Spittin’ Chiclets Episode 616: Featuring Gavin McKenna

Hey, Spittin' Chicklets listeners, you can find every episode on Apple Podcasts and Spotify. Prime members can listen ad-free on Amazon Music. Me and Ryan have been officially welcomed to the jungle that is Barstool Sports. I brought it toward the Coyotes and I asked them if it was okay if I joined the Spittin' Chicklets podcast full-time. Ryan Whitney, you got a pink Whitney out there now. I have this on, stand bagger, get that on camera. Pete Yandel, the song man. Kate is a full-time member. Marley just got an assist from Chris B. Whoa, we're buzzing right now. Welcome, welcome everyone to episode 616 of the Spittin' Chicklets podcast. If you're watching on Netflix, you can tell we're in a special place. Beaver Stadium, State College, Pennsylvania, the Pennsylvania State University. Very special. Just interviewed Gavin McKenna. We now have Murr. Tough trade-off. Well, it was my idea to interview Gavin McKenna. If you want to ask G back in September, I requested an interview for him on game notes. No, no, he's not ready. Let's wait till midseason. And then you, the big boy swooped in. Went from first overall to worst overall. Never wrong. Just early. Murr invented Gavin McKenna. And quickly, we got to shout out Pink Whitney. Actually, if you're watching, you can see they sell the Pink Whitney punch here at Penn State. Pink Whitney, Pink Lemonade and Club Soda. So that's a mix. You can give it a shot if you've never tried Pink Whitney. If you have, thank you so much. And yeah, shout out Pink Whitney. I mean, I think there's going to be a lot of that. A lot of that. I think it's going to be zero degrees here Saturday. Over, under on 5,000 nips making their way into the stadium. Those are perfect for when you're doing outdoor games. You just keep them in your pocket and you don't need a refrigerator. They stay even colder. It's very true. Don't forget. The other reason I'm here. We're throwing a Pink Whitney party as well. The only reason I got invited on this trip is for the Pink Whitney party tomorrow at 4 o'clock at Champs Bar and Grill downtown. Was that also your idea? It was. Pink Whitney parties were at the very beginning, yes. Going to the bar. That was his idea, too. Pink Whitney parties. You guys got to start meeting up with people and drinking with them. I said, oh, Murr, you want to do that? He said, yeah. That sounds great. So that was one of his first ideas. Well, it's great to have Murr on. I mean, you and Wynn are the college guys. Yann's never went to college. Couldn't get in. Couldn't afford me. Yeah, nowadays you would have done it. Oh, yeah, I'd be starring. They would have somehow got him in now. You would have had the hubcap spinners for sure. Oh, yeah, the Spree Wells? Yeah. Oh, you would have owed the government 200 grand. I'd be like, wait, what's taxes? Shit, I spent that on R.A. Before R.A. We got to get to the hockey news, all right? Because right now it's the part of the season we were talking about. It's the grind time. The doldrums? It's the dull jump. It's just like, and I think that I speak for NHL players remembering back to 2014, get me to Olympic break. Like, I have my flights. I have my cabana set. I'm going away, and I'm not thinking about hockey for about eight, nine days. But we've had some crazy action, and I think the biggest thing, the one thing I want to start with, us three want to start with, you can screw yourself, is Patrick Kane. He did it. No, no, buddy. I said that I wanted him on the Olympic team. I will double risk that guy any day of the week. So, I mean, what a feat. I've said even probably three, four years ago, even if he wouldn't have came back from the hip issue, I would have said greatest American-born player of all time. The points thing wasn't necessarily it. It was those clutch years in playoffs and what he was able to do in Chicago and, I mean, earn the nickname Showtime. When the chips were on the table, he showed up every goddamn time. brought Chicago back to where they were because there were dog days there for a while. Your guys' first years, it was 2,000 people in the stands. You couldn't watch them on TV, and then you get Kane or Taves. They changed that, at least brought that organization back to where they should be. They probably put a billy in the owner's pocket. I played a game in Chicago, and it was like youth hockey where you were in the penalty box, and you could yell to the coach, where do you want me to go, coach? Into the defensive zone? He's like, no, you're off, Merle. Get right straight, right across you're off the ice another offensive someone penalty murr adrian a coin said he used to yell at his kids while he was on the ice like hey stop screwing around yeah yeah listen to your mother the ref thinks he's fucking yelling at him he dimes him up he's like oh i'm yelling at my kids come on do you think even if caner didn't come back um i'm sorry do you think one of his reasons to come back was to break this record i think he's obsessed i think he's yeah he's it's and it goes back to the Brady interview, the greatest. You have to be obsessed. You have to be dialed in, and he's a master at his craft. And I think that it makes this story that much more compelling. The fact that you've seen so many guys who have had that surgery try to come back, and they're just never the same. I mean, and for him to get back to the level that he's playing at, that first year it was like, oh, man, I don't know how much longer he can keep going. But that following season, I believe, which was last year, he he found that pep in a step you could see that he caught in that that that extra that extra gear right that he once had so the fact that he's now there in detroit too providing that leadership and and with that group too so it's it's kind of he he's getting that storybook ending that he deserves going back to to last year in chicago when they did uh chelios's jersey retirement we're gonna score in the winter so i feel like that's a guy who deserved an ending like that much like Taves just had with the standing O there. Just a legend of the game. I don't think he's close to done, though, do you? I hope not. And it's cool now that, you know, Chicago, yeah, they got a chance to get in. Probably not. I think you put them on your dead list. And the Bedard injury kind of crushed their chances. But Detroit's in an awesome spot, and so we're going to see him in the playoffs again. We're going to get to see him doing his thing. Because you said it, the bigger the game, the better he plays. But for me, it's like remembering when he – I remember him at the national program, and then he went to London. And we've said this the past few weeks talking about him. I don't think he was a for-sure star. When he got drafted, it's way too small. And it wasn't just him being smaller. He was 160 pounds, I think. And right away, it was like, holy shit. You said it, showtime. He's scoring goals yelling, that's showtime, baby. And then what I kind of wanted to get back to was, I think even he would admit, maybe I'm wrong, he was a pretty cocky kid. I'm talking on the ice. He knew he was good. He had no problem telling you he was good, which probably made him so good. But seeing him now and seeing the speech, was it after his 500th goal in the locker room? Yeah. And he got emotional. He's got a kid now. It's just like such a different person. And you've seen him as a fan or playing against them, like really grow up in the NHL. And like, it came with, you know, bumps. And it also came with just these moments that I'll never forget. Like now looking at, at my heroes growing up and could shock and, and Brian Leach and Garen and Doug Wade. It's like, he is the, he is the ultimate. He is the goat for USA hockey. So all these Austin Matthews and we, you'll hear from Gavin McKenna, it was his favorite player and that's a Canadian. And so I think that the way he went about things and like his cockiness on the ice made him even cooler because he never, ever like the bigger the game, the better he played. And then he'd have no problem just telling the entire bench. And it made other kids just like want to be like him. And I just remember in the Olympics being like, holy shit, that for me, because they won the cup later that year. That was Vancouver. So he'd already had a couple of big years. But that's when I was like, oh, my God, this guy in practice and then against Canada. I'm like, he's the best player on the ice right now at times. I think you nailed it with just the fact that, you know, you had Madonna, who was the jersey flapping the wind. Yeah, I didn't even say him. But all the kids that were inspired by him, and you just touched on it. We had Gavin McKenna, so it's kind of like a full circle moment where he looked up to him. He emulates his game after him. And you think about the growth of the game in the United States. like how much does Patrick Kane have to do with it like all even Canadian kids inspired by him so you know it's it's awesome to where the game's headed and and he is a a huge enormous part of it uh and and just going back to like how he's also grown as a person remember when we beat them out of playoffs uh we beat them in six and I went out and had some we went and partied with Ray Emery and and a bunch of their guys and he was there like he ended up bumping into us and I don't think he was happy that they were hanging out with me. I won't say what he said, but he was basically like, get this fucking pigeon out of my fucking face. He's the show HL. He's the show HL. Takes him a while to grow up. And the fact he's probably so competitive, they'd already won a Stanley Cup, they'd get knocked out by the Coyotes, so he's probably livid, and rightfully so. He's probably like, why are my teammates hanging around with this fucking loser that got kicked out one second? You're like, I got you into this bar. This is my spot. That bottle service girl's mine. when we were playing them i think it was that same playoffs he was chirping donor or either donor adrian according to an older guy and i was kind of in between them and he's like you're a fucking bum like whatever just chirping i'm like dude have some respect he's played a thousand games he goes i wasn't talking to him i was talking to you i was like oh okay fair enough oh shit what are you doing on the ice against me right now congrats on the olympics yeah so shout out patrick kane like that it was it was only a matter of time um but it was pretty cool to see was it was it against la that would probably be my favorite patty kane moment where he slid and he drew the heart and then just yeah he knew what was coming right he was just fucking in the moment and that's one of the best sellies of all time how cool do you think it is for guys like him and sid that like you know they do all these pre-drafts or even guys in the nhl they interview him like who's your favorite player growing up and all, but every American kid saying Kane, they all try to play like him, and then every Canadian kid saying Sid. I think the problem is with some, it's like, yeah, I know you want to play like him, but you're not him. Stop trying to dangle everyone and dump the puck in. A kid who did make the U.S. Olympic team, Clayton Keller, he was obsessed with Patrick Kane and very similar when he stepped in where all he wanted to do was be that cerebral type player where he knew he wasn't going to be going in there in the crease, bullying guys and playing that hardcore style. But off the rush, always finding those pockets, always finding those seams and incredible playmaker, had the touch to score goals. Merle's like, what do you remember? Yeah, it's like coming down his off wing, like delaying and somehow like pulling it back and then just seeing every lane, just seeing guys slowing it down. He slowed it down. He's quick, but he's never been like, holy shit, he's the fastest player on the ice. very elusive. He's got his socks pulled over his skates. I think that makes you look a little slower. But he looks good doing that. I know. And Dreisaitl. There's very few guys that could do the sock over the back of the skate. But he's also too one of those guys, people might say he's a softer player, but he took abuse, especially his first few years. Guys were going out. We talked about it with Gavin McKenna. Guys went after him and he never shot. I never remember him shying down. He was always in the mix, played his game. Just an absolute stud in first ballot hall of fame unlike bill belichick does he do the little like does he do the turtleneck on his blade too that the kids do all do now no i don't think he ever did that he i saw a video he tapes toe to heel is that a new thing he does yeah i saw a video of it maybe that's the trick man you guys tape your sticks uh i think so he had the three cups already but probably going to be most known for that 15-16 year where he won the Art Ross, the Hart, and the Ted Lindsey. I don't know how many players outside of Wayne Gretzky, maybe Bobby Orrick, Mario Lemieux. Someone look that up. Yeah, who else? McDavid probably has that. Has all three of them? Say it is Art Ross leading score, MVP, and Ted Lindsey players voted. I'm guessing McDavid has that. Crosby might have that. That's got to be a very special one. I'd say under five or five or five. Look that up for us over there. Wow. Yeah, Kane. And then the goal. I mean, he's the only one that knew it went in. And, of course, that's what they do. Crosby gets the golden goal. Kane buries the Stanley Cup winner. And he's the only guy. I remember watching that being like, what's he doing? Oh, he knows. I think it was Nick Boynton. He was like skating backwards. Like, dude, the game's going on. 2-1-1. He's in practice. McDavid's done it three times now. David did it in 17, 21, and 23. Ovechkin did it in 08. Crosby 07. Kucherov in 19. That's AI too. Kuch. So never did it? Maybe they didn't. They didn't have the Ted Lindsey. They didn't do the Ted Lindsey back then. They didn't have it. What a great award though. Yeah. That would probably be the, like if I could pick one, to be voted on by your peers, that's the top of the list. Yeah, for sure. No doubt. The only thing he hasn't done yet is go home and play for the Buffalo Sabres. He's got to do one year. Well, no, I was wondering actually because is his contract up? But I think if I could pick one first-round matchup, Detroit-Buffalo in the first round would be so electric. That would be Caner's going back to where he's from. Both teams are back in after 9 and 14 years. And I've promised Murr I will be at the Buffalo Sabres' first playoff game. Now, I don't know if I'm welcome there. You told me to have fun. I tread lightly. Well, no, I think people actually appreciated that my 0.000, I think it was three zeros after the point percent chance of making playoffs. You're welcome. Yeah, well, you did it with Vegas, too. Like, they should be, teams should be begging for you. Exactly. Anything I say, the opposite happens. And that would just be a first-round matchup that would be pretty legendary. Yeah. I'm actually glad you brought that up. I'm currently scrolling through my likes here. No, not my Raya, you idiot. We can get you a Sabres ambassador. Sabres have just went through their best stretch of hockey in the history of their franchise. Really? I don't know what the – it might be the last 25 games. I mean, G's going to look that up right now. But we talk about the wagon status, and last time we gave it to them and we dropped the shirts, how quickly they lost it. They're still a wagon right now. Yeah, it never stopped. It hasn't fucking stopped. Even the shirt dropped. Even the shirt dropped. And the other night, I mean, they absolutely pumped my Leafs. They went into Toronto. They beat them again. And Darlene, the fifth hat trick by a defenseman this season. And fourth this month. That's what I wanted to get into. This month, there's been 29 hat tricks. Tied for an NHL record. If you told me what's the most hat tricks in a month, I would have said 10. I would have said four, I think. Yeah, just 29 have been crazy. So we have Darren Radish for defenseman. We got Darlene, and then we got two Oilers, Matthias Ekholm and Evan Bouchard. And the other one this season was Simone Nemec. we actually had the game on TNT and currently we're recording before these Eastern games start on Thursday so when this drops there's 15 matchups tonight so we could easily be beyond the 29 and then there's another so basically as of right now there's another 30 games left this month to break that record I think it's going to get done now do you want to have a pick Murr this seems like your type of game where you would text the group chat and say who do you think is going to set the NHL record. He said last night, Palak goal and then didn't bet it. He scored to get the kids to bed. Got a lot of odd jobs to do before these chicklets trips. You bought 16 television yesterday. There's nothing going to happen during these three days while I'm gone. And when I get home, I'm not going to do anything for three days because I'm going to be so banged up from the Pink Whitney. But if I had to think just quick right now, tonight, who's going to get one tonight? It's pasta. Pasta at home. Bruins have won eight in a row at home. The Flyers got in late. Their flight didn't get in until 3 or 4 a.m. because of the weather. How the fuck do you know that? He's got equipment manager. EBR Army. They're out there. Flight tracker. The equipment manager is telling him we're still on the tarmac right now. We're going to get talented tonight. He's calling in delays. They Venmo him. They pay him out at the end of the year. Great guess. I'm going to actually go back to Buffalo. I'm going to say donor. It's just been a crazy year for him. Just signed that contract. I think he's going to set the end. What's your pick, Yance? I'm going to stick with a Boston Bruin, but I'm going to stick with a D-man in Charlie McAvoy. I think he's going to get one before the end of this month. I think that's today, right? It would have to be today. Well, there's 30 games. I just assume that in the 15 matchups tonight that it's going to get broken. We're on a heater right now, boys. It's happening. Witt, what's your pick? I just have continually picked Caulfield to score goals for Montreal lately. The guy's on an absolute tear. I think he did you tell me on the ride G in his last six games he's got nine goals yep and he just it's crazy he's just not slowing down I was actually shocked the other night I was watching Montreal Vegas was a good game four on three OT Lane Hudson wasn't on the ice I was like what's going on here they had Suzuki Slavkovsky in front Demidov and Caulfield but then he ended up getting out there but I was very surprised to see that but Caulfield's been on a complete tear so that's my guy that's my guy and we're also doing the i think it's first to score on thursday nights that's a good little better we usually do the icebreakers i think dobson just scored again first remember he did it a couple weeks ago and only six people had him because it was his birthday i just checked quick i think he did it again i'm gonna take my pick back and i'm going with matthew kachuk tonight i think he gets a hat trick tonight oh yeah yeah chuck he's back in the mix uh they're they're they gotta they gotta get on a heater here they're they're on a heater no i know but I'm saying they got about six or seven points to make up before they're in that last wild card. Going back to the Sabres, the winningest 23-game stretch in Sabres history, 19-3-1. That's their record over the last 23 games. That, ladies and gentlemen, is a wagoon. And Murr, we were talking earlier. It's kind of weird. The Avs are not the Avs that we were used to at the beginning of the year, but we were saying I think it's just... Devin Taves is out, and then Lanneskog is out. So I think if you look where Taves dropped out, they're below 500. So that's an important piece. He is underrated because Makar and everything, but that guy is nasty. Do you think they signed Malinsky now because Taves is out and Malinsky's going to be playing with Makar and he might get 30 points in 30 games? That's next-level thinking. Well, we talked about the fact that you guys thought he left money on the table. Let's let you start off with it. Yeah, so I think it was, was it four and a half for, gee, look up. Four years. Something around there. 4.75. 4.75 for four years. And I was just, with the cap going up and what he's done, I was surprised. I thought it would be like a $7 million a year contract, which some people who don't follow the ads might be like, who? But this guy, and he's a little older. I think that's part of it, which made me think that he would get as much money as he could on a long-term deal. 27 years old 150 games played yeah so it took him a while but he wasn't drafted last year was his first full year undrafted so i do respect what you said though biz that when you love a place yeah that's part of it right he had to have been like i'm really happy here this team's unbelievable i it's not like i'm putting any pressure on the cap with this that's kind of what you were thinking i look at it like the josh jone thing like why would you even put that that bad juju out all of a sudden you're in like a bit of a contract battle with a gm who's like you're undrafted this is gonna last year you could consider it a full year he played 76 games but this is really his true full like full first year you know he's going to be on the team i mean now you said he's playing with mccarr like he is a colorado avalanche there's no there's no ifs ands or buts whether he's getting sent to the minors and his play has spoken for itself very good skater has good size to him. I also look at it like this. You're a defenseman on that team. You have Manson, you have Burns, you have Taves, you have Makar. So you're not being relied upon in all of these situations. If you're going through a tough 10-15 game stretch, your team's probably still winning, and no one really even notices or talks about you because you have all those other guys playing, right? So that to me is where you relieve a lot of pressure from yourself in just signing what we think is a team-friendly deal. There's no doubt in my mind he left, like donor, a million per. And if you wanted to take it to the offseason, get it over with. Fucking know you're going to be in a place for four years. And you're like, this team is going to be a fucking wagon. Like, we're a top cup contender in the top five teams in the league for this next four years. I think, too, like when a team comes to you during the season, it's like, okay, they – It's hard to say no. Yeah, how do you say no? It's like, you know, let's get this done. And I want to keep going, especially a guy like that who's only played 150 games. Like, during the season they come to you, you take that. Oh, fucking rights. Cornell guy, so smart guy. Probably going to make more money when he's done hockey. Oh, yeah. You know he's at home on the fucking, like, what do you call those websites? Fidelity account. He's probably doing his own stock. You think he's doing his day trading? Oh, 100%. He's a day trader. Look at him. I mean, he looks like he's so smart. He went to, you said Cornell. Did he play four years at Cornell? He played three years. Three years. Probably graduated in three. He's probably just some genius. No doubt. No doubt. He's doing college courses where he's playing for the Bismarck Bobcats in the NHL. Oh, for Nipino League. What is that? Yeah, he's, yeah. Well, yeah, he's 5'11", 190. I guess that's kind of average height for today's NHL, but good skater. Yeah, he can move. He moves around like Makar. I swear, when he got called up a few years ago, I was like, what are they building these guys in a factory? Yeah. He's like, Makar, he's cruising around on his edges, and it's wild. So that's, I didn't even mention Gerrard either. so that's another guy where i don't know if they're going to look to make a move at the deadline i like gerard i thought he was great in that run they had when they won the cup i know he went down with that sternum injury when it was a barbashab who put him through the end wall just got freight trained through the end wall and he was out of playoffs he broke his sternum uh but it almost like does it make a guy like that a little bit more exposable do you think they change anything about that decor to strengthen what they got up front maybe to get a little bigger yeah it's hard to say though that I like Gerard I think that sometimes just given his size he does have a hard time closing guys off in the d zone and just like pitting guys and killing plays that would be my only criticism but we had him on the broadcast a few weeks ago and neutral zone like he's got a guy chasing him fakes left with that with the head twitch and then boom he's up the other way easy outlet pass creating his own lane so that's where he he can really uh like impact the game it's just do they need that from a guy who's a little bit probably on the bottom pair right in a playoff series or if you're gonna really tinfoil hat like yans wants to over here what if you sign him for that low money and now you can trade him to a team up near the cap you're like wow i got this guy i got him signed and now you give me panarin i got this guy for you signed for four point i wouldn't want to i wouldn't want to because they're d like all healthy taves macar and then the next four with Manson, Burns, Gerrard, and Malinsky. I don't know how you fit who plays with who in the bottom four or the second and third pair, but I'm not messing with that. And Gerrard, with a team like that, those guys need it tape to tape. They don't need the puck off the glass. So I'll be interested to see. Maybe also they go back and they look at that Dallas series and you're looking at it like, what do we need? How do we lose that? Now, Grant, it was Rontan in the third period. I still don't believe that. I still don't believe that happened. I think we did the show right after that. That was incredible. So you guys would say they're not changing anything about their D core before they head on the deadline? I would say no. I think if you're looking at a team like I love our D. Maybe you bring in a depth guy, like, you know, big body or somebody to be the seventh. There's going to be injuries. But the other thing I'm watching, speaking of injuries, is we're like, what are we, 10 days out, it seems, until they leave? So Logan Thompson just got hurt. I guess it's like day to day, but you're going to see what happens with Point. I mean, Devon Taves is still out and then has his wife given birth yet? That's another story. There's a lot of guys right now who are going to need answers. The teams are going to need answers soon. So you're saying that if his wife hasn't given birth, he's – He said he's not going. Interesting. And then they're like, oh, does Canada know that? He's like, no, we never talked about this. It's his seventh kid too. So I think the team Canada was like, what? How many kids does he actually have? Meet the Duggars. I think this is fourth. Is it? Something around there, I feel like. Wow. Wow, he's a big family guy. I think I heard that on Chick. I think I heard that on you guys. So you know that's right. Completely made up. I respect him timing it for the Olympics rather than during a cup run. And I'm sure Daryl Sutter would too. Yeah. Daryl Sutter did not want kids born during the season, right? Yeah. I don't know how many people who are listening or watching this right now on Netflix, like the back story. But yeah, Daryl Sutter was known to get a little poopy pants towards players. is like, why are you being selfish and having a child when we have hockey on? So you got... You got to... You're like, ah, I've been married for 10 years. So he... Fuck, don't knock up your wife right now. Yeah, so actually, instead of doing fitness testing and training camp when he was with the Flames, the turkey basters, he was doing it himself. Just to make sure that... That's against the CBA now for sure. They put it in because of that. So Daryl just continually changing the game, right? The big news, though, in terms of the trades and the deadline, his career is done as a New York Ranger. So he will not play any games moving forward. What'd you say? The Leafs. I do have to say, though, for anybody, including Chris Pronger, and Chris Pronger, if you're listening to this, keep my fucking team out of your mouth. Chris Pronger has forgotten more about hockey than you'll ever know. I don't care if Chris Pronger. Just because you stand on TNT with purple jacket after purple jacket and fucking absolute talk nonsense and light candles, Chris Pronger will chuck you off this balcony. If you don't keep my fucking team out of your mouth, I'm going to rent some ice and we're going to go out there and play one-on-one, keep away in the corner. Connor McDavid, you're going to do nothing, Connor McGregor. McDavid said that. But I'm sick and tired of people talking about this fucking rebuild. We're sick and tired of you talking about the league. How about the fact I tried bringing up Panarin and bringing up, like, what's going on? We're talking about the fucking goddamn maybe. You get back to fucking Panarin. All these awesome teams that want this guy. Your team stinks, buddy. I just wanted to step in because I wanted to say keep my fucking team out of your mouths. It's not even your team. Yes, it is, buddy. I'm a fucking ambassador. I got a jacket. I do think with Panarin, though. I looked he's ninth all time in Rangers scoring in way less games played than anyone else their record he ended up he was incredible I know their record is bizarre the book ain't great either no no no no no I'm not I'm not we're not talking about the Leafs anymore is uh like uh who's the one who went over Kreider is what is he second in all-time goals so they have they don't really have like a a rich history as far as like the numbers are concerned I think of all the the the original six they have the the lowest for uh most goals all time for a guy in an organization of of the of the six teams so uh probably the he'll probably go down as top two or three greatest free agency signings that the rangers have ever had yeah i don't know who they signed um on the 94 team because you got to think if you're if you're a big mess would be one did he sign there was he traded there oh was he traded oh yeah pretty sure he was dealt no mer that's why we bring in i know that's i'll go i'll go on record he was dealt i think he was dealt yeah i believe he was i believe he was he was dealt he was dealt yeah none of us know scott gomez went there yeah didn't work out too well yep um eric lindros was that a free agency yeah i don't think that went great either i don't know well over a point per game people yeah he was sick there he had a couple decent playoff runs too one of them he had i want to say 15 or 16 points and then another one he had close maybe he had over 20 maybe 20 21 i mean he he had 120 points i believe one year right around there like he was so dynamic and good they just couldn't get over the hump but i get not playing them and then i've also seen people say is that even allowed like are you i'm like yeah i didn't i've never heard that he's a healthy scratch there's a chance that he doesn't play until the olympic break and then still he could skate whatever do whatever but he might not be suiting up an nhl game for another five six weeks yeah crazy so the teams that there's there's i've seen 12 teams listed right and then apparently there was a report from a san jose reporter g shang pang of nbc sports california jang pang of nbc sports california says that he's willing to sign an extension i think it's come out he wants to sign an extension before he's traded in the 50 million dollar range with san jose thank you macklin celebrini i know because if he wasn't there he wouldn't be signed in san jose i know and what do you think like 10 or five years around 10 a year or maybe a little bit more at four years but i would love to see him in san jose did you say carolina last episode was that you uh that was one of the names there's a lot of you just said there's a lot of names la's popped up carolina um not the leafs um washington was a was a was a weird one to me um detroit was the one that i would want him to see on is that yeah because then that means he would end up signing an extension there which we talked about not this eight-year thing more of like a three four-year deal type number they got the cap space i want man all of a sudden they'd be loaded up front yeah and and i would assume it would be casper going back the other way but i don't know man maybe given the fact that he it's known that he's not resigning there that it's not going to cost as much as you think that's what i'm saying like with him not playing right now it's kind of hand tying the rangers a little bit because it's like we got to get this guy off the books, but also the other teams are like, we'll fucking wait him out. I think the contrary to that is just the amount of teams that would be interested. So all of a sudden you just have like... Yeah, but if he wants an extension, it's like he's kind of just like, is he going for the bag? Kopitar's off the books, so LA makes sense if they want to bring back a skilled forward. Carolina has money to spend. We've discussed this. I feel like they have enough of those skill type players. They need a little bit more toughness. So who knows? Detroit definitely has the money. What other? San Jose's got the money. So there's all these teams that we're talking about have a ton of cap space moving. Anaheim, who's sneaky. And Hugh had him. Yeah. You got to imagine with the shit show that it's been in New York the last couple of years, was he there for the last time they released the letter? No, he ended up. No, like him wanting to go there and signing there made them gonna not do that. Okay, so given the shit show, which has been this year, they released a letter. Last year with all the Truba and then Crider getting moved you gotta imagine that was a little bit unsettling to him So he probably wants to get the fuck out of this major market and go chill and ride off into the sunset I heard Minnesota was going to somehow get involved in it. He's good friends with Tarasenko is what my sources told me. So that's a game to get out there. He's revived his career there. He can pull off anything. That's true. He gets Quinn and Panarin in the same year. And then wins the gold at the Olympics. I'll tell you who might win GM of the year is your boy, Dubas. Because Pittsburgh looks incredible. They've completely revamped everything there. They've got Hork's son, Will Horkoff, lightening up in Michigan. He's their first rounder. The Penguins fans are loving Dubas. I bought Dubas stock early on, buddy. I heard you sold it. I did not know. He sold, bought, sold. He spent Malinsky on the day trading with Dubas stock. No, I said, I threatened, I forget what it was. I said, if he did something that I was going to sell my Dubas. Beat the lease. No. No, you said if he doesn't make more content with that mayor in Pittsburgh, I think it was. That's what it was. His twin. Yeah, yeah. But yeah, I just thought of that when saying GM of the year. And then quickly. No, no. What I said was, is if he doesn't bring back Malkin and he doesn't announce an extension, I'm selling Dubas stock, which is probably going to happen. The best thing he did this year was make his team dress as the dealers. Did you see them on Instagram? You've got to put up the picture. They have these yellow vests on. They all look like mimes. Was it Casino Night Vale or something? They were dressed as dealers, but they looked ridiculous. How about that coach there? Is he up for coach of the year? Yeah. I mean, yeah, he should be. He should be. Dan Musa, everyone was kind of like, what's this? Who's this guy? Well, they're the eighth best team in the league right now somehow. So it's really cool to see. and then all the Penguins fans just met a guy here who was saying, like, one more run with Letang, Gino, and Sid. It's like, just give us one more. Not even Cup, I don't think he meant. Just, like, give us a run. Those three guys just set another milestone together. Was it their 1,000th game all together on the same team? Wow. It's just remarkable. I don't know if that's ever going to be broken with the new rules and how quickly teams, how guys switch teams. But quickly, on the teams with Panera, and we had the list here, I don't have my laptop, so I'm kind of a fish out of water. And you'll hear about biz is fishing when we talk to McKenna. Anaheim. Anaheim. Seneca. Is it Seneca or Seneca? Who cares? He went tarps off in his interview. This guy is insane. Like, Army actually really put me on to him. Now I'm watching him. Like, they got all these injuries. And this guy's just out there dominating, scoring big goals. He plays like a prick. to Anaheim. I thought they're loaded. Q went there. They had the great start. It's like, alright, here we go. And then they went down. It's like, alright, maybe it wasn't their time yet. No, man. They're ready to go. And this kid, he's got to be right up there for rookie of the year. I heard a great comparison. Nate Thompson. Shout out Nate Thompson. He said he's a mixture of the Worm, Corey Perry and Ryan Getzloff. The way that he plays. I mean, two Hall of Famers. He's talking about the rat in him. He's saying he's got the rat in him. He's got the slipperiness. He's got the vision that Getzloff has. He's got the shot. The way that he cuts through defenders is crazy, man. They actually, Daryl Sutter got out the turkey baster and took a little bit from Corey Perry and Getzloff. And that's how he got it. You know when he was so shocked that he got picked there? Yeah, yeah, yeah. Nobody else was up there. Gee, is it Seneca? I thought it was Seneke. I don't think that's it. What a draft pick. I know. I know. They haven't missed. They haven't missed, right? All their first-rounders over the last little bit, much like when they got Getzloff and Perry in the first round of that 0-3 draft. Not a big deal. And they got McQueen. This kid, Roger McQueen, is at Providence. Providence worked BU last weekend. I was like, oh, this kid's nasty too. He's the giant guy, right? Yeah, I saw him this year. So Anaheim is set up nice. Oh, and quickly, talking about San Jose in terms of the news saying that Panarin would sign there. If you don't watch the Sharks a lot, you're crazy right now. And Aure's been on this train. Shout out Aure gave them Moneyline Puckline against Vancouver. They won 5-2 on Tuesday. Took that. Thank you, Aure. Maybe he should blitz them off. Aure doesn't even remember. Aure doesn't even remember being on that show. He's like, hey, we're going to do Aure's World this week? Oh, we did. We did, yeah. But go back and look. Last Friday against the Rangers, and it was the first goal of the game, Celebrini scored, and Tuesday night against Vancouver, same thing, Celebrini. Will Smith, it's the exact same goal. And Will Smith picks it up off the wall on his backhand, same way we've talked about Kucherov's incredible at. And he does this little shoulder check right before getting it and just fires the thing backhand, cross-ice, Celebrini. Celebrini in that area now, I mean, there's obviously other guys. He's top of the league. at just ripping the puck past the goalie, no screen in the slot. And it's Will Smith, the shoulder check before, which is all I tell the kids we coach. I was just going to say, to a little rink shrink segment here, kids at home listen, got to teach that. It's literally like if I could say one thing to young kids about hockey, it's know what you're going to do with the puck before you get it. It's a skill that you don't even really think about watching the game. And this guy, Will Smith, just gives this little look at the shoulder check. This is like, wait, what? He's like, what do you mean? You knew what other people were doing? So describe it, though. Describe what a shoulder check is. A shoulder check is just going into the puck. Usually I think that shoulder check is for D-man, right? You're looking over your shoulder. Where is the guy forechecking me? What's the breakout look like? Who's open? Just knowing what you're going to do. But Will Smith's doing it on the wall and getting it on the backhand and then him doing that little shoulder check and then Celebrini's just chilling there and just getting ready to go down to one knee. But it's crazy because I saw Friday nights against the Rangers and it was the exact same thing Tuesday night. So maybe a little bit of a set play. So when you turn your head, you basically just take a snapshot of what's going on behind you and then assuming, I'm just going to chuck it to this lane knowing that that guy's going to skate into it based on where he was when I took that photographic memory. How many backhand passes across the zone work in the NHL? That's why it's almost like when he does it, the other team's like, oh, he sees that he's so far away and he's not going to do it. And he's just like, no, I was looking for that lane, motherfucker. Let's maybe have a guy covering Macklin Celebrini in the slot. One of the first players, which is crazy, I never heard about shoulder checking until I was playing pro, was Duncan Keith. He used to go back for the puck, and I thought it was him being scared because he was always going like this. And I'm like, oh, is he just scared because Steve Webb is chasing him down the wall? In Norfolk. He was shoulder checking. I didn't learn about shoulder checking until I was 10 years in my pro career. Even like you can use the glass to see where guys are coming. Oh, I never heard that one. I used to do that for offsides in beer league. I'm cruising across. I look in the beer league to see if he went. And then I go. I didn't know when pro he. Remember Tip got mad at Uppy? Because Uppy was like on the half wall and he got a breakout pass. And he threw like a beautiful saucer pass across the ice. And we're going on a rush now. And then Uppy's like looking in the glass. And Tip's like, get fucking going. What are you fucking looking at yourself for? Uppy's like smiling. But it was after he made a sick dish. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. Looking good. Probably six girls in the crowd want to give him his number. the only thing that can hurt is if you get the one shoulder check and it happens to be the wrong shoulder then all of a sudden you got McGratton on the other shoulder, you forgot to look over your left one, you're getting shoulder separated, Chris Neal, AHL playoff, Binghamton, knocked out four of our six defensemen for seven months never seen anything like that he literally, I think he popped three shoulders out and the fourth was a concussion it was like, I can't see Chris Neal anymore in my life ever again. The first kid he broke his ice socket. Some scary guy. And Kneeler was in the AHL in Binghamton, right? Yeah, smallest ice surface in the world. Conquering boards. Smaller than this Olympic one that they're going to. It was during the lockout too, right? So it was like everyone playing as hard as they can. They said the ice over there, or the rink, is basically ready to go now. I don't know. What do you think? If not, they're doing it here. No, I saw a video. It looks great. I think the ice will be fine. I think the locker rooms are just... But the stands look awesome. It's actually crazy how much they've done in a short amount of time. The video I saw, it looks really... Don't underestimate my Italians. You guys were all making the espresso jokes. Don't count out my Italians is all I have to say. They like to cram for the exam. That's how the Italians are. Yeah, we get the job done. That's all that matters. The job's done. It's going to be al dente. That might be the funniest thing you've ever said. You're welcome. Biz, you can talk now if you want to about your team. I just don't want to hear about the fucking... And I will say, oh, actually. You don't want to rebuild. Hey, I've been seeing how good Bobby McMahon would look for the Oilers. That's one that's exciting. I'll give you this, all right? Kind of what they thought Trent Frederick maybe would do. If they want to eventually wave the white flag, I would hope that they would lend and do good deals with our neighboring partners of the Edmonton Oilers. Let's get Connor his cup. let's bring it home to Canada let's send some good assets over to you guys make sure you take care of us in return maybe those guys eventually come back like Bobby McMahon is a free agent after this year so he could go there and then in the summertime Bobby McMahon if traded which by the way he makes 1.2 it's like one of the best deals in the league UFA he's going to come back to Toronto okay I don't know Mark Recky might be the last guy to do that Went to Carolina and then went back to Pittsburgh. You're also laughing at me, and I was just about to say I would hope that if they were sending him, they would lend you one of our goalies, too. Because right now, Jari has turned into Skinner. Yeah, yeah, it doesn't. I think they switch bodies. Yeah, I'm more thinking about some Oilers fans were mad at what I was saying about Connor McDavid. Oh, you're on the shit list, buddy. You better worry about your own team. The worst problem is. The final boss. There's one guy who wants me dead. The final boss. The staff. Oh, no. Bob texted me. I was shocked that you kicked up that dust right now. Yeah, people are like, what are you doing? He just signed. Like, what are you doing? We were just talking about it that night. And I think I misspoke a little bit when I said, I think he's leaving after this contract. I think I meant to say, if he were to leave, right? I don't know what look you're giving. I'm giving you your book. That's the witty look. That's the witty look. He's trying to do it. I should have brought it up. It was a random conversation in an Uber that turned into the podcast discussion. We're focused on the here and the now. But to get a text from a man that you look up to, from a man that means a lot to you that you're a little scared of, we're going to be honest. Ryan, did you say McDavid would be gone after the two-year contract extension? I said Hey Bob I said I wouldn't be completely shocked If after the deal ended he moved on What'd you get back Which by the way I didn't even I think I did say I think he's gonna leave So probably take that one back There's no response to that one Oh no he didn't even write you And he's never written a text to start Ryan period That was the sentence That's like your father yells at you Ryan you've also quit on this team before and then yeah I quit on that fucking team before if you didn't quit on the team you're crazy and then what happened after I quit on the team so you can try to like deflect this to me being a bad fan which I've been a horrible fan horrible fan at times but I've seen true winners and true teams that care about each other and go on to the Stanley Cup did we raise the trophy no have you been out of the first round twice in, what, 30 years? Yeah. And did you even make the conference foul? No. So you could call me a bad fan, but when the times get tough, one time I quit, most of the time I'm there. By the way, these games are starting at 9.30 Eastern. You're in bed with your kale salad, fucking stretching, texting some girl. I'm just starting the first period, buddy. And then I'm up early with kids. So you could call my fandom all you want. I should have never said he's leaving after the conference. I actually, what did you make of his theory? I thought it was great. I believed it. I believe it. I do believe it. Okay, well, I don't. I take it all back. I think he's gone. It's like RA on the last episode. It never even happened. Well, you got yourself out of that one. That was pretty funny. I don't know about that. Oh, there's fans. What are you talking about? Why? You're the one bringing this up. I know. I don't know what I was doing. It was kind of a conversation, like I said, in Uber that just was never meant for air, so I didn't mean it. I apologize. guys. I think I also think before we get to that, go back to the original thing like goaltending. What are you going to do about goaltending? Am I going to see Pickard in the net in the finals again? I can't do it. No, no, no, no. I really believe in Jari. I really do. And also Skinner has been awesome, but like if you look, I saw a tweet about Skinner's save percentage month to month like in his career. It's crazy. Certain months he's like 920 and then there's months that are 870. And then April was always an ugly month, and then that's when Picker would come in. What are you winking at? I think the algorithm's got you. The algorithm definitely has me. I remember hearing from many sources that as soon as Skinner was gone from there, he's going to go back to how he was. He was getting bombarded there. His wife was getting bombarded. But he was unbelievable at times. Edmonton fans destroyed him and his family. Let's go around the horn here. Do you think they're crazy if they don't try to make a change? I'm not saying Jari is. Do you think they need to add a goaltender before the deadline? Yes. Yes, 100%. Yeah, but how can you do that again? Yeah, I don't know. It's a tough ask. I can't have Calvin Pickard coming in to try to save the day again. I would love McMahon. It's like Andy Chioda coming in to save the day every year in Wilkes-Barre. I'll make you a deal. I'll make you a deal. Oh, I can't wait to hear this one. No, you be positive towards me and the Toronto Maple Leafs. No. Don't take the deal. No. I was just going to give you Bobby McMahon. your chance at a Stanley Cup relies on you being nice to my fucking team and you refuse to do it? No, I just want you to rebuild. I want you to rebuild because I think it'd be an incredible storyline. When you say that, what is that? Trade one of Neylander or Matthews. I don't think you'd do that. Okay. Well, you never traded Marner when you could have traded him. And now how is it looking? Right? It's a disaster. Okay? That should have happened before. Not necessarily Marner. One of them. and now you could still probably do it and rebuild and just start over because what you have you're not going to win a Stanley Cup with it you couldn't win the Stanley Cup when you had all four of them at the height of their powers Tavares is getting older start over dude start over your D's old your D's not good you got two good goalies they can't really stay healthy you got two unbelievable forwards up front trade one of them start over you're done you're not winning anything Prong said it look at these teams that and the chicago they got bedard they're on the way back celebrini this guy's once in every 20 years pittsburgh did it being having morals on their first line you to get a true superstar which you kind of had or have you got to be bad and the leafs are mushy middle now you weren't you had a couple great years great teams not great years that was a misspoke misspeaking and right now it's just your what are you doing what are you gonna do next year. I would just like to see them get healthy and give it a chance. The health thing is bullshit. What do you mean? Because you have to have a deep enough roster to deal with injuries. Toronto's like, oh, we got hurt this year. It's like, well, that's not an excuse. Every team gets hurt. Every team has injuries. Yeah, but I think that, like I said, if they're healthy and they get inside of a playoff, I don't think there's anyone in the East that, like I said, truly scares me. It's more about a chip in a chair situation where all of a sudden everyone's like all rebuild where it's like I feel like they have a good enough team and you know they could make some signings in the offseason so if you think any team in the east is scared of Toronto no and but I don't care about that because when Toronto two times a season when they were going through when they were playing at their best and I'm like okay that that's the team that I thought we were going to see that's when Carlo first came back Tanev I think played a few games and then boom he was right back on the IR like I truly believe and I don't think Tanev's going to be back before the deadline they're saying it's like it's pretty bad right yeah he might be the whole regular season so that's that's a tough loss i'm more like hey man like let's just get in the playoffs and see how things shake out like so you wouldn't be afraid of florida uh i think florida would suck just because of like uh yeah beat them once that was their that was the first first round series they won again it's it's it's not like it's a series that i'm going into being like oh i'm a i'm a oh this is for sure it's going to be over in five games like to me a dream scenario would be meeting detroit and all their fans are like oh we swept you we swept you they get they fucking ottawa swept them last year ottawa swept them the entire regular season then they go to the first round and fucking toronto worked them i know it got to six games it shouldn't have they should have ended it in five but i just want them to prove everybody wrong stay the course get healthy slide inside of the playoff spot and if they win a round I just want to hear everybody shut the fuck up. That would be a tough show for me. If Toronto got in the playoffs this year and won a first round that show after that would be a real tough one. So self-admittedly my ego is saying I just want to be able to give the double barrel and win a first round series against Detroit to everybody online and then if we get swept the next round I get like okay that sucks we didn't do the rebuild because it was like a lot of sacrifice for my you know. That'll cost you 10 grand the double bird just like your boy knee lander and going back i think knee lander was we keep talking about the he wasn't wrong he was just early i think he was giving the finger to all the people out there saying rebuild rebuild it's over you guys were they saying it then at that point oh you think they've been saying it all year the way they started the season then they started playing good again then they took another shit then they were saying blow it all up again he was saying fuck you to all the haters and the okay okay that's what i'm team willie willie you hear me you're right fuck it's fine fuck them all. This took a turn here. At one point, you guys were ending the argument. I tried. I offered you Bobby McMahon to be nice to my team and me, and you said no. Holding up half Oilers, half Leeds jersey. You guys holding it up together making trades for each other. That's the picture. I mean to get to work. That's the new Peter Shirelli right there. My dream would be that they miss the playoffs and they get the sixth overall pick and then it goes right to grinnell and boston because that that would be a great episode right after that that'd be an episode that i'm very excited for and you'd be sitting there like oh no what am i gonna do we're not gonna rebuild i'm gonna give wit the double double what do you call it the double barrel wrister or something like i'm gonna tell you this right now if we don't make playoffs i'm gonna be handing gavin mckenna a jersey come july oh oh you think you get okay yeah that that'd be great you get to keep that traffic you get to Keep that one. And that's a good little segue into our guy that just sat down with us. Future Toronto Maple Leaf. Gavin McKenna. What a treat it is to be here at Penn State with star freshman, leading scorer of the Penn State Nittany Lions, Gavin McKenna. Thanks so much for joining, buddy. Thanks for having me, boys. Can't believe how this looks. Obviously, if you're watching on Netflix, you can see behind you. I think this place seats close to 100,000, but in the middle of the redo, it's already ready to go, and it's going to be jumping tomorrow. Have you played in an outdoor game? I've not. Just ODRs at home. Other than that, no. Way colder than here. Oh, yeah. I heard back home it can get minus 50, where you can only be outside 30 seconds, and you got to get back. Yeah. I think this year it was minus 70 with the wind chill at some point. What? Yeah. I didn't even know that was possible. Yeah. It's not. So what do they do? Is there a whole town shut down? i when i grew up i had to go to school still in that weather um but uphill both ways last time last time you went yeah yeah not much expectation of doing that here but uh so you must have been doing that a ton like when you were growing up oh yeah just like who i just look with all your buddies back home do they have like a town rink do you have to make your own i had my own and uh There was rinks like at parks, like pretty much every park had a rink. So go out with the buddies or just go on my own. And for people who don't know, where are you from? Is it Yukon? Yeah. Whitehorse. Okay. Which is about a town of, I read about 35 to 40,000. Yeah. Yeah. And then the whole territory is 45,000. So basically everybody who lives in the province or territory, excuse me, lives in Whitehorse. Yeah, that's right. I mean, it's just a lot. Do you ever go, I know you're big into the outdoors. would you just drive and go explore throughout the rest of the territory uh well i have a cabin four hours north so um yeah i go up there that's the other way that's the other way you made it yeah so i got the cabin up there um yeah i've been i've been all over the yukon pretty much i go go fishing and stuff like that with my buddies and yeah it's it's it's beautiful land up there so When you were growing up playing, were there towns close to you or was it kind of just like in your own town, different teams set up? Yeah, in your own town, you play like guys two years older than you. And then weekends, you'd have to fly to like Vancouver, Calgary to go play actual teams. Wow. So until you were, but so when you're real young, you're just playing kids in the town, in the city. Yeah, pretty much. And then we were reading you left when you were 12. Is that what it was? Yeah. Okay. so it was just kind of like all right i'm i'm kind of like not to not to be cocky or anything like too good for here oh apparently he was just you were dominating back home and when you go to these tournaments when you travel to vancouver you'd put up like five points a game to where it got to the point where i'm sure your parents were like uh and they were probably getting approached by agents and other people to poach you know yeah that well that's how it started was going down to those tournaments that's how i got scouted and uh yeah i i just had to go away um my buddy dylan cousins he uh broke his leg playing against older guys so it i kind of wanted to start getting into my own age group and uh yeah i moved away at 12 luckily i had a billet family who i knew beforehand so it was nice to go go with them and stuff like that that's hard though yeah so so dylan cousins who was with the buffalo sabers got traded to ottawa he's what a few years older than you obviously yeah and so that experience kind of like i guess like scared you in a sense like yeah like he's he's was i don't know 13 years old playing against grown men so it's it's just like playing in senior yeah that's exactly going to work after just go on the equator and then i'm sure um alaska was a pretty quick shot so you'd be going like fairbanks and yeah juno for some games yeah we play those guys wow that i mean just what was the closest major city Vancouver? No, I think it's Fairbanks. Moscow. This guy's a fucking idiot, dude. Juneau, Alaska. Really? It's not a big city at all, but it's like an hour and a half drive. Oh, no. I'm a big hiker. I do a show called Peekin, so I would love going up there and doing that. We should do one together. Yeah, drag him to one of those. He'll take his deer bike. Gavin McKenna can't get drafted. He got attacked by a bear. He's on the IR. What's like, did you ever see any bears or crazy stuff? You got a pet bear. Is there a polar bear in his backyard? No, yeah, bears do, like, just walk around our neighborhoods. And, like, yeah, you'll catch bears. Really? Yeah. Wow. Have you ever, like, hunted? Yep. Yeah, I hunt for moose. How do you think they ate? Yeah. Was there grocery stores and all that? Like, you had everything? Yeah, I mean. I'm intrigued by this. This is crazy. Yeah. He never even played hockey. We just tagged along. I'm a geography major Keep going, we want to hear about you So you hunted moose? Yeah, hunt moose Yeah, pretty much my grandpa He grew up hunting to eat And yeah, I just carried along through my family So I haven't been home for hunting season for a long time now But hopefully I get to go back one day and shoot my first moose Wow So he would bring you along He'd wake you up early in the morning You'd pack the car, you'd drive to wherever and then just poach out, wait? Yeah, that's where we'd do it at our cabin, four hours north. So up on the quads, we've got like a trail to get to like our lookout, which is like a big mountain pretty much. And yeah, sit there, call for like two hours or however long it takes. And yeah, my grandpa would shoot it and then load up the four-wheeler with all the meats and skin it. It usually takes about like three to five hours. So it's a long process. And you would help with the process? Oh, yeah. With a hockey stick. That's how his hands cut so good. Sticking him with his bootstraps. Oh, shit. Toe dragging his ball bag. Just in a mason jar for a little snack. For how young you are, like the way that other kids are growing up, whether it's in U.S., Canada, it must have been cool to be on your own. You're on your dirt bike, buzzing around, just freedom, right? Oh, yeah. It's the best way to grow up. I'm very fortunate to have what I had. When you look back now, in the summers, it was probably late all day. Did it get dark? yeah you get like three hours of of darkness and then the winter comes and it's just the opposite pressing like no light well not no light but like yeah you wake up at 11 and it's still dark out oh but so going back to leaving at 12 like i think it's it's more common now at 14 15 it was always 16 say when junior like did you love hockey so much that you were willing to go and wanted to go or was it actually kind of depressing at the beginning like i'm leaving all my buddies and so young still yeah it was for sure sad um funny story i left home with uh two broken hands so uh you fought a bear yeah i saw yeah i left with with two two casts um on my own it was my family was like man like do you want to come home and i said no like i obviously wanted to stay luckily it was covid so i didn't miss many games but um yeah i obviously wanted to move away like seeing dylan and move away I knew I had to at a young age. So it was something I was willing to do. Pat Brisson sent me this picture today. I think your mom sent it over to him. This is him sleeping as a kid with his hockey gloves. He's like one. Oh, the hockey glove's on? No, maybe one's on, then one's just over there with a puck. So you just were, what, hockey obsessed from a very young age? What drew you into it? Yeah, I was just always in my family. I loved hockey. Yeah, like that photo. So my mom would, I'd have to try and wear gloves to bed. And she'd put mittens on me because I couldn't wear them to bed. And I'd try to wear my helmet to bed and she'd have to put a toque on me instead. And I just always like, I don't know, like I always loved hockey. My family grew up into the sport. Everyone in my family, like grandpa, uncles, they all played hockey. So I had a backyard rink when I was like three. So I just grew up into the sport. Yeah, your whole family, your mom played. I believe you have two sisters and one of them plays. One of them plays. They both have played. Yeah. Pat said the other one's more interested in the arts now at this point. Are your parents both from Whitehorse? My mom's from Dawson City, which is like five hours north of Whitehorse. But she grew up in Whitehorse. Yeah. And you're very proud indigenous, right? That's one thing that you love talking about and stuff like that. So you mentioned your grandpa and hunting with him. like like what makes you so proud to be indigenous like what just like hearing some of uh my grandpa's stories um he went through a lot growing up uh so to see how far he's come and like getting to actually like have someone experience those stories in your family like like it hits home obviously so me being indigenous um means a lot to me um especially like i i do it for my grandpa um And I think he never even says the stories just because of how crazy some of them are. And I don't know if he ever will. So I do it for him. Have you reached out to maybe Jordan Tutu at all? I know that he's extremely proud. They've done documentaries on where he's from and how he grew up. And maybe just like to kind of just talk to him as you continue in progress through hockey. Yeah, we text a little bit. Not much about like being indigenous and stuff like that. But I've read his book, some crazy stories in there. I saw him at the airport once, and we had a two-hour conversation together. Yeah, we text and stuff like that. And obviously, he was kind of like the staple for indigenous hockey players. So obviously, very cool to talk to him and stuff. Similar styles of play, too. Yeah, exactly. Tomorrow in the game, just, oh, man. That's scary, man. Oh, my God. Who was your team growing up? I was a Blackhawks fan. No shit. because of Kane Kane Kane okay that's pretty sick I was gonna say who your who are your favorite players but that makes sense so like now looking forward to this summer right the drafts coming up everything will you get to go home for a while though yeah I think I'll get to go home for a week or so um not yeah I think I actually might have some of the boys come up I was gonna say if they've been here maybe yeah we might uh go for like a fishing trip um bring some of them up show what it's like up there and um i don't usually get much time at home but when i do i like to get out and do the things i usually do um you mentioned when you you moved to vancouver you did it with two broken wrists you got the cast on it was it was byron richie who who brought you there yeah did you live with him when you first got there not when i first got there my second year i lived with him and uh yeah i had a great time with him he's he's pretty intense and he's always pushing us me and Ryder um so he's fun to live with yeah so that's when I signed in moto he was there and I played four periods and retired in the middle of the game um tell the story tell it because we got a new audience for now well yeah the story is that I had played in Russia the year before and my ankles were all a mess and I was like I got one more year in me and I went to Sweden and then I told him in the middle of camp I said listen I got a big wedding I had to get back for I've been it's my buddy's wedding I'm the best man I gotta go home for eight days and He's like, okay, I understand. He wasn't thrilled. It was a golf tournament. Then I went back, and when I was like, all right, I don't think I got this anymore, but I started first game in Murrow. What was the team up north? Sheleftia maybe or something. I was minus three. Lulia? Yeah, Lulia. I was minus three, and I was the disaster. Byron Ritchie was actually disgusted. He was a great guy, but I could tell he's like, dude, come on. I need more from you. You're one of the imports. And then the next game, the home opener, I was minus three in the third period with the worst PT or C and I retired at intermission. Wow. But I brought up Byron Ritchie because I remember the times I was at training camp, he was an animal. Oh, yeah. And so I guess I'm not surprised to hear that he's now a physical trainer, you know, physical. Yeah. Okay. Yeah, like he'd have us running mountains with the dogs and stuff like that. Really? And his son at BU? That's Ryder? Yeah. The dogs would be on the sled and he would be pulling the sled and he'd go reverse mush. Yeah. Reverse. That's crazy And you somehow related to Conor Bedard is that true is that a rumor It like People love people love that like to be i gonna be i hear that this will be talking about that in five years yeah they brothers yeah yeah exactly it involves eighth cousins oh perfect like through marriage okay like hardly so but i mean that's probably a good in in a sense where you're probably texting with him all the time and picking his brain i mean he was a prodigy coming up in the same area so that that's pretty cool yeah i do text him a lot um obviously we're in similar situations so whenever you get a guy like him to talk to he's he's obviously very willing to open up to me and help me out so he's been good for me i was reading that you were granted exceptional status for like bc hockey yeah but then not for the whl yeah i didn't apply okay well then that they didn't include that in the article yeah i was late draft so i didn't want to i didn't know the rule change was going to happen so I didn't want to be in the league for four years oh you would have been there oh because your late birth year yeah exactly of 07 yeah there's no really point for me to okay I'll still get my three years and then Medicine Hat picked you like had you talked to them before did you know like did you have a place you wanted to go maybe or was it more I'll go wherever well I knew I was gonna be it was gonna be slim pickings like um I had talked to Medhat like the top teams quite a bit and um yeah I actually signed with Medhat before the draft like they came and saw me at a tournament. So I knew I was going there before the draft. So what if somebody else had drafted you? Well, they had first pick. Yeah, they had first pick. Oh, I see what you're saying. Okay, okay. So it was in that same article. It's near the equator. Did you just read the headline? No, I was saying, yeah, I guess I fucked that up. No, no, you're good, buddy. You sound like me today. Biz is acting like a professor over there. I gave him some shrooms before we started. Legit, legit. Oh, man. So what a jump, though, going from where you were playing to the WHL. Probably not as crazy and as tough as it used to be, where each team had a warm-up separately because guys were teeing off at each other. But what was that jump like? And was Medhat a good team at the time when you stepped in? They had like 11 wins the year previous, but it was a young team. And then when I came in, I was 14. I think we got to like—we made playoffs that year. um so yeah I remember uh my first I think shift it was preseason and I was playing against uh Lethbridge going up against a guy who was like 6'3 like 230 pounds and I got the puck on the wall opened up and he came right at me blew me up did the exact same thing I opened up again blew me up again and then I had a guy chasing around the whole game but it was welcome to the league yeah yeah but you must have been getting targeted like that from a young age because i i even remember the best players growing up and you always wanted to show who you were right so i'm sure you were used to it i was yeah for sure a lot more chirping towards you in that first year like guys like oh yeah you're the prodigy i'm gonna fucking run you through the wall that type of stuff not that year actually i think because i had my cage on guys were like they didn't want to like be known as a guy going after the young guy but the year after there was a little bit more nice yeah so You guys improved pretty quickly to where last year you won the WHL. Yeah. And then went to the Memorial Cup. That must have been an incredible season. Like, just to go through that with all your buddies. You've been there a few years. It was a crazy year. Like, our goalie, he, right before playoffs, lost his dad in the stands, which was like. No shit. Our team was like, man, like, it was tough. He got to go home and see his family and stuff. We had some guys go out with him. And first game back in playoffs, he got a shutout. So it was like, it was a crazy year. Like our team was obviously so fired up doing it for him and his family. And then our captain, Oasis Weisblatt, when he decided not to lift the trophy and let him do it first. So it was just a tight group and like gives me chills thinking about it. Like it was a fun round. Were any of the series like game seven or anything? Or did you take care of them pretty early? No, we went 16-2 in playoffs. so um it was there was obviously tight games like um some overtimes and stuff like that but um we did a good job yeah didn't you have like a 54 point game point streak yeah that's got to be insane going through that yeah it was fun um there was a couple times where i was uh out there with an empty netter and oh it took a couple of those to keep it going i think i had one or two of those at like game 30 and I was kind of gripping my stick pretty tight and uh but yeah it was a fun ride like the boys all knew I was on a streak and they wanted to give me the puck and stuff like that so it was fun do you remember any of the chances you had that when when it ended in the one game it ended yeah it was actually against Spokane in the finals um I think we lost like oh wow so it went from into the regular season into playoffs yeah yeah oh fuck man that's unbelievable yeah that's wild yeah i think we lost like 6-1 or something that game and i was actually i had a knee injury that game so um it was tough i should i shouldn't have played that game too but i don't think i had many chances that game it was an off night coach comes in he's like where the fuck were you health bomb next game what the hell was that yeah we're gonna send you to our junior b team So in the final of the Memorial Cup, you lost to London, right? Yep. Was it a good game? What was it? It was not our best game. I think we were down 4-0 going to 1-3 and then scored two, but couldn't crawl back. Where was the Mem Cup that year? Rimouski. Oh, nice. Yeah, where Sid played. People often talk about the bus rides in the Western League, just an absolute grind, but maybe you were used to it because of where you grew up. I wasn't used to it. No, this is just a fishing trip. Yeah. It's like going to the grocery store. Portland still have the. Yeah, yeah. Did you guys have the sleeper though? No, we didn't. We just had the old Trax bus. Ooh. Yeah. I remember those days, hosing in bottles and just. You still do that. Yeah, that's true. On the podcast. No, no, body armor. The wide nozzle. Let's keep that in mind. But yeah, eating the soggy subs on there. We should talk about your decision to come here. I mean you must have like with with the transition of junior hockey and this opening up like you you probably saw a lot of buddies doing it like what sparked the decision to even consider it yeah I think I was not like mid-season I thought there was no chance I was coming to college but as the year went on I started to look into it a bit more and um when we won the championship I was like not much more to do so um i thought college was the next step for me and uh yeah i had some zoom calls called here and a couple other schools and um kind of slimmed it down to two schools and uh came and visited here and like it's hard to say no to what you got here um you know i think i met the coaches and stuff met some players and they're just people i want to surround myself with and seeing the facilities and stuff it's like you don't get much better than this so even for you personally you have so many points like the leagues i mean no i know you're not going to say it about yourself but the league's easy for you to come to college you're playing against older kids you know bigger stronger guys like even to make that next step i'm sure it was kind of a no-brainer for you yeah that's why that's why i did it um just to i feel like it'd make that jump to the nhl a little bit more smooth um like you see with celebrini and those guys like just hopping right into the league and dominating so i think college has i think that's why like coming to college here You're playing against guys who are older and faster and stuff. So I think it makes it a little bit easier. First kid to do it was a WHL kid to Arizona State, right? Yeah. Because I remember that news broke. And it was like, I'm sure for you, you were probably like, what the? Nobody knew about it. No, he did do it. But I believe he'd also played Coast games too, didn't he? And that's why it became a little bit more of a story because he played pro. Which, hey, junior was the old role, but pro. It's like for sure you were done. But because the rule hadn't really been finalized, they gave a grace period for like a year or two to some of these kids who had made the leap to go play in the Coast or the A. The question is, though, like, so your medicine, you said you did it all, you guys won it. But to lose you, it's a tough, tough hit to the organization, right? Like, was that a hard conversation? Were they upset? Because we'd heard Keaton Verhoff was taking a little heat for going to North Dakota from his team. I think it was Victoria. Yeah, they were actually saying that they maybe sat him out the first few games of World Juniors. Not as a punishment, but that was something that was floating online where they weren't happy that he made that decision. So was Medicine Hat upset? Like they weren't excited, obviously. Yes. See you, buddy. Here's a Louis Vuitton duffel. Maybe we'll change your mind or no? Maybe if they got him a sleeper bus, he would have stayed. No, but they were really good about it. Like Willie, he's been with a lot of good hockey players. So he was great about it. Obviously, I was really close with my coaching group. So shed some tears, but they understood. And they're having a great year this year. I think they were on like a 20-game win streak. Oh, really? Nice. Having also delivered the Western championship, like you feel like, hey, like I provided, I did fucking 54-game points for you. Figure it out, boys. We're good here. It must be cool too, though, because we played junior. He played college. but like junior like you the thing that you're worried about is the next step going to the nhl or hl whatever it is you nhl but biz ahl east coast but you know you're in college like these guys like this is you guys are a family i would imagine like you're gonna have friends for life you get you know donors your supporters around like it's a family here i would imagine as opposed to junior hockey yeah i it's it's a totally different experience like going to class with your buddies and stuff and like just being on campus with you know the people here and it's amazing i think obviously junior i think our team was very close because of all the stuff we went through together and and here it's like yeah we're so tight and um even with the age gap like some of these guys are i don't know seven six years older than me so um families he's watching Four kids in the wives lounge. Yeah, but like they all, like it's such a tight group and I don't think there's anyone who's like an outsider in this team. Even like Micah Parsons I saw was hanging around with you guys. Where was that? Wisconsin. Oh, okay. Yeah, you guys just swept them, right? Yeah, we did. That was a big weekend. So things have really started going here since, I know for you personally since World Juniors have really taken off. Do you think playing against kids more your own age and just not having to deal with like men, grown men in college, maybe got, I don't know, a little confidence back, made you feel a little better coming into the second half? I think so. Yeah, just playing with those guys at World Juniors, they're obviously, like, they're amazing players. So it was a fun time. I had a little bit more time and space at World Juniors, which is where I think I can, that's my game. So I kind of had more confidence just coming back here. And, yeah, the team's been buzzing. So obviously that helps. and yeah I think I got a finger back on my line he's obviously a great player he was hurt for most of the year so having him back's been fun and I think it should the team's just clicking right now nice what um like go through like what your normal day is here maybe as even as opposed to junior like what's what's different about your everyday routine yeah wake up we go to the gym pretty early and then I've got a 905 class after. And then... What are you taking? I'm in... Sewing. I actually am. I'm in a fly fishing class. Oh, really? That's unreal. I just got a couple more recruits. In an elk skinning class. How do you think they made these jerseys? They have stick handling class. This school is awesome. lunch class um i went fly fishing for the first time this summer i'm addicted that's oh yeah nothing better so are you addicted how many times have you been since yeah as an addiction thought about it 100 percent every mentioned it to us here we go if you're addicted that means you do it here we go with women it's a little different that's a that's why i do it so i tee them up and then they just get going the fans at home are happy hey quit laughing you're The guy's never like, like we're on, see him on his phone on fly fishing website. So I was in fishnet costumes, but I went, Gavin, you can't laugh. This is like a draft meeting right now. You can't laugh. I'm taking him first. Okay. Fly Fisher. Rest. Go ahead. Sorry. I caught a few. Even one of them had, I think it was a trout maybe. I was in. Land trout. Yeah. I'm at the bar. I got this guy snapping photos right now. Staying addicted to that. That was the one thing. He's done it one time. He's done it one time. I'll tell you, there are a few, there aren't many natural highs that compare to going out on the water. We weren't stagnant. We were on a boat doing it. And then one of the ones I caught actually had, there was a bunch of bald eagles around. It's one of the most condensed area that has bald eagles. And one of them obviously tried to swoop down and grab it. So it had the scar on the back of the fish that we'd caught. So it was pretty, pretty cool. That's sick. Buddy, we had a... I'm not, I'm not even joking. That is sick. I know. I got, I see that fucking smirk on your face too, you little bitch. Jimmy Kimmel owns a lodge. I got, I got to go fly fish. I got to go. Is there any ponds around here? Quits the pond. Where do you go to fly fish around here? I haven't been yet. Um, class just started this semester. So, uh, no, no water right now. So yeah, but you can, I think you could, no, you can't do fly fishing. Um, so what, like in the class, do you learn about doing it before you actually do it? Yeah. We, uh, right now we've been like tying knots and like tying our own flies and stuff. He's going to show up Monday business in class. No, he goes in class. You learn how to do it before you do it. No, dude, they just send you out. Everyone's standing there on the net. Drop you in the middle of a white horse. I'm on the frozen pond. I haven't got shit. What other classes do you have? I've got Rex and Park Management. Addicted. Okay. I'm addicted to that show, Rex and Parks. I saw it once. When I say that, it means I want to go do it again quickly. I want to go. I want to go with Gavin. We're going to go to Yellowknife. You coming? Do you have a major? General studies. Okay, yeah, that's a good one. Everything you've said, I feel like I can fucking get a diploma. I think you could if you were as good as him. Davenport University. I feel like any age can come here. He's playing with guys who have families. Is it too late? Is it too late for me? What are some things that Penn State does, like some traditions maybe? Like at the football game, you get to go a couple games, I'm guessing? Okay, so is there anything your team has or the students have at games that you appreciated that you like? Obviously the whiteout. Yeah. Pretty sick tradition. Just like the Roar Zone, they got their chance, which is our student section. After we sweep, if we sweep, we go jump into the glass with them. But I think the whiteout's the coolest tradition. I haven't played in one yet, but I came to the football game, and it was pretty epic. Is it going to be a whiteout here Saturday? Okay, that's going to be awesome. We used to do it in Phoenix when we made the playoffs. So you're saying the hockey team doesn't do the whiteout thing? No, we do. We just haven't done it yet. Oh, okay. So it's more of a one-off type thing. Yeah, once a year. Actually, I forgot about one of your coolest moments this year was doing, what did the symbol use? Forks down. Forks down. Did you know you were doing that? That's my team ASU, man. What the fuck's up with that? Yeah, I knew. You knew going in, if I snipe one, I'm doing this? Yeah, well, the boys were talking about it a bit in the room, and yeah, I actually didn't think I was going to do it, but I thought it was the right time to do it. I would do the shocker in junior That was the one that I did Is there a hockey house here where some of the older guys Live in that? Yeah Bone He lives in the hockey house Oh shocker yeah He's always over there laughing And then how many guys live in there? Three we got Dane Well actually there's two hockey houses but The main one we go hang out with is Three guys Dane, Fink and Bone That's where you guys will have like maybe a party Here and there So do you have to live in the dorms because you're a freshman? I get to live in I got Dorms You're getting up in trouble Well no That is where you're saying NIL baby Most freshmen do This is not most freshmen Remember that mansion That we drove by On that main drag there And that's He kicked the coach out The coach in the 80s You guys are in the dorms You guys are living in the locker room Thanks for the Escalade too You fuckers Here I got you an Uber gift card This is my school now Who's Pagula I'll teach you how to fly fish though Yeah Yeah um world juniors i mean we did touch on a little bit like your overall experience that must have been a blast right yeah it was it was a lot of fun um especially in canada um my first year obviously didn't get the result but like seeing the crowds and stuff man it was it was insane and then this year um it was fun my family got to come and stuff crowds weren't great but uh like just going far with the boys it was a lot of fun we talked about it don't you think world juniors should be in Canada every year. Just have it anywhere in Canada. Or along the borderline. Well, we just did that. Minnesota's, yeah. Yeah, Buffalo had a pretty good showing when they did it their years back. Were you a little bit disappointed in the crowds in many? Yeah, we all were. We were expecting every game to be sold out because Minnesota's a hockey city and close to Canada, but it was still good turnouts. What's the best arena you've played in on the road in college hockey so far? ASU was fun. Good atmosphere there. Good atmosphere. Michigan State was fun. Both those teams were giving it to me the whole game. Really? Yeah, they were booing me every time I touched the puck. That's awesome. Those have been fun games to play in. I remember like Northeastern back in the day that had like guys, girlfriends, phone numbers on the glass. Oh, Jesus. Like college crowds are ruthless. A lot of the college crowds now have barcodes. So as you walk up into the crowd you scan a barcode they'll have like a piece of paper taped right before the student section you scan the barcode and then it's got everything like defensemen sisters girlfriends cousins names and stuff oh everything instagram links they got it all they're savages now savage repeat send me that link um i uh one summer i like had this picture that we like i posted a facebook it was me and a speedo and we played in the coast in redding pennsylvania and the guy Like one of the paints of glass, it was that size. He printed it out and boom, and warm up. I come out, it's just me and a Speedo like this. Fucking their whole section just giving. From the sauce hockey? That one? No, this was like. Prior. Yeah, this was like me on a beach in the summer of partnering with my buddies. Fly fishing. Yeah, exactly. Yeah, with a little peanut hanging out. Yeah, tough sledding. I got to ask. So, I mean, I heard about you, I think it must have been four years ago, five years ago. and with that like there comes a lot of pressure and you love the game but obviously it's it's impossible not to be maybe like reading and hearing things about you like how do you do in terms of staying away from that like do you do you read like comments on your social media anything like that because i can't imagine how hard it would be yeah i'm i'm off instagram this year good i've deleted it um yeah this year's been a big change uh grew up like you said like my tires were pretty much getting pumped every every single post and then this year obviously I expected it to to be a lot different and it has been with just people picking my game and stuff so um it's tough at times but you know I think I've got a lot of resources to help me out with that like my agency Penn State here um if I ever need anything they're all here to help me and um honestly that stuff fires me up when I see people saying that stuff but yeah I was just how would you describe your game how would you how do you who do you want to emulate you mentioned Patrick Kane that's a guy that you look up to is that kind of the same style you like yeah I think I play similar to Cooch in a way um yeah I've been compared to him a few times and I can see it I think we both kind of play like we like to read the ice and you know I think he can slow the game down speed it up when he wants and I'm just a very smart player and you can put the buck in the back of the net too. Do you do, do you work on that? Like picking it up off the wall like he does? I've heard that. Uh, obviously games played on the wall nowadays, but, um, I, I don't do what he does. In the summers, how often are you skating? Like five days a week, four days a week. Like last summer was a little bit different just with how far we went in playoffs. So it was a short summer and I was injured. So trying to just recover, but in summers previous, it's grinding. I was, I've been with Byron and uh live with Jim Hughes and stuff like that so oh really pushing us yeah oh okay I didn't know that who's that the Hughes father yeah yeah yeah oh wow how did you get to know him through my agency uh one summer I went up there for a summer camp and uh um stayed at his house for a week it was actually a pretty sick group we had like me Celebrini Kat and we all stayed at the Hughes house there so and obviously Luke Hughes was there um so it was fun being there and then the next summer just got close with them and lived there for the summer. Where will this summer be, Van? I don't know yet. I was in Calgary last summer, so I might go back there. I might go to Kelowna with Byron. I'm usually all over the map. Especially this summer, too. It's going to be a whirlwind draft, everything going on. Like for you, I'm sure you know, like just getting your work in, you got to do that as well, right? Yeah, it's going to be a busy summer and not a lot of time to do all that stuff. So got to make sure I'm dialed in when I get the opportunity. What's one test at the combine that you're like, oh, fuck. Don't even do it. Like my, for example, my vertical leap, I think it was like nine inches. Maybe. I'm not kidding. I don't know. I puked in the VO2 mask. You did? Yeah, puked in. But I had never worked out one time before. You went fly fishing the day before. Yeah, probably the VO2. okay they might have got rid of it though i don't know if that's it might just be the wind gate one now like yeah test the power of the legs yeah i hope so i'd rather that than and the drafts in buffalo right yep yeah that'd be pretty cool but it's it's not it's virtual right no i think they changed it back yeah they went back yeah one thing that i think a lot of people said i remember saying on the show when you committed here was that with all the games in junior college gives you a chance you're lifting hard all week have you noticed have you put on i mean it's hard putting on wave you feel stronger though yeah i've actually i came here at like 162 pounds and i think i'm at like 172 now so oh shit in the middle of the season too yeah which is usually you're just trying to yeah usually you're just trying to maintain weight and uh here we got greenberg which is like our our cafeteria you get free meals whenever you want pretty much so we got a lot of stuff here and in the gym we're grinding every day um one monday through thursday so uh getting those hours in it it helps a lot is there one thing that your your guys team like as far as like off the ice like you guys bond around whether it's a tv show just like uh what are the things that you guys are into off the ice you want to hop in here too i mean i would just say on like weekends we just like to have all the boys over at the hockey house so when you guys found out he was coming right Like everyone, it's excitement, but you're also like, oh, what's he going to be like? Like, what was your first impression of him and him getting along with the team? Yeah. I mean, obviously he's a big name. So we were all really excited when we found out he was committed here, but a lot of pressure for sure. And I thought he's handled it really well. He doesn't seem like a kid that takes himself too serious where, you know, the guy, the guy's messing around with them, screwing with them all day. Cause you gotta, it's never going to end. Right. Have you been cranked? Any pranks? You can't really initiate now. No, no, no, no, no, no. No more of the elephant walks. What's that? I think UVM lost a season for that. Oh, yeah. Okay. Swaggy P. So what do they do now? I don't know. I don't think it's allowed. What's the pranking? Just like nothing too crazy. I think our freshman group, we were talking about it earlier today. We had a game against the club team, and it's just like no fans, no nothing. And it's just like to kind of get a feel for the game again because we haven't played for months. So they all told us we were wearing suits to the game. And we knew we weren't wearing suits, but we did anyways. And just little stuff like that. Like we have to wear our suits to stuff like that and shoe checks here and there. What's the biggest snap show that Coach Guy Godowski's had this year? Probably at the Spangler Cup. Yeah. Yeah, it wasn't even with you guys. Oh, yeah, that locker room video. You're right. I forgot about that. That was great. Does he come in and get you guys motivated and fired up like that a lot? No, not ever. That was like rare for him. That was the first time because we were all watching it at home in the locker room. We were like, whoa. What's it like having a guy making as much money as him? It must be nice to have that. Yeah, Gavs always helps out with the bills and the Venmos for sure. He takes care of the Ubers. Class. That's very nice of you. Classy guy. Guys, Ben's actually, I feel like we got to ask. I'd be remiss if we didn't. He was told his freshman year he broke his leg, and he was told he was probably never going to play hockey again. He's back. He's assistant captain of the team this year. He's fucking playing. So it's a pretty crazy story. Femur? What did you break? I shattered my talus bone in my ankle. Didn't walk on my foot for nine months. No way. And the doctor told you, like, don't plan on playing anymore? Yeah, they said I was done. Yeah, it was 16 pieces it broke. Just shattered completely. Just what? Like it falling into the wall? I was on a breakaway, got hit into the boards, just went in full speed, and it just buckled on me. Sometimes a blade can get stuck in the boards, right? And then all of a sudden with the momentum. I was going so fast. I think Luke Hughes was chasing me, so I was going 100 miles an hour. So the staff here, it must have been a big part of you, you being able to get back and play again. Oh, unbelievable. like I've had three doctors I just saw a doctor to loosen the guy that did my surgery at Michigan when we played there for the first time like he was crying just seeing me on the no way yeah those man you must appreciate you know what you're doing right now a lot having gone through that to be able to do stuff like this to like play on this weekend it's just such a blessing that's awesome where are you guys as far as excitement on this game in general like around the locker room like when you guys heard it was announced like that probably the pinnacle of your career at this point to be doing this and they're saying it's going to be 70,000 plus like we played at Wrigley last year and that was 35,000 this is going to be the coolest game I ever played for sure you yeah I remember when they they told us that we were sitting in um our meeting room and like it was insane I got chills when they said it and like the boys were obviously so fired up and yeah we've been talking about this game since the start of the year so it's pretty crazy that it's here now. I had one more. I read that you are trying to build a rink back home in your hometown. Is that true with your family? Yeah. Just talk about that. I mean, that would be such a cool gift to give back to your community that started it all. Yeah. Well, they take the ice out in the summer. So that's part of the reason I don't really get to go home because in the summers I obviously got to train and stuff but I can't when there's no ice. Yeah, me, my family and some people have been trying to find some funding to build it so I can have some buddies come up and we can skate and stuff. I know Dylan, he wants some guys up from the NHL to come up there and they can't because of no ice. So if we got that done, it would be pretty amazing and we'd have a gym in there and have the ice rink. So that's something we want to get done. We should do like a fly fishing charity something. you guys want to come up and raise some money and get her going get my addiction figured out yeah sure oh this has been a blast yeah thank you great laughs yeah thanks on my expense but uh thanks a lot boys thanks for joining us thank you thank you very much gavin mckenna thank you very much to gavin mckenna nice kid great head on his shoulders and i i it's funny he mentioned like just have a little more time and space at world juniors get a little confidence back i guess oh for sure because he's been lighting it up so very excited to watch these guys play see his see him play in person and mad respect for like you know he could have stayed in junior and put up 200 points right he's clearly trying to get better to to prepare himself to to go dominate the nhl so what a fascinating kid uh smart move uh deleting the social media yeah that's just it's Clearly, he's got the right people around him saying, hey, if you want to get to where you want to get to, this is the path. And he's taken it. And just the fact that we're here and we got to interview him, we're going to send it over to G. How did this all come about? Clearly, you have a big passion for college hockey with the Chicklets U. You and Fishy have been crushing that. So this was a great trip for me to come experience this, the setting and everything. So how did this come about? This is unbelievable. And it's funny you said that because I was just thinking about it. Dave Portnoy. I don't know if you guys remember, but Dave Portnoy put us three in a group text and he was like, you guys want to interview Gavin McKenna at Beaver Stadium? And we're like, what the fuck? No brainer. A hundred percent. So as much as I'd like to sit here and take credit for it, you got to give credit to Dave. Dave said it all up. Yeah, I forgot about that text. Oh my God. I don't want to admit that. So now Dave's trying to steal my idea? Yeah, he's the guy. He's the idea guy. I got to check. You kind of got to let him take that idea. Actually, right now. You're the Penn State guy. You got the hooks with the coach. Oklahoma State University club team is up five to four on the Penn State club team at Beaver Stadium. There's four minutes left. We've been actually hearing the crowd. It's pretty sick. And G said there's a chance that there is a plan in place that Oklahoma State is a D1 program by 2030. So we've been saying, like, we've mentioned all the SEC teams and their clubs. And I know your nephew, Little B, Brian Yandel, he'll be playing club hockey somewhere. And just the amount of teams that have such great fan support that could possibly someday go D1. It's pretty exciting. And we've heard one of our friends, Jerry Cahill, his son plays at Oklahoma State. Yeah, he's out there. He's been telling us stories of how they treat them and all that stuff. So SEC, they're going to be getting some schools. They flew here in a private charter. Really? I mean, that's pretty crazy for a club hockey team. I mean, that's pretty nuts to do. That's the only way to get here. I know. But I didn't want to bust seven hours from Pittsburgh. Can I reiterate, too, though, with the Oklahoma State plans? It's just plans right now. There's a long way to go. A lot of things need to happen. But they have stadium renderings. They have donors. They have plans in place. I think that's the most important thing. Because once you have plans in place, that's when things start happening. The Cowboys. Us four on the bench. That'd be sick. Wheels are in motion. Man, I mean, talking about Patty Kane at the start of the podcast, the game is just growing at an what's the word i'm looking for in an exceptional rate exuberant amount no exuberance like i should just know i should just happy no yeah i think it's getting late even rider the other day was asking me um i think he asked where fowler was from like florida and then i was telling him I like yeah like when I was growing up there weren really kids from Florida and there players from Texas And he was so confused. I was like, yeah, that's all been in the last 20, 30 years where these youth programs. So even kids now probably don't even get it, what it was like when it felt like four states had hockey players. Chickren was raised in Boca Raton around there. Goddess Fierce in Florida. Blake Coleman is a Texas kid. No, I think he's Florida. Oh, no, I'm sorry. Gossespierre is Florida. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Coleman's from Texas. Texas, yeah. Yeah, we go to those USA camps, and it was Massachusetts, New York, Michigan, Minnesota. Not even that many New York. It was only like a couple. No offense, but it wasn't a shot. That's a shot. We just blew him up. He was younger. Probably one of the dumber things I said on the broadcast, I assumed that there was between 50 and 100 players in the NHL that were born in the U.S. Recently, I said that. 50 to 100? Yeah, because... Are we Slovakia? No, I want to say it's around 250 to 300 now, give or take, like guys going up or down. But it was because Chelios originated the conference. When Chelios was coming up, there might have been like 15 guys who were American who were playing in the NHL, if that. So that's just crazy to see that number grow to that size. I know more teams, more opportunities, more jobs, but to go from, you know. Well, it was a Canadian league, and the Americans were blackballed by us to them. Well, what I was just talking to G about is that's why part of the problem in youth hockey now is how crazy these parents are getting because they're seeing NHLers around their rinks now all the time. When we grew up, there wasn't a single NHLer around. We had one NHLer from New York. It was Guy Hebert. You guys all know him as Guy Hebert. Changed his name when he went to the NHL. He was a French goalie. Yeah, he did. He's from Troy, New York. I would have bet anything. He went to Guy Herbert? No, his name's Guy Hebert. His brother is Jay Hebert. He's in the beer league I used to play in. But when he made the NHL, Guy Hebert, one announcer turned him into. He's from Troy, New York. He's not French at all. Oh, the opposite. Okay, I love that. I love that. If you say, and he was a goalie? A goalie, yeah. When you say it the French way, I want to pay him twice the amount. just from how it comes up it used to be the case at least but now that's what these parents are seeing all these guys around the rinks when I was in Rochester, see Conley, Clark McArthur the Gianta brothers, oh NHL must be so easy to get to, my kid's going you're going to see all these kids changing their names to French Canadian oh yeah that kid who I remember I went to my friend Tyler Bilby, that game I went to where they outshot the other team 50-15 the other goalie's name was Tremblay Tremblay It was Tremble. French goalies are back. Just going to change everybody's name. And you doing this pod, no laptop? A couple clicks. That's why I'm so bad. I don't know what I was thinking. Biz, you got to do Columbus-Philly. Yeah, the coaches ball. Columbus is 6-1 under Bones. And we got to hear an official, hey, Bones, it's Ace. That was an awesome moment. What are you seeing from the Blue Jackets? What was Bones saying? Wierenski. Well, Wierenski was nuts again. We mentioned Charlie Coyle's thousand game. He had a great game last night, great in the face-off circle. They had two goals just off of one draw, one to start the game. The starts were something that Bones was bitching about. He made some comments in the paper basically being like, you know, some of their young guys are a little sleepy off the starts, and he's saying, you're signing these NHL contracts, boys. I don't give a fuck how old you are, man. When you're signing that contract, you're showing up to work on time to play, and that has been obviously a big thing. They were, I want to say, top five worst teams as far as giving up third-period leads. They had 14 third-period leads that they'd squandered. That was bad. And really just, I think, the main emphasis coming in, he said, we need to be tougher around our net. and their goals against was horrendous when he came in. I think they've already improved about a goal per game better, but any defensive analytic category you look at, they're maybe not huge jumps in improvement, but they're improved. And they're starting to pile up those wins based on closing out games properly, although they were up 3-1 and Philly ended up coming back to tie it off that connecting hat trick, but they ended up getting the win 5-3. And he's just really proud of that leadership group because they do have some young guys in that locker room. And he just said that guys are showing up to the rink and you could tell that they're all invested and they all care. And he says that's part of the battle. Like if you don't have that, you're not going to have a winning team. You're not going to have success in the NHL. So I just think that his spirit and his energy that he's bringing to the rink is being reciprocated by the guys, and I think that they appreciate it. I also reached out to one of our guys, Jody Shelley. Boone Jenner's underrated as like a leader. Great leader. From guys who've played with him, they speak. They love him. He's one of the best guys in the league. Extremely well-liked. I said to Jody Shelley, I go, any nuggets tonight? Anything to look for? He goes, Biz Marchenko battles to get pucks back. Team toughness in front of our own net has improved. Gabranson has a good impact on that. I think he scored the goal off that one face-off by Coyle. uh pp wierenski is one of the best at chances below the circle and they were actually rolling his highlights i i mentioned when i was in arizona they would put chikrin on the power play in the bumper position which is essentially a forward position because the need a myer move yeah because of how lethal his shot is if you watch a lot of the power play goals wierenski scores them with like like snapshots wristers um from uh below the the top of the circle so if he gets a look and Even if the goalie could see it clean, he doesn't telegraph it. He can pick and fucking beat goalies clean. That's how good a shot it is. And that's why he's, I believe, in the league lead for goals by a defenseman, if not tied with Jacob Chikrin. So a lot of similarities there, and that's why I mentioned him. The crazy part is they're still eight points out. They are. For the Eastern Conference. It is. And then let me finish this. Fantilli not centering Marchenko. kind of saying as a young center, fuck it, not catering to just Marchenko and driving the line. So that was just another little nugget. And then Matejchuk fearless as a player and making plays. So a lot of great things. And he goes, keep an eye on Bones on the bench, always giving players paths on the back, and that goes a long way. Oh, dude, what I would have done for some more just pause. Just a little rub like this. Granted, there wasn't a ton going on there where I was going to be getting a great job, but it never happened when we were younger. No. When we played, it just wasn't, that's not how coaches went about their business for the most part. And if you think back to how many times, how much better you felt when you did get the occasional, hey, great game, great shift, it's like, can carry you through a game. 100%. And him doing that's awesome. I think sometimes we get so lost in the numbers and this and that, I think it a lot of time just has to do with energy and positivity and what you're bringing in that positive juju. And then once again, I think that these players, you can't fake it. They see it, and they'll reciprocate it, and that's what's happening. And they're getting some stops when they need it. So shout out to Bones. Pretty cool. Every single coach that came and did it, Chief was after the St. Louis gig. He gets hired by Toronto. bones columbus and then talk has obviously gone and had success in vancouver and then philly is ace is going to be coaching somewhere is that what you're saying no coaches coaches former coaches go on to have success so chew on that one yeah i might actually be in columbus next wednesday me and elio there's rumblings on the streets m and pj i heard you and elio have a dozen team going No, no, no, no, no. No, no, no. Elio is, I think, on a team. You'd be a good trivia guy, right? I did the trivia the one year. I think me and G were on a team. We didn't do very well, though. No, I think we lost our first game. Yeah, we weren't very well, but chasing goals versus Chicago. And he's looking at that game, so keep your eyes open. Going back to Columbus, Zach Wierenski needs to win the Norris. Yeah. If he's within 15, 20 points of Kael McCarr. Well, right now they're tied. Yeah. And he's got more goals, and he ain't playing with nearly as much. And I think you guys were beating that drum, and that's why last broadcast I started beating it. I agree with you guys. He doesn't even make slap shots. No, he doesn't have to. I just looked up the odds on DraftKings. McCarr minus 250, Wierenski plus 200. All right, book that. Wow, that's great value right now. That's a no-brainer. And we are going to continue to beat that drum, not because we just like him, but he deserves it. what he means to that team, him and Bones now, are just insane. Look up, has a defenseman ever won the Norris if the team doesn't make the playoffs? That's probably where those odds are. Yeah. For sure. Carlson in San Jose, didn't he? Yeah. But that... When he had the 100 points. That shouldn't factor into that award. I don't think so. Right? No, no. But it does for every other award. Not rookie of the year. So right now, there's a bunch of Colorado fans beating their stealing. where I was saying, like, dude, you're watching the Colorado Advantage play every night, and every time you turn on the TV, it's no doubt Carroll McCarr is taking the puck from his own end, the offense's own. He is overall, like, if you're picking the number one defensive end, you're picking him. But I think if you're looking at this season and what Wierenski's doing through the struggles that they've had, a coaching change, nowhere near the cast of players that McCarr has to play with, yeah it might not look as shiny and as appealing to you but the numbers speak for themselves and you you have to in my opinion at least say they're neck and neck right now until the end of the season they are in a tie at first and it's a it's quinn hughes is a boosh i would put quinn hughes i would put marit cider ahead of boosh okay okay okay right now okay no boosh is i think he was worried about warrenski who's just 30 to one i think so adam fox won the norris uh when the rangers didn't make the playoffs in 2021 oh that's the guy exponentially exponentially that's the word you're looking for that word that's sick that's way too many syllables uh when i look at the standings right now this is the east it's just oh posh are making that bet with me and yans another five. He might owe me nine grand at this point. It just keeps going up and up. The Devils are sitting second to last place in the Eastern Conference, but they moved Palat. That was one of the guys they had to trade. We got to get rid of Palat. We got to get rid of Dougie. What did Palat do in the aisle? Bumper. He sniped a beautiful call to make it one-nothing against the Rangers. I said, God, if I could watch the Devils miss the playoffs only because of you, Pasha, and have Palat get like 12 goals the rest of the season. I mean, that would just be incredible. So it was, can you read the whole trade G? He's a playoff guy, too. I don't have my laptop. I don't know if I mentioned that. Pasha's having the worst year. Leafs could finish dead last, and he would still have a worse year. I think he's at like a yoga retreat in Turkey with his girlfriend right now, too. Yeah, this guy. Stop. He's got to figure it out. So Pallat was traded for a 20, Pallat, a 2026 third round pick and a 2027 six round pick was traded to the Islanders for Maxim Tice Bake Off. That, that pronunciation. Oh, that kid was supposed to work. He looked pretty good when he first came over. Yeah. You never know. He might pop up. Pasha loved the trade. Shocking. He loved the trade. But you know what the Islanders, if Pallat can, it, it, it, what was surprising for people is there was no money retention and, and he signed for next year, I believe as well. Yeah, but I don't mind that. He's a great fill-in guy. A guy, if you do make it playoffs, he always seems to elevate his game. He just needed to change the scenery. And what I like it from Darsh is I think that that's telling your team, hey, I'm proud of you guys for the way you've played all year. You're in a playoff spot right now. We've had a couple tough losses. We lost Romanov and we lost Palmieri. So let's bring in a guy like Palat who we think can help out. And then they ended up picking up that Susie. juicy so good for them man patch a few holes and and that the guys in that locker room have deserved it um declare incredible um a second half this season since being healthy scratch just went on a crazy rip crazy rip so far so uh good for him good for getting out of that that's saying as well it was some interviews doing like i worked under breezeball in tampa not afraid to trade draft picks in in tampa so who knows i mean it's not exactly the same thing where you're competing for the cup you've already won cups you're willing to mortgage all these draft picks but if he really believes in that team you could see him trade maybe a first rounder we don't know what oh boys i was looking like i was just getting in a um uh what do you call it a wormhole is that what you call it yeah if you're on like youtube going through a wormhole yeah yeah a rabbit hole rabbit hole of of leafs picks and fucking fuck draft picks i know i know it's like it's i didn't even first rounder like who the fuck is this guy i didn't even know some of them in the last like 10 years we talked about all the vegas trades and who they've traded out you've never heard any of these guys besides suzuki no that they trade out no trade everyone unless he's a top five yeah the one kid brandstrom was supposed to be real good that d-man that went to ottawa with um but i don't he didn't really pan out yeah like i was i was actually because philly was on the other day and um obviously the whole mitchcock conversation we don't need to dive into that but it's like who could they have grabbed in the first round that's noticeable right now who went past them i think ryan leonard might have been the next pick if not two after him to washington and then beyond that i believe that year there's not one other guy making an impact that was quick though that was that was two years i understand but it's it's like you're looking for that three easy answer and it's really not there not only not ever but not in a lot of cases yeah i wish they would they would move the draft back a year we've talked about that before 18 is just so young it's crazy we were we were worried about that but i actually think it would make it better because then you would have that draft be so stacked that it feels like every team would get a good player in the first round because you would have two years oh because of the one yeah i i actually have have grown on that idea and agree with you where they should allow them one more year to to scope them and they should have done it that covid year when none of them played it was the perfect chance for that's a hell of a columnar um the canucks they they gave uh evander kane's agent permission to try to work on a trade which pretty much means that like we don't have any we we can't trade you right now that's kind of what that means if they end up saying hey agent you can do whatever you want they that means they've been trying so i still think he ends ends up somewhere a team that's looking to get in the playoffs or in the playoffs i'll give you the horse to kick barube be in the head for Evander Kane. Bring him to Leafs. Let's go full full-fledged fucking. Let's go. Clydesdale. I don't mind that. Must have some big feet. Come into Toronto. Dallas is a team that's been mentioned with Evander Kane. Okay. I'll give you Ed the horse and we get Evander Kane. Did I ever tell you about the time? He could beat the fuck out of any reporter coming at Willie for that finger. Did I ever tell you the time my buddy Megs, he got traded? And usually it's like, oh, you got traded for a bag of pucks. He was down in like the Central League, one of these Oklahoma's or something, he had to bring a bottle of booze and him for the trade. Did he have to buy the booze? The coach goes, hey, you got traded to wherever it was, Memphis. He's like, here, bring this special bottle of Pink Whitney with you. Was it a top shelf bottle? For Pink Whitney. For their GM or for him to drink on the way? No, for their GM. If you take him off my books, take him off my books, you can have a giant bottle of Pink Whitney gold label. I'm going to Corpus Christi? Show up. You're fine. I am obsessed with watching Quinn Hughes play on Minnesota. I think he's over right around 45 assists for the season now. Not obviously all of them with many, but every time I look, it looks like he gets two, three points. It's crazy. He's already tied the franchise record for four assists game by a defenseman. He's had three or four four assists game so far, and that's the franchise record for a D-man. So he's been there for six fucking weeks. He might not even, he doesn't even need to shoulder. That team doesn't surprise me though, is when they started, it was Jock Lemaire's there. They were scoring two goals a game. But yeah, I mean, Kaprizov on there, Boldy. He's back. They're awesome. That's a great team. Panarin will probably be there by then. On the other side, you got Dimadov, Caulfield, Suzuki, Hudson. Yeah, that's two fun teams to watch by. And usually those games are in Canada, but this one's in many, right? Yeah, is Schaefer the lock for the Calder, or is this still a very close rookie? He kind of is, based on the story coming in, the amount of goals he scored. How young? But this is a pretty good race, man. It's awesome. The demigod, he just continues to just pile up points. He'll probably end up leading rookie score, but Schaefer could hit 20 goals. You guys want some live odds? Live odds here? Oh, let me guess. Schaefer minus 320? Nope. Minus? Higher, higher. minus 600. What? Dimadov plus 650. Your boy who just blew up Seneke plus 700. And then the wall from St. Paul who will be playing maybe in that Monday night game. I was hearing rumors that they might trade him. I heard the same. I thought it was a joke. Elliott said it on 32 thoughts. Okay, so they passed up on him. Wouldn't you look to trade Gustafson? Well, one, if during the course of a run, You need two guys. But you need to get something. You got to give something. Maybe Edmonton because they missed them in the draft. They go get them now. The wall of St. Paul. What are they going to give for them? The wall of St. Paul is too good of a nickname. I feel like I know. I agree with that. I feel like D-men have a they get more leeway. What's the word I'm looking for? They have better odds of winning. Like when they can dominate. if you can dominate as a D-man your first year, even if another forward's closer, they're going to give it to the D-man because it's so hard. Because of ice time. And as the position goes out, the goalie hardest, D-man, second hardest, forward. Easy. Yeah, and Shafer, it's just changed. We've talked, the whole team's different. They're fun to watch now. And the story coming in first overall, he also is very close to not even being draft eligible last year. he's that young and there's nowhere for him to hide we talked about malinsky there's he's there he's their guy yeah playing 24 minutes a night so just a lot more responsibility to bear unless demigod goes on an absolute but i would given the fact that he's plus 650 that's a nice little sprinkle a little sprinkle a little sprinkle on there um our listeners in canada that minnesota montreal game can watch monday night's game on prime video if you're already a prime member you're all set if not sign up for the free trial prime video.com prime monday night hockey it's on monday it's on prime um last thing brutal news that's your demko it's crazy that it's there's so much luck that goes involved to playing in the nhl for a long time and he's out for the year hip surgery i think he's had this before i don't know if it's the same hip but it sucks and it's just been such a disaster year for vancouver but that was one guy you're like all right this year he's finally healthy and he's down again. So you've mentioned a million times how Bouchette said he's too athletic. What? That's it. I was waiting for him to say what Bouchette said. I don't know if it's legit. I don't know if it's legit. It's legit. I don't know if it's all about goaltending, so I just asked the goalies, right? That's a curse if you're actually too athletic. That's why you're getting hurt. Yeah, he's just too explosive. Yep. So. As we're talking injuries, I was listening to you guys. I'm working hard on the treadmill listening to you guys. You're talking about all the injuries, all these guys. Everyone's blaming in the Olympics. How come nobody's talking about, number one, the equipment differences? I can show you my shoulder pads I used to wear. That's why my shoulders didn't break once I wore those shoulder pads. They broke when I wore the small little shoulder pads. It's all light gear. Number two, when we came into hockey, you wanted a body fat between 9% and 11%. All these guys now are playing at 6% and 7%. You need that little padding. You know who never got injured? Steven Dixon. He was about 20% body fat. Less muscles you can pull. Yeah. I like that. Let's put some weight on these guys. Come hang out with us. Have some beer and wings. Someone said, like, we remember Mike Zygamantis, he was fucking ripped out of his mind. Zero percent body fat, but he was hurt all the time. Yeah, both shoulders. I remember his shoulder bones popping up. Guys were like, yeah, he's too skinny, and I'm like, all right, I'll start eating more. Too jacked. Fast face-off guy ever. Yeah, he was good. Yeah, the Belichick story, I mean, at this point, like, Merr I'm down with this one I'm down with this one I don't like the Pats but I'm in total agreement and this Bill Polian guy this Bill that's the Colts guy and he was part of the Bills and then Belichick when he was on the Giants they embarrassed the Bills in the Super Bowl when he was the defensive coordinator but forget Polian and this has been said it's like we're repeating everything it's whoever listened to him and the other guys who didn't vote for him the main takeaway I had is if you're in the Hall of Fame, this is the worst thing that could have happened. It makes it look completely ridiculous. All these Hall of Famers are like, whoa, this is... And who's voting on this? The Hall of Famers should vote. Why are there media members voting? That's writers. Can it not be former players? That's what it should be. So the guy, this guy you're talking about who, I guess, initiated it, I'm just shocked that these smart guys who were in these positions weren't like, ah, buddy, if we do this, we're going to be made of... Yeah, there was nine or ten people. So they never thought of how big of a story this would end up becoming. That, to me, is just like, I don't understand how they didn't think that this would end up happening. And for Bill Belichick, I think that I'm happy it happened because to get the validation and have everybody come out and speak the way they have on his behalf, that, to me, is cooler than getting the jacket. That's like getting the Ted Lindsey. There was one tweet, like, when he had the cut off hoodie just looked like a complete slob and it was the picture of that it was like this is the man that's brought the sports world together on twitter in agreement of one thing on pmt today i listened to it our friends over there our co-workers they said that they read off a tweet that polian said that's it's totally wrong that was a different guy no polian first said he said i voted for him this is this is an incorrect report yeah and then in another interview like eight hours later was like i don't remember if i voted for him oh so paulian i heard uh i don't know it could be fake but that all the stuff that bill belichick had lent to the uh hall of fame like playbooks and stuff like that apparently rings or whatever he lent that he took it back that's awesome which is so petty and i hope it's true and if it's not true it was just one of the i think it was shefter who broke it or whatever and it was just like are you kidding me like if I'm in the Hall of Fame. I'm disgusted at that. We just talked to your buddy, Andrews, and if there's one sport where a coach is so heavily relied upon, it's football. And for him to win eight rings and then not be first ballot, I feel like I'm living a simulation. What was his reasoning? Just because the whole deflate, that wasn't even him. Spygate and then the best follow throughout all this was Jimmy Johnson the old coach of the Miami Hurricanes and Dallas Cowboys he was flipping out to the point where I think him and Portnoy I think Dave said he's going to buy an old strip club on the Keys and they're going to make their own Hall of Fame. Yeah, Woody's it's called for sale, 7 million bucks. Jimmy said he's in. Right now is it just boarded up? I think so. I don't know. Woody's it's like on the way down. so just so so funny though that like yeah Belichick brought everyone together are they looking for investors it's not a strip club anymore it's going to be a hall of fame it's not a strip club there's no one in there we're going to be at dinner in an hour what's in that place again he's like you know the realtor he's like I'm looking on Zillow he trades in his Dubas stock for that that would be a hell of a segue way no i would just diversify and i would take out a little bit you know what do they call that they're just a hedge hedge hedge emotional hedge there were there were like rumors not rumors there were theories that that craft and belichick obviously didn't end on a great note and craft's probably going to get in this year he's not in which i think this is his 11th super bowl um Jimmy, what was his name? Jerry Jones is in and Belichick isn't. Even though they're not retired, they're still in? Yeah, I guess maybe as GMs. And then people were like, no, maybe he did this. He didn't have to go in with Belichick. But he came out. I voted for him. That's nonsense. Greatest coach of all time. But yeah, a very funny storyline. A real embarrassment for the Hall of Fame. To the point where they had to release a statement. I think they had to release a statement saying that if they find out basically that people didn't follow the bylaws or some shit went down, like you'll lose your vote. But it is a conversation, and I think the NHL is the same. I don't know if you can just do all former players voting. Have Hall of Fame guys do it. They know what it takes to get in there. They're in there. They know the excellence that it, what comes with it. Have the guys that are in it that did it, whether it's a couple coaches, a couple GMs, and a couple players, and boom, you're going to have the right answers every year. Yeah, as a guy in two Hall of Fames. What are they? RPI, Athletics Hall of Fame, and New York State Hockey Hall of Fame. That's a nice one. What's RPI? And he said no guys from New York. Rentsdale Polytechnic Institute. Oh, okay. Yeah. Shout out RPI. I like to bring everybody in. That's how I got into them. That's biz. That's biz. Burl's a good dude. Bring him in. They put my jersey up at Handlebar Hanks and Wellen, so that's kind of like all of it. Where were you a bouncer at the strip club? Oh, that was the Sundowner, which is, oh, yeah. That's why you want to bounce at Woody's. You can bounce at Woody's. So, oh, yeah, I'll do it. I know the ropes. It was owned by a bunch of Serbians when I was there, and it was a crazy place because, like, normally in Canada, you know, it's like you're very respectful. You go to the room if you want to see any tits, but for whatever reason at the sundowner, no, like, you know. Yeah, they weren't completely naked. They had these horseshoe tables right in the front row, and you could pay 50 bucks a song where you could have two girls, and they'd be mucking each other's bins, basically, doing the scissor kicks, doing the scissors next to each other. $50 a song, and then I wouldn't even be paying. I'd be checking it out at the other table. You were bouncing. 25-2. No, but I would go there as a customer before I started bouncing. That's actually what McKenna's going to do this summer, getting ready for the draft. I had a guy tell me once, that Kanda was not respectful in this, that they don't have dollar bills. They had loonies. So they would get a stack of loonies, and the guy would take them, and he would light him. He would heat him up with his lighter and then throw him at the girl. What the fuck? That's bullshit. That's urban legend? No, no, no. Dale? No. I was just telling Grinnelli before he told it, I was like, they burn the teenies. Yeah. What a way to end this show. That's bullshit. Yeah, that's really it. In case you didn't think we were tired. There was one last topic I was going to bring up. I was going to try to bring it up at the start, but I'm glad I waited. So there's this movie that just came out, And who's the hottest female actress? Sydney Sweeney? No, not her. Margot Robbie. Margot Robbie. And she's with this, is it Jason Elordi guy? Jacob Elordi. And she's married. And they did this Wuthering Heights or Wuthering Heights movie. And it's like a love story. And they've been on this promotion campaign where they've been all over each other. Selling the game. You got to sell the movie. I think if you're marrying her, you got to know, like, hey, listen, like, I can't get mad at anything. Like, she's an actress. Mute anything? That'd be tough. Hey, I'm not saying I'd be okay with it or I could deal with it, but the guy had to know what he was getting into. She's an actress. Well, that's not true. That's not true. Because there's a difference between having, like, a role like you did with Leonardo DiCaprio in... You did? No, and Wolves of Wall Street, I'm saying you're saying that's what you're signing up for. Oh, you're saying the off-screen. They're doing it on the tour, the promotion. The red carpet, they might as well be back at the fucking sundowner doing the scissor kicks. 50 bucks a song, bro. They got a pocket full of toonies. It's fucking insane, bro. They got 25 toonies on it. They built a fucking movie and then they beat it. Yeah, yeah, okay. So you're saying in real life they're looking all cozy. so at first I kind of see that you see yeah yeah I see the the the posts about it and you're like ah people are just trying to make a big deal of it right because they were getting all lovey-dovey in the movie and she's got a husband and then you start seeing the the press tour stuff and then like more of the red carpet and more of the red carpet and a different thing she started she was saying that like is he a good looking guy oh I think he's fucking yeah he's like one of the biggest man man missiles on the planet yeah that's tough it's tough that's tough to be the guy at home you vacuum in the living room you turn on turn on the tv and they got matching rings and he's like fingering her on the red carpet that's not i don't know if you can handle that he's not finger blasting her on the red carpet i'm not confirming that that's okay okay i was just i just i remember the actor what's the actor who says um he has like crazy anxiety you see oh yeah he's touching he's more liberal than ra too he's nuts and he's and he's he's yeah and he says like my anxiety and all of a sudden like he'd be like basically like like sucking on his co-star's nipple to get rid of his anxiety i'm like whoa that's the guy i remember being like if that's my wife working with this guy that needs to have his dick rubbed to be able to get through a press tour that's where I'm not okay. That's the fakest anxiety I've ever heard of. Yeah, that's what I'm saying. I remember watching it. I'm like, oh, you could just be saying like, oh, I'm very anxious from the shoot. I need you to blow me. Like, it was crazy. What's the guy's name? Pedro Pascal. Pedro Pascal. This guy. I'm taking a page out of his but I'm like, all right. Okay. That's a wrap. Thank you to Gavin again. Thank you, Penn State. It won't happen, it won't happen again It won't happen, it won't happen, it won't happen again A bad habit worth breaking, but it's taking time And I know it don't matter, it's gonna happen, it's gonna happen again What a good day What a good day What a good day What a good day