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A
Come on. Ice is ready. And we're back with another episode of the Empty Nerds podcast, live edition. It's a free for all Friday. Folks, we are fucking around today. Talking a bunch of shop about a bunch of nothing. This is the Seinfeld episode of the Empty Notice podcast. Because, folks, we didn't have a game last night and we already previewed the game today on Wednesday's episode with Alec Martinez. So today we're. We are just kicking it. And C.P. might be dead. Oh.
B
In the arms of an angel.
C
Wounded puppy.
D
I. I shouldn't be here. I'm not supposed to be here. I don't believe that I should be here right now.
A
You don't think so?
D
No. No one deserves this. I don't deserve this.
A
You certainly don't. You are too good of a guy for this. You were too good of a guy. Do you think that hangovers are all mental?
E
No.
A
What about. What if they are? How about that? Do you ever think about it that way?
C
Ask my toilet.
A
Well, I. I think when you are having an expulsion from both ends, it's because mentally you gave up. You could have woken up that day and gone like this. I am not hungover.
C
Do you. Well, when you're younger, that. Have you heard that myth, liquor before beer. You're in the clear.
A
Yeah, I don't think it's a myth. But real.
F
That's 100%.
A
It's 100%. I think it's real. But you know why everyone thinks it's like this chemical combination? The reality is they're just going, liquor hits you mysteriously. Beer, you're drinking beer. You slowly get drunk. If you're smoking cocktails, all of a sudden you blink and you're like, wait, am I blackout? And. And if you do that in the reverse, because if you're drinking beer and you're slowly getting drunker and drunker, and you're like, oh, yeah, like, I'm pretty tipsy. And then you're already tipsy. And then you switch to cocktails. That's how you get blacked.
C
That's true. But I'm saying, as far as sickness goes, like, I will say, I think it's variety that does it. I don't know that the order is really what makes you feel hungover at least. Like, if I have wine, liquor, and beer in one night, I'm like, chris, you're dead.
A
Yeah, mixin is. Mixin is definitely an issue.
D
I think it is chemical. I think if you have.
A
Just stop. Hey, hey, dude, just take a nap. Set this one out, set this one out. It's fine.
D
You get sicker.
A
You have full permission to just not do anything today. Just sleep. Go to sleep. We'll take care of it.
C
It'll be like, Stephen right on the couch and half baked.
A
Yeah. Oh, my God. What a fucking character. Guy on the couch.
E
Dude, what a great movie.
A
What a great movie. I'm surprised you've seen that.
F
Zach have baked. Yeah. Oh, no, I'm everything Chappelle on then on.
D
Zach hasn't seen Half Baked.
F
No, I haven't seen. I. I've. I've been there. I've seen it.
G
Zach is seen.
A
Zach's 15 years old.
D
Of course he's seen it.
F
I was dropped off here today.
C
Yeah, he's got a PB and J in his lunch, too.
A
Yeah, exactly. You know what? We were talking about this right before we started recording. Zach, you would be an interesting person to test subject this with, because I don't even know if your generation watches movies other than you. You are pretty good about it.
F
I do watch movies.
D
Yeah.
A
Do you ever get caught in the streaming doom scroll of like, all right, time to figure out what we're watching, and then you just spend hours scrolling all the time.
F
Yeah, yeah. You just. You sit there. I mean, I feel like I've been doing that. My generation has definitely been doing that their whole life with their parents, too, where they're like. They're watching their parents go through that experience. And then you're also, like, chiming in. Hey, we should watch this. We should watch.
A
Yeah, yeah.
F
Drags it out. And then the sex scene comes on. Your parents see it.
C
You know. You know what we need? You know, we need. When I was a kid, you had to choose your movie at a video store.
A
Oh, my God. Dude.
C
Dude. Like, waiting for you to get out of the fucking store. Netflix needs to, like, pop up like a little, like, video store guy. And he's like, all right, you got five minutes till I close the shop. Pick your movie.
D
A tremendous idea.
A
That is. That is a tremendous idea. And you know what?
H
I.
A
So I am a. I'm a huge IMDb guy.
C
Oh, yeah.
A
Love IMDb.
C
IMDb Pro.
D
No.
E
Get on it.
D
So you're not that big of an IMDb.
A
Go back to sleep, dude. You bet your ass. I have IMD Pro. IMDb Pro. I. I have two things to say about IMDb. Number one, do not trust any review sites that exist other than IMDb. IMDb is not even a review site, but they have a ranking, and it is the most accurate ranking in the world. So many of these shows and movies come out and they're like, these new shows come out and they're ranked 99 on Rotten Tomatoes. And the reality is they fucking suck. They just have a rabid fan base that goes on and jerks off to it and they give it a 100%. And because that's the only thing you can do, it's either fresh or rotten. And it's like, this is the dumbest binary. It's so binary. It's so stupid. We need a 1 to 10 with decimals or 1 to 100. And that's how it works.
F
And letterboxes, though.
A
Letterboxd is really good, actually, to. Absolutely. Good point.
C
And that's for cinephiles too.
A
Yeah. The one thing I take umbrage with, with letterbox is whenever you see those red carpets and. Have we talked about this on the show?
D
Maybe not.
A
I don't think we've talked about this on the show, but stop it. Not yet. Whenever we see like a red carpet and it cuts to a celebrity and it's like, hey, letterboxd top four. And they're like, oh, my God, letterboxd top four. I knew this was gonna happen. I'm not prepared at all. Okay. My top four cabinet of Dr. Caligari. And they just start saying these fucking ridiculous. And I'm like, shut up. Up. Dude, those are not your four favorite movies. Just be honest, be authentic and real. Say, tell the fucking truth. Say your favorite movies are fucking Caddyshack Happy. And I'll be like, that is a real human being. And when the odd moment when an actor really does that and gives their actual top four, I'm like, I fucking love this person. Yeah, I love this person because they're being legit. Like, Emma Stone is like, she's. Hers is. I'm pretty sure hers is perfect. It's like she was like, I fucking
E
love
A
Wally and finding. And I was like, yes, Wally's the best Pixar movie.
F
I think we are living Wally.
A
Dude.
C
We're getting there.
A
Hey, dude, chill out. It's. It's Friday.
C
Yeah, we're supposed to have fun.
A
Not depressing, but anyway, IMDb ranking system.
C
Well, like, sometimes, like a 6.5 on IMDb is actually a good movie.
A
Okay, Evan.
C
But it's like, it feels.
A
I can't believe you just said that number. I believe firmly with movies. 6.5 and higher, obviously. Good. Good to go. Like, if I look something up and I'm like, oh, I should. I'm going to watch this movie. If it's a 6.5, I will enjoy it.
C
Oh, yeah.
A
Below that, we start getting in a gray area. Unless it's comedy, because sometimes comedy just does not get the respect it deserves.
H
Yeah.
C
Like Celtic Pride. You ever see Celtic Pride?
A
Absolute blast.
C
Fucking great. Great comedy that, like, everybody shits on. And every time I watch that movie, I'm like, what? What are what?
A
Celtic Pride is great.
C
Dan Akroyd, Damon Wayne, incredible.
H
My.
A
My number one reference I always make is MacGruber. I believe MacGruber's like a 5.7. MacGruber should be a 9 point.
C
What a fucking great.
A
MacGruber is the most chaotically fun comedy of all time. I bet Hot Rod is Pro is below 6.52. And I'm like, those movies, TV is 7.5 and higher. And it's good, it's great. But I bring up IMDb to say what they do now that is very special is if you look up a movie on IMDb, it will tell you where it is streaming.
C
Yeah.
A
So instead of falling into the streaming spin zone where you're like, I'm just scrolling. And next thing you know, an hour goes by, I feel like you got to have the conversation of like, what are we in the mood for? What do we want to watch? You figure out the movie, then you look it up, find out where it's streaming, and then you open the app.
C
Yeah.
A
Because then you don't get in the day.
C
You don't get stuck.
A
Yeah.
C
I think that they should also, like, release good stuff on Blu Ray. Like, I would love for, like, if something's only available on Netflix or like Apple tv. And I'm like, I only want to watch that one fucking movie. I'm not going to sign up for a month of Apple TV. Yeah, fucking release it on Blu Ray. Take my $20.
D
Do you mean vinyls?
A
Back in music, he means DVDs, dude.
D
Do you mean a physical DVD?
C
Yeah, I mean a physical. A disc.
D
Do you have the means to play a dvd?
B
I do.
C
I have a Blu Ray player.
A
Are you surprised by that at all, Evan? Probably. You? I. Let me guess, you have a record player at home too.
C
I have a record player.
A
I have a v and a VCR.
C
1985 TV.
A
You have a VCR?
C
I have a VCR.
A
Come on.
C
I have a bunch. Yeah. Because at Christmas, this is what I do for Christmas.
A
Hold on, hold on, hold on. Here in la.
C
Yes. Let me explain it. At Christmas, I have a Christmas party called Old Timey Christmas and there's only VHS classic Christmas movies playing. Because I want it to feel like Christmas when you're a kid. So we have like all the old like Rankin and Bass claymations plan. Home Alone on vhs, the Santa Claus on vhs. Like records going cuz like flat screens in a living room kind of like ruin it for me. I'm like you're ruining the illusion of my old timey fun Christmas are now
A
hold on, are those VHS is playing just during the party or like do you wake up and be like this like a video store and you like put in.
C
No, I do not watch VHS on the reg.
A
Do you think that there is a notable difference between popping on Home Alone on Disney plus versus putting the VHS in?
C
Yes.
D
If you grew up, one works and the other one. The other one jumps in.
C
No, I'll tell you, it's. It's the, it's like the nostalgic warm feeling of CRT TV that makes you put you in that moat. Like sometimes a really high res movie is not the first way I watched it.
A
Yeah.
C
I mean that's watching it again the way I watched it when I was you know, 10.
F
Yeah.
C
Has that. And that's really specifically for Christmas. I do it.
E
Sure.
C
Like there, there are some movies you can only find on vhs.
A
I gotta say when we were in Milan for the Olympics that we fell in love with this pizza shop around the corner and they had one of those teeny little TVs that had the V, the VCR in the TV.
C
Yeah.
A
And they had a collection of like old school classic 90s action movies like Air Force One, Heat, Casino Siege. It was awesome. And I. It was cool. Like you'd put it in there was like kind of like the grainy shit you on.
B
Yeah.
A
So it's a school. This is cool.
F
Well that's, that's becoming a thing with my generation. They have these like bars, like the hi Fi bars obviously musically, but there's all these like the video stores are coming back. I know there's a bunch in L. A. There was some in Atlanta here.
C
And there's a bar too. There's a bars that have VHS players and like they're like dive bars. Yeah, it's like fun.
F
Yeah, it's a thing now and then the other thing too is that's a thing to have like it's a big thing on Tick Tock to get one of these old TVs and have like a kitchen TV and have it playing like that all the time. This is fully back.
A
It's okay, you're. We're talking vhs.
F
Yeah.
A
First movie that comes to mind when you think vhs, Evan. Dumb and Dumber Zach.
F
Vhs. First movie that comes to mind. I'm trying to remember the first movie I watched on vhs. I think it was Casino. I think it was Casino and then Casino Royale.
A
Great. Whoa. Crazy combination got stuck on the seat. Yeah. He was in the C section, Chris.
D
Teenage mutually.
A
Fuck you, dude. That's mine. You're such a fucking loser.
E
Two or one?
F
Two.
A
Yeah, mine's one. Okay. Mine's one.
D
And, you know, it's my second. The thing that comes to mind. Second.
A
Titanic. The two part.
D
Oh, that's a good answer, I think, is Cool Runnings.
E
Whoa.
C
Like, okay, for example, I'm on this Jim Carrey thing with, like, Ace Ventura. The. The VHS came with a Pet Detective card in it. And I wanted that fucking card so bad when I did, dude. Yes. It came with, like, you know, the card he has on the front, like, that came with it.
D
That is.
C
That's the kind of. You don't get anymore.
D
Yeah, correct. Dude. When I. When I'm fucking streaming.
F
Yeah.
D
Why aren't they mailing me Pet Detective cards?
A
Exactly.
F
We want to take this one step deeper.
A
Wait, hold on.
F
Yeah.
A
Will you send me the zoom link? Yeah, because I'm gonna send it to Tim, because I can already tell you we will talk about this forever, and I want to talk about this forever, but we got to bring our friend Tim on and we gotta. We got. We've got to talk some hockey before we get out of control.
F
Yeah, let me. I'll send it to you again. I was gonna say real quick ones while I'm sending you this link, though. I think if we want to go deeper on this, you know how, like, obviously vintage stuff is back, vintage movie apparels back, all that stuff. Are the people just yearning for physical media, like memorabilia attached to the things that they watch?
A
Dude, yes, absolutely. And, Evan, you're so right. Like, the. All that shit used to be so awesome. Remember when you'd, like. You'd go to a movie and there was, like, a little knickknack they'd give out? Or, like, you'd go to fucking McDonald's and there was, like, the fucking toys from.
C
We need to be getting Happy Meals, dude.
A
Evan. I remember so distinctly, I went to see Wild Wild west, starring Will Smith, Kevin Klein and Kenneth Branagh.
C
Are you talking about the sunglasses from Burger King?
A
Sunglasses from Burger King. I was, like, so desperate for those when those came out. And then also that movie is not inappropriate at all. None of that ages poorly. It's a perfect film. It's really fine.
C
It was pretty good.
A
Salma Hayek is absolutely drop dead gorgeous in that movie. It's undoing.
C
I rocked those sunglasses as a kid. And I was an overweight, like, chubby middle schooler with those sunglasses on.
A
But let me. Let me guess. Let me guess, though. Those sunglasses made you feel unbelievable. Did you find your airpod?
B
Yeah, I'm good.
A
Okay,
F
are we ready to bring Tim on?
A
Is Tim in?
F
Tim is in.
A
Let's get Timmy on.
F
All right, I'm gonna throw him on. Give me uno momentum. Oh, wait. Actually, give me two seconds here.
D
Take as much time as you need.
A
Take it right in here.
D
Can we turn the lights down, folks?
A
We're going to bring in our pal Tim Kalinowski. Timmy takes snapback sports. I think I can hear him. Tim, can you hear me?
F
You can't hear.
A
Oh, you can't hear me?
F
Yeah, not yet. Give me, like, two seconds.
E
Sorry.
C
I gave you a new thing so we'd get.
A
Man, this is. I don't think I've ever been more excited for an episode in my life based on where that conversation was going. Guys, we're going to get Tim in here for a little hockey talk, and then we're going to get right back to it and we're going to just keep chopping it up. We're going to. We're going to bring ocean here. Aaron, there's Tim. Tim, can you hear me, fellas?
G
I can't hear you guys yet.
A
Oh, wait, I can hear you. He can't hear us.
G
I can't hear you guys yet.
A
Hold on one second.
G
I don't know what I did. I don't know what you did.
F
They should be able to hear us now.
A
Tim, can you hear us now?
G
Still can't hear you guys? Really good start.
A
Still can't hear us. Still can't hear us.
G
Oh, no. I got you.
A
There he is. All right. We can hear you perfectly. Dude, what's going on, brother?
G
Nothing much. It's. Yeah, Free. Free Fall Friday, off the Rails Friday, whatever you want to call it. I got a good vibe, man. I got a good vibe.
A
Wow. That is so special. We were just talking about VHS and the old days. I got the question for you. When you think about vhs, what is the first movie that comes to mind?
G
Yeah, so I was cheating because I got to watch you guys.
A
That's okay.
G
I was thinking, but my dad had the, like, Alien trilogy on vhs.
A
And really good answer.
G
And they were like, he had him in the, you know, in the trilogy. Little box in of itself. And I remember thinking the covers were so scary, dude. Like, I don't even go near it. Terrifying.
D
Yeah, yeah. Don't open it. Don't open it.
A
What's crazy, Tim? First of all, fantastic answer. We. Our dad had like a little cupboard in our living room that all the VHS were in. And you bet your ass Alien was in there. And you are right, sir. The COVID of Alien was fucking horrifying.
D
Yeah.
A
And I was like, I will never watch that movie. And then when I was 8, he was like, you bet your ass you will. And it scarred me for life, dude.
D
However, I actually, this is about to incriminate my dad. I don't want my dad to go to jail.
A
Send him to jail.
D
Did I not say that?
A
Send him to jail, dude.
D
When we, when we were little, dude, my. My dad would go to the video store, which was like people's video.
A
Yeah.
D
Because we didn't have a Blockbuster near us. We'd go to the video store and then my dad would put in the. The VHS that we rented. We'd watch it, but then he would also put a blank VHS in. In the. In the VCR next to it. And yeah, he would pirate movies. We had a whole drawer, Tim. Of pirated.
A
I. I was like, what are you getting at? And now I'm remembering.
D
And he would put a little, like, piece of white, you know, tape on it and just write like, alien.
F
Yeah.
D
You know, so like we had every movie ever.
A
He did pirate movies, but I didn't
D
even see the covers because I just saw the white tape. That's all we ever had.
A
And now our dad's in jail.
D
He's going to now the FBI.
A
Tim, are you in Boston right now?
G
Yeah. Right. Right outside Boston. Yeah. I do the thing with those. From Boston. Not, you know, north of Boston.
A
Yeah, dude, I. Trust me.
D
Where exactly, Tim.
G
Marblehead. Little coastal town.
A
Yes, dude. Well, I mean, we're from York beach, dude. So we. We're kind of like a suburb of Boston as well. So it's a. It's a. It's a similar vibe.
G
And Dan, did you. Did you go to Andover?
A
Yeah, buddy. And he went to Exeter. So you're in good company.
G
Yeah, I got my little Exeter mug right here.
D
I have that mug too, dude.
A
All right, so we. We want. We're going to get all into snapback sports and, and the takes and all that, but what? Give us like a quick rundown Of. Of what you're up to, like all your sports takes, all your hockey knowledge and are you pulling for anyone in these playoffs or are you just enjoying the ride?
G
I guess I'm just enjoying the ride. I just want more games. I want everything to go the distance for us. It's funny, at Snapback, the thesis is to find the best experience in sports. So college football is our main thing during the fall because you can keep exploring that forever and never. You can go Division 3, you can go FCS. So that's super fun. You can never really run out. But the hockey stu, like, I'm a hockey guy and when I first joined Snapback, I thought I was going have to drop my hockey. Like, I just assumed, you know, football is king, whatever. And so I grew up a huge hockey fan, played hockey, and the first thing I pitched last year was Four Nations. And so the bosses were like, oh, you know. And I was like, this is. I think this is going to be a big deal because remember, we all were kind of like, yeah, what's the vibe going to be? Are they going to go balls to the wall? And so I wanted to go to that game in Montreal, but it was like kind of too late. We couldn't make it. But then, you know, the second they dropped the mitts in that first 10 seconds, the bosses were like, you're going to the fucking final. So why weren't. Why weren't we there? I'm like, yeah, no shit, guys. Welcome.
A
Dude, that is so we.
D
You're.
A
You're absolutely right. We had the same. I mean, like, we went. We. We kind of blew the whole thing out, but we had the same conversations with our bosses where they were like, what is this? Is this going to be cool? And we were like, this is going to be so huge for the sport. You guys don't. And like, everyone was kind of like, ah, yeah, whatever. Same exact reaction. It was like we were getting blown up with texts from our friends being like, is anyone watching Four Nations? And we were in Bell center. And I was like, I'm here, pal. Like, I'm in the 12th row. This is the most insane thing of all time.
G
It was. It was awesome. And then like from there they were like, not that they weren't hockey fans, but, you know, maybe they had gone away or, you know, but they were like all in. And then, you know, there was something about. Then we did like a mini little playoff tour after that and actually saw you guys in Edmonton. Remember that?
A
Yes, sir.
G
Ran into you guys there at the at the mall. So then we just kind of like. It's so weird. The hockey. Like, the hockey market for content seems to be, like, so underserved.
A
Yeah.
G
In many ways. Like, we go to a college football weekend and, you know, we go to Nebraska and we get a facility tour. We talk to the quarterback, whatever. And then like. Like, okay, ye. Well, at 1:30 the next group of YouTubers are coming in. And then at 12:30, you know, ESPN is coming in, so see you later. And then the hockey stuff, it's like, you know, you seem like you're the only show there at times, and so I love it.
A
It's so true, man. What is the coolest thing you've been to? It doesn't need to be hockey, like, because I love how snapback's like, looking for the coolest experience.
D
Yes.
A
What is the Actually give me all time coolest. And then most surprising coolest because, like, I love that you're doing like, D3 football like that too.
G
The. So this year, the national championship for football. Seeing Indiana win was super cool. And we were on the sidelines. Nice. You know, not a big deal. Yeah. And. And Mendoza made that run like 20 y. Like, I was on the goal line pretty much when he made that run.
D
Yeah.
G
And I was standing next to Ray Lewis and Michael Phelps, which, like, you know, the three of us, the greatest group of athletes of all time, the
D
three best friends that anyone's ever had. Yeah.
A
What a combo.
G
Yeah. So. So that was. That was crazy just to be like, you know. And two, I'd been to national championships and stuff. And like, to see Ohio State win again or Alabama, it's like. Okay. Yeah, yeah. But like, to be there going. I will forever say that I watched Indiana, freaking Indiana win a national championship two feet in front of me. That was super special and so cool. Yeah. It's surprising. I don't know if there's too many surprises. I'm kind of. I guess I'm kind of like, desensitized to it all. But we. We went to Brookings, South Dakota, for South Dakota State, and that was like, one of the best trips we've ever had. It was exactly like, out of a postcard. Like, there's one street of, like, the mom and Pop diner. Like, you could go breakfast, lunch, dinner, same place.
A
Yeah.
G
And then three bars, like, and that's all I need.
D
Yep. And like, the diners say, like, they have signs up in the window. That's like, closed at the game.
A
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. I think that's a Good, surprising answer. Like, I would have not expected South Dakota would have such a sick vibe, but that's a blast. I love that.
D
Sick.
G
And it's. It's funny too, because, like, we. We've figured it out, like, the big thing. Like, the algorithms take care of so much of the legwork, like, these days. Like, it.
E
We.
H
You.
G
You're gonna go to South Dakota. So you start talking about it on Tuesday, Wednesday, and then you show up Thursday, and the people there, I mean, the population's like, Ah, 2000, whatever. And then by the time you're there, people think you're freaking Pat McAfee. They're like, I've been seeing you on my. On my feed, on my thing. They're like. They're like, how'd you get there? Like, how are you on my feet? I'm like, well, are you interested in South Dakota State football? They're like, yeah. I'm like, well, that. I was talking about South Dakota State.
D
Yeah.
G
So, yeah, that.
A
It's like, do you know, competition? Do you know how an algorithm works? Because I promise you, I'm at the tip top of it right now. That's unbelievable. So what have you been doing during the. The Stanley cup playoffs here other than, you know, just watching and enjoying?
G
Yeah, I did. So. I did. I've been, I don't know, maybe 10 games so far in the Stanley cup playoffs. So we just keep kind of like, build it, you know, we did like a mini tour. I went to five games in eight days. We did, like. So I've just. I've just been traveling like crazy. And again, the. It's working. Like, the numbers are doing well, the YouTube is doing well. So then I come, like, we. We get off of a trip, and the boss is like, you know what? People are talking about Anaheim. Should we go to Anaheim? Like, dude, I have nothing going on. Yeah, let's go to Anaheim, you know,
A
so that's been the deal, dude. Honda, pretty sick vibe, right? I was gonna say, like, being here on the west coast, like, we always love boosting up some of the west and Southern teams and their arenas. And, like, Honda is a vibe.
G
You. I feel so conflicted at times because, like, I want to give them love, but I also don't want it to be like, the performative. Like, hockey can exist here. Like, of course it can exist there. Like, yeah, if you, like, what player wouldn't want to live in Southern Cal? I guess Trevor Z. Kristen didn't enjoy
A
it, but, you know, seasonal depression, dude,
G
you know what I mean? Like, are you kidding me? Like, who wouldn't want that to be their lifestyle? So I feel like, you know, we're kind of over that in a sense. Like, I hate having to do this. Like, you know, this hockey, like, land recognition, that's, like, it can exist in different climates. Like, yeah, look at every Stanley cup winner the last whatever amount of years, and it seems like it will continue with Carolina or Vegas. Right. Like, that's. That's where guys want to play.
D
Yeah, yeah, exactly. We were just talking about that.
A
Yeah, I mean, it is. That's spot on, Tim.
D
I saw you.
B
We.
D
We feel this, too, in a big way where you're like, it's hard to be a fan of the team, the team you grew up rooting for, just because you do this job and, you know, you're. You're. You love the game.
A
Right?
D
But I saw that you said your first words were Joe Sakic, which is incredible.
G
And. Yep.
D
I just. I wanted to know you're. About your abs origin, and if deep down somewhere, it is still devastating to see them get swept by Vegas in the Western Conference finals.
G
Yeah, it's. So I was born in Vail, and we lived there for, like, three years, but that was during the height of, you know, their run. You know, Ray Bork. Oh, my God, my dad's like, you. You were, you know, with the. With the mini sticks as rape as they handed the cup to Ray Bourke. Like, all this. So I don't. I don't really remember any of it, but I did have this little joke, Joe Sakic, like, figurine. So I just knew, like, I would say, like, Patrick. I would say Patrick Waugh, Joe Sakic. Like, that's all I would just run around and say, Joe Sakic. Joe Sakic. And my dad had season tickets to the Rockies, avs, and Broncos back when, like, that was, like, an affordable endeavor. And so when we moved though, that was, like, you know, early 2000s. You had to have, like, the real center ice package. So my dad kind of fell out of the avalanche thing, and so it was. It was Bruins, I guess. But like I always say, it's like, I grew up a Bruins fan, but I'm such a loser. Like, I. I always thought that I would be, like, a real journalist, like, writing column. I thought I was gonna be Elliot Friedman. Yeah. So in, like, when I was 14, you know, like, not, like, really. Yeah.
D
Everyone else, dude.
A
Honestly, Tim, that's sick. I, like, good for you that you knew that. So, like, you didn't go through that brutal realization of being a hockey player and being like, fuck, I'm not gonna play forever what I do now at 14. You were like, dude, I'm gonna be a fucking journo. This is great.
G
I was like. I was like, I gotta play games in the show just so I can be on tv, you know? That's the only reason I was looking to extend the career.
E
Yeah.
G
Didn't play in the show, but so I was like, okay, what's the other route again? The Elliot Freeman route. So I kind of, like, had thought you had to, like, I. I thought I had to beat out of me. My, like, fandom.
F
Yeah.
G
Now, that's so different. Like, so many of the guys on, you know, that we see on national tv, like, you will say, hey, I'm a group of Devils fans. So, like, it's totally changed now. But I thought I had to lose that. So I kind of trained myself to kind of lose a lot of the Boston fandom. It also helps to see your. All your teams win. Right. By the time you're, like, 16, so. So then. But I. I root for the Bruins just because I want them to continue to go. Go on runs because it's more fun when my buddies are all in it for a playoff run. There's nothing better than when your life becomes when the team's playing and when the team's not playing.
A
Yeah.
G
That's the best part.
E
Yeah.
A
So true.
D
Oh, my God. That is the most real thing ever. And, dude, I think it's cool, too. Obviously, you cover everything. You're not just, like, a local thing. But I've heard, like, Mike Reese, like, Patriots beat writers, be like, I got. I became a mainstream name because the Pats were so good.
E
Yeah.
D
You know, so it's actually cool. I actually think it's beneficial when your local teams are good, when you're doing this job because you're, like, sick. I'm in the mixer here.
A
Yeah.
G
100%. And I am a miserable prick. Who does. Who does. Like, when it gets scandalous and the teams are, like, in a rut or losing, like, it's so, like, I enjoy bashing the Red Sox right now. Like, it's so fun. Like, I. I can't help myself. I don't realize. I don't think of myself as. As a. Until I leave Massachusetts. And then you go somewhere else, and they're like, oh, well, Fenway park school. I'm like, fuck Fenway Park. Fuck the Red Sox. Fuck everything. And they're like, wait, what?
A
Dude, that is so Real. We were actually, we were watching the game last night and fucking. Who was it? Weissert came in and walked. Fucking two straight guys, loaded the bases and then gave up a grand slam to Acuna. And we were like, we were hooting and hollering. We were like, great fucking job, buddy. Way to go. It's like, that's more active that I've been watching a Red Sox game than I have all season, and it was something bad. So it's just like, so real. It's such a brutal feeling.
G
I'm not afraid to say that. I, I, I like to just feel emotions. Whether it's the, or the lowest. I just like to feel.
A
Dude, Tim, we, I think the most excited we get about hockey. Like, we always, like, you've seen it with, like, we'll get on Twitter, we'll get on the Instagram, and we start talking about drama season. And it's like, whenever drama is going on and obviously, hopefully not anything really bad, but, like, trade talks or there's turmoil in a locker room, I'm always like, yes, feed me. This is, this is amazing right now. I can't, I cannot see enough Edmonton Oilers trade rumors because I'm like, yes, dude, Give me, let me see it. Let's go.
G
Put it. I put it like this because I'm obsessed with the Maple Leafs, right? Like, I listen to Kipper and Borney every day. Like, I, I'm, I read the Toronto Star, the Sun. Like, I, I love. I'm obsessed with the theater of the Toronto Maple Leafs. And you know, when you get in the conversation of, like, you know, the media too hard on them, like, no one wants to play there all this, I, I just like to think I go in silo of the NHL. It's like, oh, my God, the, the torturous Toronto media think about, like, it's not like Stephen A. Smith leads first take with the Toronto Maple Leafs and Austin Matthews, like, the end in our little scope. It's so tiny. Think of it like, think of the NFL. Think of, like, how big like, Dak Prescott trade rumors get or something like that where, like, we're like, actually ignites entire North America. Like, you know what I mean? It's so funny because it's like they're so mean, they're so tough. And it's like, again, it's just like our little patch here. It's like our little, you know, it's like a. It's a needle point.
D
Oh, it's stunning. How small hockey.
A
Did you see the sun article that came out the other day about that was like, Mitch Martyr can't stop thinking about the. The Maple Leafs or what. Like, it was like talking about him, like, fist pumping, going to the cup. And they're like, he's making about Toronto. And I was like, this is it. Feels it read like an Onion article.
G
I asked someone to. I asked someone to buy me a hard copy of it and send it.
D
That is amazing.
A
Dude, can I frame this, please? And memorialize it forever.
D
They did that epic one after. After the Olympics with Matthews, remember? Yeah, it was like, Matt, like our captain puts partying over playoffs.
A
Yeah. Jesus Christ. Do you. Is. Would you say hockey is your favorite sport?
G
Yes. College football is close, but yeah, hockey is. It's also just because I think just the hockey community is so easy. Like, you know, there's so many guys, it doesn't matter what level you played, where you played. Like, you can smell a hockey guy from, you know, a mile away. Like, I always joke with my. My buddies, we. We go to the bar and that girl came up and they're like, oh, like hockey players. My buddy's like, dude, how did they know? I'm like five backwards hats and Lululemon, man. Like, would you.
D
Yeah, yeah, yeah. So holy. Yeah.
A
It's like, truly, we're cartoon characters who wear the same outfit every episode. It's unbelievable.
D
Tim, even though you're not, you know, officially a Bruins fan or anything, you grew up in that Boston area, so it was easy to pick those big four teams, right? Like Celtics, Bruins, Sox, Pat. But college football also, growing up in New England, that's not really big, right? Like, that was such a new thing as. As we were growing up and getting to college and stuff. Do you have a college football team you gravitate towards or do you really just. Just love the whole scope?
G
Yeah. So my mom played tennis at Clemson. Clemson. Grew up Clemson fandom, all that. And so that is. That is the last thing that I really will be a die hard fan over and not be like, not be able to function on a game day, ruin, ruin a week, ruin a month, ruin a year. And in elation on the other side. So, like, yeah, the. The Clemson thing to me is that. That's my. That would be my identity. Probably first is like, Tim Clemson.
D
Okay, That's.
A
I love Sick.
D
Yeah. Oh, dude.
A
I mean, you hate that.
D
Well, yeah, but it's like Chris is a Duke guy, so I went to. Yeah. So it's like, there's a lot of ACC action, but we. We have of our dear buddies Their wives went there, so, like, they're. I got a big Clemson thing in my orbit, you know? But you're so right, dude. It is awesome just having a. Having a competitive college football team because it just makes the fall. It's so good, dude. Saturdays is all time.
G
I'm addicted to, like, one thing still, and it's just, like, the anxiety before a big game.
D
Yeah.
G
Like, there is. There is nothing that gets me like that. Like, I. I coached high school hockey for a little bit as an assistant for, you know, a couple years ago, and, like, just walking onto the bench, like, even. Even, like, even in our. Like, no one's going anywhere. No one's playing anywhere. But you go. You walk out to that bench packed student section.
D
Yeah.
G
Fellas are taking more mes, and I'm like, I literally think I'm Marty St. Louis. I got suit on, chomping the gum. I'm like, this is doing Wolf of Wall Street.
A
God bless you. I. I mean, that sounds awesome. I feel like I've lost the fire of fandom. Like, I talk all the time on the show of, like, fandom is so fucking insane and psychotic now. And there's a part of me that's like. I think I emptied the tank too early in my life. And now, like, when I think about getting fired, it's like, the Red Sox, obviously, they suck right now, but when something comes on that I love, I'm like, I'm tired, boss. I got nothing in me. But speaking. Speaking of the playoffs or no, go, go, go.
G
Yeah, I was gonna say real quick. I tell my. I tell my Leafs friends all the time that they're like, you know, oh, my God, the suffering that this. I go, it is going to be so great. Like, you will never, like, cover or be intrigued in a team at a better time.
A
Yeah.
G
That, like, I. Again, I think there's a part of, like, when the Cubs finally won, when the Red Sox kind of won, that it was like, a lot of things changed. Like, Benway used to be borderline dangerous, and now people are like, I'm gonna wear my Yankees jersey to Fenway. Do you think I'll be okay? I'm like, it's a joke, dude. It's legit tourist club. Go wear your.
D
Yeah, that's actually a.
A
It's a very good point.
D
Yeah. Because the Leafs fans want that cup so bad, and. And when they get it, someday, they will enjoy it. It'll be awesome. I mean, trust me, winning is sick.
A
Leafs games are already a country, country club. It's like, they're so expensive. And the lower bowl certainly is like a business conference. But you're so right saying, enjoy the
G
chase, enjoy the tease. Yes, we always. Right, guys.
F
Take.
A
We want to take.
D
That's all.
G
Chase. Enjoy the chase.
A
If Edmonton ever gets it, I mean, God, like you said, you were there, we met you there.
D
Enjoy it, dude. Well.
A
Well, it's.
D
It's.
A
I'm talking like, the. There is still that rabid dog vibe at Rogers and in Edmonton. And if and when they get their cup with Conor, it will. It will be different. It'll be. It'll be relaxed. It won't be psycho anymore. And I totally. I actually forgot about that. Like, when we were young, going to Sox games at Fenway, it was like, it was dangerous. Like, it was hardcore, like, gritty Boston fans. And then we won a few World Series and everyone was just like, oh, yeah. Now it's like a ton of. Of rich ass people here and we got.
G
It's date night. It's date night.
A
It is.
E
Yeah.
A
A lot of pink hats. It's true. Unbelievable.
D
Our uncle is a huge socks guy. He calls it Disneyland north because he's like, yes, go to your amusement park.
G
There's a great video of this Liverpool guy, like, years ago talking about how Liverpool changed. And he's like, we're just a tortoise club. It's just a tortoise.
A
I know the exact video you're talking about. It's funny.
G
He's like. He's like, you come here with your selfie stick, have a pint, then you leave at the half. And I'm like, that is literally family.
A
Yes.
G
Play Sweet Caroline. Take your picture.
A
All right, get Tim. Quick as we wrap up here, getting into the Stanley cup playoffs here, A, do you think Montreal has a chance or are they out of gas? And then B, do you think either of these teams can take down Vegas?
G
I fully think Montreal is out of gas. The biggest thing I keep pointing to with people going, how is this happening? Like, I don't understand. I just keep pulling up the time on ice and Montreal just can't play. They cannot play their full roster. Like, you just go, you know, you look at, like, it was like Doc and Texier and a couple of their other defensemen. They're under like eight minutes in game four. You know, it just. They. They do not have the horses and that. That's okay. They're still a little. They're ahead of schedule, I would say, in their. In their ascension. So in Carolina, they just come at you Every guy is. Everyone plays 17 minutes and aside from their defenseman, but 17 minutes of their best effort. And that's where you look at to me like a Hudson turnover in overtime. I'm not saying, oh my God, well, you know, Hudson, what a butcher. I'm like, that guy's just worn down. He's. They're on the ice the whole game and he's taken hits and it just, I think it just wore on them. So they need, unfortunately just, they're, they're out of gas and they, they don't have the horses. And then in terms of the Stanley cup final outlook, I think that Carolina can certainly beat Vegas. They'll be, they'll be favored. And yeah, I mean Vegas, Vegas right now, the way that they set up that new. They're going to, they dared Colorado to dump and go get it. Carolina is okay with that. So I think that that will be, you know, immovable force object, whatever the saying is that it'll be an exciting one.
A
I think you're right, man. And it's like, listen, Carolina, we've been talking about the ghosts exist of the Eastern Conference final and they got to finish the job. I think they very much should finish the job tonight because like, you don't even want to give this a chance of getting a little sticky. But if they do win, I think people are sleeping on Carolina's chances. Like, I think everyone's kind of like, oh yeah, whatever, Carolina, Vegas beat Colorado. No one's going to beat them. I think Carolina is going to put up a really good fight. I really do.
D
I mean, those that have been the two best goalies. Right.
F
Yeah.
D
The playoffs so far. So that's, you know, that's the differ. That's the difference maker.
G
I just want to see. I mean, sure, they dropped that Game 1 to Montreal, but I think in the room they could chalk that up as the rust. Right. Yeah, I want them to, I want to see what it looks like when they actually have their back against the wall. Because if you think about it, it's really been two months without any test. So you know what happens when Vegas frustrates the hell out of you.
A
Right.
G
So that's the only kind of thing. And Freddie has his demons. Like when does Freddy have to really, really, you know, protect a one goal lead or stand on his head in a tight game? Like that will be the thing for me that is that just not that they can't do it. It's just kind of been a while since you've been tested.
A
So true. Man, so true.
D
No, excellent point. I think going down 10 was at least something, but 100. Dude, there has been no stress, no stress in that room for a long time. Even, Even in the playoff chase in the Met. Yeah, it was not a conversation.
A
I mean, there was definitely stress after game one of this.
D
That was, that was not nothing.
A
Yeah, like, but you know, they, but
G
you know, they can chalk that up in the room to like, hey, we, we've been off. Right? Like, at least there was an explanation.
A
Absolutely. That's, that's for sure true. And like, yeah, if they win tonight, I mean, they're probably going like, dude, that was a joke for us. Like, we were fine. Which is kind of crazy to think about. All right, dude, where. Tell everyone where they can find you. What, what you're doing. And also, like, are we gonna see you at the final?
G
Yes, we're going to. I'm going to game one.
A
Yeah.
E
All right.
A
We will see you there's.
G
Gonna be there.
A
Yeah, we'll be there. We'll be there for sure. We'll, We'll. We'll get you on again and we'll, we'll. We'll chop it up. But, but tell everyone where they can find you and what you're doing for the next few weeks here.
G
So you can Find me Timmy Cal12 on Twitter, Timmy takes on Instagram, Timmy K, I think on TikTok, and then snapback sports all across that as well. That's our YouTube channel. You know, like, subscribe all that really fun stuff. And after game one, I am, I'm kind of. I'm kind of doing summer hours. Mike. We.
D
We are. Okay.
G
We have someone else taking over World cup and I'm just gonna go play golf and tennis and, you know, hopefully get down to a single digit cap by August. And then college football.
A
There we go. Dude, are you not a footy guy? Are you not going to dial into the World cup at all?
G
I. I kind of care. I don't really. I need to just go away. I've been. Oh, man, I did 110,000 miles this past calendar year. 40 weekends on the road. My kids. I'm on fumes. I need to go away.
A
We can relate. We can relate. You deserve it. Like, you just get on the golf course and unplug for a bit. For sure. But we will, we will see you in likely Carolina, but we'll see. But dude, thank you for popping on. We got to get you on here more often, especially during this, this final run here. But it's great to chat with you, dude. We'll chop it up again soon.
G
You guys are great. I appreciate it. I do nothing. I have zero things going on, so let's make it a habit.
A
Let's do it. I love it, man. All right, we'll talk to you soon.
G
Peace, guys. Thank you.
D
Later, brother.
F
Later.
A
That is insane travel.
D
Oh, my God.
A
I thought we traveled a lot. Tim actually might have us be.
D
Oh, he does, bro. He does.
A
Just say 40 week, 40 weekends. Good Lord almighty, what a legend. That has been a long time coming. I've been. We. Obviously, as Tim said, we met in Edmonton and we've just been, like, going back and forth, chatting on Twitter forever. And I. He's. So if you're not following Tim on Twitter, he just said, let me make sure I got it right. But, I mean, you could just, like, look at. Look up his name. You'll find him on Twitter. But he's so funny on Twitter. And, like, the way he. The way he gives it to, like, he'll. He'll. He had one the other day. It was like, he said something about the game and someone was like, oh, that's not how hockey works. And he just replied with the classic, like. Like, oh, thanks, man. I'm unfamiliar with hockey. I'm actually just new to the sport. It's just, like, such a good chirp. It's so fucking funny. I absolutely love it. But he's the man. We're going to get him on more, all right. We're going to bring on our dear friend Zach. You ready? Aaron is. Aaron Ambrose is gonna. Yeah, I just. I just told her to pop in. So Aaron will be popping in. We're gonna bring in Aaron right now. Walter Cup. Walter, here's a question. Do you think Aaron is hungover?
D
I hope that she. I texted her. I remember texting after they won, and we were talking in the morning, and I was like, I hope you haven't slept a wink. And I hope she hasn't slept since still. I hope she's on a generational bender.
A
I. She. So, one thing I'm. I will. We'll see if we can even talk about it, but there. There's a chance Aaron's on a new team here next year.
D
Oh, okay.
A
No, no. People knew. People know that. Like, that's. That's not. We're not breaking any news, but I can't imagine there's been a very. A lot of thought process.
D
Haven't got into the. Into the training.
A
Yeah, dude, we're just celebrating right now, dude.
D
You got to enjoy. You got to enjoy. There's the Panthers last year. Didn't skate till late August, you know.
A
Yeah. That was so funny when we had Benny on and he was like, dude, I. I haven't thought about putting skates on.
D
Yeah.
A
In weeks.
D
He's like, you just rip it up, dude. And the city is probably.
A
I'm ready.
D
That's actually what I'm most.
A
Never been more ready about. Probably an absolute zombie transit. Yeah. Aaron, can you hear us?
H
I can hear you guys. Can you hear me?
A
Yeah. You're perfect.
E
Wow.
D
That went great.
A
You look so professional right now. I'm upset. I thought we were gonna get a party, Aaron, but you just look like a million bucks.
H
Do you hear my voice? I don't have a voice.
A
Wow. This is incredible. Have you been on a generational run?
H
Yeah. This is an all timer for me. I think I'm not well. I'm not well.
D
What could be. Give me the 24 hours following the wind. Like, what. Tell me everything that happened minute by minute.
H
So in the dressing room, actually, we were on the ice forever. Like.
A
Yeah. I was gonna say you were on there for a long time and I
H
think the league is probably gonna change that up because we were able to get beers on the ice and I think that's why we were on the ice for so long.
D
Yeah.
H
Into the dressing room, had some media and stuff to do and then went back to the hotel and we had like a big conference room with the hotel and family and friends were there. And then bus was at 9am the next day.
D
Come on.
H
Yeah.
A
Did you. Did you sleep?
D
No way.
H
Yes, I did sleep. I. That is one thing. Like, I'm pretty good. But if like it hits two, like two is my cap. I can't do it after that.
A
Yeah.
H
I'm miserable.
A
Yeah.
C
I.
H
And then. And then we all took like the afternoon and then we went to a. A bar here in Montreal to watch game one of the series. It was this random. It's called Bruno Sports Bar. And it like it was phenomenal. We were dancing on tables after they won. Like, it was a riot.
D
That is shout out with Bruno's.
A
Looks like we got to go to Bruno's. That's unbelievable.
H
I had never heard of the place before. Never. And they wanted us there and they. They treated us well.
A
There you go. It's fantastic. You're. You know what? You're. I am hearing it in the voice now. You've definitely. You've been ripping. It's a little raspy. That was a pretty Wild playoff run. Obviously we were talking throughout the whole thing, but like, there were definitely a couple of tests there of I don't think so much the team. Cause I just felt like you guys had it the whole time. But they were definitely tests of like mental fortitude, of like. All right, don't panic here. Let's keep going. What were some of the hardest games for you guys going through this run?
H
I think Game 2 against Minnesota because we lose Game 1 in overtime and it's like, oh, like, is this gonna happen again?
A
Yep.
H
And then kind of to bounce back when. And that was the triple ot, I think.
A
Yes.
D
Yeah.
H
So like, huge. And you say it every time, like OT can go either way.
A
Yeah.
H
So to get that go to Minnesota even was huge. And then obviously game five Minnesota, like game four, they came out on fire and it was like we didn't really know what to do. But game five was, I thought, awesome. And then again, like the first two games against Ottawa both go to overtime. And to get those done early in overtime, I also think is pretty key.
A
Oh my God, huge. There's at some point as you're having success through those ots, when you go to OT again, do you feel a little bit better or is it every time ot, you're like, give me a fucking break. Get me out of here.
H
Well, I think like a little bit of both. I think we've had so many ots, like the amount of OT in our league every year in playoffs is insane. Insane.
E
Yes.
H
Like we. I look at the last three years and almost every game has gone into ot or at least is a one goal game. And when we tied it up, game two, or was it game one against Ottawa with two seconds left, it was like, well, let's go to ot. Let's do it again. And Ottawa did it to us last year. They tied it up with like less than 10 seconds to go. And that was our quadruple overtime game against then. So I was kind of happy that like it wasn't a double digit OT kind of night and it was an early one, so.
A
Yeah.
D
Because Aaron, I agree, if you don't score really early, it starts to feel like it's going to be four, you know, like if you don't get that quick goal, you're like, come on, God damn it. Yeah, it's such a nightmare.
A
What was the.
H
I know they say, sorry.
D
No, you keep going.
H
I was gonna say, they say, like, it's either a goal in the first five or the last five. And I feel like it's like, no, it's either goal in the first five or it's the fifth. Overtime.
A
Yeah, correct.
D
That is exactly how it really is. What was the. What was the chatter like after Game 3 versus Ottawa?
H
For me, personally, I felt like anybody I talked to, I was like, guys, I actually think this was a good thing for us. I think we needed, like, nobody expected it to be a sweep. Like, we went in there and like, yeah, it would be lovely to get a sweep, but, like, Ottawa finds ways to win games, and it was like, it wasn't going to be easy. And I said, like, we had the lead for about 10 minutes in the third period, and I don't think we took our foot off the gas. But you saw Ottawa push. Yeah. So I think it was good for us to learn kind of how to play with that lead and how to find a way to do it better in game four, which obviously we did in potting quite a few big goals in the third.
D
Oh, my God. Yeah. Massive. Because it's so weird like, this. A series can swing with just that momentum, right? And to be able to have a group that can go, listen, it's fine. Learn from this and keep going is so key because it's like, you blink otherwise, and now you're in a. In a Game 5 situation, which is a nightmare.
H
I was talking about it watching the ADS game four. I was like, I don't know if personally momentum is a thing, game to game. I think there's momentum in a game.
D
Okay.
H
But for me, I sit there and I'm like, okay, so we just have to win a hockey game. And like, for me, after losing game three, I'm like, well, we're not, like, we're not gonna lose three in a row. I don't know if we lost. I think we might have lost three in a row this year once, maybe. But it's like, we're gonna find a way to win a hockey game. Like, yeah, for me, it just doesn't go game to game. But that's my personal opinion.
D
I like that.
A
I like that take.
D
Like I do as a fan, I get stuck in it where I'm like, oh, no, 100 this matters. Like, as soon as you lose one on at home, I'm like, oh, my God, now they're buzzing. When they go back, I think all of that stuff goes into it. But I would say even talking to some of the Panthers guys two years ago when they were up 30 in the final member, and I was like, oh, my God, were you tweaking in Game 7. And they were like, no, it was just, like, just another home game. Just win the game. And I was like, okay, good point.
A
So I think the most, like, I
H
think there's so much outside noise about it.
A
Y.
H
You sit there and you go into the dressing room and you're like, okay, so what happened last game? It's your learning. It's time to learn from it. If you lost, you learn from it. If you won, you learn from it. And what works. So it's like, it's not like I go into the dressing room in between the second and third, and I'm like, oh, my gosh, they still have so much momentum because they came back and scored two goals in the last five minutes in Game 3. Like, no, it's gone. It's white goldfish.
D
Yes. Yes, yes.
A
One of my favorite things about this and, like, talking to you after you won and seeing how pumped you were and, like, watching the games, being invested in it. We saw it with four nations where it was, you know, remember we were talking. It's like, let's see how this is going to be. Are they going to be fired up about it? The coolest thing about the Walter cup is, like, this is only the third one. But it doesn't fucking matter. Like, you guys were so dialed in and locked in. I mean, you yourself are playing through multiple injuries like so many of the other gals on the ice. And it's like, how can you try to explain how unbelievable it is that it's like, this league shows up. We've got this cup that is, you know, Minnesota, Minnesota now you guys. But the desire to win it is, like, through the roof. Like, it feels like this has been a thing that's been around for 100 years.
H
Like, it's like, you want Walter. Like, yeah. And it's like, not that we haven't. But we haven't had that. Like. Like, you even look. I think the biggest comparison to me is going through all centralization, going to Beijing. Like, you were with that group the whole year. So now, like, since college, I hadn't had a group to work with towards a championship other than, like, Beijing. Because this year's Olympics were different. We weren't together as a group the whole time. So to be with this group the whole year and be like, no, at the end of the day, it's Walter that we want. Like, Walter is. Walter is our Lord Stanley. Like, that is Lord Walter. And it's just so surreal to actually be like, no, like, I am at champion now.
D
Yeah, all the swag, all that gear.
A
Well, it's. It's like we, we, you and I talked about it. It's like you guys were so solid all year and how, I mean, I know you've had. We don't need to revisit February, but there, there's been some amazing wins and some tough losses in your career. This was an awesome one. That's like, it felt to me at least. And I'm curious what you thought. All season, it felt like this was a team that could win this cup. So to then go and do it, that must feel unbelievable.
H
Yeah, it's almost like, I don't want to say a relief, but, like, you're just trying so hard. And I think even more like we talked about it as a group, like, winning round one was so big for us because we hadn't done it yet. But, like, my big thing was I was like, throughout the first series, everybody, like, we kept saying, like, six more wins, five more wins. And I'm like, okay, I like that. But I'm also sitting here reading like, we gotta get through Minnesota. Like, yeah, yeah, think about the next three wins. If you don't get three wins first. But I do think the whole year, like, it was like, everything is building to Walter. So how do we find a way to get to Walter? And obviously had to go through very good Minnesota team to do that. But once we got through Minnesota, and it wasn't that we didn't think Boston or Ottawa were going to be like hard, hard matchups and hard games. It was just for us as a group. It was like, okay, we did that step. Now it's on to Walter and there's three games to go, three wins to do it.
D
Yeah, that's awesome. And Aaron, I would. I want your take now because a lot of times when we do the golf tournament, for example, we'll ask guys, Hell yes, you come to this one.
A
But we'll ask, you've been playing too. You're getting into it. We gotta get you to this one for sure.
D
But we'll ask the guys, Stanley cup or gold medal, you know, like, what. What would be bigger? And I was actually kind of surprised how, how split the answers were and what matters. So are you at all surprised? You don't even have to tell me which ranks higher in your power rankings of all your epic wins, but are you surprised how high this ranks? Was that. Was that a shock or were you like, no, this was always something I, you know, I put up in that upper echelon.
H
I'm not surprised. But I do think the one thing with Walter is Walter's only three years old.
D
Yeah.
H
Like, I think States actually had a great quote about it. And she was like, I, I can't even say I've dreamed of this my whole life because it wasn't a dream. Like, we didn't have this as a dream because it wasn't a reality until three years ago. So that's the one thing I will say is like winning an Olympic gold medal was my dream from 8 years old.
B
Yeah.
H
And probably before that. But when I watched in O2 like that in my dream and like Walter became my dream when the league was created. But like before that I didn't have a dream about Walter because Walter didn't exist.
A
Yeah, yeah, that's true. But it's like, that's, it's. I think what's so cool about winning this cup is it's kind of a combination of the dream of having this league to play in and then also win that league. It's, it's a pretty cool double pronged achievement which is.
D
Oh my God, dude, it's amazing.
A
Unbelievable.
D
It's so, it's so, it's about time. But it's so great to have this too because as sick as the Olympics are and, and the, all the international tournaments are, it's so much pressure on that, you know, you're like, okay, well if I don't get that, like, what else am I chasing here? And to be able to come back, especially after losing, but to be able to come back this year and go, there's a whole nother thing where we're fighting, this group is fighting for that and to get on top of that mountain is like, God, that's awesome.
H
And I think like you said, coming back from losing and then coming back and trying to like get healthy, to be like, no, I need to get healthy so that we can compete for a Walter cup and I can help this team compete for a Walter Cup. Like, it was so crummy and so shitty to like not sit in it, but it was like, no, I need to like actually just get my stuff together and figure it out. Because now in two months time, three months time, like, I want to be playing for Walter Cup.
A
Yeah, I'm glad you just brought that up because I did. I was just thinking this, like, what a roller coaster this year was. I mean, there were so many ups and downs, so many battles. How can you even describe how you're feeling right now? And like, once you won and Lifted that cup. Were you like, this is fucking unbelievable, or was there a little bit of a combination of like, holy hell. What. What a grind this year was.
H
It was like a holy hell. Thank God it ended in a good way.
A
Yeah. Yeah.
H
All worth it. And it was like my dad was there. My dad, my stepdad, and my cousin were there on the ice with me. And I looked at my dad and I was like, like, thank God. Like, thank God on the last game of the season because it does help kind of put a band aid on not winning gold. And it's not to say that I'm not proud of the silver medal and Milan, because I really am. But, like, there's still that sour taste in your mouth. So winning Walter definitely makes it a little bit easier.
A
Yeah.
D
It said, you're just. You're such an athlete, Aaron, because winning is just a relief. You know, like, losing. Losing sucks, and winning is a relief. Spoken like a true, true competitive athlete.
A
So what's. I mean, what's the summer looking like for you? I. Do you have anything planned out? I know there's a lot of big decisions coming up. I know there's some rehab coming up, but, like, what's immediately on the docket for you?
H
I need to get my ass to my cottage, like, asap, because I need this. My mom's like, oh, I don't know if we're going to be there. I'm like, I'm totally okay with silence at the cottage once this is all said and done. I mean, I'm pumped for the parade tomorrow. Like, I think this. It's kind of our last thing, and I think it's going to be done quite well, and I think we're gonna go quite hard.
F
Yeah.
H
And then, like you said, a lot coming up in the next two, three weeks with expansion and everything, and it's gonna be a lot, but just try to navigate that. And then I feel like my summer's already getting super booked up with things. I got a bachelor party to go to. Go on for my cousin. I'm in my cousin's. I'm a grooms woman.
D
Hell, yeah.
H
I've got some. Yeah. Some big shoes to fill at the bachelor party. Which.
D
Where is it? Where's the bachelor party?
H
We're going to North Carolina. Me and 14 guys.
A
What the fuck?
D
God. Why.
A
Why does he live in North Carolina?
H
They're in Arlington, I think. So they're driving down and he wanted to do North Carolina, and we said, okay, jd, let's do it.
D
All right. Where are you Are you going to be in Raleigh or what's the plan?
A
Where are we also when.
H
Wilmington.
A
Yeah.
D
Yeah. That's actually so fun.
H
Five day bachelor party.
A
I mean we might, we might. See, I was going to say like we're down. If the final is, is in Carolina, which it looks like it's going to to be, that would be hilarious. I'll show up.
D
I had some days I might have
H
to add that into his itinerary. Be like, jd, I'm, I'm going. Whoever wants to come, I'm going to rally.
A
Yeah, there you go. My God, that has to happen.
D
That is incredible.
H
But I can't say that because like the habs are coming back.
D
Correct? Correct. Yeah. Yeah. Listen, I love that you just thought that you were nearing the end of this generational bender and now and you're.
A
You're days away parade tomorrow, bachelor party in like a week and a half. This is your, your toast hiatus.
D
Yeah. Yeah. That is special. Well, hold on.
H
Our head coach said last night to our strength and conditioning coach, he said, good luck this summer, Vicki.
B
Good luck.
F
Yeah.
A
Seriously, your knee is never going to recover. This is unbelievable.
D
Aaron, we have a question in the chat. I'm going to read to you. Okay. It says, I have a question to Aaron. My 11 year old girl is a big fan and wants to start hockey this year. Is this too late for her and what big advice for her can you give?
H
Absolutely. Not too late. I would say one of the best defensemen in the world, Renata Fast, didn't really start playing. I think she started early but like didn't really get into competitive hockey until later on in her life. And she is now one of the best defensemen in the world. I don't think it's ever too late, to be honest. And then advice. I think the biggest thing for me is always to make sure you're having fun. Like I have to remind myself as a pro hockey player that the game is supposed to be fun. And as much of, as much as it is my job, if I'm not having fun, I'm not playing well.
D
God, that's so accurate.
A
Absolutely.
D
Especially about the playing well part. Like I know everyone says it for, for don't, you know, don't do it. It should be fun. It should be fun. But it literally will make you play better.
A
Yeah.
D
If you are just enjoying yourself in the game, you, you wanted to start in the first place because you love that's how you play your.
A
Yeah, absolutely correct. I love to hear that. Where is the, where's the rate. Right. Where's the route tomorrow for the parade?
D
Oh, true.
H
So we don't know. I think we've got. We're waiting on a little bit of info. We're not doing too much of like, an actual, like, parade parade. It's gonna more be just like. You know how they always do the stage setup at the end?
A
Yeah, yeah.
H
Like, that's where we're gonna do a big chunk of it. I think we're only doing a couple blocks, but we were like, what's our bus situation? They're like, it's a surprise. And we were like, well, as long as there's no roof, we're okay with a surprise. But you can't have us in a frigging charter bus and we're banging on a window.
A
Yeah, no chance. Yeah, you gotta be up and out in the open for sure.
D
Absolutely.
A
This is also a genius play by Montreal because if they. If the Habs lose tonight, this is going to be a great way to pick everyone's spirits up. And if they win, people will be buzzing. This is a win win. This is a genius.
D
I worry about you if they win tonight and then the energy tomorrow is going to be chaos.
H
Well, we are meeting at our practice rink and our team party MVP or Lena Youngblom and I are going to bike there together. We're making smart decisions.
D
Good.
A
Well, don't bike home.
H
Oh, we won't be. I'll be walking home.
A
Okay, good. Jesus Christ.
D
And you know what? I like this.
H
Just a walk or just the bike
A
there, you kind of earn the.
D
You earn the parade, you know, you burn some cows, Little cow bird. And earn the beers.
H
12 minute bike, guys. We're going to be on the city Bixie bikes.
A
Like, I love those things. That's the best. All right, well, Aaron, we love you. Thank you for popping on. I want. I want you to be able to go rest before tomorrow because I. I think this is going to be another generational. I demand a facetime tomorrow at some
D
point during the pretty.
A
And is there anything before we cut you loose, is there anything that you need the people to know that you got going on? Anything that you want to plug or shout out?
H
Oh, I got nothing going on in my life other than celebrations, apparently.
D
What an answer. What an incredible answer.
H
I do need to shout out Shawnee Walker, Carolina Hurricanes. Shawnee and I grew up playing together. Georgina Blaze, York Simcoe Express. And obviously he's a new father now, too, but it's been pretty cool to follow his journey. And as Much as I need to cheer for the habs right now, it's pretty cool to see Shawnee one game away from playing for a Stanley Cup.
A
That's a pretty cool win. Win.
D
That's awesome.
A
Yeah.
D
Where are you watching tonight, Aaron?
H
I don't. That's, that's the thing is like, might
D
have to go back to. What is it Bruno's. You might have to go back to.
A
No, Bruno.
E
No, we can't go to Bruno.
H
We can't go back to Bruno. We will not make the parade. So I've watched two games at Lord Williams with some of the girls. Might actually hit up Molly Carlson tonight. And Aiden has locked two high divers, so I might watch with them changed up, but we'll see. We haven't heard, we haven't heard anything if the group's doing anything, so.
A
Okay, there you go.
D
Go Habs go.
A
Go Habs go. Absolutely. And yeah, we'll, we'll, we'll talk to you tomorrow during the celebrations. I can't wait.
H
Can't wait, guys. No screen recording.
D
No, no, no.
A
Never.
C
All right.
A
You're the best, Aaron. We'll talk to you soon.
D
Love you, Aaron. See ya. That is so epic. Dude, What a run. Dude, that bachelor party is too close to this.
A
That I think she has a break.
D
That she has no break.
A
I cannot get over how funny that is of Aaron being like, you know, like, I gotta like chill out here for a second and then it's like parade tomorrow. I think like she was like, it's. It's a five day on the 11th, I think.
D
Okay, 11. Okay. If it's the 11th is a little time, but. Holy unbelievable generational run, which is incredible. Once you're in, once you're in it, you just got to go. You go till the wheels come off. That's pretty much how it works.
A
I mean, it's the, it's the only other option. You just. Sometimes you got to just stay on the train. Jumping off is a dangerous game.
D
That's how people get hurt.
A
Dan, what a historic. Willie, you can come in. Come on in. Get it, pal.
D
We're live.
A
Make sure it's a loud stream. So people, people.
C
Hey, can we get the mic in there?
A
People want to talk about a live stream? I got a live stream for you right here. Willie D. Taking a pee live on the Empty Nutters podcast right now.
C
There's, there's food if anybody wants a. Or are these burgers?
F
Yeah, I think they're burgers.
C
I think, Chris, you might need to
A
soak really alcohol if they're. I would love one of those later. If someone needs to get their hands on one before they all go, I don't need it.
C
But I think they're probably gone by now. But I.
A
No, I don't need it now. I want it after. But make sure that, that someone, someone out there grabbed me a burger. Hold a, Put a burger on now
C
and see if I can scrounge. But I'm, I'm a little skeptical here.
A
You are a legend, Evan. Oh, my God. All right, we got another guest popping on here in a second. It's very exciting. We haven't seen our, our pal here. Is he on yet?
F
He is not yet.
A
All right. Or he might not be home yet. He's, he's. This guy's buzzing around all day, but epic day. So we got TJ Oshi popping on the show here in a second and. Oh, Evan, let's go. Are these breakfast burgers? Is that a thing?
C
I, I, they look like five guys to me.
D
If there is, which is a rough
C
way to start your morning.
A
Didn't we talk about the other day, Zach? That five guys is the unhealthiest of all the fast food burgers.
D
Wait, we did?
A
How'd it go, Will?
D
Willie?
E
Very well.
A
Hell yeah.
D
You had a great pee.
F
You want to tell the people?
D
A lot of people were asking.
F
Wait, Willie, do you want to tell the people? You can hop on.
D
Yeah, yeah, come on.
E
Pop on, dude.
D
Tell people.
F
Yeah, it's on.
E
I'm, I'm actually in the middle of recording my podcast right now.
A
Are you really? I stepped out to use the bathroom.
F
Yeah.
B
Whoa.
A
This is sick. This is like a double pod situation.
D
This is, this is the multi.
A
I don't know if this has ever happened before.
D
I don't think, I think this is a first.
E
And I Woke up at 9am this morning and I, I checked. I had a bunch of texts.
C
We were recording at 9am so that's why.
D
Terrible feeling.
C
I rolled out of bed.
A
I'm not wearing a shirt under this. I. You look a little bit like you came from a pajama party. I'm startled right now in more ways than one. Well, you know, listen, if you sleep, if you oversleep and all of a sudden, boom, you got to be on your show. And now you're on two shows. You go to the bathroom and then you're on a different. Now you're on a new show. Dude, you're, you're in a spin cycle right now.
E
Like, pod fucked right now.
A
Yeah, you are you surely are.
C
All right. Go back to my show.
A
Hey, go back to your show.
E
Who's going to win the Stanley Cup?
A
Vegas.
D
Wow. It looks like it's going to be Vegas or Carol. Carolina's up 31 against Montreal. They play tonight for a chance to go. So you get to choose between Vegas, Carolina or Montreal.
A
But Montreal, crazy comeback. Canadiens.
C
I'm from.
A
I'm from South Carolina.
D
Okay. Carolina Hurricanes have won the Stanley Cup.
C
Yeah.
E
There we go. That was my pick.
A
All right.
E
Love you guys.
A
Love you too, brother.
E
There.
A
I also. He is from South Carolina.
D
I.
A
We claim Willie's from Maine. We claim Willie. This isn't talk about Carolina hours.
F
Sorry, I. I wanted to talk a little bit.
A
Carolina.
F
My bad, my bad, my bad.
A
Christ, Zach. Whoa. Oh, it's the Friday meeting.
D
Yeah.
A
There you go.
G
We have a new.
D
We have a new. We have a new player. We signed a new player, too.
A
Do you guys want to. We do.
D
Yeah. We signed a new player. He's doing Two Truths and a lie right now.
A
Wait, is this the. He's a new editor.
D
Yes.
A
I've met that guy.
D
We got a new guy.
A
I. Man, I want to start talking about DVDs and VHS's again, but TJ's gonna pop on any moment and then we can't really get into it.
H
You can.
D
You can. Why don't you start one of the other things that you wanted to tell.
A
Talk about one. One of our Friday free for all topics.
D
Yeah, I guess.
C
Is TJ waiting? Are we waiting on him?
A
I sent him the link.
F
Okay.
A
Yeah, I think I. Osh was. Is coming back from hockey practice with the kiddos.
D
Yeah.
A
Yeah. So he's actually was.
D
It was school. He was at a. He was at like a parent teacher conference. Well, no, it was like a. You know, Bring it. Bring a buddy to school day and his nephew gets to go like this.
A
This.
D
I'll actually bring TJ Oshi.
A
Is that true?
D
Yeah. Like, other kids probably brought some random ass person and. And then his nephew goes, I actually brought American hero TJ Oshi, so you're welcome.
C
Wow, that's pretty. That's. That's what.
D
That's a flex. That is an all time show and tell Flex.
C
Talk about swamping your dick on the table.
D
Like, it's insane, dude. I. I cannot believe I might bring. I need to bring Oshi here. We need to bring. Bring a cool person to work day. And I'm going to bring DJ Oshi and see how. See how good it feels.
C
I mean, I. I could. We could Talk about another movie related thing or do we.
F
Do we want to go into our topics of free for all Friday?
D
Oh yeah.
A
I just got the weirdest email of all time. This is like the craziest. This is like the craziest fishing email of all time.
C
Nigerian Prince.
A
Dude, I, I've got an email here that says re your Freedom Boat Club membership and there is a. There's a fake you on this email. Oh, I, it's. It's from this guy Brian says Dan, looks like you opened the email yesterday at 12:13pm but here are the links you need. And there's an email from a Chris Powers that says Matt, this is Chris Powers. It appears there may have been a misunderstanding on or communication with my membership. Can you call me at the number to discuss. And then at the bottom it says thank you, Matt. Dan's email address is blank and it's like the, it's. It's. I was about to read my email online live. That would have been bad.
D
Is it an incorrect email?
C
Wait, wait. This says. You said Freedom Boat Club or book club.
A
Freedom Boat Club membership.
C
Oh, the world's largest boating club.
A
It says hello from Freedom Boat Club.
F
Wait, is this a fishing email or was CP that hammered last night? He doesn't remember signing up for a boat.
C
Well, you're going on a fishing trip.
A
Yeah, I didn't mean fishing in the bad way. I mean this is a fishing trip. But this person's email is Sea Powers and then a couple of numbers. It's not your email.
F
This looks real. I mean CP how hammered were you?
D
This could have been me now that he's saying it out loud.
C
Sarasota, Florida there's also a.
A
There's also a Brian Powers on this email and chance that this is an
D
entire Powers family and they're having a real conversation and they've just gotten your. There's. There's a Dan Powers they were supposed to copy and they accidentally put.
A
But they have like a different Dan Powers copied on there.
D
That's what I'm saying. I think you got put on by accident. And this is a, this is another Powers family having a very real conversation and they're.
A
They're about to offer me a free boating membership.
D
Yeah.
A
Unbelievable.
C
Yeah, I do.
D
I think you're in, dude.
A
This is unbelievable. Osh is here. All right, let's bring Ocean and then we can get more into the free for all nonsense later. For now, here he is. Osh, can you hear us?
E
I got you boys. What's up?
A
Yes, God, it's good to see you, pal. How are you?
C
I'm good.
E
I got to turn you up a little bit. There we go. Now they're locked and loaded.
A
Where are you? Are you in a broom closet?
E
Yeah. So kind of embarrassing. We built this house during, like, the COVID times, right?
D
Yeah.
E
And so you couldn't do anything. And so I picked up gaming with the fellas. And so this is, like, actually, like,
A
it's not embarrassing at all.
E
End of my closet, and I would set it up for, like, a gaming room. My own, like, little area where like, like, you know, so no one can hear me.
D
Yeah, you yell. Yeah.
C
And then.
E
And then everything went back to real life, and I'm a father of four, and my wife is like, you can't be up all night gaming. Like, you got to be up with the kids. I think 6am And. And so, yeah, this is actually. It is like a closet in the back of my. My. My closet, I guess.
D
Yeah. Yeah.
E
So there's nothing back here. I got, like. I don't really, like, hang up stuff. I'm not really, like, a memorabilia guy, Right. So, like, my ring is sitting here, my mini Stanley cup, my thousandth game stick OV sign stick, and then my two Olympic sticks. They're kind of just chilling in this back, like, little closet that I don't even go into.
D
I. Dude, I cannot believe the quality of that merch. Right? It just looked like a couple sticks.
A
Oh, yeah. No, those are big time twigs. Those are big time twigs also. You ever had those are. You have a habit o of. Of, like, being like, oh, this is embarrassing. And then it's something so cool, like setting up. Setting up a gaming dungeon in your closet. Sounds sick.
D
What were you playing? What were you playing with the boys?
E
I was. I was a cod. You know, I was war zone. We had, like, quite a squad. Like, me and Johnny Carlson would skip our pregame nap on the road to, like, play. Yeah. John was better. Like, usually they'd be like, all right, we got to be there at the bus an hour. He's like, oh, I'm gonna go take a quick 30. And I'd be like, yeah, yeah, me too. And he would jump off, and I'd be like, nah, nah. And I just keep ripping by myself. No, it was. It was. It was great. It was so much fun.
A
Was Johnny good at Mario Kart?
D
I was gonna say
E
Johnny. He was more of, like, a FIFA guy. So we always had, like, the Mario Kart was one station and then the place or. And then PlayStation on the next.
A
Next.
C
Yeah.
E
So he would. He would more so get with, like, the Europeans, and they'd be ripping on. I think he was pretty good at FIFA, though. And Johnny gets fired up. He's super competitive, so he's like the exact kind of guy you want to play video games with.
F
Yeah.
D
Yes. Dude, that is so awesome.
A
Video.
E
I send them all. All the time. I send them these videos that you see on, like, I don't know, on Instagram or whatever of, like. Like, War Zone kills. And it goes like, whose face is it? Like. Like. Like actors, like, crying, you know, like,
D
oh, yeah, yeah, yeah.
G
You know what I mean?
A
And we're like, yeah.
E
Goes back and forth. I send them all the time. And literally, like, whoever sends it, the other guy just responds with, like, a crying emoji.
D
Yeah, right?
E
The best times. The best time.
D
Yeah.
A
God, it's so good, man.
D
It's actually. There is a. This is such a ridiculous reference, but there's a line in the TV show the O.C. where it's like, two of the adults are playing video games, and one of them looks. The other one, he's like, God, I miss playing video games with my boys. And I remember seeing that line and being like, I hope that never happens to me. Where I have to miss playing video games. I hope I'm always playing video games with my boys. But you don't know. You're in the good days, dude. And then it just disappears.
E
It's gone.
A
I know, dude. I know. It is like, I think our time has passed. And you know what's funny? I actually bought a new 007 game two days ago, and I bought it and I played like, an hour of it. It's like. It's. It's like. You know that game Red Dead Redemption? I don't know if you've ever played, but it's like one of these games with a great story mode.
D
Dude.
A
I started playing this game. I got like, an hour in, and I had to turn it off because I was like, this is going to suck the next 50 hours of my life. It's insane. Dude, are you. So you're home right now, but you've been. You've been buzzing. You've been ripping all the. The broadcasting work and buzzing around. How's it been?
H
It.
E
It's been good. Yeah. I'm home right now. I'm in the dungeon. But it's. It's been crazy. It's been a crazy year. And, like, I say it every time I talk about it. I have so much More respect for the people that go on tv.
A
You.
E
You'd think you just, like, it's easy to get your thoughts out there and in a way that people can understand, especially if, like, they're not massive hockey fans. Right. If they didn't go play to the elite level.
A
Yeah.
E
You have to simplify things with how you say it and still be interesting and still not look like you're trying to think while you're speaking. Like, have it just come out. Yeah, it's. It's. It's an amazing skill. And honestly, the host. So, like, Steve Levy, Boochie.
A
These, like, weapons.
E
I can't explain how. How many things, like, just don't always go perfectly and they make everything so seamless and they're like, off the cuff sometimes. There was one time where we couldn't hear our producers for, like, an entire show.
A
Yeah.
E
And anytime there was any type of audio, so anytime, like, a clip came up of, you know, we're talking over a goal or something, our audio, like, switched out. We couldn't hear our producers. And Steve Levy is just the ultimate, ultimate professional. Like, I just. I can't even describe. It's like Nicholas Bastron throwing a sauce. That's what I equated to.
D
Yeah.
E
Like Obi taking one timer. Like, that's how good he is at what he does.
A
Yeah, it's. It's true. Like, those guys get in the pocket and they're just, like, vibing and snapping it around to each other. They're so good at what they do. It's so fun.
D
And osh. Even when it's going well.
F
Right?
D
Like, even without the mistakes, it's hard. It's so hard. You know now, like, you've got that shit in your ear. People are like, so much happening while you can't lose your train of thought and keep talking and keep getting everyone else on the. On the. At the desk engaged. It is actually fascinating how. How good it is.
F
Yeah.
E
Honestly, like, when I hear someone say, like, 10 seconds in my ear, to me, that's like fire drill.
D
Yeah.
A
Yeah.
E
And PK will hear 10 and he'll, like, smooth it out to, like, 12. Where in my mind, I'm like, if I get to 10, like, I'm fired.
D
Yes.
E
PK does it in a way where, like, it rolls right into Steve Levy, and Steve Levy takes us out of the intermission. It's to the game.
D
Yeah.
E
And, like, so, like, for me, when. When I hear something, like, if I hear someone wrap it up, I almost stop speaking, even if I'm in the middle of a point, I'm like. And yeah.
D
Anyway, it's going to be a pretty good game. I'm excited for the period. Yeah, they're like, that was one second real fast.
E
Yeah. It's brutal.
A
They got to shoot. They got to get more shots.
E
Like, I'm. I'm messing up a majority of the time when I'm speaking, and then once I start it, my brain switches off. Blackout. And if you ask me right after the intermission, what I said, I'd have no idea.
A
Yeah. It's so true. Dude, I gotta know. Are you. Is there a residual, like, oh, how am I gonna say this? Is there a residual met rivalry vibe for you watching Carolina? And you're like, fuck Carolina. I don't want them to win.
E
Yeah. So there definitely is. A lot of players have changed since I played.
D
Yeah.
A
Yeah.
E
And so I think. I don't know, but, like, once you build, like, this hatred for, like, a team, like, it's hard to kick it. Right?
A
Yeah.
E
And especially since they've been so good. They've made playoffs every year since they beat us in the first round when we were trying to go back to back. And so it's like. Like, you kind of. Like, these guys irked me. But now that I. Now that I've stepped away a little bit and I appreciate the game, I think a little bit more, and first time I've ever, like, really been watching, I can definitely appreciate how the guys in that locker room buy in to what Rod tells them and buy into a system. And when you like that system that they buy into, you have to be extremely unselfish to play there and to have success and to earn the trust of Rod and continually get thrown out there for a regular shift and earn your ice time. So the hockey player in me absolutely, like, like, and a fan really appreciates what they're doing. The Washington capital in me is like, I still hate you guys.
A
Yeah.
D
Yeah. Get out.
A
They lose game one and you're like, oh, yes. Keep it like, this is you.
D
Let's joke. Yeah. Come on, Montreal. Yeah, dude.
E
No, but I. I feel like they're earning. They're earning their stripes.
D
I have a question about that. Osh. It must be if you can put. If you can zoom out enough to appreciate this. They're kind of having.
A
If, if.
D
If they can finish the job and an experience you guys had in 18 where it's like, God, we've been so good and for so long and have won parents trophies, you know, and just can't get over that hump. You must appreciate a little bit being like, oh, they, you know, they're. They're. They're kind of having that journey we had in 18. If they can finish the job.
C
Yeah.
A
You.
E
You really appreciate, like. Like, I don't think I necessarily appreciate, like, Florida going. I appreciate them going back to back because I know how hard it is just to win one. But that second win, you're almost like, all right, we already know that. You guys know what it takes.
D
Yeah.
E
And they did it again, so. And they're tired. They had the shortest summer of anyone, especially with, like, the party. And it goes. Goes into it.
A
Yeah.
E
And so you appreciate that. But like, Like a team like Carolina, like you mentioned, I brought a ton of heartache from St. Louis to Washington. Washington already had all the heartache there.
A
Yeah.
E
We had two presidents, trophies, didn't get the job done, watch our rivals go on and win. So you definitely there. There is something there where I can. I'm almost, like, happy for the guys in the room that have been there.
A
Yeah.
E
And haven't gotten the job done and have to do those terrible interviews at the end of the season of, like, what happened.
D
Yeah. Right.
E
What was it like? I mean, I don't know. Like, we, like, we were right there. Everyone. We thought what. Everyone was bought in. You know, you didn't get one call here. But then you don't want to make mistakes either, right?
D
Yeah.
E
Excuse me. Excuses. Like, you don't want to make excuses for why you didn't do it. Sometimes you just got to tip your half and be like, only one team. Ones and only one team wins. And we didn't get it done. But I definitely appreciated the buy in that they're having. And also, like, the secondary scoring, I think that's kind of what they've been missing.
A
Oh, my God.
E
That second line is. I mean, they're leading the team, like a couple of them, like, the. Double them up in points for some of the guys in the first line, I think. And so it's like, like, that's. That's unbelievable. Now the first line is getting going and they're. They're scared.
D
Yeah.
A
Yeah. No, it's so true, man. Do you. I've been. I've been kind of banging the drum all playoffs. That, like, it does feel like this Carolina team is different than they've been over the last several years. Do you feel that as well? Like, do you think that this team actually has the juice?
E
Yeah, I do. Because of the. The depth that's Coming out with them. Like when I think back to when we won. Yeah. Oh like OVI is always gonna be our best player. OVI and Koozie were our best two players in the. Throughout the whole playoffs.
H
Right.
E
You can throw Braden Holpe in there, but I don't, I don't think of like maybe Koozie's overtime goal against Pittsburgh to, to close out the series. But I don't necessarily think of like the big goals I think about is like Devonte Smith, Pelley.
D
Yeah.
E
Come up Mass up in the finals. You know what I mean? Lars Eller scoring the winner. I think of our depth guys and what they did and how they contributed to like offensively. You know, those guys are always going to bring it defensively, physicality, pk, all that stuff. Right. But those guys stepped up in that way. And in the same token, OVI and Koozie stepped up on the defensive side where Ovi's blocking shots, throwing like toe up kick saves.
D
Yeah. Yeah.
E
From the top of the circles. Right. So that's kind of that buy in. But because Carolina does have this depth and the second line just absolutely feeling it. I, I feel like it could be there, it could be their time.
A
Yeah. I, I mean like we talk about Ealers all the time, man. And it's like that's exactly what you're talking about. The depth and like the, the, the additions. And it's like his, you know, two goal and overtime performance makes you be like, oh shit. Like they kind of got the pieces now. Like they do feel very real.
D
It's.
A
And it's. We were talking about. And you know, I want your take on Vegas sweeping Colorado, which fucking blew all of our minds. But it's like everyone saw that and they're like, holy shit. It's just Vegas is here, but Carolina now is showing us like, I don't know, man, like this. If this team goes sweep, sweep, gentleman sweep. How do you not respect that? You know, it's crazy.
E
Yeah. That no. No one's game lined up at the start of playoffs for playoff hockey better than Carolina. Right. And we all knew that like that was a guarantee. They play playoff hockey almost year round. I know they're not on the same page. They lay up a lot of goals because some guys are going all out and they're pressuring and some guys aren't.
A
Yeah.
E
Going to Vegas. Like, like I didn't really have. With how fast the game is now. Right. Like, I just didn't have them pegged as like a team that would that would be in the final. And I'm probably the worst analyst maybe in the history because almost every pick that I've made for ESPN has been like dead wrong. So I'm so like if you're bet, if you're a betting man like fade Ocean, you're gonna be making some like serious money.
D
Yeah.
E
But Vegas, it seems like they found something too though, right? Like yes, there's questions about like marner and playoffs. He's. What is he leading them in points? I think so.
A
Yeah.
D
Yeah, I think he's leading.
A
I think he leads the NHL points. I'm pretty sure. Yeah.
E
Leaves the NHL heart net. You know, coming from the year he's had, he's been unbelievable. And then you hear the, when you hear guys speak after games not necessarily about like their goals or what happened, but more about the buy in throughout the team. Like those are the things you look forward to. When I, when I prep for a team the first thing I go to is the player interviews from the games before and see what they're saying and see how they change from pregame skate to post game and the way that they talk about the team and the buy in and you can tell as a player if it's something that the coach said and they're just regurgitating it because that's the message or if it's something they actually believe in. And I think Vegas believes that they have everyone bought into. So. So I'm not saying that the Carolina Montreal series is over but if it is going to be Carolina and Vegas now you have two teams that are, are convinced and bought in and what they have to do and they're going to clash with two different systems. Yeah, it's going to be, it's going to be pretty fun to watch.
A
That's a great take, dude.
D
Dude.
A
Agree.
D
That's very, very especially because it's kind of fun that the two teams that have the belief one of them is the Canes who have who were the one seat and came in and they're 12 and one and all this stuff. And then the other team is Vegas who I know they were the ones in the Pacific but it just, they felt like an underdog were saying osh that it's cool that you have one, you know, juggernaut team and the other team feels like oh man, we are about to shock the world. Those are two really conflicting ideologies. But so strong in playoffs.
A
Oh for sure. Oh, who's your pick tonight? So everyone knows who to fade.
E
I think, I think I Think Caroline is going to get it done.
D
Okay.
E
All right.
A
So we're smashing the Hammer Montreal.
E
So whatever you, Whatever you guys want to do. I think, I think, I think Carolina is going to get it done and only because of the momentum that's on their side and Montreal hasn't found a way to, to limit that pressure.
A
Dude, I'm with you. We kept saying it like, listen, they've. They've played almost twice the amount of games that Carolina has. It looks like they're just like kind of exhausted in a way. And that's not a knock on them. It's, you know, it's just been a lot of hockey and I think with the, the fear of giving Montreal any life must be so strong for this Carolina team that. I'm with you. Like, I think at home they're kind of like, if we do not win this game, the, just the, the. The spook ville situation that will exist is too much for us to handle. So we've got to take care of this.
F
I.
A
So I think they're going to be closed it out as well. Agree.
D
They don't let all the gaps.
E
I think you're the, the thing, the thing about the games, to the games played.
A
It's.
E
Yeah. It's your bodies. Right. Everyone's playing hurt.
A
Yeah.
E
But it's almost like more so like the emotional drainage that happens.
A
Yes.
E
Through the ups and downs, through game sevens.
A
It's.
E
It's like you in playoffs, you have to be so on in every facet of what you do. You just have to be. Because you don't know what play is going to change the series.
A
Yeah.
E
You don't know what play is going to. What turnover is going to lead to something. You don't know what time on like a back check, if you're like, ah, three on three, I think we're good. And then a guy falls down. You're like, I could have caught that guy.
D
Yeah.
E
I could have saved the series. I could have saved the game, which could have saved the series. And so that being that locked in is why playoffs is so unbelievable. You can talk about the speed, the physicality of all that stuff, the, the excitement, the suspense. It's really just getting your brain incredible more locked in on. On what you're doing each shift at each moment for like two months.
D
Yeah.
E
And so like, to get out of that, to get out of that mode, out of that mode of like being so locked in is why I always say, like the Stanley cup champions usually, even though they had the short summer Usually like the first 10 games or first five, six games for sure. They almost go on, like, a little bit of a tear because, like, that's how they remember that's how they played their last game. Game like that locked in and that kind of becomes ingrained in you. But I don't know where I was even going with that. But.
A
No, it's a great.
D
That it's. That it's taxing on Montreal to have been in that mode.
A
Yes.
G
Through these.
A
Yeah.
D
Through these up and downs where you're like, Jesus Christ. Again, like back into another 60 minutes of complete lock in where Carolina has been playing reasonably stress free. I don't mean to say there was nothing. They had some OT games and they lost game one, but for the most part they're like, we're just playing our system and we've been winning. Winning.
A
So no.
D
No stress.
E
Yeah. Yeah. And then they came off a big break and everyone kind of soon. Like I told, like before the series started, I was like, I don't. I don't care what happens. They might have rust, they might not. But by game four, five, six, seven, like, they're gonna have way more juice in the tank.
D
Yes.
A
Which we're.
D
Which we are starting to see for sure.
A
Absolutely. Completely agree. Dude. What. I know you got a million things going on right now. What. What can you tell the world about that? You got cooking and what's. What's. What's hot in your life right now.
D
Yeah. What's the schedule for the final too?
E
I think I'm doing most, almost all the finals games. I'm. I'm not sure exactly the. You know, there's multiple different. There's different schedules.
F
Yeah.
E
I think I'm gonna be with. Do like some. Some stuff with SVP Scott Van Pelt.
D
Nice.
A
Right, let's go.
E
Yeah. Yeah. He's. He's honestly the best. He's the man in D.C. right. So, like, I'll be in D.C. with like all my boys during the day. Show up, go. I don't really know what this. I don't know what the schedule is. I've never done this before, but I assume, like, you could just get some, you know, if you get your prep done, get some golfing in during the day.
A
Sure.
E
And then just go hang out, watch the game and then. And then talk about it after. So I think that's what's going on. You know, got some exciting stuff with world going on and. Yeah. The kid just got out of school yesterday, so that mayhem has started.
D
Yeah.
E
Actually, this Is huge.
C
Huge.
E
This is huge. My little man, he's six.
D
Yeah.
E
He. I asked him to go on to play golf this summer. He said, yeah. I was like, all right, how many days? He said, every day.
D
And I was like, God, dude, we did it.
E
Okay. So I was like, let's. Let's tone it down. He's in four days a week.
D
Okay.
E
We're starting at 4. But I'm. I'm super excited about that because that's, you know, that's. I'm a golfer. That's kind of like you and your little man.
A
You, Earl Woods, Tim.
D
That's huge. Yes.
A
This is unbelievable.
D
I did, I saw.
E
Go ahead, go ahead.
D
I was just gonna say I saw this thing that was like, all you have to do. You know, everybody goes, oh, if you have kids, you never get to play golf anymore. All you have to do is get your kid to like golf. And then now you're being a good dad. You're playing golf is now being a good dad. So you've cracked the code here.
E
Well, actually, I. So I got this advice from our team Cairo in St. Louis, and he was like, yeah, I take my daughters. I take them out like, in the afternoon, and we go to, like, the pond on the course, and I just take all the old balls I find put in my bag and they just hit balls into the pond and they love it. They love making it splash, whatever.
D
Yeah.
E
And so I kind of started doing that with him. It started out going to, like, the short game area. I bring his trucks and I just let him play in the sand trap.
D
Dude, there you go.
E
And then eventually he was like, Then I bring up a wedge with him and eventually be like, he'd hit like, like four or five, you know, they won't go anywhere. He's like, all right, I'm gonna go play trucks.
D
Yeah.
E
So it's just been like a two year thing where I've been like, all right, let's. Let's go hit balls in the pond. Let's do this. And so, yeah, so he's in four days a week right now, you know, and he. I think he, He. I think he loves it. At the end of last fall, we were on the range for like two hours, and I think my back was hurting, so I wasn't really hitting and I was just, you know, chipping around, hitting some punch shots, whatever, and Campbell's. I'm like, all right, bud, we gotta. We gotta go. Like, we. I think we already missed dinner.
D
Yeah.
E
So we're driving out of Interlocking and he's like, papa, wait. And I stopped. And I was like, oh, my God, like, what? He's like, we didn't putt. And I was like, oh my. I was like, all right, let's call mom. I was like, you're talking to her. Yeah, mom, can we go putt? And she was like, yeah, I guess.
A
Yeah.
E
So we pulled a little U turn and went back in and. And worked on the short game.
A
This is unbelievable.
D
This is perfect.
A
Coming in clutch right now. Lauren's eventually going to be like, are you kidding? You're like, listen, I'm just being a good dad. I don't know what to tell you. Like, I'm letting this kid follow his dreams here.
D
And this is about to be the best summer ever. Dude, I'm pumped for it.
F
Yeah.
D
This is huge.
B
Are you gonna. Are you gonna be.
A
Are you gonna be in D.C. for the entirety? Are you gonna be on site at any of the games?
E
I think I'll be in D.C. okay. And so nothing's confirmed yet. This is just rumblings. I haven't. Nothing's. Nothing solid. So once I. Once I get the call of whatever I'm going, what I'm doing, obviously be great to be on site, right? To be in the arena and feel the. Feel the buzz, but I know pkms will do it and. And leaves will do a phenomenal job there. But even just like to be. That's the hard thing with TV is like I'm by myself a lot, right? I'm traveling by myself. I'm going out to dinner by myself because guys are going all over the place. Place. PK's in New York. Steve Levy did a game the night before, whatever it is. And so the one cool thing about the finals that the guys travel to the rinks together so they're able to go out to dinner. Oh yeah, whatever. Grab a beer, talk about the game. There's probably so much, so many good things that come from them being together for the full finals where you're probably going to get a lot better coverage than you would if guys are coming from all over the place and not able to kind of talk off air too much.
A
Yeah, no, it's true. I was gonna say, like, we gotta.
D
I know. I want to pop into D.C. dude, maybe we do. We're in Raleigh as pop over.
A
I mean, I'm bringing the clubs with me for sure.
E
So bring the clubs, boys.
A
Maybe we'll just pop. Let's get down to D.C. there we go. All right, dude, before we cut you loose. You mentioned, like, bunch of great things going on with Railroad. Is there anything that the people need to know?
E
I don't even know if I'm allowed to show this or not. I actually have an approved prototype of our new sock.
D
Oh, nice. I actually have my war road socks on right now.
A
Yeah.
E
Bang.
A
Hey, let's go.
E
They are. I don't know if you can see, like, the little.
A
Oh, I sure can.
E
Oh, dude, that's all cut resistant right there.
A
Oh, hell yeah.
E
Yeah. So you guys know Jason. He's been working.
D
Yeah.
E
Extremely hard on this fabric right here for a long time. And so to finally bring it to the sock. And, you know, we got some other. Other ideas of where it could go. It's super, super exciting. We got the. The kids. All our kids. Youth Tylos are 50 off right now, so I think that's the lowest they've ever been.
D
Incredible.
E
50 off until the. Until I believe, the 4th of July, so people can gear up for next year, get them early, stash them away, you know, for the fall.
D
Yeah, that's fantastic.
E
Yeah, that's. That's pretty much it. I got some. You know, I posted that thing about, like, doing a podcast thing that's, you know, not totally off the table. You know, my head's always spinning. I'm always trying to find ways to, like. Yeah, you're gonna be around my kids.
A
Yeah.
E
Because I just. I love, like, all. All of, like, the development that goes into, like, everything. Right. Even, like, doing math and stuff. Yeah. I just. I love trying to, like, help their brain, like, figure out things. Same with on the ice or skating stride or a golf swing or whatever it is. I'm super interested in the mental side and also, like, the positivity and the positive reinforcement, all that stuff. And so this year has just been crazy with the Olympics caps espn. It was so much travel that I missed a lot of this year, and so just trying to find ways to be home a little bit more.
A
Hell, yeah, man. I love it. It's good stuff.
E
And.
D
And, dude, when those socks drop officially, let us know, because we will pump that up. Those are incredible.
A
Oh, yeah, absolutely. Dude.
E
I appreciate. I appreciate. Yeah. Honestly, I don't. I might get in trouble for. For showing those on, but no, they're.
F
They're.
E
They're the real deal. And. And people have been at. NHL players have been asking for them for a long time now because we got our sock. I actually love the other sock, but it's not. It's not cut resistant.
A
Yeah.
E
And so we'll see if. You know, we'll see when. When these drop. I actually don't even know that's, like, how new this is. This is, like an approved prototype. Yeah. People.
A
People want it right now. And we're like, you can't.
E
The only two. The only two people that I know that actually have them is John Carlson was leaving Anaheim. They had a tournament in Minnesota on his way to D.C. and so I got one for. For Luca Carlson. I gave him a pair.
A
Nice.
E
And then my daughter Lenny. My daughter Lenny got a pair this morning.
D
Those are the only two. Yeah.
E
So those are. But those are the two that actually have them.
A
I love it. All right, well, dude, we'll let you go, but go enjoy the first day of summer here. But we'll hit you up soon because. Yeah, we might have to make that style during the final for sure.
E
Boys, come out. Let's bring the stick. We'll get fired up.
A
We gotta do it depending on if
E
it's an off day or not, you know, if it's in between games.
A
Yeah.
E
You know, we can have a little bit more fun out there.
D
Absolutely. Right.
A
Yeah, we'll figure it out.
E
I appreciate you. I appreciate you guys having me on. You guys are. You guys are one of the best. I always appreciate it.
A
Always.
D
Dude, thanks for coming to us. You're the best, man. Later, buddy.
E
See you, boys.
D
Yeah.
A
What a set. What this, dude, this has been the best free for all Friday of all time. Incredible. Just a bunch of the friends joining in. We're going along here, which I love. We're giving people a nice Friday sesh.
C
That's okay, because we have the room for a while.
D
Oh, let's go.
A
Let's go.
C
I mean, I'm just saying, like.
A
Yeah, let's have to overkill it. Let's wrap this up with. God knows how long it'll take. We might be on for another three hours.
C
But I have a special guest coming.
A
Do you?
C
Yeah, I do. In person.
A
In person.
F
Yeah.
A
That's exciting. Do you want to do that now or do you want to get into a free for all Friday talk?
C
They're on their way. I mean, this is. They're free for all Friday friendly.
A
Okay. Is this.
C
Ladies and gentlemen. Oh, Sean Buffini.
D
Yes. Dude. Wow. This is. This is very.
A
Sean.
C
I know. People love to see Sean.
A
This is Darren.
D
Sir.
B
How is everyone?
A
Wow. You know, I was. We were at dinner last night. I don't need this. We were at dinner last night and we were talking just some, like, old funny netters. Clips and, like, funny moments. And I brought up the sneezing clip. Oh, yeah, dude, that. Dude, that makes me laugh every time I watch it still.
D
Do you remember what you said? No. Oh, it was like.
B
Like 70. 78.
D
Yeah.
A
78 sneezes in a year.
B
Yeah, I. I might have been off with that a little bit.
A
Yeah, I stand by that.
B
No, I only sneeze.
A
There are people who are on your side still.
B
Oh, I hope so.
D
I was gonna say, man, the chat is buzzing for you right now.
A
Yeah, chat's fired up for Sean.
B
Yeah, chat. I actually, I was talking about you guys. Last night, I went to my friend's volleyball game, and one of his teammates. I was wearing a Netter's hoodie. It was cold. I grabbed a Netter's hoodie, which Jack just told us not to do in the 10, 10am meeting. But one of his teammates. No, Jack. Jack Barrett was like, don't take the too many merch off the. Off the rack here. Our free merch stuff isn't.
D
Well, I need it.
A
Yeah, but the.
D
But.
B
So I show up, and he's like, wait, have we met? And he sees. He's like, oh, you're. You're from Netters. And he says, like, are you guys, like, around here? Because I think I, like, ran over Chris or Dan while they were, like, rollerblading in Santa Monica.
C
Oh, sounds right.
D
I have been rollerblading recently. That would be very interesting.
A
Wait, ran over? Like, squished?
B
Almost squished, yeah.
C
How close to dying you.
D
That's incredible.
B
There's someone out there that thought that they almost took your life.
G
Dude.
D
Is he. Is he so on? You were at your friend's volleyball game?
B
Yeah.
D
This person was on. On the team.
B
Yeah.
D
So you could see them? We could. We could get information.
A
Like an organized.
B
This gentleman's name was Chase, I believe.
D
Okay.
B
This is like an organized. It was the final of their league. Beach. Second Beach.
A
Beach volleyball.
B
Yeah. Yeah.
A
Nice.
D
So this dude is nasty. Volleyball. And he almost killed me.
A
Yeah.
B
Yeah, yeah.
D
Wow.
A
Thank God he didn't.
D
That is awesome.
A
Should we. Should we get into some free for all Friday topics with Sean?
D
Yes.
F
Yeah.
A
Oh, for sure.
E
Yeah.
A
So you go around.
C
I've got a bunch of stuff we can go. I mean, we could be here for another hour with all the shit I have. So you guys start, and then we'll see if we get to mine.
A
I mean, I kind of want to do all of Evans.
D
Oh, okay.
C
All right. Well, this is a quick one. I know Sean would have an opinion on This. I was at the movies the other day seeing Obsession Sick.
D
I want to see that.
C
Two guys next to me came in, sitting right next to me, youngish guys. I would say like 20, 23 to 27. And the trailers are on and they've got on their phone playing a boxing match while they're there. And I'm thinking, okay, I'm about to say something but the trailers are on. So like let's see if they turn it off when the movie starts. The movie starts and instead of turning their phone off, they just kind of like put it like closer. And I'm like like the, the. We're in a movie theater. This is not second screen. Like what we. We need some kind of like button you can call like at an airline for like an attendant to come and then you just point. Cuz I don't want to get into a fight cuz then it ruins the movie for me. I miss stuff. I just want a little button and it's like ding. And they come in and they look around and we can all kind of go these. And they eject them. Because removing phones is going to work. People can hide phones.
A
Yeah.
B
Instead of having like the minimum wage teenager have to come and handle this. I think that the button should just activate like an ejector seat.
A
What if he. So we're saying do we need a snitch button in the movie theater?
D
Well, that's what I was gonna say.
A
Do you feel like I actually hear Sean, that like you don't want to have this like 16 year old have to come and reprimand someone.
B
Yeah. And then have to get into an argument because Evan didn't want to.
A
But.
D
But ev. I feel you that button.
C
I'm the kind of guy that will. I usually do tell people to like
B
I've done it a few times where I've had to get up and I don't make a scene out of it. But I'm just like, hey, you mind? Cuz like to you it's like not a big deal, but to everyone in the 200 seats behind you, it's like a flashlight, right?
A
It is when you got stadium seating and you pull out your phone, if there are people behind you, you're. You're ruining their whole day.
D
Cuz what bothers me about it is the only reason you should be doing that is if you have an obscene amount of money on the result of this boxing match. That that's why you're like I need to. I feel the need to watch this in the movie. Yeah, but if you have bet that much. I'm like, why did you grow to a V?
A
Why are you at the movies? Like, what are you doing? I like the idea of maybe we put like, there's a. You can. Have you ever been on a plane?
B
No. Yeah.
A
I didn't take a boat here from Ireland, so it's like. It's crazy, dude. They fly anywhere. Have you ever been on a plane that has the. You can, like, message. Different seats.
B
Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
A
Would they be cool if you could. You could, like, pull up a little
B
panel and like an Xbox Live party chat you, pal.
A
Just sick everyone in the theater on this guy. Dude, the guy in C17 is a piece of.
B
Let him know comment section on the movie.
D
I will be
A
the rolling comments coming in. Like, all of a sudden, everyone's roasting C17 and he's like, what the did I do, dude?
D
I would be rattled, though, if I was like, hey, C17, sorry. Everyone can kind of see your phone. Yeah. Like, could you, you know, once the trailers are over, could you just stop? If he responded like, no, you. I would be terrified. Yeah. Oh, my God, dude.
A
But what's funny is I'm being like, let's get people off their screens. All this is, is everyone having a screen. But I was actually thinking, like, what if you could, like, send a little shock, like a buzz shock to the seat, Little vibration.
B
Don't people pay extra for that?
C
That's 40x.
A
All of a sudden, he's texting way more. He's like, this is great, dude. I was once. I went to a movie once. This is like back when I was an exec. And I was like, I went. I had to go see a movie for, like, research. Went. In the middle of the day, I go into this movie theater again. It's like a Wednesday at 2, so I'm like, working. No one is in the theater. It's amazing. I have the theater to myself, and one woman walks in and she sits two seats away from me. There's two of us in the entire theater. And granted, listen, you go on and you buy your seat.
D
She sits that seat.
A
Yeah, yeah. But I like. She walked in and I was immediately like, jesus Christ. So I'm answering emails because it's a work day, and I'm like, there's two of us in here.
H
Here.
A
And she looks over at me and she's, excuse me, could you put your phone away? And I was like, are you kidding? My initial thought was like, just go sit away from me. Yeah, but I was like, you know what? She's right. I'm. We're in a movie theater.
H
I.
A
And I was like, yes, absolutely. So I got up and I left and I went to the row behind her because I was like, I'm going to keep sending emails because I'm.
E
I'm working.
A
Yeah. The whole movie she's going like this. I'm, like, checking to see if I'm still on my phone, and I'm like, what's happening here, dude? Like, I'm not bothering.
B
That's insane.
D
It was crazy.
B
Goes screen to screen. Just.
A
It was crazy. She was, like, actively being like, I'm gonna try to reprimand you. It was driving me nuts.
D
I don't like that.
C
You know what's funny?
B
When I was. When I was living in. In Ireland, I had. It's kind of like AMC stubs, but it was first, like, chain called Cineworld.
A
It's called AMC Spuds.
B
Spud. AMC Spuds. Oh, my God.
H
Yes.
B
That's what it should have been called.
A
We gotta change it.
B
So I'd go, like, very regularly. I just, like, walk into the city and I'd go see a movie and I'd see all sorts of random hours, random movies that nobody cares about. There'd be a lot of, like, screens. I'd be, like, one of, like, three people. No one else. There was this one other guy that did the same thing, and I used to, like, just. I used to just freak out every time I'd see him because he would always come up and sit right next to me. And this happened, like, three times. And one time he sat, like, when I say next to me, it was usually like two or three, like, seats away. But one time, he sat literally right next to me in the exact same situation. Was an empty theater. And I had, like, you know, armrests going.
D
Everything.
B
I'm like, no, I'm gonna assert my dominance.
A
Yes. I'm gonna have leave.
B
I'm gonna leave the arm up, assert my dominance here and make sure that I'm comfortable for this entire screen.
D
His hand over your.
B
He touched my hand with his hand. And I was like, shit, you win.
D
Did he really?
C
So I was.
B
Was literally, it was like. Like that. And he. He came and it was like that. And I was like, this is your move. I know.
D
I know this. I know this, but yeah, this guy loves you, man. This was the start of the romcom in his mind. Like, he was like, finally. I will. I will.
B
It's a lot creepier when you're in the romcom than when you're watching the rom com.
A
It's not quite as fun, it's not quite as calm. It's, it's, it's very, very intense. Dude, I, I re, I actually got mogged on a plane. Is that the, I'm using that, right? I got airplane seat mogged.
F
That'.
D
Thank you, Zach.
A
This guy on a plane recently, he absolutely dominated me. I, I, it was like he was, he was, he was man spreading, he was taking the armrest and I was, I was like, I'm gonna battle for a little bit. And he, I, I had not, I couldn't do anything.
D
Yeah.
A
I was smoked. It was awful.
D
I really don't appreciate, I mean, the airplane is a tough situation because there's just no room for, for everybody.
A
It's brutal.
D
But I feel like I'm always the, like, I'll get in and I go like this because I'm like, okay, I'll
A
just, I'll be human.
D
Yeah. And then the second I do this, everyone's like, oh, great, thanks. And I'm like, oh, I thought we were going to both maybe do this.
B
I want, I want to.
C
I had a guy, Can I tell you this? I had a guy who, I was in the window seat. He was in the middle seat. And I think he had never been on a plane before, but he was also maybe just an incredibly rude human because he literally reached across my face face to take a photo out the window of the sky.
A
Wild work.
D
Wild.
A
I'm wild here.
C
And his hand comes in and I'm like, dude, have you, what are you going to look for?
A
I've noticed recently that's awful. I've noticed recently sometimes the air vents are, they're way higher.
D
Yep.
A
And like you really got to get in people's personal space to like get your, your, yeah.
B
But you got to, you got to do like what the waiters say where they're like, oh, sorry, pardon my reach. That's what you got to do. I have a certain etiquette it with planes where I think that the, the aisle seat gets the extra leg room. The middle seat gets both armrests.
D
Okay.
B
And then the window seat gets the.
A
That is a very democratic sleep against
B
the wall should be the rules.
C
That's he's Irish.
D
Because they should say that. They should say that out loud.
A
Yeah.
D
Like, this is the way this works, dude. You get the armrest. I had a guy. You know how there's like an under seat area.
B
Yeah.
D
In front of each of your Seats. I, I was in the middle, but I had a guy in the aisle put his right foot. No, my under seat area.
A
Well, that's crazy. Yeah, that is like that, that is where I would hit the Evan. I would hit the ejector seat button on that. I'd be like, are you out of your mind?
D
This is my. You know what?
A
I, I, it's crazy. That is crazy.
B
Who would do that?
A
Yeah.
B
That's so weird.
A
That is wild work, folks.
D
Wild.
A
I, we can. I want your next topic in a second, Ev. But I, I was recently, like, I would stuck my feet under there, and there's like a bar that, you know, your bag hits up against. This woman in front of me was like, hooking her feet under her seat. I was like, what are you doing? And like, our feet were touching.
D
She was back down.
A
She was like, it was very strange.
B
Not cramped enough for her.
D
Oh, yeah.
A
What are you doing? I felt bad. I was like, sorry. But then I was like, I think that's my space. But I don't really.
C
Here's the thing. I don't know if we can talk about this, but. Because if we play video, they can't hear it, right?
A
Oh, oh, maybe.
B
I mean, we'll narrate what the sound of the video is.
A
Look at the Sean stats graphic up right now.
D
That's incredible.
A
Absolutely hilarious Career stuff. That is so good.
E
Wow.
F
So you also have been flashing this one up too. I just, I want the chat to know also.
B
The chat.
F
The chat is going, the chat is going nuts. There's two. There's way more people in here, by the way. Everybody was like, Sean's here.
D
Oh, it's literally two back to back. Olympians. Come on. And then Sean comes in.
A
Yeah.
D
Yeah.
B
What Olympians do the best in the world. What they do.
A
Yeah.
B
They have hot takes on the currency in Harry Potter.
A
Yeah, sure don't. Sure don't. What's the next topic?
C
Well, I wanted to show a video, but it, it really requires you having to. You have to hear it.
D
You got to hear it.
C
And I think it'd be funny for Sean to watch this too.
A
Okay.
C
Do you, do you have this video? It's.
F
Yeah, give me two.
C
It's, it's the, the Leafs are the best. And have you seen, seen this?
D
Is it a, is it a YouTube video? Yeah, you can, you can put it in the chat. Zach, too, so then people can watch it on.
A
Oh, that's good.
C
But I mean, I think what I'm saying is, I'm sure the chat's gonna hear it. It's mostly. Can we hear it in the room?
A
Oh, oh, oh.
C
You know what I mean? But maybe they have to put their headphones on.
F
Yeah, they will. They will hear it if the headphones are on. But we can do it this way too. All right.
B
There's. There's two headphones up here. I can just guess that's true.
C
You could. Well, if you play it loud enough. Headphones can.
A
Is this a hockey?
C
Ever seen the Leafs are the best music video from.
A
I don't think so.
D
I don't think so either. Okay.
C
I. This came up on my feed and I was like, wow, this is just a fucking time cap capsule of like the cringiest 90s shit in the world. And hopefully they don't take us down for it. I don't think they will.
F
Just give me some time.
C
He's. He's waiting. Let's vamp a little bit.
B
But yeah, the, like, I feel like 90s music videos were as kind of like a peak hallmark.
A
While we, while we get this up. What was your topic?
D
My topic was going to be, I. I think that we go away from playgrounds too early in life. Like I was on a playground as a little kid and then we're done. My playground era is over. And I was like, that's ass. Because playgrounds are sick. And I definitely think they need to evolve towards me. But what was that place in Newington? Like jokers maybe or something?
A
Jokers.
D
There was this place near where we grew up that was kind of like. And we were still pretty young then, but it wasn't like a little kids playground. It was like a teenager playground where there was just like a ton of young, young teens.
A
Yeah, I think, I think like 13, 14, you're starting to be like you're aging out of jokers.
D
Yeah, yeah, for sure. Because high school year.
A
But it was like a big kid play place.
E
That sounds awesome.
D
And it was pretty sweet, dude. I was legitimately thinking to myself that I would have fun because it's a workout kind of, you know, you're just like running around. I was like, dude, if there was like a literal adult playground where you could just go and like bop around this trampolines and whatever, that's what gyms are missing.
B
Gyms are miserable and they need to be fun.
F
Yeah.
D
So I had this thought. I was like, going to the gym sucks. But I was like, dude, if it was literally like a play pen of stuff I liked and I'd be like, oh, I'll go, I'll pay you a membership and I will go here for
E
an hour and run around.
C
Dude, I was just in Joshua Tree. That is kind of an adult playground. If you go, like, bouldering.
A
Yes.
D
Dude.
C
It's not really rock climbing. Like, it's not terribly dangerous, but it is like a giant playground, and I
D
would have that in there.
A
And I found sometimes things like, if I, If I think about. About a playground at our age, I'm like, that's just a bunch of things that could hurt me is what I think.
D
Yeah.
C
Yeah.
A
And I, I. But what you're saying is, like, a playground is just. When we were kids going out to recess, we were just going to the gym.
F
Yeah.
A
You know, like, you were like, running around, like, climbing the stuff. Like, the monkey bars are just like. That's just a work.
B
Like monkey bars on your, like, in school when you go.
D
Oh, yeah, our.
B
We had, like, a car park. That was it. We didn't have anything.
A
Oh, dude.
D
But, but did you have, like, four square painted on the ground at least or nothing?
B
No, no, we had. We had to, like, line up before we went back to class, and it was just a big, open tarmac square area.
D
What did you do out there?
A
What did you do, shoot dice?
E
We had a couple games.
B
We had a game called IRA
D
where you had to.
B
Everyone had to have a letter to make a word. And then the other team, like, they had to chase and catch you and then basically torture you. One kid, like, spit on my face once I try and get my letter. I never gave up. And everyone else. Everyone else on my team gave up their letter, and I didn't. And I felt so betrayed because I definitely went through the work.
D
Hold on, dude. So you had a secret letter.
B
Everyone has a secret letter. And then people have to catch you. The other team has to catch you
D
and literally torture the letter out of you.
B
Torture the letter out of you.
A
And. And then the fact that you called this IRA is fucking.
B
I don't think we really had a good understanding at the time of.
D
And then the other team gets enough letters, they can make a word.
B
They can make. They have to make the secret word and get the secret word right.
D
And then we had a game called all your letters.
A
Yeah.
B
Bulldogs charge, where it was basically just like, like, like running mosh pit from one side of the yard to the other where, like, people have to try and, like, grab you and catch you.
A
That was kind of red rover for us.
D
Yeah.
A
Do you know that game?
B
I know it's the same as.
A
Yeah, I think it might Be the same. Red Rover was. You would go, you'd have like, let's say it was us five, you. We'd all lock arms and we'd go,
D
red Rover, Red Rover.
A
Send Nelson on over and he would have to sprint at us and try to break through one of the arms.
C
Yeah, same.
A
Same kind of dude. That game was such a big thing. And then you eventually got to an age where the first person like dislocates their shoulder because we're getting too big for the game. And like, I feel like we all have that moment where the first Red Rover injury happens and you're like, okay, we can't play this anymore. It got like banned at our school because someone got fucked up.
B
Yeah, it was bad in our school too. We still like could sneak it in every once in a while until we were caught. Isn't it weird how like durable children are?
A
Oh yeah, rubber. They're made of rubber.
B
Can you imagine if you had like an 8 year old that was 6ft tall? They'd be unstoppable. Like an army of those things.
A
You know, it's actually funny. Some guy, I think it was in Jersey. No, it was overseas, which makes sense. Might have been Finland. This dude just got arrested for. He was 37 years old, posing as a high schooler playing hockey. And he was murdering kids. Like, just destroying, like, I'm, I'm not talking, putting up points. He was like hitting them and like injuring people. And then someone was like, is this a 37 year old man? And it sure was.
D
Yeah.
A
Yeah. And he got arrested.
B
One of my favorite jokes in cinema history was. I think the movie's called the Bench. Bench.
A
Warmers. Bench warmers.
B
And it's like they have the baseball league and there's like one dude who's like, has his own child, but he's in like a child's league. And his like ID is like written in crayon. Like, I am 12. I. I think about that all the time.
D
That's incredible.
B
Yeah, that's you. This guy was doing.
A
He was literally doing that.
D
Yeah.
A
Do we have the video?
C
I think. I think we might be ready. We'll see.
A
Oh, you're just. I'm just. Okay, here we go. Oh, well, we were talking about VHS's earlier this year. Oh man. Did you see that game last night? Oh yeah. Beeps are awesome. I wish I could play in the NHL and Stanley Cup. Yeah, I'm, I'm Gilmore today. Clark was better. He's the best. Okay, I guess I'll be Anderson or Andrew, Chuck, one of those guys. Oh, did you see Potman playing? He was wicked.
D
Did they kill us or didn't know? Is that just the tv?
A
The cat.
C
We're stuck at his. Oh, cool.
A
We're watching Nickelodeon.
H
Hi.
A
Some young guys trying to make in the A show. Never make it.
B
We're making fun of their video.
A
There's so much going on the TVs right now. I have no idea what's happening. This is hilarious.
C
Like that.
E
What the.
D
Is this.
A
Is this what the chat is seeing right now?
D
No, they're seeing this.
A
Oh, they seeing us.
C
All right, Paul, pause, pause. We gotta get to input.
A
Oh, they're still seeing the video.
B
Oh, great.
A
They're still seeing it.
D
Yeah, you're good.
F
Yeah, they're still seeing the video.
A
Evan, that whatever you did couldn't have blown this up.
C
I'm more sorry. I was trying to turn the volume up so you guys could hear it, but.
E
What.
C
How do we get the TV back to normal?
F
Let me transition this enough.
D
Do you think?
E
Hang on.
D
Oh, yeah. Actually, we have a pro here.
F
Here.
A
Holy. That was funny.
C
Well, so my point was in. In the. In the late 80s, early 90s, everybody was trying to. Okay, here we go. There we go.
A
There we go. We're back.
C
This is. This gets better.
A
Trust me, there's some guys in the ice, probably some young guys trying to make in the NHL. They'll never make it.
H
I know when I grew up, I
A
wanted to play in the NHL. So that and to be with the
H
Leafs and win the Stanley Cup.
E
Keep dreaming, kids.
H
That's the best dream.
A
That's Mitch Marner.
E
Whoa.
A
Yeah. Look. What are you guys doing?
C
What are you guys doing out here?
D
Big guys in our team.
E
Oh, yeah. This is the most Canadian thing I've ever seen.
G
Power work.
C
Here we go. Then it becomes a music video. So, Dan, can you tell me, are these players.
A
Yes.
C
Singing the song?
A
Oh, well, I don't know what's.
C
Well, they're coming out here.
A
What on earth.
C
Can you imagine getting a team to do this now?
A
I mean. Yes, I can. When I think about what media does for Makes teams do.
B
Yeah, they got to do some, like, tick tock dances.
C
What team would you think would be most likely to take part in this?
A
The Sharks. The Sharks.
C
Dude, we should get the Sharks of the best going.
A
I mean, they would do it too. That's what's funny. Like, the boys did such funny things over the holidays. All right, turn this off. This is crazy. No, no, this is amazing. I just like, I'm Sure. The chat is like, what the fuck is happening right now?
D
Actually, they love it. The Canes did the storm surge shit for a lot. Yeah, they did.
A
I mean, like, think about all the schedule. Release videos that we.
D
Mind blowing lyrics.
E
I think we should do.
B
The netters are the best.
C
Here's the great thing about this is,
B
like, dude, that 90s video, that would be special.
C
The irony in the lyrics. The leafs are the best.
A
Oh, it's just crazy.
D
I mean, I'm sorry.
A
I mean, like, I don't know what that was, but it was amazing. And you know what? It did remind me of when you used to go out and play and go, I'm this player.
D
Yeah.
A
Today I forgot we used to do that. That was special.
D
And that was. And it was competitive because you'd be like, I wanted to be that guy.
A
Yeah.
D
But they're like, sorry, dude. I'm that guy today. God.
A
All right, let's. Let's let Sean get back to his life, and we'll wrap this up with one more.
F
Do we. Do we want him to get back to his life?
A
No. I mean, no. I want us to do this forever.
C
Oh, yeah. How many more topics do we have?
A
Dance.
D
I want to do yours with Sean.
A
Wait, do you have a top topic?
B
Do I have a topic? Do you want me to have a topic?
F
Oh, yeah.
A
My. We can do m. Mine's not that crazy. It's kind of a hot take. My. My take. My free for all Friday take is. I think American Italian food is better than Italian food.
C
Dude, my wife killed me for saying that.
B
What's a mar.
D
Like.
A
Like olive gard. I'm glad you asked. No, but we don't.
D
We do not.
A
Olive Garden shame here. I love the Olive Garden. American Italian food is just like chicken parm, for example, doesn't exist in Italy. If you go to Italy and you try to order chicken parm, they're like, we don't do that.
D
You're like, what?
B
Don't you do something funny with your chicken parm where you, like, order it without noodles?
D
Yes. It gets broccoli.
A
Okay.
G
You.
B
It's just that you don't like Italian food.
A
No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no.
D
I think that might be right.
A
I think American. Dude, stop.
D
The only part of Italian food you like is the American part. And then the Italian part you replace with broccoli.
A
That. I only do that for health reasons. But if I'm in Italy, I eat the pasta because it's great. Good pasta over there.
E
But.
H
Oh, wait.
E
But hang on.
B
A second. I think it's better over here.
E
Yeah.
A
We're getting off topic.
E
This argument's falling apart.
A
American Italian food just adds great stuff. Like, it's all American stuff. Like, here. Here you go. Here's Italian food. And we went, okay, what if we also parmesan to that chicken?
D
Yeah.
A
We just, like, add.
D
We add cheese to shit.
C
I can tell you my. So when I came to la, the only Italian food I was used to was American Italian food. And the reason is, is in Steubenville, Ohio, where I grew up, a lot of Italian immigrants moved there in the early 1900s, and they started making all these restaurants. There was one called Naples, and it's like, you know, the red checker fucking thing.
A
Oh, yeah.
C
The chicken parm is great. Spaghetti with meat sauce, all that stuff.
A
Yeah.
C
And I, like, loved it. And my wife's like, we gotta go to Italy, and you need to have the actual Italian food. And there's a lot more fish in Italy.
A
A lot more fish.
C
A lot more.
A
True. Especially depending where you go.
C
Yeah. Not as much red sauce unless you get to the southern end. But, like, I agree with you that my heart wants that stuff.
F
Yeah.
C
But it's like, I think an Italian person would smack me in the face.
A
Correct. And I. And I would get smacked in the face for this take. But, like, I. What I'm saying is American Italian food is all the Italian food.
C
It's great.
A
But we just add some other stuff, and I'm like, it's great.
D
Is that just chicken parm, though? Is that the only thing?
A
No, like, there's a lot of stuff that we put more cheese on. And, like. Oh, I saw the, like, fettuccine Alfredo. Like, Alfredo sauce is not Italian.
D
Oh, really?
A
They're like, what the.
D
Is that interesting?
C
I.
D
That is. Okay.
C
Okay.
F
When people say have no culture, we have the culture.
A
It's called. It's called theft.
F
Yeah, it's theft.
B
Will taste, make it a little bit more fun?
D
It's called Alfredo, dude. If we invented Alfredo, then we're the goat. I didn't realize we invented that.
B
I. I think that the American philosophy with food is that more is more. And there's often times just, like, more stuff added.
A
Yeah.
B
And I think maybe the European philosophy is about the quality of produce.
A
Yeah.
D
Yeah.
A
The ingredients, which is. Which is decidedly better. But.
D
Well, it's like, not. Not tasting.
B
I think that it's like when you spent your whole life at, like, volume 11, and now you have to tone it down to volume five to get the Subtleties of it like this.
D
I can't hear.
B
You can't hear it.
E
You can't hear it.
C
I got. I got one for you. Like, you know how the. I keep reading news articles that are like, the Mediterranean diet is the diet that will make you live longer. So I extrapolate this. Like, Mediterranean Italian pizza, spaghetti, and I'm like, I'm eating Mediterranean.
A
Why haven't you doing this forever?
C
Why aren't I living longer? Longer?
D
Have you ever.
A
Have you ever been to Fat Sals?
B
I don't think I. Why would I go to a place that's named after the worst thing that can happen to me after eating their stuff?
A
Yeah.
B
That's like McDonald's calling themselves type 2 diabetes.
D
Yeah.
A
It's honest marketing.
E
We.
A
I'm going to show you the menu of fat cells after we wrap up here, and you are going to be appalled what this place is.
D
It is incredible.
A
It is a sub shop.
E
Yeah.
A
Everything on the menu is. What if we made a sub that you've heard of, like, an Italian sub? And then what if we put in chicken fingers, fries, and mozzarella sticks into it?
B
Actually sounds really good.
D
It's incredible.
A
Chris loves it.
E
Yeah, that sounds awesome.
B
That sounds like one of those, like, heart attack grill places.
A
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Exactly what it is.
C
If you've never been to Pittsburgh, Sean, they've got a thing called the Primani sandwich, which is like any kind of deli meat you want. Coleslaw, French fries on a sandwich that's basically two thick pieces of bread. And the sandwiches are like that big. Big. They're great.
D
Yeah, they're perfect.
A
I suspect.
B
What do they call this?
C
The Primani sandwich.
B
I love the way that some food items in the states have such, like, a lot like, they're like cryptoids. They're like kind of a thing where it's like they have such a mystique behind them being, like, it's not allowed in 49 states, but in this one, you go to Nebraska, they will serve it to you.
C
It's like, L.A. everything there is, like, horrible for.
D
For you.
F
So true.
A
All right. Does anyone have one more?
D
Yeah.
A
All right, Zach.
F
So I think it's a big deal, but I think watching rom coms with your significant other has a lot of benefits to it. We talked about this yesterday, you know, and I discussed this. I. I think so. I was watching 10 Things I Hate about you. Great movie with the lady.
D
Great movie.
F
Great movie. So much fun.
A
And.
F
And. And, you know, I think it gets the joke juices.
B
Flowing.
F
I think you. You're. It was Evan's anniversary recently. I. I was like, I think throwing out a little rom com makes it a little bit better. I think it gets the juices flowing with your lady, and I think it always leads to a good night.
D
Did you watch a rom com on your anniversary, Evan?
G
No.
A
They watched Obsession. Yeah, I'm so. No, we did. You're right.
C
We did.
A
What?
C
We watched Obsession.
A
Actually, we did.
C
And I was a little freaked out because we had plans to, you know, know.
A
That is insane work.
C
My wife is a horror movie writer and like. Yeah, so she, like, didn't bother her at all, but I was like, wow.
F
Yeah.
B
Wait, so did I mishear this or. Zach, did you see a romcom with a lady to celebrate Evan's anniversary?
D
Exactly what I did.
B
Who was the lady?
D
Evan's wife. That is.
A
Bro, that is one of the best friend moves I've ever heard.
D
Be the move. This could be the move. Somebody get Dolan. Celebrating your friends anniversaries. Yeah, is all time, dude.
A
Not and not with them.
D
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
A
No, you celebrate it like Christmas.
C
We were about to have sex and I hear a knock on the door, and he's like, I brought wine.
G
No, no, that.
A
That's what. That's what I'm saying. Like, we. It's not with you. Like, I'm going to go out to dinner with the fellas and be like this. It's Evan's anniversary, so we're going to celebrate.
D
Could be the move. Dude, that is unbelievable.
A
Zach, my. I. I think you're. First of all, I love this take by you because, like, it.
G
You.
A
It's makes it seem like you're saying you're reinventing the wheel. This is like the most everyone through the annals of history have done this.
B
If you watch romantic movies, things get romantic.
A
Yeah, I know, but this is.
F
I. I tell you, I. I have not. I. I have not thought about this before, but a lot of movie dates been out. Been out all around. I usually was going to horror because
B
you're taking advice from Evan and taking them to Obsession. Be like, Saw fours out right now. You want to go.
C
When a generation grows up without comedies.
A
Dude, this. What I was about to say.
D
It's not his fault. It's his generation. The romcoms disappear.
A
The.
D
The quality romcom disappeared because. And I'm not even faulting them, but streamers found out you could just make super cheap, horrible romcoms and everyone's like, whatever, I don't care. And just watch it so they're, they're winning. Cuz they're like, yeah, with the views we get a trillion this. But we really lost the good quality stuff.
B
Kids movies like, I think Sheep Detective
H
is there right now.
B
Really good things I need to see.
D
Sean, you're going to.
C
Amazing.
E
It's good.
C
Amazing review.
A
No, no, it's, it's, it's amazing.
D
You love it.
B
I, I, I saw the, I saw the poster for it off of like the i5 or something and I freaked out. I was like, that, that's a movie for me.
A
I love that. It's unbelievable.
B
And then I, I actually want to
D
see it with you.
B
I told my friends and they were like, what? That sounds like the lamest thing.
A
Oh no, it's amazing.
B
Trying to be like. No, but it's like, see the trailer. There's like Hugh Jackman's like a farmer and there's like died and like Sir
A
Patrick Stewart voices one of the sheep. Yeah, it's incredible.
B
The lineup is incredible.
A
Yeah, it's, I mean, dude, Craig Mason wrote it. It's fantastic.
D
Go, Go tonight. Like legitimately, actually.
A
Will.
B
I just, I just got my AMC stubs back, so.
E
Come on.
C
Yeah, you get suspended for some reason.
B
Yeah, you know, I can't get into it. No, I canceled it after I went almost a full year without seeing a film because I was busy working on Empty Netters.
D
Correct.
B
And then 30 million views. 30 million views. And how many episodes did you get?
D
30 million views by going to the movies, dude.
B
Yeah, you know what? I was watching that grind. What I was watching for romantic incentive was Empty Netters episodes.
D
Yeah, actually.
C
Wait, by the way, these stats are completely made up.
D
No, no, no.
A
They're actually quite low. They're quite low.
B
It's conservative numbers, dude.
A
The. So Zach, do not go on a date night and watch Schindler's List. Yes, correct. I'm aware of that. But I think what I need you to know is we got into this yesterday. Romcoms are incredible, dude. Like the good. Yes, we, we look at some of the TV that has just come out on some of these streamers and movies. Like sometimes they are. And they're just like, rinse and repeat, smut, Go watch it, whatever. But like a good romcom, there's some of the best movies that exist.
C
Yeah, I got a big wreck for you.
F
Okay.
C
It's called they Came Together. Have you seen they Came Together? Yeah, dude, it completely makes fun of all the rom.
A
Did you ever watch Stella?
H
Yeah. Yeah.
A
Those guys are out of their mind.
C
I met David Wayne once. Super nice guy, very fun, but like, they're mental. They're so fucking funny.
A
It's unbelievable.
C
Yeah, go see, they came.
F
The chat is buzzing with amazing rom com recommendations.
A
There you go.
F
There you go.
B
Yeah.
F
You're about to get me so late because
B
I feel like you're. You're learning this far earlier in life than. Than I learned this. Whereas there's a whole genre of film that a lot of. A lot of young guys skip out on because they think it's not worth their time.
F
Yes.
B
There's some amazing flicks in there for sure.
A
Also, fun fact, Wedding Crashers is a rom com.
D
Yeah.
F
I have seen Wedding Crashers, but it's a comedy to me.
A
Yeah. That most people think it's ever made.
D
And it's a rom com.
A
Wedding Crashers is a rom com. Greatest rom com of all time.
B
Just on the tip of my tongue. I think I'm gonna go with love, actually.
A
Damn heaven, Jesus, come back to me.
C
I got a thing.
A
Chris Zach's never seen any, so.
E
No. Oh.
B
Actually, I want to change mine.
A
Okay.
B
I really like When Harry Met Sally.
A
That's the answer.
D
That is probably the.
A
When Harry Met Sally is like a genuinely perfect movie.
B
It's incredible.
A
About time, though.
B
It's great.
D
I know, but I don't know about.
A
No. About times a rom com.
D
Yeah, it is, but it's. It has so much more overpowered.
A
Yeah, it's very rom com.
D
I like Notting Hill a lot.
A
Love nodding.
D
That one's. I know it's a classic answer, but I just. And it's the reason he wrote it. Even said, Kurt, Richard said this, but he was like the wish fulfillment of, like, what if a smoke movie star stumbled into me and was like, yes, I love him. And then that's what happened. So you just watch.
A
You're like, the readers of Horse and Hound will be delighted.
C
I got one. This is a raunchy one, but there's something about Mary I think is a rom com. Even though it's very Roncher. Absolutely fucking great.
A
Brett Favre shows up in that movie. It's unbelievable. Yeah, Brett Favreau. But what about Brett Favre? Favreau.
C
Guys, there's a spider literally just coming.
A
Oh, he's. He's dropping down.
H
Yeah.
D
What the fuck?
C
Trying to say his favorite rom com is Spiderman.
B
I don't see this spider. Oh, there he is.
G
Oh.
A
Oh, wow.
B
Oh, my God.
A
All right, we gotta wrap this up, get into our day. We've got some guests coming through that we're gonna hang out with, if you don't know, of the Bread Basket Boys. They're coming. We're going to do some fun stuff. Does anyone have any closing thoughts as we wrap up? Sean, this was delightful.
B
This is great.
A
Thanks for popping on.
B
No problem. Do you want me to step away? Oh, that spider's coming down real close to your foot.
A
Yeah, it is, dude.
B
This is how you get your superpowers, Dude.
F
We.
A
This is a very much a Peter Parker moment for me.
D
That was awesome. Did he come from the sea?
A
Did spider just die?
E
I think spiders died.
F
Oh, no.
B
He's still alive.
E
He's live. Okay, we're good.
D
We. We're gonna be back at it again soon.
B
Yeah.
A
Sean,
D
are you gonna kill the spider? Oh, dude. I was like, oh, nice.
A
Whoa. We're gonna zoom in on the spider.
C
Get the focus there.
A
Oh, he's moving right there.
C
There he is. There you go.
A
There's the spider, folks. You can see him move. Come here, buddy.
D
Don't scare him, Dan.
C
He's going to find Zendaya.
A
Yeah. Wow.
D
Very good. Very good.
A
Yeah. Fun, fun news for the fans. Sean. Sean's back soon.
D
Yeah, we are going to be back at it soon. You're going to be getting some Sean.
A
I was like, we got a nice crotch shot of me right now.
B
This is great.
A
But, yeah, we're going to be jumping into Love island with Sean very soon.
H
Holy.
A
That doesn't mean we're going on Love island, but would be g. That would be.
B
We should do our own.
D
Could you imagine? And it's just us.
A
It's just us.
D
We film it every day, night with 52 episodes. And we do. We hang out.
A
That's. That's a great pitch for the bosses. Guys, send us to Bora Bora episode shirtless. Yeah, it'll be great. Oh, all right. Well, that's it, folks. Great. Free for all. Friday episode.
D
Incredible.
A
We got to start talking about hockey way less.
D
Yeah.
F
Can we. Can we do a shout out to the chat? We are 2 hours and 21 minutes in, and there's 200 people. Everybody's been here the whole time. It's been amazing.
H
Thank you.
A
Love you, chat. We'll see you next time. In business, there's no room for guesswork. Every shipment matters. Every deadline counts. When you're trying to keep operations running smoothly, the last thing you need is uncertainty. That's why reliability is at the core of USPS ground advantage. From the moment your package is first scanned in, it moves through a secure nationwide network. Aiding in a timely and accurate delivery, you get near real time tracking so you can keep up with your shipments. And with affordable upfront pricing, there are no hidden fees or surprise surcharges to throw off your cost sheets. It all adds up to predictable deliveries you can depend on, because knowing your logistics are handled lets you focus on everything else your customers, your team and the future you're building. Visit USPS.com groundadvantage to start shipping with confidence. USPS official shipping sponsor of the NHL. You may think you know McDonald's drinks,
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Refreshers contain caffeine.
This episode serves as a laid-back, comedic roundtable that captures the Empty Netters’ signature mix of hockey nerdery, beer leaguer camaraderie, and pop culture banter. With a break in the hockey playoff schedule, hosts Dan and Chris (and assorted co-hosts/friends) fully embrace the "Seinfeld episode" mantra: a show about everything and nothing. The episode features deep dives into sports fandom, VHS culture, the plight of the streaming era, wild playoff speculation, and candid check-ins with hockey personalities who just closed epic chapters: SnapBack’s Tim Kalinowski, Montreal’s Erin Ambrose, and NHL legend TJ Oshie.
Hangover Debates and Generational Habits
Stream Scrolling vs. Video Stores
VHS as a Nostalgic Experience
First VHS Memories
Physical Collectibles and Modern Fandom
VHS Nostalgia Check-In (16:32)
Background & Passion for Hockey
Experiencing Four Nations Tournament (19:22)
Hockey Content is Underserved
Coolest Sports Experiences & Surprising Vibes
Playoff Coverage & West Coast Vibes (24:59)
Reflections on Fandom & Media
Hockey Drama & Media Theater
Prepping for Stanley Cup Playoffs
Notable Quotes:
The Aftermath of Championship Glory
Playoff Adversity & “OT Insanity” (49:48–51:28)
Mental Resilience, Momentum, and the Lessons of Loss
The Meaning of the Walter Cup
Summer Plans & Advice
Oshie’s Home Studio: The Gaming Closet
League Life & Video Game Years (78:11–79:36)
Broadcasting at ESPN and Adapting to TV
Real Talk: Rivalries and the Hurricanes
The Importance of Depth and Belief
Oshie Off the Ice — Dad by Day, Broadcaster by Night
Movie Theater/Streaming Etiquette Rant
Playgrounds for Adults & Schoolyard Games
Nostalgic Sports Music Videos
Friday Hot Takes
Rom-Coms and Relationships
This “Friday Mess Around” episode is a microcosm of what makes Empty Netters special: a perfectly-imperfect mix of hockey wisdom, locker-room storytelling, pop culture tangents, and unvarnished camaraderie. From the inside jokes about VHS tapes to hard-won insights about the playoff grind, it’s a gift for hockey fans and ‘90s kids who just want to hang out.
Special shout-out to the live chat:
“We are 2 hours and 21 minutes in, and there's 200 people. Everybody's been here the whole time. It's been amazing.” —Zach (141:18)