Spittin' Chiclets Episode 607: Featuring Joe Bowen

Hey, spit and chicklets listas. You could find every episode on Apple Podcasts in Spotify. Prime members can listen ad-free on Amazon Music. Me and Ryan have been officially welcomed to the jungle that is Bostal sports. I brought it towards the coyotes and I asked them if it was okay if I joined a spit chicklets podcast full time. No, little bit. Ryan Whitney's got a pink Whitney out there now. I just got to land back or get there on camera. He can't be. The song man. Kate is a full time member. Marley just got this from Chris B. Whoa, where buzzing right now? Sunk. What is up folks? Welcome to episode 607 of the spit chicklets podcast. In sports, winning takes more than talent. It takes strength, reliability, and the drive to go to the distance. Sound familiar? That's the same DNA you'll find in the Chevy Silverado. As capable and dependable as winning team, Chevy Silverado shows up and gets the job done. It won't flinch when the pressure's on. It doesn't take place off when it comes to trucks. Chevy Silverado's football guy approved. To learn more about Silverado, visit Chevy.com. Boy, boys, boys, boys, boys. Last show before Christmas. What is up, spits? Beginning to look a lot like Christmas. Speaking of amazing voice with teach, that was incredible. You get that low level. Joe Bowen joined. We just finished the interview. The voice of the Toronto Maple Leafs, over 3,000 games in the hockey hall of fame. An incredible guy, an awesome interview, a comedian basically. I'd love to have a drink with him. Eras, he calls it a crown and diet, diet soda, I believe, diet coke. What a guy. So I hope everyone toons into that interview was awesome. Biz, how's Vancouver? How was the weekend? Oh, it was great. Got to spend some time with some friends, went to an awesome lunch on Friday at a place called Todd. What do you mean, salad? Did you get a salad? I believe we started with a salad, but that is just an hour. And then we had 14 different fishes to the table. It was like we did in L.A. But no, it was good to spend a little time with the whole crew. I ended up going on a double date with Pasha. That was fun. We don't need to get too much into the details. What was Pasha like? Is he just holding hands? Like, oh, he's sweet, nothing's doing lunch. Yeah, absolutely. Was it his girlfriend's friend? Yeah, yeah, we're not going to get too much into the details. I just thought let's say that to spurs. Yes, get you guys fired up. How did the date, how did the night end? Great, double date. Pasha lined it up and we went to an awesome, another Italian restaurant, but overall just filled up the love tank with friends around the area here in Vancouver. And yeah, it was a great weekend. And yesterday I was supposed to fly home and then my flight got completely canceled. So I was like, oh, fault. We got the pod today. I'm just going to stick around. And we're going to interview Joe Bowen and spark the Leafs up because this is the spark they needed. The run starts now. It's exactly where Barube was when he won the Stanley Cup with the St. Louis Blues and the year dead last in the league. So anything to get the Maple Leafs goal one, we're trying it. And getting Hall of Fame announcer and play-by-play guy Joe Bowen on is the key to this. Yeah, to imagine, imagine there's their whispers at lunch. It's like, Biz is like, I'm going to turn you to a pretzel later. And then Pasha's like, Jack Hughes is back tonight, baby. And then the waiter's like, what the fuck is going on with these two guys right now? That's basically your romantic Christmas lunch with Pasha. It's a smart move by Biz taking a girl out to eat them. The first date because if you can get through the way he eats at dinner or lunch, you can get through anything, you know what I mean? That's a very smart move by Pasha and his girl. Because if she sees you eat, she could either be like, oh my god, I can never do this again. Or she's just like, I'm in the farm animals. I actually ate before I went to dinner. So she was going to have to witness it. Yeah, really? Yeah, that's how I get on her good. She left before, like she left after you ordered possibly and you're not even including that. Like she even gets to stay for the meal. I've changed so many things on each menu item that she's like, I'm out. For everybody listening, this is why I mentioned that. So these guys could just carve me for four minutes about my ordering, my eating. This is what I would do. This is what I would do every morning in the coyote's locker room. I would just throw up a big softball of yans and then, shrapnel. Next thing you know, practice is starting in the day in the hour and a half that is usually mundane. It's fun. Oh yeah, that's what we needed to do. But it was great, man. And obviously took in a lot of hockey this weekend. Some great matchups. I mean, Minnesota. Sunday biz. Sunday that you called them. You called out the league. It was, I think we had 10 games. Yeah, yeah. The cadels shaking in his boots right now. But I mean, with the addition of Quinn Hughes, I feel like Minnesota, like every time they're on, I want to watch him just as much as I watch Colorado. It turns out who they get to play this weekend. They get Edmonton and then Colorado on a back to back. So just so fun watching those games. Obviously the Leafs who have been in struggling, mightily, the Buffalo Sabers. So we got a lot to dive into. But just an incredible weekend of hockey and things are rolling in the national hockey league. Wait, whoa, what did you guys get up to this weekend? Yeah. What'd you do in the exciting? Oh, wait, you went and collected your 50-50 winnings. We kind of dove into that last pot a little bit. What did you end up winning at a Florida Panthers 50-50 rap? Look, what is that? You probably, it's probably an IOU, you owe them more. A box. Yeah, it was funny because like the guy, guy was texting me. He's like, hey, can you come and get this? Because I had left the game early with like 10 minutes left in the third and then I got the text on the way home. And I actually thought it was a joke. Like me and my buddy Frank, we were dying off. And then the guy's like, hey, can you come in the next few days to pick it up? I'm like, yeah, sure. He's like, one of the girls who worked for me, Danny, will come and meet you. And I'm like, fuck. There used to be a girl that used to help us out with the charity stuff to work for the Panthers. I hope it's not her. I hope it's just I thought it was like an outside entity that took care of it. But no, it's the Florida Panthers. So I walk in there and it's all these people that I used to work with. They're dying laughing. They're like, this actually worked out great because all these people think that 50, 50 is fake and that nobody wins it. And I'm like, well, now they're really going to think it's fake. So we're going to do so. And then they're like, you're not leaving with this check, right? Yeah, yeah. No, it's basically a give back. But yeah, it honestly made for a fun ride. Go to the ring, see the people and sign out my life, give them my W2s and all that stuff. But yeah, it was funny. So having haven't got it yet, I think I don't know when they send it and then I have to send it back. So that was good. The Friday night. It's like the Abbotsford Heat, the Kanox Farm team waiting on the rings. I saw that story. Come on, guys. Get the guys. The rings here. I mean, you grind, you're basically losing money when you win the Calder Cup. You're stuck here. As a player. Yeah, it was a player. You're just grinding love of the game, love to try to get a title like Biz did. I mean, I remember we went to the Calder Cup finals in Wilkes Bay right after I left BU. And it's a lot. You're kind of like, fuck man, it's a long season, but I'm trying to get a ring here. Now they don't even get the rings. What's going on there? Basically the way you're describing though is like we went all the way to the finals and we didn't win. I believe the team wins the Calder Cup or at least at the time would make double of what the losing team would make. So I want to say after that full run to the finals when I was with Wilkes Bayer, we might have gotten like 11 grand. Well, you have to extend your lease at your apartment for two and a half more months. You're paying for more food and bills and everything like that. So you're basically at a break even. So these guys grind all the way, ended up winning the final. I think they beat the Charlotte checkers. And now the Vancouver Connects are kind of getting emails about, hey, hey, where the fuck are our rings? We didn't make any money. We're hoping upon these bad boys off so we can make a little bit of coin for that run we just went on. So on top of that, we got the ECHL players striking. So there's a lot going on in these minor leagues right now. Yeah. Can you go into now the only thing that was going to come from us being small, small minority owners of an East Coast Hockey League team is basically the league falling apart. So I mean, we mush any team. We pump their tires and any team we chirp, they go on six game winning streak, shout out Buffalo. We've gotten into these coast hockey league and now the players are going on strike. Do you can you explain what's happening? Because I'll speak out against the owners. I'll be player side like fuck, fuck the owners, fuck myself. Fuck you. Take my stake in the team. Take it. I don't want it. I mean, players living in some, you know, maybe not great areas, although Greensboro is beautiful and be grinding through these coast hockey league. Keats at it earlier, they probably just want like a stick. Oh, well, first of all, like on a more serious note, like I feel like some of the stuff that I heard from the player rep was like pretty basic stuff, like bumping up the pretty impact on the roads. So these guys can go eat in your house, not come out of pocket for meals. They do have a deal. I believe it's with warrior and a lot of the players who, especially some who have dealt with concussions, they don't want to wear the warrior helmet because maybe it's not, it's not comfortable or it doesn't fit their noggin. Like, I feel like the helmet is the one piece of equipment that you should be able to say, no, that's what I want to wear. Obviously, skates too, but we're talking about concussions here. So they made a rule that the only way that you could get out of wearing a warrior bucket was if you'd had a concussion where it's like, no, no, no, until they all get one, let's make it a concussion to put, send in the doctor's note so they make it switch out. To me, that's completely ridiculous. No, that's got to change. So there was a laundry list of stuff that, that I don't know why the, some of the owners were pushing back on. Now, mind you, the Greensboro ownership group, we don't have say on, in a sense of the, the first vote or the vote that went on like recently, where now we're, they're dealing with a strike. So I'll all say like, get back to the table, all these reasonable requests, just check them off the list because like, at this point, if they're going to keep bickering, like, I don't want any involvement in this because I feel like the players deserve everything that they're asking for and cleaning, including to raise the, the league minimum up to a reasonable amount. I know when I played, the league minimum was $250 in, in, in the ECHL. Keep in mind for a whole week. A week now, they, they had, they're, they're living covered and obviously all the gear and, and whatever gear that they could get at that time. I believe that league minimum now is $550 per week and they're asking for that to get bumped up to a certain amount. So listen, I, I'm not at the negotiating table, but everything when I talk to the player representation was sounded very reasonable in order to get. So I would imagine that this doesn't last very long. We dealt with that situation when they, when they, the ECHL player relief fund, when COVID was going on, when all of a sudden, yeah, I get that the ownership owners were struggling because there was going to be no gate, but the players were going to basically be out of 80% of their salary. And everybody ended up stepping up and figuring out how to make that work and getting the players paid, even though they weren't playing hockey. But I definitely imagine this situation that, that the owners will have to step up and figure out how to properly compensate these players. And that's really all I can say right now because I'm not in the midst of it. I just got a text about it and I'm like, Hey, man, anything you need from us, I was a former player in the ECHL. I feel like everything that I'm hearing right now is very reasonable. Let's just get this fucking thing done. In biz at the end of the day, who it's hurting the players and the people who go and watch it and some of those small towns, like that's all they have in those cities. Like that's what their date nights are. That's what they're bringing their kids to do to waste time on a weekend. So you can't take this away from them. You got to give them what they deserve. And obviously, like you said, they're not asking for the moon, right? They're asking for a couple extra bucks and, you know, the right equipment to keep each other safe too, right? So I think it's a bad. I have a helmet. Did I not have a jolt? I don't think this is going to cut it. But also keep in mind, I would say at least half the rosters on these ECHL teams are NHL affiliated where these guys have signed NHL contracts. So those aren't the guys who are making league minimum in the ECHL. There's probably a few guys per team, but they're just simply trying to get that bumped up to a reasonable amount where guys who play in the ECHL who are on an NHL contract, the least they can make is the AHL deal that they signed. So some of these guys on entry levels with their signing bonus and let's say they're making like 65, 70 in the American league majority of them are making over 100 K USD. That's what I made at the time when I signed with the Pittsburgh Penguins. I had 175 K signing bonus and I want to say I made 55, 60, 65 my first three years on that entry level. So with the bonus check, you're getting every year, including your salary. I was just, I think I was at 105, maybe 110 per season on average. So remember, that's back then, the cost of living and all these things have gone up. So I feel like if you're playing in the ECHL and the least amount you're making should be around that, you know, 55, 60 K mark. Maybe, maybe, maybe a little bit less than that. You roll your eyes with it, but it's hard, right? No, no, I'm saying, I'm saying I agree with you. I'm saying like, yeah, it seems like that, that, that's doable. And I wonder why guys are leaving the AHL to go playing college. Yeah. Well, I mean, yeah, yeah. So I remember I'm not as informed as the representation for the ECHL players would be. So the PHP, they can tell you everything you need to know about what they're, the owners are being completely unreasonable about. The helmet thing seemed very odd. The per diem situation seemed very odd and also the bumping up league minimum. So I don't know what the laundry list is. Go look into it if you're that interested, but it's clear that we're a player podcast. We're going to support the players. And if it came down to me having a fork over my less than 1% share of the Greensboro Gargoyles, fucking take it, give it to the guys. I don't care. I just want to see hockey in Greensboro thrive and guys in the ECHL get what they think that they deserve. So I'm sure that's a good way to get the players out there with the players. Because we could be out there. We could get like some helmets, not maybe the helmets they want. And then we're out there. We're just looking at like our counterparts on the other side. Help these guys out. And we're just chatting and cheering. I could do that. I can see ourselves all doing well, the way that our fans are revolting. I might be back playing in the ECHL before I know it. So who'd always man after this. After the man. Some people really hate our guts. They hate us. And now listen, I've had a long time since I was in Edmonton and the end of Pittsburgh and the ducks fans were quiet, but they were out there. People have hated me for many. So I don't love that any of the chicklets fans hate us now. But what are you going to do? I still love you. I still love you. I love you. I don't care if you hate me. I love you. And you can remember every night as you hate me and you write me mean things. I still love you. And I wish the best things happened to you. And I wish that you have a wonderful Christmas or Hanukkah or a Kwanzaa whatever you celebrate. I love you, even though you hate me. I got a question. What's Kwanzaa? I think Kwanzaa is an African celebration of Christmas. Now that might be completely inaccurate. Okay. You heard of Kwanzaa, which is even funny. Kwanzaa might be like an old game on the prices, right? I think Kwanzaa is a legitimate celebration, African celebration of Christmas. G. Kwanzaa is an annual non-religious celebration of African American culture, community, and heritage observed from December 26th to January 1st founded in 1966 by Dr. Mualana Carrenga. It is based on African harvest festival traditions and aims to reaffirm cultural ties and community bonds in the African diaspora. So I've said before, my mother was born in Chicago and she's 50% black because my grandfather was full black. Can I celebrate Kwanzaa? 100% anyone can. That's the best part about all these different. You could tell by anything you want, right? I mean, there may be people who really are disappointed. We left YouTube for Netflix on the podcast episodes that say you can't celebrate anything. Yeah. But I'm telling you, Bizz, what I say, I love you. I love you too, buddy. Okay. I would assume by reading this to about Kwanzaa, there's not really like a gift giving situation. Really down with this. We actually should celebrate festivists. And do you know what festivists is? Did you ever watch Seinfeld? I did. I remember seeing the episode, but can you remind me for a young listeners? That was a, a, a, a, stands a household Christmas tradition in which I believe instead of a tree, they just had like a metal pole in the house and you'd sit around dinner and you'd tell each person something you didn't like about them. So it was a very, you know, pa, it was kind of like what people are telling us about Netflix. We're celebrating festivists, but we're just hearing what people hate about us. And guess what? When it's my turn to say something bad about you, I'm gonna say I love you. I love your Christmas sweater. I love the beard that you have where you, or maybe if you shaved your beard, you missed the spot, but I still love it. And I love all of you guys. Okay. I promise you that. I also, I also this weekend, I had to remind Ryder. So we're passing the pads for town hockey team. This is the might team passing the pads. It was his turn to play goalie. The pads, let me say they're disgrace. They're basically street hockey pads. They don't get tight enough. It's kind of been like an issue, but whatever. They're the pads we have. And he played goalie and he went down and the pad moved and for an eight year old kid shot it pretty hard right off the kneecap. I knew right away. And when Ryder said a lot of big spills, right? He gets knocked down a little bit. Very skinny kid. He always pops back up though. As my wife said, I don't know if that's because he's tough kid. I think he is. He's like, he knows I got to get up. I'm not injured. I got to get up or he's just petrified of you. He always gets up. This one I could hear the tears. I went out there. There was six minutes left. I think we're down eight three. And I'm down there. I'm like, buddy, and he's crying. He's crying. I'm like, buddy, oh my god, that must have hurt. I can't imagine how much that hurt. You got to get up. You got to finish the game. And he got off. He gingerly got up through the tears. Six minutes. He cried the whole time, but he finished the game. He finished the game. And I said, I go, don't go down again. These pads are trash. Stay up. Just stay up by the old rules. He went exactly. He went down again. I'm like, oh, no, but that one the pad didn't move. So a lot of credit to Ryder for just grinding through a puck off the kneecap, which, listen, it was a cold ring. Randolph Randolph ringing. Should the chicken guys invest in getting like a new set of goalie gear for your kids team? It'd be fun. They're going to stride for Milton, you talkie. I knew talking is striking till they get new. You talkie great people. Great youth hockey program. I think we have the most teams in the state of Massachusetts like Milton, you talkie tons of kids play here. So I got to go get them some pads for that might team. I got to do it. I now saying it publicly. I have to go do it. I'm just going to tell them as they give them the pads. I love that. That's what my jerseys. That's my jerseys hanging in my jerseys hanging in that rink. I'll buy the pads. Yes. He actually I was told a funny story about you other day. I've become close to Kevin who runs the rink. Great dude. And there was a Bert. He was, he said like a couple of years ago, you were still playing. You were skating. And there was a bunch of guys that were painting and redoing some of the locker room. I think the new locker room for Milton, varsity team. And they were like, you were out there skating. You were snapping it off the crossbar off the post off the crossbar off the post. And these guys are like, he's not very good. He's not, he's not scoring at all. He keeps missing the net or hitting the crossbar and Kevin's like, no, dude, that's what he's trying to do. He doesn't have a goal. He was working on his accuracy to hit this small little poster, small little crossbar. And they went, oh, it was very enlightening for a couple of guys that were painters and construction workers that didn't know anything about hockey. So he also said that guy would just come out with a stopwatch and bag himself for an hour and said, yeah, that's the end. He worked his balls off. I taught him the way to do it. That's because I love you. I love you too. I like the theme of this podcast and we're going to be putting that 50, 50 money to use with the, you get the new pads for pads. Exactly. What would you want any logo on it or what, what would you put on the pad? I think a red and white is nice. Red and white. If you could get red and white and then the M half of the M on the right pad and half in the M on the left pad, now we're talking. Okay. Now we're talking right now. So yeah, great weekend. I got two more sleeps than the wife's home. It'll be Christmas Eve. Kids are very excited. I've had two very close calls with Keithy. That's our elf. You know, Elf on a shelf talked about him many times. There's Snoop on the stoop. We've talked about that. Well, Bree said before she left, she said, you can't forget to move Keithy every night. Don't forget to move Keithy twice. I've come down like with Ryder in the morning and he goes to look and I'm like, no, and so I go, oh my God, I heard something down in the bathroom underneath the stairs and then I run and get Keithy and move him quick. So I've been disappointed in that. Haven't been caught. Keithy has still been moving back and forth. He's shaking. He's telling everyone he loves them on the trip back to the North Pole every night. So I'm safe with that. But there's been close calls with me sneaking around like today. I had a towel on. I had to shove them under the towel as I walk by Ryder to get into the, I put them on the tree. Bing, he's up top. So tree looks great. Lights look great. Rinks awesome. The Yandell boys came over yesterday. So Bri came over with Brian, Colin and Liam. They stayed outside. Liam was outside for two hours with the kids. Colin and Brian went out there and watched football. It was great. Two hours. Bunzel's son, my son and Ryder and Ryder out there and the older boys. They're out there and you know those young kids with their skate with the older kids. They just want to impress them. They just want to stay out there forever. So it was a wonderful Sunday. Like one of those Sundays you're sitting around. You're looking at your good friends. Lifelong friends. You say, buddy, I hope you know I love you. Please get a Netflix subscription. Look, that's kind of how it went. So they have it. The hockey was awesome. We turned off. We turned off football for the abs and the wild. You mentioned that quick, but wild on this tear, four and all with Quinn Hughes and then the abs came into town. And it's like measuring. I don't think so. You're a very good team, but we are the abs. There was a little bit of like animosity going into that one. At least the fans were talking about a lot. Somebody said, now I didn't look into this enough that the abs broadcast team might have mentioned like, oh, how he was all while stead was overcelebrating, right? Now kind of felt that bizarre because we've complemented Colorado in the way that their broadcast team can light up a game, make it so exciting and the enthusiasm they bring. I would say easily top three broadcasts in the NHL. I don't think that the players on the ice and the way that they play hurt it. The fact that every night's an electric factory, but I was surprised to see that that wall stads celebration really was a celebration only. It was his quote after in which he said they asked like, oh, you know, what does it mean to beat those guys? And he said, I guess it means we're better than them. But we're a better team. So I believe that that's what was the animosity was the cold. It wasn't simply the celebration. Okay. So what do you make of that comment? I don't think that that's that inflammatory. No. Hey, we're talking about it right now and people were talking about it after that original game they had. So I love it. I love it. Any of that stuff. I'm a big fan of now. Maybe when I was playing, if I was on a team, I'd be like, oh, maybe I would have been the guy saying something that was considered stupid and in hockey circles and not giving teams ammo. I love it. And who knows? He might have not even like, it's just like, I don't know, we just beat him. Maybe we're the better team. It was probably a throwaway comment that he didn't think twice about after, but you know the dog. And when he's barking, and when he seems to feel a little disrespected, now, by the way, the dog right now is on pace for 70 goals. I think we're witnessing, but, but I'll say this. He's not the leading score in the NHL anymore because McDavid has over its one point right now. But the dog is on a mission. The abs are on a mission. The abs are quite literally better than way better than everyone else. I think they're probably more fun to watch than everyone else. So if you're going to disrespect them in their mind, you better be ready to play when we come into town. Yeah. Also might be one of those things where they're running through the league so easily right now that you just, I mean, we've talked about it before. I think it was Jordan where some games it would, he would make up stories in his head of like a fan saying something to where people are like, I don't think he said anything, dude. And he would be like, nah, he said I was shit. I'm going to fucking light them up now. And he's like, no, no. So kind of like almost like fabricating a little bit in order to get you going through the delgirms of the season when you're fucking walking through the rest of the league. Keep in mind though, Minnesota, they ended up playing less than 24 hours before that and having a nice big win against the Edmonton Oilers who have been red hot. So you got to go play a game less than 24 hours later in a back to back against a team who's just salivating and waiting to fucking bend you over after your goalie. Want a game and had some interesting comments to follow up. So I guess I love the storyline. I guess I was a little surprised that it was if it was just the pumper nickel like that's what they're getting all fired up about. But it's clear who the better team in the league is right now because it is the Colorado Avalanche and a league of their own and then everybody else and they proved that on that Sunday drumming of Minnesota. Wow. It's also to it's its individual rivalries that we're getting out of this and you play in all these teams, they're going to see each other and play off most likely. So it adds to the fuel of the fire of just teams hating each other which at the end of the day, we love to see that like the play the players love to see it. It makes games like you said during the dull dreams of the season that makes it a little easier to get up for right. So I fucking love it. Wallstad also to it's he's not American. He's not Canadian. It could get lost in translation. What he said, he probably didn't mean it like where a better team like he has eyes. He knows that Colorado is the class of the league right now. So at the end of the day, it's a fun, fun, you know, little battle that we got going and it's going to last till playoffs. And you alluded to it, Yanns like that, that division top three teams in the NHL are in one division. Talk about an absolute gauntlet right now. You got, you got abs at the top, Dallas to follow and then mini right behind. So this kind of brings up a larger discussion and now that Minnesota is must watch TV. I was talking with G and I mentioned it via text with you guys and I don't know if it's something that the players would want. But and I know that in this next CBA, it got dropped down a year. So now if you're on a team on currently, you're able to resign for seven years, whereas if you go to another team as a free agent, now it's six years where after this summer, after this summer, right, that's the new CBA in which they lock down. So they bump down the, the, the length of deals by one year in each of the situations. Once again, eight years was the old rule for a team that you're already with seven. If you went to a new team, now it's going to be seven for a team that you're with six for a new team. I would even be okay on moving forward, especially with the amount that the players are making and seeing moves like we just saw with Quinn Hughes, I would be okay for five years on a team that you're currently with and for for a team that you're now going to as a free agent. Some teams who have had dynasties and had had players along for a very long time might say absolutely not. If we draft a guy, we want to make sure we lock that guy in for eight years, seven years now. But and I understand that and maybe even some players would be like, absolutely not. We want the longevity and want to make sure we have the security of signing these, these long term deals. Now I'm just saying for the top end guys who in my opinion is who should have the most say. So the top end dogs were making all the money and driving the traffic for the league, the McDavid's, the McKinnons, the Hughes's, the Maccars. I wouldn't mind that that five years because of where the tags would be and then there would be no real leaving money on the table. You're going for the top dollar and I think from a from a ownership perspective, they would be thrilled with it because they don't have a problem paying the top dollar. I think what they have more of an issue with is is most of times in in years, maybe six, especially seven and eight, how well are these guys playing up to that contract and how many times do you see where guys probably by the time of the end of those deals where the money keeps being brought up with what they're making based on what they're contributing that they would probably want out of that team in that situation to begin with. Like look at darn it. Number the long ago. Remember the long ago being like my contract sucks. I would say at least 50% of these eight year deals or even seven teams are kind of teams and players are kind of like, oh, God, I wish this would have ended where he was kind of like at his prime. And then now he's signing for a fair dollar amount and maybe even off to a better situation and not being ragged on like you think Darnell wants to be getting fucking ragged on where every time his name is brought up in Edmonton, that all they can mention is that that tag in that number. So well, that's one, but that's one where it goes against the opposite would be like, well, I made whatever it is 77 million. So I know. And that's okay. So but I would also like to ask, I mean, he's in a different situation because he's on a great team and he's probably loving life and the fact that they're going to the finals. But in most cases, like that's the last thing that the guy wants to constantly hear over the course of that length of deal. I would imagine that he would be okay. How many guys would be okay with making a million, maybe a million and a half less on the same term, if not a little bit longer now that he's gotten a new deal. And that's not being brought up in every single discussion. And the main reason why I bring this up is it makes the league so much more interesting where you're going to see more deals like we saw with Quinn Hughes, where you're getting a guy who's in his prime who ends up getting to move over and you're making a good team into now a great competitive team where I want, I want the top 16 teams to be flat out the best teams in the league where the top, they're the bottom 10. I don't give a fuck if they have one superstar going into the back half of the season and into playoffs. Like I genuinely don't care because they're going to be able to reload their organization quicker with the fact that when it's their turn to have all these guys, they can sign them to the four or five year big year deals and then eventually move on. Do you get what I'm saying? I want to see more deals like the Quinn Hughes deals to make more super teams because the hockey's way better. I want to watch more abs versus, uh, uh, Edmonton or more abs versus Minnesota's than watch any other shittier teams go at the good teams or even going shitty teams on shitty teams. Some of this hockey man, it's pretty, pretty not, it's not good to watch. Yeah. The no watch lists teams are it's growing. Yeah, yeah, it's growing and that those games when they're on, it's like, all right. I'm going to probably look over to Netflix here and be a fun show. I keep, I'll say the best players. I actually think like what Matthews did, I think it's a no brainer to sign four or five years. Yeah. And hit it again and hit it again and your hit is so big each year. The number is so big. You're, you're making so much money in the four or five year deal anyways that it's not like, but then with the eight year deal and now it's seven, like a guy like Trent Frederick, you know, gets 24 million bucks over eight years. Now, hasn't worked out great for him so far and I meant to, but it's the guys like, thank God, I got that eight year deal. I made 24 million bucks. That's why I said some of the players would be like, oh, I just want the security, but in the same breath, I was more mentioning it for the top guys where they won't feel as they won't feel as pressured to give a hometown discount because it's such a shorter amount of time where like now a team isn't that's if the Trent Frederick and the way that he's been playing continues through over the course of his entire contract. Well, buddy, years three through eight, man, like that's going to be hell for not only in the higher in the minors, it's just very negative where that five year term to me feels like a very good place where you won't, it won't be dragging out and the media won't be getting on them. The fans won't be getting on on them. And once again, like if he's still getting a five year deal at two, two and a half per year, this guy won't be starving. He ain't going full of Odell back on junior on that money. Yeah. Well, I mean, I would hate to take it away just because of what you said. The guys that have earned that money and signed those big deals that aren't the superstars of the league. Like you said, we'll use Trent Frederick for an example this whole time, but he wouldn't if he signed a two or three year deal, he might be out of the league in two years, you know what I mean? Or somebody else, not him, but like these big guys take your advice and then just sign those deals, but keep that keep the ability for the other guys. Yeah, keep that ability for the guys to secure a bag, whether it's a seven year deal worth three million, that's still that's life changing money for those guys where the big boys, like Matthews is done in Connor just did sign the three year four year deal. If you think that your team isn't going to be, you know, putting out the product that you want, but also if guys are happy there, like you tell me bark off, wouldn't want to sign another eight year or seven year deal next year or whenever he can. Like if you're happy somewhere, then why not be able to have it? But I do agree with you that the big dogs shouldn't be signing the long term deals just to, you know, it does go wrong. Well, it's it's it tests loyalty. It creates way more dialogue is like, Oh, like I don't know where the direction of this organization heading. Yeah. Is he going to resign and then going back to why we were talking about Minnesota and Quinn Hughes. Like I want to see more top end guys move to like a super team to watch better. Well, people like the people like the parody of the league. I know, but the par and I've been beaten that drama and I agree. I do enjoy that there's a lot of teams engage and involved in it. But once you get closer to the deadline, you're going to see more movement from these big names where it's going to make, you know, above average teams great or great teams, super teams where once again, when is everybody engaged and dialed in to watch hockey? NHL playoff time. Well, also what you have it or you might have said it earlier, but if all these guys, if the max deal was five years, okay, that means more and more that the money's going to go up because a superstar's five year deal end and he gets 16 a year. I mean, Caprice off sunning like his own planet right now. And then all of a sudden two years later, oh, it's 17. Then it's 19. So it actually owners might dislike it based on the fact that like the price is still going to keep going up quicker than it has been. I be curious. Well, I mean, Minnesota being a prime example, I don't think they would mind it because look how much money they ended up spending in buyouts for Paris A and Souter. Like that's that's where that's the the shit side of it for the owners where I would I would kind of prefer that. I'd rather pay guys who are producing on the ice in real time rather than be dishing out money once. Okay, well, we had to give him eight years because they had the leverage, but they're not even playing up to what they were doing before. So I think it would just make, make everything overall more exciting, more high end trades, more super teams. Yes, the parody would still be there up until a certain point where, okay, this guy's got either a year left or he's coming to the end of his deal where let's just move. Guys are coming up more frequently. Let's move him. Let's move him. Let's move him. I don't know. That's, I just want to watch better hockey. I think it'll also it'll shorten guys careers like those, you know, the third, fourth line, the fifth, sixth, demon, like, they'll be so much more, they'll be able to interchange them and bring in younger guys as opposed to when they are on a long term contract, they have to stick around. Yeah. I wonder what players would would rather. I mean, I'm guessing they probably stick because it's such a big union, right? That we like having as much security, but it is very interesting. Well, keep in mind too though, is with that advancement. It's not a, we talk about the, the low end, the guys like me, right? Like I only played five years or what if I could have signed a long term, but the league minimum would then go up. Like at that point, maybe league minimum, I mean, when I started, it was, I think it was 400 grand, maybe four and a quarter. So now, I think nowadays it's up to 900, maybe nine and a half. So at that point, the owners, what they would be given back is more bumping up the amount that the players are getting in the short amount of time and also the bottom end would actually go up. So the league men, hopefully by then, would be all million and a half at that point. So I get what you guys are saying to protect those types of guys, but it always goes back to the guys who are driving the league. What do they want? What are the, what are the top 50 players want as far as getting their money quicker, not feeling obligated to take these hometown discounts? Because as good as Corill's been and how much he deserves every cent that he signed for, I think Minnesota fans and some people were hoping that he was going to take a little bit of a discount. If it's a five year deal, there's no way these guys are taking discounts. But at the end of the day, those big dogs, they can do whatever they want. If they wanted to sign a one year deal every year, they're going to have a job. I'm more worried about the middle of the pack guys. Okay. Fair enough. And when you talk about the guys who are who are basically running the league or the faces that people come and watch for and enjoy watching 20 years now, it's been said. And what said did I passing Mario is the all time leading score for the Pittsburgh Pan. I think we talked about it last episode. Mario 1,723 points in 915 games. Sid is now at 1724. He passed Mario. Now granted a lot more games, 1387. It kind of brings up a great discussion of like who is the greatest penguin of all time on bias. I was lucky enough to play play with both of them. I got I think 12 games with Mario that last year he played 26 games, still had 22 points. And then his heart issue forced him to retirement. But since quote after the game was like so interesting to me because he said on the fans reacting to his historic moments tonight, he said it's really special. You're trying to stay in the game, but also try to enjoy the moment too. It's hard to balance that sometimes, especially as you get older, you tend to look at things a bit differently, which I was like, oh, like and no question for him now. Like, I imagine his brain must have just been kind of running wild. Like I just passed Mario. Like I have the most points in the history of this organization that had two of the greatest players that's ever played play here in Mario and Yager. But I was wondering Keith or Bizz, Keith, why don't you take it first? Like, who is the greatest penguin? I always kind of base it on like even when talking about old school guys like the Bobby Ors of the world, like I didn't I wasn't able to watch them as much. Mario, you saw a little bit more of, but just being in the league when Sid was in there for what he did for the league on and off the ice, like the I have the utmost respect for Sid and just the longevity. Like the the fact that he's been touted this, the savior since he was what 12, 13 years old, like in the fact that he's lived up to it. Like how many athletes like I was trying to think like him and LeBron who have had this tag of being, you know superstar franchise league player, face the league players since they were at a young age had lived up to it. To have that pressure and to bring it every single year and to not have any blemishes off the ice, like it's truly amazing to me of what he's done. Consumant pro like you think of the little things like I remember in his first couple of years, people would talk about he's always not great on face offs. Like he's got it like he was 40, he was in the 40% and he's been over 50%. Every other I think four times in his career he hasn't been over 50%. So just you know he's working on stuff in the summertime getting better. For me, it's got to be Sid just because I saw it all. I was able to enjoy able to play against them. So just the fact and then the fact that you're passing Mario, a guy that he looked up to, I think he lived with them, right? It went like he's it's like it's so amazing. Mario when he got drafted, he's in the suit and standing behind it's like it's just the fact it worked out like this. Last episode I said like in Penguin Span's wildest dreams, they wouldn't have thought that he would have broken that right. And it's like it the biz is the NHL in the in a simulation. Like he does it against the team that he grew up rooting for against the Canadians. And he did it and is what was it? 1,700 or 1,387th game. So it's got his little child. John, you know what I mean? It's crazy. So it's good. But you see his parents in the stands and everything like they've been there the whole ride. It's amazing. You literally just took the words and I'm out. There's really cool scene. His father getting emotional who's been a massive part of his career. And then who also I believe grew up a massive Habs fan. So that's why everybody keeps making that connection as the where he's going to finish. I think he's going to be a forever penguin at this point now, boys. And he's just going to keep going. I agree with you with it. I think he's going to end up hitting that 2000 point mark. As far as it seems away right now, I think he's still playing in another Olympics. And to answer your question, I'm going to say Mario because I think Mario was basically like just as like individually gifted as Wayne Gratsky. Maybe slightly below, but of course with with everything that he went through health wise and injury rise with his back. He just didn't have the longevity. But when you talk about sheer domination through a period of time, he was like, he was a God. He was a God amongst amongst boys. And you know, I think thankfully for that organization, he was also at the time willing to to forgo money on the spot to even keep pet organization a thing like that team should even be in Pittsburgh. And for him to like, uh, these, what's the word I'm looking forward? You don't take it right away. The money you back will. Or, oh, yeah, we're such armies. We're dying. Exactly. It's a big word. The problem. Deferred. Deferred. Yeah. Thank you so much. And deferred 30 million bucks of contract money at the time when he's basically going through the, probably the back half of his career, not knowing what was going to go on where the state of the organization was going to go. Not even the state of the league at that point. So there were so many things that that factor into why I think that he's for sure the penguins go. But like you said with the fact that when he was drafted and he was there behind him in that picture, two of imagine that he would be passing him in points, um, it is unimaginable. And he kind of set the, you know, he set the foundation for said to go on and have success. And also got to live with them and having a mentor like that to start out your career in order to catapult to what he was able to become. I have to, I have to give the nod to Mario and you. Wait, there are guys that say Mario was better than Wayne. No, like during that era, like they're, I think, Yager, when he was asked, I think he said Mario is the greatest ever. So like, yeah, he did that 917 games. Was it like that? That is in 915. 915 and so I mean, I, I, for me, Mario was probably like more skilled. He was bigger and like just like his hand that like this sounds insane. We're talking about Sydney, Crosby, but it's more like the three cups, the two cups. And, and because of that, like and the leading score, it's like, Crosby's the greatest penguin of all time. Like, yeah, maybe if you look at like games, Lemieux dominated, like, Cid never did that. Even though he had six point games and all these records and all these incredible accomplishments like Mario probably at times was more dominant, considering we have people saying he was the best of all time, but it's that extra cup. And it's wild that like Crosby came there after Lemieux and McDavid's there after Gretzky was in Edmonton and the simulation business talking about. And the other thing about talking about Troy Crosby, great guy. Um, when Cid was six or seven or nine years old and he's obsessed and he's shooting Pux into the dryer and even then like his wildest imagination wasn't this. I, it couldn't have been. It couldn't have been because he, you know, he was a hockey fan. I believe he's drafted, right? And it's like, all right, like, yeah, I think this kid's very special. Something's off. I mean, he's that good. He's that obsessed, but you couldn't imagine this. There's no way he could. So it's just and that's why we had I'm okay with anybody who was watched over the last 20 years saying Sydney Crosby because the longevity component isn't just luck. It has to do with the fact that for all these years, Cids doing five, six days a week of training. The minute the season ends, he takes a few weeks to hit the reset and he's right back to work. Always looking to advance. So in especially doing it, you know, over the last 10 or 10, 15 years when the game has accelerated to the level that it's at where there's nowhere, no more like backup shitty goalies like the standard compared to what it used to be is so much better that the overall team structure and defenses like these guys don't have summer jobs. They are full time full-fledged. Halfly, it's like you laugh, but back then I think that you know, some of the guys at Mulamue was dancing around. I bet you I bet you there was a few guys when the mues started who probably had summer jobs. I bet you'll need them. I'm probably like, you're 84 and 84. But I don't think I don't think the money was really there until Wayne ended up moving on to to what do you call it to L.A. Like I think that I think that Gretzky when he was fucking getting 200 points was making maybe a million dollars, which I think was saying that maybe even less. So I just think it's remarkable what Sid's done and I know we got into that debate and it shouldn't take away from anything in the fact that he is the standard. I will debate you till the end of Earth that by the time it's all said and done, he has to be on the Mount Rushmore. Oh, yeah. He has to be. I don't know who you want to take off. That's a discussion that would be very difficult. I would love to ask Wayne and maybe even Mario what their opinions on that are, but you can't deny the fact that that Sid should be on the top four of all time. And you know what my favorite thing is and it's like Whit said to start off this show just spreading the love. Mario would never say he's the best player. He would say Sid is and Sid would never say he's the best player. So it's just the classiness of hockey players in general, but especially the big dogs that the respect that they have for the guys that paved the way. Like we all do it. It's truly remarkable what a class act he is. No doubt. He's, let me see here. Oh, and one in sandbaggers, but like, I'm very true. Very true. Yeah, but if Mario could be on one too, actually, no, he's nasty. He's 32 points away from passing Iserman. Okay. And then we got our cell Dionnex. Then he's got Marcel Dionnex about 44 points. Do you know who would be after that? I'll give you Gretzky, Yager, Messier, how? Do you know who's fifth without looking? Yeah, I see a word. No, no, no, wasn't a leaf. Oh, Francis. Yeah, Francis. What's Francis a leaf at one point? I know he's a hurricane. I know. Why don't I wasn't thinking him. I was thinking settler. No, Ron Francis, fifth all time. What a pole by busy boy here. I know. And he was a leaf his last season. Well, his last season, the league he was on Carolina and was traded at the deadline to the Leafs. 10 points in his last 12 regular season games. They booed him on a time. But congrats to Sid, incredible, incredible stuff. Just to see OV do the goals last year and Sid boys, I get to tell my kids if I ever eventually have them that I played on a line. I know. I know. That's so sick. I've never heard you say that either. So it's like you'll be breaking that news to them. Did you see our coursey rating? If I would have played with Sid my whole career, I would have, I think I would have hit the 500 point mark. Yep. Yep. And they just had a coursey back then. They would have kept you around longer. I mean, Mario Lemieux, I sent him on a breakaway and he tapped me on the shin pad. Nice pass kit. Like, score. Did he score? No. No. Did you have any points with Mario like assisted on him? I have an, I don't know. I wonder. I think I made Mario retire when I rounded the net and missed him by 15 feet. And he's, he's like, I can't fucking do this. He's like, he's like, this guy's, oh, this guy might have, must have a summer job though. He must. Here's, here's why I also put Mario ahead of him. And I talked about the deferred money. He turned that deferred 30 million into 280 sheets. Yeah, that was a great move in the end. I mean, that worked out pretty well for him. In sports, winning takes more than talent. It takes strength, reliability, and the drive to go to the distance. Sound familiar? That's the same DNA you'll find in the Chevy Silverado. As capable and dependable as a winning team, Chevy Silverado shows up and gets the job done. It won't flinch when the pressure's on. It doesn't take place off when it comes to trucks. Chevy Silverado's football guy approved to learn more about Silverado. Visit Chevy.com. There was a couple trades, couple trades right before the holiday roster. Freeze Philip Denow no longer a member of the Los Angeles Kings. He's now with the Montreal Canadians. I wasn't surprised considering there was rumblings everywhere that he wanted to be traded. I was surprised that LA didn't get a player in return. And LA is kind of a weird spot. You know what's Copa Tars last year and Doudi's getting older. Odd to lose a guy that while not having a great season so far. He's been a money player for the Kings since he signed there. If you look at that deal when he signed it, I would say if you're a Kings fan, tell me if I'm wrong, very happy with the signing. It worked out well. Now they just ran into a wagon four years in a row in the first round. But Denow was always one of the top players for LA and all those series. He's a great defensive center. The offense has just gone dry. But I was shocked. It was a second round pick in return. I was like, jeez, like LA, LA's got, they got to go do something based on they just lost one of their centermen who's obviously playing down in the lineup than where he had years prior, but nothing in return. Yeah, and they've been getting like little offense from that center ice. I think that by field, he had a period of time there in this season where it's like, okay, he's taking that next step. But I feel like he's regressed from that. I want to say at the time we had him on the TNT broadcast between Copa Tars, by field and Denow, they have like 12 goals, maybe even less than that. And I think that at that time, by field had like four or five. So I agree with you at very weird. The only thing that would make sense is, is, jeez popping up right now. He's the only four goals on the year. He asked for the trade, right? So does that kind of handcuff LA like saying like, hey, this guy wants out. Who knows what's going on behind the scenes? What's your handcuff in a sense? You don't have to move off of them. And I'm sure there's a lot of teams that could, I mean, think of how many teams that need centermen. I mean, like, look at like, look at many right now. I feel like they need a first line center in order to put themselves over the edge. I wouldn't put him there, but he would definitely free you up in a sense of, you have a reliable guy who you could just sick on another team's top guy. I mean, it was a few years ago now, but we interviewed Nathan McKinnon. We said, who are some of the hardest centermen that you face on a yearly basis? And he put Denow at the top of the list the way that he's a wet blanket. So the offense when he first got to LA, and I want to say it was Todd McClellan was the head coach. He popped off for 24 goals that first year there. So I don't think that that's gone. I just think it was regressed ice time. He's not seeing eye to eye with Hiller. And it was time for him to move on. And in a situation where he gets to go back to Montreal, a place that he's comfortable with. I'm sure he's going to see very much eye to eye with Martin St. Louis. And I'm sure that St. Louis is going to instill that confidence that he needs back in his game in order to start producing. So I think that's a huge pickup, especially for a young roster in Montreal. And it seems like you say we're kind of a gift that you don't have to send a guy back. So very interested to see what LA does here. Now, this is a top tier landing spot for for free agents. Going to get into go to LA. You're playing with an awesome organization, but you're out of the media noise. I don't know, man. Does that feel like a place that maybe Austin Mac use would want ahead first line. Thank you. I mean, that that that situation we can get into in a little bit is disgusting right now. I don't want that. I gave it 99 over 99 and a half points for the Leafs this year was my bed of the year. I got people at the Walls Christmas party coming up. Motherfucking me. What the hell are you talking about? I always heard you don't know anything. Now my wallet knows that you don't know anything because I pounded that over 99 and a half points. Uh, Leafs regular season bet you gave out to your loyal checklets listeners. Well, most of them hate you now. I hate you too. I said, I love you though. I love you. What did you bet on it? I'll give you the cash right now. I in terms of LA. Byfield. I thought he was going to pop off this year. I had no idea is 19 points in 33 games. Geez, also writing it supposedly ended pretty messy. What does that mean? No, it didn't. It was just like he was fed up. He wasn't getting the ice time. He thought he deserved. He thought that that was a reason why his offense had regressed. We had the conversation of if you take two minutes away from a, from a, a centerman like that, it could mean the world of difference to how much he's getting his touches in. Yeah. What situations you're putting him in if he's only playing penalty kill and just firing the thing down the ice and only in a shutdown role. So he's going to be a lot happier and Montreal speaks the language and a place that he's familiar with. So in a, in a great deal for Montreal, just because I mean, they've got new hooks out, docks out and Evans are all out. So those are sentiment like you need centerman. If you plan on making the playoffs, which they do this year, they want to. Yeah, they want to, right? You need to have sentiment. You have to have guys that can go up and down your lineup. I think the nose one of those guys like if he's on your third, if he's your third line center, like we say every year, if he's a third line center, there are a cup contending team like they're a team that can make a run in the playoffs. Play well. So I think for to Montreal to go out and do that deal and get it done and not have to give up any roster players is a great move by them. I think this reeks of L.A. already having something lined up and something in the something there as far. What do they have in cap space? G can you pull that up? Because when you were able to get that much money off the books throughout the course of the season, that's a, that's a big tool you can use to attract somebody. So I want to say they know was in the in the six million range. They got 9.4 million in cap space currently. That's a lot, boys. That's a lot. Our team that's top three in the division. Those guys are out injured though. Or is that with everyone healthy? I don't know if like maybe what he's looking at, like the cap would be off because you're on like, I know, but I don't think that they're dealing with much injury now, right? Well, yeah, doc new hook. No, he's saying no, I'm talking about L.A. He's got. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, sorry, sorry. I was just, I was actually just looking at the stats from because I wanted to bring up Montreal. That game that they lost were crossed. We broke the record Sunday against the Habs. I think Montreal after Edmonton or right with Edmonton is the most fun to watch play over time. And I think Lane Hudson might be the most entertaining player in overtime. I don't know if you saw the movie pulled on Carlson. He is, they put out Caulfield Suzuki and Hudson. And then I think the next group is Matheson. Slough Kofsky. I don't remember who else, but that Caulfield Hudson thing, it's unreal. It's unreal. And Hudson is just flying. He's like born to play three on three hockey in the offensive zone and he's defenseman. So pit, pit ended up finally ending the losing streak against them in the in the shootout. But incredible entertaining overtime. I love those over some of the over times you get to leaving the zone. One team gets possession off the face off and they pretty much hold on to it the entire time. They throw it back to the goalie. That one was an example of just like what do you call it electric factory business? Well, since, since we're on the topic of Montreal too, and I wanted to talk about that Atlantic division, a little bit of a bizarre thing. We're going to get into Detroit too, but the top two leaders of the division, which go Detroit and then Montreal Detroit is a minus three goal differential. And then Montreal is a minus four goal differential. At least when I looked yesterday. So pretty bizarre that two and in third place in the Atlantic is Tampa Bay. And when I looked, they were plus 19 goal differential. So just, I guess scoring and executing at the right time. And then when they're losing games, they're getting fucking blown out. So if you want to move on to Detroit and talk about how they keep silently getting it done, I feel like we haven't talked about them much. And the fact that you're getting DM'd and peppered with Marie's cider for heart with. Yeah, not just Norris for heart. I think we're getting a little out over our skis with heart talk. Hey, you want to talk Norris trophy right now? Maybe some people who aren't wings fans who aren't hearing a lot or seeing a lot of them. You're missing what's turning into a player that we haven't seen in quite some time. And I was thinking about it. It's like, all right, we had Dunkin' Keith. We had Drew Daudi. We have McCarr, we have Quinn Hughes. We had all these amazing defensemen. We haven't had a big, mean shutdown while also being offensive superstar defensemen. I mean, I think of pronger. Tell me somebody else and Marie's cider is turning into that guy. Weber, Weber, Weber. Yeah, yep, yep, Weber. I'll give him that. And I think that cider might even be better passing than Weber. Yeah, Weber had the bomb. Weber had the bomb. And cider has a bomb, but not the Weber bomb. Here comes the Weber bomb guy behind the net torturing me as I wasn't on the ice for the PK. Here comes the Weber bomb. Where I like it? I love it. I want some more of it. But yeah, Weber's a great, Weber's a great call because he was also first PK, mean is shit in front of the net through enormous hits. And more each cider, wings fans are seeing what they hoped when they drafted him. Very high pick. People didn't know much. And you're now like, they knew what they were doing. Pick in this guy. He's a horse. He plays 25, 26 minutes. He's mean as shit. He has a cannon. He got the OT winner Sunday or Saturdays. Get the cell. He's got the he get the cell. He's awesome. He got that from here. No, oh yeah, listen to me. We haven't seen that from Austin. Austin did it to his home crowd that was booing the team. He's just doing it. Like tell me how much you love me. I am a big dominant defenseman. I do cross check people in front of the net. And I make perfect breaks break out passes. And I run the PPP. And now you're seeing a guy who's just coming into his own. What a contract. Very similar deal to Jack Hughes that like eight years times like the eight area where you're like, oh my god. Like wait, wait, there's six more years, seven more years on this contract of this guy making that number. And he's only going to get better. He's only going to get more dominant. And now I think he's a main reason Detroit sitting where they're at. He's probably their team MVP. This is not probably he is their team MVP. And all the Red Wings fans who are telling me Mauree Cider. Now you guys saying for the heart, I'm not there yet. But for for Norris, 100% 100%. It's just you can't you can't win Norris's when when Kael MacKarr's healthy and playing in the league. And I would even say the same for Quinn Hughes. But going back to Mauree, it's like obviously, when we talk about Shayweber, we don't think he's as tough as Shayweber and maybe as intimidating. Maybe a more modernized version. He did go against Castelick and try to handle his own business not too long ago against the Bruins. But you mentioned what OT winner 25 points and 36 games so far this season. Some of the best defensive analytics in the game right now where there's nowhere to hide for him. He's taught a guy and he's playing against that. What's that 27 points? Oh 27. Okay. I was one off. 21 points in his last 21 games. Okay. Oh, sorry. That was that I was including 21. He's got 21 in his last 21 or at least as of the other day when he scored the OT winner. That's what I'm looking at. And like I said though, just some of the best defensive analytics in the game and he can't you can't escape. He's going against top lines night in night out every situation. So a tip of the cap. I would have him. I would have it go. He's probably right below Warenzki for me. Right. They get we go. Kale, Quinn, Warenzki, maybe Warenzki and Quinn are tied at two and then Marietz at this point. And and Heskin is there. That's the top five right now we're going with. I like that. I mean, the year he's having year five for marietz. He's finally coming into his own. And I would say that it goes from forward. Can adapt the quickest defenseman and then goal pending. I feel like year five is right around where you're starting to see guys bud. I want to say it took headman around that amount of time too. Maybe even a little bit longer. So a little bit of optimism. Maybe for Buffalo Sabers fans and what they're seeing from Owen Power. Maybe it's just one more year and then he's at that threshold. So we'll see. Still only 24 years. And then Whit, you mentioned it a little bit like when he was drafted, he wasn't the big name. Right. Like people were kind of like really? But is there any organization that you would trust more when making a draft pick? Or your fan base shouldn't, you know, question it. What do yeah, question and be like, what are we doing here? Like if they're saying let's take most cider when they did, it's been a great pick. He like you said, he's still only 24 years old. This kid is going to be a monster for the next 15 years. And he's fun to watch and hockey's back in D town. I am looking at the draft right now. He went sixth. I think Jack Hughes obviously stays first overall. Then it's then it's cider. He went he went sixth. It was Capocacco Kirby doc Bowen Byron Alex Turcott and then more each cider. I mean, he's definitely going second there. Right. And then I think third would be Boldy who went 12 who's just totally reached totally reached that level Billy Garen talked about just going to be. If not, I mean, it sounds crazy. If not the best, uh, uh, going into the Olympics, I mean, that's a top three forward for team, for team USA. So yeah, Detroit hit a home run with him. Very happy for those fans. Detroit. It's weird because like their goal, pending save percentage and what the goal is, it's been able to do. It's not great. Both guys below 900. I don't think Gibson had a win the entire month of November. So kind of bizarre to see how successful they've been yet have such bad goalie stats. But I think it goes back to the year that the brinkets having. He has 20 tucks right now well on pace to get over 40. Obviously Dylan Larkin in the confidence that he took from four nations last year. The way that he ended last season and that he's taken into this year. And then our boy, um, um, Lucas Raymond, he's got 18 tucks as well. So the top end guys keeping their special teams very good and just, and oh, that's a big reason as to why they're at the top of the division. So credit for them for not making, you know, any crazy moves sticking to their guns and sticking with the familiarity to their roster. You know, it'll, it'll be fun to watch cider in, uh, in the Olympics, like playing against guys in his league. A lot of guys on his team aren't in the NHL like he'll be, he'll be showing the way of how you play like a North American style game. He'll be torturing guys in front of the net as much as you can. And I, Jeff rules, but yeah, I don't know what to expect from Germany. But you take a penalty against them. You got Leon, you got him and you got Stutzel. Who's on fire right now? Oh, all of us on fire right now. Heads up for their power play at least. I can't, yeah, that's a, that's a guy. I can't wait to see play like best on best. That's a good call right there. And biz, you mentioned quickly Buffalo. All that was needed and you put it out onto Twitter. Very good call. I just had to say zero point zero. I wouldn't even give him the point zero one percent chance to play off. And they give them now. They've ripped off six and a row five and a row since, uh, since Kevin Adams was let go. Kekelein comes in Rasmus Dallin goal the year by defense. And so far, maybe this is the whole goddamn team. Walking the whole team like, Keith, did you ever do that in the NHL? No, God, no, you never went in. Oh, yeah, I went end to end a few times, but not walking everybody. Maybe just beaten one or two guys wide speed wide. You guys remember in Edmonton, I scored the OT winner. But it was against like, it was like the old peckum. I beat wide like what do we do? No, yeah, it was at the one that was bitching at you when you, when, or was it the other way around? No, he was bitching at me, said, I owe them one when he put one on my stick and I gave him ski the breakaway. Ah, the good old years. I love you, Keith. I love you too. So buffalo. Now, they're still not in the playoffs right now, but they're fighting and they're grinding and they took our words and their team even on a heater on Twitter. They went at you, Bizz, they said, full of Paul, you with tears after you put out the meme of you looking away from the Leafs and looking at the savers walking down the street, like, oh, I want to trade this girl. And I like that girl right there. They want a full Paul, you with tears. I will say sorry. I will also say that people have come at me a little. I've said, no, no, no, no, no, I'm happy. Like, yes, come at me. I said 0.000 percent chance, but I love this. I've made it clear. I want buffalo in the playoffs. I want buffalo to have a good team. Can they continue this is the question? Because I believe every year they've gone on little rungs, right? Like, this isn't that crazy where they've won six, seven eight games in a row throughout this 14 year road of no playoffs. Maybe now there's something more real here. They bring in Mark Berzivan, right? The burger van comes in. So that's it. I saw that go across the wire. I was like, oh, okay, Yarmul. Yeah, he's making moves here. But certainly when Biz mentioned, I'd love to have Dallin on the mate beliefs. I think everyone would, unless he says I want out at the end of the year, they'd never trade him. He looks incredible. He's an amazing skater and an unreal player. Buffalo's back. G wanted to release the shirts again. I don't get that when they go down. G don't do it. They don't want the wagon shirts, but listen, they have three very winnable games in a row here until I want to say they play against like a Dallas or like a juggernaut. So if they go to nine in a row, I would not be shocked. If they hit nine in a row, the shirts are hitting the market. Like we're releasing Ottawa, Boston, St. Louis, and then the stars. Yeah. So it was a lot of it. It was a lot of it. Ottawa, Ottawa has been on fire. The goal tenning is starting to round out a little bit. It was a hortacious there for a hot minute. But I think that those are three winnable games. And I don't know, man, Tage Thompson in my opinion, like sometimes like, you know, last year he didn't make it. He was probably one of the biggest snubs for team USA. I would assume he's now going to be on that roster just the way that he competes, the size of him, and you know, dragging this team into a playoffs by he's got 18 talks on the year. And in some cases with their injuries, like he's playing with different line mates every night. So Tux been incredible. Not sure what they do with him now. If they all of a sudden go on a little run before the deadline. And they're within striking distance or even in a playoff situation. But that trade for donors definitely paid off. And things are looking a lot, lot more impressive. And and uh, Uco Peckle, uh, Luke and he's fucking starting around the corner too, boys. He got the belt the other night after that. Save him made that save he made on, uh, was it. Hughes past it to uh, Gritz, you guys think it was one of the best saves of the year. But talk about a team that doesn't want a break to come too, right? Like you got a, that's when shit can kind of. Like a humming now Benson is money and he's misgames. He's back. He's a water bug. I remember we talked about like kind of couldn't believe he made it as an 18 year old right after the draft. Because it was like, oh, it's Buffalo. Like just let the kid develop more instead of. He's a piece of shit to play against. He's in front of the in front of the other teams net all the time. He's that guy where there's a little bit of lull in your game. He's going to drag you into it. Maybe give a guy a little stick to the nuts. He's got every team on the other bench. Fucking Josh and Adam. He doesn't carry. He's always got stars on his face from getting the stinky mitt or whatever, whatever nonsense. He's stirring up. So you need guys like that who are going to compete. And also for as small as he is, like pretty good guy along the wall and below the, below the offensive blue line or offensive goal line. Excuse me. So they got some good. I know I said at one point, maybe get rid of, get rid of some of these guys and get good returns. But I'm sticking to my guns. They should keep them. All right. Well, Buffalo, your back congrats. Keep it rolling here. Keep it rolling. Keep with the positivity. Buffalo, you deserve it. We love you. I'm sorry for anyone 14 friggin years. You couldn't. The other trade we didn't mention before the the breeze was Mason. Marchment goes to Columbus. I like him a lot. I like his game. He's big. He's strong. I don't I don't think Dallas ever wanted to get rid of him. Right. He's an awesome player. I'm just so confused and you know, good for Columbus. They go out and they grab him. It's just what a weird year for Columbus so far. Like I was expecting more. I mean, I talked about them with posh. I kind of go on against them and the devils thinking that this would be a year. Everyone took another big step and it just hasn't been there. Werenzki had hilarious quotes after I think the most recent lost. And thank God he's okay. At least for team USA. He had to get like pushed off the ice after a Troy Terry hit him in the foot. But it came out that nothing's broken. He's just day to day but it looked really bad. And he said like we're a good team. We just keep losing. So maybe we're not a good team. I'm pretty sure that was the exact quote, which is very honest. You're just sitting there like we're very good, but we're not winning. So maybe we're not good. And I don't know what's happened there. I don't know if Mason, Margin could be somebody. I think he scored in his first game. Yeah he did. But that was a guy that that a lot of teams. I bet you wanted a piece of and I guess there's still the option for Columbus. If they're not in the playoffs that they could they could move him at the deadline and get something back in return. But did you like the move Keith? Yeah, I thought I like just simply for what you said. Like he can come over there kind of things haven't gone his way in Seattle. So it's like all right. Let's get a friend. No watch number one. Yeah, they're number one. I think they've lost nine of the last 10 or something like that. But I think it's a good move by then for exactly what you said. Where if he does, he can pop off. He's a streaky player. If he gets, you know, gets hot here for a month or two before the trade deadline. And then you can trade him off to a contending team. Get something back, whether it's draft picks or players. So I like it for that reason. I don't think it's one of those deals that's going to, you know, change your franchise. It's going to make them better for a little bit. But he's also one of those guys too. Maybe in their locker room, they needed to, you know, bring in a guy that brings guys into the fight. Like we always talk about like March. He's a guy I played with him in Florida where he had, he'd got released by Toronto. I think it was like he's had to earn everything in his career. So he's not one of those guys that's like, oh, yeah, I got paid. I'm going to be fine. Like he's still got a chip on his shoulder still wants to prove himself. So maybe they needed a guy like that in their locker room. That can kind of get everyone going a little bit. But do I think like, do I even think he's going to finish the year there? No, I think what you said, they're going to trade them by the end of the year, which, you know, whether he wants that or not, who knows? But yeah, for the time being, the trades fine, go to a nice place like Columbus for a few months. I would have loved to have seen the Leafs grab him. They need it. That's a gzache what they need. Yeah. And laughing. Just funny that like they need so much. But I kind of knew that was coming, but I agree with you. I mean, Columbus is in the last place. They're worse than the Leafs. It's wild. I just didn't didn't see this like we're not only leads them in points. He leads them in goals. Now I understand you got one of the best offense from the World of the team. But like, where's the, where's the offense? Where's the firepower? Where are the guys that you thought would take even a bigger step? They just haven't done it. And I don't know, like Jet Grease hasn't been bad at all. The goal is pretty good. So it's not, it's not like somebody like, oh, they can't get a save. They just don't score enough. And they're, they're differential when you're talking about that. Is there, they're minus 19. They got the worst differential in the Eastern conference by, by 10. No one's Toronto's minus nine. And then the next worst is Columbus minus 19 goal differential. So I don't know. They have 105 goals scored. The Rangers have less than that. I think that's the only team. I know. I think I got to go to the New Jersey as well. But you know, we'll see what he can do there. Jack Hughes back though when talking about Jersey. What a rock star. This guy. He's out injured. He somehow meets or I don't know somehow I guess because he's a very good looking guy. He was nasty at hockey goes on a date with tape McCray. And then comes back. She's at the game and he snipes in his first game back. Devils lose. But Jack Hughes being back. Britsuke back in the lineup. They're getting guys healthy. But what a dog. This guy brings tape McCray and then just comes into the zone. Gretzky curls up the boards. Nobody goes to him. I know what they were thinking on that one. But then he just ripped one great celebration at center. Ice with the white skates on. He's back. Pasha. Are you happy now? Is Pasha even here right now? Nice. Abusing himself to that video. Oh, hey, Pasha. Yeah. Yeah. I'm relatively happy. Obviously the team is not doing well. They got a lot of issues. They got to figure out, but they're finally getting healthy. In the past week alone, Pesci, my grit, sook and Hughes all back in the lineup. So that's obviously like fucking half their best players there. So you know, I'm not worried that they lost that game. I thought they played pretty well. So yeah, they'll iron it out. And then actually TMZ just posted a few hours ago. Jack and Tate kind of wander around strolling around NYC this morning. So you look like it's so much to the Rangers. Yeah. For sure. I think I'll open out apartments together in Hell's Kitchen. The box next to Tate, it was Fitsy's box. Did you see the photo? I saw it. I thought after momming, overseeing what's going on is this going to be a distraction to our team. So do you think he has? I'm kind of monitoring you. Fitsy's got bigger things to worry about than Jack's level. Yeah. He's got to go out and pull the fucking trigger on a trade, get a settlement, get a winger. He doesn't have to worry about what Jack's doing his off time. But having Tate McCray in the boxes at your game at the Prudential Center is more attractive to get a centerman, a left winger. Like that's bringing a rivalry. Really cares about having Tate McCray in the building. He does. Well, hey, what are the chances? Frank the tank's hanging with Tate McCray at one point, right? He's in the test. He was on the short now with Arnold Schwarzenegger. Do you see that? Yeah. Is he actually going to do? Is he doing Frank's walk? No, he's I'm pretty sure he's flying out to like muscle beads. However, like legit workout with Arnold, Arnold tweeted about it today. That might be the spark in the pump, sort of speak that the devil's need. Maybe that, hey, you know who we should bring with him is Jack and Luke. You should, they should be pumping iron. I know. Oh, boys, as of one minute ago, breaking news, posture-freebing, the leaves have relieved the marks of our of his coaching, dude, his assistant coaching dude. Oh, they fired an assistant coach. I was cosy. We're celebrating our goals in the playoffs last year. Oh, that was first playoff goal in the first round. Yeah. And like Barubi looked at him like calm the fuck down. Was so obviously we never want to see anybody get fired. The power play for the Leafs has been absolutely atrocious. Now, I guess you got to go with the guy who's running the power play. And is he not the guy who's running the power play? I would guess. I would assume based on his career and being one of the best pastors I ever saw that he's not running the PK. Yeah. Yeah. So does that, that probably means chief safe, right? If that's the play that they're doing. What I just, if I go, I don't see them firing him midseason unless tree and staff is getting major, major pressure from up top. But even in that situation, maybe he's like, no, and he's like, all land on the grenade. So I don't know what changes are coming, man, but it is like the word. I could imagine what those guys are going through right now. It's got to be hell because expectations, even though they lost Marner were for sure they're finishing top three in their division, which just said the fucking points were said at just below 100. What was it? 99.5 points was the underover. Of course, if they lose the next game, there's a chance that they end up lost in their division at Christmas time. The only hope that we have is when chief won his Stanley Cup, they were last at Christmas time. That is the only thing that I'm going off of at this point to think that can catapult this team to even getting in a wild card situation. So this is, this is bad. I hope that it's not the case. But the good news is here is they have probably what about 12 to 15 games before Olympic break to figure it out and get themselves within striking distance and at least right the ship because right now it is fucking ugly. And for a guy who hates the Leafs, I would almost feel as I'd love this. I mean, they're not even getting the same amount of fans, the attendance is down. They stink. They're one point out of last place in the conference. They got guys that are, you know, I think Matthews quote that made waves was like, I love the process. You just lost to the Nashville predators and then people were furious about that and then chief comes out and when asked about the team being ready to play and their commitments had go ask them to then you see kind of like that, that creates a battle, especially in that city between player and coach. It's and even I'm like, oh my God, I didn't want, I didn't want to be this bad. I want them to blow it in the first round like they usually do, but I didn't want to see them turn into just a laughing stock throughout the regular season because I did enjoy watching the Leafs play. Neil and their flying around the quotes by Neil and their were bizarre. Yeah. For one of the most confident players and I guess cocky, like I don't know him, but he comes off as a little cocky, very sure of myself. Much of phase is William Neil and which he should be. He's like, I've never dealt with anything like this. At least he said at least in the NHI, I don't ever remember feeling like this. And I believe he was talking about just his confidence as a player and his ability to produce points, which is always he hasn't easy to. He hasn't scored in almost a month. Don't be. He hasn't told me God help these crutches scored since October. So before I before I fired anyone, including Mark Sivard, I would have just simply walked in the locker room and said, I'm implementing a dress code. I don't give a fuck about your, your, your Louis Vuitton toiletry bags. I don't give a shit about your Gucci sweaters or your, what's the other one? These guys are using all the time. Chrome hearts. Your, your, your bedazzle jeans. You fucking look at him like that with their wearing these chrome heart jeans. They got the fucking decals on them. I got a candle. Yeah. Yeah. Like, fuck off with these outfits. I said the same thing would just fucking put a black suit on with a white shirt and a black tie like you're driving a goddamn limousine walking to the rink. Like it's all fucking business and win some goddamn hockey games. That's it. You're off with the, with the sweaters that they're, they're tying up near the collar. Like I get that you want to show off your personality. How about you show us how to fucking dangle out there and start putting the puck in the back of the net? How about you, you show us how you have hair on your nuts and get in the corner and win a goddamn puck battle. Okay. I haven't seen sustained pressure since a last year in the first round against the Ottawa goddamn senators. They, they, they, they had it first two games in a second around. Yeah. That's true. You're, you're, you're right. But they go in the offensive zone now and they're one and done. They're fucking, they're pumping dumping like it's a fucking mean coin stock that posh just bought and then changing on the back check. And they won't even eat the minus. Uh, googling chrome heart jeans. We have a pair that's 84,900. That's one pair of jeans, a pair that's 48,000. They won't. 19 dollars. A $35,000 pair, a $20,000 pair. Where's also a case like Cooperals if they cost that much. There's something couple hundred dollar pairs. Maybe the glare off the diamond and crust of gene or distracted the fence. So you can walk them and put the puck between the fucking goalies legs. William Neilander. I love you, Willie. I love you. You're a handsome bastard. You got more money than God at this point. Put the fucking puck in the back of the net. Wear a black suit off the glass and oh, baby, keep it simple. Going into the game. Don't give them any leverage. Let's go here. Let's go to the dress code. All business. That's where I'm going with it. Well, it's like who is this. It was against Dallas, right? Lawton scored late to make it. I think it was like 2-1, right? There's no jam after that. Absolutely nothing. I think it was in. I don't want to pick on. Anyway, I think it was Michele in the third for the third goal that they scored against. He looked like me out there trying to block a shot. Like if your team's going this bad, you have to like, and I get it. He's been. He's been getting scratched. line up that Collins been playing over him, which is another scratch. They scratch Colin the other way. Yeah. So it's like whether he might not be a hundred percent in, right? Cause he's like, oh, fuck if I have a bad game, I'm going to be out. He's probably just trying to play it safe. But like you haven't been winning your teams in the shit. You're playing in the mecca of hockey where you're going to hear about it. You got to go out and block that shot. You got to go out and get those pucks out like the little things in a game. Like there's no jam after when you fourth line center or third line center scores a goal, you got to have jam that next shift. You have to bring it out. And whether that means chief just playing the third and fourth line, play them 20 minutes the whole game. Let those other guys marinate a little bit, but they don't even have their first round there. It's top five protected. Now it looks like the. I mean, imagine, imagine they end up with a top five pick, at least they get to keep it, but assuming that's the, that's what's going on. Like then next year, I think it would just, the Bruins would have next year's first round picked that I'm guessing wouldn't be protected. They also don't have 2028 if that was the case because, because of, I went to Philly for the lot and trade. It would just all get backed up. Yeah. We would all get backed up. So they're screwed. So they are in one calm, which makes it a little awkward that we have Joe Bowen on, but we were talking about this guy's life in the game over 3000 games. 1982, I believe he started. The leaves are bad, but Joe Bowen is entertaining and want to voice on this guy. Holy back on us. So let's throw it over right now to a legend in the game. A Hall of Famer Joe Bowen. Guys, I quickly want to talk about Pink Whitney. I know everyone out there. If you see on video right now, G is holding what I like to call the birdie bucket, the 20 shot bucket of Pink Whitney, Pink lemonade flavored vodka from New Amsterdam. And every person out there's always looking for stocking stuff. Now granted, if you have little children, this is not a great stocking stuff, but if you have an adult that you need to stuff a stocking for, the Pink Whitney nips are perfection. Then you just throw them in the fridge and you wait a couple minutes and then Christmas morning, catch a little buzz on the Pink Whitney. You enjoy yourselves, whether you're maybe outdoor fishing, outdoor rink season. You got so many different options or if you're in warm weather, maybe people are going to the beach on Christmas and they're taken with them, the Pink Whitney, the little shooters or the big old bottle. It doesn't matter. Make somebody's Christmas very special. Make their holidays memorable with a gift of Pink Whitney, Chodo Pink Whitney vodka. Thank you so much to everyone who's ever tried it. And if you haven't, give it a shot. We love you all. Guys, I need to talk about noble right now. This episode is brought to you by noble. 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J-E-C-T dot com backs last chicklets for 40% off the official training shoe of the national hockey. It is an absolute thrill and honor right now to bring in this man. The voice of the Toronto Maple Leafs hats off, hats off. The last season he'll be doing it. The legend Joe Bowen. What's going on, Joe? Not much, boys. As they say, things are going just swimmingly, thank you. And it's my last season. I didn't think it was going to be my longest season, but we're hoping we can get things turned around and get things moving in the right direction. What do they need to do in order to do that? Well, Biz, you can't play defense anymore and you couldn't play even when I watched you before. So I don't think you're the answer. Other people here might be an answer to it, but baby. You know, I don't know. There's the unfortunate part about all of this is it will probably cost someone a job. The issue is you can't change the roster. And so you need to, they'll probably end up changing the voice and it's not right. You know, I mean, they're great people that are doing this and it's, and it's, it's the nature of the business, I guess, guys. And you guys have been in the dressing room. You know when all of a sudden the voice is just tuned out. And it happens, right? And it's a, it's a fact of life, I guess in some instances because even the great ones like Scotty Bowman got fired in Buffalo. So those things happen and I don't know. You hope it turns around to allow that not to be the case, but the way things are going right now. It seems like it's almost the inevitable. Well, the news kind of the past few days, what was Barubi saying when asked about the effort and the consistency, like, I don't know, you got to ask them. That was one that was maybe kind of conceived as like, hey, it's, it's not me. It's them. Like did you agree with maybe that? And I know there's been things players have said that they've got called out for, but what did you think of that comment? Human nature. Yeah. You know, I mean, you're trying everything you can at some point. I mean, I remember when when Pat Burns was coaching the Leafs and they had those wonderful runs back in the 90s and it got to the point where and he was a firm believer of this that he felt that his act lasted three, four years. And he was proven correct. I mean, Montreal, New India get out there left Toronto, Boston, now New Jersey and then he wins a Stanley Cup and unfortunately health issues and an early demise. But he was of the opinion that they weren't it literally they were sitting and looking, but the ears returned off. And whether that message gets through one way or the other, every coach has a different style, a different, a different system. And you have to try to work that system into the situation, what kind of players that you have available and and trust me. I don't know systems from Shiner Sharnola of what they're trying to do. You kind of look at the at the larger picture of things. You guys have been in a room, especially a defenseman. You know what they're trying to do defensively, what they're trying to do to move the puck quicker, the less time you spend down there, the better it is. And right now they're spending way too much time in their own end of the rank and not out shooting team. They've had one time this year. They've had 40 shots on goal. Now the other night in Dallas, they outshot them and played very well. You know, they outshot them had chances to break away with your two premier players that didn't go in and that dictated how the game was going to fall as it went forward. But Joe, even though I mean, we always talk about the life expectancy of a coach like you said, three years, but we all know chief. We know the way he played the way he coaches. Like at what point is it, you know, the players got to look themselves in the mirror and figure it out in there where if another coach does come in, is that going to be the answer or is it just going to get rinse and repeat and just continue to happen there? Well, you hope not. I mean, that's the the only thing management looks at, I suppose, is that a different voice and maybe a different system is going to change things. You know, there's an awful lot of team-oriented things where you're sitting next door to somebody and you're going, well, it's not me. Yeah, it's not me. I mean, maybe it's a little bit me, but it's certainly not me. It can't be me because I'm really trying hard. And that's, I mean, I'm no say a call of just, but that's the guy you got to get to and say, yes, it is. You're in it just as deep as the rest of us. You may not be playing 30 minutes a game, but you're certainly a part of all of this. And unfortunately, it ends up going to your hands, I think, more than anything, right? And then the other aspect is you start thinking too much. And Harry Neal always had the great line, don't think you'll hurt the team. If you have to react. And then, but we see the team, we see the Leafs many times, especially defensive zone coverage. What should I be here? Where should I be? You know, and there you're thinking, and by the time you finish thinking, the reaction time is gone and you're not in the position to do something positive in the defensive zone. So I'll sit back with Harry Neal's great line. Don't think you'll hurt the team, which is great because you two guys couldn't think. So you never hurt the team. Exactly. Exactly. That was my biggest attribute. It's like, is I literally couldn't think. But you know, there's a great thing to being dumb as a bag of hammers. And in sports, a lot of times being that dumb really kind of helps you out. This is the levity the locker room needs right now. And as depressing as it is and as gloom as it is, we didn't have you on the podcast to talk about how shitty this year is gone. We wanted to bring you on to enlighten Leafs fans, bring us through the glory days and all the fun that you provided them over the last 44 years. And you know, they honored you last week. And congratulations on an incredible run. You've been the voice of the Toronto Maple Leafs since that's all I've known, right? So you're in Welland. Yeah. You grew up in Welland. Now, I think you're a year older than my second oldest son, Derek. And we had a team called the Markham Thunder Triple A team. And we went down to Welland and beat the doors on the full town. You probably weren't on that team. You were a little younger. I was. Yeah. No, we had some great runs with the guys in Welland and great, great fun, great people down there. Yeah. All of the best to them. Oh, thank you, buddy. It's great to finally get you on. We've had people barking forever to do it. I think now it'll be in the perfect time. And usually how we like to the talk, ask our guests is we want to go back to the beginning and find out how everything started. When did your joy and love for hockey begin? Well, I was told by my mother and father that I was fusing and being walked around the floor when Bill Barilco scored the winning goal for the Maple Leafs in 1951. So let's start there that I was a couple of days old, I suppose. But no, growing up in Sudbury, my dad was a general surgeon in Sudbury, delivered 3,000 Sudbarians, made two mistakes. Their names were Paul Rimmstead, who was a complete nut bar who used to write columns for the Toronto Sun. And the other guy you guys might remember, Edward Shaq. Oh, we had him on. Shaq, we had him on. Shaq, well, Eddie Shaq was my dad pretty much, I think, dragged him out by his nose. And he was quite the character for sure. But my dad was a huge hockey fan. He played goal for University of Western Ontario Mustangs back in the day when goalies weren't allowed to fall down. And we were both huge leaf fans and Johnny Bauer fans. You said your dad delivered 3,000 babies and you've delivered 3,000 NHL games. Is that something that you kind of, that was in the back of your mind? Not nearly. It doesn't even compare. Come on now. I mean, please. No, a lot of babies were probably conceived listening to you. Yeah. Oh, yeah. That's a little bit more painful. A little bit more painful. Podcasts and here it goes down into the hour. Right. All right. Well, whatever, whatever floats your boat, I suppose. Hey, watch your half of those leaf games might have been more painful than what the women were going through, actually. Well, you never know about that. But you know, it's been a delight. I did a little bit of math and I think that I have called the names of almost 700 players who have pulled the leaf jersey over their shoulders. Which I'm and one of the things that I'm really looking forward to in retirement is being a part of I'm an honorary member of the Toronto Maple Leaf Alumni Association and I'm looking forward to being a very active helper in their different events that they have going on throughout the course of the year. Your voice is just incredible. Like that's the thing. It's like some people are just born with different. It's unbelievable, Joe. And it's just the whole thing, mac and on and all the different things. When did you kind of know like you were good at this? Like was it in college? Like did you do it in high school, even like what's the beginning for a broadcast? Well, backyard plan ball hockey, right? You were doing the announcing. Someone had to do the announcing while I was trying to stop the ball from going into the net. So, yeah, I guess we all did that as kids. We grew up loving foster youth and hating Danny Galavan because he was doing the Montreal games and later on in life, I got to meet and really my idol. Danny was just an unbelievable individual from Nova Scotia and I've always said that Danny Galavan is at the very top of the Mount Rushmore and the rest of us are stakingly our way down below there in the mock trying to get anywhere close to him. He was unbelievable. He was a tremendous individual and foster of course was doing the leaf game. So we loved him. Can you talk a little bit about because I was always amazed, especially after the fact, you know, getting into the broadcasting and stuff like that. But you just kind of your day to day of a game day, like the notes that I remember seeing whether it was Darren Pang or you know, heater and Phoenix, like the notes that you guys had, like the amount of stuff you had written down about people, like you must have been working all day before a game. In the old days, without the internet, what a wonderful little invention this is, you know they have stuff on there that well, never mind. Anyway, you had to go down to the ring to get the stats, right? And then you came home and you did your pregame prep and guys, it's funny because there's not one play by play guy. The I know that you could say he copied somebody and this is, he does it exactly like so and so. No one does it the same. Everybody has their own little cheat sheets, their own little way of doing thing. My son David does hardly has any material because he has it on his phone. And then going, what happens if that thing goes right into the shiter of what happens then right? But where's this? Where's this to have in your hand? But he, you know, that's the way he does the game. And so no one really does it the same way. There was a lot of things to do. And then the longer that you go into this, I think, Ryan, you realize I'm preparing an awful lot of stuff that, unless there's five breaks of glass, I ain't going to use any of this shite. I mean, just, you know, but, but it becomes just a force of habit. I want it there. Justing takes, justing. So you started out doing it with the sub-re worlds, correct? A back hole? I started doing play by play in University at Windsor doing mostly basketball because we had a really good basketball program there and went to the national championships in two of the three years that I was there. But when I went home, as I said, my dad passed away when I was 14, but his best friend growing up was a gentleman named Bill Plont, Mr. Plont owned the TV and radio station in Sudbury and was part owner of the Sudbury Wolves. So that's, I walked down the hall one day when the former announcer was going to the CBC and I said, Mr. Plont, I'd like to audition for this and he said, no, I've heard you. Go ahead. So it wasn't so much what I knew it was who I knew. And that was an enormous break that I got doing that. That's life. That must have been a fun time getting your reps in junior, right? Like, did you feel like you started advancing very quickly once you hopped into hockey, even though you were doing basketball before? Yes. And I did some hockey when I was at Windsor as well, but guys like you can't do play by play. In fact, I think, I think, oh, I'm, I'm a young man in, in Florida, a, a, dobo. Yeah. Did play by play, right? A little bit. But nobody else. You need to ride the bus. You really do. You gotta get on. You gotta get into a routine. You get on the bus. You're driving. You're going to games. You're developing your own style. Other athletes have done football baseball because it's slower. It's more conversational, right? You can do that if you have some preparation done. You can, I could do baseball without problem. Might not be real good, but I could do it. But play by play of hockey is too fast, especially if it's not TV. If you're doing radio and you're trying to paint a picture in someone's mind as to where the puck is and who has it and what's going on, you gotta develop a style. And now only repetition and, and as I say, riding the bus gets you to that stage. I used to do it with Bob Heathouse. I believe it was the answer who might have mentioned him. He was awesome. Yeah. And he, he took me under his wing and did so with Tyson Nash and, and Louis DeBrusk. I used to say, you say, heater, you're singing tonight and it was almost this like this cadence that you had to adapt to. And I don't think people know how tiring it is because you're talking the entire time and you're trying to pace it and stuff like that. So it probably, how long did it take for you to finally get that right cadence where you're like, this is the way that I'm going to stick with the rest of my career. And then going back to it said the Holy Mackinac, which is your, your famous line. Well, that, that developed over seven years in junior and three years in Nova Scotia doing the Nova Scotia voice your games and probably a couple of years in Toronto so that you didn't lose your voice. You know, the whole idea of it is it's got to go to a crescendo, but it's got, you got to get it back because if you get here and then just try to keep going at that level, you're not going to last. It ain't going to happen. I don't care whose voice you have. So you've got to, you've got to kind of ebb and flow it and, and then let your guy that you're working with, kind of help you get it back down to some area that, you know, we can start again and start to build a bit of a crescendo depending on what's going on. So, and, and I, one of the things that I did do, I, I had a problem with my, my throat and whatnot. And I went to St. Mike's and a lady who worked with opera singer said to me, what you're doing is you're, you're, you're trying to enunciate from here as opposed to your diaphragm. And so I had to try to learn and she taught me some valuable lessons to breathe in order to speak from your diaphragm rather than to try to use your, your, your, just your throat. And it was a great lesson, great lesson. Did she have you also sing while doing it? No. So you did? No. I'm not singing on this show. I knew I think it is coming. He was going to blow on. Now, if I have about five crowned royal and diet folks, I can sing just about any Irish tune you want, but that takes a little work first to get it. And also for the people not watching on our YouTube, he's got the fighting Irish sure gone. I'm sure that has a lot to do with your, your background where you are in order to name fighting Irish fan as well. I got a text from James Van Riemdijk and he was the, with first thing he said about you was huge, huge Notre Dame fan and you set up the parents on a tour there during like the parents trip. Yep. Yeah. We've, we've had some wonderful times. John Heisler, who was the assistant athletic director and charge of media relations down there for many years is a dear friend. Perry Delise, who's from Sudbury, who just lived up the street for me is a big booster. In fact, the team store at the arena at South Bend at Notre Dame is named the Delise team store. My dad was a huge fan and I became a huge fan and I brainwashed my four kids into it. So we live and die with the boys from the fighting Irish. If you want to get into something right now, boys, we can talk a little bit about how that called it. Let's go. No, you're screwed. Not for them. Is it upset? I'm almost over. Well, I watched the J.M. you and and and too late and I'm like, no, they stopped playing. What are we doing here? Yeah. Look, it's those getting all fired up. Hey, quickly, could we go back to the holy Mac and all? I read it was your father who who used to say it and then that's where you, you took a drum and drum and all the issues that came on his whole saying. And and it's funny because of all of the kind of attention that I'm getting here with this retirement thing and the big night that they had. I've gotten all kinds of people trying to help me. And I had of course that the Tiger Cat rant from the Hamilton Tiger Cats, Oskey, we we ask you, wow, wow, holy Mac and I eat them raw is one of them. But then I heard there was a war movie from the 1940s that one of the actors followed out holy Mac and all and my dad was a huge history buff. So it may have been there. And then people from Mac and Mac Island in Michigan and Mac and all and then hold I don't yeah, I'll try to try to get it for it. I'm sure I'd ask my dad, but I never was got the chance. Oh, it's such a classic though. Like a big time goal scored. You hear that. It just added to the clip of the goal, like your soundtrack to it. And I want to go back because the coolest thing about about you, besides the voice is the longevity. Like that's what's so incredible. And I want to wonder like when you got to the Leafs, like take me through that team, like because it was so long ago, who was on that team? Who was the captain? Like what do you remember about your rookie year in the NHL? Well, my the one thing I remember about the very first game is I was nervous as hell. And I had prepared a nice little intro to introduce myself to everybody. And I got I wanted to go to the rink early. I got in a cab with the biggest cab driver I've ever seen in my life. And we started down West Madison Street in Chicago. And it's a it was the worst part of town. And I thought I'm going for my last ride. And I'm never going to get a chance to do one damn game in this league. And there the mausoleum of the stadium came into sight. I got there. And when I got up to the booth, you had to go up 97 stairs to walk up the old stadium to get to the press box area. They couldn't get us on the air. And it was through telephone lines at that time. There was no internet, of course. And my engineer, I had all of this stuff ready to go. And they just dropped the puck and he went, you're on. No. So none of this other stuff at or that up, throw that out the window. And off we went, which was probably good. Because I can only imagine my voice breaking and shattering there. Well, I had to bow it here. And what we got off and we got running. And Ricky Vi was on that team. Walt Padabni got rest his soul scored two goals to drag the Leafs back to a three, three tie against the Black Hawk's that night. And standing in the organ loft area, did you play at the old stadium? I wish. Oh, we all I wish. Oh, God, it was unbelievable. Unbelievable. And my favorite sports venue of all time. But at the end of the building, there was the big organ that Frank Pellico would be playing on. And the extra players from the Black Hawk's used to go and sit up there. And there was a young man from Sue Saint-Mariante Tario, gold tender of some note from the Ottawa 67s, who had won the Dave Pinky Award for the lowest goals against average, battling Mike Moffitt for that title. He still holds the record for having the highest goals against average ever to be the lowest goals against average in the Ontario Hockey League. And his name was Jim Rao. So Rafi was in the building when I was doing my very first game. No way. That's crazy. You said earlier about hockey players, once you start thinking it's bad. So that probably helped you on your first call when you didn't have to think they just were right into it. I was scared to death. I was nervous as hell. But once you got into it, a way we went. And as they say, the rest is history. I'm most proud of the fact that I have done more seasons than Foster Hewitt did. And I easily did a lot more games because back then, there were only six teams to start with, but they didn't do every game when they first started, went foster, first started doing radio for the National Hockey League. It was like one game a week, which was hockey night in Canada on radio. I mean, I could Google it right now, but when you stepped in, do you remember how many teams were in the league? 17, 18. Okay. So under 20 at that time, it was probably a little easier to remember about eight games. Oh, yeah. Oh, you played the Black Cocks about eight times. So yeah, it was, yeah, it was, it was great. It was the league was different. It was a lot more physical. It was a lot more mayhem. It was an interesting time to be part of the National Hockey League. Throughout my five years or five and change in the league, there was a few times I had called in the GM or coaches office. Now in your early days, was there ever anything, ever anything you said, maybe that upset ownership or something where you ended up having to get called in and PpWat? Well, we had Harold run in the operation, right? And Harold, Harold, I don't know as Harold liked me very much, but he loved me usually when we were out walking around, maybe in St. Louis or somewhere and he wasn't allowed to have ice cream because of his diabetes. And he never had any cash on him. But I always had a couple of bucks and he always borrow a couple of dollars and he would sneak an ice cream in. So he, I think he put up with me. No, I've never had, in 44 years, I've never had someone from management say, hey, you know what, could you ease off on that or that wasn't right or something of that name? And I'm happy about that because I mean, everybody said, well, you're a homer. Well, you damn right, I am. I mean, but I've always said I'm an objective homer. And if they're not playing well, then you have to, you can't whitewash a picket fence that doesn't have anything in it. And it's so, that doesn't make sense either, did it? But anyway, the whole point of it is that you have to be objective through the course of the thing. But you don't need to assault people and you don't need to be really going all over board and everything else. We're going through a real tough time. But those guys, you know, for people to say they're not trying and that covers a great big spectrum. Because what they're doing is what we talked about earlier, they're trying too hard. They're thinking instead of reacting. They're not playing the way they have been brought up to be reactive and just flow. And you have to be comfortable in your own space and in your own mind to be productive and sometimes it just gets going sideways real fast. Any hot mics? Yeah. And it's incident recently in that field. And he's such a good guy. He's the man. He's the best. Now, one, one. Mike, Bill Waters did color with me for a number of years. And Wilbur at the time was the biggest player agent in the National Hockey League. Talk about a conflict of interest, but he was great. And Wilbur is one of my absolute dear friends. We're in Boston one night. And the team wasn't very good. We were closing in on the Wendell Clark draft. And the, I think we were losing six, nothing in the second period. And we go to a commercial break. And the engineer that I have, the guy helping us, is the most interested human being in the world. He's sitting there reading the New York Times and whatnot. He could care less about the thing. Anyway, he doesn't pot us down. And that's what happened, unfortunately, to my friends in Philadelphia. He got soared by somebody back at the station not potting us down. Anyway, we, Wilbur says we had a couple of three Czechoslovakians on the team and Wilbur said, we don't get rid of these three blankety blank checks. We're going nowhere. And I just kind of went, yeah, probably, I don't know. I went on. What's really paying attention to it? We didn't have cell phones or anything at the time. We get back to our hotel, red lights, flashing, and Wilbur's assistant, Ricky Kern, who was also an agent. He said, you know what you guys said on the air tonight? And I went, no. Well, then he repeated it to us. I thought, oh, we're done. We're absolutely done here. We're done. We come back home. We fly home. We get back home. Nothing. Day next day. Nothing. Next game, we go to the ring. Nothing. And I turned to Wilbur and I said, you know what, Wilbur? Six, nothing. One of two things happened here. Either no one was listening or everyone went, you're damn right. They are. Anyway, that was the might drop. I thought you were going to tell me they traded all three check guys. No, they did it. Give him a raise. But it was, yeah, we thought we were going to get fired, but no one, we didn't feel the repercussions at that. It would be 85 maybe, I'm saying 85. You mentioned the coming up on the Wendell Clark draft and are those your best memories because for me, like in 93 and Gilmore and Felix Poffin and all those teams later on, like that's what I remember of the Leafs. Like they don't have a cop, but they had those entertaining teams with superstars. Like for you, those are the most memorable times. There was the past 10 years where they've had some great teams and just, you know, haven't been able to get over the finish line. We didn't get over the finish line back then either. But the one thing about that, those teams guys was it was sort of like the high water marker. The team with Harold running it was not going to be given enough of the things that needed to improve. They weren't going to spend money on extra coaching. They weren't going to do this because Harold was more concerned about the bottom line and everything else. You were paying for his ice cream for the face. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Didn't get repaid for that either. That's how blizzards were invented. He was stirring it up for them with the topics. But after his passing, the management of this organization has not stopped in its efforts to win. They have spent the money. They have brought in quality people. They have done whatever they've had to do. Hasn't worked out, but it's been that close. All right. So, but the goal by Nikki Boroszewski against Detroit that spurred that team on to play 21 playoff games in 42 nights, that was the difference. That was the difference that had to have happened. And from that point on, no, they haven't won it, but it hasn't been for the lack of resources or the lack of trying. Because you see all the videos and the guys, especially that era that Whit was saying, like giving you your farewell and saying nice words about you, it just seems like, it almost seems like you were a part of that team. You obviously were a part of it, but it seems like you were on that team. Is that because the way you guys were traveling, you were hanging out with the guys, you were probably around the same age as some of them? Yeah. No question. I mean, it was Cliff really made you feel a part, a parcel of it. I mean, we would go down on road trips and check into our room, wander down to the barn. Cliff would be there. Bill Waters was the assistant GM and everybody, and hey, what are you doing tonight? Let's come out. We're all going out for dinner. And so we really did feel quite a bit part of the team. And it was a very, very special time. And Cliff was one of my dear friends and I have so much respect for him and his knowledge and everything else. And if he's watching this, I want to say hi to him down in Arizona because he's a wonderful, wonderful human being. Yeah, Christine Simpson just did a feature on the Amazon, Amazon Prime Monday night game. So that was very cool. He still looks great. Oh, I know. Guy, oh no, he's a great guy and that platinum American Express card. It got used a lot. And he went different when he went out, he went first class. Yeah, he took care of the boys through. I'm sure on the roadies, especially now, I'm sure it's hard to narrow down a list. Like what kind of just teet it up as far as your the glory days and your favorite memories. But for you in your longevity, like who are your top five Leafs of all time and maybe explain as to why and why they hit home for you and your personal attachment. Boy, that's that's tough. Got 700 to choose from. Yeah. You know, you had to have maybe spent some time with a few of them off the ice and Wendell Clark is always one of my favorites mainly because we got to hear the plight of the Canadian farmer from less than Alma when we were came out. Then there was, I mean, Ricky Vive has been a dear friend of mine over the years and been a great friend, Dougie Gilmore, Curtis Joseph, living around here just a tremendous individual, Matt's. I mean, I kind of going through the top echelon of all of these guys, but you know, like Wally Padabni was a great, great friend. I mean, he was huge into the world wrestling federation and we would end up going to cards when we were on the road and Bill Rout who played in Nova Scotia as well as with the Maple East who didn't, you know, play a great deal in the NHL. But so many of these guys, it would be easier to pick two or three that you thought were real jerks. Yeah. Do that. And I'm not going to pick them or air them on this program. So don't even think about that. Don't worry. We'll do the hot mic at the end of this thing. Of course, you won't. No, you won't. Fighting in the bench brawls were a little bit more prevalent back in the day. Can you remember some that really stood out to you where you're like, oh my God, this is to turn into a three ring circus maybe even players entering the crowd at some point. Johnny Cordic was for front the center on a bunch of those. Of course, the great Felix Patva, Hextal, Bout that I, we none of us knew that Felix could fight, neither did Hextal. I guess he ended up getting his doors blown off. I'd give you one fast story if I can. I love this shit. All right. We're in Chicago. And there are a brawl breaks out. I think body McGill is in the middle of it. And it's over in the area. And for some ungodly reason, Wendell's not involved. And so anyway, all of a sudden, big Steve Smith comes over. He's six six or whatever it is. And whatever he said to Wendell, Wendell never discussed fighting. The discussion was two right hands before any word of mouth was ever getting. That's the way he could win fights because he wasn't a big man. Anyway, he's got Smith down on the ice. And he's just hammering him. And none of the officials have come over. And Wendell would stop, look around, all right, back he'd go. So anyway, they finally get it all broken up, whatever. And we come down after the game. We walk down the 97 stairs from the stadium. And we get there in the dressing rooms where underneath the ranks are yet to walk up to come up to the main area. Lesson Elma Clark have made the 3,000 kilometer drive from Kelvin to Saskatchewan to go and see the game in Chicago. And they're there and Wendell comes up and he's talking to his parents and there's this shriek. Down the corridor, this woman is screaming at Wendell for beating up her son. And I'm going, oh, we're going to have a cat fight here. And I'm putting a lot of money on Elma because she is a big old farm girl from Saskatchewan. Grab Wendell's hand. She grabs Wendell said, Wendell, did you hurt your hand? And Mrs. Smith just gave it a 360 and headed the other way. There wasn't any cat fight, but I thought that was pretty good. That was unreal. Good business decision by her for not trying to fight this is Clark. Yes, I was a great business decision. Were there any beef with any other TV color guys like when you guys are up in the, you know, the rafters of the building and especially in the old days? No, I can remember one time when Dan Kelly was doing a game and Dan had a voice like mine that penetrated lead. And he would, they were doing a game in the old rink in New Jersey, the continental airlines. I guess it was called and the broadcast position for right in the seats and the New Jersey broadcast was that one side of the section and Dan was at the other, but Dan's voice was on their broadcast more than the guy. And he came over and said to Dan, that could you tone it down? You're all over my broadcast and Dan just turned to him and said, well, finally, they're hearing a good one. I never had to do that. That's so good. One guy that unfortunately I learned a lot more about him when he passed, but just a legend was, was a pure assalmin. And I didn't, he probably was maybe on the back nine of his leaf screers. You got there, but what did you kind of learn about him and him as a person? And I just didn't know until I really dug into it when he, when he passed was how tough he was and the beatings that he would take back in the day. And the scariest thing I ever saw was when he got stepped on and his face was 100 stitches or whatever it was. Borria was one of the most unique athletes I think anybody has ever seen. He would not do anything in Sweden over the summer. He'd show up a couple of weeks prior to training camp, put the skates on and here these guys have been working all summer, whatever and on the ice. And he'd be the best player on the ice without having done it. And he, he, just, I don't think he had an ounce of fat on him. He was sinewy and, and just, and strong and, and, and just like a farm strong, I guess, for the lack of a better term and tough, really tough. What he had to go through, he, he more than held his own against anybody. And Borria was a wonderful teammate and a wonderful individual and God almighty taken way, too soon. Absolutely. Did he get like, you know, tested more just because he was a foreigner before there was a ton of guys? Oh, yeah, oh, sure. So, yeah, right. It was the chicken sweet. It was, it was, you know, just, and he, he proved that the tap was a ridiculous connotation to even think about. And just a tremendous, tremendous player, handled the puck so well, controlled the game. He just slowed it down or sped it up, depending on how he wanted to do it. And, uh, um, settler and, uh, company they, they lived off of his abilities. Uh, you already mentioned, uh, Jim Ralph. I actually reached out to him. You were telling the story about how you, you were first introduced to him at the Chicago stadium there. And he, uh, he reminded me of a story when you went to a preseason game, um, for the Jays. And I'll just throw Lars and I just, that's the story I want you to see everybody. He was howl and tell him to be a text in fairness. It was a day off and we were into our cocktails a little bit at the Blue J Spring training game, which I actually threw the, uh, pitch out the first pitch out. We're sitting there and I'm a red, right? You told us right? I'm a red socks fan, right? I'm a red socks fan. Anyway, uh, somebody, they announced now batting for the Boston Red Sox, Lars Anderson. And I jokingly said, who would name their kid large? And the parents right in front of us turned around and Mrs. Anderson said, we watch on would name good name. I'll bet he's a good later to wait name. Yeah, exactly. Yeah. That is too good. Yeah. You have one that doesn't smell as bad. Yeah. I got a question like because players, you know, you, you, you get in slumps. It's, it's kind of peaks and valleys here and there and for normal players, I guess. Like, does that happen ever to announce? You ever have like a couple bad games in a row in your mind? I didn't have my stuff tonight. Or is it, or is it different with what you do? No, I, I know. No, you, you do. Yeah. And you make mistakes. You misidentify a guy who scores a goal and you're going to like, you know, I, everybody does. You know, and game 75 of things going nowhere, you know, you don't have the adrenaline flowing the way you would for game seven of the series. So, yeah, I don't, I don't think there's any broadcaster would say the, oh, no, I, sailing around here at full speed without any problem. Now what's worse, a slump or maybe forgetting your passport on a road trip? Oh, because I forgot my passport. I left my wallet at home. Oh, no, no idea. No idea. No idea. This is before 9 11 and we're going into Washington. And you, you make too many phone calls. Anyway, we're, we're flying into Washington and we get to the thing and I said, I got nothing. I got no idea. I got nothing. He said, are you in the, the, the guide said, no, no, but I, I did in my briefcase, which I did bring. I said, I have a business card and it has a caricature of me on it. The guy looks at me and he said, you got to be telling the truth. Okay, go ahead. Meanwhile, we got Alpo Sujonan as one of our assistant coaches. He's two guys down for me at different kiosk. He's pulling paper out of his ear and he's there for 20 minutes. We're waiting on the bus and when he got on, I said, Alpo, here, here's one of my business cars. Oh, the free night 11 days were a while. He could just walk in any country. Oh, sure. Yeah. Oh, no. Yeah, after the games on the road, because you, you, then you'd be flying out the next morning, right? When everyone's flying commercial, would it, would it be the hotel lobby bar and you, you get together and just talk about the game or was it always out to a big dinner? Yeah. Yeah. Famous to players. Yeah. Absolutely. And, and, and I mean, the players weren't allowed in the hotel lobby that you were staying at, but didn't take long to figure out where most of them were or whatever if you wanted to go out with them. But I mean, we hung around with the coaches more mostly and, and the staff and whatnot. So it was all good. Do you have a particular game that you look back to and you're like, that was my, my favorite game I ever got to call. Like that is easily number one. Maybe it involved like a special moment where like the birthday or kid was on the same day or like something crazy like that. No, I always say, Bizzah, haven't made it yet. I was hoping that maybe it would be this year, but the lads have better get their shite together here. Nor here to get where we need to go. So we'll see how that works up. I mean, at past ones, you know, the, the, the game in Los Angeles that ended up having Doug Gilmore cut and by Gretzky and it didn't happen. Every leaf fan will go to its, their grave saying that that was the one that the chance that we had. And I fully believe that and that one, I'll remember forever. I remember where I was when that happened. I was my parents were either recalling wood visiting friends and I was watching it. Yeah, they were out for dinner and I was watching on TV like I'll never forget where I'm like he's bleeding like he caught him. Whoa. And, and the worst thing was when I walked out to parking lot, the officials were there. And I've known Kerry Fraser or whatever. And I said, Kerry, how did you miss that? And one of the lines couldn't set the puck hit him. And I said, what did he do? Dive on it? Because, you know, and but there was no replay. There was no recourse and I know Kerry feels horrible about it. And, and, and he's reminded of it probably almost daily if he's around for sure. Um, the other one out, it was the other one I just had quickly. Oh, God, I just drew a blank help me out here. You've done so many more radio, but like, did you like that more than TV? Because you mentioned it's, it's a little easier to do TV, right? I, I, my bank manager really enjoyed TV. You got, you guys know what that means? Oh, yeah. You're making peanuts in this little radio gig you have here, but now we're on the TV. Give me a TV. Now we're working. Now we're working all time. I remembered the question. So we had a Bob McKenzie on and at the time he had wrote an article, face he saying how it looked like, you know, Gretzky was fading a little bit. He was carrying around a piano on his back. Did you end up reading those comments and were you a little bit like, Oh, shit. Like, no, no, no. Let him say we didn't spark this guy. Like was everybody in the arena aware of that? He said that and that Wayne was going to pop off. I don't think everybody was aware of it, but, but you became quickly aware of it. Once it started to circulate and I mean, and, you know, of all of the things to do, get the greatest player in the history of the game, pissed. And he, he put on a clinic, he put on a clinic at the, at the Gardons in game seven. It was, uh, that was frightening. That was frightening. Another one of your calls and obviously the Holy Mackinac is the top echelon, but the one when they scored and you said, God bless you boys. Was that just out of being a pure fan or was it? Oh, yeah. 10 over times and you just wanted to go home or like, what's the story behind that? It was, they were hanging on by their thumbs. I mean, hanging on by Alex McGilney was blocking shots. Wow. He didn't go into the Hall of Fame because he was a shot blocker. I'll tell you that. But he was, I mean, it was just they were hanging on and just hanging on by their thumbs and it was, uh, and forced to game seven. And then of course, they, they, they blew the doors off the senators and, uh, the return match in Toronto. So, uh, yeah, you know what people say? Well, do you think ahead of time, what you would say? And I know it just comes out of the recesses of your mind and, and, uh, what not? Even sometimes I actually sing, uh, not very well. Well, but hey, for another time. Yeah. The movie Youngblood, you were in it. Start, start in the movie Youngblood. Uh, take us through that. Like did you get to hang out on set for quite a while? Like, like take us through that. It needed to play by plan answer. So they had me sit in the press box at St. Mike's and a bunch of the other ranks for about a week without me doing anything. The Olympics were on. So I got to watch the Olympics from LA. But I was paid as a principal actor and I was buying a house very shortly. They're after. So every day I'm going, no, don't worry about me. I'll just sit here and collect money. And then I did about 10 minutes of play by play and I don't even know if it ever got in the movie. But there, if you stay along around long enough, uh, the credits go by and my name's on it. Then I got to meet the guys and, uh, Rob Lowe and then of course, uh, Stumpy Thomas and, uh, and, uh, Mike Palmitter's brother and a bunch of the guys that were playing the, the, the hockey players. Um, it's, it's a great time for them. And it, it, the movie has stood the test of time, I think. Oh yeah. Was it the T with Miss McGill? Was that the, did you get to meet her? But I'm saying I didn't. A very attractive young lady. Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. What a movie. Uh, I see behind you. Is that a poster of the, the Paul Henderson, the, the summit series? Yeah. And, and I'm going to have to run here guys, but I, I will tell you this story. Uh, I, I finished playing hockey last year, played up till I was 73 playing goal. But, um, and the 25th anniversary of the team Canada event, Ronnie Ellis, um, honed me and said, Joe, would you like to play in the, uh, the reunion game at the gardens, 25 years to the day of game eight. Um, have you played five minutes in the game and then stick around and do, uh, a minor hockey shooter? I said, I'd love to do that. Are you kidding me? I was like a kid in a candy store. I roared into the dressing room two hours ahead of game time and sitting next to Dennis Hall and, uh, and, uh, Bill White. And, um, we get, and Mike Paul, mature is going to play goal because Eddie Johnston, Tony Esposito and, and Ken Dryden weren't playing goal anymore. So my goalie partner was Paul me and I thought, this is great. So I'm at the end of the bench. I'm just, I'm like a kid in a candy store three, four miniskos on and Palmy's doing two pad stacks over here and over there just vintage Mike Palmitere. Puck goes the other end and he starts waving at the bench and Bill White sit next to me and he says, I think he wants you to go in. I said, I'm not supposed to go in for another hour and a half. No, no, no, he's waving at you. Well, the puck goes back to the other end and now Palmy's headed for the bench. He says, you better get your mask on. You're going in. He gets to the bench. I jump over. We change on the fly. I get into the net, end of the period. I skate our set Michael. What's going on here? He said, Oh, I'm having both my knees operated on tomorrow. Tomorrow, I said, what the hell are you doing here? Oh, I would never have missed this for the life. So he was excited, as excited as anybody. I stopped Darrell, sit or three times. We won six four and sit wouldn't talk to me for two. What a way to end this. That's awesome. I got one last one before you go. Like just reflecting on your entire career. Like, are you a little bit like nervous to retire? Like, you know, it's it's always nice having a purpose and get to go to the rink and call these games and be a part of something. Like you think about what it's going to be like. Maybe when you're not doing it. Well, I've got three grandkids that I'm going to spend a lot of time with guys. As I mentioned, I want to be really active with the alumni. And I'm keeping my fingers crossed. It may be David Charles Bowen will get a look at being able to do some of the games too. Yeah, he's really good. He's a very sub-reass. Yes, he is. He's doing the whole stuff there now. So he's and he's really good. He's certainly going to apply. But no, I'll have lots to do and I'll look forward to it and we'll have some fun with the guys. And I get to sit in the alumni booth every once in a while and have a crown Royal and Diet Coke or 10. Yeah, just don't be chirping players names. You might have their folks. No, no, no, no, I will never do that. There's never do that. Hey, Joe, you have you have made given so many people joy. Like I can't imagine you got to be number one all time from mutant the TV and put in the radio broadcast lined up with the game and even listening to you and hearing goal calls. It's been incredible my whole life here in leaf school. So congrats on everything. Thank you very much, guys. Really appreciate it. Yep. It's it's always fun. It's always fun. This is the spark we needed. There you go. So we're going to go on around here. Sorry. So yeah, exactly make a fight for AP. You make a fight for April, April 12th. See you later. Thanks, guys. Yeah. Quickly, guys, I want to mention draft Kings and talk about all the jaw dropping moments that make hockey hockey. The special goals, the special saves the fights, the breakaways, the overtime three on three action. Experience all of them with the draft King sports book, an official sports betting partner of the NHL and Missouri listeners. Listen up. 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Everyone knows if you've been to a hockey game, you'll never forget it. But getting into the game can be a pain in the ass. That's another story all the time. You got cues, you got price jumps, you got getting logged out mid, like you're just trying to get a ticket to go see your favorite team. Play you just want to be there with a beer, yelling and screaming, cheering on your favorite player. And game time makes it so easy to have that happen. The game time app gives the advantage back to the fans. It's the hack for unlocking amazing tickets and experiences in a few taps. It's incredibly easy to use. And the game time guarantee means you can trust. You'll get 100% authentic tickets on time and at the best price. No worry about it. These are food gays. Nope, not with the game time guarantee. These are always included also. What you see is what you pay. No more at checkout added another 50 bucks. No, no, no, no, no. The price is what you think it is. What you see is what you pay. And right now for tonight, the Montreal canadiens are in Boston. That's a big time game of an amazing rivalry. Both teams have an hell of a season under 200 dollars right now to get into the building in the garden to see the Canadians take on the Bruins, take the guesswork out of buying NHL tickets at the game time, download the game time app. Create an account and use code chicklets for $20 off your first purchase terms apply again. Create an account and redeem code CHIC LETS for $20 off download the game time app today. Thank you very much to Joe Bowen. Awesome guy. That was rattled Notre Dame didn't get the look for the calls, but ball playoff. He had that shirt on. He started human when we brought it up, but an awesome dude. I'm going to enjoy getting to hear some of his final calls the rest of this year to the regular season ends, but a run and a half for this guy. So congratulations. Do it for Joe. Do it for Joe, Toronto. Yeah, that fucking Bengal. That's what I was just going to say. I mentioned, you know, changing the suits and the dress code. You'll look presentable when you come to the rank like you're fucking ready to work. How about doing it for someone other than yourself? How about doing it for the guy who's been calling games for 43 years in his final year now? To make it 44. I mean, it's fuck man. This guy puts more time and energy than anyone in that organization right now. Let's fucking do it for Joe boys or at least get him some chrome heart jeans. Yes. Very true. Imagine Joe rocking those $80,000 chrome hearts. That could be what gets him going. Somebody could buy him for him on the leaves. They're making plenty of money. Um, shitty news for Carolina. I don't know if you saw when Jarvis got hurt. Typical Seth Jarvis driving the net. 40 miles an hour. It looked my guess would be broken ribs. He hit the post flying and he's out week to week. I think it said or multiple weeks and Jacob Slaven's back out. He's out week to week too. So tough injuries there. Jarvis has been incredible for them. Standard Carolina hurricanes in leading their division. Just just plotting along. They'll be ready to go in the playoffs. But I don't know if that affects the injury to, to, I mean, for Jarvis, but the Olympics. I hope not. Yeah. And Slaven for team USA. Yeah. I think I think also to just the injuries there, they're not a team. Like if they're missing one or two guys, they're not affected as much as like whatever. Say Jersey, you know, if Jersey's missing, you know, Hughes, like they're, you're going to notice it. Like Carolina is not really one of those teams. Like they win by committee. I think they'll be fine. They'll still, they'll still win their games. But yes, Slaven for USA, like that would be a huge loss for USA not having him. Such a good shutdown, demon can play against anybody and we need, we need him against Canada. He only played five games this year too. And he's back. Back, go to injured stocks, stocks for him. You know, even when he does come back, if it's before Olympics, you know, you want to, you want to be playing, you want your legs underneath you and figure everything out. And we mentioned quickly the, with Joe, the clip, that clip of the Philadelphia play by play guy saying, would you, would you mind? What do you say? Would you blow me? One of the funniest clips I've ever heard in my life. Like, he got to play it. Can we play it? Can we play it? Now they're going to take the TV time out. We'll take it as well. Seven gone in the in the third. It's three to Buffalo in the Philadelphia Flyers, Broadcast Network. Pop it up, pop it up, pop it up, pop it up. You're done there. Would you mind blowing me? I think we're still in the air, Jim. No, we're not. Are we? When that thing broke, I, I, I, I listened to it five times. I laughed harder each time. Two games dispensions. Fairly take, take a couple games off. Was it the end of the world? Bad job. Joe said. I was like, there was so much time between he signed off for commercial. He, I don't know, blame the guy. I mean, he just would you blow me? I mean, if you're down there, you mind blowing me? And the guy just was just, he was just chirping. He was just making, making people laugh in the middle of a long season. Flyers right now sitting in a playoff spot. Nobody saw that coming. He's happy. Would you, would you give me a Christmas blow? He, I thought it was incredible. I just couldn't believe how much time went by. Obviously, he thought they'd gone to commercial. He was set up possibly, but set up for failure. Two games off. No big deal. As somebody who's been suspended by their team in media, I know the feeling. You know, you feel like you let people down, but at the end of the day, like you said, he didn't think he was on air. Simple joke. We all make jokes like that. Who gives a fuck? And I hope he gets to enjoy his holiday. And it's still, hopefully he's still getting paid while he's off for the two games. That's what I most care about because he deserves a little break over the Christmas holidays. Yeah. I agree. He was well. And if he's getting it at home, hopefully he gets a blowy. He was obviously a horny guy. He was talking to Fedora because I think we're still on air. Fridge, what a guy. I watched that Jake Paul and Anthony Joshua fight. Credit to the guy Jake Paul for making that much money. And like, I just, I was like, this is so bad. It was so bad. And, you know, I think he said after, yeah, my jaw is broken. I'm probably going to go back to my normal weight class in terms of my next fight. But I was like, oh my god, I watched the fight. It's just he was kind of like down on the ground the whole time, like wrapping the guy up. Don't they matter of time? Did either one of you see that fight? Yeah, I watched it. And honestly, like, I don't, I'm not a Jake Paul fan, but credit to him for fighting a monster like Anthony Joshua. He's humongous. He's a trained killer. So credit to him for fighting it. Besides the him grabbing his legs and all that shit, like if he's going to win that boxing match, he has to run around and not get hit and, you know, hopefully catch him with one. Like if that's your game plan, I get it. But Anthony Joshua, like, if you're like, he was a heavyweight champion. He should be able to close off the ring, get him in a position where he wants and just fucking mo him down. Oh, well, I think that there was probably a conversation pre-fight about how long that thing needed to last. Yeah. That's the kind of biggest joke about all that credit the guy. I want to say Jake Paul made a hundred million bucks, right? That's the word. That would be good. Somebody somebody said $92 million. Well, so yeah. And so, but it's all just the it's what this is done is it's exposed boxing a lot. It's almost a black guy for boxing, all this shit because they're the ones getting all the pay-per-view. I was a boxing guy before the UFC ship, but like the boxing pay-per-views and the names they're just not there. And like now everyone's watching a fucking YouTuber. Like that's the main event. Like what are we doing? Yeah, it's a joke. I don't I don't give it my oxygen. I don't watch those fights. I don't buy them. Like I'm not getting sucked in. Well, it was on Netflix. I was watching it. Yeah, it was on you. Okay. Yeah. I love you guys. So if you're already subscribed, you just get that for free. Yeah. Okay. Well, then that's okay. I thought you had to do like a pay-per-view buy or something. No. Okay. So it shows how much I know that I literally give it no oxygen. Yeah. You don't, you have no interest. I hear you. Martin. But yeah, he tell me how brutal was the fight. It was, yeah, it was, it was sloppy. It wasn't good. It wasn't good. But would any single person listening or any of you guys not do that for 95 million? Like you're not, he's probably not going to kill you unless the ref decide to like if he even drogos and just continually tees off on you as rocky, yelling, throwing the damn towel or the trainers yelling, throwing the damn towel, 95, you walk in a way, broken, jawed 95 million. I don't think there's a person that's saying no to that. So good for him. Good for him. Guys, love you boys. Have a great Christmas. Anything you celebrate, I hope you enjoy it. I hope you take time. You appreciate your family and enjoy yourselves. Christmas Eve's always a blast. Christmas day, we got little kids very special and we'll be back next week. We will not be two episodes a week this week, but we will see you Tuesday. That would be 10th, 30th, back in action. I'll talk to you then. Peace. I'm back. I'm back. I'm back. I'm back. I'm back. I'm back. I'm back. I'm back. I'm back. I'm back. I'm back. I'm back. I'm back. I'm back. I'm back. I'm back. I'm back. I'm back. I'm back. I'm back. I'm back. I'm back. I'm back. I'm back. I'm back. I'm back. I'm back. I'm back. I'm back. I'm back. I'm back. I'm back. I'm back. I'm back. I'm back.