Spittin’ Chiclets Episode 550: Featuring Dale Tallon & Robby Berger

Summary

Spittin’ Chiclets Episode 550 Summary: Featuring Dale Tallon & Robby Berger

Released on March 18, 2025 by Barstool Sports

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Introduction

In the 550th episode of Spittin’ Chiclets, hosts Ryan Whitney, Paul Bissonnette, and Mike Grinnell dive deep into a myriad of topics ranging from personal celebrations to the burgeoning world of YouTube Golf. This episode features special guests Dale Tallon and Robby Berger, adding their unique perspectives to the lively discussions.

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Celebrating Biz's 40th Birthday

The episode kicks off with the hosts reminiscing about Biz Bissonnette’s unforgettable 40th birthday party held in Scottsdale. The celebration was themed Disco Rodeo, highlighting the popular drink Pink Whitney.

• Biz Bissonnette reflects on the event:

  "[01:51] Biz: I believe it was a disco like Disco Rodeo theme."

• Ryan Whitney shares his regret of missing the party:

  "[01:56] Whitney: ...I was so sad I couldn't be there for Biz's 40th..."

The party was a vibrant mix of music, themed cocktails, and spirited interactions, with Pink Whitney being the star beverage of the night.

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Golf Adventures and Collaborations

A significant portion of the episode is dedicated to the hosts’ passion for golf. Biz Bissonnette details recent golf trips, including entertaining anecdotes about playing with friends and YouTube personalities.

• Biz discusses impromptu golfing plans:

  "[08:23] Biz: ...they were in town and I was like, sure, I'll join you."

• Ryan Whitney shares his humorous mishaps on the course:

  "[22:07] Whitney: Are they nationwide biz or are they just in Scotland?"
  "[23:22] Biz: Wow."

The hosts also touch upon their strategies for finding and nurturing golfing talent, emphasizing the importance of relatable and entertaining content.

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YouTube Golf and Content Creation

The rise of YouTube Golf is a central theme, with the hosts discussing their ventures into creating engaging golf content. They highlight the competitive yet entertaining nature of their collaborations with other YouTube golfers.

• Biz on becoming the "kings of YouTube Golf":

  "[28:02] Biz: ...we have a duty to make this another entertaining match."

• Paul Bissonnette praises the success of their YouTube channel:

  "[36:59] Paul Bissonnette: ...we have accumulated nearly a million followers in three years."

The conversation underscores the shift from traditional sports media to more interactive and personality-driven platforms, with Spittin’ Chiclets positioning itself at the forefront of this movement.

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Interview with Robbie Berger

A highlight of the episode is the interview with Robbie Berger, the face behind Bob does Sports. Berger shares his journey from working at the Four Seasons to co-founding a successful sports content platform.

• Robbie Berger explains his transition to full-time content creation:

  "[34:50] Biz: ...thanks for coming on the pod, brother."

  "[35:02] Paul Bissonnette: Yeah, absolutely. Love your guys' stuff."

• Paul Bissonnette commends the collaboration:

  "[36:33] Paul Bissonnette: ...it lived up to the hype. It was unbelievable."

The interview delves into the challenges and triumphs of building a sports content empire, emphasizing the importance of authentic engagement and innovative content strategies.

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Golf Tournaments and Future Plans

The hosts discuss upcoming golf tournaments and potential collaborations, particularly with the Foreplay team. They outline plans for marathon golf events and elaborate on competitive formats to enhance viewer engagement.

• Biz outlines the structure for upcoming matches:

  "[26:42] Biz: ...we should do three different nines in one day. It'll be a marathon."

• Ryan Whitney expresses excitement for future collaborations:

  "[29:25] Whitney: ...we're definitely gonna get something on the books for..."

These discussions highlight the continuous evolution of their content, integrating competitive elements to keep the audience entertained and invested.

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Closing Remarks

As the episode wraps up, the hosts extend heartfelt thanks to their guests and the listeners. They tease upcoming content, including special events like Hockey Night in Canada and future collaborations with prominent figures in the sports and golf worlds.

• Ryan Whitney signs off with enthusiasm:

  "[157:35] Biz: Nothing more."

  "[182:52] Biz: So, yeah, that's where it is."

• Paul Bissonnette offers a final shout-out to the team:

  "[184:10] Biz: That's a front wipe."

The episode concludes on a high note, celebrating milestones, reflecting on past achievements, and looking forward to future endeavors in both hockey and golf content creation.

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Notable Quotes

• Biz Bissonnette on embracing new challenges:

  "[26:42] Biz: ...we have a duty to make this another entertaining match."

• Paul Bissonnette on collaboration success:

  "[36:33] Paul Bissonnette: ...it lived up to the hype. It was unbelievable."

• Keith Yandle reflecting on team building:

  "[162:03] Biz: How many? "

  "[162:32] Keith Yandle: ...we were picking five, now we're picking one."

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Conclusion

Episode 550 of Spittin’ Chiclets is a testament to the hosts' dynamic approach to sports commentary, blending personal anecdotes with professional insights. Featuring esteemed guests Dale Tallon and Robby Berger, the episode offers a comprehensive look into the intersection of traditional sports and modern content creation, all while maintaining the show's signature irreverent and outspoken tone. Whether you're a long-time listener or new to the podcast, this episode delivers engaging discussions, memorable quotes, and a wealth of insights into the evolving landscape of sports media.

Transcript

[Whitney]

Hey, Spit and Chiclets listeners. You can find every episode on Apple podcasts, Spotify or YouTube Prime. Members can listen ad free on Amazon Music. As we progress through the season, every fan knows that big wins are hard to come by and tough losses are even harder to accept.

[Biz]

But you know what isn't hard to accept?

[Whitney]

Discover.

[G]

Believe it or not, Discover is accepted.

[Whitney]

At 99% of places that take credit cards nationwide. You heard that right, 99%. So make a good call for your wallet and get Discover.

[Biz]

Based on the February 2024 Nielsen report.

[Whitney]

Learn more at discover.com credit card.

[Keith Yandle]

Twin.

[Paul Bissonnette]

Peaks is the best in the game here.

[G]

Historic rivalries tip off with shareable bites and every shot you take is a game winner.

[Biz]

I mean, where else can you pair.

[G]

Wall to wall hoops with hard to find whiskey? Only at Twin Peaks, the number one sports bar.

[Ryan Whitney]

Me and Ryan have been officially welcomed to the jungle that is Bastool Sports.

[Whitney]

Our white whale, Sidney Crosby. Shave his head.

[Paul Bissonnette]

Shave his head.

[Biz]

Shave his head. Ryan.

[Keith Yandle]

Whitney.

[Whitney]

Paul Missonnette R.A. mike Grinelli. Spittin Chickfilads. What is up folks? Welcome to episode four, 550 of the Spit and Chicklets podcast. We're getting to way more episodes than I had games played and that means it's way, way more episodes than Biz had games played. We're not near Keith yet.

[Biz]

Not healthy scratches though.

[Whitney]

If we can get up to where Keith Keith's game played in Chiclet's episodes, then we're laughing boys. We're laughing. It's great to see you guys. I hope everyone had a wonderful week and we got to talk about Pink Whitney and it'll lead us into Biz's 40th birthday bash. What an absolute time that looked like in Scottsdale.

[Biz]

I believe it was a disco like Disco Rodeo theme.

[Whitney]

Disco Rodeo. Very, very interesting. Disco biscuits for Biz on his Disco Rodeo. And it was a little Whitney party. I was so sad I couldn't be there for business. 40th but pink Whitney everywhere. I saw the shots, I saw the big bottles, I saw everything Pink everywhere. Of course, our girl Julia, she was there maybe handing out shots, drinking her own. So what an amazing week for Pink Whitney. Thank you so much to everyone who drinks it. Spring is in the air. Summer's coming. I know Pink Whitney's drank in the winter, but it's sp. Summer and maybe early fall. It's a warm weather drink that really, really just quenches your thirst when you're thirsty. So thank you so much to everyone who drinks it boys, what is going on? Biz? I. I couldn't believe it. I knew you were having this big old party, but then I saw the. The first videos and pictures that came out. I mean, who, who organized it? It was like a bar mitzvah.

[Biz]

Bob does sports Bob. Robbie Berger sent over a text. He said it looked like my sweet 16 party. But hey, you were there in spirit because we actually did a pink Whitney cocktail. It was the theme drink of the night. So thank you for sending those cases over and Yan's. Unfortunately, you couldn't make it make it either. A few people asked me, where's Wit? Where's Yance? You guys got families? You guys got things planned? I think we sent the invite out about two months ago. And we're gonna do this disco rodeo theme. And it just so happens it's my. One of my best friends, if not meet my best friend Jackie the aliens 40th as well. And that's, I believe, on March 29th. So she's like, God, I'm gonna spend all this time and energy planning mine and he's gonna want to come. So, like, why don't we just collaborate them? I said, hey, the house will be done. Let's do it at my place on the Saturday and let's have all the friends in for the weekend staying at that global ambassador Unreal set up there. And then on Friday, the day before my party, we went to Buffalo Chip. I've talked about it before. What's that? Gan? I'll throw it over to you. Donor brought us there for the first time because he loved. I think he owned a ranch out in Cave Creek at the time. And he would bring us to this place with. It's like out of a fucking setup.

[Whitney]

Buffalo Ship.

[Ryan Whitney]

Buffalo. It's a rodeo bar. We had the one year. It was the coolest thing I've ever, ever seen. I knew nothing. Like, not. I think it was my first year in the league. I knew nothing about country music. And they're like, hey, come to the Rodeo Chirp. There's a concert just for the guys. It was Garth Brooks.

[Whitney]

What?

[Ryan Whitney]

Just sitting there in front of us.

[Keith Yandle]

Yeah.

[Ryan Whitney]

Remember he used to have his charity with the NHL guys? If everyone donated, he'd give you a private tour. It was amazing. And he just sat there. Was the coolest thing I've ever seen. But that was the inside, the outside. You got live rodeo going on. You got both. So we would go there for Halloween parties. We'd hire the rodeo guys and the bulls and they'd put on a show for us. And maybe one or two guys got on the ball at one point, but that's neither here nor there.

[Whitney]

Oh, biz, you did that at 2:00am like, later on that somebody called the bull.

[Biz]

I got in on one of the parties, but they never opened the gate. I just wanted to feel what it was like. Holy. Like the power on them and like them breathing. You're like, don't open the gate. And. And this is, I would say, the Federal League of Bull Riding. So, you know, not these PBR bulls where they're like, like bodacious shit. But it's like a perfect little pen. It's got like a mini arena. They got a couple VIP suites above it. And they do like 45 minutes to an hour. They get this lady and all glitter out there with the American flag. They. They sing God Bless America on the mic. And then they do it for about 45 minutes and then they end it with the kids mutton racing. So they put the kids in the helmets and any kids, Any parents who bring their kids, they could sign them up and they ride the sheep. So they kind of do it like, you know, hey, some of these kids are getting chucked off and you could see they're walking back to their parents and they're like, oh. And then like, everybody's going nuts. So it's probably a little overwhelming for these, you know, these kids who live out there or. Or even just some city kids trying it for the first time. So. And then you. When you get out of that part. So they do three different ones. They do one at eight, like 10:30 and like whatever, 11:30. And then there's line dancing and like a covered part. So it has like a little bit of everything. And it's the perfect compact size where. Not talking about like a. Like a 20 acre grounds here, we're talking about compact into what, like two, three acres?

[Ryan Whitney]

Yeah, yeah.

[Biz]

So it was just an unbelievable time. It was raining a little bit, but everybody embraced it. And man, some of our. Our. My. Our guy friends, like, their wives have had kids, but they're banging and they're wearing like the assless chaps with thongs and stuff. And you're out there and your wife.

[Whitney]

Your buddy's wives were wearing.

[Biz]

Oh, dude.

[Julia]

Oh.

[Biz]

Some of these wives that we.

[G]

It was incredible.

[Biz]

Like, gee, I'll let you step in.

[Whitney]

Do they go to this club in Vancouver that. That place you were talking about?

[Biz]

These are like. These are kind of like when we're. They're out of town, they leave the Kids at home. And this is the grownups time to let loose and be them. Their old wild selves. Like Char, who had the. Like Char is one. She was actually on a few reality shows and she's Sean Dijon. Remember I talked about Sean Dijon? That's that guy's wife. So I mean, I'll throw her over to you. G. That was your first experience with my friend group from Vancouver. They are w. Wild.

[Whitney]

Wild.

[Paul Bissonnette]

Like wild.

[Whitney]

And.

[G]

And it sucks because they're all. I'd say every guy is six, two plus handsome, as rich as their wives are all gorgeous women. So me and Memes walking in, I wouldn't necessarily say we fit in with your friend group.

[Biz]

They loved you guys.

[G]

To no surprise at all. You throw one hell of a party. I'd say like the biggest eye opening experience was your house. I knew your house was going to be sick. But like seeing this in person for the first time was like you got to do architect, textual digest there or something. Like you walk in the backyard, the waterfalls coming down. I mean the backyard so big you had food trucks back there. Yeah, it was unbelievable. Talking to all your friends I thought was awesome too. And I thought the funniest part of my weekend was Bugsy called me and I was like, oh, what's up, Bugsy? And I start talking to Bugsy. He's like, what are you doing? I'm like, oh, I'm at Biz's 40th birthday in Scottsdale. And he's like, oh, fuck. Last time I went to Scottsdale, I think it was my 40th birthday too. Next thing you know, I blink. I'm on a PJ to Vegas with Biz, Teddy, Mike Commodore, Teddy Purcell.

[Biz]

I. They just were randomly. I got a text, they were in town and I was like, sure, I'll join you. And then they're like, hey, come on, a PJ to Vegas for the night. And I'm like, all right, sure, let's do it. And I. Fuck it. Yeah, that was an impromptu one. But fuck, it would have been fun to have Bugsy there scooping.

[Paul Bissonnette]

Everybody was coming out too.

[G]

Like Twitch. That was awesome. When Twista came out, what did Twist.

[Whitney]

The same. What did he sing back in the day?

[Biz]

Oh, he. He had a couple bangers.

[Ryan Whitney]

Oh yeah?

[Biz]

Yeah, he had a couple bangers himself. And then he was on a Kanye track. So like four or five of his own bangers and he sang, sang a couple 50 cent tunes. But. So Marielle is Jackie's best friend and she wanted to like to to throw a surprise. Obviously more for her, but for us, it kind of got blown. Like, the COVID got blown. Because I was here in the afternoon, and I see this guy out there doing a sound check, and there's speakers there where I'm like, if those are the speakers we're using, we're going to get shut down pretty quick. Like, what? But that was the request that he had to have that. That set up. So kind of like. Then I got asked if they could use one of my spare bedrooms, and I'm like, okay, something's going on. And they were okay, telling me. This may come as a shock to you. I don't know if you talked to Jeff about this, but they were trying to surprise me as well.

[Whitney]

Buddy, this was happening. I was like, no.

[Ryan Whitney]

Was it Bonnie Blue?

[Biz]

Yeah, they were trying to get her to come over, and she was going to, but she was late for her flight. I was happy that didn't happen, like, as. I don't. Like, that would have been.

[G]

So she was gonna jump out of a birthday cake.

[Biz]

That would have been incredible. That would have been my surprise if I was going.

[Whitney]

When Jeff told me that, I was like, if I was going, like, I'm canceling my flight.

[Biz]

That's why I thought you weren't there. When I heard the surprise, I'm like, no wonder Whit wasn't coming.

[Whitney]

I'm like, he's going to have a kid with Bonnie blue on his 40th birthday. And, like, the chicklet is going to end. I. I'll tell you what. Like, I don't. I g. Says, he doesn't fit in with you and your friends. Like, Bri and I, we go out to dinner. Like, listen to a little Taylor Swift on the way. Like, have a steak, a glass of wine, and go get an ice cream. And your. Your buddies have rings on, and their wives are wearing thongs out. Like, who are these people?

[Biz]

I go, hey, so. So I got. Yeah, we got about six gay guys in our friend group, right? So awesome dudes. Oh, and do they ever attract, like, attractive ladies? They are just so fun to be around. And, yeah, they. They never have a shortage of talent around them. But we were at Buffalo Chip, and two of them who maybe don't, like, you would never guess they were gay. Like, some of them, they dress very flamboyant, and you're like, okay, obviously, like, how you're dressed. Yeah, exactly how I'm dressed. By the way, Pasha was online before the party a couple days, and he was looking at these, and they Were solid colors. And I literally saw this one, and I go, that one's gonna piss off Wit. Get me that one. No.

[Whitney]

But first thing I saw when I.

[Biz]

Saw that person, I thought, so I just.

[Whitney]

I just know there's so many things you wear that if I wore. It's like I'd get. I'd get booed off this planet. Like, all of a sudden, I'm on.

[Biz]

And I got it. I got the matching one for us for the next sandbagger against the Foreplay Boys. And we'll get to that in a minute. But where were we at right before that?

[Whitney]

Oh.

[Biz]

So, yeah, so Marielle Armstrong is her best friend, and she wanted to contribute a surprise, and she ended up, like, it just so worked. They reached out to a bunch of different rappers, and then he was one that was going to be local and wasn't crazy, crazy expensive. Like, like 100k tab, you know, if you're bringing in one of the big dogs. And he was so professional. He got here early. He obviously did the sound check, had the unreal speakers, and even stayed after. And just a. A classy guy was talking about, like, his childhood. He had a stutter, and he started, like, rapping to, like, gain confidence. And like, obviously it brought. Brought him to where he. He got to. And. And he's still doing it. So unreal surprise. And. And Jackie loves that, like, 90s 2000 rap era. So it was the. The. The perfect. The perfect surprise for her. And she was shocked. So unreal job there. Caitlyn Bristow, another one of my friends, she's a Canadian girl, was on the Bachelor. She. She was invited. She was supposed to come. She had to back out because she's got a crazy schedule. But she sent this, like, rocker telegram. Have you seen that? Did you see the clip?

[Keith Yandle]

No.

[Biz]

Where this guy comes in, he's got a wig on. He looks like a. Like, Jimi Hendrik, and he has a guitar and a stand, and it's got the songs that he's going to sing as a telegram. It's like, hey, this is for Paul for your 40th birthday. Sorry that Caitlyn couldn't be here, but she wanted to send me. And he's. He's, like, doing the rocker voice and stuff, but he, like, forgot, like, my name and stuff. And, like, Cal's in the room, and we're all watching, and he's like, way to come prepared. And. And then he, like, got the actual script up, and I'm like, how many of these have you done tonight? He's like, you're my third house. So he's like going around Paradise Valley just doing these like one off telegrams. So that was a pretty. A funny wrinkle in the party. And then. And then our buddy Galen, DJ gga, didn't. I got the name of this company that we hired here. Like boys, like, I'm going to do this every year now some people are criticizing me being like, oh, I thought you weren't a big birthday guy. Like, no, I'm not a big. Sitting on your phone, answering texts all day. But like to be like in the moment with all of my friends, surrounded.

[Whitney]

By your friends too, it's different.

[Biz]

Yeah, it was just. It kind of made me be like, ah, this needs to happen way more often. And as we get older in life, we start realizing that there's not much time. Why are you laughing like that?

[Whitney]

Just thinking of one of these parties every year cracks me up. But most people go hard for the 40th and then maybe chill for nine years till the 50th.

[Biz]

I'll tell you this. The. The reason why I would do it is because this bloom and blueprint company that Jackie found. So the key, the. The. The. The deal was, is, Jax, I'll pay for the whole thing, but I don't want to worry about a thing. So she found these party planners and they did such an amazing job. They set it all up. They came the day before. They're not like during the party like any bit of like, not want to say drama, but like anything that's maybe not going a court, they're dealing with it. No stress on the host and who's throwing it. And they were so sweet to work with. They found this unreal photographer, Jackie and them. And the photographer was incredible and everything was just. Was unbelievable. So thank you to them. We got a food truck and it was just.

[Ryan Whitney]

Are they nationwide biz or are they just in Scotland? Are they nationwide or are they just in spots that.

[Biz]

I don't have the answer to that question. But they were on site the entire time. So obviously there are ones that lived local and they were so professional. And I, I would like. I said I'm doing it every year. The only difference next year is I'm doing a like a 12 to. To 10. Because at 10 I didn't realize the like the PV code. No music after 10. So it's a little bit. We. We cheated a little bit. Cops didn't come back. We were probably inside by 11:30. Very respectful. We invited all the neighbors to you Got to invite the neighbors. I got to meet the neighbors for the first time.

[Whitney]

And obviously you wearing that with your cockpit on.

[Ryan Whitney]

Imagine with Bonnie Blue.

[Biz]

I was actually boys and going back.

[Whitney]

This is Jackie the Alien. They're like, what the fuck is going on right now?

[Biz]

Who's our neighbor? Yeah, I'm happy that that didn't happen. And the twist, the surprise did. But.

[Whitney]

For you, biz, all my friend.

[Biz]

Yan's whiz was there. Ray Whitney Taylor pie.

[Ryan Whitney]

Yeah, the best.

[Biz]

And yeah, it was just all my friends were like. Even my Canadian friends were like, what a legend. This guy's the man. And a lot of them are Oilers fans and knew that he grew up like a trainer there, so it was an unreal mix of people. And next, next year, you guys will be there. We'll do a pool party. I'll have the pickleball court in. We'll do all fun and games one day and it'll be an awesome time.

[Ryan Whitney]

Different, different theme every year.

[Biz]

No, I think we're going to stick with the rings. Yeah, I think we're going to be perfect.

[Whitney]

It'll be perfect.

[Ryan Whitney]

Nice.

[Whitney]

I got to like put one in the wash, so hopefully it shrinks so I can wear one.

[Biz]

Hey, let's do the same for me, please.

[Whitney]

Yeah. You were at, were you at Hockey Fest in Lauderdale?

[Keith Yandle]

Yeah.

[Whitney]

What was that? Is that like, is that like a similar to Chiclets cup just on maybe a bigger scale?

[Ryan Whitney]

I don't, I haven't been to a chick with. How many ranks do you guys have for that?

[Whitney]

We have, we have, we have four to six for street hockey and then two for roller hockey.

[Ryan Whitney]

Okay, so there was just six there, but it was all, all just ball hockey. But it was awesome. Yeah, the Panthers and those Hockey Fest guys and, and gals are unbelievable.

[Whitney]

Like, wait, was it Jonesy, our guy?

[Ryan Whitney]

No, it was the woman. What's her name?

[G]

It's Brad Jones's company, though. Yeah, Mariah.

[Whitney]

Oh, set it up.

[Biz]

But yeah. Oh, no.

[Ryan Whitney]

And yeah, they were amazing. But yeah, the Panthers just, you know, unreal. I think Sean Thornton, those guys in, in the, on the business side probably set it all up, but they had, I think, 30 teams for the adult division. That was on the Saturday, the one that I went to, and then. And then on Sunday was the, the kids division. I wasn't able to go to that. I think there was like 36 teams. So. Great. That's a great, you know, great show in for, for down here in South Florida. I met a ton of fans too, of you Know the show and you guys and actually one of the team. So I would show up. I was just going to walk around, talk to people. I show up, there's a team and the name, it just says the song Daddies on the front of their jersey. So I'm like, I got to play for this team. So ended up playing a couple games with them, was minus six and had two assists and a goal.

[Biz]

Like to hear that.

[Ryan Whitney]

Pretty standard.

[Biz]

Not so easy, is it?

[Whitney]

Did you, did you find any possible stranglers? Like, any guys look good out there?

[Ryan Whitney]

There was one goalie I had my eye, you. He might get a little bit of a tryout. I'm going to have him come over, I'm going to shoot some pucks at him, and I think we have it set up for next Friday, so we'll do that. And then there was two other guys that I talked to. I, you know, I like their skill. I like what they brought. I told them I needed a little bit more out of them with blocking shots. And then the next game they were laying down blocking shots. So there was definitely, you know, my, my scouting ears and eyes were. Were at the tournament looking for some players. But yeah, unreal event that the Panthers did. And, you know, I was talking to those guys and, you know, trying to maybe, hopefully we could do something with them with a ball hockey or, you know, some type of event. But it was, it was amazing. And like I said, the, the, the company that does it is unreal at setting it all up. They had food trucks. It was like this birthday. They had food trucks and, and stuff for the kid video game.

[Whitney]

Yeah, they had a riding like a Doberman pinscher. It's like, oh, yeah, this is a crossover from business party.

[Biz]

So last week, keep the chirps coming all pod, please.

[Whitney]

I've been. When, when, before we had kids, and even when Ryder was a baby, we'd go down to Florida and rent a place for like two months. We did that. And then Wyatt was born. We still did it. Then Ryder starts kindergarten last year, and you can't really do that anymore. And then like this year I started coaching, right? So all of a sudden I kind of realized and came to the conclusion, like, I'm never really going to be going on golf on any golf trips, at least from September to March. And then the problem is I probably could, but we have all our work trips, so I can't then come home and go away again for just to play golf. So I've been like, God, I really miss golf. Like, I'M not really going to be playing golf six months a year. Besides our sandbaggers.

[Biz]

Wow. We're the kings of YouTube Golf.

[Whitney]

No, but listen. So I've been. I've been. I've been like the past month, I've been like, oh. And then my wife's like, what? I'm like, oh, so and so's down golfing right now. And then like three days later, I'll be like, oh, man, Shaws, he's playing the Grove today. And like, she finally, like, lap two weeks ago. She's like, all right, you gotta, like, go play golf. Like, get out of my face. She's like, just go away for a night and play golf. So I have a buddy here, Andy Luther's kids. The man we playing, the big member guest together at Walliston, and he's from Alabama. I actually met this kid. I was playing in the state AM. I think it was like 2020. I didn't know him. And we're playing around like, the fifth or sixth hole. He's like, hey, so you. You know anyone around here who likes playing, like, money matches, like, gamble a bunch of money? I'm like, oh, buddy, this is perfect. This is great. We met. He's also a member at Boston Golf Club, this beautiful course in. In Hingham, Massachusetts. So we've started playing a ton of golf since. So I texted the kid two weeks ago. I'm like, hey, any chance next weekend we can go down to the Tree Farm? Just straight up invited myself. The Tree Farm is a course that was recently built by this PGA Tour golfer, Zach Blair. It's in the middle of nowhere. Like, we landed in Charlotte and drove two hours to the woods where he built this. This course is unbelievable. He's like, yeah, we can go next Tuesday. There's a 7am flight. We'll play Tuesday afternoon. We'll play Wednesday morning. There's a 7pm flight home. I'm like, that's perfect. That's exactly what I need. So then I immediately text Tuka. I'm like, tuka, you want to play? I was trying to think of guys from around here could just take off. Tuka's like, it's my birthday. I'd love to go. And then Luther texted this guy, Taylor Twallman, who played in the MLS forever. I think he played in the World Cup. He's now the main Apple tv, like, analyst for the mls. And he's coming from la. He's like, there's a red eye to Charlotte. I land at like 9:00am I'm like, boom, we got it. We got a group for two rounds. So we went down. This place is out of this world. Unreal. Like, the course I. It's just one of the sickest courses I've ever played. There's no menu. They just make, like, a big. Not a buffet, but, like, every morning there's, like, three different breakfast options. Lunch, same thing. Dinner, same thing. And there's, like, cabins. So we had a great time.

[Biz]

Sounds like a Red Tail kind of.

[Whitney]

Yeah. Yeah. Like, very. Like, I think they have. I want to say there's 250 members and. Yeah. Like, nobody lives around. Nobody lives around there. It's all national members that come in and out.

[Ryan Whitney]

So the cabins.

[Whitney]

Yeah, there's like. Well, they have. Yeah, they have. There's not like, a cabin with, like, four. Like, all you guys are one cabin. They have, like, three different big ones with just rooms. So it's like you have your own room, but it's not like you're in some big cabin. But the only reason I say it is because I finally got a way to play some golf. So first round, I. I hit it horrible. I shot 73. I was like, what? I hit my short game. I was like, Rory McElroy, chipping and putting. Then the next round, I knew it. I'm like, I can't hit the ball right now. I shot 86. I was horrible. But in that round, I think it was the. It's a par five dogleg, right. I don't remember the name of the hole. Tuka hits his ball left. I hit my ball right. There's a big hill down to the right of the fairway. So Tooka's over on the left. I'm like, I'm just gonna sneak down. I'm gonna sit down against the hill, and I'm just gonna, like, let him hit over me, right? And then I'll just get back up and hit my ball, buddy. I'm sitting there, and I'm just kind of waiting to, like. I hear him make contact and go, fuck. He hit a ground ball that went a thousand miles an hour directly into my shoulder blade.

[Biz]

Oh.

[Paul Bissonnette]

I was like.

[Whitney]

And the crazy thing is, I was sitting there, and I'm like, wow, Mike. If he somehow hit a grounder, it really technically could hit me. It would have to. I mean, it was a one in a million shot. You got to hit a grounder first off, and then you have to be in the exact line of burying me. Dude, if it had hit me in the head, I might be dead. I Might not be sitting here. You could bury me at your 41st birthday party. But I ended up. I ended up just, oh, so I was losing. It tooka felt so bad. But we had a great time. So I got a couple rounds in, and that kind of leads me into, like, I got to play some golf, because we have foreplay coming up, and we have an interview just in. In a couple minutes. We interviewed Robbie berger. He's the man behind bob does sports. Our sandbagger was released last week. I. I had a couple people like, when are you going to do hockey players again? I'm like, Buddy, we got 600,000 views on this video already. We released it ago. So it was incredible. The feedback, all their fans that came over from their channel. In our first one, they came over to the baggers. Pasha crushed it. And then this viewer. I mean, it's been going crazy. So we have Robbie on, but we're also playing foreplay. That's why I wanted to play some golf. So I know you chatted with Frankie.

[Biz]

Biz well, because, like, you were talking about how hard it is for you to get away sometimes because you had the kids. I mean, you missed my birthday. You're gonna go down to icecon, I believe, on Saturday, the 29th.

[Whitney]

And, yeah, I'm going there because my brother had a baby. I want to meet his daughter.

[Biz]

So you can kind of do a. A full tour there. And then we're gonna be kind of.

[Ryan Whitney]

Sounded like you were throwing a shot at him there.

[Biz]

At who?

[Ryan Whitney]

At which he said, you missed my birthday, but you're going to icecon.

[Biz]

No, no, I'm saying that he's going for, like, icecon. He's gonna be down there to see his brother's baby. And then now in Atlanta on the Monday, we're squeezing in a match with foreplay. Now, they originally talked about kind of doing it like the Bob does, where it goes the Monday and Tuesday. Well, wit's got to get home. You can only spend so money, so much time away from the kids. So I'm like, listen, the momentum from the Bob does bagger, like, we want to get into golf. We want with to be golfing more, but also kill two birds with one stone. Bring more entertainment to our viewers, especially on the YouTube channel. So I reached out to Frankie, and apparently the. The we're going to be doing a 1v1 or that's what they proposed in the one match we're able to do now. I'm not a 1v1 guy. We've never golfed that way in our videos. So I was thinking. And we. I discussed it with G. I discussed it via text with Yan's, and I believe you were on the text thread, also mentioned it with Frankie where we're going to hop on the phone and I think we should do three different nines in one day. It'll be a marathon. Now he brought up the point. This little rivalry between you and Riggs has been going on how. How long now? How long is since that call where.

[Whitney]

He was trying to call me? Dude, eight years ago?

[Ryan Whitney]

Ten years?

[Whitney]

Five or six years?

[Biz]

Six.

[Whitney]

Seven years ago. No, you know what, Ryder? Seven and a half. And he was like a little baby crying in the car as I was screaming on the phone. So, yeah, seven years ago.

[Biz]

About seven years ago, this whole rift started and you guys couldn't play against each other because. Because of the sponsorship and you would have missed some type of US Amateur event.

[Whitney]

I could have missed it, yeah. It was ridiculous. It was. But yeah, it's a long time coming. So they want to do just. All right, so I see what you're saying. So you. We do. We do. One nine would be one on one.

[Biz]

Yes. So that would have to be one of the first two matches because A, if we or they win two, then we won't get to the third. So everybody wants to see the build up of the 1v1. So each of us will have a 1v1 partner. Yours will be rigs. I think that each partner should have to share the cartoon. So you and Riggs would be in the exact same cart, much like we did with. With the Bob does guys. I would also play Trent 1v1, and Yan's would probably have to go against Frankie. I know Frankie's an unreal golfer and better than Yan's, but we discussed the handicaps. We get that out of the way then. We've been doing scrambles, and I'm sure they've done plenty of scrambles. So the next nine would be scramble, and I think the last one, but it's up for discussion, would be alternate shot.

[Whitney]

Oh, that's good.

[Biz]

It's a marathon of the day. Of a day. Advantage to them a little bit because they're golfing way more than us as far as a stamina standpoint. Believe me, by the time the 16th, 17th hole run around for me, who's a non golfer, I'm like, I don't want to swing the club anymore. So we'll have to discuss handicaps. They also mentioned where does the video live? That can be discussed on this call too, I will delegate two of the videos. What's that?

[Ryan Whitney]

Winner gets it.

[Whitney]

Well, we gotta, we gotta decide. But oh, that winner.

[Biz]

I would say that winner gets two of the three nines. I think we should release the nines one consecutive days, one after the other. I think that. And, and worst case, maybe four play drops the first one, we drop the second one the next day, and then maybe the third one lives on on Barstool's platform. I don't know. But we need to haul hop on a call. We need to hammer this down because as the kings of YouTube Golf, we have a duty to make this another entertaining match. And it will be. And it was no disrespect to them not wanting to do two days in a row, but scheduling wise, it works for one day. Let's do a marathon and let's go, baby. Because we have a match of the century against the foreplay. Guys, this has been a rift for a long time.

[Whitney]

Wow. I have.

[Biz]

Nope. I have no personal beef towards Trent, Riggs or Frankie for they've done so much for golf. The, the, the, the Content Creators Classic was unbelievable. Trent had a, an iconic viral moment that can relate to all the common golfers out there. But let's be realistic here, boys. We're. The fact that we weren't invited to that thing is an absolute joke. I would, I would put us as top five in YouTube golf right now as far as the entertainment that we provide. We ain't doing the, we ain't doing our prayers before we tee off and talking about our wedge game. We're fucking bringing the, the alcohol, the drugs, the chirping, and most things of, of what the common man want to see on the golf course. So let's fucking go, baby.

[Whitney]

So, so yeah, I think you and Trent are pretty even. Frankie's very good. But if play's good now, so is biz sometimes. And I mean, Trent shot yeah. 30 over for, for eight holes.

[Biz]

Like me and him have to play our own balls. And it's a, it's a difficult course. Like, buddy, I show. I shoot up to. Showed up to Whisper Rock with Ray Whitney and shot like a 120. 130. Like to the point where Ray's like, you're never getting invited back. Well, I mean, now that post career has gone the way it has, I did finally the other night at my birthday get the invite back to Whisperock.

[Whitney]

So, yeah, so yeah, that'll be excellent. I think Riggs and I, I'm now a three handicap I think he's probably a three. Two. So we might be playing straight up. I think you and Trent are very similar. Biz and Keith, what are you, a six?

[Ryan Whitney]

Seven. Yeah, I think Frankie's.

[Whitney]

Frankie's probably a three now. Two or three. So this will be excellent. This will be excellent. And I know we haven't gotten into any hockey. We're going to get into that right after the Robbie Burger interview. Little different. Little different show today, but we're going up a.

[Biz]

To the people that. That send messages and complain like, this is a hockey podcast. You can literally suck a fart out of my asshole, because I don't care. This is our show and we want to have fun and do other things other than sometimes I never want to.

[Whitney]

Talk about it at all.

[Biz]

And if you never want to listen to the show because we talk a little golf, I don't give a flying fuck. There's always the few guys out there that think they can dictate how a free podcast that they listen to kind of goes. Literally suck my cock with the ring on. That's it. Like, and all my gay buddies, like, literally all of our cocks, they're like, okay, sweet.

[Whitney]

Can I come back to your. Your ranch? All right. With that, I think we're ready to throw it over to Robbie.

[Biz]

Busy.

[Whitney]

We caught up on the sandbaggers. Bob does how it all came to be. I think it was about 30 minutes. Everyone enjoy this right now. Guys, Whit here and I want to talk to you about body armor. As you can see, I got the regular water right here. Body armor sports water. I crushed it during the pod. But we want to talk about the Flash IV UCG holding that thing. It is brought to you this entire episode by the Body Armor Flash iv. Body Armor Flash IV is packed with electrolytes and provides faster and longer lasting hydration with no artificial flavors, sweeteners, or dyes. Everyone was crushing this at business 40th birthday bonanza. Great tasting flavors like strawberry, kiwi and tropical punch. Body Armor Flash IV gives your body the rehydration it needs to recover. Gee, what did you do? How many did you crush on that flight home?

[G]

Well, yet the unreal thing is they sell these things at the airport. So you want to buy a body Armor Flash iv, You can usually get one at the airports. Incredible. I flew the red eye after business party Saturday night. I had to get home on Sunday. Crushed about two of these in the airport, and then I saved one for when I got home. When I landed on the taxi ride back to Hoboken. So I love the cucumber lime. I love fruit punch. I also love the Flash IV sticks. I throw it in my water every morning. So yeah, you can't beat Flash iv.

[Whitney]

Yeah. If you need to feel good after a tough night, body armor Flash IV is where you need to be. Get yours at a local 711 or on Amazon today. Guys, we need to talk about DraftKings. The great rewards hunt is on. So join the adventure with DraftKings Casino. For fun seekers, follow the trail to huge jackpots, weekly bonuses and exclusive games. Plus, new players can get their losses back up to $1,000 in casino credits on their first day. Just sign up with code Chiclets and start playing to get up to $1,000 in casino credits back with a minimum five dollar net loss. That's code Chiclets. C H I C L e t s $1,000 in casino credits back just a five dollar net loss. You need for that only on DraftKings Casino. The crown is yours. Gambling problem.

[Biz]

Call 1-800- gambler in Connecticut.

[Whitney]

Help is available for problem gambling.

[Ryan Whitney]

Call 888-789-7777 or visit CCPG dawg.

[Whitney]

Please play responsibly. 21 and over physically present in Connecticut.

[Ryan Whitney]

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[Whitney]

Boyd in Ontario, eligibility restrictions apply.

[Ryan Whitney]

New customers only lost back for 24 hours.

[Whitney]

Up to 1000 in non withdrawable casino credits that expire in 168 hours [e-mail]. what an absolute pleasure and honor it is to have this man on. Robbie Berger, the man, the face, the legend of Bob does sports. Unfortunately our little these days because we had an incredible, incredible back to back days of golf matches. Three on three scrambles and we took both of them home. But we had to have the man on to talk about his life, his story and his opinion on how we are the new kings of YouTube Golf. Bobby, what's going on, buddy?

[Biz]

Little Maya Culpa. Before you go, Robbie. It's actually biz does sports now. We've now changed after that. Complete ownership in the sandbagger that's actually on our YouTube channel. A lot of people don't know that. They're like where's number two? But it was on our channel. So thanks for coming on the pod, brother.

[Paul Bissonnette]

Happy to be here, boys. Big fan. But I will tell you, when I saw you guys put that thumbnail up, I was like, these like the new kings of YouTube biz has the crown on. It's just like eat like you guys. What a nervy. Thumbnail.

[Biz]

I will say you. You guys may have stolen back the crown, though, after Fat Perez's putt at the players. So you guys recently had that, what's it called? The Content Creators, like PGA Tour special.

[Paul Bissonnette]

Yeah, it's the Creator Classic. It was. I mean, it was absolutely. It was insane. But like, I will say from a YouTube perspective, I was telling Perez, like, I've never. Outside of the Creator Classic, like, going back to you guys, I don't really give, like, you know, usually we film a match, it's over with, whatever. I've never that one to lose to you guys the way that we did. It just. That one stung because you guys were talking so much shit. It was so much fun, but I've never had a loss. Eat me up the way that. That one. And when you watch the video, you guys were so in our head. Oh, my God, you made us look terrible.

[Ryan Whitney]

Mostly Joe, mostly Joey.

[Whitney]

I never seen a guy down that bad. His teammates hated him. His opponents were torturing him. Poor guy. I was like, jesus. I almost feel. Well, I re. Watched ours before it was released or I watched it for the first time. I said, I kind of feel bad. I want to text this guy.

[Paul Bissonnette]

Well, you guys pounce. Yeah, I mean, like, we just. We really did want to win. Obviously that first day on ours was really tough, but you guys came and. And you brought it, but you got in our heads and we were shook.

[Ryan Whitney]

I think it started early when we showed up late. You guys had been at the course, sitting there for hours, just.

[Whitney]

We were eating.

[Ryan Whitney]

Yeah.

[Paul Bissonnette]

Despicable it. Honestly, fellas, I'd been a big fan for a long time. It was. People always ask, like, if you could a collab with one person, who would it be? I would always say you guys. And it lived up to the hype. It was unbelievable.

[Whitney]

No, we. We loved it. Absolutely. Love your guys stuff. We're definitely gonna get something on the books for. Again. We've talked about, like a three day trip to figure something out, but I kind of want to get into more about. About you and. And Bob does. Right. Like, you guys have turned into this monster. And the story, so original and like how it came about. Can you kind of take Chiclets listeners through, like, how you met Cold Cuts, where you were at when you met him, and where it's all gone from there.

[Paul Bissonnette]

Yeah.

[Biz]

Did he find his range finder?

[Paul Bissonnette]

No, never got it.

[Whitney]

I was gonna give him mine for Christ.

[Biz]

Like, he took so many L's that week. Oh, my God.

[Paul Bissonnette]

I know. You know what? He's a tough cookie, though. He takes it on the chin well, and, you know, you could ride him and he takes it. But, yeah, I mean, how we started was I. I met Joe working at the Four Seasons. I was working at the front desk doing overnight shifts, and my manager was complaining about the music in the restaurant being too loud. And in Beverly Hills, you were supposed to close down any and all beverage service at 11 o'clock. Joe would keep the Four Seasons run until like 2am so that was like the place to come. But long story short, he comes out and he asked me, he's like, do you think the music's too loud? Because my manager was complaining. I said, no, I think it's great. People are having a good time. We ended up hitting it off right away. So I was doing a lot of content with them. I was always kind of like in the content game, but still working at the hotel. And then I ended up doing it full time. Joe was still working at the Four Seasons. And during COVID to make. To make money, we had this thing called, like, a Patreon, where it was a weekly happy hour where there was nothing else going on. So we would have our fans who paid extra on the Patreon, like, they get an episode, extra episode a week, and then they would come on the Patreon. One day, we're on the Zoom call, we're doing the happy hour. People get pretty lit up in it, and we're drinking, having a good time. And I get a message from Joe and he's like, do you see this fat Perez guy? And I look up because I could see, like, everybody on Zoom on the box, and I see it says Fat Perez. And he's in his cubicle, so, like, clearly at work. And this guy, like, I'm talking and I'm watching him, he's mowing down pizza and beer, like, just fucking crushing it. So I called up to him during the happy hour, and he comes on and just. I mean, he was an absolute riot and ended up meeting us at Pinehurst one day and the rest was history.

[Biz]

So when you say you were doing content there, do you mean, like, you were doing golf at that time? And then why did you end up choosing golf? And, like, what exactly were you doing for content at the time where you were not this big? Probably didn't even have a YouTube channel at the time, I assume.

[Paul Bissonnette]

Yeah, it's a good question. We were doing this. I was doing a show called the Brilliantly Dumb Show. So I was always doing content on the side while working at the Four Seasons. But yeah, it wasn't golf at all. And it started to really pick up scenes. So it was just like a lot of comedy bits like that I would do now, food stuff that I would put on. So it was starting to pick up steam. And it got strange because as it started to grow, I had a couple videos that went pretty viral. Like, there would be some fans that would come to the Four Seasons and I was the guest services manager. So I had like 60 people under me. And at the Four Seasons, they want you to be, you know, really proper, you know, put together, and they don't necessarily let that stuff fly. So it got really strange where people are coming up. The people that work for me, my employees, they would see the stuff that I was doing. So it was hard to take me seriously if I had to write them up or whatnot. So, yeah, it got really, really interesting. I was like, all right, I'm gonna have to pick one or the other. Dave hit me up right around that time as well. So it all started to get pretty crazy.

[Whitney]

I remember talking to Frankie when I first found out that you guys had known each other growing up, I don't know, like through a cousin or something like that. But I was like, how does this guy not work for Barstool? Like, he's just. It seems like it'd be the perfect fit. And I guess at one point it was a possibility, but at some point it kind of fell through and I guess leading to that, it would probably be now it's probably a better decision almost for you, right? Where you own. You guys own everything.

[Paul Bissonnette]

Yeah. So my goal always was to work for Barstool. Like, that was my dream. I wanted to work for Barstool Sports. Like, I've been a big barstool fan for the longest time, watched, like, Survivor, all that stuff. I'm really tied into it, but that was always my goal. I got to my office one day and I looked at my phone and it was a DM from Dave saying, you know, what's it going to take for you to come work here? Whatnot. So then I was like freaking out. Around that same time, a company called Bro Bible was hitting me up and they're kind of like had a chance to really be like a barstool type of thing. The thing was, I had just moved out to la. I didn't want to have to move back to New York City. I didn't really know anybody there at the time. And the biggest thing was I knew I had something going with cold cuts. Like, I did not want to leave Cutsy. If it wasn't for Cutsy, I probably would have gone and worked for Baru.

[Biz]

Oh. Eh.

[Ryan Whitney]

A lot of people don't know too.

[Whitney]

You.

[Ryan Whitney]

You pretty much found Jersey Jerry too. I remember him on your shows back in the day when his. His mom was yelling at him about the dogs everywhere and like having him on was absolutely beautiful. And then he got the job with Barstool. Right. Was he trying to get you to come over as well?

[Paul Bissonnette]

So yeah, it's interesting. So I found Jersey Jerry was in my DMS and I went the first video I clicked on to him, he. He was calling into Will Kane and like crying about the Steelers and like growing up in Jersey, like the fan, like those sports calls in are just like the best because you're like what these people have to like what are they doing, like calling in. They wait online all day, like for them to get picked. So I just fell in love with Jersey Jerry. I brought him in and he was crushing it and was still at Four Seasons. But me and Jerry were going to go to Barstool and we ended up picking. I knew I was going to leave. I ended up going to Bro Bible, the one to stay by Joe. And then we ended up signing with Kevin Connolly. But we were deciding whether to go to Barstool or to Kevin Connolly at the time. So I was convincing Jerry to come with me to Connolly at the same time Dave was convincing Jerry to come with him. So yeah, it was. It was chaos.

[Biz]

So I want to go back to that time. So you and Joey then at a certain point start doing the YouTube golf content. And then you guys were doing that Patreon thing. Like obviously Fat Perez when you see him, you have no idea that this guy is not only a scratch golfer, but electric on the golf course in front of the camera. And I would describe him as the modern day John Daly from his consumption rate. I'm not going to talk about what sucks substances, but I was very, very impressed that he not only was alive the next day, but also played the way that he did. So it's not only a diamond in the rough, but how did the timing of all that start of you already being doing the golf stuff?

[Paul Bissonnette]

Yeah. So even when I was with. Even when I left the Four Seasons went to Pro Bible. We still then and we're doing like the Happy Arts. Still wasn't into the golf then. Like that still didn't happen. Yeah. So still wasn't even doing it. Then left Bro Bible, then Go. I go over to Connolly, and when I got to Connolly, it was a mess. Like, I got there and I was like, I. I can't be here. Like, this is a disaster. I mean, there was stuff that I would see there. I was like, I can't be here. Now. Jerry is working still in New York at the time, but then he's also doing the show with me. I had to go into the office every day. So me. What me and Connolly agreed to was nothing. What he had me do, he had me be, like, an assistant there when what we had agreed to, I was going to come do the show and leave. That wasn't the case. So I called Jerry and I said, jerry, look, I gotta leave, man. Like, I can't stay here knowing that that might affect his job with Action Park. When I left then Connolly had his assistant call Jerry and say that he's gone. And then Dave comes back for Jerry. And I knew I couldn't compete with Dave. I had no money. Like, everything was folding right in front of me. I had no money. Jerry, who to me was like the key ingredient, was now gone, because I knew he was then going to go to Barstool. So that's then when I decided to start the YouTube.

[Biz]

Wow.

[Paul Bissonnette]

Yeah. And I had known Perez from the happy hours. So we were just in Pinehurst on a trip before we even really started doing a lot of the golf. We just started it, go to Pinehurst with our buddy who. Who took us, and we were at dinner, and Perez shows up. We. He just was in the area. We said, come by. So the guy says to him, it's an older guy. He says to him, he goes, do you golf? And he goes, yeah, I golf. He goes, what's your handicap? And Prince goes, I'm a scratch.

[Biz]

And you're looking at this guy being like, you're completely full of shit. It doesn't make sense.

[Paul Bissonnette]

Oh, yeah, the guy's fork dropped. It dropped on the plate. You're a scratch. He goes, I'll tell you what. He goes, we have one spot. If you're a scratch, you show up the Pinehurst number two. The next day, you show up, and we'll get you on. He came out, lit it up. And then to me, I was like, we have to bring Perez on. And that's what really kicked it. Wow.

[Biz]

So from starting a YouTube channel to finding out this electric factory is a scratch golfer, and to those of you who are listening, who are not huge golf fans, like, you guys have just under a million followers, subscribers on YouTube, like, you're obviously huge on all the other social platforms, so to go from that moment to where you are now is just how many years? Three years? Four years?

[Paul Bissonnette]

Yeah, three years now. And it was. It was picking up steam when it was me and Joe. We had a couple videos that were really cranking, but then we found Perez, and then it just really helped. Take it to another.

[Biz]

Good for you.

[Whitney]

I remember when we did our thing, our collab together. I think you told me that story. Or Cold Cuts did. And he was like, yeah, he shot like, 73 at number two like that next morning, people. And we were just like, what the hell is going on? What? Like, how is this guy that's gonna.

[Paul Bissonnette]

He was hammered from the time I saw him at dinner to the time that we off till the time that he was gone. And just his step. Like, we went into his car after he drove us home. There's club championship trophies in the back. Just like, like, 24 packs of, like, natty lot. Like, it was a mess.

[Biz]

He defies science.

[Whitney]

It's crazy.

[Biz]

They'll study him in a lab one day.

[Whitney]

I think that like. Like every. Like, it seems like big YouTube channels or podcasts have different moments along the way. Like when we got Crosby on for the first time. It's kind of a big, big thing for us. What. What has been your. Like, things that have popped off or have really started, like, made it grow to where it's at.

[Paul Bissonnette]

The big thing that really helped it. I don't know if you've seen the video, but we. I pranked Joe telling him that we were going to take him to Torrey Pines.

[Whitney]

Oh, that one's unreal.

[Paul Bissonnette]

Yeah, so that was the video that, like, really took it off. So that was before Perez, and that's what started to, like, we started getting view I hadn't seen before.

[Whitney]

What did you do? So for people who don't know, what did you tell them and where'd you go?

[Paul Bissonnette]

So we told him we were going to Torrey Pines. He's still working for Wolfgang Puck at the time, so his off days were big. Like, he was working 13, 14 hours. The GM at Wolfgang Park. So, like, he has this Joey Colcutts Persona, then has to show up to Wolfgang. So his off days were big. So I told him we were going to Torrey Pines. We're driving there. And I said to Jed, our producer, before, I was like, man, like, Joe falls asleep anywhere he goes. Like, if he falls asleep in that car on the way and wakes up, it would be as he fell Asleep. We woke up and we go to this place called Links at Victoria. It is a landfill. It's terrible this place. There's a brick. There was like he, he hit his ball on one and it was in. It was right down the fairway. It was on a brick. There was like a brick in the middle of the fair and he lost it to finally. Like he knew we were filming. But finally like the eighth hole, he just chucked his club. He's like, I'm leaving, I'm not doing this. Like you.

[Ryan Whitney]

Was there ever a time cuz Joey D back in the day used to dress how biz is dressed. And those of you listening, biz has on a rainbow colored.

[Biz]

I picked this out for my birthday just to piss Whit off.

[Whitney]

As much as you thought I would.

[Biz]

I actually got you an extra. So I. We got, I got two of these bad boys. We could, we could do the collab birthday party next year.

[Ryan Whitney]

But was there ever, was there ever a time that you had to tell him to because he, he looked like he got hit by a Crayola truck. Half the time you guys went out to go play. Like, like, was there ever a time you were like, hey dude, you got to cool it with these outfits?

[Paul Bissonnette]

No, because I thought it was so good for content. I mean there'd be places where we go. I'd be like, what? You know, what the. Like what is he doing? But it was so good for content. But what a lot of people don't realize is like he was doing that stuff before we were filming. Like we go film immunity. That's him. You guys met him. Like a lot of people don't realize that he's exactly the person that you see. So yeah, I mean he had been doing that stuff, stuff prior, but I remember even times like Keegan Bradley was the first guy who really found us like on tour that was watching our stuff, had us come to a pro AM to walk with him and Joe showed up to Riviera in a triple breasted suit because he was about to go to the Wolfgang Pub. So like full suit, following Keegan on the course. And there's a great video of it. But yeah, he was like the very extravagant outfit, just wild, unreal.

[Whitney]

So recently you had a very funny video where you, you talked about you ran into Rory McElroy at a gas station station and you said thanks. Which thanks for everything you do for YouTube Golf.

[Biz]

Like me, like actually hates YouTube Golf apparently.

[Whitney]

Well, that's what I was gonna get to is then at the players this week he's kind of asked and he's like, yeah, I don't really, I don't know if he said, I don't get it. I'm not into it. But from what you've seen and how big it is, like, how much do you enjoy watching other people's channels and doing collabs with other YouTube golfers? And, like, where do you see it going from here? Because there are people who argue. Keith said before YouTube Golf's bigger than live golf.

[Paul Bissonnette]

Yeah, I, I mean, it was even being at that creator classic, the buzz around that place, it is absolutely insane. And I, I watch everything and I'm gonna say this. You guys drop a sandbagger. I'm probably the first one watching. Like, I, I can't, I can't get enough of it. I love it. I think the next step is doing exactly what the creator class is. I, I, I think it's some type of competitive tournament, these creators, because I think the thing that you get is you get that everyday golf where you stand over the ball and people want to watch, you know, somebody who's relatable to you that you don't know where the hell. I realize, you know why I guess some people will watch us. It's like, I stand over the ball. You don't know where the it's going. And that's intriguing. I guess.

[Whitney]

You, well, Portnoy's talked about getting a tournament together. I don't know what's going on with that. He said it's going to happen, but that would be electric. And I think what you're saying is true. Like, like sometimes you get on and a guy who's good or he's horrible, and then a guy who's bad plays lights out. And then the everyday golfer's like, that's me, that's me. I was unreal one day and then I sucked the next. That's why, that's why I enjoy it.

[Biz]

We, we saw Rory, me, Yans, and I think Cole Cuts was there at, at, at the Grove, and, and he seemed like the best guy. I just thought his comments, maybe he's like a bit out of touch with the fact that YouTube golfers are way more relatable right now. I feel like people got away from what golf really about. Like, you don't need to be buttoned up and proper every course you go to. Like, like the way that we interacted on the golf course is the way that 99 of people and their friends are interacting on the golf course. You're talking, you're around and you're getting sauce the whole time.

[Paul Bissonnette]

Yeah, I also too, like, if you listen to the comments, I don't think he necessarily, like, people really got up in arms about it. And like, I don't think he necessarily said anything bad, but to me, it was just the perfect opportunity just to say, you know, we appreciate what they do for the game or something small to that degree. But, like, yeah, he didn't say anything bad, but I would have just appreciated him just saying, like, we appreciate or something, you know.

[Biz]

Yeah. And especially after the incident with the kid, the college kid. Now, what do you make of all that? Like, the, I guess a college kid at the players. It was a practice round, maybe other Thursday rounds, and he. He, like, I guess he was heckling him and he goes up and grabs his phone off him. So what did you make of all that? That was kind of an ordeal. And maybe people were hammering them for those comments because it came after that.

[Paul Bissonnette]

Yeah, I. It was a tough look, the phone thing. And I think he would probably tell you too, that that was a mistake. Like somebody who took a beat like Zach Johnson. Did you see that video?

[Whitney]

He's had like 10 of them.

[Paul Bissonnette]

Yeah, yeah. It's just one after the. And it's like when those come out, like, it's just a lose, lose. And it's easy for me to know we're not in the ropes, but even being in the Creator Classic, when we were playing, like, one guy said, the Perez, we're coming Prez is struggling out of the gate. One guy was like, Perez, you fat fuck, wake the up. You're too over, like, screaming. So you're like, holy. These guys go at it. But when you react like that, you're just. You're never going to win doing that. You know what I mean?

[Whitney]

No, actually, speaking of the players, I saw that you. I think you had $200 pre tournament on JJ spawn to win 15 grand. Tell me you hedged out of that.

[Paul Bissonnette]

I didn't hedge it with, wow. No, I. You know what? I was told it was 150 to win 15 grand. Oh, when. When they went to the playoff, I was hoping because rory was like, minus 160. So it was tough to hedge. I thought, maybe I'll just wait till, like, Spawn hits a fairway and then maybe the line goes a little more even and then I could hedge it. Never hedged it. And I. I was miserable today.

[Whitney]

Was there a buyout option when, like, they were on like 17 or 18 in the final?

[Paul Bissonnette]

I was looking for Once he dunked into the water, that was it. And then even prior once. Rory is such a big favorite. And then once he won that first hole when he was up a stroke, it just wasn't there. So I got screwed.

[Biz]

Are there any plans to do more content creator tournaments at this point? And also we got to talk about the big moment. Were you on Perez's bag at the time where he hit that putt that mimicked Tiger's putt, gave him the read that went like. That was the only thing. I think maybe Trent's hole where he kept hitting the water was the most viral thing, but Perez's pot was probably just as viral.

[Paul Bissonnette]

It was insane. Like, I was even saying, Perez, I'd rather him be 15 over and have that moment than. Than maybe even win the thing. And not like it was. It was unbelievable. But yeah, I know with the Creator Classic, they. They want to keep it rolling with the success that it had. But I think what you're going to start to find is these creators are going to say, okay, we want to go and we create a tournament like with you guys, like with the way that our brands fit. Like if we went out, saw Dave talking about it, like our two brands coming together and starting something where we would like that. Heck, like when you guys did the. The Ryder cup, that was.

[Whitney]

That was awesome.

[Paul Bissonnette]

It was amazing. Like that type of. Of style. I think you're going to start to see these creators come out and create their own tournaments as well as still participate, I'm sure. And things.

[Biz]

We'll be the new live Tour. Just no, no overhead.

[Paul Bissonnette]

I know.

[Biz]

Pay guys 250 sheets.

[Paul Bissonnette]

I think it would be unbelievable.

[Ryan Whitney]

The only thing with that, because, like there's some of those YouTube golfers and you play with them. The Grant Horbats, the Brian brothers, there's some like, they're obviously the what the one Bryant brother is a pro. But it's like you gotta find a way. You gotta find a way to make it competitive. I thought what you guys did with them where it was you and Joey, as, you know, playing as a. As a scramble verse them like that. That stuff's cool. So you like the ideas are endless and you know people are going to watch it. Like you could. You could do whatever you want.

[Paul Bissonnette]

Yeah, I think, you know, Dave. Dave really kind of nailed it too. Like, if you have. Of course the Creator Classic are all guys that are like scratch, but if you did want to bring a lot of other people in, you could. That's the beauty of golf is you could handicap it and I think still make it competitive to where something like that could definitely be in the works. And I. I think would really, really work because people want to see the guys like Trent, you know, and whatnot. And then you just handicap it, and it would be amazing.

[Whitney]

Now, you guys do a. It's a golf video every week, right?

[Paul Bissonnette]

Yeah, so we do six videos a month. So two of the weeks you get to. There's two videos.

[Whitney]

So, yeah, you guys are on the course doing a ton of stuff. Has it taken away. Like, do you get many rounds that aren't content? Right. It turns into a little bit of a job. No matter. Even though you're playing golf, it's not, you know, you're not, like, laying brick or anything, but it's like. Like, have you still been able to enjoy golf on the side or is pretty much all your golf now filmed and then posted?

[Paul Bissonnette]

Yeah. So the rounds we play, like, I love doing it on camera. Like, what we do with you guys, like, obviously, that's a blast. But I have come to appreciate, like, the rounds we get off camera where it's just us messing around. I do love that. Like, I've learned to really, really love it. And, I mean, lately, I used to really not care if I played good or bad. Like, I'm trying to get better now. I can't figure this game out, man. Man, I. I just can't.

[Whitney]

You had the round of your life in the first one against us.

[Ryan Whitney]

Yeah.

[Whitney]

And. And your guys didn't really, like, you were unstoppable on your making every putt. I was like, jesus Christ. I thought this guy was a 9 handicap.

[Biz]

I'm also better when I show up. Joey. And just like, don't even think about it. The range, all the practice rounds. Joey, you just. Oh, I called him Joey Robbie. I don't even know any of your names. You guys are. You guys are calling us out. Day two, you're like, what's. What's Fat Perez's name? Like, fat?

[Paul Bissonnette]

Yeah, we said. Like, I said to Br, like, do you think Biz has any idea, like, our. Our names? He's like, no. He's like, no chance. Like, yeah, but the.

[Biz]

The announcer at the players did the same thing. He said, thanks a lot, Fat. Like, so I'm not the only one.

[Paul Bissonnette]

Unbelievable.

[Biz]

Yeah. Hey, better than calling him Joey Chestnuts the whole first day with.

[Whitney]

No, that was the second day, I think.

[Ryan Whitney]

Yeah, it was.

[Whitney]

Which is even worse.

[Paul Bissonnette]

I think Whit said it in the group chat. What was the total amount of Pink Whitneys that got down.

[Biz]

I think you guys had 138 shots. And I wasn't even drinking. I was just hit the bone.

[Whitney]

135 nips and. And not even 36 holes, because I think we closed YOD on 15.

[Biz]

Correct.

[Whitney]

33 holes.

[Paul Bissonnette]

It was like, did you guys come into it? Did you know that we were going to get banged up going in because, like, you guys were out for blood. And then we're like, all right, here we go.

[Whitney]

Actually, that's a good. That's a good lead into because you have half a days. I hadn't had them. The tequila flavored RTD's awesome. Like, not much carbonation. What was the story on how those came about? How's the sales going?

[Paul Bissonnette]

Been awesome, man. Yeah, it really is cool going into, like, anytime, going into a liquor store. And, you guys know, with the success of, like, Pink Whitney and seeing your product there on shelves, I met up with a guy in Jupiter who I knew and would play golf with all the time, who had a company called Cheeto. So he had put the idea in my mind, like, you know, you guys could start your own drink. So we had talked about it, revisited it, and then once we got it going, I mean, it was awesome. So that, to me, is such a big part of our focus now, and the videos and. And whatnot.

[Keith Yandle]

And.

[Paul Bissonnette]

Really?

[Biz]

Well, yeah, he had the fucking cardboard cutouts on the. On the course you're at.

[Paul Bissonnette]

Oh, yeah, yeah.

[Whitney]

So how much did you pay that guy? You paid that guy prior?

[Paul Bissonnette]

I swear to God, I said, you biz. I was like, biz. There's levels to this. As if I knew that was. As if I wasn't shocked that that was there, though.

[Biz]

I thought for sure you guys teed him up. I thought that guy was living in.

[Whitney]

The neighborhood they send every person in witness protection to. To just, like, hide them from the mafia.

[Biz]

Whit kind of already brought it up with us having Crosby on how it was such a. A pivotal moment for us. And you talked about a few of those videos that have gone viral. Like, what's your most, like, pinch me moment that you've had since the success of this over the last three years, whether it was a. Another collaboration with a huge golfer. Did you guys get Scotty Scheffler on?

[Paul Bissonnette]

No, we had Bryson, which was awesome.

[Biz]

He's huge. Talk about a 180 that a guy's done as far as likability on the pga.

[Paul Bissonnette]

Never seen anything like that. Nuts. Yeah, I. I would say one that probably hit me the Hardest was we filmed with Josh Allen, Sam Darnold and Kyle Allen. And that to me was nuts because, like, then we did the whole thing. Like we went to dinner after and like just being in the car with Josh, I didn't know that they wanted to get banged up as they did. Like they were playing this game, Buffalo, where you have a cocktail and if you put it in your right hand at any point you, they call buffalo and you gotta chug it.

[Biz]

Oh my God.

[Whitney]

So he just signed for 300 million.

[Biz]

What a beauty.

[Paul Bissonnette]

It's insane.

[Biz]

What a beauty.

[Paul Bissonnette]

Had a blast. And that to me, by the end of after dinner, we got in the car and we were like, I can't believe, you know, that that day just happened. But to be honest with you guys too, if you ask the guys, they knew how big of a collab that was for me to play with you guys. So to me, that was one of the best ones we've ever had. And one of the biggest pinch me moments because again, I've been watching you guys for a long time.

[Biz]

The best part about it is, like, it didn't feel like work at all. And after to know you even more after the first one with you guys, like, that's why we felt comfortable showing up an hour late. We're like, hey, these are our buddies, man. I could take a. In his golf court cart and he'd laugh it off, you know, like that, that's the bond that you need. And now why I'm ready to go on a seven day trip to the Dominican and do like a fucking seven game series, like the Summit Series.

[Paul Bissonnette]

Wick came out of that minivan. I thought you guys would be like in a rush to get to the carts and get out there. Guy had like a Bloody Mary in his hand and just stumbles out. I, I was like, this guy's in no rush whatsoever to get to the team.

[Whitney]

You guys are leaving to film with the Yankees. I'm like, oh, boys, don't you worry. This golf course, there's nobody else playing it today. We know that.

[Biz]

Well, at least, at least we got you out of there early.

[Whitney]

Oh, buddy, I guess. Last thing. Is there anything? Is there any. Can you give us like maybe your next real big guest coming up or do you want to kind of keep that stuff a little secret?

[Paul Bissonnette]

Yeah, we got a Saquon on is going to be coming on. So he agreed to come on, which is really, really big.

[Whitney]

He loves golf too. After the Super Bowl, I think he said if I don't, if I don't break 80 this year, I'm going to lose my mind or something like that. So he's, he's got the bug and.

[Paul Bissonnette]

That sucks to see because little does he know, I mean, I've been golfing for now, it's like five years. I'm not sniffing 80, you know what I mean?

[Ryan Whitney]

He's also an elite athlete, correct?

[Paul Bissonnette]

Some of these guys, yeah. And you got game. But then too, like, you see wit, it's like the things I would do. Like, you don't even have to give me that skill, but, like, if you could just get me low 80s consistently, I, I'd be in a great spot.

[Whitney]

I, Yeah, I, I'm kind of built for sandbagger. I mean, scrambles now. Like, I used to hate him, but I'm like, oh, if I'm really bad one day, it doesn't really, like, matter now because these two guys can be so clutch. So, yeah, I don't know.

[Biz]

We got the foreplay guys calling us out and they're trying to play 1v1, which for me, I thought we were going to do.

[Whitney]

Well, we'll save that, we'll save that.

[Biz]

We'll say we're going to be talking about that after we get out of this interview a little bit, but I don't really have much. Yan's, did you have any more questions? Because you've been the biggest fan of this guy since he started you video.

[Ryan Whitney]

He's a big seeker ever. The only thing I want to bring up is, you know, just getting to know you. I know you're a piece of shit, but, you know, I heard a story about, you know, what Jet did for you and when you were leaving Connolly's. No, just. It goes to show and you see it with you, if you follow you on Instagram, you bring your parents into the, into the fold. Like, you're a, you know, you could tell you're a truly good family man, but if you, if you could tell us what that story was, that'd be great.

[Biz]

Who's Jet?

[Ryan Whitney]

The cameraman that we were with for two days.

[Biz]

Was he the one that already played the chorus?

[Paul Bissonnette]

Oh, that's gonna kill him when he.

[Biz]

Sees he's clapped with cold cuts.

[Ryan Whitney]

Yeah, he was the one who clapped him.

[Whitney]

Yes, that's why you said, who's Jet?

[Paul Bissonnette]

What a great.

[Biz]

I'm gonna say next time I see him too.

[Paul Bissonnette]

No, yeah. I appreciate it, though, because he, he, he deserves the credit. When I was, when I was leaving Connolly and I called Connolly and I told him that I was Going to have to leave, you know, and do it on my. I was not going to go back to the Four Seasons. Like, I had gotten a taste of doing this full time. I wasn't going to leave. But when I told Connolly I was going to leave, I had no money. All I had was that Patreon. So Jet was my producer, like, a longtime producer. He had been with me from the start of it. I remember telling JET I was doing another podcast at the time that ended up falling through. Like, it. It was getting bad. I was at the lowest of my low. Connolly's threatened to take me to court and all this stuff for, you know, no probable reason, anything like that. I just, I ended up leaving and I was so worried. I just lost Jersey Jerry because I knew he was going to Barstool. So that was it. And Jerry was my guy. And again, what I thought really was the key ingredient to the Burnley dump show. And I remember telling Jet, like, hey, I. I don't have any money to, to pay you, but I promise you, when this thing gets going, like, I will absolutely, you know, make it worth your while and make it up to you. And I think a lot of guys at that time would, you know, mail it into a degree and he would show up at my house at nine in the morning, be there all night, like, just kicked it up another notch and just was doing everything he possibly can. So when it did pop off, like, I will be, be loyal to that guy forever and just have so much appreciation, because every day, I mean, I, I didn't, I. I didn't have money to pay him for a long time, and he stuck with me. So I always knew when things were bad that if this thing ever did work and I really felt like it was going to, that I would do everything I could to repay him.

[Whitney]

There must have been days when you were just like, eating your lunch that jets like, what the am I gonna do, man?

[Paul Bissonnette]

It was.

[Ryan Whitney]

He's eating turf and just eaten nothing.

[Paul Bissonnette]

All we had was that Patreon. So every. All the money coming in for those happy hours, that's all we had. That. That's the only income that I had.

[Whitney]

I.

[Paul Bissonnette]

There was no way I was going back to the Four Seasons. I'd say to him, I'm like, I'm gonna die, like, before I go to the force. He's like, I ain't doing it. But, man, he. He's as loyal as they come. And I, I just owe so much to him.

[Biz]

It's a good opportunity to thank all of them. Behind the scenes. Like, even our guys. Like, we have such an amazing team. I know you were chirping us about filming Avatar, but there's a reason our production's better than yours and it's all the guys behind the scenes.

[Paul Bissonnette]

You know, Hey, I will say they did an unbelievable job, but to you guys, man, for real, I. I appreciate the hell out of you guys and I really do want to do that, like, Rider cup style where we do, like three days or what. It was the most fun I've ever had filming. But appreciate what you guys do and obviously, as I said, just been a big fan for a long time.

[Biz]

Time. Yeah. We'll get Dave and. And rigs in the foreplay, boys. And Frankie's. Is Frankie a scratch now or close?

[Whitney]

Frankie's, like, nasty now. Like, I would say he's a two handicap. Last time I played with him, he dusted me. Every video I see striping it.

[Biz]

So I don't know how Trent's as bad as he is, considering he golfs all the time. Like, he's, like, worse than I am or maybe just as bad. And he's probably playing five times a week. So is he just like one of those guys who will never get better? Like, what's he at now?

[Paul Bissonnette]

You could ask me. Yeah, yeah, you're talking guy. That's. That is me.

[Keith Yandle]

That.

[Paul Bissonnette]

That's me.

[Biz]

How many times have you broken 80?

[Paul Bissonnette]

Never broke 80.

[Biz]

Come on.

[Ryan Whitney]

He's got a series. Breaking 80 with Grant.

[Biz]

Yeah, no shit. Okay. All right.

[Whitney]

It is surprising because to see his swing and see, I mean, you. At some point, you just got to figure that out. You will. You will. It'll come.

[Ryan Whitney]

I hope so.

[Whitney]

It'll be the one round you don't film.

[Paul Bissonnette]

Correct. I just joined. I just joined the club here in Jupiter, so. So I think maybe that'll help a little bit. But I'm grinding, boys.

[Whitney]

I love it.

[Biz]

Well, Bob, to you, to Fat and to Joey Chestnuts. We love you guys. Can't wait till the next one. And can't thank you enough for coming on and sharing your story, man. It's awesome. And congrats to sticking with it and all the success that you've had since.

[Paul Bissonnette]

You guys are the best. And I'll see you for that Ryder Cup.

[Whitney]

Thank you very much, Robbie. What a guy. What a channel they have. Very happy for him and all the boys, Fat, Pat and Joey, for all their success. Keith, we forgot to mention the end of the sandbagger on our channel. That cameo. Like, how did you even think to do that and explain what happened if anyone hasn't watched it yet.

[Ryan Whitney]

Yeah, because it was kind, it was kind of at the end of the video.

[Whitney]

Let you roll it quick.

[Ryan Whitney]

Let you roll it.

[Keith Yandle]

Yeah.

[Julia]

We got a big time cameo just going out to a couple of big time players. I'm looking right at you, Paula and Ryan, one of to congratulate you. Keith tells me that you just won a big time tournament. You beat Josephine, Nikki and Roberta in an awesome two day tournament and something like that deserves to be celebrated, deserves to be recognized and it deserves to be acknowledged. And that's exactly what I'm going to do right here, right now. Because I have never won any kind of tournament, any kind of golf competition in my entire life. So quite frankly, I couldn't even begin to tell you what that must feel like. All I can tell you is it must feel great to be somewhat decent to good in golf because I'm still chasing that. Whether or not I ever find that high, I probably won't. But you know what, that's what keeps me going. So here's to you guys just dialing it in early and often. I hope you guys. Well, I only hope, I know you guys had a lot of birdies. I hope you celebrated with a bunch of Bangarang Rufios and I hope that you guys had a day because that is what it's all about. Here's to you moving forward. Let's keep the momentum going. It's going to be an awesome year for you. Hopefully we got some more wins to to celebrate in the near future and hopefully the golf games stay dialed in. So from keep and myself wishing you nothing but the best. Thanks for being the best to do it and hope you guys have yourselves a day. We'll see you on the other side.

[Ryan Whitney]

So I saw Joey, he was on, it was like, like Instagram Live or something that day and he had a spit and chicklets hat on. And it was right after we had beat them I think the day after we had beat them in the match and we were chirping them the whole time saying they were done with YouTube Golf, they're going to be doing cameos for a living now. And I saw him on the cameo and I was like oh man, I gotta get him. So I requested, I paid the extra money to get it expedited to get. There was like 30 extra bucks to get it like the next.

[Biz]

Yeah, you got a new rangefinder.

[Whitney]

So.

[Ryan Whitney]

So I knew, I knew he couldn't like read it over carefully. I knew he had to get it out there quick. But I put in the thing, hey, my name's, I forget what I said my name was, but I made up all women names for the guys, like Roberto, Bob, Paula for Paul Ryan, but spelled R A Y A N N E. So I was like, hey, my, my buddy Paul, my two friends Paula and Ryan just played these, these two, these three other ladies. Josephine for Joey, Roberta for Bob, and Nikki because, because fat Prez's name is Nick. So I said Nikki and I was like, they beat him in a two day event. It was unbelievable. I'm so proud of them. With just a couple old ladies playing golf. So write that message. And he sends it out. He's like, hey, Paul, Paul, Paulina and Ryan, I really just want to congratulate you guys on your huge win on the last two days. I know you really crushed the two other girls like blah blah, blah, all the, all while wearing the spit chicklets hat. Just absolutely.

[Biz]

The fact that women's names is icing on the cake, man, that's like, hey.

[Whitney]

That'S like when we were asking what year Chiclet started and one of us had a hat on that said established 2016.

[Ryan Whitney]

Yeah. So he's just, you know, congratulating us. It was so good.

[Biz]

Oh, what, what an ending to that video. Just to rub salt in the wound, we bullied those guys. Like we might get. I, I read a couple comments where people were like, I like the ones where you're not bullying the opponents. Like, I, I, I know, I go.

[Whitney]

This is Cham baggers aren't for you then? Because like all I'm, all I'm trying to do is to get a lead to just crush somebody. We're playing against filming people. People have written me. Is that what you're like on a real, on the golf course? I'm like with my friends. Yeah. I mean, what are you talking about? If you're playing two people you don't know in like a legit match, you're not like carving them and talking about their bodies and they're eating habits.

[Biz]

You got three buddies, you're paired with a random guy just, just giving it to them.

[Ryan Whitney]

Remember, Remember Billy Thomas Biz?

[Whitney]

Yeah, I played with Billy.

[Ryan Whitney]

Yeah. So he came to visit me one summer in, in Boston and he was there for like four days. We were all, we ran hard that weekend. I'm driving him the airport on, on Monday. He's like, man, I gotta say, I, I thought you said like wit and you know, Okie and Foals and your brother I thought they were your friends. I'm like, what are you talking about? They're my best friends. He's like, not one person said one nice thing about anyone all weekend. You just on each other for 48 straight hours. I'm like, yeah, that's how you know you're friends with someone.

[Whitney]

I was at a St Patrick's Day parade in situate. They do an awesome job. The town I grew up in. Long parade brought the kids, kids. And there was a guy wearing a shirt said, kiss me, I'm Irish, or go yourself because I'm from Boston. I was like, I was like, I've.

[Biz]

Learned that the hard way. Being in a, in a group chat with, with you and Whit. Just on anything I say every time. Like, holy. Can't even get any work done. Can't get a straight answer. Just burying me.

[Whitney]

So Saturday I took in G. Why don't you hop on here? I went. BU played UMass Amherst in the hockey east quarterfinals. Unreal game. Like the pace, the energy. Dude, UMass has this kid O'Hara I think I, I, I want to see. He's a Nashville pick stud. They have, they have a Russian kid. They have, they have a really good team. BU won in overtime. That kid Cole Iserman scored. So they're on to the semifinals where they're now playing UConn main one. They're playing Northeastern who beat BC. Was awesome. I watched it when I got home. BC loses. So they have two weeks off till the NCAA. But gee, Thursday, our YouTube staying hot. You're dropping University of Minnesota Chicklets.

[Biz]

You jacket.

[G]

How about Yukon? Looks sick.

[Whitney]

Yukon's very good. Well, Yukon has that new rink. Mike Kavanaugh was the assistant at BC forever. He's the head coach. He's done a great job with them.

[G]

Yeah, it's an incredible program. We have to get up there for Chiclet.

[Ryan Whitney]

You.

[G]

But we do have one dropping on Thursday. Got to go to Minnesota Golden Golfers, obviously a legendary program in college hockey. Two first round picks did the video with us. Sam Renzel, defenseman, Chicago Blackhawks. He's like 6, 7. He just made me look tiny in the video. And then Jimmy Snuggerood, who I think a lot of people know, potential Hobie Baker winner. He's with the St. Louis Blues organization. So the video is awesome. We had a nice long chat with coach, Coach Matsko as well, which was awesome. So hopefully we can release that in full eventually. But, but insane fan section, incredible facilities. I actually ended up losing a bet to some of the Guys, so the ending of the video is pretty funny, but Ski Uma, the Ghosts are one of the best teams in the country.

[Whitney]

Who did. Who did they lose to in the Big Ten?

[G]

I believe that they lost to Ohio State.

[Whitney]

So it's. So it's Michigan State against Ohio State in the Big Ten championship game. They do that on campus biz. So the. The Boston Garden will have the hockey semifinal Friday night and then the final Saturday. But Michigan State gets to play at their home arena to win the Big Ten. So Penn State in Hockey east, they.

[G]

Got to move that to home arenas.

[Whitney]

Like Magic, dude, it's at the Garden Friday night, two games, and Saturday night it's. It's packed. It's per. That's a no brainer.

[Biz]

Yeah, I think that both. Both teams view it as a home game in that sense, right? Or I guess not.

[G]

If a team like Maine's in it, though. Like, if a team like.

[Whitney]

No man will have a shitload of fans there.

[G]

But I just think Alphon on campus is just.

[Whitney]

It's a small dud at the money you're getting. 18, 500. What? I think 2500 people sitting. Alond.

[G]

Yeah, the money is.

[Whitney]

But the game notes, guys. Friday they had the head coach of Penn State on. They've been on a tear. I think they're automatically already in, I think into the nc Necessarily.

[G]

No, not necessarily.

[Whitney]

With really. So a lot of things can happen. So college hockey is. I couldn't believe the pace of the UMass BU game. I was like, this is just a different sport than when I played college.

[Biz]

But it's these. These bags from these college programs know. Holy. Every time he comes back, he's decked out in gear. Are they. They're probably paying your mortgage right now.

[Whitney]

He's like, you guys are my favorite team. You always have been.

[Biz]

Oh, sweet G. You guys always say.

[G]

This, and every time I come home from these videos, I'm like. Like, I didn't even ask for anything for free. Like, I bought this all myself, bro.

[Biz]

If you weren't with Alana, you should be. Jesus. Jesus. Shuttles. Worth every trip just sending them in.

[Whitney]

While you got to have. You got to have game. He got game. He had game. He's got no game.

[Biz]

Yeah, he's got YouTube chicklets. You game with Fishy? That's like Jordan and Pippen, dynamic duo right now in college hockey. So the growth of the game is amazing. It's not just happening at the NHL level. So people love those videos. And I mean, hey, you got to start going to the. The. At one point, once you run out, you're going to be going to the. The club hockey programs, right? Yeah.

[Paul Bissonnette]

Yeah.

[G]

And we actually. We thought of this cool idea this past weekend is like, every time I go to the school. School, we mic ourselves up. I go sit in the coach's office for an hour. We record the whole conversation. So we might as well just start releasing those. We think we're going to call it Chiclets University office hours. And it's basically me sitting down with each coach. I have an hour interview. I have, like, 10 in the bank right now. So I think we're going to start releasing those this summer.

[Biz]

That's when they should also present you with the gift so they can just keep one upping each other as far as the gifts. That's. I think that's how you got to do it.

[G]

UMass did that, the first video.

[Whitney]

It's an invitation to Biz's birthday party the next year.

[Biz]

You're an idiot.

[G]

UMass did that, the first video, though. They gave me these, like, custom spitting Chiclet shoes, and me and Fish were like, all right, this is gonna be sick. Like, every. Every team's dialing us in.

[Biz]

And wait, you gotta wear the bull rat bathing suit next year to the pool party.

[Whitney]

Oh. Oh, my God. You should do one with.

[Ryan Whitney]

You should do them with Stonehill. I was out the other night at the Elbow Room, and I ran into the Stone Hill hockey team. They would love. In the. They love you guys. Obviously.

[Whitney]

Biz, it's a school in Easton, Massachusetts, kind of like not the middle of nowhere, but 45, 50 minutes from Boston. And they're now D1 program. They beat. I think they beat Merrimack twice. They beat low this year. So they play out of, I think, Bridgewater ice.

[Ryan Whitney]

Yeah. They were saying we need a new rink.

[Whitney]

Is. They need a rink. They need a.

[G]

You know who went to Stone Hill?

[Whitney]

Dana Beers.

[G]

That's who went to Stone Hill there. Yeah, I know.

[Whitney]

Okay. Dana Beer still. I mean, the man was created by Ryan Malone. I think he knows it. I love Dana Beer. So, Biz, we got to get into you and get into the NHL a little bit. You kind of set the. Set. The hockey world, at least the Buffalo hockey world on fire. Last. Last week with the report that Rasmus Dalin sat down with Kevin Adams to ask, like, what is going on? Like, what's our plan? Next thing you know, you got him addressing the media. You got Elliot Friedman talking about it some. So I don't know if you want to kind of go through the. The ramifications or what happened after you broke that news?

[Biz]

No comment at this time.

[Ryan Whitney]

Did Darlene come to your birthday?

[Biz]

Darlene was invited. He decided to not show up last minute and therefore I found out and decided to sabotage the Sabers organization and also tamper a little bit. Bit as a Toronto Maple Leafs ambassador to draw him over to a winning team. There's one thing that we are missing, and it's a number one defenseman. I think we can all agree that there's not enough of them in the league. There's probably 15 of them to the point where I actually got in a debate online about it because I was on Merrick's podcast addressing some of the comments as well as mentioning how many teams don't have a number one defenseman. And I didn't mention, I said, Slaven's not, not Kane's fans, who, who I haven't been exactly getting along with online in, in the last couple weeks because of the whole rotten debacle. They quickly jumped down my neck and I said, listen, I said hand up. I said, for how he's played defensively and the minutes that he takes on and, and it's really hard to take on an offensive role when you're so concerned with shutting down top lines night in, night out. I said, hand up. He's a number one D man based on how much he brings defensively, that then, then Chris Pronger chimes in after I might as well have said, oh, Chris, t's kind of true.

[Whitney]

Number one prongs can talk.

[Biz]

He's a number one bonus. What was he, first ballot hall of Fame?

[Whitney]

Oh, yeah.

[Biz]

He's the last defenseman to win the, the, the Heart trophy.

[Whitney]

Yes.

[Biz]

I mean, I think that he can speak on this subject. And he said, Kane's fans, if you're a number one guy on the power play, if you're on number one PP, number one PK or at least a PK contributing 50, 60, 70 points a year and are also able to play against top lines and shut them down and not look out of place. That signifies you as a, as a number one defenseman. And I would say that. Darlene, is that right?

[Whitney]

Yeah.

[Biz]

Like, even as he's progressed, he's become more of a physical defenseman. He's competent defensively. He's penalty killing. He's paying power play. He is a true number one one. So I am sorry to the fans of Buffalo for stirring it up. I am not going to comment on those comments. I will keep them to myself. I don't want to continue this, but if it continues, if it continues to go as such in Buffalo. Mr. Darlene, you would be very welcomed in Toronto. And if the league, as an ambassador of the Toronto Maple Leaf, wants to find me for tampering, send the invoice to, to Brandon Shanahan or MLSC or whoever over there can pick it, because I ain't. I am just speaking facts. Hey, how long has Ross, Ms. Stallin been in the NHL? He's never want to say, this is 10 years, seventh year, and, and now all of a sudden they move away from Cousins, who I think is a very good centerman and he's looking really good in Ottawa. Don't know if that was a panic trade, what it was, but all of a sudden, would you not say based on what you're seeing this year, that you're probably looking at another, another three to four year rebuild there to get themselves to relevance? Like this team's not even close. Right? We can agree on that. Did you see the game against the, the Detroit Red Wings the other night? I thought Patrick Kane looked like his MVP season again. He had five points on him.

[Whitney]

I, I think that, that if you put two and two together with Elliot saying on his podcast, this is kind of my fault, I think I might know what happened. But we'll just leave it at no comment by you. We'll leave it at no comment by you. Very funny, though. Then all of a sudden, Darlene's probably like, what? Where are these questions coming from? Oh, it's the guy in Joseph and the Technicolor raincoat on a podcast talking about you.

[Biz]

I don't know if, if Rasmus is going to be joining us anytime soon on the pod. I apologize to him. All I'm saying, sir, is that I think that most people understand at a certain point that you're just like, what more do you want me to do? How much more time do you want me to spend here, here watching what's happening? And, and I don't. I'm not blaming Kevin Adams. I'm not blaming anyone in particular, but this is the National Hockey League. I believe there was a poll that just came out that they were voted worst ownership in the NHL. Did you guys see that?

[Whitney]

Was that fake news on Twitter Birthday party? Was that, Was that what the guy said?

[Biz]

Maybe that was. Yeah, that. I think that was those Jackie Alien poll. Yeah, that was actually Twist the. Spitting that on the, on, on the decks. But it's just boys. It's. It's not good there. And I think that he deserves at a certain point to be able to move on. And if Buffalo fans want to get pissed about that, I don't. I think the rational, sane ones aren't.

[Whitney]

I was just going to say, if you're a true fan, it's like, buddy, it's so Jesus said it's his seventh year. I, I, if you're, if you're, if you're an honest to yourself fan, a first overall pick, superstar defense in the NHL in like the eighth or ninth season of being legit, the worst team every year, it's like, I get it. He wants to, like, play some meaningful hockey games. So I understand it. And in terms of the number one defensive thing, I think it's fair to say Jacob Slavin is a great number one on the Hurricanes. But I agree with Pronger. I think of Doughty, I think of Duncan Keith, I think of Scott Nedermeer, I think of Pronger. Like, those are the guys. Because, and I'm just saying because Slavin doesn't get a ton of points to run the power play. So I get progress point and I do get where you were coming from. But Kane's fans, I mean, you could have said anything and they were coming at you. They hate your guts. So Carolina hates you. Buffalo hates you.

[Biz]

And once again, the talking about the trades specifically takes nothing. What are you just pointing himself, saying he hates me too? Too? Yeah, Yeah. I know you weren't there for my birthday. I know you hate Twist. Hates you.

[Ryan Whitney]

Yeah. You never played. You never paid Twista. He hates you.

[Biz]

That wasn't my surprise. It was for me and Jackie.

[Whitney]

He's got, he's got landscapers. Like, we haven't got paid yet either. We hate him. Oh, no.

[Biz]

There's a few guys at my door right now. Oh, no, they're looking into my office window. Where were we? Oh, Kane's fans want to think that I, I hate their team and I don't think they're good because of my, my, my criticism about the way that the trades were handled. That's not the case. And there was a poll that just came out based on percentage, like another poll. There was the, the percentage of teams getting to the second round that are currently listed, and I didn't see Carolina pop up. I think Carolina has like a, I would put them at a, like a 30% chance to read this, reach the second round, if not 50, 50% chance at this point.

[Whitney]

I don't think. Yeah, I think, I think higher. Like The Devils, the way the Devils.

[Biz]

Are playing, they weren't on the list that I saw. But I don't know what their percentage is currently. But I've said it before, I think that they're going to reach the conference finals again. That's where they're going to hit the roadblock of maybe not having those few game breakers. They're all seven game streak. Why aren't you talking about this? I think this is an unbelievable team. I never said it wasn't an unbelievable team team. And they all work their bags off and we see it year over year, they outshoot teams, they out corsium, they out possess them. But until they get that timely goaltending, until they get that superstar who can also get inside and score that big goal to help them win 3, 2, as opposed to guys, they haven't won a fucking game in the Eastern Conference finals in the last what, 15 years.

[Whitney]

I know but like yeah, getting. Yeah, they just get worked when they get the. There.

[Biz]

That's all we're saying here. That's all we're saying.

[Whitney]

So Eric Tulski, he gave an interview on the Athletic, I think talking about like how he would, he would do it again. Like I guess the, the article said he, he slept eight minutes like the night before the deadline because he was trying to get everything done. And he talks about, he talks about like I, we were going to hold on to him if we didn't get a player like that we wanted back. We would have held on to him, he would have been a rental. But they ended up making the move where he loved stank over the movie post and he ends up bringing him over and it's worked out because the team is, they are on a heater. They look phenomenal. Unfortunately Svetchnikov got injured. I think he's, I don't think it's long term injury or anything. So yeah, it's a great team. They didn't do anything with the goaltending but he's really happy. Anderson's healthy again. What is it? Kochov, the other guy, he's looked good. So yeah, it's weird because the fa, the fans have a legitimate beef about people always kind of dogging them. I think they got less of a grief than Capitals fans. Fans who everyone's just dismissing them. I, I saw the Capitals lead the league in goals and are third in goals against like so maybe I'm, I'm one of the fools like Capitals fans can be angry Hurricanes fans. I think we always say how good you guys are. It's just about like, I don't know if you're good enough to win the Stanley Cup. I don't think you're good enough. So that's not. I mean, is that an insult that you're one of the top teams? You're just a little bit short of being a champion. I don't know these playoffs will show, but they're, they're firing on all cylinders.

[Biz]

One of the discrepancies too is he. He also admitted the fact fact that ran in their camp said no initially, but he still went through with the trade like they asked for, for the opportunity to speak to Rat's camp ran his goal post didn't change once he got there and it was done and he was shocked. He was like, I'm going to go give this a fair shake, like I'm going to come in. I think they had him staying at the Airport Hotel. He wasn't there much of his time there, but I think he was sleeping at the Airport Hotel. They didn't have many home games games. It was just a shitty, shitty situation as Elliot talked about, where there was never really an opportunity for him to gel there. I think the trade and what he got back given the situation was awesome. I never discredited that either. Him getting out of that jam, fine. But I still think in a certain situation he lost both trades and thought it was dumb to do it without knowing that he was going to do it. So if he's happy overall going, getting rid of Natures and Drew for, for Stankhoven and too late first by all means. Still think that there could have been something done with the first rounders to maybe put this team over the edge, to maybe where they can compete in the Eastern wild card. So Florida looks really good. I know they got a lot of guys in the out of the lineup and still ended up fucking working my Leafs. But there's a lot of teams barking right now at the top of the east, so good luck to them.

[Whitney]

And Hurricanes fans. Fans, very strong prospect pool. They have this Nikishan who's playing on.

[Biz]

St. Petersburg who they think he's a number one.

[Whitney]

I think he's going to be like a legit stud defenseman. I don't even know if he could come over this year. Who knows with the Russia how crazy that can be. But exciting times for Hurricanes fans. Even though they lost Roger, winners of seven in a row, they're humming along. Another team humming along. And what a story. You brought up Dylan Cousins already. We're gonna see Brady Tkachuk in the Stanley cup playoffs, guys, and goddamn if I just mushed them. That would be something else. But it seems like it's. They're almost there. Might. They might end up kicking Toronto to a wild card spot. That's the difference in those two organizations right now. You saw Brady going nuts with the crowd on the microphone in the arena after the big win last week. And then they've just been going along and along. Stutzel, I think he had a 17 game point streaker. 17 out of 18 game games. He's lighting it up. Cousins has two and two and five games since he's come over it. Just see Jake Sanderson, what a season he's had and all. Mark, that was the question, right? Like Ottawa needs a goalie, they get him, then he gets injured. Oh no, what's gonna happen? Dude, he made the save of the year against the Bruins this week. I don't know if you saw that save on low Rye Keith, he dove across. I think it was five, three at the time. I think so far the save of the season.

[Ryan Whitney]

But.

[Whitney]

But Ottawa is feeling it right now. The arena's alive, it's packed, people are excited. I saw some article where the guys are like, you could feel the energy around town and it's just a cool thing because we needed new blood in the playoffs. And if Ottawa gets in, when they get in, it's going to be as exciting as a time as I can remember to see a Canadian team back in the mix with. And I've played playoff games there. I've told the story many times. Out shot 17, nothing in the first period of my first ever NHL playoff game. And I was like, this building's insane. They went on to lose in the cup final that year to Anaheim. So I don't know if you have anything to say on Ottawa, any of you guys, but it's been fun to watch.

[Ryan Whitney]

I think they're so good right now. And just watching the last few games, you think Bruins fans are like, geez, I kind of wish we still had Omar. But I mean, I know Swayman's younger and stuff, but besides Brady, I think the guy that drives their bus for that team is Jake Sanderson. That kid is an absolute stud. He's going to win a Norris one day. Like he's just on that trajectory of just keep climbing up the league, climbing and you know, like everybody knows defense is the hardest position in the game, hence why Biz got moved forward. But yeah, yeah, they're just such a fun team. They look, they look like they're you know, you see Brady, you know upset when his, when his buddy got traded at the deadline but you can just tell he flipped the switch. That next day welcomes in Dylan Cousins and he's looked comfortable. I think he's living at one of the guys houses so you can just tell that they're a team that's you know their togetherness. They, they go out there and play hard every single night led by Brady and it would be unbelievable if they get in and the way it's shaping up now it looks like we could see a Kachuk battle in the first round which would be amazing biz. What would you rather see? Leafs, Ottawa, Florida, Tampa or the Kachuk brothers playing each other other.

[Biz]

Oh I God. I mean no disrespect to Ottawa but I think I would pick Ottawa for the leaf spacey over Tampa. Right like that would like you just look at proven goaltending and just knowing playoff hockey where but just to go back tire pumping Ottawa like it's, it's nice to see this young core starting to figure it out and then all of a sudden they bring in Cousins. Like how about a 5 flip or the switch for that guy. Go into that situation walking into that locker room where it's like this is on a tee for you. He can feel inspired. I think it was Elliot who was talking about on his pod and, and we've mentioned it too. Like it felt like that the fire wasn't necessarily burning in his belly. And this is a guy we've seen like as a, as a good two way centerman who has skill. Like he's dropped mitts, his mitts for teammates in the past. I believe he broke his nose against half away wasn't it where he saw him take advantage. So it's in there and the fact that he gets to slide over and, and, and Brady's already there kind of leading the way in that regard. And you mentioned Sanderson being young B's young. Like that's a nice young core to get some playoff experience. But if I'm the Leafs I would probably want to go against a non experienced team. But then all Mark's more proven than, than Stolars and Wallows and I, I almost don't envy the fact that you got two guys in Toronto because if Stolars plays bad game one then all of a sudden you got a goalie decision to make where it's like, like in Boston. All Mark, all Mark. You know he was a little bit, I think he was injured at the start of the year, right? He missed a little bit of time and they weren't overriding him too much. But now it's like, oh, baby, he's found his rhythm. He's the guy. He knows he's the guy guy. And he's. He's been there, done that. So I just think that, that, that Tampa is a little bit more of a wagon, but hey, listen. Leafs have not been playing good. Not a good show.

[Whitney]

They're playing horrible, they're playing hard.

[Biz]

They can't score, but I understand. But fucking, every team hits roadblocks like this. There was like, like before this little bad streak, like, they'd won five in a row. They had a really tough schedule. They were on the road a ton. Like, listen, listen, get out the kinks now. They still got, what, 15 games left. They're two points with, I believe, a game in hand. They could still even win the division, despite how bad things have been going. Florida's a little banged up. Tampa just went on an insane run, too. I'm sure they're going to come back down to earth. Listen, there's no easy matchups anymore, boys. There's not going to be. There's not.

[Whitney]

And if you look quickly with Ottawa before we move on from them, Kachuk with Stutzel and Claude Giroux, Peron with Cousins and Drake Batherson. Ridley, Greg, who's a pain in the ass to play against, Pinto, who's awesome defensively and I think has 16 goals now with Amadio on the right wing. And then you got Gaudette in the middle. Fabian Zetterland on the. He's a cigarette machine.

[Biz]

Is a cigarette machine. And then see him deadlifting 600 pounds.

[Whitney]

Yeah. And cousins, he's on the IR, but he'll be back. So that fourth line, like that is a. That is a dangerous team. Like, I, I think that they could. They could. I mean, g. Saying here, money, puck.com. i don't even know what that is. That's who through business party, the senators have a 41% chance, 41.7% chance of advancing to SE the second round. On that website, the Leafs have a 35.6% chance.

[Biz]

So, okay, so I thought it was the. The whole east, but it was just that Atlantic Division. So that's why I didn't see Carolina. I didn't see it do that. Good. So my apologies, Canes fans.

[Whitney]

Another team. Another team, guys, in the east, and they're right there is Montreal. And it is crazy to see, like, they had that run where, like Holy Montreal might get in. And then I, I don't know how many in a row they lost or they lo. They lost a decent amount of games saying like a seven, eight game stretch. Now they're right back. As of right now, I believe that they're one point out of the wild card. They play auto Ottawa Tuesday night, Tom tonight and that's going to be an incredible game. The, the. The Bell center is ripping. We saw how crazy that that atmosphere can get during the four nations and I think that if you look at that team, I got in an argument with Pasha. Pasha's trying to tell me like I brought up Suzuki vs he sheer. He's like, it's not even close. I'm like, I don't know, dude.

[Biz]

This even is. Yeah, this guy, he sure's had better teams. His numbers are slightly better, but they're on pace to be right. Like in the same 50. I think he's got 50 games left. Suzuki or less than he sheer very close to on track for goals and assists.

[Whitney]

They have two guys that have since they got snubbed from their teams and team Canada and Cole Caufield from Team USA like they're on fire. Caulfield, I think has 33 goals. Suzuki's over a point per game. The winger on that side, Slafkovski, who has caught heat and we've talked about like probably not a home run first overall pick. He's still a very solid player, right? And then you're just seeing like, I don't know, some magic go on there. And I don't know if they're going to be able to get to get in. But the, the coolest part for their fans is, is what's coming. Like they have like unreal prospects. We've talked about Demidov and like The Caprisov Part 2 coming over. Oh, I mean he could be as. He could be that good based on what he's doing over there. They have this kid at Michigan, Michael Hag, who's had a phenomenal freshman season. They have who's. Reinbacher's out all year, right. He was a very high picked defenseman. They have Logan Mayu who's lighting it up in Laval. I think their Laval team's the number one team in the ahl. Kaden Gooley is out injured right now. So it's not just like, oh, this random run with the Canadians. Like the Canadians are setting up Kent Hughes and Jeff Gordon. I think they've done some masterful work and possibly creating like a contender way quicker than we thought so. So bunch of cap space this summer. Montreal's. They're firing, they're humming and it's cool to see have. Can all seven Canadian teams get in. When was the last time all seven Canadian teams were in the playoffs? G, look that up.

[Biz]

There's been a lot like I think there was five last year.

[Whitney]

Five.

[Ryan Whitney]

Ottawa hasn't made it for a while.

[Keith Yandle]

Or.

[Biz]

No, I don't think Calgary made it last year. So maybe four.

[Whitney]

I don't know what year that all of them made the playoffs.

[Ryan Whitney]

That's a great question. With Montreal too. Like they're doing this all with. I mean, no offense to Sam Montinbau, but he's, you know, basically been a backup his whole career and he's gone there and you know, kind of figured out his game a little bit too. So doing it with a, you know, non number one goalie. And they. I know they got Fowler coming up through the system too, but yeah, they. They're. They are on pace to look like a good team for.

[Biz]

What you're saying is. Is the Viagra Triangles Ross rising? Yeah.

[Whitney]

Detroit needs to get going. Detroit needs to get going here. And Columbus fans, I. I apologize for not bringing you up two weeks ago in my like wild card discussion. I apologized last week and I told you this would happen. They've lost three in a row. Columbus now is falling apart. We can't have that happen.

[G]

So guys, the last time all seven Canadian NHL teams made the playoffs. Playoffs was in 1985. 1986. During that season, the Calgary Flames, Edmonton Oilers, Montreal Canadiens, Quebec Nordiques, Toronto Maple Leafs and Vancouver Canucks and Winnipeg jets all qualified for the post.

[Biz]

What a. What a collab there. By Whit asking and G finding that.

[Ryan Whitney]

Wow.

[Whitney]

Wow. Since Quebec's left and the Thrashers moved to Winnipeg, it hasn't happened.

[Biz]

Nope.

[Whitney]

I guess. Yeah. Because Edmonton was so bad for. Yeah, I guess that's.

[G]

It has not happened since. Since then.

[Biz]

Unbelievable. So maybe look like a genius right now, Whit.

[Whitney]

Yeah, I don't know about that.

[Biz]

Take a lap. Hey, even New York, like you're. We're talking about. I was listening to 30, 32 thoughts. Like the. At the tiebreaker, like the. A lot of these teams, man, they go to overtime and they squeak out the wins. As far as regulation wins, New York's at 30. All those other teams below them in the wild card that are a point behind Montreal, Columbus, Detroit, they're at like 24 and 23 regulation wins. So they got seven on them.

[Ryan Whitney]

And that's the first tiebreaker Right.

[Whitney]

Yeah.

[Biz]

That's the first, first tiebreaker. So right now like even the Rangers for as ugly as it was at the start, Drury didn't do anything in the off seasons. People were calling for his name. You still have bots on Twitter. Fucking every comment I make though he'll. They'll comment underneath. One is head on a platter. But some great in season moves to make them relevant and, and hopefully sneak in. In like we talked about these matchups like Buddy Shurkin's a net like that them and them in Washington. That's a coin flip. Like I've, you know, that's, that's a team that's got some dogs on it. Man. That's not going to be an easy one. So right now, right now it looks like Florida would play the, get the Kachuk Bowl. So that really right now with these matchups we can't miss because if Toronto wins that top spot, you got the Florida series where we've seen in the past like what didn't Bennett sucker or cheap shot somebody. There was a suspension. What happened in that six game series?

[Ryan Whitney]

Yeah, he, it was his first year when we traded for him. He hit someone from behind and got suspended from. We should have won that series. That was the. Wait you remember that series. It was insane.

[Whitney]

It was. Was that in six? Did it end in six? I can't remember because if you, because if you lo. I hope so. Because if you lost in five and saying you should have won the series.

[Ryan Whitney]

No, no, no. It was either. It was either six or seven.

[Whitney]

I think it was seven and I don't.

[Ryan Whitney]

And maybe it was six, but whatever. And, but Benny, Benny took a, you know, took a two game suspension and we needed him out there and I think that's what, you know, did it.

[Biz]

For us last year too, wasn't it? New York, Washington, first round in New York embarrassed him and swept them.

[Whitney]

Swept them.

[Biz]

I'd love to see a rematch of that. There would be no misses as far as first round matches in the east. So I don't know if there's anything else you guys want to talk about. I know I didn't really do a good job of tire pumping Carolina as far as their individual players, but they're on a heater, so congratulations to them. There's a, there's a lot of, a lot of teams maybe you wouldn't have suspected going in with good momentum. That's definitely one of them.

[Ryan Whitney]

Carolina's got an easy schedule coming up too, too. So they could, they could keep this heater going.

[Biz]

If we are going to shift to the west right now. Whit Merle sent a very interesting text to our group chat about St. Louis has kind of been a team that not a lot of teams have talked about, but their strength of schedule. The next six. Do you want to read it off?

[Whitney]

They have eight home games and six on the road. Only four of the 14 remaining are against teams currently in a playoff spot. The final game of the year is at home versus Utah. Like that could end up. That would be electric. I don't remember the last time since Rangers Philly where the winner got into the playoffs and then Philly went on to go to the cup final in a shootout.

[Biz]

Right? It went down to a shootout.

[Whitney]

Yeah. And the booze are. They're the top team in the league since the Four Nations. They're eight, two and two. That's via Jeff Patterson on Twitter. So it's when Monty went over there, they, they, they caught fire a little bit and then, then things slowed down and they had their struggle. Biz talks about it. Teams kind of go back and forth and now they're going again. And this is without Pareco. I think he's still out. Check that for me, G. But it looks like they're just like a team. I said, put it this way, I said to Murr, I think that's the last team Winnipeg would want to play. Right. If you're talking Utah, Calgary, St. Louis. And is there a fourth team in the mix there? Like, I think they'd be like, I don't want to deal with. So, yeah, Vancouver, I don't want to deal with Sociopath Bennington and the Blues. And it's, it's, it's cool to see because they were written off. Right. Like, I, I think I was, I was a guy that's like, I don't know, going into the season, I didn't think they had much and make a couple moves and then they hold on to Shen at the deadline and Doug Armstrong obviously believe, like, maybe we can end up getting in. And right now with their schedule the way it looks like they, they are in the driver's seat.

[Ryan Whitney]

Lot of similarities from when they won it, like bringing in the new coach. The team gets hot. That would be an unbelievable story. And you, you, you knew Monty was going to go in and, and help the team out. I didn't see it as much as what I'm seeing right now. But that just go. Goes to show you how good of a coach he is. And it, it should have showed you because he Was picked up, I think two days after he got fired from the Bruins and the team on. Yeah, oh yeah, that's true.

[Biz]

He was already signed this summer.

[Ryan Whitney]

Yeah, it's, it's always good seeing St. Louis do, do well there and then with Bennington. Like Biz said, if you see him in playoffs, he's, you know, he's going to do something crazy. Game one. So he's, he's an electric factory.

[Biz]

I mean, I'd almost at this point, like, given how they're, they're rolling and their health situation, see them instead of Minnesota and I know they're going to get guys back, but man, they're, it's like watching paint dry sometimes.

[Whitney]

It happened quick. It happened quick with those injuries, man, and I don't even think they're close to getting those guys back. Free soft. And Eric Sinek, right?

[Biz]

Yeah. Brodine as well. I don't know if he's back in.

[Whitney]

The lineup and I get it. I, I, how are you, like, how are you gonna survive without those guys in the lineup? But it's, it's been ugly and it was like so, such a magical season for so long and then the injuries catch up. That's why, like, luck, luck is so much a part of all this. No doubt when the playoff starts, you need some luck, but even to get in, like, you need guys to be healthy. And Minnesota right now, I, luckily for their fans, I think that they're, it would take a catastrophe for them to not get in. But with how good they were early, I think they're safe enough. But who knows where they end up. They're not overtaken. Like, they're not getting back in the central top three. The way Colorado has looked.

[Biz]

That, that's, that's they be Dallas last night. OT Nate got his gold stick. You guys see that? Atlantis. Scott walked it out.

[Whitney]

I don't know, but I saw Landiscog skating in practice today. Looked he, he was flying. Now, now I think he would be the first to tell you like a game in the physicality, so much different. But I was reading all the comments underneath and granted it's Twitter comments. You know, ABS fans are saying he hasn't looked like this in any video that they've seen when he skated.

[Biz]

I don't think I've seen him with full gear on.

[Whitney]

It always seemed like he was kind of holding back a little bit. I mean, the, the, the video I saw, he's flying around, he's pivoting, tight turns. So can you imagine, can you imagine if that guy shows up for game one of the first round against Dallas, I had a, an Avalanche fan friend of mine text me. It was 3:1 Colorado in the third period, he said, because I. Cause I had mentioned before, after the deadline, I'm like, I can't believe you got to play Dallas round one. Like you're in one. And then he said in the third period, he's like, they look like a high school team against us. Dust and sure, 10 minutes later it's tied. But then what happens? Kale friggin McCarr, that goal in overtime, he puts it on the ice in between the post. That was a great game. Like, I'm like, holy. If this is a first round, it is so unfair to one of those fan bases and those players.

[Biz]

Just give me seven, give me seven.

[Whitney]

I think it's a guarantee. What was the seat, what was the series last year? The year before we were like, just give me seven. Oh no, it's Toronto, Boston, we just knew it was going seven last year. Just give me seven. And you almost know. I think that's the same thing. That series is going seven games. Dallas, how many points ahead of them? Like, are they guaranteed to start on home ice? Dallas, oh no. God. They're only two points up, but they do have two games in hand as of right now. But that game, I was like, Jesus, this is two heavyweights and one of them is going home first round.

[Biz]

It's nuts either way if it's Vancouver or Utah, just great stories. I mean the fact that Vancouver, with all the drama and all the. That's surrounded the team for them to squeak in. I mean, they had Dakota Joshua out with testicular. Was it testicular cancer?

[Whitney]

Yeah.

[Biz]

To start the year like they've had a lot of like sandwiches and then Utah, Imagine that fan base after they've showed up and, and welcomed that team to get their first taste of playoff hockey in their first year, that would be such a momentum gainer for them. So Calgary, like there's no. There's right now outside of Minnesota. I think all of those would be an exciting story. Like if they don't, if those guys aren't back healthy, like, I think it's going to be quick work if they get that last spot against Winnipeg.

[Whitney]

You mentioned Vancouver, a man who's a part of that organization has been a part of the NHL forever. We got to sit down with him because of Keith Yandel, Dale Talon. I think you guys are going to love this one. The story, the way he tells stories. A hilarious person and been so successful in the game forever. So we're going to throw it over to him right now. Dale Tall Allen Guys, it's Whit and we need to talk about the best time of the year for college basketball. It's March. It's time for the NCAA Tournament and even if you're not a full year round college basketball fan, everyone loves college hoops in March. The best part of college basketball is here and we know you're as excited as we are to watch some big upsets throughout the tournament while we're streaming in the Cave at Barstool Chicago. You can get out to see the action in person with Game Time, the official ticketing partner of Barstool Sports. Game Time makes getting tickets faster and easier. Prices on the app actually go down the closer it gets to Showtime. Plus the Game Time Picks features make it even easier to find the great deals on the seats you want. You can even find last minute tickets for the tournament for up to 60% off quickly and easily. Just pull up your chosen event and turn on GT Picks setting at the top of the screen screen or browse the best local Game Time Pick deals near you on your Game Time app homepage. As of right now, you can get tickets to Yale vs Texas A M and UC San Diego vs Michigan in Denver. Short money, easy to get. GT picks game time. That's what it's all about. They've got you curated deals for all tiers of tickets and you know you're getting the top option when you see the super deal icon. What are you waiting for? I'm going to buy those UC Michigan games ticket now with Game Time Picks. Take the guesswork out of buying tickets with Game Time. Download the Game Time app, create an account and use code Chiclets for $20 off your first purchase terms. Apply again. Create an account and redeem code Chiclets for 20 off. Download the game Time app today. What time is it? Game Time Guys, it's Witt and I need to talk to you about rosparks. Let's talk about Rose Sparks. It's a two in one prescription treatment for stronger, harder erections. Yes, you heard me right. If you want a big old strong hard erection, you need Row Sparks. Rose Sparks dissolve under your tongue, meaning they hit your bloodstream faster than pills. You want to be hard quick. You want to be rocked up quick. Air Row Sparks I'll do it for you can get ready for action quicker and easier with Rose Sparks. Once the medication dissolves, they work in about 15 minutes on average, giving you the boost you need for thicker, longer erections than the woman in your life or the men in your life. Doesn't matter. They will love you for it. And helping you last longer for more fun for both of you. I. I could probably use roast sparks. Let's get some rose sparks sent to the Wit dog. Plus rose sparks stay active in your system for up to 36 hours. Hours. So for you guys out there who like to go round two, some people say, don't worry, it'll only get better from here. After the first round, you got 36 hours with roast sparks for a longer, harder erection. I really, really emphasize the longer and the harder erections. That means you can be ready to go round after round or even in the morning. And no need for an awkward in person doctor visit where you say to your doctor, yeah, my horn doesn't work, but well, all you need to do is go to ro co and it connects you with a medical provider 100% online. And if prescribed, your treatment ships right to your door. If prescribed, new sexual health patients get 15 off Sparks on a recurring plan. Connect with a provider at RO Co. That's RO Co Chiclets, to find out if prescription row sparks are right for you. That's rough. For 15 off your first order for longer, thicker, harder erections. Oh my God. It's a pleasure now to be back at Keith Yandel's house. Joined by a very special guest. This guy's been involved one way or the other in the national hockey league for 55 years.

[Biz]

My God.

[Ryan Whitney]

Former 50.

[Keith Yandle]

Pardon?

[Ryan Whitney]

I thought you were only 50.

[Keith Yandle]

Mentally, mentally.

[Whitney]

Mentally. Mentally.

[Keith Yandle]

He's 25, not even 50.

[Whitney]

The voice of that man, Dale Talon. Thank you so much for joining the show.

[Keith Yandle]

My pleasure. You guys are great.

[Whitney]

Oh, thank you. Thank you. So.

[Keith Yandle]

Been waiting this long for a long time to get invited.

[Whitney]

Yeah, it had to be in person, so we needed Yan's house.

[Keith Yandle]

Yeah.

[Biz]

Yeah, so. So he signed you as well?

[Keith Yandle]

No, he paid for this indirectly. I was kind of an advisor. I got pushed aside, but.

[Ryan Whitney]

Oh, that's was it, Tom?

[Keith Yandle]

Yeah.

[Whitney]

You got signed by T Row?

[Ryan Whitney]

Yeah, starting.

[Whitney]

Oh, we got so much to get to.

[Biz]

But as an offense, offensive defenseman yourself. When you played, were you vouching for Keith?

[Keith Yandle]

Yeah, well, I wanted him when he first came even, you know, when I first got the job. But took a while to convince.

[Whitney]

The powers that be.

[Keith Yandle]

Yeah.

[Whitney]

Sign them over to that big check. So it's, it's, it's crazy you're still living down here. You just were telling us you're an advisor with the Canucks. But yeah, I think we kind of want to start with your playing career. I think a lot of people know you as a GM of all these good teams, but you were a hell of a player as well, like, growing up. Were you, Were you into the game right from the get go? Like, what was your path in hockey as a young kid?

[Keith Yandle]

Well, I grew up in Noranda. Ruan. Noranda. It's now Twin Cities. We had to skate to school, right? We play hockey. Get, you know, that's all we did. We played indoors once a week on Saturdays and, you know, we got the Canadians games. We only can get French TV up there once in a while. We get cfcl, the Timmins station. If you suck your head out the window holding the rabbit ears, you know, you get a leaf game once in a while.

[Whitney]

But were you a Habs fan?

[Keith Yandle]

Well, I was a Blackhawk fan because I love the fact that they walked up the stairs. Oh, yeah, they had the great unis. Turns out I got traded and went there because Dennis Holland and Jimmy Papp and vouched for me when I played with Team Canada. But, you know, I thought hockey was a way to get an education, get a scholarship. I had offers in Michigan and golf, hockey, hockey at different colleges and I figured, well, to get the heck out of there. But, you know, we lived. We didn't have anything. My dad was a bricklayer living up north and started his company up there. And my dad was a hockey player. He played Freddie Shore, actually, for a little bit. He told Eddie Shore to go, you know what? After he wanted him to tap dance on his desk, he said, that's enough, I'm out of here. Made him skate backwards in the basket, you know, the basketball floor on the ice, and they had the oval in the back. And he made him skate backwards for four hours. Hours, you know, holding the stick like this, you know, like it was a tray, and make him sit and, you know, stuff like that. Then they had to sell peanuts and popcorn and all at the Black Aces, whatever. So he told him to screw himself. And that was the end of his career. And then he ended up went to Val d'or to play in the intermediate league up there with Mark Crawford's dad. I'm working with Luke Crawford in Vancouver. His father, Lyle, played with my dad in this team in Val d'or and then he went to Noranda the Mind. He was player coach for a team there. And then that's how he started working.

[Whitney]

Is that a mostly French area or.

[Keith Yandle]

Yeah, Mostly French. When I grew up there, it was a mining town. So we had a lot of different, you know, but Rouen was mostly French. Naranda was more cosmopolitan. You know, mine workers, Irish, Ukrainian, Italian. Really? Yeah, it was. We were like 20 miles from the border. Kirkland Lake was our biggest rival.

[Whitney]

Okay.

[Keith Yandle]

We used to go play Kirkland Lake a lot.

[Biz]

Would you say growing up there and maybe playing there had more of your, like, offensive. Like, it kind of directed you more to play that way? Because I feel like.

[Keith Yandle]

Yeah, yeah. Because we played road hockey. We never played indoors. We had one rink, you know, actually we had two rinks, one in one. Miranda. But we weren't allowed to play in there Saturday mornings for 45 minutes. That was it. So we learned to play on the street. And we had school rinks. We had a rink in our backyard. You know, the kids on the street. We played hockey, road hockey. So we didn't have any organized hockey till Saturday morning. 45 minutes. You had your, you know, you slept with your clothes on under your equipment. So you could sneak into public skating after hockey, you know, hide in the rink and then go do that. But there was no organizational hockey till you were 13 or 14. Really?

[Whitney]

It was that long, huh?

[Keith Yandle]

Yeah, well, you know, we played randomly. Let him go. You know, you just keep the puck and, you know, pass it when you had to. But that's how we learned to play.

[Whitney]

I think one of the cool things for. There's so much relation with golf and hockey and everyone who plays golf in the hockey world knows about you. Like, you won the Canadian Junior Championship. You had a chance. I. I was reading. At least your mom wanted you to try to become a professional golfer, but.

[Keith Yandle]

Right.

[Whitney]

Was it always a big part of your life? Did your dad do that as well? Because you were a very accomplished golfer, Miranda.

[Keith Yandle]

Mines Golf Club was built by the mine for its employees, and it was the best nine hole course in probably in Canada. But we only had like two months, you know.

[Whitney]

Yeah.

[Keith Yandle]

10 months of winter and two months of bad skating. You know, the golf wasn't a place thing. No one, none of my compatriots or generation played golf. It was a, you know, well to do sport.

[Whitney]

Yeah.

[Keith Yandle]

But my father met the head geologist for the mine and he started a construction company. He was doing work inside the mine and he taught him how to play golf when he was 30. And my mother tagged along and she was good at it. And so when I was a kid, I started a caddy and work there. If I did well in school, I could caddy and play junior golf. And he had sunlight till 10:30, 11:00. So I started playing golf then. And then when I was a teenager, I'd go to Southern Ontario at a friend who was a golf pro in London, Ontario. Guy by the name of Mel Casey, who's still alive today. I'd live in the pro shop in Fanshawe Golf Club in London, Ontario. Slept in a cot with him and he made eggs for me every morning. And then I'd hitchhike around Southern Ontario. You know, I had no money, we had no money, but I, I'd sell the golf prize if I wanted one, you know, instead of woods, I'd sell them to get the money to get the heck home or Hitchhike across Highway 2, you know. And this was in. I left home when I was. I was 6, 62, 63. I was 13, 12, 13 years old old and learn to play golf and just.

[Whitney]

Did you get lessons? Did you teach yourself? Pretty much.

[Keith Yandle]

I was fortunate. I met Al Balding, who was a great Canadian player, George Knudson. All these guys that I was lucky enough to meet these people and somehow they took a liking to me and, and showed me all kinds of different things. And both my parents were good golfers, but those were, those guys influenced me to.

[Biz]

You were hitchhiking when you were 13?

[Keith Yandle]

Yeah, 12.

[Biz]

13.

[Keith Yandle]

We used to go, well, I think the Greyhound bus or in those days, you know, in 16D.

[Biz]

What did like, what did being. Being out on the road like that at such a young age teach you? Like, what did it like, do you.

[Keith Yandle]

Survival. Yeah, you learn how to be, you know. I'm an only child, so my mother had two ectopic pregnancies after, after me and so I was, you know, I would have been a big family as well. She was her cousins and sisters and you know, they had all kinds of kids. They were Cath. French and Irish Catholics and. But I was an only child, so I was on my own. And my dad's experience, his previous experience playing hockey. Hockey and being in Valley Field, playing in Quebec Junior League and all this stuff and playing the Quebec Senior League, all these things. He, he, he saw that if I was going to make it, I'd have to go. I never get the hell out house. You know, my mother hated it, but he, he figured I got to get going and learn on my own. And I did, you know, take the train to Toronto and then take a bus to London. All by yourself? You know.

[Biz]

Do you ever find yourself in like a crazy.

[Keith Yandle]

Oh yeah, a Couple times, Tracy Station in Toronto. You know, my dad told me, you know, somebody comes after you, you know, you punch and run. And this guy can, you know, was after, tried to grab me and I, I punched him and ran. I didn't, I just ran, you know, survive.

[Whitney]

Yeah, this is old school stuff.

[Keith Yandle]

Yeah, that was 13 years old. I was a big boy, you know, I was. Yeah, it wasn't cut. I was a little chubby, you know, but like we were.

[Biz]

You said your father was a bricklayer. Was he very strict?

[Keith Yandle]

Really strict, yeah.

[Whitney]

All right.

[Keith Yandle]

But he never laid a glove on me.

[Whitney]

He gave you the look, though, that you.

[Keith Yandle]

Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, he gave me the look.

[Ryan Whitney]

Nothing more.

[Whitney]

Oh, my God.

[Biz]

Yeah.

[Whitney]

Did you end up, like, loving hockey more in terms of, like, trying to make a profession out of hockey or golf?

[Keith Yandle]

Well, in 1970, when I got drafted, the top guy in golf made 100 grand and there were, you know, no one else. There were. Nobody was making any money. And coming from Canada, there weren't that many guys. And I figured if I could always play hockey and then play golf, but I couldn't do the opposite. Yeah, right. You play golf for 10 years and you struggle or five, whatever, and then go play hockey, it wouldn't have worked. So I had the best of both worlds. This worked out, you know, I mean, I. I sometimes wonder what would have happened if I had gone full time. But those guys are too good. Yeah, we got to dedicate 12 other than dolphin.

[Biz]

Were you like training for hockey in the summertime? Because.

[Keith Yandle]

Training.

[Ryan Whitney]

He was taking the train, you know.

[Keith Yandle]

We ran a couple miles and did some push, push ups and shot a steel puck and roll, you know, at a weight with a roller on. My dad made me a roll. Oh, yeah, all those things, that's all we did, you know, we shot the steel puck in the basement until you had to get the foundation done. You know, stuff like that.

[Ryan Whitney]

Walk the course.

[Keith Yandle]

Yeah, you carry your bag and walk at what age?

[Biz]

Because you were a pretty highly touted prospect and. And ended up living up to it where you were drafted second overall. But at what point were you like, oh, like I'm excelling at hockey where I could maybe make a living off.

[Keith Yandle]

Of this or I guess when I got drafted by Oshawa first overall in the universal draft, you know, they had gone from the C form you signed. And then I, I went to Oshawa. I got traded to the Toronto Marleys, believe it or not, for five guys. Wow. And that's when I figured, well, there must be something here.

[Whitney]

Yeah.

[Ryan Whitney]

Was there no Quebec Le like you didn't have to in the queue then. You could go anywhere.

[Keith Yandle]

No, I was. We were affiliated with the Northern Ontario Amateur Hockey Association. It was. We went to the Ontario side. Our rivalries were Kirk and Lake and New Lisker and Timmins and in those places.

[Ryan Whitney]

And was your English good? That like.

[Keith Yandle]

Well, I, I went to English school.

[Ryan Whitney]

Oh, you did? Okay.

[Keith Yandle]

My mother was half French. She came from Saskatchewan. My dad was 100 Irish and didn't speak much French. And all my cousins were French. So I had the best of both worlds. But I went to school primarily in English. And then the French was on the street.

[Whitney]

You get picked second overall and then boom, that September or whenever camp started, you're in the NHL, like, right? You had 56 points your rookie year in 78 games. What do you remember about like intimidation?

[Keith Yandle]

I think. What, 72 games?

[Whitney]

They screwed you online then, Dale, we don't have to write a letter to hockey db. But when you got to, were you very intimidated?

[Biz]

Artifacts. That's all there.

[Keith Yandle]

Well, I was 19. You know, it wasn't the 18 year old draft. It was a, you know, you had to be your last year of eligibility. I worked at the Oral Walton camp, you know, and I, and I skated a lot in the evenings. Things with, with Bobby and Shaky Walton, you know, we. So I. They helped me. You know, they showed me, they showed me tricks and showed me stuff and. And living at Maple Leaf Gardens every day, watching the Leafs practice and then go skate after them. And Jimmy Pappen, who had just passed away recently got us all. He took me under his wing when I was playing. He was playing for the Leafs and I was making 10 bucks a week living in Toronto with the gold ups. You remember Glenn Goldup and Hank Goldup would play in the NH Met my dad in the Quebec Senior League. He had broken his ankle playing with the Rangers and he was sent down for conditioning. And my dad was the 19 year old defenseman playing there. They became friends. When I got traded to the Marleys, I went and lived with the Goldup family. I had eight kids. I'm an only child living with a family of eight. So Glenn Goldup was my roommate. We lived in the same room together and he was a couple years younger than I was. He was drafted by Montreal, I think, and then he played in la la. So I, you know, I had experience from other people, showed me the way and helped me along the way. And then we went to Vancouver's training camp. At 19 years old and we had six weeks of camp, 11 games. We played five of them against LA because they nobody. They were out in Victoria and we were in. We trained in Calgary at the New Noble Inn. There was a fight in the parking lot every night between the players. No, the people. That was the worst area in Calgary.

[Biz]

Oh no.

[Ryan Whitney]

Oh.

[Keith Yandle]

And I roomed with Howie Young. Howie Young was legendary in those days. And I never saw him. I room with a suitcase. He never came to the room. I was all by myself in the room. It was unbelievable. I go, who's my roommate? Would be a boozing or whatever he used to be. And then he quit. He went the other way.

[Biz]

Okay.

[Keith Yandle]

Started smoking.

[Ryan Whitney]

Always showed up for the game.

[Biz]

Always something, eh.

[Keith Yandle]

He drove his motorcycle down and when he played for in Phoenix. He played in Phoenix. He wrote his motorcycle down into the locker room. He was a wild man.

[Whitney]

What do you remember about Pat Quinn, your rookie year?

[Keith Yandle]

I love that guy.

[Whitney]

Was he just a training camp?

[Keith Yandle]

That first training camp he beat the crap. We, you know, got into it every night, every, you know, the practice. Practices were all day long, you know, two days and he would just be in my face all the time. And so after the team was made, we went to Vancouver over and curtain back and Quinn and Andre Boudria and all these guys took good care of me and they. So one night we went out for dinner and you know, Pat, what was all this? You're in my face every day, you know. He said, well, I figured if I was in the picture, they figured I was doing something because you know they were looking at you with magnifying glass that I would if they smart. He was great. He took me first Christmas his house. He had a cousin named Big and Bad John Quinn who was a wrestler. And I love that guy. He took such good care of me. Pet was the greatest.

[Biz]

Oh yeah. Now that you're advising there, like how much different is it from like back then? Like how, how much it's grown and what you remember of it.

[Keith Yandle]

It's, you know, it's still, it's still a tough place to play. You know, it's critical like that media wise. Media wise and fan wise they get on your fast, you know. I thought my nickname was Moose. You know those years, you know, you. They wanted Jill Bear parole, right. And so you know, like come on. I. I didn't expect to go second overall and ended up going to Vancouver. They all. They thought they were getting Perot and.

[Whitney]

Then I thought they lost the draft lottery, right.

[Keith Yandle]

Like a wheel, right, that was spinning Wheel.

[Biz]

No.

[Keith Yandle]

Yeah.

[Whitney]

And it was supposed to be.

[Keith Yandle]

Yeah. So Vancouver thought they'd won. Jill Bear Pro. He was the consensus number one, and I was somewhere in the top five, maybe 10. You know, there was Sittler and all kinds. It was really good players. Reggie Leach, I thought, so Punch. Imlak saw I was on the 11 or the Roman numerals or something, so he said, no, that's not right. So Buffalo ended up with Gilbert, and I ended up going to Vancouver. I thought Vancouver was going to take Leech because he was a Western boy and I was going to go to Boston. Boston had the third pick, so they took me, and then Reggie Leach went to Boston. When I went out to Vancouver, they were like, I hadn't even been there.

[Whitney]

They're already disappointed.

[Keith Yandle]

They're already pissed off, right? I go, okay, there's nothing. And so here we go. And then I had a pretty good rookie year and, you know, was up the ice all night long. They didn't know where I should play. My ideal spot was center ice. I was a centerman all my life. By last year, junior in Toronto, we had three injuries to our top defenseman with the Marlboros. Gus Bodnar was our coach, and he said, can you play defense? I said, sure, I'll play defense. More ice time, right? And I got as many points playing as I did playing center. So when I went to Vancouver, they. One scout said I should play center, another scout said I should play left wing, another one said, play defense. So they didn't know where I played. So we played an exhibition game against Chicago, and I got a goal and a couple assists playing D. And then they decided, okay, I'm going to play D. And then. Then I got, you know, I set a. A point record for rookie at that year, 56 points. I didn't have a point the first 10 games. Really? Yeah. And then I got. I literally up, you know, 42 assists or something like that.

[Ryan Whitney]

In the offensive defenseman was kind of just.

[Keith Yandle]

Yeah, well, Bobby set the tone. Everybody wanted to be like him. You know, I told our goalie D. We had three goalies. Charlie Hodge played for Montreal for years. He played the only home games. He didn't make road trips. We had George Gardner, who was. Should have been on the Tonight Show. He was so funny. And goalie named Dunk Wilson, who I played junior with, who was tough as nails. He would have loved him. Okay, He. He liked to throw them. He could fight. He loved to fight. He was a better fighter than he was a goalie Dunk and I were good friends and he. He got me beat up by Schultze.

[Whitney]

Because of him, there's three years in Van. I guess the team wasn't very good. And then were you traded to Chicago? Like.

[Keith Yandle]

Well, the WHA came into existence and they couldn't. The Canucks expansion teams, they had a rule. Expansion teams couldn't trade their first pick for three years because of what happened in Montreal. Sam Pollock at the end would trade veteran guys to LA and Oakland to get their first pick. And that's how they ended up getting lafleur and Shut. So they put a rule in because he was smarter than everyone else and he couldn't trade. An expansion team couldn't change their trade their first pick for three years. So I was stuck there, you know, and things were terrible. They were playing me at center. One coach that was there that I won't mention his name, I don't like him, but he had me playing left wing, right wing, center. He didn't tell, you know, game. The games. I'd be sitting on the bench. You been out there yet? I go, no, I haven't. He said, well, go play center or something like that, you know. And so I was fed up. I said, so I'm going to wha. So after the last game in la, team went home. I stayed behind to negotiate with the Los Angeles Sharks that they were going to call, be called at the time. They were going to play in the sports arena. And the guy that was in, Rocky, the announcer, one of the sports guys, Stu Nahan, he was at the dinner. And so we. I shook hands on a deal. I agreed on a deal.

[Whitney]

More money.

[Keith Yandle]

A lot more money.

[Biz]

Wow.

[Keith Yandle]

Right. And I said, actually, I'll tell you the number. It was 3. 300 to sign, 300 to play in 1972. Right.

[Biz]

Holy.

[Keith Yandle]

That was a ton of money. Right. So Eaglestone was my agent at the time. So I said to the guy, guy, call Eagleson and get the deal done. The coach was Terry Slater, I think was his name. I called Eagleson, I said, I. I just agreed with the Los Angeles Sharks. I'm going to go to la. I'm going to get a place in Manhattan beach. You know, I'm 22 years old. Oh, I care.

[Whitney]

I'm going to live it up.

[Keith Yandle]

I'm going to have some golf, right?

[Ryan Whitney]

Yeah.

[Keith Yandle]

And they called him and they said, yeah, we agreed, 150 to sign, 150 to play. So he called me, he says, is that what you agreed to? I said, no, no. So, 300 to sign, 300 place. I said, tell them to screw off. That's not who. I'm not going to deal with those guys if that's the way they are. So then I got traded. I said, well, I'm not going back to Vancouver. So I got traded to Chicago for Gary Smith and Jerry Corb.

[Whitney]

600 grand. 300. 373 is 4.2 million.

[Biz]

Oh, yeah, yeah.

[Whitney]

So that would have been a huge.

[Biz]

Like that. When they redid the CB ea, the max you could get for a signing bonus was 250.

[Keith Yandle]

Right, right.

[Biz]

So, like that was.

[Ryan Whitney]

That's what I got 30, 40 years.

[Biz]

Later, whatever it was. So that's crazy.

[Ryan Whitney]

Yeah.

[Keith Yandle]

Because in 1970 you could buy a new Cadillac for five grand. I bought a Porsche for 911s, Targa for nine from Mike Murphy's dad.

[Biz]

Here's something else, man. I tell you, this is unbelievable.

[Whitney]

Did you love Chicago, right, when you got there? Like, I love it.

[Keith Yandle]

Yeah, of course I did. I absolutely. I went. When Pappin got Jimmy Pappin got traded. The Blackhawks, my rookie year. They were in the finals. I flew into Chicago and stayed at Ray Floyd's apartment. Ray Floyd lived in on Cedar Street, Cedar and Rush. And I went to see Jimmy. I saw the first two games and he scored the winning goal in both overtime games. And so he was. I was hanging on to his coattails, man. I was 20 years old on Rush street in Chicago in those days.

[Whitney]

Oh, my God.

[Ryan Whitney]

Wasn't Derek Sanderson, like the highest paid athlete when he signed in the W wheel?

[Keith Yandle]

Yeah, yeah.

[Whitney]

Like for what was a million bucks?

[Keith Yandle]

A million bucks or a million five? Something like that.

[Whitney]

Something crazy.

[Ryan Whitney]

So they were giving it out.

[Biz]

Yeah, I think you had your, your, your best statistical year when you were in Chicago.

[Keith Yandle]

So, yeah, I'm there.

[Biz]

Things were.

[Keith Yandle]

Yeah, things are good. And then I got hurt. I got hurt and.

[Whitney]

Oh, really?

[Keith Yandle]

I broke my wrist. I broke that little bone, the carpal navicular. It's called the snuff box.

[Whitney]

Bad news breaking.

[Keith Yandle]

It's the slowest healing bone in your body. And boxer injury. I. I broke it on a Saturday night in Philadelphia. I got cross checked from behind by Ed Van Imp, and I went crashing into the boards and I broke this little bone. Go back to Chicago Sunday morning, go to the doctor, because we didn't charter then into commercial. Went to the hospital. The guy says, hold this broom while I put this fiber. They just came out with those new fiberglass casts. So I put the fiberglass cast. I used to hold a broom like A hockey sticks. You're good to go. Go. Supposed to isolate that bone for six weeks. No. Right. So I started playing three weeks later and changed the cast and never healed. And then I had a surgery to repair it the following summer and it didn't. Didn't. They took a bone from my hip to put it in. It didn't catch. So I played that whole year, one hand. And that was, that was the beginning.

[Whitney]

It's wild to think of guys that played when you did and Bobby and like the technology now with injuries. Like, you must have known so many different players. Who nowadays, if you had these injuries.

[Keith Yandle]

Yeah, right.

[Whitney]

That's crazy.

[Keith Yandle]

Well, you know, Bobby, I, I see Bobby quite a bit. He's had four surgeries in the last four years. You know, he's finally pain free in the last four years. This is the best he's felt. You know, they just butchered his leg. You know, it was sad to see, you know, he came to Chicago and I felt so bad for him. His leg was a mess, you know, and he tried to play on one leg and it was, it was so sad to see because he was the best player I've ever seen play by a mile. By a mile.

[Ryan Whitney]

One of the best guys too. Just.

[Keith Yandle]

He is the best guy.

[Ryan Whitney]

Oh, my God.

[Keith Yandle]

You're. You know, my daughter had an issue. He was, he's, he's just, he's unbelievable. So generous with his time.

[Biz]

Is it kind of like watching McD, what McDavid does out there where it's.

[Keith Yandle]

Yeah. Same kind of, same kind of deal.

[Biz]

Just that sheer dominance night in, night out.

[Keith Yandle]

He just was, I tell you, we, I was. We had lunch. We had a five on three power play in Vancouver against Boston. Okay. I said he was getting dizzy going around his own net. He had the puck for 45 seconds. We couldn't touch it like if we were two men up. He went around. Then finally he just shot the puck and went off. He had enough. He was, you know, he didn't want to embarrass you. You know, I think he had a goal and four assists in a game in Vancouver. When I was 30 minutes to go. He just benched himself. Didn't want to, you know, halfway through the game. Yeah, I think he could have got at least, at least a hundred more points.

[Ryan Whitney]

He really wanted to.

[Keith Yandle]

Yeah. I mean, he, he, he was brilliant.

[Biz]

Did you ever get a chance to spend a lot of time with him, like while you guys were playing, like you said, you. I think.

[Keith Yandle]

Well, he came to Chicago and, you know, we We. Yeah, as much, you know, in his hockey school. We were at the. I was up the Orwalton camp in Aurelia. We were. We were always there, you know, we. He played a lot of tennis. They'd laugh at me. I was. Had my golf bag and I'd be walking down a Rama road to get the bus to go to Toronto to play the junior golf tournament. He and Shaky Walton and be playing tennis. And he'd be laughing at me, you know, going. I said, someday you'll figure this out. When you can't play tennis, you'll be able to play golf. And now, you know, he plays golf.

[Whitney]

But what was Stan Makita like? Like being in the room.

[Keith Yandle]

Brilliant. Brilliant guy. Yeah. Innovative. Creative. Just a wonderful guy.

[Whitney]

Great teammate, too.

[Keith Yandle]

Yeah. Unbelievable. Unbelievable. Did enough. He couldn't do enough for you? He was. He was brilliant. He carve your. He cut you here. He cut you here like he was a master. He went from 200 minutes in penalties to lady bing in one year. He made a promise to his wife and kids and switched completely.

[Biz]

Come on, lady.

[Ryan Whitney]

Bang.

[Keith Yandle]

Went to. He won the lady.

[Biz]

Such a savage. Before that.

[Keith Yandle]

Oh, he. He cut you wide open. He was the best stick man. You. He had that hook stick, you know, and he. He was brilliant.

[Ryan Whitney]

No, the fact.

[Keith Yandle]

One of the best athletes, one of the best players I've ever seen.

[Whitney]

22 years. Years for the Blackhawks.

[Keith Yandle]

Same weight.

[Biz]

So we're so. How many?

[Keith Yandle]

62 pounds.

[Biz]

How many guys were playing like that? Like, just because. Like what? Because he was a smaller guy. So he figured, if I'm these guys up, they'll stay away from me.

[Keith Yandle]

He was just mean. He was mean. He could. Not only a brilliant player, but he. He was tough as nails for his size. He was. He was a great player.

[Biz]

Would players get so fed up because he was doing that, they'd, like, try and jump him and fight him? No.

[Keith Yandle]

Well, you know, wait. He had. He was. He was protected. He was tough. He didn't need anybody's help, you know, he was just a great player, too. You know, he was just a great player.

[Ryan Whitney]

When did the stick work and all that stuff kind of like wean out of the game because, I mean, obviously now there's none of it.

[Keith Yandle]

Yeah, I guess. I don't know. It's interesting to know when it's changed. It's changed dramatically, obviously, in the last decade, but, you know, it was. There was more respect. You know, the sticks were on the ice a lot and there weren't nobody was wearing helmets. Hardly anybody Was. And no one was wearing cages in college, you know, and now guys are coming up, their sticks are up and high and protecting themselves. And there's. But that. I watched some old, old time games, you know, no advertising on the boards and guys had straight sticks and the sticks were on the ice at all times. They body checked. They didn't hit. It was a body check. There was an art to it, rubbing guys out. And there wasn't any hitting from behind. Of course, now you got a 100 foot charge, you know, you can't. This used to be charging penalties. How many charging penalties have they been called?

[Whitney]

They don't really call charging.

[Keith Yandle]

There's no more charging. Run after guys right from the red line, dump, you know, dump and chase and go get it from 100 yards out.

[Whitney]

Do you enjoy watching the game now? Like it's changed so much.

[Keith Yandle]

It's. It's different, that's all. Yeah, I like going to the games, you know, I like watching the games. Everybody's so fast and strong and I just like. There's no. Doesn't seem to be a lot of structure. It's just different now. You know, you never saw. If you went behind the net as a defenseman, right. Two guys behind the net, you'd get. You would be benched, you'd be chastised. Now we got two guys in the corner and you look at a power play, there'd be nine guys in the corner or behind the net and. And no one in front. Like, you know, there was a left winger, a right winger, the Centerman. Now there's F1, F2, F3. Yep, you're right. It's not. It's just different, that's all. It's different coaching. It's all, you know, compressed and. And pressure.

[Whitney]

Pressure.

[Keith Yandle]

Pressure.

[Whitney]

Pressure.

[Keith Yandle]

Pressure. Pressure.

[Whitney]

Yeah, pressure. That's just true. Yeah, I guess it must have been.

[Keith Yandle]

I want to explain to me what expected goals for. So I want to know what that.

[Whitney]

Is we've talked about.

[Keith Yandle]

Because if it was, it was true, every game would be nothing. Nothing. Because it'd be. Karnak would coach, right? You'd say, oh, I expect him to score.

[Biz]

All that drives you nuts.

[Keith Yandle]

Well, some of it does. I'm all for doing different things, but some of that stuff is just.

[Biz]

It's a.

[Keith Yandle]

It's a cottage industry that's, you know, a bunch of guys have gotten involved in.

[Biz]

Our buddy Posh is all about. He always talks about looking under the hood.

[Whitney]

Like my issue with it is with our buddy Pasha, who's a part of the pod. The way he talks about it, you don't even need to watch a game like. And he'll tell you who played great. It's like, well, okay, his expected goals was highest. But like I, I watched the game. He didn't do anything.

[Keith Yandle]

Right.

[Whitney]

It's just funny how you could. These. Some of the analytical people, they're just. They literally think they can just look at numbers after and tell you what players you need, what players you don't or.

[Biz]

Or how much one of the players in that line elevated that other guy's number.

[Whitney]

Yeah.

[Biz]

Like if, like if I'm playing with MC McKinnon, like I'm going to have good expected goals for. I did without even having line, you know.

[Keith Yandle]

You know.

[Whitney]

So when you retired, you got into broadcasting.

[Keith Yandle]

Yeah.

[Whitney]

And did it for a long time before you became a gym. Like did you. Did you ever consider.

[Keith Yandle]

I had broken my leg really badly and was. Wasn't set right. It happened to be in Vancouver as well. So I, I tried to play and I couldn't. My leg was a mess. It was 10 degrees off and. And it was set. And I slid into the goal post in Vancouver, the old post, it snapped off and there wasn't set. It was. You should surgically repair it. And they manually did it and it was never, never was the same. So I tried to play and my contract was up. It was 1980 and a friend of mine, they had the rights to the Leafs games. And Mike Nicola was hired to coach the Leafs the second half of the year. And my friend Paul Williams asked me if I would fall, you know, help out on the radio broadcast the leaf. Leaf games. I said, okay, what the hell, I'm not doing anything right. Easy money. So I started doing leaf Games on radio. 40Games on radio. And they gave me a tape recorder. So you got to get three interviews per game. Oh God. You know, I don't even work the tape machine right. I was brutal at it because you know the answer to every hockey. Every guy you interview in hockey, you know, you. They never say anything. Most of the guys, except you guys have been, you know, know instead of get the face him but. But you knew the answer to every question. So I hated it doing it. But they asked me back the next year because I still hadn't settled whether I was going to play or not. And So I did 80 games and I hated it too. Now I'm going to go play golf. The heck with this. I'm going. I'm going to. I'm going to meet Sandy Harper and Jim Rutledge, two of my buddies I played on the Canadian Tour with for three summers. So I'm gonna meet them, and I'm gonna go play the Asian Tour, and I'm gonna give golf five years in my life and see if I could make it. I'm gonna go play the Asian Tour. Yeah.

[Whitney]

You're only, what, 29?

[Keith Yandle]

Yeah, 29. Turn 30. Right. So I'm going from Toronto to Chicago, Chicago to Honolulu to meet Sandy and Ruts, and then we're going to Asia. So I'm all excited, and I got golf gear, and that's all I got. Jeans and golf shirts. Like, get fogged in in Chicago. Can't get a hotel room. It's training camp. It's September. The Bismarck Hotel in Chicago was owned by the Warts family. The team was staying at that dump. And they. So I got a room there. So as I'm walking in, Bob Pulford's there. How you doing? And so I, you know, I told him the story. He said, well, listen, he said, you should stick around. They started this new Sports vision thing, and they're looking for an ex Blackhawk to do the color on the tv, this cable thing. He said, they play in Minnesota tomorrow night. Why don't you stick around and do the game?

[Ryan Whitney]

Okay.

[Keith Yandle]

What the heck? So I went. I bought a sport coat, got on the plane, went to Minneapolis, did the game, came back to the hotel next day and. And said, call this guy, Jack Jacobson. He wants to talk to you from wgn. He was at the one time he used to be. So Jack says, what do you want? He said, you're hired. I don't know. 500 bucks a game. You know, I didn't care, right. I stayed in Chicago. I never went. Sandy and Jim, I said, go ahead. I'll maybe catch up with you in the spring. So that's how I ended up doing color in TV in Chicago.

[Biz]

Your last couple years, when you're in Pittsburgh, were you giving any thought to your. Your post career?

[Keith Yandle]

No, just.

[Biz]

Your mind wasn't even there?

[Keith Yandle]

No, I was. Just wanted to. I almost wanted to get. You know, I wanted to. Wanted to be healthy and play. I wanted to keep playing. I was just. I was playing defense now. I was a defenseman. Okay. And I was just learning how to play defense because I never knew how to play defense. I was up the ice all night, and so I was just figuring. I was figuring out my way through and, you know, and playing hockey. And then I broke my leg. And that was the end and like I said, oh, let's start. So let's go to golf.

[Biz]

Would you have coaches getting on you about being like, where the are you going? Going get the back. Oh, yeah. Because back then, well, Bob Pulford.

[Keith Yandle]

It just hated the way I played, you know, because he wanted everybody. Because he had. When he coached in la, they played, you know, really, really systematic things. You know, this. Yeah, you did this. You did this. You did, you know, your job, right? So he didn't like the way that I carry, you know, like, I was gone, you know. I remember a game against Atlanta. I'm carrying the puck in front of our bench in the stadium. I'm playing right D, left hand shot. I met. I'm in front of our bench, going up the ice. It's one. One game. And he's yelling, dump it in. Dump it in, right? I get to the red line here. Dump that thing and dump it in. I get to the blue line, he's still yelling at me. And I think. I forget who the defenseman was. I go around on my top shelf one, you know, I think Dan Bouchard was the goalie, and I scored. We end up winning two 1. I come to the bench. Don't ever do that again. I said, well, you don't like winning. Next. Next thing you know, I was in.

[Whitney]

Pittsburgh from not dumping it, from going end to end.

[Keith Yandle]

I'm not dumping this.

[Biz]

Here's your plane ticket.

[Whitney]

We have news. Tail town's been traded to the Penguins.

[Ryan Whitney]

Go meet your buddies in Hawaii.

[Whitney]

Pittsburgh. Oh, at what point in those 15 years of broadcasting or if ever, did you think, like, oh, I. I'd like to be a gm. I never.

[Biz]

Never.

[Whitney]

No way.

[Keith Yandle]

Never.

[Biz]

No way.

[Keith Yandle]

Yeah, never.

[Whitney]

And you built this amazing.

[Keith Yandle]

I watched and I watched and I watched and I. Okay, this is. I just got tired of lying. And the team was so bad, and, you know, they had my leg system. There was no nobody in the building. And I go, this is. This is torture. So one night after Mario was in town, I got to know Mario through his golf tournament in. In. At Neville Wood. Pittsburgh won one. Nothing. Was an awful game. So after the game in the United center, there was a ramp where the. You know, the bus is there. Mario asked me to take. Natalie was in town for a paddle tournament with her friends from Pittsburgh. So he said, would you mind taking Natalie and her friends to the hotel? I said, no, no problem. It's on the way home. As we're about to leave, Bill Wirz and Peter Wirtz were standing on the wall by the. The other side of the bus. And he said, call, come on over. He said, what do you think's going on on? I said, well, you want me to tell you the truth? I said, or do you want me to candy coat it? He said, no, tell us the truth. So I told him what I thought. He said, meet me at my office tomorrow morning downtown on Michigan on Lakeshore Drive. And that's how it all started.

[Whitney]

Wow.

[Ryan Whitney]

Because you're watching every game. Right.

[Keith Yandle]

I saw what was happening.

[Ryan Whitney]

Right.

[Keith Yandle]

You know, Bob Murray had hired me. Me prior to that to be a, you know, like I started working with Murph. Murph's the reason I got into it. He. He hired me and then I went back into the booth and then Murph got fired and they brought in Mike Smith and then he got fired. And then that's when Bill Wirz called me aside. So what do you think of what's going on? I said, well, it's kind of a disaster. I said, do you want the truth.

[Biz]

Or are you comfortable about like what, like, what was like, so bad about it?

[Keith Yandle]

Well, they had no farm system. They, they splinter entered. You know, they had five guys and they shared. They didn't have anybody. Oh, they didn't have any player continuity. You know, they had five guys in. Where was it? In Saginaw, maybe? They had five guys in Saginaw. They had five guys in somewhere in the east.

[Whitney]

You're not growing together in the miners.

[Keith Yandle]

No. Which is bizarre for it. And they were drafting poorly.

[Biz]

Right. For an original six not to already have that infrastructure set up, it seems like that would have been a no brainer.

[Keith Yandle]

Yeah.

[Biz]

So had it been set up at one point and then that fizzled out or.

[Keith Yandle]

Yeah, yeah, it kind of fizzled out. I think it was a cost, you know. Was what? They were being cheap. I don't know if they were being cheap. They just like, you know, I don't know. I don't know what the deal was. You know, he just never figured that out. You know, they were talk. They were upset with, with Bill W.S. because he wasn't televising the home games. But he had made a promise to his father that he wouldn't do it and stuff like that. It just kept building up and building up and then just didn't work out. It just kept getting worse and worse. You know, they didn't. Didn't draft well. It didn't develop well. All those things are missing.

[Biz]

Who were the first people you thought to surround yourself with?

[Keith Yandle]

Rick Dudley was The first guy, you know, like, I had no experience, and. And they asked me what I was going to do. I said, well, I know what I'm not going to do, what I'm going to do. I'm going to experiment. I'm going to try things. I'm going to throw stuff on the wall and whatever sticks is good as good, and what's bad is not going to stick. We're going to try things and we're going to be innovative in our, you know, drafting and all of that stuff. First guy, I thought it was Rick. Rick Dudley was the first guy I hired because he had experience. He developed. They won the Stanley cup in Tampa. Right. And he didn't get any credit for it. He built that team. And then everywhere, Rick, look at the history. Florida wins. Why he was there now, right? Chicago won. He was with their. Rick, he's first guy. And then the next guy I hired was Bergie, Mark Bergeman.

[Whitney]

Oh, wow.

[Keith Yandle]

So we got Bergie and Duds, both ends of the spectrum there.

[Biz]

You know, he's so funny.

[Keith Yandle]

Well, I. And I've told this story numerous times. It's one of the best, my favorite story, maybe in all hockey. I get a phone call. I just got the job as assistant GM or something. Anyway, I get a call from Berjie Burshy, calls me Jean. Jean Talon, the French explorer. You know, I go, well, I called him Elaine Delon, the French actor. So he said, he's just retired after 17 years. And Bergie calls me from. He's living in San Diego. Nice gig, right? He says, jean, he said, it's Berge. I said, what's going on, Burch? He said, I'm making a list of guys I want to work for. He said, guess what? I said, what? You made the list. I said, get your ass on a plane right now. So the next morning, he flew in from San Diego, and I signed around the dotted line right there. And that's how that all started. Oh, that's how I said, we. And so. And then he. He, you know, poor duds. Birch just was relentless on duds. You know, they were the. The give and take was incredible. It was great. It was humor.

[Biz]

It was, you guys are having a good time.

[Keith Yandle]

We're having a good time, but we were working hard, you know, and we were loving it. And then we brought Mark Kelly in, and Mark did a great job. And in. In Quebec, they went to Colorado. He won a Pittsburgh. So I was trying to surround us cells with champs.

[Ryan Whitney]

Yeah.

[Keith Yandle]

You know, champions. That's what you, how you build champions, Surround yourself with champions. That's just walk of life, right? You surround yourself with losers, you're going to lose. So that, that was my goal. You know, Jack Welch, a great businessman, you know, ran GE for 22 years. He, I read his book and I said, this is what, this is. No wonder this guy's successful. This is how we're going to operate. We're going to operate the same way way we're going to hire really smart people. We're going to let people be innovative and creative without think outside the box. And we're going to argue about what's best for the team and we're going to settle it as, as a group, professionally, and we're going to move forward and, and we're going to try different things. And that's how, that's. That was my concept.

[Ryan Whitney]

Those first early years. You must have been out because you had something to prove. You must have been out pounding the pavements.

[Keith Yandle]

Yeah, I mean, we're going all over the world, right? We, we had, we, we got rid of all this. We got rid of everything. We, we changed the whole philosophy because the rules were changing. They had said they were going to change the rules. They've said that numerous times, but they really did. So we had a team that was water skiing and you know, we had toughness. Chicago had a tough team, but couldn't play the new rules. So we ended up with 17 picks. We traded everybody and then we had 14 picks and then we had 11 picks. Those three years rhythm, that's how it all came.

[Whitney]

And you hit home runs like I'm looking now, like, forget like Kane and Taves. Like you got Brower in the seventh round, Bufflin in the eighth round. Like made some great trades. It just seemed like you guys really realized we gotta build this thing from the ground up.

[Keith Yandle]

Yeah. Yson Yarmon, what a great player. You know, character. The key, David Boland. Boland and Buffin are my two favorites.

[Whitney]

What do you remember about Buff, like.

[Ryan Whitney]

Drafting can play like you. Because he was the best.

[Keith Yandle]

Yeah.

[Ryan Whitney]

Like yourself.

[Biz]

With the, with the weight stuff early on, because you're probably like, holy this.

[Ryan Whitney]

Well, they'll used to walk around, give you the pinch and be like, ah, let's get on the bike today.

[Biz]

He was a machine.

[Ryan Whitney]

Oh, God, he was a scary man.

[Keith Yandle]

I think the, his draft jury might have been 282. And then we got him down. His best weight was, you know, 258 or something like that. But, you know, we did all Kinds of tests on him. And we got him this nutrition. We've got him all this stuff and, you know, everything we tried, he kind of rebelled. But his whole life he'd been told he was heavy, right? And he's been pounding into him and he just hated it. Bickle was another. You know, Brian Bickle is another kid that we. We did it the wrong way. So there was a guy named Joe Day who was played in. In the American League a long time. I think he's from. Joe is a great guy from Michigan. He played in Grand Rapids for a long time. Did you play against them Biz?

[Biz]

Maybe, but I played against Grand. Grand Rapids. Yeah.

[Keith Yandle]

Yeah. So he worked for a company called Pondera. It was an advising company. They did mental stuff for corporate. Major corporations, you know. So he came up with this virtual coach. It was 350 questions, no right or wrong answer answer. So we started using this experimenting on our draft picks or potential drafts. We'd send it out to these kids and they'd fill it out and we get these results in and after a couple years. And basically it was to help the coaches get to know the player better so they could. Wouldn't have to waste as much time trying to get into their heads properly, you know. And we used it as a scouting tool and it turned out to be really a good thing because if a guy fit in a certain box. Ixnay.

[Whitney]

No, you know, really just from that.

[Keith Yandle]

Well, some of it. Yeah, some of it was. So it was a good thing.

[Biz]

Like. Like, what kind of questions we talking about here?

[Keith Yandle]

I don't know. I just. I did. I did the whole test with my family, with my kids and myself and Meg, and she didn't like the way it turned out.

[Whitney]

Okay, how old were you when you started hiking?

[Keith Yandle]

But, you know. No, it was just. I don't know, some of this stuff was. Takes a lot of smarter people to put this together. And so we'd send them out and we get the. And then they'd fit into this box and graded and stuff like that. So once we had a couple years of it, a couple drafts ended up in this box. We figured, okay, we're going to avoid this type of player because he fits in here. And that doesn't. Doesn't get with what we want. That was part of it. It's part of the transition about drafting guys. And then so we came to a solution with Buff and Bick. We gave him the advice and say, here's all here, all the numbers, and you figure it out. And they like Their eyes lit up. Like, instead of eating ranch dressing, put marinara sauce on. Like one pregame meal, he's splashing ranch and, you know, piles of ranch on there. What's that stuff it tastes like otherwise? I said, well, put tomato sauce on it. It's less, you know, in that 300 calories. So he started figuring it out, you know, and he got down to 258. Well, 262. And it, it was, you know, they had him skate with a weight belt, you know, like 5 pound, 10 pound. It didn't bother, but 20 pounds. They started to figure it out himself, let him. Eventually they figured it out. And that was the fun about the whole process. You know, get into guys heads and, and what. What was good, what was bad and let them figure it out.

[Whitney]

Did you. Did you know then like Taves was going to be that much of a leader, like, like a serious guy. But. Yeah, you could just tell, huh?

[Keith Yandle]

Well, North Dakota, I watched. We watched North Dakota pretty closely. I mean, that, that draft was, you know, we back to him. Who went first, went to Colorado?

[Ryan Whitney]

Johnson.

[Keith Yandle]

Johnson, right. Good player. And then second was. Are you still playing?

[Whitney]

Jordan Stall.

[Keith Yandle]

Jordan Stahl. Good player.

[Whitney]

What a draft this was.

[Keith Yandle]

I went to. I went to Peterborough to watch Jordan play. We watched him play a lot, lot. But we went to North Dakota and we watched Taves and we watched some Shadic and you know, wherever, you know, and he was just the guy. It seemed like everybody followed him and that's what we wanted, wanted leaders, you know. So that draft was tough because we were picking third. We wanted tapes badly. Not that I didn't like the other two guys, but that was the guy we wanted. Oh, you know, so that night I didn't sleep. I mean, who wanted that? I wanted that to be the third pick. And we so much.

[Biz]

Were you trying to trade up at all?

[Keith Yandle]

Yeah, of course. Yeah. We tried everything, you know, but everybody was staying put.

[Biz]

Then it just worked out.

[Keith Yandle]

This worked out for us. And then the Kane story. You'll love this story. Duds and I go to a game in London. We'd won the lottery. Now the, the story is I'm leaving Chicago to go to Halifax to see Voracek play. So I go Chicago, Ottawa, Ottawa, Halifax. I land in Ottawa, My phone's blowing up. We won the lottery.

[Whitney]

Holy.

[Keith Yandle]

You know the old joke, you know, pack your bags, I don't know where you're going, but I'm going this way. Right. I figured. And so we were picking five, now we're picking one. So you're going to come home. I said, no, I think I'm going to go to Halifax. We're going to keep the charade going. We're going to go to Halifax. Looking at Vorchek, you, he's like, he might be a number one pick for us. So I go in Halifax and I'm swarmed by the media. You know, it's like in Ontario, Quebec and Ontario and no. So eastern Canada. So I walk into the rink and I get swarmed and I said, is Voracek in the mix? I go, of course he is. Because I didn't want to play my cards or I didn't want to let anybody know who we were taking because it was Kane, it was Van Rimsdyke and Taurus were the top three Duds. And I go to London in the playoff game. We're sitting nine rows up behind the net and they're playing against Plymouth. And who's the big right winger that played in Plymouth? They went to Columbus. No, no. I wanted him bad. Anyway, we ended up just missing out on him. But bowl.

[Whitney]

Oh, Jared, bowl.

[Biz]

Jared, bowl.

[Keith Yandle]

Yeah, big, big kid, right? Well, Kaner's. He hammers Kane head first into the board. Swords just to the left of us. I figured he's dead because he didn't weigh 150 pounds at the time and Bull was about 220. He hammers him. He hits and down he goes. I look at does. I go, this kid's gonna broke a neck or something. He just. 2 and 2.

[Whitney]

No way.

[Keith Yandle]

Hops right up and yeah, 2 and 2. Said, there's our guy.

[Whitney]

Yeah.

[Ryan Whitney]

That's when you knew.

[Keith Yandle]

Holy. I said to Duds, can you keep a secret? He goes, yeah. I said, so can I guy. So shut the hell up with this. Our guy.

[Ryan Whitney]

Oh, so it was a clear cut number. He was.

[Keith Yandle]

Oh no, he's so small.

[Ryan Whitney]

Yeah, yeah, true.

[Keith Yandle]

But the one thing about Caner he had, he was wide like, you know, his frame was wide. He didn't have. Narrow like he wasn't small.

[Whitney]

Yeah, he's so strong on his.

[Keith Yandle]

And he never got knocked down. Very rarely got knocked down.

[Ryan Whitney]

Yeah.

[Keith Yandle]

But his vision and he went into tall trees. He wasn't afraid of guys like this.

[Ryan Whitney]

Right.

[Keith Yandle]

He had, he was fearless.

[Whitney]

Another enormous player on that those Hawks. Well, I was thinking because you made a trade phone Patrick Sharp.

[Keith Yandle]

Oh, yeah.

[Whitney]

And I played against him when he was in the Phantoms in the ahl. The lockout canceled season. This guy's unreal. Unreal. But I never heard about him that Much. And then. Did you know he'd be that good when you traded for him?

[Keith Yandle]

I'd seen him play in college. Right. Even drafted his right winger from. From thunderbay Bay and. Who?

[Biz]

Pyatt?

[Whitney]

No, Sharp. He played it Vermont.

[Biz]

No, he was saying from Thunder Bay.

[Keith Yandle]

His right winger was a. I forget his name. He was a really crafty little guy, but he played the wing with. With Sharp and I forget his name.

[Biz]

Sorry.

[Keith Yandle]

Senior moment. Yeah, I've got me lost my temperature. Anyway, I'm watching Philly and I'm watching. He's there and he's sitting. He's playing four, four or five minutes a game. And we had a slow, dumb. Not a good team. It's my first year, I think, and I'm going, we got to get some speed. The new rules. Everything's speed, speed, speed, speed. All. All pro sports were going speed. Football, everything was speed. Baseball, speed. The fast teams were winning. So we got to get faster. We're too slow. I'm looking at Sharp because I knew you could skate eight. And he's playing four or five minutes a game in Philly. So I kept calling Bobby Clark, Clarky. What about Sharp? Your waste. He's wasting away. We, you know, I said so able to convince him to get that deal done. That's the beginning. That was the beginning of changing the whole structure of our team, that trade. And I got 29 goals that I think the next year. Yeah, he could shoot the ball, he could skate, you know, and he could shoot and skate. So he wasn't being utilized properly. And that. That's how it kind of started. We started getting the speed and getting.

[Whitney]

Skill and getting a chance.

[Keith Yandle]

Yeah, yeah.

[Whitney]

What about hosa? Because you lost to Detroit in the Western Conference final, and then they went on to lose to Pittsburgh. But then you're like, we. This. This would be the final piece for us almost.

[Keith Yandle]

Yeah. We could see the development of the team. Yeah, everything. We were just missing something, just something. And that was the guy.

[Biz]

What a special human, eh?

[Keith Yandle]

Oh, the best. Just a horse, first class all the way around, on and off the ice. I mean, this guy, guys just brilliant, I think, and just.

[Biz]

Just a world work ethically crazy.

[Keith Yandle]

I heard he trained. He showed those kids, you know, he brought them to another level. It was a lot like us bringing in Jager. I brought him in to do that, to help guys like Barkov and those guys get. Learn how to train and how to work and what it took to be successful. So that's how you surround yourself with those types of people. You got to get better, right?

[Biz]

No doubt. There was a story about the offer sheet thing. Now, I don't know how it all went down like that. Like, I guess somebody in your regime or maybe yourself forgot to hand them out on time. Like, I don't know, you know. You know what I'm talking about? Okay.

[Keith Yandle]

That's probably the reason I got fired. They said they use. They use that as the reason.

[Biz]

Okay.

[Keith Yandle]

That was the reason.

[Biz]

Is it a sensitive topic?

[Keith Yandle]

Well, yeah, I mean, it's. The facts are that I had a mandate. May 1 and June 1. May 1. The offers for the bona fide offers for the June to retain juniors rights. Rights. And, you know, you had to have them in before June 1 and July1. You had to have the offer sheets in to retain their age, you know, their stat, their. Their rights. And they had a mandate. And I got sick. He's in quarantine. But I said, is everything. Is everything in? Is. Are these offer sheets in? Are they in? Yep, they're in. They're in. They're in. And so I took. I took. I took the. The knife and for it. But. But, you know, eventually it comes down to me. But the thing is, the relationship I had built with the agents helped fix that.

[Whitney]

Yeah. Because all the guys.

[Keith Yandle]

The guys, they didn't leave. They stayed because they. We had a good. I had good relationships with their agents. It cost us a little more money up front, but it didn't cost us long term. It was. They were all tradable numbers.

[Whitney]

Yeah.

[Keith Yandle]

They used that. As they said, I screwed up.

[Whitney]

So I think everyone knew you built the team.

[Biz]

Right.

[Whitney]

And then I remember Martin Havelat, and I looked it up because I remember. Remember it. He had your back big time. He said, every single player in that team's with Dale. I still talk to all the guys, hockey players, Noah Phony when they see one, talking about somebody else. And. And how you kind of, just, as you said, took the knife in the back for something that.

[Keith Yandle]

Well, I mean, eventually it comes down to you.

[Whitney]

Yeah.

[Keith Yandle]

You got to take. And that's what. That's what happened.

[Biz]

Seems something so minor compared on what you'd done for the organization.

[Keith Yandle]

So that was that. Tell you, you know.

[Ryan Whitney]

Yeah.

[Keith Yandle]

Somebody up there, I. Well, I'm not. I know what. Listen, my life is wonderful. I know I sleep well. I got a lot of friends, and I did a lot of good things. I did not such good things. But life goes on, you know, I don't. I don't worry about that. Here I am living in Florida Playing golf and going to hockey games and got great kids going to be a grandpa here in the next couple weeks.

[Biz]

Yeah, yeah, yeah. I was gonna ask, like, what the differences were, like, coming over to Florida and, like, all of a sudden trying to build an organization, maybe not with the same type of resources and at a place that's not as traditional, not an original six. So what were the different challenges and hurdles when you eventually came.

[Keith Yandle]

That's a great question, because there was. There was a huge issue here. Guys were coming here to retire. Right. You know.

[Ryan Whitney]

Yeah, that's how it was.

[Keith Yandle]

They were all, you know. And you went through. Through it, right? Yeah. Guys are coming out. That was. They got three years left or two years left. They're milking it, and, you know, they're going to come down here and live the life. And. And that's. That was the biggest change, even in Chicago. When I first started, I offered more term, more money to a lot of players, free agents, and they wouldn't come because the perception was that the Hawks didn't care, didn't want to win it, didn't want to spend the money, didn't want to. So we had to change that perception. And so when I came to Florida, they had guys here that were just not doing the job. They were just here, you know, milking it.

[Whitney]

Yeah.

[Keith Yandle]

And that's. We had to get that out of here. And that was the hardest part, because there are a lot of challenges here. You got to really be focused to play hockey here, you know. You know that in Phoenix and going out after practicing sandals or going, let's go to the beach or let's go.

[Whitney]

Golf or, you know, not every guy can do it.

[Biz]

Yeah.

[Keith Yandle]

No, you have to have really strong. Strong mental capacity to perform well here because there are a lot of challenges. People coming down at Christmas, less, you know.

[Whitney]

Yeah. Less media, too.

[Keith Yandle]

Yeah. No, nobody. You can hide here.

[Whitney]

Yeah.

[Keith Yandle]

If you do it right. And that was. That was a different challenge in Chicago, but still the same kind of challenge. You got to change the focus and the perception, and you got to explain to everybody, this is what we're going to do, and we're going to win in spite of what there is, you know, and that's what we did. And you build winners with good people. You surround yourself with smart people. Good people. Let them go. Let them go. Come on, have some fun with it. Go take a change.

[Biz]

Speaking of taking a chance, one quick, funny story that Yan's made me aware of yesterday was, like, how you guys are doing silly promotions, like the sumo.

[Ryan Whitney]

Wrestling in between periods.

[Biz]

Yeah, so much so.

[Whitney]

Like, he wasn't.

[Ryan Whitney]

He wasn't in charge of that.

[Biz]

No, no, I know, but, like, were you aware, like, everything.

[Keith Yandle]

Oh, yeah, I watched. You know, we had lots of stuff going on that you're like, circus.

[Biz]

We got to grow the game here somehow. We got to grow the game. Right.

[Ryan Whitney]

My buddies were telling.

[Keith Yandle]

Yeah. There was some stuff that was unacceptable, but you shake your head and you.

[Ryan Whitney]

Go, gotta sell tickets.

[Biz]

Like, what was the most ridiculous thing?

[Keith Yandle]

Well, I'm not.

[Biz]

Any stuff where you're like, absolutely not. We're not doing that.

[Keith Yandle]

It's too many.

[Biz]

Okay. So you were swatting these off your desk in the meantime, building another juggernaut.

[Keith Yandle]

No, we're not.

[Biz]

Okay.

[Ryan Whitney]

No, we're not, because he's telling. My buddies were telling Biz a story last night. Four of my buddies were coming to the game, and I got them the ticket. So I knew they were sitting. I was like, make sure you're in your seats when the first period's about to end. So, like, the girl who works with the team goes up, grabs them, puts them in the sumo outfits. They're out there. They're in, like, sandals. I'm on the bench.

[Biz]

Yeah. Just taping his stick on the bench, watching his friend sumo wrestling at his own game.

[Ryan Whitney]

It was great.

[Biz]

NHL, that's National League.

[Whitney]

I guess at the beginning it was maybe question. But it turned out to be an amazing signing of Bobrovsky and.

[Biz]

Yeah.

[Keith Yandle]

Yeah. Well, you know, Bob, like, was that risk?

[Whitney]

Like, were you. Were you nervous when you did that, or.

[Keith Yandle]

No, no, because I was. There was the mandate, you know, Vinnie said, go get him. You know, and he wanted me to sign him. And. And Panarin, you know, he wanted both of them. And so we had a chance to get both of them. But then it. As it turned out, the signing bonus thing was. Was the big. You know, they wanted all that.

[Whitney]

Oh, up front.

[Keith Yandle]

All up front. So. Yeah. But it worked out.

[Biz]

That was Panarin's request. He wanted all.

[Keith Yandle]

Well, most they. You know, they look at. He got 94 up from up front. Every year he gets his money up front. I think a million of it is right.

[Ryan Whitney]

Yeah.

[Keith Yandle]

Yeah, that's it.

[Whitney]

I think Matthews.

[Ryan Whitney]

Well, you said it even, you know, surround yourself with winners and stuff. And when I came here and like you said, you know, guys were coming here to, you know, retire. And when I got here, you have guys like Sean Thornton, Lou. Like, you had guys.

[Keith Yandle]

We brought guys in that. Which, you know, like, brought, you know, Jovo And. And Sean in and you know, we did the same thing in Chicago. Brought some guys in like that's why we brought Jose. You know, you gotta bring in guys that can lead and are champions at heart, you know, have had success as champions. Like Dave Boland. He won everywhere. You know, he's Memorial Cup. I think he won. You know, he. He's a champion, a kid played to win, you know, that's what you got to have on your team, winners.

[Whitney]

What'd you think of Barkov right when you met him? Wow.

[Ryan Whitney]

It was kind of off the like. Yeah, wasn't.

[Keith Yandle]

Well, everybody thought Jones was going to go next. Right. I would have taken. We were. You know, Patrick raw was. Was bragging he's taking McKinnon. When they got won the lottery.

[Ryan Whitney]

Yeah.

[Keith Yandle]

And you know, I went to. I went to Halifax a lot of times, not only for the seafood, you know, I went for. To see. You know, we got Uyghur out of there, right. Weeks we got him in the seventh round that was pretty big. They just that he was special all the way through. You know, Barky was just so kind.

[Whitney]

Of like caves a little bit, right?

[Keith Yandle]

Yeah, very similar.

[Ryan Whitney]

Amazing.

[Keith Yandle]

Just like this all the time, you know, none of this up and down.

[Biz]

That's hard I can wear.

[Keith Yandle]

You know, the emotional. It's like a heart attack waiting to happen.

[Ryan Whitney]

Right, right.

[Keith Yandle]

So he. They were just like this actually. You know, once he got it became a better skater. When Barky, you knew he had it. His first game against Crosby, it was unbelievable. He was 18 years old playing against Crosby, you know, like, wow, this guy.

[Whitney]

He'S sticking with him instead with him. You know, looking back at the days of being a gm, was it so stressful?

[Keith Yandle]

Yeah, at the end it became stressful. But there's. There's so many fires to put out that people don't know of. You know, you've got all that scouting, all those scouting steps, all the train. All these little things, you know, little stupid things that you got to put fires out.

[Biz]

It's like whack a moles one. It's. You think the work's never done.

[Keith Yandle]

No, he's never done. So when you lose, you never think you're going to win again. When you win, you never think you're going to lose again. And. And they're not. You know, you just don't sleep. You know, you just don't sleep. And you. And if you care and you love your players and you. And you're a players manager, those things really eat at you, you know. You, you don't. When a guy's struggling, how do I get this straightened out? How do I get him straightened out? How do you fix it? How you do without hurting his feelings or, you know, now it's. So now you got assistant general managers and you got strength coaches and nutritionists and psychiatrists and psychologists and, you know, all kinds of stuff. So you gotta. Everybody's got something, you know, somebody's something's happening thing. Yeah.

[Ryan Whitney]

And you were. Because I remember being in Phoenix, you're young, you're afraid of the GMs. All that stuff. New York slats, I was so scared of. You're a big presence, scary guy. But I remember always, you'd be in the breakfast room, you'd always come, sit down, chat with guys. You got to know guys, families. Like, you knew everything, like, about the guys. And I thought that was super special being a part of that. It was that kind of something that you did from the beginning or you. That kind of grew. Win.

[Keith Yandle]

No, that's what I wanted because it never happened to me. And like when I said earlier in our conversation, they said, what are you going to do? I said, I don't know what I'm going to do, but I know what I'm not going to do. That was the key because 10 years I played very rare. I never spoke to the GM ever. Never saw him.

[Ryan Whitney]

Yeah, right.

[Keith Yandle]

He was in the ivory tower or whatever, you know, he never saw him. And the coach very rarely talked to you other than to give you a crap, you know, Know. So I said, what? Something wrong here? Why can't the. My philosophy is that the stick boy, the trainer, the doctor, the. Everyone's got skin in the game. You got something to say, say it. I'll. I'll agree and then I'll put it in the trash bin. But I'm not going to let. I'm going to let you feel like you got a part of this and, you know, the stick boy, the second trainer, the third train, whatever, they got something to say, let them feel good. Because if, if you, if they feel. Feel crappy about the situation, they're going to start a revolution inside the locker room that you can't control. It only takes one.

[Ryan Whitney]

Yeah.

[Keith Yandle]

Only takes one. So I always felt that let everybody vent, everybody speak, the doors open, come on in.

[Whitney]

Yeah.

[Keith Yandle]

And if you got something to say, let's say it. If it makes sense, let's discuss it, and then we'll have consensus what's best for this organization. If it's not good, it goes in the trash. Champion Y if it's good, let's figure a way to incorporate it. And that was the fun part of it because it was never constant. It was, you had to be flexible. You have to adapting to change to be successful.

[Biz]

I think especially today, going back to your playing days, like it was just a different time. You guys were staying over after the game. You were flying on like normal flights and stuff. Like did you guys ever find yourselves any stories that you can share, like compromising situations where or like, like I don't want to say like bar fights, but anything that was just wild from just living in a different era where going out and drinking and having fun on the road was a little bit more popular.

[Keith Yandle]

Well, we had no cell phones, right? No cameras. And the media guy, we had one beat writer, probably he'd be drinking, you know, with you, right. Put him to bed. Right. We had one guy in Chicago, I lost him. And in New York when I went to a party I met, he tagged along with me and then we couldn't find him for two days, you know. Yeah, it was just a different world, you know, it's just. You start training camp, you know, and you got six weeks of training camp. You get in shape, get out of shape, then you go on the road for play three games in Moncton and all these places and then you come back and you know, it was just, it was just a lot of fun. But it was all good fun. We know. I listen Chicago, Chicago. When Billy Ray and Tommy Ivan, they ran a really first class organization. If you weren't a good guy, they'd just get rid of you, regardless how good you were. Just out. And that was where I, you know, I learned a lot from that. I learned those years in Chicago and plus Vancouver. Pat Quinn, curtain back, Gary Doak, Andre Budry, Bobby Schmatz, all these guys, they taught me, you know, I learned from them. They, they taught me how to live, really, when to go, when not to go, you know. And it's just a way of life that you. To be a professional, you know, they teach you to be a pro.

[Ryan Whitney]

It's an art.

[Keith Yandle]

But we had a lot of fun. Good fun.

[Whitney]

Time for the rollback. Last question. Use code [e-mail] for 20 off your first order. Jeans, hoodies, everything you need. Hoodies, joggers. Excuse me. More with Chiclets. C-I c l e t s at r h O-B-A-K.com Dale, we've talked a lot about, about the no state Tax verse other teams. Did you notice in Florida like that helping. Do you. Do you think the league could ever do anything to make it even, or is it overblown a little bit?

[Keith Yandle]

It's overblown.

[Whitney]

Okay.

[Keith Yandle]

I tried that tactic all the time. You know, come on, we've got the tax. We could save you this. This. They didn't care. Like I said, when in Chicago in the early days, more money, more term. They didn't want to come because we didn't. They. The perception was they didn't care there, didn't want to win. Same thing here. Attack. No tax. No tax. I tried that tactic for years. It doesn't. It didn't. It didn't work.

[Whitney]

Not as big as people think.

[Keith Yandle]

No, it's not. It's overrated.

[Biz]

What do you think of the, like, the state of the game and where it's at now, and if there's one major element that you could change about it, like, from all your experience and where you think the game's headed, what would you change?

[Keith Yandle]

I put the blue line back to, you know, and the. Put the net back to 10ft. Put the blue line closer. More room in the neutral zone. I. I think there's too much going on around the back, in the corners and behind the net. I'd love to see more action in front. You know, when you played in the Boston Garden, the Chicago Stadium or the Buffalo Auditorium, everything was to the side or the front of the net. Everything was in front. Like, there was action. And that's. That's for me, the dimensions and get rid of that stupid. Whatever that is.

[Biz]

Let the goalies play the puck. Yeah.

[Keith Yandle]

For every good goalie that handles it, there are 10 that can.

[Whitney]

I know. And, like, mistakes happen from it, too.

[Keith Yandle]

So, you know.

[Biz]

No.

[Keith Yandle]

Yeah. I hate the trap.

[Biz]

So. So you think that, like, moving in the blue line just creates, like, more.

[Keith Yandle]

Well, what happens. We used to, you know, the left winger had the right point man and the right, you know, now they just let. How many times they pass it back and forth at the blue line line? Three, four times. Like.

[Whitney]

Yeah, a lot.

[Keith Yandle]

Because everybody collapses in front. You know, they don't. They don't go to the points. They stay in. In the scoring zone. You know, there are five guys in the scoring zone blocking shots. Shots aren't getting through. It's just. It's more dangerous if the guys are closer to the net.

[Biz]

I love that.

[Keith Yandle]

More protected.

[Whitney]

Yeah. They'd have to come out at them a little bit more. Yeah.

[Keith Yandle]

You have to commit it.

[Biz]

You had that One cocked and loaded and the other ones you got.

[Whitney]

What do you think about the reviews, all the offside reviews? Are you one person?

[Keith Yandle]

They asked me, a bunch of guys asked me to start the, you know, the challenge. First one GM meeting. I. So I bring it up, right? Like a dope. I got voted to 30 to 1 against. Okay. So now guys. Yeah, so it was another suck on.

[Whitney]

That one day, Right, Right.

[Keith Yandle]

So now, now they want to do it. Now they come back to me again. Well, you know, let's, should, we should bring it back in. I go up yours. I'm not. You had your chance and I'm done with it. You know, the one challenge rule and the penalty thing. I don't know. I, I, I love going to the games. I think they're a lot of fun. I just. The flip, the flip, the flip. It's a.

[Whitney]

The high flip flip.

[Keith Yandle]

The high flip. The high flip flip. Come on. With the three quarter inch hook. The I flip is easy, right? That's all they do. Go, go. Chase the puck. Hi. Make a play, please. Make a play. Like, see more plays in the neutral zone and get away from behind and then corner. Cycling in the corner and behind the net. Let's get it to the front.

[Biz]

More action in the middle of the ice. Yeah. Wow. Okay.

[Ryan Whitney]

I had one. Just golf, quick. Sorry. Who's the biggest legend that you ever, ever play with? Like, any Arnie or any of those guys you ever get to?

[Keith Yandle]

I played later on. I played with a lot of the Tour, you know, guys. When I, I played in the practice round of the US Senior Open, I played with Corey Pavin and Jeff Sluman and David Frost. That was kind of fun. Marco Mara, I played with him. George Knudson, now balding. Those Canadian guys are the biggest guys I probably ever played with. The Arnold. I played in a group behind him. We were in the same kind of group, but I didn't play with him. But he was my idol. I mean, I loved Arnold Palmer. He's the greatest.

[Biz]

Why was he just so charismatic and.

[Keith Yandle]

It'S just such a great person. He's the King. They call him the King.

[Whitney]

If your nickname's the King.

[Keith Yandle]

Yeah.

[Biz]

Just because he's just like such a beauty.

[Ryan Whitney]

Look at him in that picture. Cigarettes on while he's playing.

[Whitney]

He was one of the first athletes to, like, make a ton of money, like, away from endorsements. Like, he like started all that, basically.

[Keith Yandle]

McCormick.

[Whitney]

Yeah. Well, Dale, this has been a pleasure. I mean, what a career you've had playing.

[Keith Yandle]

Thank you.

[Whitney]

Everything. So thank you.

[Keith Yandle]

I've been very blessed. Very blessed. Thank you.

[Whitney]

Dale Talon, everyone. Thank you so much to Dale Talon. What a guy. I, I think when you look back at parenting, when Dale was growing up and he was hitchhiking at 14 years old, going from golf to tournament to golf tournament, that's a little different than the parents nowadays, like helicoptering around their kids, like, come here, I need to wipe your face off. There's some peanut butter on your lips. So he was, he was growing up. Old school, hard knocks, but guys, we got Quick hits. Now Quick hits is presented to you by Dove Men's plus Care. Keith sent us over a picture this this week. He said, you think I'm lying about my love for Dove? And he's packing his bag. He's got Dove soap everywhere. So Dove Men plus care beer.

[Biz]

Finally, the bars. What's the one that's got the extra moisturizer in it? I've since switched over to. To the pump one that you sent over. Yance.

[Ryan Whitney]

I showed up with like a six pack of the Dove ones. Showed up with a six pack. It's like I showed up with a keg of beer for the boys. The guys in the shower were so happy. You know, you get a nice bar soap, you can use it once they're.

[Biz]

Using the one on the wall, the hand sanitizer to wash their nuts off.

[Whitney]

Oh, oh.

[Biz]

Are you. Are you extra, extra. Are you extra towel guy too? Do you bring an extra towel?

[Ryan Whitney]

Oh, yeah, always two.

[Biz]

Two? You're a two towel guy.

[Whitney]

I grabbed two towels at tree farm and Tuka's like, dude, you didn't. You didn't play a thousand games. He called me right out. He called me right out. He goes, you cannot get.

[Biz]

Come on. That's his rule.

[Whitney]

You have to use a face towel. He said you can't even use a full size.

[Biz]

I use like four. Like I'm a iron chic.

[Whitney]

You can use a towel after you use used Dove Men's plus care. Finally, there is a scrub design for men's needs. Add the new Dove Men plus Care body and face scrubs to your shower routines using the shower bath or at your sink. Apply to wet skin. Rinse, clean and follow with your favorite Dove Men plus Care body wash or cleansing bar. The scrub transforms how you and your skin feel. Made for your face, body, scalp, etc. If you want to try Dove Men plus Care, you're crazy if you don't go to Walmart Smart today. Guys. Quick hits ov. Got another one. I was actually checking the schedule so he needs seven to tie, eight to break. I think he has 16 games left. This, this might come down to the final game of the year. I think we talked about this on the season preview show. Now though, I am starting to wonder like I, it's not at all a guarantee he gets it done. Like are you convinced it's over bus he's getting it this season or do you have a little doubt?

[Biz]

I, I would just be a little bit concerned if I'm them just trying to play him too much to get it right. Like I think that they've been doing a good job of playing him in that like 17, 18 minute range where he should be. Like he has slowed down a little bit. Like there's no doubt he's been opportunistic. But I think if, I mean I would imagine they keep trying to win out to win the Presidents and, and lock in first in the east. Although they have a pretty good cushion right now now. But man, if, if we're talking about 10 of the last 16 games with, with empty nets and power plays, like I think, yeah, classy move. And like you talk about the morale of this team right now and a guy who's been like a big part of the growth of it. We also had a conversation about best contracts in the league. Did we bring him up and how do you say his last name? The big Russian Protoss. Protos.

[Whitney]

Also Bill Ryan told me Keith Washington has his brother too. I think his brother's a nasty.

[Ryan Whitney]

Is he a Megatron too?

[Whitney]

I think he's a mutant as well.

[Ryan Whitney]

Oh, wow.

[Whitney]

So that guy, I mean his deal and that they signed it to him this, this summer. Right.

[Biz]

That contract G would have to bring it up but I think he's making peanuts for what he's. He's doing. He's basically like having another Tom Wilson.

[Ryan Whitney]

Who doesn't fight and I can imagine like his game like he's going to have to like enduring playoffs time. Tom Wilson's gonna pull him aside and be like hey, this is how we do it in the playoffs and show him a couple videos of him running somebody and that guy is going to be a force to be reckoned with in the playoffs.

[Biz]

Little sweet chin music.

[Whitney]

I don't like want to call out agents or anything but he's on a five year deal deal for 16.8 a year.

[Biz]

That's like a Wayne Simmons deal.

[Whitney]

It's 3.375 for four more seasons after this one. He's probably gonna be a 35, 40 goal guy, 80 point guy. The next four years and the cap's going up. That is wild.

[Biz]

Not.

[Whitney]

Yeah, not to mention he's huge. 11.

[Biz]

Cause then you have more money to potentially bring back chicken and pay other guys who are going to deserve it. I mean. I mean, we were. We were all over PLD last year. His deal's looking like Baron now. All of a sudden.

[Whitney]

He looks great.

[Biz]

He looks. He's a different player. He's a. He's a different fucking human being, man. It's. It's. It's insane. It's insane and it's nuts.

[Whitney]

It's just nuts. We've said this a bunch of times, but next year, the year after, three years from now, like 8 million a year. It's not like. Like, oh, like, it's not crazy.

[Biz]

It's a front wipe.

[Whitney]

You know, It's a front.

[Ryan Whitney]

I'm looking at pro. I'm looking at protoss stats right now. He's got more goals this year than the other years he has combined. Pro.

[Whitney]

What is it. What is his. What is he play. Is this his third season or fourth season pro?

[Ryan Whitney]

It's his fourth. And he played 33 games one year, 58 games the next year, 78 last year and 67 this year.

[Biz]

He's get so second full season in the league. Probably nice, though. I mean, getting that security after probably what he's done.

[Whitney]

Right?

[Biz]

So that's why. So that's where it is.

[Whitney]

I didn't mean to call it his agent. You're right, Biz.

[Biz]

Cause it's like, no, they should fire him. I'm kidding. I'm kidding.

[Whitney]

But, hey, guys. Keith, specifically, what was the most goals you scored in a season?

[Ryan Whitney]

Oh, I don't know.

[Biz]

It was two for me. If you're wondering, mine was 14 in an NHL season.

[Whitney]

Yes. I. I'm not exaggerating. It felt like I had 65 goals.

[Keith Yandle]

Oh, yeah.

[Whitney]

I was like, this is unbelievable. I got my 14th goal at the end of the year. I was like, this is insane. Like, I have so many goals. Cale McCarr has 25 goals this year. The last NHL defenseman to hit 30 was Capital's defenseman Mike Green in 2008. 2009. I think that was when he broke the record of scoring a goal seven games in a row. Brent Burns scored 29 goals in 16:17. And Makar had 28 in 21, 22, too. Will he get to 30 this season? I think no doubt. But I really wanted to ask you, Keith, how nuts is it for 30 goals by, like, I can't even put that into my brain and make any sense of it. 30 goals.

[Ryan Whitney]

I know. And the thing is, is he, he, he's just so well rounded. Like, it's not like he's cheating for offense all the time. Like he creates a lot of offense by himself as well. Like, it's actually mind numbing that he can score 30 goals in the NHL as a defenseman. Like it's in. The only thing that stinks is kind of taken away a little bit from what we've done this year. But 30 goals as a, as a defenseman in the NHL is just absolutely absurd. And like, is this his best year playing? I don't, I don't even know if it is. Like, I think he's just going to get better and better.

[Whitney]

I think every year he, he.

[Biz]

If you get 30 goals and, and 60 assists and you're putting up 90 points and you play all situations like he does, like you, you deserve to be the highest paid player in the league.

[Whitney]

Are you a number one?

[Ryan Whitney]

Yeah. Because I agree more minute you, you're.

[Biz]

Literally, you're literally this Arrow's Bobby. Or like people say, oh, I don't want to hear you compare them. It's like, yeah, maybe the top end. Like the first, the, the, the couple years where he was putting up numbers that no one's ever going to touch because of the era it was in. But like you can't tell me if a defenseman for a, a five year stretch puts around the 30 goal mark and around 100 point mark and is playing 25 minutes and PKing and shutting guys down. And it's like that's like that's comes around once every 30, 40 years if you're lucky.

[Whitney]

I know, I know. We talked about, we talked about Dowdy and Keith Heath, Niedermeyer and these legends, these hall of Famers. Like the way this is tracking. Let's like the way this is tracking. I think we had an argument about Lidster McCarr. Like it might end where him and Bobby Orr and then everyone else. It's, it's, it's, it's absurd. It's absurd watching him and then occasionally he'll just hammer someone too. It's like, it's just, it's incredible to watch.

[Biz]

There's no, no off the ice. Like there's nothing that's going to distract him from, from doing what he wants to do.

[Whitney]

No. It goes back to the story that when the coach at UMass who recruited him ended up leaving UMass, he, he stayed true to his word, he still went there and he was drafted. And it goes back. He was drafted fourth overall out of the Alberta Junior Hockey league. I think McKinnon's like, what the is this? Who's this guy? And now he's like, oh my God.

[Biz]

Like he's about to have a Darlene conversation. And now all of a sudden he's got the best defenseman he's ever seen on his team.

[Whitney]

Bobby orr did get 46 goals one year. And, and, and it's nuts to think like I, I think McCarr could get 40. Like he probably, he probably has many instances where he's passing it off where he could shoot it. And the other thing is they're never slap shots. They're somehow. Merle said it. How are you the fastest skater and like the best player and also have the hardest wrist shot? Like his snapshots like Matthews. It's just, it's, it's incredible. I can't believe what he's doing. So awesome to see that.

[Biz]

Not exactly a quick hit, but he deserved the double wrister for.

[Whitney]

I also see, I also remember Mike Green. I first saw him in the AHL for Hershey. I was like whole. That guy had maybe the filthiest hands I've ever seen.

[Biz]

And style dude, he would.

[Whitney]

He remember the HBO. He was driving the scooter around Washington D.C. it was like 10 degrees out. He's like, I don't give a. That guy had no pulse and he was, he was an incredible player. The Vegas Golden Knights boys very happy for Aiden Hill. He signed a six year contract extension worth 6.25 million per season. The team announced on Friday. Hill was scheduled for unrestricted free agency this summer following the end of a two year deal that he got paid 4.9 annually. He signed that after the Golden Knights won the Stanley Cup. This is the first time he won't be playing on a one or two year contract. So you talk about security bits is. He's got to just feel, he's got to just feel going into the playoffs like oh my God, like the weight off his shoulders. He's staying where he wants to be. He's staying where he's a cup champ and who knows what Vegas is going to do because nobody, they're not get. Nobody's talking about them. It's Dallas, Colorado, all the madness and now they got him locked up.

[Biz]

I feel like that's kind of around the number these number one guys are getting. Knowing that it's gone to a two, a two goalie system, you know I think that he's earned the true number one title. Middle. He plays great in front of that defense. Like shout out to the defense too. Like the way that they play and how structured they are. They make it a little bit more predictable than most teams and where he just has to be in order to get in the way of the shots. But credit to him, man. And you know, after winning the cup there and having that great run, he signed that bridge deal. He helped them put them in a great financial situation in order to better the team. And now that he gets to get his payday and, and well deserved. So I would imagine that they're going to have a, a great tandem that's coming in around the like 8 to 10 million range and that's where it should be as far as a. As a team that has good goaltending. So awesome stuff. Got to see him in Arizona a little bit when he was still big and raw and work with.

[Whitney]

He's huge, right?

[Biz]

He's huge. He's huge. Great head on his shoulders and, and, and works. He. I think, I think he started off with Sean Burke, then they ended up moving on from him. I think they traded him to San Jose and I always thought this is not the move. You got this big guy who, you know, getting peppered with shots. He looked good. I think at the time we had Darcy Kemper and maybe that's why they felt they could move off and, and, and try to win a trade. But he. I, I think even at the end of his time here, he worked with. Is it. Oh my God.

[Whitney]

Jackie the alien.

[Biz]

Yeah.

[Ryan Whitney]

Twister.

[Biz]

No, he's now the goalie coach in, in Utah. He's moved on there. But oh for sakes. I say hi to him all the time. He was a great guy. Help me out.

[Ryan Whitney]

Hey, I think it's a great move by Vegas signing him before playoffs. Just getting it off of his head. You know, like you said, this is his first year. Not on a one or two year. Great move by them. Just kind of easing, easing his ways. The. It's not early in the season where you can kind of forget about what's going on in the season. It's right before playoffs. They're gearing up. He's going to have a, you know, clear head going into playoffs.

[Biz]

Corey Schwab. Yeah, I just thought G. Pope pulled.

[Whitney]

That up quick, quickly. You mentioned the Vegas D how good that D is storyline to watch. I think because everyone's saying with the cap going up and what St. Louis has done with Holloway and Broberg that offer sheets are going to become a lot five and Nicholas Hague is an RFA. He's 26 years old. I don't know if they have the money to sign him. That could be a guy who somebody gives an offer sheet to. Great player. We'll see what happens there.

[Biz]

Who the big defenseman?

[Whitney]

Yeah, dude.

[Keith Yandle]

He's good.

[Whitney]

He's mean strong six.

[Biz]

Unreal. Unreal numbers.

[Ryan Whitney]

He was in Philly before.

[Biz]

I think he's a number four on, on Vegas 6 right now. I think, think I feel is it him and White Cloud as that last pairing.

[Whitney]

He's making two. Two. Jesus Wild.

[Biz]

Yeah.

[Whitney]

So I don't know they're gonna sign him.

[Biz]

They always get the McNabs and those types of guys on the good deals.

[Whitney]

He plays on the top pair with Petro and then it's Hannifin and White Cloud and McNabb and right now they got a the Caden Korchak. I'm not saying his name correct but Shea Theodore's out so that'll change. And I think Carl Carlson's coming back soon.

[Biz]

He's kind of like who's the, who's the number four guy in, in Seattle? Larson. Alexia Larson. No, he's like a Larson.

[Whitney]

Okay. Another goal. He resigned. I thought he was done. I thought we were going to get our night with a, with a Johnny's. A pizza. Jonathan Quick. Another one year deal with the Rangers. Molly Walker from the post announced 1.55 million cap hits. So Shusturkin's locked up long term. I, it seems like they have a great relationship. Why not bring Quickie back? He's played. I know last year he was unreal and then this year he's, he's done well as the backup. So he's coming back to New York.

[Ryan Whitney]

I wonder if Quickie was in a, if he was in a different city, if he'd be continuing to play off it. Like he's from Connecticut, probably living at home.

[Biz]

Perfect situation. The Rangers make it so easy and you know he's making actually I think he was making 950 this year year. So he's getting a little bit of a raise and no, I agree with you. I think the 12 punch there and he's a still, he's still a guy who could play 25, 30 games. Like I, I, I think it was even at the beginning of this year where he had to step in and, and win some big games for them where they were really struggling. So last year I remember there was a stretch where he was on fire like at the start, wasn't it?

[Whitney]

Yeah. Oh, yeah. He was. He was unreal. He was unreal.

[Biz]

And he's. Ben Wall. He's working with that Benoit lair where. Where he's had a couple surgeries. He can't play the same style he used to. He would challenge guys like a motherfucker early. So he's. He's learned to play a little bit farther back in his net and trust his instincts and yeah, man, he's had a complete rebirth as far as the structure of how he plays any more goalie.

[Ryan Whitney]

Coaches, you want to give a shout out to.

[Biz]

Thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you.

[Whitney]

Jill's malash. Yeah.

[Biz]

Oh, I gotta do all my birthday thank yous. This is the perfect time.

[Whitney]

Oh no. Hey. We're starting the first round of the playoffs.

[Biz]

We're just sitting here like we had a.

[Whitney]

He's like twist.

[Biz]

His aunt, she was there last night. We did like a goodbye dinner. There was like 20 of us. And then this one girl was like, all right, everybody has to go around and talk about their best part of the weekend. And it kind of turned into a bit of. And like even Jackie was like, no, like, let's stop this. And ended up. Up going all the way. But it got. Some people were up. So some of them were hilarious and they got off the rails.

[Whitney]

So yours.

[Biz]

I pass. We got the pass because we. We hosted. And it was like, like some people were like enough because most people would turn into thanking both of us and it would get uncomfortable, but some people would just bring the heat.

[Whitney]

Oh, so you didn't like people doing all their thanks?

[Biz]

H. Weird. No, no, no. Jackie uncomfortable. And I said I and then nevermind. Shut the fuck up.

[Whitney]

The Florida Panthers beat the Leafs this past week. 3, 2. It was a big win for Sergey Bobrovsky as he took over sole possession of 10th place on the NHL's all time win list with his 424th win. He turned aside 23 of 25 shots during the game Thursday. He took overtook Tony Esposito for 10, 10th and Keith. I just kind of want to know like what makes him so good you get to play with him besides how many watches he owns.

[Ryan Whitney]

Just his work ethic. The guy is non stop just trying to get better. The stuff that I would see him do from beginning of the year to end of the year, every single day he was just doing something to get better. And on the ice early, on the ice late, you know, working out every single day, working out after a game, you know. That he stood on his head, took 60 shots. Just a true professional. Unreal guy. Not one of those goalies too that you like couldn't go up to before a game. Just a awesome teammate. And I know he's still trying to get better too because I got a text the other day. He was getting rid of two cold tubs. Who needs two cold tubs at their house? He had two of them. He was trying to get rid of them. He wanted to know if I want to donate them to my kids school. So I went into his house, pick them up. But he was getting two new ones, so getting the, just the newer version. So the guy's just trying to get better and better every year and, and, and it's, you know, proven to be.

[Biz]

Worth those used ones off you.

[Ryan Whitney]

Yeah.

[Whitney]

So he'll, he'll be in the time when, when, when there was a time. I know on this show I've been like, this is the worst contract in the league. Was that just the team being bad, like what happened to him those few years?

[Biz]

No, I felt like he lost his confidence in game a little bit. No.

[Ryan Whitney]

Yeah, there was, there was like a year or two. It was right when he came over here. Yeah. Maybe it was due to all the pressure of him making. I think he was the highest paid goalie at the time. It was a big splash. They had just, we had just drafted like Spencer Knight. You know, it was kind of like we had him coming. And then we signed Sergey that summer. Lou had just retired. There might have been the pressure on him a little bit. Cause I know he puts a lot of pressure on himself, but it never like you never saw anything where he tried to change his game or, you know, wasn't satisfied. He was just continued to get better and better and. Yeah, but our team obviously wasn't, you know, the, the Florida Panthers of who.

[Whitney]

They are now, still insane that he didn't even start the playoffs. I know it's just Boston to look back and think that, that he came in and since then it's just, it's incredible. So Biz, you're back on Hockey Night in Canada this Saturday actually for people in Halifax. Biz and I will be up in Nova Scotia. We're speaking. God, I should know this is it.

[Biz]

Before we get there. Yans, what kind of watches does he have? Bosky?

[Ryan Whitney]

All of them.

[Biz]

Like every watch. Patek, Philip.

[Ryan Whitney]

Yeah, but he's got like the big boy ones that like no one has.

[Biz]

You know, he's, he's got the Richard Mill.

[Ryan Whitney]

I don't know if he. I'm sure he does now, but I remember he gave Frankie Petrano a sick watch when he got his number because Frankie was number 72. He got. Got him a sick watch.

[Biz]

Oh, my God. If I knew that there was a possibility of bringing a guy over that had that type of tag, I would, I would change my number to their number. Knowing. Waiting for him. Just waiting in the weeds. First day they walk in, I'm there, I'm there. Greeting there. Greeting him at the airport like this.

[Whitney]

Like, what do you have for me?

[Biz]

There's a hey, Larry flowers there. He's opens up his jacket. He's got all the options. He's like, hey, go ahead there.

[Ryan Whitney]

If I remember promo code Frankie, like Bob. Bob texted Frank and was like, what do you want for the number? And you know, Frankie would have gave it to him. No, you know, just a good soldier. He was like, just get me. Get me a big Mac from McDonald's. So after practice one day, there was a McDonald's bag in there, but the Rolex was in like the burger thing.

[Biz]

No.

[Ryan Whitney]

Yeah.

[Biz]

So that is unbelievable.

[Ryan Whitney]

I think Frankie posted something about it. About it might be. Yeah, yeah. But just a, you know, fun guy.

[Whitney]

So we'll be at the Halifax sports charity dinner Thursday Biz. That'll be a lot of fun. I love city. Great city. And then you'll be hockey night in Canada. Get to do the. Who do the Leafs play.

[Biz]

I believe they played Nashville. I want to say Edmonton might be playing Seattle. It might be a tough one for the late game slate, but yeah, Toronto, hopefully they get some confidence going against Nashville, who's kind of struggled all season. And I never really got a chance to dive into it last week because we got right into the pod. But I got to do trade deadline there too, which is a blast. Always going in there. And obviously it being the one that it was with all the crazy news and the. The late. The late announcement of the. The Brad Marshaw stuff from Elliott. Like, I love going there, love working with those guys. Unfortunately, Ron McLean doesn't do the deadline, but hey, boom, I'm back in the seat with BXA and the boys. Boys and love working with them. So Hockey night in Canada this weekend after that dinner and then thank you, thank you, thank you. And then I don't know where I'm off to after that because I'm not even back on. I'm not even back on the TNT broadcast yet.

[Whitney]

Wow, that's Saturday night. You're at Hockey night in Canada. Wings Vegas on ABC prime time, 8 o'clock. That's nice to see tonight. Ottawa, Montreal's that. That's my game to watch. To watch tonight. I can't wait for that one. It's, it's fun this time of year. You know, you get through, you get through games 45 to 60, 65 and then you get this final push. We get some good playoff races. So boys, we will be back next week. Great catching up.

[Ryan Whitney]

Biz.

[Whitney]

Once again, happy birthday. Thursday at noon. This is the third week in a row we had the four nations behind the scenes. We had the sandbagger with Bob's does. And this Thursday, Chicklets. You is back, baby. The Golden Gophers G and Fish crushed it. So check that out. Thursday, noon eastern. Any final Send offs from YouTube?

[Biz]

Oh, no, I, I actually want to say thank to, to Bloom and Br Blueprint for throwing on the party all my friends for showing up and just trying to get the girl's name who runs that. You laughing, Keith? Sorry, buddy.

[Whitney]

Well, you, well, you look, we could shout out Colin Yandel. How about the Yandel family bit is what happened. Brian's oldest son, Brian on Cushing Academy, they win the New England's first time since 98. Keith brought it up last week. And yesterday on Sunday, Colin Yandel and Kathleen Memorial win the state title.

[Biz]

Wow. Okay.

[Ryan Whitney]

Unreal. Colin, great game was un. Game was unreal. They, they won it with 18 seconds left. Biz, it was electric at the Fleet Center. It was sick. It was, it looked like a lot of fun. Wait, did you get in? Did you go to the game?

[Whitney]

No, I, I, I, I was, I had a chance. I said, ryder, you want to go watch Colin Yandel play for the state title or do you want to go to the St. Patty's Day parade in Citrus? He's like, the parade. And then I was like, I told Bry. He's like, no, come on. I said, ryder, Colin Yandel wants you at his game. He goes, tell him I'll watch it on live barn.

[Ryan Whitney]

So I did.

[Whitney]

He wanted to be at that parade, dude. He knew candy gets chucked from the floats. He was all about that noise. So we missed it. But I was fired up. Collins, nasty biz defenseman. Moves the puck, skates like he'll play.

[Biz]

At least college hockey. You think he's college?

[Whitney]

Nice. Real nice. So his team, the Junior Eagles, they're going to nationals. They have three kids that all played at Rivers. My former college team teammate, Freddy Meyer played in the NHL a long time. He coached Rivers this year. They have J. Pandol son Sam, Freddy's son Carter, and then this other kid Sears. They're all going to the National Development program camp. The 40 guys got invited for NTDP so I don't know if they'll all be there the next year, but Colin Yandel's on that team and so they're going to try to win a national. Unfortunately, they're.09. So they will not be facing off off against the Little Caesars 2000.

[Biz]

No, I want to go.

[Whitney]

I want to go to the 2010 nationals, by the way, to see Kessler and his team up close and personal. I've gotten texts from other coaches. We're going to take them. It's crazy. Wow. Yeah.

[Biz]

Let's go. When is it?

[Whitney]

I, I, I, I think it's in two, three weeks.

[Biz]

Like let's go to, let's go to the, if they make it to the finals. Let's go. I'll do a one day trip to go document that. And I was going to ask, can we document Collins college visits with Chicklets? You see what we get.

[Ryan Whitney]

Good call. Yeah. He would 100% be down with that. Yeah.

[Biz]

Awesome.

[Ryan Whitney]

Get that nil bag.

[Biz]

Yeah. Get him a Trojan deal. The name here I was looking for was Cassidy Love, who works with that blooming blueprint. And, and of course, guys, next time you're here. Have you ever stayed at the Global Ambassador Wit? Like have you been to a. I.

[Whitney]

Was with with you there, bud. I was with you there.

[Biz]

What was it for? Icecon.

[Ryan Whitney]

Your birthday.

[Biz]

Okay. So sorry, man. There's a what you, you guys. So thank you to everybody who came for. God damn, stop giving to me. I'm like Joey Cole cuts right now. I can't keep my head straight with you guys chirping me.

[Whitney]

I love it. Happy birthday. I'm glad the party's awesome. Sorry to miss it. Keith. Great job, folks. Thanks for listening. We love you. We'll see you next week.

[Paul Bissonnette]

Way.

[Biz]

With golf season quickly approaching, Chevy wants.

[Whitney]

To help you make the most of every drive. The all electric Equinox EV has it all. A roomy interior, high tech screens and more Chevrolet together. Let's drive.