2026 Milan Olympics Preview and Predictions w/ Jack O’Callahan

Welcome to the empty netters podcast. Can you believe what this has become? There was a full 48 hours right? I felt like I was like literally Superman. Jambola was playing Fortnite so... No, I hate you. You got it on the stick. Did TR show you the sauna cycle? It was not already. No, I invented that. Almost a year now that I haven't taken a body check. That's kind of nice. So we are back. We are horned up and we are going deep. We're just tonight with some chicken fingers and a few Guinnesses. We're ending to you guys. That's where this pod came from. Ice is ready and we are back with another episode of the empty netters podcast brought to you by Bet MGM. The show before Milan. This is coming out the day that we are headed to Milan. I am your host, Dan Powers, on the sticks. The man with a car is coolest himself. Evan Watkins did not realize you had the whip like that. 78th. Unbelievable. And then over here, hosting the show as well. After the first series in the Super Bowl, he declared the game over for the Patriots. And once for once, he was right. Chris Powers. As always, I'm always right. And I have to say, the first series, actually, the Seahawks had one big play, but then the Pats had a good hold. And no one looked that good on Seattle. I was catching a bunch of plays. And then the Pats had two first downs and then miss. But I was like, oh, we actually look great. I actually texted some of the boys. Congrats, guys. We won. And if this be a lesson to everybody, Dan, because I've spent 20 years saying we've lost after the first 10 minutes of every game. And we went on the greatest dominant run of all time. And then the first time ever, I go, dude, I think we're going to win. We get shit kicked. So maybe it was me all along. You tried to be welcome. You tried to be positive one time. Yeah, blew up in your face. Always be negative. I've ever seen. Yeah, correct. It's like that we need to put a don't above the belief sign in. Yeah. In Ted Lasso. Yeah. That'll help you. That's the last thing you do. Do not believe. Like, good. That has worked for me just fine. Thank you very much. I'm not going to lie, boys. We, by the way, quick shout out to the live show, anyone in the LA area who came to that live show, that was fucking unbelievable. Holy smokes. If you missed it, go watch. It's on the YouTube right now. That's right. That was so much fun. And we had a whole segment we brought up Billy Langed and our boy. Super Bowl like party vibes set up everything. I kind of did a last minute trip here to New York, which genuinely when I bought the ticket and planned it right before heading over to Italy, I was like, oh, fuck the Super Bowl. Like, yeah, I was going to go to our friend Emily and Kevin's who always do an unbelievable spray. We went there for Thanksgiving. It was going to be fantastic. A bunch of the boys were at the office. There were so many options. And I was just like, peace out on leaving. Yeah. And I got a quarter into that game. And I was like, I'm so glad that I'm not making an event of watching this game. This is the worst Super Bowl I've ever seen. It was terrible. But you know what saved it. What? Boys. Bad Bunny. That was electric. That was good. Bad Bunny at Coachella. Yeah. Was just like, I don't care if you can't, if you don't know the words, I just vibe to the music brother. Like that he's just got bop after bop after bop. And I even got to the point where like a new song would come on. And I was like, I fucking, I didn't even know this was him. Like, he's just got, he's got a smash records, dude. Like smash records. I was really enjoying the cameos. And not knocking him. It was incredible. Like, because I'm with you, Dan, I don't even know when one song ends. Like I thought that was one song for, I know which is, is that so cool? It's like, it's like, it's like a, it's a tire show of him is like a, it's a free flowing DJ set. Yeah. I don't know what one one thing ends and when it's like ten it. He is a bad bunny show is ten it on stage. You could play that bad bunny show backwards and you would not realize that it was a different half-time show. So if you like that was sick. Ricky Martin, did you, did Ricky Martin got buff? He's like, that's what I mean. That's what I mean. Holy fuck. And I go, right? Jesus. We're at a pub and he popped on and my friend tour was like, oh my god, it's Ricky Martin. Yeah. And I go, Jesus Christ, he looks amazing. I mean, the guy is 54 years old. 54, dude. That's all fucking unbelievable. He's keeping it, he's keeping it fit as a fit. That was how he did it. At least something happened in the half-time show. He like walked around some trees and I was on a rooftop and he went into like, he like crashed through somebody's house. Like, more drama happened in that fucking half-time show. Yeah. That wedding ceremony was real. I heard that. Yeah. Crazy. Dude, we were dying, Connor Hany, damn, we were dying at the beginning. He's coming through like, you know, it was like, it was like he was in a jungle or whatever. You know, like that hole for like the first three minutes. He's like walking through and it was sick because the camera's tracking in front of him and there's like, dude's playing dominoes and then a guy drinking out of coconuts and then, you know, whatever. Yeah. And as he's going through like the bamboo or like the sugar cane maze or whatever. And somebody called her Hany, because crazy that no one in the stadium could see this. Like, you know, on TV, it's like so sick. But I'm like, are you in the stadium just watching? Like, I wonder if he's in there. He's like, no, I wonder if he's in that maze. Surely it was on the jumbo trot. Okay. Yeah. Yeah. What a boa. You're like, I'm at the Super Bowl with a bad buddy show and he's hidden. I actually had a tough, I couldn't stop laughing looking at the field. Like you're watching the show on TV and you can just see lines of the field under it. And I was like, some believable that they're putting all of this on the field when a half of football needs to be played. Yeah. Right. You know, I wonder when there was any half of the most boring football of all time has already been played. And I'm like, that's true. You need to protect this field at all costs, dude. What if it gets worse? Or maybe it makes it better. At least adds a little bit of entertainment. Somebody tripped on a straw hat left behind from the fire. Come on, man. Oh, dude, that was brutal. Anyway, at least something happened, dude. There was a stress test. I was like, there's going to be zero touchdowns. Yeah. And then the first touchdowns prediction of the score being 11 was going to be true. Oh, God. I forgot about that. That's what he totally did. That would have been a field goal. Hilarious. If it ended, 12, nothing. And I was like, Sean, you just missed it, dude. What was funny is he did say 11 and when it was nine, nothing. And the way that they were pinning the paths in and Drake May was getting sacked left, right in center. Safety is very possible here. Like it might be 11. Nothing. That would have been the most iconic moment of my entire life. Oh, holy shit. God, it would have been so funny. Well, shout out to bad bunny for giving us some entertainment and maybe kicking it into gear for the boys. We got a great episode today, folks. Jack O'Calahan, gold medalist from the 1980 Olympic team is on the show, getting you pumped up for Olympics. We're going to talk through a bunch of Olympic stuff, get through our regularly scheduled Tuesday show programs. And then we're going to get you guys out of here so we can get to Milan. So let's just jump right into its CP. We're getting into hot ice. We're going to focus on the line of projections for team USA and team Canada that we've been seeing all over Twitter, team USA, or actually, let's start team Canada. Shake it up for hot ice. Hot ice is literally just going to be our Olympic preview and predictions. Strapped in here we go. Yeah. The team Canada, they both had to practice is now. So there were lines. This could change, but these were the lines. See, I'm going to at practice. Yeah, go through the lines and I'm going to give it, I'm going to give it a letter grade. Okay. So here's team Canada. Team 1, I'm going to go left wing, center to right wing. Macklin, Celebrini, Connor, McDavid, Tom Wilson, A plus no notes. A plus absolute A plus no notes, A plus yes. What was the four nations line? It was point up there, I think. Yeah, I think so. Point and like maybe even Ryner. I like that. Why are you not surprised at all that Tom Wilson's up there? I'm not even saying it's a bad grade. I'm just saying, like, how come you're like amazed? Can I be a, can I be a little piece of shit? Yep. When, when we did our own roster predictions, I had Tom Wilson on my first line. Okay. So that you're, this, you're not grading fairly. You're great. You're grading on a DP curve. But this is my, this is DP. Yeah, you're great. You're great. I'm allowed to do exactly that. I think I get it. John Cooper made a bunch of comments like, you know, he's, you got an, you need an F1 and he's one of the best in the business, barreling down there, drilling people. And no, we, we were talking about Zach Hyman the other day, dad. I'm not knocking him at all. But everyone's like, holy shit, Hyman's so productive and I'm like, Hyman knows where to go and can hammer in back door from passes from McDavid. You know, with, with all. All do respect. I don't, I don't think that that's, that hard to learn. Okay. That's kind of what I'm saying where I'm like, surely Tom Wilson is capable of that to you. Yeah. So that's why I get it. I'm like, yeah, yeah. Dude, Tom Wilson can score, Tom Wilson scores five goals in this tournament just by standing in the right place. So he has that ability. Absolutely. I guess I'm just a little surprised that you bring a Tom Wilson theoretically in my mind to be on that third or fourth line where they're like, dude, go, go shake it up. Go out against Miller and Trocheck and whatever. So I was kind of surprised they were like, actually, no, you're going to play first line when they have obviously missile launchers that they could put up there and create this incredible first line. So I'm only going to go a minus because Connor and Mac is amazing. We kind of brushed over that. Like, I love that dude so much. But I'm, I'm kind of surprised they go Wilson first line there. And I wouldn't be shocked if it changes if they don't have immediate success ever. You as settlers of Katan fan. Uh, I've heard of it, but I've never actually played it. Okay. We're going to change that quick. Okay. Get me in the Katan. Yeah. So in Katan, you, uh, you can get cards that have different things on them. It has like, or, or, uh, uh, uh, uh, wools, wheat, bricks, wood, lumber, beef, tello. And then you can, that one's pricey. That one's pricey. Yeah. Uh, but you can then, uh, you can combine those things, a number of the cards and a collection and a combination of them to build stuff like a settlement, a road, this, that and the other. This line is a perfect Katan build for me. It's just, it's a perfect recipe of these three guys. That's why complimentary pieces, complimentary pieces, everyone's playing a role. I absolutely love it. Maybe they put Wilson up top because they're like, well, USA is trying to be a little bullish maybe. I just think when you've got Mac David and Mac, two of the top three point scorers in the NHL together put, put some grit in there who's also going to get you 75 points in a season. Like this, that is, it is just a test recipe. Get it, get it. Like Tom Wilson is in the corners, digging pucks out and feeding them to Mac on Celebrini and Conor McDavid. The easy. Yeah. I love lying to left center right. Mitch Marner, Sydney Crosby, Mark Stone. I'm going like a flat B here. So I don't, I don't love this combo. There's, there's like, there's just something I don't find delicious about it. Um, Sid is an A plus always. But there's almost like, I feel like I need someone to score goals on that line. Like Mitch is a pass guy. Sid is perfect. I think Stone is even kind of a pass guy. Like he can score for sure, but he's also not a big time score. Uh, it's also kind of a slow boot slide with Sid and, and Stone. I did it with you, Dan. I'm kind of shocked by this line. I think again, I can't remember who Marner played with it for, at four nations, but Marner is such a dish, man. It is obviously scoring a ton this year. So it's like he can score, you know, I guess that's the answer. But I, but I think Sid can be such a weapon if you put these snipers on his wings. Yeah. And I don't think you did. And I'm with you on stone stone is a fact sending player because all he does is produce and we all laugh like stone is, is slow. And what's he doing? And I'm like, he, what he's unbelievable is pumping in points. He's unbelievable. He's fucking idiots. Yeah. Mark Stone is so good. But I'm just like, holy shit, we couldn't have got, you know, a fucking Sam Reinerd up there like a something where I'm like, dude, I just feel like there was more talent, a different talent to put on Sid's line. So I was, I was surprised by this one too. I love the idea that Sid is to see, which I'll talk about in a second, but I, I was like, oh man, we could have had a little bit more fun on that line. Three great players, obviously. I mean, I can't, it is so stacked. But again, I was like, I don't know what I was expecting from these, but it wasn't, but I'm seeing so far. Yeah. Okay. And third line, Brad Martian, Nathan McKinnon, Nick Suzuki. I'm going to go a minus here. I love Martian Nate together. I'm as big of a Nick Suzuki guy as it gets, but my gripe here is, I have no clue what we're doing, not putting Nick Suzuki at center on this team. Nick Suzuki is a top. I was going to say 10, but I might even go like top six or seven center in the NHL. He's one of the best 200 foot centers in the NHL. He's a selky level guy. I don't know why we're putting Nick Suzuki on wing. So Dan, for me, that's exactly it. Look, what shocking is, and dude, these are, they're going to roll lines in a way that they really do. And obviously everyone's sick, but dude, don't forget at four nations. Like I remember talking to Marci and, and Jarvi beat when they were kind of on that third line in four nations, and they're like, yeah, we played way less. I'm like, we had a job. And when they got one that one goal on that, it was a great play. Like, remember Jarvi chipped it out like everyone got a point or whatever. They were like, it would just feel great to contribute because we're the third line. I'm kind of like, dude, how is Nathan McKinnon there when you could have just gone, him on that Sid wing? If that had been Marner Sid McKinnon, I'd be like, that line is tremendous. There's all your goals with Nate on the wing. He's capable of playing when you said that the other day. And then you get to go Suzuki centering that third line with, with Marci Suzuki and put stone there, let's say. And that third, I'm like, oh, that's a, that's a perfect third line, a perfect third line of the Olympics. So I'm just like, and again, I'm sure they'll, with McKinnon there, I'm sure they'll roll three lines just as much, but I'm like, it just feels odd. Just feels odd to me that those are your three C's when it should be Suzuki and Nate could play on Sid's wing. I agree. Love that take. Yeah. You know, I get some question marks there. Fourth line. Hagle, Bohorvett, Sam Reiner. A B plus A minus. I think all these, my big one is, I like the idea of needing Nick Suzuki top three lines, but this is a situation where I'm like, I just think Nick Suzuki is a better center than Bohorvett. The embarrassment of riches on the Amazon. Yeah, I was about to say, when will the brand and Hagle disrespect stop, please? But then I feel the same way about Reiner here. Oh my god. And there's part of me that's like, I look at the way that brand and Hagle has elevated his game the last few years playing with guys like Kutraov, you know, and points here and there. And that's when I look at that line too. And I'm like, brand and Hagle on that wing with Sidney Crosby would probably do something real special. Oh my god. Oh, my god. And Ryan, you just have like that one's actually even more shocking to me, especially with the way he's played in big moments the last few years where I'm like, I will say Hagle Horvett Reiner as your fourth line. This is exactly what we keep talking about. We wish the USA would do that. And like when that line is going out as your fourth line and you're another team, you're like, you're flutting me. So that's pretty sick. Yep. It's definitely a make it stop line. But again, dude, I will be interested to see how much burn they get if they truly just roll four fucking. I love it. Who cares? Frankly, you know, like you can be know whatever number line you want to be if they just roll them. But if this is like, oh, yeah, they get a couple minutes a night. I'm going to be like, wow, that's kind of shocking to me. That's who you kind of stashed down there. Yeah. Okay, D. Do you want to do all at once? Yeah, let him rip. Okay. So it's Taze and McCarr. We're line one. Morrissey and Perenco D, D pairing two. Sanheim and Shay Theodore D pairing three, which left Harley. Oh, actually, let me do the well, whatever. So it left Harley and Dewey as the two out. Yeah. And then up top, you have San Bennett and Seth Jarvis and San Bennett, where the two forwards you left out. That's what I was going to say. Yeah. To touch on the forwards, like those were the two guys added. It kind of makes sense that they are starting as the guys out, but we'll probably see them in. That's what they will get rotated in more than I think maybe these D will, but go on. Yeah. Taze and McCarr was always a lock. And then after that, it's kind of like pick your poison for these guys. I think it's all about chemistry on this, like on paper. I'm like, Shay Theodore not being a second pairing is insane. And I suppose I feel that way, but when we get to USA, we're going to see a similar situation. See that shot, Dan? Like, is he playing off off? Shay is a left, I believe. Evan, will you look that up? Yeah. Can you check those D, Evan? Like Sam Heim. I think Perenco is right. But like Sam Heim and Shay Theodore, you, his name is Perenco, not Perenco. You got to work with him. I always say that wrong. I know you do. Is that the type of breadcrumbs? What a big one. What a big one. Polka's Panko. Polka's Panko breadcrumbs. What a nickname, dude. I'm calling him that now. Yeah. Breadcrumbs. There's too many carb. There's too many carb based nicknames in the NHL. You're right. He shoots left. Yeah. Shay is left shot. So yeah, there's a double up for you. Yeah, that's interesting. I think the surprising one here is Harley for me. I, I, Harley and Sanny, like, you know, I know that this Canada group and these coaches absolutely love Sanny and he's a great player. I am, I'm, I'm a touch surprise that Sanny is currently looking like he's in over Harley. Okay, yes, same. Yeah, I guess same. I think I was expecting this in a way. And my surprise the whole time has been breadcrum because I was like, I don't even know if I pick him, but then it's your GM picking, which, you know, maybe, maybe I put too much stock in based on the Cooper Cerelli comments, but I, I just, that was always my surprise and I, I'm surprised he was on the team and then I'm surprised he's in the second pairing. But I think, like I said a second ago, it will be harder to crack. It'll be harder to change that up than the forwards, I think, because the forwards would be, the forwards are going to jumble around. Like, there's no chance. And then it doesn't get in. Jarvis doesn't get in. The D, I think, will be tricky. I love that take, actually. I feel the same way about USA, honestly, when we get there. It's like you, those almost need to be the most solid for me. I want the deep pairings. I want these to be marriages of old. You know, no, no one's getting divorced back in the, in the 40s and 50s. That's what I want the deep pairings to be in the Olympics. This is, that is your guy, stand by your man, your plan together and you're making it work. If I want my team to be successful, I need happy marriages on the blue line. No, no word yet from the practices on goalie. It's going to be fascinating. That'll be the most interesting thing to see Canada goalie. I'm salivating for that choice. I don't know if there was more today because you found some good tweets from today, Dan. I don't know if someone had eyes on it at the next practice. I'm also going to say this, but before we move on to USA, there have been, it has been the, it's been the biggest crutch for, for US fans to be like, we've got the advantage in goalie. It's not even close. Well, it's not a big deal. Binners have an assortment of tough years because the blues are having a tough year. Logan Thompson and Darcy Kemper are fucking phenomenal. So like this talk of, you know, there's such a clear advantage. I'm like, what, we got to stop saying this because LT and, and Darce are so good. Well, what were the Vezna finalists last year? It was Hella Buck Kemper and LT. I thought so, but maybe he finished fourth. Like, weren't we in the car with him? We were like, maybe Vassy did Vassy creep up in there? I think, yeah. Yeah, hella buck, camper, Vassalowski. And Vassy. But LT finished fourth, because remember we were with him in the car and we were like, oh, you got fourth. So it's like, they got, like, they're third. They have the third and fourth Vesna finalists from last year on the team. And we have the one who isn't even playing to his potential. So I'm like, yeah. Wait, are they better in goal? What a, how the turn tables, dude. That has taught. How the turn tables it is fucking so real. Okay, so now I'm giving you USA lines and we have USA lines from practice one and USA lines from practice two where there was some slight changes. So I'll read both. Okay. Wait, is that gonna be complicated or should we just read one? Nope, because you don't know. You don't know. USA, and I guess like ignore who was line one and two, but line one, the top six stayed the same. So you have quote unquote line one. Gensel, Matthews, Boldy. B minus. What? Fuck is wrong with you, dude. Take that sweatshirt off. B, B, flat B. Why? I love the Matt Boldy first line. I absolutely love that. For some, he is this guy. He is, he is, who is the most, underrated basketball player of all time. Why was I going basketball? Yeah, that's crazy. How would I know that? He is, Matt Boldy is the mashed potatoes at Thanksgiving dinner. Like everyone, everyone always forgets to bring up Matt Boldy. He is so fucking good. I love these on first line. Jake Gensel also insanely underappreciated. He had a great foreignation, too. I do not mean for this to come off as Austin Matthews disrespect. I just don't get it, man. I don't think he has earned this honor. I don't think he, we had so many conversations. He was named Captain recently, by the way. Like the captains came out. There were so many people in our DMs being like, how the fuck is he Captain of this team? I think that that's rude. We don't know what's going on in the locker room. He's obviously an elite player, but he's not playing well this year. His team's not playing well this year. He was not great in foreignations last year. He has never showed up in big games. I just don't get it. And are you just not getting the one see of it? Like if this was quote unquote line two, do you not care? Or do you say I want him like out of the lineup? I would love to see what an Austin Matthews can do in a third line situation. Maybe where he's not matched up against the other teams' first line. And also maybe he looks at it like a, oh, there's a little bit less pressure on me. I'm not the first line guy. But to me, I'd be much happier personally if Dylan Larkin, Tage Thompson was on that line. Yep. Okay. So I'm not on your side on this one because I think Gensel and Bolte are no brainers. I know you said that too, but I'm like, Gensel and Bolte are no brainers. And let's just go to the second line because this will help complete the point. The second line quote unquote, but possibly the first line because it was in the second practice is the Kachak, Ikel Kachak line. Yeah. Great. I'm assuming you love that. Yes. Yes. So if that, if you put that line out first, then I need Gensel and Bolte on the wings of whatever the other top six line is. And I just think Austin Matthews has a skill set that literally no one else on this team and maybe in this tournament to possess. And he just has to be there. Like we can only win if he is there and plays to his potential. Now has he ever done that? Rarely in big moments. I hear you big time, but I just almost feel like you have to go, the way we win is him doing it. So we have to give him that opportunity. Evan, as we keep talking, can you look up Austin Matthews career stats season by season? Like I want you to read off his points, like his point totals season by season. All right, give me a moment. I got you. Yeah. We can move to the next line, Chris. Okay, so in practice one, the third line was Jack Hughes, Dylan Larkin, Tage Thompson. And in practice two, it was Kyle Conner, Dylan Larkin, Tage Thompson. Yeah, okay. Jack Hughes, Dylan Larkin, Tage Thompson. Absolutely love. All three centers. Just throw up like that is an all star team. Like you read about that is that is when we got to selects and everyone was like, I play center. And yeah, yeah, yeah, we got to fucking figure it out. Somebody go to the wall, please. But I dig that line. I really like Jack Hughes on a wing position. I think Jack you should move to wing period. In real life. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I love Jack. And I also love like the fact, say what you will about Jack's injury. I hope he's healthy. I'm a Jack Hughes believer, man. I feel like he's getting shit on a lot recently. And I know he didn't play that great in four nations, but the kids fucking talented. Yep. I'm excited to see him maybe, you know, get a get a stiff upper lip here and start playing well. But I like that balance too. Like the idea of Tage on the wing, hit and fucking one T clap bombs, let Dylan be Dylan. He's a fucking leader. He's perfect. He's got a great relationship with Jack. I like that line a lot. Me too. And I think, oh yeah, go have go. I got Matthew. I'm going to go backwards from this year. So in 51 games, we have 48 points with 26 goals. Yeah. Last season, 78 points in 67 games. 223, 224 is best season yet. 107 points in 81 games, almost played a full season. 2022, 23, 85 points in 74 games. When that was 69 goalie or two? Yeah, 69 goals. Nice. And 20, 20, 24, 20, 22, 106 points. In 73 games, 60 goals, 2021, weird season, 66 points, 52 games, 41 goals, 2020 season, 80 points, 70 games, 47 goals, 2019, 73 points, 68 games. Okay. We can stop there to go all the way back. Thank you for that. The reason I asked you to do that is because I do think people forget about those 200 plus points seasons. And that in that one season, that good season got short and where he was on pace to score fucking another 70 burger, you know, another hundred point season. Yeah. People forget about that. And I do think the last two seasons have just been like pretty poop for him and injuries aren't helping. And it's also hilarious. This is the scale we talk about. Yeah. And you're like Austin Matthews is having a great year this year and he has 26 goals and he's just under point per game. And we're over here talking about other guys like Dylan Larkin, for example, like if Dylan Larkin's on an 80 point pace, I'm like, fuck yeah, that's amazing. Start him over Austin. And I'm like Austin's doing the same fucking thing. What are you talking about? So it is he does have an unfair measuring stick. But yeah, that is what the only thing I wanted to bring up. Okay. Then then line four so we can have the bottom six combo on practice one. It was Clayton Keller, Vinnie Trocheck, Brock Nelson. And in practice two, it was JT Miller, Brock Nelson, Jack Hughes. B minus. Yeah. I, to me, I, I am like, I don't know, man. I don't know. Who do you want at center on fourth line? Brock Nelson. Yep. Okay. So then get, get, get, get the Rangers out of this line. I, I, it's, so it's, it's, it's, it's not a joke. Like they're, I don't give a fuck what you, what you want to say about those guys. They're, they're, you know, they're good players. But the team is fucking terrible. They are both having terrible seasons. Yep. We're talking about other guys who are all fucking all stars, the majority of which are having, or at least the guys that are in contention to start over them or not start over them are all having significantly better years than them. What are we fucking talking? Dude, and dead. What? Scratch, if you scratch Kyle Connor. Okay. For either of those fucking two guys, the, the galaxy brain stuff that is going on here belongs in the guardians of the galaxy franchise. It is so, it's such a hilarious overthink to be like, I think this is something we got to do. You're, you're fucking dumb. If you do that. I fucking mind when I saw the first day one practice lines and Kyle Connor is scratched and I was like, dude, what? Why pick him then? Why pick him? Like literally you benched him in the four nations final and then said, oh man, we don't score enough. And I was like, yeah, probably fucking stupid to bench one of your elite, elite 50 goal scores in the league. And then they were like, yeah, yeah, that's our bad. That was crazy. Then you pick him for the Olympics and you're like, this he's not playing again. And I'm like, leave him home, dude. That is fucking madness, bro. So yeah, it's already insane that you're like, well, you're going to stuff him on the fourth line. I guess in day two, they had him on the third line, which is nice. But yeah, I, it is, I hate doing like the, I need the Rangers out. But in that, that fourth line has to be Clay Keller, Brock Nelson and Jack Hughes, if, if Conner's up on that third line. And well, you know, it's funny is like similar to team Canada. I don't care if they're on the fourth line. We've talked about this. This is not, this is not 2014. It's not 2010. There aren't any bruises on this team. There aren't fucking energy guys on this team or there shouldn't be. And we, even with some of the decisions that we didn't agree with, like the fact that we'll continue to call it out, the fact that Jason Robertson, Alex to bring it, Cole Caulfield aren't on this team, I think is a shame. But even with that, there are plenty of talented guys here to build a fourth line that competes with Canada's fourth line. So I don't give a fuck where Kyle Conner is. If he's on the fourth line, he's on the fourth line. Look at Clayton Keller. Clayton Keller's elite. He's going to be on the fourth line. That's fine. And if your fourth line is Clayton Keller, Brock Nelson, Kyle Conner, I'm like, fuck you. That's sick. So yeah, I just, I don't care where Kyle Conner is. I don't care what people thought about maybe his first or second game of four nations. It's Kyle Conner. Play the guy. Oh my God. Okay. So D Dan is Hughes, McAvoy, no shit's prize there. Slaven Faber, no surprise there. In practice one, it was Werenzki and Hanifin. And in practice two, it was Sanderson and Werenzki. I know absolutely no notes. Same thing. Happy harmonious marriages. I think Quinter and Charlie is such a perfect combination. Like let Charlie be Charlie, let Quinter be Quinn. Slaven and Faber, absolutely perfect. Let Slaven be Slaven, let Faber. I mean, the way that Faber can launch into his best offensive self playing with Jacob Slaven is so delicious. And then this is what I was referring to with Canada, like was Ak Werenzki on your third pairing as hysterical. Is hysterical? It's, it's absolutely hysterical. But it's one of those things where like if, if, if it's up to me, I'm putting Werenzki first pair D. But Quinn and Charlie play so well together. And so like I'd want to be like it's Werenzki and Charlie. But then you break that up and I'm like, I don't know. So whatever it's fine. I don't care who Werenzki plays with. He's going to elevate whoever he plays with. If it were, you know, when you look at the, there's like a bruising lockdown guy and an offensive guy on every pairing. You got Quinn's the offense, Charlie's the hammer. Slaven's the hammer, Faber's the offense. Werenzki does both because he's perfect. But Werenzki's the offense. In this situation, I think Hannah fends the hammer. What's interesting about Sandy is I love Sandy and I would probably pick him. And what I love about the combo of him and Werenzki is Sandy's both too. Like I think they're both such good two way defensemen. So don't really care which one you go there. But I and Werenzki's the guy that I would have the like could be anyone. So that's great. Actually great point to it because I go Sandy there, but, but it doesn't matter. It doesn't matter at all. And I hope Nicole gets in a little bit in goal in on day two. They did report. Hellabuck was on on one side of his own net. So likely hellabuck, which I don't love to be honest with you, but you can't get mad at having Connor hellabuck, but I just, I just, I disagree. Yes, you can. Disagree yes, you can. And I'll tell you exactly why here's my, here's my stance on this. I wouldn't start him because as good as Connor hellabuck is literally one MVP last year. But literally one MVP. And then what happened, dude? He gets into the playoffs and all of the same question marks happened. They fell apart. They lost games they shouldn't have and they eventually got bounced from the playoffs way too early. A guy like Vasilevsky. There are no question marks with like he's, he is always going to play. There is no, there are no, ooh, like what's going on with Vasilevsky? A guy like Shasturkin, same deal. Like doesn't matter who's in front of him. He's always going to play. I, I, I don't think Sway obviously want to go this past summer. I think that's amazing. He's having a great year. Otter is having a great year, but Otter has had a few things in the past couple seasons in playoffs where it's like, it's felt like maybe he didn't play up to potential. The problem with the USA goalies is great as they are. None of them are, you can't make a case that has, that doesn't have negatives. What a fucking ridiculous run around sentence that was. But you know what I'm saying. Like when you're talking about Vassy, there's nothing to say. He's just, he is what he is. He's fucking phenomenal. There's nothing to say. I don't think that you have, I know Jets fans would try to disagree, but you're just, you have to, they would be like, they would, I think someone, I think some would because Jets fans are loyal and they stand by their guy and fucking respect that. But, but they're out, you got drunk goggles on. If you don't think that there's something to say, but yeah, I mean, you, you could make the same art and like look at last season, like it was a brutal season for sway for a number of reasons with what was going on in Boston and, and you know, this, that, whatever. But when's the gold this summer bounce back? He's a top goal in the league this year. So, you know, if it's up to me, I would give someone else a shot because you know what happens? If you start Hellebuck and who's USA's first game? Latvia? I will tell you, USA's first game is Latvia. USA plays Latvia. What's tough is no disrespect Latvia. That'll probably be a comfortable win for the US. But if you start Conner Hellebuck against Latvia and he lets in like three ugly goals, you are definitely now going, Jesus fucking Christ. What do we do with this guy? I think you go, yeah, I think you go someone else. I legitimately do. And that is then already a mistake, dude, because if you go someone else, you have now benched Conner Hellebuck. You have benched the reigning MVP of the league. You can't really go back to him after you bench him. And if you then go sway or if you go otter and in their next game, which is against two, Germany? Yeah, yes. Yes. Yes. German Denmark. USA's good. Denmark is the next game, right? Denmark is the next game, right? Yeah. So, you then go against Denmark and if sway or otter is leaky, now you have no idea what you're doing. Yeah. Dude, then it's a rotation. Then we just rotating to it. Every week. Yeah, yeah. Call Parrish. Get him in there. Who cares? Who cares at that point? Our entire advantage is dead and we should go home. We should actually go home and get rest. We should go home and get rest for the 2030 Olympics. Yeah. Everybody cool out. That would be great. So, like as stupid as it sounds, there's a part of me that's like, just start sway. And if sway is lights, the fuck out, you go boom, we did it. We're genius. Yeah. But if you start sway or otter and they're like kind of leaky and you get bilatvia, it's almost a good feeling to be like this. We're going back to hell, dude. We're going back to the MVP. Yep. Uh, okay. So, let me give you those of the lines. Now I might be galaxy braining. Yeah, yeah, yeah, I did. We, we, dude, let's strategically lose the first game. Yeah. Tank the first game. Just make everybody think you're weak and then bam. God. Okay. I'm going to rip us through some things as we get into like our predictions here. So there's three groups. Group A is Canada. Chetchiya. Chetchiya. I'm sure. Chetchiya. Chetchiya. Yeah, it is. Chetchiya. I mean, like it's, it's up for interpretation. Yeah, it's like the chile thing. Yeah, yeah, yeah. But it's, it's Chetchiya and just say the Chex. The Canada. Yeah, I like that, Dan. I like galaxy Chexay hot. Stay hot. Stay hot. Say, hope A is Canada. The Chex, the Swiss and France. Group B is Finland, Sweden, amazing. Slovakia, Italy, the host. Can I pause real quick? Yep. I've seen the mockups of the Italian team roster where it's like, if you have Italian heritage, you can play for the team. Oh, it's awesome. No, I haven't seen that. They're awesome. It's really fun. We got to find those. Okay. Okay. Okay. Fun. And then group C is USA, Germany, Latvia, Denmark. Okay. So those are your three groups. There's a round robin to start where in each group, everyone plays each other. Okay. Here's the round robin, the three group winners plus the top second place team. So in the best second place team for points out of one of those three groups, those four teams get a buy. Three group winners, top second place team. Very cool. So then on Tuesday the 17th, every other team, all the remaining eight play a single elimination qualification game with the top seed playing the lowest seed, et cetera, just like a playoff. Very cool. And then those four winners meet the four teams that got a buy into the quarter finals. So it's actually interesting that everyone makes it out of the round robin. There's no like, oh, we were bad. Like in the world cup, you're like, you're out. You know, you two are out. We're going on to the knockout stage. Wrong. Everyone is in. So you get that fourth game no matter what if you don't get the buy, but it does make getting that buy so important because you just duck that random game where you're like, oh, whatever. We just have to play fucking Italy, who's oh and three. But it's like, well, they just play the game of their life and beat you and now you're fucking out. Are we? Like, you're telling me we can't get a fourth group in here. Agreed, man. I was actually looking at the world rankings the other day when I was putting this together. And there are some teams that didn't make it that I was like, why aren't they, they should just be in. Yeah. Like, let's, let's, let's. The Russians find out. The Russians right off the bat. Like, let's, no, but like we're saying in our perfect world, these Russian players who hopefully have nothing to do with the political situation should be able to play as the Olympic athletes from Russia or something because they would have a good team. So let's say Russia, the athletes formally known as Russian. Yes, dude. There we go. Let's call them Yugoslavia. Yep. Um, okay, I like that Dan. There's, um, these are the, these are the I.I.H.F. world rankings. These are crazy. I don't know how they get these, but these are the I.I.H.F. world rankings as of May 2025 for men's hockey. Yeah, I got men's and women's here. Um, what's nationalized hockey teams? Yeah, number one, Russia. Number two, not there. Number two, US. Number three, Switzerland. And then I'm just going to read it down. Canada, Sweden, Czechs, Finland, Germany, Denmark, Slovakia, Latvia, all in Austria, not there, Norway, not there, Kazakhstan, not there. France, Belarus, not there, Slovenia, not there, Hungary, not there, Great Britain, not there. You know, so there's just my point is we could get one more group of teams that nobody would go. You're ruining this tournament. Both Korea even is kind of up there. Yeah, fuck yeah. So there's, I'm with you. I think it would just be more fun to have one more group and then just make it make it like the four group winners go. There's a way to do this more evenly. Yeah. Making the math hard and it's rattling me. Um, okay, but that's the importance of getting that by finishing in the group. We hit this on the live, but I just wanted to do a reminder here for anyone that didn't get to hear the live or hasn't watched that on YouTube yet. The OT rules actually kind of crazy in the preliminary rounds. There any tie game ends in a five minute three on three over time, just like the NHL. And then it goes to a shootout. The only difference is it's a five person shootout instead of three. And then, um, yeah, if it's tied after five, then it goes into that sudden death like it normally does. And you can repeat because those are the rules in the Olympics. Obviously, we saw TJO she'd do that a thousand times in a row and it was incredible. So that's the preliminary rounds. Then the quarters and semis do a 10 minute three on three over time. And if it's still tied, it's the five person shootout with sudden death shootouts after that. And that would be crazy, dude, like a semi final game for the right to go to the goal ending in a shootout. And in a shootout after a 10 minute three on three over time is like cool and wild to me. Um, and then the biggest one is the gold medal game is a continuous 20 minute over time periods, but also three on three. We talked about it the last year. Absolutely fucking insane. It's just so dumb, dude. It's like we, we, we, we talk about all the time. The if it, if it ain't broke, don't fix it. And there's a reason why in the Stanley Cup playoffs when you get to over time, it's just 20 minute periods at five on five because we want to just see who fucking wins the game based on who's the best fucking team on the ice. And 3v3 OT is not that. Now, is it exciting in regular season NHL play? Yes, even though it's already broken because of the regroup as you always call out. Yeah, but it is what it is. Shootouts are fun. This is the Olympics. This isn't some throwaway game up in Rochester. So what are you talking about that we implemented 3v3 at all in the I, I, I, it's, I think it's crazy. And I'm not happy about it. Are they worried about pro, are they worried about programming where they're like, we don't want these to go too long now. People have a short attention spans nowadays guys. I actually bet I bet in the early rounds, it has something to do with that because there's one fucking rink, right? Like it's like there's not, it's, it's complicated. But when it comes to the gold medal game, there's absolutely no excuse for this. It's, I think it's a classic overthink. Did, um, Dan, did four nations go to double OT or was that the single? Uh, that was one OT, one OT, um, because it just, you're right. I was about to say like it sucks that I, they could take that from me. Like a triple over time USA Canada gold medal game. I'm like, that would be that. It's not even that. But it would, that would be amazing. It's not even that. It's that it's not, it's not the game that, that I'm sorry, man. Like that is, and then maybe this is a boomer take. Call me a boomer, folks in the, all right, go off. I'm, if this is a lame take seriously, call me out. But I just think like when it comes to the Olympics, I want to see who is the better fucking team five on five. Yep. No, I'm with you. I'm with you. I actually, I had to check that 15 fucking times on a different site because I was like, no way are you doing three on three over time. But at what point do we, how many years until we're like one on one with like just a goalie? Dan love that. I love it. I think it would be so funny. Just do one on one. Yeah. One minute each one. It would be so crazy. Um, okay. So you know everyone's schedule. Just, you know who they're playing in order. Canada plays the checks. The Swiss then France. US plays Latvia then Denmark then Germany. Sweden plays Italy then Finland, Lensavakia, the Czechs play Canada then France then Swiss. Um, okay. Quick, um, preview predictions and then actual literal predictions. Dan, who is going to your go before before we get into that? I just want to do a rundown of the gals. Oh, hell yeah. The, the women's game is planned right now. Prelims are going. Um, and we've had some fucking electric games started off hot with some, with some, uh, dramatics with, uh, neurovirus. The Finnish team. Finnish team. It couldn't even play. So, uh, in our prelim game so far, Germany with a nice tight game, law, two one over France. Italy, the host get a three, two win over Japan. Uh, the Czech team, clapped two nothing against Finland. And again, I bet neurovirus was definitely not helping the Finnish gals in that one. Uh, my girls on Sweden, four nothing against France. Canada with a dominant four, four nothing win against Switzerland, USA dominant, five nothing win against Finland. And like, I don't know if you saw that Hillary night goal, but like, just fucking charge in the net going Chetty bombs on everybody, unbelievable. Sweden, another big win against the host Italy, six one Germany takes down Japan, five, two, tail as old as time. Um, Switzerland big four, three win over Czech. Japan. Nice win. So, we've got a big game over France, US five one over the Czechs, Italy four one over France and then Sweden four one over Germany. So we've got games today, big games two, US and Swiss play it 240 today. That's coming up. This will be over by the time you guys will see this big game Canada check today, Japan, Sweden is tomorrow, as well as Italy, Germany and USA Canada. So when you are listening to this, we're getting our first US Canada tilt in the women's game at two 10 p.m. Eastern time. So make sure to tune into that. We also have Finland, Switzerland as well. So if you are itching for the hockey already, it's already buzzing. The gals are fucking ripping it all over the ice right now. And yeah, tomorrow obviously big one USA Canada. We've got the fucking, um, we've got the, the, the, the series that goes on with those gals all the time because though, I mean, Canada, US women talkies, those fucking, those ladies go to war against each other. It is wild. So those games are going right now. Make sure to tune in if you're listening to this on Tuesday tune in today because there's some elite matchups. Yep. Uh, okay. Dan, I want to hear an F two actually. Who do you think is going to shine for US and Canada? Like we're going to look back on this and go holy fuck that they had an unbelievable tournament. I, I think I think Charlie McAvoy is going to have a great time. I'm going to do two D and I'm going to do two forwards. Okay. I think Charlie McAvoy is going to have a great tournament. I think he's playing the best hockey of his life right now, even after he got his jaw shattered into a million pieces. Do what? Um, catch a break. It's insane. Actually, he catches plenty of breaks. Can he catch less breaks? Catch, catch health please. Yeah. That'd be sick. Um, I think he's going to have a phenomenal tournament. And I think Werenzki is too. That's a lane pick by me. But Werenzki has emerged as, I'm sorry, man. Say what you want about kale and Quinn. I think Werenzki the last two years has emerged as an, as an argument to be made as the best defenseman in the national hockey. Yep. And I think he wanted to have a bit better of a foreign nation's tournament. So I, I, I have eyes on him doing something special. And my, my forwards, there's, there are a guy. I think Jack, I call it obviously going to play well. I think Dylan Markins obviously going to play well. But for me, the big standouts are going to be Matt Boldy and Tage Thompson. I think Tage Thompson. I think he, I think he does well with a chip on his shoulder. Mm hmm. And I think he's had a chip on his shoulder for a couple of years now. And you see the way Buffalo is playing. He's a big, has a big part of that. I think he was pissed when he didn't make foreignations. I think he's so thrilled to be here now. And I think he's going to prove everyone right to, to, to select him. Dan, my next question was going to be who has a coming out party in the way Slaven did. Obviously, everyone here is good. It's not like people don't know who these guys are. But I think after foreignations, it's like the hockey world was like, yo, Jacob Slaven is so good. 100% that happened. Who, who I was going to ask you next, who is going to have their coming out party? Would your answer be Tager Boldy or do you have a different answer for that Clayton Keller? Okay. Sick. Yeah. I, I, I could see Boldy because my whole thing that I said, I was like, Boldy is somehow still fucking underrated. Yeah. So it, and that was the kind of the case with Slaven last year. Like we went into that game being like, I mean, he came out on the show and we were like, everyone, this dude is the best defensive defenseman in the NHL. And I think people didn't realize that. No, I'm not saying credit to us. Tons of hockey people know that. Yeah. But Boldy is kind of similar to that. Like I do think there's going to be a lot of people who aren't wild fans who are going to be like, Jesus, fucking Christ, this kid is pretty good. But I think Clayton Keller could have a big time like wake up people. This guy is fantastic. Yep. Okay. I'll, I'll do mine. I think I'm going, I'm going Boldy for that coming out party for everything you just said. I legitimately think he's going to be one of our top producing players and everyone's going to go holy fuck dude. Matt Boldy is like a, a, a top of that league conversation. Yeah. Like, I think he actually might be, remember this, he'll be all time or after this. And then I'm going to go, I'm going to go back to the well like a moron. But the person who is going to absolutely shine for Team USA is Austin Matthews. He's going to have an incredible tournament. We are going to go to the gold medal game. I don't know if we'll win, but he's going to have a shit out of goals and everyone's going to go, I'm so, I feel so sorry that I talk so much shit about him. I love, love, love that take. And I know, I know I gave my caveats at the beginning, but I, I said yesterday on hockey talk. I was like, because like I said, a bunch of people were like, they should got, should this guy be captain. And when you're as good as this fucking dude, he's a former MVP. He scores 60 goals, then 69 goals. There is absolutely no reason for him at any moment to just go like this. And I'm here now. Fuck off. Yep. So what better time to do it? Ev, Ev who you got for like a superstar on Team USA and who you got for a coming out party? Hmm. Uh, I think Matthew Kachuck's going to, going to be ready to go. And I think he's rested. He's rested and they're having a frustrating season in Florida. So maybe he lets it out. He might also get a little, you know, tough. So maybe he has some effects on games that have less to do with scoring. But I think that frustration is going to come out and maybe in a good way just be like very effective. Love it. Yep. Hmm. Coming out party. I don't know. I mean, I had to say boldly like you guys. Yeah. Boldly. I feel really good about that. Yeah, that's the obvious one. So why why change it? Yeah, I hope to God. We didn't just mush the shit. Dan Sam questions. Team Canada. I love a. Uh, Nick Suzuki, 100%. Nick DeShine or the coming out party. Nick Suzuki, Nick Suzuki coming out party. Uh, it's going to make Habs fans so fucking fun to walk because they, they ride at dawn for their king. And I love that. I think Nick Suzuki, this is going to be like we were with Slaven. People around the league who don't necessarily watch a lot of Atlantic games or a lot of Canadian's games are going to go, what the fuck is this guy a top player in the league? And to that, we will say yes. And dude, give me, I am dead ass. Give me Maclin for my. I just think look at what he's done all year, dude. He just doesn't give a fuck. This guy don't give a hell about nothing. And I think he's going to, he's going to look around playing with Conor McDavid, playing with Sid, power play time, this, that. And he's going to just be like, I'm just going to have fun. And I think he's going to dominate. Dude, funny. You say that because he was going to be my pick for coming out party, which is ridiculous because it's not like anyone doesn't think he's like, he's an MV. VP candidate. But I just think that member last year when Conor scored to win four nations and they asked Sid, like, was that a passing of the torch and Sid was like, shut the fuck up because he's like, I'm still in the league and just as good as anybody. But I actually think Maclin is so, like you said, he don't give a fuck about nothing. He's going to play this so loose that people are going to leave this tournament and be like, wait, is Maclin the best player in the league? I actually think, I actually think that's what's going to happen. I think he's going to be so carefree and he's going to lead the team in scoring. You know what's so funny too is there are so many guys on this team that are so good. Yeah. That I think it takes, I don't even want to say pressure, but it takes some pressure off him. I think there's an element for him that he's like, I'm on, like, look around. Conor's here, Sid's here, Nate's here, Kale's here. Like, I don't need to do. I don't, not that much is on my shoulders. And I hate, I, and, and Ev, I want you to give your answer to. I hate that we're just saying everybody, but like we talked about with Bainer, with the Tribune article, I think there is a world where Conor goes goblin mode in this tournament. He gucking goons. I mean, think about the way that this dude has been waiting to play in the Olympics and what he said in that article. There is a chance that we see Conor McDavid happier than we've ever seen him in our lives at this tournament. He is going to get here. He's going to be eaten risotto and Milanesa and he's going to be just having the time of his fucking life, wearing that team Canada sweater at the Olympics for the first time in his career. And he might go full juniors mode. Yeah. And say, get fucked, you idiots. My superstar Dan before Ev is, and I could have flipped these, but is LT. I think he gets time. I think he, I think he literally like logs two shutouts and everyone's like, oh my God, I can't believe we were making fun of Canada's goalies. They won easily and LT with tournament MVP. And I'm like Chris, very cool, very cool. Ev Canada or my star and star in coming up or I mean, my heart wants me to give the star to crossbeages because he's the captain. And I do it. You think you might have to do it. Yeah, but you know, but the reality is he's up there in age and the intensity of play might stifle him a little bit. And I'm only saying that because I love him so much. And I don't want him to like get his butt hurt if he, if it like shit doesn't pan out. But I have to give it to him. I just think like he's, he's the heart and soul in the, he's still around and this might not even be his last. I know who fucking knows he might play at 42 or however old he's going to be. And then I don't know. I think he will. Yeah. Yeah. He's still going, man. Yeah. Yeah. Unstoppable. Yeah. I mean, as far as coming out party, I think if I'm looking at it as far as like what people at large are going to talk about because Celebrini is a great player. He's, he's young. He plays in San Jose. I don't know a ton of people who talk about San Jose. I think that I know poor people that are going to watch the Olympics and they might watch this and go, who the fuck is this guy? Yeah. Yeah. So I mean, as if we're talking about coming up party as far as like how people have viewers are going to see this, I have to go celebrate here because he is that good and he is, you know, I mean, look, the NHL, sometimes it takes a minute for people to catch the attention, right? Yeah. Yeah. And a lot of people are looking at the Olympics right now. So I think I like it. I fucking love it. Okay, boys, here we go. No predictions. Dan, top two teams in group A. Uh, I'm going to go to check Swiss in France. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I'm going to go Canada and I think, man, there's just some tough injuries all around, but even with that, I think I'm going to go to the checks. I think they've got to get it. Evan, top two group, top two teams in group A. Canada. Let's go Swiss. Love that. I'm going to Canada check. Dan, top two teams in group B. Finland, Sweden, Slovakia, Italy, uh, Sweden, Finland, in that order. Evan. Yeah. Same. Yep. Same. And then Dan, group C, top two teams, USA, Germany, Latvia, Denmark. I'm going to go USA, Germany in that order. And I'm also going to say I think the Germans are going to be much, much better than people realize. Okay. Ev. Uh, look, I, I can't claim to know that much about all of these. So I will, I will pair it like I'll be a little puppet. Yeah. USA, Germany. Okay. Same. My, my predictions are mostly chalk, but I think it's going to, I think it's going to happen. Dan, bronze medal game, who's playing and who's winning bronze? Oh my God. I didn't want to do this. You have to. Wow. This is the dude. The amount of spot, man, Olympic predictions. Uh, I, I think the bronze medal game is going to be. Sweden. Check. Yeah. Okay. And the winner will be Sweden. Ev. I, I do think Sweden has a great team, right? So. Let's say. Yeah. Sweden check. And Sweden, Sweden bronze. Okay. That's what I have. Let's go check. Check. Yeah. I could, they're prime for an upset. Yep. Something's going to happen. Germany could even sneak in, Dan. Okay. And then I don't even need to ask the matchup, but gold medal game, boys, who's winning? I just feel like I never know what to do here because obviously I'm rooting for the United States. Yep. But when I say United States, our lovely Canadian fellows, uh, can, call me an idiot. Yep. But when I then go, we'll Canada, because I think Canada is better and I think they're going to win. Then I get called a trader. Yep. I can't win. I mean, they're a dumb dumb or I'm a trader. And dude, you got to be, and rather be a trader. Uh, no, I'd rather be dumb than a trader, but I'm going to be a trader in honor of the NBC peacocks hit show. You caught yourself a trader because I want USA to win so fucking badly, but the Crosby triple gold medal thing and do it. Crosby and do a triple gold medal. Come on. I'm going, I think Canada is going to do it. I want USA so fucking badly, but I think you put a gun to my head. I think Canada is going to do it. Then I'll be a dummy and I'll say USA. Come on boys. Let's go. But I am also going to be typical Danny Green jeans. I just want everyone to be happy and everyone to have fun. I, I don't know. I'm getting older. I'm so soft and emotional. It's just, it is what it is. I, I love Canada so much and like them, these guys and, and the gals too. Obviously, we've got so many people on that women's team we're ruined for too that I just like, it's so conflicting because every time I'm like, fuck, I was like a tie. Yeah. There was the same thing as four nations. Like we lost in overtime and I was like looking at how happy all of the, our Canadian friends are, all the people we've met on the road in Edmonton and Toronto and Montreal and everything and seeing how happy they were because it's their fucking game. It's like, it's cool. And also the guys are so happy and I'm like, how could I be mad at this? Yep. Okay, Anthony, you got Canada. I'm a, I'm a trader. I'm a proud trader. Yeah. I, I, I drive no sense of national pride from a, a, players playing a game that I, I, you know, they're not me. I didn't do it. Yeah. I know it has the better team and yeah, sorry. It's their, it's their sport. It's their sport. Canada's game. It's Canada. I'm sorry. I'm, I mean, I'd say, this and I love hockey, but, you know, read the T-Leaves. It's Canada's sport. They're, they're great and I hope USA can sometimes, can someday pull it off, but I don't predict it'll be this Olympics. Yep. Okay. Chris, do you know off the top of your head, the gold silver and bronze of 2022? Oh, no. And I don't even, I don't mean to disrespect that Olympics. I think Finland one, I think Finland one gold. Um, I can help you here. Yeah. Maybe Canada, Finland gold, silver, Russia, bronze, Slovakia. That's what it's saying here. Yeah. Sick. Canada, US, no medal. Didn't even meant tough, tough. Yeah. And then the ladies, Canada gold USA silver, Finland bronze. So Canada going for back to back. Yeah, that's going to be sick. Finland going for back to back in the men. Yeah, fair enough. It's exciting. Okay, those are our Olympic predictions and previews. We cannot wait when you're listening to this. We're already in the air. Now we're going to take an ad break and then we are going to send it to our incredible Jack O'Callaghan interview brought to you by our friends at Bauer. Bauer is dapping us up for a ton of Olympic coverage. They're going to be bringing you a ton of exclusive interviews like this. So OC, the 1980 Olympic hero coming at you right after this break. Every Tuesday of the NHL season, Bet MGM is dishing out extra winnings with the NHL odds boost token. Here's how you get in on this fun because you do not want to miss out on this. They have the best deals and this is one of my favorites. You log into your Bet MGM account and you add any NHL wager to your bets. If anything you want, a puck line, money line, overs, saves, anything. Okay, then you just activate that NHL odds boost token. And if your boosted bet hits, you get a bigger payout. If you haven't joined the Bet MGM family yet, now is the time to do it. Use that bonus code netters. That's N-E-T-T-E-R-S and you enjoy up to $1,500 in a new player offer on your first wager. So you get in, you get 1,500 on a new player offer. Then you can use the NHL odds boost token. Everything's coming up to you. It's amazing. The NHL GM is amazing. Make it legendary. We are joined today by a Charlestown mass native, the 96 overall pick in the 1977 draft of the Chicago Black Cucks where he played five seasons who also played two more seasons for the New Jersey Devils. He was an all-American, a beanpot MVP, a beanpot champion, an NCAA tournament MVP, an NCAA tournament champion for the BU Terriers, a caulder cup champion, sick. And of course, an Olympic gold medalist in 1980 as a member of the Miracle on Ice, USA hockey team Jack O'Calihan. Welcome to the... Hi guys. I can't even grasp the end. It's happening, guys. We are pumped. Pumped 10. Good morning. This is amazing stuff. I gotta say, I mean, obviously the 1980 Olympic gold is unreal, but a beanpot MVP is a special thing to have. Yeah. Well, you know, those things, you never know who's going to get those. I mean, I think the first two years I was in it. I think I got it on my junior year. The first two years I was in it. I had great, we were the best team. We should have won. And the MVP was like one year, it was the Boston College goalie. And actually it was the Harvard goalie. So, you know, you went on a hot goalie in there and that tournament, you know, if anybody could win, it's like the Olympics. But yeah, it's a fun Boston tournament. I'd been going with this as I was a little kid because I only grew up about, I don't have from half a mile from the Boston Garden. So, you know, we go over there all the time. Parents, you know, you go over there when you're a seven-year-old. So I knew that tournament really well. It was really fun to be able to play in it and then, you know, win it a couple times. And then, you know, obviously get that. And then I, you know, I started a company when we got out to Chicago, me and Harvard, old Harvard hockey player. We called it Beanpot Financial Services, which is pretty funny. You know, you know. Well, Jack, no people from New England don't realize what a big deal that tournament is. Because we've moved out here. Yeah, it's, you know, I was just there. I was there Monday night. I went out, we go out every year for the first night. It was fun. It's just different, you know. I mean, there's empty seats everywhere. Like, and I'm sure next week the finals will be bigger, but, you know, BCBU final, probably fill the place. But I don't know. I always remember it as being packed with the gills both nights, but, you know, the way they do these things now, it's like they're clean on the ice all the time. Yeah. You know, they take a time, commercial time out, they're shoveling snow. You know, every game takes three hours, you know. The time we get out of there the other night was almost midnight. And, you know, like, Jesus, things started to fly. Let's get out of here. Ninety, you know, Jack, was it more spread out when you were playing? Like, was it not the two Mondays in a row? No, I was looking up to the first second Monday in February since I don't know when they started it, like the 50s, I think. Yeah, yeah, that's awesome. Yeah, no, it's great. You can always count on it. And you know, it is yelling. I like, we like doing this thing. We do, we just invite a bunch of people and get a couple boxes. And I like it on the first night, just because everybody's in it, right? Like the first game was B, was a BC Harvard. You know, they think they're in it, right? I mean, BC beat them, but I mean, you know, you think people would show up. And then I guess then, like the BC crowd, you know, they might stick around for a little while, but then they're gone, right? They don't want to want to play Northeastern, but they might. But again, takes too long. So, yeah, at the end of the game, I mean, places half full, you know. Yeah. I mean, you, I mean, you obviously had an unbelievable career at BU, but we heard the amazing story that you kind of were between BU and Harvard. Oh, yeah. That was a kid coming out of high school. Yeah. You picked BU over Harvard. What was that story like? Was that a tough decision for you or was it just like, well, after it was Jackie Parker, it was a no. No. Um, you know, I mean, just where I grew up, where I went to high school, you know, it's all about academics, right? I mean, that's the whole thing. My generation, our parents, you know, they came out of like World War II, you know, like the I was Korean War of that. But I mean, everybody, you know, you looked after your kids. It was usually like mom and dad at home, you know, mom, dad worked, mom stayed home. And my mom always worked, but I mean, that was kind of those traditional families where parents are, you know, on top of their kids. So academics is a big part of it. You know, with the Catholic school and all that stuff. So just coming out of, out of Latin, I just always wanted to go to. However, that was a quick, that was the best route to go, um, Boston Latin school. And it was, you know, this public school in Boston, you take a citywide test. It was great. And I was doing well enough. It wasn't like I was Einstein or anything. I mean, I was, there was so many smart kids there. I was, you know, just a great school and great teachers and six years of public education, you know, lots of languages. Really great. And yeah, when I came time to, to meet a applied to colleges, I mean, it was pretty much, I wasn't going, it was weird. I was getting phone calls from places and I was like, where's Michigan? You know, like, I'll go. Yeah. You know, people call me from these like places and I just like, I mean, there's plenty of colleges in Boston. Why would I want to go anywhere else? Sorry. So, and Harvard was right there. You know, I was a, I was a both a, going to apply to Dartmouth. I applied to Brown, I innovate, applying to Brown, Harvard and Dartmouth. And I get into all three of them and, yeah, then it was, you know, I mean, I could have good and academic, I deserved to get in all three of them. I mean, I had good scores and all that stuff. But then the hockey thing and yeah, I don't know. I just kind of fell more comfortable with Parker, you know, and my friend was there. Could I grow up with an in Charlestown as kid Mike Fiddler from a family of three great hockey players? Mike was his brother, Joe, we played at BC. He was done playing. Mike went to BU. He was a great, great player and I'm playing in the NHL for the North Star as the Cleveland Barons. And then Mike's younger brother, Mark came, joined us at BU when I was a junior and he, Mark came in as a freshman and that's the year we won the Nationals. So you know, the Fiddlers were neighbors and we hung out together. We were in the same crew and all this growing up in Charlestown. But yeah, Mike was like, kind of gave me some good advice. You know, he's like, you need like BU's just, it's a great school. He goes, you do what you want. I wasn't trying to convince me at all. And he just was like, you know, I know that Parker, we can trust him, you know, and it wasn't like he couldn't trust Billy Cleary. But I don't know how it was just a different vibe. And they weren't really, you know, they almost felt like made it feel like I should be so honored that they were actually offered me like admissions to their great school. I'm like, you know, it's just college. I mean, I don't, you know, I don't care. It's because you're Harvard, you know, you might be self-impressed. But you know, there's plenty of bozos that come out of Harvard too, you know. Yeah. Right? It's hard. The hardest thing is getting, the hardest thing they say about Harvard is getting in. I already did that. So, you know, we'll check. And then, and then, and then Parker was just, yeah, I mean, be you, Parker, Jack Parker and Don Cahoon, who was one of his recruiters, recruiter, you know, Tute Cahoon is his nickname. Yeah. He was at all my games at high school games, you know. And I knew the Harvard guys, Timmy Taylor, was the assistant, great guy. I was friends with him till the day he died. And, you know, they weren't really around. You know, they were trying to like figure stuff out. Whatever, man, it just was weird. Even though I had the acceptance and they eventually couldn't believe that I didn't go there. They just kind of took it for granted maybe a little bit. And the BU guys were all around with my family, you know, sitting in the stands, watching us play, you know, that kind of stuff. And then I had a friend on the team and it just was an easier, easier fit. And so it worked out great. And I got to play with my friend. I got to play with my friend Mikey Filler for a year. Then he signed and left. And then he left and was like, within two years, his brother Mark was there, you know. So on any mark, and no, we were friends too. So, yeah, it was great. That was perfect. Perfect. We're done. Like he said, that junior year, you guys were a wagon. You know, third, we're a wagon, everyone, I'm telling you, we're a wagon every year. Yeah, I love it. I mean, we had the 21 game streak your junior year, you pummeled B.C. and Harvard in the beanpot, beat B.C. again in the nadi, most penalty minutes in a national championship again, so epic. How crazy was that game? Which one? The nadi game against B.C. Again, the national championship game against B.C., you know, it was, it was the fifth time we played them that year. Yeah. Of course, me and my big mouth, I think I remember saying something stupid like after the game was over, it was something like, he has kind of weird playing on the fifth time, you know. I was thinking like, what have been funding him down, he may be playing, I don't know, somebody else in the national championship. I mean, and then I, and then it came out of my mouth and I go, you know, we can beat B.C. Anytime. Yeah. Right. I said that like in sports illustrated. And I still had a year to go in college. Yeah. I just thought, I think he came at me like frickin wild man the next year. They were going to spear me in the frickin head. And, and I think with the end of the year, they weren't in the playoffs. They were out because they don't have a very good year the next year. And we were, it was sort of the beginning of our, we, you know, we kind of fell apart towards the end of that. And I remember playing B.C., I remember Parker saying, listen, man, they're going to come at you like crazy and you can't like do anything. You can't retaliate. I'm like, what do you mean? Yeah. Like he goes, because you could because they don't care. There's seasons done like tomorrow. He goes, you're still playing. He goes, you get involved in something. You'll get suspended. You can get suspended for two games in the playoffs. They're like right there. You know, so I go, what am I supposed to do? And I can't stand out here like, you know, let guys just correct me over there with their sticks. So it was a weird night. I didn't like it. I created a bad vibe. I don't like the feeling. You know, I had to kind of just stand out there and take shit from guys. And yeah, I don't know. I remember that game and I, it was all went back to me and my big mouth, you know, so it was probably a good lesson, you know. Well, I mean, listen, you, I need to know, did things get more testy on the ice in games like that or more testy when you were bartending at the dugout when the bill. Well, that's the past, man. You know, the thing is when I went over there, my freshman year, and I knew about it, just because again, my, one of my closest friends was a freshman when I was a senior in high school. So, and they would talk about this like little sort of joint on the campus at BU. And then some of my, you know, friends would go there. I don't think I, I don't really recall ever going there when I was a, you know, senior in high school. But, so when I had heard about it and then when I got there, I mean, yeah, you got to get a job in college, right? And you got no money, right? You get in the, you work on the summer, you save up your money. And when you're going to do, you're going to go to your parents and get ten bucks, right? So anyhow, I needed a job. I wanted to get a job. I wanted my own cash, maybe buy a car even. So, yeah, I got to know those guys down there, my freshman year and, you know, all right, away I started talking to this guy, Billy Crowley. And, you know, he gave me a shot. I mean, everybody wants a job in college. I mean, that's a pretty good job. If you're a bartender in college, you know, it's pretty awesome, right? I mean, because you're there, people are coming and going, you know, they're drinking, they see you, you get to kind of sit back and kind of watch people and talk to people. And the dugout also would have kind of like the college vibes started at like five o'clock, you know, and then right of that, man, it was all these old time, like, guys from Cambridge and Brooklyn, you know, these old union guys, like, these aren't workers that were retired. They would do, they would just go day drinking, right? So it was awesome. And I knew all these guys, these old guys with the Scally caps sitting in there for can drinking, you know, some of them whiskey or they drink beers is something like this. And I mean, it was like, it was such an education for me and I loved every bin of it. I did it for three years. I, in the other days, I lived in Boston. So I, in the summertime, you know, I'd work in the summertime. They don't a bar took down to a fanway. So I'd kind of get down there sometimes too. You know, they're at Soxer in town. You're on Boston. It's sunny. You know, I get to work in whatever. I think I used to work Sundays, Tuesdays and like Fridays or Saturdays or something like that. It was a blast. It was a great job. And yeah, there's a lot going on in there, you know? I mean, a really famous guy, Jimmy O'Keefe started it probably in the 40s or something and Billy Crowley was a great old, well respected ex-harvard football player. A lot of good stories, man. And, yeah, I would have heard Jimmy O'Keefe was a bookie. You ever get any action on the Soxer? No, no. I've never really been a gambler that way, but, but Jimmy, and I don't, you know, Jimmy started. I think that was what he did back in the 50s and 60s, probably in 40s and 50s or whatever. Yeah, he used to take bets, but you know, back in those days, I mean, that stuff was like, you know, illegal, right? But I mean, yeah. Yeah, but Jimmy was just a terrific man, legendary boss and restaurant guy, old time, and by the time I met him. Just, you know, there were people in boss and politicians, business people would command and see him. I mean, he knew everybody at every level of society. He was just that kind of a person. And he had, he commanded so much respect, but he was also the sweetest, nicest person that would do anything for you. So I just love the guy, you know, yeah, he's like, he had a waitress in there. I don't know. Her name was Kay. We actually had a waitress in the dug up. Believe it or not. She's an older woman and she was friends with Jimmy. It's something I don't know. Younger, but, you know, Jimmy lived right upstairs in the bar, right? Yeah. Yeah. Oh, yeah. He'd walk upstairs and walk downstairs. And so I wrote, there was Kay was a bartender. She was an old woman. She was a terrific lady. And, and this German Shepherd started sniffing around out back. It was an alley back there, like kind of with the garbage bells. The stuff were behind the building. And so this German Shepherd sniffing around out there, you know, and Jimmy's like, he's like, what's up with you dog? You know, he's calling a dog. Yeah. And he starts feeding him. And so now he can't get rid of the dog. Next thing you know, dog's kind of there and he's like, all right. Oh, come on in. He'd take him in the bar. It was cold. You know, he'd sit the dog and sit, oh, there's a good dog. He'd feed the dog. He didn't know what to call the dog. So he called the dog KK because he had a bartender. He must have loved the name K. Yeah. You're already, he had K. And then now the dog was KK. And it was unbelievable. What a K. The dog would walk around the bar the whole time. He'd always be there. And then until Jimmy went upstairs to bed, like, you know, six o'clock, you know, it was a apartment. Yeah. KK go with him. And then he goes, it was like the stuff of legends, you know, you can't, like, you couldn't possibly have it in this day and age or maybe you could, but not in downtown Boston, you know, yeah, I like, you can't make this shit up anymore. No, no, that's not stuff isn't happening anymore. There was like the legends of old and boss. No, it was, it was like cool as hell. And then you know, hockey games, people we'd all come in after hockey games, but we only played the, what do we play? 15 home games or something. So, right. True. You know, there were a lot of nights when they believe me. It was just people like the library was across the street. So, you know, you get a lot of students coming in. You'd get professors coming in. Yeah. And then you'd get guys about the sports coming in. You know, some, and then there was always like, you know, sports writers coming in. Peter Gamens would come in sometimes. I mean, they were guys from the globe from the Harold would always be in there. Yeah, it was, it was just that kind of place. You know, it just brought, and because it was so close to downtown Boston, right? It's like right outside of Kimberlost Square. So it's pretty close to Fenway. A lot of activity. Really fun. Yeah. I believe it. Yeah. Oh, see, when you said you had mentioned the, the 1979 World Cup of hockey was a hell of an experience for you. Yeah. Herbie and everything. Where do you guys able to go, I mean, because you were like the KGB's following you around. It's chaos over there. Where you guys able to go out and like, you know, hit the town while you were there. Was it just like, I'm lost going. I guess that's what I mean. Yeah. I'm like, it's down. It's like you killed a kill. You know, we are shoulder man. I mean, there was a story over there. So I guess, you know, we trade money, right? Like so you go, like on the exchange rate, I think it was six. It was six rules to buy a dollar, basically, right? So one or six. But these people want hard currency so bad, you go out on the street, you get in the subway, and then people know you're from the, you know, out of the country and they want to buy your, your free, free world money so they can get the hell out of there. Right? They can't get out of the money. Yes. Yeah. Well, they pay you 45 rubles for a dollar. Oh, shit. Yeah. Right. So I got, you know, I was a history guy anyway. I got a pretty good understanding of what was going on over there. Yeah. Yeah. So they're like, you know, 45, you know, 50 rubles for, you know, a doll, so you walk around these stacks of rubles. And so there's a lot of that going on. Or people bringing like jeans, Levi jeans, you could sell Levi jeans over there because they couldn't get in that stuff, you know, because it was Russia, right? It was all very limited if at all. And yeah, it was like, they supposedly, you know, I never saw it, but I heard that they, because they know what you're doing and they've got undercover, like they had, they had undercover sort of KGB people, you know, posing as waiters in our restaurants in our hotels. It's not. Yeah. Oh, it was unbelievable, man. You had, I mean, look, you had to go through like checkpoint Charlie and stuff to get in there. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. It was spooky, right? And so, but anyhow, supposedly like once, you know, the some Swedish guy or finished player, hockey player was out, you know, trading rules or something. I don't know, they grabbed them. And I guess they freaking beat his ass. They shaved his head. They stripped them. Come on. Oh, yeah. And then they just kind of dropped and they, they kind of threw them back as in his underwear or something in the hotel where they were staying or something like that. And they were like, we're watching. Yeah. And so the word got around and all of a sudden they sort of like kind of stepped down a little bit. And there was a funny story. Kurt Bennett was on my team. And Kurt went to Brown. He grew up in Providence. He was a great guy. He was his brother Harvey. I think they both played a Boston college. And Kurt played, they both played professionally. Kurt played a little bit for the Atlanta flames. And you know, he was like went to Brown. I don't know. He kind of spoke Russian a little. So anyway, one night Kurt's, Kurt comes back. We see him the next morning. And he's going on them stupid Russian hats on, you know? Like a snowflake for a hat. Right. So he shows up in the locker room next morning. He's all fight. You know, he's like, he's a little older than me too. I was probably, he's probably four years old. I don't, I don't think I've played against him in calls. He's at least four years older than me. Five years older than me. So he's like 26, seven at the time. So anyway, he's all excited. You know, he's got his super hat. And then he's like, look at this. I, he goes, I got like, I don't know. I got like 40 to one rubles. Look, I can look at this. I got a thousand rubles note. It only, you know, I'm paid like whatever, a hundred bucks for us to cast. So we had a Russian interpreter with us. He goes, let me see that thing. Yeah, he goes, we don't have a thousand rubles note. He goes, I don't know. This guy must have made this up at home. So it's counterfeit. Yeah. He was counterfeit. The look at his face, man. He was like, he was like, you're all the Russian guy, you know, he can communicate all this. They totally screwed him. And so, even he started laughing after a while, but he was not happy at first. Oh, God. That is so cool. But there was so many stories, man. You go, you know, in those days, the look, I was really excited to play on that team, you know, as much as anything, just to go to Moscow and just to experience like inside the, you know, the curtain, the red curtain, or the iron curtain, they call it. Yeah. And yeah, just to see some of the things, and you know, what it was all about, and sort of, you know, it all sound, the thing about socialism and communism, I mean, it all sounds great on paper, right? Oh, everybody's happy, everybody shares everything. Yeah. Everybody's wonderful, you know, yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Capitalism, no, no. You know, communism, oh, it's so wonderful. And then what happens is, when they put it into practice, it's like the most, it's horrible and awful, and people starve and die, and they kill people. And no one has a job, and no one has food, and no one has water, because, you know, you can't do that, right? You have capitalism on the other hand. You know, people, it's like, you know, if it makes sense, you invest in it, if it doesn't, you don't do it. Right. I mean, I remember going over there, and I was like, I saw, I remember seeing this, let's lady, man, she had to be 90, and she's out. She had this old broom, it looked like something off of, I don't know, some old movie, you know, with like the fatch coming out of the broom, with like a stick, you know, like, you know, it's definitely, you can't fly away on it, yeah. Yeah, like, yeah, but that was the kind of broom they had, you know, even though it was 1979, they were still using 1890 brooms. So anyway, this old lady is white here, she's out there, and she's kind of sweeping away, and she can barely move, and she's like this. And I was like, well, full employment, right? Everybody's gonna work. Even if you get 90. You wanted this, yeah. Yeah, you like it here, I guess. And so, yeah, it was the same thing, like in the restaurants, you know, full employment means, you know, 10 tables, you know, 45 waiters. All doing nothing. Yeah, like you can't get a glass of water, and there's 10 of these guys staying all over their talk to each other. I'm like, you know, because again, they all got jobs. They're all making like probably four cents an hour, so they can't even afford to buy food, but they're all working. So I mean, there's a stupid shit like that that kind of stuck out in my head, but it was really a great experience. You know, the hockey was fine, good, and it was great to play, you know, in Moscow, in that arena, like Brezhnev came to all the Soviet games, it was really fun to watch the real Russians play hockey. I mean, those guys were unbelievable. And plus it was in Moscow, so they were rolling. Yeah, I mean, yeah, it was really fun. That's the tournament where Bob Murray calls after, and it's like, hey, her, you know, you're gonna be on the team for the most part. Yeah, yeah, you know, that was like Kirby. That was sort of a, you know, I actually saw Jack Parker at the beanpot last week, and he, oh, we're just talking about stuff. And, you know, he told me that her he had called him 20 times, like in the lead up to picking a team. So, I was surprised, because anyway, so Jack said, I talked to him a lot, you know, and he was actually a pretty good guy. So, but I mean, 20 times, I mean, Kirby was really thrilled. But he didn't really know guys, but he did do, he really did his homework. So I'm sure if he called Jack 20 times on the BU guys, I mean, he was also calling, you know, Billy Cleary about Jack Hughes, and he was calling Charlie Hold about Ralph Cox, you know, all that kind of stuff. So, but this is a time to be on the ground with her. So, it was great, you know, I mean, it's good to see him and plus, you know, it was time to move on, right? I wasn't a BU Terrier anymore. Now, I was kind of trying to make an Olympic team and trying to decide what I was gonna do the rest of my life. So, it was really fun, man. It was great. Oh, for sure. I mean, listen, you're doing the rest of your life. Obviously, you then get on that team with her. The doc that came out was unbelievable. There were so many fun little tidbits. The Netflix documentary. Yeah. Yeah. Like so good. The one that stuck out to us was the 61 games part. Like you guys were 61 games or four of those. As insane. That's absolutely. I mean, I swear when this came out, I have a picture on my phone. I gotta find it. I don't know. I took, so all those pictures that were in the documentary, like the still photos were at a Christmas party. Some, those are all my pictures. No, yeah. Yeah, I had six photo albums that going back to the world to the sports festivals in Colorado. Cause I don't know, man, I took a photography class B you one time. You know, so I bought a camera. I like one of these old pan and you know, I knew I'd use it, right? You had to have all like the F stops and all this stuff. Yeah, it was like a take your phone out, right? So I had this camera and I like take a picture. It's just because it was, you know, something fun thing I was doing. And so, but no one else had a camera. So I mean, I had my camera in Russia. I took, I mean, I got three photo albums of me in Russia playing those games and and so anyway, when the movies and all that stuff started, they were asking about pictures and stuff. And like no one has any, just like no one took, no one had a camera on the team. And so I'm like, I get a ton of pictures in the, like in the movie, it was important because they wanted to see old pictures so they could see how people dressed. You know, funny. Like, yeah, would a Billy Baker dress like, I will, you know, Billy Baker's from freaking Grand Rapids, somewhere up in like Northern Minnesota. So he probably wore flannel shirts and boots because that's all they sold up there. And, you know, Canadian tire or the hell they shop. Yeah. You know, see as a robot anyhow. So, you know, how, but it was kind of neat when they started because I just, I kind of scanned all the pages and sent them to them and said, you know, whatever. But they used them all and then I did the same thing for this Netflixing. So they used a lot of them when you could see us doing things off the ice. And then it was kind of neat that the Netflixing, even some of the people have told me how, you know, showing the pictures of like then and now kind of pictures, you know, just the comparisons of it all. So, yeah, there was just a lot of good things in that Netflix documentary. They did a terrific job. They were really great to work with nicest people. And, you know, one of the producers was also a producer on Miracle, I think. So he might have been one of the guys that brought it to their attention or maybe he was the kind of work with us because he knew a lot of us. And I'm kind of friendly with him. So, I mean, Rizio and he's kind of friendly with him. Yeah, so it came out great. Everybody, I'm getting, you know, obviously, we're doing this and getting a lot of calls and do stuff like this. And yeah, it's pretty fun. No, it's amazing. Did you feel like those 61 games like really helped you guys? I mean, again, I forgot the question already. So the 61 games anyway, and one of the things I start talking about this picture, I, we had this locker room in the St. Paul Civic Center. And there was a, there was like this big white thing that Herbie had taped together. And it had every game we were playing. Like, we get in there and it's like every game and every game was color coded. This is why this guy thinks, right? Yeah. Every game's on the world and it's like, who we're playing and then the, you know, boxes to put the scores in, right? Yeah. And then they were color coded. Now, so the gold games, what games we had to win, like non-negotiable, musk-win games. And the other games were like, yeah, this game doesn't really matter. So that was like, I don't know, maybe it was like green. Yeah. And then games that like, we really wanted to play well on. They were like red. So I mean, we got 60 games, right? 60, what, what, I don't know how many games. And the last game on that list was like USSR. USSR. Right. So we knew that in the beginning. But it was funny. He said to us, the only gold games on the whole board were the last seven games. They were gold. He's like, you know, we've got to win those. That's what this is all about, right? Yeah. Shit. In the other gold games, every time we played another college hockey team. Oh, fuck, that's just insane. We played Harvard, we played Wisconsin, we played Minnesota. I don't know who else we played. We probably played about six college teams. Yeah. And her name is like, they were gold games because he goes, he goes, you guys are supposed to be like the best college guys around. And so if you guys can't beat a college team, he goes, I'm blowing up the whole team. Yeah, I'll take them. Yeah, fucking. Yeah, I'll take them instead of you guys. So those games were gold games. So yeah, we have a big game against, you know, some minor pro team. It was, you know, in the oliginal. It wasn't even half as important as like playing Harvard. Like we lose the Harvard team. We're all getting shipped out. So, but it was great. You know, the great thing about it was we could see the games coming. We played. So back then, you know, you guys know how the American League works. It's like triple A baseball, you know, the call to cop, you know, obviously. And so back then there were two leagues. The American League was like in two leagues. There was a central league that was kind of out more west with, you know, Salt Lake City, Golden Eagles. That was St. Louis's farm team, you know. Fort Worth Texans, Dallas Cowboys, you know, Dallas Cowboys Chicago Blackhawks, minor league team. So, and then Birmingham, like something or other, that was Atlanta's team. So, and then over here on the American League, it was the old, you know, Springfield Indians, New Haven, Nighthawks, Portland Mariners, you know. So a lot of those, you know, so there were two teams, right? Two leagues, but they were all triple A baseball. So we played like 36 games. It was a home and home against every team in the central league. So that's like one step below the NHL. So say we played, I don't know, man, maybe it was 26 games. It might have been 32 games. But either way, I mean, we, I think we only lost three games and maybe tied two. So we had like 28 wins against that, that level of hockey. So I mean, that's how good we were. And the thing is those games, the way they did it, every time we played a central league team, it was for two points in their standings. So it wasn't an exhibition game where they could just go out and start stabbing guys in the face. And they're trying to get thrown out of the games. They don't have to play, you know, they're already playing 82 games. This last year is an exhibition game. A bunch of college pukes, you know, so. But when the game matters for two points, they become really good hockey games, right? Because it's in their standings, right? So they were great games and you know, played, you know, they were rough, really rough games, fun games, great games, you know, good hockey, and that really helped us prepare. Hell yeah. Jack, you mentioned that, that Soviet game, and MSG, and that's when you picked up the knock. And I know you had said the movie makes it look more, you know, you're kind of as two games, I think. But were you, was your knee fucked? Like were you playing, how much pain were you in when you came back? And like that freaked you out? Or was it like, fuck, I might not play in these games. I don't know. I mean, I didn't think, there's a story, there's a scene in that documentary in Netflix where they're showing me talking, I got a yellow, Swedish jacket on and a hat. And I say something like, I would have given, I would have given a million dollars to play on this team and represent my country. And I was watching that and I was like, I remember that interview, but I don't know if I had seen it. So at that time, I thought I was off the team. Oh, it was real for real. Wow. Yeah, because, you know, I get hurt in Saturday, we get back to the, you know, we're playing the Russians, I get hurt, we fly back. So it's pretty much, it hurt me kind of tells me, he's like, we'll get a look at, you know, your knee jack tomorrow when we get up there and everything. But, you know, I'm gonna have to start making some calls. I go out and I'm like, I know. I mean, I know, you're in two, right? Hopefully, I hope you're okay. He goes, but, you know, got to prepare. Great. So the next morning, when I came in, I had these three doctors there. No, great doctors. And I'm the first guy here. So I'm getting all the attention, right? So these three doctors, they all check my knee out. They pull on a tugging and kicking and pushing all of it. They were really doing a lot of that, but they were like, oh, he's done. He's done. He's done. So, her week kinda, you know, pulls me aside and says, basically, I can't keep you. I'm already made a call. I don't know who he was gonna bring in. It was probably the Jackie Hughes or, this guy, Les O'Jay, who's a Minnesota kid. But, you know, so he goes, but, you know, he goes, I'll get you a hotel up here. I'll get you some credentials. You can come to games. I mean, I was gonna be a fan, but he goes, I'll keep you around because you can't stay in the village because we only got 20 beds. So all that stuff. So he's explaining to me how he visualized it me not being on the team, but he still wanted me around. And so I was like, okay. And so then, that's what I'm thinking. And so then, I kinda go back. Anyway, so this guy walks in to the medical area. And at this point, I got three doctors telling me no way. And it was this guy's name was Dick Stedman, you know, Dr. Richard Stedman from NewViz, Edmund Clinic and Vale, right, famous guy, young guys, 46 years ago. And so when he walked in, I saw the look on the doctor's face. They're like, oh, hi, Dick. Oh, they were like, oh, like, it was like, oh, somebody walked in, they were like, that could he intimidated these guys, right? Yeah. Anyway, he's like, what's going on here? And he's a good sized guy, you know what I mean? You know, he's just like a piece of kind of a thick guy. He's like, he takes his jacket off, you know, and he's like, what's going on here? And I was like, oh, yeah. And then I think Tony Dale, he's like, oh, his leg went to turn, he's done. Yeah. And the other guy goes, yeah, yeah, he's done. His legs, yeah, his knee's toast. So Dick goes, I can see right away, he's like, was that right? And he goes, well, you mind if I take a look? And he's like, oh, yeah, oh, yeah. Of course. Anything you say, Dick, yeah. Yeah, it was unbelievable. So he changed the whole program. And so once he started looking around, he had this idea that I could actually recover enough in the next 30 hours, you know, might be a long shop. But he goes because of the fitness levels, et cetera, et cetera, it's been a story. But if I do what he says I do this and that, so anyhow, he basically gave me like a very small chance of recovering if I did what he said I had to do. And I had to do it in 30 hours. So it was like from nine o'clock Saturday morning till five o'clock Monday, I had to do this program where I'd rehab and train for an hour, then take a nap for an hour, then do it again for an hour, then get up and get sleep and up and go sleep. But this is for 30 hours with another trainer. But that morning, I went after that, I watched the team practice. I was actually outside the rink or at the rink when they had that interview. And then during that interview, Herbie said he goes, Jack, this is such a long shot. But he goes, you know, do what the doctor told you, he goes, I'll tell you the only thing, the only deal he made with me goes, I'll wait on making a decision until five o'clock tomorrow night because the roster has to be finalized by six. So all step into it was by me tying. Yeah, yeah. I call my parents and said, I'm not gonna be on team. Yo, hell. And probably just got hung up the phone when they did that interview. So that's why I was like, so in that moment, I thought I was done. And then it wasn't until after this 30 hour period when they brought me back in and Stedman gets down. He goes, he looks right at me, he goes, all right, man, he goes, let's see how you did. He goes, he believed in me, but no one else did. He gets down there and he kind of messes around my knee and put kick and pull in and all this. And he looked up at me and he gave me this kind of smile like this little between him and I smile. And he goes, I knew you could do it. I knew it. And turns around, he says the other guys, he goes, check this out. Because it was his theory that highly trained athletes with injuries, you don't treat them passively, you treat them actively. That was his theory, but it hadn't been proven. And so I kind of helped him prove it a little bit. And these guys, they were shocked. How much I, and then at that point, it was like, okay, now I'm still hurt. You know? Yeah, yeah. And now it's like, Herbie's like, well, so now they are, don't stand out in the snow, Jack. Well, I talked to the doctors and then when I came back in from the snow, he sent the doctors out of the snow. And I heard an act, I heard me never went to the snow. Yeah, I just mean the doctors. That's when he told me that he's going to keep me in the team. And he's like, you know, I don't know if he can play or not. He goes, but keep your training up, keep doing. He goes, hopefully you'll only miss a game or two. You might be the more and he goes, and you're not going to play as much as you normally play. Yeah. So I can't get, I can't have any nonsense from me if you're not playing. I need you, I need your help with this team. I need to, I need you in so many other ways. I need you on the ice too, but he goes, I also need you in the locker room. I need you on the bench and I need you here. And I need you like, you know, not, not bitching in Monon if you're not playing. I mean, he didn't know we were going to win the gold medal. He probably told me, you know, lose the sweet. And I mean, you know, I'm going to stop bitching in Monon on Wednesday. Yeah. He's like, he's going to be a pain in my ass, Jack, you know? Oh, shit. Yeah, but all worked out. Yeah, I missed, I missed two games. It's incredible. I'm going to check, but I played the other five. Didn't play as much as I normally did because you know what I mean, you think about it. I am probably as many points as I am more than any other defenseman because I mean, I was a demon all year. David Christian played most of the year at Ford. You know, I led the team, I mean, led the team of penalty minutes. I played a lot. I did a lot of stuff and all of a sudden, you know, I'm kind of out of there a little bit. I'm still playing, but not a lot. It gave it allowed the beauty of it. Is it allowed Davey probably to get even more ice time? And he had an amazing Olympics because he's such a great player. And yeah, I mean, he, his speed and his ability to make plays, you know, I was, I mean, look, it all works out for something. It was all like it was kind of faded and scripted that maybe I hurt my knee so Davey could play more and we could win a gold medal. Who knows? It's just me out there trying to do what Davey was doing. We probably wouldn't want anything. Yeah, no, it's amazing. One of the best stories with the chicklets guys was when you admitted that you actually weren't on the ice during the herbys and after the, yeah, it was all right. Yeah, which is so funny. But I do want to know, you know, you had said that from the movie Miracle, that little moment where Ruzioni says where he's from, he plays for Team USA, yeah, I want to know if you remember sitting on the bench, what, why did it stop? Like was there any moment that made it stop? So yeah, I mean, what would have one? So anyway, you know, I mean, you heard the story probably where, yeah, we come down. I mean, I mean, I didn't, we didn't dress me in five other guys. We knew we were going to not play that night. So anyhow, yeah, I mean Craig Pat, I was like, hey, man, we're going to put our stuff on because, you know, if they're skating, wiskating, whatever, you know, here we, Craig's like, you know, Craig didn't know what was going to happen. He's just like, you know, Craig's like, he had played professionally for like seven years. He's like, I don't know what this knucklehead's doing, Jack, but you know, whatever. I haven't seen stuff like this since I was in high school, okay? That's what he, that was his attitude. Is that what I don't know if I was going on over there, but just, he's like, just go over there and stay out of his way. If he wants you to put your stuff on, he'll tell you, but let him see you, you know, so he knows you're here. So I'm like, all right, so we go over, you know, I'm still, I don't know if the other guys were, I mean, I was there on the bench next to him and, you know, he's, he calls everybody over and bang there there. And then when that whole thing happened when the guy, you know, and then people stuck around, they were watching us. They thought we were putting on like an exhibition. Wow, the crowd. So wow, look at this. And then they see us going like that like this, right? And I just, and I'm like watching these guys and all of a sudden, they just that peeling off, right? So then now there's nobody there. And then before you know it, like the guy that runs the ring, he doesn't speak a word of English. He's speaking Norwegian or something, you know, he comes over and he's kind of whatever with the doctor. I, or they, you know, who could speak languages. And that's when it came that the guy wanted to leave because he had to get home. It was probably 10 o'clock at night. And, um, yeah. So the guy wanted to leave and he's bitching at her. And he's screaming at these guys and I'm standing there going like, man, I'm so glad I'm sitting here watching this. It's a blast. And then what happened was when he turned the lights out, because the guy wanted to leave. And then herbys line, I swear to God, I told the guy, I told Gavin O'Connor in the movie when I told him about this whole situation. It wasn't in the original script. I was like, you know, the guy's like, the, the, the, the, the, the ddocs. I was like, herb. He wants to leave. He wants to go home. It was failing. And herb never even looked at him. He's still looking on the ice. And all he said. And I'm standing. It was right. And without even looking. Tom will leave me the keys. I'll lock up. And I'm like, I'm thinking myself these guys are going to be out of the world. Yeah. You're going all right. You're going all the way. Oh, it's great. So the guy. The guy. He was a good sized guy. He stormed away. He was pissed. And next. I know. He bang. I hear this little click, you know, from the electrical, whatever, everything, he killed the power in the ring. Not just the lights, the power, okay? And it's like, he powers down. And yeah. And then the lights go dark. And then when it was dark and her, we couldn't see guys now. Now guys like, you know, fuck you. You know, and hanging there sticks because they're doing, he's like, he's screaming in the dark like some kind of psycho. And the guys, and at that point, guys of banging their sticks. And I think that's what ended it. You know, I think her was from like, all right, because you know, when I saw Mark Johnson get mad, you might have yelled something. That wasn't Mark's character to do that. And the last thing herb you want to do was piss off Mark. So maybe that's why you ended it. Oh, that's so good. Yeah, start losing Mark. Pretty funny. Yeah, it was awesome. And you know, it was, it was kind of wild the next day where we're in the locker room. And we were fit, you know, we were great. We were punchy though, man. It was sort of the end of a three and a half week kind of 10 or 12 day, you know, hockey game, 10 or 12 game, three and a half week trip. Yeah, I mean, we were in Finland and Amsterdam and Norway and we're on the bus off the bus, you know, dragon stuff and everything else. And so we were kind of punchy and so goofy, you know, you get kind of goofy punchy, right? And so the next day when we played him, you know, Mike mentioned it in something how we seriously the next morning we played him now. We got six. The guys are out of line. I've run the line up. The six guys are, you know, six guys who have out six guys move in. So I played that game and I mean, you know, it's not that like that matter or anything. But obviously we had to go out and play, you know, show up. So we did beat them something like nine to one or something. We just just smoked Norway. And then afterwards we're all sitting and thinking like, okay, we just showed her. We heard me that if he beats our brains and we'll play better. Yeah. That was, but that was the day that that was in that locker room after that game. When John Harrington started talking about the funny things that Herbie would say, like, you guys are playing, you know, we're a seed stay and today you're playing like it's next week. You know, like he had these stupid things, right? Yeah. But he would always like his go to things and and so Harrington, he had set a couple that in the locker room. And so Harrington takes out a piece of tape, a white tape and he writes, and he writes the saying on the tape that he rolls it up into a ball. Oh, yeah, he said this to the other day, right in the locker room, writes it down. So he writes it down, rolls it into a ball and he throws it in his bag. And that was the beginning of like the ball. And so by the end of the season, the frickin ball was this big. Yeah. And it would be like, we'd be in the locker room like this, you know, playing tough game and everybody sitting there and herbie would come in. And he'd be like, ah, you know, this is that, the other thing, this is that. And then he'd throw out one of these sands, you know, like whatever some goofy, something one of those sands, they would say. Yeah. And we'd be sitting there like this and then he'd walk out of the locker room and someone would go like, hey, you got to put that on the ball. Okay. And he'd get a roll of tape and he'd write it down what he just said. And then he wrote, he'd take the ball out of his bag and he'd roll around, and he'd tape it around the ball, throw it back here. The frickin ball was growing like this all year. It was, I don't know, I don't even know if he still has it, but that's why like in the doc, when they called them up, when he was saying those things. Yeah. Yeah. Because he would know, because he was the, he was the keeper of the stupid sayings. I guess. Yeah. That is incredible. Oh, my God. But this is how, this is like another part of the team building we had that really kept us. Because even though he came in and we listened to him and we had nothing, you know, tons of respect for him as a coach and a person and everything else. But you know, you got to have something that yours, right? And as a team, and this is like a funny thing that guys did and they were like five or six guys that were really into it with with John Harrington. His nickname was Baa. B-H. Well, well, he got that thing. But everybody calls them Baa. So anyhow, so Baa was like the keeper of the quotes. And there were five or six guys that were like, hey, you know, I was having breakfast with her, but he just wanted, well, I tell you what he said. And he's like, oh, I'm putting that on the ball. You know, you're right. It's down. Yeah. It was, no one ever really talks about that, but that's that also started in that locker room in Norway. And before we got organized and actually that's when we flew back to Lake Placid and go back to the States. And then got dialed, man. Yeah. No, we got dialed. All right. We went back and played, but we played the Lanna flames, Minnesota Norstars. They didn't just beat us. They beat the shit out of us. And then we played Lanna. We played Minnesota. We played the Washington Capitol. We played the St. Louis Blues. They beat us like nine or two. Yeah. We played NH5 NHL teams. We tied the capitals, but every other team killed us. Yeah. It was torture. Yeah. Fuck, maybe you needed it. But so, so Jack, the, the run is awesome. Obviously with the tie against Sweden, you beat the chance. I know it was such a huge game because you're like, that's the second best team in the world. Yeah. And you guys show up there. And then a nice little run ending with that West Germany game. And you told the cool story about how it was, you know, your second in your group. So it's with the point in the goal, if all that shit in the numbers. And that's how you get the Soviets. Were you guys legitimately, obviously, you know, you guys have beaten the checks and you're fucking, you go from Charlestown, you get fighting you, you know, but going into that Soviet game where you like, this is fucked or was there actual belief in that locker? I'm like, we can fucking skate with these guys. It was a hundred percent belief in that locker room. I mean, no, there was no way. I mean, I think that the game in Madness Square Garden, because it was like a, you know, it's an exhibition game for all intense, Brian. It's an exhibition. It didn't mean anything. It was just us going out playing them. There was really nothing on the line. So I mean, yeah, I mean, at that point, we'd already made the team. Yeah, yeah. So he had just kind of, you know, I mean, so when it came down to the end, we had two players that we, we had 22 guys right at the end. And they were both released at the same time. I mean, the focus is always on Ralph, the last guy cut. Yeah. And dramatic with herbie being the last guy cut and all this. And it's a great story. And maybe in herbie's mind, you know, because Ralph was a forward and Jackie was a defenseman, you know, there's just a lot more connectivity with sort of the Ralph story and the herbie story if you, if you link those. So and yeah, so and you know, and obviously Ralph and Jack with different players and what have you, but the reality is we had 22 guys and they were two guys released on. Right. The day before we left for the Russian game basically, we went to late class at first. And so those two guys with Jack, you and Ralph Cox. And so we had this when they announced the Olympic team, these are the 20 guys going. They did it at a dinner in some hotel in Minneapolis. And it was honestly, we take our, we had all of our apartments packed. Everything that we were shipping home was shipped. We had done gave back all the furniture that we rented and everything else for our apartments. And then now we're going to this luncheon, this, this, you know, whatever it might be, some kind of like, you know, club type business, you know, executive club of Minneapolis, big luncheon, they're going to announce the 20 guys. And that's when he called Ralph and Jack and said, yeah, I got to talk to you guys before the lunch because, you know, so Ralph and Jack both gone. So at this point, we're playing in the Russians. And we, after the lunch, we go to late class and get checked and get all our stuff, then we fly down to New York to play the Russians. So, but at that point, we already made the team like the pressure's off. It's kind of dynamic. Yeah, yeah, cool. I didn't know that. I was playing these guys as an exhibition game. It was like, fun to go watch, see them and play against them. You know, we didn't think they were just going to slap us around. You know, I mean, they frickin' slap us around then. And so, you know, the guys are getting banged up and getting, you know, getting smoked on the scoreboard, we're getting pushed around, all the place. But you know, so that was just for us, it was, I think, part of the learning process, you know, that's it. And then, once we get back to late class, I mean, now the game's a for real. I mean, it was a different mindset, you know, and, you know, here we pulled that thing with Robbie after the first period of the Sweden game, which was crazy. So crazy. Yeah, crazy. But anyhow, by the time we get around to playing the Russians, which was, you know, week or eight days later from the first Sweden game, you know, I mean, we're playing, we're in a role, we're into it. You know, these games are for real. It's not like the last game we played, it was an exhibition game. And we're rolling and we're playing it. We kind of learn some things, you know, we learned that we just couldn't get behind from these guys. We had to keep it tight. And, you know, the way the game went on really favored us just because, I mean, we tied it up late in the first period. So we're going at the end of one period. It's two, two. So now it's a two-period game, right? Yeah. And then, Jack, you noticing Michigan was crazy. I know the mission is right away. But, you know, you think about, you think back to Mike Keenan in the NHL, right? I mean, he was notorious for pulling his goalies. But, I mean, it's definitely a coaching strategy, as if your team is sort of not where they need to be, you know, mentally, emotionally on the ice or competitively or something, a little flat. And you pull the goalie like at the end of a period of something like that. It wakes your team up. I mean, that's the theory behind pulling a goalie. Obviously, he lets in 10 goals, different story. But a lot of times, you know, like Keenan would pull the goalie just to change the mojo. And I think, ticking off, because, like, Michigan was the second best goalie in the world, you know, I mean, it's like you shut out, shut out, you know, it starts. Right? I mean, sure. It's like you pull Patrick Warr and you put Richard, you know, you put Marty Bredurren, oh great. Exactly. Yeah, yeah, yeah. It's so much easier, you know, yeah. It wasn't like he put a duffel bag in there, you know, he put Michigan in there. And so, but I think, you know, I think he did it pulling Trey Jack was a statement to his team. Yeah. Wake up. Yeah. Okay. And they woke up. Yeah. And we survived that second period. He's like, I think he came in and actually hounds and it was the real Russians then. And then, you know, we just, we were, we were very fit, strong, good team. And Jimmy played great, made a lot of, you know, big saves. You know, we cleared rebounds. We were pretty good at clearing rebounds. And we didn't give up a lot of rebound goals. So we were pretty tight now, rolling in that way. And Jimmy had a strong period and we just hung in there and we were down a goal. Yeah. And we had talked about it. If we could be down, down a goal, tied, going in the third period, man, 20 minute game, we got a shot at these guys. So, yeah, you weren't feeling like confident, but we were kind of where we needed to be. Yeah. And then our fitness took over, you know, in our pace, in our fitness, in our training and all these things we had done over the year, you know, all those off-ice training, all these off-ice training, all these like these skating drills that herbie make us do, you know, blue back, down and back, red, red back, blue back, down and back, 43 seconds. Again, bang, you know, I mean, it was hard as hell, but they got easier as the year went on because, you know, we would do it. And we weren't like, we weren't mailing these in. I mean, we were racing down the ice because yet, I mean, he had this guy, Jack Vladowick out there. He was an exercise physiologist. He was on our step. His nickname was Cardiac Jack. He'd be healthy with his frickin. He was like, stop watch. Stop watch. You know, and if you know, 46 seconds, he'd be like, that was 46 seconds and herbie would be like, I was 40. Like, Jesus Christ, the guys are dying, you know, but I mean, we did that all year. So when we got 20 minutes to play in February against the rushes, man, you know, like our heart rate had even started moving yet, you know. So we were ready and we had a great period. And then the Russians, they're the ones that got little twisted up, you know, they weren't, they don't know how to handle it, like being playing against a team that was getting stronger as the game goes on. Not a team that they wore down, like they would usually do. So we were getting stronger. They were uncomfortable. So they got outside their comfort zone in the third period and we were, we were right in our wheelhouse, man. Was the crowd, they make, they say this in the movie, but it was in the dark a little bit too. Was the crowd fucking insane when Rizzo scored. Yeah. Well, yeah, it was funny. You know, it was insane, but nervously insane. It was. Yeah. Yeah. You know, yeah, because you never know, right? I mean, they were like, was this like intensely ever? He was just like, you're like that. I mean, there's a post-screening, but they were cheering for things. But I think obviously once the buzz went off, it was really loud. Every was going really wild then against the Russians. But we were talking the other day about the filling game and someone was, you know, talking about this a lot lately. So someone said how the first two periods of the filling game, it was quiet. Like, because, wow, because again, it was like everybody was sitting on the seat going like, oh my god, they're going to blow this, you know, and they don't want to cheer. It was it was it was quiet for two periods. It's awkward. Yeah. Yeah, it was just like, oh, shit, they're going to blow this. And we were losing two to one and then we weren't playing great. And, you know, and then, you know, we come out in the third period, man, and we just, we came out like seriously, we came out on fire. It was. We all of it's kind of become a thing with us every now and then just to kind of mention it, someone bring it up and go like, you know, got to give her a real lot of credit in the way he, you know, he played, he planned and prepared and we prepared us because like if there was, if if you're preparing for one thing and you got nine months to do it, you're preparing for one thing, that one thing is you got 20 minutes left for the gold medal. And that's why you go to bed at nine instead of 10 in November. Oh, that's why, you know, because the stuff you did back then is because of this 20 minutes, right? And it was almost like that. It feels like that. It felt like that. It's like, here we are. We got 20 minutes, but the fans outside were like, oh, no. Yeah, like we're in the lock. I'm just pasting like freaking lions, you know, and then that third period. I mean, you look, Mark Johnson's going to make it for too. And he looks at the camera and winks. There's still four and a half minutes left. That's how good we felt. You know, I mean, that's how good we felt. They didn't touch the park. So yeah, that was really, really awesome. That third period. Speaking of that moment, though, OC, another one of those unbelievable moments in the doc was the story that between the second and third Craig Patrick goes in and you were like, get the fuck out of here. Yeah. We're, we're how fired up were you? Like it was that moment real. Like it doesn't take much to get me. Oh, that moment was incredible. It was absolutely real. And I, you know, I don't really like to funny. I felt a little weird. I mean, to me, it was just me being me and just that's just who I am. I mean, I, um, you know, let me look. I'm it's a long time ago, but I mean, I know what I was like back then. And, uh, you know, there was no way I was just going to come in there and sit around and go like, all right, we got to go out and play. I'd mean, what do you shit me? You know, I mean, 20 minutes. This is it. And it's like there. It's in that, you know, there's no way. And you know, I mean, I wasn't, I was just like, yeah, what can I tell you? I don't know what I was, I mean, I was just on fire. So, um, and I was kind of talking everybody and kind of, you know, it was just off in the locker rooms, nobody else and just the team and, uh, you know, guys are taking this stuff off. And, you know, it's frustrating. You're down two to one. Nothing's really going our way. And then I just was kind of pacing, you know, and talking and whacking guys and kind of pacing and whacking guys and come on. You've got, you know, blah, blah, blah, whatever I was. And then I remember Phil. Vakota was like, you know, stood up and, you know, as this was going on. And he was the same way. He was like, he jacks right and then all and then Phil was like, now he's on fire. Yeah. You know, and then, and then Patty comes in and I was like, Patty, get, you know, get the hell out of you. So he's like, whoa, okay. And so throw him out. And the next thing you know, this like, there's another guy. I stand up and I was like, let's get our stage on. And now at this point, this is like foam coming out of him. I mean, seriously, it just, it's the locker room just ramped, you know, it amped and ramped. And then we're kind of like this, you know, in like this, right? And it was like, we came out of the locker room. I know it was even looking at anybody who would like just like, was the door, get out of our way, like get out of our freaking way. Like, you know, hey, let's go shut up. Get out of my, let me see these guys. And then, and seriously, we went on that ice and it was a two of man. Everybody, we, there was, we were just incredibly determined. There was no, no way in the world we were losing that game. We were 100% winning that game. Absolutely. Yeah. It was incredible. Do you do it was really, it was an incredible moment for our team. And as it's been being talked about more, more, we realize that guys do remember it. And they, we all remember it the same way. And, and we all look at it and go like, that's the crowning achievement of that entire nine or 10 month period. And, you know, because we were ready for that 20 minutes when we, when we needed it, we had it and we, we brought it. It was freaking awesome. Yeah. Yeah. That's incredible. Did you, do you remember the bunker hill comment in real time? Are we? Yeah. I did. Bumped, they had bumper stick is back in Charlestown with it. That's fucking awesome. No way. Oh, yeah. Man, we want a bunker hill and we want to like class it. Yeah. Fuck. That's a great line. And then I get some knucklehead. Tell me they didn't win there. And I was like, well, check your history. I know they took the, I know that the bridge took the hill, but only because the Colonials ran out of bullets. You know, that's why I was like, don't shoot you see the whites of their eyes because we don't want to waste any bullets. We only got like 10 left. So, you know, and it was the kind of thing where even though the British kind of took the hill, I mean, what they paid for that victory, I mean, they, the Colonials ran away. I mean, they had their casualty levels and they were losing all these field commanders and these generals, they were screwed. They went back to Boston and they didn't have a left Boston. They were hoping for reinforcements, but you think about it, guys, and you guys haven't New England backgrounds. March 17th, of course, is saying Patti's Day, not in Boston. I mean, it is of the same Patti's Day, because it's the same Patti expert day, but it's a evacuation day. So March 17th, 1776 was when the British evacuated Boston and never came back. How did I not know that? That's crazy. Well, it's a evacuation day. And it was because the Battle of the Bunker Hill, first of all, April 19th, 1775, the bridge go marching off the Lexington Concordance, like a guerrilla warfare with the Colonials. They're in the trees, you know, shooting them, like kind of sniping them. They go running back to Boston and then all of a sudden, two months later, June 17th, 1775, think about it. The Colonials on top of Breeds Hill, here they come, here come the Brits. We've got to get them out of there. They blast them down the hill twice. And the third time they take the hill and they run away. But that was the first time an open field battle that you'd see the Brits and the Brits that soon we had with like no nothing, no ammo or anything. But then the Brits were so beaten up and so many casualties and deaths. They went back to Boston like this and during that time, I know this history. So Ethan Allen, these from Aunt Boys, they went up the Fort High Condoroga and where it was sort of a lightly defended British fortress and they stole all their cannons and they brought all their cannons down. It took them like months and months to forge these cannons like from, from basically upstate New York all the way to Dorchester, the mouth of Boston Harbor and they put them up at Boston Harbor, all these cannons like maybe probably in, I don't know, maybe January. And they were like, they were pointed and then they kind of went in with the truth flag, the general Howell, the George Commander. And they were like, they look up on the hill. See that? He's like, yeah, you know what they are? He goes, yeah, there, he goes, what are they? He goes, they're the, your cannons that used to be on the roger. They're pointing at you. You got three months to get out of Boston. Oh, we're going to blow you guys to bits. Yeah. Three months later, they evacuated. So it all started the battle, bunker hill, they, sorry. Hell yeah. Yeah. It was a victory. It was a victory. That's my point. I agree. I, it's funny. Like that line is so good, but the follow was even better. So I don't want to hear that. I'm like, yeah, well, there was probably more than that. They cut it off. The funny thing is, man, upside down, the funny story of the whole thing is is that, you know, John Harrington, then after me, he gets up there and he's like, you know, he tells them the herbie things that he wrote down. And then even when they go to him real time, he goes, yeah, I probably had a few too many beers. Yeah. Oh, here's the problem with that. I'll tell you the story. It's really funny is that when we came off the ice after we win the gold medal, me and Harrington, they grabbed two guys randomly for drug testing. So they will, so they grabbed me and Harrington like the whole team. We just want to go a medal like that. And then the team goes to the locker room. Harrington and I go to drug testing. We hadn't seen the whole team and we still got our skates on. Yeah. And so I had gotten tested against the suede. I wasn't even dressed. I'm on the bed sheet street clothes. I got randomly selected. What a shocker. I'm thinking I'm shoving stuff in my knee probably. Yeah. Yeah. Right. There's a cooler right there full of care and beer on ice. Yeah. So I go, let's just go and have a few beers and like hold it as long as we can. Yeah. Yeah. Well, I go. All right. So we're going to we pounding beers and we're hugging each other in laughing, you know, and we had played the fins and they're in there. They're a couple of fin guys. They have having beers with toast. You know, and so we pounded like three beers like in 20 minutes, 25 minutes. And then we grabbed one for the road. And so then we go back to the locker room. The team's all gone. So we, where is everybody at the press conference across the street at the high school. So we take off our skates and then we got to go across the street like out the bill, out of the building across the street through the crowds into the ice bill. Yeah. We're like walking with with beers, you know, you know, it was a starigan. Everybody's in no one cared. And so then we go. So by the time we got to the press conference, we hadn't seen our teammates since the game which is why we come in so hot. I can't. I mean, I can't. I jump up on the table. I'm like dancing around on the table. Yeah. Number one, because I was excited to see everybody. But number two, because I'm kind of half lit, you know, yeah. Yeah. So that's why when I did that, like, you know, asked me that question about like the first guy from Charleston. I was like, yeah, what can I say? And I'm like, boo, boo, boo. And then, you know, and that's when I said other thing, I go, I think I had too many care and beers. And then Harry gets up there and he's like, you're like, take the bike from him. Holy shit. And then he goes, he'd go back to him real time. He's like, yeah, I think I might have had too many beers. What was he going to do? Him and I were in drug testing. That's why we had had a few. That's for sure. I'm so lucky. I'm sure he's a sense of fucking riot. Well, I'm not a jack. I mean, we talked about the doc. How amazing that experience was for you. You know, you'd, you'd mentioned Gavin O'Connor a few times and you work a bunch, you know, get ready for Miracle. I'm curious, what was your reaction when you did finally see that movie in 2004? And like, you know, we never really thought about it. It must have been kind of emotional for you guys. Like that was a real unbelievable Hollywood production reliving those moments. Like, did it feel very true to the story for you guys? Did you love the movie when you saw the premiere? Yeah. You know, I thought I think we all agree that it was a great movie. With, and I, you know, I got to know Gavin just because my character was in the script a lot. So it was like five of us, you know, they have certain rules in Hollywood, right? They can't in a movie, you know, there's a lot of its sag union rules, you know, screen actors, how many, how many minutes on air, you know, so they're dealing with a lot of those issues. You know, behind the scenes that you probably don't realize. So that's why maybe in the movie, they highlight maybe fewer guys, even though there's more guys. And you know, you can't tell everybody's stories. It's not a mini series, right? Yeah. So anyhow, we got to go into some things. It was like me, Bobby, Mike, Rizzo, Craig, and Buzzie Schneider, five guys, right? Yeah. So anyway, you know, we got to go some of the filling in Vancouver. We got to go to the Hollywood foreign press screening. Met the staff in the cast a few times, stuff like that, right? So by the time we got around to the premiere, there were five of us that had seen it. The movie a couple of times already, you know, but there were 15 guys that hadn't seen it. However many guys just, I mean, I don't know how many guys are there. Probably close to all of them. But so they hadn't seen it, you know, and I think to a man, you know, it's a little different because not everybody's in the movie a lot, right? There's some guys that are in it more and that's can be frustrating for certain guys. They look at the movie and they realize, you know, it's almost like I wasn't even part of it. So some guys can feel maybe a little left out. I respect that. I mean, but it's a movie. And, you know, the deal was, we were treated as a team. It wasn't like, you know, certain guys were getting more than others or anything. As far as Echoes. So, but it was a little tough, you know, for some guys to feel a little left out. But in the other hand, I think Kenny Marl said it right then. He was like, that's a great movie and people are going to love it. And I think it was really great that, you know, the way Kurt Russell portrayed Herbie was awesome. And the pace of the movie was great. The fact that they hired hockey players and taught them how to act. So the hockey scenes were very scripted right from the real scenes. I mean, I'd seen some of that where, you know, they'd have a camera guy out in the ice. He looked like a roller derby guy, you know, with elbow pads and he had his camera. He's right in the middle of stuff. So they had really great hockey scenes and they were scripting the actual plays on goals or certain things. So the plays you see in that movie, Miracle, the hockey plays are recreated actual plays, you know, that really were a play. So they put a lot of thought into it. It was a real Hollywood production and obviously Gavin's a, you know, he's a class A director. Disney put a lot of resources behind him. Even Gavin told me, he says, Jack, after they started seeing some of the dailies, Disney drove more money into it because they saw it coming. They ended up, and that's when they hired a really top level music producer, this guy Mark Eishim. And all time. Yeah. So Gavin said, you know, it was a great story. He goes, it could be a mini series. It goes, I got a four. It could be apocalypse now. You know, there's so many stories around this. But they were adamant. It had to be right around two hours. And yeah, you'll never hear, I mean, every guy to a man in our team, thinks the movie's awesome. And I think it's become a little bit of an iconic movie because younger kids keep coming up watching it. If you're a little hockey player, like, you know, you're six, five, six, seven, eight, nine, well, the time you're like eight to nine years old, it's like, that's your miracle experience. You know, you get to watch the movie. And then next thing, you know, you're in a tournament, lay plastic. And this, you know, you're going to be a year of be statue. They're going to build a statue of us. And you're in this living museum and you watch the movie. I mean, it's all coming together pretty good. Except we're getting, you know, we're as old as dirt now. So I don't know how many of you are still going to be around before you know it. Don't that's very big, man. Oh, see, let you get out here. But I just wanted, yeah, we could we could do an entire another app for the post days. For a million stories, HL stories are fucking killing me. So before you go, can you tell the Mel you it? No, I can't. I can't. I'm not going to tell that. I like Mel. I shouldn't have told it the first time. I mean, I don't blame the guy. I mean, when you're going away and you're geogged eyes, I mean, what are you going to do? I guess back now, I know what you do. But I mean, this is back in 1981. I mean, there's no cell phones and there's no, you know, I mean, I don't know. You got neighbors. I don't even know. I mean, I think he made the probably he made the only decision he could make. I agree. I agree completely. I thought it was actually pretty smart, you know, I mean, you think about it. And at least he, he just leave him there. He put him in the freezer. I mean, you can come home and you could deal with it in the vet and you know, the burial and all that. But you know, it was actually, we know, I think about it. It sounds really funny, but it was actually a genius move by Mel. So he was a lot smart on the people that gave him credit for it. Completely agree, completely agree, Viet. It's a crafty vet. Yeah, let's be honest. Crafty Viet can move, man. Yeah, exactly. Exactly right. Dude, that's incredible, man. My God. Yeah. Anyway, guys, great talking to you guys. Thanks a lot for the time. Enjoy the weather out there on the West Coast. Okay. Absolutely, man. Yeah, you enjoy some golf. It's very tough. Is there, is there, you know, we do this with every guest if there's anything you want to shout out, anything you want to plug. No, no, fine. No, I'm good, man. I appreciate it. Thanks a lot. I know. It's just fun to have this, you know, the memories of the games from us and the miracle experience in 19a Olympics with, you know, air you in Eric Hyde and me being up the last week, Lake Placid is a, it's, it's truly a living museum, you know. I think you've picked people up there from 32 that would walk down the street and say, I remember that building. Oh, it used to be a T shop. I mean, it's the same building. It's the same street. It's the same lake. It's so wonderful. And, um, and we're, I'm excited. There's a Herbie Brook statue there now. You know, it was so fun to see us walking through Lake Placid and the cars stopping and then in the documentary. How then they'd show us like a 19, the summer of 1980 on that wagon bus going through Lake Placid, you know, like, and then now we're here in our freaking 90s. But anyhow, you know, I mean, I just think, yeah, Lake Placid, the Herbie statue that they just put in this documentary that Netflix did, which is really great. And, you know, now that they're raising money to build a statue of our team and the statue was all of us crowded on, on the metal stage. On the metal stage. Which is sort of like way, the way America has to be here. I offer one, one for all, right? Yeah. I mean, it's like with a three musketeers only, we were like the 20 musketeers. Yeah. Miracle team. But thanks, fellas. All right. Good talking to you. Yeah, I got you Jack. This is awesome. Huge shout out to Jack O'Callahan. We said to him, he's going to come on more times because I could have just listened to this, this guy for four days and days and days. That was unbelievable. That doesn't get you pumped up for the Olympics. I don't know what will. Let's hop into another ad break and then we will get into college hockey and wrap up the show. We've got the Olympics coming around the bend here, folks. We are currently in the air on the way to Milan as you are listening to this. So if you need to get pumped up for the Olympics, there's one thing to do. It's Watch Miracle. Everyone knows that and everyone thinks of that one scene where they're doing herbys. They're going up and down the ice, stop and start. And you know how you do that with a sharp edge. And the best way to get that right now is with the Bauer. Unbelievable delivery, pro-sharp advantage. The Bauer pro-sharp advantage is your in-home skate sharpening tool that is revolutionizing the game. There's nothing like having clean sharp edges when you're playing hockey. And there's also nothing like knowing how convenient it is to get your wheels sharpened. 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Going to rip through the college action because let's be honest, our minds are on the Olympics, but the college game keeps wheeling. My boys in blue, number one Michigan versus number two Michigan state, everything on the line Friday night in Ann Arbor, Michigan state takes a three, one lead going into the third period, but wouldn't you know it? Michigan climbs back in. They tie it on a shorty and then win in OT on the paper. Yost was fucking blowing up. It was unbelievable. But got to admit Saturday, we go to the duel in the D at Little Caesars, Michigan state goes up four, nothing they never look back. One five two, Porter Martone on the score sheet, just a couple of splits for these guys. It's not really going to change the rankings that much. I don't think, but I got to say more impressed with Michigan state this weekend than Michigan hate to admit it. But that's just how it was. Both these teams are fucking nasty. Yes, Dan, my god, it just feels like they're going to Korean into each other again. It's going to be insane. Okay, number nine Cornell, they beat Colgate 5-2 on the road on Friday, but then they lost three two at home on Saturday. I swear we're seeing a lot of that this year, dude, where there's a home in the road team wins twice, kind of insane. And then Quinnipiac number five beat Brown 9-1 at home on Friday, and then Yale came to town Saturday and they pounded them eight, nothing. You've been on Quinnipiac hard all year, and it begins like this where I'm like, holy fuck, you are right. Genuinely, like, how does that even happen? You know, it's like unbelievable. They're just like, they're so good. It's crazy. Number seven Providence climbing up the charts, they go to UNH, when seven one on Friday, then they hosted Vermont on Saturday and beat them six one. Also a team that's doing really well. Dartmouth saw them drop a little bit. Number 14, they beat Harvard at Harvard three one on Friday. So they're trying to climb again. And then number 12, Yukon beats Northeastern on the road to on Friday. Northeastern, kind of like Clarkson for me. They're not ranked right now, but they're a good team. So happy win for Yukon. BU beat number 18, main three two and OT at home on Friday. And they had won their beanpot game last Monday, three two over Northeastern. So they're in the beanpot final tonight. You're listening to this Tuesday. So it will have happened. But how many times have said this? Coliseum said the beanpot turned their whole year around last year. If they can get a beanpot win, and they just beat Maine, right? Maine, those are the first good wins I've seen from BU in a long time. So that's huge. Number 11 BC on the other hand, lost to Vermont six one at home on Friday, which is a nightmare loss. But they beat Harvard and their beanpot matchup. They're playing B, uh, they're playing BU in the final tonight again Monday night. So I know how much those Boston teams care about that. I loved watching the B buck growing up huge tilt for them tonight. You know they want to clip BU and they'll be all right. Yeah, headed to the west, the central, whatever you want to call it. Number four, Western Michigan lost to Miami Ohio on the road three two in OT on Friday. They bounced back in one three one on Saturday, but it's like Chris, you've been talking about that all year. How they just weekends in a row now. They've stormed back and been like, where legit? And then yeah, just a couple of tough losses. Uh, number 20 Michigan tech beats number 16 August, and a three two in OT at home. And on Friday, they won four three, uh, it's four three on Saturday. So a nice, nice weekend for Michigan tech. And then number 15 St Thomas goes to Bowling Green. They beat them three two in OT on Friday, but then lost three one on Saturday. I keep talking about these teams. Augustana St Thomas 16 and 15 in the country, like being a little sneaky, but losses like that is where like you're not sneaky anymore. You're going to fall out of it. So top losses. Yeah, exactly. UMass Lowell beat number 19 UMass at home three one on Friday. And then UMass hosted Saturday in 152. That split makes more sense to me. The home team's getting done. Agreed. And then number 13 was constant beat Notre Dame six five in OT at home on Friday. And then five four on Saturday. Electric weekend in Madison. Electric weekend. And it's also kind of like a grit your teeth weekend. It's like we, Wiscoe has been slipping, right? We had them like fourth in the country a couple weeks ago. And now they're 13. They've had bad losses and Notre Dame unranked, but not a, not a, not a slouch. Not a slouch. So two kind of like ugly wins. You're giving up too many goals, but it's like, well, you took care of business. So there you go. And then we got number 10 Duluth beat number three. Notac at home three two in OT. Zampland had the second goal to go up to nothing and the OT winner. But then notac got a nice four one road win on Saturday. So not a complete disaster. That's good for Duluth Duluth, who we've seen slipping a bit. Getting a win over that number three team is huge. And then to round things out, number eight Denver tied Colorado College, two to and Friday at Colorado College. But then Denver won four one at home on Saturday. Colorado College dude. Still cause and fits. They always do. It's incredible, Dan. It's absolutely incredible. All right, our new rankings. Are you willing to go Michigan state one? Yes. I think so. As they lost an OT at Michigan and then beat him in little Caesars. As a Michigan guy, like, I, it would be easy for me to go absolutely not. Are you crazy? But I'm kind of like no dude. Like, yeah, that that is totally acceptable because it was an OT game on the road. And then a very, very dominant win in the Duluth indeed. Michigan state number one. Okay, state one Michigan two. And then I want to go Quinnipiac three. Or maybe Providence. Wow. Um, let's go. I like you. You. Quinnipiac three Providence four. Yep. Then I want to go Western Michigan and no DAC because they both deserve, they both deserve a little PP. Maybe no DAC next cause Duluth is good. Yeah. Okay. So so state Michigan QU Providence no DAC five. Yeah. And I would go Western Michigan six. Yep. I agree. And then Penn State has to be like, oh yeah, Penn State seven. We're we're we're almost like, no, no, I like Penn State. Me too. And then I would go Duluth at eight. Me too. To reward. I'm pumping Duluth up to eight. And then we've got Denver, Cornell, uh, BC, UConn, Whisk, Wisconsin's not in there yet for me. Dartmouth's not in there for me yet. Um, I think it's got to be Denver for me next. Yeah. Denver nine. And then maybe you can. You want UConn over BC or BC. Or BC. Humped to Vermont. Yeah. BC lost. Um, you want them over Cornell. Like you're Cornell. Because Cornell lost to Cornell lost. They lost at home to fucking cold gate. Fucking right. I think we go UConn dude. Fuck yeah. UConn 10. UConn 10. Done. Game of the week. The Bean Plot Finals tonight. You're going to miss it. But I hope you're watching. And then we're taking the Wolverines again. I hate to do it. But we have to do it because on Michigan, they are hosting hockey's bad boy. Gavin McKenna for a Friday Saturday series. It's going to be incredible. Go to go tune into that one wherever you can. Love me some college hockey weekend. Let's take an ad break and we'll be back. All right team. Get ready to cheer on USA hockey with some officially licensed apparel from Low Sport from the replica Jersey hoodie to performance gear. Vintage looks hats and more. Low Sport has you covered for the gold medal run. You use code empty netters at checkout. That's EMPTY and ETT ERS. 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So go check out low sport gear.com. Use that promo code empty netters at checkout for 10% off your purchase of incredibly fresh merch just like this. Imagine a world where the state of Olympic hockey got so bad that they had to send a super hockey player back from the future to fix it. And instead of that, they sent me. That would be complete mayhem. That is what you are about to get with Goodluck. Have fun. Don't die from the completely unhinged mind of Gorgherbinski. Comes this year's must-see film. Goodluck have fun. Don't die when a man from the future arrives at a Los Angeles diner. Chaos ensues as he recruits a group of unlikely heroes on a one-night quest to save humanity. What happens along the way will keep you guessing until the mind blowing end, starring Sam Rockwell. Critics are calling it absolute chaotic perfection and ridiculously entertaining. This movie is going to be the banger of the year and we all know it. Dan Sam Rockwell is my dog. You can put him in literally anything. And he's been in such good stuff the way way back one of my all-time favorite movies, truly ever. Three boboards, JoJo Rabbit, Moon. He's incredible, but he is my absolute dog and I can't think of a cooler role for him to do. Like he was he was born. You were born to be hockey players and he was born for this role there. It's unbelievable. Gorgherbinski is bringing us Pirates of the Caribbean, the ring, rango, just so much good stuff. You just mentioned Sam, but we also got Haley L. Richardson, Michael Pena, Zazzy Beats, Juno Temple. This movie's rated R, so you know it's going to be a true time and a half. I can't wait for it in a world where we are drowned out with inauthentic, unoriginal content, sequels, prequels, remakes, all of that stuff. We aren't getting great original content like this and that's why this movie is so important. So again, good luck, have fun, don't die. The rated R under 17 not admitted without a parent, this Friday, the 13th of February, only in theaters, tickets are on sale now, snag it and go bag it. Enjoy the movie. We're back. Let's jump on in to a beer league hotline. Evan hit us, baby. All right. The commissioner of our league met my girlfriend when I brought her to a game the other night. Then at 3 a.m. that night, he liked a bunch of photos on her Instagram from when she was 15 years old. Who? She's 27 now. I called him out on a group chat and then he had me kicked off the team. He lied to the boy saying he liked all those photos when he was 16, but I know that's not true. I have the receipts. Should I expose him? Whoa. Whoa. Whoa indeed. Call that New York Times. Whoa indeed. Yeah, aren't there are files for things like this, aren't there? I believe there are files. I was saying. For things of this nature. I bet the given this guy's the commissioner. I bet this fucking team is called the Islanders and I bet this dude's last name is Epstein. Get this fucking criminal off the team right now. Are you out of your mind? I the fact that you called him out and then he immediately booted. You tell you everything you need to know. This dude is a scumbag. And is it the commissioner? It's the league commissioner? It's my friend. It goes up to the top. Yeah, so like he's literally, I can't even believe he has the power to remove people from team stand. Like imagine if our league commissioner was like, hey, this guy's off your team. I'd be like, what? He called him out and then he had him kicked off his team. Yeah, I don't even get how you have the ability to do that. He must have like pulled his USA hockey card or something. I mean, this is crazy. So is the commissioner implying that he even knew? How would he even know this girl when he was 16? How could he have even liked these photos when they were 16? Yeah, how old is the commissioner now? That's what I wanted to. Like was he? Yeah. What's tough is it literally doesn't matter. It's like, unless the commissioner is 15 years old. Yeah, it doesn't matter. That would be sick. Little big league did. Like this guy's a phoenix. He's a fucking phoenix. Get out of my league. The corruption goes so deep here. But like, buddy, are you fucking crazy? Yes, expose him yesterday. This is the biggest no brain. What, why in the world would you not expose him? This guy is a pervert. He's a pervert. And also he is doing illegal things in the league and he's got you kicked out of, you can't play beer league anymore. He can't, he's on a heater. He's on a heater. He can't expose him. He's like, wait till the season's over. This man, this man loves two things, beer league hockey and his girlfriend. And the commissioner is about to take both of them. He's about to take both of them, dude. I thought you were talking about the commissioner right there when you said this man loves two things and I was like, just watch careful. Don't fucking go there. Don't make me as a christ. Also, also I have a question. Do you think, do you think he only liked the photos for when he was 15 or did he like them all the way down? Because if he made them all the way down, you could maybe be like, I don't know, I was just hammered like an M3A. Crazy. But if you skipped the present day photos, had got to the young ones and only like those, we have a real issue. Both are utterly atrocious and you have a very real issue, no matter what. But if he went all the way down to just like those, then this man, like lethal injection, immediately, this is fucking crazy. This dude, this is horrifying. And we skipped over the fact that she's 27 now. So I don't know how much this gal posts, but the fact that we had 12 years to go through, to get down there. Or Instagram started in 2010, right? So I guess that's enough time. I was gonna say maybe she's posting, like maybe last year she posted young pictures ever so I was gonna post could have been from last year. But they also could have been, Instagram is old enough that it could have been for real. Like she had a lot of time. But if he's saying he liked him when he was 16, then that means he's at least how many. He's such an insane lot. We got him. We got him literally says that they met. They met at a game. And then he's like, dude, I like these all the way back on on 60. Again, unless there's a little big league situation going on here, which there certainly is not, this dude is belongs behind bars. So expose him for sure. This is nonsense. Absolutely unacceptable. Absolutely unacceptable. Okay, let's take it to a Bauer hockey blind ranking. We love our friends at Bauer. They have us hooked up with the pulse, with the skate sharpener, with incredible Olympic interviews. They are the goat and blind rankings are the goat. Evan. So for the people, for the listeners, a lot of our producers in the past, including the lovely Sean, don't aren't hockey people. So we're always making up blind rankings for them to do. And Evan was like, dude, I can make up shit. And I was like, that would be dope. So Evan has crafted some blind rankings for us. And in honor of our Italy trip, I think he has one very special. So what do we got to have? We're gonna pick the best Italian foods. Now, what I want to know, and I'm trying to go authentic Italian, you know, sorry, no chicken version. But that's what you can't tell. No, Dan. But a lot of these, you can give something number one without having to fear that you fucked chicken par. Yeah, this is great. Yeah, there are. So in your head, you could choose to envision or smell the Americanized versions of these or you could go authentic. We're going to Italy. This is authentic. I love it. Authentic Italian food. Let's go. All right. The first one, fruit de dimare, which is fruits of the sea. It's basically seafood pasta. Oh, okay, I was gonna say, you're gonna have to tell me what these are. Every time I go to a real Italian restaurant, I can't even order because I'm like, this is the only one that's gonna be confusing. Yeah. This one is such a good start. I know. And Dan, I don't know what you think, but sometimes this, like a clam linguine, can be so fucking amazing sometimes, but also not that good sometimes. Like I actually think it's a pretty volatile dish. Fruit de dimare is so good. We're gonna get a lot of muscles in here when you order fruit de dimare. Yep. I love them. And a muscle with a red sauce is just a little bread, little like little non-American bread too, you know, like proper bread that's not like gonna kill you. That little, you know, you get the dip going, that's fucking all time. I could go actually high here, Dan, now that I'm talking about it. Now that you got me cooking on this, I could go put that here. So you know what's funny is, fruit de dimare, I love. I love a vongole, like a linguine and clams. It's probably a little higher from me. I love a vongole, but this isn't vongole, this is fruit de dimare. I like a three here. This is a really delicious dish. Okay. Okay, I could do three. Lock it in three. Yep. All right. Spaghetti, bolognaise. Probably better there, but I would pretty much never order that. Every Italian just died inside, that you hit them with a probably better there. Everything is better there, but what I mean by that is, I would consider ordering it there, whereas if I see it on a menu here, I pretty much would never. You know what's tough is, this is a pretty much never order for me too. And it's, I'm trying to. Because I like so much, so many other things more. That's what I mean. It's not because I want to think of something that I would compare it to, that it's like, it's fantastic. And if it's on the table, I'm going to eat it, but I think I'm always trying to get a little more adventurous, but it also, it earns so many points for how comforting it is and when it's done right, it's done so, so well, there's a reason it's a classic. So I would hear, I would hear people giving this one. I know that I'm going to go five. I want to go fucking fuck. No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. I'm willing for what we're talking about of getting a little more, a little crazier. Let's go four, because it deserves four, like spaghetti, but I'll say being four. Lovely. For its classic appeal is that works for me. Okay, four. Spaghetti carbonara. Okay, see, I like this. This is interesting. This is, this is potentially one for me. Oh shit. I mean, carbonara with the guanciale. Here we go. With this fucking guy. With the toasted peppercorns. You're getting a little toochie on us. You're getting real standing toochie. I'm, I'm, I really, really, really love a red sauce. Like that's, that's my go-to, but when you get the egg yolk going, you get the Parmesan or Reggiano, and you make that delicious sauce, and you have it with the guanciale fat. I'm not really sure there's any, as far as a pasta that you can't be my one. Would you entertain too? Would you, would you entertain too? I, I would, and I'm telling you, I don't know what is gonna get up over there for me. So, okay, then maybe we gotta go one. You, because I don't even know what's coming down. This is so foreign to me, quite literally. Quite literally, this is so foreign to me. I'll go one. I'll trust you, dude. You're going to, I trust the tooch at all times. I'm never upset. He's back to the tooch. I've never, I'm never upset if a carbonara is at one. Okay, let's go one. Okay. The only place my wife and I ever went to twice when we were in Italy was a place that had the best carbonara we've ever had. Okay, then this is a worthy one. And I, and I, and I bet it made your balls soaking wet. Like don't lie to me. It was also a summer in Rome. So I was already pretty fucking sweaty, but yeah. Yeah, that's true. Okay, Magari Tepizza. Ooh, great inclusion. Interesting. Yeah, well done. Specifically that kind of, that kind of pizza. Yeah, fuck, that's a wrinkle, dude, because I, I respect a margarita so much in their delicious and fresh. And so like, I'm like, I could see it too, but because of fear of what might come of an incredible pasta dish, I almost wanna go this five to be like, well, I had to save it for something epic. All right, so let me say this. You've not been to Italy, right? Hell no, hell no. So this is gonna be a first for CP, which is exciting. Chris, I believe you're similar to me when pizza is being ordered, I am a very anti-cheese pizza guy. And yes, yes. Please, please, everyone calm down. Don't, don't jump down my throat. I know margarita is not cheese pizza, but they're close. So let me explain. I really appreciate some stuff going on on my pizza. I'd prefer a protein of some kind at least. I'm not a big overload guy. Like if we're talking bar pizza, you know, big New York pizza, I'm not really a meat lover's guy. Like I like one. Give me, give me a pepperoni mushroom, give me a sausage and pepper, give me combos like that. So I'm usually getting some toppings on there. Now, a well-made margarita is so fresh and delightful. And in Italy, it is genuinely next level, nothing in the States. I don't care if they're making Neapolitan style, whatever it is, it doesn't come close. But we're talking like our best meals and our best foods. I can't go to here. I've got to pay five. Yeah. I think I'm alike. Just out of fear. This is a starter. This is a shared plate for the table. Would it change things if I said you could throw prosciutto on top? Yeah, it would probably. It would, but you know, you did say it. I guess that's technically. Yeah, you know what? You didn't say it. I rescind my offer, no pursuit of free. We're going five. I'm going to go five. And unless Evan goes fucking nutty here, I am, I am going to pre-call that we are back. And this is a very great list of all time. All right. What's two? What is locked in at two? Lausagne. Yeah. Are you back? We are so back. Yeah. Lausagne, another classic right in there with spaghetti bolognese. Lausagne. I also love how it's three again. What was three? Oh, the three to demand it. Oh yeah, actually, this is a good list. This is a great list. It goes carbonara, Lausagne, fritter de maure, spaghetti bolognese, and margarita pizza. Oh, this is a great list. Great. Sadly, and I used all of Italy. I did. Sadly, couldn't just do a lot in region. No, no, you did go all over the place there. That was well done. We went on a little tour. We went on a tour of Italy. This was very, this was very toochie of you. Oh, yeah. I'm too chin just thinking about it. Wow, that was fantastic. All right, that was it for our blind ranking. That is it for this episode. Hopefully you enjoyed Jack O'Kalehan. Hopefully you enjoyed all of it. Guys, we're so psyched for what's to come. Do a saviour. Pop on Spotify. Pop on Apple. Give us a five star rating. Show us some love. Keep supporting us so we can keep doing this for you all. We love you guys so much. We've got nothing without you. Truly, truly, truly. Limpic merch. Make sure you snack some Olympic merch. So you can support US, Canada, wherever you're coming from. Subscribe to the YouTube. If you're not already, we've got a ton of fun stuff. A lot of great coverage coming out for these Olympics. While we're in Milan, we're going to show you a bunch of the city. Do some really great things. It's not just going to be hockey. We're going to get as much of the Olympics as we can as well as the city and the country. It's going to be wonderful. Join us on the ride. We will see you next episode when we are in Italy. And until then, skate hard.