock of it still. Oh, yeah. And he definitely has a lot of moves and ways he wants to grow this team for the future. But like Keith said, you're looking at him as buyers? I would maybe go get a guy, like a middle six or top six guy as a rental, but I also wouldn't be paying a lot. I wouldn't be leveraging the future. He's still going to be timid on giving away. Like, you're not trading Will Horkoff, say, right? No. Yeah, yeah. No, no, no, no. I don't think that that's where they are. But you've got to imagine there's got to be a few guys out there who maybe are up for contracts and they're in that position where they can fit in there where they're like, oh, man, a playoff run with Sid, and if it's a contract year with him, maybe he would slot in there. I don't know. Like, the other thing, too, is you look at their path. like if they end up playing Long Island the first round and then they draw like Caroline in the second round, it's not a very intimidating path to get to the conference finals for, for what Pittsburgh has. Like Pittsburgh, when they've made a few of their runs, I don't think that their lineups were like jaw dropping. They would get good goaltending. They would really work well and understand the systems. Like we talked about the one year when Letang went down and their D were, You would look at them on paper. You'd say this is like probably the bottom 10 worst defense scores in the league if you would have showed it to them at the beginning of that year. So they got the strength through the middle. Army loves their bottom two lines. And remember our complaints last year Like what are these guys doing They brought nothing They were vanilla And this year I think they have the highest scoring and best analytic fourth line in the league right now Mantha's been unreal. The kid who looks like the bad kid in Toy Story, Sid. Brazo. Brazo, yeah, him. Like those guys, but like those guys, they're built third, fourth liners. Like guys you do not want to play against. And they're contributing, getting points, scoring goals, and stealing your toys. And then like burning them with a magnifying glass. That's why any crypto you look at online right now, it's tanked over the last what, three, four months? Why do you think that is? What's tanked? Bitcoin, Ethereum, you fucking name it. They took it out and they put it into the stock. That's the crypto of the future. The big dogs are doing it too? All of them. Winklevoss twins. But some of them made a mistake and it went to the Pittsburgh mayor and now they're like, fuck. There's going to be major, major inside trading. The Winklevoss twins, the Bella twins. Yeah, all of them. All the twins. The Bitcoin twins. What's that SFP guy? What's his name? Oh, SPF, Sam Bank. Yeah, he was in the box tonight. His girl was a rocket. You know who else was in the box? The fucker who did the Fyre Fest. Was he? No, was he? Yeah, yeah. Didn't he try doing another one in that thing too? No, we went. Me and Biz went. We're collaborating with him. We're doing like a Chick-fil-A-Cup fire festival. Yeah, fly fishing fest. Biz, your team made a couple adjustments. We already know or knew that Bennett was replacing Anthony Cirelli, but Jarvie our buddy Winnipeg's finest he's coming in and you know what gutted for Braden Point pretty cool I saw that the GM that Breeze Blond Tampa was saying I want to shout both these guys out pretty unselfish and pretty incredible where they maybe could have gone and given it a shot and tried and they knew I'm not the player I would need to be and I want Canada to win and took their names out and Jarvis comes in for point. That's pretty sick. That's a very selfless thing to do and then for Jarvis to get the call and then they asked him about it in that interview. It was a pretty emotional interview. You could tell he's just so fired up and blown away. One thing to get mentioned to the Four Nations, and obviously I thought he played awesome there. It seemed like he really gelled with the players there and you were one guy that that was probably a guy, would you not agree that you probably maybe saw on the outside looking in going into this year's roster with? Yeah, him and Konechny, and they didn't make it, right? And they didn't make it. Konechny has been awesome this year. Yeah, he's been unreal. So, the silliest thing about that was I think that Jarvis was supposed to go to like Cabo or Cancun with his buddies. Oh, he was going somewhere fun. Oh, yeah. Margarita Delaney. Buddy's somewhere, too. Buddy, yes. So they DM me. One of the buddies DM me, and I guess the site they booked through. They don't have insurance on their vacation. So now they're trying to get some help. Isn't Jarvie making like nine bananas a year? What's Jarvie making? I told them to drive their RV over to Italy instead. but they're trying to get this company to to like uh change their flights so they can go over to italy and now watch their buddy and they're hoping that they said tickets are too expensive and there's not available and they're out i think they're asking for a little bit of help i gotta find it for dough this is making fucking nine bananas isn't he i know but but i don't think his friends are on Scully like that. He's not fucking... No, I think they're on Scully. They can't ask for more. It's like in Blue Chips. Nick Nolte gave the kid his dad a John Deere and the kid 50 grand. He's like, you can't get any more. He can't keep coming to me for more. Team Canada should be paying this. They showed up to fucking Four Nations. They drove to Boston. They drove to Boston from Winnipeg. Do you think Carney should step up and pay for this? Benson? No, the fucking Prime Minister. he's too busy rubbing fucking the guy from heated rival his thigh you thought i meant the carny as in the carnival kid yeah yeah that would have been random let's do a go fish me biz what what was their message was it i'm trying to find it fuck it's their go fund me to get to milan i i think i think jarvie needs to like he's got to step up and pay for this like if you really like He got put on this team to bring some vibes. His buddies brought the vibes in Four Nations. He's got to do the right thing, and this will pay for itself in gold. And you stick these guys middle role, Roach class. They don't care. No. So I remember reading it, and I think I put it down to go back to it, and I can't find it. Was it a DM or was it a text? Yeah, it was a DM on Instagram. They have a group Instagram account. It's just like seven of them. One of those kids was supposed to play for the Gargoyles, I think. We're going to have to come back to it. I know it's important, obviously, for Jarby to get his buddies there. This could be the difference. We can go back to that maybe after Prongs. Final thing before we get to Prongs in our Olympic preview is Canada named its captains. Crosby's obviously the captain. McDavid and Makar got the A's. I guess you maybe want to have a defenseman with a letter, similar to what the U.S. did. But I feel like it was just like a no-brainer to be like Crosby, McDavid A., McKinnon A. Like, it's weird. Like, McKinnon's the captain of the Avs and then doesn't have a letter here. No, he's not. Lannis Kog. Oh, Jesus. What am I thinking? Fuck. Wake up, Whit. I feel like he's the captain with Lannis Kog being there. Right. But, yeah, you're right. So, I guess it does make sense. Suck on that one, Whit. USA went with Matthews. That's who it was last year. I actually thought there could be a switch there, but Matthew Kachuk gets an A and Charlie McAvoy gets an A. Who would you have picked if it was your guy? I thought Matthew Kachuk might end up with the C. I didn't think they would change, but I didn't think it was as, it's obviously not as locked in as Sid, but I didn't think it was like 100% Matthews again, but there were one goal away in OT of winning it, So, like, why switch that up? They obviously were happy with how he was as a leader. And it seems like that room is pretty – it's almost like all these teams. It doesn't really matter if you have a letter. Besides Sid, that's just different. But we'll see how it all shakes out. All right, I found it. Okay. Can I read it for you guys? Of course. Let me do a couple breaths before. Read it in your real voice. You're unreal at reading in your real voice. Dick Pill voice? Yep. Aye. No, it says, Biz, hope this message finds you well. My buddies and I are part of the crew that drove down to Boston to watch our friend Seth Jarvis at the Four Nations. We actually ran into wit at the bar before the game. Is that true? Yeah. As we know, he just got named to the Olympics, and now my buddies and I are all scrambling to get down there. We had flights down to Raleigh. okay, so they were going there to go see him over the break. And, of course, none of us got travel insurance. I know you have lots of experience working with brands and doing partnerships. I was wondering if you had any travel partnerships that could recommend I reach out to you for help getting us down there. Down there? Does he need the Olympics? Raleigh from Winnie. Yeah, he's acting like Italy's in Florida. It doesn't necessarily have to be travel. It could be for accommodations. We're looking for any help. We'd also be more than open to doing any content for any of these brands, even if there's anything we could do with chiclets. We're huge fans. Okay, so we got our what? Boots on the ground. We got our traveling circus. I said, what do you need? I said, it would be funny if we sent you there as correspondence. That's what I said to him. I think our biggest issue is going to be getting our hands on tickets to the games once we're down there. We're planning on flying out on the 13th so we'd be there for Canada's game on the 15th against France, all layup. And then any games after that, as of right now, looking online, all tickets to any Canada games are sold out. We could absolutely go muck it up and get some content for you guys as correspondents. Oh my God. Where do we go from here? Tell them if they wear USA jerseys, paint their face with the American flags, all that stuff, I'll pay for their whole trip. I think they would rather talk shit. They would skydive out of the plane with no parachute on before doing that. Those fucking Winnipeg lunatics are proud Canadians. They drove to Boston, and I think some of them had their faces painted at the greatest bar before the championship game. They wouldn't consider it. I would tell them, guys, if you can't find tickets and the flights are crazy, you live in Winnipeg. It's minus 45. You've been sitting indoors making fires and like praying to God you didn't have to put your skin in the outdoor since November. Just go to Raleigh, watch the games and play golf. You have the flights already. What if we have them go to Raleigh and then meet us for the live stream? and they drive down an RV to Florida where we're at. That could be pretty fun. All right. All right. Okay, yeah, let's get them. They're going to be like, so can we send you the gas bill? You're building five guys, Yance. They can only stay at my house. That was very smart, Biz. G just said, genius call, because now we get the content out of them. They already have the flights. We don't have to pay for those. and the only problem is the Yandel household it could end up looking like a post-Winnipeg Bombers Grey Cup victory and keeps getting kicked out of his own house how about maybe we do something with them where whatever guys continue and go to Raleigh they rent an RV, they come down and then we put them through some type of contest where if Canada reaches the gold medal game We then get one of them, whoever the guy who wins the contest, we put him on a flight to Italy, and we get him a ticket to the game. I don't even think these guys will leave each other, though. It's like... I know, but it's going to be... But one guy has to go as the good luck charm, and he could be in the locker room celebrating the gold if he's the guy who gets chosen. And you know what we can do for the winner? Instead of a contest, we run them through a combine. We got to do something as far as the contest. Final boss is he has to muck food with Biz at the buffet. If you can out-eat Biz but the poor kid dies, stomach explodes. I think our fans would be unbelievable at coming up with some games. Let's do it. I'm going to start it. How about you come to Florida? How about you... FaceTime him. What's your number? All right. What's your number? All right. We're going to get that figured out right now. Olympic preview. Hall of Fame legend. Chris Pronga. Guys, we've got to take a minute here and talk body armor. This episode is brought to you by Body Armor Flash IV. When you are feeling not great, when you've had a big night, when you need a pick-me-up and you know that you're dehydrated, it's Body Armor Flash IV all the way. No question. Flash IV packed with electrolytes that deliver faster, longer-lasting hydration without any artificial dyes, flavors, or sweeteners. None of the junk, none of the stuff that you don't need in your body is in Body Armor Flash IV. Whether you're training, traveling, or just feeling the heat or hurting from a big night out, it's all about Body Armor Flash IV. Work hard and hydrate hard with Body Armor Flash IV. Grab it at a 7-Eleven today. Guys, we need to talk DraftKings. This is a DraftKings podcast. The DraftKings Sportsbook is built for hockey on the world stage. What an exciting time. Last year we had the Four Nations face-office. A little preview. Now we're in the Olympics. We're there. Favorites feel the pressure. Underdogs rise. And everyone's skating for the gold medal. DraftKings Sportsbook lets you back your country or the team you ride with every step of the way. Every shift feels bigger. Every puck matters. more and one play can turn the entire game. So new customers bet just $5. And if your bet wins, you get $300 in bonus bets. Download the DraftKings Sportsbook app and use code Chicklets. That's code Chicklets. Bet $5 to win $300 in bonus bets. If your bet wins in partnership with DraftKings, the crown is yours. Gambling problem? Call 1-800-GAMBLER. New York? Call 877-8HOPE-N-Y or text HOPE-N-Y. Connecticut? Call 888-789-7777. or visit ccpg.org. On behalf of Boothill Casino in Kansas, wager tax pass-through may apply in Illinois, 21 and over in most states, Void in Ontario. Restrictions apply. Bet must win to receive bonus bets which expire in seven days. Minimum odds required. For additional terms and responsible gaming resources, see dkng.co slash audio. Limited time offer. An honor to be joined by this guy. He's been on the show several times, and it's Olympic time. He's got two gold medals. He's got two of them, and he wants to talk about this year's games in Italy. Chris Pronger, Hall of Famer, what's going on? Legend of a game. Paul, please get your hat back on. Thank you. Yes, sir. Yes, sir. I mean, your toque. You sure you want him wearing that? He can ruin a team, Pronger. No, not Canada. He can push it with the best of them. I'm not even giddy enough to ruin Canada. We got the four nations. We're rolling, baby. Let's go. We're ready. I actually saw a guy's tweet this morning. I think it was a Canadians fan who said, waking up this morning with McDavid, McKinnon, McCarr, Crosby, and everyone else on my hockey team, this is great living. I'm like, fuck. Of course that is. Story, not story. Exactly. That's going to be a lot of fun. Have you been dialed into the teams? Have you been kind of looking at rosters, thinking about what it's going to take this year for another gold? Yes. I got my list right here highlighted. Wow, what a pro. Yeah, there's a few things that I think most people are worried about as it relates to Canada. Bennington has really struggled. Yes, you are correct, Yance. Bennington has struggled. Thompson coming off injury. Kemper has been, you know, I think the back end minus the first four guys and then the goaltending I think is probably the biggest question mark. I'm not going to say it's an Achilles heel because we don't know. They could come out and rise to the occasion, and we've seen that happen a lot. We saw it happen in the Four Nations last year with Vinkton. He was getting worked in the media, and he came up huge in that gold medal game. So we'll see. But I think up front, it was nice to see Sam Bennett get added to the roster. He's going to provide the grit, the experience, and certainly the pedigree with his consmite and the way he's elevated his game down in Florida and the style of play, the grit. So obviously, goaltending is not your expertise, but what's your opinion on the three guys they did end up choosing? Have you talked to other guys? Normally, when I have goalie questions, I usually talk to Hank, Boosh, any of those guys I lean on just to say, hey, what do you think here? And I was just wondering what your opinion was. Should they have gone a different route with the tandem going the way they were going, especially early in the year in Colorado? Yeah, I'm not. Outside of Colorado's goaltending, I'm not sure there's another option for Canada, at least. You know, it's pretty slim right now in the goaltending department. So that's actually a major concern with respect to, you know, minor hockey up through junior college, etc. You know, there's just not a lot of guys. And I don't know if it's the style, the type of athlete it takes to be a goaltender in today's game, and they're not taking up the position, how much the equipment costs, and then the training. I mean, it is a full-time job just being a goalie as a young kid, and then working your way up. And as we all know, minor hockey now, and how crazy it is, who wants to be a goalie? No one. Prongs, what was it like with your teams when you went where it's like almost you're like, fuck, we got three guys who could take the net. Like, were they just very causal with one another? And obviously, team Canada, it's always team mentality, you know, who's ever up. So what was it like being in a locker room with like three legends in that? Yeah, you look at 98, we had Patrick Waugh as the starter. Marty was the backup. Trust letting. and then and then oh two we start with Cujo he gets yanked by Pat Quinn and Marty goes in and we have Eddie Belfort as our third goalie and then uh and then obviously oh six was just a disaster we had Marty and uh the the funny part about oh six was in in oh five at the training camp in Calgary I know clone in Calgary uh Marty literally had his equipment shipped from the company in a box hadn't skated a lick and was outstanding at camp you know he uh he was one of those guys he didn't like to you know do anything in the summer he liked to just get away and kind of let his body recover you know playing as much as he did in in jersey in the style uh you know pretty easy to replicate the two pad stack and just somebody that was that gifted in his skates and the way he moved, I could see how you would want to get some time off. But I found that very interesting. 06 was just a debacle from start to finish. And then obviously 2010 with Marty, Louis, and the flower as our third stringer. He was awesome. As you guys know, he's the best. He'd sit out there and just take one-timers from the half marks. Just eat it. Big smile on his face. And again, the controversy in 2010, just like O2 with Cujo and Marty, controversy in 2010 with pulling Marty and putting Louie in. So there's no shortage of goalie controversies when we've won. And so we'll see if they can replicate that. And then obviously 14, Carey Price went start to finish. I was just going to ask, were you nervous when you walked in the locker room, in the Olympic room for the first time, or maybe it was camp? And I'm sure it got easier and easier by the time you were done, but you must have been a little nervous going in that locker room for the first time. 98 for sure. I was not, we didn't have a camp. Well, if they did, I wasn't invited. And if you remember, they had the 96 World Cup team that the U.S. won. Congrats to the U.S. You won something. Thank you. Thank you. I love this guy already. And that was a frigging war, that tournament. and I probably wasn't ready to make that team anyways. I was still trying to find myself in my game and then in late 97 coming into 98 really kind of found my game. And going in that locker room, you got Gretz, you got all these guys that I played with Gretz a little bit, but you got Gretz, Ray Bork, Scott Stevens, Eizerman, Stockick, all the legends of the game are in this room and it was pretty interesting walking in, and I'm sandwiched in between Stevens and Bork. And Craig Heisinger, now assistant GM with the Winnipeg Jets, was our trainer. Wow. Oh, yeah. So it was, yeah, you think back on those days, like, where do guys come from? And it's pretty cool. Theo Fleury was on that team. You, it just kind of reminded us, because I want to get into the D of Canada in a minute, but you talked about 06, kind of a disaster. Celebrini, it was like maybe he makes the team, then the season starts. All right, obvious. He's only on the team. He's top six. In 06, do you remember it all being like, ah, fuck, Sid should be on this team, right? Or was it actually? Because I don't remember it being brought up that much then. It was before social media. But was that even a discussion? Yeah, you know, I did hear that. You know, I think it was a talking point. it was brought up like i had he been there i think it would he would have probably been one of our best players yeah yeah you know we we had we had a number like niedermeyer wasn't there i think he had a broken foot or a bad knee or something we had a few guys that didn't come and then uh you know they they rolled over a lot of the team from oh two some of the the holdovers were myself flaky adam foot uh sackick uh we have a lot of newer guys and and and that newer generation hadn't come into the league yet so in 2010 we had richards carter you know gets a lot harry donor donor was on that team in 06 you know we had uh chris draper was on that team like we had a cast of characters uh robin regueer was on that team so the the rollover from uh what you saw in 2002 to then 2010, there was a little lull in 2006. You got those 85 to 87 birth year guys in the 2010 games that changed everything. You mentioned in the goalies, and not to beat this for Canada, but every team that you mentioned that you had your number one going in and things might have changed, it doesn't really seem that way this year. You think that that causes some controversy or some talking in the locker room amongst the guys at least where it's like, oh, shit, who's going for us? Yeah, I don't know if guys are going to be too worried about that. I think they'll probably have a strategy this year, more so than those past years, of here's who we're going to play, this guy this game, this guy this game, and then just see who, I mean, you almost have to see who's going to take the net. So you think it'll be like a trial, basically, for the goalies, give maybe Bennington the first start and see where it goes? I mean, I think that makes the most sense. Going into it, you're kind of looking at the three goalies, and you're going, who is going to be the starter? I mean, you look at, again, we go back to what happened last year, and Binnington hadn't played great up until the Four Nations, and then he elevated his play and played really well with each successive game. You know, I think you have to just look at the, they got a couple back-to-back games, and they're probably not going to want to play the goalie back-to-back nights, and kind of see what happens from there. So on D, you mentioned you like the top four, right? So you got Taves and Makar. That's the obvious. Now, Taves is not going. Yeah, so I don't know if he's had the baby yet or his wife. So who knows what's going on. They're going to have – they got to have – I don't know who they have, but they got to have somebody on Riddler. Yeah. They have to put their team in, what, on the eighth or ninth, the actual roster? After that, though, all right, so, like, I'm looking at this roster, say, Morrissey and Theodore. I know they're both lefties. Pareko's struggled this year. Doughty's struggled this year. Yeah. Then you got Sanheim. How do you look at that D and maybe who's the odd guy out? What are you looking at right now if, say, Taves does go? If Taves goes and you got Taves and Makar, I think you'll have Morrissey probably. You'll have Theodore and Pareko or Morrissey-Pareko in that second slot. So you got lefty-righty. And it's most likely going to be Morrissey because Theodore has played the right side more often. So then you could put Harley and Theodore together. and then probably Sanheim is the odd man out with Doughty. Okay. It would be my guess just based off current play. Yeah. You know, to get puck movers, to get, and they can always, you know, gauge the health of the guys to see, you know, who's healthy, who's not, who needs a night off, you know, early on in the tournament just to get guys into the tournament a little bit, get them some game time. or they might just roll the six guys they think are going to be the best and we're just going to roll and somebody gets hurt, then it's next man up and we'll see what happens from there. Dowdy's in kind of that same spot as Binnington where it doesn't matter. One story, Jens, one question. Do we know in years past the Olympics we've dressed seven defensemen? I believe so, yeah. Okay, so one of those guys probably Stanheim or Dowdy would be the extra guy, so one guy would sit out. I have a little quick confession. I was actually helping in the Lamaze classes with Taves. When he was on the road, I would go just to ensure that he would be in the lineup for Canada. So those are the types of things I'm doing for my country. You're just who I would want to hide my wife rubbing her belly pre-birth. So that's good. He's a big breather too. But don't you, like, Doughty's kind of in that same position with Bennington where it doesn't really matter how they've been playing. Like, those guys, they're gamers, right? They're going to show up. You look at how he played last year. He only played like three or four games prior to the Four Nations, which, by the way, as you guys know, is really hard. And you get ramped up. The league is already fast. Now you're getting into the elite of the elite with how fast they are. That's not easy to do. And surprisingly, I mean, it even surprised me. I was like, man, he played pretty good for not playing at all. And coming off an ankle injury at that. You talk about maybe like making adjustments because the goaltending is not good or maybe potentially injuries on the back end. Like with all that talent and skill in the locker room, like what were the coaches telling the players? Were they keeping it pretty basic and just like, hey, these are the best players in the world, put them together, and they're going to figure it out for themselves? No, we had systems. So 2010, if you go back to 2010, I think I played 12 minutes the first game. I didn't play a lot. I was on the third pairing with Dan Boyle and Brent Seabrook, and we rolled out probably 10 to 12 minutes the first game. You know, same the second game. All of the systems and everything that Babcock had in place. And Jacques Lemaire had the PK. And the way he was running the PK was the different system that I'd ever played because I'd never had Jacques Lemaire as a coach before. So his system was completely different to any style that I'd ever played. So just trusting it and believing that your teammates and your defense partner is going to be there if you step up and trusting the system, having no game time and having very little practice time was really hard the first few games. And then as the games progressed and we played more and more games, I got more comfortable and felt better. I had played before I got to the Olympics that year. I played three and four nights, you know, playing 30 minutes a night. So I was exhausted going to Vancouver. Prog, do you think that that's probably a big reason as to why they sometimes avoid the younger guys? Because not only are they trying to get their feet wet, But like throwing them in a situation like that where they're like, all of a sudden they got to learn a new system. It's like way more overwhelming where these, some of these older guys have just, they can adapt. On the back end, I think so. You know, you're the last line of defense. You make a mistake and it's very apparent who made the mistake. Up front, you know, there's more guys to go through. You know, you get your defense, your goalie, like there's just a lot more there. Having said that, based on what I've seen, you know, early on, I was like, ah, Schaefer kid, he's young. he's 18 I don't know if I'd throw him to the wolves I don't know if I'd do that he's not slowing down no it's not even Doughty this kid's 18 Doughty was 21 I think at that time so it is remarkable to watch this kid night in night out and the energy that he's bringing I don't know man the more I think about it I was very adamant if you're the Islanders You're like, let's give him the month off. Let's let him rest because we're going to be in a playoff run, a stretch drive. But I don't know, man. This kid has been lights out. And watching him, and I get he's not Bobby Orr, but the way that he skates, if you watch old footage of Bobby Orr, he's flying by guys, and he's not even really trying. And you watch this kid, and he's doing the same thing. And the league is way faster than it was back then. And this kid is doing that. Do you think that if Taves, you know, if his wife doesn't give birth, he's not there, that Schaefer is the guy they call? If I'm looking at the apparent three options, which would be Schaefer, Bouchard, and Chikrin, I would probably go with Schaefer. Yeah. However, if I'm looking at it, they got Dowdy a righty, Pareko a righty, and Makar a righty. You can make an argument for Bouchard, too, to add, so you have four righties and four lefties. but just based off play, and Bouchard has been excellent the last three months of the year. He's been dynamite outside of a couple highlight reel mistakes, which, by the way, happen all the time. He's just got that X factor that shows up, and people are looking for it. I was there a couple weeks ago, and he scored the hat trick, and then whatever. He was awesome. Six points. Yeah. Give me a break. night i don't know how many of those you're not prongs too bad i had a few good nights but nowhere near that and uh no he's he's been much improved from early on in the year the first couple months he was horrendous and you know looked like he was just not even trying and now you know and i think that affected his pre-scouting by the by the hockey canada folks and and what guys were seeing night And, you know, that was always the Achilles heeled him. And then he's just playing it up by serving up pizzas and, you know, making massive blunders and mistakes, which he's now cleaned up for the most part and has looked excellent. But, you know, it's hard to get that out of your head when you're looking for it. We had talked to, I forget who we were talking to in the beginning of the year, and they had said that every guy, the older guys, the veteran guys on that team, they said they wanted to play with Celebrini. like how much credit for him yeah no shit but who would you put with him A and like how insane is that for that young of a kid to be having these legends wanting to play with him you could put him with a couple different groups I think number one I think you could put him with McDavid and I think it was Reinhardt at the end that played with McDavid in the Four Nations if I'm not mistaken and then you had Crosby, Stone and McKinnon I think was one line which actually fit really well. You get, you know, I think they have to find players that can skate with McDavid and have that compete like Hyman does. And he's not, Zach Hyman didn't play the exact same way, but he has that same competitive drive that compete on pucks and he's dynamic. So he can match McDavid's vision and whatnot, you know, and they've been able to use the World Championships of last year as a vantage point to see who he fits with. He played with McKinnon and Crosby. I just think that the type of year he's had, he would be a great fit on that left side with McDavid. He can't quite keep up with him, but he's a good skater and can get there. And do you think they end up, now that Bennett's on the team, putting him on a line with Wilson? Or is that too risky? No. And wheel him out in a party wagon? I don't think that's risky. You know, I think you have to figure out who's going to fill Sorelli's role that John Cooper took him for. You know, he obviously wanted him to be the face-off guy and, you know, PK, last minute, what have you, trying to protect the lead, guy who's going to block shots with his face, what have you. And clearly Sam Bennett has proven that he's willing to do that night in, night out, and certainly there are playoff runs in Florida. I could see that. You could see putting Nick Suzuki in the middle. You could even move Bennett to the wing. That's the nice thing is that he's played the wing. He's played center. You can move him around, and that's why I think he's a good addition for Cirelli because they have so many centers. You look at the roster. Celebrini is the center. Crosby is the center. Horvath is the center. McKinnon is the center. McDavid is the center. Suzuki is the center. Bennett is the center. So you've got a lot of guys that can play up the middle and you're not going to lose an inch. It's just slotting in who's going to be the best fit on that left side or right side for that matter. I would imagine that was happening at prior tournaments, like that number of center, like the best player in the world. They have that much responsibility. Absolutely. What were the hardest adjustments that they were talking about, especially at that level from going to center to the wing? Was there any conversation about like off, you know? Yeah, it's more about comfort. You're used to being that low guy swinging. You're used to being able to keep your speed as opposed to stopping on the wall or kind of picking up pucks off the wall. But a lot of the guys that have, you know, they're going to put on that spot in the left side or right side, what have you, will have played the wing in the past. They'll have been in that situation before. You know, I think more importantly, I think it's more just ice time. You're used to playing 20 to 22 minutes. Now you're going to be playing 10, 12. And I don't think people realize how hard that is to stay in the rhythm and the flow of the game when you're that, you know this. Oh, I know. Oh, I know. Fuck, dude, I'd be fucking using TV timeouts to stay warm. Between the forwards and the D, that's tough to kind of get your feet wet and really get moving. This is kind of going back to when you were playing the Olympics. What was the most impressive, like, in-tournament or maybe even in-game adjustment that you saw that helped propel you guys to win? Like from a coach or even a player standing up in the room, maybe it was the guy who was playing center and saying, hey, I think you should move to the middle. I'm having a hard time against this guy. I'll take the wing side. Anything that sticks out to you? Well, I think it's been talked about a lot, but in 2002, Stevie Eisenman with his knee and what he was going through, guys could see what he was doing night in, night out to make sure, day in, day out, during the day now, day in day out of what it took for him to be able to play you know and just he had a training member with him at all times you know working on him doing things to make sure that he could just get his gear on and get out there and play with us and when you see that and then to think they went on to win the cup that year in Detroit you know he was being held by papier-mâché at that point just you know you could see the pain he was in And, you know, and so I think, you know, Mario was our captain, but you could see, you know, what he was willing to go through to try to win an Olympic gold medal for Canada and what he was willing to do to help us be successful. And the role that he took, you know, he wasn't playing a top six role, but he just wanted to, A, number one, be on the team, but he wanted to win a gold medal. He wanted to be a part of history for Canada. And it had been 50 years or 52 years since we had won. I believe maybe 50. So a lot of history there. A lot went into it. And just to see him got it out and play an integral role on our team. Having said all of that and what he went through, he was a big part of our team and played big minutes. Just sticking with that Olympics as well, You had an assist on probably one of the coolest goals in the history of hockey. A, did you try to pass that to Mario, or were you passing that to Korea? And what do you remember from that? It was all me. It was all my vision. You knew Mario was going to do that. First off, I knew 66 was there, and in my head I'm like, well, first off, get it off your stick and get it over to 66. Let him do what he needs to do. And, you know, he sucked Richter right in. And if you look at, I have a great picture I found on Paul Correa's angle. And Mario made Richter bite so hard he just went like this and Richter's set. And all of a sudden you can see him just diving across and Paul's just one time in an end. And that was all Mario. First off, I don't care if Paul was there. I was going to Mario. Let him deal with what he wants to do. Oh, man. That is so good. Was Mario there in 98 or was he out at that time? No, he was hurt. If you remember, that's when he was hurt. So we were missing a lot. Correa was hurt that year. He had gotten cross-checked in the face, I think, by Suter or somebody. So he was hurt. Mario was hurt. We were missing a few guys. You know, Mario would have been nice to have in that shootout against the Czechs. Oh. Well, fuck, Gretzky didn't go. Maybe Mario would have been on the bench, too. he would have been a healthy scratch we're in the press we're on the press box and the other thing you think Joe Sackett got hurt in that game so he didn't he got hurt in the prior game so he didn't even dress in that game and as you know he's money in the shootout so think we had Mario Korea and if they actually put Gretzky in Sackett like we would have had a sick lineup for the shootout I got a few more questions for Team Canada and obviously we want to talk about the states and the other countries and dive into some more awesome. There's other teams going. Yeah, it's not just Canada going over. Oh, excuse me. I'm sorry. I didn't realize that. Did you read the article, Dear Canada by McDavid? I didn't read it. I saw a lot of highlights of it. Okay. Oh, I just didn't know. And then my other one is just on Crosby. If he's able to pull this off and win another gold medal as a captain, where do you rank him all time? and just, I guess, your overall thoughts on what he's been able to do for as long as he's done it. Yeah, it speaks to his professionalism, his commitment, his discipline. To have no drop-off in his performance is incredible. You know, from 18 now to, he's 38, right, Wendt? Yeah. 38, 21 years. That crazy. And just to be like this and to go through, you know, the concussion issues and all the things that he dealt with early in his career to still be at this level and performing at this level is remarkable. They're not, I don't know, if you look at history, I don't know if there's another player that has been able to do this at that level. There's always been some drop off a little bit. They're consistent, but they're not at this level. Being, you know, top, you know, he's probably top 10 in the league right now. Maybe top five, you know, like, You look at McGavin, McKinnon, Kucherov, he's in there. He's not there, but he's right below those guys. And to be in year 21 and to be thought of in that category is pretty impressive. So for him to be able to go over and play the type of role, number one, that we've seen in previous years, 14, 10, the golden goal early in his career, and then 14, leader, then, you know, four nations last year, and now this. You know, you certainly have to, from a Canada perspective, I think you have to put them at the top of the mountain. And you can just point to the, I mean, once you're breaking a Gretzky record of consecutive seasons of over a point per game, it's like that's exactly what you just said in the numbers. It's just fucking crazy. Yeah, and you look at all the, and you look at those guys. You look at Gordie Howell, you look at Messier, you look at Gretzky, you look at, you know, Mario's numbers are sick. Had he been healthy and played a full career, his numbers would be gross. He was that good? No. Going to the States. So I said last year, Biz owned me. But we're as close as we've ever been. I'll say that. I love the D. Love the goalies. You've got all these options. Up front, I think the main thing people are talking about right now, unfortunately, is like, all right, well, there's no Robertson. There's no Caulfield. Are you somebody who's like, wow, that's kind of ridiculous? Or are you somebody on the other side saying, hey, Billy Guerin's putting together a team. I trust him, even though you're not a fan of the U.S. Do you get what I'm saying there? What do you think on that? No, well, first and foremost, I think you have to give flowers to USA hockey and U.S. hockey in general, just the progression and where the country is at with respect to the game. you look at the players and the teams that you're putting out now on the heels of that 96 World Cup team and now you're now seeing players coming from Phoenix and Florida and some of these places that now are having good minor hockey systems and former players sticking around and training and teaching these kids is awesome to see. But it is, you know, Cage Thompson I think is the only and Clayton Keller, those are the two changes from the Four Nations. You know, it is a little sad that everybody's just talking about Caulfield and Robertson and not really talking about the team and why aren't these guys there. You know, it'll be interesting to see. You know, I get who you'd take out. You'd probably knock the two Rangers guys out, but they're taken for a specific reason, just like certain guys on Canada are taken for a reason. sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn't and we saw that on the four Olympics I played in we took Rob Zaminer in 98 because they wanted a penalty killer and we saw that in 06, Chris Draper was having a great year with Detroit, they took him and they took a few other guys to play specific roles and sometimes it works out you think back to 2010, Patrice Bergeron was our 13th forward the poor guy played like two minutes a game and they'd throw him out there to take a face off, either on a penalty kill or a late defensive zone draw. And I like why are you doing this to this poor kid He has no chance He got no flow no rhythm So you know in that regard it a little sad But I'm excited to see. Tate Thompson looks like an absolute beast right now. Yeah. Excited to see what he does in the Olympics. And, you know, I think a couple of the, you know, Jack Hughes, is he going to be healthy enough? I know he's going, but he's a little banged up. How is he going to look? He didn't look great in the Four Nations. Is this, you know, where's his game at? So it'll be interesting to see how all of it plays out. But if they can all go in fairly healthy, I think it's going to be a good matchup. And I think people need to realize it's not Canada against the U.S. There's some other good teams here. That's the thing. People are like, oh, I can't wait for the gold medal game. He's been Canada. I know. I'll hold on a second. We'll get to the other teams, though. Franklin's good. The Czechs are good. The Swiss are sneaky good. Even Germany's going to have a good team. Like, there are other good teams that can knock teams off, like we saw in 0-2 Sweden lost to Belarus. That fucking helped you guys. You walked through that semifinal. You know what? He's scared of U.S. That's why he wants to stop talking about them. That's all I'm getting out of this. No, we're not even close to talking about them. I'm with you. I'm with you. Sorry, Fizz. I think people need to realize that we might be talking about Canada and the U.S., but there are a lot of other countries that are going to show and show well. They've got pride. They're going to be playing to the max, to the best of their capabilities, because they're playing for the country. You'd think with a guy like Quinn Hughes, he's automatic PP1, but all of a sudden you see the resurgence of all these amazing American defensemen. Zach Wierenski, 20 goals. He hit the 20-goal mark and we're, what, less than 60 games into the season. So who do you have running their power play? And I guess just speak to the one-two punch they got back there and Quinn Hughes, the water bug, and what Zach Werenczi's done, especially on a team that is not that loaded in Columbus. Yeah. No, he's been fantastic. And even elevated his game even more when your boy Bones got there. he already was having an excellent season and now is elevated even further and given even more opportunity to excel and score a few extra goals. But you look at their back end, the U.S., I mean, I don't see a weakness back there, personally. You can grind on them, things of that nature, but Jake Sanderson's a stud. I don't know if Charlie McAvoy would have with that hit last night, but we'll see, which was on Wednesday night against Florida. He seemed like he was okay. Slavin, stud, defensive defenseman. Lacombe is sneaky good. Again, he plays out. West Coast bias, plays out in Anaheim. Nobody gets to see him, but he's a great player. Hannafin, Faber, they have good matchups, good one-two, yin and yang on the back end, which I think we saw in the Four Nations last year. If they can stay healthy, I think is the key part. they're going to be tough to beat because they've got goaltending they've got a solid base on their back end and then up front if they are fairly healthy they're going to be tough to stop and I know all these power plays now to answer your question the power play you're probably going to go PP1 with 1D and 4 forwards and then PP2 with 1D and 4 forwards would be my guess they'll have Hughes and Wierenski If not, you could have Hughes with Wierenski and three righties. So you're going Hughes to Wierenski. Yeah, Hughes to Wierenski on the top of the circle. And then over here to Eichel. And then you've got a lefty bumper in the middle and in front, whether it's Kachuk or whoever, Boldy. And then you've got a righty down low to pull out to the net. So you look at who they have as options. and then you kind of create from there how you can fit all of your studs in there because they you know you want to try to get everybody involved you have probably have tage thompson down low eichel here to chuck in the middle whatever it is like and then boldy and you kind of you just kind of map it out and see where the chemistry lies yes you could probably speak more to it but it's interesting i wish we had like a white border or like you were on the ice to describe what you were talking about and how much the way that the guys shoot matter. I think sometimes people forget that about the passing lanes. And at that level, man, you got a split second to get it through. And having a lefty as opposed to a righty makes all the difference in the world. It's all timing. It's all lanes. It's all forcing players out of their lane to create another lane and all the rest of it. So it'll be interesting. And if you look at their roster, I just talked about how they set up the right side. You look at the left side and you got Matthews, you got Keller, you got Larkin, you got Connor. Like you've got a bunch of – so they have a good left-right setup, which actually plays really good. You're giving different looks to the opposition, which is really cool. On different units, you mean? On different units, yeah. Amazing. Yeah, that's it. But I would like to see them like you and Niedemeyer used to do with Wierenski kind of in the middle, just because you know how important it is. Yeah, if you're a power – around where he would move like scotty would move into the bumper spot and then he'd move to the top of the circle yeah and then he'd even go down low and then he'd come back like he kind of was we had structure on the side like we'd have getsy pairs myself and then scotty would float around and and tamu like we just had guys moving yeah which i think is important i think a lot of times they get stuck where they're stagnant so the box never moves and you're just stuck there and they skate up a bit and they pass it down but the box never moves and so when you have that guy moving around it it it's a little pause for concern like where is this guy and now you got to really pay attention yeah i just think it's so important for those guys especially the pp1 guys to get their touches during a game because if you're on that first unit if it's just uh hughes you know they're mostly playing a minute 30 a minute 20 of that power play and then you you know if warrensky goes out for 30 40 seconds you're not getting that many touches so i would love to see it the way that you guys did it in Anaheim, but who knows? I don't know, though. I would argue that they won't play a minute 20. And here's the reason. And actually, Joe Sackick used to say this. They would be out there for 30 seconds. He's like, yeah, if we didn't get anything going, I'd want to change. Get the next unit out there, you know, if it's 30, 40 seconds, and get the next unit out. He's like, I always wanted to go out for the back half of the power play. So you get a kick early. If you don't get anything, great. You come off quick. Get the next unit out there. Now you can kind of float and and now you're going to catch them hopefully late in a penalty now you're going to get some opportunity again wow interesting hey fuck you guys are always joey sackick yeah you hall of famers man you guys are always thinking about stuff i was more worried about what bottle services in a cost of a w and who my cocktail server was going to be no ice um i wanted to go back to nita meyer uh like when he was just buzzing around like that like like did you ever like maybe get a little frustrated ever with them where no like running around too much did you got no no because wit was talking about how sometimes you would get like you would snap in the locker room i'm sure there was never an instance where you had to like give it to nidemeier because not in fucking norm he wasn't snapping on norm he's snapping on me and and we would we would practice we would practice that not not quite to that level where he's like all over the place but he would be moving into the bumper position and moving out and going down into the front of the coming back you know we we just would we would adjust to him we would try to be moving the puck and try to see how the box how we could manipulate the box and where he could go and then adjust from there because you're kind of tracking what the box is doing when he's moving in moving out as we move the puck you know from low to high or up to the half wall and you kind of see how they adjust each time and then you're like okay you know it might take it the second power play before you're like okay, when we move here, you've got to be at this exact spot. And it can go for me to, let's say, Getzee to Perry right into the slot to Norm by the hash marks. You're seeing how they adjust. Do they call Igor Larionov the professor? Yeah. I feel like Nidamar has his glasses on. Yeah. How would you even describe him as a player? Who plays like him now? Or was he just a one-of-one? as Whit knows very deep thinker doesn't say a lot but highly competitive very competitive used to love to see him get pissed off in the corner grinding with guys getting physical yeah Norm's getting into it here we go guys would feed off that energy and feed off his competitive nature like shit look at this guy he's getting after it and the temperature would elevate a little bit and guys would kind of get going. It was awesome to see when he would get into it with guys. What was the most impressive part about him? He didn't sweat. Well, he never got tired, first off. He just got sweat? Oh, yeah. He'd just have a little patch right here. He'd play 30 minutes. He'd have a little patch right here. Legit bit. Hair dry. Yeah, hair is dry. At the Olympics one year, he was playing the left side. So he rolled through. Blake, he rolled through foot. And then, you know, sorry, no, he rolled through Blake. Then he rolled through Al, who was my partner. Then he rolled through foot. And then he looked over and he was like, oh, oops. It was like a two and a half minute shift. But he wasn't even tired. He just came off because he was like, oh, oops, sorry, guys. I took your shift. Like, he just felt bad. He came off. I'm like, well, just stay out there. If you're feeling good, just stay out there. Wow. Like that. And he just, to be able to skate like that, you know, that's where I look at the Schaefer kid. I'm like, he does not look like he's even trying to skate fast. And he's just flying. And Scotty was the same way. You'd see him in overtime and he's just cruising around. Like, I couldn't imagine now the way they roll out these three-on-threes. We didn't do it back then like that. He would just be, he would be getting more breakaways just with how fluid he was. He'd just be skating around. You could see the other team be tired and he'd just, gone. on is there anything he wasn't good at i mean he had a bit of a muffin shot but his slap shot was a muffin i mean if we're gonna if we're gonna start picking you know he had a you know a good a decent rister but not a great slap shot but he never used it you know and he didn't need to because typically the power play you know he might be at top and you're going d to d he's going to walk it in and wrist it or he's going to be in the bumper or closer and he's going to do a wrist shot again it was more about how quick he could get it off and get it on net and efficiency in that regard not really power but i mean if we're going to pick people apart he had a muffin but by the way tamu had a muffin and he got what 700 or whatever he got yeah how quick you get it off and where you put it we got to go back to usa i know we got distracted by nita mara nita mara buzzing around there so any other questions you guys have about team usa eh, boys? Who was the starter? Hellebuck? Yeah. It was funny. Hellebuck, Wednesday night, gave up the goal to Lane Hudson, and he's looking around. He's like, how'd that go? I'm like, I don't like seeing that, but he's your guy. Same way I think Binnington's your guy. We talked to Fleury the other day, Prongs, and he said the same thing. You've got to start with Binnington. So Hellebuck, Hellebuck was incredible in the Four Nations, too, so that's a real question. I need to see, I can't wait for the first practice to see some lines, because you mentioned them already, Prongs, but Thompson, and Boldy, they're at a different level. Boldy had a hat trick in like eight minutes Wednesday night in Nashville. And he didn't play an enormous role last year. Thompson's not even on the team. So I need to see the lines and see what they look at. By the way, Boldy's another guy that is a sneaky good skater. Yeah, he doesn't look it. He does not look like he's moving, and he's moving good. Yeah. So I look at Matthews and Eichel centering the top two lines, and then who's on their wing. and I think Thompson mentioned to us when we interviewed him, him and Matthews had had a connection before Biz and Keller and Keller I think they stayed together in Arizona I thought that was it was it a world junior with Keller maybe I think they played at the US department or whatever you call it Keller and same age group but problems also too, the American guys I feel, especially last night, Wednesday the American guys are scoring the guys going to the tournament have been really hot how much does going into the tournament like this being hot and feeling good about yourself how much does that help you as an individual? Oh it matters, you're confident but I think just then that breeds into the swagger they already have you bring in the Kachuk boys you bring in that element and then you have guys that are flying high and confident and have a sense and a feel that they're going to get it done. And for lack of a better term, retribution for the Four Nations and wanting to get a gold medal for the U.S. and on and on and on. So you can see what's driving them and what's kind of pushed them since the Four Nations and unfinished business, as Billy G called it, and some of the guys have talked about. So you see that kind of look in their eye that they want to get this done. You know, the Four Nations was a precursor to the Olympics, and they want to get it done, and they really want to, for lack of a better term, put Canada in its place. But we know it's not only about Canada, but I'm sure they would love to play Canada in the gold medal game, as I'm sure we would. Mentioning it's not just U.S.-Canada, I think most people look at Sweden and see a great team, but my question is about Finland to you. Yeah. Because every single international tournament, now they won the last one, wasn't NHL players, but every international tournament, at every level, they're in the mix. Yeah. How would you describe to people listening, like, why that country is able to produce that many players and just always be, you know, in the medal round looking to get to the gold medal game usually? You look at, and it's crazy, they're right beside Sweden. and the Swedes play this finesse, highly skilled game and Finland plays a Canada-esque, very gritty, hard-nosed, when you have Finnish players come over, you know they're always going to compete. And you look at their roster, they've got some talent, but they're going to be highly competitive. They're all good skaters, they can handle the puck, but they've got that edge to their game. and they're going to fight to the death. They're not going to be pleased if they lose. You look at that, missing Heiskanen last year was a huge loss for that team. He's going to play 30 minutes a night and be their key puck mover and power play guy on the back end. So they'll be a little bit of a different team with him in the lineup this year versus last year's Four Nations. No Barkov is just such a bummer. And I think that's going to be their Achilles heel. They don't have a one matchup. You know, Ajo's good, but he's a two. Yep. Yep. I know, but I'm looking like. How does it relate to this tournament? Yeah, Ajo. I mean, Rontanen. It's like Lundell's been a hell of a player. Lekanen's a little dog. It's like you throw Barkov in there. Then you're like, holy shit, in a one-game series, it's like, fuck. The back end, and you watch in the back end, they got Ristolainen, Mikola, Matanpalo, Djokovarju. like they got guys that are that play with some jam back there and want to get physical and you know they're going to make whoever they play they're going to make them earn it they're going to try to punish you you mentioned that like north american well more so canadian grinding style like were they were they dirty fuckers like in a in a compliment way like hockey wise like within the corners with it oh yeah yeah they they they play you know what you'll see it's kind of like the world juniors you play against these european teams and they well they play tough there's no fighting you know so they're gonna play tough switzerland will play that way uh you'll see all of these teams are gonna play that in your face what are you gonna do about it you're gonna see scrums now and guys will be like what are you gonna do about it i'm like well let's let's see in three weeks we'll find out another thing too is i just feel like they're like i've never really met a bad fin or a bad swede so i feel like they just naturally like gel very quickly together and i know back then it was more so they were playing on their national team and now it's a lot of the nhl so do you think that that's a like a bit of an advantage to them and just like how good a guy's there and how well they're you know they just fall in line so to speak good guys and you look at they're very hardened by their climate you ever been over to sweden it's very cold much like canada very cold a lot of snow uh you know it's what do you do you You play hockey. You skate. You play hockey. You know, you're playing in the snow. You do outdoor stuff. And, you know, so I think that that plays a part in it, too, is kind of their culture and the climate of where they live. Did you learn a lot about that from Timu? Like, would you grill him about, like, his homeland and stuff? Well, you know I'm 50% Finn, right? Okay. Are you? Oh, wow. Yeah, my mom is from Finland. Okay. What's her maiden name? Is it a Finnish name? It's actually Smith. Prongalainen. It's my home. It's actually Swedish. It's a Swedish last name, but my grandpa's from Finland. How long have you been going over there? Do you keep the ties? No, I went for the 97 World Championships, which we won. And then I actually just took my kids this past, not this Christmas, but a year ago for Christmas, and went up into the Lapland and did all the dog sledding and all the stuff. It was really cool. See the northern lights? Did the northern lights. It was awesome to see that. We went snow machining one day, and as you might imagine at that time of year, the sun does not crest the horizon. So you never see the sun, but it gets light out from like 1030 to 230. So you wake up at 7 or whatever, and you're waiting. It's pitch black. Go to your experience, what have you, and it's still dark. and then all of a sudden you're going and now you can kind of see it start to brighten. The day is getting light out, but you don't ever see the sun. And what I'm talking about hardened, I think that's what I'm talking about, is they never see the sun. They're very gritty. And you think about growing up like that, that's got to be pretty hard. Never seeing the sun for three months or two months, whatever it is. They just locked me in a rink. Anyways, my mom came over when she was two. Okay, any other fun cultural differences that you can tell us about? They get fucked up. Why are you laughing like that? My grandfather was in World War II for Finland, and let's just say he was not a fan of Russians. All right. What do you make of that? You think they should be in the games? I mean, listen, they're not the ones that started. I mean, their country started the war, but they're not the ones that are a part of it. You know, it taints the games a little bit. Just you don't have some of the best players in the tournament. But that's above my pay grade. Yeah. You know, I'd like to see them there. You know, I think if you're playing, you want to beat the best. You want to play the best. You want to beat the best. And then you can say there's no asterisk beside beside their goalies. Yeah, their goalies. Sid Novy carried the lead for fucking 20 years. I mean, they revived the NHL, and I would assume this would have been the potential last games for Alexander Ovechkin. We've kind of talked about it. Well, I think, I mean, we've all seen his body lately. I think this would be a slips game. I would be shocked if him and fuck, he's on a line when he's like 50 years old, playing maybe in the next one, or the one after that. I would be shocked. He's standing in the dot. I mean, he stands there anyways and rips his one tee. Bud, hey, so we brought this up. It's amazing. You can still, I mean, it's wicked. It is wicked. Guess how many D zone draws he's had this year in his own end? Zero. Zero. People are like, what do you mean? They probably iced the puck when he's out there. They don't consider it like the start of a shift when it's an icing. Yeah. So he's had something just under 400 ozone starts. and zero. If it goes down the whole season that he had zero D-zone starts, that will go down as the greatest stat ever. By the way, you know what that's called? That's called coaching. Carberry's like, I don't want to think that's a rule. It's like, hey, Coop, you didn't win it again. We gave it to Carberry. Not one D-zone draw for Olby. Anything else you want to touch on on Finland before we move on? I think goaltending. I think Saros, Korpisala, Lankanen, I imagine Saros would be the starter. And again, you look at goaltending, some guy gets hot, we've seen it happen in the past, some guy gets hot, they're tough to beat. It's going to take a lot to beat a goalie that gets hot and they just feel it. You just never know what's going to happen. So moving over to Sweden, this team's loaded I'll tell you what was a bummer to me is seeing what Leo Carlson's done and then injury replacement, Marcus Johansson comes in for him. But the quiet one that might affect him even more is Brodine not being able to go. So that's one where I'm like, wow, that D is pretty special. And nobody talks about Brodine except for everyone who plays against him because he's unbelievable shutting guys down. But they still have a lot there. What do you see as their strength? then maybe a net. That's what I'm curious. Do they go, I mean, they got two guys from the wild, right? And then they got Markstrom. So what are you doing, Biz? I'm just recording prongs and telling everybody to record. Sorry for distracting you. Sorry, sorry, sorry. I thought you were trying to tell me something. Send out a promo, Whit. Love you guys. What do you like about Sweden? Deep on the back end. You know, you're right. They've got a really good back end. Even with Brodine being out, you look at Rasmus Andersen, And Philip Broberg, your former Oiler, has been the best D on St. Louis and arguably maybe their best player. He's had a great year. Rasmus Dahlien is an absolute stud. Finally getting the recognition he deserved. That kid is a beast. OEL has been pretty good for your Leafs there. One great spot. Forsling, we're talking about shutdown D, Forsling. shut down, close it out. Hedman, still a stud. Eric Carlson, power play. And then Hampus Lindholm is kind of taking in or over the role of Brodine. They're pretty solid back there. And they all, again, unlike Canada, they all have played together before. So they have some continuity. They've got some chemistry. They know their systems. They know how they want to play. I think at the end of the day, it's going to depend on the goaltending, how they play, because up front, Philip Forsberg's in his prime Adrian Kempe's in his prime Nylander's in his prime Patterson is the X-factor Lucas Raymond has proven that he's a stud You kind of go up and down that roster and they've got some Jesper Bratt's a good player They've got some really good players They've got some I'm going to call them fillers but guys who can fill in in different roles They're going to be a good team I think it's going to depend on the goaltending. If they can solidify a number one and solidify somebody that's going to be the guy, I think right now they kind of have three guys. Who's the one? They don't have a clear-cut one. Exactly. So if they can find the guy that's going to be the number one, I don't think people realize they went 0-0-3 in the Four Nations. They tied all three games. Yeah. They had Canada almost. They were up, I think, maybe the second or third. And then Crosby fucking did what he does. Do you think with those teams, especially Sweden, Finland, when you think of them at world championships, you feel like they just have a little more pride when they're playing for their countries? But Olympics, I think, is a little different where you're getting all the best guys and you're playing for something even more than just to win a tournament. Well, they definitely get up for world championships, you know, playing for the country. They thrive in that moment. And then, you know, add in the Olympic Games and it goes to another level. So, you know, as we've said, they're going to be hard to beat. So to the point of Canada-US, Team Sweden, Team Finland, like Sweden has got really good players. It's interesting that Landeskog has been cleared and he's going to go. That was a gruesome injury he had. Looked bad. Hitting the goalpost like that, I mean, you could just see how much pain he was in. That had to hurt. Prong, who were some of the old school Swedes who gave you the most fits when you were playing against them in international play? Because we have some people from Sweden who listen, and they just love hearing about the older guys getting the double wristers. Well, Peter Forsberg, World Junior, World Championship, Olympics, and then obviously every time he was on the ice, I was on the ice. So we had some good battles. I'm trying to think here. What do people, like for the younger generation who didn't get to watch him in real time, like just the – Well, you know, he kind of hurt himself because he played so hard. I don't think highly, highly skilled, like one of the most skilled players you'll see. but he also had a switch that you could play into and he would want to battle you he would want to show you that he could take you on so he's taken on me he's taken on darren hatcher he's taken on you know all the big guys in the league and so you know i think ultimately that i think kind of was his downfall is that he wanted to kind of match up from a physical perspective and you could see you know he had a lot of major injuries through the course of his career but if you saw a World Junior, the line was him, Naslund, and Patrick Sundstrom. And they had a play where Forsberg would come around behind the net, and then if the goalie would turn his head and look this way, he would sauce it over the back of the net to Naslund off the back door so he could shoot it in either off the goalie or in the net. and if the goalie kept looking this way over where naslin was he'd fire it out in the middle of the sunstrom or he would wrap it i mean it was it was almost we got smoked we played them in in the pre-tournament game and we got smoked like nine three and we had a line brawl and we had all this we were like screw it let's fucking take these guys out and uh and i think he had probably like six or seven points we just got smoked but what it did what it did was it helped us kind of figure out how we needed to defend that play because they were chewing everybody up on that they would do it the power play they'd do it in you know five on five it just it was very very you had to have people in the exact spots or you couldn't stop it it was unstoppable speaking of legendary swedes what do you remember about uh when alfie shot the puck at norm remember that Probably a mistake. Yeah, that was game five. Kind of like stealing a game puck. I didn't steal anything. There's no names on those things, is there? Other than Gary Bettman. It says Gary Bettman. I stole it from Gary. By the way, you probably don't remember that that's the game I was suspended for. I was in a locker room watching late in the period. You know, Alfie takes a slapper at Norm, and everybody's pissed. You know, there's like a couple seconds left in the period. Everybody's pissed off. Come in the locker room, and Norm, you know, as only Scottie can, just casually, like, just, it hits him. Whatever. Skates off the ice. He gets in the locker room. People are like, we're going to get him, whatever. And he's like, don't worry about it. Let's finish this game. Like, just puts his glasses back on in between periods. and like, don't worry about it, boys. Don't worry. No wonder he could fucking skate for 30 minutes. He wasn't wasting any energy. Nothing fazed him. Other than probably crossword puzzles. No, not even that. Nothing. We'd be driving to the rink in his beautiful Prius. Avoiding traffic in the HOV lane. You would go in the Prius? Oh, yeah. Legs up. It would be. I would sit in front. It would be me, Scotty, Jiggy, and Robbie. Oh my God. That was our crew that would go down to the games. The clown car as they arrived. Yeah, of course. Getting out of the Prius. It just depends on the day which car we were going to take. Sometimes we took Norm's Prius. Of course he had a Prius. That is so fucking good. That is so good. He's got to save the environment. Any other Swedes that you would want to talk about that you remember? I agree with you on Darlene, though. I was trying to bait him over to the Leafs because we need a number one D-man. That's another conversation we've kind of had online where you chimed in where there's not a lot of true number one D-men and what he can do offensively. He plays with some jam, too. He's as gritty as they come. He plays hard. he's got he's not just a talent in the sense that he can skate and shoot he play he's had some huge open ice hits staying with the olympics quickly because you know then you got czech you got savaki you got germany a lot of these teams don't have it's not all nhl players but we we mentioned a month ago the season he's having and i said i don't know if there's been a defenseman as close to pronger the way Maurice Seider is playing right now because we've seen all these guys, Duncan Keith and Drew Doughty and McCarr, but he's mean, he's enormous. Are you seeing some characteristics that you had in your game out of him? And is he a number one at this point, you think? At this point, yes. You look at now, should we go through what a real number one is? I'd love to hear it. A real number one, you don't have to play the first power play because sometimes you might have a a power play specialist, or you might, again, you've got to manage ice then too, and you've got to get other players out there. So a number one place of power play, kills penalties, on the ice late in the game when you need a goal, on the ice late in the game defending a lead. You go through all the situational awareness. That player is always on the ice. That's a true number one. Now people are going to say, well, but Quinn Hughes doesn't kill penalties. He could. But they don't use them because they've got to get ice time for somebody else. He already plays 30 minutes. So you've got to move ice time around. And the funny part is people get pissed off. They're like, but my guy, he's the number one on your team. He plays number one minutes on your team because you don't have a number one. So they think he's a number one. And by the way, it's no slight on these other guys. like just because I say they're not a number one in my opinion it could be a number two it could be a great fit you know like there's a uh you know it could be a one a one b it could be a you know a guy's a great two or a great three or like people get upset I'm like but everybody's slotted when you have a a team and it's set up perfectly you got a guy that slots in perfectly in the one the two three the four and you know i heard bx talk about andre benwell last year he's a great six he's arguably the best six in the league like people need to slot in into their roles and then play those roles to the best of their ability and and it's the perfect fit for their skill set for their style uh a lot of times you know like eric carlson he's a power play guy you do not want that guy on the ice late in the game with a one goal lead no you saw that actually against the that's not his skill set but it's not his skill set he probably doesn't want to be out there he probably doesn't first off he doesn't want to block a shot and he doesn't you're not playing to his strengths coaching as we saw with Ovi and Carberry playing to your players strengths and putting them in a position to succeed that's what it's all about so when i say i'm slotting guys in it's just where they fit yeah and and the type of talent they have i mean by the way there's plenty of guys that were way better skaters than me it doesn't mean i couldn't move it's just like scotty was a better skater than me it is what it is have you went through the list like how many would you say of true number ones there are currently in the nhl probably about 15 yeah ballpark there's anywhere from 12 to 16 probably. So you kind of look at it like NFL quarterbacks where maybe there's a little bit of there's always a drop off and by the way being a number two is going to get you paid handsomely as well and being a number three and as you go through them if you're in the top four you can kind of roll along. You look at Adam Foote like Columbus signs Adam Foote back in the day to be their number one he's not a number one he's not going to play on the power play he can't he can't play the top of the power play like he could maybe go over here and take one timers or whatever but he's not going to operate and run the power play that's what a number one does and then they also go and kill penalties and they're the guy the shutdown guy like that a true number one is a shutdown defenseman and a and an offensive weapon or can be he might not play that way because he might look at i want my team to win and this guy i need i need this guy needs to get ice time and i need a break and all the rest of the stuff that kind of plays into it and where the coaching staff wants to put you they also have a role in this too you know so it it can it can kind of vary but it's you know that that's my definition you know people are going to argue but this guy's oh my god this guy can't do this like philip rober he's not a number one he might not yet he might get into that role but you know you evolve into it and you kind of fall into that by opportunity by ice time by improving and maturing as a player and developing you don't automatically roll in and you know some guys do roll in and they're just that good but like as we talk about cider he came into the league with such flash and bravado and played that physical role and puck mover and jumping into the play. And then for a couple of years there, he kind of regressed. For whatever reason, he regressed. I don't know why. I don't know what was going on in Detroit. Regressed, and now he seems like he's found that edge again and that playing with that grit and jam and passion for the game that he came into the league with, which is great to see. and it certainly helped Detroit get to where they are. Biz, you got anything else for this lecture? Yeah, I got about fucking two more hours left with them. That's the thing, so do I. I was just thinking with these other teams, like you mentioned, Germany, Switzerland, the guys that aren't in the NHL, like the effort you're getting from these guys, because maybe they're like, fuck, we got every eyeball in the hockey world watching us. I'm trying to get to the NHL or trying to get back, whatever it is. That's another thing that you have to prepare for as well, I would imagine. Well, and you don't know who, you know, sometimes you don't know who they are. Like, I remember in 2010, there was a few Swiss guys that were just ready to come up with Zuccarello, and some of these guys were just getting ready to come over or had just come over. And you're like, who are these guys? You know, and they play incredible in the tournament. You're like, oh, that guy's good. And they're competitive. and you don't have a book on them, so you're trying to gather information either before the game or watch games later in the tournament as you're getting ready to play them to kind of get a read on how they play. Different plays like I talked about with Swede and Forsberg, that play, trying to see if they have any sneaky plays or things that you need to be aware of and on the lookout for. You can alert the video guy to kind of try to look for things that you may want to see how they work the power play and what their tendencies are and things like that if you don't have a book on them. For the athletes going over, like the guys on Team Canada who are maybe single, how do you stay focused being in that village with some of these female athletes cruising around? Just so you know, this is not the summer games. They don't hand out condoms in the winter games. This is the winter games. they don't do like a village thing there there is but in this particular venue like some of them all the skiers are going to be up in cortina they have a separate village over there like half of the events are nowhere near milan so that all those people are not even going to be in milan they're going to be gone and then the ice skating stuff um and whatnot are in uh the milan village not as many people there as you think and frankly you're practicing you're doing stuff i'm sure i'm sure guys are going to be around but you're pretty you're actually a bad question that's a bad question um by the way i don't know i don't know i was asking the expert i've never been to the olympics um the other one i had was outside of the hockey side of it what was your favorite olympic memory like where was it like meeting another athlete like was it you know what you got maybe a sport that you got to watch was there anything that stood out maybe you met some like uh some actor or actress at them because of the games i don't know yeah i'm i wasn't too big I'm going to go meet people and say hi to people and do all that. As guys that played against me know, I'm not making friends. I'm there to do my job and make sure I'm prepared and ready. You hear that, Canada? You hear that, boys? Get your fucking rooms and you can leave for practice but focus on winning a fucking gold medal. No fun! You're able to watch. I did go, I think I went and watched figure skating one time. I went and watched speed skating one time. You know, I think we went as a team. I'm trying to think who it was. Curling. It was Elvis Stoico. The one year we went and watched, I think that was 98, if I'm not mistaken. Went and watched him. But we didn't have a ton of time to go, especially when there was such a distance. I'd love to go see the skiing, but it was so far away every time. and just I was tired. I'm like, I need to rest and recover and prepare for the next game. And you're practicing. You got back-to-back games, practice, you know, a game, practice game. You know, then you're kind of in that rhythm of your games. I just personally, I wasn't interested in being tired. I needed to eat and recover. you mentioned being tired and visit has said this that during an olympic year they should shorten the season to maybe 72 74 i forget what you said this 76 games 76 against everybody in your conference and one game against everybody in the other conference what do you think about that well progs i just think that it i think they have to look at the overall product and where the game is going and how they want to display it okay if you're going to have a four-year cycle and they it started moving forward where all of a sudden the owners want 84 games in non-olympics years and then i'm assuming let's say non-world cup years so you would have two of them if you're going every other right do the 84 games to make up for a few lost ones do a 76 game schedule during the olympic year play your conference way more they always worry about like oh every um you know every team should get to see mcdavid play it's like give me a fucking break buddy if you live in new york go watch him in New Jersey if he's there that year. Maybe you're not going to get him on. Watch him on TV for the one year. Sorry, not everybody can get what they want. And it cuts down on travel costs because they want the gate revenue of these 82 games. So you arrest these guys. They get to go to the Olympics and do what they want to do and you have that shortened season year. And in that year, you give them a taste of what everybody actually wants and it's the one through eight. Everybody's basically done with this fucking the way they do it now. And I think it's bullshit. And it's costing people jobs, essentially, because if you finish second place in your conference and all of a sudden you draw the third place team, kind of like it's going to happen in the Central this year, all of a sudden you're talking about GMs and coaches losing their jobs. It's like they weigh that because if you lose in the first round, it looks bad on paper as opposed to maybe the second or the conference finals. Then in the years going back to the owners of the 84 games, They get more of their gate revenue. They can fucking, hey, maybe they even open up the playoff structure to more teams. They can look at that if they want to gain even more. Have a plan. 9-10 plan. Maybe even more revenue in those teams. Betman's like adamant against that. Which is fine. So then you don't, and then you still get the 84 games, but then you do the bracket style the way that Betman wants it. And I think they want it that way because they view the first couple rounds as March Madness. So they want some highly competitive series going on, like we're going to see number two and three in the Central. Well you do remember the old Smite division Edmonton Calgary Nobody remembers those Winnipeg teams with Dale Howard Chuck and Thomas Neen They got hosed I mean they were lights out. So quickly going back to that, so then you got, let's say it's Olympic year, then you go back to the way that the owners in Bettman wants it of the 84 and keeping the same playoff structure, and then in the year of the World Cup, and this is the key to me, you're worried about the rink in Milan. You don't have Russia in the Olympics, they should have the most unreal World Cup setup of, let's say, 10 to 12 countries represented, and you control all of it. You want to talk about revenue and making sure the top-end guys get paid, and also the owners who are begging for these All-Star Games. Nobody wants to watch a fucking All-Star Game. Are you kidding me? Fuck the All-Star Game. They should be doing the World Cup once every four years. Fuck off with the All-Star Game. You're laughing, buddy. these guys it's like the pro bowl nobody wants to see that no one i don't want to watch it either they're terrible i don't even try no rob's fucking taking ketamine bumps before he's doing the fucking skills competition for fuck's sake nobody wants to fucking see it so you control and make that world cup unbelievable and you distribute all the the host cities to what the nhl cities are and then moving forward as years progress where let's say you're in the third year that you're doing World Cup. If a team, they have a host city and they're not selling out their barn and they're not doing a good job of selling tickets, they ain't getting the fucking World Cup anymore. That's it. You move it to the places that are going to sell out and they're going to have packed barns and you collect all that revenue, TV rights, sponsorship, and I guarantee you they'd be making their fucking faces controlling an unbelievable best-on-best situation. Aren't they doing that though? Aren't they already said that? They are. They are. They are. They are in the World Cup. Right. But also in that year, also shorten the season also because you're controlling it. And if the owners are so worried about this goddamn revenue, the best on best World Cup is the hockey that people want to watch. And they're going to be doing it on North American time. And maybe even in the World Cup situation, you do a division or bracket over in Sweden and Finland. and or maybe you move it over there every other time they do it, but I still think you control it and do it in North America and do it that way. So that's the way I think that they should look at it from a four-year cycle. If the owners want to make their money, Bettman still wants to get his certain brackets the way that they are because of first and second round matchups being entertaining, but they should look at it and doing it different in the years of Olympics in World Cup as far as the amount of games they're playing and the structure of the playoffs. And that could keep everybody happy, including bringing in the moolah because we all know what's about the moolah, right, Prongs? It's all about the moolah. Now, have you talked to Marty Walsh about that? I don't know. You don't know? Yes or no question. No, what I'm saying is like, bring him on. I'll fucking talk to him about it. But ultimately, it probably comes down to Gary. I don't know how much say Walsh has. Get the fucking players on a Zoom call. I'll fucking market this shit. Yeah. I don't know if you're going to get... You can't... Here's the one problem with that is you can't go, oh, we're going to have 84 or 82 currently, 82, and then we're going to go to 76. Why? Why? They fucking... It was so traditional when it was 82, 82, 82. We would never lower the game's tradition. Oh, yeah, they'll fucking do it when it's two more and they're making more money, but won't they? Why? It went to 84, no problem. I like it. they're never ever ever going to less games they're ever but i'm saying is like you make up in those other two seasons the one that's that the ones that you've lost now in those other years and you're saying it goes to all owners because because because you have these fucking morons like the philadelphia flyer fans online defending the owners saying the owners will never go for that they agreed on that it's it's you know the gate it's like oh they'll fucking get their data right? They're going to get it with the World Cup that I set up where you're going to be fucking making $30.000. I'm going to be the new commissioner motherfucker. Busy Betman. Busy Betman, baby. That was like a Billy Madison rant. I award you no points and we are all now dumber. I don't think it's that dumb. No, no, I think it's great. It's dumber having listened to that, yes. But once again, though, those owners who are bitching, all of a sudden it's like, oh, we're going to have this World Cup but you're going to be a host city, and then all of a sudden their light bulbs are going to go off. All right, well, I'm done. I wish you good luck on that. Should we get your opinion on the Meechkov in Philadelphia situation before we let you go? Hey, whatever. Let's do it. How do you explain, Trunks, how do you explain, say you're on the Flyers, and you're just seeing all this noise around a guy where they're just carving the coach, and it's like there's no responsibility on the player and everyone, Talk it's ruining this guy. Talk it ruined Pedersen. Blah, blah, blah. What do you think as a player, like, I don't think these fans really get what's actually going and has gone on here. Number one, I think the buildup for this player, in this case, Mitch Koff, has been not quite Demidoff-like, but very close. Where they're, like, looping into the fact that he's going to be the savior. and while he maybe he's he isn't right now and i've been through it myself as an 18 year old high pick a lot of pressure you need to be coached you need to be developed you need maturity the kid came in out of shape we've heard him talk about that i came in out of shape like there's a lot of parallels uh but you still have to coach the kid and you have to teach him how to be a pro, teach him expectations, teach him how to play the North American game. Playing in Russia and playing in the U.S. and the NHL are completely different styles. And it's not that you're trying to take away his skill. It's you're trying to acclimate him to what playing in the NHL is like. Again, I'm not in the room. Obviously, I played there, but the fans are highly passionate, as you might imagine. You found that out, eh, Biz? Oh, I love it. I fucking love it, baby. You know, and I think there's just since 2012 when I got hurt, they've, you know, after that, they had a really good year that year, a really good year the next year. I think one more good year, and then, you know, they've been in what's called a rebuild for what seems like 12 years, and I think they're frustrated and they want the rebuild to be over, but they didn't go about the rebuild properly in the early days. and they keep trying to fast track it and now every time they say rebuild they're like but we have our guy and by the way I don't know any team any team that rebuilds with a winger I don't know one good team that rebuilds with a winger you don't rebuild with a winger you rebuild up the middle center D goalie so I know you picked the best player available and clearly he was the best player but And as it relates to that, sometimes you have to luck out, too, in a rebuild and get the right pick when the right player is available. And so we saw that with Buffalo where they tried to get McDavid, where they tried to get different guys, and we're going to tank. All these teams tanking. And Edmonton kept winning the lottery. And they kept fast-tracking. And also it takes time to develop the players. And so you get in the situation where you're trying to fast track and you're trying to force either players to play more when they're not ready or teach them, you know, OK, he came in out of shape. Great. Get him to work out more. Teach him that this is how you need to prepare. This is what the NHL is about. OK, great. I think the biggest problem with this situation is the kid's Russian and he doesn't speak very good English. and so there's a disconnect between the player and it and it looks like on the bench him and talking or are we arguing you know he's trying to communicate and it takes longer because there's the disconnect in the language so it looks like you're arguing or you know on its face it's like i don't understand what you're saying and so you know having a translator what it's it's hard to manage on a bench in the heat of a game to manage those situations. So I think sometimes it looks a little different in that regard. Could he play him more? Yeah, I'm sure he could. But you can say that about a lot of guys. But did that happen with you, though? Because you said that you – Dude, I was Mike Keenan's bitch. I was getting benched. I was getting yelled at every period, every game. if this kid went through what I went through there's no way he'd be in the league right now no way and that's the thing too is you're saying that and I know he ain't going through how hard you got but by the way not many people went through what I went through I mean it got so bad my teammates felt bad for me like I was getting yelled at for nothing sometimes but I was the guy I was the guy in Shea Bow Wow I was in the doghouse are you grateful for it now and when you came in out of shape and you were called, what were the things that you did personally to turn in? Let's put it this way. The only reason I wasn't dead last in testing is because Fierzy was there. And he was terrible. And he was not out of shape too. So that was my third year, right? So my first year I came into camp in Hartford, I was in good shape. you know i had an up and down year showed signs of you know whatever came into training camp the next year in really good shape got locked out spent three months partying and then came back for the lockout short year 48 games it was atrocious because i was out of shape then i was kind of working out the next summer but not showed up at camp out of shape in st louis traded for a fan favorite came in eyes on me expectations all the rest of it and then slowly worked myself into shape through the first two or three months of the season fans weren't excited about the trade they let me know about it uh they weren't happy with my play on and on but ultimately you go through those moments and when you come out the other side it sucks going through it and again i'll go back if we're making it specifically about mitchkov the fact that he doesn't speak the language very well if at all that's the part of the problem because he's not it might not be translating properly kind of what he's dealing what he's going through what he's dealing with and i mean i'm not there dealing with it every day i don't know what talk's telling him i don't know what the coaching staff or the translator or whatever yeah you got to be hard on young guys sometimes but it's also it's not 1995 anymore either like it's not how this world works in today's hockey world in today's NHL you have to find a connection with the player there's ways to be hard and there's ways certainly not going to do it the way it was for me and you have to understand that side of it you know should he play more probably and by the way if if you want to see how good he is throw him out there let's see what kind of shape he's in just play him you know i don't i saw a few other games last year with torts and he played him a little bit differently he got him on the power play he was putting him to me it looked like he was putting him in more position for success and maybe not necessarily kind of looked like he let him do a little bit more, but wasn't, I don't know if teaching him is the right word, but showcasing his abilities and not digging into the other parts of the game that he needed to improve on. And I think that's probably. Talks there to build a winning team, not a good player, right? At the end of the day, like he's in there to try to get this team over the hump, getting one player better is not going to benefit anyone especially the philadelphia fans but i have heard the philadelphia fans want talk to just learn russian well here here's the other thing that i think is the bigger question out of all this i don't know if anybody's even looked at what he's getting paid talking going anywhere he just signed a five-year five and a quarter deal he ain't going anywhere they just got rid of one coach they've gotten rid of a bunch of other coaches like at some point like what's the deal here and you kind of i think you might have touched on it or maybe it was you uh with like people were kind of saying that about him quote unquote ruining petterson it's like uh well he kind of developed the rest of the team and they ended up getting beat game seven of of the second round playoffs to mcdavid and the oilers and won the jack adams so it's like they were up three two in the series are you there to like put all your time and energy into this guy who didn't even have the the respect to show up in shape for you right first year as a head coach to show the hey i'm here to work for you and so so there's that well he's also he's also young so let's again let's play into that fact that's part of the development curve of learning and understanding expectations would and but i don't know what the translation is if we all know russians are hard-headed too like we're all stubborn athletes and he's like no this is this is how i play and taking that and then molding it to this is we're going to take that part and it needs to be in this team structure okay but if anybody had any knowledge and prior knowledge of what the pre-scout was or before he got drafted and maybe that hard-headedness and how things went over in the khl they would be educated enough to speak on it now we don't need to really dive into that too much but from somebody with experience and doing it at the nhl level when you said you showed up in shape and you're like well i spent the rest of the year trying to play catch up and get into shape out of shape out of shape out of shape what do you what showed up in shape oh yeah showed up out of shape how long did it take how long does it take in the midst of a season while you're in the thick of it to get to that point and play catch up like did it take you the whole year basically to get there and you realize holy fuck like these guys are true pros and the best of the best like if you show up out of shape your base your season might be a bit of a wash and there's not a lot of practice time nowadays and people aren't practicing that's the biggest problem these guys never practice never they're always recovering you're always they got a mandatory day off they always it's there's not enough time to to try to get into elite shape that you need to be in to play at that level and that was always Mike Keenan's big thing with me you want to be an elite player you got to be an elite shape like this is what the top players this is how they prepare you know and so that was always a big thing and it took me you know to get back into that type of shape it took me probably a month or two you know six to eight weeks to kind of get caught up with everybody else but I also had we only had Early in the year, we didn't have a lot of games. So, you know, that's the difference between my 95-96 and this. They're playing like three and four nights, four and six nights constantly. There is no practice time. So from a team-building perspective, a continuity perspective, and a development perspective, when you have a young team like this or you have players that you want to develop, that's the hardest part is these guys never practice. they're just constantly in recovery mode you know looking at friggin video and looking at how they're going to beat the next team and what they got to change in the power play and all the other shit it's tough I guess I'll end it with this like this kid the kid ended up showing up out of shape and these people are like oh that's over I just don't think like oh I'll play him more it's not really the example I would like to set to the rest of my team where it's like oh we're just going to give this guy ice time because he was drafted seventh overall and he's projected to be the superstar which he hasn't shown at this level he did so in the KHL on his own accord and going back to that pre-scout how that whole situation had to go so I just don't know if you're trying to build a winning culture if just handing this person who hasn't shown the qualities yet to be a superstar that that's the kind of the precedent you want to set and I really hope that this is a big time and now he's got the whole break right he's got the whole break to work on that chip away and hopefully get in better shape for a nice push towards the end of the season and hopefully this is more of a learning lesson for coming in proper shape for next year where things will look totally different and their team is evolving and developing they got young guys coming in And this, to your point, sets the example of let's come in shape. Let's come prepared. This is the expectation. You know, it's no different than that next year for me. I understood, okay, this is what I have to do. I can't float in the summer. Like, I need to be prepared. You know, and then you've got to look at yourself in the mirror and take ownership and be like, okay, how good do you want to be? Okay, you get told you have all this talent or you're going to be the guy. Well, if you're the guy, then you have an expectation to show up in shape. you have an expectation to compete each and every night and if you're the guy then go show me you're the guy and buddy, these fucking moron Philadelphia Flyers fans online, if you want to live and die with a 7th or 8th overall draft pick who didn't even have the decency to show up in shape for your organization and yell fire Rick Tockett in the stands and try to get people to do that online and galvanize your fucking trolls instead of going to bat for a guy who won a Stanley Cup as a player, two as an assistant coach. He's now going to coach at the Olympics to help. Like, if that's who you're picking over the other guy and you want to bury that guy and get him canned, I don't know, man. I have no problem calling you a fucking moron. Like, I don't. I don't care how many talk radio shows want to come at me. I don't give a flying fuck. I know who I'm going to bat for. I think it's just mainly they're starved. They need a superstar. They are 1,000% starving for... Like, they need a game breaker. On that team. They need a game breaker. You're right. It leads me... Roback, last question, Prongs. Use code CHICKLITZ on Roback.com. 20% off your order through the end of the week. Hoodies, joggers, polos. They got everything C-H-I-C-L-E-T-S on R-H-O-B-A-C-K.com. Saw you recently. I think it was with O-Dog and the boys talking about the Leafs mentioning, guys, it's time to kind of start over. Mention trading either Matthews, trading Nylander possibly. What's your thought on that? Maybe go into that with us and just tell Biz where his team is truly at right now. You keep my fucking team's name out of your mouth, buddy. So here's the question was what do you do with the Toronto Maple Leafs? the question was well that ship has sailed the question was what do you do with this current iteration and I was just talking about do you take it to the studs or do they have pieces that they can still build around which if you think Matthews is the leader and can lead the team is Nylander the missing piece and where is he you know on the back I think they're missing on the back end we've just been talking about number one defenseman well they don't have a number one they don't have a number two I don't even know if they have a number three so you know they've got a lot of the same defense defenseman like Riley and OEL are kind of the same OEL is probably a little better defender you got Tanev, Carlo the same McCabe similar they don't have they're missing a lot of pieces on the back end they have to reimagine better than me take the break take the Olympic break you guys can be workout buddies we need you they need to reimagine I think they have to reimagine their team and then the question was posed to me well, then what do you do with Matthews and Nylander? In order to reimagine your back end, either A, you're going to have to partner. I would keep Matthews over Nylander personally because you build in the middle. You've got your center, number one center, and then how do you build from there? You've got to get a number one defenseman. They don't grow on trees. How do you get one? And it's just there's so many holes, in my opinion. How much would you sell me your sperm for? Honestly, I'm dead serious. One billion dollars. One billion dollars. We should just get you, Niedermeyer, just get all the fucking greatest Canadian defense world and we've got to just create a lab somewhere. We've got to start pumping out. Maybe get Fleury and Brodeur in there too. What makes you think they're going to want their offspring on the Leafs? And you know that there would be a draft. They'd be drafted, and it's one out of 32 teams. No, we're going straight Eli Manning. You're going old Montreal Canadiens days, getting all the French guys? So I guess the bigger question is, you look at the loss of Marner as created a hole, and they didn't fill the hole. They just added a bunch of pieces that were bottom six that didn't. They thought he could add depth and not adding to the top six, and it's created a massive hole. And I don't, Nise has not been taking that next step. You know, they've just got a lot of question marks that I don't think development or maturity or anything like that handles because of the guys that we're talking about are older. outside of nice. So you look at the shitstorm surrounding William Nylander now and all the stuff, like just is it better to get a fresh start somewhere and start that process? Here we go. Something lease. Oh, there we go. Oh, frogs, we appreciate it, dude. Yeah. So, it... Business... That's what I think of your fucking rebuild breakdown there, Bronx. Alright, well, I hate to tell you. It wouldn't take very long, I don't think. Yeah. I mean, 1967... You're never a double barrel. It hasn't been too long since they won anyways. They got time to figure this out. Yeah. Rational fans as well. Yes. You're the best Hey the fact that you spent an hour 45 with us an unreal Olympic preview just an unreal Hall of Fame defenseman and a funny motherfucker too at that Thank you Prong Hey let's make sure all those Flyers fans are okay with you I mean you can kiss and make up let's do a little Philly trip He looks like a Philly guy right now Looks like a Flyers fan Yeah you're kind of Getting after him. Did I tell you my first game in Philadelphia? On the team or against them? On the team. On the team. So I get traded there, skate out for warm-up, and I do the lap around the net, and I come back, and I look. I make eye contact with this fan, and he's got a Flyers Loco tattooed in the side of his head. Oh, yeah. What's his name? Flyers Eric. You know the guy, Keith? Yeah, yeah. Flyers Eric. Yeah, Flyers Eric. His name is Flyers Eric. Yep. I just saw him like a month and a half ago when I was there. I'm like, what's up, brother? He'd probably fucking shank me. He'd give me the Gavin McKenna right now, the right hook. So we'd come off a road trip, you know, 10 degrees. It's freezing out. Snow on the ground. He'd be in shorts and that beautiful wife beater you're wearing. And just clapping. Rollerblades. He'd have his rollerblades on. Regular season trips? Regular season. regular season you guys were great on the road good plan he'd be rollerblading near the airport in our cars from the plane to our cars and going home he'd be there he might assassinate biz oh i pray i should actually go go to philly and watch a game with him if he's willing i'll buy the tickets and i just sit with him and and and hear him out maybe maybe he's on my side with everything or maybe he'll stab me in the in the stomach yeah oh yeah boys don't forget about my book which we're gonna talk about another time no earn what's the name of it right now uh my book is called earned the true cost of greatness from one of hockey's fiercest competitors uh comes out april 14th pre-orders are live now uh on my website chrispronger.com or amazon or uh uh books Barnes & Noble books a million it's all over the place you can find it anywhere I don't want to ruin the book but the gist of the story is you can come in out of shape and still be a Hall of Famer so Meechkov you got time there is plenty of time it was supported by Meechkov he's got a chapter but it's in Russian so talk and read it for you Progs this has been awesome we're going to promote the shit out of your book We're coming, by the way, I'm coming back. I think Gia and I talked about late March, maybe early April. We're going to crush it because there may be a couple stories you want to hear about, Whit. Oh, boy. Oh, baby. Oh, boy. Hey, Prongs, also, maybe we do it even right after it comes out because then we're mid-first round, and then we can go over what's happened first round as well. All right. We'll figure it out. All right, Prongs. This is so fucking incredible, dude. Unreal. Unbelievable. Thanks for all that time, dude. We got some big news in the spitting chiclets world, and you want to know what it is? It's that Pepsi's on board. Thank you so much to Pepsi for sponsoring spitting chiclets. Who would have ever thought when this thing began that at one point the greatest soda in the world would be coming on as a sponsor? So thank you to Pepsi. And I'll tell you, hockey, there's crazy games. There's wildness that happens. It's nuts. But over time, it becomes clear who the better team is. The Team USA of 1980 over the Soviets, they were better that day. Pepsi Zero Sugar versus Coke Zero Sugar, it's not even close. Pepsi Super Bowl 60 spot brings light to a similar phenomenon of discovery and truth. The Pepsi Paradox, the idea that when labels and bias disappear, cola drinkers prefer the taste of Pepsi, a phenomenon that blind taste thefts have repeatedly proven. In the 2025 revival of the Pepsi Challenge, 66% of participants agreed Pepsi Zero Sugar tastes better than Coca-Cola Zero Sugar. Pepsi wins on taste. Sometimes you have to flip your world upside down to discover what's been there the entire time. Go out and try Pepsi Zero Sugar today. Let your taste decide. All right. Time for the Pepsi Challenge presented by Pepsi. The Pepsi Challenge. Here we go. Open this box up. All right. So, you guys, for anyone watching on video, we got two straws and we got two different sodas. And I'm going to tell you which one's better. Blind taste test. I don't know. I don't know which one's better. Crack it open. crack the other one open. As you can tell, like I said, no clue. The box. See? We don't know what's the top. We don't know which one it is. Straws are in. Wait on the other straw because I'm a Muppet. Okay. The A. Okay. is B. Okay. Draws out. A is way better. A is significantly better. Like, not even close, actually. 66% if this is Pepsi, if I got it correct, should be 100. Let's see. Pop off. What do you know? What do you know? can a Pepsi Zero Sugar. What an absolute joke. Unbelievable. That should be 100%, maybe 99%, but that is, that isn't even close. That isn't even close. I love it. Sometimes you've got to flip your world upside down to discover what's been right there the entire time. Pepsi Zero Sugar. Thank you very much, Prongs, the man, shoving that. You know what? we know what he did after uh after that interview is um the nasty knuckles pod my guy he tweeted out a picture um just a throwback throwback thursday picture whatever it was of myself brooks orpik chris drury nasty uh equipment guy there's somebody else in the picture it was right after the gold medal game. Povolski was it? What? Povolski? Povolski, maybe? And Prongs, you know, tweeted underneath, there's something really mean. I got to look it up right now. And it was just like, I pictured him tweeting it and then doing his laugh. Suck it. But that was kind of a kick in the dick after we interviewed him to remind us of that nasty loss in the gold medal game. Let me find this prick's response right here. Oh, I got great, great news on a night that was really hard for me to deal with. I got great news I got to fill you guys in with. Oh, I'm excited for this. Oh, buddy, you're going to be more excited after I tell you this news. What? But I got to find. That's how it happens. Does it benefit me? No, it doesn't benefit you at all. It benefits me a ton. It benefits me a ton. I love you. Ryan Callahan was in the picture, and there was one response to it. There was 111 likes on the Nasty Knuckles post of Drury, myself, Callahan, Nasty, and Orp having beers, and one response from Chris Pronger. Those silver medalists look great, Nasty. Real motherfucker. So my good news, I received a text in the second half of the game. Oh, I know what it is. I'm going to assume Stoff broke the silence Stoff broke the silence and it wasn't a beating night is that not crazy how I read that I can feel his energy off of your fingers there in the text you're looking at why can't Vrabel's teams piss a drop offensively in the playoffs I said wow Stoff it's amazing to hear from you you know what he told me should have gone to the twin back set with both Stevenson and Henderson and run play action off it. Old school. Stop McDaniels right there. So what does he mean? They had a horrible scheme going in. He didn't like their scheme. He wanted two running backs. He wanted two running backs in there and he wanted to go play action. He wanted play action business, a fake to the running back, and you get the D to bite a little. You go back, Maybe a little bit more time to throw. But I don't even care what he said. You got it. He texted me. And he's not done it for my head. It's so funny that he did it. He did do it in a time he knew I was down. But he said sorry. He said sorry your team looks so horrible. But that's him extending an arm. And that's what makes Thoth so special. Yeah. I'll never quit Thoth. And now I know he didn't quit me. So quickly before we wrap this thing up. I wish I could see his face when he hears you say that about your relationship towards him. I bet you he's going to have a big smirk. Yeah. But he also knows that he does tweet something to me that is quite evident he's upset. He has every right to be upset at you. Yeah, he did. I'm going to be sitting in the corner in the fetal position in my house with the kids asking, is that okay? So Team Canada practiced. Celebrini with McDavid and Tom Wilson. Now, who knows if this is what they run with first game. Suzuki with McKinnon and Marshawn. Stone with Crosby and Marner. Hagel with Horvath and Reinhardt. And Bennett and Jarvis as the extra forwards. Taves with Makar, obviously. Morrisby, Pareko, I think Prong said that. Doughty with Harley. Then Theodore with Sanheim is listed as the 7-8. I would imagine Doughty and Harley are the 7-8, though. But that's not how it's listed. That's Ryan Rashog. For Team USA, interestingly enough, they just were throwing out the last eight forwards all over the map. But the top two lines, it looks like they'll be going with Gensel, with Matthews, and Boldy. Matthews in the middle, obviously, and Eichel in the middle of the Kachuk brothers. Sullivan said the Kachuk brothers will be playing together. And then the rest of the forwards were just, it was a hog podge of just seeing what they'll figure out. So the deep pairing surprised me a little bit in terms of they didn't have Hughes and Faber together. They had Hughes with McAvoy. They had Slavin with Faber. They had Wierenski with Hannafin. I thought that Wierenski would be with Sanderson. Like Sanderson is unbelievable. That kid and Lacombe's great. I think it's obvious. His goalies are under the bus. What? What'd he say? Unreal had thrown his goalies under the bus. He apologized for that immediately the next morning. So did Stoff, and Stoff didn't mean it. And honest to God, we went over this. It's kind of like, I mean, those goalies have gone awful. Yeah, why are they wrong? We talked about it last week. The poor Senators, they get little less than average goaltender. and they're winning the Atlantic, the hardest division in hockey right now. So, fuck, man. Whoa. He's right. Holy shit. Breaking news. Bella texted you? Crosby, captain of the team. No way. Phaneuf got traded from the Leafs? Phaneuf was traded. Phaneuf got traded from the Leafs. Also, McAvoy, very funny tweet with just a slow-motion video of getting elbowed directly. That was a bad hit. I didn't know what you guys were talking about. Horrible. Has anyone ever done that? Sent out a video of themselves? Well, don't forget that the video was also cast for a picture of his face. He looked like Quasimodo. And he looked like Crosby when he had the mumps. I got the mumps that same time. Yeah, you started it. I think Sid still says he didn't have the mumps. He's like, I didn't have the mumps. Come on. But the funny thing was, like, there was no caption or writing with it. So you can't find him. He's just like, oh, I put a video and a picture of myself up there. But I think that slow motion video, it's like that was a two-minute penalty. That might have been the worst call of the year. So with that, last thing, Gavin McKenna, all charges dropped. So we can go right ahead with that right hook, fish hook sale because there's nothing to worry about for Gavin. The police did their due diligence and realized that kid had it coming, deserved every bit of that right hook he caught, and now maybe he could almost support Gavin by buying the McKenna Bissonette fish hook. No, no, whoa, whoa, whoa, Bissonette McKenna. You're right. Biz's name's first. You're right. You're right. So we're going to come out with the original one that's called the right hook, and then we're going to have a spin-off one called The Lockjaw. That's to catch the big fish. That's the big fucker. The yappy ones. I also got a tweet from somebody that said, Gavin McKenna has boxing in his blood. You think he doesn't? His grandfather was an amateur boxer and his grandfather's brother boxed for Canada at the 1982 Commonwealth Games and won a toughest man in the Yukon contest in the lightweight division. If you win the toughest man in the Yukon, I'll throw you against an army from another country. 300. Yeah, it's 300. Wait, imagine your grandfather winning anything in 1986 or whatever he said. That just shows you how young these kids are. His grandfather's our age. If that was me, I would have tattooed on my forehead, forehead 1982 toughest man in the Yukon yeah and I wouldn't even put in the lightweight recover charge all right hey no we're not done here the next pod we're gonna have more clarity on Jarvis's buddies and I think that when we were when we threw it to the the Pronger interview we had a discussion internally we're going to put up an offer to these kids instead of going to the olympics i know they want to go there but it's going to be a lot of money to put them up maybe they stick with getting the flights to carolina and then much like they rv'd to boston from winnipeg they would rv from carolina down to florida where we are and we would put them through a series of of whatever what would what would it be boys kind of like a like putt putt combine a mile run where you got to drink Pink Whitney, Wrestle an Alligator, Smoke Meth because we're in Florida. Just some real Florida trash. Pick a pocket at a 7-Eleven. Sing a verse with Kodak Black. Just all the good stuff that you would do, like a scavenger hunt around Florida, and then we would designate a winner. He's telling me there's six of them. This is Lucas. And we might also be getting duped right now. This might not be his buddy and a guy posing as his buddy, because that's how famous our buddies are at this point, because they're doing TV hits in Canada. And then the winner of whatever contest we do in Florida, we would fly to hopefully what would be the gold medal game in Italy, get them a seat to the game, but it would only be one of the six. So if they're down to do this, you guys will know it, and we're going to have a lot of extra content on our hands when we hit the Florida. Awesome. uh biz you going out tonight no i was gonna i i only lasted about 30 45 minutes with ludicrous i left and then beaver got on stage i did see beaver walking by last night machine gun kelly was there uh megan fox absolute missile launcher um but it was cool you know what i i would definitely do it again especially if draft kings is buying uh and huge thank you to them again because they rolled out the red carpet. Once in a lifetime opportunity, but I would also be okay if I never did it ever again in my life. I was good. I think it's a built-for-TV game. You saw the worst game of all time. I did see the worst of it, but let's put it this way. With the flow and TV timeouts not getting in the way, you'd be hard-pressed. Those games in Edmonton, you can't fucking... That was a way better fan, hardcore sporting event feeling. I think game four last year, when McDavid had that goal, I believe the game went to overtime, right? Marchand scored the winner. That might have been the best game start to finish I've ever been a part of in a live experience. So it's hard to beat hockey, and especially when we've been at two Edmonton finals back-to-back. So I'm pretty much done talking. We're about to see some, I think, what's going to be an incredible tournament. I can't wait. I can't wait. I was very lost last night, Saturday night. I was like, what the fuck do I do? I went to bed early. But I love you guys. Love you, boys. And everyone who's listening, we appreciate you. Shout out Nikki Bella. And shout out Sushi. Jeremy from DraftKings. Yeah, Jeremy the GOAT. And fuck Paulie Mapp. Mark's guy. And we don't like Paulie Market, I guess. Or Market, Paulie Market. All right. That's great. It won't happen. It won't happen. It won't happen again. It won't happen. It won't happen. It won't happen again. I bet it's worth breaking, but it's taking time. And no, it don't matter. It's going to happen. It's going to happen again.