Spittin' Chiclets Episode 618: Featuring Marc-André Fleury

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Me and Ryan have been officially welcomed to the jungle at the Bar School Sports. I brought it towards the Coyotes and I asked them if it was okay if I joined the Spit Chickens podcast full time. I'm a little bit nervous. Ryan Whitney, you got a pink Whitney out there now. I think this is a fan bagger. Get that on camera. He can. The song man. Chase is a full time member. Marley just got an assist from Chris B. Whoa, we're buzzing right now. Welcome, everyone, to episode 618 of the Spit and Chicklets podcast presented by Pink Whitney. We are humming high right now, boys. We had an incredible interview with Chris Pronger coming out Monday. We got Marc-Andre Fleury this episode. And the question is, do both those guys like Pink Whitney? I think they do. I might be guessing, but I think they do. I know you guys love it, Biz. I know when you used to drink, you loved it. keats still enjoys it i enjoy it and hopefully some people from the north america heading over to italy for the olympics maybe smuggle a little in and all these amazing olympic fans can enjoy some pink whitney in italy but thank you to everyone who drinks it thank you to everyone who supports us with by drinking it and right now if you never try to go on down grab a big bottle grab a mickey grab a shooter go to the bar get a pink whitney soda doesn't matter however you like vodka. Give it a shot with Pink Whitney. Great ad, Reba. A crowd of applause for Ryan Whitney, ladies and gentlemen. And you know who might need a couple Pink Whitney's over the break is the head coach of the Edmonton Oilers, Knobloch. Okay, so you're going right into that. I'm going to actually wait a minute, Biz. I'm going to come at you. I'm going to come at you who all these years of making fun of me when Tim Jackman knocked my head off in the saddle dome against the Calgary Flames in this picture that forever I'll be known for when my kids someday know about Google and Google image their dad. It's a picture of me with no head. This is the same exact picture of you out there. There is a picture of you with no head getting beat up by the same man who did it to me. You never mentioned it. You never tweeted it. You never brought it up. Just a real dirt bag move by you to keep that hidden all these years when you're the same headless horseman that I was. Buddy, you know how many fucking times I've been punched in the head you think i remembered that i didn't even remember i fought him where did you see the picture okay so this story the overall story will come out now i wasn't going to mention it i didn't want to say it on the pod because i felt like i was being a little bit braggadocious but um long story short so recently probably about two three months ago i got a couple pieces the fan mail sent to my house here in Arizona. And thinking, hey, fuck, all right, you know, I got to return these. They took the time and decency to write me a nice letter, you know, send me a couple cards, nothing crazy. Like, they didn't send me, like, 20 cards to sign, like, those assholes in Buffalo asking us to sign not only 20 cards, but 20 baseballs, 20 this, 20 that. They were at Penn State, too, this past weekend. No, they weren't. They were in Champs. They were in the bar with us, and the guy came up with, like, nine helmets. And I was like, dude, this is not like a normal. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. That was the same guy? No, that was just another seeker. Oh, okay. I thought you meant it was a baseball guy. No, no, it wasn't Buffalo baseball bill. That guy who, by the way, folks, like these seekers, and we talked about it when the Bedard video came out, I view that there was a difference between people sending it to my house for a couple, being nice, sending a note, and these people that when Witt signed, I believe, about 20 cards, they then pulled out a cardboard box that had baseballs in there. We've told the story. And when Witt signed a few, he's like, all right, I'm done. He continued to walk after him and shame him for not signing more of his baseballs. Keep in mind, this is a hockey pot. Witt was probably a hell of a T-ball player back in his day, but he never fucking played professional baseball so anyway so i get these i sign them up i go to the post office and send them back well did i ever open up the floodgates because one of these people who i signed for posted on this website uh online where all they go one of these facebook groups my address and goes this guy will sign and return everything so i'll send the picture over to you guys right now or actually show it i'm getting about probably 50 to 60 pieces of mail a week now and so you try to do a good deed and no good deed goes unpunished and people think i'm being braggadocious i feel like it's now an invasion of privacy to the point where the the nhl security they called me and reached out to me because they saw that it was online like that so any any person on here giving a shit about the Netflix thing. I take the time to sign all these things. I sit down for like an hour, hour and a half now, and then I'll drive them to the post office, and I'll keep sending them off. But I don't want to hear no more bitching about the Netflix stuff. Now, going back to the picture is one of these people sent me these to sign. I got a sleeve of them. Oh, there's me taking a fucking right fist from Michael Ruffer. Oh, there's There's the right fist that connected and got me to ding me up. Now I'm bleeding in the penalty box. That's a riot pick. That's a riot pick. Here's the actual shot of it connecting to my forehead to bloody me up. You mind sending these back to me quick? And there's the illustrious Tim Jackson beheading. So you saw that pick, and you're like, oh, my God. Like, it happened to me, too. I go, I do not remember even fighting him, and the fact that I was also beheaded by this guy is just all time. Like, what are the chances? Or Yanz, did you ever fight Tim Jackman? Yanz had a good security. Sure as hell didn't. Yanz is coming for Yanz. He hired Rocket? He can't work for Martins anymore? Hey, Biz, look at that picture, how happy Rafi Torres is on the bench that a fight is happening. which one the Jackman one oh no you're going to be in big time trouble with a future guest of this podcast that's Jason Serbis that is not Rafi Torres no dude I know who Rafi Torres is he's with the helmet on the one next to Doner oh that's right Serbs that's right he's sitting down he's so happy he's smiling as you're getting beheaded He's like, that's for lining up a shitty rookie party, you fucking loser. There's Gordo, ready to go out and take the D-zone draw. No, he's looking to fight Keith. As far as I get this game over with, I'm taking 87. Antoine Vermette, donor, and then Jason Serbis. Who's that over there? Is that McCulloch? No, that's Rashbada. That's Rashbada. I love how the woman behind the bench, she's almost getting around Vermette just to see you get beat up. She's like, I've got to get a good view of this. Yeah. Yeah. He didn't return my DM. Pretty crazy. Well, hey, I guess we're talking about fights. We need to send McKenna after Jackman. That's what we need to do. His stock has risen among the hockey world. Before we go over there, what do you guys make of the, like, the fucking seekers posting my fucking address? So what's weird is that my, fuck, I don't even, I get a lot of this stuff, too. And I kind of looked into somehow, like, getting your address offline. It's, like, basically impossible to do. You have to, like, I talk to a bunch of different people. But you know what? I return everything. And part of it also is that all these people, they include the return envelope and the stamps and everything. 100%. And I remember when I was 10 or 11, I wrote Wayne Gretzky a letter with a card, and he sent it back signed. And I remember we talked to Wayne about it, and he said, and I think part of it was his dad, too. Like, you always sign for everyone. Always. So now I get everything, and usually I'll take a day, a month, and just kind of sign it all, put it back in the envelopes. Now, Biz, you don't have to go to the post office. You can put them in your mailbox and then put the flag up. And the postman will cut them and take it for you. No, no, no. That's a thing? You didn't know that, Biz? That's what the flags are for in the mailboxes. You lift those up, and that means you have outgoing mail. Yeah. Yeah, you learn something new every day. Learn something new every day. Or a mailbox that you might have in your neighborhood, and you can put it in there. I don't think we have one of those. You can leave your own mail in the mail and then they take it for you? You can send out mail from your own home as long as that bitch is stamped. The mailman's going to open it up. He's going to take your mail out. He's going to then put the mail he has for you in. He's going to then put the flag down, and your mail's long gone. You don't have to save that gas money. You can save that trip down to the post office and the line in the post office. And we know some of those government workers at the post office, it could take four days to get through a line. Yeah. But it also helps you with your braggadocious way of explaining the story. It helps that you drove to the place. You sound a lot nicer. And going back to what it said, though, as frustrating as it is that they posted my address, these people, they don't ask for a million things signed like these ones who follow you around. Two, three, maybe four pictures like that. And they write really nice letters. and a lot of recyclers because some of the stuff is written on maybe a piece of mail they got where it's something they don't care about on the front end and they'll write it on the back side of it I haven't gotten that I've never gotten that I've gotten a little more respect from the people than you're getting you're getting old lists that their wives gave them of groceries they need to get you're getting the back of that. I'm getting a new piece of paper. Every time? Yeah, every single time. If I got like an old bill, like an envelope of an old bill and on the back of that, I don't know if I'm signing for those people. Maybe they want you to pay that water bill that they're sending you. But hey, but on a serious note, like all the fucking around, like I will continue to sign for these people. It's crazy to like obviously the fact that now this many people are doing it, I guess it's just something that we, you know, it's a good problem to have, I guess, right? It's an honor. It's an honor. It's an honor and a privilege. So shout out to the people who reminded me that I got my face caved in once again. Look at how angry and mad and mean he looked. Just, he's already, he's like, I know you're going to be doing a podcast with Ryan Whitney, you motherfucker. That's why he fought you, maybe, because he found out we were friends from the Pittsburgh days. Yes. He hated me that much. He's like, here's for your hot take, you fucking idiot. Jacko, if you're listening to this, I don't like these two. I'm on your side, man. Oh, we know. So we love our fans, other than the guy who falls around with baseballs. Let's get into the fight. And let's talk about what the fuck is going down at State. hours after I leave the city, my adopted son is KOing guys at bars. Yeah, for anyone who maybe lives under a rock, I mean, this was everywhere. Probably the number one story, I'd say, yesterday in terms of hockey on the Internet. Gavin McKenna has been charged with, like, basically aggrafated assault. There's three other charges. Story comes out immediately, breaks the kid's jaw. The kid has to get surgery right away. I'm like, I got off the ice from practice. I'm like, what the fuck? I'm like, is this old? No. Saturday, January 31st. I'm like, wow, what a chiclet's mush. The actual weekend we were there, when maybe one of the coolest hockey photos we've ever seen is taken, this guy ends up knocking a student out. So you're kind of wondering what's happening. You're wondering what's going on. The funny thing I thought of right away, I'm like, wow. I think that this kid had to deserve it. Based on meeting McKenna, based on, like, how nice of a kid he was, he's humble, he deleted his Instagram for the season. Ironically, I think he uploaded Instagram to then put the awesome picture on his Instagram after the game. But I'm like, I just feel like with how this kid is wired and driven, he wouldn't have let, like, a bar fight end up screwing up with his draft stock or draft status. Well, then the news comes out. now I asked G before he says there was a kid there who was talking shit about McKenna's mom his teammates kind of got involved tried to make this guy go away and they're trying to kind of de-escalate all the madness and the kid wouldn't stop and so McKenna said you know what I'm from Whitehorse in the Yukon territory and I'm sick and tired of this motherfucker talking about my mother like I think any single human being listening would feel and stepped around the teammates and buried this dude in the jaw. And once you hear that that was the story, I think that if scouts liked him, they now love him. If scouts loved him, they're now obsessed with him. And no matter what happens in my mind, this kid should go first overall. He defended his mother in a bar, this. Is he 18 years old? Yeah. Is he 17 years old? I don't care. It's college. What did you think when you first heard this news? selfishly I want to shut down Nylander, Matthews all three of our goaltenders and just basically just give the season up and then I'm going to keep it down Gary Beckman I think you can just keep it going the same way and it'll be fine he brought the Leafs into this one it's fucking guys insane you asked me what my thoughts are and my thoughts were I want to make a playoff push and now I want to fucking tank for McKenna I'm full blown tank for McKenna, I will give the Edmonton Oilers hildebeest wall and solars fuck take bobby mcmahon if gary bettman gives me that number one lottery ball i won't say another fucking bad word about the league i won't bitch about 76 games in olympic year schedule i won't say a goddamn word tank for mckenna now so you're telling me that that story is 100 confirmed now because when we hopped on that was the story that was coming out and like I'm like, come on, at Penn State, you have this potential first overall pick coming there. You think that somebody who was going to school with him would be supportive of him and be like, hey, man, big fan, all the success. Just like the third overall pick to the Giants who we met, I'm drawing a blank, Abdul Carter, how he was showing him support. He ended up sending a post after with a signed jersey from McKenna. So to hear that a kid would be joshing it, not only him, but trying to insult his mother. I mean, this kid was definitely being a drunk piece of shit. Keep in mind, people started drinking really, really early for this game. So you got to imagine people on this campus were pretty fucked up by this point in the night. And again, that is absolutely no excuse for what happened. And if what happened is true, and it's all a legend right now, but if what happened is true, I couldn't be happier for Gavin McKenna knocking this kid the fuck out stock going up stock is way up right now on Gavin McKenna yeah I mean fuck but like drunk enough to be in a position where you're fucking going after this student athlete who came from Canada and then going after his mother when the rest of the team is around I don't know man but whatever if that's the 100% accurate story whatever that kid was looking for he found it He fucking got it. He's fucking around and find out. The definition. In a society where we probably need way more than that, if you're going, oh, you don't handle yourself like that, that's not how other guys would have done it. Well, listen, buddy, I don't know. I don't know. I tell you this. If a kid was doing that to me, my wires would have crossed, and I would have been going toe-to-toe with this kid to defend my mom too. So, Yans, I'll throw it over to you. you do have experience in this category of somebody who has gotten a pre-draft fight. I have been in a lot of street fights and we'll get into that after. But, Yans, what do you make of this? I love it. And, you know, just a little bit about my story is I was out with friends, underage, obviously, like McKenna at a bar, probably shouldn't have been there. You can maybe say that's poor judgment, whatever. But I'm out with some friends. Something happens to another one of my friends. We start a fight. Luckily enough for me, I had three of my uncles there that are pretty crazy. So that worked out well on our side. But it was a bad night for some other people. And it was a big brawl. Teams ended up finding out. My draft stock dropped. And then I'll never forget, it was Keith Gretzky and Steve Lyons, two scouts for the Coyotes back then, when my name just kept dropping and dropping. They said, listen, this guy was out. maybe he shouldn't have been whatever but at the end of the day he fought for his family he fought for his friends isn't that what you kind of want in the NHL like a guy that will go to bat mind you I didn't fight in the NHL because it wasn't part of my game but it's like one of those things where if you know a guy is going to have his family's back and you talk about all these good teams you're a family right and that's a guy I would want to draft and obviously I wasn't going to be the number one overall pick it's a little different story but the fact that he suck up for his mom out of all people in the world absolutely skyrockets his draft status in my mind not that you can go much higher than one but it's one of those things where you have a guy like that that's that has the the wires that can cross if you need to I want him on my team at all times and you know like you said biz too like people think nowadays you can run your mouth and and get away with stuff until you run into the wrong person just like you guys found out with jackman like some people don't don't don't play games like other people play games but i i i have nothing wrong with it he's just turned 18 years old he's 17 the kid the kid that he beat up i'm sure wasn't younger than him so it's one of those things where it'll teach people maybe to keep you all shut at the bar a little bit so i've also been told that like it wasn't a sucker punch either like the kid fought back it was just a street fight and i kind of won the fight and he didn't start the fight now based on you know words being said so you can go into like say i'm i'm a dad right if my son is gavin mckenna you know you're you're you're trying to teach them um what you have to lose right and and your future and what's in front of you and being smart and you know yeah you're gonna go and have a good time with your buddies but like it's like somebody like that Just don't even listen to him. Walk away. But if you're then told after, like, hey, Dad, the guy is chirping my mom. Like, you know, apparently calling her a whore. That's been one of the things out there. As a dad, you're just like. I was telling the story to Bree because we were down in the basement. I got home from practice. The kids are there. And Ryder and Wyatt are kind of like, what? I'm like, what would you do if somebody said something to Mom and was being mean to Mom? and why it's like I smash him. I'm like, good. Good. So, you know, it's kind of one of those things. Like, it's your mother. And the fact is, no matter what, McKenna's like, fuck, I wish this didn't happen. But if this is the actual story, there isn't a scout in the world, a general manager in professional hockey that's going to hold it against this kid. I mean, hey, you think of how much Brian Burke loved Bieksa after that fight with Fedor Fedorov, and then Rob Blake getting in a fight with his whole family on the highway on the way to the draft. We're two for two, folks. This is not the end of the world here. So pretty much if you get in a pre-draft scrap, you're guaranteed 1,000 games. I mean, not necessarily a Hall of Fame jacket, Yans. I'm sorry, but hey, I mean, an Iron Street's not bad. That's great. I'll never forget I got I got uh kicked out of school one day at recess my sister got hit by some kid playing soccer and I saw it happen my wires crossed went and fought and my dad worked night so he slept during the day and they were like we got to call your house I'm like no I'm like don't wake up my dad please like just I'll just go home they're like no he's gonna come get you so he they end up getting in touch with him he has to go and pick me up at school I'm like this dude's going to lose his mind on me gets in the car he's like what's your favorite breakfast place i was like newcomb farms baby he took me to breakfast he was so proud of me that i stuck up for my sister so that's what you do you stick up for your family you stick up for your teammates yeah yeah no doubt but like you said we're like probably a a learning lesson for him too or maybe just try to de-escalate as much as possible and i mean at least moving forward right because he's now seen the headache that it's caused but um i agree with you i don't think there's a scout in the world that's going to hold this against them um based on how it all went down um fuck i mean i never gotten any pre-draft uh scraps i did get in a few remember when we had knop gone that place we talked about where we hung out in uh in uh it was i think it was called port deluzi and one time post bar i was having like a sausage by the sausage stand and there was this one guy just kind of being an absolute dickhead so then finally i like chirped him and just like basically told him to fuck off and he said what the fuck are you gonna do so then boom got him we we go we square up one punch take out basically his front grill he drops cop grabs me back of the cruiser and i'm like motherfucker like i think i'm going in and then i get when he came to the guy was just like i'm fucking leaving no like no press charges just took off because he was kind of yapping and looking for it, right? So kind of respect to that guy. Respect to that guy, buddy. Respect to that guy. So that was the one where I cut my knuckle and then I went home and cleaned it off with the Captain Morgans. That's not rubbing alcohol, folks. Don't make that mistake. You couldn't even pick a clear alcohol. You picked the brown stuff. With the Coke in it too. It was a rum and Coke. He had Coke and rum going into his hand. lime lime on the air and then a bag so for those kids listening right now you can leave your mail in your mailbox and don't be cleaning out open wounds with captain morgan spice rum all right so i told you i ended up spending like the next seven days in the hospital because i woke up and it ballooned and the other one not that one i basically ended up on the losing end of because I got the worst of it. And then I got in another one in that same area where, yeah, squared off with the guy. He had a buddy with him. And next thing you know, I woke up and my buddy had me in his arms. He must have fucking got me with a, oh, yeah. He must have cold cocked me. I don't know how it went down. All I remember the last thing is I had the one guy on the ground. And then the next thing you know, my one buddy was holding me up. And I'm like, what happened? And he's like, it's time to go home. you're damn right it is so the other and then obviously the iris traveler situation where i got my head fucked up and kicked in but i guess the moral of the story is like probably best to also avoid these situations because you never know how they're going to end up like next thing oh yeah and the scary part too is like you end up fucking getting in a fight you you you bury some guy falls down and hits his head he dies yeah you're going to jail you're going to jail that that is like yeah do whatever you can not to get in a fight that would be my advice like as crazy as this situation is and the and the last you could have about it like there is another side to it where like for instance with the other Irish Irish Trauber situation like all I asked them to do is fucking pay my pay my bills pay the the hospital bills and and get my neck back the way it was and you hope that, I don't know where those guys are at or what they've learned from this situation, but let's hope they kind of handle it. So any kid listening right now, if you're out at a bar, maybe this conversation can kind of, you know, the wires can cross, but maybe you could stop him from crossing if you just kind of think about maybe the other side of it. Now, even though he wasn't at fault in this situation, there could be legal bills. I don't know what he's going to have to pay off, and if that is the case. I'll pay it there's a couple ideas I do have Gavin and your representation if you'll hear me out now the first one being I know we're all aware of the GoFundMe right? instead of doing a GoFundMe considering we bonded over this fishing fly fishing maybe go fish me and everybody donates and then we pick a couple winners out of that that would cover the legal bills and anything that this guy needs where we would go fly fishing with them. And I thought that that would be, so instead of GoFundMe, you can win something and also, you know, you guys get the drift, right? Go Fish Me. You guys like the idea, the concept, and the name? It's great. I thought this one was better. And considering going back to the fishing thing, and we're going to be pursuing that together, we're going to come out with our own fishing lure. And it's going to be called The Right Hook. And it would be by Biz and Gavin. Nice. And you'll see it right there. so if anybody on his side is interesting I mean I've done prior deals with Steve Eisenman with the Eisenpan with the skin care routine I worked hand in hand with Leon Dreisaitl for the Cologne Cologne Germany everybody knows that one so just want to throw that out there if you guys want to recoup some of the money that it might cost you in legal fees or whatever it may be I've been through this experience but just I mean guys the right hook I mean come on that's fucking genius Do you notice how his name is first and not McKenna's? Oh, yeah. And I also notice it's like when you're trying to describe success you've had in the past with maybe doing deals and certain types of, how would I describe it? You've got partners in your deals. I don't think you're going to be listing off stuff that never worked because the iJapan, I don't think Steve would give you a minute of his time. And then the cologne with Leon, he's actually from a city named Cologne. He never wanted a cologne with you. So maybe this is the one you hit out of the park and it actually works. But put your name first and your picture first. It's kind of a slap in the face to Gavin. Yeah. I think at least put his name first. He's like the lead. He's the lead in this in this play. Right. He's on the top of the bill on the movie poster. Yeah. This unbelievable name. unbelievable idea biz and he's so proud of himself he's just looking at it this might be my best work yeah this might outdo Pink Whitney you might actually get to go on that incredible second fly fishing trip of your life right really get that addiction figured out and taken care of with a second trip fly fishing a fly fishing video with me and McKenna would do for numbers right now we should invite the guy he knocked out. Just go three-way. Do three, you know, I don't know. That guy's a Flyers fan, though, I've been told. All right, listen. Hey, before we move on, we should say we hope the kid that did get knocked out, we hope he's okay, and I'm sure he knows that he messed up, and I'm sure he's apologetic. I saw a picture of him. I think that's him. There's a picture out there. I think his jaw was a little mangled. But, yeah, I mean, made a mistake. and caught a right hook. Caught a bassinet and McKenna right hook. Another big-time NHL news story, Artemi Panarin, he's now a member of the Los Angeles Kings, signs an extension immediately, a two-year, $11 million extension. Was really surprised at that, based on the fact that it kind of was out there or at least people thought he wanted term. turns out that he was willing to sign just a two-year deal. I would say that the reaction I'm reading is Rangers fans were not pleased. With the return? They're not pleased with the return. So the return was Liam Greentree, who was the LA Kings' number one prospect. Apparently their prospect pool isn't great, but this was their number one prospect. and it was also a third round pick that can turn into a second round pick if LA wins a round in the playoffs this year and then a fourth round pick that could maybe be a third that I think LA would also have to win a round for. So the return, based on what people were throwing out there as possible trades with all these different teams, they thought they would be getting a lot more. They thought they'd be getting the Brock Nelson return, right? You're getting a first round pick, you're getting a big time prospect and it all changed when it kind of became public that Panarin wanted an extension with the deal. Because then all of a sudden you've got all these teams that can't or won't do an extension that are out of the running. Now the Rangers fans' argument is that what the Flyers got back for Claude Giroux a few years back when he told them he was only going to Florida. Florida and Colorado. Okay, and then what was the other one where they recently somebody said, I'll only go there, and the return was much higher? I'll look that up. But, Fizz, what did you think of all this, and do you kind of see where Rangers fans are coming from, or do you understand that they really had no leverage? Okay, so I agree. They had no leverage, and there's a lot of different circumstances you could go through as far as trades as to why maybe there was better returns. I would say that if you're a Rangers fan, And your overall criticism should be towards Drury is they're showing their hand way too often in these types of situations. And he needs to learn from that. Things need to be kept more in-house. Maybe they do so publicly to gain more interest. They got a GM group chat. Like this whole public shit with Trouba, with this guy, the team not happy about the Goudreau moving. They got to fucking tighten that ship up. And this should be a big time learning experience and all this. So you're obviously hoping that that green tree, which I've seen a couple of clips from, uh, looks like he's a gamer and he's got some snarl. I bet you JT saw those clips and his fucking loving life. I need some more dogs on my team. Seem like that. So, Hey, if they got a good prospect, who's going to be an NHL or given the fact that Panarin wasn't going to be coming back and they didn't really want to pay him what, what he wanted to be paid. I thought it was decent but obviously I think it's a great situation for LA to not only get him but get a guy like that for two more years where listen Kopitar's he's gone after this year I would say that most people would agree Quinton Byfield has had a bit of a difficult transition taken on that role as the number one center I believe right now he's got what maybe 10 goals their whole middle of the ice is not very productive offensively. So at least with a guy like Kempe, Fiala, and now Panarin, you have some very, very high-skilled wingers where I kind of look at, I use Patrice Bergeron as an example. He got to play with very highly skilled wingers throughout his career who were playmakers and who could play where I feel like he could worry about more of the 200-foot game. So I think it alleviated pressure from him where there was probably some seasons where Bergeron was playing with those guys who might have had, what, 60 points. Talk to somebody kind of recently about that type of situation. So for L.A., you bring in a very highly skilled winger who can put up points and those types of things come easily to him. Where I think that now it's okay that maybe you're not an unbelievable threat through the middle of the ice. So great trade for LA, makes him way more relevant and excited what he can do in LA and a good deal. I think with the, and I said it when they shut him down when he wasn't playing, I didn't like the fact that they did that just because these GMs are just going to wait you out, right? You should at least push it as long as you can with him still playing where you can get a better deal. The fact that there's not a first rounder involved is kind of scary to me. but it's kind of one of those things that at the end of the day I'm sure they just wanted to get the deal done you get a top prospect of LA and then some picks but yeah I don't love the deal if I'm a Rangers fan when you lose a guy because from what we all heard right we thought he wanted a long-term deal and then if you're another GM like I don't know if you're Detroit wouldn't you be like fuck I would have gave him a two-year deal and maybe a little bit more yeah but the problem was his no move, he was in charge of deciding where he wanted to go. The thing that's weird is that once the Rangers came out with the letter and said that we're not resigning him, it's like if you hadn't sent that, wouldn't Rangers fans not have minded if they signed him for two years at 11? Now, maybe he wanted to leave at that point. I have a feeling that he would probably have wanted a longer-term deal with them. But once again like the extension comment the publicity of it the team list just narrowed down Hey some of these gems are smart too They wear you down all the way to the end to where maybe that not even the offer anymore And you can be fucking stuck holding your dick in your hand You've got to get some type of return. So, yeah, a lot of pressure on this kid to figure out a way to get to the NHL and make a difference in that lineup. And a little underwhelmed at the draft pick return. I thought for a guaranteed second rounder, should have been where it was at. Well, the other thing is that it was almost like this was the deadline, but the deadline isn't until March. So now part of it is maybe you don't want to pay him all of that money throughout the break. That's what some people have mentioned, like owners. Like, we're trading this guy. We've got 20 days with no hockey now. I don't want to pay him. But the Rangers are eating half of the money the rest of this season. So the other crazy thing that Elliott reported, now mind you, we haven't even brought up the fact that Adam Schefter is the one that broke this news. I saw that. It was Emily Kaplan and Adam Schefter. I'm like, Schefter's getting in the NHL insider game? Like, not for nothing. If I'm an insider, I'm kind of shaking in my boots if Schefter's going to start getting in my boots. I'm Elliott. I'm hiring Gavin. Just fucking send him, man. Hey, Gavin the hitman McKenna. That's got a nice ring to it. Gavin the Hitman McKenna coming to your Toronto Maple Leafs. Hey, Gavin, come on down, baby. There was a tweet that was a video of someone in the WWE just smashing a chair over someone's head. It said, Gavin McKenna, the minute he realizes the Vancouver Canucks may win the lottery. I got a kick out of that. But Elliott reported after that Seattle offered him over – it was a four-year deal with a higher AAV than Dreisaitl. So he basically threw down $30, $35 million to not sign in Seattle. Kind of crazy. Respect Seattle. Basically, what they've done this year is shocking. They've been on the no-watch list for years since that Colorado upset in the first round a couple years ago. And they're like, all right, well, let's go out and try to grab a superstar here. But he didn't want that. He was all in on California. I guess Elliott also in that article says that he was open to Anaheim with a return to Quenville. But they weren't all in on the extension. And there was just all these teams that either didn't want to give an extension or didn't want to give the money he wanted. And he ends up going to L.A. Now, Biz, I do like the trade for L.A., but I don't think this makes L.A. like that much more of a threat. No, I agree. Listen, but it's a great piece. And, buddy, they're the third lowest scoring team in the league. They need offense. And, like, you have Drew Doughty. You have Aze Kopitar's last year. Bring them over. I think a lot more guys moving forward will sign short-term deals in L.A. They get to get away, go play in the sunshine. the team's great the organization treats the first class now going back to the seattle thing now you guys will say i'm crazy i'm making shit up but buoy cost them this you fucking roll your eyes with bro i thought you were i did my fucking research panarin's got two kids and they fucking hate buoy they hate him they showed oh we might be going to seattle no buoy no and it was There's fucking no Seattle. The kids in the family have more say in what goes on with these guys than you know. So if you don't want to fucking admit that Bowie cost them probably a top 15 winger in the league, then don't do it. But then do some fucking research like I did. Okay. And you know what? Yeah, when you look like Bowie, you got to take it to account that there's kids out there. These players do have kids. And you're right, Biz. I'm glad you did that research. I respect it. You make a mascot look that ugly and that fucking, like, I'm just saying. Crack head-ish? Yeah. You think he wants his kids around that guy? No. Or whatever it is? I don't know what the pronouns are, Bowie. You tell me, brother. Oh, in Seattle, Bowie is not just one. He's many. And I think that I do feel for Rangers fans because, like, I mean, they've been thinking if Washington got him, it was going to be Ryan Leonard. They were thinking San Jose Gartham was going to be Will Smith, you know, and nothing against Liam Grinchy. This kid may be great. I did love that clip of somebody that looked like an exhibition game in San Jose. I hope it was a rookie tournament game. Chops the top of his laces, and he gives it right back and says, you think I'm fucking scared of you? So that's an edge that you like seeing. But I think Rangers fans thought that they were getting back an absolute boatload. They're down bad. They're down bad. I saw Avery Zaretsky the other day. Holy shit. I gave him the BetterHelp number. I'm like, sorry, bro. I mean, I wish I was a little bit more prepared for this situation, man. But he looked down and depressed. Right side for Rangers fans. Trocek has a lot of term left. And Schneider is team controlled, being RFA after this year. So if and when those guys are traded, if it happens, The return will be greater. You'll be happier with the return. But it just sucks to see one of the best Rangers of all time. I mean, you know. Numbers-wise, yeah. Numbers-wise, just all of a sudden he's gone, and you didn't even. It wasn't even a second rounder. That's where I was like, holy shit. I'm like, third? That might be a second. LA's got to win a round. If they play Edmonton, you know that's not happening. And now we can lead into Edmonton. And, you know, I'm going to save the floor for you, and I'm going to shout out Connor McDavid writing that amazing article in the Players' Tribune. That you forced him to write. Okay, okay. This, he wrote that article because of me. If that was the case, I swear to God, that's the most proud moment of my life. To have a voice in the world of hockey where the greatest player these eyes have ever seen is willing to write an article about his love for Edmonton because of something I said, that means I made it. Now, is it something that I'm very proud of if he wrote an article to prove me wrong? No. But it still means I got a voice in this game, Biz. And as my career dwindled into nothing and the injuries and the disgust and the turnovers, you know what? I still got Connor McDavid writing articles because of something I said. But that is not why he wrote the article. That is not why he wrote the article. Well, just to be clear, and no disrespect to Connor, I'm sure he had a big hand in it. Typically, the Players' Tribune, they have someone help with the writing of it. Yeah, but I'm just saying, yeah. If you think it's a coincidence that a few days after Bob Stauffer stopped talking to you, and then he goes and writes that article for Connor McDavid, then it's just some fucking coincidence. You think that was Stauff? You think Stauff wrote that? McDavid didn't even have nothing to do with it. It was just Stauff. He was like, hey, it's me, Connor. I left my home phone at the bottom um but uh yeah no but did you read it oh I read I read it a couple times and hanging in his bedroom as a guy who brought up the chance of him someday if he ever left going to the Detroit Red Wing I felt pretty friggin stupid not gonna lie about that because he just made it pretty clear that he loves being an Edmonton Oiler and he wants to win, but he doesn't want to win anywhere. He wants to win in Edmonton. Okay. Now, get a second rounder for him. What we're seeing right now out of the Oilers, does that give you a ton of confidence? No, based on what we're seeing. But they do this every year where they look god awful and everyone says they got no chance and then they get to the cup final. So, Biz, I did want to give you the floor, though, because, yeah, you own me. You really, really own me. Well, no, listen, I didn't want to go there. On Tuesday night. No, I didn't want to go there. Didn't want to go there. You sent out the tweet mid-game going at me, bro. Motherfucker. Last podcast, I said that I would send you Bobby McMahon to help you host the Stanley Cup if we were out of it. I gave you the opportunity. I said you could be nice to me. You could be nice to Leafs Nation, and maybe I'll even send over a goaltender to help. And what did you say? What did you say? I don't want the stink of that team on my team. Exactly. So I said, okay, motherfucker. I said, we're going to march into Edmonton, and we're going to win a hockey game. And we did that. And we stole our stud on his head. We got our first power play in nine periods. which all, oh, we're getting hoes, we get hoes. The Leafs don't get any calls. They're like the least rewarded team in the league as far as power plays. But you need speed to get calls. After three games in today's new NHL, and then that's the reason why the Leafs beat you guys. Whatever. I don't even want to hear it. No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. I can admit, you guys outplayed us. The call, that call was brutal to put us down five on three. At least take them both. Matthew stuck the arm out. Look, was it Yanmar? Who was that? He put a breakaway, I think. And, like, you end up going down 5-on-3 on that call. That was, come on. I mean, that's not why we lost the game. That was a bad call. We were going to score on the 5-on-4, but fair. I agree. It put the game out of hand, okay? I just want to remind you, though, you talk about this stink and this stench, and you have this godly hockey figure, two godly hockey figures, and even Evan Bouchard, and you guys have one more win than the Toronto Maple Leafs. All this negativity you send my way, and you're in the easiest division in the NHL, and the Leafs have to play in the Atlantic. Gauntlet. The gauntlet, and here you are. I'll give you one more opportunity, Ryan Whitney. I want you to apologize to me, Leafs Nation, and maybe, just maybe, I'll talk to Tree Living and crew, and I'll say, hey, Bobby's going to come back in the offseason. But if we're out of it at the deadline and we're still on the outside looking in, we're going to send him Bobby, and let's pick one of the three goaltenders because they can't get fucking saved right now. Wait, you don't want to be a charity case here. I would rather walk up to Gavin McKenna, say something about his mom, and take a straight right fishing hook to the jaw, followed by surgery, than apologize to you and the Maple Leafs. I can admit, though, the Pacific... I appreciate the plug. That's the fishing lure right there, folks. I know some of you who aren't bucking up and paying for Netflix can't see this right now, but this is the lure that will change your life. Lure him in. The Pacific Division is a dumpster fire. It's pathetic. I looked this up because I didn't believe it. The auto centers who sit dead last in the Atlantic, they have 24 regulation or overtime wins and 22 regulation wins. the Vegas Golden Knights have less regulation wins and one more regulation or overtime win. They're sitting in first place in the Pacific. So we actually have a division that is that much better than the one the Oilers play in where, yeah, it's kind of, hey, bad luck for you guys being there. And thank God, yeah, the Oilers aren't even sniffing the playoffs right now if you look at the Atlantic and some of these other spots. The team right now is an absolute disaster. We talked about they couldn't win three games in a row the entire season. They finally do it, and then they just lose three in a row going into the break. They just had an eight-game homestand. Four of the games, at least three, if not four, were back-to-backs for the other teams who played in Calgary the night before. We lost to Pittsburgh. We lost to the Devils. We lost to the fucking Maple Leafs and just looked horrible at times. We beat the Capitals by scoring with 25 seconds left to go to overtime. Hyman scored. We were down 3-0 to the Sharks, came back and somehow won that game. So, dude, no wonder Leon's sitting there after the game saying, yeah, like we are nowhere even close to as good as we were last year. Where does it start? Oh, it starts with the coaching. I was like, I woke up this morning. I'm like, holy shit. It's the guys sitting there in the middle of the house. Well, the house burns down. Just like, this is fine. We're fine. And like I said before, every single year, it's like the Oilers are brutal. Now, they go on runs throughout these regular season. They're brutal. They're not doing shit this year. And then they win the West. But this year has a real weird vibe around it, okay? But I do want to shout out someone, Trent Frederick, who's gotten crushed all year. And his play hasn't been great. But a lot of fans went at him. after the game against the Maple Leafs, when Carlo hit McDavid, nothing crazy, but Nurse gets right in there. Great fight, sticking up for your teammate. While the next game last night against Calgary, Fredericks gets scratched. And everyone's bringing up the fact Frederick didn't go and fight Carlo after that. That's bullshit. That's why he scratched. If you go back and watch the hit, Trent Frederick had really no idea what happened. He looked up. He thought McMahon hit Conor. He beelines it over to McMahon, who's in front of the Oilers bench, and he's shaking his gloves at him. So I don't want people out there thinking Tred Frederick did nothing after McDade was hit. He thought McMahon hit him, and he went to fight him. So I don't think that's why he was scratched. He probably scratched because he has, like, three points. But the Oilers, they just, their D is so fucking bad. Not their defense, not their defensemen. They're Team D. I can't even, you watch these games. Paul Coffey, line one. Yeah, no shit. They give up. I'm talking like halfway through the first period in games, they've given up eight grade-A scoring chances, two-on-ones. You have a two-on-one. It's like Oprah. You have a breakaway. You have a grade-A chance from the slot with nobody around you. It's crazy. And at this point, Noblog after the game against Calgary brought up that they've got to switch up the D zone. They're going to have a mini training camp like at the end of the Olympic break. It's just, oh, it's crazy. And stop, won't talk to me. And fucking, it's just disgusting. And I'll say this, one of the worst moments of my year. I saw your tweet. I can't wait until the Maple Leafs win this game and the video I'm going to make towards win. And then that game ended, buddy. I woke up just like I grabbed my phone like a little kid, like crawling down into a dark basement, just waiting to watch the video. Should we play it for everybody? Please don't have a lot of likes. Please don't have low legs. Boom! There's like 10,000 views. I'm like, motherfucker. So, yeah, play the video. I don't give a fuck. Oh, hello, Ryan. I hope you didn't go to bed yet. Five to two. We finally got a power play. Oh, my God. I wish you guys could have seen the group chat. Him and Yann's trying to dogpile. Oh, we're like that in the Oilers. Oh, yeah. Why is he going to light it on fire like this fucking joint? Oh, my. The best part about all this is all I wanted was for Whit to be nice to me in my Toronto Maple Leafs. He refused. I was even considering if we were out of it to give him Bobby McMahon. Hey, here's a little loner. We'll get him back in the offseason. Here's a little loner to go up against who you've got to go up against if you make it this time, if you make it again to the dance. and maybe if he was a nice i would have considered giving us giving him one of our three goaltenders but i ain't fucking doing that now and if you look at the standings the oilers the one where he was fucking saying basically mcdavid already had his bags packed to go to detroit his captain has to come out with a players tribune article i don't know if you guys read it tremendous talked about how much he loves canada and oh man it's gonna be he's gonna be shooting lightning bolts out of his asshole at the Olympics. You wait, folks. You wait. He had to squash that. He's got him. He's got Dreisaitl. They got one more win than the Toronto Maple Leafs. And they're in the worst division in hockey. Maybe second worst. But I think the Pacific's the worst division. I mean, all I've heard about is how shit the Leafs are. Trade this guy. Blow it up. What's the problems here? What's the problems? What's the problems here? We're playing in the fucking Atlantic. That's the problem. And I just hope the boys, three-game win streak now heading into the break, we've seen some dark times this season. If you play for the Toronto Maple Leafs and you're listening to this goddamn message, well, first of all, Austin, Willie, Oliver, go have a blast at the Olympics. Go represent the game the way that you guys can. You guys are the best of the best. Bravo. The rest of you, easy on the margaritas. Get maybe a few extra skates in. stay in shape, and come back swinging. I think 16, let's go 17 wins gets it done. I think 17 wins in 25 games gets Joe Bowen in his fucking last year of doing what he's doing and what he's done for the Toronto Maple Leafs. Over 40 years served, over 3,000 games called. Let's fucking go on a rip here, baby. Fuck the doubters, man. Go on a rip. Fucking rights. Fucking rights. Are you fired up? Because I am. I ain't fucking waving the white flag. So struck on these, Winnie Boy, and take the L, baby. I'll see you at the Olympics. Let's go, Canada. Woo-wee! I have another proposition for you. I have another proposition for you, Ryan. not only will we send over McMahon if we're out of playoffs we'll send you a goalie but we'll send you cheap to Rube for the run but I want no we got even bigger weights in our gym than you guys do he could be dead if he has another gym accident you want to hear the return you're going to endorse the right hook you're going to endorse the right hook by Paul Bisonette, Bison McKenna Gavin and we'll give you a 2% cut. I don't want any percentage of that. I don't want any percentages of your soon to be 0 for 3 collabs with future NHL stars and past NHL stars. Remember this. Shout out also of the last eight Oilers games, they have one game with the save percentage over 883. That ain't it. Just horrific. And we can move on. Biz, you got the upper hand again, but the Oilers are a mess. But shout out that article by Mick. The craziest quote I saw with reading some stuff after that game was Jari saying that they have a bunch of guys who are going to be around during break and they're going to skate, get together. Could you imagine having a 14-day break and staying in Edmonton? Hey, listen. Could you imagine having a 14-day break and staying in Edmonton? There are a lot of direct flights to some amazing places. Right at Edmonton on WestJet, I believe. So I respect that, though. That's guys. Hey, they got a training camp coming up. So, yeah, but it's ugly. It's very ugly. And the Pacific Division is just disgusting. It's absolutely disgusting. In sports, winning takes more than talent. It takes strength, reliability, and the drive to go the distance. Sound familiar? That's the same DNA you'll find in a 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 plays off. When it comes to trucks, Chevy Silverado is football guy approved. To learn more about Silverado, visit Chevy.com. Going over to the Atlantic, I feel awful for Anthony Sorelli. He's out. Sam Bennett's in. No surprise there. thought maybe Hyman would get a look but no, they're bringing in a guy that has done it before Conn Smythe winner, Four Nations made a big impact in that so Keith said it, I think from the day the roster was announced that Sam Bennett will be on the team Yeah, and I think it's one of those things too where they I think they knew the entire time he was going to be there and I think they just wanted to piss him off and have him going into this tournament fucking like a raby dog and their plan hopefully didn't work because as an American fan, I didn't want him on the team. I think he's going to be an absolute problem out there. He can score, he can hit, he can do everything. But I mean, just goes to show you how good Canada is. You can just fill in a guy with a guy like Sam Bennett and they have many other guys they could have chosen from. It sucks for Sorelli. I feel bad for him to get that taken away from you so close. You gutted for guys when that happens. I put one in my belly button this morning to that video that was posted of Bennett and Tom Wilson. Do. Do. Do. Do. Do. Now you've got the point question, though. When do we hear about that? Is Braden Point going to be going? Coop said they'll have an answer by today, so I think this afternoon they'll know. Maybe if he doesn't go, Hyman's in. Okay, you think? I hadn't thought about that, but I did think about the last 10 games the Leafs have played the Oilers and the fact they have a 7-3 record. So they beat them 7 of the last 10 games. Hold on. Okay, and in the last 59 years, the Leafs don't have a Stanley Cup. So that's kind of where I'm thinking if we're going to go numbers. Appearance either. An appearance. An appearance. Just a visit. But Cooch has officially entered the heart race. I know we talked about him last time. In January, in January alone of the year of our Lord, 2026, he has 39 points. He'd be the leading scorer on Calgary, Seattle, St. Louis, and Vancouver with his January stats. That's a joke. That's in 15 games. It's been completely insane. Right now, I actually saw another tweet that cracked me up. His pace in the past 15 games would be about 218 to 220 over a season. Gretzky was doing that. Imagine this all year, how fucking bananas that would be. So pretty cool. I think he's one of those guys, too. During break, he's going to be skating every day. He'll be out there on the sheet getting better. he's not going to lose a step after break, and he might continue this pace. Yeah. I know. That's actually a guy that, like, almost doesn't even want it. He's like, oh, shit. Since we're talking about him and Tampa, must-watch game tonight. Tough for a back-to-back for Florida, but they're playing Florida-Tampa tonight, which Tampa already called up Scotty Sabra, and, like, we might have fireworks before the Olympic break. I know, but I feel like Bennett and Kachuk, now, these are guys who you wouldn't normally think that, but is there any part of them? I don't want to get hurt. I hope they don't play. But they're sickos, so probably not. They might end up fighting in the first shift. Who knows? Darren Radish became the sixth defenseman in the last 25 years to record a five-game goal streak and the second this season after Jacob Chikrin. So I love Buffalo. I texted the group at 6.20 in the morning. Hey, boys, Buffalo's plus 190 tonight. They played last night, but they're a young team. They don't give a fuck about back-to-backs. Tampa's coming off that incredible outdoor game with Boston. Buffalo had that game. And Radish shot one 140 miles an hour and tied it up. And then Kucherov got his fourth point in overtime, and they ended up beating Buffalo. But it was – Radish is insane. And then I saw Kiprio saying, basically in his mind, it's already done, Biz, that he's going to be on the Toronto Maple Leafs next year, Darren Ravish. Would you want him there? Yeah, I read that. Obviously, that's very exciting to hear, especially, I mean, you just, we talked to Chris Pronger for an hour and 45 minutes about that big bomb as a defenseman for that, you know, guy at the top, like a guy like Wierenski. So that would be huge, and that would be a big need for the Maple Leafs off the list. Now, saying that sounds way too good to be true. I feel like Tampa always finds a way to make the money work, and a lot of guys love playing down there and are willing to take hometown discounts. So I don't know what the Leafs are prepared to offer, but my God, come on down. I'll help him move his furniture into his house for fuck's sake so we can get a number one D, man. I don't think he's in a position though To take a hometown discount Because he's older right He's got to make as much money as he can Is he a UFA this summer? Yeah Is he a number one defenseman? That's another thing we talked to Prongs about Yeah right now With that lineup he's playing like it But you go Listen they got a great team around them Things are going really well for him But all of a sudden if he finds himself in the Toronto Maple Leafs You can't expect him to go in there and B, Ross and Stalin, there might be a little bit of regression offensively. So if he's able, though, like after this year, if he switches teams and he comes to Toronto and he's able to do what he's doing this year, my God, what a crazy, like, you know, you're going along your career and there's also one year and you're... You're not even going along like this in the NHL. You're in the minors going along like that. Yeah, and so what a bizarre, but, you know, every few years, you see a situation where there's injuries in a lineup and a guy gets an opportunity that maybe where when he's like, I was used to getting this type of ice time in junior college, and all of a sudden they flourish because they're in the right situation. It's really cool to see. And, I mean, what's another example of this? Defenseman or anyone? I mean, I feel like Chikrin, obviously, but he was playing in the NHL. He'd already scored. He was a first-rounder, too. Yeah, for sure. He was a big prospect. Yeah. Not an example by me. Let me think. Also, too, I remember when Tampa came out and said they weren't going to have talks about signing him, I was like, shit, maybe they think when Hedman's going to come back, his minutes are going to drop or power play minutes. But like you said, he's continuing to go up, and he's just collecting more and more money in his pocket, whether it's with them or with the Leafs, as you and Kiprios think. I never said that. I never thought that. I'm just fucking, I'd be, I'd do whatever to get him, but I don't, I don't, I don't expect that. I'm not putting that in my head mentally. I don't want to have that. You don't have a good guy like Cooch dishing him the biscuit too. You got rid of him. Plenty of stuff going on there as to why, but the biggest thing though, and you mentioned it last podcast, the fact that he's such a threat from the top, you need that big bomb threat and Oliver, who's kind of, I would say overall from this year's perspective, been their number one demon on the power play. you could argue Morgan Riley but whatever let's not do it Oliver is the walk the line lock the line little zipper sifter through not the oh fuck get out of the way because I don't want to catch this one of the teeth and that makes a big difference but the one year in member in Phoenix it was me and him on the power play and I was given all I think he got 20 goals that year he can shoot it like if you give him he just needs to be in that right opportunity to shoot it where the puck's coming from down to up yeah yeah it is crazy and we'll move on it's just they believe are in the last uh four years 24 five and one without Morgan Riley in the lineup that's like I saw that I didn't know if you guys were going to bring that up Morgan Riley has kind of been the whipping boy where this year were I think just defensively um but it's also a guy there if you all of a sudden take him out of that locker room it's it's going to be hard man he's extremely well liked and also another thing too I know that that that record is very good without him in the lineup but come crunch time and come playoff time he's never the liability he's always the guy when they those Tampa series he came through in the clutch I thought that against Ottawa he was good last year I you know he wasn't really noticeable in a negative way against Florida. I can't remember, but the money sucks. I feel like he's our Darnell nurse where people just want to remind you, oh, seven and a half. And I believe he still has four years left after this year. If he was making five and a half, I don't think we're having the conversation. But he's not a number one. I think that Morgan Rowley is a number three, but he has to play as a number one. And, yeah, he's got, like, people say, well, he's got pretty good numbers. It's like, ah, well, they've been a pretty offensive team the last three, four years. So those are just going to be inflated when you're playing 20 minutes a night with those type of guys. So still love them, still want them on the team. I'm not going to rip on them. I've learned from that mistake. Yeah, appreciate you bringing that up. And I don't. What do you guys make of it? I love Morgan. So I'm in the same boat. I wouldn't say anything. I think he's a guy that's been there. Like you said, if you lose him in the locker room, that's a massive, massive loss. I think maybe if you bring somebody else in, I don't think he'd be a guy where he'd be bitching and complaining if he got less ice time. I think he's a good company man. But, yeah, I think he's one of those guys you need to have him around as long as you can. And let's not forget here, too, comparing him to Darnell, I think it's a great comparison because Darnell is so well-liked in that locker room. He's one of the leaders. He's part of the leadership group. And I think if you traded him, McDavid and Leon would be very, very, very unhappy. I know, but I know it's more money because I think Darnell's 9-5 or 9-2-5. 9-5. He makes $2 million. He's like meaner. Meaner. He's like tougher. So that at least kind of, you know, when he sits in there and fights Carl after McDavid gets hit, like Riley doesn't do that. But Riley's had a great career. Yeah, the Leafs picked someone right now. That's their guy. Can you guys think of, and I know you'll have maybe an opinion on this or an example, a better reaction to a new coach than Rick Bonas in Columbus? They're 10-1. And what's crazy about the East, they're still not in the playoffs. So the fact is that it's just so hard to gain ground with all these three-point games. But 10-1 under Rick Bonas after beating the Blackhawks on Wednesday night, it's crazy. Everything is turned around. So Merzlikens is the big difference, right? Under Bonas, right here, 9-10 save percentage and a 5-1-0 record. And it's just been something that I didn't really see coming. You know, you see a new coach come in, and you're like, yeah, there's way more. I thought this team would be better. But I didn't think this would end up happening. and I was trying to think of another coach, another team that's had a jump like this. I think Knobloch did it when he was with Edmonton. Go look at how crazy that rip was when he started. Maybe not right away, maybe not as instant. I just figured because I know how well-liked he is and how he obviously watches a lot of hockey and he knew what the problems are with him going in. You mentioned Mursleek and I think a lot of that has to do with the way and how hard they defend around their own net. And that was like the one thing that he said from watching their games. It's like, ah, you guys give up the front of the net way too easy. You guys got to be mutants around your crease and play a lot harder. Among other things, all their defensive analytics have gone up, at least the last time I looked, which was a few games before the Chicago back-to-back, they played them back-to-back, right, home and away, or maybe two and a three-game stretch. But every single defensive analytic category had gotten better, including, you mentioned, save percentage from their goalies. So another thing, too, is their young guys are playing drastically better. Like, I noticed Cole Sillinger way more in the last 10 games since Bones has been there, 11 games, whatever it's been. Charlie Coyle has been a man possessed and a man on fire, like scoring. So another twist to this is Oldie got brought in by Jody Shelley to go to Chicago when he was at the bar school offices, and he did the lineup card in the room and got them fired up. Is that video of this? No. They said no video. Bones goes, this is staying under wraps. He might have whipped his hog out. Oh, yeah. He did a lot in that locker room to get the boys sparked, and I think Coyle had a hat trick that night, and they took it down in Chicago. So that line has played awesome. So good for them, man. I'm happy for them. It's great to see a great hockey market like that get a late season push to keep them back in it. And they got the mojo going. But you remember when I think it was either his bones' first or second game when they were interviewing Merzlikan and they were like, oh, what's changed? And he just said the coach. Usually like goalies don't really, you know, even their relationships with a head coach aren't that crazy, but maybe Bones came in and was like, hey, what kind of defensive system do you want in front of you? Like, what will help you? And they've worked together that way. I mean, obviously, I have no clue, but he seems like a guy that's like, okay, this is the way we're playing. I know where the pucks are coming. Everything's kind of there for me. So everything's been hitting on all keys with them. And, yeah, I mean, you see it in the locker room. Him and Bones are giving fucking bro hugs after the game. I'm like, you don't see that that often. It's fucking awesome to see. Speaking of in the locker room after a game, Martin St. Louis, who the fuck doesn't want to play for that guy? He's sitting there after. I'm so fucking proud to be your coach. And the Lane Hudson goal against Winnipeg, he might have been going 30 miles an hour. He broke up a play in the corner and 2 seconds later he was going over the offensive blue line getting a pass from Josh Anderson going shelf on Hellebook So the Canadians have just been such a story such a fun team to watch But yeah, Columbus, it's cool. And Merzlikens was dog shit earlier in the year. So you're right. It has to have something to do with Bones telling him something or being more relaxed or whatever it was. But cool for Columbus and their fans. the pickup the way that Hudson picked that puck up was the more impressive thing he was going like you said he was going 100 miles an hour he picks the puck up behind him and then finds a way to score that kid is so fucking nasty it's insane he has more points than more points than McCarr more points than Quinn Hughes plus 22 it's crazy what he's doing do you think that he should be so he's obviously head of Marit Sider in your Norris race do you think he's ahead of any of those other three. And if we're speaking about Columbus, Zach Wierenski, we just interviewed Chris Pronger. That's coming out next pod. We talked about him, 20-goal mark, and how he's played, how he's even elevated since Bones has been around. So where do you have Hudson right now? For me personally, I got Wierenski, Makar, Hughes, Hudson. Well, just to ask you guys a question, do you know who the leading scorer is in the league for defense? I believe you just said Lane Hudson. It's Evan Bouchard. Evan Bouchard has 63 points. How many, though, do you think are on the power play? 64. 43 of them. 20. Oh, wow. Five on five. Evan Bouchard is not getting the respect he deserves this year. That's just what I want to point out there. oh man I don't know this is a hell of a race this year I have Wierenski won based on his supporting staff and who he's playing with and you look at those other guys right I mean Suzuki's on like a 96 point pace Makar has what we all know in Colorado Bouchard has what we all know in Edmonton and Hughes has Kaprizov and Boldy so it's Wierenski but it's it's a it's a cool race And so Wierenski, he took off, I believe this morning. It was a cool little send-off from the Blue Jackets fans with the American flag right after the game. Good luck. Go win a gold for our country. But he's going over immediately because he's going to take part in the opening ceremonies of the games biz. And you know why he's doing it? Because he watched that documentary on the 1980 Olympic team. And he said that it just really kind of affected him in a way. I want to go in. I want to go in and appreciate this and get to be a part of every single thing I can. So he's going over early, and he's going to walk in the opening ceremonies. Really cool. Opening ceremonies news for hockey players. Leon Dreissel will carry the flag for Germany. There's another player carrying this flag. Well, you know who else is going over early, Fred? You know who else is going over early for the USA? Tate McRae. That traitor? Yeah, so this went the exact opposite, as you thought, right? Because I believe you said she would be a mole for Canada the entire time, and then it turns out she's getting paid the big bucks to advertise for the U.S. Olympic team? Apparently. I don't know what to make of this. What do you guys think? I mean, we talked about it. We need our guys. We need our guys dating A-list celebrities. Doesn't matter what country they're from. We'll take them all. I said it on Twitter. I'll say it now. Jack Hughes must be all cock and ribs. and sometimes that can make people make crazy decisions and I feel like she's kind of stabbed Canada in the back doing that people also have said to me she's from Alberta they kind of feel like they're the 51st date anyway and I don't want to get into that nonsense I just I can't believe that our pop icon star would betray us like that you still got Alanis Morissette yeah True. True. That's about it, though. That's it. That's about it, buddy. Brian Adams, he's Canadian, right? For the heated rivalry fans. Yeah. All right. With that, we can throw it over to another legend of the game, another gold medalist Stanley Cup champ, Marc-Andre Fleury. The power. What an absolute pleasure it is to be joined by an amazing guy, an even more impressive hockey player, the fourth goalie ever biz to play 1,000 games, and the second most wins in the history of the NHL, Dee Flower. What's going on? Hello, Mark. Thanks for the introduction. It was nice of you. Flower, we could have said a million things in your introduction. It's just incredible. You're finally done playing. I can't believe it. I didn't think I'd ever see the day. But I got to ask you or at least hear your breakdown of my favorite clip around Halloween this year, which was you trying to put together a giant skeleton in which I thought you might come out of retirement because you're like, I can't do this stuff. It crossed my mind, you know. And then the wife is, like, upstairs filming me because I look such a dumbass. I have to, like, put it back in the box. But you know when things come in the box, they're massive and they all fit, like, perfectly? But then, like, when do you have to put it back? It never works. No. I was like, am I going to, like, store this in the garage? I don't know. You're the family that kept it up all year. It's up during Christmas. You throw Christmas out on the skeleton. I sure do, yeah. You're a little simpler. Flower, I see the Minnesota Wild post that you were skating with them yesterday. Is there any potential that you're maybe coming back and making a return? No, no. They're just like having maybe an extra guy. so I've been skating with them for a while but um you know I didn't practice the guys not playing to get bagged a bit so I get to stand there a bit and are you their e-bug kind of is that is that fair to say uh I don't know it's been a while though I was I don't know since December maybe was the last time I went but I like going you know it's good sweat it's fun beef going to the gym you know oh you're not one of those goalies that when you retire you're like I'm only playing out right now like Roberto Luongo he's like I'm only playing out I'm never playing goalie anymore uh but if i play like in a beer league i only play out though okay only i play out always i'll only play goalie i think with nhl guys i think there was a video that i just watched before we hop on was it you at this like public outdoor rink where you were pretending like you couldn't skate and then you like when it ended up going over the boards is that you yeah where'd you find that it was just online i just like put your name in to see what you're up to and I'm like okay he's coming back for the wild and what's this over here no what was this backstory to you faking like you couldn't skate yeah it's just I think I think it was with Nick Bonino uh when I was with the Penguins and then we played in LA and we had a day off or something and then we went by it was like an outdoor rink over there right and then you get those rental skates and just skate around and um I don't know I was just but I was just screwing around about he was pretending you couldn't skate and then he went into the boards and went ass over tea kettle like I would have been a little worried if I was a coach or trainer seeing you go over the board. You fully sold that. Yeah, a couple people came over to check out, make sure it was good. Nobody knew who we were, right? So it was perfect. Flower, the other awesome moment from earlier this fall was the exhibition game you played in. You came in in the third period, didn't let in a goal, no surprise there, and then did the kind of ceremonial shootout. I know you and how competitive you are. You must have been rattled. You let one in in the shootout, right? Two for three? Yeah, I did. But at that point, I was already, I don't know, it was such a special night, you know, and I was already, like, so happy and just, I don't know, with all the love and all the, you know, with the boys on the ice again. My main goal was, like, to win the game, maybe, and not let anything in, right? Who put that together, Flower? Like, did they come to you and say, hey, we want to do this? Yeah, it was Cal Duvers. I reached out, I think, like in May or something. And then I was like, oh, I don't know. I'll think about it. I don't want to work out the summer, you know. But then he came back, you know, in late August or something. I was like, yeah, why not? You know, I think it'll be fun. And I'm really glad I went. Can you believe that Letang, Crosby, and Malkin are still going together? That's crazy, eh? Fun to watch, though. Like, I don't know. I always cheer for them. I mean, I'll keep an eye on them and see what they're doing. But, yeah, pretty amazing. When you go in the Hall of Fame, will you be wearing Pittsburgh Penguins jersey? Do they even do that? They must, no? I think it's like, I don't know if you have to pick a team. Oh, really? Baseball, I think you do. Okay. Never mind. No idea. No idea? Hopefully I get there one day. Oh, yeah. Oh, you're going, buddy. I don't know. They might Belichick you after seeing you try to put that fucking skeleton together. What's your favorite thing about being retired now? Give us your list of things that you're like, yeah, this is the best. I think more freedom, maybe. I went skiing one time in Aspen, too, and I thought it was so cool. I've been skiing since I'm a teenager. I thought it was so fun getting out there and going down the hill. I think that might have been the best thing. But a freedom. I feel like I can try different stuff and be home with the kids more and put them to bed every night and also let's make it. So your day-to-day, are you going to the gym in the mornings? I mean, you look great, buddy. It's incredible. But do you still, like, have somewhat of a routine now that you're retired? I try to, you know, a couple times a week maybe and try to play tennis here and there. I don't know. early on I wasn't doing much and I was just getting angry at home. I don't know. I needed to spend some energy, you know, so I don't love the gym, but I think it's beneficial. And you stayed in Minnesota, correct? Like I heard there's a ton of guys that retired there fresh out like yourself too. So it must be at least good to have guys around you that are in the same boat. Yeah, it's a good place, a place to raise the kids and all that. And for me, having a chance to go with Billy, watch the Wild, and spend some time with them and see how things are done, right? I think that's pretty cool, too. But you're right. I said maybe we should start something in Minnesota, though, for like a pickup hockey game or something because there's so many guys around. So is that like your next plan is to get into management and hopefully be a GM one day? I don't know. One year at a time, we'll see. but it's still a lot of, it takes a lot of time to be there, right? You don't just become a GM and I think you're going to hit the road a bunch. And I think it's finally nice now to be home a bit more and last on the road, right? So I don't think I'm ready to maybe make that full move for management. What do you guys think about like an internet NHL prank show featuring Flower where he's the guy behind the scenes like Ashton Kusher, where he's the one organizing and he can do every team, not just his own teams. What do you have the free reigns on every guy in the league? I'm all in. I don't know. I don't need some ideas and stuff. We'll help. Flower, I do. Talking about the pranks, so many legendary ones. You got me about 15 times. And the best one of all, like what was Duhayne thinking getting you? Like, that had to be, like, you must have been like, oh, okay, because that was one of your all-time ones. I think you took all the tires off this car, didn't you? Yeah. Yeah, that one took a little more work, a little more time, but it was worth it, though. You can't put a skeleton together, but you got a guy who's fucking tires off his car? It doesn't make sense. And so you're older, at least you know to take tires off. Like, this poor guy, you had to call AAA to get tires back out. Was there any guy that was off-limit for you, or you were just that everyone was fair game? It's all fair games. I tend to go towards the younger guys a bit more because they're young and they won't retaliate as much, maybe. So, yeah. When you came into the league, like, I'm looking at that rookie year you played, and then I think Bergevin was known as a prankster, at least a funny guy. Like, was there anyone who kind of got you at the beginning that kind of gave you all this? Were you doing this in Cape Breton? No, I think it started in Pittsburgh. But, like, Mark was awesome as always, like you said, you know, always had those little jokes here and there. But I found, like, around the team, like, everybody was doing something, right? Yeah. You know, like, nobody was safe, and I feel like, I don't know, it's kind of a dying thing, but it's kind of sad because I always loved that, you know, how much laugh you can get, you know, with the guys. Yeah, this team, I'm looking at this. This is crazy. This is an NHL. Yeah, this is basically how you guys got Sid. And, I mean, looking back at that, it's kind of crazy for you. I mean, you had the yellow pads then, buddy. Like, everything changed so much. And I'm wondering, like, your memories of your first year. You played so long. It's got to seem like 50 years ago at this point for you. Yeah, yeah, it does. Also, there was, you know, a few firsts that I remember, right, First game, first shutout, first wins, first penalty shot. Who was first shutout against? Chicago. Okay. First one was Detroit against Ashek. So I thought that was pretty cool. Wow. Yeah, so it was nice. But then, I don't know, then we lost a lot too. So that's not all sweet. I don't know if you guys are like that, but I feel like the years are blending in a bit. You know, like, right? It's definitely 2012 or 13. I don't know. and they're all similar. But, I mean, the year you guys won it, though, that was so special. The save you made at the end of that game, I kind of forgot. Like, I know it was game seven, two to one, but that save on Lindstrom, that was legendary. Like, I mean, obviously you're not even thinking in the moment. You're just reacting. But do you remember, like, realizing, oh, my God, like, game over, and then all of a sudden Hal Gill and Scuds are jumping on you? Like, that must be your best memory. It was your first one. Yeah. Yeah, for sure. I think the first is the best, you know. And when that happened, too, I, you know, just focused on the play, and then I didn't hear the buzzer, right? And then guys started coming. I was like, whoa, whoa, whoa, hey, finish the game. But then, yeah, so, I don't know. It's a little surreal, you know, once you finish it off and you get to celebrate with teammates and get to kiss the cup, right? I think there's, I don't know, nothing like that. Why is there no more French goalies that are dominant? like when you had Marty, Bobby Liu, yourself, you guys were so dominant for so long. Good question. I don't know. I've been asked a few times during those interviews, especially in Quebec, right? I think even Canada, maybe. I don't know. It's hard to pinpoint one thing, right? I think other countries have obviously picked it up and they're coming out with different techniques. I don't know if it's the way they teach the kids or the way they let them play. I don't know. Honestly, it's a tough one. I feel like it's expensive too, right? I don't know if there's enough programs maybe to have free gear for the goalies so they can try. More guys can try it or girls, right? Yeah. What are your thoughts on that reverse VH or whatever the fuck the goalies are doing? Hank drives them nuts. He says it's really overused. Do you think the younger generation is just lazy and it's just like an easier system for them to function? I don't know if it's lazy. I think it's serving well. You don't have to, you know, for me, sometimes I would stand up one knee down maybe or just do butterfly in front of the pole. So, like, sometimes you get caught in between things, right? I think it's maybe easier to just default to that one thing always. But I think like Hank says, maybe it's like opening a little bit above the head, right? So I think it's still got to be smart using it. But it's, I don't know, tough on the hips, though. I learned it later on in my career, but it wasn't my favorite thing to do. Did you play a ton of sports growing up? Because the way that you played, you were so athletic. It wasn't just butterfly in the way. Like you were diving around, making crazy saves. Baseball, soccer, I love all sports, really. But I think the thing, too, I never really learned too much technique at a young age. You know, I learned about fly when I was 13 when I went to Allaire's camp in the summer. Right. So I think maybe that allowed me to find ways to stop the puck, maybe without always been thinking about the technique. You know, how did you get in touch with Benoit Allaire? Because I believe he was the guy who was in New York with Hank. right so was he the the kind of guru of his time that was his uh brother and it's also francois okay okay he was uh with patrick war in montreal and that's when like patrick was like playing butterfly right so as a young kid watching the canadian always and that's what i wanted to be and and do so that's how i kind of picked up so was was patrick wa the first goalie to really start the butterfly was that like a revolutionary move kind of like we talked about the reverse vh yeah Was he kind of the first that made it very popular? I think maybe like Trettiak back in the day might have done it a few, a little bit, you know. But Patrick was like, yeah, I think he was one of the first ones to actually really push and do it consistently, you know. And I think that a lot of French goalies copied that way too afterwards and it worked out for him again. What would it have been called before the butterfly? was it just kind of like guys just stood there like this is interesting i think a lot of people will love this goalie chatter because we don't really get guys on like you very often yeah i think a lot of time it's more standing and then um you know like saving the beauty with the skates right like yeah exactly you used to do them a hilarious way to do them in the game you were a freelancer oh yeah uh yeah so then you know once you figure it out you can go down on your knees you cover more the low part of the net. And I think a lot of goals were scored to, or used to be maybe scored more on the ice. So that was a way to control it better and stop more pucks. Yeah, the goalies literally tried to look as small as they could back then. And then Paddy Waugh was like, let's try to be bigger. Yeah, they were all like this. But it must have been nice. He had big gear, right? Like oversized. And that came, I don't know, a little bit. Yeah, like Jaguar had the big shoulder pads. Yeah, exactly. Was it true that Jaguar, when he had this system where when he would go down the butterfly, that he almost had something that would... The bat wing. Yeah, it would prop up his shoulders. Was that actually a thing? Yeah, I heard about that too. I've never seen it without a jersey, right? But when you look at a picture and he goes down in a butterfly, and his shoulders all come up to cover up here. But what year was it when they really started changing and they made you get rid of certain? They started measuring the gear where they shrunk the pads and everything into 2010. It went based on the goalie's size. Yeah, so they would all measure between your knee and your hip bone. And then your pad could be just like a certain length in between, a percentage of that length, right? And then they measure the width of your shoulder and your chest protector could only be this wide. And your waist, the blocker, before they could be massive. So they kind of shrink everything up. Did it affect a lot of what you were wearing at the time or you were just wearing normal size stuff? I think my pads, I had to shrink them. They had to be shorter. And then I lost an inch on the width, I think. but I didn't mind it that much though because it was, you got more agile after and also sometimes maybe I will get stuck in my gear a bit but then it was easier to move around. I remember when they were doing all that testing about like how to, because the game, I mean, Jamie Benn, we talked about it the one year, what do you lead the league with, 80 points? So they're trying to create more scoring and making it exciting and they were even talking about making the nets bigger. Do you remember that? Yeah, I don't like that. I don't like that. That was not right. So as a goalie, as a goalie were you hearing about that? Were you like, this is fucking ridiculous because the crossbar would it ended up rounding up like a lacrosse net. No, I was not a fan of the ideas. To me, it's hard enough stopping the puck, you know? You don't need to make the net bigger. But then also there's a little history to the game, right? I don't think it's fair to I don't know, tinge it all up and just to have more goals. I don't know. It was all a little crazy, especially when you practice so much with the same size net, and then you make it wider or taller. I don't know. With the Olympics coming up, you were there in 2010, and I think Brodeur had started, then they went to Luongo, and he finished it out. Going into this year's tourney as a fan now and you being there, Like, how do you think they go about it? Whether it's Thompson or Bennington, they give them the first game. If it doesn't go well, do you go to the next guy? Like, such a short tournament. What do you remember from when they switched from Brodeur to Luongo and how they may do it this year? I think to me it's, I don't know, to me I would say it's Bennington's net. You know, I think he was so good at the World Cup and he's won a lot of good games, you know. But I also think that maybe, you know, if Thompson is the second guy, you should still get a game, right, because you never know, and you want to get some experience, and then you see it on the road, right? But I still think Bennington should start and plan on having him finish too. Was it in 2010, did they go to Luongo after U.S. beat Canada in the round robin? Do you remember? Oh, man. Because I remember it was huge news. I remember it was crazy because obviously Luongo's on the Canucks. he goes in, but yeah, I didn't know when that happened in the tournament. I didn't know if you remember. Yeah, I forgot which game they made to change. I mean, can you go through your international? How many times did you end up going to the World Championship at the end of the NHL season? I went once last season. That was your first ever time. I mean, yeah, you guys were in playoffs every year, so I guess that's a good thing. I guess that was a pretty cool experience in send-off. It didn't end the way that you guys expected, but I'm sure that you you got to have a ball with those guys overseas went over too right yeah yeah um sid made you go for sure no i did but we talked we talked before uh you know because he was a little banged up too so he wasn't sure if he's gonna go and then things will work out but uh yeah i never been so i kind of wanted to uh to go and check it out right and play one more time with team canada and because it's such like a privilege right and and they take such good care of the players and all that so um always an honor to put the canadian version i guess we haven't asked yet because i don't know why but you could have kept playing like it was it was quite obvious the shape you're in your game what made you know that it was it was over like how did you kind of figure that out i think the body being a little banged up you know uh being older more tired you know it's a grind like this season is a grind right you go to bed at three or four you travel around but yeah I don't know it's definitely a hard decision to make right so maybe I didn't have that fire to keep doing it every day you know I play pretty like I play with a lot of movement very little bit of energy right and when I felt like I was slowing down or tired so often I don't know I feel like it was I wasn't myself enough to to love it what's in the worst shape now that you're retired like as far as your body's slowing down what was the thing that you had to put the most heat packs on every morning to get going for me i looked like the michelin man i had it all over my whole body but for you it was probably what knees groins what as a no hip and back usually hip low backs yeah it was not too bad you stayed relatively healthy though i remember you had the ankle sprain years ago with pit but other than that like pretty lucky for for your health wise right yeah yeah uh a couple of concussions maybe but when wit ran you over yeah you had some concussions in that yeah yeah uh really had a few yeah um mostly got like blind blindsided i think you know when you were watching the park and yeah you just uh eclipse you while you know skating in front and oh one time the the worst, I think, was the Manta. That's kind of dumb. I put check in two pads stack on one side, and then he just escaped his knee right in my face, you know? So that one wasn't so good. One of the more exciting things we've seen in hockey recently was Nadelkovic and Bobrovsky going at it. Yeah. I'm drawing a blank here. Did you ever get in a goalie fight? No, he tried. No, I tried a couple times, but... I wanted him. I think you need to come back and do that. Yeah, you should have fought in Pittsburgh. game who isn't it's all the peter buddha at the montreal where you look like oh yeah somebody that could go for real you know oh yeah ned slanders peter buddha yeah yeah wait take i think lonely fights are funny though right like you're so off balance right nobody gets hurt you're just gonna i don't know throw punches you can't like i don't even know how you guys move your arms to make a save but throwing a punch with those big the big gear on is like it's it's like when they do the big sumo wrestlers in between periods it's exactly that flower if you could go back and and replay one game from your career which one would you play oh like to make it better or no answer it how you want but just like the like you could basically get to relive that game yeah i think game seven in detroit you know that's um such an amazing feeling right like i said earlier just dive in you know like as a kid i've made that save so many times right like last game for the game game seven you make a save and you win the cup right and to actually do it and for real that was awesome without knowing the outcome you would go back and do that over oh that's what i mean he only gave up one goal that's how you know you're fucking dialed if you go back for that that's a risk though yeah you're right you're right who scored for detroit that day That game. I don't even know. You don't even remember. Yeah, you were that dialed in. But the way that you originally were going to answer it, if you got a redo, what game would you want to redo? One game in your NHL career. Or it could even be international, whatever you want. Oh, that was a shot at World Juniors. No, no. Yeah, you're right. I want to stick in that. yeah now what yeah finals well yeah well juniors for sure against US I do find it amazing though when like you know you go through something like that like such heartbreak at a young age with such high expectations the way that like it was kind of water off a duck's back and boom you look back on your career like no one's going to fucking really think about that right? I don't know every Christmas Sunday show that girl when I spray my mouth. So I'm still thinking about it. But no, I think it was not water of my back. I think that, like you said, it helped shaping me at least as a person. It was like I really took it hard. The news was hard. I felt like I let my country down. I suck. I should have been good. I was playing in the NHL then. So that was really hard mentally. But I think that kind of taught me how to persevere and fight through and find my way back, you know? Oh, yeah, that's unbelievable. How long would you say that that feeling lasted, and who did you lean on? Like, did you have to – we've talked to Nathan McKinnon before, and he talked about how he reached another level when he started talking to a sports psychologist. Sorry, sorry he brought this up. What do you mean? No, I think this is great for young kids to listen to. We assume that you're like, hey, whatever, I'm going back to the NHL, moving on. and you go on out of the career, but you're saying that you sat with it for a while. I think at that time, I used a sports psychologist later on, maybe 2012 or something like that. And I agree with Nate. I think it's such a great tool to have. By that time, I think probably just my dad that would speak a lot to about it. I feel like maybe until summer almost, it stays in your head, you know, because I feel like in the summer you get away from hockey, you get away from playing. and then when you start again, then start fresh, right? So I think, yeah, probably until summer it was definitely in my head. Nice before. It was before the Twitter days and all that too. Yeah, that's it. Get away from it. I think this is good because, you know, Farah, we know you as the smiley guy, always go lucky, happy, and there was a period of time there when, I mean, you won two more Stanley Cups with the Penguins when Murray ended up getting a net. Like, how did that period of time feel for you now that you're retired, looking back. I feel like, from an outside perspective, you couldn't have handled it any better. The ultimate teammate, that's why, to me, obviously Hall of Fame, it's more about the person than the player. Again, I think that wasn't so easy, right? Because I was used to play a lot for Pittsburgh, and I had a good season still that year. But again, I had a concussion that year, and then that's when Matt came in. But I think at the end of the day, To me, what was important is the team, is winning as a team. That's why, even though personally it wasn't always all fun, getting on the bench and being out of the play, but I think bottom line, Matt was a good kid. He was a great goalie. He was playing awesome. So that's what matters. Your third cup, though, I think people kind of forget that you played 15 of the playoff games, 15 of the 25 games in that second of the back-to-back. and it kind of brings up the new way of people talking how you need two goalies, right? And, like, you go into the playoffs and do you continue to rotate guys or do you pick one? Like, for you, looking back, would you rather see a team get to the playoffs and pick one guy? Or if you've been doing it all year, do you think you just continue that route of back and forth? I think that one year, though, Matt got hurt in the first warm-up of the first game, you know. In warm-up he did? Yeah, he did. So that's why I started this series against Columbus. Wow. What did he do? Flower shot a puck at him. Yeah. I think you brought the pranks a little far here. My neck bad, bitch. What's the figure skater girl? Who fucks Tonya Harding? Who fucks Tonya Harding on that right before warm-up in the tunnel? Oh, dude. No, I think it was growing to something. So, yeah. But then I played the first couple of rounds, right? But I don't know. I feel like with Lennar, I did a little bit, like play every other game. It's still weird. I don't know. I still like the idea of having a guy doing it. Maybe give him a break here and there. I think that's not a bad idea. In the bubble, again, with Lennar, he would play most of the games, but then we had back-to-backs, so I would play one. Or I played like one game per series, right? So that gave him a little bit more rest for the next one. So I think that's a good way to, if you have two guys that can play. So you played over 65 games, over 60 games, I think eight years. It's not going to be that way. Is it even that way now? You're not going to see guys playing that many games. Do you get it, though, looking at the league now, how fast the league is, the travel, like, on the max of games being 55-ish, 50, and really splitting it up a little bit. Yeah. Yeah, I think it makes sense. Especially this season, right, with the Olympic year, I think the schedule's so condensed, right? I think it makes sense. Like you said, the game's very fast, and I feel like you need to be rested or somewhat, right, to follow and begin. But you still get, like, Bezelski, who plays almost every night too, right? and he's still having an awesome season, right? So I think some guys are maybe more able to do it every year. And from the time you came into the league, guys are still using wooden sticks, to when you left. Is it incredible to you to see guys releases now and the way that they're snapped, the curl and drag? I feel like that's newer. So you must have just seen it throughout your career. The way guys shoot the puck changed completely, right? Yeah, for sure. And the thing is, remember the wood stick, a couple guys had a good slap shot. Johnny Leclerc. Buddy, I was just going to bring him up. Remember when he played rebound against you? He was just fucking tee up clappers from about six feet away, and you were like, what the fuck is this? I really sticked. Remember the curve was like... Backwards. Yeah, it was hard to read. Just heavy, though. Heavy shot. And then, again, I feel like no offense to the guys, but I think third, fourth line, right? They weren't scoring as much, maybe, or the defensemen, right? Yeah, Ganshar, or Witt, when he had a few backdoor attacks. You know what I mean? You didn't see defensemen up in the rush all the time, and now, like, four lines, everybody can shoot and score, right? Everybody can come in and rip one in, so I think that's changed that way. So you almost have to be ready at all times, no matter what line's on the ice, as opposed to you could almost take a shift or two off back in the day. Yeah, exactly. What about, give me when you were younger, 16, 18, 20, what you considered at the end of the year a good save percentage and a good goals against and what that number is now. Like the same way we said, if you're getting 50 in the mid-80s, it's kind of like 40 goals now, like in a way, or maybe, you know what I'm saying? How have the numbers changed when you look at a really solid save percentage or goals against? Or as a goalie, are you not even really worried about that and it's analytical now where you can look at other numbers, the way plus minus isn't as important as it once was? Yeah I think to be honest I never really looked too much of a save percentage and goals against All I cared was the win I always wanted just the double you the two points That all that Because some nights especially when you play a lot some nights it going to be a fight And this way too, right? We had some good offensive teams. So it could be a high score, but all I cared was trying to win that game. I don't know. I had that mindset pretty much on my career. And as a goalie, we've talked about this on the show before, but you get on the warm-ups as a player, and you're like, fuck, I don't got my legs tonight, right? Or your hands don't feel great. Would it be the same for you in warm-ups? Oh, yeah. But, like, so you knew. You'd get on the ice and you'd be like, I'm just not feeling it. Like, tonight I just got to battle. Yeah, exactly. No, yeah, there's those nights. Just hold the boys in front, you know, help you out. That's when Scuds and Hal Gill, you're like, hey, I'm going to need a couple extra block shots tonight. And they would, too. They're good. Oh, yeah. They would do it. Such good teammates. What was your first impression of these two next to us? Did you see the video that was going viral of what we calling you, Jean Girard? I haven't seen that one in a while. It was all over Twitter again. I don't know why. The Boston accent was worse then. It was good, the mic, though. Entertaining the crowd, no problem. That was good. Yeah, I know that movie just came out. It was good laughs. Yeah, that was then. I think my accent is just as bad now, too. It doesn't get better. I don't know why. No, yours has never gotten better. You have stayed so much. You and Malkin. How much time you got, Flower? Do you still have a little bit here? A little bit. No, it's not. I got a training going on. You got training? What are you training for, Flower? Boxing today. Oh! Hey, are you a hockey cat? Do either one of your girls or your son play? My son, yeah, is six. so I go coach him. Goalie? 50-50, I would say, yeah. That's a yes. He's for sure going to be a goalie. I don't know. I tell him go skate, but he needs to learn to skate. Before you leave, we had a couple surprises for you. Can we bring down surprise one? Yeah, so you can hang out with her. You can tell your boxing trainer that today you're getting the day off. Here we go. Look at these guys. Look at this guy. I got to see. Matthew Merle. So, Merle's got boxing lessons. He's fighting Jake Paul in a couple months. I got a couple issues with you. I think Merle's got some issues with you. I got one quick one before Merle's goes. If you got to do if you could go back and fight one guy that you played against, who would you pick? Terrian and Wilkes-Barre. No, we made up We made up Yeah, he's great I want to have him on now I respect him way more now than when I've played He looks good too He lost a little bit He's got a great tan I was going to say, between the rounds You guys have to rip darts though That would be the key to the fight Merle, what do you got for the flower? Well, Marc Andre sends Oh! Merle's a stand on the pounds Fish got a... Hey, pranks. You're the prankster. Did you tell... There's a movie? It was my second issue. First issue. I threw you like that, like carny. I drove you to your first NHL game. I'm a little disappointed I didn't get the call to drive you to your last NHL game. Wow. Oh, sorry. Was it a red truck like them? No, that was Army. I had the black Denali. Same type of car. He thought you worked for the team. Matt, can I have a ride to the game? I'm like, yeah, you're the starting goalie. We're going to need you tonight. The PR guy. He gets up. He's like, thanks. He's like, no, I'm on the team. And then I just thought of this one last, so I'm looking it up. How many NHL wins did you have in your career? Do you know? I don't know. Five, five something. Do you remember the first one? Do you remember the first one, the party we had for you in the locker room? Oh, I remember. Burst. Burst, yeah. We had the stripper lights going, and he was dancing on them with the power gels were getting squeezed out everywhere. Nice. So I thought you would like that memory I have of you. Yeah, thank you. Great times, great times. And then what was my other thing? It was just like I just want to congratulate you. Great career. You inspire so many people, young goalies. One of my good friends, their kid's a goalie because of you, Tucker Alex. And he's a huge fan. You end up giving him all the signed cards I had of you. So thank you for who you are. Great to see you. We have one more surprise. We have one more guy. Then you can go. One more, one more, one more. All right, there you go. Nice to see you, man. This goofball. Where is he? He's getting a new crew there. Oh, no. Oh, no. What happened? Arby, what's wrong with your neck? Oh, shit, Arby. Arby's wounded. Where is this guy? Stop eating pie on your stomach. What happened, Arby? What happened, buddy? You need a little rub down there, Arby? Boys. Marc-Andre Fleury's retirement party, boys. Oh, no, what happened? It's been an issue. The lawsuit's still on. Flower, have Alan Walsh contact my wife. We need to talk. I know it was Zach Bogosian that almost killed me on a jet ski, but it was your jet ski. And so, needless to say, I haven't been the same since. Call Morgan and Morgan. Merle's popped this thing off for me. He's covering his head, actually. Yeah, here. Let me give you a little. Oh, no, oh, no. He lost him. Oh, fuck. Oh, God. He's fucking hanging. See what I'm talking about, Flower? Hanging by a thread. What was your other favorite memory from that retirement dinner, Army, or weekend? And how happy were you to get the call for that? Oh, I was so honored to be there, Flower. By the way, I'm so proud of you. Congratulations. Congratulations. Flower, do you remember what I said to you when I left your house with Skilzy at the end of it? You'll hear from my lawyer. I said, if the teams come calling, don't say no. So have you got any bites? Have you heard anything, buddy? Are you still keeping in shape? It looks like it. I saw some videos of you strapping up. Yeah, I haven't skied that much. I went in yesterday just to help out with the extras. but um i remember you told me too you might have a few but he's like make sure you try to keep your abs yeah yeah he's got the eight pack that's one thing i will say about flower and you guys remember this too obviously your halloween costumes are legendary with you and be your wife but remember when he went as cat woman remember how sick his body was yeah i was like look at that Dump her on that girl. That's flour. That's flour. Flour was so hot. It was crazy. That's your goalie. Don't lose that body, Flour. You got a beautiful body. Unbelievable, buddy. I'm sad they lost the flavor savers when I'm shy about it. He had to shave in Vegas. In Vegas, he had to shave the beard. Really? What? They got the Lou Lamorello going in Vegas? Maybe not anymore, but the beginning. Wow. Fleury, I just got to ask you, Flower, also 21 years, second all-time win, second all-time game played, a career that you've taken you to different teams. You met so many guys. What was your favorite time, though, buddy, sitting here with us idiots? Winning cups, man. Like, he's had some great moments. Yeah, it's hard. I think 20-some years. But I think the beginning was awesome, right? just like starting to live on my own and you know spend so much time with you guys um playing hockey right that's all we did you know just fool around and play hockey i thought it was i don't know man you put me on the spot it's hard uh made a lot of good friends right met a lot of good people uh just good times good times and that's why i think i i wasn't i don't know i feel like we don't hear in hockey about like a retirement party much but i thought it was fun to do just to get you know We had a bunch of guys and girls back together. Did you guys do that? Did you guys do retirement things or anything? I went up to repair my ACL. That's all I got. And then an insurance claim against the LA Kings. That was my retirement party. Yeah, you had a career we all admired, obviously, and then a retirement party to boot to go with it. It was pretty fitting, man. I loved it. Thanks for having me. You're the best. Alan Walsh called a slump dog. How much does that guy cost me? Oh, that's a million. And shout out to Craft Hockeyville who kind of lined this all up. Not like we could have had you on anyway, but you're doing that campaign with them. Is there anything you want to say about that? And are you nominating any city in particular out of Quebec? I don't think I can nominate any cities, but obviously cheering for all the Frenchies around canada because you're taking the english side right so i get a tour for the french guy french people so you got till march first right to vote on the graftocuville.ca yeah good call 20 year anniversary they're doing a lot more this year for the 20th year uh every single province and territory will have a winner and then they're picking a grand prize winner for 250 000 we actually had gavin mckenna on flower and he can't he's from um he's from the yukon territories and he can't go back home in the summer to train because there's no ice. They take the ice out. So it would actually be cool if they got a full rink there for full time. I thought that that would be a cool nomination for them to win the top prize, and that's a little unbiased coming from me, a guy from Ontario. No, I agree. I agree with you. I think that's what draft hockey field has been so good, right? He's just trying to keep those small rinks open for the kids to play the game they love. Hopefully that can work out for him. The flower boy. Thank you so much, Flower. Have fun at Pilates. Thank you, Flower. Legend. Nice to see you there, everybody. See you again. See you, Flower. Thank you very much to Marc-Andre Fleury. He actually told Biz after. He's not a huge fan of doing podcasts, but he was great with us. We appreciate him coming on. And he said he had fun doing it with us. I think some of those old-school guys are also, they like the stories in the vault. They don't want to share too much. And we also try to respect that as much as possible, but you know we love the T. So with that, in sports, winning takes more than talent. It takes strength, reliability, and the drive to go the distance. Sound familiar? That's the same DNA you'll find in a 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 plays off. When it comes to trucks, Chevy Silverado is football guy approved. To learn more about Silverado, visit Chevy.com. R.A.'s World. Bring them in. Hello, everybody. Welcome to R.A.'s World. Here on the Spittin' Chicklets Podcast. Boys, it's been a minute. I haven't seen you guys. Missed you just last week. You look like you had some fun out in Happy Valley. I'm happy, Biz. I got my Twitter back. I saw you logged in today, buddy. How did you get it back? Double secret probation. Gaz and Katie Apostle took care of me. They get social media connections. I had to send a photocopy, a picture of my license, but of course it's my pen name. So then I had to find an article that had my government name and rare admiral in it. But whatever, we got it back. But I got to tell this fucking story, and I don't give a shit at this point. So my divorce finalized a couple weeks ago. I didn't really get into it yet. But I got an email from my lawyer the other day, and he's like, did you have cryptocurrency and did you buy a new truck? She might have to vacate the judgment of divorce if you didn't disclose. I thought he was kidding. I was like, wait a minute, you're joking. Her lawyer sent my lawyer an email. The attached screenshots were posted by your client within the last week. Cryptocurrency was not listed on his financial statement. This is quite concerning, and we need to get confirmation immediately of what he has in cryptocurrency. Get a pre-op, everybody. Get a pre-op. But I never spent a dime on it, And cryptocurrency, and you guys worked me for 10 years. Cryptocurrency and a Cybertruck? Come on, bro. The two things I'm not involved in at all. No, but it's just funny that all of a sudden, though, she wanted a little piece of it, though. Bro. So Elon's getting you every which way, all right. Uncle Sam. Because, like, you know, when I sit by to my lawyer, hey, Dan, you should do a good job for me, whatever. Like, he was like, oh, yeah, I'll make sure to keep an eye on her social media. So I don't know if her lawyers are doing the same thing. I highly doubt it. But what pissed me off was like, okay, you guys, again, 10 years you know me. I don't play with that shit. 23 years you're with someone. A cyber fucking truck? Right. Cryptocurrency. But the worst part is that fucking hacked tweet had more typos than I make in a goddamn year. So I was like, how the hell do you think I actually wrote that shit? So I was dying laughing. I was like, I can't believe that you came after that. Like, yeah, I'm going to put, oh, I made $250,000 in cryptocurrency. So I thought it was hilarious. I love it. Grind my car gears. Absolutely. Yeah, we don't have to get the MRI. I got back. Whatever. Banged up. We can talk about that later. Hey, here's one for you, all right? Not one masseuse, but two Thai masseuses. I think if they walked on him, he would die. Two. No. Yeah. I got what it is. I had disc pushing on right side of L5 nerve root, and the word, what is it? It's disc extrusion. That's not bad. L5 S1? No, not the S1, but disc extrusion. So, yeah, whatever. It is what it is. I wanted to go to Tampa last week, but it's like, you know, like humping on a plan. Then you've got to schlep around an arena. I felt bad. I texted Coop before the game. He did give me a heads up. He's like, oh. He goes, watch what I come out with. And he did hashtag Al Pacino. So I knew he was going to be coming out with some sort of getup. And that was dynamite. It was good stuff. I'll raise you. You mind? Can I buy some of you? That was funny the other day. Set some of my way. Down the club, they were calling them the white huggy beer. You know, the Staski and Hutch, the black pin behind the hat. By the way, it was great to see the ratings. It was the most viewed regular season game in the U.S. Cable ever. Most viewed regular season game since the Bees-Blackhawks at Notre Dame, which, by the way, was the birth of Puckline Jesus. So a little history there. And R.A., now that you mention that too, Bouchergross retweeted something about some of the ratings they've gotten at ESPN. They're fucking buzzing right now. That was the most viewed regular season game. And then a bunch of like Pittsburgh, Chicago, Pittsburgh, Buffalo, low like those those blue collar markets are moving the needles especially for espn so shout out to them and the job they did i know whit was trying to fucking uh give me the gears last week about not a little little conflict eh we're all pulling the same the same way with hey competition is a good thing maybe you guys better espn's up their game because of you guys and therefore you got your game iron sharpens iron and the penguins people want to watch the penguins that's what i noticed on that tweet. So I got a little playoff chatter here. You know, we always talk about, like everyone does, you know, American Thanksgiving, 77% of the teams in a playoff position at American Thanksgiving end up in the playoffs since they introduced the wild card in the 13-14 season. So I did a little check. Now we're basically two-thirds through the season. In the East, three teams are no longer in a playoff spot. So right now, only 62.5% of the teams in the East are still in a playoff spot. That's way down from the 77%. Montreal, Detroit, and Buffalo all bumped up. Ottawa, Jersey, Washington, done. Yeah, stay hot, Pasha. First in the division. Now you're fucking second to last in the league, you dummy. Buffalo with a huge jump. Yeah, huge jump, 22 points. But in the West, only two teams switched. Edmonton replaced the Kings, which is ironic. They're already beating them before the playoffs even started. And in the West, 87.5 of the teams are in a playoff spot right now. But this is a wild start, and it's kind of a little convoluted. So there have never been fewer than 11 teams or more than 13 teams in a playoff, Thanksgiving playoff spot that end up in the postseason. So in other words, the 16 teams in that postseason spot at Thanksgiving, it always ends up between 11 and 13. It's never been fucking lower than that or higher than that. It's just, you know, like weird to fall in those three numbers. But, Biz, if you think one team isn't going to make it, that's in a spot right now. Who are you saying? Oh, I wonder. Oh, yeah. who's in a spot who's not going to make it? Yeah, who's in a spot right now that you don't think it might look like? Why did you say it like that? What do you mean? I thought he asked you who isn't in a spot that will make it. Oh, you were saying, yeah. I mean, I could see the Islanders somehow dropping off if their goaltending doesn't stay, like, insanely elite. They have the best saves above expected in the entire league right now. Seattle. And then Seattle. Seattle is a team, man. they just keep winning. They won again last night, which was Wednesday. I think they beat the Kings, actually. Yeah, they did. Yeah, and then them. Those would be my two easy answers. I think the Islanders are a sleeper. If they pick up a good top six forward for a little extra scoring, I think they could be a sneaky threat in the East. They're open Vesna Calabagoli. Their defense is above average. It's pretty good stuff, but they haven't done anything for a while. I don't think people are on a team that's excited. Yeah, the reason it came to my head was because I'm just thinking, what's putting the most lipstick on a pig right now? What goalie? And that's Sorokin. That's Sorokin. That's Sorokin. Buffalo collectively. And listen, I remember when I originally brought up the X factor and how much guys are like, oh, my God, you're a loser. I said Alex Lyon was the only way that the Buffalo Sabres were making playoffs. and what's happening right now. He does it every year. Every year. Well, people say he didn't do it with Detroit, but he got them within a point. I think that's when you said it about Lyon was last year with Detroit. It wasn't this year. This Panthers dynasty doesn't even exist without Alex Lyon. That's true. Yeah, I think they're not getting the playoffs. I mean, I know they're your boys and all, but you think they're going to sneak in? I think they're a little too much of a hill to climb at this point. Panthers, yeah, no, I don't think so. But, yeah, who knows? They played insane about the hockey last week. Well, they got a new captain coming. Lundell. I love that. Paul Maurice's quotes. Yeah, so you, I think this game tonight plays a big factor, just mentally and resetting things. If they win tonight, how many points are they out? Six. And last night was a huge win because they looked like shit in the first period. come back, win that game. The three games before the break, I know they lost the first one, and then, yeah, this one is huge. If they can win this game, then they go into break feeling good, and then Matthew's playing in the Olympics. He gets more. I mean, he's been good, but he's going to be getting better and better. And then if Barky comes back, you can never count them out. That's the thing. I'll tell you who's not for sure in. And before the year, I never would have thought I said this, but they are fun to watch is the Bruins. But they're not, like, guaranteed in here. But they have made a pretty entertaining product this year. They're motherfuckers to play against. Pasternak is just magic. And then it's just like I didn't expect to kind of enjoy watching them play this year. But I still, at the same time, don't think it's a definite that they're going to be playing once the playoffs start. If they had a good PK, they'd be a problem. I know. They play hard like that, and if you can play hard like that and kill the penalties like Florida's done the last few years, you're a fucking bitch to play against. If they had a good PK, it'd be a fucking issue, especially in playoffs. They love penalties more than Biz loves eating at fucking Houston. That's true. I thought you were going a different direction than that, but great job. Absolutely fucking awful call. I mean, that hit on McAvoy, brutal. I don't know how that was in five. It should be at least a game suspension. I love Brian Boucher, one of my favorite announcers, but I don't know what he was watching, man. I love Boucher. I don't like calling guys out, but he's not anti-Bruins. I've never detected that. But I was like, what are you watching? McAvoy could have avoided the hit. It's like, bro, and he basically chickened like that, man. It's just fucking awful, especially after the fucking puck he took out the face earlier. So I hate to see that shit. I never really – I have to look it over again. I never really – I missed that game. but you're saying it should have been a five all of you? Dude, it was an elbow directly to the side of the head. Okay. If he didn't have the face mask on, it would have been fucking bad. The funniest thing was if you watched the hit and the replay of the hit, the Bruins ended up shorthanded after. I'm like, how are they shorthanded? I think the game's a door off too just being too close to the referee or something. Well, Sturm got the bench minor. Yeah. Yeah, which is, you know, like, let a coach vent after you're giving two on that hit. I don't know, just bullshit. But I like where they're at. I like that they control their own destiny right now. But like I said, a couple weeks ago, if they get in, great. But it's been a fun season. And start out the McAvoy. Like, what he's been through this year, breaking his jaw, that hit, fucking playing some of the best hockey of his career, fucking good for him, man. Good for him. A little today in league history, February 6, 2000. It was the first all-star game in Toronto since 1947. And prior to the game, Wayne Gretzky's 99 was the first number to be retired league-wide. Only two other numbers in other leagues. Jackie Robinson, of course, his 42 was retired by Major League Baseball in 97. And in 2022, I forgot all about this, the NBA retired Bill Russell's number six league-wide. But do you ever think, let me go to you first. You think in our lifetime we'll ever see any players' league number retired throughout a league like this? It's just, nah. No, I actually don't even really think it ever should have happened. It's not a thing that I really care about that much, but I don't think anyone would have worn 99 again. Wayne wants people to wear it. Really? Does he? Hasn't he said that? Yeah, he seems like he's one of those guys, right? He's like, oh, yeah, records are meant to be broken. Yeah, he wants it. Because then more people from the next generation will be like, oh, why do you wear 99? Yeah. And you get the Hall of Fame and you get the statues. It's like, I feel like that's kind of enough in terms of not letting anyone ever wear the number again. Yeah. But I think in hockey, you're right with NHL guys. I said, Ari, why do you wear number 12? Come on. You've got to know that, no? TB12? Oats. Oatsy. Oats is 12? Adam Oats, yeah. Number 12. I forgot what number Adam was. Yeah, he must have been. Was he different numbers other places? He was 12 here on Drafted Hall of Fame. Hey, by the way, also Friday, it's G's fucking birthday, bro. G, how old are you going to be? 19? Wow, happy birthday. This guy gets it all these days, G. Holy shit. 33. I'm getting old, boys. Started it. Join the show when I was 23. Now turning 33. It's crazy. Happy birthday, G. Happy birthday, buddy. Happy Picking Ian. He's going to the Super Bowl for his birthday, all right. Nice. Go pass. See what happens. I mean, if I get a ticket, I might actually suck it up and try to fly out, even though I didn't go to the game in Tampa last week. But the Patriots are the only team I've never seen win a championship, only Boston team I've ever seen win. But whatever. Don't go. Don't go. They've gone six. We don't want you there. Bro, come on. Don't fuck with me like that. G-Sail is also Bob Molly's birthday, Daddy Shazley. I'll have to spark one up after. Biz, what about this? When a team retires a number for the fan base, is that not the lamest fucking thing? Like, Seattle, they retire the number 12 because, like, you know, they're like the 12th man. I never knew they did that. Yeah. I love the number 12, though. Well, only if Otsy's wearing it. A couple more things here. I know you talked about Miracle, the Boys of 80, the awesome new Netflix documentary. And I know, you know, there was one on HBO a few years back, obviously, the movie Miracle. But what I really liked about it was, you know, everyone knows the details. It's an oft-told story. But, you know, these guys are older now. They have a lot more perspective. And I thought they provided so many, like, fresh details that we never saw with the interviews that they did at the rink. You know, the older these guys get, I think they're willing to share a lot more. And I like how they said the only time he dropped the F-bomb was that speech. He didn't say one F-bomb the whole time. And, you know, the guys, they just got to know him better. I know you mentioned it the other day. It's like they never had a heart stoward with him. I think there was a lot of regret there, and his kids kind of conveyed that as well. But, again, everyone knows the story, but there's just so much more perspective on this one that you don't get from the others. But the two best quotes from it, after the game, the fire department house across from the Soviet embassy in Manhattan, they put the score outside the firehouse, USA 4, Russia 3, or USSR 3, and they interviewed the fireman. And he's like, the only reason we put it up, we realize sometimes it's hard to get out of town schools. So it's actually a public service. Yeah. And Bob Lobel, I don't know if you'd recognize the voice, Witt. That was Bob Lobel who did the report out. Local legendary sports reporter. Oh, wow. Not sure if you thought that. And then the other quote, and I thought this was awesome. When, you know, the Russians were sitting there watching, you know, the U.S. kids going crazy. And Garuzione said, I'm not going to say they enjoyed watching this, but they probably forgot how much fun it was to win. I thought that was, you know, a very poignant quote. and there's a couple of the Russians, if you see other footage, they're almost smirking. They're almost entertained by what they were doing, but I thought that was a pretty cool quote. Having OC, great job with him the other day, but that section, my house, you can actually see my house in that documentary when they were doing the little section on Jackie O'Callaghan. Pretty good stuff. The note that he wrote the players after that one of the guys had with them, which I thought it was so cool because it was basically him saying, hey, I wish I could have been friends with you guys, but I knew what it took for us to win. And he didn't send it 15 years later. I think he sent it in June of that same year. So I thought that was fucking awesome. But that documentary. Herb Brooks sent it to the players basically being like, yeah, I know that was like a gauntlet, but hey, man, fucking look what we got. And we've talked about it time and time again, boys. The coaches that were hardest on us are usually the ones we look back and love the most. and where I think for you it was Jack Parker, probably the guy. And I love Terrian now, looking back. I swear to God. We'll get him on soon. He made a lot of fucking guys better hockey players. Blowing fucking merit smoke in your face while he's yelling at you. Who was the guy or the person in your life, R.A., who challenged you and tried to make you uncomfortable to make you a better person? The most. Paul Bessonette. Okay. No, honestly, I probably wish I did have, like, you know, people other than my parents that. But, you know, I didn't play sports competitively. So I didn't, you know, I wasn't in areas where I guess I would be pushed in that way. You know, I was a fucking nerd, man. So, I mean, funny nerd, but a nerd nonetheless. All right, Oscar stuff we'll do later. I just want to give a quick RIP to Catherine O'Hara, a great Canadian comedian. Died at 71 years old. Unbelievable. Heartburn, Beetlejuice, Home Alone, waiting to fuck off and best in show. like just so many great movies and she was on sc tv i i know it was before your time biz but are you familiar with that uh i am now just after seeing all the posts and like i'll be honest like i like i knew she was in in home alone and she'd been in some big movies like the overwhelming amount of support and sad people just how she carried herself and how nice she was in the industry like you go through you start reading it's it's clear she made like an insane insane impact and was one of those celebrities that was just like not about being a celebrity she's very private uh there was one clip that i saw where they said uh like what has been your favorite acting role or your favorite role in life and she says um being a mother and i thought it was very refreshing so just a a true true canadian and uh and legend yeah i guess ctv if you're not familiar It was basically sort of a Canadian Saturday Night Live back in the 70s. And I was up Toronto. Shit, I think it was the Goon 2 premiere. And the first time I think I met Jeff Merrick, and he took me to the CBC studios and gave me a tour of, like, SCTV studios. So it was pretty cool. I had watched the show as a kid, so pretty good shit. Merrick's the man. I'll get to that. Iguana's in a minute. Classic recommendation real quick, 48 hours. If you haven't seen the movie, I don't know how you haven't seen it. Eddie Murphy, his very first feature film. Dude, how about the run he was on, 82 to 88? Imagine delirious, raw, Saturday Night Live, 48 hours, trading places, Beverly Hills Cop coming to America. Like, six-year run, unbelievable. He's 20 years old. I don't know. If you haven't seen 40 hours, see it. If you have seen it, watch it again. Dynamite. No NHL picks, obviously. My Olympic picks, you guys know I don't chase the chalk. Canada's plus 120, USA plus 175. So I'm taking flyers on Slovakia at 80-1. Don't know if they're going to win it, but you don't have to chase the big numbers. and the Czechs at 25-1. So throwing that on those guys in the NFL. All right, let's get your Super Bowl picks. Witt, you first. New England Patriots, 24-21. Okay. What do you got for us, Keith? I got the same exact scores as Witt, 24-21. Patriots, barn burner, going to be a hell of a game. Can't wait. Go, Pats, go. Jeff, I love you, but fuck you, Seattle Seahawks. Jeff, oh man, I'm torn here, boys, because all my Vancouver friends are rooting for Seattle, but I'm a company man, and I just, Seattle got their Super Bowl, I think it was about 10 years ago now, I know they got the heartbreak. Yeah, we're due for one, we're due for one. Yeah, mountain dew. The heartbreak with Butler the following year, but once again, I'm a company man, and I hope that it's a close one, I hope it's a walk-off field goal as the clock runs out, 30-27, great game. I'm going to be in attendance. I am so looking forward to, and I know there's been a lot of fucking political nonsense around it, but that Bad Bunny guy, I think he's a funny motherfucker, and some of his tunes are pretty catchy. He's singing in the Super Bowl. Do you listen to a few of his tracks? Oh, dude. I couldn't tell you one song he sang. He doesn't have any songs in English, right? Why is he funny? Oh, he's been on my... He's just a quirky guy. When he gets interviewed, he's a fucking silly motherfucker and you can tell. He's a monster. He's a juggernaut. He's probably the biggest name in music. The album he just won album of the year for was the first time a Grammy has ever won album of the year with not a word of spoken English. So that's probably what you're talking about. But yeah, I'm excited to see him live. I'm not the hugest fan, but he's got a couple tunes that when they come on, they get you moving, right? No? I don't know any of his two. Do you listen to him, WIP? No, but it's not like I don't listen to him. I just don't listen to the new shit in general. But let's get the birthday boys picked for the Super Bowl. Gee, who do you like? Obviously the Patriots. What's your pick? I like Patriots 17, Seahawks 13. I think it's going to be kind of a low-scoring game. Both teams have great defenses. Love Mike Rabel. Love everything the Patriots are doing. But I think it's 17-13 Patriots. And I think the Patriots make a big stop at the end of the game. Hell yeah. It's going to come down to that. Malcolm, go. I like the Pats, I said before, with the points, but take them on the money line, plus 190. And also, I got a bunch of MVP picks. I don't know if you remember what Super Bowl, I don't know my Roman Nugos, L-I-I-I, when Julian Edelman won. Remember, I gave him out 35-1. I told everybody, bet him before the Super Bowl. He ended up cashed in on that big time. So I'm thinking, like what G said, it might be a tight game where one receiver might have a couple more catches or a couple touchdowns. Dude, what's a booty? He's fucking 110 to 1 for MVP. Stefan Diggs, 60 to 1. Those numbers are crazy. It's either a quarterback usually or a wide receiver who wins these awards. And a sleeper pick, my guy Packy told me, Kyle Williams, the rookie receiver, 300 to 1. So, dude, one guy, they might go to him the whole game, and he does nine catches, 140 yards, maybe one touch. May has a, not an off game, but not a huge offensive game. So there's some huge odds out there. But a running back hasn't won it since Terrell Davis back when Elway was playing. So threw a little on Ramondre Stevenson, 28-1, and Travion Henderson, 75-1, and Christian Gonzalez, 100-1. It's been a long time since a quarterback won it. Dexter Jackson back with Tampa. But, you know, I mean, I like to sprinkle the infield a little bit. So Pats money line, I'll probably take a minus 2.5 plus 2.11 too. So go Pats. Have some fun. Enjoy the game, boys. Love it. I love it. I can't wait. We are actually going to be recording right after the Super Bowl. You know, Biz and G will be going. They'll have to come back, but we'll figure that out. And have a great weekend. Have a great Super Bowl party if you're having one of those, if you're going to one of those. Thank you so much to Marc-Andre Fleury. And Chris Pronger is a great one coming up next episode. It's about an hour and 45 minutes with the Hall of Famer. So, everyone, we will see you Monday. And NHL players, enjoy your break. If you're not going to try to win gold, go recharge on the beach. Skating Edmonton. Unless you're a vegetarian or a matveh beach golf. And which of those 400 guanas, Keith? I know. I got a couple in my backyard. I had to pay my neighbor to come and get rid of them. What's for dinner? Goldfish. Love you, boys. Arrivederci. 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